first Figure or Connexion of these Squares and he employ'd these Letters alone instead of Words which they denote for brevitie's sake Thus bb signifies the goodness of the difference or the difference of good things bc the goodness of greatness or the goodness of Concord bd the goodness of contrarieties or things contrary and so of the rest for he ties not himself solely to the word of each Square but extends it to all its Conjugata or Derivatives Species and Contraries As the Conjugata of Goodness are Well Good Bonificative or that is able to make something good Bonificent that makes a thing actually good Bonificable that may be made good Bonified that hath been or is made good to Bonifie to make good and Bonification the action whereby a thing is made good The Species of Goodness are 1 Permanent Good as To be Transient Good as To act 2. Honest Profitable and Delightful the Contrary of Good is Evil of Honest Base of Profitable Damageable of Delightful Troublesom Greatness transcendent and not categorical is that by reason whereof it is term'd great and acts very much it s Conjugates are Great Grandifying or Magnifying Magnificative Magnification and to Magnifie whose definitions may be understood by what is said of Goodness its Species are Finiteness and Infinity length breadth heighth multitude production dilatation multiplication and their conjugates its contraries smallness shortness narrowness and their Conjugates Duration is that by reason whereof a thing endures and is permanent Its Conjugates are enduring durable c. its Species Eternity Time and their Conjugates its contraries Change Privation c. with their Conjugates Power is that whereby a thing can exist and act it s Conjugates are potent possible to be able its Species Omnipotence which is in God alone simple power which is in Creatures strength masterdom authority jurisdiction empire its contraries impotence imbecillity impossibility and their Conjugates Wisdom is that by reason whereof any one is wise its Species are Science Intelligence Prudence Art Prophecy Conscience and their Conjugates its contraries Ignorance Imprudence Error Appetite is that by reason whereof a thing is desirable its Species are Instinct Cupidity and Will its contraries Hatred Malevolence Horror c. Virtue is here that which unites and contains a thing its Species are Perfect in God imperfect in Man its contrary Vice c. Truth is that by reason whereof things are true its speech are verity of the thing so God is Truth it self Verity of the Intellect as when we conceive that Man is an Animal and Verity of Speech as in this Proposition Homo est Animal its contrary is Falsity its Species those opposite to the former Truth is again divided into Necessary and Contingent Simple and Conjunct Glory is the supream and utmost perfection of a thing in the enjoyment whereof it acquiesces being unable to wish ought more such will be the Glory of the Blessed its Species are Honour consider'd in it self and call'd by the Latins Decus and Honor receiv'd from others which they properly call Honor. Thus much for the first Column The Second is of Relative Terms which agree not to all things in general as the former do but are three Ternaries one of the three whereof necessarily agrees for every thing either differs or agrees or is contrary to another is at its beginning middle or end is greater equal or less and is extended likewise to its Conjugates and divided into its Species but they have no other contrary but themselves consider'd one in respect of another The Third Column is of Questions whereof the first is Whether the thing simply exist as Whether there be a Phoenix or Whether it be some other thing as Whether the Moon be greater than the Earth The second is What the thing is To which it is answer'd by the Genus or Difference and consequently by a Definition or Description or else What the word signifies The third hath two branches the former demands Whence a thing took its Rise as in this Question Whence comes Original sin From that of our first Parents The latter asks To whom the thing belongs as Whose book is this The fourth Question inquires the Cause as Why a stone always tends towards the Centre The fifth concerns either continu'd Quantity as What magnitude the Sun is of or disjoynted Quantity as How many several magnitudes of stars there are in Heaven The sixth is concerning Quality as Whether Opium be hot or cold The seventh is of Time as When is there an Eclipse of the Moon The eighth is of the means by which one thing is in an other as The Earth in its Centre the Part in its Whole the Accident in its Subject Wine in its Cask The ninth asks How any thing is done As How do the Intellectual Species act upon the Intellect How do the Sensible Species act upon the Senses The Use of this Art styl'd also by its Author Cabalistica because 't is learnt better by Cabal or Tradition than by Rules consists in Terms Questions of the Alphabet and Figures which are Combinations or Conjunctions of two or three of those Terms to the end it may be easie for any one to examine the Question propos'd by all the wayes resulting from these Combinations or Conjunctions of Terms For Example if you desire to prove that the Intellect is immortal you must run over the Terms by themselves and examine the goodness of the Intellect its Greatness Duration Power and other following Terms first each apart and afterwards joyning two or three together And if you would not forget any Medium of proving carry the Question through all the squares resulting from the Combinations of these Terms which indeed are so numerous that the most judicious restrain themselves only to the principal and most suitable to the Subject it being not the multitude but the goodness of proofs that perswades CONFERENCE CXCVI. Why a Needle touch'd by a Loadstone turns toward the North TO omit Preface in this Question There are two sorts of Load-stones the black distinguisht with little lines which draws flesh and that which is of the colour of Iron This latter is call'd Lapis Herculeus perhaps upon account of its great virtue and Sideritis from Iron which it attracts Cardan mentions a third sort with which a Needle being rub'd enters into the flesh without being felt We here consider the second sort which turns it self towards the tail of the lesser Bear And since nothing is done in vain the Loadstone must be mov'd thither by some Cause which also must be either in Heaven or on Earth the Poles of both which are fixt I am of their opinion who say that under the Northern Pole there is an Island call'd Ilva wherein there are high Mountains of Loadstone towards which the stronger prevailing over the weaker both our lesser Loadstones and Needles toucht therewith turn because those vast heaps of Loadstone diffuse their virtue over the whole
Meteors where the greatest difficulty is to know whether that effect is produc'd by the expulsive or by the attractive and retentive vertue That we should affirm it proceeds from the expulsive vertue cannot with any probability be done inasmuch as expulsion is to be wrought by somewhat that is more powerful and more subtile Now there is not any likelyhood that Iron should be more powerful and more subtile than Air inasmuch as the Iron is of a more weighty matter passive earthy and hath somewhat of the nature of that Passive Element We may therefore rather affirm that this effect is wrought by the attractive and retentive vertue which opinion is prov'd in regard there is but one humid matter which the central fire forces from the deepest part of the Earth and of the more unctuous and weighty part of this matter Metals are made of the less weighty Minerals and Salts from the subtiler part Vegetables and Animals derive their nourishment of the most subtile are produc'd the Winds Thunder and all the Meteors which participate of Heat and Drought which make several combinations in the Air. Now whereas it is from the most imperfect part of this unctuous matter that Iron is made of an earthy and impure Sulphur it is deducible thence that there is a Sympathy between Iron and the gross vapours of Thunder and Lightning To make which out a little more clearly we find that the places through which Thunder hath pass'd smell of Sulphur nay there is fram'd in the Air that which is commonly called the Thunderbolt which somewhat resembles Steel as it were to shew the correspondence there is between Iron and Thunder So that the Air being impregnate by those noisome terrestrial vapours which are of the same nature with Iron meeting with some piece of it laid on a vessel is joyn'd to the Iron by Sympathy makes a sudden stop there and puts a period to its operation and the Iron by its attractive vertue receives them as by its retentive it retains them and by that means prevents their effect The Third said That though that opinion were probable yet doth it require a more ample discussion and we are to examine how this attractive vertue operates Now there are four Natural Vertues which govern all the operations of Nature and Art the Attractive which is now under consideration acts by heat and a temperate drought the Retentive by drought and cold the Expulsive by moisture and heat the Digestive by heat and a temperate moisture The Iron then which is said to attract these vapours hath indeed those qualities of heat and drought yet can it not be easily conceiv'd that a little piece of that mettal can check the malice and infection of a great quantity of Air spread all over a spacious place besides that it is also necessary that the Iron should send forth out of it self the effects of its qualities that so the attraction might be made the marks whereof are neither seen on the Iron nor the effects of the qualities out of the Subject inasmuch as mettals being quench'd in cold Water are not evaporated but by a violent fire So that it may as well be said that the attraction is wrought by some occult vertue which draws yet so as that neither the attraction nor the manner of it can be observ'd The Fourth said That the operations of Nature are not like those of Art her ways and contrivances are more obscure and the causes of things are occult as for example the Load-stone draws Iron yet so as that there cannot be any thing perceiv'd of any body of air and smoak issuing out of the Loadstone And the magnetical Balsom or Weapon-salve cures a wounded person though at a great distance having only some part of his Cloths yet can there not any thing be observ'd on the Subject which receives the Plaister so secret and silent is Nature in her Operations On the contrary the designs and contrivances of Art may easily be discover'd as those of a Clock or Watch. But the reason of this diversity of operations between Art and Nature is that Art goes to work publickly and before the Senses and Nature does her business within doors and secretly the latter works in the Centre the other in the Circumference one produces the seed of the combination of the Elements whereof she keeps an exact account of the weights and proportions and the other can neither make nor produce any thing as being only in a capacity of making use of the substance and materials of Nature in order to their joyning together after she had prepar'd and purify'd them But on the other side Art hath this advantage that her works are much more perfect inasmuch as she makes use of purify'd essences and the other of accidents and superfluities having not instruments fit for the purifying of her Materials So that there are some who doubt of the reality of the effect now under consideration And therefore ere we proceed any further to the finding out of the causes and reasons thereof it were requisite a strict enquiry should be made whether it be certain that Iron prevents the effects of thunder by preserving Wine and Eggs under a Hen that sits from receiving in any prejudice The Fifth said That what was confirm'd by general experience was not any longer to be question'd and that whoever stood upon the Negative betray'd his own ignorance that for us to think to find solutions for all the possibilities of nature were an attempt somewhat like that of exhausting the Sea That there are certain secrets in Nature of things dreadful to humane Reason incredible according to the principles of Art and of our Knowledge That Nature is the great Circe the grand Sorceress That the Load-stone draws Iron to it That there is a certain Stone called Pantarbe which draws gold to it That dead Arse-smart being laid under a Stone cures the wound on which it shall be rubb'd sooner or later according as the Herb putrifies That the hair or wool of a mangy beast being thrust in for a certain time under the bark of an Aspen-tree cures the beast of vermine That the Menstrua of Women trouble Springs spoyl Looking-glasses and Powdering-tubs And if there be some things that corrupt them it is not to be imagin'd that Nature is so cruel a Step-mother but that there may be others whereby they are preserv'd and so the Remedies may come from the same hand as caus'd the disease That the Hazel-tree discovers hidden Treasures and Mines That Talismans are made against Serpents and Insects nay against some Diseases That there is a mutual friendship between the Olive-tree and the Myrtle whereof it would be as hard a matter to give any reason as it would be to give any of the enmity between the Vine and the Laurel and the inclination which the Male-palm hath towards the Female That the crowing of the Cock frightens Lyons and that that Bird should be so exact
Malleus Incus and Stapes in the Ear which serve to reproduce sounds grow not at all though they be full of mucosity and humidity on the contrary the Teeth the dryest of all parts as is manifested by their rotting last yet grow all the life long But if Heat and Moisture were the causes of Accretion then the Sanguine who are hot and moist should be of the largest size as they are not but commonly grow as well as the Flegmatick more in thickness than height augmenting their flesh and fat more then their solid parts On the contrary the tallest men are commonly cold dry and lean the lowest generally hotter and people grow upon recovery after fevers which dry the body Wherefore 't is more probable that the Growth of Animals is an effect of the Spirits which insinuating into the Vessels extend the same and withall the membranes muscles and other parts encompassing them proportionably The Fourth said That the Spirits are indeed the Soul's Organs and Instruments whereby she performs her functions but being of so volatile and fluid a nature as not to be reckon'd in the number of the parts of Man's Body they cannot of themselves cause Accretion which requires Apposition of new matter which insinuates it self equally into all the parts just as the nourishment doth both without penetration of dimensions or admission of vacuity This matter must be humid because of all Bodies the moist are most pliant and extensible Whence the Sea by reason of its humidity produces Monsters of strange bulk Yet this humidity as well as the heat must be in due degree for a great heat consumes instead of increasing whence the Males of Birds of prey are lesser than the Females because they are hotter but if it be too weak then the moisture instead of ascending falls downward by its proper gravity which is the cause that Women who have less heat are also of lesser stature than Men and larger downwards as Men are upwards According to the various marriage of this heat with moisture bodies grow variously some more slowly others more speedily some are little and dwarfish others Giants according to the defect or abundance of the matter serving to their first Formation But as for the rest of Man-kind Wise Nature hath set her self such bounds as she hath judg'd convenient beyond which the most part grow not which are between six and seven foot Not the Accretive Faculty is then lost or corrupted for 't is that power of the Soul and consequently incorruptible and inseparable from her but it cannot act longer for want of fitting dispositions to wit the softness and moistness of the solid parts As a Mule hath a Sensitive Soul but not the virtue of generating which is one of the Faculties of that Soul and a Load-stone rub'd with Garlick hath still the virtue of attracting Iron but cannot employ the same by reason that its Pores are stopt no more then the Eye can see in a Suffusion CONFERENCE CXXXII Whether the Dinner or Supper ought to be largest DIet or the Regiment of Living which is the first and most general part of Physick because it concerns both the healthy and the sick consists in regulating the quantity and quality of Aliments and the order and time wherein they are to be taken The Quantity must be proportional to the nature of the Person so that his strength may be repair'd and not oppress'd thereby As for the Quality they must be of good juice and as pleasing and agreeable as may be The Order of taking them is to be this such as are moist soft laxative and of soonest Digestion or Corruption must precede such as are dry hard astringent and of more difficult Concoction The Time in general ought to be so regulated that the interval of Meals be sufficient for digesting the nourishment last fore-going The Custom of most Nations hath made two Dinner and Supper Break-fast and Afternoon-collations being but Diminutives or parts of them two and the over-plus of notorious excesses Now if we compare Dinner and Supper together it seemes requisite that the latter be more plentiful because the Time ensuing it is most proper for Digestion in regard of the intro-recession of the natural heat during sleep which becoming by that means more united and vigorous performes the natural functions to wit Concoction Distribution Apposition and Assimilation more perfectly then after Dinner when it is diverted otherwise to the Senses and Operations both of Body and Mind Besides that the coldness and darkness of the night contributes not a little to the same effect upon the account of Antiperistasis Unless we had rather with some establish a new power of the Soul governing and disposing the Spirits according to necessity sometimes giving them the bridle and causing them to move outwards as in Anger Shame and Indignation sometimes summoning them inwards as in Fear Sadness and Sleep which for this reason renders the Countenance pale and all the extream parts cold whereas in the time of waking the external parts being hotter leave the Internal more cold The Second said That he agreed with the Church which enjoynes Fasting in the Evening but allows Dinners which it doth not without mature consideration drawn as well from Nature as from Grace For it thereby designes the eschewing those Illusions and Temptations attending good Cheer taken before going to bed and conceives a light Supper fittest for meditation and serenity of Mind The reparation of our dissipated Spirits by Food causeth the same disorder in the Body that happens in a Town or Village upon the entrance of strangers to people it after its desolation by some accident and therefore 't is better that this trouble arrive in the day when our waking senses are able to secure themselves from the Commotions caused by this change than in the night whose darkness helps to multiply the Phantasms which are in the Imagination pester'd with the vapors and gross fumes of Meats the Digestion whereof is then but begun Whereas in the day time such vapors transpire more freely by the Pores which are opened by the heat of the Sun and by the Exercises which are used in the Afternoon Besides Meats being onely to fill emptiness the time of the greatest inanition is the fittest for repletion which certainly Noon must be after the Evacuations of the fore-going Night and Morning The Third said There are four manners of taking Repasts First Some eat often and very much at each time so did the Athletae of old and so do those Gourmandizers who are alwayes hungry and whose Stomacks have been found after their death of unusual capacity This way is altogether opposite to Health Secondly Some eat little and seldom which course befits acute Diseases those that are judg'd the fourth day requiring sometimes a total abstinence in case the Patient's strength can bear it those that reach to the seventh or fourteenth very little Food and seldom Thirdly Such as must eat little but
Earth and so draw all Loadstones and what-ever Iron is rub'd with them towards themselves The Second said That the Cause of this Motion ought rather to be ascrib'd to some thing in Heaven because in Ships that approach that Island of Loadstone the Needle still tends towards the North and not towards that Island The truth is there is a Sympathy between some parts and things of the world the Female Palm bends towards the Male Straw moves to Amber all Flowers and particularly the Marigold and Sun-flower incline towards the Sun the Loadstone towards the Iron and the tail of the little Bear which if we conceive to be of the Nature of Iron there is no more inconvenience therein than in the other Properties attributed to the rest of the Starrs and Planets The Third said That to wave what other Authors have said this inclination of the Loadstone proceeds from the great humidity of the North which is the Centre of all waters towards which they tend For the Loadstone being extreamly dry and oblig'd to tend some way when it is in aequilibrio it veers towards that quarter to seek the moisture which is wanting to it as also doth Steel heated red hot and suffer'd to cool of it self if it be lay'd upon a piece of the wood floating gently in water The Fourth was of Cardan's Opinion who conceives that stones are animated and consequently that the soul of the Loadstone carries it to the search of its food and its good as the the Eye affects Light a Whelp is carry'd to his Dam's teat and a Sheep naturally eschews a Wolf For it matters not whether we hold That the touch'd Load-stone moves towards the tail of the little Bear which is distant five degrees from the Arctick Pole or Whether it flie and recoil from the part of Heaven diametrically opposite thereunto Now that the Loadstone is animated appears by its being nourisht with and kept in the filings of Steel by its growing old and by the diminishing of its attractive virtue with age just as the virtues of other bodies do Wherefore 't is probable that the Loadstone's soul either with-draws it from that part which is contrary to it or else leads it towards its good Indeed two different inclinations are observ'd in this Stone depending upon the situation it had in the Mine one Northwards whither it turnes the part that once lay that way the other Southwards whither it turns its opposite part But the Experiment of Iron loosing its attraction by being rub'd on the Loadstone the contrary way to which it was rub'd at first is an evident sign of such a soul in it which makes it thus vary its actions The Fifth said That all these accounts leave many difficulties to be resolv'd for if the Loadstone mov'd towards those great Adamantine Mountains of Ilva then they would draw only that and not Iron if Iron too why not before 't is rub'd with a Loadstone Nor doth this inclination of the Loadstone proceed from its dryness for then plain Iron which is as dry Pumice Lime and Plaster which are dryer should have the same effect Besides that there is not such want of humidity as that this stone should seek it Northwards the Mediterranean and the Main Ocean being nearer hand As for Heaven the Cause is no less obscure there and the terms of Sympathy and Antipathy differ not much from those which profess naked Ignorance The second Opinion hath most probability for since the two pieces of a Loadstone cut parallel to the Axis have so great a community of inclinations that a Needle touch'd with one piece is mov'd at any distance whatsoever according to the motion of another toucht with the other piece why may we not admit that the tail of the little Bear or its neighbouring parts are of a Magnetical Nature and have the same community with our Terrestrial Loadstone according to that Maxim in Trismegistus's Smaragdine-Table That which is above is as that which is below CONFERENCE CXCVII What Sect of Philosophers is most to be follow'd ALl the Sciences confess Obligations to Philosophy Divinity draws Ratiocinations from it Eloquence is diffuse Logick and Rhetorick is not to be learnt but after Philosophy Civil Law being wholly founded upon Morality is nothing but an effect of it whilst it teaches us to do voluntarily what the Laws makes us practise by force Physick supposes excellent skill in Philosophy since the Physician begins where the Naturalist ends Now there are so many Sects of Philosophers that to follow them all is to fall into manifest contradictions and to adhere to one alone is to be in great danger of mistaking the worst That which keeps us from being able to make a good choice is the little knowledge we have of these Sects and the Probability each seems to have and therefore 't is requisite to examine them in general in order to drawing a general conclusion And because Saint Augustine cites almost three hundred Opinions touching the Supream Good and as many may be brought touching other points of the Sciences I shall only take notice of the famousest Sects as seeming the most rational and most follow'd And let us compare the always contentious Peripatericks and the Stoicks together The end of the former was to contemplate and understand things the latter aim'd more to do good than to know it their design was Speculation the scope of these Practici I side with the former because that Science which embellisheth Man's noblest part his Understanding is the most sublime and consequently the most considerable And as the Understanding is more excellent than the Will so is Theory in matter Science than Exercise Acts of Virtue depending on the Acts of Reason and those of Reason not depending on those of Liberty Besides that is most to be esteem'd which must render us blessed and that is the knowledge of God and of the Creatures in God and in themselves which is to constitute the Beatifick Vision The Second said That Men ought not to get knowledge only to know but to operate comformably to their knowledge Truth would be either useless or dangerous if it lead us not to practise And though the Will is one Sense subordinate to the Understanding yet it commands the same in another To know how to do well and yet to do ill is a double crime And if knowledge alone could make happy the Devils would be soon in Heaven since Divines tell us the least of them hath more natural knowledge than all Mankind together Now the Opinion of the Stoicks regulating the Acts of our Wills and composing our Manners suitable to Reason seems to place the steps which must raise us to the highest pitch of Felicity Wherefore I conclude that the Curious may follow the first Sect of these namely the Peripateticks but good men must necessarily adhere to that of the Stoicks The Third said That there are three other Sects which seem to comprize all the rest
