the Crown than for the Gold lump he reasoned that there must be a mixture in the Crown This was the Greeks invention that is worthy of praise but the operation is difficult for in things of small quantity the theft cannot be discerned nor can this reason appear so clear to the eye where the obsolute fashion of the vessel was wanting Now a way is invented how for all money be it never so small we can tell presently and we want not many instruments that we may cry We have overfounded Vpereureka Vpereureka we have gone beyond Archimedes his Eureka The way is this To know any part of Silver mingled with Gold Take a perfect ballance and put in one scale any Metal in the other as much of the same Metal but the purest of its kind and when the scales hang even in the Air put them into a vessel full of water and let them down under water about half a foot Then will it be a strange wonder for the ballances that hang equal in the Air will change their nature in the water and will be unequal for the impure Metal will be uppermost and the pure will sink to the bottom The reason is because pure Gold compared with that kind is heavior than all impure Gold because pure Gold taketh less place wherefore it will way heavior by the former reason If then we would know how much Silver is in that Gold put as much pure Gold in the other scale as will make the ballances equal under the waters when they are equal take them up and the weight you added under water will be the weight of the mixture If you would know how much Gold is upon a vessel Gilded put the Cup in one scale and as much pure Silver in the other that the scales may hang equal in the Air then put them into the water and the vessel will sink down put into the other scale as much pure Gold as will make them equal under water draw them forth and that is the weight of the Gilt of the plate You shall do the same for Silver Brass Iron white or black Lead But would you know whether in Money Brass be mingled with Silver or Coin be adulterated with Copper put the Money into one scale and as much of the finest Silver into the other ballance them equal then put them under the water the Money will go down adde as much Brass as will make the scales equal then take them forth and it will be the weight of the mixture Now will I set the weighâ—s of Metals how much they weigh more in the waters than in the Air whereby without any other experiment we may know mixtures An Iron-ball that weighed nighteen ounces in the Air will weigh fifteen in the waters whence it is that a Ball of the same magnitude must owe three ounces to the water wherefore the proportion of Iron in the Air to the same in the waters is as fifteen to nineteen A Leaden Bullet of the same magnitude weighs 31 ounces in the Air in the water but 27 A Marble Bullet little less for bulk weighs 7 in the Air and 5 in the water Copper weighs 16 in the Air and 12 in the waters Silver weighs in the Air 125 in the waters 113 Brass in the Air weighs 65 Karats and one grain in the waters 50 Karats and two grains Crown Gold in the Air weighs 66 grains in the waters 6â— Gold called Zechini in the Air weighs 17 Karats under water 16 Karats Tâ—rkish Ducat Gold weighs in the Air 34 under waters 32 Common French Crown Gold weighs in the Air 67 under waters 60 Common Crown Gold of Hungary that is old in the Air weighs 17 in the water 16 Crown Gold of Tartary weighs 16 in the Air and 14 under water THE NINETEENTH BOOK OF Natural Magick Concerning VVind-Instruments THE PROEME I Have spoken concerning light and heavy now follow experiments by wind for these seem to follow the reasons of Mathematicks and of the Air and water and a Philosopher who seeks to find things profitable and admirable for mans use must insist on these things contemplate and search them out in no thing doth the Majesty of Nature shine forth more There are extant the famous Monuments of the most learned Heron of Alexandria concerning wind Instruments I will adde some that are new to give an occasion to search out greater matters CHAP. I. Whether material Statues may speak by any Artificial way I Have read that in some Cities there was a Colassus of Brass placed on a mighty high Pillar which in violent tempests of wind from the nether parts received a great blast that was carried from the mouth to a Trumpet that it blew strongly or else sounded some other Instrument which I believe to have been easie because I have seen the like Also I read in many men of great Authority that Albertus Magnus made a head that speak Yet to speak the truth I give little credit to that man because all I made trial of from him I found to be false but what he took from other men I will see whether an Image can be made that will speak Some say that Albertus by Astrological elections of times did perform this wonderful thing but I wonder how learned men could be so guld for they know the Stars have no such forces Some think he did it by Magick Arts. And this I credit least of all since there is no man that professeth himself to know those Arts but Impostors and Mountebanks whilst they cheit ignorant men and simple women nor do I think that the Godly man would profess ungodly Arts. But I suppose it may be done by wind We see that the voice or a sound will be conveighed entire through the Air and that not in an instant but by degrees in time We see that Brass-guns which by the force of Gun-powder make a mighty noise if they be a mile off yet we see the flame much before we hear the sound So hand-Guns make a report that comes at a great distance to us but some minutes of time are required for it for that is the nature of sounds Wherefore sounds go with time and are entire without interruption unless they break upon some place The Eccho proves this for it strikes whole against a wall and so rebounds back and is reflected as a beam of the Sun Moreover as I said in this work words and voices go united together and are carried very far entire as they are spoken at first These therefore being laid down for true grounds if any man shall make leaden Pipes exceeding long two or three hundred paces long as I have tried and shall speak in them some or many words they will be carried true through those Pipes and be heard at the other end as they came from the speakers mouth wherefore if that voice goes with time hold entire if any man as the words are spoken shall stop the
VVater will ascend which is proper onely to Tin for in no other Metal the Air remaineth last but in Tin the VVater is first elevated next the Fire last of all the Earth Of Iron is made a dark ruddish Oyl Of Quick-silver a white Oyl the Fire settleth to the bottom the Earth and Water are elevated and so of the rest How to separate the Elements in Herbs In Herbs there is alwayes one Element which reigneth in chief Take the Leaves of Sage bruise them macerate them in Fimo and then distil them the Fire will first ascend until the colours be changed next the VVater then a part of the Earth the other part will remain in the bottom not being volatile but fixed Set the VVater in the Sun six dayes then put it in Balneo the VVater will ascend first then the colour will alter and the Fire ascendeth next till the taste be changed at length a part of the Earth the rest being mix'd with the Air tarrieth behinde in the Bottom In VVater-Plants the Air ariseth first next the VVater and Fire How to finde out the Vertues of Plants There are no surer Searchers out of the Vertues of the Plants then our Hands and Eyes the Taste is more fallible for if in Distillation the hottest parts evaporate first we may conclude that it consisteth of hot and thin parts and so of the rest You may easily know by the separation of the Elements whether a Plant have more of â—ire or VVater or Earth by weighing the Plant first then afterward when the VVater and Oyl are extracted weighing the Foeces and by their proportion you may judge of the degrees of each Element in the Composition of it and from thence of their Qualities But the narrow limits of this Book will not give me leave to expatiate farther on this Subject Wherefore I will leave the Discourse of it to a particular Treatise which I intend to set out at large on this matter How to extract Gum out of Plants There are some Plants out of which we may extract Gum some Plants I say because many have none in them and nothing can give more then it hath Fennel and all other kindes of it Opoponax and such-like Herbs are full of it Nature is the best Director in extracting them for when the Sun shines very hot and the Stalks of these Plants are swelled with sap by reason of the continual encrease of their juice they open themselves in little clefts like a Woman when her labour approacheth and thence doth the Plant bring forth as it were in travel that Noble Liquor which partly by the heat of the Sun partly by a natural Inclination grows clammy and is condensed into a hard Body Hence we may learn How to extract Gum out of Opoponax In the Summer Solstice gather the Roots in the night-time that the heat of the Sun may not exhaust the moysture slice it long wayes and put it into a well vernished earthen Pipkin then set it upside down in a descending Furnace with a Receiver underneath to catch the falling-Liquor make a Fire about the upper part of the Vessel which will drive down a Noble Gum which must be purged in other Vessels and may be meliorated by Diâ—â—illation The same may be effected on Sagapene wâ—ose Roots must be gathered at the same time and sliced and being put into a Vessel with a gentle fire will drop out a glutinous Liquor into the Receiver which being clarified will harden like Gum and is kept for Medicinal uses How to extract Gum out of Fennel Gather the stalks of Fennel when it is in its vigor and the Flowers begin to blow about the full of the Moon for then they are more succulent slice them into pieces of a hand-long and put them into a Glass-Tub of a hand in wideress and a handful and a half in length fill it full and set the bottom of it being full of little holes into a Tunnel fit to receive it and the lower part of the Tunnel into a Receiver Then make a gentle fire about the Tub at a handful distance which may beat upon the stalkes on every side with its heat like the Sun-beams The Tub thus growing hot will exclude some drops which flying from the violence of the heat slide down thorow the hoâ—es of the bottom into the Tunnel and from thence into the Receiver where they will condense into Gum participating of the Nature of Fennel of no contemptible vertues THE ELEVENTH BOOK OF Natural Magick Of Perfuming THE PROEME AFter Distillation we proceed to Unguents and sweet smells it is an Art next of kin to the other for it provides odors of the same things compounds and mingles Unguents that they may send forth pleasant sents every way very far This Art is Noble and much set by by Kings and great Men. For it teacheth to make Waters Oyls Powders March-panes Fumes and to make sweet Skins that shall hold their sent a long time and may be bought for little money not the common and ordinary way but such as are rare and known to very few CHAP. I. Of perfuming Waters I Have in the former Book shewed how sweet Waters may be distilled out of Flowers and other things as the place dedicated to Distillation did require here now I will teach how to compound sweet Waters and Flowers that may cast forth odoriferous sents as first To make a most sweet perfumed Water Take three pound of Damask-Roses as much of Musk and Red-Roses two of the Flowers of Orange as many of Myrtle half a pound of Garden-Claver an ounce and a half of Cloves three Nutmegs ten Lillies put all these in an Alimbeck in the nose of which you must fasten of Musk three parts of Amber one of Civet half a one tied up together in a clout and put the Nose into the Receiver and tie them close with a cloth dip'd in Bran and the white of an Egg mixed set a gentle fire under it until it be all distilled Another Take two pound of Rose-water of Lavender half one of Certan-Wine thirteen drachms of the Flowers of Gilliflowers Roses Rosemary Jasmine the Leaves of Marjoram wilde Betony Savory Fennel and Basil gentle half a pound an ounce of Lemmon-peel a drachm of Cinnamon Benjamin Storax and Nutmegs mix them and put them in a Glass and set them out in the Sun for four dayes then distil them with a gentle fire and unless you put Musk in the Nose of the Alimbeck tie it up in a rag hang it by a thread in the Water whilst it standeth sunning for a month Set it in the Sun to take away the scurvy savor of the distilling if by chance it conceive any Aqua Nanfa Take four pound of Rose-water two of Orange-Flowers one of Myrtle three ounces of sweet Trifoil one of Lavender add to these two ounces of Benjamin one of Storax the quantity of a Bean of Labdanum as much Mace and Cloves a drachm of Cinnamon
vessel turned downwards touch the upper part of the lower liquor that no Air may enter for then the water will presently descend into the vessel underneath and the lighter part of the mingled liquor will ascend and the water will sink down and if it be all wine it will all ascend no wine will stay with the water if any thing stay behind you must know that so much water was mingled with the wine which may easily be known by the smell and taste if you do it as it should be done Then take a vessel that will hold more of the same liquor and put it into a vessel underneath till it takes it all in whence by the proportion of the wine ascended and of the water any man may know easily how much water is mingled with the wine But for convenience let the Vial that shall hold the water be of a round belly and the hole not very great and let the vessel under that contains the wine have a narrow mouth that the upper round mouth may the better joyn with the undermost and no Air come in But because it happeneth oft that the upper Ball when it hath drank in all the wine the wine will not fill it and we would part the water from the wine take therefore the round Glass in your hand and turn it about with the mouth upwards then will the wine presently turn about and come uppermost which may be a tongue laid in be all call'd forth Be careful to see when the wine is all drawn out remove the tongue and the water will remain pure CHAP. IV. How otherwise you may part water from wine I Can do this another way not by levity and gravity as I said but by thinness and thickness for water is the thinnest of all liquors because it is simple but wine being coloured and colour comes from the mixture of the Elements it is more corpulent Wherefore to part wine from water we must provide a matter that is full of holes and make a vessel thereof into which the wine poured with the water may drean forth for the water will drean forth through the pores of the matter that is opened by a minglâ—â— and corpulent body And though many kinds of wood be fit yet Ivy is the best because it is full of pores and chinks wherefore if you make a vessel of Ivy wood that is green and pour into it wine mingled with water the water will in a short time drean out Yet I see that all the Antients and modern Writers thought the contrary yet both reason and experience are against them For Gaeto saith If you would know whether there be water put to your wine make a vessel of Ivy put your wine you think is mixed with water into it if there be any water the wine will run forth and the water stay behind for an Ivy vessel will hold no wine And Pliny from him The Ivy is said to be wonderful for proof of wine If a vessel be made of Ivy-wood the wine will run forth and the water will stay behind if any were mingled with it Whereupon both of them are to be noted for a two sold error because they say it comes from the wonderful faculty of the Ivy whereas every porous wood can do the same Again he saith that the wine will run forth and the water stay behind whereas it is the contrary But Democritus thought what was truest and more probable who used not an Ivy vessel but one full of holes saith he they pour it into a new earthen pot not yet seasoned and hang it up for two days the pot saith he will leak if any water be mingled with it Democritas used another Art for the same purpose Some stop the mouth of the vessel with a new Spunge dipt in Oyl and incline it and let it run forth if there be water in it onely the water will run forth which experiment also he useth in Oyl For the Spunge is full of holes and open enough and being dipt in Oyl that hinders that the liquor cannot run forth so easily Africanus adds another reason Put liquid Alom into a vessel of wine then stop the mouth with a Spunge dipt in Oyl and incline it and let it run forth for nothing but the water will run out For the Alom binds the liquors that they drean forth very slowly CHAP. V. Another way to part a light body mingled with a heavy I Have another Art to seperate a light body from a heavy or wine from water or by another way Make a linnen tongue or of bombast and dip it into the vessel where wine is mingled with water and let the tongue swim above without the liquor and ascend above it and so hang pendulous out of the vessel for the lighter liquor will ascend by the tongue and drop on the outside but when the lighter ascends it attracts the heavy also wherefore when you see the colour change take the vessel away for the water runs forth It is evident that the wine being lighter will always ascend to the top of the vessel and run forth by the tongue though all Vintners say the contrary that the water will run forth by the tongue and that the wine will stay within CHAP. VI. How light is mingled in heavy or heavy in light VVE can easily know whether any light matter is mingled with heavy or any heavy matter with light And I will expound the manner out of Archimedes his Book concerning thingâ— that swim above water the cause whereof is that if Wood stone or any heavy Metal be equal in weight to the same quantity of water the utmost superficies oâ— the body will be equal with the superficies of the water if it weigh heavior it will sink to the bottom if it be lighter the lighter it is then the water so much of it will swim above the watâ—â— Since therefore this is true and wine is heavior then water one and the same thing will sink more in wine than in water and in thicker water the less Wherefore vessels are more drown'd in River than in the Sea for Sea-water is thicker and more heavy by reason of its salt mingled with it as also we have it in Alexander If therefore you would know Whether water be mingled with wine Put the wine you suspect to be mingled with water into some vessel and put an Apple or Pear into it if the Apple sink the wine is pure but if it floâ—e the wine hath water mingled with it because water is thicker than wine Which Democritus saith is contrary and false He saith it is necessary sometimes to commit the Care of the wine of new wine to Stewards and Servants also the Merchant hath the like reason to try whether his wine be pure They use to cast an Apple into the vessel but wilde Pears are the best others cast in a Locust others a Grashopper and if they swim it is pure wine but
him but if he let his ears down he is easily slain Aristotle and Pliny from him When they raise their ears they hear quickly when they let them fall they are afraid and not to go over all Creatures that have large right up open ears I say those that have such ears they raise them and direct them forward when they would hear afar off and they are of most perfect hearing I shall shew now by the contrary that such Creatures which have short small ears and not so visible are of dull hearing Great part of Fishes want ears and such as have onely holes and no ears must needs hear more deafly for the outward ears are made by Nature that the sounds might be conveyed to the ears by them Adrianus Consul of Rome is a most clear witness of this who having this sense hurt made hollow catches to hear better by and these he fastned to his ears looking forward And Aristotle saith That Horses Asses Dogs and other Creatures that have great ears do always stir them about and turn them to hear noise Nature teaching them the use of those parts and we finde that they hear less that have their ears cut off wherefore it is fit that the Form of the Instrument for hearing be large hollow and open and with screws inwardly For the first if the sound should come in directly it would hurt the sence for the second the voice coming in by windings is beaten by the turnings in the ears and is thereby multiplied as we see in an Eccho The sea-Periwinkle is an argument to prove it which being held to the eare makes a light noise Now it remains to speak of what matter it must be made I think of porous Wood for the holes and pores are passable every way and being filled with air they sound with every small stroke and amongst the porous Wood is the Ivy and especially the tree called Smilax or Woodbind for a Dish made with Ivy will let out the water as I said Wherefore Pliny speaking of the Woodbind saith It is proper to this matter that being set to the ears it will make a small noise And in another place I said that the Woodbind-Ivy would sound if set to the ear Therefore fit your Instrument to put into your ear as Spectacles are fitted to the eyes CHAP. VI. How by some Impostures we may augment weight I Have set down some Impostures here that such as handle with wicked men may take heed that they be not deceived As To augment the weight of Oyl water is mingled with the Oyl that the fraud may not be known let it be done with troubled waters as with the decoction of Wood Rapes Asphodills that it may the harder be discerned from it Or else they put the choisest Gumtragant into water for two days then they bray it in a Mortar always putting water to it to melt the Gum adde these to the Oyl dropping forth and they will be turn'd to Oyl By the like fraud almost Silk is made to weigh more They put it upon the vapour that riseth from boiling water and this makes it swell with moisture and grow heavier Others bray one ounce of Gum Arabick and being well passed through a sieve they mingle it with the decoction of Honey they dissolve this mixture into water and wet the Silk with it and then let it dry Others keep it in the green leaves of Walnut-tree If you will Increase the quantity of Honey Adde to it the Meal of Chestnuts of Millet and that augments it and it cannot be known So you may Increase the weight of Wax Adde to the Wax Bean-meal excellent well beaten and this will burn in Candles without any excrement for it increaseth the weight and bigness and the fraâ—d is scarce discerned So you may Augment Sope. If you mingle the Ashes of Oxens shank-bones well burnt it Potters ovens or white Brimstone For you shall augment the weight and quantity without and distinction of it If you would Counterfeit Pepper You may gather green Juniper-berries and let them dry till they shrivel then mix them with grains of Pepper Others gather great black Vetches and first they boil them with wilde Pepper for swelling in the water when they come to be dried they become wrinkled I did sophisticate them so that I deceived in sport the best Apothecaries and afterwards I did in mirth discover the fraud Take the Berries of the ripe red Sanguinaria these when they are dried will be so shriveled and like to Pepper that any man almost may be deceived by it unless he tasts of it So we may Increase the weight of Wheat By setting a vessel of Wood within it full of water or vinegar For as Pliny saith It will drink it in CHAP. VII Of the Harp and many wonderful properties thereof THe Harp hath some properties in it and things worthy to be observed which I shall propound here First I shall mention some wonderful effects that the Antients speak of then how they may be done or how the Antients did then Since Musick is now more Adorned and Noble than it was amongst the Antients for then it was more rude and imperfect and yet in our days it doth not perform those operations It is certain that Musical Tunes can do much with men and there is no heart so hard and cruel but convenient and sweet harmony will make it yield and on the otherside harsh Musick will vex and harden a mans minde Musaeus discovers that Verse and Songs are a most delightful thing to Mortal man and the Platonists say That all things living are charmed by Musick and there are many effects observed of it Drums sound in the wars to provoke those that are slow to fight and we read that the Antients did such like things One Timotheus a Musician as oft he he pleased would play a Phrygian Tune and so enrage the mind of Alexander that he râ—n presently to the wars and when he would do otherwise he changed his tune and took off all his courage making him lasie and would then draw him being grown effeminate to Banquets and Feasts And Plutarch saith That when he heard Antigenida playing Melodies with a Pipe that they called Harmatii he was so inflamed that he rose in his Arms and laid hold of him that sat next to him Cicero reports That Pythagoras made a yong man more calm by a slower tune who was a Tancomonite and was whitled with wine and mad for a whore and spurred forward by a Phrygian tune for being a corrival he sought to set the house on fire where the whore was And the same Author saith If yong men are provoked by the sound of Flutes to commit any wickedness if the Piper play but a slower tune they are called off again for by the gravity of the Musick their petulant fury is alayed Empedocles when one set upon his Host that provoked him with reproaches and ill language turned the burden of his
