Liquors represent which Masses he holds between his teeth incorporated with some gum which fastens them there so that as the Water he drinks passes impetuously between his teeth it derives colours and odors from the same Which is the reason why the water he first casts forth is most colour'd whereas if the Dye proceeded from his Stomack it would be deeper at last of all as having acquir'd more digestion by a longer infusion The Sixth said That Histories are full of several particular Constitutions of the Natural Parts witness the example of the Maid mention'd by Cardan who drinking but two pints of water a day piss'd twenty and that of the Emperor Maximinus who commonly eat forty pound weight of meat with proportionable drink and sweat so abundantly that he fill'd 'T is said That Theagenes the Thasian eat a Calf for his dinner and Milo the famous Wrastler of Croton devour'd a 100. pound of Flesh a Hogshead of Wine and Bread proportionable Such was that Parasite who one day at the Table of the Emperor Aurelius eat a Boar a Sheep a Pig and an hundred Loaves and drunk half a tun of Wine All which stories render less strange the quantity of this Maltese's Drink whose colour possibly afterwards he disguises with powders hid in his Handkerchief which he handles so often or by the help of a double Glass of which his Vessels are made or by some other trick whereto he ha's inur'd himself for many years The Seventh said That mineral waters are usually drunk with more ease in great quantity by half than common water can be because their tenuity makes them pass immediately into the habit of the Body And if you consider that this fellow drinks only out of small vessels and those not always full as also with what nimbleness he dispatches his work you will much abate the opinion that he drinks so much as is generally believed Besides though his pail be of a middle size yet 't is never quite full and he spends much water in washing his mouth and his glasses and some too is left behind Nor is it absurd to think that before his shewing himself to drink he swallows a bolus of Brazil or of Alkanet or Fearn Root or of red Sanders or Indian Wood or some such other thing in powder after which drinking two or three glasses of water he interposes some interval that the same may be the better tinctur'd in his Stomack which time being pass'd he drinks about two quarts of water which soon after he brings up red appearing so both in the Air and in the glasses Which colour being weak for want of time to be well imbib'd by the water is wholly lost when the same is powr'd into a vessel wherein there is a little Verjuice Vinegar juice of Citron Spirit of Vitriol or other such acid liquor which is proper to consume the said color And 't is observable that the last water he vomits is continually paler than the first the tincture being diminisht by the quantity of water Add hereunto that 't is likely his glasses are smear'd with some essences which seem transparent to the Spectators for though he makes shew of washing them he only passes the brims dextrously over the water and lets none of it enter into them As for the violence wherewith he spouts forth the water it must be confess'd that the fellow hath a great natural propensity to vomiting which by frequent repetition is become habitual to him Custom being capable to produce such effects that I have seen a Beggar about fifty years old by being exercis'd thereunto piss as high as a pike CONFERENCE CCII. Why dead Bodies bleed in the presence of their Murderers HOnest Antiquity was so desirous of knowing the Truth that when natural and ordinary proofs fail'd they had recourse to supernatural and extraordinary Such was the Jews water of Jealousie which made the otherwise undiscoverable Adulterer burst in sunder the innocent Vestal's Sieve in which being accus'd of Incest she carry'd water without shedding Such also were the Oaths made upon Saint Anthonie's arm of so great reverence that 't was believ'd the perjur'd would burn a year with the fire of that Saint and in our time the excommunication of Saint Geneviesue which those that incurr are commonly reckon'd not to out-live a year In like sort the zeal of Men against that horrid crime of Murder hath made them cherish a perswasion that a Carkase will bleed before its Murderers though most slain Bodies bleed when they are stirr'd that so the Conscience of the Actors being disturb'd they might either by word or gesture be brought to make discovery of themselves For indeed the Blood which was congeal'd in the Veins presently after death becomes liquid again after two or three dayes when it is in its tendency to corruption which Liquefaction and the Inquisition after the Murderer hapning commonly at the same time 't is no wonder if the Body bleed in the Murderer's presence since it doth so frequently when he is absent Yet because this false perswasion from the co-incidence of times ceases not sometimes to have its effect and to discover Truth therefore Legislators have thought fit to authorize it and to use it as an Argument at least to frighten the Murderer though indeed 't is no conclusive one to condemn him The Second said That 't is not credible that Courts of Justice who often admit this proof to good purpose could so continue in ignorance of Natural Causes as not to discern the effusion of Blood ensuing upon its putrefaction in the Veins from that which happens upon confrontation of a Murderer 'T is better therefore to seek further for the cause than to question the effect which some attribute to some secret Antipathy of the murder'd person's blood to that of his Murderer or else to their mutual emission of spirits which still seeking the destruction of each other's person those of the Murderer being the strongest because still living cause a commotion in the Blood of the dead which thereupon breaks forth at the out-let of the wound Campanella attributes it to the sense where-with all things are indu'd and which still remains in these dead Bodies so that having a sense of their Murderers and perceiving them near hand they suffer two very different motions Trembling and Anger which cause such a commotion in the Blood that it flows forth at the wound For the spirits which during life had such perceptions as were necessary for their receiving and obeying the Soul's commands retain somewhat thereof after death and are capable of discerning their friends and their enemies The Third said If this opinion concerning the emanation of spirits whether by Sympathy or Antipathy be true it will follow That one who hath done a Murder with gun-shot cannot be discover'd by this sign and that one slain in his Wife's arms and in a crowd of his friends that endeavor'd to defend his life will bleed rather in
entrails of the Earth and descended into the Abysses of the Waters to get out their most hidden treasures yea he hath pervaded with his sight the vast expanses of Heaven there to consider the Stars But he hath not yet been able to familiarise the Fire to himself which like a Salvage-beast devours every thing it meets Now although it be found almost in all places yet Sicily nourishes it more than any having amongst others the Mont Gibel or Aetna those of Hiera Lipara and many others in the Volcanian Islands which are adjacent to it and of Stromboli twenty Leagues distant from these Such also are those of Modena and Vesuvius in Italy which smoak to this day the three burning Mountains of Hecla Sainte Croix and Helga in Ise-land which cast forth Flames only at their feet their tops being all cover'd with Snow and whose Fire is augmented by casting Water in which serves it for Fewel Such were also that which by the report of Tacitus in the fifteenth of his Annals burnt the Territory of the Vbii under Claundius Nevo and could never be extinguish'd with Water but with Stones Cloth Linnen and other dry things that mention'd by Titus Livius which in three days reduc'd into ashes three Acres of the Territory of Calena at this day Carignola in Campania that which burnt for sixteen years together a great part of Scotland and not long since the Island of St. George which is one of the Asores and divers other fat Lands near the Sea which continually supplies unctuous matter to these Conflagrations whence the most remarkable of them are seen in Islands and other maritim places The Second said That the Pythagoreans who place Fire in the entrails of the Earth as its Centre would not be so much at a loss here as those who with Aristotle hold That it is there in a violent state and contrary to its Nature which requires the highest part of the World For since nothing violent can be of long duration How is it that Fire the most active of all the Elements hath not hitherto been able to free it self out of its Prison and get out of this state of confinement 'T is better therefore to say That Fire being the principal Agent of Nature necessary to all sorts of Generations which are made in all places is likewise found every where especially in the Earth where it is most sensible and is preserv'd longest in regard of the solidity of its Matter For Fire cannot subsist without Matter which serves it for Food and Aliment Whence the Poets describ'd Vulcan the God of Fire lame intimating its need of fewel and sustenance to support it none of which being found under the Orb of the Moon above the higher Region of the Air 't is reasonable to judg that there is no other Elementary Fire on high but that of the Sun who by his heat light and other qualities concurs more perfectly to the generation of all Mixts than that invisible and imaginary Fire 'T is therefore necessary that Fire have Matter to feed upon otherwise it dies and vanishes not only in an Enemy-country and among its Contraries who endeavour to destroy it but also in its own sphere or centre wherever it be since it must needs act there otherwise it would be weaker in its Centre than out of it But it cannot act upon it self for then it should destroy it self But nothing acts upon it self and therefore it must act upon some subject besides it self Wherefore the Matter of all Fire is any oylie fat and aerious Body whence Ashes wholly despoil'd of that unctuous humidity are incombustible That of Subterranean Fires is of two sort Sulphur and Bitumen both which are observ'd plentiful in burning places The Live or Fossile Sulphur which serves for Matter to these Fires is a terrestrial fat or oyl mingled with the slime of the Earth For the other sort of Sulphur found on the surface of Stones is nothing but the purer part of the former which being sublim'd by heat is stop'd and condens'd by those solid Bodies into a Matter call'd Flowers of Sulphur by which example Chymistry makes the like Flowers The Bitumen is also a fat juice which is either liquid like Oyl call'd by some Petroleum and the Naphtha of the Babylonians so inflammable that it attracts Fire at a distance and retains it in the Water which serves it for nourishment as is seen in that Bituminous Fountain which burns four Leagues from Grenoble in Dauphine and many other which cast forth both Flames add Waters at the same Out-let There is some too of the consistence of soft Wax as that slimy Bitumen floating upon the Lake of Sodome Some other hard like the Pit-coal call'd Tourbe whereof our Marshes are full which is the most general Matter of Subterranean Fires to whose violence the Nitre found there may also contribute for as Bituminous Earth makes these Fires durable which otherwise could not subsist so long with Sulphur alone which presently is evaporated and spent So the Nitre and Saltpeter wherewith the Earth is every where impregnated and which hath been before shewn to be the cause of its fertility is the cause of their impetuosity and violence which the situation of places may also promote The Third said That the Earth as well as the Air hath three Regions in its profundity the first temper'd and alter'd either apparently or really according to the various disposition of the ambient Air The second or middle extreamly cold The third always hot and burning And as the Matter of Thunder is a Sulphureous Nitrous and Bituminous Exhalation of the Earth drawn up by the Sun to the middle Region of the Air where 't is inflam'd by Antiperistasis of the ambient cold because being in the next disposition to Inflammation the least concurrent circumstance presently reduces that Power into Act So the inclosed and difficultly evaporable heat of the Earth finding the same easily-inflammable Matter there namely the Exhalations which issue from that third Subterranean Region upon the opening of Mines which testifie by their smell thickness and other qualities how much they partake of Minerals these hot and dry Exhalations ascending to the second Region of the Earth there meet with cold Spaces which being for the most part hollow or cavernous and stor'd with Sulphur Bitumen and other fat Earths become inflam'd by the Antiperistasis of cold and the proximity of those Materials And because the Earth which feeds these Fires consists of two parts the one arid and the other unctuous this unctuosity approaching nearer the Fire coming to be consum'd the Fire must needs be extinguish'd till the heat excited by the conflagration of many years having attracted all the unctuosity of the neighbouring Earth and this having by degrees impregnated that dry Earth which the Chymists call Caput mortuum it becomes again inflammable and continues fir'd till the same be desiccated again and so forward in a circle nothing hindring but
And as they are most healthful who use these least so the most flourishing States have fewest Lawyers Wrangling which is the daughter of Law being the most apparent cause of the diminution of the strength of Christendom where for some Ages it hath reign'd either by diverting the greatest number of its Ministers from the exercise of War the principal means of amplifying a State or by unprofitably taking up the people in Sutes And therefore the Spaniards found no safer course to preserve the new World to themselves then by debarring all Lawyers entrance into it The Fifth said That this made for the Physitians For the Spaniards sent many of them to the new World to discover the simples there and bring them into Europe Moreover as 't is more necessary to live and to live in health then to live in society or riches which are the things Law takes care of so much doth Law yield to Physick in this point which Gods Word who commands to honour the Physitian saith was created for necessity Which as plainly decides the Question as that Resolution was worthy of the Fool of Fracesco Sforza Duke of Milan which he gave in the like Dispute of preference between the Physitians and Advocates That at Executions the Thief marches before the Hang-man Moreover Kings who are above Laws subject themselves to those of Physitians whom Julius Caesar honour'd with the right of Incorporation into the City Whereunto add the certainty of this Art which is the true note of the excellence of a Discipline being founded upon natural Agents whose effects are infallible whereas Law hath no other foundation but the will and phansie of Men which changes with Times Places and Persons CONFERENCE CXVIII Of Sea-sickness NAture hath furnish'd Things with two ways of preserving the Being she hath given them namely to seek their good and flee their evil Both which Animals do by attracting what is proper to their nature by right fibers and rejecting what is otherwise by transverse fibers of which the Expulsive Faculty makes use So when the Stomack is surcharg'd with too great a quantity of matter or goaded by its acrimony the expulsive Faculty of this part being irritated by what is contrary to it casts it forth by yexing belching and vomiting Yexing is a deprav'd motion of the upper Orifice of the Stomach which dilates and opens it self to expell some thing adhering to its Tunicles or orbicular Muscles which being commonly a sharp and pungent vapour we see this Hickcock is remov'd by a cup of cold water or else by holding the breath for the coldness of the water represses the acrimony of the vapour'd and the restrain'd Spirits by heat cause it to resolve and evaporate Vomiting is also a deprav'd motion of the Stomack which contracts it self at the bottom to drive out some troublesome matter which if it adhere too fast or Nature be not strong enough causeth Nauseousness or a vain desire to vomit Belching is caus'd when the said matter is flatuous and meets no obstacle These motions are either through the proper vice of the Stomack or through sympathy with some other part The former proceeds sometimes from a cold and moist intemperies Whence man the moistest of all Animals is alone subject to Vomiting except Dogs and Cats but he only has the Hickcock and Children as being very humid vomit frequently Sometimes 't is from a faulty conformation of the Stomack as when 't is too straight or from some troublesome matter either internal or external The internal is a pungent humour and sometimes Worms In short every thing that any way irritates the Expulsive and weakens the Retentive Faculty So oyly fat and sweet things floating upon the Stomack provoke to vomit by relaxing the fibres which serve for retention External causes are all such as either irritate or relax the Stomack as stinking Smells and the sole imagination of displeasing things violent winds exercise especially such wherein the Body is mov'd by somthing else and contributes not it self to the motion as going in a Coach or a Ship for here the Body rests and also the parts are relax'd only the Spirits agitated by this motion act more strongly upon the humours and these are here more easily evacuated by reason of the relaxation of the fibres then in other exercises wherein the Body stirs it self as riding-post or a troat in which the Nerves are bent and consequently all the parts more vigorous and hence vomiting is not so easie 'T is also the equality of the motion which makes persons unus'd to go in a Coach vomit sooner when the Coach goes in a smooth and even field then upon rough ways The same hapning upon the Sea 't is no wonder if people be so apt to vomit there The Second said That neither the agitation of the Air nor the motion of the Body can be the sole cause of Vomiting and other Sea-maladies since the like and more violent at Land as Swings Charets and Posts produce not the same effects For we consider the agitation of the Stomack as the cause of vomiting that of the Feet and Legs being but accidental and experience testifies that 't is not the lifting up but the falling down of the Ship that causes the rising of the Stomack Wherefore I should rather pitch upon the salt-air of the Sea abounding with sharp and mordicant Vapours which being attracted by respiration trouble the Stomack especially its superior orifice the seat of the sensitive Appetite by reason of the Nerves of the sixth Conjugation thus the door being open the matter contain'd in the Stomack which is also infected with the malignity of these vapours is voided by the ordinary ways as happens sometimes to such who only come near the Sea Indeed the bitterness and saltness of the humour in the Mouth which is the forerunner of Vomiting together with the quivering of the nether Lip proceeding from the continuity of the inward membrane of the Stomack with that of the Gullet and Mouth manifests the vapours which excite it to be salt and nitrous Whence also plain water drunk with a little salt causes Vomit Now if this malady happens sooner in a Tempest 't is because those nitrous spirits are more stirr'd in the tossing of the Sea than in a Calm as they say 't is more frequent in the Torrid Zone because there is a greater attraction of the said Spirits by the heat of the Climate which on the other is an enemy to the Stomack extreamly weakning it as cold much helps its functions Such as go into deep Mines are seis'd with the like disturbance to this of the Sea by respiration of the nitrous Spirits which issue out of the entrails of the Earth and are the cause of its fecundity The Third said That Cato who repented of three things 1. Of having told a Secret to his Wife 2. Of having spent a day without doing somthing And 3. of having gone by Sea when he might have gone by
