little Mastigia Observation 23. Here I have you fast Philalethes for all your wrigling For if our vitall and animal spirits which are as much a part of us as any other part of our body is be fed and nourished by the Aire then the Aire is an Element of our body But here he would fain save himself by saying that the Aire is rather a Compound then an Element but let any man judge how much more it is compounded then the Earth and then Water which nourisheth by drinking as well as the Aire can do by breathing Observation 24. Page 59. line 1. How can darknesse be called a Masse c. No it cannot Nor a thin vaporous matter neither Thy blindnesse cannot distinguish Abstracts from Concrets Thy soul sits in the dark Philalethes and nibbles on words as a mouse in a hole on cheese â—arings But to slight thy injudicious cavil at Masse and to fall to the Matter I charged thee here to have spoke such stuff as implies a Contradiction Thou saidest that this Masse be it black or white dark or bright that 's nothing to the Controversie here did contain in a farre less compass all that was after extracted I say this implies a Contradiction But you answer this is nothing but Rarefaction and Condensation according to the common notion of the Schools I but that Notion it self implies a Contradiction for in Rarefaction and Condensation there is the generation or deperdition of no new Matter but all matter hath impenetrable dimensions Therefore if that large expansion of the heavens lay within the compass of the Mass that matter occupyed the same space that the masse did and so dimensions lay in dimensions and thus that which is impenetrable was penetrated which is a contradiction What thou alledgest of the rarefaction of water into clouds or vapours is nothing to the purpose For these clouds and vapours are not one continued substance but are the particles of the water put upon motion and playing at some distance one from another but do really take up no more place then before Observation 26. To say nothing at thy fond cavil at words in the former Observationâ— and thy false accusation that I called thee dog for I would not dishonour Diogenesâ—o â—o much as to call thee so and leaving it to the censure of the world how plain and reall thy principles are I am come now to my 26 Observation on the 23 page of thy Anthroposophia where thou tellest us That there is a threefold Earth viz. Elementary Celestiall Spirituall Now let us see what an excellent layer of the fundamentalls of Science thou wilâ— prove thy self And here he begins to divide before he defines Thou shouldest fiâ—st have told us what Earth is in generall before thou divide it This is like a creature with a cloven foot and never a head But when thou didst venture to define these Members where was thy Logick Ought not every definition nay ought not every Precept of Art to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but I will not vex thy head with these severities The Magnet is the second member the object of this 26 Observation Here you say I condemn this Magnet but I do not offer to confute it But I answer I have as substantially confuted it as merrily but thou dost not take notice of it I have intimated that this precept of art is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nay that it is plainly false For it affirms that which hath no discovery by reason or experience viz. That there is a certain earth which you call the Magnet that will draw all things to it at what distance so ever Quodcunque ostendis mihi sic incredulus odi So farre am I from approving thy Magnet O Magicus Nor do the pages thou here citest of which I give a favourable censure prove any such thing Let the Reader peruse them and judge Indeed certain operations of the Soul are highly and Hyperbolically there set out by thee but the Magnet came dropping in at the latter end of the story I gave no allowance to that I will not have my soul so ill taught as to attract metall out of mens purses at any distance whatsoever Page 64. line 12. Didst thou ever hear or know that I was a pick-pocket If I had had the least suspicion of thee that thou werâ— so I would not have called thee so for it had been an unmercifull jest But if thou wert as full of candour and urbanity as I deem thee clear of that crime thou wouldst not have interpreted it malice but mirth For such jests as these are not uncivill nor abusive to the person when the materiality of them are plainly and confessedly incompatible to the party on whom they are â—ast Observation 27. Page 65. line 14. Prethee why a Galileo's tube were there more Galileo's then one Certainly Phil. thou dost not look through a Galileo's glasse but through a multiplying glasse that seest in my English more Galileos then one Go thy