NATVRAL MAGICK in xx Bookes by IOHN BAPTIST PORTA a Neopolitane R. Gaywood fecit Lond 1658 I. BAPT PORTA Fire Ayre Art Nature Earth Water NATURAL MAGICK BY John Baptista Porta A NEAPOLITANE IN TWENTY BOOKS 1 Of the Causes of Wonderful things 2 Of the Generation of Animals 3 Of the Production of new Plants 4 Of increasing Houshold-Stuff 5 Of changing Metals 6 Of counterfeiting Gold 7 Of the Wonders of the Load-stone 8 Of strange Cures 9 Of Beautifying Women 10 Of Distillation 11 Of Perfuming 12 Of Artificial Fires 13 Of Tempering Steel 14 Of Cookery 15 Of Fishing Fowling Hunting c. 16 Of Invisible Writing 17 Of Strange Glasses 18 Of Statick Experiments 19 Of Pneumatick Experiments 20 Of the Chaos Wherein are set forth All the RICHES and DELIGHTS Of the NATURAL SCIENCES LONDON Printed for Thomas Young and Samuel Speed and are to be sold at the three Pigeons and at the Angel in St. Paul's Church-yard 1658. The Preface to the READER COURTEOUS READER IF this Work made by me in my Youth when I was hardly fifteen years old was so generally received and with so great applause that it was forthwith translated into many Languages as Italian French Spanish Arabick and passed through the hands of incomparable men I hope that now coming forth from me that an fifty years old it shall be more dearly entertained For when I saw the first fruits of my Labours received with so great Alacrity of mind I was moved by these good Omens And therefore have adventured to send it once more forth but with an Equipage more Rich and Noble From the first time it appeared it is now thirty five years And without any derogation from my Modesty be it spoken if ever any man laboured earnestly to disclose the secrets of Nature it was I For with all my Minde and Power I have turned over the Monuments of our Ancestors and if they writ anything that was secret and concealed that I enrolled in my Catalogue of Rarities Moreover as I travelled through France Italy and Spain I consulted with all Libraries Learned men and Artificers that if they knew any thing that was curious I might understand such Truths as they had proved by there long experience Those places and men I had not the happiness to see I writ Letters too frequently earnestly desiring them to furnish me with those Secrets which they esteemed Rare not failing with my Entreaties Gifts Commutations Art and Industry So that whatsoever was Notable and to be desired through the whole World for Curiosities and Excellent Things I have abundantly found out and therewith Beautified and Augmented these my Endeavours in NATURAL MAGICK wherefore by most earnest Study and constant Experience I did both night and day endeavour to know whether what I heard or read was true or false that I might leave nothing unassayed for I oft thought of that Sentence of Cicero It is fit that they who desire for the good of mankinde to commit to memory things most profitable well weighed and approved should make tryal of all things To do this I have spared no Pain nor Cost but have expended my narrow Fortunes in a large magnificence Nor were the Labours Diligence and Wealth of most famous Nobles Potentates Great and Learned Men wanting to assist me Especially whom I name for his Honour the Illustrious and most Reverend Cardinal of Estings All which did afford there Voluntary and Bountiful Help to this Work I never wanted also at my House an Academy of curious Men who for the trying of these Experiments chearfully disbursed their Moneys and employed their utmost Endeavours in assisting me to Compile and Enlarge this Volume which with so great Charge Labour and Study I had long before provided Having made an end thereof I was somewhat unwilling to suffer it to appear to the publike View of all Men I being now old and trussing up my Fardel for there are many most excellent Things fit for the Worthiest Nobles which should ignorant men that were never bred up in the sacred Principles of Philosophy come to know they would grow contemptible and be undervalued As Plato saith to Dionysius They seem to make Philosophy ridiculous who endeavour to prostitute Her Excellence to prophane and illiterate Men. Also here are conceived many hurtful and mischievous things wherewith wicked and untoward men may mischief others What then must I do let Envy be driven away and a desire to benefit Posterity vanquish all other thoughts The most Majestick Wonders of Nature are not to be concealed that in them we may admire the Mighty Power of God his wisdom his Bounty and therein Reverence and Adore him Whatsoever these are I set them before you that you may discern my Diligence and Benevolence towards you Had I withheld these Things from the World I fear I should have undergone the reproach of a wicked man for Cicero derives this from Plato we are not born for our selves alone but our Countrey will challenge a part our Parents and our Friends require their parts also from us Wherefore such Things as hitherto lay hid in the Bosome of wondrous Nature shall come to light from the Store-houses of the most ingenious Men without fraud or deceit I Discover those Things that have been long hid either by the Envy or Ignorance of others Nor shall you here finde empty Trifles or Riddles or bare Authorities of other men I did not think fit to omit any thing by erring Honestly or following the best Leaders But such as are Magnificent and most Excellent I have veil'd by the Artifice of Words by Transposition and Depression of them And such Things as are hurtful and mischievous I have written obscurely yet not so but that an ingenious Reader may unfold it and the wit of one that will throughly search may comprehend it I have added some things that are Profitable and rarely Known because they are most true Sometimes from Things most Known and meanly esteemed we ascend to Things most Profitable and High which the Minde can scarce reach unto One's Understanding cannot comprehend High and Sublime Things unless it stand firm on most true Principles The Mathematical Sciences rise from some trivial and common Axioms to most Sublime Demonstrations Wherefore I thought it better to Write true Things and Profitable than false Things that are great True Things be they never so small will give occasions to Discover greater things by them The infinite multitude of Things is incomprehensible and more than a man may be able to contemplate In our Method I shall observe what our Ancestors have said Then I shall shew by my own Experience whether they be true or false and last of all my own Inventions That Learned Men may see how exceedingly this later Age hath surpassed Antiquity Many men have written what they never saw nor did they know the Simples that were the Ingredients but they set them down from other mens traditions by an inbred and
of Magick THere are two sorts of Magick the one is infamous and unhappie because it hath to do with foul spirits and consists of Inchantments and wicked Curiosity and this is called Sorcery an art which all learned and good men derest neither is it able to yeeld any truth of Reason or Nature but stands meerly upon fancies and imaginations such as vanish presently away and leave nothing behinde them as Jamblichus writes in his book concerning the mysteries of the Aegyptians The other Magick is natural which all excellent wise men do admit and embrace and worship with great applause neither is there any thing more highly esteemed or better thought of by men of learning The most noble Philosophers that ever were Pythagoras Empedocles Democrites and Plato forsook their own countries and lived abroad as exiles and banished men rather then as strangers and all to search out and to attain this knowledge and when they came home again this was the Science which they professed and this they esteemed a profound mysterie They that have been most skilfuâ— in dark and hidden points of learning do call this knowledge the very highest point and the perfection of natural Science insomuch that if they could find out or devise amongst all natural Sciences any one thing more excellent or more wonderful then another that they would still call by the name of Magick Others have named it the practical part of natural Philosophy which produceth her effects by the mutual and fit application of one natural thing unto another The Platonicks as Plotinus imitating Mercurius writes in his book of Sacrifice and Magick makes it to be a Science whereby inferiour things are made subject to superiours earthly are subdued to heavenly and by certain pretty allurements it fetcheth forth the properties of the whole frame of the world Hence the Aegyptians termed Nature her self a Magician because she hath an alluring power to draw like things by their likes and this power say they consists in love and the things that were so drawn and brought together by the affinity of Nature those they said were drawn by Magick But I think that Magick is nothing else but the survey of the whole course of Nature For whilst we consider the Heavens the Stars the Elements how they are moved and how they are changed by this means we find out the hidden secrecies of living creatures of plants of metals and of their generation and corruption so that this whole Science seems meerly to depend upon the view of Nature as afterward we shall see more at large This doth Plato seem to signifie in his Alcibiades where he saith That the Magick of Zoroastres was nothing else in his opinion but the knowledge and study of Divine things wherewith the Kings Sons of Persia amongst other princely qualities were endued that by the example of the Common-wealth of the whole world they also might learn to govern their own Common-wealth And Tully in his book of Divinations saith That amongst the Persians no man might be a King unless he had first learned the Art of Magick for as Nature governs the world by the mutual agreement and disagreement of the creatures after the same sort they also might learn to govern the Common-wealth committed unto them This Art I say is full of much vertue of many secret mysteries it openeth unto us the properties and qualities of hidden things and the knowledge of the whole course of Nature and it reacheth us by the agreement and the disagreement of things either so to sâ—nder them or else to lay them so together by the mutual and fit applying of one thing to another as thereby we do strange works such as the vulgar sort call miracles and such as men can neither well conceive nor sufficiently admire For this cause Magick was wont to flourish in Aethiopia and India where was great store of herbs and stones and such other things as were fit for these purposes Wherefore as many of you as come to behold Magick must be perswaded that the works of Magick are nothing else but the works of Nature whose dutiful hand-maid Magick is For if she find any want in the affinity of Nature that it is not strong enough she doth supply such defects at convenient seasons by the help of vapours and by observing due measures and proportions as in Husbandry it is Nature that brings forth corn and herbs but it is Art that prepares and makes way for them Hence was it that Antipho the Poet said That we overcome those things by Art wherein Nature doth overcome us and Plotinus calls a Magician such a one as works by the help of Nature onely and not by the help of Art Superstitious profane and wicked men have nothing to do with this Science her gate is shut against them neither do we judge them worthy to be driven away from this profession onely but even out of Cities and out of the world to be grievously punished and utterly destroyed But now what is the 〈◊〉 and what must be the learning of this professor we purpose to 〈◊〉 in that which floweth CHAP. III. The Instruction of a Magician and what manner of man a Magician ought to be NOw it is meet to instruct a Magician both what he must know and what he must observe that being sufficiently instructed every way he may bring very strange and wonderful things to pass Seeing Magick as we shewed before is a practical part of Natural Philosophy therefore it behoveth a Magician and one that aspires to the dignity of that profession to be an exact and a very perfect Philosopher For Philosophy teaches what are the effects of fire earth air and water the principal matter of the heavens and what is the cause of the flowing of the Sea and of the divers-coloured Rain-bowe and of the loud Thunder and of Comets and firy lights that appear by night and of Earth-quakes and what are the beginnings of Gold and of Iron and what is the whole witty force of hidden Nature Then also he must be a skilful Physician for both these Sciences are very like and neer together and Physick by creeping in under colour of Magick hath purchased favour amongst men And surely it is a great help unto us in this kinde for it teaches mixtures and temperatures and so shews us how to compound and lay things together for such purposes Moreover it is required of him that he be an Herbalist not onely able to discern common Simples but very skilful and sharp-sighted in the nature of all plants for the uncertain names of plants and their neer likeness of one to another so that they can hardly be discerned hath put us to much trouble in some of our works and experiments And as there is no greater inconvenience to any Artificer then not to know his tools that he must work with so the knowledge of plants is so necessary to this profession that indeed it is all in all He
must be as well seen also in the nature of Metals Minerals Gems and Stones Furthermore what cunning he must have in the art of Distillation which follows and resembles the showers and dew of heaven as the daughter the mother I think no man will doubt of it for it yeelds daily very strange inventions and most witty devices and shews how to finde out many things profitable for the use of man As for example to draw out of things dewy vapours unsavoury and gross sents or spirits clots and gummy or slimy humours and that intimate essence which lurks in the inmost bowels of things to fetch it forth and sublimate it that it may be of the greater strength And this he must learn to do not after a rude and homely manner but with knowledge of the causes and reasons thereof He must also know the Mathematical Sciences and especially Astrologie for that shews how the Stars are moved in the heavens and what is the cause of the darkning of the Moon and how the Sun that golden planet measures out the parts of the world and governs it by twelve Signes for by the sundry motions and aspects of the heavens the celestial bodies are very beneficial to the earth and from thence many things receive both active and passive powers and their manifold properties the difficulty of which point long troubled the Platonicks mindes how these inferiour things should receive influence from heaven Moreover he must be skilful in the Opticks that he may know how the sight may be deceived and how the likeness of a vision that is seen in the water may be seen hanging without in the air by the help of certain Glasses of divers fashions and how to make one see that plainly which is a great way off and how to throw fire very far from us upon which sleights the greatest part of the secrecies of Magick doth depend These are the Sciences which Magick takes to her self for servants and helpers and he that knows not these is unworthy to be named a Magician He must be a skilful workman both by natural gifts and also by the practise of his own hands for knowledge without practice and workmanship and practice without knowledge are nothing worth these are so linked together that the one without the other is but vain and to no purpose Some there are so apt for these enterprises even by the gifts of Nature that God may seem to have made them hereunto Neither yet do I speak this as if Art could not perfect any thing for I know that good things may be made better and there are means to remedy and help foward that which lacks perfection First let a man consider and prepare things providently and skilfully and then let him fall to work and do nothing unadvisedly This I thought good to speak of that if at any time the ignorant be deceived herein he may not lay the fault upon us but upon his own unskilfulness for this is the infirmity of the scholar and not of the teacher for if rude and ignorant men shall deal in these matters this Science will be much discredited and those strange effects will be accounted hap-hazard which are most certain and follow their necessary cause If you would have your works appear more wonderful you must not let the cause be known for that is a wonder to us which we see to be done and yet know not the cause of it for he that knows the causes of a thing done doth not so admire the doing of it and nothing is counted unusual and rare but onely so far forth as the causes thereof are not known Aristotle in his books of Handy-trades saith that master-builders frame and make their tools to work with but the principles thereof which move admiration those they conceal A certain man put out a candle and putting it to a stone or a wall lighted it again and this seemed to be a great wonder but when once they perceived that he touched it with brimstone then saith Galen it ceased to seem a wonder A miracle saith Ephesius is dissolved by that wherein it seemed to be a miracle Lastly the professor of this Science must also be rich for if we lack money we shall hardly work in these cases for it is not Philosophy that can make us rich we must first be rich that we may play the Philosophers He must spare for no charges but be prodigal in seeking things out and while he is busie and careful in seeking he must be patient also and think it not much to recal many things neither must he spare for any pains for the secrets of Nature are not revealed to lazie and idle persons Wherefore Epicharmus said very well that men purchase all things at Gods hands by the price of their labour And if the effect of thy work be not answerable to my description thou must know that thy self hast failed in some one point or another for I have set down these things briefly as being made for wrtty and skilful workmen and not for rude and young beginners CHAP. IV. The opinions of the antient Philosophers touching the causes of strange operations and first of the Elements THose effects of Nature which oft-times we behold have so imployed the antient Philosophers minds in the searching forth of their causes that they have taken great pains and yet were much deceived therein insomuch that divers of them have held divers opinions which it shall not be amiss to relate before we proceed any farther The first sort held that all things proceed from the Elements and that these are the first beginnings of things the fire according to Hippasus Metapontinus and Heraclides Ponticus the air according to Diogenes Apolloniates and Anaximenes and the water according to Thales Milesius These therefore they held to be the very original and first seeds of Nature even the Elements simple and pure bodies whereas the Elements that now are be but counterfeits and bastards to them for they are all changed every one of them being more or less medled with one another those say they are the material principles of a natural body and they are moved and altered by continual succession of change and they are so wrapt up together within the huge cope of heaven that they fill up this whole space of the world which is situate beneath the Moon for the fire being the lightest and purest Element hath gotten up aloft and chose it self the highest room which they call the element of fire The next Element to this is the Air which is somwhat more weighty then the fire and it is spread abroad in a large and huge compass and passing through all places doth make mens bodies framable to her temperature and is gathered together sometimes thick into dark clouds sometimes thinner into mists and so is resolved The next to these is the water and then the last and lowest of all which is scraped and compacted together out of the
purer Elements and is called the Earth a thick and grosse substance very solid and by no means to be pierced through so that there is no solid and firm body but hath earth in it as also there is no vacant space but hath air in it This Element of earth is situate in the middle and centre of all and is round beset with all the rest and this only stands still and unmoveable whereas all the rest are carried with a circular motion round about it But Hippon and Critias held that the vapours of the Elements were the first beginnings Parmenides held that their qualities were the principles for all things saith he consist of cold and heat The Physitians hold that all things consist of four qualities hear cold moisture drouth and of their predominancy when they meet together for every Element doth embrace as it were with certain armes his neighbour-Element which is next situate to him and yet they have also contrary and sundry qualities whereby they differ for the wisdom of nature hath framed this workmanship of the world by due and set measure and by a wonderful fitnesse and conveniency of one thing with another for whereas every Element had two qualities wherein it agreed with some and disagreed with other Elements nature hath bestowed such a double quality upon every one as finds in other two her like which she cleaves unto as for example the air and the fire this is hot and dry that is hot and moist now dry and moist are contraries and thereby fire and air disagree but because either of them is hot thereby they are reconciled So the Earth is cold and dry and the water cold and moist so that they disagree in that the one is moist the other dry but yet are reconciled in as much as they are both cold otherwise they could hardly agree Thus the fire by little and little is changed into air because either of them is hot the air into the water because either of them is moist the water into the earth because either of them is cold and the earth into fire because either of them is dry and so they succeed each other after a most provident order From thence also they are turned back again into themselves the order being inverted and so they are made mutually of one another for the change is easie in those that agree in any one common quality as fire and air be easily changed into each other by reason of heat but where either of the qualities are opposite in both as in fire and water there this change is not so easie So then heat cold moisture and drouth are the first and principal qualities in as much as they proceed immediately from the Elements and produce certain secondary effects Now two of them namely heat and cold are active qualities fitter to be doing themselves then to suffer of others the other two namely moisture and drouth are passive not because they are altogether idle but because they follow and are preserved by the other There are certain secondary qualities which attend as it were upon the first and these are said to work in a second sort as to soften to ripen to resolve to make lesse or thinner as when heat works into any mixt body it brings out that which is unpure and so whilst it strives to make it fit for his purpose that it may be more simple the body becometh thereby smaller and thinner so cold doth preserve binde and congeal drouth doth thicken or harden and makes uneven for when there is great store of moisture in the utter parts that which the drouth is not able to consume it hardens and so the utter parts become rugged for that part where the moisture is gone sinking down and the other where it is hardened rising up there must needs be great roughnesse and ruggednesse so moisture doth augment corrupt and for the most part works one thing by it self and another by some accident as by ripening binding expelling and such like it brings forth milk urine monethly flowers and sweat which the Physitians call the third qualities that do so wait upon the second as the second upon the first and sometime they have their operations in some certain parts as to strengthen the head to succour the reins and these some call fourth qualities So then these are the foundations as they call them of all mixt bodies and of all wonderful operations and whatsoever experiments they proved the causes hereof rested as they supposed and were to be found in the Elements and their qualities But Empedocles Agrigentinus not thinking that the Elements were sufficient for this purpose added unto them moreover concord and discord as the causes of generation and corruption There be four principal seeds or beginnings of all things Jupiter that is to say fire Pluto that is to say earth Juno that is to say air and Nestis that is to say water all these sometimes love and concord knits together in one and sometimes discord doth sunder them and make them flie apart This concord and discord said he are found in the Elements by reason of their sundry qualities wherein they agree and disagree yea even in heaven it self as Jupiter and Venus love all Planets save Mars and Saturn Venus agrees with Mars whereas no Planet else agrees with him There is also another disagreement amongst them which ariseth from the oppositions and elevations of their houses for even the twelve signs are both at concord and at discord among themselves as Manilius the Poet hath shewed CHAP. V. That divers operations of Nature proceed from the essential forms of things ALl the Peripatericks and most of the latter Philosophers could not see how all operations should proceed from those causes which the Antients have set down for they find that many things work quite contrary to their qualities and therefore they have imagined that there is some other matter in it and that it is the power and properties of essential formes But now that all things may be made more plain we must consider that it will be a great help unto us for the making and finding out of strange things to know what that is from whence the vertues of any thing do proceed that so we may be able to discern and distinguish one thing from another without confounding all order of truth Whereas one and the same compound yeelds many effects of different kinds as we shall find in the processe of this Book yet every man confesseth that there is but one only original cause therein that produceth all these effects And seeing we are about to open plainly this original cause we must begin a little higher Every natural substance I mean a compound body is composed of matter and form as of her principles neither yet do I exclude the principal qualities of the Elements from doing their part herein for they also concur and make up the number of three principles for when
