Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	according_a	know_v	word_n	2,143	5	3.8658	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A69471	Another collection of philosophical conferences of the French virtuosi upon questions of all sorts for the improving of natural knowledg made in the assembly of the Beaux Esprits at Paris by the most ingenious persons of that nation / render'd into English by G. Havers, Gent. & J. Davies ..., Gent.; Recueil général des questions traitées és conférences du Bureau d'adresse. 101-240. English	Bureau d'adresse et de rencontre (Paris, France); Havers, G. (George); Davies, John, 1625-1693.; Renaudot, Théophraste, 1586-1653.; Renaudot, Eusèbe, 1613-1679.	1665 (1665)	Wing A3254; ESTC R17011	498,158	520

defend himself from Beasts Robbers and Publick Enemies he hath instead of fifty-cuffs stones cudgels and bones of Animals his first Weapons made use of Iron framing it into Swords Axes Spears and Javelins till encreasing in malice to offend at greater distance he invented Slings and Balists then ambulatory Machins to enter Places and beat down the Walls of Cities Yea Fire was likewise brought into use by some that of Burning-glasses with which Archimedes burnt the Ships of Marcellus who besieg'd the City of Syracuse by others Granado's and Pitch-barrels set on fire as Caesar did at the Siege of Marseilles and Alexandria But all this was nothing in comparison to the Gun which although according to the Portugal Relations invented in the 85. year of our Lord in the Kingdom of China where most other Inventions began by one of their Kings nam'd Vitey a great Magician yet appear'd not in Europe till about the year 1350. when it was found out by one named Bertoldus a German occasionally by the experience which he saw happen in a mixture of Sulphur and Nitre inclos'd in a vessel over the Fire in order to an operation of Chymistry whereof he made profession This mischievous and diabolical Invention having been hatch'd in the Country of the North whence the Scripture assures us that all evil is to come was afterwards carried from thence into Italy and then into France Anno 1366. by some Germans who also gave two pieces of Artillery to the Venetians who besieg'd Claudia Fossa a Town belonging to the Genoeses from whom it was presently taken by these new Engines which although small and ill made being only of Iron bow'd and hoop'd together with Iron bands yet fail'd not to produce their effect The Second said Since Kings are call'd Gods in Scripture 't was reasonable they should be arm'd with Thunder which might make them reverenc'd by others there being no better expedient to preserve Majesty than Terrour And as the depravation of men renders War in these last Ages as necessary as just so without doubt the most powerful way of overcoming must also be the most advantageous and considerable This is it which hath made Artillery so esteem'd by Sovereigns that they have lodg'd it in Arsenals and Magazens with their Treasuries and given it in charge to great Masters principal Officers of their Crown making a shew of it to Strangers as the abridgment of their Power and a mark of their Soveraignty Moreover 't is by this Cannon-Law that all their Quarrels are decided These are the last Embassadors which carry their Commands with execution and those whose ears are stopp'd to their other Reasons always find peremptory ones in the mouth of their Cannons For as the Mosaical Law was given amongst Thunders and Lightnings from Mount Sinai and that of Christianity confirm'd by a Tempest of Wind and Fire In like manner Princes at this day establish not their Laws more powerfully than by help of the Thunder-claps of their Artillery as the Conquest of the new World makes manifest the easiness whereof is due only to this Invention which made those Nations receive Laws of Religion and State from such as shot the first Cannons amongst them at the report of which they presently yielded conceiving that there was something divine in those Machins which have likewise been the Keys of Gold wherewith they have enriched Europe by another way of Alchimy than that to which the Disciples of this Science employ it Moreover by this Invention which secures Commerce the boldness has been taken to over-run the World and despoil it of all its Riches the Conquest whereof hath been more or less easie according as its use was known or unknown to the invaded Nations The truth is he that shall make comparison of the ancient Machins Rams Slings Balists or Bows with any Fire-Arms whatever will find that theirs were but Childrens-play in respect of our true Combates And so far is this Invention from doing wrong to Valour that on the contrary it advances the same to its highest point For if Valour appears only proportionally to the dangers it incurs then there is most room for the exercising of it where the greatest are present Now the ruine of some particular Persons is not considerable in respect of