Causes The Second said That the Remora worketh the same Effect upon the Ship that the Torpedo doth upon the hand of the Fisher which becomes stupid when he toucheth the same with a long pole Now of this effect of Remora is not hard to be accounted for if we follow the Principles of Campanella and those who allow sense to all even the most gross corporeal things But this opinion being little received 't is better to say that whereas all natural things subsist only by the vicissitude of motion and rest wise Nature who is the principle of both hath judiciously dispenc'd them that they are found differently in some things and in others and that for the good and ornament of the Universe which requires that as they are bodies immoveable by reason of their scituation or use to wit the Earth and the Poles of the Heavens others always in motion to wit the Heavens Rivers Air and Fire and others endued with an attractive vertue as the Loadstone and Amber so She hath given others a Quality contrary to this Namely the Remora that of stopping the motion of a Ship and because motion and rest are contrary one to the other their principles are no less as well those that are effective of motion as those which cause rest but 't is better to explicate them by their sensible and indubitable effects than by reasons ordinarily frivolous and impertinent The Third said 'T is no rare thing for Ships to be staid in the main Sea whatever pains the Mariners take to make them go forward and how favourable soever the Wind may be the cause whereof is no other but the contrary motion of the waves of the Sea especially in streights and narrow places where there are strong Currents which probably stopp'd Caligula's Ship and those other mentioned in History rather than this little Fish which 't is credible can send so strong a Vertue from its small body as to fix and check the far greater and oftentimes irresistible force of the Winds and Sea Unless you had rather attribute this retardment to the mucosity and other foulnesses wherewith Ships are crusted in long Voyages which hinder their advancing and this Fish being sometimes found in those mucous humidities people mistake it for the cause though it no wise contributed thereunto The Fourth maintain'd according to the opinion of Francastorius That 't is not possible for so small a Fish as the Remora to stop a great Ship at full sail but that this Effect is occasion'd by Rocks indu'd with a Quality like that of the Loadstone upon which this Fish using to reside when a Ship passes near them their Adamantine Vertue attracts the same towards them whence the same thing happens by these two violent motions viz. that wherewith the Vessel is driven along in the main Sea and the attraction of these Rocks as when two equal forces draw a weight two several ways the thing remains unmov'd so that this fish is not the cause but only the sign of this retardment The fifth said That if there were any such magnetical vertue in this case the nails and iron-works of the Ship so stay'd would rather be taken away than its course stopt the latter being more hard to do than the former since a little force sufficeth to pull a nail out of a Ship whose impetuous motion 't is not possible to withhold whence Archimedes's his drawing of a Ship out of the Port into the Market-place by his endless serue pass'd for one of the goodliest secrets of the Mechanicks though indeed it be nothing to the present enquiry And the truth is this strange effect may best be attributed to a hidden property and singular quality of this Fish which being always found sticking to the stopped Ships is more probably the cause of that impediment than any unknown Rocks which ought to do the like to all Vessels that approach them if there were any such For t is a vanity condemn'd by the most intelligent in the secrets of Nature to presume to give valid reasons thereof whilst we have none for the most sensible and ordinary effects for want of knowing the last and proximate differences which constitute every thing in its Essence and distinguish it from others it being easie to know that the Remora after the example of many other which act by a propriety of their form produceth this effect without being needful to trouble our selves to find out the means it imploys in order thereunto CONFERENCE CCXI. Of Negroes NAture loves variety so well that she is not contented with producing a great number of Species of all sorts of Animals differing chiefly according to the Climates which produce them but she hath also pleas'd her self in an innumerable diversity of individuals especially as to colour as cannot be call'd an Accident in Blackamores but an inseparable property which distinguishes them from other men and constitutes the nature of Negroes in whom the Sun's heat produceth an effect contrary to that of his light this brightning the other obscuring the subject upon which it acts Yet it acteth not alike upon all Subjects since the same Star Aethiopian whitens linnen and wax but this blackness happens to the Aethiopians because moisture exceeds and in a manner extinguisheth heat just as we see it come to pass in Charcoals Gangreens and the parts of man's body when struck with Lightning For if the first Quality would take colours no doubt cold would be white as we may judg by Water Ice Snow Gray Hairs and the Animals that live under the Artick Pole which are all white though of the same Species with ours of another colour as Bears and Hares Which is further prov'd by Herbs which grow white under ground and lose as much of their heat and bitterness as they partake of such whiteness witness the stalks of Hartichoaks and Savoury Hot things would be red and of the colour of Fire which we see gives that colour to faces formerly pale to hot Iron and burning Wood but a superfluous humidity supervening stifles and extinguishes this heat and leaves behind it the colour of corruption as we see the whitest skin grows black by heat upon travelling Southwards the contrary happening to those that go Northwards The Second said That if heat alone made Blackamoors those that are most expos'd to the Sun-beams should be the blackest but they are not so there being many Nations of the New World where it is so hot that they go all naked of an olive colour whereas in Guiney Aethiopia and other places inhabited by Moors they are cloth'd and feel more cold And because this colour may be ascrib'd to the reciprocation of heat and cold which is more likely to alter men's bodies in all other qualities than in a permanent one there are found both black and white people under the same parallels and elevation of the Pole as in the Isle of Sumatra where the Inhabitants are white Wherefore this colour must
it comes that our Cellars are warm in Winter and cool in Summer as are also all other ground-rooms and low places That Water shrinks up and frames it self into little drops when it is spilt on dry ground whereas it spreads abroad and is diffus'd in moist places That Lime is set on fire by the casting of water upon it That the fire burns better in frosty than in hot weather That Wine drinks more cool out of a Glass that had been warm'd That the coldness of Snow causes an extraordinary heat in their hands who handle it and That generally all tactile qualities are rendred more active by the opposition of their contraries by reason of the concourse and the assistance they then receive from that general Cause which concerns it self in their preservation Of this we may give an instance in Politicks affirming that the procedure of the forementioned Cause is much like that of great Potentates who in a war between some petty Princes or neighbouring States if they find one party ready to be absolutely ruin'd supply it with such forces as shall enable it to recover it self so to bring the several interests into an Aequilibrium whereof there is as great a necessity in Nature which is kept up by that proportion wherein all things find their subsistence as their destruction proceeds only from their disproportion and inequality The Fifth said That we are not to look for the reason of Antiperistasis any otherwhere than in the Subjects themselves wherein we find the action whose intenseness and augmentation are to be referr'd not to that of the degrees of the active qualities but to their compression and reinforcement which renders them more sensible in regard they are more material as may be seeen in a red-hot iron the heat whereof burns much more violently then that of a fire of Straw or Aqua-vitae The sixth said That according to the principles which allow all things to participate of a certain degree of sentiment this condensation or compression of the degrees of heat or cold ought to be the effects of a sensitive Agent which having a knowledge of what may be hurtful or beneficial to it withdraws within it self the qualities which preserve it intire when it is press'd upon by others that are more violent and such as the meeting whereof might be prejudicial thereto which it forces from it in order to Action And herein it is that the good of every thing consists inasmuch as every thing hath being only so far as it hath action when it is assisted by friendly qualities and the like and by this means it is that Cold and Heat act more vigorously when they are oppos'd one to the other and that our cavities are hotter in Winter by reason of the compression of the Spirits and the natural Heat which are the more diffus'd in Summer in regard this latter goes to meet with its like as a little fire is put out by a great one and a weaker light obscur'd by a clearer CONFERENCE CCXXXVIII Of the Sympathetical Powder THough this Powder be now as much out of esteem as it was in vogue soon after the first finding of it out for the expeditious curing of wounds yet will it haply be a business of some advantage to examine their Motives who first made and publickly sold it as also those of such as have sometimes made use of it with good success And whereas novelty procures a certain esteem to Remedies as well as to other things so this Sympathetical Powder found so great belief at its first coming abroad among Persons addicted to a military life who were immediately flatter'd with a speedy and easie curing of their most mortal wounds by the means thereof without any trouble of making incisions or dilatations many times more painful then the hurt it self that we have had some persons these last Campagnes though destitute of learning and experience who had the subtlety to raise such a mist before the eyes of the generality with this Powder that they concluded this remedy to be true balm and the only Panacea or All-heal of all wounds But time having discover'd the vanity of it as also the impostures of those by whom it was so highly recommended it hath been clearly found out that there are few people in this age but are either deceiv'd themselves or make it their main business to deceive others For in fine this Powder is as much cry'd down at present as ever it was cry'd up and there is nothing left of it but the insolent name of Sympathetical impos'd upon it by the Authors thereof in imitation of the Unguent of the same name wherewith Goclenius and some other Physicians endeavour'd to make good the Magnetick cure of wounds wherein they only dress'd the arms or other instruments by which they were given and apply'd the convenient remedies thereto But in regard they could not always come at the arms which had done the mischief to keep up their practise and to make the cure yet more easie these upstart Doctors be thought themselves some years since of another expedient to compass their designs that is found out a remedy wherewith they make it their boast that they will cure all sorts of hurts only by applying this powder to some piece of Cloth which had been us'd either to bind up or make clean the wounded part And whereas there are two kinds of wounds one simple which makes a solution of continuity in the soft and fleshy parts of the body such as are the veins the arteries the nerves and the muscles the other compound which happens ih the solid parts especially where bones are broken these Gentlemen have accordingly two different kinds of Sympathetical Powder to wit a simple and a compound The former is made with Roman Vitriol which is our green and transparent Coppress which they beat or pound not over small and disposing it upon papers in such quantities as they think fit lay it in the Sun when he makes his entrance into the first degree of the Sign Leo and leaving it there for the space of three hundred and sixty hours which make just fifteen days answerably to the like number of degrees which that Planet travels over in the space of a year in the Zodiack During this time it is calcin'd into an exquisite whiteness and then they take it in and keep it carefully in some temperate place that is not too moist that is such as may not be likely to melt it for fear it should by that means lose its vertue for which reason also it is taken in during its calcination in the cool of the evening and in the night-time and when the air is inclinable to rain or over-moist But there must be a great care taken that it be not stirr'd with any instrument of iron when this powder is either in the preparation or ready made up these Authors affirming that it takes away its vertue instead whereof they order
the second Book of his Deipnosophists which lasted twenty years and afflicted two thirds of Men Women and Beasts although some attributed it to the want of Mulberries which fail'd during those twenty years and which they say are good against the Gowt because they loosen the Belly and correct the heat of the Stomach Women as Hippocrates saith are exempt from the Gowt saving in the suppression of their Evacuations Children before the use of Venery and Eunuchs always although the intemperance and luxury of all of them hath produc'd contrary experiences as well in this Age as in that of Seneca which made the Poets say That the Gowt was the Daughter of Bacchus and Venus the first engendring plenty of crude humours the second debilitating the heat and cooling the Body which being render'd laxe the humours fall more easily upon the Joints And to shew the oddness of this Disease Anger Fear and Joy have oftentimes both given and cured it the Humours being extreamly agitated by those Passions Upon the Second Point it was said That Wisedom being a Habit mix'd of Science and Virtue Poverty gives much more disposition to either than Riches the Mind of a Poor Man being more capable of Knowledg than that of a Rich either for that Nature compensates the want of the Goods of Fortune with those of Nature or because Necessity and Hunger sharpens and renders them more subtile or else because being free from the cares and pains caus'd by the conservation or acquisition of Riches they have a more calm Spirit and more capable of the Sciences which require quiet and tranquillity of Mind And as for Virtue whose paths are so thorny Poverty hath also many more accesses thereunto than Riches not only in the Law of Grace in which our Lord saith That 't is easier for a Cammel or a Cable to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven whereof nevertheless the gate is the practice of Virtues but likewise in the moral sense of this present life in which Poverty and affliction according to the Scripture gives Understanding and Prudence teaches Temperance Sobriety and Chastity its inseparable companion disciplines us to Patience and to suffer couragiously the miseries of Life the frequency whereof renders the Mind invincible On the contrary Riches are amost always accompanied with Vices most repugnant to Wisedom as amongst others with Presumption Vanity Voluptuousness and Delicacy the first of which is opposite to Science for Pride proceeds only from Ignorance the second to Virtue which the Poet calls masculine and laborious Moreover Nature shews us of what quality Riches are for the sand that produces Gold is always extreamly barren and naked of all sorts of Fruits and so are the Minds of those that possess it and 't is observ'd That rich Nations and such as live in a good soil are the most vicious lazy and dull whereas those who are in an unkind Land are ordinarily more virtuous addicted to Industry The Second said That as the Goods of Fortune no less than those of the Body are referr'd to those of the Mind as the Means to their End in like sort the inconveniences both of Fortune and Body are hinderances in acquiring those Goods of the Soul which are the perfection of its two principal Faculties the Understanding and the Will namely Knowledg and Virtue For Knowledg and the Arts call'd Liberal require a generous and liberal not a sordid and low Soul like that of a Poor Man whom Alciat's Embleme very well represents by a Lad with one hand stretch'd up into the Air with Wings fastened to it intimating a desire to fly higher but the other hand fastened to a heavy Stone hinders him For their Spirit being loaden with misery thinks of nothing but of the means how to live and to be deliver'd from the heavy yoak of Necessity which deprives them of the means of having either living or dumb Teachers yea makes them despise all the rigours of Laws and oft-times abandons them to Rage and Despair which makes them hate their miserable life and renders them masters of those of others Hence not only Mutinies Seditions and Revolts are commonly made by the Poor and Miserable lovers of Innovation wherein they are sure to lose nothing and may possibly gain but also are almost the sole Authors of Thefts Murders and Sacriledges Whereas Rich Persons having from their birth receiv'd such good Instruction as the poor want are more stay'd in their Actions and better inclin'd to Honesty and Virtue which without Fortunes or Estates can never produce any thing great and considerable whence in our Language Riches are justly stiled Means without assistance whereof Justice can neither render to every one what belongs to him nor repel the Enemies of the State by a just War whereof Money is the Sinew and principal Strength Upon this account they are sought after by all the World and are not only the end of the noblest part of Morality and Oeconomy Families which are the Pillars of a State not being preserv'd but by the lawful acquisition of Wealth in which for this reason some Politicians place Nobility but all agree that they serve for an Ornament thereunto and heighten its lustre but those who have parted with them cannot live without them but are constrained to beg of others And in Policy whether Riches be acquired or come by succession they are always in esteem as on the contrary Poverty is disparag'd with reproach and is a sign either of baseness of Extraction or of Negligence and profusion Hence a Poor Man is as unfit to be trusted with a Publick Charge as with a sum of Money and 't is not without reason that he who is distress'd with Poverty is extreamly asham'd of it this defect hindring and being a remora to all his designs Whereas Riches raise the Courage incite to great Attempts and serve for a spur to Virtue which thrives by Praise and Glory but freezes and languishes by the Contempt and Derision inseparable from Poverty which indeed hath been commended by the same Sacred Mouth which requires us to turn the other cheek to him that strikes us upon the one yet this hinders not but that speaking naturally as we do here 't is better to defend ones self than to be beaten patiently The Third said That in matter of Wisedom we ought to refer our selves to the wisest of all Men Solomon who prays God to give him neither Riches for fear of Pride nor Poverty for fear of becoming a Thief but a middle Estate For as too great Plenitude and an Atrophy are equally contrary to Health which consists in a moderation and temper of qualities so the condition of Persons extreamly Rich and that of Begger the degree here under consideration is equally an enemy to Wisedom And if in any case we ought to desire the Golden Mediocrity 't is in the acquisition of Wisedom especially of Virtue
Countenances And if the insinuations and praises made use of by Men to caress them are nothing but flatteries why should not they too reciprocally endeavour to deceive Men whilst they represent for the object of their Lies only the Image of Artificial Beauty The Third said That the Countenance being the Tablet and Mirror of the Soul as Hypocrisie and Lying in the Soul is contrary to Candour and Sincerity without which there would be no confidence nor true Friendship in the World but perpetual dissimulations and diffidences so a Fucus upon the Face is unlawful and the more pernicious in that it is a speaking Lye For as a Liar speaks otherwise than he thinks and hath another thing in his Mind than upon his Tongue so a painted Face appears outwardly wholly other then what it really is unjustly covering under the plaister and tincture of a Fucus its natural imperfections and defects which to go about to mend is to resist the Wisedom of God the Author thereof who disposing all things wisely hath perhaps deny'd the advantage of Beauty to certain Persons out of fore-sight that they would abuse it and who otherwise having imprinted the Character of his Divinity upon our Countenances the Person that paints and disguises the same seems to be ingrateful and unworthy of such a favour yea to deprive himself of all credit among honest men For who will give belief to the Words of one that wears a Lye upon his Fore-head Besides that in time those Mixtures alter and destroy the health of the whole Body Sublimate amongst the rest the commonest of all Cosmeticks Not to mention the danger of letting it get into the eyes and more of swallowing it down it wrinkles the skin renders the eyes hollow blacks the teeth and corrupts the breath The Fourth said since Beauty is one of the four gifts of the Body it ought not to be of worse condition than the other three Health Strength and Goodness of the Senses but 't is lawful to preserve and encrease the same so far as we can especially that of the Visage which being the Mirror of the Deity should be carefully adorn'd and embellish'd considering too that our Lord commands us in the Gospel to wash our Faces and suffer'd his own Feet to be annointed with precious Unguents the use whereof was common among the Ancients who annointed the Head and all the rest of the Body with Aromatick Oyls and Compositions more for Beauty than for Health And Physick in one of its parts call'd Cosmetica treats of Fucusses and Ornaments of the Body and Face which the Law approves in L. 21. ff De Auro Mundo making four sorts of Fucus namely for Pleasure Health Ornament and Cleanness Moreover 't would seem a contempt of that Divine Gift of Heaven Beauty not to preserve it And as no man being to chuse a dwelling-house but prefers a handsom and agreeable one before another so if Souls had the choice of their Bodies when they come into the World they would undoubtedly take the fairest and best shap'd because they might exercise their operations best therein And indeed the Soul is so curious of this Beauty that as soon as any stroke or other external injury deforms the Body it ceases not to repair the ruines thereof and without the continual industry which she imploys not only to re-establish the perpetual deperdition of our triple substance but also to cause re-generation of the consumed flesh the re-union of parts disjoyn'd by solution of continuity and to reduce to a better conformation the depravations thereof there would be more Monsters than Men. Why then should it be a crime for Art which perfects Nature to assist her in this work by taking away what is superfluous or adding what is deficient which are also the two parts of Physick CONFERENCE CIV I. Of Tobacco II. Whether the Invention of Guns hath done more hurt than good THe Herb call'd by the Spaniards Tobacco from an Island of the same name in the West-Indies wherein it grows in abundance is nam'd by the Indians Petun by others for its great virtues Herba Sancta and Jean Nicot Embassador of Francis II. having first brought out of Portugal into France some of the seed of it to Queen Catherine de Medicis with the description of its virtues it became denominated from him in French Nicotiane or Herbe a la Reine the Queens Herb as in Italy it was term'd Herbe de Santa Croce of Holy Cross because a Cardinal of that name was the first that brought it to Rome Some others still call it Antarctical Buglosse Henbane of Peru and Indian Wound-wort It grows many times to the height of three Cubits with a straight and thick stalk so fat that it seems annointed with Honey it sends forth sundry large branches with many leaves long and broad rounder than those of great Comfrey somewhat like those of great Personata or Bur-dock fleshy fat and little rough of a pale green unpleasing smell and biting taste On the top of the stalk it hath many flowers oblong hollow and large in form of a Trumpet of a white inclining to purple to which succeed little slender cods or husks full of a brownish seed smaller than that of Poppey It s root is thick hath several lobes is woody yellow within bitter easily separating from its bark and like all Herbs hot and dry for this is so in the second degree it requires moist places and shadow and delights to be cultivated Moreover 't is kept in Gardens as well for its beauty as for its faculties of curing abundance of Maladies to which 't is the more proper in that it hath an unctuosity familiar to our Body whose excrementitious humours the seed of most Diseases it potently resolves For as Plants are of a middle nature between Minerals and Animals so they are more proper and safe for the preservation and restoring of Man's health than Animals themselves which by reason of their similitude act less on us or than Minerals and inanimate Bodies which through the too great diversity of their nature act with too much violence The Second said That this Herb heats resolv's deterges and is somewhat astringent whence it is that its leafs apply'd hot to the head cure the Meagrim and old headach proceeded from cold or wind and if the pain be contumacious you must rub the place first with oyl of Orange-flowers Moreover 't is us'd for the Cramp and all other pains arising from the same cold humour particularly for that of the Teeth by filling them with the leaf bruis'd It s decoction in common Water is good for maladies of the Breast of the same kind as the Asthma and old Coughs causing expectoration of the phlegm which produces it Also Its smoak taken by the nose and swallow'd down by respiration frequently cures the Asthmatick and such as have ulcers in the Lungs by the same reason that Galen saith he saw a Baker's Wife cur'd of
Romances as they instruct with pleasure artificially marrying Benefit and Delectation Under supposed Names they freely tax without incurring the envy or hatred of those whom they reprehend Thus the Prophet Nathan by a Parable drew from David the condemnation of his Crime which otherwise possibly he would never have own'd or at least would have excus'd in his own Person As for the abuse and danger of reading these Books for the most part fill'd with dishonest Loves 't is common to them with the best things of the World that they may be turn'd to a bad use But if the Love be honest and lawful as it proves always in conclusion the Romances deserve no blame for it if unlawful the Lovers have always an unhappy end and Vices are never unpunish'd 'T is here that Distributive Justice is exactly kept not by the blind Judgment of Fortune but by the judicious choice of the Author that the Good are always rewarded and the Wicked punish'd For the object of Romances as well as of Histories is the description of humane actions which being most often bad by reason of the depravation of Nature they appear more scandalously in History than in Romances Why therefore do not their Censors likewise proscribe Histories so much more dangerous as they afford us many true examples of Sacriledges Parricides Adulteries and Incests the Authors whereof have escaped punishment And not to speak of the dangerous Maxims of Tacitus and Polybius Who would take the Fables of Herodotus and the Prodigies of Livie for more probable things then those of Romances To omit the contrariety of Historians of the same time so that we may say That the truest amongst them is the most likely The Second said If the Platonists saying be true That there is nothing real in this World but we perceive only shadows and phantasms in this life which the Scripture compares to a Dream there will be little difference as to realty between a History and a Romance And though the one be a meer fiction yet this will no more infer the despising of it than it doth of a Comedy because the Actors are not the very Personages or of a Landskip or Perspective well drawn only because 't is the Invention of the Painter and not of Nature whose Works as excellent as they are yet yield to those of Art which we esteem above the true and natural from which the same are counterfeited our minds extreamly delighting in Imitations whence it is that we so much esteem in their Copies and Representations such things whose Originals are disagreeable to us But that which augments the glory of Romances is that their declared enemies have not been able to encounter them but by Romances too as Plato and Isocrates could not reprehend the Sophisters but by making use of their Eloquence The Third said That Romances are commonly either of the valorous Exploits of Knights or of Amorous pass-times The first are for the most part ridiculous and full of Knights Errant who force Enchanted Castles kill Monsters Giants and Men like Flies The latter are infamous contrary to Good Manners and dangerous to young Persons entertaining them in a loose Idleness the Mother of all Vices besides the dangerous impressions those Lies leave in tender Minds and which remain therein all their life after But this belongs to all fabulous Discourses that they denote weakness of Judgment in those addicted to them and a disorderly Wit in their Authors And since according to Physitians the first degree of Folly is to imagine phantastical Opinions and the second to tell them to others the third in my conceit will be to write them CONFERENCE CVIII I. Of Talismans II. Whether a Country-life or a City-life is to be preferr'd TAlisman which the Chaldaeans call Tsilmenaia the Hebrews Magen the Greeks Character is an Arabick word form'd by transposition and addition to the beginning and end of the two Hemantical Letters Tau and Nun of the Hebrew word Tselem which signifies Image Figure or Character For those Talismans of which Zoroaster is made the first Author are nothing else but Images in relief or engrav'd upon Medals or Rings ordinarily of Mettal or precious Stones in shape of Men or Animals fabricated under certain Constellations and Aspects of Stars whose influence they thereby receive and keep being afterwards instead of the same Stars yea with the greater virtue in that the re-union of influences being made in one point their activity is redoubl'd As Burning-glasses take more heat from the Sun than perhaps he hath himself These Figures act as they say either upon mens minds as to cause one to be lov'd honour'd enrich'd or fear'd or upon their Bodies as to cure them Of which some shadow is seen in the magnetical cure of Wounds by applying the Medicine to the Weapon that did the hurt or to the bloody shirt Or else these Figures act upon natural things as to keep away from a place rain hail and wild or venomous Beasts only by natural means For we speak not here of magical or diabolical Characters whose virtues for the most part depend upon either a tacite or express compact with the evil Spirit who sometimes really produces those effects often deludes our Senses and not the Character Word Sound Number or such other means commonly inept and uncapable of such action But we speak only of natural Agents which acting almost all by a propriety of their whole substance and by occult and sympathetical virtues cause many strange effects which the ignorant Vulgar incongruously ascribe to Magick or Sortilege There might be doubt of the effect of these Talismans if divers Histories did not give assurance thereof For those Teraphins such as Laban's Puppets were might be call'd Talismans as the Brazen-Serpent and the Golden-Calf are by Marselius Ficinus the one to preserve from the morsures of Serpents by its sight the other to turn away the heats and droughts of the Scorpion and of Mars The Idols of the Pagans may also be put in this rank as Memnon's Statue in Aegypt which mov'd and spoke when shone upon by the Sun that of Paphian Venus in Cyprus upon which it never rain'd the Palladium of Troy the Ancilia or Bucklers of Rome whick kept the Fortune of the Empire the Dii Penates figur'd by two Serpents those call'd Averrunci who kept away domestick misfortunes Sejanus's Statue of Fortune which the Emperours left to their Successors Virgil's brazen Fly and golden Horseleech with which he hinder'd Flies from entring Naples and kill'd all the Horseleeches in a Ditch the Figure of a Stork plac'd by Apollonius at Constantinople to drive them away thence in the year 1160 and that wherewith he drove away Gnats from Antioch those of Tripoli in Syria and Hampts in Arabia which were preserv'd from venomous Beasts by the Talisman of a Scorpion engraven upon one of their Towers that at Florence made against the Gowt by a Carmelite nam'd Julianus Ristonius à Prato