Likewise the pulse called Lupines still looks after the Sun that it may not writhe his stalk and this watcheth the Suns motion so duly that like a Dial it shews the Husband-man the time of the day though it be never so cloudy and they know thereby the just time when the Sun setteth and Theophrastus saith that the flower of the herb Lotum is not onely open and shut but also sometimes hides and sometimes shews her stalk from Sun-set to midnight and this saith he is done about the River Euphrates So the Olive-tree the Sallow the Linden-tree the Elm the white Pople-tree they declare the times of the Suns standing when it turns back again from the Poles for then they hide their leaves and shew only their hoar-white backs In like manner winter-Cresses or Irium and Penyrial though they begin to wither being gathered yet if you hang them upon a stick about the time of the Solstice they will for that time flourish The stone Selenites as much as to say the Moon-beam called by others Aphroselinon contains in it the Image of the Moon and shews the waxing and waining of it every day in the same Image Another stone there is that hath in it a little cloud that turns about like the Sun sometimes hiding sometimes shewing it self The Beast Cynocephalus rejoiceth at the rising of the Moon for then he stands up lifting his fore-feet toward heaven and wears a Royal Ensign upon his head and he hath such a Sympathy with the Moon that when she meets with the Sun as betwixt the old and new Moon so that she gives no light the male or He-Cynocephalus never looks up nor eats any thing as bewailing the losse of the Moon and the female as male-content as He all that while pisseth blood for which causes these beasts are nourished and kept in hallowed places that by them the time of the Moones meeting with the Sun may be certainly known as Oruâ— writes in his Hieroglyphicks The star Arcturus at his rising causeth rain Dogs are well acquainted with the rising of the Canicular star for at that time they are commonly mad and so are vipers and serpents nay then the very standing pools are moved and wines work as they lye in the Cellar and other great and strange effects are wrought upon earth when this star riseth Basil-gentle waxeth whiterish and Coriander waxeth dry as Theophrastus writeth The rising of this star was wont to be diligently observed every year for thereby they would prognosticate whether the year following would be wholesome or contagious as Heraclides Ponticus saith for if it did rise dark and gloomy it was a sign that the Air would be thick and foggy which would cause a pestilence but if it were clear and lightsome it was a sign that the Air would be thin and well purged and consequently healthful In ancient times they much feared this Star so that they ordained a dog to be offered in sacrifice to it as Columella saith that this star is pacified with the blood and entrails of a sucking whelp and Ovid likewise saith that a dog bred on the earth is sacrificed to the Dog-star in Heaven The Beast or wilde Goat which in Egypt is called Oryx hath a sense or feeling of this Star before it riseth for then he looks upon the Sun-beams and in them doth honour the Canicular star Hippocrates saith it is good either to purge or let blood before or after this star riseth and Galen shews that many very necessary operations of this Star must be observed in Critical dayes and likewise in sowing and planting Moreover the greater stars and constellations must be known and at what time they go out of the signs whereby are caused many waterish and fiery impressions in the Air. And whosoever is rightly seen in all these things he will ascribe all these inferiours to the stars as their causes whereas if a man be ignorant hereof he loseth the greatest part of the knowledge of secret operations and works of nature But of this argument we have spoken in our writings of the knowledge of Plants CHAP. IX How to attract and draw forth the vertues of superiour Bodies WE have shewed before the operations of celestial bodies into these inferiours as also the Antipathy and Sympathy of things now will we shew by the affinity of Nature whereby all things are linked together as it were in one common bond how to draw forth and to fetch out the vertues and forces of superior bodies The Platonicks termed Magick to be the attractions or fetching out of one thing from another by a certain affinity of Nature For the parts of this huge world like the limbs and members of one living creature do all depend upon one Author and are knit together by the bond of one Nature therefore as in us the brain the lights the heart the liver and other parts of us do receive and draw mutual benefit from each other so that when one part suffers the rest also suffer with it even so the parts and members of this huge creature the World I mean all the bodies that are in it do in good neighbour-hood as it were lend and borrow each others Nature for by reason that they are linked in one common bond therefore they have love in common and by force of this common love there is amongst them a common attraction or tilling of one of them to the other And this indeed is Magick The concavity or hollownesse of the Sphere of the Moon draws up fire to it because of the affinity of their Natures and the Sphere of the fire likewise draws up Air and the centre of the world draws the earth downward and the natural place of the waters draws the waters to it Hence it is that the Load-stone draws iron to it Amber draws chaff or light straws Brimstone draws fire the Sun draws after it many flowers and leaves and the Moon draws after it the waters Plotinus and Synesius say Great is nature everywhere she layeth certain baits whereby to catch certain things in all places as she draws down heavy things by the centre of the earth as by a bait so she draws light things upward by the concavity of the Moon by heat leaves by moisture roots by one bait or another all things By which kind of attraction the Indian Wisards hold that the whole world is knit and bound within it self for say they the World is a living creature everywhere both male and female and the parts of it do couple together within and between themselves by reason of their mutual love and so they hold and stand together every member of it being linked to each other by a common bond which the Spirit of the World whereof we spake before hath inclined them unto For this cause Orpheus calleth Jupiter and the Nature of the World man and wife because the World is so desirous to marry and couple her parts together The very order of the Signs
declareth that the World is every-where male and female for the former is the male the latter is the female so also Trees and Herbs have both sexes as well as living creatures so the fire is to the Air and the water to the Earth as a male to the female so that it is no marvel that the parts of the World desire so much to be matcht together The Planets are partly male and partly female and Mercury is of both sexes it self These things the Husband-man perceiving prepares his field and his seed for heavenly influences to work upon the Physician likewise observes the same and works accordingly for the preservation both of our bodies and of universal Nature So the Philosopher who is skilful in the Stars for such is properly a Magician works by certain baits as it were fitly matching earthly and heavenly things together and platting them as skilfully one within another as a cunning Husband-man planteth an old grâ—ffe into a young stock nay he layeth earthly things under heavenly things and inferious so fitly for their superiours everywhere to work upon as if a man should lay iron before the Load-stone to be drawn to it or Christal before the Sun to be enlightened by it or an Egge under a Hen to hatch it Furthermore as some can so cherish egges that even without the help of living creatures they will make them live yea and oftentimes they will prepare such matter so cunningly that even without egges or any apparent seeds they will bring forth living creatures as they will bring forth Bees of an Ox and a Scorpion of Basil working together by the help of universal Nature upon the vantage of fit matter and a seasonable or convenient time even so the Magician when once he knows which and what kinds of matters Nature hath partly framed and partly Art hath perfected and gathered together such as are fit to receive influence from above these matters especially doth he prepare and compound together at such a time as such an influence raigneth and by this means doth gain to himself the vertues and forces of heavenly bodies for wheresoever there is any matter so directly laid before superiour bodies as a looking-glasse before ones face or as a wall right before ones voice so doth it presently suffer the work of the Superiours the most mighty Agent and the admirable life and power of all things shewing it self therein Plotinus in his Book of Sacrifice and Magick saith That the Philosophers considering this affinity and bond of Nature wherewith all natural things are linked each to other did thence frame the Art of Magick and acknowledged both that the superiours might be seen in these inferiours and these inferiours in their superiours earthly things in heavenly though not properly but in their causes and after a heavenly sort likewise heavenly things in earthly but yet after an earthly sort For whence should we suppose it to be that the plants called Sun-followers should still follow the Suns motion and likewise the Moon-followers the Moons motion Wherefore surely even in earth we may behold both the Sun and the Moon but yet by reason of their quality upon earth and so in heaven we may behold all plants and stones and living creatures but yet as following the heavenly natures which things the Antients perceiving did apply and lay some earthly things to some heavenly and thence brought down the celestial forces into these inferiours by reason of their likeness one with the other for the very likenesse of one thing to another is a sufficient bond to link them together If a man do heat a piece of paper and then lay it a little under the flame of a candle though they do not touch each other yet he shall see the paper presently burn and the flame will still descend till it have burned all the paper Let us now suppose the paper thus heated to be that affinity which is betwixt superiours and inferious and suppose we also that this laying of the paper to the candle to be the fit applying of things together both for matter and time and place let us suppose yet farther the flame taking hold of the paper to be the operation of some heavenly body into a capable matter and last of all we may suppose the burning of the paper to be the altering of that matter into the nature of the celestial body that works upon it and so purifies it that in the end it flieth upward like burning flax by reason of some heavenly seeds and sparks which it hath within it self CHAP. X. How the knowledge of secrecies dependeth upon the survey and viewing of the whole World WE are perswaded that the knowledge of secret things depends upon the contemplation and view of the face of the whole world namely of the motion state and fashion thereof as also of the springing up the growing and the decaying of things for a diligent searcher of Natures workes as he seeth how Nature doth generate and corrupt all things so doth he also learn to do Likewise he learns of living creatures which though they have no understanding yet their senses are far quicker then ours and by their actions they teach us Physick Husbandry the art of Building the disposing of Houshold affairs and almost all Arts and Sciences the like may be observed in Metals Gems and Stones The beasts that have no reason do by their nature strangely shun the eyes of witches and hurtful things the Doves for a preservative against inchantments first gather some little Bay-tree boughs and then lay them upon their nests no preserve their young so do the Kites use white brambles the Turtles sword-grasse the Crows Withy the Lapwings Venus-hair the Ravens Ivy the Herns Carrot the Patridges Reed-leaves the Black-birds Myrtle the Larkes grasse the Swans Park-leaves the Eagle useth Maiden-hair or the stone Aeâ—ites for the same purpose In like manner they have shewed us preservatives against poysons the Elephant having by chance eaten a Chamaeleon against the poyson thereof eats of the wilde Olive whence Solinus observes That the same is a good remedy for men also in the same case The Panthers having swallowed up the poisonous herb Aconitum wherewith the Hunters besmear pieces of flesh so to destroy them against the poyson thereof seek out mans dung The Tortoise having eaten a serpent dispels the poyson by eating the herb Origan When Bears have tasted the fruit of the Mandrakes they eat Pismires against the poyson thereof There is a kind of Spider which destroyeth the Harts except presently they eat wilde Ivy and whensoever they light upon any poysonous food they cure themselves with the Artichoke and against Serpents they prepare and arm themselves with wilde Parsneps so do the Ring-doves Choughs and Black-birds use Bay-leaves The little worm Cimex is good against the biting of Aspes as Pliny shews by Hens who if they eat that worm are all day after free from the hurt of Aspes Goats
all their corn wasted And as these mice are generated suddenly so they are suddenly consumed in a few dayes the reason whereof cannot be so well assigned Pliny could not find how it should be for neither could they be found dead in the fields neither alive within the earth in the winter time Diodorus and Aelianus write That these field-mice have driven many people of Italy out of their own Countrey they destroyed Cosas a City of Hetruria many came to Troas and thence drove the inhabitants Theophrastus and Varro write That mice also made the inhabitants of the Island Gyarus to forsake their Country and the like is reported of Heraclea in Pontus and of other places Likewise also Frogs are wonderfully generated of rotten dust and rain for a Summer showre lighting upon the putrified sands of the shore and dust of high-wayes engenders frogs Aelianus going from Naples in Italy to Puteoli saw certain frogs that their fore-parts moved and went upon two feet while yet their hinder parts were unfashioned and drawn after like a clot of dirt and Ovid saith one part lives the other is earth still and again mud engenders frogs that sometimes lack feet The generation of them is so easie and sudden that some write it hath rained frogs as if they were gendred in the Air. Phylarchus in Athenaeus writes so and Heraclides Lembus writes that it rained frogs about Dardany and Poeonia so plentifully that the very wayes and houses were full of them and therefore the inhabitants though for a few daies at the first they endured it killing the frogs and shutting up their houses yet afterward when they saw it was to no purpose but they could neither use water nor boil meat but frogs would be in it nor so much as tread upon the ground for them they quite forsook their countries as Diodorus and Eustathius write The people Autharidae in Thesprtaia were driven out of their Country by certain imperfect frogs that fell from heaven But it is a strange thing that Red Toads are generated of dirt and of womens flowers In Dariene a Province of the new world the air is most unwholesome the place being muddy and full of stinking marishes nay the village is it self a marish where Toads are presently gendred of the drops wherewith they water their houses as Peter Martyr writes A Toad is likewise generated of a duck that hath lyen rotting under the mud as the verse shews which is ascribed to the duck When I am rotten in the earth I bring forth Toads happily because they and I both are moist and foul creatures Neither is it hard to generate Toades of womens putrified flowers for women do breed this kind of cattel together with their children as Celius Aurelianus and Platearius call them frogs toads lyzards and such like and the women of Salerium in times past were wont to use the juice of Parsley and Leeks at the beginning of their conception and especially about the time of their quickening thereby to destroy this kind of vermin with them A certain woman lately married being in all mens judgement great with child brought forth in stead of a child four Creatures like to frogs and after had her perfect health But this was a kind of a Moon-calf Paracelsus said that if you cut a serpent in pieces and hide him in a vessel of glasse under the mud there will be gendred many worms which being nourished by the mud will grow every one as big as a Serpent so that of one serpent may be an hundred generated and the like he holds of other creatures I will not gainsay it but only thus that they do not gender the same serpents And so he saith you may make them of a womans flowers and so he saith you may generate a Basilisk that all shall die which look upon him but this is a stark lie It is evident also that Serpents may be generated of mans marrow of the hairs of a menstruous woman and of a horse-tail or mane We read that in Hungary by the River Theisa Serpents and Lyzards did breed in mens bodies so that three thousand men died of it Pliny writes that about the beginning of the wars against the Marsi a maid-servant brought forth a serpent Avicenna in his book of deluges writes that serpents are gendred of womens hairs especially because they are naturally moister and longer then mens We have experienced also that the hairs of a horses mane laid in the waters will become serpents and our friends have tried the same No man denies but that serpents are easily gendred of mans flesh especially of his marrow Aelianus saith that a dead mans back-marrow being putrified becomes a serpent and so of the meekest living Creature arises the most savage and that evil mens back-bones do breed such monsters after death Ovid shews that many hold it for a truth Pliny received it of many reports that Snakes gendred of the marrow of mens backs Writers also shew How a Scorpion may be generated of Basil. Florentinus the Grecian saith That Basil chewed and laid in the Sun will engender serpents Pliny addeth that if you rub it and cover it with a stone it will become a Scorpion and if you chew it and lay it in the Sun it will bring forth worms And some say that if you stamp a handful of Basil together with ten Crabs or Crevises all the Scorpions thereabouts will come unto it Avicenna tells of a strange kind of producing a Scorpion but Galen denies it to be true But the body of a Crab-fish is strangely turned into a Scorpion Pliny saith that while the Sun is in the sign Cancer if the bodies of those fishes lie dead upon the Land they wil be turned into Scorpions Ovid saith if you take of the Crabs arms and hide the rest in the ground it will be Scorpion There is also a Creature that lives but one day bred in vineger as Aelianus writes and it is called Ephemerus because it lives but one day it is gendred of the dregs of sowre wine and as soon as the vessel is open that it comes into the light presently it dies The River Hippanis about the solstitial daies yields certain little husks whence issue forth certain four-footed birds which live and flie about till noon but pine away as the Sun draws downward and die at the Sun-setting and because they live but one day they are called Hemerobion a daies-bird So the Pyrigâ—nes be generated in the fire Certain little flying beasts so called because they live and are nourished in the fire and yet they flie up and down in the Air. This is strange but that is more strange that as soon as ever they come out of the fire into any cold air presently they die Likewise the Salamander is gendred of the water for the Salamander it self genders nothing neither is there any male or female amongst them nor yet amongst Eeels nor any kind else which doth not generate of
produce Monsters by another way then that which we spake of before for even after they are brought forth we may fashion them into a monstrous shape even as we list for as we may shape young fruits as they grow into the fashion of any vessel or case that we make for them to grow into as we may make a Quince like a mans head a Cucumber like a Snake by making a case of that fashion for them to grow in so also we may do by the births of living Creatures Hippocrates in his book of Air and Water and Places doth precisely set down the manner hereof and sheweth how they do it that dwell by the River Phasis all of them being very long-headed whereas no other Nation is so besides And surely Custom was the first cause that they had such heads but afterward Nature framed her self to that Custome insomuch that they esteemed it an honourable thing to have a very long head The beginning of that Custome was thus As soon as the child was new born whiles his head was yet soft and tender they would presently crush it in their hands and so cause it to grow out in length yea they would bind it up with swathing bands that it might not grow round but all in length and by this custom it came to passe that their heads afterward grew such by nature And in process of time they were born with such heads so that they needed not to be so framed by handling for whereas the generative seed is derived from all the parts of the body sound bodies yielding good seed but crazie bodies unsound seed and oftentimes bald fathers beget bald children and blear-eyed fathers blear-eyed children and a deformed father for the most part a deformed childe and the like also cometh to passe concerning other shapes why should not also long-headed fathers generate long-headed children But now they are not born with such heads because that practise is quite out of use and so nature which was upheld by that custom ceaseth together with the custom So if we would produce a two-legged Dog such as some are carried about to be seen we must take very young whelps and cut off their feet but heal them up very carefully and when they be grow to strength join them in copulation with other dogs that have but two legs left and if their whelps be not two-legged cut off their legs still by succession and at the last nature will be overcome to yield their two-legged dogs by generation By some such practise as you heard before namely by handling and often framing the members of young children Mid-wives are wont to amend imperfections in them as the crookednesse or sharpnesse of their noses or such like CHAP. XIX Of the wonderful force of imagination and how to produce party-coloured births PLutark in his rehearsal of the opinions of Philosophers writes that Empedocles held that an infant is formed according to that which the mother looks upon at the time of conception for saith he women were wont to have commonly pictures and images in great request and to bring forth children resembling the same Hippocrates to clear a certain womans honesty that had brought forth children very unlike their parents ascribed the cause of it to a certain picture which she had in her chamber And the same defence Quintilian useth on the behalf of a woman who being her self fair had brought forth a Black-moor which was supposed by all men to be her slaves son Damascen reports that a certain young woman brought forth a child that was all hairy and searching out the reason thereof he found the hiary image of Iohn Baptist in her chamber which she was wont to look upon Heliodorus begins that excellent history which he wrote with the Queen of Aethiopia who brought forth Chariclea a fair daughter the cause whereof was the fable of Andromeda pictured in that chamber wherein she lay with the King We read of some others that they brought forth horned children because in the time of their coition they looked upon the fable of Actaeon painted before them Many children have hare-lips and all because their mothers being with child did look upon a Hare The conceit of the mind and the force of Imagination is great but it is then most operative when it is excessively bent upon any such thing as it cannot attain unto Women with child when they long most vehemently and have their minds earnestly set upon any thing do thereby alter their inward spirits the spirits move the blood and so imprint the likenesse of the thing mused upon in the tender substance of the child And surely all children would have some such marks or other by reason of their mothers longing if this longing were not in some sort satisfied Wherefore the searchers out of secrets have justly ascribed the marks and signes in the young ones to the imagination of the mother especially that imagination which prevails with her in the chiefest actions as in coition in letting go her seed and such like and as man of all other living creatures is most swift and fleeting in his thoughts and fullest of conceits so the variety of his wit affords much variety of such effects and therefore they are more in mankind then in other living creatures for other creatures are not so divers minded so that they may the better bring forth every one his like in his own kind Iacob was well acquainted with this force of imagination as the Scriptures witnesse for endeavouring To bring forth party-coloured Sheep he took that course which I would wish every man to take that attempts any such enterprize He took certain Rods and Poles of Popler and Almond-tree and such as might be easily barked and cut off half the rine pilling them by white strakes so that the Rods were white and black in several circles like a Snakes colour Then he put the Rods which he had pilled into the gutters and watering-troughs when the Sheep came to drink and were in heat of conception that they might look upon the Rods. And the Sheep conceived before the Rods and brought forth young of party-colours and with small and great spots A delightful sight it was Now afterward Iacob parted these Lambes by themselves and turned the faces of the other Sheep towards these party-coloured ones about the time of conception whereby it came to passe that the other Sheep in their heat beholding those that were party-coloured brought forth Lambs of the like colour And such experiments might be practised upon all living Creatures that bear wool and would take place in all kinds of beasts for this course will prevail even in Generating party-coloured Horses A matter which Horse-keepers and Horse-breeders do practise much for they are wont to hang and adorn with tapestry and painted clothes of sundry colours the houses and rooms where they put their Mares to take Horse whereby they procure Colts of a bright Bay colour or of