the publick advantage to which the good of every one consider'd by himself is subordinate seeing that these Arms serve as well for the Defensive as the Offensive the one and the other being only respective regard being had no those that employ them that which serves for defence to one being offence to the other And besides the Sword which for so many Ages hath kill'd many more would be more subject to this blame But on the contrary the excellence of a Weapon consists in killing and terrifying since 't is an Instrument of War whereof the principal end is to exterminate Enemies for the fewer are left the sooner it is ended and in the speedy razing of their Fortresses consists the beating down of their Pride and Confidence Wherefore seing no Invention in the World can be without its inconveniences one or two cannot counter-balance the good which Artillery hath brought by the Conquest of so many Kingdoms and Riches so that if Arms are most usefull for the preservation and amplification of a State the Invention of the Gun must be the more so inasmuch as it is the most powerful Instrument of War surpassing all other Arms in execution and making a Prince not only obey'd during War but also respected and redoubted in Peace during which 't is employ'd to testify the publick rejoycings and gladnesses The Third said As Philosophy is the noblest exercise of Man so Morality is the fairest part of Philosophy whence Socrates acquir'd the honour of having brought it down from Heaven The most excellent part of Morality is the Politicks of which the noblest piece is the Art Military as Mechaniques are the noblest part of this Art Hence Caesar is more particularly exact in describing the construction of his Bridges and other Engines than his war-like exploits Since then the Gun is without dispute the goodliest part of the Mechanicks it follows that the Gun and its Invention is the goodliest thing of the World For the excellence of an Engine consists in moving a great weight speedily and to the greatest distance that may be as the Cannon alone doth whose power would be judg'd impossible did not Experience attest it Nor doth its violence depend upon the ordinary rules of Nature the Principle of the regular motion of every Body but 't is caus'd by the same Nature constituted in a violent state in danger of admitting either a Vacuum or penetration of Dimensions to avoid which she sometimes breaks the Cannon or if the same be too strong she violently drives out the iron bullet which hinders the free eruption of the inflamed matter which by reason of the rarefaction of its parts requiring 10000 times more place than before

there is such a disproportion in the duration of all States past and present that one hath lasted above 1200. years as the French Monarchy whose flourishing State promises as many more Ages if the World continue so long and another hath chang'd its Form several times in one yeat as Florence Upon which consideration the greatest Politicians have put their States under the Divine Protection and caus'd all their Subjects to venerate some particular Angel or tutelar Saint Thus France acknowledges Saint Michael for its Protector Spain Saint James Venice Saint Mark and even the Ethnicks thought that a City much less a State could not be destroy'd till the Deity presiding over it were remov'd Whence Homer makes the Palladium of Troy carry'd away by Vlysses before the Greeks could become Masters of it The Third said The Supream Cause exercises its Omnipotence in the Rise Conservation and Destruction of States as well as every where else yet hinders not subordinate Causes from producing their certain Effects natural in things natural as in the Life and Death of Men which though one of the most notorious Effects of God's Power and attributed to him by the Scripture and all the World yet ceaseth not to have its infallible and natural demonstrations Inlike manner subordinate Moral Causes produce their Moral and contingent Effects in Moral Things such as that in Question is which Causes depending upon Humane Actions which arise from our Will no-wise necessitated but free cannot be term'd natural and constrain'd unless either by those that subject all things here below to Destiny which subverts the liberty of the Will that is makes it no longer a Will or those who will have not only the manners of the Soul but also the actions always to follow the temperament of the Body which were hard to conceive and yet would not infer a necessity in the alteration of States since the effects of Love and Hatred and other passions which give inclination or aversion are oftentimes prevented by thwarting causes When the Lacedemonians chang'd the popular State of Athens into an Aristocracy of thirty Lords whom they call'd afterwards the thirty Tyrants no other cause can be assign'd thereof but the chance of War which subjected the will of the Athenians to that of the Lacedemonians And the same may be said of all other ancient