poore condemned caitive who fled into his denne and cave because he pulled out of his pawe the thorne which molested him but likewise fed him by killing beasts of all sorts and bringing them unto him whereof Gellius at length and out of him Du Bartas If I should follow forth here all other questions of Natures secrets the taske were long and tedious and peradventure lesse pleasant to the Reader than painfull to me as why the Adamant-stone which of its owne nature is so hard that neither fire nor Iron can bruise or break it is neverthelesse broke in peeces in a dishfull of hot Goates-bloud soft bloud being more powerfull than hard Iron Whether fishes doe breath or not seeing they have no lungs the bellowes of breath What can be the cause of the Loadstones attractive power to draw Iron unto it Why some Plants and Herbes ripen sooner than others Or what makes a member of a Man or Beast being cut from the body to dye presently and yet branches of trees cut off will retaine their lively sap so long within them Whether or not there be such affinity and to say love amongst plants and herbes that some will more fruitfully increase being set planted or sowen together then when mixed amongst others according to that of the Poet Vivunt in Venerem frondes omnisque vicissim Felix arbor amat nutant ad mutua palmae Foedera populeo suspirat populus ictu c. To which questions some others hereafter to be handled for me to give answer were no lesse presumption and foole-hardinesse than a demonstration of my grosser ignorance since Cardan and Scaliger are so farre from agreement in these matters as may be seen in Scaligers Exercitations yet having propounded these questions and to say nothing of my owne opinion touching the solution of such Riddles as wee call them were someway an imputation and I might be equally blamed with those who leade their neighbour upon the Ice and leave him there wherefore thus I adventure And first why the Adamant which for hardnesse is able to abide both the force of the fire and dint of any hammer yet being put in Goates-bloud parteth asunder Answ. Howbeit Scaliger in his 345. Exercitation Sect. 8. giveth no other reason than that absolutely it is one of the greatest miracles and secrets of Nature and therein refuteth their opinions who alleage the Analogie and agreement of the common principles of Nature which are common to the bloud and to the Adamant together to be the cause yet I thinke for my owne part that if any naturall reason may be given in so hidden a mystery it may be this That Goates as we all know live and feed usually on cliffie Rocks wheron herbs of rare pearcing and penetrative vertues and qualities grow neither is the derivation of that herbes name Saxifrage other than from the power it hath to breake stones asunder Goates then feeding on such rockie-herbes as these no wonder that their bloud having Analogie and proportion to their food be penetrative and more proper to bee powerfull in vertue than otherwayes convertible in fatnesse for wee see them of all grazing Beasts the leanest Quest. Now by what power draweth the Loadstone Iron unto it Answ. Aristotle in the 7th Booke of his Physicks which almost al other Philosophers do affirme That the Loadstone attracteth Iron unto it by their similitude and likenesse of substances for so you see they are both of a like colour and that must be the cause how the false-Prophet Mahomet his Chest of Iron wherein his bones are doth hang miraculously unsupported of any thing because either the pend or some verticall stone of the Vault where it is kept is of Loadstone and thus with Iulius Scaliger Exercitatione 151. I disallow Caspar Bartholinus his opinion who alleageth that the Loadstone doth not meerely and solely by its attractive faculty draw Iron unto it but for that it is nourished and fed by Iron for nothing more properly can bee said to feed than that which hath life Therefore c. Here also it will not be amisse to adde the reason why the Needles of Sea-compasses as these of other Sun-Dyals being touched by the Loadstone doe alwayes turne to the North and this is the most received That there is under our North-Pole a huge black Rock under which our Ocean surgeth and issueth forth in foure Currants answerable to the foure corners of the Earth or the foure winds which place if the Seas have a source must bee thought to be its spring and this Rock is thought to be all of Loadstone so that by a kinde of affinity it would seeme by a particular instinct of nature it draweth all other such like stones or other metals touched by them towards it So that the reason of the Needles turning to the North in Compasses is that Nigra rupes of Loadstone lying under our North Pole which by the attractive power it hath draweth all things touched by it or it s alike thither Section 9. Of Fishes if they may be said to breath seeing they lack pulmons Of flying fishes if such things may be c. which are the reasons of their possibility are deduced exemplified Quest. BVT whether and after what manner can Fishes