Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A28798
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Frier Bacon his discovery of the miracles of art, nature, and magick faithfully translated out of Dr. Dees own copy by T.M. and never before in English.; De mirabili potestate artis et naturae. English
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Bacon, Roger, 1214?-1294.; T. M.
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1659
(1659)
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Wing B373; ESTC R10803
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22,920
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72
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an assured abbreviation of our dayes Yet this doth not conclude That to perpetuity there shall succeed an abbreviation of our life since there is a positive period set to our life men may live till they be eighty years though then their dayes be but labour and sorrow Now if every man would from the brâ—st exercise a compleat Regiment of health which consists in such things as have relation to Meat Drink Sleep Waking Motion Rest Evacuation Retention Air and the Passions of the mind He might find a remedy resisting his proper malady For upon the prosecution of such a Regiment one might arrive at the uttermost limit of that Nature he had from his Parents will permit and be led to the very last period of Nature I mean Nature fallen from its original uprightnesse beyond which there is no further progresse because it doth little or nothing availe against the corruption of our Ancestours and yet the great impossibility of any mans so ordering himself in a mean in all the fore-mentioned things as the Regiment of health exacts wherefore abbreviation of our dayes does not only from our Progenitors but hath its advantages from the want of Regiment However the Art of Physick sufficiently determines this Although nor rich or poor wise or ignorant no nor the most accurate Physitians themselves do accomplish this Regiment in themselves or others as every eye can discern Yet Nature is not deficient in Necessaries or Art any wayes incompleat but rather is advantagious to make insurrections and irruptions against and so farre into these accidental passions as they are either wholâ—â— or in part rooted out At first and in the beginning of our ages declining the remedy was easie But since we have five thousand years or more disadvantage the Cure is more craggy But waving the Inconveniences wise men moved by the considerations forementioned have endeavoured to find out the means and wayes which not only are forceable against the defects of every mans proper Regiment but also against the corruptions of our Parents Not that hereby they can attain to the years of Adam or Arteâ—ius by reason of the growing corruption but that our dayes may be augmented an hundred yeares or more above the ordinary age of most men in these dayes And though it be impossible absolutely to retard the accidents of old age yet hereby they may mitigate them so as life will happily be prorogued beyond the common account yet alwayes within the ultimate circuit of Nature There is a bounder of Nature set in men since their Fall There is a bounder of every particular man arising from the proper corruption of his Parents Beyond both these bounders it 's impossible to passe yet happily one may arrive beyond the latter nor yet so farre to go beyond it as that the wisest of men can ever reach the former Although there be a possibility and aptitude of Nature to proceed to that boundary our fiâ—st Parents set themâ— Let no man think this strange since this apâ—itude extends it self to immortality as appâ—aâ—s both before the fall and shall be evident after the Resurrection Perhaps you may objâ—ct That neither Aristotle Plato Hippocrâ—â—es or Galen ever attained that prâ—longation I shall answer They have not attained the knowledge of many ordinary truths which other ingenious heads have found out aâ—d if so they may easily miscarry in a businesse of such weighty consequence though they made it their study especially if we consider how they were â—uâ—dened with other impertiâ—enâ—â—es and so were sooner brought to their gâ—â—y haires spending the inch of their Candles in more debased and vulgar subjects than in finding out the wayes to â—o great Secrets We are not ignorant Aristotle sayes in his Predicaments That the Quâ—â—â—ature of a Circle is possible yet not then known Yea he confâ—sseâ—â— himself and all his Predecessors were ignorant hereof yet we in our times know it Now if Aristotle did come short in such a trivial much more might he in the deep mysteries of Nature Even in these dayes wise men are ignorant of many things which the most ordinary capacity shall understand ere long Thus the Objection is of little force CHAP. VIII Of obscuring the Mysteries of Art and Nature AFter an enumeration of some few examples concerning the prâ—valency of Nature and Art â—hat by these few we may gather many by these parts the whole and so from particulars â—nâ—versâ—ls which will dâ—mâ—nstrate the uâ—â—â—â—â—ssary â—spiring to Magick since boâ—h Nâ—ture and Art afford such sufficâ—â—nciâ—s I shall now endeavour a methodâ—â—al procedure in singulars laâ—ing open bâ—â—h the cauâ—es aâ—d waves in particular and yet I â—ill call to mind how aâ—â—ecrets of * Nature are not committed to Goats-skins and Sheeps-pelts that every clown may understand them if we follow Socrates or Aristotle For the latter in his Secreta Seâ—retarum affirmes He breaketh the heavenly Seal who communicateth the Secrets of Nature and Art the disclosing of Secrets and Mysteries producing many inconveniencies In this case Aulus Gellius in Noct. Aâ—tic de Collatione Sapieâ—tum sayes It 's but folly to profer Leâ—tices to an Asse since hee 's content with his Thistles Et in lib. lapidum The divulging of Mysteries is the diminution of their Majesty nor indeed continues that to be a Secret of which the whole fry of men is conscious For that which all men which wise and the more noted men affirme is truth That therefore which is held by the multitude as a multitude must be false I mean of that multitude which is distinct from knowing men The multitude it 's true agree with wise men in the more vulgar conceptions of their mind but when they ascend to the proper principles and conclusions of Sciences and Arts they much dissent striving to get onely the appearances in Sophismes and subtilties which wise men altogether reject And this their ignorance of the proprieties and Secrets makes the division from knowing men Though the common conception of the mind have all one Rule and Agreement with knowing men Yet as for common things they are of small value nor enquirable for themselves but rather for particular and proper ends The Reason then why wise men have obscured their Mysteries from the multitue was because of their deriding and slighting wise mens Secrets of wisdome being also ignorant to make a right use of such excellent matters For if an accident help them to the knowledge of a worthy Mystery they wrest and abuse it to the manifold inconvenience of persons and communities Hee 's then not discreet who writes any Secret unlesse he conceal it from the vulgar and make the more intelligent pay some labour and sweat before they understand it In this stream the whole fleet of wise men have sailed from the beginning of all obscuring many wayes the abstruser parts of wisdome from the capacity of the generality Some by Characters and Verses have delivered many Secrets Others