wayes for the oddest correctour of English that ever I met with in all my dayes Observation 28. Page 67. line 1. For I fear God The devils also believe and tremble But do'st thou love God my Philalethes If thou didst thou wouldst love thy brother also But shall I tell thee truly what I fear Truly I fear that thou hast no such precious medicine to publish which thou makest so nice of and that thou dost onely make Religion a cover for thine ignorance But let me tell thee this sober truth That Temperance will prevent more diseases by farre then thy medicine is like to cure and Christian Love would relieve more by many thousands then thy Philosophers stone that should convert baser mettals into gold There is gold enough in the world and all necessaries else for outward happiness but the generations of men make themselves miserable by neglecting the inward This is palpably true and it would astonish a man to see how they run madding after the noise of every pompous difficulty and how stupid and sottish they are to those things which God has more universally put in their power and which would if they made use of them redound to their more generall and effectuall good Observation 29. So doth S. Iohn prophesie too But Magicus is too wise to understand him S. Iohn tells us of a new Heaven and of a new Earth Here Magicus having recourse to his Chymistrie in the height of his imagination prefigures to himself not onely Crystalline Heavens but also a Vitrifide Earth But I consulting with Scripture and with the simplicity of mine own plain Spirit think of a new Heaven and a new Earth wherein righteousnessâ— He 's for an Eden with flowry walks and pleasant trees I am for a Paradise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where Virtue Wisdome and good Order meet As the Chaldeâ— Oracles describe it He is for a pure clear place I place my happinesse in a clear and pure mind
and real union wâ—th him that every fine thought or fancy that steals into their mind they may look upon as a pledge of the Divine savor and a siâ—gular illumination from God imitating in this the madness of Elionora Meliorina a Gentlewoman of Mantua who being fully perswaded she was married to a king would kneel down and talk with him as if he had been there present with his retinue and if she had by chance found a piece of glasse in a muck-hill light upon an oyster shell piece of tin or any such like thing that would glister in the Sun-shine she would say it was a jewel sent from her Lord and husband and upon this account fild her cabinet full of such trash In like manner those inspired Melancholists stuff their heads and writings with every flaring fancy that Melancholy suggests to them as if it were a precious Truth bestowed upon them by the holy Spirit and with a devotional reverence they entertain the unexpected Paroxysmes of their own natural distemper as if it were the power and presence of God himself in their Souls 43. This disease many of your Chymists and several Theosophists in my judgement seem very obnoxious to who dictate their own conceits and fancies so magisterially and imperiously as if they were indeed Authentick messengers from God Almighty But that they are but Counterfeits that is Enthusiasts no infallible illuminated men the gross fopperies they let drop in their writings will sufficiently demonstrate to all that are not smitten in some measure with the like Lunacy with themselves I shall instance in some few things concealing the names of the Authors because they are so sacred to some 44. Listen therefore attentively for I shall relate very great mysteries The vertues of the Planets doe not ascend but descend Experience teaches as much viz. That of Venus or Copper is not made Mars or Iron but of Mars is made Venus as being an inferior sphere So also Iupiter or Tinne is easily changed into Mercury or Quick-silver because Iupiter is the second from the firmament and Mercury the second from the Earth Saturn is the first from the heaven and Luna the first from the Earth Sol mixeth it self with all but is never bettered by his Inferiours Now know that there is a great agreement betwixt Saturn or Lead and Luna or Silver Iupiter and Mercury Mars and Venus because in the midst of these Sol is placed What can it be but the heaving of the Hypochondria that lifts up the mind to such high comparisons from a supposition so false and foolish But I have observed generally of Chymists and Theosophists as of severall other men more palpably mad that their thoughts are carryed much to Astrology it being a fancyfull study built upon very sleight grounds and indeed I do not question but a relique of the ancient superstition and Idolatry amongst the rude Heathens which either their own Melancholy or something