making the Winter to be as the Summer and the Spring-time as the Winter Amongst other means engraffing is not a little helpful hereunto Wherefore let us see how we may by engraffing Produce Grapes in the Spring-time If we see a Cherry-tree bring forth her fruit in the Spring-time and we desire to have Grapes about that time there is fit oportunity of attaining our desire as Tarentinus writeth If you engraffe a black Vine into the Cherry-tree you shall have Grapes growing in the Spring-time for the Tree will bring forth Grapes the very same season wherein it would bring forth her own fruit But this engraffing cannot be without boring a hole into the stock as Didymus sheweth You must bore the Cherry-tree stock through with a wimble and your Vine growing by it you must take one of the next and goodliest branches thereof and put it into the aâ—ger-hole but you must not cut it off from the Vine but place it in as it grows for so the branch will live the better both as being nourished by his own mother the Vine and also as being made partaker of the juice of that Tree into which it is engraffed This sprig within the compasse of two years will grow and be incorporated into the Cherry-tree about which time after the skar is grown over again you must cut off the branch from the Vine and saw off the stock of the Cherry-tree wherein it is engraffed all above the boring place and let the Vine-branch grow up in the rest for so shall neither the Vine be idle but still bring forth her own fruit and that branch also which was engraffed doth grow up together with it being nothing hurt by that engraffing We may also by the help of engraffing procure A Rose to shew forth her buds before her time If we pluck off a Rose-bud from the mother and engraff by such an emplastering as we spake of before the same into the open bark of an Almond-tree at such time as the Almond-tree doth bud the Rose so engraffed will bring forth her own flowers out of the Almond bark But because it is a very hard matter to engraffe into an Herbe and therefore we can hardly produce flowers sooner then their time by that means we will shew another means hereof And namely How Cucumbers may hasten their fruits Columella found in Dolus Mendesius an Aegyptian an easie way whereby this may be done You must set in your Garden in some shadowy place well dunged a rank of Fenel and a rank of Brambles one within another and after the aequinoctial day cut them off a little within the ground and having first loosed the pith of either of them with a wooden puncheon to convey dung into them and withal to engraffe in them Cucumber-seeds which may grow up together with the Fenel and the Brambles for by this means the seeds will receive nourishment from the root of the stalk into which they are engraffed and so you shall have Cucumbers very soon But now let us shew how we may accomplish this thing by counterfeiting as it were the seasons of the year and first how we may procure that Cucumbers shall be ripe very timely The Quintiles say you must take panniers or earthen pots and put into them some fine â—â—â—ed earth mixed with dung that it may be somewhat liquid and preventing the ordinary season you must plant therein Cucumber-seeds about the beginning of the Spring and when the Sun shines or that there is any heat or rain they bring the panniers forth into the Air and about Sun-setting they bring them into a close house and this they do daily still watering them as occasion serveth But after that the cold and the frost is ceased and the Air is more temperate they take their panniers and digge a place for them in some well-tilled ground and there set them so that the brims thereof may be even with the earth and then look well to them and you shall have your desire The like may be done by Gourds Theophrastus sheweth that if a man sow Cucumber seeds in the Winter-time and water them with warm water and lay them in the Sunne or else by the fire and when seed-time cometh put whole panniers of them into the ground they will yield very timely Cucumbers long before their ordinary season is to grow Columella saith that Tiberius the Emperour took great delight in the Cucumbers that were thus ripened which he had at all times of the year for his Gardners every day drew forth their hanging Gardens into the Sun upon wheels and when any great cold or rain came they straightwayes carried them in again into their close hovels made for the same purpose Didymus sheweth Roses may bud forth even before Winter be past if they be used after the like manner namely if you set them in hampers or earthen vessels and carefully look unto them and use them as you would use Gourds and Cucumbers to make them ripe before their ordinary season Pliny sheweth How to make Figs that were of last years growth to be ripe very soon the next year after and this is by keeping them from the cold too but yet the device and practice is not all one with the former There are saith he in certain Countries as in Maesia Winter Fig-trees a small tree it is and such as is more beholding to Art then to Nature which they use on this manner After the Autumn or Fall they lay them in the earth and cover them all over with muck and the green Figs that grew upon them in the beginning of Winter are also buried upon the Tree with them Now when the Winter is past and the Air is somewhat calmer the year following they dig up the Trees again with the fruit upon them which presently do embrace the heat of a new Sun as it were and grow up by the temperature of another year as kindly as if they had then new sprung up whereby it cometh to passe that though the Country be very cold yet there they have ripe Figs of two years growth as it were even before other Fig-trees can so much as blossom But because we cannot so well practise these experiments in the broad and open fields either by hindering or by helping the temperature of the Air therefore we will assay to ripen fruit and flowers before their time by laying warm cherishers as lime or chalk and nitre and warm water to the roots of Trees and herbs If you would have A Cherry ripe before his time Pliny saith that you must lay chalk or lime to the root of the Tree before it begin to blossom or else you must oftentimes pour hot water upon the root and by either of these means you may procure the ripening of Cherries before their time howbeit afterward the Trees will be drie and wither away If you would procure the ripening Of a Rose before his time Dydimus saith you may effect it by covering the
no windows be made towards the South because the Southern winde will make your fruit full of wrinkles Let us see therefore What places are fittest to lay up Quinces in Marcus Varro saith that they will be preserved well if they be laid up in some place that is cold and dry Columella also layes them up in a cold floor or loft where there cometh no moisture Palladius likewise would have them laid up in some cold and dry place where there cometh no winde So if you would preserve Apples well Columella teaches you to lay them up in a very cold and a very dry loft where neither smoak nor any noisome savour can come at them Palladius would have them laid up in some close and dark places where the winde cannot come at them And Pliny would have them laid very thin one by another that so the air may come equally at every side of them So Pomegranates may be preserved as Columella reporteth out of Magâ— the Carthaginian if first you warm them in sea-Sea-water and then besmear them with some chalk and when they be dry hang them up in some cold place And Palladius out of Columella prescribes the very same course In like manner you may Preserve the fruit called Ziziphum if you hang them up in a dry place as the same Author is of opinion If you would have Figs to last a great whole Columella teacheth you that as soon as they be thoroughly dry you must lay them up in a very dry room and thereby you shall preserve them for a long time So Damosins may be long preserved If you lay them upon hurdles or grates in some dry place where the Sun may come at them Palladius shews that Chest-nuts may be long preserved if they be raked up in the earth where they may lie dry And I my self have seen in Barry Almonds preserved sound a great while three years or four years together shells and all being laid up in a dry place If you would have Wheat long preserved Varro saith that you must lay it up in high Garners which have a thorough air on the East-side and on the North-side But in any case there must no moist air come at them from any waterish places thereabouts Some have their Garners under the ground as Caves as it is in Cappadocia and Thracia others have their Garners in pits and ditches as it is in the neerer part of Spain only they lay the chaffe under it and take special care that no moisture nor air may come at it except it be when they take it out to use some of it for if the air be kept from it the worm cannot breed in it to devour it By this means they keep their wheat good and sweet fifty years and they preserve their Millet above an hundred years as Theophrastus recordeth If you lay up your wheat with any dust in it it will putrifie for the extrinsecal heat of the dust doth as it were lay siege to the natural heat of the grain and so choaks it up because it hath not as it were a breathing place and by this means it is over-heated and so putrifies Florentinus reporteth out of Varro that Corn may be very well preserved above ground if it be laid up in such places as have the Eastern light shining into them they must also be so situate that the Northern and the Western winds may come at them moderately but they must be safe from all Southerly winds and you must make in them a great many of channels whereby both the warm vapours may have issue forth and also the cooling air may have access in The best way whereby you may Preserve Beans is to parch them reasonably well for so there will be less store of moisture in them which will cause them to last the longer Theophrastus writes that in Apollonia and 〈◊〉 they preserve Beans long without any parching at all Pliny makes mention of certain Beans that were laid up in a certain Cave in Ambracia which lasted from the time of King Pyrrhus until the war which Pâ—â—pey the great wageâ— against the Pirates The same Theophrastus writes also that Pease may be long preserved if you lay them up in high places where the wind hath his full force as in Media and the like Countries but the Bean will be kept there much longer So also the Pulse called Lupines may be long preserved if you lay them up in a loft where the smoak may come at them as Columella writeth for if any moisture do settle upon them presently the worm breeds in them and if once the worm have eaten â—ut the navel as it were of the Pulse that which is in them like a little mouth then cannot the other part which is left be over fit for seed Palladius likewise saith that this kind of Pulse will last very long if it be laid up in dry Garners where no moisture can come at it especially if it may be continually perfumed as it were with smoak But now let us shew how to do that which is the most difficult thing of all in this kind namely How to preserve flesh and fish I have seen flesh and fish preserved from putrefaction for a whole moneth together in very cold place without any other art at all besides the coldness of the place In rooms that are made under the ground and very cold where there cometh neither heat nor any Southerly winde but that they are continually cold and dry almost every thing may be preserved without putrefaction In a certain monastery that is upon the Hill Parthenius neer unto Naples I saw the carcases of men kept whole and sound for many years together The Hill is covered over with snow almost continually and in the tops of the Mountains where the snow lies in ditches and pits conveyed thither of purpose to keep it look what Pears and Cervices and Apples and wilde Chest-nuts have been gathered up by chance together with the snow and put into the same pits after the space of a year that the snow was consumed away we have there found the same fruits so moist and fresh and goodly to the eye as if they had been but then pluckt off from their Trees To conclude there is nothing better and more available for the preservation of any thing then is the dryness and the coldness of such places as they are laid up in to be kept CHAP. IV. What special time there must be chosen for the gathering of such fruits as you mean to lay up in store for a great while after THe principal matter which I would have to be observed in this case is the choosing of your time wherein to gather all such fruits as you would lay up in store that they might last long For if we desire to defeat that heat and moisture which will mar our fruit and cause it to putrifie we cannot take any better course against them then by making choice of such a
of brass you may make Iron to become white If you put amongst it some silver though it be not much it will soon resemble the colour of silver for Iron doth easily suffer it self to be medled with gold or silver and they may be so thoroughly incorporated into each other that by all the rules of separation that can be used you cannot without great labour and very much ado separate the one of them from the other CHAP. V. Of Quick-silver and of the effects and operations thereof IN the next place it is meet that we speak something concerning Quick-silver and the manifold operations thereof wherein we will first set down certain vulgar and common congelations that it makes with other things because many men do desire to know them and secondly we will shew how it may be dissolved into water that they which are desirous of such experiments may be satisfied herein First therefore we will shew How Quick-silver may be congealed and curdled as it were with Iron Put the quick-silver into a casting vessel and put together with it that water which the Blacksmith hath used to quench his hot Iron in and put in also among them Ammoniack Salt and Vitriol and Verdegrease twice so much of every one of these as there was quick-silver let all these boil together in an exceeding great fire and still turn them up and down with an Iron slice or ladle and if at any time the water boil away you must be sure that you have in a readiness some of the same water through hot to cast into it that it may supply the waste which the fire hath made and yet not hinder the boiling thus will they be congealed all together within the space of six hours After this you must take the congealed stuff when it is cold and binde it up hard with your hands in leather thongs or linnen cloth or osiers that all the juice and moisture that is in it may be squeesed out of it then let that which is squeesed and drained out settle it self and be congealed once again till the whole confection be made then put it into an earthen vessel well washed and amongst it some spring-water and take off as neer as you can all the filth and scum that is upon it and is gone to waste and in that vessel you must temper and diligently mix together your congealed matter with spring-water till the whole matter be pure and clear then lay it abroad in the open air three days and three nights and the subject which you have wrought upon will wax thick and hard like a shell or a tile-sheard There is also another congelation to be made with quick-silver Congeailng of Quick-silver with balls of Brass thus make two Brass half circles that that may fasten one within the other that nothing may exhale put into them quick-silver with an equal part of white Arsenick and Tartar well powdred and searced lute the joynts well without that nothing may breathe forth so let them dry and cover them with coles all over for six hours then make all red hot then take it out and open it and you shall see it all coagulated and to stick in the hollow of the Brass ball strike it with a hammer and it will fall off melt it and project it and it will give an excellent colour like to Silver and it is hard to discern it from Silver If you will you may mingle it with three parts of melted Brass and without Silver it will be exceeding white soft and malleable It is also made another way Make a great Cup of Silver red Arsenick and Latin with a cover that sits close that nothing may exhale fill this with quick-silver and lute the joynts with the white of an Egg or some Pine-tree-rosin as it is commonly done hang this into a pot full of Linseed Oyl and let it boil twelve hours take it out and strain it through a skin or straw and if any part be not coagulated do the work again and make it coagulate If the vessel do coagulate it slowly so much as you find it hath lost of its weight of the silver Arsenick and Alchymy make that good again for we cannot know by the weight use it it is wonderful that the quick-silver will draw to it self out of the vessel and quick-silver will enter in Now I shall shew what may be sometimes useful To draw water out of Quick-silver Make a vessel of potters earth that will endure the fire of which crucibles are made six foot long and of a foot Diameter glassed within with glass about a foot broad at the bottom a finger thick narrower at the top bigger at bottom About the neck let there be a hole as big as ones finger and a little pipe coming forth by which you may fitly put in the quick-silver on the top of the mouth let there be a glass cap fitted with the pipe and let it be smeered with clammy clay and bind it above that it breathe not forth For this work make a furnace let it be so large at the top that it may be fit to receive the bottom of the vessel a foot broad and deep You must make the grate the fire is made upon with that art that when need is you may draw it back on one side and the fire may fall beneath Set therefore the empty vessel into the furnace and by degrees kindle the fire Lastly make the bottom red hot when you see it to be so which you may know by the top you must look through the glass cap presently by the hole prepared pour in ten or fifteen pounds of quick-silver and presently with clay cast upon it stop that hole and take away the grate that the fire may fall to the lower parts and forthwith quench it with water Then you shall see that the water of quick-silver will run forth at the nose of the cap into the receiver under it about an ounce in quantity take the vessel from the fire and pour forth the quick-silver and do as before and always one ounce of water will distil forth keep this for Chymical operation I found this the best for to smug up women with This artifice was found to purifie quick-silver I shall not pass over another art no less wonderful than profitable for use To make quick-silver grow to be a Tree Dissolve silver in aqua fortis what is dissolved evaporate into thin air at the fire that there may remain at the bottom a thick unctious substance Then distil fountain-fountain-water twice or thrice and pour it on that thick matter shaking it well then let it stand a little and pour into another glass vessel the most pure water in which the silver is adde to the water a pound of quick-silver in a most transparent crystalline glass that will attract to it that silver and in the space of a day will there spring up a most beautiful tree from the bottom and hairy as
made of most fine beards of corn and it will fill the whole vessel that the eye can behold nothing more pleasant The same is made of gold with aqua regia CHAP. VI. Of Silver I Shall teach how to give silver a tincture that it may shew like to pure gold and after that how it may be turned to true gold To give Silver a Gold-colour Burn burnt brass with stibium and melted with half silver it will have the perfect colour of gold and mingle it with gold it will be the better colour We boil brass thus I know not any one that hath taught it you shall do it after this manner melt brass in a crucible with as much stibium when they are both melted put in as muâ—h stibium as before and pour it out on a plain Marble-stone that it may cool there and be fit to beat into plates Then shall you make two bricks hollow that the plates may be fitly laid in there when you have fitted them let them be closed fast together and bound with iron bands and well luted when they are dried put them in a glass fornace and let them stand therein a week to burn exactly take them out and use them And To tincture Silver into gold you must do thus Make first such a tart lye put quick lime into a pot whose bottom is full of many small holes put a piece of wood or tilesheard upon it then by degrees pour in the powder and hot water and by the narrow holes at the bottom let it drain into a clean earthen vessel under it do this again to make it exceeding tart Powder stibium and put into this that it may evaporate into the thin air let it boil at an easie fire for when it boils the water will be of a purple colour then strain it into a clean vessel through a linnen cloth again pour on the lye on the powders that remain and let it boil so long at the fire till the water seems of a bloody colour no more Then boil the lye that is colour'd putting fire under till the water be all exhaled but the powder that remains being dry with the oyl of Tartar dried and dissolved must be cast again upon plates made of equal parts of gold and silver within an earthen crucible cover it so long with coles and renew your work till it be perfectly like to gold Also I can make the same Otherwise If I mingle the congealed quick-silver that I speak of with a cap with a third part of silver you shall find the silver to be of a golden colour you shall melt this with the same quantity of gold and put it into a pot pour on it very sharp vinegar and let it boil a quarter of a day and the colour will be augmented Put this to the utmost trial of gold that is with common salt and powder of bricks yet adding Vitriol and so shall you have refined gold We can also extract Gold out of Silver And not so little but it will pay your cost and afford you much gain The way is thiâ— Put the fine filings of Iron into a Crucible that will endure fire till it grow red hot and melt then take artificial Chrysocolla such as Goldsmiths use to soder with and red Arsenick and by degrees strew them in when you have done this cast in an equal part of Silver and let it be exquisitely purged by a strong vessel made of Ashes all the dregs of the Gold being now removed cast it into water of separation and the Gold will fall to the bottom of the vessel take it there is nothing of many things that I have found more true more gainful or more hard spare no labour and do it as you should lest you lose your labour or otherwise let the thin filings of Iron oak for a day in sea-water let it dry and let it be red hot in the fire so long in a â—rucible till it run then cast in an equal quantity of silver with half brass let it be projected into a hollow place then purge it exactly in an ash vessel for the Iron being excluded and its dregs put it into water of separation and gather what falls to the bottom and it will be excellent Gold May be it will be profitable to Fix Cinnaber He that desires it I think he must do thus break the Cinnaber into pieces as big as Wall-nuts and put them into a glass vessel that is of the same bigness and the pieces must be mingled with thrice the weight of silver and laid by courses and the vessel must be luted and suffer it to dry or set it in the Sun then cover it with ashes and let it boil so long on a gentle fire till it become of a lead colour and break not which will not be unless you tend it constantly till you come so far Then purge it with a double quantity of lead and when it is purged if it be put to all tryals it will stand the stronger and be more heavy and of more vertue the more easie fire you use the better will the business be effected but so shall we try to repair silver and revive it when it is spoil'd Let sublimate quick-silver boil in distil'd vinegar then mingle quick-silver and in a glass retort let the quick-silver evaporate in a hot fire and fall into the receiver keep it If you be skilful you shall find but little of the weight lost Others do it with the Regulus of Antimony But otherwise you shall do it sooner and more gainfully thus Put the broken pieces of Cinnaber as big as dice into a long linnen bag hanging equally from the pot sides then pour on the sharpest venegar with alom and tartar double as much quick lime four parts and as much of oaken ashes as it is usual to be made or you must make some Let it boil a whole day take it out and boil it in oyl be diligent about it and let it stay there twenty four hours take the pieces of Cinnaber out of the oyl and meer them with the white of an egge beaten and role it with a third part of the filings of silver put it into the bottom of a convenient vessel and lute it well with the best earth as I said set it to the fire three days and at last increase the fire that it may almost melt and run take it off and wash it from its faeces that are left at the last proof of silver and bring it to be true and natural Also it will be pleasant From fixt Cinnaber to draw out a silver beard If you put it into the same vessel and make a gentle fire under silver that is pure not mixed with lead will become hairy like a wood that there is nothing more pleasant to behold CHAP. VII Of Operations necessary for use I Thought fit to set down some Operations which are generally thought fit for our works and if you know them