CL. Whether Alterations of States have natural Causes 195 CONFERENCE CLI Which is more healthful To become warm by the Fire or by Exercise 198 CONFERENCE CLII. Whether Wine helps or hinders Digestion and why 201 CONFERENCE CLIII Why 't is colder at Day-break than any other time of the Night or Day 203 CONFERENCE CLIV Whence the whiteness of Snow proceeds 206 CONFERENCE CLV Whether Courage be natural or acquir'd 209 CONFERENCE CLVI Whether Men not having learn'd of others would frame Language to themselves 112 CONFERENCE CLVII Whether is better to guard the Frontier or carry the VVar into the Enemies Country 215 CONFERENCE CLVIII Whence diversity of Opinions proceeds 218 CONFERENCE CLIX. Why there is more VVind at Sea than at Land 221 CONFERENCE CLIX. Whether it be easier to procure Obedience by Gentleness than by Terrour 224 CONFERENCE CLX VVhether Trading derogate from Gentility 225 CONFERENCE CLXI VVhy the French are so much incensed with the Lie 128 CONFERENCE CLXII VVhy every one thinks himself well enough provided with VVit and some better than others 231 CONFERENCE CLXIII How Animals are bred of Putrefaction 234 CONFERENCE CLXIV Of Zoophytes or Plant-Animals 237 CONFERENCE CLXV Of Trubbs or Truffs and Mushroms 240 CONFERENCE CLXVI Which is to be preferred Company or Solitude 242 CONFERENCE CLXVII Whether Birds or four-footed Animals or Fishes be most Intelligent 245 CONFERENCE CLXVIII What is the cause of the Crisis of Diseases 248 CONFERENCE CLXIX What Bodily Exercise is the most healthful 252 CONFERENCE CLXX Whether Vertue consists in Mediocrity 255 CONFERENCE CLXXI. Whether the Imagination be able to produce and cure Diseases 258 CONFERENCE CLXXII Of Fascination or Bewitching 261 CONFERENCE CLXXIII Of Amulets and whether Diseases are curable by Words Tickets or other things hang'd at the Neck or applyed to the Body of the Diseased 264 CONFERENCE CLXXIV Whether Fruition diminishes Love 266 CONFERENCE CLXXV Whether 't were better to know all that men now know or all that they ignore 269 CONFERENCE CLXXVI Whether Musick doth more hurt or good 272 CONFERENCE CLXXVII Whether Barrenness is most commonly the fault of Husbands or of Wives 275 CONFERENCE CLXXVIII Whether Complaisance proceeds from Magnanimity or Poorness of Spirit 279 Touching the means of re-establishing Commerce 282 CONFERENCE CLXXIX What are the most common Causes of Law-suits and why they are more now than heretofore 288 CONFERENCE CLXXX Whether more hurt or good hath proceeded from sharing the parts of Physick between Physitions Apothecaries and Chirurgions 291 CONFERENCE CLXXXI Whether there be any Real Evil besides Pain 293 CONFERENCE CLXXXII Whether man be most diseas'd of all Creature and why 295 CONFERENCE CLXXXIII Of the Greeness of Plants 298 CONFERENCE CLXXXIV Of the Cold of the middle Region of the Air. 300 CONFERENCE CLXXXV Of the Generation of Males and Females 302 CONFERENCE CLXXXVI Whether the French Tongue be sufficient for learning all the Sciences 304 CONFERENCE CLXXXVII Of diversity of Colours in one and the same Subject 306 CONFERENCE CLXXXVIII Whether we are more perspicacious in the Affairs of others or our own and why 308 CONFERENCE CLXXXIX Of the Original of Mountains 310 CONFERENCE CXC Whence proceed good and bad Gestures Gracefulness and ill Aspects 313 CONFERENCE CXCI. Which is most proper for Study the Evening or the Morning 316 CONFERENCE CXCII Who are the most Ingenious of the World 319 CONFERENCE CXCIII Of the Fraternity of the Rosie-Cross CONFERENCE CXCXIV What Paracelsus meant by the Book M. 326 CONFERENCE CXCV. Of the Art of Raimond Lully 329 CONFERENCE CXCVI. Why a Needle Touch'd by a Loadstone turns towards the North 332 CONFERENCE CXCVII What Sect of Philosophers is most to be follow'd 334 CONFERENCE CXCVIII. Why Mules breed not 336 CONFERENCE CXCIX Of the Mandrake 338 CONFERENCE CC. Of Panick Fear 343 CONFERENCE CCI. Of the Water-drinker of S. Germain's Fair. 345 CONFERENCE CCII. Why dead Bodies bleed in the presence of their Murderers 350 CONFERENCE CCIII Of the Vnicorn 353 CONFERENCE CIV Of Satyrs 357 CONFERENCE CCV Of the Phoenix 360 CONFERENCE CCVI. Of the Sensitive Plants 362 CONFERENCE CCVII. Of the Bezoar 365 CONFERENCE CCVIII Whence proceeds the sudden Death of Men and Animals upon descending into certain Pits 371 CONFERENCE CCIX. Whether a Dead Body can be preserv'd naturally many years 373 CONFERENCE CCX Of the Remora 375 CONFERENCE CCXI. Of Negroes 377 CONFERENCE CCXII. Of Ecstacies 380 CONFERENCE CCXIII. Of the Cock and whether the Lyon be frightned at his Crowing 388 CONFERENCE CCXIV. Of the Sibyls 392 CONFERENCE CCXV Whether of two Bodies of different weight the one descends faster than the other and why 399 CONFERENCE CCXVI Of the Silk-worm 402 CONFERENCE CCXVII Why Ice being harder than Water is yet lighter 406 CONFERENCE CCXVIII Of Masks and whether it be lawful for any to disguise themselves 409 CONFERENCE CCXIX. Of Fables and Fictions and whether their conveniences or inveniences be greater 413 CONFERENCE CCXX VVhether it be better to go to Bed late and rise betimes in the Morning or do the contrary 416 CONFERENCE CCXXI Whether the Child derives more from the Father or the Mother 420 CONFERENCE CCXXII Whether is harder for a Vertuous Man to do that which is Evil or for a Vicious Man to do that which is good 423 CONFERENCE CCXXII Whether a piece of Iron laid upon the Cask prevents Thunder from marring Wine contain'd within it and why 427 CONFERENCE CCXXIV. Of Stage-Plays and whether they be advantageous to a State or not 431 CONFERENCE CCXXV. Whether that Temperament of the Body which conduces most to Health be also the most convenient for the Mind 434 CONFERENCE CCXXVI Whether it be more expedient for a Man to have only one Friend or many 438 CONFERENCE CCXXVII Of the Oracles 442 CONFERENCE CCXXVIII Of the Tingling of the Ears 447 CONFERENCE CCXXIX Of Philtres and whether there be any proper Remedies for the procuring of Love 451 CONFERENCE CCXXX Of Atoms 454 CONFERENCE CCXXXI Whether the King 's Evil may be cur'd by the touching of a Seventh Son and why 458 CONFERENCE CCXXXII Of Conjuration 462 CONFERENCE CCXXXIII Of Natural Magick 465 CONFERENCE CCXXXIV Of the moles and marks appearing in the Face 468 CONFERENCE CCXXXV Of Auguries and Auspices 473 CONFERENCE CCXXXVI Whether those Children who are born with Cawls about their whole or some parts of their Bodies are always fortunate and why 478 CONFERENCE CCXXXVII Of Antiperistasis 482 CONFERENCE CCXXXVIII Of the Sympathetical Powder 486 CONFERENCE CCXXXIX Whether there be any such Creatures as the Ancients conceiv'd the Satyrs to be 489 CONFERENCE CCXL Whether it be better to bury or to burn the bodies of the Dead 493 PHILOSOPHICAL CONFERENCES Part II. CONFERENCE CI. I. Of Sleep and how long it ought to be II. Which is the strongest thing in the World AS Nature is the Principle of Motion so she is also of Rest and Sleep which is the cessation of the actions of an Animal to whom alone it hath been assigned in
that as Plumeor Stone-allume is an eternally incombustible Wiek provided it be supply'd with new Oyl when the former is spent this Earth may do the like Unless we had rather that wise Nature dispenses combustible matter in the bellies of Mountains after the manner of Vitruvius's his Lamps which need filling but once a year and those Water-Receptacles for Birds which are supply'd with fresh as fast as the former Water is spent Or else that Nature excepting the extraordinary eruptions which seldome happen to these flammivomous Mountains and then only when the Fire cannot get issue but by violence makes what the curious often aspire to an inextinguishable Fire or perpetual Light by resolving again into oyly and combustible matter that which was evaporated by Inflammation as Water elevated in vapour by heat falls down again in the same form The Architect Nature finding Cavities great enough in those vast Mountains to facilitate what Art finds impossible by reason of the smalness of Vessels which extinguish Fire when it hath not Air or suffer its Matter to exhale when it hath although S. Austin and Lodovicus Vives make mention the former of a Lamp in the Temple of Venus which could not be extinguish'd or consum'd though neither Oyl nor Wiek were put to it and the latter of another burning Lamp found in a Sepulchre where it had been fifteen hundred years but upon admission of Air forthwith went out Although without recurring to this subtilty that of Fire and its activity is sufficient to attract or fetch in its sulphureous food which being only an excrement of the Earth and like the soot of our Chimneys is found every where but especially in Mines which are repair'd in less time than is believ'd and whose various qualities make the variety of these Subterraneous Fires of their duration continuity and interval which some have compar'd to Intermitting Fevers excited in our Bodies by an extraneous heat which holds the same place in us as Fire doth in the Earth Upon the Second Point it was said That Age is the measure of the Natural Mutations to which Man is subject by the Principles of his Being and which differ according to every ones Nature some being Puberes having a Beard and gray Hairs and such other tokens sooner than others according to the diversity of their first conformation whence arises that of their Division Aristotle following Hippocrates divides them into Youth Middle-age and Old-age that is to say the Beginning Middle and end Or according to Galen into Infancy Man-hood and Old-age According to most into Adolescence Youth Age of Consistence and Old-age Adolescence comprehends Infancy which reaches to the seventh year the Age of Puerility to the fourteenth Puberty to the eighteenth and that call'd by the general name Adolescence to the twenty fifth Youth which is the flower of Age reaches from twenty five to thirty five Man-hood and Consistence from thirty five to fourty eight when Old-age begins which is either green middle or decrepit These four Ages are the four Wheels of our Life whose Mutations they mark out The first next the primordia's of generation is hot and moist symbolising with Blood the second hot and dry with Choler the third cold and dry with Melancholy the fourth cold and moist with Phlegm which being contrary to the primogenial humidity leads to death Now if it be true as 't is said That Life is a Punishment and a Summary of Miseries Old-age as neerest the haven and end of Infelicities is the most desirable Moreover being more perfect by experience and alone fit to judg of the goodness of Ages which it hath run through we must refer our selves to the goodness of its judgment as well in this as in all other Points The Second said Since to live is to act the most perfect and agreeable of all Ages of Life is that in which we best exercise the functions of Body and Mind namely Youth which alone seems fit to dispute the Prize with Old-age not only in regard of the health and vigour of the Body wherein it surpasses that declining feeble Age but also of the actions of the Mind which is much more lively in young inventive and industrious Persons than in the aged whose Spirit wears and grows worse with the Body which hath given place to that most true Proverb That Old-men are twice Children For 't is to give Wisedom a shameful Extraction and to make it the issue of Infirmity to call that ripe which is rotten and to believe that good counsels proceed only from defect of natural heat since according to his judgment who hath best decypher'd Wisdom this Old-age traces more wrincles in our Minds than Faces and there are few Souls which by growing old become not sowr and rancid and acquire not many vices and ill habits of which Covetousness alone inseparable from Old-age and an Argument of weakness of Mind in heaping up with so much solicitude what must soon be parted with is not much less prejudicial to the State than all the disorders of Youth But if the Chief Good consists in the Sciences the Cause of Young-men is infallible for acuteness of Wit strength of Phancy and goodness of Memory which wholly abandons Old-men and ability to undergo pains and watchings must contribute to their acquisition And if it consist in the secret delight we take in exercising virtuous Actions Young-men who according to Chancellour Bacon excel in Morality will carry it above Old it being certain That the best actions of our Lives are perform'd between twenty and thirty or thereabouts which was the Age at which Adam was created in Paradise as our Saviour accomplish'd the Mystery of our Redemption at the Age of thirty three years which shall be likewise the Age at which the Blessed shall rise to Glory in which every one shall enjoy such a perfect Youth as we ascribe to Angels and put off Old-age which not much differing from Death may like it be term'd the Wages of Sin since had our first Parent persisted in Innocence we should have possess'd a perpetual Youth Moreover 't is at this Age that the greatest Men have appear'd Few Old Conquerours have been seen if any he hath this of Alexander That he aspires to the Conquest of another World not having long to live in this Wherefore instead of pretending any advantage over other Ages Old-men ought to be contented that we use them not as those of Cea and the Massagetes did who drown'd them or the Romans who cast them from a Bridg into Tyber thinking it a pious act to free them from life whose length displeas'd the Patriarchs the Scripture saying That they died full of or satiated with days The Third said That the Innocence of Children should make us desire their Age considering that our Lord requires us to be like them that we may enter into his Kingdom Moreover Nature unable to perpetuate Infancy hath found no sweeter Anodyne for the miseries
virtues of penetrating inciding opening attenuating provoking Urine and Sweat cleansing the Reins and Bladder all ffects of heat Others account them cold because being drunk they cause shivering at Midsummer correct the heat of the Liver and Reins cure hot Diseases prejudice cold and generally hurt the Nervous Parts to which according to the Aphorism Heat is friendly and Cold hurtful But though actually cold yet they have some have some heat in power and being compos'd of several unlike parts produce different and sometimes contrary effects So Aloes and Rhubarb both loosen and bind All which effects may nevertheless be referr'd to three principal namely Refrigerating Deoppilating or opening and Strengthning They refrigerate by their actual coldness and the acidity of Vitriol which also by vellicating the stomach causes the great appetite we have during the the use of these Waters They deoppilate not so much by their quantity which hath made some erroneously say that the same proportion of common Water would work the same effect as these Medicinal Waters as by their tenuity which they have from the metalline Spirits which make them penetrate and pass speedily over the whole Body Lastly they strengthen by their astringency for all Astringents corroborate which the Chymists attribute to their volatil Spirits which as they say joyn themselves to the fix'd Spirits of our Bodies The Fourth said That the three conditions of a good Medicament are To Cure Speedily Safely and Pleasantly as Mineral Waters do They are familiar to us by their nature of Water Medicaments by their composition which is discover'd either by letting them settle or by evaporating or by distilling them as also by the smell taste and colour which becoming black by the infusion of Galls shews that there is Vitriol in them And whereas the longest and most difficult Maladies proceed from obstruction and cold the hot or acute being speedily terminated these Waters are the most effectual Remedy of both for they penetrate and like a torrent open not the great passages only but also the small veins of the Mesentery and heat by their Spirits and Sulphur which hath a heat very benign and friendly to the principal parts especially to the Lungs whereunto it is a Balsom and Specifical Above all they are admirable in curing Gravel not only vacuating the gross and viscous humours which are the matter of the Stone but sometimes breaking and dissolving the Stone in the Kidneys and Bladder which amongst others those of Spà perform by reason of their abounding in Vitriol whose acidity and acrimony produces the same effect upon Stones in the Body as that of Vinegar doth upon Egg-shells Pearls and Corals The Fifth said That the use of Natural Baths whether hot or cold may be easily practised in sundry Diseases but 't is important to discern the occasions of taking them by the mouth and their differences For besides that their great quantity the Italians prescribing above 200 ounces a day others 25 pound sometimes overcomes the strength and extinguishes the natural heat some have malignant Qualities and Enemies to the principles of Life not so much by reason of their Metalline Spirits disproportionate to our Bodies as of the mixture of Mercury Plaster and other Earths entring into their Composition whence many die by taking the Waters or come back from them more infirm by accidents following upon them as Gowts weakness of Stomach Imbecillity Lassitude Livid Complexion Dropsie and other more dangerous Evils than that for which they were recurr'd to The sixth said To the end the use of these waters may prove healthful regard is to be had to the Persons the Diseases and the Nature of the waters As for the first Children old Men breeding Women and fat People must not take them without great necessity For the second Most waters are unprofitable and sometimes contrary to the disease as to the infirmities of the Breast Fluxions Ulcers of the Lungs Epilepsie Apoplexie Convulsions cold Maladies and all others of the Brain and nervous Parts If there happen a complication of Diseases some of which require others reject the use of the Waters regard must be had to the most urgent and dangerous They have not always the same effect either because they are corrupted by Rain or vehement Heat consumes their subtilest Spirits in which their chief virtue resides which likewise depend on the Quality Quantity Time Place and Manner wherein they are to be us'd For they must be taken in the Morning fasting in a hot and dry Season as well because they are then purest and leightest as because the Body better supports that quantity of cold Water which relieves its natural Faculties languishing in great heat and if it may be they must be taken at the Spring the Spirits being easily dissipated by transportation The Quantity and Time of taking them are not to be measur'd by the number of Glasses or Days but proportionated to the Disease and its Causes the diseas'd Parts the Age Temper Custom and other Signs from which Physitians take their Indications Which Conditions being well observ'd it may be said God hath not given Men any thing more profitable than these Medicinal Waters temper'd by Nature her self who makes us a free present of them their disproportion with our Bodies being the cause of their action upon them otherwise we should turn them into our substance as we do Plants and Animals the bad successes which happen by them being much more rare than those of any other Medicaments although the most rebellious Diseases are commonly remitted to them Upon the Second Point it was said That the straight connexion between all the parts of the Universe makes this Question hard to be judg'd since they give nothing but what they receiv'd before For our common Mother the Earth receives her fruitfulness from the impressions of the Air the Air from the influence of the Stars these their light and power from the Sun and he his from his Maker Which the Platonists represent to us by the mutual embraces of Porus and Penia the one the God of Plenty which is the original of Gifts the other the Goddess of Necessity which is the cause of Receiving to shew that they necessarily follow one the other And as in Nature the attenuated and rarifi'd Parts strongly attract the next for hindring vacuity and the full reject what is superfluous so in Morality we may say That Giving and Receiving are equally good and natural not differing but in certain terms and respects otherwise a Man might be said more or less excellent or happy than himself there being no Person but hath need to Receive and power to Give at the same time out of the Plenty or Necessity which he hath of something For should he be stor'd with whatever he could wish Might not we ask him as S. Paul doth What hast thou that thou hast not receiv'd So then 't is Reception that hath put him into this happy state and if there be
