Selected quad for the lemma: water_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
water_n	air_n	body_n	element_n	5,315	5	9.9100	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29860	Hydriotaphia, urn-burial, or, A discours of the sepulchral urns lately found in Norfolk together with the Garden of Cyrus, or, The quincuncial lozenge, or network of plantations of the ancients, artificially, naturally, mystically considered : with sundry observations / by Thomas Browne.	Browne, Thomas, Sir, 1605-1682.	1669 (1669)	Wing B5155; ESTC R35415	73,609	80

the Fire with Wine Manlius the Consul burnt the Body of his Son Numa by special clause of his Will was not burnt but buried and Remus was solemnly buried according to the description of Ovid Cornelius Sylla was not the first whose Body was burned in Rome but of the Cornelian Family which being indifferently not frequently used before from that time spread and became the prevalent practice not totally pursued in the highest run of Cremation for when even Crows were funerally burnt Poppaea the Wife of Nero found a peculiar Grave-interrment Now as all Customs were founded upon some bottom of Reason so there wanted not grounds for this according to several apprehensions of the most rational Dissolution Some being of the opinion of Thales that Water was the Original of all things thought it most equal to submit unto the Principle of Putrefaction and conclude in a moist Relentment Others conceived it most natural to end in Fire as due unto the Master-principle in the Composition according to the doctrine of Heraclitus and therefore heaped up large Piles more actively to waft them toward that Element whereby they also declined a visible degeneration into Worms and left a lasting parcel of their Composition Some apprehended a purifying virtue in Fire refining the grosser Commixture and firing out the Aethereal particles so deeply immersed in it And such as by Tradition or rational conjecture held any hint of the final Pyre of all things or that this Element at last must be too hard for all the rest might conceive most naturally of the Fiery dissolution Others pretending no natural grounds politickly declined the malice of Enemies upon their buried Bodies Which consideration led Sylla unto this practice who having thus served the Body of Marius could not but fear a Retaliation upon his own entertained after in the Civil Wars and revengefull Contentions of Rome But as many Nations embraced and many left it indifferent so others too much affected or strictly declined this practice The Indian Brachmans seemed too great friends unto Fire who burnt themselves alive and thought it the noblest way to end their days in Fire according to the expression of the Indian burning himself at Athens in his last words upon the Pyre unto the amazed Spectatours Thus I make my self immortal But the Chaldaeans the great Idolaters of Fire abhorred the Burning of their Carkasses as a pollution of that Deity The Persian Magi declined it upon the like scruple and being onely solicitous about their Bones exposed their Flesh to the prey of Birds and Dogs And the Persees now in India which expose their Bodies unto Vultures and endure not so much as Feretra or Beers of Wood the proper Fuell of Fire are led on with such niceties But whether the ancient Germans who buried their dead held any such fear to pollute their Deity of Herthus or the Earth we have no authentick conjecture The Aegyptians were afraid of Fire not as a Deity but a devouring Element mercilesly consuming their Bodies and leaving too little of them and therefore by precious Embalments Depositure in dry earths or handsome inclosure in Glasses contrived the notablest ways of integral Conservation And from such Aegyptian scruples imbibed by Pythagoras it may be conjectured that Numa and the Pythagorical Sect first waved the fiery Solution The Scythians who swore by Winde and Sword that is by Life and Death were so far from Burning their Bodies that they declined all Interrment and made their Graves in the Air And the Ichthyophagi or fish-eating Nations about Aegypt affected the Sea for their Grave thereby declining visible corruption and restoring the debt of their Bodies Whereas the old Heroes in Homer dreaded nothing more then Water or Drowning probably upon the old Opinion of the fiery substance of the Soul onely extinguishable by that Element And therefore the Poet emphatically implieth the total destruction in this kind of death which happened to Ajax Oileus The old Baleareans had a peculiar mode for they used great Urns and much Wood but no Fire in their Burials while they bruised the Flesh and Bones of the dead crowded them into Urns and laid