and run out with great cries Then may he take away their Gold and chink The reason is Because the Loadstone is melancholick as you may conjecture by the colour of it the fumes whereof rising into the brain will cause those that are a sleep to have melancholick phantasms presented unto them and Coles will do the like The weight Davic with Serpents fat and juice of Metals given to one to drink will make him mad and make him run out of his House Country and Nation and this is doth by exaggeration of black Melancholy or it will make people lunatick and melancholick if they do but hold it in their mouths and by its drawing out of iron Physitians think it will help well to draw an Arrow-head out of ones body But we use the Loadstone in making Glass Pliny After Glass was found out as it is a very cunning invention men were not content to mingle Nitre but they began to add the Loadstone thereunto because it is supposed that it will attract the liquor of the Glass into it self and into iron also Hence it is that in making Glass we add a little piece of Loadstone to it for that singular vertue is confirmed by our times as well as former times it is thought so to attract into it self the liquor of the Glass as it draws iron to it and being attracted it purgeth it and from green or yellowish Glass it makes it white but the fire afterwards consumes the Loadstone Out of Agricola We read also That a Loadstone laid to ones head will take away all the pains Galen saith It hath purging faculties and therefore it is given to drink for the Dropsie and it will draw forth all the water in the Belly Lastly I shall not pass by the error of Hadrian concerning the Loadstone for he saith That the iron by its weight makes the Loadstone never the heavier For the Naturalists report That if a great Loadstone were weighed in a Scale and after that should draw iron to it it would be no heavier then it was when it was alone though they be both together so the weight of the iron is as it were consumed by the Loadstone and hindred by it from any effect or motion which I finde to be false It is like that jear in Aristophanes of a Clown that rid upon an Ass and carried his Coulter at his back that he might not load the Ass too much THE EIGHTH BOOK OF Natural Magick Of Physical Experiments THE PROEME I Intended to pass by these following Experiments in Physick because I have everywhere mentioned them in my History of Plants and we have not omitted any thing that was certain and secret in them that we knew unless iâ— be such things as could not be brought into that rank And though other things shall be described in my Book of Distillations yet that this place of Physick be not left empty I changed my opinion and have set down some of them here CHAP. I. Of Medicines which cause sleep THat we may in order set down those Experiments of which we intend to speak we will begin with those Diseases which happen in the Head and first with Sleep for Soporiferous Receits are very requisite to be placed amongst these Arcana and are of very great esteem amongst Physitians who by Sleep are wont to cheat their Patients of pain and not of less amongst Captains and Generals when they practice Stratagemes upon their Enemies Soporiferous Medicines do consist for the most part of cold and moist things Plutarch in Simpos saith That Sleep is caused by cold and therefore Dormitives have a cooling quality We will teach first how To cause Sleep with Mandrake Dioscorides saith That men will presently fall asleep in the very same posture wherein they drink Mandrake losing all their senses for three or four hours after and that Physitians do use it when they would burn or cut off a member And skilful men affirm That Mandrake growing by a Vine will transmit its Soporiferous quality into it so that those who drink the Wine that is made thereof shall more easily and readily fall asleep Here we will relate the pleasant stories of the Mandrake out of Authors of Stratagems Junius Frontinus reports That Hannibal being sent by the Charthagenians against some Rebels in Africa and knowing they were a Nation greedy of Wine mixed a great quantity of Mandrake with his Wines the quality of which is between poysonous and sleepy then beginning a light Skirmish he retired on purpose and in the middle of the Night counterfeited a flight leaving some Baggage in his Camp and all the infected Wine Now when those Barbarians had took his Camp and for joy had liberally tasted of that treacherous Wine he returned took and slew them all as they lay dead as it were before Polinaeus the same And Caesar sailing towards Nicomedia was taken about Malea by some Cilician Pirates and when they demanded a great Ransome for his Liberty he promised them double what they asked They arrived at Miletum the people came out of the Town to see them Caesar sent his Servant being a Milesian named Epicrates to those of the Town desiring them to lend him some money which they presently sent to him Epicrates according to Caesar's command brought the money and with it a sumpâ—uous Banquet a Water-pot full of Swords and Wine mixed with Mandrake Caesar paid to the Pirates the promised sum and set the Banquet before them who being exalted with their great Riches fell freely to it and drinking the infected Wine fell into a sleep Caesar commanded them to be killed sleeping and presently repaid the Milesians their own money Demosthenes intending to express those who are bitten as it were by a sleepy Dragon and are slothful and so deprived of sense that they cannot be awakened saith They seem like men who have drunk Mandrake Pliny affirmeth That smelling to the Leaves of it provoketh sleep For the same with Nightshade We may make the same of Nightshade which is also called Hypnoticon from the effect of it a Drachm of the Rinde drank in Wine causeth sleep but gently and kindely This later Age seemeth to have lost the knowledge of Solanum Manicon for in the very description of it Dioscorides seems to be mad But in my judgement as I have elsewhere said he describes two several Plants in that place Fuschius his Stramonium and the Herb commonly called Bell a Donna whose qualities are wonderfully dormitive for they infect Water without giving it either taste or sent so that the deceit cannot be discovered especially considering it must be given but in a very small quantity I prepared a Water of it and gave it to a Friend for certain uses who instead of a Drachm drank an Ounce and thereupon lay four days without meat or motion so that he was thought dead by all neither could he be awakened by any means till at last when the vapours were digested he arose
Neither can any one deny but that the diseases of the minde do distemper the body and that the good disposition of it doth strengthen and corroborate the same and it doth not work this alteration onely in its own body but on others also by how much it stirreth up in the heart inward desires of love and revenge Doth not covetousness grief or love change the colour and disposition Doth not envy cause paleness and meagerness in the body Doth not the longing of the mother imprint the mark of what she desired upon the tender Embryo So when Envy bends her fierce and flaming eyes and the desire of mischief bursts thereout a vehement heat proceedeth from them which infecteth those that stand nigh especially the beautiful they strike them through as with a sword set their entrails on fire and make them wast into a leannness especially if they be of a cholerick or sanguine complexion for the disease is easily fed where the pores are open and the humors thin Nor is it the passions of the mind onely that affecteth the body thus but the body it self as Avicenna proveth may be endued with venimous qualities many are so by Nature so that it cannot seem a wonder if sometimes some are made so by Art The Queen of India sent to Alexander a very beautiful maid anointed and fed with the poyson of Serpents as Aristotle saith and Avicenna from the Testimony of Rufus Galen Writeth of another who eat Henbane without any harm and another Woolf-bane so that a Hen would not come near her And Mithridates as old Histories deliver it to us King of Pontus had so strengthened himself against poyson that when he would have poysoned himself lest he should fall into the hands of the Romans nothing would do him any hurt If you give a Hawk a Hen fed with snakes or lizards flesh or with barly boiled in the broth of them it will make him mew his feathers betimes and many other such things are done which are too long to be recounted So many men are of such a nature that they will cure some diseases onely with their stroaking Many eat Spiders and wilde Olives and care not for the biting of Serpents nor suffer any wasting or consumption if they be of such a nature that their looks or breath will not onely blast men but plants and herbs and any other thing and make them wither away and oftentimes where such kind of creatures are you may find blasted corn poysoned and withered meerly by the contagion of their eyes the breath that cometh from them Do not women in the time of their courses infect cucumbers and melons by touching or looking on them so that they wither Are not children handled with less prejudice by men then women And you will find more women then men witches by reason of their complexion for they are farther distant from a right temper and eat more unwholesome food so that every moneth they are filled with superfluities and purge forth melancholy blood from whence vapors arise and flie out through their eyes poysoning those that stand nigh them and filling them with the same kind of blood Hence sanguine complexioned men and somewhat cholerick who have large shining gray eyes and live chastly for too often copulation exhausteth the moisture who by frequent glances and continual imagination encounter point to point beams to beams eyes to eyes do generally stir up love But why a man is taken by this Fascination with one and not another appeareth by the former and this reason for it happeneth from the intention of the Inchantor who by those spirits or vapors is transmitted into the bewitched person and he receiving them is made like unto him For the infection seizing on his mind and fixing in his imagination becomes a permanent habit and maketh the spirits and blood obedient to it and so bindeth the imagination and inflameth them with the thing beloved Although the mind which opinion is fathered upon Avicen neither doth it want his authority can of its own will and power produce such passions Musaeus will have the eyes to lay the foundation of Love and to be the chief allurements of it And Diogenianus saith That Love is begotten by looks affirming that it is impossible for a man to fall in love unawares So Juvenal placeth that Lover among prodigies Who burnt with Love of her he never saw For the bright glances of the eyes driveth the Object into a kind of madness and teach the rudiments of Love The other parts are scarce any cause of Love but provoke and entice the beholder to stay and gaze a while upon their beauty whilst the eyes wound him for there they say Cupid lieth in ambush with his bowe ready to shoot his arrows into the beholders eyes and set his heart on fire For thy eyes slide in through my eyes saith Apuleius and raise a cruel fire within my heart Now I have discovered the original of it unto you unless you are quite mad you may many ways fortifie your self against it But many one may well wonder considering those diseases which come by infection as the itch scabbiness blear-eyes the plague do infect by sight touching or speaking and presently cause putrefaction why Love's contagion which is the greatest plague of all doth not presently seize upon men and quite consume them Neither doth it infect others onely but sometimes it returneth upon it self and the persons will be ensnared in their own charms It is reported by the Antients of Eutelides that he bewitched himself by reflection in water looking-glasses or fountains which returned his own shadow upon him So that he seemed so beautiful unto himself that falling in love with that wherewith he used to entrap others he lost his former complexion and died a Sacrifice unto his own Beauty So children oftentimes effascinate themselves when their parents attribute it to haggards and witches Now take Some Preservatives against Love There are many prescribed by wise antiquity If you would endeavor to remove the â—charms of love thus you may expel them Turn your face away that she may not asten her eyes on yours nor couple rays with you for you must remove the cause from the place where it useth to make its impression forsake her company avoid idleness employ your mind in business of concernment evacuate blood sweat and other excrements in a large quantity that the infection may also be voided with them A Preservative against Envy If it be the witchcraft of Envy you may know it thus The infected loseth his colour hardly openeth his eyes always hangeth his head down sighs often his heart is ready to break and sheddeth salt and bitter tears without any occasion or sign of evil To disencharm him because the air is corrupted and infected burn sweet persume to purifie the air again and sprinkle him with waters sweetned with cinnamon cloves cypress lignum aloes musk and amber Therefore the old custome is continued
it and press her between your hands that no Wine remain and then adding two Cups of white-Wine distil her in a Chymical Vessel then distil the Flowers of Bindeweed Citrons Oranges together and keep this water by it self Then open Lemmons and press out the juice And also take water of Bean-flowers then distil six cups of Asseâ— milk and as many of Cows-milk You shall do the same with water of Gourds and of Milk well boyled and of water of Bean-flowers and of Rosin of Turpentine Then provide a glazed Vessel put into it Camphire two drachms four ounces of Ceruss finely powdered mingle them with the aforesaid waters and set it in a soft Vessel in the open Air fifteen days and nights When you would use it wet a Linen-rag in it and wash your Face CHAP. XVII How to make the Face Rose-coloured I Have made the Face white now I will make it red that the wise may be made wholly Beautiful for her husband And first To make a pale Face purple-coloured And to adorn one that wants colour use this Remedy Take Vinegar twice distilled and cast into it the raspings of red Sanders as much as you please boyl it at a gentle fire adding a little Allom and you shall have a red colour most perfect to dye the Face If you would have it sweet-smelling add a little Musk Civet Cloves or any Spices Now Another Take Flowers of Clove-Gilliflowers bruise the ends of the sprigs and draw forth the juice if they be so ripe that they are black add juice of Lemmons that they may shine with a more clear red With this paint your Face and you shall have a pleasant red colour without any stinking smell or wet the sprigs of Clove-gilliflowers in juice of Lemmons and set them in the Sun Take away the old and put in fresh until it be as red as you would have it let the juice dry and the color will be most glorious But I draw a quintessence from Clovegill flowers Roses Flower-gentle with Spirit of Wine then I add Allom and the juice of a Citron and I made an excellent colour to beautifie the Face Take Another If you add to the best Wine one tenth part of Honey and one ounce of Frankinsenceâ— and then distil it and steep in it the raspings of red Saunders until it is coloured to your minde and then wash your Face with it it will make your Face white and well-coloured Also A Fucus that cannot be detected And it is so cunningly made that it will delude all men for a cleer water makes the Cheeks purple-coloured and it will last long and the cleerer the part will be the more your wash it with it and rub it with a cloth of Woolen You shall draw out a water from the Seeds of Cardamom which the Apothecaries call Grains of Paradise Cubebs Indian Cloves raspings of Brasil and Spirit of Wine distilled when they have been infused some time draw forth the water with a gentle fire or corrupt Dung and wet your Face often with this There are also Experiments To colour the Body If you boyl Nettles in water and wash your Body with it it will make it red-colored if you continue it long If you distil Straw-berries and wash your self with the water you shall make your Face red as a Rose But the Ancients dyed their bodies of divers colours partly for ornament partly for terrour as Caesar writes of the Britans going to war for they painted themselves with wood Theophrastus calls it Isatis and we call it Guado The Grecian-women painted themselves with wood as Zenophon writes And in our days the West-Indians crush out in Harvest-time a blood-red juice from the Roots of wilde Bugloss which the women know well enough whereby they cover their pale colour with a pleasant red and so change their over-white colour with this Experiment CHAP. XVIII To wash away the over-much redness of the Face I Have shewed you how to colour the Face now I shall shew how to uncolour it when the Face is too red and women that are very red desire this The way is To wash away the too-much redness of the Face Take four ounces of Peach-Kernels and Gourd-Seed two ounces pown them and crush them out strongly that you may draw forth an oyly Liquor with this morning and evening anoynt the red Carbuncles of your face and by degrees they will vanish and be gone Another Take Purple-Violets Egg-shells Saunders Camphire mingled with water set the water in the open Air and wash the redness therewith Also I know that the distilled water of white Lillies will take away the redness CHAP. XIX How to make a Sun-burnt Face white WHen women travel in the open Air and take journeys in Summer the Sun in one day will burn them so black that it is hard to take it off I found out this Experiment Beat about ten whites of Eggs till they come to water put them in a glazed Vessel adding one ounce of Sugar-Candy to them and when you go to bed anoynt your Face and in the morning wash it off with Foutain-water Pliny also saith thus Another If the Face be smeered with the white of an Egg it will not be Sun-burnt With us women that have to do in the Sun to defend their Faces from the heat of it that they may not be black they defend it with the white of an Egg beaten with a little Starch and mingled and when the Voyage is done they wash off this covering with Barley-water Some do it Another way rubbing their foul Skin with Melon-Rindes and so they easily rub off Sun-burnings and all other spots outwardly on the Skin The Seed also bruised and rubbed on will do it better Also a Liquor found in little bladders of the Elm-Tree when the Buds first come forth makes the Face clear and shining and takes away Sun-burnings CHAP. XX. How Spots may be taken from the Face OFt-times fair women are disgraced by spots in their Faces but the Remedy for it is this to use Abstergents and Detergents in whiting of their Faces Therefore To take off spots from the Face anoynt the Face with Oyl of Tartar and let it dry on and wash it not at all do this for ten days then wash it with a Lixivium and you shall see the spots no more If the part be not yet clean enough do it once more If this please you not take Another Put Quick-Lime into hot water mingle them and stir them for ten days After two days pour forth the clear water into a Brazen Vessel then take Salt-Ammoniac between your Finger-tops and rub it so long at the bottom of the Vessel until you see the water become of a blew-colour and the more you rub it the better colour it will have and it will turn into a Skie-colour or Purple-colour very pleasant to behold Wet Linen-cloths in this water and lay them on the spots till they be dry and wet them again till
Traganth Mastick and Champhire it is good also for flagging Brests For a wrinkled Face When Eggs are boyled hard in water cut them in the middle fill the holes where the yelks were with Powder of Myrrh then cover one with the other half and binde them with a Thread that they come not asunder then take a glazed earthen Vessel with a broad mouth and lay sticks across it that the Eggs may lie upon them hanging neer the bottom let the cleft of the Eggs hang toward the bottom put the earthen Vessel into a chest of Osiers and set it in a Well let it hang one foot from the water by the moysture whereof the Myrrh will dissolve into Oyl of water anoynt your Face with it The juice of the green Canes of the Pine-Tree but it is weaker then the distilled water being applied to the Face with a Linnen-cloth wet therein will take away all wrinkles from the Face excellently well You have Another Steep Kidney-Beans in Malmsey one day then take away the black whence they sprout and distil them with Lemmons and Honey Take a quantity of old Cow-Beef and distil that also mingle the waters and set them in the open Air in a Glass-Vessel in the Sun for fifteen days and wash your Face morning and evening therewith Another Crop in the morning the Flowers of Mullens and steep them in Greek-Wine with the Roots of Solomons-Seal then receive the water distilled in Glass-stills and if a woman when she riseth out of her bed wash her face with this she will be very fair and if you would take off the wrinkles with the same water add distilled water of Lemmons thereunto and it will make you glad to see the effect But this is the best Water to whiten plain and beautifie the Face Take equal parts of the Root of Solomons Seal greater Dragons and lesser Sparagrass Bryony and white Lillies as much as you please bruise them a little and cast them into an earthen pot with a large mouth let it be glazed pour on Greek Wine that may cover all add to these juice of Lemmons a fourth part ten new Eggs bruised with their shells and Land-Snails without shells let them infuse a while then distil them at a gentle fire and keep the first water a part then augment the fire and keep the second that will be stronger for this wipes all spots and red pimples from the Face Some mingle with this water of Bean-Flowers Elder Poppy Honey-Suckles and the like so do they take away all wrinkles and spots coming from the Sun and all the rest But you may thus take off The wrinkles of the Belly after child-birth Untipe Services are long boyled in water with these mingle whites of Eggs and water wherein Gum-Arabick is dissolved wet a Linen-cloth in such water and lay on the Belly or mingle the Powders of Harts Horn burnt the Stone Amiantus Salt-Ammoniac Myrrh Frankincense Mastick with Honey and it takes away all wrinkles CHAP. XXV Of Dentifrices DEntifrices are used amongst things to beautifie women for there is nothing held more ugly then for a woman to laugh or speak and thereby to shew their rugged rusty and spotted Teeth for they all almost by using Mercury sublimate have their Teeth black or yellow and because they stand in the Sun when they would make their Hair yellow their Teeth are hurt thereby and grow loose ready to fall out and do oft-times I shall shew first how to make black Teeth white as Pearls then how to make flesh grow about such as are weak and bare of Gums and to make them strong But of old were made Dentifrices of the shells of Purples and others like trumpets burnt The Arabian-stone it is like the spotted Ivory burned it is good for Dentifrices Also of Pumex-Stone very profitable Dentifrices were made Pliny So with the Powder of Ivory rubbed on the Teeth were made as white as Ivory Ovid. That Teeth may not grow black forborn With Fountain-water wash them every morn I shall add Another that I use The Crums of Barley-Bread burnt with Salt sprinkled on and Honey will not onely make the Teeth white but makes the Breath sweet Also with red Coral Cuttle bone Harts Horn and such-like whereof every one will well polish and wipe the Teeth clean so doth also the Grains of Cochinele Also there is made a water of Allom and Salt distilled that whiteneth the Teeth exceedingly and confirms them but the Oyl of Sulphur doth it best for it smooths them and wipes away all spots and if any one think it is too strong it may be qualified with the water of Myrtle flowers Make a Tooth-scraper after the fashion of a Tooth and pour on Oyl and rub the spots therewith but he careful it touch not the Gums for it will whiten and burn them rub so long till the spots be gone and they be very white I have now described the most perfect Remedy CHAP. XXVI To hinder the brests from augmenting AMongst the Ornaments of women this is the chief to have after Child-bearing round small solid and not flagging or wrinkled Brests So we may Hinder the augmenting of the Brests if we will Bruise Hemlock and lay a Cataplasm thereof with Vinegar to womens Brests and it will stay them that they shall not increase especially in Virgins yet this will hinder milk when it should be seasonable But if you will Curb soft and loose Brests Powder white Earth the white of an Egg sowre Galls Mastick Frankincense and mingle them in hot Vinegar and smeer the Brests therewith let it stay on all night If it do not effect it do the same again The Stones of Medlars are good for this also unripe Services Sloes Acacia Pomegranate Pills Balanstia unripe Pine-nuts Wilde Pears and Plantain if they all boil in Vinegar and be laid to the Brests or some of them The Antients commended for this purpose a Whetstone of Cypress that we sharpen Iron upon to restrain Virgins Brests and not let them grow big Dioscorides But Galen saith That it not onely stops the encrease of the Brests but will hinder childrens Testicles from growing but I use the juice of Ladies Mantle from the Leaves of it and I wet Linen in it and lay it on the Brests and renew it for it will not onely hinder Virgins Brests from increasing but will fallen the loose Brests of Matrons and make them firm It is more effectual to use the decoction of the Herb and if you joyn any of the forementioned thingâ— therewith as Hypocistis Pills of Pomegranates and the like So water distilled from green Pine-Apples will draw in loose Brests and make them like the round hard solid Brests of Virgins CHAP. XXVII How the Hand may be made white THe Hands must not be forgotten but we must make them white also smooth and soft that are Ornaments of the Hands to be desired But how whiteness and smoothness may be obtained I have shewed already