same be poison to Men some of whom do receive no hurt by poisons as 't is reported of Mithridates whose body was so prepar'd by his Antidote compos'd of Rue Nuts and Figs that he could not kill himself by poison of the Wench presented to Alexander who was fed with Napellus or Monks-hood of the old Woman in Sextus Empiricus who swallow'd 30 drachms of Hemlock without harm of Athenagoras the Argian who was not hurt by Scorpions wherewith the Aethiopians dwelling neer the River Hydaspes are fed as well as with Snakes which Avicenna saith another man kill'd by being bitten with them possibly having his body full of a humour like fasting spittle which Galen saith kills Serpents and other Insects These Poisons and Antidotes are either Natural or Artificial those more frequent in Southern then in Northern Countries are communicated by Potions Powders Juices Vapours Touches and other detestable means The Natural differ either in Matter or in Quantity or in Quality or in Operation The Matter of Poysons which is found almost every where is either within us as the Seed and the Blood which by corruption oftentimes acquire a venomous quality such as also is that of the matter of the Epilepsie and Suffocation of the Womb Or else without us in the Air Water and Earth Fire alone being contrary to Poyson and putrefaction which easily happens to the Air and Water through their great humidity But the Earth by its excrements and impurities supplies most Matter to Poysons which are drawn either from Minerals from Plants or from Animals Arsenic Orpiment Vitriol Plastre Lime Sublimate Borax Verdegrease Quicksilver Cinabar Ceruse and Red-lead are of the first order To the second belong Aconite or Woolf-bane Chamalea or Widow-wayle Yew Spurge-lawrel Thapsia or scorching Fennel Tithymals Hellebores Vomiting Nut Opium Nightshade and many other Plants some of which have only venomous Flowers as certain white Violets others only their Fruits as the Apples of Mandrake or only the juice as Lettice and Poppies or the Seeds as Henbane and Spurge or the Roots as Aconite and Hellebore To the third belong Lepus Marinus the Salamander the Flie call'd Buprestis the Scorpion Viper Asp Adder Toad Tarantula Shrew-mouse and divers others which are venomous either in all their parts as Cantharides and Spiders or only in some as Vipers in the Tail and Head the Hart and Fork-fish in the extremities of their Tails the Wivern in one of its Claws Or in their Excrements as the Gall of the Leopard the Urine of a Mouse the Foam of a Mad-dog the Sweat of an enraged Horse and the Blood of a Bull. As for the Quantity although all Poysons act in a little volume yet some require less Matter as Opium acts in less quantity than Hemlock this than the juice of Leeks and this than the juice of Lettice According to Quality some are hot and either inflame as Euphorbium or corrode as the Lepus Marinus which particularly invades the Lungs the Asp the Liver Nightshade and Henbane the Brain Cantharides the Bladder Others are cold fixing the Spirits and natural heat or hindring their free motion as Opium and the Salt of Lead Others are dry as Lime Vitriol and Arsenic which consume the Radical Humidity For Humidity being a quality purely passive and of it self incapable of causing pain there are no Poysons simply humid They differ also in their manner of acting the cold kill by consopiting or stifling the Heat Hellebore by vehement attraction of the Humours Some corrode the Substance others alter resolve or putrifie it And because all Poisons chiefly attaque the natural Heat and the Heart as the Swoonings Palpitations and Weaknesses accompanying them witness The Antidotes must be Cardiacal or friends to the Heart strengthening it and joyning forces with it to expel or subdue the malignity of the Poyson The Third said Physick opposes Poyson either by Preservatives before 't is taken or Remedies afterwards Preservation depends on the administration of the six Not-natural things as the avoiding of Air and Places infected perfuming them by burning of Wild-Thyme Mountain-Majoran Southernwood Kings Spear or Cedar annointing the Body with Rose-oyl which is an Enemy to Serpents and venomous Creatures and eating in Vessels of Porcellane and the like which discover Poisons Simple Preservatives are either appli'd outwardly as the Topaz Emerald and other Amulets worn next the skin or inwardly as Bezoar-stone Bole-Armenick Lemnian or Seal'd Earth Vincetoxicum Turnep Dittany Garlick Rue Citron Pomegranate c. Of Compounds the most famous is Theriaca or Treacle made of above a hundred Ingredients When Poyson is already introduc'd into the Body whether by biting stinging breathing foam or by the sight as that of the Basilisk or by the touch as that of the Torpedo or by the mouth regard must be had to three things 1. To strengthen the Natural Heat that it yield not but may resist the Poyson and to corroborate the Entrails for fear they receive any malignant impression 2. To destroy the force of the Poyson 3. To evacuate it speedily either by attraction as by Sucking or Cupping or by Incision and Ustion if the Poyson was receiv'd extrinsecally but if 't was taken by the mouth it must be evacuated by Sweat Urine Siege and Vomit which is the speediest and safest provided it be provok'd by familiar Medicaments as Butter Oyl Milk or the like unctuous things These Antidotes are either general resisting all sorts of Poysons strengthning the Heart and Spirits or else peculiar to some certain Poyson General are Blessed Thistle Angelica Valerian Dittany Scabious Devils-bit Pimpernel Tormentil Rue Scordium Wood-sorrel Wormwood Plantane Marigold Fluellin Gentian Juniper-berries Bezoar Treacle Armenian and Lemnian Earths the Horns of Hart and Rhinoceros and Ivory Of Particular Mummy is good against Tithymals the Weesel and Man's Ordure against envenom'd Wounds the Root of Dog-rose against the biting of a Mad-dog the Flower of Water-Lilly against Hellebore Cucumbers against Pharao's Figs Wormwood Garlick and Mustard against Toad-stools Long Birth-wort against Aconites Vipers Flesh and all Precious Stones against Menstrual Blood Baulm and Endive against Spiders S. Katherine's Flower and Dancing against the Tarantula Sea-Crab against Night-shade Citron-pill against Vomiting Nut Origanum or Wild-Majoran against Mezaereon the Seeds of Winter-Cherry against Cantharides and the Salamander's foam a roasted Fox and Oisters against the Sea-Hare Pigeons-dung and Parsley-seed against Mercury Treacle against the Viper Oyl of Scorpions and Wasps against their Stingings by sympathy drawing out the venomous Spirits and rejoyning them to their first Body Of all which effects 't is more expedient to admire than unprofitably search the Cause which hath been hitherto unknown to the greatest Wits and depends upon that of Sympathies and Antipathies The Fourth said There are two sorts of Mistions in Nature one of Qualities the other of Substantial Forms In the first the Qualities being rebated by their mutual encounter an agreeable harmony or temper results in which
of the mouth opposite to the Sun For an Iris is not visible unless we be plac'd between the dropping Cloud and the Sun If the Cloud be between our eye and the Sun it will receive the Rays only on that side which is next the Sun and not on that side which is towards us Nor will any Iris appear in case the Sun be between the Eye and the Cloud For according to the common opinion it cannot be seen higher than three miles but in this opposition of the Sun the Iris will be remote from us above 18 degrees which make above 1100 miles allowing 60 miles to a degree according to Ptolomie Hence the Rain-bow which appears before Noon is always towards the West as that which appears about or after Noon is always towards the North or the East at which times we are between the Rain-bow and the Sun Hence such as are in the fifth Climate can never see one in the South Now the surfaces of these drops of Water which fall confusedly and disorderly being irregular and struck obliquely by the Sun-beams they make a refraction of his Light like that which is made by Diamonds cut into Faucets but more permanent because the drops of Water fall so swiftly and successively that they seem continuous A Rain-bow then is nothing else but the Light of the Sun receiv'd in this falling Rain and remitted to our eye by an Angle of refraction different from that of its incidence for if it were equal the Image of the Sun would appear therein too as we see it doth in Parhelia's Indeed we may say That the Rain-bow is an imperfect and begun Parhelion the Light of the one being reflected regularly and that of the other in confusion and disorderly And That its Arch and circular Figure proceeds from the obliquity of the Sun-beams Or else That he being a Spherical Body casts his Rays circularly Or lastly from the Spherical or Parabolical form of the Cloud Which is also true in the Iris which is form'd in the night by the Moon-beams receiv'd in a Cloud dissolving into Rain saving that her Rays being not so strong and luminous as those of the Sun illuminate only the surface of the Water and therein paint a faint whitish colour and not such an enamel of colours as is seen by day in the Solar Iris which colours are nothing else but an imperfect Light which cannot be directly reflected to the eye by reason of the inequality of the Angles and therefore at least forms these Colours of which the three principal are Yellow or Citrinous which is the highest Blue or Green which is the middlemost and Red which is the lowest Amongst which there are found divers others which partake of their extremities the diversity whereof proceeds from the divers reception of the Rays in the Parts of the Cloud differing in opacity which not being great in the outmost part the Sun-beams paint there a Yellowish colour but greater in the middle a Blew or Watchet and greatest in the inmost or lowest part a Red as Experience shews us in the like subjects wherein Light diversly modifi'd represents very neer the same variety of Colours which although not real as those which arise from the various mixture of the four Elementary Qualities yet are not absolutely imaginary as those are which are seen by weak eyes about the flame of a Candle but are true Colours inasmuch as they strike the Sight which a sensitive and corporeal Power and are alike perceiv'd by all nevertheless they are less material than Elementary Colours and are neerer akin to Light not differing from the same saving inasmuch as it is here received diversly in the eye according to the rarity or density situation figure and other qualities of the Object and Medium The Second said The Rain-bow the fairest not only of all Meteors but of all Nature's Works being according to the Cabbalists the Throne of God who in the Apocalypse is represented Crown'd therewith doth not less dazle the Mind than ravish the Eye it being observ'd That the clearer things are to the Sense the obscurer they are to the Understanding and so on the contrary For it cannot proceed from the different rarity and density of the Cloud which being never alike but infinitely various should rather represent a thousand different Figures and Colours whereas the Rain-bow hath always a circular Figure and the same Colours And as there may be found more Clouds in several places equally rare or dense and equally distant from the Sun who enlightens Bodies equally distant after the same manner so there should be more Rain-bows at the same time in several places which is contrary to experience For we never see two uniform Rain-bows at once the other Bow sometimes included in the first being not directly form'd by the Sun-beams but by reflection of the Rays of the first Bow upon a neighbouring Cloud whence the Colours of such secondary-Bow are not so lively as those of the first but are revers'd the yellow being lowest the Green always middlemost and the Red uppermost For so by the reason of Catoptricks we see that the Species reflected have a different situation from the Body which produces them things on the right hand appearing on the left and contrarily and the shadows of Bodies which pass along the street entring by a small hole into a dark Chamber revers'd The Third said Experience teaches us That when Light passes out of a thinner Medium into a thicker as out of Air into Water if it fall obliquely upon that thicker Medium it is broken or refracted But if it pass quite through such denser Medium so that 't is broken as well at its going out as at its entrance especially if the refraction in these two places be great enough then this Light is turn'd into Colours This Natural Effect is a Principle of the Opticks and is observ'd not only in the Rain-bow but also in triangular Crystals and Glasses fill'd with clear Water and expos'd to the Sun provided the Glass be of a conical Figure revers'd that is narrower at the bottome and wider towards the top This being premis'd the Production of the Rain-bow seems to be thus When a Cloud already wholly turn'd into Water and actually falling down in drops of Rain which reach from the top of the Cloud to the Earth is shin'd upon by the opposite Sun and the Spectator is plac'd between the Sun and the Rain then the Sun-beams passing through those drops are reflected as by a Mirror back again by those which are more remote and passing by the sides of those which are nearest because from one and the same part but one perpendicular Ray can fall upon a round Figure as that of drops of Water is all the other Rays being oblique they must of necessity be twice broken First as they are reflected by the remoter drops and pass out of the Air comprehended between those remoter into the other drops nearer
the Gauls of his time weak in war because they were rich For what is commonly said That Gold is the sinew of War is true as to the power of levying and maintaining of men but not as to the performing of great exploits and enterprises Mercenary Souldiers and Venal Souls being ordinarily base and of ill qualities if they do any thing 't is forc'd and of little duration nor do they continue longer then the Gold lasts Iron on the contrary is maintain'd by it self and its own power Every one fears to offend such as have only Iron by their side as those by whom nothing is to be gotten but much may be lost For to use Gold for repelling enemies and diverting them elsewhere constant experience manifests it a very dangerous remedy since besides the ignominy of becoming as it were tributaries they are never driven so far but they soon return more irritated with the thirst of this Gold then they were before with the honour of Victory In fine since men yield sooner to violence then to gentleness Iron which constrains and forces is much more powerful then Gold which perswades but chiefly in War where the bravest and most generous exploits are perform'd by open force and not by surprises and treacheries he not being properly overcome who was willing to be so and suffer'd him self to be corrupted but a Victory gotten by pure Valour ordinarily takes from the enemies the desire of returning The Second said That Victory being the end of War it matters not by what means that end is obtain'd the easiest and least bloody of which are stratagems and surprizes which besides being the effects of Wit and Prudence seem more proper to man then down-right force wherein beasts surpass us and which is oftimes accompani'd with injustice Wherefore Gold whereby all secret intelligences are contriv'd seems to have the advantage of Iron as slights in War are more efficacious then open force As also it makes less noise and hath more fruit whereas Iron oftentimes equally subdues and weakens both parties And Victory the thing aimed at by War cannot be call'd such unless it be intire Iron indeed subdues bodies not hearts but Gold wins both together The Third said That Gold and Iron may be consider'd either simply as Metals or else as Instruments of civil life In the former consideration Gold being of a more perfect nature hath also more power then Iron the most imperfect and terrene of all besides its ductility makes it more capable of extension then any other which is an evidence of its perfection If they be consider'd as means and instruments destinated to the use of life which is the noblest end whereunto they can be imploy'd Gold will still have the advantage over Iron since if we credit the Chymists potable Gold is profitably employ'd for health and the prorogation of life and the same Metal is also the bond of humane society which cannot subsist without commerce nor this without money for which Gold is the most proper as containing in small bulk the value of all other Metals of lower alloy Hence we see the people commonly raise the price of it beyond what the Prince sets upon it and 't is as much desir'd by all the world as Iron is abhorr'd all Professions and Trades aiming at the enjoyment of gold which seems to be the ultimate end of all humane actions in this life whatever disguises men assume under the pretexts of honour and vertue whose lustre is also set off by that of Gold employ'd for this purpose to crown the heads of Monarchs and to render divine worship more magnificent The Fourth said That as Iron makes Hammers and Anvils which serve to give Gold what form we please so 't is every where the master of gold and consequently more powerful in Peace and War affording Grates Locks and Keys for securing Gold in the former and Swords for defending it in the latter