be said to breath seeing they have no lungs the bellowes of breath Answ. This question hath beene agitated many Ages agoe both pro contra as we say Arist. cap. 1. De respiratione denying that they can breath Plato and divers others of his Sect affirming the contrary they who maintaine the negative part do reason thus Creatures that want the Organs and Instruments of breathing cannot be said to breath or respire but such are all fishes therefore c. The opposites on the other side doe thus maintaine their breathing all living creatures not onely breath but so necessarily must breath that for lack of it they dye as experience sheweth nay that the very insects or as you would say demi-creatures they must breathe but fishes are living Creatures therefore they must breathe The Aristotelians answering this distinguish the major proposition restraining the universality of it but to such Creatures as live in the Aire whereas there is no Ayre in the water the nature of it not admitting place for Ayre as the Earth doth which being opened with any Instrument as with a Plough or Spade may admit Ayre whereas the waters will fill all the void presently againe as we may see by buckets boxes or any other materiall thing being put into the water and taken out againe doe leave no vacuum behinde them for the waters doe straight wayes reincorporate seeing then there is no Ayre in the Fishes Element they cannot nor need not be said to breath for contrariwise wee see that being drawne from the waters to the Ayre they doe incontinently dye For answer to both extreames I could allow for fishes a kind of respiration called refrigeration which improperly
should Comets they being neerer to it than the first Region Now albeit the Heaven Fire and Ayre move in a circular motion yet they move not all alike for by certaine degrees the course of the one is swifter than the other so that the Ayre as neerest to the Earth is flower than the other two By this subdeficiency then the Ayre and they within it seemes but to goe about froÌ„ Occident to Orient of its own proper motion having regard to the swiftnesse and velocity of the superior course And whereas I say that they move high and low to and fro that is to be understood in so far that every thing perfectible striveth to attaine to its owne perfection which consisteth in the approximation and neere attaining and touching of the generant which chiefly beareth rule in the place whereat they aime or tend whether that thing engendred bee a Star or any other celestiall vertue whereunto this subdeficient striveth to attaine Now the reason wherefore most commonly Comets doe reach either to the South or North is to be attributed to the speciall influence of some other Star drawing them thitherward as the Loadstone maketh Iron turne towards it and whereas sometimes they appeare low and neere the Earth at other times farther remote from it that must be appropriated either to the inflamation of the Comets matter either at the neerer or farther end or else to the height or lownesse of the Region above which it is elevated for none of the three Regions but have in them their owne degrees and stations some parts in them being higher than others are The place of their appearing is most frequently in the Northerne Climates and that most often under Via lactea which is that white coloured draught called the milkey way in the firmament which may be perceived by night reaching in a manner from East to West The time of their abode againe is but at shortest seven or eight dayes albeit I reade of some that blazed halfe a yeare but such have seldome happened neverthelesse the shortnesse or length of their abode is to bee imputed imputed to the bignesse or scantnesse of their matter Now rests to know whether or not these Comets may portend or prognosticate bad or infortunate events of things here below and whether over particular persons or Countries in generall To this the Philosophers who will have all things either above or below to be and exist by naturall reasons and admit no prodigies or things beyond nature make answer that Comets are but meere naturall things no way fore shewing evils to come Because say they when Iupiter fals to bee in the signe of Pisces or in the signe of Cancer if then the Comets appeare it foretokeneth aboundance and wealth as in the dayes of Iulius Caesar there was one seene which neverthelesse had no evill ensuing upon it as it may bee seene in Albertus his Commentary upon Aristotles Text in the Meteors latinized Ejus autem quod est Besides this say they when Comets are seene then these evils which follow them and which they portend should fall forth through all or very many parts of the Earth seeing they are seene by all or most the contrary whereof is knowne Besides that burning Lances or Speares which now and then also are seene in the Ayre and other fiery impressions which are of that same matter with these Comets should foretell evils to happen as well as they which are not But above all seeing it is oftenest thought that Comets