and modern Revolutions Indeed if the causes in Policy had regular effects or States were subject to natural declinations Prudence which is conversant about contingent things to manage them freely and alter its course according to occasion should signifie nothing 'T is more credible that as in the state of Grace God hath left our actions to the disposal of Free-will that we may work out our Salvation our selves so in the administration of Republicks he hath left most things to chance for imploying men's industry according to their will whose motions being free and contingent are diametrically opposite to the necessity of natural causes The Fourth said That these alterations may be though voluntary yet natural yea necessary too our Will being as inclin'd to apprehended good as our Intellect is to Truth As therefore knowing this truth that 2 and 2 are 4 't is impossible but I must believe it so knowing that such an action will bring me good I shall do it so that the causes of humane actions have somthing of necessity and besides having their foundation in nature may in some sort be term'd natural Moreover since things are preserv'd by their like and destroy'd by their contraries which contraries are under the same genus it follows that all sublunary things having had a natural beginning must also have a like end Desire of self-preservation which is natural gave birth to States but if instead of this desire which renders Servants obedient to their Masters these to the Magistrate and him to the Sovereign Rebellion and Treason deprive their Chiefs of the succour they expect from them and by this means exposes the State in prey to the Enemies it cannot but fall to ruine unless that some other natural cause Perswasion as that of Menenius Agrippa taken from the humane body upon a Secession of the Mechanicks of Rome from the Senate or an exemplary punishment reduce the Subjects to their forsaken duty Whereby it appears that the State resumes its first vigor by as sensible and natural causes as 't is to be perswaded or become wise by others harm Amongst many examples the ruines of Troy and Thebes were caus'd by the rape of Helene whom the injustice of the Trojans deny'd to restore to her Husband and the feud of two Brothers aspiring to the same Royalty then which no causes can be assign'd more natural and more necessarily inferring the loss of a State CONFERENCE CLI Which is more healthful to become warm by the Fire or by Exercise THey who question the necessity of Fire for recalefying our Bodies chill'd by cold the enemy of our natural heat deserve the rude treatment of the ancient Romans to their banish'd persons whom they expell'd no otherwise from their City but by interdicting them the use of Fire and Water knowing that to want either was equally impossible Without Fire our Bodies would be soon depriv'd of life which resides in heat as cold is the effect and sign of death And as Aristotle saith those that deny Vertue would not be otherwise disputed with but by casting them into the fire so would not I otherwise punish those that decry it but by exposing them to freez in mid-winter instead of burning a faggot for them What could little Children and old people do without it For though the natural heat be of another kind then that of our material fire yet this sometimes assists that in such sort that those who digest ill are much comforted by it not to mention weak persons and those that are subject to swoonings Moreover the external cold must be remov'd by an external heat as Fire is which heats only what part and to what degree you please but motion heats all alike As the Sun which some Philosophers take to be the Elemental-fire contributes to the Generation so doth Fire concur to the conservation of Man not by immediate contact but by the heat which it communicates to the Air and the Air to our Body which by approaching or receding from it tempers its excess in discretion and thereby renders it sutable to our natural heat not destroying Bodies but in its highest degree as also the Sun offends those at Noon whom it refreshes at rising and setting The Second said That the violent action of Fire which destroys all sublunary Bodies argues its disproportion with our natural heat which disproportion renders the Stoves and places heated artificially by Fire so noxious and makes such as love the Chimney-corner almost always tender scabby and impatient of the least inclemency of the Air that heat against nature not only destroying the natural but corrupting the humors and exsiccating