For Gold serves only to make the possessor envi'd and inflame the desires of such as want it 'T was with Iron that the Romans became masters of the Gold of other Nations and the Portugals conquer'd that of Peru and the Swisses overcame the Duke of Burgundy the History observing that all their wealth was not worth the Gold wherewith the Burgundians had enrich'd their horses bridles The Fifth said That the end being not only more noble but also more powerful then the means Iron which is commonly employ'd for the getting of Gold must be also inferior to it And 't is universally acknowledg'd that Gold is the sinew of War it levies and keeps men together it makes the Cannon move and all its train 'T is with Gold that we corrupt Spies without whose informations all Iron and strength would be oftentimes unprofitable Wherefore since Iron borrows its power from Gold by the Philosophical Maxim it hath less power then it CONFERENCE CXV I. Of the cause of Vapours II. Which is less culpable Rashness or Cowardice THe First said The material cause of Vapours is aqueous humidity the efficient external heat the formal rarefaction the final is various according to nature's different intentions but commonly the elevation of an aqueous body which remaining in its first consistence would weigh more then air and consequently could not be carried to those higher places where 't is needful for the generation of Mixts which cannot be done without transmutation of the Elements into the places yea and natures also one of another So Roses in an Alembick would evaporate nothing if they were depriv'd of all humidity as appears in their dry'd Cakes nor what humidity may be in them without heat which humidity is rarifi'd and carri'd upwards before it descends being again condens'd into the water which resided in the Cake before its separation by heat which consequently is the most evident cause of Vapours The Second said There are some vapours that are hot and dry as appears not only by the smoak exhaling from boiling Pitch and other unctuous bodies but also by the vapours that issue out of the earth which would never be inflam'd some in the surface of the earth others in the middle of the air and others beyond the highest region and even in the heavens if they were only of the nature of water which quencheth instead of conceiving fire as on the other side Rain Hail Snow Dew and other aqueous and incombustible Meteors argue that all Vapours of which they must be produc'd are not hot and dry Whence I conclude that as the matter of vapours is various so their other causes are all different especially the efficient For the degree of heat that evaporates water will not make Oyl exhale as we see a great glass will be sooner evaporated then a spoonful of the latter and the Chymists make use of a small fire or even of the Sun to distill their waters but augment their fire to extract Oyls Moreover as to the material causes the vapours of hot
and dry bodies are more gross and earthy those of pure water more subtle and as to the final aqueons vapours serve to irrigate unctuous to impinguate the earth The Third said 'T is not credible that heat is the efficient cause of vapours since they abound more in Winter then Summer and in less hot Climats then in such where heat predominates which have none at all as Egypt and other places where it never rains If you say that there are no vapours there because the Suns heat dssipates as fast as it raises them you imply heat contrary to vapours since it dissolves them and suffers them not to gather into one body The Fourth said Copiousness of vapours in cold Seasons and Regions makes not against their production by heat since the heat which mounts them upwards is not that of the Suns rays but from within the earth which every one acknowledges so much hotter during Winter in its centre as its surface is colder where the matter of vapours coming to be repercuss'd by the coldness of the air is thereby condens'd and receives its form On the contrary in Summer the earth being cold within exhales nothing and if ought issue forth it is not compacted but dissipated by the heat of the outward air The Fifth said That the thorough inquisition of the cause of vapours raises no fewer clouds and obscurities in the wits of men then their true cause produces in the air For if we attribute them to the Sun whose heat penetrating the earth or outwardly calefying it attracts the thinner parts of the earth and water this is contradicted by experience which shews us more Rain Storms and violent Winds in the Winter when the Suns heat is weakest then in the Shmmer when his rays are more perpendicular and as such ought to penetrate deeper into the earth and from its centre or surface attract greater plenty of vapours the contrary whereof falls out It follows therefore that the Sun hath no such attractive faculty Nor is the coldness and dryness of the earth any way proper for the production of such humid substances as Vapours and Exhalations the latter whereof being more subtle and consequently more moveable as appears by Earth-quakes Winds and Tempests which are made with greater violence then Rain Showers or Dew cannot be engendred of earth much grosser then water which is held the material cause of vapour otherwise an exhalation being earthy should be more gross then a vapour extracted out of water which it is not It remains then that the cause of vapours is the internal heat of the earth which being encreas'd from without by the cold of the ambient air or exhaling all its pores open'd by the heat of the Sun produces the diversity of Meteors And this internal heat of the earth appears in Winter by the reaking of Springs and the warmth of Caves and subterraneous places yea the Sea it self said to supply the principle matter to these vapours is affirm'd hotter at the bottom whither therefore the Fishes retire and indeed it is so in its substance as appears by its salt bitterness and motion whence 't is call'd by the Latines Aestus And as in the bodies of Animals vapours issuing by the pores open'd by heat cause sweat and when those passages are stopt by the coldness of the outward air their subtler parts are resolv'd into flatuosities and the more gross and humid are carried up to the Brain by whose coldness being condens'd they fall down upon other parts and produce defluxions so in the world which like us consists of solid parts earth and stones of fluid the waters and of rapid which are the most subtle and tenuious parts of the Mass when these last happen to be associated with others more gross they carry them up on high with themselves where they meet with other natural causes of Cold and Heat which rarefies or condenses and redouble their impetuosity by the occurrence of some obstacle in their way these Spirits being incapable of confinement because 't is proper to them to wander freely through the World Elementary qualities are indeed found joyn'd with these vapours and exhalations but are no more the causes of them then of our animal vital or natural spirits which are likewise imbu'd with the same The Sixth said That the general cause of vapours is Heaven which by its motion light and influences heating and penetrating the Elements subtilises them and extracts their purest parts as appears by the Sea whose saltness proceeds from the Suns having drawn away the lighter and fresher parts and left the grosser and bitter in the surface cold and heat condense and rarefie other and by this Reciprocation the harmonious proportion of the four Elements is continu'd sometimes tempering the Earths excessive dryness by gentle Dews or fruitful Rains and sometimes correcting the too great humidity and impurity of the air by winds and igneous impressions some of which serve also to adorn the World and instruct Men. And as these vapours are for the common good of the Universe in which they maintain Generations and for preservation of the Elements who by this means purge their impurities so they all contribute to the matter of them Fire forms most igneous and luminous impressions Air rarefi'd supplies matter for winds as is seen in the Aeolipila and condens'd is turn'd into rain But especially water and earth the grossest Elements and consequently most subject to the impressions of outward agents continually emit fumes or steams out of their bosom which are always observ'd in the surface of the Terraqueous Globe even in the clearest days of the year and form the diversity of parallaxes These fumes are either dry or moist the dry arise out of the earth and are call'd Exhalations the moist are Vapours and issue from the water yet both are endu'd with an adventitious heat either from subterranean fires or the heat of Heaven or the mixture of fire A Vapour is less hot then an Exhalation because its aqueous humidity abates its heat whereas that of the latter is promoted by its dryness which yet must be a little season'd with humidity the sole aliment and mansion of heat which hath no operation upon bodies totally dry whence ashes remain incorruptible in the midst of flames and evaporate nothing But whatever be the cause of these vapours they are not only more tenuious under that form but also after the re-assumption of their own So Dew is a more potent dissolver and penetrates more then common water which some attribute to the Nitre wherewith the earth abounds Upon the Second Point it was said Valour is a Virtue so high above the pitch of others and so admir'd by all men that 't was it alone that deifi'd the Heroes of Antiquity For Nature having given Man a desire of Self-preservation the Virtue which makes him despise the apprehension of such dangers as may destroy him is undoubtedly the most eminent of all other moral
distill'd Waters difficultly by reason of their simplicity Vinegar though cold never by reason of the tenuity of its parts But the surface of waters being full of earthy and gross parts which could not accompany the Vapours or Exhalations drawn up by the Sun's heat is therefore first frozen even that of running waters though not so easily by reason of their motion makes a divulsion of their parts as neither Oyle very easily by reason of its aërious and unctuous humidity the Sea and Hot Spirits which yet Experience shews are sometimes frozen by Vehement Cold the Poet in his description of the sharpness of Winter in his Georgicks saying that they cleav'd Wine with hatchets and the Northern Navigations of the Hollanders relating that they were detain'd three moneths under the seventy fourth Degree where their Ships were frozen in the main sea The Second said That Heat and Cold are the immediate Causes of Freezing and Thawing but 't is hard to know Whence that Heat and Cold comes Now because Cold is onely the Privation of Heat as Darkness is of Light we shall sufficiently understand the Causes of Cold and of Freezing if we know those of Heat which causes Thawing The truth is the Sun whose approach and remoteness makes the diversities of Seasons according to the different mutations which he causes in the qualities of the Air contribute thereunto but the Earth helps too he cannot do it alone for we see that the Snow on the Mountains which approach nearest Heaven is last melted But the Sun's Rays piercing into the bosome of the Earth draw out that Fire which is inclos'd in its entralls and because the Sun removes but a very little from the Aequinoctial Line therefore that part of the Earth which answers to that of Heaven where the Sun continually resides is alwayes Hot and by a contrary Reason that under the Poles is alwayes extreamly cold And even Country-people observe winds to be the Cause of these Effects for those that blow from the North quarter bring with them an extream cold Air which is the cause of Freezing and those from the South bring on us an Air extreamly heated by the continuall action of the Sun and so are the cause of Thawing The Third said That Winds being continual because their matter never fails it happens that the strongest gets the better of the weakest and they chase one another whence Virgil calls them Wrestlers When the South Winds blow which are more frequent and more gross then the Northern or Eastern by reason of the Sun's strength in the South which opens the Pores of the Earth more the copious Exhalations which issue out of it are hotter than those which come out of the Pores of the Northern Earth which are closed up by Cold whence the Winds blowing from thence are colder and thinner just as our breath is cold when we contract our Mouthes and hot when we dilate them In like manner the Exhalations issuing out of the Earth's Pores are hotter or colder according as the passages out of which they proceed are more or less dilated and consequently cause Freezing or Thawing The Fourth said That the Sun or other Stars are onely remote Causes of Freezing and Thawing namely by their Heat which serves to raise the Vapors which are the next causes thereof according as they partake more or less of that external Heat or as the Chymists say as they are full either of certain nitrous and dissolving Spirits which cause Thawing or of coagulating ones which cause Freezing such as those are harden Plants into Stones which so presently congeal drops of water in Caves and Water-droppings and form the Crystals of the Rock Moreover just before it freezes Sinks and other stinking places smell more strong by reason that the Spirits and Vapors of the Earth are complicated with those stinks as they issue forth The Fifth said That the Cause of Thawing is to be attributed to the Heat of the Earth which exhaling warm Vapors fiâ—st heats the bottome of the Water for which reason Fish retire thither then they mollifie and moisten the surface of the Water or the Earth hardned by Cold. Moreover that Heat which is found in the deepest Mines where the Labourers work naked and most ordinarily in the Water without enduring any Cold the veins of Sulphur Bitumen Vitriol and Arsenick which are found in the entralls of the Earth the Hot Springs and the Volcanoes in its surface sufficiently argue That if there be not a Central Fire as the Pythagoreans held yet there is a great Heat there like that of Living Bodies which concocts Metals and makes Plants grow Hence the changes of Air are first discover'd in Mines by the Vapors arising from beneath which hinder Respiration and make the Lamps burn dim or go quite out Whereby 't is evident that they are exhaled by the Heat of the earth and not attracted by that of the Sun and Stars which penetrate but a very little way into the earth Now as our bodies are inwardly hotter in Winter so this heat of the earth being concentred in it self as appears by Springs which smoke in that season and by the heat of subterraneous places raises greater plenty of warm Vapors which in Winte render the Weather moist and rainy but when rain or the coldness of the air stops those pores then those Exhalations being shut up the Air remains cold and it freezes which frost is again dissolv'd by their eruption For the natural heat of the Earth being constring'd and render'd stronger by the ambient Cold drives out hotter and more copious exhalations which consist either of the rain-water wherewith it is moistned or of other humidities and which arriving at the surface of the Earth which is frozen soften it and fill the air with clouds which always accompany a Thaw as Serenity do's a Frost The Sixth said That as Hail is nothing but Rain congeal'd so Frost is nothing but Dew condens'd by the vehemence of Cold and in the Water 't is call'd Ice which coldness condensing the Water which is a diaphanous body and consequently hath an internal and radical light is the cause of its whiteness which is the beginning of light as the Stars are the condens'd parts of their Orbs. Unless you had rather ascribe that whiteness to the Air included in the Ice which also makes the same swim upon the water An Evidence that Cold alone is not the cause of Freezing for Cold alone render bodies more ponderous by condensing their parts whence Ice should be heavier then Water but there is requir'd besides some hot and dry exhalation which insinuating into the Water gives it levity The Seventh said That such bodies as are frozen are so far from receiving augmentation of parts that they lose the thinnest of their own hence a bottle so close stopped that the air cannot get in to supply the place of the thinner parts which transspire and perish upon freezing breaks in pieces for avoiding
Crystal which besides should swim upon the water as well as Ice doth and not be more heavy and transparent which cannot be attributed to their greater density caus'd by a more vehement cold since water inspissated into Ice becomes less transparent and Crystals are not so cold to the touch as Ice But above all their Calcination evidently shews that there is something else in them besides Water for finding out of which we must examine the principles of Bodies nearest akin to them as Alom and Glass which by their splendor and consistence much resemble precious Stones being like them Mineral Juices hardned and mixt by a proportionate quantity of Salts and violent Spirits which joyned together lose their Acrimony to embrace one another more closely These Principles are very viscous capable of great solidity and being of themselves transparent are proper to preserve all the brightness and light which their specifick forms can add to them This resemblance being supposed we are obliged to discover the same Principles of Composition in Jewels since things agreeing generically and having resemblance of qualities agree also as to matters and have nothing to distinguish them but that unknown Form which determines the Species But the truth is little brightness and hardness proceed not from their Form alone which is uncapable of so close connexion but from much dark Earth and a very impure Phlegm which is not found in precious Stones or in the Glass where-with in the Indies they make Emeralds Moreover 't is this body that most resembles those Stones which hath no other Principles but a Spirit mingled amongst much Salt and some little of Earth which are united by the activity of heat and condensed by their natural inclination to inspissation cold contributing but very little thereunto since they acquire their solidity and consistence whilst yet very hot The Artifice of counterfeiting Rubies and Diamonds with the same Principles of Glass greatly confirms this Opinion onely for avoiding brittleness they mix less terrestreity and consume not the moisture which causes Concretion with so much violence The Calcination of Crystals whereby much Salt is extracted from them and the easiness of making Glass there-with in like manner shews what are the Material Principles of these Stones Which Principles being contained or generated in the bosome of the Earth certain Juices are formed of their several mixtures which unite to the first body which happens to impress its Virtues upon them then the purest part of these Salts and Earths is volatilized by the Spirit mixt there-with and circulated by Heat which alwayes perfects it by further Concoction till it have rendered it Homogeneous These Juices commonly stick in superficial parts of the Earth where a moderate heat finishes their Concoction evaporating the too great humidity which hinder'd the induration natural to such substances Divers species are made according to the different impressions of Heaven or the place of their