worse instructed them in There are other pretty conceits in these Writers concerning those heavenly Bodies as That the Starres and Planets the Moon not excepted are of the same quality with precious stones that glister here on the earth and that though they act nothing yet they are of that nature as that the wandring Spirits of the air see in them as in a looking-glasse things to come and thereby are inabled to prophecy That the Starres are made of the Sun and yet that the Sun enlightens them That our eyes have their originall from the Starres and that that is the reason why we can see the Starres That our eyes work or act upon all they see as well as what they see acts on them That also is a very speciall mysterie for an inspired man to utter That there is onely Evening and Morning under the Sun That the Starres kindle heat in this world every where for generation and that the difference of Starres makes the difference of Creatures That were the heat of the Sun taken away he were one light with God That all is Gods self That a mans self is God if he live holily That God is nothing but an hearty Loving friendly Seeing good Smelling well Tâ—sting kindly Feeling amorous Kissing c. Nor the Spirit say I that inspires this mystery any thing but Melancholy and Sanguine That God the Father is of himself a dale of darknesse were it not for the light of his Sonne That God could not quell Lucifers rebellion because the battle was not betwixt God and a beast or God and a man but betwixt God and God Lucifer being so great a share of his own essence That Nature is the Body of God nay God the Father who is also the World and whatsoever is any way sensible or perceptible That the Starre-powers are Nature and the Starre-circle the mother of all things from which all is subsists and moves That the Waters of this world are mad which makes them rave and run up and down so as they do in the channels of the Earth That the blew Orb is the waters above the Firmament That there be two kinds of Fires the one cold and the other hot and that Death is a cold fire That Adam was an Hermaphrodite That the Fire would not burn nor there have been any darknesse but for Adams fall That it is a very suspicable matter that Saturn before the fall was where Mercury and Mercury where Saturn is That there are Three souls in a man Animall Angelicall and Divine and that after Death the Animal Soul is in the grave the Angelicall in Abrahams bosome and the Divine soul in Paradise That God has eyes eares nose and other corporeall parts That every thing has sense imagination and a fiduciall Knowledge of God in it Metals Meteors and Plants not excepted That this earth at last shall be calcined into Crystall That at the center of the earth is the Fire of hell which is caused and kindled by the Primum mobile and influences of the Starres That the Artick pole draws waters by the Axeltree which after they are entered in break forth again by the Axeltree of the Antartick That the Moon as well as the Starres are made of a lesse pure kind of fire mixed with air That the pure Blood in man answers to the Element of fire in the great world his heart to the Earth his Mouth to the Artick pole and the opposite Orifice to the Antartick pole That the proper seat of the Mind or Understanding is in the mouth of the Stomack or about the Splene That Earthquakes and Thunders are not from naturall causes but made by Angels or Devils That there were no Rain-bowes before Noahs flood That the Moon is of a conglaciated substance having a cold light of her own whereby the light of the Sun which she receives and casts on us becomes so cool 45. Hitherto our Collections have been promiscuous what follows is out of Paracelsus onely as for example That the variety of the
represents the grosse carnall parts The element of the water answers to the bloud for in it the pulse of the great world beats this most men call the flux and reflux but they know not the true cause of it The air is the outward refreshing spirit where this vast creature breathes though invisibly yet not insensibly The interstellar skies are his vitall ethereall waters and the starres his animal sensuall fire Now to passe my censure on this rare Zoographicall piece I tell thee if thy brains were so confusedly scattered as thy fancy is here thou wert a dead man Philalethes all the Chymistrie in the world could not recover thee Thou art so unitive a soul Phil. and such a clicker at the slightest shadows of similitude that thou wouldst not stick to match chalk and cheese together I perceive and mussiâ—ate a marriage betwixt an Apple and an Oyster Even those proverbiall dissimilitudes have something of similitude in them will you then take them for similes that haâ—e so monstrous a disproportion