and Evil and consequently an inclination to the one and an aversion to the other she hath also given them means of attaining thereunto to wit Local Motion to go thither of themselves and a Voice to seek of others that Good they want and deliverance from the Evil which presses them The Second said That only such perfect Animals as have Lungs have the gift of Voice others destitute either of Lungs as Fishes or of Blood as most Insects having little heat of which Blood is the foundation have no need of Air which is inspir'd only to cool and temper the excess of Natural Heat and so for want of Air which is the matter of Voice are almost all mute except the Dolphin whose Voice is like that of Man Grass-hoppers Flies Bees and other Insects make a noise and sound indeed by the collision of the Air and their Wings but have no Voice which is defin'd A significative sound made by the mouth of an Animal and by Aristotle The stroak of the Air attracted by respiration and emitted by the Lungs against the Larynx to express something So that the Efficient Cause of Voice is the Soul the Matter Air the Form Sound or the collision of two solid Bodies the End to signifie something And so Animals cry to signifie the grief they resent But why they testifie this grief by so different tones and accents is as difficult to understand as the last differences in which Philosophers have plac'd that diversity as Howling Barking Bellowing Braving Roaring Neighing and such other accents of Beasts the cause whereof is hitherto unknown The Third said Such Animals cry soonest and longest who have the strongest Imagination the most exquisite touch the least ability to suffer and the least conscience because most susceptible of apprehension and pain and their Spirits being diffus'd in a less bulk are aptest to be mov'd and gather'd together about the Heart which by this means being unusually oppress'd communicate the sense thereof to the Lungs which suffering by sympathy and being instruments for the hearts eventilation perform their functions then with more speed and violence by an irregular motion forc'd by the present Necessity and the pain which presses them and so the Air which was contain'd in their spongy substance issues forth impetuously and by collision with the Epiglottis and other opposing parts forms loud and resounding clamours Whence we may judg That the secret intention of Nature who disposes these Organs in such sort that the Cry is a kind of interpreter of the Grief was to give some refreshment or ventilation to the Spirits thronged about the Heart and also intelligible tokens of the Evil suffer'd by the Animal either to move the injurer to compassion or else to invoke the help of its own Species or by unknown instinct that of the Author of Nature For we see that Animals by the motives of natural instinct run to the cries of those of their own kind And since the Holy Scripture tells us That not only Birds and all other Animals but also insensible things praise God 't is credible that in their anguishes they are lead by the same Principle to cry to him to help and preserve the Work of his own Hand Which is so true that the wicked'st Persons are forc'd by the interior motions of a hidden power to lift up their hands to Heaven in their Afflictions and implore Succour and Assistance from on High The Fourth said That the Sense of Touch is both more universal and natural to Animals than any other being the first they have and the last they lose The dolour thereof is express'd with Cries to which Man having the most exquisite Touch and consequently being most sensible of pain is also more subject than other Creatures And if that Ancient said true That Tears are mute execrations of the Sorrows of Life which we begin and end with them Cries may be said the more manifest and earnest since they pierce the clouds and see into ascend to the the Throne of God to demand succour of him when none is found upon Earth 'T is an impetuous sound utter'd by an Animal unable to resist present or imminent Grief For 't is proportional to the violence of the Passion Love which is the gentlest renders it smooth and soft Choler the violentest makes it more vehement And Grief the most pressing of all and tending to the destruction of Being which is equally abhor'd by all Creatures ariseth it to the highest tone of which 't is capable Whence even Speech which being artificially divided into syllables and cadences is peculiar to man yet in the precipitateness of Grief keeps not its measures but breaks into an inarticulate sound like that of Animals For explication whereof it must be known that the Cuticle the chief seat of the Touch and consequently of Pain is the expansion of the Nerves the conduits of the Animal Spirits which in Pain either shrink inwards and so cause stupefaction or being irritated and sent by Nature to the aid of the hurt part by Sympathy move the Diaphragma and other nervous and membranous Parts For as of two Lute-strings set at the same pitch the one sounds upon the touching of the other so in the Harmony of the whole Body there may be the same sympathy between the Spirits and the Parts an evidence whereof is seen in Tickling and Laughter which is caus'd by the contraction of the Diaphragm which is the reason that the aspect of such as Laugh and Weep is much alike And because in Grief the coarcted Spirits hinder respiration and free motion of the Heart ttherefore Nature to ease her self drives them outwards with violence and with them moist vapours which partly transpire by the pores and are partly condens'd in the Brain whence they flow through the eyes in streams of Tears which by this means greatly alleviate Grief as the want of Them and Cries argues its vehemence Besides that they may serve Animals to terrifie their Enemies or else to implore the assistance of their Fellows as we read of Elephants that falling into a Ditch they call other Elephants to their aid Upon the Second Point 't was said That 't is proper to a wise man by God's Example to draw Good out of Evil and benefit from the most pernicious things So Physitians turn the strongest Poysons into wholesom Remedies Men use the spoils of the fiercest Beasts for nourishment cloathing and other purposes of Life And many great Personages have taken occasion from bodily Diseases Shipwracks Losses Banishments and other such unkindnesses of Fortune to give up themselves wholly to Virtue and the Knowledg of Things Since then Enmity is the greatest of all Evils as Unity is the most excellent of all Goods and the noblest of all Virtues as having no Vicious Extremity but being perfect by being boundless 't is a Point of great Wisedom to be able to draw some benefit from ones Enemies whereof the principal is
that they oblige us to stand upon our guard to order our demeanour well and so to frame our Lives that they may have no hold against us For as Friendship is the Parent of Confidence and Liberty this of Negligence So Enmity begets Diffidence and this Circumspection with a great desire of Virtue and shame of Vice whose turpitude makes us blush more in the presence of an Enemy than of a Friend who being our other Self complies with our humours and inclinations And as Natural Agents are more vigorous in presence of their Contraries whence Fire scorches more in Winter than in Summer so the presence of Enemies redoubles our strength and courage their neighbour-hood obliges us to have always our Arms in our hands and keep good Guard which made Cato declaim against those who raz'd the Cities of Carthage and Numantia both Enemies to Rome The Second said That if a Man be vicious 't is more expedient that he have Enemies than Friends these too easily adhering to his debauches but those withdrawing him from them either by reproaches or by the example of a contrary life If he be virtuous his Enemies make his Virtue shine forth whilst it serves him for a defence and apology against all their accusations and calumnies and he finds it his interest to continue his virtuous Practises that he may still refute them whereas the flatteries and compliances of his Friends insensibly corrupt him Besides seeing a virtuous Man cannot be said absolutely perfect but only to have fewer defects than another his dissembling or flattering Friends sometimes know them not but an Enemy takes notice of them and blazing them abroad gives him warning to correct them Yea it seems a sign of a virtuous Man to have Enemies For besides that Virtue hath been always envy'd and hated and the higher a Man is in merit and dignity above others he hath the more Enemies resemblance of Manners begets Friendship and disparity Enmity and more without comparison are vicious than virtuous But the vicious being unable to love any but those like themselves hate all who follow not their example as the virtuous do not and so have the greatest part of the World against them The Third said That Enmities can produce no good since either Vice or Malice or Ignorance is the cause it not being possible but either he that is hated must be vicious or else they that hate him malicious or ignorant For as Friendship is founded upon and cannot subsist without Virtue so neither can Enmity without the Vice and Malice of him that hates or his that is hated or both together And as the Effects of Amity are Union Concord Security and Peace so those of Enmity are Division Discord Diffidence Suspicion Treachery Hatred and other such Effects noxious not only to a private Person who cannot draw any benefit from what tends only to his ruine as all Hatred doth but also prejudicial to the Publick which is totally destroy'd by Enmity which breaks the bonds of Civil Society On the other side If all were Friends one man would be a God to another as that Ancient said and all men concurring together by mutual help to the accomplishment of one anothers designs there would be no more difficulty in Affairs because no opposition and the World would be nothing but a harmony of favourable Successes Contrarily 't is Enmity makes one man a Woolf to another a Stone of offence and the Daemon of his bad fortune For the benefit of understanding our own Vices by our Enemies reproaches is not to be compar'd to that which we receive from the good counsels of Friends who are better qualifi'd for redressing our imperfections because converse affords the means to know them whereas the rude censures and affronts of an Enemy being never taken in good part cannot any wise contribute to the correction of our Manners A wise and virtuous Man who voluntarily endeavours to practise Virtue in all occurrences finds ways enough to do it without waiting to be constrain'd thereunto by the injuries and censures of Enemies But the vitious will draw nothing from them but fewel to his rancour and revenge without being instructed concerning his faults by the mouth of those whom he utterly disbelieves However we must draw as much profit as we can from our Enemies and 't is the only comfort can be had against Hatred to make use of it as an Antidote against its own Poyson But then as 't would be more expedient to have no Griefs or Poysons than to be at the trouble of finding Anodynes and Counter-poysons so we may be allow'd to derive some remedy from Enmities against their Mischiefs and make as much profit of Vice as 't is possible but 't would be expedient to have neither Enemies nor Vices The Fourth said That Nature subsists only by Contrariety That of the First Qualities is the cause of all the Generations of Mixts in the great World Man's Life lasts only so long as the Natural Heat acts upon the Radical Moisture when their combate is ended he must necessarily die His Understanding hath no better means to obtain Truth than by contrariety of Opinions whereof Identity is as disagreeable to the Mind as 't is to Nature But his Will hath no more powerful Means to attain to Virtue than Resistance which sharpens the Courage and enkindles Resoltion Therefore God has given Man a domestick Enemy the Sensitive Appetite that it being continually at war with the Will might serve to exercise it and render its Victories more glorious the Will as well as the Understanding growing rusty when they want exercising which whets and strengthens them both Hence S. Paul was not heard when he pray'd thrice to be delivered from the importunity of his Enemy God judging it not expedient for his good and having also permitted Heresies in the Church which the same Apostle saith are necessary to the end to prove the Faith of its Members CONFERENCE CXIII I. Of the Iris or Rain-bow II. Whether the Reading of Books is a fitter way for Learning than Vocal Instructions 'T Was not without reason that the Poets feign'd Iris to be the Daughter of Thaumas or Thaumasia that is to say of Admiration thereby intimating our not knowing its cause For Wonder is the Off-spring of Ignorance Amongst many other things Three we find to admire in it its Matter Form and Colours It s Matter is not a moist Cloud as most imagine for besides that then we should see Rain-bows more frequently than we do a Cloud cannot reflect the Sun-beams with that variety or medley which we observe therein For there would be but one colour if the Cloud were diaphanous and otherwise it will be black and dark 'T is not therefore in a Cloud that the Rain-bow is form'd but in the falling drops of Rain as we see some Fountains form one in the Air by the ejaculation of the Water struck with the Sun-beams as also by the spurting of Water out
besides true Friendship suspicion may as well arise in the Receivers as in the givers Mind Many give onely that they may receive with Usury others out of vanity and to make Creatures and Clients which they regarding no longer but as their inferiors and dependents 't is as dangerous for these to confide in their Benefactors as for a slave to use confidence towards his Master or a Vassal towards his Lord not often allow'd by the respect and timerousness of the less towards the great as commonly those are that give Whereas we ordinarily find in him whom we have oblig'd nothing but Subjection and Humility Virtues much disposing the mind to Gratitude which cannot but assure their Benefactors of their fidelity Nor can they easily be ungrateful if they would your confidence in them obliging them continually to fidelity and withall giving them occasion to requite your kindnesses by their assiduity and services Which was the recompence wherewith the poor amongst the Jews pay'd their Creditors by serving them for some years So that he is scarce less blameable who distrusts him whom he hath oblig'd and by this diffidence deprives him of the means of requital then he who having receiv'd a benefit betrayes his Benefactor the Injustice being almost alike in both If the first complains of having been deceiv'd by him whom he finds ungrateful the second in whom his Benefactor puts not the confidence which he ought will have no less cause of complaint that on the contrary he hath distrusted him and soil'd the lustre of the first Obligation by his diffidence and bad opinion of him which is to tax himself of impudence for having done good to one unworthy of it The Third said That if Men were perfect Communicative Justice would require of them that the receiver of a benefit should repay the like or at least some acknowledgment by his endeavours Which the Poets intimated by the Graces holding Hand in Hand But the perversity of Man is such that the more he is oblig'd to this Duty the worse he acquits himself thereof not doing any thing handsomely but what he does freely and because being a vain-glorious Creature he hates nothing so much as to be subject and to pay homage to him that hath done him good whose presence seems to upbraid him with his own meaness If he loves his Benefactor 't is with an interess'd and mercenary affection whereas that of the former is free from all self-respect and proceeds meerly from a principle of Virtue and consequently is with more reason to be rely'd upon Moreover a Work-man loves his Production more then he is lov'd by it as also God doth his Creatures and Fathers their Children Now a Benefactor who is a kind of Work-man and Artificer of our good Fortune cherishes and loves us as his work and creatures because he seems concern'd for our preservation just as Causes are for that of their Effects in which themselves revive and seem to be reproduc'd The Fourth said That our Natural Sentiments incline us more to rely upon those whom we have oblig'd then upon those who have oblig'd us not so much by way of challenging a requital for Obligations are not to be done in hope of recompence which would be exchange rather than kindness as because we are apt to trust those most whom we love most But we love those most to whom we have given greatest Testimony of our Affections A Man may be deceiv'd in reckoning his benefits as causes of Amity in the receiver but they are certain Effects and Signs of Affection in the bestower So that in respect of us 't is manifestly better to trust him whom we have oblig'd than him who hath oblig'd us The same is prov'd also in respect of him that is oblig'd even the wild beasts are tam'd and instead of hurting obey those that feed them and therefore 't were injurious to humanity not to judge It capable of acknowledging a benefit which it knows how to conferr without provocation For upon examination the Causes of Ingratitude will be found to arise from those who boast of the title of Benefactors the imprudence whereof is so great in some that they displease more than oblige by Presents unseasonably given of no value and contrary to Seneca's advice of little duration intermixt with ill Offices instead of being fenc'd with new to keep out the rain of the disgusts and coldnesses which destroy Friendship with regret and not with a chearful Countenance after denials and delayes so that the thing seemes rather snatch'd then receiv'd diminish'd by burthensome conditions and lastly nullifi'd by reproaches if not requited as soon as was expected Whence such pretended benefits deserve rather the name of Out-rages And nevertheless being there are many that are grateful even for such benefits we may justly conclude that Courtesies done with their due circumstances are far more capable to oblige the receivers to Gratitude which cannot consist with Unfaithfulness The Fifth said That the Decision of this as of all other Moral Questions depends upon persons times places and other circumstances whereupon Prudence is founded which teaches when how and whom we are to trust Yet supposing circumstances alike and two persons equally virtuous one of which hath done me good and the other receiv'd good from me the contrary Reason of the Law which presumes him alwayes bad who hath been once bad makes me judge That he who hath once done me good will sooner do me good again then another and therefore that I ought rather to trust him CONFERENCE CXXV Of the Causes of Freezing and Thawing AS Heat and Cold are the Efficient Causes of all Meteors so Driness and Moisture supply Matter for them sublim'd and made volatil by extraneous Heat Vapours which make Aqueous Meteors are of two sorts some ascend to the Middle Region of the Air whose coldness condenses them into a Cloud which afterwards turnes into Rain Snow or Hail Others through the weakness of Heat or tenuity of their Matter unable to ascend turn into Mists and Dew and the Serene which preceedes it and Frost For the Matter both of Frost and Dew is a subtil thin Vapour which when spread equally and uniformly about the Earth hinders not the Air 's transparency which therefore in time of Frost is alwayes clear and serene But their Efficient is distinct that of Dew is the moderate Coldness of the Night whence 't is most frequent in temperate Seasons that of a Frost is Vehement Cold whereby being first condens'd it falls down in form of Crystal Yet Cold alone suffices not to produce Frost for then Water which is cold in an eminent degree should be alwayes frozen But some terrene and gross parts must serve for an uniting medium to compact the moist parts of the Water or Vapour which being naturally fluid cannot be link'd together but by means of some dry parts fixing and restraining their fluidity Hence the impurest and most compounded Liquors are soonest frozen
be produced by simple cold and aqueous humidity for then Water should do it sooner than Wine whose very smell in Presses and Cellars causes sleep and oftentimes inebriates but by a fat and oleaginous humidity such as is found in all Hypnoticks some whereof are hot as Anise and Opium others Cold as Lettice Poppy and Henbane The Fourth said That the Brain being the Principal of Sense and Arbitrary Motion which it derives into all the parts both the one and the other are offended by the maladies of that part some whereof are without others are necessarily accompanyed with a Fever which is either Acute or Gentle according to the diversity of the humor producing it the former commonly proceeding from Choler or Blood the latter from Phlegm or Melancholy Amongst these Diseases those which invade suddenly as the Apoplexy and Convulsions are caused by the obstruction of the Ventricles Constriction or Division of the Nerves which hinders the Flux of the Animal Spirits but those which arruire in some space of time as the Coma Lethargy and Carus proceed either from a simple intempeires ordinarily Cold and Moist or else joyn'd with some Matter which is oftentimes a Cold Phlegm whereof the Brain is fruitful Which coming to be inflamed by reason of its putrefaction caused by defect of Transpiration and the Heat of the Brain which though Cold by its first Temper is yet hot inasmuch as animated and more burning than the Air of Sommer that Extraneous Heat begets a Fever which yet is but little violent and so hinders not the Natural Coldness of the humor from producing the sleep and sluggishness apparent in the Lethargy which nevertheless by is Hippocrates plac'd amongst Acute Diseases terminated on the seventh day which time if it exceeds the Patient recovers especially if the Matter happen to be discharged into the Brest and cause an Empyema there or in some others the Parotides The Fifth said That the Internal Maladies of the Head are of three forts Some attaque the Membranes and cause the Cephallagy Megrim and other pains of the Head being very dolorous by reason of the exquisite sensibility of those Membranes which are either prickt press'd or too much extended by vapors wind or humors for the most part acrimonious and serous Others are in the Cavities and Passages of the Animal Spirits whose Influence being stopt by some Matter that obstruct the Passages they cause the symptoms of the Lesion of Motion and Sense in the Vertigo Palsie Apoplexy Epilepsie Incubus Convulsions Trembling and Catarrhs or Defluxions to which Man alone of all Animals is subject by reason of the quantity of excrements where-with his larger and more elevated Brain abounds The third sort which possess the whole substance of the Brain and either onely deprave the functions of the three Prime Faculties Reason Imagination and Memory are the simple Delirium the Frenzy Melancholy Madness and Lycanthropy or else wholly abolish them as in Folly Stupidity Forgetfulness the Catoche Carus and Lethargy which is caus'd not onely by a Cold Aqueous Phlegm where-with the Brain is soak'd but also by such as is render'd viscous thick and tough by the substance of the strange and some extraneous heat which causeth the Putrefaction and Fever CONFERENCE CXLI Whether it be better to marry or not to marry IF Nature made the Crystalline humor of the Eye without colour the Tongue without savour the Ear without sound to the end they might impartially judge of all Objects offer'd to those Senses I know not to whose judgement we must referr the Decision of this Question Virgins marry'd people and those that are not marry'd being equally interessed and consequently lyable to exception The first professing Hatred of Marriage The second unwilling to blame it for fear of affronting their pass'd Judgement And the Third being unfit to judge thereof for want of Experience If we will credit Cato who had try'd it and who being one day sollicited by his Friends to second Nuptials told them He had once been deliver'd from Shipwrack and therefore car'd not for venturing to Sea again those that never embarque in Marriage will gain the Cause it being the highest point of Humane Prudence to be wise at the expense of others whose example makes them justly fear the inconvenienes of a Contract so disadvantageous to the freedom of Man as that of Marriage is wherein there is this peculiarity that in all other Contracts ever one party is a gainer but here both are oftentimes cheated almost alwayes discontented with the bargain and willing to retract if they had liberty which hath been retrencht eversince the Law of Divorce was abrogated by that of Grace for the greater mortifying of Men and teaching them to suffer and sigh in satisfaction for their sins under the heavy yoke of Marriage Besides that the Friendship so much boasted therein is so rare as to be almost imposble partly because the Will is never carry'd to love an Object but by its full Liberty and loves less upon never so little constraint and partly because Converse shews the Marry'd Couple one another's defects which being alwayes more then their Virtues 't is no wonder if Hatred arise thereupon more frequently than Amity whatever artifice be us'd to make shew of the contrary The Second said He must be a Misanthropus and have wholly renounc'd all Humane Sentiments that can blame Marriage the most honourable and ancient Society of the World founded not onely upon the Divine Law which makes it a Sacrament and a very great Mystery and upon that of Nations by whose universal Consent it hath been honor'd with great Priviledges and Immunities as on the contrary Celibacy hath been publickly discountenanc'd and punish'd but also upon that of Nature who hath inspir'd into all Animals a desire of joyning and coupling together for Generation of their like which desire is greater in Men inasmuch as he aspires to Immortality no otherwise attainable in this World but by Marriage which revives him in his Children And the pleasure of them too is so great that he must first be a Father that would conceive what it is nor is the yoke of Marriage insupportable except to such as desire to live dissolutely The Amity arising thereupon if founded upon Virtue and Honor not upon Beauty or such other profitable or delightful Good differs as much from Love as the continual temperate heat of the Blood and Spirits doth from its ebullition and distemper being alwayes augmented by mutual Offices of either party rendred with a frankness and confidence not found in any other condition whatsoever where there is nothing else but Dissimulation and Hypocrisie 'T is in Marriage alone that there is any treating with Liberty and Ingenuity and therefore that State is to be desir'd not onely by the miserable for Consolation of their Afflictions but also by those who are happy for communicating their Felicity which is tedious when it hath no partakers The Third said Our Life is