Generation or other dispositions to which I also refer the diversity of their Colours and not as most Chymists do to Sulphur which is never found in these Stones which Colours they ought to attribute rather to Salt their principal matter since by several degrees of Coction or Calcination it acquires almost all the Colours of these Stones being first white then blew and lastly reddish The Fifth said 'T is most probable that in the beginning there were Species of Stones of all sorts dispos'd in places most proper for their Conservation which have continually generated the like determining fit matter by the Emission of a certain Vapor or Spirit impregnated with the Character of their Species during its union with their substance before a perfect induration press'd it forth which Spirit lighting upon and uniting to fit Matter fixes and determines the same to be of the same Species with the Mass from which it issu'd For the common Opinion That these Stones are produc'd of a certain slime compounded of Earth and Water concocted and hardned by the action of Heat is groundless since how temperate soever that Heat were it would at length dissipate all the moisture and leave nothing but the Earth the darkest and most friable of all the Elements besides that Water and Earth having no viscosity are incapable of any continuity and hardness which arises from Salt which indu'd with a Principle of Coagulation perfectly unites the Water with the Earth so as not to be afterwards dissolvable by any Water but such as is mix'd with much Salt Lastly the Cement they make with Lime Water and Sand petrifying in time shews the necessity of the fix'd Salt of Lime which gives the coherence of all in the generation of Stones Wherefore I conclude that as in common and opake Stones there is a little Salt amongst much Earth so in those which are precious there is much Salt amongst a very small quantity of Earth CONFERENCE CXXXVII Of the Generation of Metals MEtal which is a Mineral solid opake heavy malleable ductile and sounding body is compounded either by Nature Art or Chance as Latin Electrum and Corinthian Brass or else it is simple and divided into seven Species according to the number of Planets whereunto each of them is referr'd as precious Stones are to the Fixed Starrs namely Gold Silver Lead Copper Iron Tinn and Quick-silver which others reject from the number of Metals because not malleable as also Tinn because compounded of Lead and Silver Their remote Matter is much Water with little Earth their next according to Aristotle a vaporous exhalation Their general Efficient Cause is Heaven by its Motion and Influencess producing Heat which attenuates and concocts the said Exhalation which is afterwards condens'd by Cold Hence all Metals are melted by violent Fire which evaporates Quick-silver and softens that sort of Iron which is not fusible The place where they are generated is the bosome of the Earth the Metals found in Waters as Gold in Tagus and Pactolus having been carry'd from the Earth by the Waters which washing and purifying them render them more perfect than those of the Mines The Second said Although Metals were generated at the beginning of the world in their Mines whence they were first extracted and wrought by Tubalcain who is the fabulous Vulcan of Paganism yet they cease not to be generated anew by the afflux of sutable Matter which is a metallick Juice form'd of humidity not simply aqueous for then Heat should evaporate instead of concocting it but viscous unctuous and somewhat terrestrial which for a long time holds out against whatever violent Heat as appears by the Fires of Volcanoes which are maintain'd by Bitumen alone and other sulphureous Earths This also is the Opinion of the Chymists when they compound them of Sulphur and Mercury Sulphur holding the place of the Male Seed and Mercury which is more crude and aqueous that of the maternal blood And as the Salt or Earth predominating in Stones is the cause of their friability so Sulphur and
Mixts are compounded The Sun indeed is the Efficient Cause of all productions here below but being a celestial and incorruptible body cannot enter into the composition of any thing as a Material Cause Much less can our common Fire which devours every thing and continually destroyes its Subject But it must be that Elementary Fire which is every where potentially and actually in its own Sphere which is above that of the Air and below that of the Moon Moreover being the lightest or least heavy of all the Elements the Harmony of the Universe which consists chiefly in their situation requires that it be in the highest place towards which therefore all other Fires which are of the same Nature ascend in a point with the same violence that a stone descends towards its Centre those remaining here below being detain'd by some Matter whereof they have need by reason of the contraries environing them from which that Sublunary Fire being exempt hath nothing to do with Matter or nourishment and by reason of its great rarity and tenuity can neither burn nor heat any more then it can be perceiv'd by us The Second said That subtlety one of the principal conditions requisite to the conversion of Matter into Fire is so far from hindring that it encreases the violence and activity of Fire making it penetrate even the solidest bodies whence that pretended Fire not being mixt with extraneous things to allay its heat as that of Aqua Vitae is temper'd by its Phlegm or aqueous humidity but being all Fire in its own Sphere and natural place which heightens the Virtue and qualities of all Agents must there also heat shine burn and produce all its Actions which depend not upon density or rarity or such other accidents of Matter purely passive but upon its whole Form which constituting it what it is must also make it produce Effects sutable to its Nature Wherefore as Water condens'd into Ice or Crystal is no longer Water because it hath ceas'd to refrigerate and moisten so the Fire pretended to be above the Air invisible and insensible by reason of its rarity is not Fire but subtile Air. They who say its natural inclination to heat and burn is restrain'd by the Influences of the Heavens particularly of the cold Starrs as Saturn and the Moon speak with as little ground since the circular motion of the Heavens whereby this Fire is turn'd about should rather increase than diminish its heat And besides Fire being a necessary Agent its action can no more be hindred by such Influences than the descent of a stone downwards Whereunto add that the beams of all Stars have heat and were any cold yet those of Saturn are too remote and those of the Moon too weak in comparison of this Fire the extent whereof is about 90000. Leagues for the distance between the Earth and the Moon is almost as much namely 56. Semidiameters of the Earth from which substracting between 25. and 30. Leagues which they allot to the three Regions of the Air the rest must be occupy'd by the Fire which they make to extend from the Concave surface of the Moon to the convex surface of the Air which it would consume in less than a moment considering the great disproportion between them Moreover were there such a Fire it could not be own'd an Element because its levity would keep it from descending and entring into the Composition of mixts and were it not leight yet it would be hindred from descending by the extream coldness of the Middle Region of the Air accounted by some a barrier to the violence of that Chymerical Fire which ought rather to be reckon'd amongst their Entia Rationis than the Natural Elements whereunto Corporeity and Palpability are requisite For these Reasons I conceive with Pythagoras that the Sun is the true Elementary Fire plac'd for that purpose in the middle of the World whose Light and Heat enter into the Composition not onely of all living things but also of Stones and Metals all other Heat besides that of the Sun being destructive and consequently no-wise fit for Generation The Third said He confounds Heaven with Earth and destroyes the Nature of the Sun who takes it for an Element that is to say a thing alterable and corruptible by its contraries which it must have if it be an Element The Heat of his beams proves it not the Elementary Fire seeing commonly the nearer we are to Fire the more we feel the Heat of it but the Supream and Middle Regions of the Air are colder than ours Besides were our common fire deriv'd from the Sun it would not languish as it doth when the Sun shines upon it nor would the heat of dunghils and caves be greater in Winter than in Summer Wherefore I rather embrace the common Opinion which holds That the heaviest Element is in the lowest place and the leightest in the highest whose Action is hindred by the proportion requisite to the quantity of each Element The Fourth said That the qualities of Fire viz. Heat Dryness and Light concurring in the Sun in a supream degree argue it the Elementary Fire for Light being the Cause of Heat the Sun which is the prime Luminous Body must also be the prime Hot that is to say Fire For as the pretended one above the Air was never yet discover'd so 't is repugnant to the Order of the Universe for the leightest of Elements to be shut up in the Centre of the Earth where some place it We have but two wayes to know things Sense and Reason the latter of which is founded either upon Causes or Effects Now we know nothing of the Sun or any other Celestial Bodies otherwise then by its Effects and sensible qualities which being united in Spherical Burning-glasses as they are in the body of the Sun notifie to us by their Effects the Nature of their Cause The Fifth said That Fire being to the World what the Soul is to the Body as Life is in all the parts of the Body so also is Fire equally diffused throughout the whole World In the Air it makes Comets and other Igneous Meteors In the Earth it concocts Metals and appears plentifully in Volcanoes whose Fires would not continue alwayes if they were violently detained in those Concavities yea 't is in the Waters too whose saltness and production of Monsters cannot be without Heat Yet being the most active of all Elements it is therefore distributed in much less quantity than the rest Nature having observed the same proportion both in the greater and lesser World Man's Body in which there is less of Fire than of the other Elements Otherwise had the Fire been equal to the rest it would consume all living things to ashes Nevertheless as the fixed Heat of Animals requires reparation by the Influent Heat from the Heart the Soul 's principal seat in like manner the Elementary Fire dispersed in all part of this great body of the World needs the
from falling but from the bare privation of the heat of the Sun who as by his presence he actually causes heat in the Air so by his absence he causes coldness in the same which penetrating our Bodies calefi'd by the diurnal heat easily therein condenses the vapors which are not yet setled or laid and squeesing them out of the Brain and all the parts just as we do water out of a wet spunge they fall upon the weakest parts where they cause a fluxion and pain The Fourth said That the Air being of it self very temperate can never do any mischief unless it be mix'd with some extraneous substances as Vapors and Exhalations which continually infect the first Region wherein we reside And because those subtle parts of Earth and Water exhal'd into it are imperceptible 't is not strange if they produce such sudden and unexpected effects as we see the Serene doth which is caus'd by vapors rais'd after Sun-set by the force of the heat remaining upon the surface of the Earth like those arising from heated water after it is taken off the fire So that the Serene is that vapour whilst it mounts upwards not when it falls downwards for it cannot descend till it be render'd heavier by condensation into Water Clouds or Mists which make the Air nubilous and not serene as in this effect it uses to be But at their first elevation they are more volatile rare subtle and invisible The Fifth said That the chief cause of this hurtful accident is the change of one contrary into another without medium which is always incommodious to Nature who for that reason conjoyns all extreams by some mediums which serve for dispositions to pass from the one to the other without difficulty And as the alteration of the body from cold to hot is painful witness those who hold their cold hands to the fire after handling of Ice in like sort that from hot to cold is very incommodious whence the hotter the preceding day hath been the more dangerous is the serene because the pores of the Body being open'd and all the humors disorder'd and mov'd by the diurnal heat the cold insinuates into and works upon the same with more liberty just as heated water is soonest frozen by reason its parts are more open'd by the heat and consequently more capable of receiving the impressions of Agents Which is also the reason why the first cold hurts us rather then the greatest frosts namely because it finds the body more open then ensuing hard weather doth So though in Winter the air be colder yet because 't is almost continually the same it makes less impression in the evening upon our bodies already accustomed to its rigor and though the air is colder at midnight then at Sun-set yet the serene is only at the beginning of the night when our bodies more sensibly receive alteration from the same Wherefore 't is only the sudden change of the air which makes the serene whereof our bodies are the more sensible according to the openness of the pores and of the futures of the head and the softness of the flesh which renders the body obnoxious to external causes as hardness which secures it from them makes it subject to internal causes through want of transpiration Hence Peasants Souldiers and all such as are hardned by labour and are of a firm and constant constitution feel no inconvenience from the Serene although they breathe an air more subtle and consequently more capable of being impregnated in the evening with qualities noxious to the body CONFERENCE CXLVI Whether the French are Light and Inconstant and why THere is no more perfect Mirror of Inconstancy then Man as appears by the pleasure his body takes in the change of Pasture his mind in that of Objects and both in that of Condition Hence men look not upon present honours but as so many steps whereby to ascend to new the possession of present goods bringing no other satisfaction then that of their Stomack that is till a second Appetite be excited by new Meats Whereunto the nimbleness of their volatile Spirits the fluidity and mobility of their humours which constitute the temperament too notoriously furnish the efficient and material cause to inquire elsewhere for them for which reason the melancholick are less subject to this defect this earthy humour being less susceptible of change whence they prove more wise But amongst all Nations there is none to whom the vice of Levity is more imputed then to the French Caesar who had long convers'd with them frequently objects the same to them and experience sufficiently shews by what is pass'd that they are very far from the constancy of other Nations as not only their Statutes and Edicts which they cannot long observe but all their Modes and Customs and their desire of novelty abundantly testifie The causes whereof are either from the Climate or the Soil For 't is observ'd that where the Heaven is always in the same posture as toward the Poles or where the Sun heats almost in the same degree as near the Equator which makes the days and nights equal the Manners and Inclinations of the People are also equal on the contrary those that by the several remotions and approaches of the Sun have different constitutions of Air receive sutable impressions from the same which are afterwards manifested in their actions And because what is below is the same with what is on high the Earth consequently partakes of the same alterations which the Heaven produces in the Air and retains them longer Thus our Soul being heated and cooled moistned and dry'd in one and the same day suffering contrary changes in a very little time 't is no wonder if the Aliments it affords make the parts humors and spirits like it self that is to say flitting inconstant and mutable which parts being communicated from Father to Son can no more be chang'd by us even by Travels and Alteration of Soil than the Moor can change his skin which the temper of his native climate hath in like manner given him Add hereunto that the French Courtesie receiving all strangers more civilly than any Nation of the World is also more easily lead by their perswasions and examples And whereas the roughness and rusticity of many other people thinks shame and scorn to change as implying preceding Ignorance the sincerity and frankness of the French is such that he easily alters his Mind and way as soon as another seems better to him than his own other Nations what-ever Pride they take in being always constant and equal to themselves and especially more patient than we in our Adversities surpassing us onely in this particular that they better know how to dissemble their discontents The Second said Lightness of Minds is like that of Bodies respective onely not absolute And as Air is term'd Light in respect of Water and Earth so dull people those of the North and such others as would have gravity alone