it self straitned in the narrow cavities it will seek some other vent and so tear the Vessels in pieces which will flie about with a great bounce and crack not without endamaging the standers by and being at liberty will save it self from further harm But if the things be hot and thin you must have Vessels with a long and small neck Things of a middle temper require Vessels of a middle size All which the industrious Artificer may easily learn by the imitation of Nature who hath given angry and furious Creatures as the Lion and Bear thick bodies but short necks to shew that flatulent humours would pass out of Vessels of a larger bulk and the thicker part settle to the bottom but then the Stag the Estrich the Camil-Panther gentle Creatures and of thin Spirits have slender bodies and long necks to shew that thin subtile Spirits must be drawn through a much longer and narrower passage and be elevated higher to purifie them There is one thing which I must especially inform you of which is that there may be a threefold moysture extracted out of Plants The Nutritive whereby they live and all dried Herbs want it differeth little from Fountain or Ditch-water The Substantial whereby the parts are joyned together and this is of a more solid Nature And the third is the Radical humor fat and oyly wherein the strength and vertue lieth There is another thing which I cannot pass over in silence it being one of the Principles of the Art which I have observed in divers Experiments which is that some mixt bodies do exhale thin and hot vapors first and afterwards moyst and thick on the contrary others exhale earthy and phlegmatick parts first and then the hot and fiery which being fixed in the inmost parts are expelled at last by the force of the fire But because there can be no constant and certain Rule given for them some I will mark unto you others your own more quick ingenuity must take the pains to observe CHAP. II. Of the Extraction of Waters THe Extraction of Waters because it is common I will dispatch in a few words If you would extract sweet Waters out of hot Plants and such as are earthy and retain a sweet savour in their very substance these being cast into a Stillatory without any Art and a fire made under them yield their odors as you may draw sweet Waters out of Roses Orange-flowers Myrtle and Lavender and such-like either with Cinders or in Balneo Mariae but onely observe to kindle the fire by degrees lest they burn There are also in some Plants sweet Leaves as in Myrtle Lavender Citron and such-like which if you mix with the Flowers will no way hinder the savour of them but add a pleasantness to the Waters and in places where Flowers cannot be gotten I have seen very sweet Waters extracted out of the Tendrils of them especially when they have been set abroad a sunning in a close Vessel for some dayes before There is a Water of no contemptible sent drawn out of the Leaves of Basil gentle especially being aromatized with Citron or Cloves by the heat of a gentle Bath heightened by degrees and then exposing it to the Sun for some time There is an odoriserous Water extracted out of the Flowers of Azadaret or bastard Sicamore very thin and full of savor The way to finde out whether the odor be settled in the substance of a Plant or else in the superficies or outward parts is this Rub the Leaves of Flowers with your fingers if they retain the same sent or cast a more fragrant breath then the odour lieth in the whole substance But on the contrary if after your rubbing they do not onely lose their natural sent but begin to stink it sheweth that their odour resideth onely in their superficies which being mixed with other ill savoured parts are not onely abated but become imperceptible In distilling of these we must use another Art As for example To extract sweet Water out of Gillâ—flowers Musk Roses Violets and Jasmine and Lillies First draw the juice out of some wilde Musk Roses with a gentle heat in Balneo then remove them and add others for if you let them stand too long the sent which residâ—th in the superficies is not onely consumed but the dull stinking vapour which lieth in the inward parts is drawn forth In this water let other Roses be infused for some hours and then taken out and fresh put in which the oftner you do the sweeter it will smell but stop the Vessel close lest the thin sent flie out and be dispersed in the Air and so you will have a most odoriferous Water of Musk-Roses The same I advise to be done with Jasmine Gilliflowers Lillies and Violets and Crows-toes and the like But if you are not willing to macerate them in their own waters the same may be done in Rose-water By this Art I have made Waters out of Flowers of a most fragrant smell to the admiration of Artists of no small account But because it happeneth sometimes by the negligence of the Operator that it is infected with a stink of burning I will teach you How to correct the stink of burning Because that part which lieth at the bottom fâ—eleth more heat then the top whence it cometh to pass that before the one be warm the other is burnt and oftentimes stinketh of the fire and offendeth the nose Therefore distil your Waters in Balneo with a gentle fire that the pure clear Water may ascend and the dregs settle in the bottom with the Oyl a great cause of the ill savour How to draw a great quantity of Water by Distillation Fasten some Plates of Iron or Tin round the top of the Stillatory set them upright and let them be of the same height with it and in the bottom fasten a Spigget When the Stillatory waxeth hot and the elevated vapors are gathered into the Cap if that be hot they fall down again into the bottom and are hardly condensed into drops but if it be cold it presently turneth them into Water Therefore pour cold Water between those plates which by condensing the vapours may drive down larger currents into the Receiver When the Cap and the Water upon it begin to be hot pull out the Spigget that the hot Water may run out and fresh cold Water be put in Thus the Water being often changed that it may always be cold and the warm drawn out by the Spigget you will much augment the quantity of your Water CHAP. III. Of extracting Aqua Vitae IT is thus done Take strong rich Wine growing in dry places as on Viseuvius commonly called Greek-wine or the tears or first running of the Grape Distil this in a Glass-Retort with Cinders or in Balneo or else in a long necked Still Draw out the third part of it and reserve the rest for it is turned into a perfect sharp Vinegar there remaining onely the carcase of
pour as much Fountain-water on as will cover them a handful or five large fingers over then set on the head and stop the joynts very close Put the other end of the Pipe into the other Pot and joynt them exactly then set on the other head and fasten the lower end of its crooked Pipe into that straight one which passing through the Barrel runneth into the Receiver If the joynts be anywhere faulty stop them with Flax and paste them with Wheat-flour and the white of an Egg then rowl them about and tie them close with Fillets cut out of a Bladder for when the vapors are forced by the heat of the fire they are so attenuated that they will break forth through the least rime or chink in spite of all your endeavors Fill the Barrel with cold water and when it beginneth to grow hot draw it out through a Cock at bottom and supply fresh water that the Pipe may always be kept cool At length make the Pot boyl at first with a gentle fire then encrease it by degrees until the vehemency of the heat doth make the vapors hiss as it were ready to break the Pipes as they run thorow them so they will be elevated thorow the retorted Pipes and leave the phlegmatick water in the lower Vessel till passing through the cold Pipe they be condensed into Liquor and fall down into the Receiver If the water do consume away in the boyling pour in more being first warmed thorow a little Pipe which the Pot must have on one side with a Spigget to it for this purpose but be sure to stop the Spigger in very close that there may be no vent Afterwards separate the Oyl from the Water sublime and purifie it in another Vessel Of all the Instruments that ever I saw not any one extracteth a greater quantity of Oyl and with less labour and industry then this Thus you may without any fear of burning draw Oyl out of Flowers Leaves Spices Gums and VVood with the vehementest fires as also out of Juniper and Laurel-Berries CHAP. IX The Description of a Descendatory whereby Oyl is extracted by Descent I Cannot refrain from discovering here an Instrument found out by my own private experience which I hope will be of no small profit to the Ingenious by which they may draw Oyl out of any the least things without any fear of burning For there are many tenuous oyly Flowers as of Rosemary and Juniper and other things as Musk Amber Civet Gum and such-like out of which may be drawn Oyls very sweet and medicinable but they are of so thin a substance that there is a great hazard of burning them when they are forced by the heat of the fire without which neither fat things will be elevated nor Oyl extracted Therefore to remedy these inconveniences I have invented an Instrument by which Oyl shall descend without any labour or danger of burning Let a Vessel be made of Brass in the form of an Egg two foot high and of the same breadth let it be divided towards the top of which the upper part must serve for a cover and be so fitted to be received into the lower part that the joynts may closely fall in one another and be exactly stopt In the lower part towards the middle about half a foot from the mouth let there be a Copper-plate fitted as it were the midriff so that it may easily be put and taken out in which must be made three hollow places to receive the bottom of three retorted Vessels the rest of the plate must be pervious that the boyling VVater and hot Spirits may have passage to rise upwards Out of the sides of the Vessel there must be three holes through the which the necks of the Retorts may pass being glued and fastned to their Pipes with Flax and tied with Fillets of Bladders so that not the least Air much less any VVater may flie out VVhen you prepare to work fill the Glass-Retorts with the things you intend to still thrust the necks thorow the holes outward and lay their bodies in the prepared hollowness of the cross-plate somewhat elevated If there remain any void space between the necks and the sides of the holes they pass through stop it with Flax and tie it about with Fillets of Bladder and fill the Vessel with with water within three fingers up to the cross-plate The Vessel being covered and the joynts well stopt and glued and bound about so that the force of the vapours arising may not burst it open and scald the Faces of the by-standers kindle the fire by degrees until it become very vehement then wil the vapors make a great nose almost sufficient to terrifie one and first VVater then VVater and Oyl will distil out I cannot contain my self from relating also another Instrument invented for the same purpose Make an oval Brass-Vessel as I advised before with a hole bored thorow the bottom to which fasten a pipe that may arise up to the mouth of the Vessel let the mouth of it be wide like a trumpet or tunnel so that the long neck of a Gourd-Glass may pass through the Pipe of it and the wide mouth of the Vessel under may by degrees receive the swelling parts of the neck Adapt a cover to this Vessel that it may be close stopt and luted as we said before You must make a Furnace on purpose for this use for the fire must not be made in the bottom but about the Vessel The use is this Fill the Glass with Flowers or other things put in some wire Lute-strings after them that they may not fall out again when the Glass is inversed Thrust the neck thorow the Brass-Pipe set the Vessel on the Furnace and fill it with Water round about the arising Pipe put on the Cover and plaister it about set the Receiver under the Furnace that it may catch the dropping Water and Oyl then kindle the fire about the sides of the Pot the violence of which will elevate vapors of burning water which beating against the concave part of the Cover will be reverberate upon the bottom of the Gourd-Glass whose fervent heat will turn the Water and Oyl into vapor and drive it down into the Receiver I will set down some examples of those things which I made trial of my self As How to extract Oyl out of Rosemary Flowers Fill the Retorts with the Leaves and Flowers of Rosmary and set them in the Brass-Furnace the fire being kindled will force out first a Water and afterward a yellow Oyl of a very strong and fervent odor a few drops of which I have made use of in great sicknesses and driving away cruel pains You may extract it easier if you macerate the Flowers or Leaves in their own or Fountain-water for a week In the same manner Oyl of Citron-Pill is extracted When Citrons are come to perfect ripeness shave off the peal with a gross Steal-File put the Filings into a Pot
is reverberated on the top and below too Stop it close and set a large Receiver under it for if it be too narrow the strong Spirits will break out with a great bounce crack the Vessel and frustrate your labour Distil it six hours if you calcine the Alome-fire the VVater will be stronger A Water for Separation of Gold Mix with the equal parts of Salt-Peter and Alom as much Vitriol and distil it as before there will proceed a VVater so strong that it will even corrode the â—iâ—cture of Gold Wherefore if this seem too violent take nine pounds of the former Salts being dissolved in VVater and two ounces of Sal Ammoniacum when they are melted set them two days in Fimo and with hot Ashes you may distil a VVater that will corrode Gold If you refund the VVater upon the Foeces let them macerate and distil it again the VVater will be much stronger How to purge the phlegm from these Waters without which they are of no force cast a little Silver into a litle of this VVater which being overcharged with phlegm will not corrode it But set it to heat over the fire and it will presently do it pour all this VVater into another Pot and leave the Foeces behinde in the former so the VVater will be clarified Oyl of Vitriol Dissolve Vitriol in an earthen Pan with a wide mouth let the phlegm evaporate then encrease the fire and burn it till it be all red and the fourth part be consumed Put it into a Glass-Retort luted all over thrice double and well dried and set in igne reverberationis continually augmenting the fire and continning it for three days until the Vessel melt and an Oyl drop out without any VVater Every three pounds will â—ield one ounce of Oyl Put it into a Glass-bottle and set it in hot Embeâ—s that the VVater if any be in the Oyl may evaporate for so it will be of greater strengh The sign of a perfect extraction is if it make a piece of VVood being cast into it smoak as if it burned it Oyl of Sulphur This is the proper way to extract Oyl of Sulphur Take a Glass with a large mouth in the form of a Bell and hang it up by a wire place a large Receiver under it that it may catch the Oyl as it droppeth out of the Bell. In the middle between these hang an earthen Vessel full of Sulphur kindle the fire and make the Sulphur burn the smoak of which ascendeth up into the Bell condenseth it self and falls down in an oyly substance When the Sulphur is consumed put in more until you have the quantity of Oyl which you desire There is also another way to extract it in a greater quantity Prepare a great Glass-Receiver such as I described in the Extraction of Oyl of Tartar and Aqua Fortis cut a hole thorow it with an Emerauld and indent the edges of it that the smoak may pass out set this upon an earthen Pan in which you burn the Sulphur Above this set another Vessel of a larger size so that it may be about a handful distant from the first cut the edges of the hole in deeper notches that the vapor ascending thorow the first and circulating about the second may distil out of both so you may add a third and fourth Pour this Oyl into another Glass and let the phlegm evaporate over hot Embers it will become of that strength that it will dissolve Silver and I may say Gold also if it be rightly made The fume of Sulphur is congealed in Sal Ammoniacum for I have gathered it in the Mountains of Campania and condensed it into Salt nothing at all differing from that which is brought out of the Eastern Countries Thus Sal Ammoniacus which hath so long lain unknown is discovered in our own Country and is nothing but Salt of Sulphur and this Oyl is the Water of Sal Ammoniac or Salt of Sulphur I would fain know how Learned Men do approve this my Invention I take the Earth thorow which the smoak of Sulphur hath arisen and dissole it in warm Waters and purge it thorow a hanging Receptacle described before then I make the Water evaporate and so finde a Salt nothing different as I hope from Ammoniacum CHAP. XXI Of the Separation of the Elements IN every Compound there are four Elements but for the most part one is predominant the rest are dull and unprofitable Hence when we speak of separating the Elements of a Compound we mean the separating that predominant one In the Water-Lilly the Element of Water is chief Air Earth and Fire are in it but in a small proportion Hence there is but a small quantity of heat and driness in it because VVater overwhelms them all The same must be understood in other things also But do not think that we intend by the separation of the Elements to divide them absolutely the Air from the VVater and the VVater from the Fire and Earth but onely by a certain similitude as what is hotter then the rest we call Fire the moister VVater Stones participate more of Earth VVoods of Fire Herbs of VVater VVe account those Airy which fill the Vessels and Receivers and easily burst them and so flie out VVhen the Elements are thus separated they may afterwards be purified and attenuated The manner of extracting them is various according to the diversity of natural things for some must be calcined some sublimated others distilled I will set down some examples How to separate the Elements of Metals Lay your Metal in Aqua Fortis as I shewed before till it be dissolved then draw out the Aqua Fortis by a Bath and pour it on again and so again until it be turned into an Oyl of a light Red or Ruby-colour Pour two parts of Aqua Fortis unto the Oyl and macerate them in a Glass in Fimo for a month then distil them on Embers till the VVater be all drawn out which you must take and still again in Balneo until it ascend so will you have two Elements By the Bath the Air is elevated the VVater and Earth remain in the bottom the Fire continueth in the bottom of the former Vessel for it is of a fiery substance this Nature and the Affusion of Water and the Distillation in Balneo will reduce into an Oyl again in which you must correct the Fire and it will be perfect You may lay Metal in Embers then by degrees encrease the fire the VVater will first gently ascend next the Earth In Silver the first Oyl is blewish and in perfect separation settleth to the bottom and the VVater ascendeth but in Balneo the Elements of Fire and Earth for the substance of it is cold and moist in Balneo the Elements of Fire and Earth remain first the Earth will come out afterwards the Fire So of Tin the first Oyl is yellow in Balneo the Air will remain in the bottom the Fire Earth and
with the best Gunpowder onely but the pipe with that mixture that burns more gently that when fire is put to it you may hold it so long in your hand until that slow composition may come to the centre and then throw it amongst the enemies for it will break in a thousand pieces and the iron wires and pieces of iron and parts of the Ball will fly far and strike so violently that they will go into planks or a wall a hand depth These are cast in by Souldiers when Cities are besiged for one may wound two hundred men and then it is worse to wound then to kill them as experience in wars shews But when you will fill the pipes hold one in your hand without a Ball full of the composition and try it how long it will burn that you may learn to know the time to cast them lest you kill your self and your friends I shall teach you how with the same Balls Troops of Horsemen may be put into confusion There are made some of these sorts of Balls that are greater about a foot in bigness bound with the same wire but fuller of iron piles namely with a thousand of them These are cast amongst Troops of Horsemen or into Cities besieged or into ships with slings or iron guns which they call Petrels and divers ways for if they be armed with iron pieces when they break they are cast forth so with the violence of the fire that they will strike through armed men and horses and so fright the horses with a huge noise that they cannot be ruled by bridle nor spurs but will break their ranks They have four holes made through them and they are filled with this said mixture that being fired they may be cast amongst Troops of Horsemen and they will cast their flames so far with a noise and cracking that the flames will seem like to thunder and lightning CHAP. VIII How in plain ground and under waters mines may be presently digged TO dig Mines to overthrow Cities and Forts there is required great cost time and pains and they can hardly be made but the enemy will discover it I shall shew how to make them in that champion ground where both armies are to meet with little labour and in short time To make Mines in plain grounds where the Armies are to meet If you would do this in sight of the enemy for they know not what you do I shall first teach how A little before night or in the twilight where the meeting shall be or passage or standing there may pits be made of three foot depth and the one pit may be distant from the other about ten foot There fit your Balls about a foot in bigness that you may fill the whole plain with them then dig trenches from one to the other that through them cotton matches may pass well through earthen pipes or hollow caâ—es but fire the Balls at three or four places then bury them and make the ground even leaving a space to give fire to them all at once Then at the time of war when the enemy stands upon the ground then remove at your pleasure or counterfeit that you fly from them and cast in fire at the open place and the whole ground will presently burn with fire and make a cruel and terrible slaughter amongst them for you shall see their limbs fly into the air and others fall dead pierced through burnt with the horrible flames thereof that scarce one man shall scape You shall make your Match thus In a new Test let the best Aqua vitae boyl with gunpowder till it grow thick and be like pap put your matches into it and role them in the mixture take the Test from the fire and strew on as much gunpowder as they will receive and set them to dry in the Sun put this into a hollow cane and fill it full of gunpowder or take one part refined salt-peter brimstone half as much and let it boyl in a new earthen pot with oyl of linseed put in your Match and wet them well all over with that liquor take them away and dry them in the Sun But if you will make Mines under the Water use this rare invention You shall make your Mines where the enemies Galleys or Ships come to ride you shall upon a plain place fit many beams or pieces of timber fastned cross-wise and thrust through or like nets according to the quantity in the divisions you shall make fit circles of wood and fasten them and fill them with gunpowder the beams must be made hollow and be filled with match and powder that you may set fire to the round circles with great diligence and cunning smeer over the circles and the beams with pitch and cover them well with it that the water may not enter and the powder take wet for so your labour will be lost and you must leave a place to put fire in then sink your engine with weights to the bottom of the water and cover it with stones mud and weeds a little before the enemy come Let a Scout keep watch that when their Ships or Galleys ride over the place that the snare is laid for fire being put to it the sea will part and be cast up into the air and drown'd the Ships or will tear them in a thousand pieces that there is nothing more wonderful to be seen or done I have tried this in waters and ponds and it performed more then I imagined it would CHAP. IX What things are good to extinguish the fire I Have spoken of kindling fires but now I shall shew how to quench them and by the way what things obnoxious to the fire will endure it and remain But first I will relate what our Ancestours have left concerning this business Vitruvious saith That the Larch-tree-wood will not burn or kindle by it self but like a stone in the furnace will make no coles but burn very slowly He saith the reason is That there is in it very little air or fire but much water and earth and that it is very solid and hath no pores that the fire can enter at He relates how this is known When Caesar commanded the Citizens about the Alps to bring him in provision those that were secure in a Castle of wood refused to obey his commands Caesar bade make bundles of wood and to light torches and lay these to the Castle when the matter took fire the flame flew exceeding high and he supposed the Castle would have fallen down but when all was burnt the Castle was not touched Whence Pliny writes The Larch-tree will neither burn to coles nor is otherwise consumed by fire then stones are But this is most false For seeing it is rosiny and oyly it presently takes fire and burns and being one fired is hard to put out Wherefore I admire that this error should spread so far and that the Town Larignum so called from the abundance of