Besides every one is more ardent and zealous for the preservation of his own Land Wife and Children yea and his own Life too then for making designs upon the Life and Goods of others in which case besides the dubiousness of the event the Souldiers are not sure that what they shall conquer shall remain their own but they are certain that what they defend well will remain so since it belongs to them already Moreover Histories inform us that of ten Enterprises made in an Enemies Country scarce one hath happily succeed●● nor one of ten Conquests been kept Witness the late Invasions of the English and Spaniards in the Isles of Rhee S. Honorat and S. Marguerite and more lately at Leucate Add hereunto that 't is less chargeable to keep at home and what is observ'd in private Duels is appliable to publick Wars for oftentimes the more unskillful Combatant keeping his ground and expecting his Enemy kills him Besides Defence carrying more justice with it then Invasion doth it must also beget more confidence and boldness in the Defenders and more diffidence and fear in the Invaders who cannot fight with so good a Conscience for what is possest by and therefore justly presum'd to belong to others whatever subtilty may be us'd to set up and colour a false title The Second compar'd him that invades an Enemies Country and him that expects him in his own to two Gamesters one whereof having begun to win will no longer venture any thing of his own and the other begins the Game with his own money For the Assailant hazards nothing of his own since he makes his Enemies Country the seat of the War and of the hazard which follows it And whether you place the benefit and end of this War in the conquest of the Enemies Country or in a just defence only 't is always more commodious profitable and glorious to attaque him at home then to expect him at your own doors For if you design to conquer you must necessarily enter into his country to get possession if only to defend your self then as wise men chuse rather to divert and prevent diseases then to repel them already form'd and as a Fire is more easily quencht in its first flame than when it hath seiz'd the roof and walls so 't is easier to defend your own country by making a diversion upon that of the enemy than to expel in your own all the desolations that attend war which you must suffer at home unless you remove it further Besides in forreign Counties the war almost pays its self the Soldier lives as he list enriches himself with the pillage of taken Towns and so is less charge to his Prince Yea he becomes more valorous there too For as Antiperistasis redoubles the force of Natural Agents so the approach of an enemie's country gives heart to the most cowardly and renders others more disciplinable as well knowing that they must look for help only from themselves Hence Armies have prosper'd better in a strange Country than in their own The Romans were always victorious out of Italy but often beaten at home and reduc'd to great extremities by the Gauls and Carthaginians who likewise were always overcome in their own Country Hence Alexander conquer'd more Kingdoms and Provinces by carrying his Arms into Asia then his Father and all his Lieutenants won Towns in Greece the English have been more fortunate in France then at home and the Turks almost ever gain upon the Christians by assaulting Christendom Yea Reputation by which Kings reign and Terror which half gets a victory are always on the Aggressor's side whereas on the contrary nothing abates the courage more then to suffer the invaders to come to our houses because the alacrity and promptitude of Soldiers is usually greatest when acccompani'd with great hopes The third said 'T is impossible to determine any thing in this or any other political Questions which are variable accordding to diversity of Circumstances The frontier of one State may be so safe that there is nothing to be fear'd at home from the enemy against whom therefore all the seditious and turbulent persons may be safely sent Forreign War serving as a Sanctuary to bad Citizens who fear the punishment of their crimes in which respect it serves for a purgation and bleeding to the body Politick Other States there are which like Recovering Persons whose bodies are strong enough to support themselves but not to assail other no sooner take the field but discord and division arises at home and so they incurr the reproach of the Astrologer who fell into a ditch whilst he was gazing on the sky Wherefore 't is not more easie to resolve whether 't is best to make war neer-hand or afar off without saying in what time in what place with what means and against what enemies than to counsel a Tradesman whether he should keep or get without knowing why and whether he hath money in his purse or no. The Examples alledg'd on either side resemble the sound of those bells which accord with all Notes Those that have prosper'd in conquering would possibly have got more if they had put themselves only upon the Defensive and those that have been worsted in defending their own perhaps did it too late and as it most frequently happens when their forces were impair'd But it may be said of the French and all other warlike Nations that they are much fitter to attaque their enemy afar off then to support his irruptions in their own country because the first requires such an ardor and impetuosity as