heaps of Wood upon them And the Chinois without Cremation or urnal Interrment of their Bodies make use of Trees and much burning while they plant a Pine-tree by their Grave and burn great numbers of printed draughts of Slaves and Horses over it civilly content with their companies in effigie which barbarous Nations exact unto reality Christians abhorred this way of Obsequies and though they stick not to give their Bodies to be burnt in their lives detested that mode after death affecting rather a Depositure then Absumption and properly submitting unto the sentence of God to return not unto Ashes but unto Dust again conformable unto the practice of the Patriarchs the Interrment of our Saviour of Peter Paul and the ancient Martyrs and so far at last declining promiscuous Interrment with Pagans that some have suffered Ecclesiastical Censures for making no scruple thereof The Musselman-believers will never admit this Fiery resolution For they hold a present Trial from their black and white Angels in the Grave which they must have made so hollow that they may rise upon their knees The Jewish Nation though they entertained the old way of Inhumation yet sometimes admitted this practice for the men of Jabesh burnt the Body of Saul and by no prohibited practice to avoid Contagion or Pollution in time of Pestilence burnt the Bodies of their Friends And when they burnt not their dead Bodies yet sometimes they used great Burnings near and about them as is deducible from the expressions concerning Jehoram Sedechias and the sumptuous Pyre of Asa And they were so little averse from Pagan Burning that the Jews lamenting the death of Caesar their Friend and revenger on Pompey frequented the place where his Body was burnt for many nights together And as they raised noble Monuments and Mausoleums for their own Nation so they were not scrupulous in erecting some for others according to the practice of Daniel who left that lasting sepulchral Pyle in Ecbatana for the Median and Persian Kings But even in times of Subjection and hottest use they conformed not unto the Roman practice of Burning whereby the Prophecy was secured concerning the Body of Christ that it should not see corruption or a Bone should not be broken which we believe was also providentially prevented from the Soludiers Spear and Nails that past by the little Bones both in his hands and feet not of ordinary contrivance that it should not corrupt on the Cross according to the Law of Roman Crucifixion or an hair of his head perish though observable in Jewish Customs to cut the Hairs of Malefactors Nor in their long Co-habitation with the Aegyptians crept they into a custome of their exact Embalming wherein deeply slashing the Muscles and taking out the Brains and Entrails they had

single but erre by great example He that will illustrate the excellency of this Order may easily fail upon so spruce a Subject wherein we have not affrighted the common Reader with any other Diagrammes then of it self and have industriously declined illustrations from rare and unknown Plants Tour discerning Judgement so well acquainted with that Stdy will expect herein no Mathematicall Truths as well understanding how few Generalities and U finita's there are in nature How Scaliger hath found exceptions in most Vniversals of Aristotle and Theophrastus Now Botanicall Maximes must have fair allowance and are tolerably currant if not intolerably over-balanced by Exceptions You have wisely ordered your Vegetable delights beyond the reach of exception The Turks who pass their days in Gardens here will have Gardens also hereafter and delighting in Flowers on Earth must have Lilies and Roses in Heaven In Garden-Delights it is not easie to hold a Mediocrity that insinuating pleasure is seldome without some extremity The Ancients venially delighted in flourishing Gardens many were Florists that knew not the true use of a Flower and in Plinie's days none had directly treated of that Subject Some commendably affected Plantations of vertemous Vegetables some confined their delights unto single Plants and Cato seemed to dote upon Cabbage while the ingenuous delight of Tulipists stands saluted with hard language even by their own Professors That in this Garden-Discourse we range into extraneous things and many parts of Art and Nature we follow herein the example of old and new Plantations wherein noble spirits contented not themselves with Trees but by the attendance of Aviaries Fish-Ponds and all variety of Animals they made their Gardens the Epitome of the Earth and some resemblance of the Secular Shows of old That we conjoyn these parts of different Subjects or that this should succeed the other your judgement will admit