and Syrups impregnated with much Salt as appears by their dissolution and the bitterness they acquire over the Fire The Seventh said That the coldness of Vapors arising from waters giving more body and consistence to winds makes them strike a more sensible blow then when they are destitute thereof whence they are greater in Winter then in Summer and in the Morning then at Noon Thus the same quantity of water will cause more alteration in the body being drunk cold then warm because the impression of the latter is much less upon our bodies And the Providence of the Author of Winds is remarkable too in that they are mischievous at Land but useful at Sea hurtful things being by a secret of his power as much diminish'd as profitable are augmented The Eighth said That not only Wind-mills but also the Wind-wagons invented lately in Holland shew that wind well manag'd is no less profitable at Land then at Sea Therefore I should refer the cause to the porosities overtures and caverns of the Earth into which the wind entring is by that means less at Land whereas the surface of the Sea giving it no such admission 't is left to its freer course upon the same whence when those pores of the Earth are shut up by frost the wind becomes more impetuous then it is in Summer when they are open CONFERENCE CLIX. Whether it be easier to procure obedience by Gentleness then by Terrour THe most plausible vertues are not always the noblest as they depend upon external things which encrease or diminish their value so oftentimes they yield to those obscure and private vertues whose beauty being only internal without borrowing any recommendation from abroad they are therefore the more to be esteem'd Gentleness or Mansuetude is of this nature though it make not so great a noise as Fortitude which is irresistible by the terror it impresses upon the opposers of its designs yet oft-times it accomplishes its enterprises with the more facility in that it makes not use of any extraneous help but only of what this vertue it self affords which insinuating sweetly into their minds whom it would lead by the consideration of their own good more easily procures obedience then fear doth which indeed may constrain them to do what they would not voluntarily assent to but is a violent motion and so harder to be impress'd then that which is voluntary For when once the reason is perswaded of the justice of the things enjoyned there is no more obstacle in the Will which then resigns it self to be lead by that light of the Understanding much less in the inferior Powers which move only by the orders of those upon which they totally depend The Second said Did men leave themselves to the guidance of Reason more then of their Passions it would be easier to procure obedience by Gentleness then by Terror which then would be useless seeing 't is not necessary to oblige such men by denunciation of penalties to their duty who addict themselves to it voluntarily upon the knowledg they have of right Reason But since very few follow this Rule in comparison of those that have none but that of their disorderly Appetites therefore severity is more expedient then mildness for reducing them at any rate whatever to their duty For their obedience though constrain'd is nevertheless exemplary and draws others to do the like and so maintains that mutual correspondence which gives subsistence not only to States but also to all other civil Societies and which consists chiefly in a certain dependance between the parties destinated to obey and to command So that as the latter ought to study to maintain the Authority and Superiority which they have whether by Nature as Fathers over their Children or by Love as Kings and Magistrates over their Subjects and Masters over their Domesticks so when those under them fail of what they are oblig'd to render to them there is no surer nor easier way to bring them to it then Terror which proposing a sensible penalty to them in case of miscarriage is incomparably more powerful to make them obey then sweetness which indeed hath some charms to win more rational spirits but being accompany'ed with softness and indulgence becomes at length odious and contemptible by the disorder and confusion which follow impunity of crimes Moreover 't is certain that as States are maintain'd by the exact observance of Laws so their destruction ordinarily happens only by the relaxation which Superiors suffer of the punishments due to such as transgress them The Third said That the Poets who feign men formerly dispers'd in divers parts of the Earth without Religion Laws or Discipline to have been gather'd together by the melodious consort of musical Instruments with which Orpheus as they relate attracted even Beasts and Rocks seem to conclude rather for Gentleness then Terror this latter causing those that use it to be hated as much as the former doth to be lov'd But setting aside fabulous authorities the most sedulous inquirers into the causes of the foundation of States attribute the same to the charms of their Eloquence of these men who being found fittest to insinuate to them the advantages of living in society reduc'd them thereunto by imposing Laws upon them the dispensing wherewith they reserv'd themselves as well as the conduct of those that voluntarily submitted to their Government which having taken its rise from Gentleness cannot better be preserv'd then by the same if the Philosophers Maxime be true That things are preserv'd by the same principles which serv'd to their establishment And so 't is easier to procure obedience by Gentleness then by Terror CONFERENCE CLX Whether Trading derogate from Gentility 'T Is the part of the slothful and such as live by the sweat of others to blame Industry 'T were tolerable indeed to reject out of the rank of liberal Arts such as have any thing of baseness or sordidness but to do the like by an Employment capable alone to enrich States furnish them with all necessaries and maintain them in Amity and good Intelligence with their Neighbours is too great a piece of Niceness the result whereof is that then the Gentry must either remain poor or else live by robberies and other unlawful courses For notwithstanding the precaution of most places in adjudging almost the whole estate to the eldest sons of Gentlemen which would not be necessary if they were left in a condition of getting as all other sorts of persons are yet the cadets of either Sex cannot have so small a portion but the succession which before was able to support the dignity of the name at length either comes to nothing or so small that the principal Heirs are forc'd either to dye of hunger or to sustain their lives by some exercise the choice whereof is not so freely left to them as to their Predecessors For the benefit alliances bring them is oftentimes not very considerable the Daughters being by the
Lastly the poverty intended to be avoided thereby is oftentimes met with instead of Riches and were it otherwise yet Poverty commonly serves for a spur to Virtue Hence ordinarily Cadets are more courageous then Elder Brothers and the poor Epaminondas and Phocion were the more Warlike but Crassus the Rich was overcome and slain by the Parthians CONFERENCE CLXI Why the French are so much incensed with the Lye TRue and Good being reciprocal hence to call a man Lyar is as much as to say that he is of no Value and because the paltery Fellow is unworthy of Honour whereof the French is more covetous then any other Nation as appears by the courage wherewith he runs upon hazard to the danger of his Life testifying thereby that he prises Life less then Honour to which most other Nations need to be incited by infinite Artifices hence it comes to pass that the French are more sensible of the Lye than they The second said That all Mankind make esteem of Piety towards God and Courage towards men the former having been a means us'd by the greatest Princes and Legislators to gain the minds of their people so powerful that some even with the apparence of it alone have produced strange effects witness the dotages of Mahomet in the East and many others elsewhere The other namely Courage being the vertue most rever'd amongst men and esteem'd by women who commonly favour the most valiant Now Lying is a Vice opposite to both these Vertues implying Impiety towards God and Cowardize towards men For he that lyes cannot be ignorant that God the Father of Truth knows and will sooner or later punish his Crime if he have power to do it as cannot be denied without manifest irreligion And since Truth comes of it self to the Tongues end unless it be detained Captive by Fear or some other servile consideration hence a Lye presupposes Cowardize and Fear of him before whom it is spoken So that it is no wonder if the reproach of these two crimes trouble us so much the French Nation being the most glorious of the World The third said That the Lye cannot but have something in it more hainous then the reproach of Coward and Impious since these are repayed only with the Lye but the Lye it self with blows probably because Lying is a servile Vice and the French are very jealous of preserving their Liberty But we must distinguish between lying and telling a Lye for in this latter case people are not readily offended as in the former Thus an Advocate pleading upon a Breviate the matter whereof is fictitious takes it not for an injury if the Adversaries Advocate is false but replies only that he will justifie it The Philosopher maintaining an erronious opinion which he believes good will not be angry at its being impugned of falshood But when one is surprised in a Lye which seems invented purposely to impose upon the Company the discoverer of the falshood seems to reproach him not only of knavery but also of sottishness in that he could not utter it dexterously enough to make it believ'd As therefore Theft was not punished but esteemed among the Lacedemonians when it was well concealed and received not chastisement except the Thief were taken in the fact so a Lye seems to offend only when it is discovered but if handsomly told instead of being blamed is authorized by Rhetorick and Poetry which are arts of handsomly feigning things that are not by Complements which are fair Disguisements by dissimulations common enough everywhere by stratagems of War Hence when we give the Lye to any one we add saving the respect of the Company intimating thereby that we intend not to reproach them of little judgment in letting pass so gross a falshood for a truth For I see not that the French are greater Lyars then other Nations unless you will bring under Lying their reservedness and modesty in not telling their designs to all the world The Fourth said That the French being the most civilized of the world have reason to take for the greatest affront the Vice which most destroyes civil Life and Conversation which being founded upon Communication whereof Speech is the Interpreter if there be no assurance in this then Humane Society is destroyed All other things are known for what they are by the species which they send to our senses as the species of a Dog and a Horse never fail to represent them to us such as they are our intentions and thoughts alone are committed to speech which if it ill represent them is no more to be esteem'd then a false Looking-glass which represents objects quite other then what they are or then a copy not at all resembling its original or lastly then a thing which is nothing less then what it is taken to be Hence a Lyar seeing himself dis-believed and every one upon their guard when he speaks or negotiates he hath reason to be sharply offended with him that gives him such a repute and because being accounted a Lyar he that accuses him would not believe his bare affirming the contrary therefore he gives him a box on the ear as the most suitable reply that can be made to the Lye which being the highest affront the blow is the first revenge of it which the uncover'd parts of the body namely the hand and face present to the offended person which blow is esteem'd the greater out-rage in that it testifies the highest contempt of the receiver and is onely meant to provoke him to resentment Therefore a thrust with a Sword at an enemy purposely to deliver ones self from the fear of him by killing him is accounted much less injurious then an affront done purposely for the affronts sake But besides the foregoing reasons custome which oftentimes hath none in France authorizes the greatness of the injury of the Lye The Fifth said That the refiners of Honor are like those that sharpen the points of Needles so much till they break The French instead of interessing their Honour as most other Nations do onely in things of importance and of fairly maintaining that they speak true when they are told that they Lye are as much incens'd upon the sole pronunciation of these words as if they were so many magical terms forcing the hand to give a blow or draw the sword and which is strange 't is not enquir'd whether the thing be true or false the Lye being judg'd alike offensive in both yea ordinarily they are the greatest Lyars that are most offended with the Lye the reason whereof may be That the reproach of true Vices offends us more then that of false and suppositious and those of the minde more then those of the body as being more reprehensible in us in that 't is our own fault that they are not amended for a reproach made to one for a Vice he cannot remedy serves more to shew the malice of the Reproacher than the fault of him that is blam'd
and divorce of them asunder Diseases of bare Intemperature which is either simple or with matter the Imagination may produce by moving the Spirits and Humors which it hath power to do For the Spirits being aerious and naturally very hot when they are sent by a strong Imagination into some part they may so heat it as by the excess of their heat to destroy the temper of such part as Anger sometimes heats the Body into a Fever And as the too great concourse of these Spirits makes hot intemperatures so their absence from other parts causes cold Diseases as crudities and indigestions familiar to such as addict themselves to Study and Meditation after Meat the Spirits which should serve for Concoction being carry'd from the Stomack to the Brain In like manner the Imagination having dominion over the Humors which it moves by mediation of the Spirits as Joy Shame and Anger bring blood and heat into the Face and outward parts and Fear and Sadness give them a contrary motion it appears that it hath power to produce Maladies of Intemperies with matter by the fluxion or congestion of the Humors into some part and out of their natural seat But if the Phansie can disorder the work of Conformation in another body then it s own as that of an Infant whose marks and defects wherewith he is born are effects of his Mothers Phansie much more may it cause the same disorder in its own Body whereunto it is more nearly conjoyn'd Wherefore since it can destroy the temper of the Similar parts and the harmony of the Organs it may also cause Diseases and by the same means cure them too for if contraries be cur'd by their contraries then it may cure a cold distemper by producing a hot one and if it hath power to cause by motion of the humors an obstruction in some part it may by the same means return them to their natural place and cure such obstruction 'T was to the Phansie that the cure of those Splenetick persons is to be attributed who were cur'd by the touch of the great Toe of Pyrrhus's left Foot and we see many Cures wrought by Amulets Periapts and other like Remedies which having no vertue in themselves to produce such an effect the same must be referr'd to some other cause Now none hath more empire then the Imagination over the Spirits and other Humours wherein almost all Diseases consist The Second said That the Imagination being a simple Cognoscitive Power cannot of it self produce the effects that are ascrib'd to it For all Cognition is Passion and to know is to suffer and receive the Species of the thing that is to be known whose impression made upon the Organs of Sense is by them carry'd to the Imagination which judges thereof upon their report Moreover there is this notable difference between the Sensitive or Cognoscitive Powers and the Vegetative or Motive which are destitute of all Cognition that the latter are active out of themselves and operate upon the Members which the Motive Faculty moves with full power and upon the aliments which the Vegetative Faculties as the Nutritive and Auctive alter and turn into the nature of the parts But the Sensitive Faculties and all other Cogniscitive Powers have no real sensible action They are active indeed so far as they are powers issuing from very perfect Forms but their actions are immanent and produce nothing beyond themselves and consequently can have no influence abroad So that the Imagination cannot immediately and of its own nature produce either a Disease or Health in the Body but only by means of the Motive Power or Sensitive Appetite the Passions whereof are acknowledg'd by Physitians to be the external causes of Diseases If the Phansie could produce any thing it should be by help of the Species it is impregnated withall which being extracted from things some think that they eminently contain the vertues of the objects from whence they issue and whereof they are Pictures and that hence it is that the Teeth are set on edge upon the hearing of grating sounds that the sight of a Potion purges many and that of salt things makes the Stomack rise in others and that the thought of the Plague oftentimes propagates it more then the corruption of the Air. Nevertheless these effects proceed only from the various motion of Heat and the Spirits caus'd by the Appetite and the Motive Power which are distinct from the Imagination For if the Species had the same power with the objects from which they issue they would not be perfective but destructive of their Organs the Species of Heat would burn the Brain that of Cold would cool it both would destroy it which is contrary to experience For though Heat and Cold are contraries in Nature yet they are not so in the Understanding but rather friendly the one contributing to the knowledg of the other and the end of Intentional Species is not to alter but onely to represent the objects whereof they are copies The Third said That Aristotle hath built his Physiognomy upon the great connection and sympathy of the Soul with the Body which is such that the one causeth considerable changes in the other To which purpose the Soul employes no other more effectual instrument then the Imagination Which power of the Soul upon the Body is evinc'd by the mighty effects of the Passions especially of Fear Love and Anger Fear having kill'd many as particularly St. Valier before the stroke of the Executioner On which account it is also that Mirth is commended for one of the best preservatives from the Plague And we see that Fear and Sadness are no less the causes then the infallible signs of the Disease call'd Melancholy The same is further verified by the strange Histories of those who being become sick by Fancy could not be cur'd but by curing the Fancy first the Remedy being to be of the same kinde with the Disease Thus he who fancy'd he had no head could not be restor'd to his right sense till the Physician clapping a leaden Cap upon him left him to complain a while of the Head-ache And another who having study'd Physick a little and took up a conceit that he had a prodigious excrescence in his Intestinum Rectum could not be cur'd till the Chirurgeon had made semblance of cauterizing it Another Gentleman who durst not piss for fear of causing an universal Deluge was cur'd of his conceit by the Countrey peoples crying out Fire and desiring him to quench it In like manner another believing himself dead would not eat and had dy'd in good earnest had not his Nephew who was reported dead come into his Chamber in a winding Sheet and fallen to eat before his Uncle who thereupon did the like And to go no further the tying of the Codpiece-point is accounted an effect of the Fancy and is cur'd by curing the Fancy alone So likewise a Lord of Quality falling sick accidentally in a
whom he ravish'd with his Voice and Harp which was first instituted to honour the Gods The Indians perform'd their Worship by Dancing to Songs Cybele's Priests with Cymbals the Curetes with Drums and Trumpets the Romans sung Spondaick Verses whilst they offer'd their Sacrifices and David danc'd before the Ark all his Psalms being fitted to the Harp and other harmonious Instruments of that time And in this see what power Organs have to enflame the zeal of the devout and how melodious voices are with it so that the chief difference of Divine Service is in the Singing And as for publick or private Feasts and Ceremonies nothing renders them more compleat then Musick whence the Verse Convivii citharam quam Dii fecêre sodalem 'T was the custom to present a Lute to the Guests and to him that could not play a branch of Bayes which oblig'd him to a Song But above all the use of Musick is effectual in War whence the Spartans march'd to the sound of Flutes in a kinde of Dance to the end that by the motion of their Souldiers they might discern the valiant from the poltrons The Pythagoreans themselves were lull'd asleep with the Harp to appease the troubles of their minde In short Musick accompanies us to the Graves where people sing Elegies for the deceased Thus the Phoenicians added Flutes to their mournings and the Romans had their Siticines who sung at their Funerals For Musick excites both sadness and mirth And just as Physick either quiets or purges the humors of our bodies so doth Musick the Passions of the minde Plato conceiving that it was given to man not only to tickle his ears but also to maintain the Harmony of the Soul with the Body and to awake our sleeping vertues Thus of divers modes the Dorick makes prudent and chaste the Phrygian excites to War and Religion the Lydian abates pride and turns it into lamentations the Ionick excites to honest pleasures and recreations Hence Aegysthus could never corrupt the chastity of Clytemnestra Agamemnons Wife till he us'd the help of the Poet and Musician Demodocus and the Emperour Theodosius being ready to destroy the City of Antioch was diverted and wrought to mercy by the melodious Sonnets of little Children instructed thereunto by Flavianus their Bishop Yea the Prophet Elisha recommended this Art when he commanded a Harp to be played on before him and then Prophesi'd to Joram the overthrow of the Moabites And Michaia did the like in the presence of Ahab King of Samaria refusing to prophesie till one had played before him upon a Musical Instrument The relation of Saxo Grammaticus in the 12th Book of his Danish History concerning Henry the 2d King of Denmark who being told of the excellent Musick of the Violin desir'd to see the effects of it which were such that at first it put him into a deep melancholly and afterwards chearing him up again rais'd his spirit to such a degree of rage that he slew four of his Guard and at last it return'd him to his first temper serving onely to shew the excellence of Musick when it is rightly us'd The Second said That Musick effeminates mens courage whilst it sweetens like that of Wine taken to excess intoxicates them and transports them out of themselves which hurtful effect gave just cause to the fable of the Syrenes who allur'd Pilots by their melodious voices to split against the Rocks But above all it excites to filthy pleasures and blindes the eyes of the Understanding as Mercury did those of Argus And its great delectation through the dissipation of the Animal spirits which the sweetness of the sound attracts by the ear leaves us less refresht then wearied and incapable of setting about any serious matter It s easing the Sciatica as 't is reported is common to it with every thing that causes great attention whereby the spirits and with them the humors being suspended the fluxion must consequently cease and the Rabbins attribute the driving away Saul's evil spirit not to the Harmony alone of Davids Harp but to the vertue of the Characters of the Divine Name written upon it What did the Sybarites get by training their Horses to the Pipe but this that the Crotonians causing Minstrels to play at the joyning of a Battel render'd their Horses useless to the Fight because they did nothing but Dance Moreover Orpheus one of the most ancient Musicians was torn to pieces by women because he debauch'd their Husbands Whence also Antisthenes said that Ismenias was either a Fool or a bad Citizen because he could play so well upon the Flute and Philip was angry with Alexander for singing too well and Antigonns his Governour broke his Harp Therefore the Egyptians banish'd Musicians as corrupters of Youth and the Lacedemonians were so afraid lest they should grow into credit amongst them that they expelled Timotheus out of their City for adding a string to his Lute Aristotle also places this Art amongst the Ludicrous and blames Painters for representing the gods singing and playing upon Instruments whose goodliest effect is to break silence and waste time leaving no permanent action after it more then the play of Cards Dice and Tennis doth which last is much more profitable for health and is accounted as honourable to be perfectly skill'd in by persons of quality as 't is shameful to be an excellent Musician In fine we read not that our Lord ever Sung nor yet Adam in the state of Original Righteousness but one Jubal the first Bigamer and second Murderer of the world is said to have been the inventer of it CONFERENCE CLXXVII Whether Barrenness is most commonly tht fault of Husbands or of Wives AS Fruitfulness is a power whereby every living thing is able to produce its like so Barrenness is an impotence in it to re-produce is self by the way of Generation by means whereof mortal individuals acquire immortality in their Species to which purpose nature hath furnish'd every one with necessary Organs The generation of perfect Animals requires three things diversity of Sex matter or seed which flows from both Male and Female and contains in it self the Idea and Character of the parts from which it issues and lastly conjunction of both together without which nothing is produc'd And though the defect of Generation may be sometimes on the mans part as well as on the womans yet she is more subject to sterility which is an impotence proper to a woman who after the knowledge of a man in an age and time convenient cannot conceive For those that conceive not after the 50th year or before the 12th are not term'd barren Conceptions beyond the former or before the latter term being supernatural or extraordinary as those of the Manandri and Calingi and that of one mention'd by Savonarola whom he saw big with Childe at nine years of Age as also the miraculous conception of Elizabeth after she was seventy years old The cause of Barrenness is ascrib'd by