is natural to them and the second hath need of much patience in which we have always been surmounted by Strangers till that grand Genius of the State which animates it at this day manifested that Conduct doth all both in war and peace CONFERENCE CLVIII Whence diversity of Opinion proceeds T Is no wonder if every cause produces a different effect and that there is diversity not only between things of different kind and species but also between each individual so that two eyes are not perfectly alike Which variety had we ways of distinguishing would appear to us everywhere else as it doth for example to the Dog who of two Hares which we judg alike knows which he started first But that one and the same thing appears divers according to the diversity of those that judg of it this seems as strange in the inquisition of its cause as 't is common in practice For since that the Intellect judges of things according to the report of the outward senses without whose ministry nothing is introduc'd into it and that these senses and their mediums being well-dispos'd agree all in their reports the whiteness of this paper the blackness of this ink and the truth of all other objects being faithfully represented to us Why should not all men that hear one and the same proposition and the reasons whereby it is backt and oppos'd make the same

former are compleatly form'd by the 30th day the latter not before the 40th the former move in the third moneth the latter not till the fourth those are born in the ninth moneth these some days after and besides live not if born in the seventh moneth as Males do whose periods are therefore reckon'd by Septenaries and those of Females by Novenaries After birth we see the actions of Males are perform'd with more strength and vigor then those of Females who are actually colder and suffer more inconveniences from cold They are never ambidexters because they have not heat enough to supply agility to both sides and their right side is peculiarly destinated to the Generation of Females because the Spermatick Vessel on that side derives blood from the hollow Vein which is hottest by reason of the proximity of that Vein to the Liver whereas the left Spermatick draws from the Emulgent which carrying Serose humors together with the Blood 't is no wonder if the Seed of that side be crude and cold and consequently fitter for generating Femals then Males Hence Hippocrates saith that if as Peasants tye a Bull 's left Testicle when they desire a Bull-calf and the right when a Cow-calf the same be practis'd by Man the like effect will follow Whereby 't is manifest that whatever makes the Seed more hot and vigorous both in Male and Female furthers the Generation of Males and contrarily and consequently that the Morning when 't is best concocted is more proper then the Evening for begetting Boys and the Winter then the Summer at least on the man's part The Second said That as to the production of Males rather then Females or on the contrary no certain cause hath hitherto been assign'd thereof since we see that the same man in all likelihood without alteration of his temper hath only Girles by his first Wife and only Boys by the second and on the contrary and some that could get no Children at all in their youth have had only Boys in their old Age. Others have Males first others Females and others have them alternatively Whereof no other reason can be assign'd by Chance or rather the Divine Pleasure alone in the impenetrable Secrets whereof to seek for a cause were high temerity If heat and strength caus'd the difference young marry'd people would not have Girles first as it happens most often and decrepit old men should never get Boys as daily experience shews they do Moreover some men depriv'd of one of their Testicles have nevertheless begotten both Sons and Daughters which could not be if the faculty of begetting Children of one determinate Sex were affix'd to either of those parts And as from a false Principle nothing can be drawn but false Consequences so also is it in the opinion of Aristotle That Woman is but an occasional Creature For then Nature should produce far greater abundance of Males then of Females or else she would erre oftner then hit right which is inconsistent with her wisdom and yet in all places more Girles and Women are found then Men as appears in that we every where see plenty of Maids that want Husbands and in Countries wherein Polygamy is lawful there are Women enough to supply ten or a dozen Wives to each Man And indeed Nature's design is mainly for preserving the Species as that of every individual is to preserve it self and the bare degree of heat or cold in the Seed being but an accident of an accident cannot effect a formal change in the substance Only defective heat may occasion an effeminate man and abundant heat a Virago Besides this Opinion destroys the common and true one viz. That Generation is one of those actions which proceeds from a just proportion