without impute of incongruity since the delightfull World comes after Death and Paradise succeeds the Grave since the verdant state of things is the Symbol of the Resurrection and to flourish in the state of Glory we must first be sown in Corruption Beside the ancient practice of Noble Persons to conclude in Garden-Graves and Vrns themselves of old to be wrapt up in Flowers and Garlands Nullum sine venia placuisse eloquium is more sensibly understood by Writers then by Readers nor well apprehended by either till Works have hanged out like Apelles his Pictures wherein even common eyes will finde something for emendation To wish all Readers of your abilities were unreasonably to multiply the number of Scholars beyond the temper of these Times But unto this ill-judging Age we charitably desire a portion of your Equity Judgement Candour and Ingenuity wherein you are so rich as not to lose by diffusion And being a flourishing Branch of that Noble Family unto which we owe so much observance you are not new set but long rooted in such Perfection whereof having had so lasting confirmation in your worthy Conversation constant Amity and expression and knowing you a serious Student in the highest Arcana of Nature with much excuse we bring these low Delights and poor Maniples to your Treasury Your affectionate Friend and Servant Thomas Browne Norwich May 1. En Sum quod digitis Quinque Levatur onus Propert HYDRIOTAPHIA Urn-Burial OR A brief Discourse of the Sepulchral Urns lately found in NORFOLK CHAP. I. IN the deep discovery of the Subterranean world a shallow part would satisfie some Enquirers who if two or three yards were open about the Surface would not care to rack the Bowels of Potosi and the Regions towards the Centre Nature hath furnished one part of the Earth and Man another The Treasures of Time lie high in Urns Coyns and Monuments scarce below the Roots of some Vegetables Time hath endless Rarities and Shows of all varieties which reveals old things in Heaven makes new discoveries in Earth and even Earth it self a discovery That great Antiquity America lay buried for a thousand years and a large part of the Earth is still in the Urn unto us Though if Adam were made out of an Extract of the Earth all parts might challenge a Restitution yet few have returned their Bones far lower then they might receive them not affecting the graves of Giants under hilly and heavy coverings but content with less then their own depth have wished their Bones might lie soft and the earth be light upon them Even such as hope to rise again would not be content with central Interrment or so desperately to place their Reliques as to lie beyond discovery and in no way to be seen again which happy contrivance hath made communication with our Fore-fathers and left unto our view some parts which they never beheld themselves Though Earth hath ingrossed the name yet Water hath proved the smartest Grave which in forty days swallowed almost Mankinde and the living Creation Fishes not wholly escaping except the salt Ocean were handsomly contempered by a mixture of the fresh Element Many have taken voluminous pains to determine the state of the Soul upon Dis-union but men have been most phantastical in the singular contrivances of their Corporal dissolution whilest the soberest Nations have rested in two ways of simple Inhumation and Burning That carnal Interrment or Burying was of the elder date the old examples of Abraham and the Patriarchs are sufficient to illustrate and it were without competition if it could be made out that Adam was buried near Damascus or Mount Calvary according to some Tradition God himself that buried but one was pleased to make choice of this way as is collectible from Scripture-expression and the hot Contest between Satan and the Arch-angel about discovering the Body of Moses But the practice of Burning was also of great Antiquity and of no slender extent For not to derive the same from Hercules noble descriptions there are hereof in the Graecian Funerals of Homer in the formal Obsequies of Patroclus and Achilles and somewhat elder in the Theban War and the solemn Combustion of Menoeceus and Archemorus contemporary unto Jair the eighth Judge of Israel Confirmable also among the Trojans from the Funeral Pyre of Hector burnt before the gates of Troy and the burning of Penthesilea the Amazonian Queen and long continuance of that practice in the inward Countries of Asia while as low as the Reign of Julian we finde that the King of Chionia burnt the Body of his Son and interred the Ashes in a silver Urn. The same practice extended also far West and besides Herulians Getes and Thracians was in use with most of the Celtae Sarmatians Germans Gauls Danes Swedes Norwegians not to omit some use thereof among Carthaginians and Americans Of greater antiquity among the Romans then most opinion or Pliny seems to allow For beside the old Table-Laws of Burning or Burying within the City of making the Funeral-fire with plained wood or quenching