Larch-wood compassed about with fire should suffer no hurt Moreover I read that liquid Alom as the Ancients report will stand out against fire For wood smeered with Alom and Verdignease whether they be posts or beams so they have a crust made about them will not burn with fire Aâ—â—â—â—laus the General for Mithridates made trial of it in a wooden Tower against 〈◊〉 which he attempted in vain to set on fire which I find observed by 〈◊〉 in his Annals But this liquid Alom is yet unknown to many learned men our Alum wants this property But many say that vinegar prevails against fire Plutarch saith That nothing will sooner quench fire them vinegar for of all things it most puts out the flame by its extreamity of cold Poliâ—â—â—â— reports 〈◊〉 when he was besieged by his enemies poured out of brazen vessels melted lead upon the engines that were set to scale the place and by this were the engines dissolved but the enemies poured vinegar upon it and by that they quenched the lead and all things else that fell from the walls and so they found vinegar to be the fittest to quench fire and an excellent experiment if things be wet with it Pliny prayseth the white of an egge to quench it saying that the white of an egge is so strong that if wood be wet with it it will not burn nor yet any garment Hieron to cover scaling engines used the raw hides of beasts new killed as having force to resist fire and the joynts of wood they fenced with chalk or with ashes tempered with blood or clay molded with hair or straw and with sea-weeds wet in vinegar for so they were safe from fire Carchedonius was the first that taught men to cover engins and rams with green hides I have heard by men of credit that when houses were on fire by a peculiar property the menstruons clothes of a woman that had her courses the first time cast over the planks would presently put out the fire Thick and muscilaginous juyces are good against fire as of Marsh-mallows Therefore Albertus writ not very absurdly that if a man anoint his hands with juyce of Marsh-mallows the white of an egge and vinegar with alom He may handle fire without hurt And it is a thing that hath much truth in it But I think that quick-silver killed in vinegar and the white of an egge and smeered on can preserve any thing from fire CHAP. X. Of divers compositions for fire I Shall speak of divers compositions for fire to be used for divers uses But men say M. Gracchus was Author of this invention To make a fiery composition that the Sun may kindle It consists of these things Oyl of Rosinous Turpentine of Quick-silver otherwise then I shewed in distilling of Juniper of Naphtha Linseed Colophonia Camphire let there be Pitch Salt-peter and Ducks-grease double to them all Aqua vitae refined from all flegm Pound them all and mingle them put them up in a glazed vessel and let them ferment two moneths in horse-dung always renewing the dung and mingling them together After the set time put it into a retort and distil it thicken the liquor either with Pigeons-dung finely sifted or with gunpowder that it may be like pap Wood that is smeered over with this mixture and set in the summer Sun will fire of it self Pigeons-dung easily takes fire by the Sun beams Galen reports That in Mysia a part of Asia a house was so set on fire Pigeons-dung was cast forth and touched a window that was neer as it came to touch the wood that was newly smeered with rosin when it was corrupted and grew hot and vapoured at Midsummer by heat of the Sun it fired the rosin and the window then other places smeered with Rosin took fire and by degrees part of the house began to take hold and when once the covering of the house began to flame it soon laid hold of the whole house because it hath a mighty force to inflame all Ducks-grease is very prevalent in fire-works and Physitians praise it extremely that it is most subtile penetrating and hot it makes other things penetrate and as it is most subtile and hot so it takes fire vehemently and burns I shall shew how to distil A most scalding Oyl When I would prepare the most excellent compositions of burning oyl I distilled common oyl in a retort but with great labour yet what was distilled was thin combustible and ready to fire that once kindled it was not to be put out and it would draw the flame at a great distance and hardly let it go But oyl of Linseed is stronger than it for if you distil it often it will have such a wonderful force to take fire that it can hardly be shut up in a vessel but it will draw the fire to it and the glass being opened it is so thin that it will fly into the Air and if the light of a candle or of fire touch it the Air takes fire and the oyl fired by it will cast the flame afar off so vehemently that it is almost impossible to quench it It must be distilled with great cunning lest the vessel over-heat it should take fire within Moreover Fire that is quenched with oyl is kindled with water It is thus made I said that Naphtha will burn in water and that Camphire is a kind of it Wherefore if you mingle brimstone with it or other things that will retain fire if you cast in oyl or mud it will quench it but it revives and flames more if you cast in water Livy relates That some old women in their plays lighting Torches made of these things passed over Tyber that it seemed a miracle to the beholders I said it was the property of Bitumen to take fire from water and to be quenched with oyl Dioscorides saith That the Thracian stone is bred in a certain River of Scythia the name of it is Pontus it hath the Force of Jet they say it is enflamed by water and quenched with oyl like as Bitumen Nicander speaks of this stone thus If that the Thracian stone be burnt in fire And wet with water the flame will aspire But oyl will quench it Thracian shepherds bring This stone from th' River Pontus Poets sing Torches that will not be put out by the winds They are made with brimstone for that is hardly put out if once kindled Wherefore Torches made with wax and brimstone may be carried safely through winds and tempests These are good for Armies to march by or for other necessary things Others use such They boil the wick of the Torches in Salt-peter and water when it is dried they wet them with brimstone and Aqua vitae of this mixture then they make their Candles with brimstone and then with half Camphire and Turpentine two parts Colophonia three of Wax of this they make four Candles and put them together in the middle that is empty they cast in quick-brimstone
and they will forcibly resist all things Or thus Boil wicks of Hemp or Cotton in water with Salt-peter take them out and dry them then melt in a brass pot equal parts of brimstone gunpowder and wax when they are melted put in your wicks to drink up part of the mixture take them out and to what is left in the kettle add Gunpowder Brimstone and Turpentine of each a like quantity of which mixture make your Torches and joyn them together Also there is made A cord that set on fire shall neither smoke nor smell When Souldiers or Hunters go secretly by day or night they use sometimes to make a Match that being lighted will neither smell near hand nor far off nor make any smoke for wild Beasts if the Match smell will sent it and run to the tops of the Mountains Take a new earthen pot and put into it a new cord so handsomely that the whole pot may be filled so laid in rounds that no more can go in cover it and lute it well three or four times that it may have no vent for the whole business depends on this Then make a fire round about it by degrees that first it may grow hot then very hot and lastly red hot and if sometimes the smoke come forth stop the chinks with clay still then heaped up under the coles let it grew cold of it self and opening the Pot you shall finde the Cord black like a cole Light this Cord and it will neither smoke nor smell CHAP. XI Fire-compositions for Festival days I Have shewed you Terrible and Monstrous fire-works it is fit to shew you some to use at Solemn Times not so much for use as to give you occasion to find out higher matters I shall shew then how to make one That when a man comes into his Chamber the whole Air way take fire Take a great quantity of the best refined Aqua vitae and put Camphire into it cut small for it will soon dissolve in it when it is dissolved shut the Windows and Chamber-doors that the vapour that exhales may not get forth when the vessel is full with water let it boil with coles put under without any flame that all the water may resolve into smoke and fill the Chamber and it will be so thin that you can scarce perceive it Let some man enter into the Chamber with a lighted Candle in his hand and the Air by the Candle light will take fire all about and the whole Chamber will be in a flame like an Oven and will much terrifie one that goes in If you dissolve in the water a little Musk or Amber-greese after the flame you shall smell a curious sent Also there is made Exceeding burning water Thus Take old strong black Wine put into it quick Lime Tartar Salt and quick-Brimstone draw out the water of them with a glass retort This will burn exceedingly and never cease till it be all consumed If you put it into a vessel with a very large mouth and put flame neer it it will presently take fire if when it is on fire you cast it against a wall or by night out at the window you shall see the Air full of sparks and kindled with fires It will burn held in your hands and yet will not scald you Distil it once again and it will burn the less But if you take equal parts of quick Lime and Salt and shall mingle them with common Oyl and make little Balls and cast them into the belly of the retort at the neck and then shall draw forth the Oyl by a vehement fire and mingling this Oyl again with Salt and quick Lime shall distill them again and shall do the same four times an Oyl will come forth that will burn wonderfully that some deservedly call it infernal Oyl A Solemn Pleasant fire is made for the Theater If Camphire be dissolved in Aqua vitae and with that Fillets Papers or Parchments be smeered and being dried again be lighted and shall fall from a loft as they fall lighted through the Air you shall see Serpents with great delight But if you dessire To cast flame a great way Do thus Beat Colophonia Frankincense or Amber finely and hold them in the palm of your hand and put a lighted Candle between your fingers and as you throw the Powder into the Air let it pass through the flame of the Candle for the flame will fly up high If you will have that Many Candles shall be lighted presently on Festival Days as I hear they are wont to do amongst the Turks You shall boil Brimstone and Orpiment with Oyl and in them let thred boil when it is dry bind it to the wicks of Candles and let them pass through for when one head is lighted the flame will run to them all and set them on fire Some call it Hermes his Oyntment Any man may Eating in the dark cast sparkles out of his mouth It is pleasant for the Spectators and it is thus Let a man eat Sugar-candy for as he breaks it with his teeth sparkles will seem to fly out of his mouth as if one should rub a fire-brand CHAP. XII Of some Experiments of Fires I Will set down some Experiments that are without the ranks of the rest I held it better to conceal them but they may give you occasion to think on greater matters by them If you will That Bullets from Brass Guns may enter deeper you may easily try this against a wall or plank set up Let the Ball rather go into the hollow of it streight then wide but wet it in Oyl before you put it in and so cast it in this Bullet shot off by force of fire will go in twice as far as otherwise The reason is easie for the Oyl takes away the occasion of the Airs breathing forth for all vents being stopt the flames striving within cast forth the Bullet with more violence as we shall shew more at large So also will the Bullets of Brass Guns penetrate with more force and if you lard the Bullets they will penetrate through Arms of proof I can also by a cunning Artifice Shoot a man through with a Bullet and no place shall be seen where it went in or came forth The minde of man is so cunning that it hath invented a way to shoot a man quite through with a Bullet and yet no mark of the Bullet shall appear though all the inward parts be bruised and beaten through Consider that what things are heavy are solid and so subtile that they will penetrate and leave no marks where they entred or came out and they will do the same though they be united as if they were disjoynted and every part will act by it self alone as it would do being united I have said thus to take away all occasions from ignorant and wicked people to do mischief I saw A Gun discharge often and yet no more powder was put in Famous Souldiers use
no place for the air to come in and that were against the second axiom wherefore by reason of vacuum and because the body is no heavior it falls not into the bowl beneath But should one make a hole in the bottom of the vessel A that the air might come in no doubt the water would not fall down into the bazon Also if the vessel A B were filled with any â—ight liquor and the broad bazon with one that is heavior they would not stir from their places Let therefore the vessel A B be filled with wine and the mouth of it turned downwards into a bazon full of water I say both liquors will keep their places and will not mingle for should the wine descend either vacuum must needs be in the body A or a heavy body must ascend out of the vessel C D which would be against the Nature of Gravity and the second axiom namely that heavy should ascend and light descend wherefore they will not remove from their places Hence comes that which is often done by great drinkers and gluttons who pour by drops into a cuphalf full of water so much wine as will fill the cup they come so close together that onely a line parts those liquors And those that would sooner cool their wine they dip a Vial full of wine into a vessel full of water with the mouth turned downward and hold it down under the water for when the water toucheth the superficies of the wine they cannot mingle and the wine grows sooner cool though it is necessary that the Vial should be lifted up to the superficies of the water and suddenly turned about poured forth and drank then fill them again and set in the bottle as before From this advantage I complain of those who first drink water then pour in wine for wine being the lighter and water the heavior they can hardly mingle wherefore some drink at first the strongest wine then mingled and last of all water At great mens Tables they first bring wine in a Glass then they pour in water that the water by its weight may mingle with the wine and get to the bottom and tast equally Theophrastus bids men first pour in wine then water CHAP. II. How we may by drinking make sport with those that fit at Table with us VVHen friends drink together if we would by such a merry deceit delude the guests that are ignorant of the cause hereof we may provoke them to drink with such a Cup Let there be a great Cup made like a tunnel let the mouth be broad above and beneath narrow Pyramidally and let it be joyn'd to a Glass-Ball by a narrow mouth First pour in water till the whole Ball be filled then put in wine by degrees which by reason of the narrowness of the mouth will not mingle and the water is heavy and the wine lighter He that drinks first shall drink the wine then give it your frind to drink for he shall drink nothing but water But if your friend shall challenge you to drink thus with him and will have you drink first fill the Ball of the Cup with wine and pour water upon it and stay awhile and hold him in discourse for the water will sink down by the narrow mouth and the wine by degrees will ascend as much and you shall see the wine come up through the middle of the water and the water descend through the middle of the wine and sink to the bottom so they change their places when you know that the water is gone down and the wine come up then drink for you shall drink the wine and your friend shall drink the water Hence it is that to great inconvenience of those that drink it when we plunge our wine into a well in vessels of earth or brass ill stopt to cool it the water being the heavior comes in at the least chink and forceth out the wine so in a little time the vessel is full of water and the wine is gone that there is not the least taste of wine in it wherefore stop the mouth very close CHAP. III. How to part wine from water it is mingled with FRom these I shall easily shew two things that a heavy body shut up in a Glass vessel having the mouth of it put within a lighter liquid body they will mutually give place the lighter will ascend the heavior will descend and that without any hindrance one of the other which I shall demonstrate from the former principals Let the Glass be turned downwards and full of water be A B the water is heavior than the wine Let the mouth of it B be put into the vessel C D that is full of wine These are bodies that will mutually yield one to the other as I shewed I say the water will descend into the vessel C D and the wine will ascend into the vessel A B where the water was before For the water because it was contain'd in the vessel A B it being heavy presseth the wine in the vessel C D that is lighter and because there is no body between them the water descends on one side into the vessel C D and the wine ascends on the other side into the vessel AB Now if the wine be red that you may see the difference or their colours you shall see the wine ascend through the middle of the water as far as he bottom of the upper vessel that is put downward into the other and the water to descend hastily to the bottom of the vessel C D and one descend as low as the other riseth high and if the liquors cannot be seen distinguished yet one goes without any hindrance of the other and without mingling into its own place and it will be a pleasant sight to behold the wine going up and the water falling down and when they rest they will be so well parted that not the least wine can remain with the water nor water with the wine Wherefore if you put into a Hogshead full of wine a long neck'd Glass full of water in a short time the vessel turned downwards will be full of wine and the water will go down into the Hogshhad By this any man may easily conjecture How to part water from wine because oft-time Country people and Vintagers use deceit and bring wine mingled with water to be sold to the Merchant we may easily prevent their craft by this Art Let there be underneath a vessel filled with wine that is mixed with water and we would separate the water from the wine But first there must be a vessel that can receive all the wine that is mingled in the other vessel and if we know not the quantity we must conjecture at it how much it may be of something less then fill the said vessel with water and set it with the mouth downwards on the other vessel that is full of wine and water mingled together and let the upper part of the
if they sink it is mingled with water But if you seek to know If new wine have any water mingled with it it will be the contrary for the contrary reason For wine that is pure and sincere is thin but new wine at first is thick feculent gross clammy because the feces are not yet sunk down but in time it will grow clear and thin Wherefore if you put Apples or Pears into new wine and the new wine be most pure the Apples will flote above it but if there be water mingled with it â—he Apples will sink to the bottom for freeze-water is thinner than new wiâ—e and lighter iâ—â—â—useth the Apple to sink which is excellent well described by Sotion and very curiously He saith That we may know whether new wine be mingled with water cast wilde Pears that is green ones into new wine and if there be any water they will sink to the bottom For when you fill the vessel with new wine if you cast in Services or Pears they will swim the more water you put to it the more will the Apple sink But we shall adde this for an addition When new wine is mingled with water to know which part is the best the upper or lower part The Country people use after the pressing forth of the wine when the clusters are pressed forth to caâ—â— in a certain quantity of water and so they make drink for laborers in the Countrey This new wine they divide the Country man hath half and the Landlord the other half The question is which part is the best the first or last that runs forth of the press But if you well remember what I said before the wine being the lightest will come uppermost and the water being heaviest will always sink to the bottom Wherefore the first that comes forth is the wine that which remains and is pressed from the clusters is watry When water is cast on the clusters it goes into the inmost parts of the Grapes and draws forth the wine that is in them and so they mingle but being lighter it chooseth the upper place therefore the upper part is best because it contains most wine but if you turn the Cock beneath the water will first run forth and the wine last CHAP. VII Other ways how to part wine from water THere are other ways to do it as by distilling For in distilling the lightest will ascend first then the heaviest when the fire is not too strong and that is but reason wherefore that the liquor may ascend it must first be attenuated into thin vapours and become lighter therefore wine being thinner than water if it be put in a still in Balneo the lightest vapour of wine will ascend by degrees and fall into the receiver You shall observe the Aqua vitae that distills into the vessel and by the quantity of that you may judge of the proportion of water mingled with the wine Also note that when the lightest part of the wine is ascended the heavy feces remain as water or as part of the wine Oft-times in our distillations when Aqua vitae was distilled in Balneo by chance the vessel brake that contain'd the Aqua vitae and mingled with the water in the kettle I put the mingled liquor into a Glass vessel and putting a soft fire to it first came forth the pure Aqua vitae simple without any water the water stayed in the bottom and kept not so much as the smell of the Aqua vitae By the veins running in the cup I knew the water ascended I will not omit though it be for another reason for pleasure and ingenuity to shew The manner to part water from wine that by this means we may know how much water is mingled in the vessel Take the quantity of the wine and put it into a Glass Vial and put the Vial into very cold water that all that is in the Vial may freeze as I shew'd If the wine be sincere and pure it will be the harder to freeze and longer if it have much water it will freeze the sooner When the wine is frozen break the Vial upon a dish the ice must melt by degrees first the wine because that is hotter than the water will remain frozen Part the wine from it for it will be longer thawing by proportion of this you may know what part of water was put into the vessel CHAP. VIII How the levity in the water and the air is different and what cunning may be wrought thereby NOw I will speak of heavy and light otherwise than I spake before namely how it is in the air and how in the water and what speculation or profit may rise from thence And first how we may know whether a Metal be pure or mingled with other Metals as Gold and Silver as in Gilded cups or else in moneys where Silver or Gold is mingled with Brass and what is their several weights which speculation is useful not onely for Bankers but also for Chymists when they desire to try Metals in fixing of Silver or other operations which I will attempt to declare plainly But first I will see whether the Antients speak any thing hereof Vitruvius saith Archimedes did write of this For when Hiero purposed to offer a Golden Crown to the Gods in the Temple he put it to the Goldsmith by weight he made the work curiously and maintain'd it for good to the King and by weight it seemed to be just but afterwards it was said that he had stoln part of the Gold and made up the Crown with Silver to the full weight Hiero enraged at this this bad Archimedes to consider of it He then by chance coming into a Bath when he had descended into it he observed that as much of his body as went into the Bath so much water ran over the Bath when he considered the reason of it he leaped forth for joy running home and crying Eureka Eureka that is I have found it I have found it Then they say he made to lumps of equal weight with the Crown one of Gold the other of Silver then he filled a large vessel to the very brims with water and he put in the lump of Silver the bigness of that thrust into the water made the water run over wherefore taking out the lump what flowed over he put in again having measured a sixt part and he found what certain quantity of water answered to the quantity of the Silver then he put in the lump of Gold into the full vessel and taking that forth by the same reason he found that not so much water ran forth but so much less of the body of the Gold was less than the same weight in Silver Then he filled the vessel with water and put in the Crown and he found that more water ran forth by reason of the Crown than for the mass of Gold of the same weight and from thence because more water run over by reason of
