out his matter to the best advantage pressed very vigorously which is in his own words that it hath kept him from surveying the works of God that magnifie and discover their Author from which onely the true Philosophie is obtained Good God! can any body that hath but looked into Aristotle though never so perfunctorily except it be by the help of some glass that represents things quite contrary say so But he goes on And the zeal I have for Almighty God his glory discovered in his creatures hath inspired me with some smartness and severity against heathen notions which have so unhappily diverted learned men from the study of Gods great book universal nature and consequently robbed him of that honour and those acclamations that are due to him for those admirable results of his wisdom and goodness This Author I said before doth not want words he can express himself smartly enough upon very light occasions which in a good cause is no small commendation but otherwise I should have been very suspicious if not confident he had borrowed this goodly language from some profane Chymist such as our Robert Fludd was with whom such professions of zeal for the glory of God are very frequent and ordinary and to that end to set out his glory in its greatest Iustre doth propose unto us the consideration of the Philosophers stone applying all or most mysteries of the Scripture to it as that wherein onely or chiefly the Goodness Power and Wisdom of God is to be seen and admired so that in very truth his zeal was more for the Philosophers stone then God or the Philosophers stone a God of his own making for which he was so zealous But this I cannot averr upon mine own credit For though his books when I was very young curious enough to pry into every thing that promised somewhat more then ordinary did offer themselves to me in Book-sellers shops yet I profess I could never dispense so much with my reason or conscience as to read long where I found nothing but what I judged in a high degree both impertinent and blasphemous I must therefore discharge my self upon learned Gassendus who together with Mersennus will I think make good what I have said of him to the full But indeed it is the common language of all extravagant Chymists they all as many as I have seen that are such insist upon the same thing Neither is it their plea or language onely but of all men generally who professing Christianity would raise admiration by broaching unheard of mysteries There be men in the world we know who maintain with much shew of zeal and holiness that the stars of heaven are so many significant Characters and Hieroglyphicks there placed by God of purpose the better to manifest his Wisdom to the beholders and from the right reading understanding whereof greatest mysteries depend Neither want they some places of Scripture which they miserably abuse to countenance the business Gafarell is a great abetter of this heavenly mystery The Glory of God and the Wisdom of God here also must be the pretence which to oppose in very truth the result and product of sick brains hunting after Novelties how can it be less then heathenish profaneness and impiety Yes if you will beleeve them But granting as I do and all men will that well consider of it that praesentem Deum quaelibet herba that there is nothing in nature in sight so inconsiderable but may give an intelligent man matter and occasion to admire and magnifie the Power and Wisdom of God Is the consideration of all those mentioned in this book or like curiosities the Great Book of God from which men must learn the great Power and Wisdom of the Creator It is ordinary enough indeed observed by many among men to wonder at nothing though never so wonderful and admirable but what is unusual far fetch'd and seldom seen Many who never took notice of either Sun or Moon and the benefits of either the vicissitudes of the year the flux and reflux of the Sea and the like to admire them or God in them because daily and ordinary will yet gaze with wonder at a Meteor the shooting of a Star as they call it or an ignis fatuus and the like But they are not thought the wisest of men that are of that temper David I hope understood wherein the Glory of God consisted and for what God himself would be magnified by men principally as well as another We do not find by any of those admirable Psalms that are written of that subject that any other works of God are specified but those that are very visible to all men sufficient also to make God visible to them who have so much grace which wicked Epicurus had not to beleeve that they were not made to eat and drink and to enjoy the pleasures of this life but to observe the works of God and to glorifie him therefore And besides those admirable Works of the Creation which many now too many taught by Epicurus and his mates are apt to despise and vilifie as being the works not of a wise God but blinde atoms there be other works of God not less to be admired and those be the Works of his Providence and Government of the World which the same Psalmist in his 107. Psalm doth very particularly insist upon and doth advise all men to consider well they that are wise saith he will consider these things implying also as I conceive that the consideration of those things will make a man wise so that it is very possible if we beleeve him for a man to be both wise and religious a great admirer of Gods works his Goodness Wisdom and Power who never understood or shall understand any of those things never known before as we are told here After all this we need less wonder that