either foretoken great winds or raines none of which can be say they not winds because the matter whereof the winds behoveth to be which are dry exhalations are converted towards the framing of the same Comets themselves Not raine for no one thing can be a signe of two opposite contrarieties Thus seeing Comets portend drouth they cannot likewise preaugurate inundations and overflowings finally much lesse the death of Princes and Monarchs no more than of other private men seeing the same constellation and ascendent may be equall and have regard to meane men as well as to them in a like distance Which reasons with diverse moe albeit at first view they may seeme forcible yet being better considered their insufficiency will soone appeare for none of the naturall Philosophers but doe acknowledge their Prognostications for some one thing or other albeit the Astrologicall Philosopher particularizeth them more punctually And thus they say that a Comet circumbeamed about with that which they call long hayre to say so invironing it as we see about the Sunne Moone and Starres before a storme and great tempest doth signifie and portend great debording of waters whereas if it bee but radiant in one side that is a sure signe of terrible and destructive drougth and consequently of famine and scarcity because without humidity and warmenesse corne and fruits cannot grow Now as high winds move and stirre the Seas with other waters so from that commotion ariseth raine and boisterous showers so that appeare how they will yet they ever portend some one evill or other As for death of Princes and change of estates foreâ—howne by them experience of former Ages can qualifie and by late miserable proofe it may be understood by that blazing Star which appeared in the yeare 1618. I being at that time in Florence where an Italian Astronomer upon the third Bridge drawing in his Table-bookes the height and aspect of it was overheard by us who gazed on him to cry although with a low voice Vae Germaniae Woe unto Germany and who so is but never so little acquainted with the histories of diverse Nations shall soone perceive in them what lamentable accidents have ensued after extraordinary deluges and overflowings of waters and intollerable droughts but more especially after the appearing of Comets what dreadfull effects according to their affections so we require that those Recusants would with the Philosopher who denied that the fire was hot but put their finger into it to try the truth of his assertion Neither do our Astronomicall Philosophers want their owne grounds wherein they settle the warrant of change of estates after the apparitions of these Comets and this for one That the exhalations of hot and dry vapours from the Earth whereof these Comets are made betoken a bilious and wrathfull sudden and irefull disposition of the in-dwellers of these Countries for the same ayre which they attract and emit doth someway affect them and this ayre is filled with these exhalations resolved by the heat of the incumbing Sun so no question but this same way it moveth their bodies and minds to feare fiery and sudden revolts fightings seditions and uproares Comets appeared in England before their Countrey was conquered by the Normans and thereafter another when they subdued France What more remarkable one then that which appeared above Hierusalem before its sacking and captivity And againe what desolation befell all
middle one upon the dissolution of a cloud Finally it may be said here that clouds not onely may bee seene beneath us to inviron the tops of our lower Mountaines for I my selfe crossing the lower Alpes at Genoa have seene them below me along the sides of the Mountaines they likewise may be perceived to glide over the Plaines and swimming over our Lakes and Rivers yet that serveth not to prove that they are generated in the lowest Region but rather argueth the ascending of these vapours and the gathering of them together of which the clouds must bee coagulated and no otherwise as that they are absolutely there framed But this by the way CHAP 3. Of falling Starres Fleakes in the Ayre and other such fiery Meteors THere be foure Elements as all know the Fire hot and dry the Ayre hot and moist the Earth dry and cold the Waters cold and moist Now as of the moisture of the Waters whether in their owne Element or on the Earths superfice are composed all watery vapours as clouds raine dew haile snow and hoare-frosts c. Even so from the dry parts of the Earth calefied or made hot by the Sun-beames doe proceed fumy exhalations whereof the fiery and burning Meteors are generated But so it is that of these vaporous exhalations whereof all the ignite and fiery Meteors or impressions are composed all are not framed alike for according to the diversity of the dispositions of their matter they are either round or long or more long than round or more round than long for if by the efficient and materiall causes which are the Sunne-beames exhaling these fumous evaporations from the driest part of the Earth