in words gestures and actions pass for Wisdom call the French light because they are more nimble and active then themselves and being really what others are onely in appearance affect not that false mask of Wisdom whereof they possess the solidity and Body whilst these content themselves with enjoying its shadow and ghost For 't is not the change of habits or modes that argues that of the Mind but in great Matters as Religion and State in maintaining whereof the French may be affirm'd more constant than any Nation 'T is not an Age yet since France bad reason to glory as well as in Saint Jerom's time of never having produc'd Monsters but of planting the Faith well amongst all its Neighbors whose rigorous Inquisition is less a testimony of the Constancy than of the lightness or baseness of their Spirits since they are kept in their Religion by fear of the Wheel and the Gallows Then as for the State the French Monarchy is the ancientest in the world and hath been always maintain'd amidst the ruines and downfalls of other States by the exact observation of its fundamental Laws which is an eminent Argument of the Constancy of the French the Nations who have most charg'd them with this Vice shewing themselves the most inconstant whilst this puissant body of France remains always like it self which it could not do if the members which compose it were light and inconstant the greatest Vice where-with they can asperse us For since according to Seneca Wisdom is always to will and not-will the same things Inconstance and Irresolution in willing sometimes one thing sometimes another is a certain testimony of Folly Imprudence and weakness of Mind which coming to change intimates either that it took not its measures aright nor apprehended the fit means of attaining to the proposed end or that it had not Courage and Resolution enough to go through with its designes And not onely he who hath an inconstant and flitting Spirit is incapable of Wisdom which requires a settled Mind not mutable like that of the Fool who as the Scripture saith changes like the Moon but also of all sort of Virtue which consisting in a mediocrity is not attainable but by Prudence which prescribes its Bounds and Rules and by Stability and Constance which arms the Mind against all difficulties occurring in the way of Virtue in which as well as in the Sciences and Arts the French having more share than any other Nation 't is injurious to accuse them of Inconstancy The Third said 'T is not more vanity to believe one's self perfect in all things than temerity in going about upon blind passion for his Country to exempt it from a Vice whereof all strangers who know us better than we do our selves are universally agreed Let us confess therefore that we are inconstant since in comparison of the Vices of other Neighbouring Nations this will not onely appear light but make it doubtful whether it be a Vice since 't is grounded upon Nature which is in perpetual change whereby she appears more beautiful and agreeable than in identity and rest which is not found even in the prime Bodies and universal Causes which as well as others are in a continual mobility and change which is no-wise contrary to Wisdom which requires that we accommodate our selves to the circumstances of places persons and times which alter incessantly and that we consequently alter our Conclusions according thereunto besides that change of Opinion is a testimony of a free and ingenuous Spirit as that of the French is and it may be attributed to the power of example in a people environ'd with sundry Nations extreamly different and consisting of Spirits which are imbu'd with the qualities of them all For this Country lying under the forty third degree and the forty eighth the mixture of these people which partake a little of the Southern and a little of the Northern Neighbours sometimes conforms to the modes of one sometimes to those of the other And as in the change of Colours the difference is not seen but in the two extreamities those of the middle appearing changeable and diversifi'd so France situated between the Germans Italians and Spaniards mixing and tempering in it self the qualities of those Nations which are in its extreamities appears to them changeable and uncertain The Fourth said Though the French are not more inconstant than others yet their boyling and impetuous humor and the quickness of all their Actions having made them be esteemed such by all their Neighbors I shall rather refer the Cause thereof to their abundance of Spirits which are the sole Motors and Principles of all Actions produc'd by the purity of their Air and the variety of their Aliments than to the Aspects of Heaven or such other Causes since Nations under the same parallel with France as Podolia Hungary Tartary and many others should be subject to the same Vice which was sometimes imputed to the Grecians the most fickle and inconstant of all people without referring the Cause to the Winds as Cardan held that such as are most expos'd thereunto to have volatile Spirits otherwise the French and other Nations subject to Winds should quit their levity when they came into Climates less windy CONFERENCE CXLVII Of the sundry Motions of the Sea and Rivers NOthing ravishes us more than the Motion of Inanimate Bodies Automata or Bodies moving by Artifice having in the beginning made Idolaters who were undeceived when they came to know the Springs of them But above all the Motions of the Sea seem the more marvellous in that they are very different and contrary And they are of two sorts One Internal and common to all heavy Bodies whereby the Water descends downwards the agitated Sea becomes calm by returning to its level and Rivers follow the declivity of the Lands through which they pass The other violent which is either irregular render'd so by the irregularity of the Winds or regular which again is of two sorts namely that of reciprocation in the flux and reflux of the Sea and that which depends upon the several parts of the World being either from East to West or from North to South 'T is true Water being naturally fluid and moveable and not to be contain'd within its own bounds it were more strange if this great Body were immoveable than to see it move as it was necessary it should for Navigation and to avoid corruption The wonder onely is to see in one sole Body so great a diversity of Motions whereof onely the first is natural to it the others arise from some extrinsick Causes amongst which none acting more sensibly upon the Elements than the Celestial Bodies 't is to the diversity of their Motions that those of the Sea must be imputed but particularly that of its flux and reflux which being regular and always alike in one and the same Sea cannot proceed but from as regular a Cause such as the Heaven is and chiefly the
Moon which manifestly exercises its empire over all Humid Bodies the flux and reflux following the Lunar Periods and Motions not onely every six months to wit during the two Aequinoxes when their Tides are very high but also every month in the Conjunction and Opposition of the Moon and also every six hours of the day almost all Seas have their flux and reflux except some which make the same in more or less time and are longer in their reflux than their flux or on the contrary according to the declivity and various winding of the Lands the greatness or smallness of Creeks the Streights of the Seas narrowness of banks and other differences of situation The Second said That the Sea being a simple body can have but one natural Motion viz. that of its own weight which makes it flow into places lower than its source which it can never surmount Amongst the other three Motions proceeding from without that from East to West is discern'd by the time spent in Voyages at Sea which is much longer from West to East than from East to West because in the first they move contrary to the Motion of the Sea and in the second with it Now the cause hereof is the impression of the First Mover upon all the Orbes and Inferior Bodies which follow the rapidity of its daily Motion from East to West upon the Poles of the World That from North to South is likewise seen in most Seas and chiefly in the Euxine which being fill'd by the Palus Maeotis and the Tanais discharges it self by the Aegaean into the Mediterranean Sea which were it not for the high sluces of Africa would continue the same Motion Southwards Which sometimes hindred Darius and Sesostris from digging that space of Land which is between the Red-Sea and the Mediterranean for fear lest this latter should overflow those Southern Countries The Cause of this Motion is the multitude of Waters towards that Pole whose coldness not raising so great a quantity of Vapors and Rains as towards the South the Waters come to be greater there and so are forc'd to fall towards the lower places Or rather since there is the same cold under the Antarctick Pole and consequently the same quantity of Waters and Rains this descent of the Waters Southwards must be attributed to the Elevation of the Earth in the North or to the narrow mouths or gulphs of those Seas which make the waters descend out of them more easily than they enter into them As to the flux and reflux which is a Compounded but regular Motion it cannot proceed from Vapors or from inconstant and irregular Winds but from the Motion Light and particular Influence of the Moon which attracting the Sea in the same manner that the Load-stone doth the Iron is the Cause of its accumulation or swelling and increase which makes the flux And then her Virtue abating by her elongation the Waters by their proper weight resume their level and so make the reflux And because all Seas are continuous the Moon when under our Horizon ceases not to cause the same Motions in our Seas as when she is above it the Waters necessarily following the motion of those which are next them which would be alike in all did not some variation arise from the different situations of Lands which is the cause that the flux and reflux of the Ocean is more sensible then the Mediterranean and in this the Adriatick then the Tuscan by reason that Sicily and the point of Italy makes the Sea enter impetuously into the Gulph of Venice wherein is observ'd another particular motion call'd Circulation whereby the Mediterranean flowing by its proper motion from East to West and meeting immediately at the entrance of that Gulph the Coast of Macedonia discharges it self impetuously thereinto and continues its motion to the bottom of the Gulph whence being repercuss'd it returns by the opposite Coast of Calabria to the other point of the Gulph by which it enters into the Tuscan Sea Hence to go from Venice to Otranto they take the Coast of Galabria and to return back that of Macedonia The Third said Nothing so strongly argues the mobility of the Earth as the motions of the Sea and Rivers for what else were it but a miracle if water contain'd in an immoveable vessel should agitate and move it self That of Rivers proceeds not from their weight which makes them fall into a place nearer their Centre seeing that in a declivity requisite to the course of a River for 200 leagues there must then be a depression more sensible then the altitude of the highest Mountains of the Earth nor could the Sea remit the waters to their Springs as the holy Scripture saith it doth if those Springs were higher then it But supposing the motion of the Earth 't is easie to render a reason of that of the Water As for Rivers almost all which run westward the Earth having its Diurnal Motion from West to East according to the Hypothesis of Copernicus may cause this their contrary motion by subtracting it self from the fluidity of the waters liquid bodies not exactly following the motion of solid as the water in a Tub rises in the side opposite to that towards which you sway the Vessel By the same reason also the Sea shall have its course from East to West which is therefore very sensible between the two Tropicks where the rapidity of the Earths motion is greater then under the Poles Hence upon this account Navigation is very easie Westward the Currents very violent the Tides great towards the Coast of America as is observ'd chiefly in Magellan's Streight where the refluxes of the Northern and Eastern Sea are advanc'd above 70 leagues and the Mar del Sur scarce goes to 25 and that weakly but about the Poles the Sea hath no other motion but that which is caus'd by Winds and Tempests As for the flux and reflux of the Sea according to the same supposition of its motion compounded of the annual in the Ecliptick where others make the Sun circulate and the Diurnal upon its own Axis and proper Centre there arises a certain irregular motion sometimes slower and sometimes swifter which is the cause of that flux and reflux for as in a Boat mov'd at first swiftly and then caus'd to move somwhat slower the water contain'd therein swells in its extremities till by continuation of that motion it recover its level and the Boat being again driven with the same velocity the water swells again upon the change of the motion the same comes to pass upon the unequal motion of the Earth mixt of the annual and diurnal But because the Moon being annex'd to the Earth exactly follows its motions therefore most Philosophers have taken the Moon for the cause of the flux and reflux although she be only the sign of it The Fourth said That according to this Hypothesis 't is easie to render a reason of two things very remarkable in
the parts But the bodies of Plants and Animals inur'd onely to natural heat are far more vigorous whilst the same is secured against external cold by Bark Hair and Skin and those defensive Arms which Instinct taught our Fore-fathers so long as they were guided by Nature in Caves of the Earth which moderate the injuries of the Air much better then humane Art can do or else by thick clothing which reflects the fumes incessantly issuing out of the pores of the Body from which repercussion proceeds the warmth of our Garments If cold happen at any time to over-master the natural heat in the external parts the same is presently reviv'd but dissipated by fire before which infirm persons frequently fall into fainting fits by motion and exercise which heats all Bodies and much more such as are animated driving the Spirits and Blood and with them heat into the agitated part Of the benefit of which motion we cannot judge more certainly then by its effects For as Fire takes away the Appetite and dulls the Senses of those that sit at it so Exercise encreases it and renders the Body and Mind much more lively Wherefore I conclude for Exercise against Fire without which a late Physician liv'd twenty years seeing no other but that of his Candle and without employing his Wood as Sylvius did who run up and down Stairs laden with two or three Fagots more or less according as he was cold till he was warm and then he laid them up till another time The Third said Exercise is not more profitable to such as are accustom'd to it then hurtful to others Which Sedentary persons find true when they play at Tennis or Hunt or use such other violent motion For every sort of motion is not Exercise but only that which is perform'd with some streining whereby respiration is render'd more frequent the Arteries dilated the Spirits and blood chaf'd whence oftentimes they break their vessels and beget Fevers Pleurises Fluxes Head-aches and Catarrhs which is a manifest proof that 't is better to leave the Humors and Spirits in their natural temper For Health consists in a just proportion of the Humors which are generated by the Concoction of temperate and moderate Food which Concoction is perform'd better during rest then during motion and in the sleep of the night then in the labour of the day So also are excrements better expell'd when the Body is quiet then when 't is in motion which brings a confusion of pure with impure Insensible transpiration is sufficiently effected only by the internal motion of Nature without the help of external which Nature hath not prescrib'd Animals although they have no need of Fire being naturally Furr'd Feather'd and otherwise guarded against the injuries of weather and yet their age is almost as regular as that of immovable Plants Man on the contrary by reason chiefly of his several violent exercises hath no prefix'd time of life which labour inseparable from exercise wears and consumes more then his years and makes him old before his time depriving him also of that contentment and pleasure which makes us live Moreover since things are preserv'd and acquir'd by the same causes lost health which is recover'd by rest and the bed cannot be preserv'd by travel which besides consuming our radical moisture swifter then the natural heat doth alone hath the same effect that motion hath in a lighted Candle which is sooner spent when stirr'd then when at quiet The Fourth said That since Fire introduces into us a foreign and contranatural heat as besides the inconveniences already alledg'd the sweating of the head testifies 't is more hurtful then Exercise which only rouses up the natural heat enfeebled by the apertion of the pores caus'd by the Fire in Winter and the Sun in Summer when for that reason Exercise ought to be less The incommodity Exercise brings to unaccustom'd Bodies ought not to hinder their being form'd thereto by little and little and by the degrees recommended by Hippocrates in all changes For if Physicians contribute all their skill to correct distempers drawn from the birth much rather may they endeavour to turn bad customs into good as being an easier task Thus Galen was not accustom'd to cleave wood nor Pittacus King of the Mytelenians to grind corn yet they exercis'd themselves in these labours for their health And indeed some Maladies as those which proceed from a cold and moist distemper are cur'd by exercise especially if they come from repletion Thus Nicomachus of Smyrna was so monstrously fat that he could not put his hand behind him yet was brought to a moderate bulk by Exercise On the contrary Germanicus whose legs were somewhat too slender brought them to a competent proportion by Riding the concussions whereof shake the Stone out of the Kidneys Recovering persons need Exercise so much according to their strength that 't is the most safe means of restoring it and old men are chiefly preserv'd by it Antiochus the Physician and Spurnia both of them 80 years old preserv'd their Senses and strength entire by walking a great way every day on foot And yet Fire is less hurtful in that age by reason of the coldness and thickness of the skin which gives not its heat so free entrance nor so easie an issue to that within CONFERENCE CLII. Whether Wine helps or hinders Digestion and why THis Question will seem frivolous to the vulgar who are no sooner debarr'd Wine by the Physitian but they complain of Indigestion and weakness of Stomack But our free Philosophy shall use its own rights and inquire whether the common Opinion in this Point be the best Now if Wine which is hot and acknowledg'd such by all Physitians be receiv'd into a temperate Stomack it brings it into a distemper whence Saint Paul enjoyn'd it not to Timothy but in regard of the coldness or weakness of his Stomack in which case a due temper results from the one cold and the other hot But temperate persons must avoid it's use which was a just cause of Divorce to the Roman Dames capital in the Camp of the Carthaginians and still in divers parts of Asia whereunto if you add all those that are depriv'd of it because they have none produc'd amongst them Children and sick persons it will appear that to say nothing of Beasts which drink onely water and are more healthy than we there are a hundred live without it for one that drinks it Moreover they who are troubled with Indigestions find and make others sufficiently understand that Wine is last digested otherwise it would not keep its first colour savor and smell after all other food or at least onely alter'd by the acidity into which 't is easily corrupted Besides Water-drinkers have a better Appetite than Wine-drinkers which is an Argument that Wine helps Concoction less then Water and no wonder since as Galen saith it increases Thirst instead of quenching it as Water doth For Thirst which is the
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
