Selected quad for the lemma: virtue_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
virtue_n	salt_n	spirit_n	volatile_a	987	5	12.2917	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

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

it very speedily whitens whatever is expos'd to it as Linnen and Wax for the effecting of which Rain requires thrice as long time But its penetrativeness appears yet further in that it dissolves even Gold it self for which reason some have thought fit to wash several times in it such Medicaments as they would have penetrate as well as others are wont to do in Vinegar The Second said If it suffic'd to speak of Dew in a Poetical way I should call it the sweat of Heaven ther spittle of the Stars the dropping of the celestial Waters or the crystalline humour which flows from the eyes or the fair Aurora or else that 't is a Pearl-Garland wherewith the Earth decks her self in the morning to appear more beautiful in the eyes of the Sun and the whole Universe to which if the Vapours serve for food the Dew is its Nectar and Ambrosia But to speak more soberly I conceive it a thin and subtle Vapour rais'd by a moderate Heat till either meeting some Body it adheres thereunto or being attracted neer the Middle Region of the Air 't is condens'd by cold and falls down again upon the Earth Nevertheless this Vapour proceeds not only from a humour purely Aqueous but somewhat partaking of the Spirits of Nitre Sugar or a sweet Salt since the thinnest part of it being evaporated the rest remains condens'd upon leafs and stones or becomes Honey and Manna and whoso shall lightly pass his tongue over the leafs of Nut-tree and other compact and close Plants shall taste a sweetness upon them in temperate Climates or Seasons which is nothing else but an extract of this same Dew Moreover the fertility which it causes in the Earth its purgative and detersive virtue sufficiently manifest this Truth For Dew could not fertilise the Earth if it were bare Water destitute of all sort of Spirits and particularly those of Nitre which is the most excellent Manure that can be used to improve Land for the Earth from which it is extracted remains barren till it have been anew impregnated with those Spirits by the influx of Dew to which they expose it for some time that it may again become capable of producing something This purgative virtue whereof not only Manna partakes being a gentle purger of serosities but also pure Dew which sometimes causes a mortal Diarrhoea or Lax in Cattle purging them excessively when it is not well concocted and digested by the heat of the Sun which consumes its superfluous phlegm and that detersive Faculty whereby Dew cleanses all impurities of the Body which it whitens perfectly cannot proceed but from that nitrous Salt which as all other Salts is penetrative and detersive Nor can that ascending of the Egg-shell proceed from any other cause but the virtue of certain leight and volatil Spirits which being actuated and fortifi'd by the heat of the Sun-beams are set on motion and flying upwards carry the inclosing shell with them which an aqueous humour cannot do because though the heat of the Sun could so subtilise attenuate and rarefie it as to render it an aery Nature which is the highest point of rarity it can attain yet it would not sooner attract the same than the rest of the air much less would it raise up the Egg-shell but it would transpire by little and little through the pores of the shell or be expanded in it so far as it had space and at last either break it or be resolv'd into fume Heat imprinting no motion in Water but only rarifying and heating it by degrees which is not sufficient to raise up the Vessel which contains it since the same being full of heated air would remain upon the ground The Third said That all natural things being in a perpetual flux and reflux to which this Elementary Globe supplies Aliments to make them return to their Principle Dew may be term'd the beginning and end of all things the Pearl or Diamond which terminates the circular revolution of all Nature since being drawn upwards by the Sun from the mass of Water and Earth subtilis'd into vapour and arriv'd to the utmost point of its rarefaction it becomes condens'd again and returns to the Earth to which it serves as sperm to render it fruitful and to be transform'd upon it into all things whose qualities it assumes because being nothing but a Quitessence extracted from all this Body it must have all the virtues thereof eminently in it self Moreover anciently the ordinary Benedicton of Fathers to their Children was that of the Dew of Heaven as being the sperm of Nature the First Matter of all its Goods and the perfection of all its substance recocted and digested in the second Region of the Air For the same vapour which forms Dew in the Morning being that which causes the Serein in the Evening yet the difference of them is so great that the latter is as noxious as the former is profitable because the first vapours which issue out of the bosome of the Earth being not yet depurated from their crude and malignant qualities cause Rheums and Catarrhs but those of the Morning being resolv'd of Air condens'd by the coldness of the Night have nothing but the sweetness and benignity of that Element or else the pores of the Body being open'd by the diurnal heat more easily receive the malignant impressions of extraneous humidity than after having been clos'd by the coldness of the night The Fourth said Although Vapour be an imperfect Mixt yet 't is as well as other perfect Bodies compos'd of different parts some whereof are gross others tenuious The gross parts of Vapour being render'd volatile by the extraneous heat wherewith they are impregnated are elevated a far as the Middle Region of the Air whose coldness condenses them into a cloud which is ordinarily dissolv'd into Rain sometimes into snow or hail into the former when the cloud before resolution is render'd friable by the violence of the cold which expressing the humidity closes the parts of the cloud and so it falls in flocks and into the latter when the same cloud being already melted into rain the drops are congeal'd either by the external cold or else by the extream heat of the Air which by Antiperistasis augmenting the coldness of the rain makes it close and harden which his the reason why it hails as well during the sultry heats of Summer as the rigours of Winter And amongst the gross parts of the Vapour such as could not be alter'd or chang'd into a cloud descend towards our Region and there form black clouds and mists or foggs But the more tenuious parts of this Vapour produce Dew in which two things are to be considered I. The Matter II. The Efficient Cause The Matter is that tenuious Vapour so subtil as not to be capable of heat and too weak to abate it The Remote Efficient Cause is a moderate Heat for were it excessive it would either consume or carry away the Vapour whence