and dissimilitude But you are such a Sophister that you can make any thing good Let 's try â—he Earth must represent the flesh because they noth be grosse so is chalk and cheese or an Apple and an Oyster But what think you of the Moon is not that as much green cheese as the Earth is flesh what think you of Venus of Mercury and the rest of the Planets which they that know any thing in Nature know to be as much flesh as the Earth is that is to be dark and opake as well as she What! is this flesh of the world then torn apieces and thrown about scattered here and there like the disjoynted limbs of dragg'd Hippolytus Go to Phil. where are you now with your fine knacks and similitudes But to the next Analogie The element of water answers to the bloud Why For in it is the pulse of the great world But didst thou ever feel the pulse of the Moon And yet is not there water too thou little sleepy heedlesse Endymion The bloud is restagnant there I warrant you and hath no pulse So that the man with the thornâ— on his back lives in a very unwholesome region But to keep to our own station here upon Earth Dost thou know what thou sayest when thou venturest to name that monosyllable Pulse dost thou know the causes and the laws of it Tell me my little Philosophaster where is there in the earth or out of the earth in this World-Animalâ—of â—of thine that which will answer to the heart and the systole and diastole thereof to make this pulse And besides this there is wanting rarefaction and universall diffusion of the stroke at once These are in the pulse of a true Animal but are not to be found in the Flux of the sea For it is not in all places at once nor is the water rarefied where it is Now my pretty Parabolist what is there left to make your similitude good for a pulse in your great Animal more then when you spill your pottage or shog a milk-bowl But believe it Eugenius thou wilt never make sense of this Flux and Reflux till thou calm thy fancy so much as to be able to read Des-Cartes But to tell us it is thus from an inward form more Aristotelico is to tell us no more then that it is the nature of the Beast or to make Latine words by adding onely the termination bus as hosibus and shoosibus as Sir Kenhelm Digby hath with wit and judgement applied the comparison in like case But now to put the bloud flesh and bones together of your World-Animal I say they bear not so great a proportion to the more fluid parts viz. the vitall and animal spirits thereof as a mite in a cheese to the whole globe of the Earth So that if thou hadst any fancy or judgement in thee thy similitude would appear to thine own self outragiously ugly and disproportionable and above all measure ridiculous Nor do not think to shuffle it off by demanding If there be so little earth to tell thee where it is wanting For I onely say that if the world be an Animal there will be much bloud and flesh wanting Philalethes for so great a Beast Nor do not you think to blind my eyes with your own Tobacco smoke I take none my self Eugenius For to that over ordinary experiment I answer two things First that as you took upon the parts of the body of a true Animal in the same extension that they now actually are not how they may be altered by rarefaction so you are also look upon the parts of your World-Animal as they are de facto extended not how they may be by rarefaction And thus your Argument from Tobacco will vanish into smoke But if you will change the present condition of any lesser Animal by burning it and turing many of the grosse parts into more thin and fluid you destroy the ground of your comparison betwixt the World Animal and it for you take away the flesh of your lesser Animal thus burnt And besides the proportion betwixt the vapour or thinner parts extension to the remaining ashes is not yet so big as of the thin parts of the World-Animal in respect of its solid parts by many thousand and thousand millions Nay I shall speak within compasse if I say as I said before that there is a greater disproportion then betwixt the globe of the Earth and a mite in a cheese This is plainly true to any that understands common sense For the Earth in respect of the World is but as an indivisible point Adde to all this that if you will rarefie the Tobacco or Hercules body by fire I will take the same advantage and say that the water and many parts of the earth may be also rarefied by fire and then reckon onely upon the remaining ashes of this globe and what is turned into vapour must be added to the more fluid parts of the World-Animal to increase that over-proportion So that thou hast answered most wretchedly and pitifully every way poor Anthroposophus But besides In the second place When any thing is burnt as for example your Tobacco I say it takes