excepting even virtuous ones which is not found in a Bird. The Swallow is skill'd in Architecture the Halcyon is able to divine how far the Nile will overflow and knows that out of Nature's respect to her there will be no Tempest at Sea while she is building her Nest the Goose is so safe a Guard that it sometimes sav'd the Capitol to the shame of the Sentinels the Wren serves for a guide and a scout to the Crocodile the Crow and the Turtle are patterns of conjugal amity so are the Storks of piety and even the swarms of Bees are models of Common-wealths and the Pismires when Age and Experience has render'd them more advised acquire wings The Silk-worm is nothing but a Caterpiller till its wings appear and then fluttering about it perpetuates its species with such prudence that it doth not lay its Eggs in heaps which would hinder their hatching but disperses them in several places in order to being more commodiously animated by the heat of the Sun Then as for Art we see no Animals besides Men capable of speech the first of Disciplines but Birds And the particular Examples of the Elephant and a few other Beasts that have shewn some shadow of Judgement are out-done by the Eagle which flew into the fire wherein her Mistresses Body was burning and many other Instances too numerous to be mention'd The Second said That the little head of Birds in comparison of the rest of their Body their driness and abounding Choler permit them not to be so intelligent as other Animals their chattering jargon as little deserving the name of a Language as their other actions do that of Virtue Moreover their sleep being not so sound and deep as that of Terrestrial Animals which by sucking their Dams are more humid and sleep being the restorer of Spirits Birds cannot have such plenty as other Creatures Whence they suffer themselves to be more easily taken than Land-Animals whose Bodies being more symbolical with ours they must also have greater aptitude for exercising some functions correspondent to those of our Mind For the cavities of their head and brains more resemble ours than those either of Birds or Fishes particularly that of the Ape which consequently is the most intelligent of all Animals next Man with whom all will agree that no other Animal can dispute the preeminence of Judgement with the least shew of Reason if any should it would never gain the Cause in regard Man must be the Judge The Third said Man hath no more reason to award this Cause to himself than to pretend to the advantage of flying better than Birds or swimming better than Fishes who exceed all Creatures in point of Health even to a Proverb which is a thing altogether necessary to the functions of the Soul Moreover they are of a very long Life which begets Experience as that doth Understanding Their Health is manifested by their Fecundity and since coldness is the Complexion of the wife and Salt is reckon'd the Symbol of Wisdom Fishes the inhabitants of the Sea and the coldest of all Creatures must have a share thereof Besides if softness of Flesh be a sign of goodness of Witt every where else as 't is in Man and Physiognomy teaches us to draw consequence from other Creatures to him Fishes have this advantage above all the Inhabitants either of the Air or Earth both which were indeed made for Man but the Sea was primarily made for Fishes it s other conveniences being only accidental Silence the common distinction between the wise and the foolish is natural to them whereas the voices and chantings of Birds and other Animals is oftentimes the occasion of their ruine Yea they are so subtle that Fisher-men cannot take them but with a white line of the colour of the water otherwise if it be gross and visible they will not come near it Diffidence the Parent of safety is more common to them than to all other Animals and their vigilance is greater Land-Animals have no sleight equall to that imperceptible charm whereby the Torpedo chills the arm of the Fisher-man or to that of the Cuttle-fish which when she is in danger of being taken moils the water with her Ink to keep her self from being seen or to that of the Polypus who becomes of the Colour of the Rock upon which it holds to void being perceiv'd And though the Element of Water so separates us from the commerce of its Inhabitants that the hundreth part of what concerns them is unknown to us yet there is none but observes that Fishes need more sleights to secure themselves from the ambushes and hostilities of others than the beasts of the field have which are also more easily taken The Fish call'd the Mullet strikes off the bait of the hook with her tail instead of being taken by it and if she cannot do so she is contented to bite it round about and the Sea-wolf finding her self taken shakes her head this way and that way with much pain till she have cast out the hook again and for the same purpose the Sea-fox turnes her inside outwards The Loubine and Sea-dog finding themselves surrounded with the Net make a hole in the ground and sculk therein till the Net be drawn over them but the Dolphin rejoyces in the Net because he may with ease fill himself with his fellow-prisoners yet when he perceives he is drawing near the shore he bites the Net which if he cannot do quick enough the Fisher-men knowing him a Friend to Man pardon him the first time and only thrusting a bul-rush through his skin let him go if he be taken again which seldom happens as Plutarch saith out of whom most of these Relations are taken he is beaten Yea they are ingenious not only for themselves but for others for when the Gilt-head hath swallow'd the hook his companions bite the line and if one of them fall into one of the Meshes they lend him their tails to bite and draw him through and when the Barbles see one of their companions caught they get upon him and with the indented spine they have upon their backs cut it asunder Crassus's Lamprey would take bread out of his hand and was bewail'd by him when it dy'd The story of Arion and that of the Fish call'd Manaro in the Island of Hispaniola which was delighted with praises and Musick carry'd nine or ten persons upon his back and having been wounded by a Spaniard disappear'd the Raye which Olaus writes defended a man from Dogs upon the shore of Denmark and the Sea-Eele which the Indians carry behind their Boats to let him play about the Tortoises and other Fishes which they take are abundant instances that Fishes are both sociable and docible This also is justifi'd by the Pinatere which pricks the Oyster to advertise it when its prey is within by the Spongothere which performs the same office for the Spunge and by the Whale's guide whom she suffers to sleep in
which is so far from being rich enough of its self that it borrows from the Greek and Latine to express the most common things and consequently is not sufficient to teach all the Sciences The Second said The French Tongue is deriv'd from the Greek Latine and Gothick which are Languages much more copious then it and therefore they that will recur to originals will find those Tongues more adapted for teaching the Sciences then the French and yet not any single one of them sufficient for it since the Romans to become and deserve the name of Learned were oblig'd to learn Greek Moreover since Books are the chief instruments for attaining the Sciences the ancient Latine and Greek ones which yet were not sufficient for it are much more numerous than the French and by consequence the French Tongue is not capable to teach every Science and had it more Translations then it hath yet these are but small Rivulets deriv'd from that grand Source of Sciences which is found in the original Languages The Third said If we regard the order of times and particularly that of the Creation when all things were in their perfection and purity 't is most likely that that Language which took birth with Adam and all the Sciences is more fit to teach them then the much more Novel French and since there must be a proportion between Instruments and the Matters upon which they act and this proportion is not found between the French Tongue lately invented and the Sciences which are as ancient as the World who can think it sufficient to teach them and the Cabalists hold that the Language fit to teach the Sciences perfectly must have words adapted to signifie the Vertues and Properties of things which ours hath not The Fourth said That all the Language of Adam who gave names suitable to the nature of every thing being lost except the the name of God for that reason so much esteemed by the Jews The Cabalists in imitation of that Tongue invented one whereof I shall give you a taste It hath five Vowels E A V I O which answer to the Elements and the Heaven E to Earth A to the Water V to the Air I to the Fire and O to Heaven E produceth in pronunciation c d f g l m n p r s t z forasmuch as these Consonants cannot be produc'd without it A produceth h and k v produceth q I produceth nothing because pure and single Fire doth not O likewise produceth nothing because the Heaven only moves and excites Generations whereas E produceth abundance of Letters resembling the Earth which produceth every thing in its bosom being the Centre of Heaven and the Matrix of the Elements Now to form words according to the Elementary Qualities they will have the Vowels which compose such a word answer to the Elements which compose such a mixt body And to specifie degrees because the Vowels whereby they are denoted meeting together would spoil the pronunciation therefore they make foure orders of the sixteen Consonants viz. b c d f denote the four degrees of Fire g l m n those of Air p r s t those of Water x z ss st those of Earth Upon this foundation they build the composition of all their Words which they compose of Vowels according to the Elements predominant in things and of Consonants according to their degree But who sees not the absurdity of this invention which by this means would extend only to corporeal mixts whereof the quality and very degree is known Concerning which Naturalists are so far from being agreed that many attribute most natural effects to other causes as to Occult Properties so call'd in opposition to the Elementary 'T is best therefore not to rove from the common tract which teaches us the Sciences by real Languages amongst which those call'd Dead ones to wit the Hebrew Greek and Latine and others now disus'd suffice not for teaching the Sciences because they are not pronounc'd well and the learned agree not about the importance of many Letters and Syllables Besides the most eloquent express not themselves so naturally in those antick obsolete Tongues as in their own And all confess that in order to obtain the perfection of a Science too much plainness cannot be us'd either on the Teacher's part in establishing their Rules and Precepts or on the Learner's in propounding their difficulties for resolution CONFERENCE CLXXXVII Of diversity of Colours in one and the same subject THe diversity of Colours is commonly deduc'd from the mixtion and proportion of the Elements but more truly from the several degrees of Sulphur which produces them as Salt doth Sapors the most certain indications what degree the quality of a Plant is of For if Colours had relation to the Elements then all red things should be hot and white things cold which is not true in Poppy and Roses on the one side nor Orange-flowers and Jasmin on the other So also green things should be always moist because this colour proceeds from an indigested humidity mixt with a part of putrifi'd earth as appears in standing waters and yet the greenness of Lawrel and Mint hinders them not from being hot and dry nor that of Ranunculus from burning But Colours are either natural or artificial which latter as we find it in Stuffs and Silks is neither the cause nor the effect of their temperament But natural colour such as that in the parts of living Animals is an effect of their Life and alterable after their death Wherefore I conclude that colour and its varieties proceeds from the different degrees of Sulphur in the subject but that one and the same subject is of several colours the causes may be First for that some of its parts are more compact others more loose and so differently receive the impression of the Sulphur and the Internal Fire Secondly the Sun shining more upon one part than another draws the internal colour from the Centre to the Circumference as Apples are colour'd on the side next the Sun Thirdly the same difference which is found between the Root Trunk Leavs Flower Fruit and other parts of Plants and Animals is also found in each portion of those parts as the lower part of the Rose is green the middle part whitish and the top red and the Tulip variegated is compounded of as many several particles which variety of places and matrices serves to determine the colour which Sulphur paints thereon being guided by the pencil of Nature The Second said That this diversity of colours proceeds only from the divers aspect of light which varies the colours of certain Bodies to our Eye as in the Rain-bow the Camelion and the necks of Pigeons in things expos'd to the Sun which seem far brighter than before To which you must add the distance and station of the beholders so water seems black or blew afar off but near hand colourless Turpentine Crystal and the whites of Eggs in several situations do the like
think 't is from some hideous Phantasms irregularly conceiv'd in the Brain as a Mola or a Monster is in the womb which Phantasms arising from a black humor cause Sadness and Fear a Passion easily communicable because conformable to the Nature of Man who consisting of a material and heavy Body hath more affinity with the Passions that deject him as Fear doth than with those which elevate him as Hope and Ambition do The moral cause of Panick Terror is Ignorance which clouds and darkens the light of the Soul whence the most ignorant as Children and Women are most subject to this Fear and Souldiers who are the more ignorant sort being taken out of the Country and from the dregs of the people become easily surpriz'd with it and by the proneness of Men to imitation upon the least beginning it finds a great accession and familiarity in Humane Nature The Fifth said That the cause of this Terror may be a natural prescience our Souls have of the evil which is to befall us which is more manifest in some than in others as appear'd in Socrates who was advertis'd of what-ever important thing was to befall him by his familiar Spirit or good Angel Now if there be any time wherein those Spirits have liberty to do this 't is when we are near our End our Souls being then half unloos'd from the Body as it comes to pass also at the commencement of a battel through the transport every one suffers when he sees himself ready either to die or overcome CONFERENCE CCI. Of the Water-drinker of Germain's Fair. THis Person is of a middle Stature hath a large Breast as also a Face especially his Fore-head very great Eyes and is said to be sixty years old though he appears to be but about forty He was born in the Town of Nota in the Island of Maltha and is nam'd Blaise Manfrede They that have observ'd him in private Houses and upon the Theatre relate that he makes his experiment not only every day but oftentimes twice in one afternoon Moreover vomiting so freely as he does he is always hungry when he pleases His Practise is very disagreeing from his publish'd Tickets wherein he promises to drink a hundred quarts of water but he never drinks four without returning it up again His manner is thus He causes a pail full of warm water and fifteen or twenty little glasses with very large mouths to be brought to him then he drinks two or three of these glasses full of water having first washt his mouth to shew that there is nothing between his teeth Afterwards for about half a quarter of an hour he talks in Italian which time being pass'd he drinks three or four and twenty more of the said glasses and thereupon spouts forth of his mouth with violence a red water which seems to be wine but hath only the colour of it This water appears red as it comes out of his mouth and yet when it is spouted into two of his glasses it becomes of a deep red in one and of a pale red in the other and changing the situation of his glasses on the left side of his mouth to the right and of those on the right to the left these colours always appear different in the same glass namely the one of a deep red and the other yellow or Citron-color Some of the water is of the color of pall'd wine and the more he vomits the clearer and less colour'd the water is He hath often promis'd to bring up Oyl and Milk but I never saw nor heard that he did it This done he sets his glasses to the number of fifteen or sixteen upon a form or bench to be seen by every one After which he drinks more water in other glasses and brings it up again either clear water or Orenge flower water or Rose-water and lastly Aqua Vitae which are manifest by the smell and by the burning of the Aqua Vitae having been observ'd to keep this order always in the ejection of his liquors that red water comes up first and Aqua Vitae last He performs this Trick with thirty or forty half glasses of water which cannot amount to above four quarts at most then having signifi'd to the people that his Stomack although no Muscle which is the instrument of voluntary motion obeys him he casts the same water up into the Air with its natural colour so impetuously that it imitates the Casts of water in Gardens to the great admiration of the Spectators who for six weâ—ks together were seldom fewer than three hundred daily For my part I find much to admire in this action For though men's Stomacks be of different capacities and some one person can eat and drink as much as four others yet I see not possibly where this fellow should lodge so much water And again he seems rather to powr water into a Tun than to swallow it though the conformation of the Gullet doth not consist with such deglutition Besides vomiting is a violent action and yet most facile in this Drinker And as to the order of this Evacuation 't is certain that all things put into the Stomack are confounded together therein so that Concoction begins by Mixtion and yet this fellow brings up what-ever he pleases as 't were out of several vessels so that he undertakes to eat a Sallad of several sorts of Herbs and Flowers and to bring them up all again in order Moreover what can be more prodigious than this mutation of Colours Smells and Substances And indeed they say he hath sometimes fear'd to be question'd for Sorcery But the greatest wonder is that smartness and violence wherewith he spouts out water from his Stomack not laterally which is the ordinary manner of vomiting but upwards which is a motion contrary to heavie bodies as water is Some speculative person that had read in Saint Augustin that a Man's being turn'd into a Horse by the power of Imagination might refer the cause of all these wonders to that faculty which daily producing new shapes upon the Bodies of Children in their Mothers womb may with less strangeness produce in this Man the above-mention'd alteration of one colour into another And as for his facility of bringing up what-ever he hath swallow'd I can find no better Reason for it than Custom which in him is turn'd into Nature The Second said That Ignorance being the Mother of Admiration we begin less to admire as we proceed to more Knowledg Now if this Maltese were a Magician he would do more marvellous things and of more than one sort whereas all his power is confin'd only to the vomiting up of liquors which he drunk before and the faculty of his Stomack being determin'd to this single kind of action the same must be natural because that is the definition of natural powers Moreover no action ought to be accus'd of Magick till good Reasons have evinc'd it to surpass all the powers of Nature