Chymical Remedies are prepar'd with a moderate heat as that of a Dunghill Ashes Balneum Mariae which cannot give them such Empyreuma And should they all have it yet being but an extraneous and adventitious heat 't is easily separated from them either of it self in time or speedily by ablutions wherewith even Precipitate Mercury is render'd very gentle and Antimony void of all malignity What is objected of the violence wherewith Mineral and Metallick Medicines act by reason of their disproportion to our Nature is as little considerable since Hippocrates and the ancient Physitians us'd Euphorbium Hellebore Scammony Turbith Colocynthis and such other most violent Remedies which are still in use and Galen employ'd Steel Sandarach burnt Brass and the like Medicines taken from Minerals wholly crude and without preparation which was unknown in his time Rondeletius uses crude Mercury in his Pills against the Venereous Disease whereof this Mineral is the true Panacaea Cardan and Matthiolus crude Antimony Gesner Vitriol Fallopius Crocus Martis against the Jaundies almost all Physitians Sulphur against the Diseases of the Lungs and such Patients as cannot be cur'd by ordinary Remedies they send to Mineral Waters And since not only Garlick Onyons and Mustard which we use in our Diet but also the Juices of Lemmons Citrons Berberries and Cantharides although corrosive are still in use why should we not use Chymical Medicines in small quantity purg'd from their corrosion and taken with convenient Waters and Vehicles The Fifth said There is in all natural things a certain fix'd Spirit the sole principle of their Virtues and Operations which being separated from them they remain only Carcasses without Souls As is seen in Earth render'd barren by extraction of its nitrous Salt in Wine dead or sowre and in the insipid phlegm of the same Wine separated from its Spirit by Chymical distillation which separates the good from the bad the pure from the impure the subtil from the gross the form from its more crass matter in a word the Spirit from its Body which being impregnated with the virtue of the whole Mixt reduc'd into a very narrow Volume is very active and proper not only to serve for Aliment to an Animal which is nourish'd with this Spirit the rest being unprofitable and as such converted into Excrements but also principally for the curing of Diseases by repairing and strengthning the fix'd Spirits which are the true feats of Diseases as well as of Health a Disease being nothing but the laesion of the Functions whereof the Spirits are the Principles whereas ordinary Physitians instead of separating the virtues of each Mixt to oppose the same as Specifical Remedies to all Diseases as the Chymists do stifle and destroy them by the confus'd mixture of abundance of Simples and Drugs whereof their Medicaments are compounded which by this means acquire a new temperament and particular virtue resulting from the ingredients whose qualities and properties are abated or rather extinguish'd in like manner as of the Elements united together is made a Compound wholly different from its principles Wherefore we may justly retort against such Remedies what they charge upon those of Chymistry namely That they are taken from dead Ingredients corrupted and depriv'd by the Fire of their Radical Humidity wherein consisted their prime purgative virtue which is not so easily dissipated since when a Nurse takes a Purge the strength of the Physick is convey'd by her Milk to the Child and we feed she-Goats and Pullen with Purgatives to render the Milk of the one and the Flesh of the other such However since there are so many incurable Diseases whose causes are sufficiently known but to which no Specifical Remedies are found Chymistry which opens the means thereunto by the solution of all Bodies ought to be cherish'd and not condemn'd as it is by the ignorant or malicious who must at least acknowledg it one of the members of Physick as belonging to Pharmacy which consists in the choice and preparation of Medicaments and is part of the Therapeutical Division But we say rather That the three parts of Medicine or its three ancient Sects are the three parts of the World Europe Asia and Africa and Chymistry is that new World lately discover'd not less rare and admirable than the others provided it be as carefully cultivated and rescu'd out of the hands of Barbarians Upon the Second Point it was said That Truth is not the most powerful thing in the World since oftentimes Fables and Romances have more attractives and no fewer followers than Histories as the Poets meant to signifie by the Fable of Pigmalion who fell in Love with a Statue For Romances which are nothing else but the Images of a phantastick Beauty are nevertheless lov'd and idolatris'd by abundance of Persons not only for the Eloquence whose fairest lines are seen in those fabulous Books but for the Gracefulness and Gallantry of the actions of their Personages which may serve for a perfect model of Virtue which having never been found compleat in all points in any Illustrious Man whose Life is always blemish'd with some spot History cannot give us a perfect example to imitate unless it be assisted by Romances without which Narrations purely Historical describing a naked fact are but excarnated Sceletons and like the first lines of a Picture grosly trac'd with a Crayon and consequently disagreeable if artifice give them not colour and shadows Thus Xenophon and in our times Don Guevara aiming to draw the Model of a perfect Prince one in the Person of Cyrus the other of Marcus Aurelius have heap'd together so many contrarieties to Truth that they have made rather Romances of them than Histories Thus Achilles's exploits appear far otherwise in Homer than in Dictys Cretensis those of Charlemain in Eginard and Ariosto than in the Annals 'T is to Romances that they owe half their Glory and if their Example hath given any excitation to the Readers Spirits 't is what the Romances aim'd at not the Histories The Romancer is the Master and Contriver of his Subject the Historian is the Slave of it And as by refraction of the visual rays variously reflected in a triangular Glass is form'd an Iris of colours which although not real yet cease not to please so by the variety of those accidents variously interwoven with the mixtures of Truth and Fiction is form'd so agreeable a Medley that it delights more in its Inventions than the Body of an uniform History from which Romances borrowing the most memorable accidents may be term'd the Essence and Abridgment of the same re-uniting all the Beauty Pleasure and Profit which they afford For these Books serve not only for delight but profit the one never being without the other since Fair which is the object of Delight and Good of Profit are reciprocal and inseparable And the pleasure we take in any thing is an infallible mark of its goodness and utility which is so much the greater in