part after Rumination by the larger and stronger Orifice beareth into the first Stomack from thence into the Reticulum and so progressively into the other divisions And therefore in Calves newly calved there is little or no use of the two first Ventricles for the milk and liquid aliment slippeth down the softer Orifice into the third Stomack where making little or no stay it passeth into the fourth the seat of the Coagulum or Runnet or that division of Stomack which seems to bear the name of the whole in the Greek translation of the Priest's Fee in the Sacrifice of Peace-offerings As for those Rhomboidal Figures made by the Cartilagineous parts of the Wezon in the Lungs of great Fishes and other Animals as Rondeletius discovered we have not found them so to answer our Figure as to be drawn into illustration Something we expected in the more discernable texture of the Lungs of Frogs which notwithstanding being but two curious Bladders not weighting above a grain we found interwoven with Veins not observing any just order More orderly situated are those cretaceous and chalky Concretions found sometimes in the bigness of a small Vetch on either side their Spine which being not agreeable unto our order nor yet observed by any we shall not here discourse on But had we found a better account and tolerable Anatomy of that prominent Jowl of the Sperma-Ceti-Whale then questuary operation or the stench of the last cast upon our Shoar permitted we might have perhaps discovered some handsome order in those Net-like Seats and Sockets made like Honey-combs containing that medicall matter Lastly The Incession or Local motion of Animals is made with analogy unto this Figure by decussative Diametrals Quincuncial Lines and Angles For to omit the enquiry how Butterflies and Breezes move their four Wings how Birds and Fishes in aire and water move by joynt stroaks of opposite Wings and Fins and how salient Animals in jumping forward seem to arise and fall upon a square Base as the Station of most Quadrupedes is made upon a long Square so in their Motion they make a Rhomboides their common Progression being performed diametrally by Decussation and cross advancement of their Legs which not observed begot that remarkable absurdity in the position of the Legs of Castor's Horse in the Capitol The Snake which moveth circularly makes his Spires in like order the convex and concave Spirals answering each other at alternate distances In the motion of Man the Arms and Legs observe this thwarting position but the Legs alone do move Quincuncially by single Angles with some resemblance of an V measured by successive advancement from each Foot and the Angle of Indenture great or less according to the extent or brevity of the Stride Studious Observators may discover more Analogies in the orderly Book of Nature and cannot escape the Elegancy of her hand in other Correspondencies The Figures of Nails and Crucifying appurtenances are but precariously made out in the Granadilla or Flower of Christ's Passion and we despair to behold in these parts that handsome draught of Crucifixion in the fruit of the Barbado Pine The seminal Spike of Phalaris or great Shaking-grass more nearly answers the Tail of a Rattle-Snake then many Resemblances in Porta And if the Man Orchis of Columna be well made out it excelleth all Analogies In young Walnuts cut athwart it is not hard to apprehend strange Characters and in those of somewhat elder growth handsome ornamental draughts about a plain Cross In the Root of Osmond or Water-fern every eye may discern the form of a Half-Moon Rain-bow or half the Character of Pisces Some finde Hebrew Arabick Greek and Latine Characters in Plants In a common one among us we seem to reade Acaia Viviu Lilil Right lines and Circles make out the bulk of Plants In the parts thereof we finde Helicall or spiral Roundles Voluta's conicall Sections circular Pyramids and Frustums of Archimedes and cannot overlook the orderly hand of Nature in the alternate succession of the flat and narrower sides in the tender Shoots of the Ash or the regular inequality of bigness in the five-leaved Flowers of Henbane and something like in the calicular Leaves of Tutsan How the Spots of Persicaria do manifest themselves between the sixth and tenth Rib how the triangular Cap in the Stem or Stylus of Tulips doth constantly point at three outward Leaves that spicated Flowers do open