up then no more room then it did before Because Rarefaction and Condensation is made per modum spongiae as a sponge is distended by the coming in and contracted again by the going out of the water it had imbib'd But the Aristotelicâ—ll wayâ— which is yours O profound Magicus that hast the luck to pick out the best of that Philosophy implies I say grosse contradictions which thou câ—nst not but understand if thou canst distinguish corporeall from incorporeall Beings Thy way of Rarefaction and Condensation O Eugenius must needs imply pâ—netration of dimensions or something as incongruous as every lad in our Universities at a year or two standing at least is able to demonstrate to thee But if thou thinkest it hard that so little a body
zeal and eloquence that he fancyed himself the Holy-Ghost 17. And when men talk so much of the Spirit if they take notice what they ordinarily mean by it it is nothing else but a strong and impetuous motion whereby they are zealously and fervently carried in matters of Religion so that Fervour Zeal and Spirit is in effect all one Now no Complexion is so hot as Melâ—â—â—oly when it is heated being like boiling water as Aristotle observs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that it transcends the flame of fire or it is 〈◊〉 heated stone or iron when they are red hot for they are then more hot by far then a burning Coal We shall omit here to play the Grammarian and to take notice how well Aristotles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suites with the very word zeale of which we speake but shall cast our eyes more carefully upon the things themselves and parallel out of the same Philosopher what they call Spirit to what he affirmes to be contained in Melancholy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The spirit then that wings the Enthusiast in such a wonderful â—anner is nothing else but that flatulency which is in the melancholy complexion rises out of the Hypochondriacal humour upon some occasionall heat as winde out of an AEolipila applied to the fire Which fume mounting into the head being first actuated and spirited and somewhat refined by the warmth of the heart fills the mind with variety of imaginations and so quickens and inlarges invention that it makes the Enthusiast to admiration fluent and eloquent he being as it were drunk with new wine drawn from that Cellar of his own that lies in the lowest region of his body though he be not aware of it but takes it to be pure Nectar and those waters of life that spring from above Aristotle makes a long Parallelisme betwixt the nature and effects of wine and Melancholy to which both Fernelius and Sennertus do referre 18. But this is not all the advantage that Melancholy affords towards Enthusiasme thus unexpectedly and suddenly to surprise the minde with such vehement fits of zeal such streams torents of Eloquence in either exhorting others to piety or in devotions towards God but it addes a greater weight of beliefe that there is something supernatural in the business in that the same complexion discovers it selfe to them that lie under it in such contrary effects For as it is thus vehemently hot so it is as stupidly cold whence the Melancholist becomes faithlesse hopelesse heartlesse and almost witlesse Which Ebbs of his constitution must needs make the overflowing of it seem more miraculous and supernatural But those cold and abject fits of his make him also very sensibly and winningly Rhetorical when he speaks of disconsolation desertion humilitie mortification and the like as if he were truely and voluntarily carried through such things when as onely the fatal necessity of his complexion has violently drag'd him thorow the meer shadows and resemblances of them But he finding himselfe afterwards beyond all hope or any sense or presage of any power in himselfe lifted aloft again he does not doubt that any thing less was the cause of this unexspected joy and triumph then the immediate arme of God from heaven that has thus exalted him when it is nothing indeed but a Paroxysme of Melancholy which is like the breaking out of a flame after a long smoaking and reeking of new rubbish laid upon the fire But because such returnes as these come not at set times nor make men sick but rather delight them they think there is something divine therein and that it is not from natural causes 19. There is also another notorious Mockery in this Complexion Nature confidently avouching her self to be God whom the Apostle calls Love as if it were his very essence when as indeed it is here nothing else but Melancholy that has put on the garments of an Angel of light There is nothing more true then that Love is the fulfilling of the Law and the highest perfection that is competible