prohibition of God in holy Scripture which calls it having a heart and a heart so that no person of sound judgment can think such demeanor consistent with true Courage The Second said That there is as much difference between Rusticity and Complaisance or Civility as between a Beast and a Man the former leaving us to the guidance of our Appetites and Senses and to say and do whatever they dictate to us the latter over-ruling them by that power of Reason which after the contest remains victorious over the body and sensuality A cholerick man suffering himself to be transported by his Passion utters whatever the violence thereof suggests to him whereas one of a more sedate temper masters his anger although he have as good reason for it and by this prudent action he reduces his friend stray'd out of the rode of reason as he that instead of retorting the ill language his friend gave him ask'd him what the Diamond upon his finger cost him Which put the other into such confusion that having answer'd the question he ran to embrace him and ask'd his pardon Whereby it appears how much more courage is requisite to surmount ones self thus which is an effect of Complaisance then to obey the swing of choler as vulgar people do For Complaisance forces our nature and constrains us to speak and do things contrary to our first inclinations and consequently is of more difficulty then 't is to obey them Plutarch relates how one Telerus answer'd his brother who ask'd him how it came pass that he was less belov'd then himself who had been made one of the Lacedemonian Ephori whereas he was treated with great contempt The reason is said he because you are not complaisant and cannot bear any injury As therefore it requires greater courage to bear then to revenge an injury as 't is observ'd in the life of Socrates who hindred his Scholars from revenging an affront which was done to him so 't is more difficult to be complaisant then rude And as the same Author saith Complaisance consisteth in speaking pleasing things and in doing good offices both which require a good resolute Spirit for our Gallants falsely account it courage to run into the Field upon the least slip of an ambiguous word Which perverse phantastry hath cost many a brave mans life who for want of not having attain'd to that high point of Magnanimity which teaches us not to place the point of Honor in every triflle but only where it ought to be have really lost the life both of body and soul for an imaginary folly which carry'd them away with the torrent of the popular errour of this Age. The Third said That we may as well place Continence in infamous places as reckon Complaisance an effect of Courage the respect being alike of both For all the actions of a complaisant person are so many marks not only of respect but also of a servile fear such as was that of Alexander's Courtiers who held their necks awry and hung down their heads in imitation of their Master who was forc'd to do so by reason of a wound and those of Dionysius who stumbled at every step because this Tyrant was pur-blind So when some person begins a tedious old story I pray who shews most courage he that tells the relator 't is an old one or he that suffers himself to be tir'd with it Besides that there is nothing more dangerous then this Complaisance Certainly a Confessor that is complaisant to his Penitents and a Preacher that is so to his Auditory will damn both and so also a General that yields to every advice and resists not such as deserve it will infallibly ruine his Army A Physitian of this temper that to comply with his Patient neither bleeds nor purges him because of his unwillingness thereunto will be the cause of his death as the Apothecary diminishes the vertue of the Medicine whilst he strives to make it agreeable to the taste and a pitiful Surgeon makes the sore A Lawyer that uses the same course with his Client thrusts him into many needless and unhappy Sutes In brief there is nothing so dangerous nor which argues more weakness then Complaisance which like too sweet Sauces makes us nauseate it and leaves us as far to seek for Counsel as before Whereas plain and vigorous Counsel oftentimes saves the State from shipwreck The Fourth said If you consider all the kinds of Complaisance they have need of constraint which employs more force and courage then is requisite for following ones inclination Thus he that is more thirsty then his neighbour and yet tenders the first glass to him does this violence to himself out of complaisance which likewise obliges him to put his hand last to the dish though his Stomack be never so sharp if he meet with an occasion of anger he only smiles to himself and with dissimulation gives the upper hand to his inferior On the contrary a rough-hewn person had rather go to the Gallies then commend Verses which to him seem not good and as Plato said to Diogenes eat nothing ever but Coleworts than comply with the Ceremonies and Modes of great persons Thus he that spares his disarmed enemy shows greater courage then if leaving himself to be guided of his hatred he should slay him which yet is no more then a testimony of his having overcome him whereas in sparing him he overcomes himself which is the greatest victory a man can obtain To conclude Praise is the reward of Vertue and because it follows complaisence as scorn and contempt doth rustick opinionastry this is an evident sign that the latter is less vertuous because less commendable then the other CONFERENCE CLXXIX Touching the means of re-establing Commerce MAn being born sociable and society not possible without Commerce the same seemeth one of the main Concernments of mankind who are generally troubled when the same is either interrupted by War with strangers or extinguish'd by the negligence of Natives whereby it appears to be of two sorts in general viz. between those of one State and with Strangers Now this difference is so essential that each of them hath its contrary Maxims Forreign Trade is exercis'd commonly by the truck or exchange of one Merchandize for another the transportation of Gold and Silver being prohibited by the Laws of the State as also some Merchandizes call'd Contre-band are or in case the Forreign Merchants like not the permutation of commodities they make their payment by Letters of Exchange which was come to be taken up upon the prohibition of transporting money On the contrary Natives of the same Country commonly make all their Bargains for money either ready or upon Credit till a set time And as the Prince endeavours to promote and facilitate Trade amongst his Subjects for their accommodation so he ought to be circumspect to hinder Strangers from carrying away the Materials and especially unwrought Commodities about which his own Subjects should
as often of apprehension as they thought of that sad fate Which fear ended with the Swine's meat and the Ship 's arrival at a safe Port where it appear'd that that vile Animal had felt none of that trouble which the Tempest had caus'd in the more unhappy men and consequently that their Imagination was the sole cause of it The like may be said of all other afflictions which men give themselves call'd therefore deservedly by the Wise-man Vanity and vexations of spirit For most of the inductions and consequences which the Mind draws from events prove false and nevertheless they give us real sorrows we see frequently that a great Estate left by a Father to his Children makes them debauch'd and worthless and degenerate from the vertue of their Parent who having receiv'd no inheritance from his own was constrain'd to labour and by that means attain'd Riches and Honour Whence it appears that the trouble of a Father leaving a small Estate to his Children at his death hath no foundation in the thing but only in his abus'd Imagination and consequently cannot be a real Evil and yet this is the most general Evil of all with the Vulgar Thus two men lodging under the same roof lost both their Wives not long ago one of them was so afflicted therewith that he dy'd of sorrow the other receiving the consolatory visits of his friends could not so well dissemble his joy but that it was perceiv'd and yet their loss was equal So that the sadness of the one and the joy of the other depended only upon the different reflection they made upon this accident Thus also the same affront that made one of Socrates's Disciples draw his sword made the Philosopher himself laugh at the sottishness of his enemy and every thing which the Vulgar calls Good or Evil Pain excepted is a Medal which hath its right side and its reverse CONFERENCE CLXXXII Whether Man be the most diseas'd of all Creatures and why A Disease being a preternatural disposition hurting the Functions every living Body capable of action may become sick by some cause impeding its actions Hence not only Men but also Animals and even Plants have their Diseases which Theophrastus diligently describes Amongst Beasts though some are subject to particular Diseases as the Dog to Madness the Swine to Leprosie the Goat and Lyon to Fevers yet there is none so invaded with all sorts of Maladies as Man who is not exempt from any the least of his similary parts that is nourish'd being subject to twelve sorts of Diseases namely when they attract their aliment either not at all or but weakly or otherwise then they should or when they are defective either in retaining or concocting it or in voiding superfluities But if such part have sense too it may have fifteen if motion also eighteen And if it not only be nourish'd it self but labours also for the publick 't is lyable to twelve more according to the three ways that its Functions may be offended in attraction retention concoction and expulsion The Eye alone is subject to almost 200 infirmities and as if there were not ancient Diseases enough we see daily new ones unknown to former Ages Now the reason hereof lyes in the nature of Man who being the most perfectly temper'd and best compounded of all Animals because design'd to the greatest actions is therefore apt upon the least occasion to lose that evenness of proportion which as it requires a great train and concurrence of many things so also there needs but a little thing to subvert it by defect of the least of those requisites Indeed there are but two causes of Diseases to wit Internal and External and man is alike subject to both to the former by reason of his hot and moist temper which is prone to putrefaction and the more upon account of his variety of Food whereas other Animals never change their Diet which is the most probable cause of their health and good constitution For diversity of aliments incommodes Nature weakens the natural heat produces Crudities the Sources of most Diseases which also are frequently caus'd in Men by the internal Passions of Anger Fear and Joy The most ordinary external causes are the evil qualities of the Air pestilential vapours and malignant influences whereof Man's body is the more susceptible by reason of the tenderness of his Flesh and the porosity of his skin which on the contrary in other Animals is hard and cover'd with Hair Feathers and Scales and renders them less subject to the impressions of external bodies as also to Wounds Contusions Fractures and other solutions of continuity The Second said That such perfections or defects of things as we know most exactly seem to us the greatest as the excellences and defects of Pictures are not well observ'd but by those that are skill'd therein and he that is unacquainted with some certain Nation cannot know its Vices so as they that converse with it do Now Beasts being unable to signifie to us the differences of their pains and the other circumstances of their diseases hence we judge them to have fewer although the contrary appears in the Horse in whom observant Farriers remark a great number of Diseases to which we are not subject So that other Animals may have as many or more than Men who being less concern'd therein less understand them 'T is true the parts of Animals resemble ours saving what serve to distinguish their outward shape as appears by the Dissection of Apes whereby Galen learnt Anatomy and no difference is found between the Ventricles of a Man's and a Calfe's brain If their blood and other humors differ so do those of one Man from those of another Moreover Beasts have the same inward Causes Fear Anger and the other Passions in short all the other Non-natural things and not at their discretion as Man hath If a Dog hath the harder skin yet man is less lyable to blows and the injury of the Air. In fine who knows but it may be with these Animals as 't is with rusticks who though Men as well as we and subject to the same inconveniences yet all their Diseases are reduc'd to a few Heads since the true and spurious Pleurisie the Asthma the Cough the Palsie and other Maladies whereof we make so many branches are all reckon'd by them only for a hot or a cold Rheume The Third said The nearer Nature promotes Bodies to their utmost perfection the more frail she renders them And as in Mixts Glass which is her utmost atchievement is weaker and brittler than Stones so in Animals Man the most excellent and perfect is the most frail and weak by reason of the part wherein he abounds more than they and which advances him to wit the Brain the root of most Diseases And as the most noxious Meteors are form'd in the coldest Region of the Air so those that have a moist Brain are soft and less vigorous as Women and
such unnatural Mixture make any productions the same is prodigious and amongst Animals is call'd a Monster But being an Error of Nature she returns to her old way as soon as she can and rather ceases to generate than produces second Monsters of those first And this in Mules rather than other Species because the Equine and Asinine Natures are no less contrary than Fire and Water So that if they happen to be conjoyn'd and make one Compositum the Generative Virtues then existent in their seeds make an Animal indeed but in producing the same they extinguish one another as Fire doth Water and so what is generated of them hath no power of Generation The Fifth said That this Sterility being suppos'd although Aristotle relates that in Syria-Mules commonly generate and Theophrastus Varro and others affirm the like of those in Cappadocia and Africa Democritus in Aelian attributes the cause thereof to the ill conformation of their genitals particularly of the womb which is unapt to retain and quicken the seed because through the excessive heat deriv'd from the Horse the passages serving to those parts in either sex are too much dilated besides that the same are very laxe in the Shee-Ass whence Naturalists and Experience tells us that she conceives not unless after covering she be well cudgel'd that so the pain thereof may make her constringe her womb and retain the seed which otherwise would slide out again Now this over great dilatation of the genitals appears by dissection and 't is found by Experience that the Beasts themselves are unwilling to such an unnatural copulation so that in some Countries people are fain to feed Asses with Mare 's milk and cover the Mares sometimes with Cloaths of the colour of an Ass to beguile them into the same Add hereunto that both the Species of which Mules are generated are very subject to Sterility For the Ass is of a cold temper and particularly its seed is so cold that unless it begins to generate at the first casting of its Teeth it remains barren for ever Yea if an Ass couple with a pregnant Mare the coldness of his seed makes her cast her Foal The Horse likewise by Arâ—stotle's report is very little fruitful whence his seed being further refrigerated by that of the Ass they produce an Animal indeed but altogether improlifick CONFERENCE CXCIX Of the Mandrake SInce of the three Conditions of Curing to wit pleasantly speedily and safely this latter pertains chiefly to Plants it were good that a little more curious search were made into the treasures hid in the Plantal Family of Remedies whereof Nature hath provided above three thousand several Species which are many more than are in those of Animals and Minerals And as Nature hath instead of the Instinct bestow'd on other Animals to guide them to their good given Man Reason whereby he may proceed from things known to things unknown so besides the manifest and occult qualities of Plants from whence their uses may be inferr'd she hath markt those which are most useful to us with certain Signs and Characters Amongst these Mandrake is the most famous representing not the Eye as Eye-bright doth nor the Lungs as Lungwort nor the Liver as Liverwort nor the Rupture as Solomon's Seal nor the Hemorrhoids or Orpment nor an Ulcer as spotted as spotted Arsmart but the Figure of an entire Man And as the eminent Virtues of Ancient Heroes being too great to be comprehended by the Wits of these Ages gave occasion to fabulous Romances so the Wits of Botanists that have been capable to write the Virtues of other Simples have not been sufficient to speak of these of Mandrakes leaving the vulgar the liberty to attribute Supernatural Virtues to them Which made some Rabbins say that the Teraphins of Jacob's Father-in-law were the roots of Mandrake which render'd him Answers and for the loss of which he fell into such Passion and Pliny ascribes to the Mandrake the name of Osiris which was that of an Aegyptian Idol Our Histories report that in the year 1420. a certain Cordelier nam'd Frier Richard was so perswasive in his Sermâ—ns that in two dayes the Parisians publickly burnt all the instruments of voluptuousness and debauchery and particularly the Women their Images and Mandrakes which they kept wrapt up in their attires upon a belief that as long as they had Mandrakes they should never fail to become rich which Mandrakes gave them Answers by shaking the head or else by speech And there are not only true but also counterfeit ones such as were made by an Italian Mountebank as Matthiolus relates who carv'd the root of Pyony or of a great Reed in the shape of a Man and sticking Millet or Flax seed in the places where hair should grow bury'd the same for twenty dayes at the end whereof fine small threads appear'd in those places and a skin over all the rest which represented and pass'd for a true Mandrake Belleforest also relates that the Maid of Orleans was calumniated for having acquir'd the valour she testifi'd against the English by the Magical Virtue of a Mandrake And Henry Bouquet a modern Author affirms that Thieves steal the Goods out of Houses and Children from their Mothers Breasts by help of it those that behold them being unable to defend themselves because this Plant stupifies their Hands So likewise Levinus Lemnius tell us that 't is employ'd with great effect in Philtres and Amorous Potions Upon which account Natalis Comes thinks it was an ingredient in that which Circe gave Scylla whereby she became so desperately in Love with Glaucus that being unable to enjoy him she cast her self headlong into the streight of Messina Some think 't is the same Plant that Josephus lib. 7. cap. 25. de bello Judaico calls Baaras from the valley wherein it grows which he saith shines in the night like fire and is pluckt up by a hungry Dog ty'd to the top of the root after the same hath been softned with the Urine of a Woman because upon its plucking up 't is said to send forth a shreek which is mortal to the hearer and so the Dog dyes after his work is done Others conceive that this root cannot be found except a little before the rising of the Pleiades which is about the beginning of September Which is no more incredible than that the seed of Fearn springs but at a certain prefixt time before and after which it appears not 'T is likewise thought particular to Upper Hungary and to be pluckt up only by certain Sorceresses and that in the night whence also they sell the same secretly for fear of being punish'd by Justice as it happen'd Anno 1630. at Hamburg where the Senate caus'd three Women who exercis'd this trade to be whipt Moreover they hold that this Plant call'd Mandrake from a German word which signifies to bear the figure of a Man for Man hath the same sense in that Language as in ours and Dragen is
Rhinoceros But these Authorities are not considerable in respect of that of the H. Scripture wherein 't is said Deut. 28. His horns shall be like that of the Vnicorn and Psal 22. Deliver me O God from the Lion's mouth thou hast heard me also from among the horns of the Vnicorns and Psal 29. He maketh Lebanon and Sirion to skip like a young Vnicorn and Psal 92. My horns shalt thou exalt like the horn of an Vnicorn and Isaiah 34. The Vnicorns shall come down with them and the bullocks with the bulls Job also speaks of it chap. 39. Add to these Authorities the experience and example of so many Kings and States who would not think their treasure well furnish'd unless they had an Unicorn's horn For the matter that makes teeth being transferr'd to the generation of horns and so further sublim'd 't is certain that all Horns have an Alexiterical Vertue by which they resist Feavers cure Fluxes of the belly kill Worms and serve for many other Remedies to Man but when this already great Vertue comes to be united into one single Chanel as it happens in the Unicorn the same is mightily augmented And 't is too much detraction from the power of Nature to deny such Vertue to be found in inanimate Bodies as in the Serpentine Tongues found in the Caves of Malta sealed Earths and Minerals such as those they call for that reason Vnicornu minerale not because taken from Unicorn's bury'd under ground ever since the time of the Deluge but because of their Resemblance in Vertues Properties and outward Figure and indeed there is so much of this Mineral Unicorn's horn and Mineral Ivory found that 't is not credible it ever belong'd to any Animal Nor is this truth prejudic'd by the tricks of Impostors who make counterfeit Unicorn's horns of Ivory or other horns or the bones of Elephants and other Animals kept for some time under ground whereby they acquire more solidity and some transparency by means of the salt of the Earth which insinuates thereinto as it doth to Porcellane which for that reason is bury'd a whole Age nor by the ebullition that some other natural and artificial bodies cause or by the sweating of some Stones upon the approach of poyson which proceeds from the poyson's inspissating the Air which thereupon sticks to the next solid body Nor is the colour material since process of time may alter it besides that the Ancients attribute blackness only to the horns of the Indian Ass and the Rhinoceros And as for the smell found in the Unicorn's horn in Suizzerland 't is an argument that the same is either adulterate or a Mineral one the texture of the horns being too close to evaporate any thing and those that have distill'd them by fires find that they abound with an inodorous Salt and a stinking Sulphur In short 't is not credible Clement VII Paul III. and divers others would have taken this Animal for their Arms if there were no such nor do Popes so much want understanding men that Julius III. would have bought a fragment of it for 12000. crowns whereof his Physitian made use successfully in the cure of Diseases that had any thing of venenosity Marsilius Ficinus Brassavola Matthiolus Aloisius Mundela and many other Physicians recommend it in such diseases especially in the Pestilence the Biting of a mad Dog Worms Falling-sickness and other such hideous Maladies To conclude I conceive that effects which depend upon occult Properties as this doth ought not to be rashly condemn'd being mindful that our knowledg is limited and therefore the Authorities Reasons and Experiences which establish the Unicorn's horn and its wonderful Effects are to be yielded to only with exception to Imposture CONFERENCE CCIV. Of Satyrs NOvelty and extraordinary things have such power upon our Minds that they not only render us attentive when they are present but remain longer imprinted in the Memory as those that teach the Art of Memory truly observe This oblig'd many Poets and Historians to speak of Hydra's Chimaera's Basilisks Satyrs Centaurs and other such Fictions For those that have most exactly examin'd the power of Nature find the mixture of these Species impossible not only on the part of the Matter which is to receive the Soul to which it is determin'd by a certain proportion but also in respect of the Form which is indivisible especially the Rational Soul To which purpose the Poet Lucretius speaks very learnedly and maintains that there can be no Centaurs and the reason he alledges holds as well against the possibility of Satyrs Because saith he if this mixture of the humane and equine Nature had place Horses being in their full strength at three years old at which time children scarce leave sucking the breasts of their Nurse how is it possible this monstrous Animal should be in its tender age and full growth both together And again a Horse growing when the Man enters into the prime of his youth how can the one dye when the other is in the state of its greatest vigour Now Goats live less time than Horses and so there is less probability for an Animal compounded of the Nature of a Goat and a Man Hence Pliny in the seventh book of his Natural History saith That a Hippocentaur being bred in Thessaly it dy'd the same day and was afterwards preserv'd in honey which is an excellent bawm Virgil places them at the entrance of Hell because things against Nature cannot subsist And S. Hierom in the life of S. Paul the Hermit relating how a Centaur appeard to S. Anthony doubts whether it were a true Centaur or the Devil under that shape and indeed seems to infer it an Evil Spirit because it was driven away by the sign of the Cross So that Satyrs are to be attributed only to the liberty Poets have ever taken as well as Painters of daring and attempting every thing without observing the Rule Horace prescribes them not to conjoyn Natures totally disagreeing and opposite for by these mixtures they intended only to represent very nimble lascivious rustick and perhaps abusive men whence came their Satyrick Poems The second said That 't is as dangerous to conclude all impossible that we have not seen as to be credulous to every thing But when Reason and the authority Experience carries with it are of a side our incredulity hath no excuse Now the case of Satyrs is such for they may be as well produc'd by the mixture of the Seeds of two Species as Mules are Besides were not the Imagination of Mothers capable of imprinting this as well as any other change of Figure in a Child's body whereof we have daily examples yet the wild suckling and course of life some Children may have had amongst Goats as Romulus and Remus had from a Wolf may in process of time have begot some resemblance of shape in them As for Lucretius's Reason we see that Plants are ingrafted into others not only of the same