your Authour I pray excuse me that I call him so not that I think you are bound to maintain whatsoever he saith but because I had him first from you should appropriate substantial wisdom to this kind of Experimental Philosophy though I hope he doth not intend thereby Solomons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in our English found wisdom intended by Solomon of the true fear and sanctifying knowledge of God to which the promises of eternal life are annexed from whence it would follow that according to him none can be saved but by this way of Philosophy But I will be more charitable then to think he could forget himself so much though some may justly stumble at such superlative expressions and his Philosophy with sober men more likely to lose then to gain by them For though I deny not I said it before and say it again that the study of Nature to a man that hath grace and is well grounded in the principles of Faith may afford somewhat beside the known and most visible works of God as Sun and stars c. wherein God as the
more without Divine revelation is most beloved of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that God will do him good or requite him and that he is likely thereby to become most happy Who also doth maintain that this is the way for a man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to purchase immortality to himself there also reproving a speech very rife in those days among worldly men what may we think of them who are so set upon the conveniences of this life that they will scarce allow any thing else to be considerable that mortals so born should not trouble their minds with the thought of things immortal What think you doth this deserve the note or censure of heathen notions why I say so you shall hear by and by But I have done with Aristotles Ethicks Now to return to the magnificent Plea of useful knowledge much such a judgement ordinary people made anciently of the most renowned Philosophers as Anaxagoras Thales and others whom they did acknowledge to teach 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is things in themselves excellent indeed profound and sublime 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but useless because they contributed nothing to the uses of this present life as Aristotle doth somewhere report This in ignorant Heathens might be tolerable but in Christians great pretenders to knowledge more to be wondred at ¶ I lighted some years ago upon a little book intituled The reformed Schoolmaster c. but he treats of the reformation of Universities also whose case he doth make so sad and lamentable as nothing can be conceived more but yet doth give us this comfort that if he may have his will or desire they may become a thousand times we may bate him nine hundred I think one hundred will serve more useful Indeed I never read any man that did not pretend to immediate commission from God speak more magisterially and as it were authentically but withal I must say I never read any thing more whimsical and chimerical then his Reformation doth appear unto me He doth much relish of Comenius his project of making all men wise and goes upon the same grounds When I see fair Towns built in the air and a sure commerce between those who inhabit the earth and those of the Moon whoever they are established I shall have some hopes that these projects in case which God forbid they be beleeved and trial made may come to somewhat Whether your Author had his Plùs ultrà from thence I know not but it matters not for I think no sober man ever denied but that all kind of learning with Gods blessing is capable of improvement but withall it must be acknowledged that many conceited whimsical men as Lullus Ramus and the like have projected wayes of improvement which if generally received would have proved very destructive to learning Amongst other passages of that little book this is one Whatsoever in the teaching of tongues doth not tend to make them an help to traditional knowledge by the manifestation of real truths in sciences is superfluous and not to be insisted upon especially towards children whence followeth that the curious study of Criticisms and observation of styles in Authors and of strains of wit which speak nothing of reality in sciences are to be left to such as delight in Vanities more then in Truths Truth and Reality and Sciences brave words are they not to work upon them who either want will or wit to search into the bottom of things where in very deed instead of deeds and realities nothing will be found but words Such is his conceit that boys and children must be taught things before they be taught words or languages His project was to advance the credit of Januae linguarum every page almost hath them and sometimes he speaks of them as though all useful learning might be reduced to them For my part I wonder they were ever received into any good School except it be to cashier good authors out of them as needless whereas I think the best use of languages is the reading of such authors not for their words onely but for the excellency of the matter which in several kinds and to several uses they do contain and am very confident that where the reading of such authors is out of fashion barbarism and grossest ignorance will quickly follow I speak it of Poets as well as others I cannot but admire at the conceit of a more considerable man of the same society as I conceive who would erect a new kind of Poetry grounded upon the Scriptures and knowledge of Nature and experiments and some other heads excluding