to the soul of man and that this also is so plain and unavoidable that a man may be in a very high degree mad and yet not fail to assent unto it Nay I dare say Melancholy it self would be his monitour to reminde him of it if there were any possibility that he should forget so manifest and palpable a Truth For the sense of Love at large is eminently comprehended in the temper of the Melancholist Melancholy and wine being of so near a nature one to the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But wine makes men amorous which the Philosopher proves in that a man in wine will kisse such persons as a sober man would scarce touch with a pair of tongs by reason of their age and uglinesse And assuredly it was the fumes of Melancholy that infatuated the fancie of a late new fangled Religionist when he sat so kindly by a Gipsie under an hedge and put his hand into her bosome in a fit of devotion and vaunted afterwards of it as if it had been a very pious and meritorious action 20. But now that Melancholy partakes much of the nature of Wine he evinces from that it is so spiritous and that it is so spiritous from that it is so spumeous and that Melancholy is flatuous or spiritous he appeals to the Physitians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherefore the Philosopher assignes another companion to Venus besides the plump youth Bacchus which the Poets bestow upon her who though more seemingly sad yet will prove as faithfull an attendant as that other and this is Melancholy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now besides this Flatulencie that solicits to lust there may be such a due dash of Sanguine in the Melancholy that the complexion may prove stupendiously enravishing For that more sluggish Duâ—cour of the blood will be sometime so quickned and actuated by the fiercenesse and sharpnesse of the Melancholy humour as the fulsomnesse of sugar is by the acrimony of Lemons that it will afford farre more sensible pleasure and all the imaginations of love of what kind soever will be â—arre more lively and vigorous more piercing and rapturous then they can be in pure Sanguine it self From this complexion are Poets and the more highly pretending Enthusiasts Betwixt whom this is the great difference that a Poet is an Enthusiast in jest and an Enthusiast is a Poet in good earnest Melancholy prevailing so much with him that he takes his no better then Poeticall fits and figments for divine inspiration and reall truth 21. But that it is a meer naturall flatuous and spiritous temper with a proportionable Dosis of Sanguine added to their Melancholy not the pure Spirit of God that thus inacts them is plainly to be discovered not onely in their language which is very sweet and melting as if sugar plums lay under their tongue but from notorious circumstances of their lives And in my apprehension it will be
For he knows not whether the Chaos be created or uncreated How much wiser are you now then Aristotle Mr. Eugenius that made the world Eternal If you can admit this by the rule of proportion you might swallow the greatest Gudgeon in Aristotle without kecking or straining Observation 9. Pag. 12. Lin. 11. Fuliginous spawn of Nature A rare expression This Magicician has turned Nature into a Fish by his Art Surely such dreams float in his swimmering Brains as in the Prophets who tells us so Authentick stories of his delicious Albebut Observation 10. Lin. 12. The created Matter Before the Matter was in an hazard of not being created but of being of it self eternal Certainly Eugenius you abound with leasure that can thus create and uncreate doe and undoe because the day is long enough Observation 11. Lin. 21. A horrible confused qualm c. Here Nature like a child-bearing woman has a qualm comes over her stomach and Eugenius like a man-midwife stands by very officiously to see what will become of it Let her alone Eugenius it is but a qualm some cold raw rhewme Margret will escape welâ— enough Especially if her two Handmaids Heat and Siccity which you mention do but help with their Aquavitae bottles What a rare mode or way of Creation has Eugenius set out Certainly it cannot but satisfie any unreasonable man if there be any men without reason and I begin to suspect there is for Eugenius his sake such as feed as savourly on the pure milk of fansie as the Philosophers Asse on Sow-thistles SECT III. 12. He asserts that there was a vast portion of light in the Extract from the Chaos which surrounded the whole earth 13. He compares Ptolemees Heavens to a rumbling confused Labyrinth 14. He calls the Firmament Cribrum Naturae 15. Affirmes that the light before the fourth day equally possest the whole creation 16. That the Night peeps out like a baffled Giant when the Sun is down 