because some stones have the figure of that part which also is the most lapidifick of the whole Body and others too as Rabbi Moses the Aegyptian in the Gall which opinion Monardes himself is of though he admits too that it is found in the Ventricle Intestines and other cavities of the Body As indeed there is no place in the Bodies of Animals but stones may be generated in them However 't is universally acknowledg'd so useful that the hunters are expresly commanded to carry them all to the King who buyes them at a great rate and they are not transported elsewhere but clandestinely Amatus Lusitanus saith that one of the richest Presents which Cochain King of the place sent in his time to the King of Portugal was one of these stones a little bigger than a Hazle-nut of which having observ'd the great effects he procur'd others to be brought from that Country These effects are the curing of Pestilential Fevers the Leprosie Small Pox Epilepsie Worms in Children bitings of venomous Beasts and generally against all Poyson particularly 't is very proper for faintings and other effects of Melancholy Whence 't is us'd in Quartan Agues to appease the Symptoms thereof and Charles V. took it often yea 't is observ'd in some Hospitals that the bare powder of this stone temper'd in water communicates its virtue thereunto so that it hath cur'd the Purples and other Epidemical Maladies The Second said That such as design'd to get themselves Reputation in Physick finding many Diseases unconquerable by common Remedies that they might not remain idle and suffer the defect of curing incurable and rebellious Maladies to be imputed either to their Art or their Ignorance have had recourse to the Foxe's skin proposing the use of Remedies so rare and hard to find that their Imposture might not be discover'd Hence some have so highly extoll'd precious Stones and Gold which not fifty years ago the poor were perswaded cur'd them by being boil'd in Restoratives though the rich who made use of the traud found their gold Chains as heavy afterwards as before in case they lookt well to them in the boiling and consequently that no Vertue was deriv'd from them Of this kind is the Bezoar-stone touching the Original whereof we see how Authors differ and a few moneths ago an Animal was shewn in this City very different from that above-describ'd which they term'd Pucos and affirmed to be that which bred the Bezoar Besides the difficulty of discerning the true Stone from false which probably are the most numerous must needs render the use of it suspicious since even in the time of Serap on it was sold falsifi'd which he saith was unprofitable but I think rather mischievous And Clusius complains That the Merchants of Lisbon would not suffer the usual trial to be made for distinguishing the true from the adulterate Neither do Authors agree about those trials some accounting it a sign of Goodness if the Stone hath nothing but a little dust in the Center whereas the falsifi'd say they have some Seed or other solid body there upon which the other Materials were superinduc'd others think the right hath always a straw in the middle Wherein we may observe that the several scales or folds it hath one over another like those of an Onion or the Stone of a man's Bladder which are made by new apposition of matter agree not with the above-mentioned manner of its being made all at once But in whatever manner and place it be produc'd I think it can act only by its manifest Qualities which alone are active the Effects of occult Qualities being as hidden as themselves Besides how could these Treasures and Presents of Kings to be so common at this day in all Shops if they had such great Vertues too as are attributed to them Wherefore 't is most likely that the Avarice of Men hath added this to other popular Errors The Third said That as no Sect is more easie than the Pyrrhonian or Sceptick which doubts of every thing so 't is a very obvious Invention for such as are willing to decline inquiring into that vast treasure of Remedies which are dispers'd from the Concave of the Moon to the Center of the Earth and into the trials which may be made by their almost infinite preparations and mixtures to reject all upon pretext of Incertainty in Philosophical accounts But though the shortest I doubt whether it be the best way since Experience shews us many Effects which depend not upon Qualities and they that decry the Bezoar because it acts not by manifest Qualities admit others which do as little viz. Elective Purgers Splenetical Hysterical and other appropriate Remedies though in some cases even of a contrary temper to the parts they are apply'd to Which error happens from our always making Qualities Causes whereas oftentimes they are Effects Besides 't is great pride to deny whatever we understand not since the most knowing agree that they see only through a cloud and the chief effect of Beatitude will be To be ignorant of nothing And why should the faculties of Antidotes depend more upon first Qualities than those of poysons do since they ought to be contraries and contraries are under the same Genus Wherefore it sufficeth to recur to Authority and Experiment Indeed Hippocrates and Galen knew not Bezoar yet neither do wee reject Sena which they knew not and which is one of the commonest and best Medicaments we have But all the Arabian Physicians concurr in this point and Serapion particularly affirms that this Stone is a potent Antidote against all poyson in the bitings of venemous Beasts and so efficacious that not only three or four grains of it held in the mouth enervate poysons but the powder apply'd to a venemous Animal stupefies it and takes away its power of hurting so that some parts already begun to corrupt by their biting have presently been restor'd to their first estate by its single application Avicenna in the fourth Chapter of his second Canon ranks it with Treacle amongst Alexipharmacal Remedies which preserve health and strengthen the Spirits Rhasis in his Continent affirms That he found more admirable Faculties in Bezoar than in all other Antidotes and in his book to Almansor he saith That Remedies for resisting poyson that assault the heart and offend by their whole substance are in vain prepar'd if Bezoar be left out which alone he saith resists the poyson of Napellus or Monks-hood the most pernicious of all Avenzoar in his Theyser writes that a man given over for dead upon taking of poyson was cur'd by three grains of Bezoar Peter de Abano call'd the Conciliator affirms That Edward I. King of England being wounded with a poyson'd sword in the war against the Sultan and ready to expire was cur'd by some of this stone given him by the General of the Templars and that the bare wearing it resists poyson Monardes affirms That with this Stone in less than a
deadly to Men is not warranted by any Example Antiquity whose Judgement is venerable even in doubtful things allowing this Beast capable of doing mischief only in the place where he resides CONFERENCE CCIX. Whether a Dead Body can be preserv'd naturally many years THis Question is divided in two points First Whether a dead Body can be kept without art Secondly Whether it can be so by art Nature being here oppos'd not to Art but to what is supernatural The first is hard every Carkase having in it self the principles of Coruption because the harmony of qualities which caus'd to subsist being dissolv'd it advances of it self to an annihillation And Nature should cease her continual motion if her subject depriv'd of animal life should always remain in one and the same state Yea if Nature should stop her course in dead Bodies and not be able to resolve them into other works the Influences of the Heavens would be useless in respect of them as also their motion which is in order to generations which would cease if there were no more corruption whence the destruction of the Universe in its parts would follow Nor would the Elements act any more one against another remaining pure and simple and incapable of any generation since siccity could no more act upon humidity nor heat upon cold It remains to enquire Whether a dead Body may be preserv'd by art which seems possible because we may by art destroy the activity of the Elements and reduce them to a just and equal temperament capable of long preservation For if impurities and superfluities lead mixt Bodies to Corruption 't is easie to separate them by Chymistry otherwise this art would be incapable of reducing them as it doth every day to a just Temperament Yea if we consider the Principles of Preservation it will appear that those of Art are more powerful than those of Nature in regard of the means and Instruments it employs to separate them which Nature cannot do because She mixes things without choice and depuâ—ation and consequently since Art hath so much power in so many Agenâ—s 't is possible to preserve a dead body for many years Moreover our own Experience and that of Antiquity teach us that Balms are able to preserve bodies a long time as appears in the Mummies of Aegypt and in some Embryo's which â—re preserv'd long in spirit of Salt and other Liquors repugnant 〈…〉 The second said That a dead body may be preserved long not only by 〈◊〉 but also naturally as that of a Lady deceased fifty six years ago which was found lately intire and gave occasion â—o this Conference Whence it may be presum'd That Women are not so easily corruptible because their bodies are made of flesh more elaborate then that of man which was immediately taken from the dust and consequently is more prone to return into its first Original Now the way to preserve dead bodies from corruption is to prevent the dissolution of their parts which is done by maintaining the connexion of humidity with driness to which end all extrinsical heat and moisture must be kept from them as much as possible Hence it is that dead bodies are plac'd in subterraneous places and inclosed in leaden Coffins to the end the cold and dry vapours symbolizing with the qualities of Saturn which the Chymists make as justly preservative as the Poets make it destructive may withstand extrinsecal heat and moisture and maintain the marriage of 〈◊〉 with humidity which is also the scope of the Gums and Spices we employ to imbalm bodies which having some heat with a certain Unctuousness suck up the superfluous moisture and preserve the Natural Moreover the Sex Age and Temperament are considerable in this matter A Habit of body moderately fleshy which Galen accounts the most laudable and which denotes a good Constitution is fittest for this purpose and 't is probable that the bodies of those that die of a sudden death resist putrefaction longer than those that have been extenuated by a longer Sickness or brought to the Grave by a Feaver because in these cases the body is in a great tendency to putrefaction even before Death CONFERENCE CCX Of the Remora T Is a small Fish half a foot long called by the Greeks Echeneïs and by the Latins Remora because 't is thought to stop the motion of Ships by means of two scales wherewith it closely imbraces the keel This common belief is founded upon many experiences reported by Authors worthy of Credit Pliny writes That Periander having sent a Ship to Gnidos with orders to castrate all the principal Children of that Island it was stopp'd in the main sea so long time as was requisite to send for other Orders contrary to the former by another Ship and that in remembrance of this happy retardment the two scales of this little fish were in his time seen hanging up near the Altar of Gnidia and Venus The like happen'd to a Pretorian Ship of Anthony at the battel of Actium so that he could not advance to give Orders to his Naval Army The Emperor Caligula having set sail from Asturia with a Gally of five banks was likewise constrain'd to stay by the way with his Vessel the other Ships not suffering the same obstruction at which this Prince was so incens'd that he presently commanded divers to seek out the cause who at length found this Fish sticking to the helm of the Vessel which they shew'd him about the bigness of a Snail and he was more surpris'd when he saw that it had not the like effect within the Ship as without as 't is said the foot of a Tortoise being in a Vessel makes it move slowly Plutarch in the second book of his Symposiacks affirms That this Fish was found sticking to the Ship which he hired to sail into Sicily and Rondeletius saith That the Cardinal of Tourain being imbarked for Rome in a Vessel of three banks was a long time stopp'd in a place at Sea by this little Fish which being taken was serv'd up to his table though others write that it is not fit to eat But what they add That its vertue of retarding is such that it is made use of to hinder the Judgment of a Law-suit whereof the issue is fear'd and also in filtres to retain a Lover that despises his loving Mistris is as hard to believe as 't is to find considerable reasons for it without having recourse to the ancient asylum of those who despair to find any which is the specifick form of this Fish which hath the same faculty of stopping Ships that a Diamond hath of retaining the Vertue of the Loadstone and Garlick of hindering it to act as the Ship appeaseth the fury of the Elephant the Fig-tree that of the Bull and many other such things which though small in bulk are yet very great and virtuous as they make appear in their Qualities which are as sensible in their Effects as they are occult in their
soft wax a man may easily imprint what he pleases should rather be acquainted with History which by reason of its variety and truth would be equally delightful but much more advantageous And indeed those who make use of Fables thinking by them to teach truth take a very preposterous way to do it For all the advantage which may be deriv'd from Fables is only to draw on mens minds with greater delight to the knowledge of true things and it is easily found to be a way as unlikely to prevail as if a man should make use of some place infamous and notorious for lewdness as a School wherein he should read Lectures of Chastity to young Men and Maids or lodge a Fuller or Whitener of Cloth with the Collier one soyling all that the other had cleans'd The second said that Man's understanding hâ—ving its distasts and humoursomness as well as his body and Content being equally requisite for the sustenance of both in regard that a coarser dish of meat taken with a good stomack is preferr'd before better chear forc'd down against Appetite it is but necessary that the same remedies should be used to recreate our minds when they are wearied and out of humour with an over-earnestness of study as are us'd to retrive and sharpen the languishing appetite This latter is recover'd by feeding on some dish excellently well-order'd such as by its haut-gousts and picquancy will rather excite then satisfie the Appetite Such is the bitterness of the Olive Vinegar in Sallets and the like which have the same effect as the stepping back of such as leap or the appearance of a Fly on a face of an exquisitely fair complexion These Fables are invented to reduce the wandring and wearied Understanding to its former interrupted pursuance of Truth There are two kinds of them One may be called a simple Fiction such as are old Wives Tales which deserve not the name of fabulous Relations unless it be upon the account of their absurdity and yet it ought to be season'd with something that is miraculous and delightful The other is Mythological which may be divided into four kinds First the Poëtical in one continu'd Relation such as are the Metamorphoses of Ovid or Drammatick and accommodated to Persons such as as are Comedies and Tragedies Secondly the Emblem or Device which is a real explication of some feigned thing painted or otherwise represented Thirdly the Apologue such as are the Fables of Aesop and these are divided into three sorts the Moral the Rational and the Mixt. The Moral are those wherein irrational things are introduc'd such as is the Fable of the two Pots the earthen and the brazen or that of the distribution of the prey between the Lyon the Ass and the Fox The Rational are only of Men such as is that of the Satyr and his Entertainer whom he leaves because he blew hot and cold out of the same mouth Of the Mixt we have an example in the Fable of the Fowler and the Stork taken in the net with the Cranes The fourth kind is the Romance The benefit and advantage of all which kinds of Fable is notorious to all For besides that they comprehend that common recreation which is opposite to the conflict of Mind and serious occupation produc'd by the reading of Histories the Poetical kind of Fable I mean that of the continu'd Relation where the Poet speaks alone does make extraordinary discoveries of the old Pagan Antiquities whereof a man cannot be ignorant without a great defect The Dramatick where Persons are introduc'd speaking when it is represented by good Actors makes a prevalent impression on the minds of the Spectators and Auditors and hath nothing comparable to the other kinds of writing and expressing so that it is the most efficacious instrument to move and work upon the Passions There may also be very great advantages made of the other fore-mentioned kinds of Fable especially of the Romance which hath the same effect on our minds in order to their instruction in goodness and vertue as well-proportion'd Pictures have to teach us the art of Drawing For as there are not to be seen now any Pictures comparable in point of body to that of the so much celebrated Venus which consisted of whatever was handsom in any Woman or Maid and borrow'd the hair of one the complexion of another the neck of a third and the breast and other members of others so is it impossible that History should ever come up to the noble height and delight of the Romance For History though it be not absolutely true yet being oblig'd to represent things past with as much likeness as a picture is taken according to the face of him who is to be drawn the consequence of that obligation is that however it may embellish things and actions yet is it still engag'd to expose them to the eye of the Reader as they are or at least as they are conceiv'd to be Now the number of unjust things much exceeds that of the just and consequently the bad and sad examples will much shorten the Reader 's delight Whence it follows that History wants those two principal ends for which it ought to be sought after to wit content and advantage whereas the Romance brings both along with it as being commonly full of the rewards obtain'd by vertue whereof one is that a sincere and constant Love should at last be crown'd with the greatest of worldly enjoyments and on the contrary there are not wanting the punishments and executions of lewd and vicious persons whereto add the strange variety of the accidents represented therein which being carried on with nobler and more unexpected intrigues extreamly heighten the satisfaction of the Reader The Third said That for any man to endeavour the discovery of Truth by its contrary to wit Fables is to look for light in the midst of darkness and as a certain Musician among the Ancients demanded a double reward for teaching those who had been instructed amiss in that Art for this reason as he said that there was a certain time requisite for the forgetting of what they already knew and as much for learning how to play well so that Child who shall have heard of the universal Deluge by the Fable of Deucalion and Pyrrha will find more difficulty to disengage his mind of those stones which they having cast behind them became men and women then he will have to imprint in it the natural Story of Noah and his Ark. The same thing may be said of all the other Fables out of which there is any truth to be deriv'd to wit that it is like the ordering of Crabs where there is much more to be picked away then there is to be eaten Nay the Romans themselves who seem to be more instructive may be reproach'd with this that they have not represented to their Readers the State of life and civil Conversation as it really is but have entertain'd them with
a Platonical Commonwealth And that discourages men very much when they find the course and customs of the World to be contrary to what they had taken so much pains to read Whereas the young man will be the less startled to find himself hiss'd by his Auditors when he speaks well and slighted by Fortune when he does well while the ignorant and the wicked are her greatest Favourites after he hath read in History of many Persons of worth so treated than he would be if he thrust himself into affairs having never seen any thing but examples of Vice punish'd and Vertue rewarded CONFERENCE CCXX Whether it be better to go to bed late and rise betimes in the Morning or do the contrary THough it be a kind of recession from the common opinion to prefer going to bed and rising late before the opposite yet is it to be noted by the way that most Persons of great affairs and the more judicious sort observing that course of life are of that judgment since that to approve a thing is to do it Now we see that all the great Lords and Ladies about the Court the most refin'd spirits and such are best able to judge of all things nay most men who have any thing more than an ordinary burthen of affairs for the most part go to bed late and rise late whereof several Reasons may be assign'd The first and most ordinary me-thinks are the affairs themselves which insensibly steal away the time from us and that the more unperceivably the more delightful that business is about which we are employ'd the time sliding away faster from him who takes a pleasure in the doing of a thing then it does from another who is in some trouble of mind or body Whence it comes that a tedious Tale and a bad Book are ever thought too long They therefore are to be thought the happiest who if they had their own wills would go to bed latest not only for that reason which made a certain King of this part of the World say That he would be King as long as he could inasmuch as when he slept there was no difference between him the meanest of his Subjects but also for this that night surprizing them before they had done all their business the Supper or Collation must be the later and consequently the going to bed The second reason is deduc'd hence that there ought to be a correspondence between the tranquillity of the mind and that of the body It being therefore necessary that he who would take a good sleep should not be subject to any disturbance of mind that indisturbancy being procured only by that order which every one hath taken in his affairs it is to be imagin'd that the later a man goes to bed the more business he hath dispatch'd and consequently there remains the less to be done Upon this score is it that Merchant's Suppers are accounted the most quiet for having spent the whole day in trudging up and down about their Trade they then enjoy themselves with greater serenity In the third place a man should not go to bed till digestion be pretty well advanc'd from the want or slowness whereof hideous Dreams Crudities Ventosities nay sometimes Apoplexies do proceed Now this digestion is so much the more advanc'd the later a man goes to bed which difference will be best observ'd by those who go just from the Table to their beds and lie down as soon as the meat is out of their mouths Fourthly that Custom is ever the best from which it is in a man's power most easily to wean himself and in the change whereof he will be subject to least inconvenience Now he who hath contracted a habit of going to bed late will find it a less inconvenience to go to bed betimes that so he may rise betimes or upon some other Motive then he shall who hath accustomed himself to go to bed betimes for he will be sleepy and unfit for the doing of any thing as soon as his bed-time is come Fifthly Hippocrates would not have a man enslave himself to an over-strict course of life grounding his advice on this that such regular persons find it the greater difficulty to support the miscarriages which oftentimes cannot be avoided in the ordinary course of life as those who walk upon ropes are more apt to fall at least find it a harder matter to keep on then those who walk on the plain ground Now those who go to bed betimes are commonly more regular in the hours of Supper and all the other actions of the day upon the exact observance whereof that of their bed-time does depend Now it is obvious to any one who shall consider the difference of professions that there are but few that leave a man at liberty to observe so exact a rule as this is So that being sometimes necessitated to make a breach of it the consequence will be that those who have the more strictly engag'd themselves to the observance of the rule of going to bed betimes must needs receive a far greater inconvenience from the neglect of it than they ordinarily do who go to bed late Sixthly the same reason that obliges phlegmatick persons and such as are subject to Catarrhs to content themselves with little sleep which is this that their humidity joyn'd with that of sleep it self augments their distemper besides that Sleeping which moistens and cools is not so well procur'd in that part of the day which is most cold and moist that is from nine at Night till three in the Morning but rather towards the Morning at which time the Blood begins to be predominant inasmuch as in so doing he abates somewhat of its Heat and being to dilate it self till ten in the Morning at which time Choler begins to be predominant moderates its acrimony as all those will acknowledge which Sex soever they be of who are subject to the Megrim who find very great ease by that Morning sleep which accordingly is found to be the most delightful and hath this further advantage attributed to it that the Dreams thereof are prophetical and will come to pass in a short time whereas the others are accounted superfluous by those who have been Professors in that Art Moreover those who rise too early in Morning are subject to the Headach in the Afternoon and more easily transported with Anger all the rest of the day to effect which the consideration of the Temperament does very much conduce For as sleeping in the day time is born with in Old Men and Children and that in both by reason of their weakness and for the recruit of their Spirits and particularly in Old Men to take off somewhat of the acrimony of that serous phlegm which is predominant in them so the greater part of Men being subject to Choler whence haply proceeded the error of some Physicians who talk of nothing but refrigeration in all diseases and the coolness and moisture of