Sun and that its beak and variety of plumes is wholly different from other Animals Most affirm that it lives five hundred years others that it attains to one thousand four hundred sixty one and that the first were seen under Sesostris and Amasis Kings of Aegypt next under Ptolomy who reign'd the third of the Macedonians It came then into the City of Heliopolis accompany'd with a great number of other Birds who seem'd as well as Men amaz'd at the new spectacle But because saith he there were but two thousand five hundred years from Ptolomy to Tiberius under whom this appear'd this made some doubt it was not the true Phoenix and came not from Arabia whence it ought not to come till its life were near an end to build its neast in Egypt wherein he leavs a genital virtue whereby his Successor is produc'd who as soon as come to full vigor prepares to pay the funeral duty to its parent which it doth not lightly but after it hath try'd by carrying an equal weight of Myrrh whether it be able to carry that of its parent's bones However saith he 't is a certain thing that this Bird is seen sometimes in Aegypt And indeed its existence is prov'd by the Authority of Orus Apollo in his Hieroglyphicks Manilius Pliny Ovid Athenaeus Albertus Magnus yea by the publick voice which uses this word to signifie a rare thing and singular in its Species Which were not much indeed if Lactantius Tertullian and many other Fathers had not often employ'd it to convince the Pagans who question'd the Resurrection Moreover Aelian in his History of Animals presupposing this too well known to be particularly describ'd only blames the broking Misers of his time who prefer their affairs before the wonder of this Bird which is so well skill'd in calculation that it fails not to repair to its fatal neast at the prefixt time In short we may doubt of some circumstances but not of the truth of its existence its renovation is prov'd possible from the re-animation of a drown'd fly by the Sun and since hard to give a satisfactory account of common generations we may therefore forbear to reject this which though extraordinary may yet be maintain'd by Chymists who lay the foundation of generation in Salt the sole permanent principle and not volatile as the two other are The Third said That the Fathers in using Comparisons from this Bird had regard to the common belief as God accommodates himself to the Language of Men attributing Passions to himself though he hath none And for the Authors that speak of it 't is always upon the credit of others Even Herodotus and Pliny the first whereof if you will believe him saw almost every thing however strange and unheard of and the second affirms almost every thing so far as to say that certain Birds lay their Eggs in a Hare's skin which they afterwards hang upon a Tree and that others carry theirs upon a stick lay'd over the shoulders of two besides infinite other things no less incredible and ridiculous yet speak but doubtfully of this Bird. So that we have great reason to do the like yea to esteem it a Fiction CONFERENCE CCVI. Of Sensitive Plants SEnse and Motion are in some sort observ'd in all Plants which incline towards the Sun and Light and attract their aliment at distance particularly the Vine which seems to act with choice twining about the next Tree that may support it not once as might be by chance but twice or thrice But with much more reason may we attribute Sense to the Helitropium and Marygold as also to Tulips which shut up themselves at night and open again in the day Pliny attributes a yet more admirable property to the Lotus saying that it sinks and hides it self totally at night in the River Euphrates near which it grows so that 't is not to be reach'd by one's hand then rises out of the water again at Sun-rise and that in places where it grows remote from water in the Evening it wraps up its Flower and Fruit in its leavs and discovers them afresh next Morning The Tree call'd Arbor Tristis seems also to have much Sense its leavs resemble those of the Sloe-Tree its Flowers open at night and in the day are all languid though of so good a smell that the Inhabitants of Malaca and Goa in the East-Indies distill an odoriferous water from them and make use of their red stalks to colour meats as the Europaeans do of Saffron So likewise do those Trees of the Islands Hebrides the wood whereof being rotted in the Sea is turn'd into Birds like our Ducks and that mention'd by Ruellius l. 12. ch 38. of his History of Plants which bears Cockles of which Birds are produc'd and those said by Munster in his Cosmography to grow in Vomonia near Scotland towards the North whose Fruit falling into the water is turn'd into a Bird call'd a Tree-Bird Guadaguigna an Italian Author affirms the like of the leavs of another Tree Add to these those which Cardan saith grow on the bank of a River in Ireland of whose leavs those that fall into the water become Fishes and those that fall upon the land Birds as also those which Pigafetta saith he saw in the Island of Cimbubon near Borneo in Oriental Asia which falling to the Earth walk'd upon four sharp and short feet whereof he kept one eight dayes which mov'd when it was touch'd and liv'd in his judgement of Air alone Of this sort are likewise all Sea Vegetables such as the Sea-Star Sea-Nettle Oysters which have a very dull Sense are immoveable and oftentimes fastned to the Rocks and from the midst of whose shells sometimes springs a shrub call'd Sea-Oak which grows also upon stones and potsheards having no root but a thick purple leaf as Pliny and Theophrastus witness But all this is nothing in comparison of what Scaliger saith of the Scythian Lamb nam'd Borrametz They affirm that in Zalvolha a part of Tartary the Inhabitants sow a grain like Melon-seed saving that 't is not quite so long from which issues a Plant about five spans high having the feet hoofs ears and whole head of a Lamb saving the Horns which are represented by one tuft of Hair and being cover'd with a hairy thin skin its flesh is very sweet and like that of Crevishes and which is more strange it bleeds when it is wounded and is much desir'd by Wolves but not by other Animals that live on flesh It adheres to the Earth by the Navil and cannot live unless grass be sown about it which withering or being purposely destroy'd the Plant dyes Which Plant-Animal Sigismond Liber a Pole saith is also call'd Smarcandeos by the Musulmans who wear the skin of it upon their breasts and shaven heads for warmth And there are seen at this day in the King of France's Garden in the Fauxbourg of S. Victor at Paris three sorts of Plants to which cannot be deny'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
Xenophanes on the two latter joyntly Hippon on Fire and Water Parmenides on Fire and Earth Empedocles and most of the other Naturalists on those four Elements together which yet as some affirmed could not execute the function of Principles without the assistance of other Superiours such as Hesiod maintains to be Chaos and Love Antiphanes Silence and Voice the Chaldaeans Light and Darkness the Mathematicians Numbers and among others the Tetrad which the Pythagoreans affirm to be the source of all things the Peripateticks Matter Form and Privation Anaxagoras the Similar Parts and Democritus his Atoms so called by reason of their smalness which renders them invisible and incapable of being distinguish'd and divided into other lesser Particles though they have quantity and are of so great a bulk as to be thereby distinguish'd from a Mathematical Point which hath not any as being defin'd to be what hath not any part and what is so imperceptible and small that it can hardly fall under our External Senses but is only perceivable by reason The same thing may also be said of the other qualities of these Atoms which Epicurus who receiv'd them from Democritus as he had the knowledge of them from Leucippus and he again from one Moschus Phoenician who liv'd before the Trojan Warr made it not so much his business to lay them down for the first Causes and general Principles of Natural Things as to take away the four common Elements since he does not deny but that these are constitutive parts of the world and whatever is comprehended therein But his main work is to maintain that they not the first seeds and immediate Principles thereof as consisting themselves of Atoms or little Bodies so subtile and small that they cannot be broken or made less and being the most simple and next pieces whereof mixt bodies are made up and whereto they are afterwards reducible by dissolution there is some reason to give them the denomination of the first material and sensible principles of natural bodies The Second said That if these Atoms be allow'd to be the principles of natural bodies these last will be absolutely unknown to us as being made up of infinite principles which being incapable of falling under our knowledge it will be impossible for us to come to that of the mixt bodies which are to consist of them Whence it will follow that though the Atoms should be such as the Philosophers would perswade us they are yet would not our Understanding which cannot comprehend any thing but what is finite be ever the more satisfy'd since it would not be able to conceive them nor consequently the things which should be produc'd of them Nor is it to be imagin'd that those things would differ among themselves since that according to their sentiment those little chimerical bodies are not any way distinguish'd but all of the like nature and of the same substance The Third said That though there be not any essential difference in the Atoms yet is it certain That they make remarkable diversity in the production of things by the properties and different qualities that are in each of them whereof there are two kinds Common and Proper The proper are Largeness of Bulk Figure Motion and Resistance the common are Concourse Connexion Situation and Order which are generally competible to all Atoms as the four others are proper and particular to them Their bulk is not to be consider'd as if they had any considerable quantity there being no Atom how great soever it may be but is infinitely less then the least body in the World being for that reason so imperceptible that it is impossible for the sight to distinguish it Yet does not that hinder but that they are bodies and consequently have quantity which is a property inseparable from bodies as Mites Hand-worms and such other little Animals which by their extreme litleness elude our sight do nevertheless consist of diverse parts miraculously discoverable by Magnifying-glasses nay to the observance of Veins Arteries Nerves and such like obscure parts answerable to those which reason obliges us to admit though our senses cannot attain thereto It being the property of figure to follow quantity which it determinates and qualifies it is necessary that if the atoms are different as to bulk they should be the same also as to figure which being observable when bodies are broken into great pieces and those appearing with superficies angles and points diversly figur'd they must still retain some figure even after they are pounded in a mortar into small parcels and particles though our senses by reason of their weakness are not able to comprehend it To the same weakness it is to be attributed that we are not able to discern the diversity of figures in grains of corn and other seeds which seem to be in a manner alike though they are not such no more than the leaves of Trees and Plants Nay even in Drops of water and Eggs though in appearance there is a likeness so great that it is come into a Proverb yet is there so remarkable a diversity when it is strictly observ'd that there were heretofore in the Island of Delos certain people so expert that among several Eggs they would tell which had been laid by such or such a Hen. The hair of our heads a thing to some would seem incredible have particular figures whereby they are distinguish'd one from another The figures of Atoms are of that rank as are also those of the Moats which are seen playing and dancing up and down in the beams of the Sun when darted in at a narrow passage for though they seem to be all round yet examin'd with that instrument which magnifies the species of things we find in them an infinite number of other figures In like manner is it requisite that the Atoms should have the same difference of figures that they may the more fitly concur to the mixture and generation of Bodies To that end the maintainers of this opinion affirm that some are round some oval some oblong some pointed some forked some concave some convex some smooth and even some rough and rugged and of other such like figures as well regular as irregular in order to the diversity of their motions Of these there are three kinds assigned according to the first the Atom moves downwards by its own weight according to the second it moves upwards and according to the third it moves indirectly and from one side to another These two last are violent motions but the first is natural to the Atom to which Epicurus attributes a perpetual motion which causing it to move incessantly towards the lowest place it still makes that way of its own nature till such time as in its progress it hath met with other Atoms which coming to strike against it if they are the stronger they force it upwards or of one side according to the part of it which had receiv'd the shock and so clinging one
one time than at another but only seem to be such to our Senses which though they should be destitute of all qualities are then endu'd therewith so that the same Well-water which seems to be hot in Winter by reason of the coldness that is in the Touching seems cold in Summer by reason of the heat of the same Organ which judges of it comparatively For the contrary is seen in that Well-water in Summer being transported into a hot place is there nevertheless cold and the fumes and hot vapors which exhale from Springs and Wells in Winter do sufficiently demonstrate that during the said season the water is endu'd with a true and real heat too sensible to be accounted imaginary But this Antiperistasis is further more solidly confirm'd by Experience whereby we see that fire burns more violently and is more sparkling in great Frosts or in the shade than in hot weather or when it lyes expos'd to the beams of the Sun In like manner a little Water cast upon a great Fire makes it more violent than it was before and the Ventricles of our Bodies according to the Opinion of Hippocrates in his Aphorisms are hotter in Winter than in any other season of the year whence it comes that we are apt to feed more plentifully and Digestion is then better perform'd Nay if we but go down into our Cellars we shall find that the heat is more sensible there in Winter but in Summer when all things are scorch'd and burnt up on the surface of the Earth all Subterraneous Places are so much the colder the deeper they are and the nearer they approach to the Centre towards which Cold which is one of the natural qualities of the Earth gathers together and reunites it self thereto that so it may be secur'd from the heat whereby it is encompass'd of all sides And as it is to this that the generation of Metals in the entrails of the Earth is principally attributed so most of the Meteors which are fram'd in the two Regions of the Air owe theirs to this same Cold which coming to encompass and as it were to enclose the hot and dry Exhalation which makes the Winds Lightning Thunder and Thunder-bolts as also that which makes the Comets in the Middle Region of the Air these unctuous and easily-enflam'd vapors being encompass'd of all sides by the extream coldness of that Air which encloses them they in order to their Conservation re-unite and take fire after the same manner as the Rayes of the Sun darted against some Opake Body or reflected by Burning-glasses set on fire the most solid Bodies on which they are repercuss'd as it is related of Archimedes who by such an Artifice consum'd the Ships of Marcellus who besieg'd the City of Saragossa in Sicily Which instance serves as well to prove Antiperistasis as the manner whereby it is wrought to wit by the repercussion of the intentional Species of the Subject caus'd by its contrary Thus then it comes that the Water of Springs and Wells is cold in the Summer in regard the Species of the cold forc'd by the Water towards the heated Air which is all about it are darted back again by that opposite heat to the place whence they came whereupon being thrust closer together they there re-inforce and augment the Cold which happens not so in Winter when the Species of the coldness of the Water meeting with no Obstruction in the Air endu'd with the like quality insinuate themselves into it without any resistance and so not being reflected nor forc'd back towards the Water it is not then so cold as in Summer The Second said That the intentional Species being not design'd to act but only to make a discovery of the beings from which they flow as may be seen in those of all sensible Objects which these Species represent to the Organs that are to judge of them cannot contribute any thing to the vigor of the action observable in the Antiperistasis which he conceiv'd should rather be attributed to the simple form of the Subject which having an absolute sovereignty over the qualities employ'd thereby in order to Action renders them more or less active according to the need it stands in of them And as seething Water taken off the Fire becomes cold of it self without any other assistance than that of its proper substantial form which hath the property of re-instating it self in that degree of Cold which is naturally due unto it so ought it with greater reason to have an equal right of preserving that same quality when it is assaulted by its contrary Heat without having any recourse to those Emissions of Species which though we should grant the Tactile qualities what is much in dispute yet would not be able to cause an Antiperistasis inasmuch as being inseparable from them if the intentional Species of the coldness of Well-water were directed towards the warm'd Air it should take along with it the coldness and consequently it should be so far from acquiring any new degree of coldness thereby that it would lose much of that which it had before For since it is the Nature of these Intentional Species to be otherwise incapable by reason of their immateriality of producing any Corporeal and Material Effect such as is the augmentation of the degrees of any active quality as Heat and Cold are there being not any contrariety between the Species thereof no more than there is between those of â—ll other Bodies whereof they are the Images there is not any reason that obliges the Intentional Species of the Cold to retreat and close together when they come to meet with those of Heat or Heat it self no more than there is that the Species of this latter quality should make the other more vigorous by their reflection The Third said That it must be acknowledg'd that the Species of Cold and Heat and the other first Qualities were not contrary among themselves as being in their own Nature inalterable and incorruptible as the other Intentional Species are which come near the Condition of Spirits Yet does it not follow thence that these Species cannot be reflected inasmuch as the Visible Species Light and Voice which also have no contraries are not for that the less re-percuss'd by Mirrours and other solid Bodies or those hollow places which make Echoes The Fourth said That it is not sufficient in order to the giving of a reason of that effect to attribute it to the substantial form of every Agent but it is to be referr'd to a superiour cause such as is the Soul of the world whose function it being to preserve every thing in its intireness and to be assistant thereto when it comes into any danger as it happens when it is assaulted by its contrary then bent upon its destruction there lies a certain engagement on this first cause to relieve it in so great an extremity by supplying it with new forces to help it out of that oppression Thence