and temperature of the humors whence excessive or feverish heat destroys the Seed in stead of furthering Generation and is an enemy to all the other functions Wherefore 't is best to say that the same difference which is observ'd between the Seeds of Plants is also found in that of Animals though not discernable therein but by the effects and as the exactest prying cannot observe in the kernel of an Almond or Pine any difference of the Trunk Leaves and Fruit of those Trees although these parts be potentially contain'd therein so also the Seed of an Animal contains in it self even the least differences of Sex albeit imperceptibly to the eye Which the Rabbins being unable otherwise to comprehend conceiv'd that our first Parent was created an Hermaphrodite because both Sexes came from him his own and that of Eve The Third said That the sole ignorance of things occasions the ascribing of them to Chance which hath no power over the wise because they understand the reasons thereof As for universal causes as the Divine is they concur indeed with particular ones but as they are becoming in the mouths of Divines and of the Vulgar so Naturalists must not stop there since by the right use of external causes the internal may be corrected by which correction not only Seeds formerly barren or which fell in an ingrateful soil are reduc'd to a better temper and render'd prolifick but such as were destinated to a female production through defect of heat are render'd more vigorous and fit to generate Males Now that young married people hit not sometimes upon this latter Sex 't is because of their frequent debauchery which cools the Brain and consequently the whole habit of the Body Which happens not so frequently to men of more advanc'd age who use all things more moderately The Fourth attributed the cause to the Constellations and Influences of the Stars which reign at the time of Conception Males being generated under Masculine and Females under Feminine Signs CONFERENCE CLXXXVI Whether the French Tongue be sufficient for learning all the Sciences A Language is a Multitude or Mass of Nouns and Verbs which are signs of Things and Times destinated to the explication of our thoughts There are two sorts the one perfect call'd Mother-Languages the other imperfect The Mother-Languages are the Hebrew Greek and Latine the imperfect those which depend upon them Now the French being of this latter sort we cannot learn the Sciences by it alone because being particular and the Sciences general the less is not capable to comprehend the greater Moreover our Language being not certain in its Phrases nor yet in its Words not only Ages but also a few Years changing both whereas the Sciences are certain and immutable it will follow that they cannot be taught by it Besides there may be Inventions for which our Language hath no expression or at least not so good as others and to busie our minds in the search of words is more likely to retard the mind in the acquisition of Sciences then to further it The truth is 't were well if things were generally express'd by the most proper and significant words but they are not so in any Language much less in the French

his Books to cure diseases by words and to produce men by inchantment in a great bottle with other such abominable proposals not to be accomplish'd but by Diabolical assistance Moreover we seldom see any persons so bold as to attempt to overthrow so ancient an Institution as Physick both in Theory and Practise but who are led to that enterprise either by God or the Devil And the continual calumnies and detractions whereof this evil spirit is the Author and for which Paracelsus and his followers so signalize themselves give farr more probability of the latter than of the former Whence possibly to disguise the matter most Magicians pretend to have learnt their Characters out of some Book as particularly that which they call Clavicula Solomonis The Third said That it may be Magick and yet lawful to wit true and Natural Magick such as was profess'd by the Indian Magi three of whom having discover'd our Saviour's Birth came to worship him the other black and infamous Magick no more deserving that name than Empiricks and Mountebanks do that of Physicians Now Natural Magick is the knowledge of the nature and properties of all things hidden to the vulgar who take notice only of manifest qualities and reduce all to generalities to avoid the pains of seeking the particular virtues of each thing and therefore 't is no wonder if they see only common effects and successes from them Thus Plants bearing the signature or resemblance of a disease or the part diseased as Lungwort Liverwort Pepperwort cure by a property independent on the first qualities though few understand so much Of this kind are many excellent Secrets whose effects seem miraculous and as much surpass those of ordinary remedies whose virtues are collected only from their appearing qualities as the Soul doth the Body