these spumeous exhalations are such as are combustible and capable to bee kindled if it be of a like length and breadth then in that case it shall be seene to burne in the uppermost Region of the Ayre like a blazing fire of straw if it bee longer than broad then is it taken for those long falling Stars which by the Meteorologians are called Dall If otherwayes broader than long then are they called fiery inflammations which seeme to reele in the Ayre as it were and to shoot hither and thither And because sometimes these exhalations although dry have some coldnesse in them therefore the ejaculation of that cold matter maketh the Meteor to seeme by that extrusion to fall as being in labour to expell it whence more properly are our falling Stars which Stars at some times seeme to fall aside at other times strait downe or upward according as their matter is for the time either disposed or placed And if it be objected how contrary to their nature can they descend or fall downe their matter being light and not ponderous I told before that that commeth by expulsion and by way of projection for confirmation whereof may be added the experience we have of Thunder whose bolts and claps light at times even at our feet otherwhiles what in our houses beating downe Pinacles and Steeples the tops of Turrets and the like although it be both light and dry and the reason is That Thunder being generated in the middle Region of the Ayre not by exustion of any kindled hot matter but rather by a separation of an expelling cold meane while this cold thickning and coagulating it selfe together with violence in a manner detrudeth the hot matter which with it was thither drawn up and maketh such a noise and terrible din the time of that expulsion that not only the Ayre seemeth to bee rent asunder but the very Earth also appeareth to tremble at its violence Iust so as the matter of the falling Stars is placed they fall either straight down aside or upward as before I noted Even so is it with the Thunder Now as those vapors thickned in the ayre doe produce the afore-said effects so shall it not bee thought amisse to say that the same ayre being thickned with their vapors but not condensed in a cloud by susception of light but chiefly from the Suns rayes opposite to it either by night or day but chiefly by night become fiery coloured and looke as burning the same vapors stirring to and fro and being someway thickned by refraction of light doe assume unto themselves variable and diverse colours and those fires in effect are the same which vulgarly are called pretty dancers and by reason that the materiall cause of such impressions is swift and soone vanisheth therefore they abide and remaine the shorter time for such phantasmes not being come to the full perfection of other Meteors as seldome they are seene to doe so their abode and being is but short and inconstant they being composed but of hot and dry exhalations from chalky rocky sandy and sulphureous parts of the earth there being a mixture of moysture with them And to the effect that this may be somewhat better cleared we must consider That foure sorts of vapors are exhaled or drawne up out of the earth by vertue of the Sunnes rayes beside the smoake of our fires which ascending to the ayre also augments these fiery Meteors First vapors hot and dry not having so much humidity in them as may be able to overcome them but rather such as may make this dry vapor to be continued for no earthly thing can continue without moisture Secondly cold and dry which altogether are of the earth's nature virtually cold albeit formally all vapors are hot The third are those vapours which are hot and moyst where humidity predominateth over the heat The fourth kind of vapors which ascend are cold and moyst in which absolutely watry moystnesse beareth rule and this vapor virtually is called cold These foure sorts of vapors then are the neerest matter of all our meteors The first whereof viz hot and dry vapors doe ascend through the ayre quickly even to the concavity of the firy and ignean element where being enflamed and enkindled it becommeth the right generation and propagator of our fiery Meteors whereas the second being hot and moyst doth not ascend so high and because it is easily resolved it commeth to bee ayre The other two cold and dry and cold and moyst vapors are elevated aloft also but no farther then to the colder parts where they are thickned and coagulated together by the invironing cold but so as cold and moyst are converted to raine and the other cold and dry to wind or this falls downe with the pluvious or rainy vapour This being so we may see that there are foure kindes of vapors and exhalations conformable to the foure elements which make up the matter of these Meteors in such sort that as there are hot and dry exhalations and cold and dry even so there are hot vapours and cold and humid ones also Since then you know the matter of wind raine falling stars and inflammations in the ayre let us heare what can bee objected One demands what