17. That the shadow of the Earth is Natures black bagg 18. He prays to be delivered from the dark Tincture which at last by the Protochymist shall be expeld beyond the Creation 19. He allows onely two Elements Earth and Water â—0 He speakes of Water and Fire which is Apuleius his Psyche and Cupid of their bedding together 21. Cites an obscure Aphorisme out of Sendivow 22. Affirmes that the Air is the Magicians baâ—k doore 23. And our animal Oyl the fuell of the vital and sensual fire in us Observation 12. Pag. 13. THis page is spent in extracting from the Chaosâ— a thin spiritual celestial substance to make the Caelum Empyreum of and the Body of Angels and by the by to be in stead of a Sun for the first day But then in the second Extraction was extracted the agill air filling all betwixt the Masse and the Coelum Empyreum But here I have so hedged you in Mr. Anthroposophus that you will hardly extricate your self in this question The Empyreal substance encompassing allâ— how could there be Morning aud Evening till the fourth day for the mass was alike illuminated round about at once And for your interstellar water you do but fancy it implyed in Moses text can never prove that he drives at any thing higher in the letter thereof than those hanging bottles of water the clouds Observation 13. Pag. 14. Lin. 12. A rumbling confused Labyrinth 'T is only Erratum Typographicum I suppose you mean a rumbling Wheel-barrow in allusion to your Wheel-work and Epicycles aforementioned But why small diminutive Epicycles Eugenius you are so profound a Magician that you are no Astronomer at all The bignesse of them is as strong a presumption against them as any thing they are too big to be true Observation 14. Lin. 26. This is Cribrum Naturae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I warrant you The very sive that Iupiter himself pisses through as Aristophanes sports it in his Comedies Observation 15. Pag. 15. Lin. 20. Equally possest the whole Creature Therefore again I ask thee O Eugenius how could there be Evening and Morning the light being all over equally dispersed Observation 16. Lin. 29. Like a baffled Gyant Poetical Eugenius Is this to â—ay the sober and sound principles of Truth and Philosophy Observation 17. Pag. 16. Lin. 1. A Black Bag. I tell thee Eugenius Thy phansie is snapt in this female Black-bag as an unwary Retiarius in a Net Do's Madam Nature wear her Black-bag in her middle parts for the Earth is the Center of the World or on her head as other matrons doe That Philalethes may seem a great and profound Student indeed he will not take notice whether a black-bag be furniture for Ladies heads or their haunches Well! let him injoy the glory of his affected rusticity and ignorance Observation 18. Lin. 5. Good Lord deliver us How the man is frighted into devotion by the smut and griminesse of his own imagination Observation 19. Lin. 15. Earth and water c. Concurrunt element a ut Materia ergo duo sufficiunt says Cardan â—Tis no new-sprung truth if true Mr. Eugenius But seeing that AEthereal vigour and celestial heat with the substance thereof For coelum pervadit omnia is in all things and the air excluded from few or no living Creatures if we would severely tug with you Mr. Anthroposophus you will endanger the taking of the foil Observation 20. Pag. 18. Lin. 22. Both in the same bed Why did you ever sneak in Eugenius and take them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the very act 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Lawyers speak This is but poeticall pomp in prose And Ovid Philosophizes better in verse where speaking of heat and moisture he expresses himself apertly and significantly Quippe ubi temperiem sumpsere humorque calorque Concipiunt ab his generantur cuncta duobus Observation 21. Lin. 27. Spiritus aquae invisibilis congelatus melior est quà m terra Vniversa Now as you are Philalethes tell me truly if you understand any determinate and usefull sense of this saying If you do why do you not explain it if you do not for ought you know it may be onely a charm to fox fishes And I pray you Philalethes make triall of the experiment Observation 22. Pag. 19. Lin. 29. It is the Magicians Back-doore Here I cannot but take notice at the great affectation of Philalethes to appear to be deeply seen in Magick But I suppose if he were well searched he would be found no Witch nor all his Back-door of air worth the winde of an ordinary mans back-doore Observation 23. Pag. 20. Lin. 2. The air is our Animal oil the fuell of the vitall Now Eugenius you are so good natured as to give Aristotle one of his two elements again that you wrested from him If this be our animall oil and fuell of the vitall it is plain our animall and vitall spirits are from the air and that the air is one element amongst the rest And your moist