and Heaven Earth The Fourth said That by the Book M. cannot be meant Mundus since the World cannot be turn'd into Arabick and Latine and 't is not a Secret but a Figure and Metaphor to call the World a Book If it be lawful to admit a Figure in it I think 't is more likely that this Book is nothing else but a Talismanical Figure or Character engraven in a Seal and employ'd by the Rosie-Crucians to understand one another and call'd the Book M because it represents an M cross'd by some other Letters from whose combination results the mystery of the Great Work designing its matter vessel fire and other Circumstances the first whereof is Dew the true Menstruum or Dissolver of the Red Dragon or Gold In brief so many things are compriz'd in this figure by the various combination of the Letters represented therein that it deserves well to be term'd a Book The Fifth said If this be the Secret of the Brethren of the Rosie-Cross they are Invisible in all their proceedings because no Secret is seen in it but only many absurdities As amongst others to call that a Book which is neither Paper nor Parchment nor Leaf but a Figure in which 't is no wonder if they find what they please since in these three Letters Sic variously interlac'd one with another you may find not only all the Letters but also by their combination all the Books and all the things which are in the World and it requires no more industry than to found all sorts of notes upon a Flageolet Let us therefore rather say That Authors who puzzle their Readers minds with such Figures are as culpable as those are commendable who feed them with true and solid demonstrations and whereas we thought that this M signifi'd Mons we now see that it signifies no more than Mus according to the ancient Fable of the labouring Mountains out of which upon the concourse of people to the spectacle issu'd forth nothing but a Mouse The Sixth said That high Mysteries have alwayes been veil'd under contemptible and oftentimes ridiculous Figures as if the wisdom of the sublimer Spirits meant to mock those of the vulgar who judge of things only by appearance Which may have place in common effects but as for extraordinary things their causes are so too whereof we have experiences in Nature sufficiently manifest There is no affinity between a word and the death it gives to a Serpent yet the Poet attests the thing in this Verse Frigidus in pratis cantando rumpitur Anguis between the sight of a little bird call'd a Wit-wall and the Jaundies which it cures between the Figure call'd Abacus Lunae and the Meagrim which is also cur'd thereby between a point ty'd and the Generative Power which it hinders In brief the most excellent effects are of this kind and deserve not the name of admirable unless when our mind finds no connexion between the effect and the cause that produceth it Why then may not the same reality be admitted between this Character and the effects pretended by those Brothers of the Rosie-Cross CONFERENCE CXCV. Of the Art of Raimond Lully SOme Wits are fitter for Invention than Imitation and so was that of Raimond Lully who invented an Art how to find many Attributes Propositions Questions and Means of speaking to any Subject propounded to the end to be never surpriz'd but to be and always appear ready By this Art which upon account of its use and because it pretends to shorten vulgar studies he stiles Great he endeavors to out-do Aristotle who having reduc'd all Logick to Definitio Proprium Genus and Accidens and in his Books of Topicks set down some few places out of which to draw Mediums for arguing Lully hath propos'd others not only drawn from all the preceding but increas'd with many others invented by himself This Art he divides into two parts The first treats of simple terms which he calls Principles whereunto he hath joyn'd general Questions and this part he calls the Alphabet because it comprizes each of those terms reduc'd to nine by as many Letters of the Alphabet The second treats of the connexion of these Principles and makes Propositions and Syllogisms of them this part he intitles De Figuris either because 't is illustrated by Tables or Figures representing the combination of those Principles or because Arguments are compos'd of them as the Celestial Figures are of Stars His Alphabet is thus delineated by Pacius b Goodness Difference whether it be 1 c Greatness Concordance what it is 2 d Durātion Contrariety whence and from whō 3 e Power Principle or beginning why 4 f Wisdom Middle how much 5 g Appetite End of what quality 6 h Virtue Majority when 7 i Truth Equality where 8 k Glory Minority how 9 This Table as you see contains three Columns each of which hath Nine Squares and every one of these a word The first Column contains Absolute or Transcendent Principles the second Relative Principles the third Questions On the side of these Squares are set the nine first Letters of the Alphabet namely from b to k because Lully reserv'd a to denote the