first at the Stalk that white Flowers have yellow Thrums or Knops that the Nebs of Beans and Pease do all look downward and so press not upon each other and how the Seeds of many pappous or downy Flowers lockt up in Sockets after a Gomphosis or mortis-articulation diffuse themselves circularly into Branches of rare order observable in Tragopogon or Goat's-beard conformable to the Spider's web and the Radii in like manner telarly interwoven And how in Animal natures even Colours hold correspondencies and mutual correlations That the colour of the Caterpillar will shew again in the Butterfly with some latitude is allowable Though the regular Spots in their Wings seem but a mealie adhesion and such as may be wiped away yet since they come in this variety out of their Cases there must be regular Pores in those parts and Membranes defining such Exudations That Augustus had native Notes on his Body and Belly after the order and number in the Star of Charles-wain will not seem strange unto Astral Physiognomy which accordingly considereth Moles in the Body of Man or Physicall Observators who from the position of Moles in the Face reduce them to rule and correspondency in other Parts Whether after the like method medicall conjecture may not be raised upon Parts inwardly affected since parts about the Lips are the criticall seats of Pustules discharged in Agues and scrophulous Tumours about the Neck do so often speak the like about the Mesentery may also be considered The russet Neck in young Lambs seems but adventitious and may owe its tincture to some contaction in the Womb But that if Sheep have any black or deep Russet in their Faces they want not the same about their Legs and Feet that black Hounds have mealy Mouths and Feet that black Cows which have any white in their Tails should not miss of some in their Bellies and if all white in their Bodies yet if black-mouth'd their Ears and Feet maintain the same colour are correspondent Tinctures not ordinarily failing in Nature which easily unites the accidents of extremities since in some Generations she transmutes the Parts themselves while in the Aurelian Metamorphosis the Head of the Canker becomes the Tail of the Butterfly Which is in some way not beyond the contrivance of Art in Submersions and Inlays inverting the extremes of the Plant and fetching the Root from the Top and also imitated in handsome Columnary work in the inversion of the extremes wherein the Capitle and the Base hold such near correspondency In the Motive

declinations making their conversion by the East That the Leaves of the Olive and some other Trees solstitially turn and precisely tell us when the Sun is entred Cancer is scarce expectable in any Climate and Theophrastus warily observes it Yet somewhat thereof is observable in our own in the Leaves of Willows and Sallows some weeks after the Solstice But the great Convolvulus or white-flowered Bindweed observes both motions of the Sun while the Flower twists Aequinoctially from the left hand to the right according to the Daily revolution the Stalk twineth Ecliptically from the right to the left according to the Annual conversion Some commend the exposure of these orders unto the Western gales as the most generative and fructifying breath of Heaven But we applaud the Husbandry of Solomon whereto agreeth the doctrine of Theophrastus Arise O North-winde and blow thou South upon my Garden that the Spices thereof may flow out For the North-winde closing the Pores and shutting up the Effluviums when the South doth after open and relax them the Aromatical Gums do drop and sweet Odours fly actively from them And if his Garden had the same situation which Maps and Charts afford it on the East-side of Jerusalem and having the wall on the West these were the Winds unto which it was well exposed By this way of Plantation they encreased the number of their Trees which they lost in Quaternio's and Square-orders which is a commodity insisted on by Varro and one great intent of Nature in this position of Flowers and Seeds in the elegant formation of Plants and the former Rules observed in natural and artificial Figurations Whether in this order and one Tree in some measure breaking the cold and pinching gusts of Winds from the other Trees will not better maintain their inward Circles and either escape or moderate their excentricities may also be considered For the Circles in Trees are naturally concentricall parallel unto the Bark and unto each other till Frost and piercing Winds contract and close them on the weather-side the opposite Semicircle widely enlarging and at a comely distance which hindereth oftentimes the beauty and roundness of Trees and makes the Timber less