ancient Mythology the chief ground and foundation of ancient Poetry as useless and fictitious What would he have all ancient Poets Greek and Latin turned out of doors Can such a thing enter into the heart of men that pretend to the improvement of learning This indeed Julian the Apostate did maliciously plot and enact against the Christians of his time forbidding them the use of publick Schools and reading of ancient Poets which by the Fathers of the Church was looked upon as none of the least persecutions And indeed if ancient Poets with their Mythology be turn'd out of doors all ancient authors must likewise which without a competent knowledge of ancient Poets and their Mythology no more can ancient Fathers Greek especially in very many places cannot be understood Of Homer particularly as elsewhere in a peculiar Dissertation of this subject I have had occasion more fully to declare my opinion is that by reason of his antiquity and that conformity in many rites speeches and some choice sentences which may be observed in him with the Scriptures of the old Testament observed by some learned Commentators as Ribera and some others in their frequent quotations out of Homer which also made learned Capellus of Sedan so confidently to profess his opinion or suspicion at least that the Scriptures of the old Testament were known to him he doth not onely very much conduce to the right understanding of many obscure places in Scripture but also may be some confirmation to the antiquity and by consequent in some degree to the truth of the same And should I say that St Paul was no stranger to Homer as I am sure he was well read in Demosthenes or Homer no stranger to him I hope it would be no disparagement to St Paul or matter of scandal to any judicious sober man no more then the citing of those Greek Poets Epimenides Menander and Aratus their words is or hath been much inferiour the best of them to Homer in many respects And for Virgil the best of Poets after Homer that God was pleased to make use of his incomparable wit whereof himself was the Author or Donor to celebrate the coming of his Son our Saviour into the world hath been the opinion of some ancient and later Christians men of excellent judgement But again a great part of the ancient Mythology though with much
Peyreskius was a spectator of the combat where he observed that the louse the more passionate of the two it seems was so distracted and vexed that after reiterated goings to and fro whether as a coward to run away or for the advantage of fresh onsets he doth not tell us all the bloud of his head was sunk into his tail the effect he saith of a great passion he was striving for his life a very natural passion this and very prejudicial to the state of the body By this sight Gassendus tells us Peyreskius profited more to rule his passions in the rest of his life then he had done by any thing he had heard or read before This is the story which when I consider the Worth and Nobleness of the man of whom it is written I could wish that Gassendus had left out What Peyreskius so learned so wise a man to profit more by the sight of such a combat and the demeanour of the louse in it in a thing of such consequence to a mans life then he had done by the reading of so many Philosophers who have written so excellently of that subject and among other things have not omitted this very particular the ghastly countenance and deformity of a man in passion and the diseases and dismal accidents it doth expose him to or the precepts and perswasions of the Word of God always divine but in this Argument even to humane reason most excellent and singular Galen indeed I remember hath a story how by some chance being an eye-witness to the impatience of a man who because when he knocked at a door was answered The party was not at home fell into such a rage and fury both in words and actions as no mad man could out do it made such impression in him that he was the better for it all his life after This is somewhat like as the sight of a drunken man may work upon an ingenuous youth to make him abhor drunkenness for ever But that the sight of the bloud of a louse passing from the head to the tail which perchance is no such extraordinary thing in a louse should be of such force with so brave a man as Peyreskius was above all that he had ever read or observed upon that subject and that he should as it were in thankfulness to the louse make an acknowledgement of it to his friends I have not faith enough to beleeve Gassendus in this but rather beleeve or suspect that Gassendus made this pretty story either upon occasion of somewhat that Peyreskius had told him of a louse or a flie but not to that purpose or of purpose to gratifie some friends who would be glad to hear what use can be made even in point of life and manners of a microscope But you will say perchance doth not wise Solomon say Go to the Ant thou sluggard c. Yes he doth indeed but to the sluggard pigro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 words of great weight as elsewhere I have shewed not to such a man as Peyreskius was nor as if Ants by their example could teach men what their own reason and the good instructions of other men beside the Scripture could not but to make such wretches more sensible of their degenerating into brutishness when they see such acts of reason performed by those creatures by meer instinct of nature which neither their own reason nor the reason good instruction of other men can perswade them to Besides he sends them to what will not require the labour or curiosity