the Night correcting that hot and dry distemper it is the more convenient that Sleep should do as much in the Day time by taking off then somewhat of their Choler The Second said That the retrival and restauration of the Spirits obliges the Animal to sleep which ought to continue at least for such a space of time as amounts to the third part of that a man hath been waking and should never exceed the one half of it Far is it therefore from being imaginable that Nature should be able to endure what is affirmed of the seven Sleepers or the long nap of Epimenides which lasted fifty years Nor are we to give any more credit to what is related to us concerning a Plant in the Low-Countries which will keep people waking many nights and dayes together without any inconvenience but the time when we should begin or end our sleep being left to our own discretion 't is requisite we should accommodate our selves to the order prescrib'd by Nature which hath appointed the day to labour and the night to rest in Nay it is also the advice of Hippocrates Galen and all Physicians who think it not enough to direct rest in the night and waking in the day but also conceive very great hopes of those who in the time of their sickness are so irregular therein Add to this that darkness silence and the coldness of the night being fit to recruit the Spirits and promote their retirement within whereas light noise and the heat of the day are more proper to occasion their egress for the exercise of actions which granted he who observes not this rule charges Nature with an erronious proceeding And that this is her way is apparent hence that those Animals which are guided only by her motion which is as certain as our reason is ordinarily irregular go that way to work Cocks and other Birds go to their rest and awake with the Sun if any of our Domestick Creatures do otherwise our irregularity is the cause thereof and that perversion is of no less dangerous consequence than that of the Seasons which is ever attended by diseases And who makes any doubt but that the greatest perfection of the Heavens consists in their regular motion the principal cause of their duration Which order since we are not able to imitate it is but requisite we should come as near it as we can in our actions among which sleeping and waking being the hindges on which all the others of our life do hang if there be any irregularity in these confusion and disorder must needs be expected in all the rest as may be seen in the lives of Courtiers of both Sexes who turn night to day and day to night a course of life much different from that which is observ'd by the Superiours and Members of regulated companies Besides it is the Morning that not only holds a stricter correspondence with the Muses but is also the fittest time for the performance of all the functions of Body and Mind Then is it that Physicians prescribe exercises in regard that the Body being clear'd of the Excrements of the first and second concoction is wholly dispos'd for the distribution of Aliment and evacuation of the Excrements of the third So that he who spends that part of the day about his affairs besides the expedition he meets with does by that means maintain the vigour of his Body and Mind which is commonly dull'd by sleeping in the day time which fills the Head with vapours and when exercise comes to succeed it in the warmest part of the day the heat which is then commonly greatest makes it less supportable Therefore Nature who is a sure guide inclines us to sleepiness in the Evening there being not any thing but the multiplicity and distraction of Civil Affairs which depriving us of that Function as it does of divers others makes the Life of Man so much the less certain the more he is involv'd in Affairs whereas the duration of that of Animals and next to them of Country-people and such as comply with the conduct of Nature is commonly of a greater length and more certain CONFERENCE CCXXI Whether the Child derives more from the Father or the Mother IF our Fore-fathers may be conceiv'd wise enough to have known the nature of things it is to be acknowledg'd that the Child derives most from the Father since that they thought fit to bestow on him his name rather than that of the Mother and that the name is the mark and character of the thing Besides the Male being more perfect larger and stronger than the Female which indeed is an imperfection and default of Nature whose constant design it is to make a Male and is not disappointed but through want of heat vigour and temperament it is but rational that what proceeded from these two should have the denomination from the more perfect of them Thus a Regiment is known by the name of the Colonel a City by that of its Founder a Law and Ordinance by that of the Law-giver and a Receipt the Composition whereof consists of two simple medicaments hath most of the nature of the stronger and that which is of greatest virtue This is further confirm'd by the common Comparison which is us'd to express the difference there is between the Father and the Mother in the business of generation For the Mother and particularly the Matrix is compar'd to a field and the paternal seed to the grain which is sown in that field which serves well enough in order to its sprouting and shooting forth but supplies it only with matter which is determinated by the form of the grain from which the Plant produc'd of it receives its being So that the present Question amounts to no more than if a Man should ask Whether an ear of Wheat deriv'd more from the ground or from the seed that had been sowne in it A further proof hereof may be deduc'd from the instruments of generation which being more apparent in the man than in the woman are a silent insinuation that the former contribute more thereto than the latter And the greatest and most remarkable difference that there is between the Children being that of the Sex the experiment alledg'd by Physicians that if the right Testicle be bound Males will be produc'd as Females will if the contrary clearly shews that by the Father's part the Sex is determinated and consequently it is from him that there do also proceed the least individual differences and circumstances wherein the likeness or unlikeness of Children to their Fathers and Mothers either in Mind or Body doth consist For if the Males especially should retain more from the Mothers than they do from the Fathers that proverbial saying would prove false which affirms that Fortes creantur fortibus in regard that most women are chargeable with a want of Courage And daily experience makes it apparent that one of the greatest and most common causes of
they are much more fond of their Children than the Fathers which fondness is a sign that there may be more of the Mothers observ'd in the Children than of the Fathers For the love we have for our selves is so great that God would have it to be the measure of that which we ought to bear unto our Neighbour and that which we bear to God himself hath some reference to his affection towards us Those therefore who would insinuate themselves into the favour of any one have no surer way to do it than by complying with his humor and as much he can become conformable to him CONFERENCE CCXXII Whether is harder for a Vertuous Man to do that which is Evil or for a Vicious to do that which is Good BEfore we come to the Resolution of this Question we are to consider two things the former that Man consists of two parts the Superiour which is the Soul and the Inferiour which is the Body and whereas these two parts have different objects and such as which contradict one the other there happens to be a great Conflict the body being strongly inclin'd to sensuality and the Soul endeavouring to raise her self up to spiritual things But in regard the Organs she makes use of are material such as are also the Senses which assist her in her operations it is not to be thought she can overcome without great pains inasmuch as the instruments which she stands in need of for the exercise of Virtue hold a greater correspondence with the Body and as they derive their Being from matter so they betray the Resolutions of the Soul reducing her under a Tyrannical Subjection Whence it follows that the wicked or vicious person finds it the greater difficulty to do well inasmuch as being enslav'd to vice and sin he cannot shake off that yoke as having a constant inclination to evil The Second thing to be consider'd is good and evil in it self for according to Nature there is no evil in Humane Actions inasmuch as in appearance they are all good otherwise the Will the object whereof is that which is Good and pleasing would not be inclin'd thereto since good is that which all things desire There are therefore two sorts of good and as many of evils one Natural and the other Moral the Soul is easily enclin'd to the Moral good and the Body to the Natural and consequently it is much more easie for the Vicious person to do a Moral good than it is for the Virtuous Man to do a Moral Evil. The Second said That it is harder for a good Man to do evil in regard that to the virtuous man Virtue seems so fair and taking that he finds it the greatest difficulty in the world to forsake her and so to embrace Vice which he looks upon as a hideous Monster inasmuch as Beings and Substances are more amiable than Privations are odious in regard that as Love respects the things that are amiable and aversion is not extended to that which is not in like manner Vice is not so much shun'd as Vertue is belov'd Whence it follows that it is a greater trouble for the good man to do that which is evil in regard he knows the perfection of good as much as the vicious person is ignorant of it and from that ignorance there must needs proceed a difficulty and backwardness of embracing it The Third said That the vicious person finds it a harder task to do well in regard that Nature is strongly bent towards that which is evil and consequently the virtuous person when he does that which is evil easily falls down into the bottom according to the descent of humane inclinations and the vicious person when he does that which is good climes up a high Mountain full of Rocks and Precipices and engages against Nature her self being in open hostility against the sensual Appetite and according to the Scripture We do not the good which we would do but the evil we would not do that we do To shew that the difficulties men find in the pursuance of good are so great that Saint Paul himself complains of his having a Law within him which rebelled against the Law of God This Nature of ours being full of the imperfections conceiv'd in Original Sin hath so great a repugnance to good that there was a necessity of a Law of Grace to regenerate it in order to the pursuit of good a complyance with the true sentiments of Religion and the knowledge of God not to urge that Pleasure hath so great attractions and charms that it is almost impossible to over-master them Thence it came that Vlysses order'd himself to be bound to the mast of his Ship and caus'd his ears to be stopp'd that he might not hear the harmonious voices of the Syrens otherwise his Reason would not have been so strong as to over-master his sensual Appetites which must be either destroy'd or so fetter'd that the Soul may not be drawn away by pernicious temptations The Fourth said That Virtue was natural to Man before Adam's Transgression and from the time of his rebellion against God Vice hath seated it self in her place so that when Innocence forsook our first Parent all vices and imperfections possess'd themselves of his Mind and are become so naturaliz'd there that it begat a necessity of establishing Divine and Humane Laws whereof some were for the eradication of Vices others for the punishment of Crimes all which trouble might have been spar'd if there had not been so much difficulty in the doing of that which is good The Fifth said That it being suppos'd as indeed it is true that Humane Nature is more inclin'd to Vice than to Virtue for the reasons before alledg'd yet is there a certain means to frustrate and destroy that Inclination and advance the Soul to a sovereignty over the Body by abolishing and destroying the Senses and those intellectual powers whereby the Organs are govern'd For if the Body have the Mastership the Soul will be forc'd to obey but if the Soul commands she will bring the Body into subjection to all the vertuous actions she pleases her self And then the Vertues will be naturaliz'd in man and the Question propos'd will meet with a contrary Solution for in that Case it will be much more hard for the vertuous man to do that which is evil than for the vicious to do well inasmuch as the virtuous person by that mortification of the Senses will be in a manner reduc'd to the state of original innocence and restor'd to the glorious condition Man was in before the Fall The Sixth said That such a moral regeneration is a great Cabalistical Secret unknown to all the learned that such a mortification and destruction of the Senses as was propos'd is a work not yet well discover'd to the Curious as transcending all common rules For if the Soul acts not without the assistance of the Organs and the interior and exterior Senses the weakning
a Fore-teller of the Sun's approach That the Fish called a Remora stops Ships under sail That the eye of a Dog prepar'd after a certain way keeps others from coming near the person that hath it That the powder of Crab-shells prepar'd draws out Arrows and Bullets shot into the Body That there is a certain Stone got out of the Snake which cures such as are subject to the Dropsie That Serpents are not found within the shade of Ash-trees That the Marygold follows the motion of the Sun That the precious Stone called a Topaze put into seething water immediately stayes the seething of it That the Emerald the Saphire the Turqueis Stone and Coral change their colours upon the happening of certain accidents to those who have them about them That there are certain Herbs which chase away spirits as well as Musick does and that the dispositions of a black and adust choler invite and entertain them Now from all these instances it may be deduc'd that as it is a great presumption to think to give reasons of all things so does it argue a certain weakness of mind to doubt of all that hath been alledged so great are the abysses and inexhaustible treasures of Nature whose operations transcend humane belief in thousands of other things as well as in the Question now under dispute CONFERENCE CCXXIV. Of Stage-Plays and whether they be advantageous to a State or not HUmane Life is travers'd by such a vicissitude of distractions and disturbances that not only the Civil but also the Ecclesiastical Magistrates have unanimously concluded it necessary that men should have some divertisements whereby their minds and bodies not able to undergo continual labour might receive some relaxation for want whereof they would be crush'd under the burthen of their affairs Now among those relaxations there is not any brings greater delight with it then what is perform'd on the Theatre that is Plays which represent unto us things past heighten'd with all the circumstances they are capable of which cannot be done by History as being a thing dead and not animated by Voice Gestures and Habits But if we add thereto that this innocent divertisement is attended by those advantages which may be deduc'd from excellent Sentences and Instructions we must conclude him who finds fault with it to be of a more than Timonian humour and a profess'd enemy to civil Society The proof hereof is deriv'd from the Use of it the true Touch-stone whereby good and profitable things are to be distinguish'd from such as are hurtful and unprofitable For there have been an infinite number of things taught by Men which have been smother'd as soon as brought forth and there are others also which the Inventors of them have out-liv'd but when an Invention finds a kind entertainment through many Ages it is the best argument that may be of its goodness And such is that of Comedy which how weak or ridiculous soever it might be at the beginning at which time Thespis got himself drawn through the Streets in a Chariot as he recited his Poems presently met with those who made it their business to cultivate and heighten it to that pitch of perfection whereto it is now come which is such that it is no wonder the greatest minds should yield to the charms of it For as those things that are sensible are more apt to move and make impressions on the spirits of men then such as are purely intelligible so Plays exposing to our eyes all things with a greater circumspection decorum and order then is observable in the actions of men commonly disturbed by unexpected emergencies and the unconstancy of their passions accordingly raise in us a greater aversion for crimes and greater inclinations to vertue Nay these cause more apprehensive emotions in our souls than they are apt to receive from any other representations whatsoever not excepting even the precepts of Philosophy it self which are weak enough when they are destitute of their examples imprinting in us such Characters as can hardly be blotted out in regard they force their passage into our Minds through several of our senses and as History prevails more by its Examples than the reason of its Precepts so Playes have the advantage of History in this regard that in the former things act upon us with greater efficacy This Influences it hath on us in captivating our Senses and Understanding is the more remarkable in that the greatest Witts are incapable of other reflections while they behold what is represented on the Stage Besides if the great business of the world be truly consider'd it is but a Stage-Play wherein every one acts a part he who would avoid Plays and not see the vanity of humane actions must find out some way to get out of the world Nor are all persons in a capacity to learn how they should demean themselves by Books and Precepts but all are susceptible of some instruction by Playes since that in these there are such sensible Lessons that the most ignorant may find in them certain encouragements to Vertue which on the Stage appears to them in her lustre and attended by those honourable rewards which the Poets bestow on Heroick Actions And as Geographical Maps cannot so well acquaint those who study them with the dispositions of people together with all the circumstances of places as Travels and Relations may In like manner Philosophy smites not the Senses as those passages do which are represented on the Theatre where such as are in Love the ordinary subject thereof may observe their own Adventures personated and take notice of their vain pursuits and the unhappy events of those which are carried on by unjust wayes In fine if immortality flatters ours labours with promises to transmit our Memory to Ages yet at a great distance from us what greater satisfaction can there be than to hope that our noble actions shall be represented on Theaters before Princes and Magistrates The Second said That Humane Nature being more enclin'd to evil than to good those confus'd representations which are made on the Stage of all sorts of good and bad things are more likely to make impressions of evil in the minds of men than to render them more inclinable to that which is good Whence it is to be inferr'd that the danger and inconveniences of Plays will outweigh their advantages This consideration occasion'd the banishing of them out of several States And whereas the Subjects of them are commonly taken from the Loves of some extravagant persons and the crimes attending them the end thereof must be answerable to the means which are lewd Artifices whereby it is compassed and where-with mens minds are imbu'd and so inclin'd to wicked actions and such as are most likely to promote the execution of their pernicious designs which would not happen were they ignorant of them Nay to go to the original of this kind of entertainments the most ancient of them acted in the time of Romulus was
contriv'd for the surprizal and carrying away of the Sabine Virgins it being easily inferr'd that what produc'd so bad an effect must of necessity have been a bad cause The Third said That Playes consider'd in themselves were indifferent but that according to the diversity of their Minds who frequent them they have a different operation as Wine excessively taken besots and layes some asleep and enlivens others according to the difference of their Temperaments For if they meet with weak Minds they imprint in them the Passions of the things that are represented much more easily than Books usually do But if they are persons of a strong Constitution of Intellectuals they consider what they see as a pure Fiction and a draught of Painting in the intrigues whereof they find a certain divertisement much like that of excellent Pâ—inters in their Perspectives they are pleas'd to see a mist cast before the eyes of the vulgar while they themselves are sufficiently satisfi'd that what others think represented to the life is only perform'd by the interposition of Scenes So that from this diversity of operations this only can be inferr'd that Playes and Opera's are advantageous and innocent divertisements to such as are well-vers'd in the affairs of the world who being over-press'd with a continu'd earnestness in the prosecution of their more serious concerns find a certain relaxation therein not in a melancholy sloath such as is inconsistent with the activity which is natural to them but in those less serious employments as on the contrary those persons who are already too much enclin'd to idleness vanity and effeminacy ought not to be admitted to Plays in regard they can have no other effect on them than to make them more effeminate The Fourth said That as Women are justly forbidden the use of the Sciences so ought they also to be forbidden the sight of Plays inasmuch as it is not expedient in order to frugal House-keeping that that Sex should be allow'd an acquaintance with those curiosities which might divert them from the care they ought to have of their domestick affairs For besides the loss of time idleness is extreamly prejudicial to that Sex whose portion should be assiduity in labour frugality and a constant keeping of the House which is not consistent with the frequenting of Shews and Play-houses and seeing the representations made there Which the more instructive they are and the more likely to fill Womens heads with new things the more ought they to be forbidden the sight of them there being not any thing a Husband should fear so much in his Wife as an excess of Wit upon the conceit whereof she assumes to her self a certain authority over him contrary to the Institution of Matrimony or at least thinks her self equal to him which is not much less to be fear'd inasmuch as it is a great disturbance to the domestick tranquillity This may be the better apprehended by the example of two Men equally learned who disputing one against the other seldom come to any agreement as a knowing and an ignorant person many times do for if the latter chance to contradict himself he is easily convinc'd and acquiesces And though the Greeks sometimes admitted Women in their Academies to execute the functions of Professors and Regents yet are not those examples to be introduc'd into this Age whereof the corruption is such as is able to change Vertues into Vices But from this general Rule we are to except such Heroina's as are the great Exemplars of all Vertues who surpassing the greatest part of Men in Wit and Intellectuals it were injurious to think them susceptible of those bad impressions which the Men are able to resist The Fifth said That the example of the Romans who gave extraordinary salaries to Comedians as Cicero assures us they did to Roscius sufficiently shews the advantages of publick representations And indeed if there be any thing to be blam'd in Plays it is this that they are too Pathetick that is too apt to raise and express Humane Passions For as an Oration measur'd in Verse is more elaborate than Prose so Verses dispos'd by a sound Judgement for the Stage are extreamly beyond those of Exegematick Poems wherein only the Poet speaks himself Moreover the observance of Time whereto all the Acts are confin'd and the other Laws of Dramatick Pieces discover their excellency above all others So that to question Whether they are advantageous is to bring into doubt Whether the Master-pieces of Poets Orators and Historians are advantageous to a State CONFERENCE CCXXV. Whether that Temperament of the Body which conduces most to Health be also the most convenient for the Mind I Shall not here insist on the division of the Temperaments as for instance into Simple to wit when one Quality is predominant over its opposite the other two remaining equal as we affirm him to be of a hot Temperament who shall be more hot than cold humidity and drought remaining in an aequilibrium and Compound to wit that which is the result of the same combination of qualities which makes the four Elements into the Vniversal to wit of the whole Body and Particular viz. that which is proper to each part into that which is of Weight wherein all those qualities are as it were in a balance one not exceeding the other and that of Justice wherein those qualities bear a certain proportion one to the other Not insisting I say on these Divisions but presupposing them as common doctrines I shall here think it sufficient to examine in the first place Which of all these Temperaments is most convenient in order to health and in the second whether the same will also be most convenient for the acquisition of a good mind that is for the better exercise of the functions of the rational Soul in a word whether the most healthy person shall always be the most wise Galen hath writ an express Treatise to prove that the Manners follow the Temperament of the body and therefore since those manners are the effects of the Will the noblest of all the faculties of the Soul in regard it hath a Soveraignty over all the others it should seem that the affirmative is to be maintain'd especially if we lay this for a ground that those persons who are subject to Melancholy are the most ingenious forasmuch as they are the most healthy cold and drought making up a more solid and firm mass then any other two qualities and heat and moisture being too variable and too much subject to corruption Upon which consideration Galen in his first Book of the Temperaments chap. 4. denies That the Spring is hot and moist on the contrary saith he it is the worst of all the Temperaments of the Air whereby we are encompass'd and that is commonly the constitution observable in sickly and contagious seasons In his eighth Book of the Method of curing Diseases chap. 7. he adds That a hot and moist distemper makes our
the Capacities of those who love since that considering the amiable objects whether they be such and consequently there be cause for the loving of them or are not really such but only so conceiv'd by the apprehensive faculty they are equally fit to move the Will to love them and to gain its affections and they ought to be the more agreeable to it in that it finds in them its perfection and the accomplishment of its desires And so the plurality of Friends is so far from being any prejudice to Friendship that it sets a greater esteem upon it as also on him who loves The Fourth said That Friendship taken generally is a mutual Good-will between those who are desirous to do one another some reciprocal kindness but taking it more precisely it may be defin'd a Vertue by means whereof vertuous persons are so united in Affection and Will that they become absolutely like one another through a hearty good Will Concord and good Turns mutually done and receiv'd The former resides particularly in the interior motions of the mind the second in words and discourse the third in effects These are the three essential marks of a vertuous Friendship which not regarding its proper interest as those do who love upon the account of pleasure or profit courts not the objects it loves out of any other consideration than that of the Vertue or Science which render it recommendable Now these qualities being seldom found among many who ought to be equally furnish'd therewith that the Friendship may be reciprocal it is very hard to meet with so many Subjects capable of so sublime a Vertue as that which besides that combination of Vertues requiring much experience and a great process of time that we might not be deceiv'd in the choice of Friends with each whereof a Man according to the common saying should eat a bushel of Salt before he contracted a Friendship it will be found a much harder task to make such a strict examination of the qualities and dispositions of many than it will be to do it of one alone with whom consequently it is more safe to enter into Friendship than it can be with many The Fifth said That Friendship being grounded on conversation and there being not any more divertive and delightful than that between those who eat and drink together the Case is the same with friends as it is with guests which ought not to be under the number of three nor exceed that of nine whence came the ancient Proverb that a well-ordered Feast should not be under the number of the Graces nor transcend that of the Muses In a word since conversation is the ground-work of perfect Friendship as the former cannot be pleasant among less than three and must be confus'd and wearisome among above nine but is most divertive when five or six persons well-qualifi'd and perfectly understanding one the other fall into mutual discourse so Friendship cannot be of long continuance between two but there must be a third to encourage it yet with this further caution that it is better maintain'd among a greater number of persons equally vertuous provided nevertheless it exceed not that of nine to prevent the confusion and inconvenices attending a greater The Sixth said That though there be an absolute necessity of Friendship in all he transactions of humane life in order to the more pleasant expence of it yet are there principally two certain times wherein its necessity is more apparent to wit those of Prosperity and Adversity In the former our friends participate of our happiness in the latter of our misfortunes and whereas these last are commonly more frequent than good successes the plurality of Friends who are our second-selves making the burthen the more supportable by the part every one takes in our misfortunes it is much more expedient that a Man should have many then content himself with a small number which being not able to bear the brunt of so violent an assault he would be in danger of being overcome thereby Nay though all things should happen according to our wishes yet were it convenient to have a considerable number of Friends the more to congratulate our good fortune which will make the greater noise in the world the greater their number is who approve and applaud it The Seventh said That the plurality of Friends was equally inconvenient as well in good as bad fortune For in the latter it must needs trouble us very much to give occasion of grief to a great number of Friends who though they bemoan us ever so much yet are we still in the same period of misfortune nay our unhappiness is the greater in that it is contagiously communicated to so many persons at the same time In the former there cannot be any thing more troublesom then that great number of people who love or pretend to love us in our prosperity it being then impossible for us equally to satisfie them all as we might easily do one single Friend from whom we may also derive greater comfort in Adversity than from many addressing themselves to us at the same time to whose humours to accommodate our selves well we must study an unconstancy equal to that of Proteus and put on as many Countenances as they have different Inclinations The Eighth said That since a good thing is so much the more excellent the more it is communicated and diffus'd several ways Friendship ought to derive its esteem from that communication which the greater it shall be the more recommendable shall it make the Friendship which consequently is the more perfect among many to whom it is always advantageous since it comprehends the three kinds of Goods the profitable the pleasant and the vertuous For is there not much to be gain'd in a society which the more numerous it is the greater advantages and assistances may be deriv'd from it There is not any thing so highly delightful as to love and to be belov'd of many But whereas Friendship is the Livery of Vertue whose inseparable attendant she is Can there be any thing more vertuous and commendable then after that manner to love several others who love us and by that reflux of mutual kindness give assurances of our Vertue answerable to the acknowledgements we had made of their merit the multitude of Friends not abating any thing of the esteem of civil Friendship no more than the great number of charitable persons does prejudice Charity which is a consummate Love and equally embraces all CONFERENCE CCXXVII Of Oracles THere is not anything disquiets the Spirit of Man so much as the desire he hath to know things to come and whereas he cannot of himself attain thereto by reason of the weakness of his knowledge which he derives from the Senses and other corporeal powers he will needs try what he can do out of himself and there is no place into which his curiosity hath not found a way to discover what he so much desir'd