end of the Pipe and he that is at the other end shall do the like the voice may be intercepted in the middle and be shut up as in a prison and when the mouth is opened the voice will come forth as out of his mouth that spake it but because such long Pipes cannot be made without trouble they may be bent up and down like a Trumpet that a long Pipe may be kept in a small place and when the mouth is open the words may be understood I am now upon trial of it if before my Book be Printed the business take effect I will set it down if not if God please I shall write of it elsewhere CHAP. II. Of Instruments Musical made with water OLd Water-Instruments were of great esteem but in our days the use is worn out Yet we read that Nero took such delight in them that when his Life and Empire were in danger amongst the seditions of Souldiers and Commanders and all was in imminent danger he would not forsake the care of them and pleasure he took in them Vitruvius teacheth us how they were made but so obscurely and mystically that what he says is very little understood I have tryed this by many and sundry ways by mingling air with water which placing in the end of a Pipe or in my mouth where the breath of the mouth strikes against the air and though this made a pleasant noise yet it kept no tune For whilst the water bubbles and trembles or warbles like a Nitingale the voice is changed in divers tunes one note is sweet and pleasant two squele and jar But this way it will make a warbling sound and keep the tune Let there be made a Brass bottom'd Chest for the Organ wherein the wind must be carried let it behalf full of water let the wind be made by bellows or some such way that must run through a neck under the waters but the spirit that breaks forth of the middle of the water is excluded into the empty place when therefore by touching of the keys the stops of the mouths of the Pipes are opened the trembling wind coming into the Pipes makes very pleasant trembling sounds which I have tried and found to be true CHAP. III. Of some Experiments by Wind-Instruments NOw will I proceed to the like Wind-Instruments but of divers sorts that arise by reason of the air and I shall shew how it is dilated contracted rarified by fire condensed by cold If you will That a vessel turned downwards shall draw in the water do thus Make a vessel with a very long neck the longer it is the greater wonder it will seem to be Let it be of transparent Glass that you may see the water running up fill this with boiling water and when it is very hot or setting the bottom of it to the fire that it may not presently wax cold the mouth being turned downwards that it may touch the water it will suck it all in So such as search out the nature of things say That by the Sun beams the water is drawn up from the Concave places of the Earth to the tops of Mountains whence fountains come forth And no small Arts arise from hence for Wind-Instruments as Heron affirms Vitruvius speaks the like concerning the original of Winds but now it is come to be used for houses For so may be made A vessel to cast forth wind You may make Brass Bowles or of some other matter let them be hollow and round with a very small hole in the middle that the water is put in at if this be use the former experiment when this is set at the fire it grows hot and being it hath no other vent it will blow strongly from thence but the blast will be moist and thick and of an ill savour You may also make A vessel that shall cast forth water There is carried about with us a Glass vessel made Pyramidal with a very narrow long mouth with which it casts water verâ— faâ— off That it may draw water suck out the air with your mouth as much as you can and presently thrust the mouth into the water for it will draw the water into it do so until a third part of it be filled with water When you will spouâ— the water afar off fill the vessel with air blowing into it as hard as you can presently take it from your mouth and incline the mouth of the vessel that the water may run to the mouth and stop the air and the air striving to break forth will cast the water out a great way But if you will without attraction of Air make water fly far with it heat the bottom of the vessel a little for the air being rarefied seeks for more place and striving to break forth drives the water before it Thus â—runkard making a little hole in a vessel of wine because the wine will not run out the mouth beinâ— stopt whereby the air might enter they will blow hard into that hole then as they leave off the wine will come forth in as great quantity as the air blowed in was Now I will shew How to make water ascend conveniently We can make water rise to the top of a Tower Let there be a leaden Pipe that may come from the bottom to the top of the Tower and go down again from the top to the bottom as a Conduit let one end stand in the water that we desire should rise the other end that must be longer and hang down lower must be fastned into a vessel of wood or earth that it may take no air at all let it have a hole above the vessel whereby the vessel may be filled with water and then be stopt perfectly Set a vessel on the top of the Tower as capacious as that beneath and the leaden pipe now spoke of must be fastned at one end of the vessel and go forth at the other end and must be in the upper part of the vessel and let the pipe be divided in the middle within the vessel and where the pipe enters and where the pipe goes out they must be joynted that they take no air when therefore we would have the water to ascend fill the vessel beneath with water and â—â—op it close that it take no air then opening the lower hole of the vessel the water will run forth for that part of water that runs out of the vessel will cause as much to rise up at the other end by the other leaden pipe and ascend above the Towâ—r the water drawn forth is filled up again we may make out use of it and the hole being stopt the lower vessel may be filled again with water and so doing we shall make the water to escend a ways We may also By heat alone make the water rise Let there be a vessel above the Tower either of Brass Clay or Wood Brass is best let there be a pipe in the middle of it that may
descend down to the water beneath and be set under it but fastned that it take no air let the vessel above be made hot by the Sun or fire for the air that is contained in the vessel rarefies and breathes forth whereupon we shall see the water rise into bubbles when the Sun is gone and the vessel grows cold the air is condensed and because the air included cannot fill up the vacuity the water is called in and ascends thither CHAP. IV. A discription of water Hour-glasses wherein Wind or Water-Instruments for to shew the Hours are described THe Antients had Hour-Dials made by water and Water-Dials were usual and famous Heron of Alexandria writ Books of Water-Dials but they are lost I have writ a Book of them and that this part may not be deficient I shall shew two that are made by contraries one by blowing in the air the other by sucking it out This shall be the first A Water-Dial Take a vessel of Glass like a Urinal it is described by the letters AB On the top is A where there is a very small hole that the point of a needle can scarce enter it at the bottom neer the mouth let there be set a staff EF that in the middle hath a firm Pillar going up to the very top of the vessel let the Pillar be divided with the Hour-lines Let there be also a wooden or earthen vessel GH full of water Upon the superficies of that water place the Glass vessel AB that by its weight will press toward the bottom but the air included within the vessel keeps it from going down then open the little hole A whereby the air going forth by degrees the vessel will gradually descend also Then make by another Dial the marks on the staff CD which descending will afterwards shew the Hourmarks When therefore the vessel goes to the bottom of the wooden vessel the Dial is done and it is the last Hour But when you would have your Dial go again you must have a crooked empty pipe OK the upper mouth K must be stopt with the finger K so K being stopt with the finger that the air may not enter sink it under the water that it may come within the vessel AB then put your mouth to K and blow into it for that will raise the vessel upward and it will come to its former place and work again I shall also describe for my minds sake Another Water-Dial contrary to the former namely by sucking in the air Let there be a Glass vessel like to a Urinal as I said AB and being empty set fast on it the vessel CD that it cannot sink down then fill it with water as far as B Let there be a hole neer the top E wherefore sucking the air by the hole E the water comes into the vessel AB from the vessel CD and will rise as high as FG when therefore AB is full of water stop the hole E that no air enter and the water will fall down again In the top of the vessel AB let there be another very small hole that the air may come in by degrees and so much as there comes in of air so much water will go forth On the superficies of the vessel make Hour-lines that may snew the Hours marked 1 2 3 c. or if you will let the Still fastned to a Cork swim on the top of the water and that will shew the Hours marked on the outside of the vessel CHAP. V. A description of Vessels casting forth water by reason of Air. NOw I will describe some Fountains or Vessels that by reason of air cast forth water and though Heron ingeniously described some yet will I set down some others that are artifically found out by me and other men Here is described A Fountain that casts forth water by compression of the Air Let there be a vessel of water-work close every where AB make a hole through the middle and let a little pipe CD go up from the bottom of the water-work vessel D so far from the bottom that the water may run forth Upon the superficies of the Tympanum let there be C a very little hole with a cover to it or let it have as the Greeks call it Smerismation to shut and open it handsomely and in the upper surface of the Tympanum bore the basis quite through with a little pipe which enters into the hollow of the Tympanum and having in the hole beneath a broad piece of leather or brass that the air coming in may not go back wherefore pour in water at E that it may be three fingers above the bottom then blow in air as vehemently as you can when it is well pressed in shut the mouth then opening the mouth A the water will fly up aloft until the air be weak I at Venice made a Tympanum with pipes of Glass and when the water was cast forth very far the Lord Estens much admired it to see the water fly so high and no visible thing to force it I also made another place neer this Fountain that let in light and when the air was extenuated so long as any light lasted the Fountain threw out water which was a thing of much admiration and yet but little labor To confirm this there is An Artifice whereby a hand-Gun may shoot a bullet without fire For by the air onely pressed is the blast made Let there be a hand Gun that is made hollow and very smooth which may be done with a round instrument of lead and with Emril-powder beaten rubbing all the parts with it Then you must have a round Instrument that is exactly plained on all parts that may perfectly go in at the mouth of the wind Gun and so fill it that no air may come forth let it be all smeer'd with oyl for the oyl by its grossness hinders any air to come forth So this lead Bullet being put into the Guns mouth and thrust down with great force and dexterity then presently take away your hands but you must first shut the little hole that is in the bottom of the hole and the bullet and little stick will fall to the bottom and by the violence of the air pressed together it will cast out the Bullet a great way and the stick too which is very strange Also I will make A Vessel wherewith as you drink the liquor shall be sprinkled about your face Make a vessel of Pewter or Silver like to a Urinal then make another vessel in the fashion of a Tunnel or a round Pyramis let their mouths be equal and joyn'd perfectly together for they must be of the same bredth let the spire of it be distant from the bottom of the Urinal a fingers breadth and let it be open then pour water into the vessel and fill the Urinal unto the hole of the spire end and fill the Tunnel to the top and the rest of the Urinal will be empty
because the air hath no place to get forth when therefore any man drinks when the water is drank up as far as the hole of the spire end by the air pressed within is the water thrust violently forth and flies in the face of him that drinks Also there is a vessel that no man can drink out of it but he who knows the art Make an earthen or metal vessel in form of a Bottle or Flagon and make it full of holes from the neck to the middle of the belly From the bottom let a pipe ascend by the handle of the vessel and the handle being round about it let it come above the brims of the vessel empty under the handle in a place not seen make a little hole that any man holding the vessel by the handle may with his finger stop and unstop this hole when he please under the brim of the vessel where you set it to your mouth let there be another secret hole Then pour water into the vessel if now any man put the bottle to his mouth and raiseth it to drink the water will run forth at the neck that is open and at the belly but he that knows the trick taking the vessel by the handle shuts the hole with his thumb and not moving the vessel he draws the air with his mouth for the water follows the air and so he drinks it all up but if any man suck and shut not the hole the water will not follow CHAP. VI. That we may use the Air in many Arts. VVE may use Air in many Artifices I shall set down some that I may give a hint to others to invent more And chiefly How wind may be made in a chamber that guests may almost freeze Make a deep pit and put in a sufficient quantity of river or running water let the pit be close stopt onely let a pipe convey it through the walls that it may be brought into the chamber Let the water be let down into the pit by a kind of Tunnel lest the air should come forth at the place where it goes in by the water is the air of the pit expelled and comes by the pipe into the chamber that not onely those that sleep there but such as converse there are extream cold and benummed I will shew How Air may serve for Bellows I saw this at Rome Make a little cellar that 's close on all sides pour in by a Tunnel from above a quantity of water on the top of the wall let there be a little hole at which the air may break forth with violence for it will come so forcibly that it will kindle a fire and serve for bellows for Brass and Iron-melting furnaces the Tunnel being so made that when need is it may be turned and water may be put in THE TWENTIETH BOOK OF Natural Magick The Chaos wherein the Experiments are set down without any Classical Order THE PROEME I Determined at the beginning of my Book to write Experiments that are contain'd in all Natural Sciences but by my business that called me off my mind was hindred so that I could not accomplish what I intended Since therefore I could not do what I would I must be willing to do what I can Therefore I shut up in this Book those Experiments that could be included in no Classes which were so diverse and various that they could not make up a Science or a Book and thereupon I have here heaped them altogether confusedly as what I had overpassed and if God please I will another time give you a more perfect Book Now you must rest content with these CHAP. I. How Sea-water may be made potable IT is no small commodity to mankinde if Sea-water may be made potable In long voyages as to the Indies it is of great concernment For whilst Sea men by reason of tempests are forced to stay longer at Sea than they would for want of water they fall into great danger of their lives Galleys are forced all most every ten days to put in for fresh water and therefore they cannot long wander in enemies countries nor go far for enemies stop their passages Moreover in sea Towns and Islands when they want water as in our days in the Island Malta and in the Syrses Souldiers and Inhabitants endured much hardness and Histories relate many such things Hence I thought it necessary to search curiously whether Sea-water might be made potable But it is impossible to finde out any thing for this how it may be done unless we first finde out the cause of its saltness and what our Ancestors have said concerning that matter especially since Aristotle saith That the salt may easily be taken from the Sea because the sea is not salt of its own Nature but by the Sun that heats the water which draws out of it cold and dry earthly exhalations to the top of it and these being there burnt cause it to be salt when the moist subtile parts are resolved into thin vapors We therefore imitating Nature by raising the thin parts by Chymical Instruments may easily make it sweet For so the Nature of the Sea makes sweet waters for the Rivers There are also veins of the Sea in the deep parts of the earth that are heated by the Sun and the vapours are elevated to the tops of the heighest Mountains where by the cold superficies they meet with they congeal into drops and dropping down by the vaulted roots of Caves they run forth in open streams We first fill a hollow vessel like a great Ball with Sea-water it must have a long neck and a cap upon it that live coles being put under the water may resolve into thin vapors and fill all vacuities being carryed aloft this ill sented grossness when it comes to touch the coldness of the head or cap and meets with the Glass gathers like dew about the skirts of it and so running down the arches of the cap it turns to water and a pipe being opened that pertains to it it runs forth largely and the receiver stands to receive it as it drops so will sweet water come from salt and the salt tarryeth at the bottom of the vessel and three pound of salt water will give two pounds of fresh water but if the cap of the limbeck be of Lead it will afford more water yet not so good For Galen saith That water that runs through pipes of Lead if it be drank will cause an excoriation of the intestines But I found a way How to get a greater quantity of fresh water when we distil salt water Make a cap of earth like to a Pyramis all full of holes that through the holes Urinals of Earth or Glass may be brought in Let their mouths stick forth well luâ—ed that the vapor may not exhale the cap after the fashion of the limbeck must have its pipe at the bottom running round and let it crop forth at the nose of it Set this upon a
waters strew in powder of Penniroyal Leo Baptista Albertus when they take up the water of Nilus muddy if they do but rub the edge of the vessel with an Almond it presently grows clear I tried this to and found it false when common salt is cast into Aqua fortis that parts Gold from Silver the Silver will presently descend We see also that in the making of that they call read Alac casting but Alom into Lye the salt and colour will presently precipitate to the bottom and nothing will remain but clear water We see that milk will curdle with many Herbs which we speak of elsewhere We shall use therefore for this purpose coagulaters and astringents Cooks say That a Spunge put into a pot of salt-water will draw the salt to it but pressed forth again and cast in once more will take it all out So wood wrapt about with fillets of linnen and put into the pot will draw the salt to it Others binde in a clout Wheat-meal and put it into the pot and draw forth the salt Palladius where he speaks of seasoning of wines saith The Greeks bid men keep sea-water that is clean and taken out of the calm sea the year before whose Nature is that in this time it will lose its saltness or bitterness and smell sweet by age It remains to shew How sweet waters may be mended Leo Baptista saith If you place a glazed vessel full of salt and well stopt with lime putting oyl under that no water may penetrate into it that it may hang in the middle of the waters of a Cistern these waters will in no time corrupt Others adde also Quick-silver If water begin to corrupt cast in salt to purge them and if salt be wanting put in some sea-water for so at Venice they draw water from St Nicolas Well for Marriners that go long voyages because it stands so neer the sea and salt lyes hid in it by communicating with those waters We read in Scripture that Elizeus did this who at Jericho or Palestina cast in salt into a Fountain and made it potable water which was before bitter and corrupt If water breeds worms cast in quick Lime and they will dye When we would make wine clear beat the white of an Egge and the troubled wine will descend if you put it in Others cast in the dust that is on the catlings of small nuts and the Spaniards cast in Gyp to make in clear and all these we may use in waters CHAP. II. How to make water of Air. IF all other means fail we may make water of air onely by changing it into air as Nature doth for she makes water of air or vapors Therefore when we want water we may make it of air and do as Nature doth We know when the Sun heats the earth it draws forth the thinnest vapors and carrieth them on high to that region of the air where the cold is those vapors are condensed into drops and fall down in Rain Also we see in summer that in Glass vessels well rinced and that are full of cold water the air by coming to the outermost superficies will presently clow'd the the Glass and make it lose its cleanness a little after it will be all in a dew and swell into bubbles and by degrees these will turn to drops and fall down which have no other reason for them but because the cold air sticking to the Glass grows thick and is changed into water We see also in Chambers at Venice where there windows are made of Glass when a gross and thick vapor sticks to the Glass within and a cold vapor prevails without that within will turn to dew and drop down Again in winter in Brass Guns which are always very cold and are kept in Cellars and vaulted places where men also use to be that the air will grow thick and lighting upon the cold superficies of them they will be all of a dew and drop with water But to say no more Make a large round vessel of Brass and put into it Salt-Peter unrefined what will fill it men call it Solazzo mingled with Ice for these two mixed as I said in this Book make a mighty cold and by shaking them with the wondeful force of the cold they gather air about the vessel and it will presently drop into a vessel underneath A deligent Artist will adde more that he may get a greater quantity of water It sufficeth that I have shewed the way CHAP. III. How one may so alter his face that not so much as his friends shall know him SUch as are taken prisoners or shut up close and desire to escape and such as do business for great men as spies and others that would not be known it is of great moment for them to know how to change their Countenances I will teach them to do it so exactly that their friends and wives shall not know them Great men do not a little enquire for such secrets because those that can dissemble theirown persons have done great matters and lovers have served their Mistresses and Parents have not suspected it Ulisses attempting to know what the Trojans did clothed in counterfeit garments and his face changed did all he would and was not discovered Homer With many scars he did transform his face In servants clothes as from a beggars race He went to Troy And when he desired to know what Penelope and her suters did he transformed himself again I shall shew how this may be done many ways by changing the Garments Hair Countenance Scars Swellings we may so change our Faces that in some places it may rise in bunches in other places it may sink down And first How to dye the Flesh. But to begin with the colouring of the Flesh. The Flesh may be dyed to last so long or to be soon washed out If you will have it soon wash'd off Steep the shells of Walnuts and of Pomegranates in Vinegar four or five days then press them forth by a Press and dye the face for it will make your face as black as an Ethiopian and this will last some days Oyl of honey makes a yellow colour and red and it will last fourteen days or more The fume of Brimstone will discolour the face that it will shew sickly as if one had long kept his bed but it will be soon gone But if you will have it last many days firm and very hardly to come off Use water of Depart that seperates Gold from Silver made of Salt-Peter and Vitriol and especially if it have first corroded any Silver this will last twenty days until the skin be changed But if you will Change the Hair I taught elsewhere how to do this yet I will take the pains to do it again Oyl of honey dyes the Hair of the head and beard of a yellow or red colour and this will hold a moneth But if they be hoary white or yellow we may dye them black with
Chap 13 The fifteenth Book Of Fishing Fowling Hunting c. VVHat meats allure divers animals Chap 1 How living creatures are drawn on with the baits of love Chap 2 Animals called together by things they like Chap 3 What noises allure Birds Chap 4 Fishes allured by light in the night Chap 5 By Looking glasses many creatures are brought together Chap 6 Animals are congregated by sweet smells Chap 7 Creatures made drunk catcht with hand Chap 8 Peculiar poysons of Animals Chap 9 Venomes for Fishes Chap 10 Experiments for hunting Chap 11 Tee sixteenth Book Of invisible Writing HOw a writing dipt in divers liquors may be read Chap 1 Letters made visible in the fire Chap 2 Letters rubâ—d with dust to be seen Chap 3 To write in an egge Chap 4 How you may write in divers places and deceive one that can reade Chap 5 In what place Letters may be inclosed Chap 6 What secret messengers may be used Chap 7 Messengers not to know that they carry Letters nor to be found about them Chap 8 Characters to be made that at set days shall vanish Chap 9 To take off Letters that are written on paper Chap 10 To counterfeit a Seal and Writing Chap 11 To speak at a great distance Chap 12 Signs to be made with fire by night and with dust by day Chap 13 The seventeenth Book Of Burning-glasses and the wonderful sights by them REpresentations made by plain Glasses Chap 1 Sports with plain Looking-glasses Chap 2 A Looking-glass called a Theatrecal-glass Chap 3 Operations of Concave glasses Chap 4 Mixt operations of plain Concave glasses Chap 5 Other operations of a Concave-glass Chap 6 How to see in the dark Chap 7 An Image may be seen to range in the air Chap 8 Mixtures of Glasses and divers operations of Images Chap 9 Effects of a Leuticular Crystal Chap 10 Spectacles to see beyond imagination Chap 11 To see in a Chamber things that are not Chap 12 The operations of a Cristal-pillar Chap 13 Burning-glasses Chap 14 A Parabolical Section which is of Glasses the most burning Chap 15 That may burn obliquely and at very great distance Chap 16 That may burn at infinite distance Chap 17 A Burning-glass made of many spiritural Sections Chap 18 Fire kindled more forcible by refraction Chap 19 An Image to be seen by a hollow Glass Chap 20 How Spectacles are made Chap 21 Foils are laid on Concave glasses and how they are banded Chap 22 How Metal Looking-glasses are made Chap 23 The eighteenth Book Of Things heavy and light THat heavy things descend and light ascend in the same degree Chap 1 By drinking to make sport with those that sit at table Chap 2 To part wine from water it is mingled with Chap 3 Another way to part water from wine Chap 4 To part a light body from a heavy Chap 5 To mingle things heavy and light Chap 6 Other ways to part wine from water Chap 7 The â—evity of water and air different and what may be wraught thereby Chap 8 The ninteenth Book Of Wind-Instruments VVHether material Statues may speak by an Artificial way Chap 1 Musical-Instruments made with water Chap 2 Experiments of Wind-Instruments Chap 3 A Description of Water-hour-glasses Chap 4 Of a Vessel casting forth water by reason of air Chap 5 How to use the air in many Arts Chap 6 The twentieth Book Of the Chaos HOw water may be made Potable Chap 1 To make water of air Chap 2 To alter the face that ones friends shall not know him Chap 3 That stones may move alone Chap 4 An Instrument whereby to hear at great distance Chap 5 To augment weight Chap 6 The wonderful proporties of the Harp Chap 7 To discover frauds in Impostors that work by natural means and pretend conjuration Chap 8 Experiments of a Lamp Chap 9 Some mechanical Experiments Chap 10 FINIS