of much observation or inquisition but to that which is very obvious to all men Add that Ants certainly are more noble creatures then Lice because they live in common and have a form of government among themselves which doth presuppose some kind of reason or somewhat answerable to reason in men To this purpose I remember I have read the description of a City made I cannot say built by Ants the Author whereof is no less a man then a learned Bishop as by the elegancy of his style I guess him to have been Learned Gillius I am sure is not more accurate in the description of Constantinople then he is for the bigness of it for I would not have you think that it is any thing near so big as Constantinople in the description of this city of Ants. He hath the dimensions of the longitude and latitude of every street in it and the particulars of some publick places belonging to it with much accurateness He writes it in good earnest and for my part I beleeve him though if you do not I shall not account you an Infidel for it Yet I do not deny but some good may come even in matters of life by the observation of some actions in brutes but as good so evil also when men not knowing or forgetting whose image they bare are more apt so the greater number to prostitute their reason to meer nature then to rectifie nature by right reason We read in Herodotus of a people who thought carnal copulation lawful enough in their Temples because they observed that beasts that were brought to and kept in Temples for sacrifices made no conscience of it So Pontus Houterus of Delph in Holland grounding especially upon the custom of brute beasts would infer the lawfulness of incest among men Non illa natura matrem agnoscit non sororem c. which is very horrible And I could name some body else who doth not say much less but for the reputation he hath in the world I will spare his name And what will you say to him who out of his study he saith not very busie then certainly having observed the carriage of a Sparrow the most lascivious of all creatures as is observed by some Naturalists towards its mate vicies repetito coitu indè ex languore ad terram decidente began to quarrel with God Almighty en sortem iniquam hoc passeribus datum negatum hominibus that he had made him a man and not a Sparrow It were to be wished that they that are destined to the study of Nature were such as have attained by their years to ordinary discretion and are well grounded in Religion I know not what we may expect of wanton Boyes whom some would have trained up in those studies be times But another danger is may not a man go too far in this study and overvalue his progress so far as to think nothing out of his reach It was a noble attempt as to man of them that built or would have built the tower of Babel whose top might reach to Heaven It is not likely they could be so simple as to think really they should reach to Heaven by it they might think they should be somewhat nearer perchance and however get a name among men in after ages that they that built such a tower were somewhat above men But confusion was their reward I have no reason to be against the Art of flying if discoverable by humane industry I have reaped the pleasures of it in my dreams more then once and I thought no pleasure comparable to it though but in a dream Yet I doubt it may have somewhat of the Babylonish presumption in the eyes of God and that such high curiosities are so far from being useful that they may be dangerous Alas aut expectare aut sperare intemperantis naturae suae conditionem ignorantis animi est is Gassendus his judgement upon the matter which I hope will excuse me Yet I must confess I think there is less offence in the conceit of Artificial flying then in the conceit of Urim and Thummim being an Artificial Chymical preparation whoever was the Author of it which I think deserved to be censured as impious and if such liberty be taken or allowed I know not how far it may proceed or how soon Robert Flud his blasphemies which Gassendus hath censured and confuted may be received for useful truths or learning But I have done What I had to except against the book you brought me I have told you I must now thank you for it For in very truth his Divinity at the end which is somewhat mystical I hope I do not understand it and those two particulars his contempt of Aristotle and his censuring all other learning besides Experimental Philosophy and what tendeth to it as useless and meer wrangling and disputing excepted I have read the rest wherein he doth give us an exact account of late discoveries with much pleasure For though I think many ages may pass before the use of many of those particulars is known yet Aristotle hath taught me and he proves it excellently that nothing can be in nature so mean or so vile but deserves to be taken notice of and will afford to an ingenious speculative man matter of pleasure and delight Sr I know your relations to some of eminent worth and piety in that Honourable Society whom though we have not the happiness to know otherwise then by the fame of their writings yet we honour their worth as much as you do I hope you do not think any thing I have written can reflect upon any such No nor upon any others farther then in those particulars I have mentioned You know my condition and Judge I hope so charitably that I would not go out of the World but in perfect love and charity with all men As long as I live continue unto me I pray the comfort of your love and good opinion who am Your affectionate Brother and humble Servant MERIC CASAUBON