excess whether that evaporation be caus'd by the quality of the Earth or Waters or proceed from the Metals Minerals and other Fossile Bodies contained within their entrails For if it be acknowledg'd that the waters passing through them derive certain particular qualities Why may not as well those vapours do the like nay haply in a greater measure and consequently work those extraordinary effects Nay upon consideration they will not be found more miraculous than what is related of an Exhalation which issues out of a Cave near Hieropolis which as it is affirm'd is fatal only to Men and not to those who have not lost their Virginity nor yet than the water of a Fountain in Boeotia which causes Mares to run mad as that which was in the Temple of Bacchus at Andros had the taste of Wine that of Delphi lighted those Torches which were within a certain distance of it and extinguish'd those which were thrust into it Now such qualities as these are depending on the properties of the places it may be as easily conceiv'd that those where such Answers of the false Gods were given had the like and thence it is to be imagin'd that those having ceas'd by the ordinary vicissitude of all things the said Oracles accordingly receiv'd also their period CONFERENCE CCXXVIII Of the Tingling of the Ears AS the Ear is the Instrument of that Sense which is called the Sense of the Disciple and is more serviceable to us in order to Instruction than all the rest put together so is it not to be wondred the Ancients should be of Opinion that it contributed so highly thereto that the most inconsiderable motions of it advertise us of things which seem to be farthest from our knowledge Thence it came that they deduc'd certain conjectures of things to come from the tingling of the Ears which they held to signifie good luck when it was on the right side and the contrary when it happen'd on the left Ear which is to represent enemies as the former does friends yet with this provision that nothing contributed thereto from without as for example noise might do or some other agitation of the air stirr'd by some external cause but the tingling must proceed from within sonitu suopte tinniunt aures without which condition it signifies neither good nor bad luck that is nothing at all And what seems somewhat to confirm this observation is that it hath not been cast out among all the other rubbish of superstitious Antiquity but reigns even in the present Age wherein not only many among the Vulgar commonly say that they are well or ill-spoken of when their ears glow or tingle but also some of the better sort are also of the same perswasion They ground this belief on the Sympathy or Antipathy there is between Friends and Enemies which are such that not being confin'd by the distance of places which yet according to their opinion ought not to be too great they force the species of voice and words towards the organs of Hearing which are thereby excited through the communication of those Magnetick Vertues and these are not less sensible then those which the objects direct towards the same instruments in ordinary sensation though they be more delicate and subtile As the Lynx the Eagle and other sharp-sighted Animals see the species of visible objects far beyond their reach who are shorter-sighted and the Birds of prey smell carcasses though they are very far from them The Second said That it was a little too far fetcht to attribute those Effects to Sympathy which being as abstruse as what some pretend to deduce from it amounts to as much as if one would prove one obscure thing by another which is yet more obscure As therefore there is no action done beyond the limits appointed to every Agent which comprehend the sphere of their activity so can there not be any such between the sonorous Species and the Hearing of him who feels this Tingling unless it be within the reach of his ear which since it cannot be when for example we are spoken of in our absence it is impossible the Hearing should receive the impression of the voice pronounc'd in a place at too great a distance to be conveyd to it inasmuch as it is necessary in all sensation that besides the good disposition of the sensitive Faculty and the Mean there should be a proportionate distance between the sensible object and the organ ere it can judge well of it So that those who imagine they hear what is said of them afar off upon no other reason then that their ears tingle have not their Hearing more sensibly but on the contrary worse qualifi'd then others through the disturbance caus'd therein by gross humours which occasion the same disorder in the Ear as suffusions do in the eye when it sees the Objects in the same colour and figure as the vapours or humours whereby it is clouded though they be not effectually so In like manner the sound or noise heard by those whose ears tingle though it makes them conceive the species of such a sound proceeding from without is only illusory and caus'd by the disorder of the ill-affected organ but it communicates its irregularity to the Imagination when it frames to it self favourable consequences from such a humming in the right Ear and some misfortune from the like in the left there being not any reason by which so fantastick and chimerical an opinion can be maintain'd The Third said That it is injuriously done to deny Man that advantage which we find by experience that some not only brute Beasts but also Plants have to wit that of having a previous feeling of the good or evil which are to happen to them by a property bestow'd on them by Nature for their conservation Thus we find Rats forsake the house which will soon after fall down Lice take leave of one that is dying Birds of prey come from far distant places to their food the Swallow comes to give us a visit in the Spring and spends that delightful season with us which once past she goes to find out other Springs in unknown Countries The Ox gives us notice of an approaching shower when having lifted up his head very high and breath'd withall he immediately falls a licking his thighs The Cat makes the same Prognostication when she combs her self as it were with her paws The same thing is done by the Water-fowl called the Ducker and the ordinary Drake when they settle their feathers with their beaks The Frogs do the same by their importunate croaking The Ants by the extraordinary earnestness they express in hoarding up their corn and the Earth-worms when they appear above ground Nay the poor Trefoyl will close it self upon the approach of a Tempest as do also most Plants in foul weather which being over they spread abroad their leaves and flowers and seem newly blown as it were to congratulate the return of the Sun as is
communicated by succession as most of the other diseases which become hereditary by means of the Spirits employ'd by the Formative Faculty in Generation and carrying along with them the Character of the parts and humours of him who engenders and imprinting them on the foetus Hence it comes that for the curing of it there is more requir'd than to administer the remedies commonly us'd in the cure of other tumours which must be dissolv'd or softened that so they may be brought to suppuration unless they can be consum'd and extirpated but in this there must be some particular means used And not to mention that which is generally known to all to wit the touching of those who have this Evil by the King of France and his Majesty of Great Britain whom they heal by a miraculous vertue and a special priviledge granted those two great Monarchs by God himself it is commonly affirmed that the seventh Male-child without any interruption of Females hath the same advantage of healing this disease by a favour which Theology calls gratia gratis data and whereof many affirm that they have seen the effects These are attributed to the vertue of the Number Seven so highly esteem'd by the Platonists as consisting of the first odd Number and the first even and square number which are Three and Four and are by them called the Male and Female whereof they make such account that according to the Opinion of these Philosophers the Soul of the world was made up of those two Numbers and it is by their means that whatever is comprehended in it subsists It is also for this Reason that Children born in the seventh month live as those born in the ninth whereas such as are born in the eighth die To this may be added That the most considerable Changes of Man's Life happen in these several Septenaries which number does not only contribute to his Conception which is not perfect till the seventh day after the Matter hath receiv'd the Virile Sperme and to his Birth in the seventh month but also to all the other accidents which happen to him in all the several Septenaries For the Child begins to have some appearance of Teeth in the seventh month at twice seven months he makes a shift to stand alone at three times seven his Tongue is so far loos'd that he speaks with some Articulation at four times seven he goes steadily and confidently at the age of seven years he acquires new forces and renews his Teeth at twice seven he is of ripe age and capable of engendring at three times seven he gives over growing but becomes still more and more vigorous till he hath attain'd to seven times seven that is to the forty and ninth year of his age by some called the little climacterical year as being the most compleat of any in regard it consists of a perfect number multiply'd by it self and in which there always happens some accident proceeding hence that Nature being not able to forbear the doing of something when she hath attain'd that sovereign degree of perfection is forc'd to decline It is therefore to be attributed to this compleat number which is called by the Greeks by a term which signifies Venerable that the seventh Son cures the Evil the cause whereof being malignant and indeed having something in it that is obscure which Hippocrates calls Divine it is not to be admired that the curing of it should depend on a Cause equally obscure and at so great a distance from our knowledge The Second said That without having any recourse to so abstracted a Cause as that of the vertue of the number Seven which being a discrete quantity is incapable of action which is reserv'd to such qualities only as are active Nor yet to the Stars which are at a greater distance from us Nor yet to the force of the Imagination which many think may produce that effect Waving all recourse to these I am of Opinion that it is rather to be referr'd to the Formative Faculty which producing a Male when the Seeds of the Parents are so dispos'd as that what is more vigorous and strong hath a predominancy over the other which is less such that is when it continues still in the getting of a Male without any interruption to the seventh time the reason of it is that these Seeds are still so strong and spirituous that a Male is gotten instead of a Female which is the production of those Seeds that are weaker and colder than the Masculine Now the heat and spirits whereby Males are procreated may communicate to them some particular vertue such as may be the Gift of healing the Evil which may be affirm'd with as good ground as that the spittle of a Man fasting being well-temper'd kills Serpents and that it is held many have heretofore had such a prerogative for the healing of certain diseases by some particular qualities depending either on those of their Temperaments or of their whole substance Thus Vespasian as Tacitus affirms in the fourth Book of his Histories restor'd his sight to a blind Man Adrian as Aelius Spartianus relates healed a Man born blind only by touching him And Pyrrhus King of the Epirotae if we may believe Plutarch in his Life heal'd all that were troubled with the Spleen in his time by touching their Spleen with the great Toe of his right Foot of which Toe there was a far greater Opinion conceiv'd after his death in that it was found intire and not consum'd by the fire as all the rest of his Body was This vertue of healing thus after an extraordinary manner hath been deriv'd into some whole Families There are to this day many in France who affirm themselves to be of the Family of Saint Hubert and have the gift of healing such as are bitten by mad Dogs In Italy there are others who make it their boast that they are of the Families of Saint Paul and Saint Catharine whereof the former are not afraid of Serpents which for that reason they bear in their Coat no more than these latter are of burning coals which they handle without burning themselves In Spain also the Families of the Saludatores and the Ensalmadores have the gift of healing many incurable diseases only by the Touch. Nay if we may rely on common Tradition we have this further to add that it holds for certain that those Children who come into the world on Good-Friday have the gift of healing several sorts of diseases especially Tertian and Quartan Agues The Third said That if the gift of healing the Evil depended on the vigour of the Principles of Generation which meet in the seventh Male-child it would follow that the eighth or ninth coming into the world consecutively should more justly pretend to that priviledge inasmuch as the generative faculty discovers a greater vertue and vigour in that production of a ninth Male-child without interruption then it might do in that of a seventh Which being not found
that the Artist should make use of a little Willow-stick which is of great efficacy in these magnetick cures The compound Sympathetical Powder is made of the same Vitriol prepar'd after the same manner and the Gum called Tragacantha exactly pulveriz'd mixt together in equal quantities instead whereof others put Gum-Arabick Sarcocolla the roots of the great Comfrey and the five-leav'd Tormentile or such other vulnerary and astringent Plants However these kinds of Sympathetical Powder may differ as to the composition of them yet in the use of them they observe the same circumstances For though the simple wound require the powder of the same name and the compound where there is any fracture requires the compound powder yet is the manner of employing them still the same And to that end as well in wounds newly receiv'd as those that are of some standing and degenerated into ulcers they apply a clean cloth made of hemp or flax to receive the blood from them or the matter wherewith being imbibed they cast the powder upon it then fold up the cloth inclosing it in another and being thus wrapp'd one in the other they are laid up in some temperate place unless it be when the wound is extreamly enflam'd or very cold If either of these happen they remove the cloths from the place where they were first laid disposing them into some cold place such as may be a Cellar or some other cool room if the part affected be excessively hot and on the contrary into an Oven or Stove if it be threatned with a Gangrene or the extinguishing of the natural heat and they dayly continue the dressing of these wounds after the same manner till they are perfectly cur'd till which time they carefully preserve all the cloaths imbu'd with the blood or matter that came from them But what palpably discovers the vanity of this practice is that they affirm the wound to be perfectly cur'd by this means how great a distance soever there may be between the wounded part and the Sympathetical Powder which they say equally produces its effect afar off as near at hand Which is contrary to Reason whereby we are instructed that every agent being confin'd to certain limits in its action beyond which it can do nothing it is impossible that this powder should at so disproportionate a distance produce the effect which they would attribute thereto nay though it were granted it might if it were immediately apply'd to the place affected The Second said That if all Agents were oblig'd to follow that general Rule whereby they are restrain'd from acting otherwise then upon the Subjects they touch either by themselves or by some vertue issuing from them it would be a very hard matter to give a reason of the action of that Sympathetical Powder upon the wounds it cures without making use of the assistance of common Surgery which are many times more insufferable then the hurts about which they are employ'd But since there is a great number of the like instances in Nature it will be no harder task to find satisfaction in the causes of this then in those of all the rest which act at a distance without any sensible transmission from the Agent to the Patient as for instance of the Loadstone which draws iron to it of the North-Star which does the same with the Loadstone of the Moon 's causing the ebbing and flowing of the Sea of the Sun 's concocting Metals and Minerals in the bowels of the Earth and of an infinite number of others which act upon subjects at a distance by certain occult qualities Which qualities in regard they are manifest and sensible in the Loastone are commonly call'd Magnetick such as is also the cure consequent to the application of this powder on the blood or matter taken from the wound which is thus treated sympathetically and whereof the action is withall animated by that universal Spirit whose general interposition and concurrence being requisite to all Agents in order to the prosecution and advancement of their operations it may be concluded that he does express it in this Powder whose vertue he conveys to the wounded part by means of the blood which issu'd from it which though separated from the body there is however some conformity and correspondence between it and its whole The Third said That he thought it a very strange humour to attribute to Roman Vitriol and the Gum Tragacantha the vertue of curing that at a distance which they cannot do near at hand and that being apply'd to the wounds about which they are employ'd True it was that they were sometimes cur'd by that kind of procedure but that it was not to be look'd on as a miracle wrought by the Sympathetical Powder but as a pure effect of Nature on which the curing of maladies principally depending as Hippocrates affirms there needs no more for the effecting that of a wound then to take away all heterogeneous bodies to reunite the gaping of the wound and to keep it clean and at ease for the natural heat with its balm the radical moisture and the Spirits will advance the cure in that condition more then all the suppurating mundifying cathoeretick and epuletick medicines which Art commonly makes use of Thence it comes that the Masters of this new doctrine give a great charge to those who would make use of their Sympathetical Powders to keep the wounds very close after they have wash'd them with Urine Sal-water or Wine and to take away the splinters of the broken bones as also the clotted and congeal'd blood and the other heterogeneous bodies which might hinder the re-union And this indeed is no hard matter for them to do in the simple fleshy wounds but they never could do it in those which are accompany'd with fractures openings of great Vessels hurts in some considerable part of the body or such other extraordinary accidents Otherwise that effect being above the reach of the remedy which is incapable of producing that cure if it happen by that means and after that manner it cannot be wrought otherwise then by vertue of a secret compact with the evil Spirit who will be forward enough to promote the welfare of the body in those who should make use of this remedy conditionally that they may run the hazard of destroying their souls CONFERENCE CCXXXIX Whether there be any such Creatures as the Ancients conceiv'd the Satyrs to be NOvelty and things extraordinary if we may credit the Professors of Artificial Memory have so great a power and influence over our minds that they do not only force them to attention when the objects are present but do also much more excite and better conserve the species then ordinary things can This it was that oblig'd diverse Poëts and Historians to speak of Hydra's Chimaera's Basilisks Satyrs Centaurs and several other things invented out of pleasure or wantonness such as have no ground in truth and are pure poetical fictions For those who have
or destroying of these will contribute to the weakning of the Soul and instead of making a Prophet the transformation will be into some Hypochondriack or extravagant Phanatick as it happens to those who macerate their Bodies by an indiscreet zeal insomuch that having not the perfect knowledg of that Science it were more expedient that men had a recourse to the ordinary means of Morality to regulate the Passions of the Soul and bring her to the pursuance of Virtue Now according to the rules of Morality even those who are good are much inclin'd to evil and find it no easie matter to oppose it The Seventh said That it is as hard a matter for the vicious person to do well as it is for the virtuous to do ill in regard that the inclination which the good man hath to do good and eschew evil is equal to that of the wicked person which is always bent to do evil it being very difficult for him to embrace Virtue by shunning Vice by reason of the aversion which he hath to that which is good And to make this the more clear we commonly find some persons so naturally addicted to the exercises of Virtues that what they do seems to be without any study Whence it may be deduc'd that the first seeds of Virtue and Good proceed from those natural Dispositions which are called Inclinations and consequently the difficulties in both are concluded to be equal And that may also be observ'd in Socrates who himself acknowledg'd that his natural Inclinations were so bent to Vice that if the dictates of Philosophy had not wrought things in him beseeming the person whom the Oracle had declar'd wise he would have been carry'd away with sensual Appetites according to his natural Inclinations there being some Natures truly Heroick and ever doing well and others brutish and always inclin'd to evil To this we are to add the consideration of the persons their qualities and age inasmuch as there being somewhat particular in any of these circumstances it changes the resolution in the general proposition which being universal and of a large extent it were necessary in order to the finding out of the Truth that we confin'd our selves to these circumstances yet still following the forementioned opinion For as fire finds no difficulty to ascend no more than the water does to flow downwards and make towards its centre so every one complying with his own Inclinations stands in an equal bent towards good and evil without any trouble or difficulty but to proceed contrary to that motion the virtuous person finds the trouble attending the doing of a evil action equal to that of the vicious in doing a bad one The Eighth said That this bent of the Inclinations ceases in those who are one while inclin'd to the doing of that which is good another to the doing of that which is evil as may be observ'd in Nero who during the first five years of his Government was the mildest of any of the Emperours yet afterwards gave himself over to all manner of Cruelty For what can be said of this alteration and if a man be naturally inclin'd to good Why is not the same inclination continued in him Does this inconstancy proceed from the mind or from the body If it proceeds from the mind since the powers thereof have a certain knowledge of the Good Why does it not embrace that which is good answerably to its knowledge of the same If it proceeds from the body since this hath a dependance on the mind why does it not follow the impressions which it derives from the other The Professors of Astrology who give so much credit to their Influences affirm that these diversities proceed from those Constellations whereby that change is caused and by which the Will is moved and receives a bent either to good or evil but if Reason have the sovereignty it ought to be conformable and produce such effects as are answerable thereto There is therefore a great probability that the causes of good and bad actions are to be referr'd to the regeneration of the Elect and the reprobation of the wicked who are left to the pursuance of their sensuality and thence it will follow that it shall be as hard for a truly-devout person to sin as for a reprobate to do well and so the Question is to be referr'd to the decision of Theology CONFERENCE CCXXIII. Whether a piece of Iron laid upon the Cask prevents Thunder from marring Wine contain'd within it and why SInce we are always to begin with that which is undenyable in matter of fact whereby we are assur'd that a piece of Iron laid upon a vessel full of Wine prevents its being corrupted by Thunder which without that precaution would cause it some prejudice which precaution hath also the same effect in preserving the Eggs which the Hen sits upon and in keeping Milk from turning all the difficulty of this Question is only in the latter part of it and that is to find out the reason thereof which must either be referr'd to some occult vertue in the Iron or to some of its manifest qualities If it be said that this is wrought by the manifest qualities of that metal it seems requisite that the Iron should be within the vessel with the Wine that so it may oppose the poyson of the Air whereby it is infected But on the other side to alledge those occult vertues is an argument of humane ignorance inasmuch as they are to act by the interposition of some means So that all things considered it is more rationally affirm'd to be an effect proceeding from the manifest qualities of the Iron which prevent and hinder that bad impression of the Air. But to give a more evident reason hereof we are to consult Astrology That Science teaches us that Mars by which Planet Iron is designed hath its House in Aries which is the sign of the Ram and the Naturalists observe that the Sun entring into that House causes the sap and moisture of the Vine to ascend an evident sign that there is a correspondence between Wine and Iron and that the one preserves the other by the natural Sympathy there is between them And to make it appear that the Influences exercise their vertues even upon things inanimate yet deriv'd from the root of what had been Vegetable or Animal we find that Wine though it be carried ever so far is subject to an observable alteration when the grapes of the same Vine are near their maturity that distance of Places and Climates not obstructing the Union and Correspondence which there is between the whole and its part which cannot be joyned together save only by means of the Celestial Influences The Second said That the foremention'd reason deduc'd from Astrology was not evident and that there is more subtilty in it than Truth and consequently that it is to be sought with greater probability to find it out of Natural Philosophy which treats of