serviceable whiles the ascending Juyce not readily passing settles in Knots and Inequalities And therefore it is no new course of Agriculture to observe the native position of Trees according to North and South in their Transplantations The same is also observable under ground in the Circinations and spherical rounds of Onions wherein the Circles of the Orbs are ofttimes larger and the Meridional lines stand wider upon one side then the other And where the largeness will make up the number of planetical Orbs that of Luna and the lower Planets exceed the dimensions of Saturn and the higher Whether the like be not verified in the Circles of the large Roots of Briony and Mandrakes or why in the Knots of Deal or Firre the Circles are often eccentrical although not in a plane but vertical and right position deserves a farther enquiry Whether there be not some irregularity of Roundness in most Plants according to their position whether some small compression of Pores be not perceptible in parts which stand against the current of waters as in Reeds Bull-rushes and other Vegetables toward the streaming quarter may also be observed and therefore such as are long and weak are commonly contrived into a Roundness of Figure whereby the water presseth less and slippeth more smoothly from them and even in Flags or flat-figured Leaves the greater part obvert their sharper sides unto the Current in Ditches But whether Plants which float upon the surface of the water be for the most part of cooling qualities those which shoot above it of heating virtues and why whether Sargasso for many miles floating upon the Western Ocean or Sea-Lettuce and Phasganium at the bottome of our Seas make good the like qualities why Fenny waters afford the hottest and sweetest Plants as Calamus Cyperus and Crowfoot and Mud cast out of Ditches most naturally produceth Arse-smart why Plants so greedy of Water so little regard Oil why since many Seeds contain much Oil within them they endure it not well without either in their growth or production why since Seeds shoot commonly under ground and out of the air those which are let fall in shallow Glasses upon the surface of the water will sooner sprout then those at the bottom and if the water be covered with Oil those at the bottom will hardly sprout at all we have not room to conjecture Whether Ivy would not less offend the Trees in this clean Ordination and well-kept paths might perhaps deserve the question But this were a Quere onely unto some Habitations and little concerning Cyrns or the Babylonian Territory wherein by no industry Harpalus could make Ivy grow and Alexander hardly found it about those parts to imitate the Pomp of Bacchus And though in these Northern Regions we are too-much acquainted with one Ivy we know too little of another whereby we apprehend not the expressions of Antiquity the Splenetick medicine of Galen and the Emphasis of the Poet in the beauty of the white Ivy. The like concerning the growth of Miscletoe which dependeth not onely of the Species or kinde of Tree but much also of the Soil and therefore is common in some places not readily found in others frequent in France not so common in Spain and scarce at all in the Territory of Ferrara nor easily to be found where it is most required upon Oaks less on Trees continually verdant Although in some places the Olive escapes it not requiting its detriment in the delightfull view of its read Berries as Clusius observed in Spain and Bellonius about Hierusalem But this Parasitical Plant suffers nothing to grow upon it by any way of art nor could we ever make it grow where Nature had not planted it as we have in vain attempted by Inoculation and Insition upon its native or forein Stock and though there seem nothing improbable in the Seed it hath not succeeded by Sation in any manner of ground wherein we had no reason to despair since we read of vegetable Horns and how Rams-horns will root about Goa But besides these rural Commodities it cannot be meanly detectable in the variety of Figures which these Orders open and closed do make whilest every Inclosure makes a Rhombus the Figures obliquely taken a Rhomboides the Intervalls bounded with parallel lines and each Intersection built upon a Square affording two Triangles or Pyramids vertically conjoyned which in the strict Quincuncial Order do oppositely make acute and blunt Angles And though therein we meet not with right Angles yet every Rhombus containing four Angles equal unto two right it virtually contains two right in every one Nor is this strange unto such as observe the natural Lines of Trees and parts disposed in them For neither in the Root doth nature affect this Angle which shooting downward