and positive Exposition of all the passages Why man that is more assuredly then your self can do For you are so weak and supine in many things that are intelligible that I am confident you are worse in that which you have made lesse intelligible For as Socrates reading an obscure Authour when he found all things he understood very good did charitably conclude what he understood not was much better so I finding in this obscure Treatise of yours many things very ill I also in charity will think you had the wit to conceal those things which are the worst or which will serve the turn that you understand them not your self But have an itching desire that some Reader skilfuller then your self should tell you whether you have wrote sense or non-sense Like the Countrey Clown that desired his young Master to teach him to write and being asked how he would be able to read his own writing being as yet never acquainted so much as with the christ-crosse-row made answer he would get some body else to read it for him And so you Philalethes though you can read your own writing yet you desire to get some body else to understand it for you or to interpret to you what you have writ Your second request is not much unlike the former and too big a business for your self to doe and therefore you beg it of another Your third request is to have your book handled after your own maner and method Which is as ridiculous as if you should request your enemy to smite softly or to strike after such a fashion at such a part as you will appoint him Can it be reasonable for you to expect from an Aristotelean for you must think it would be they of all men that would flie about your ears first when you have used their Master Aristotle as they would not to be used of them as you wouldâ— But notwithstanding Philalethes you see I have bin fair with you and though provoked I shall continue the same candour in my Observations on your following peece But before I pass I must take notice of your two admonitions to the ingenuous Reader for I suppose you mean me Philalethes The first is that I would not despise your endevours because of your yeers for they are but few Why man who knew that but your selfe if you could have kept your own counsell Your name is not at your book much less your age But indeed many things are so well managed of you that if you had not told us so we might have shrewdly suspected you have scarcely reached the yeers of discretion But you are so mightily taken with your own performance that to increase admiration and for the bringing in a phrase or sentence out of Proclus you could not with-hold from telling us that you are but a young man and so we easily believe it But the more saucy Boy you to be so bold with Reverend Master Aristotle that grandeval Patriarch in points of Philosophy For the second admonition it is little more then a noise or clatter of words or if you will a meer rattle for a boy to play with And so I leave it in your hand to passe away the time till I meet you againe in your Anima Magica Abscondita Upon the Preface to the READER NOw God defend what will become of me In good faith Philalethes I doe not know what may become of you in time But for the present me thinks you are become a fool in a play or a Jack-pudding at the dancing on the Ropes a thing wholly set in a posture to make the people laugh Phy Phy Philalethes Doe these humorous and Mimical schemes of speech become so profound a Theomagician as your self would seem to be Do's this ridiculous levity become a man of your profession You doe not a little disparage your self by these boyish humors my good Philalethes For mine own part I am neither so light-headed noâ— light-footed as to dance the Morisco with you measure to measure through this whole toy of yours to the Reader I shall dispatch what I have to say at once Your main drift here is to prove Agrippa's Dogs no Divels and their Master no Papist and consequently your selfe no unlawful Magician or Conjurer And truly if the assembly of Divines be no more suspicious of you then my self I am abundantly satisfied that you are rather a giddy fantastick then an able Conjurer so that without any offence to me you may take Wierus his office if you will and for want of imployment lead about Agrippa's beagles in a string In the mean time I shall busie my selfe almost to as little purpose in the perusal of your Anima Magica Abscondita Upon Anima Magica Abscondita SECT I. 1. Eugenius his maimed citation of Aristotles definition of Nature 2. His illogical exception against him for using of a general Notion in this definition and a difference expressing onely what Nature does not what she is 3. His ridiculous exception against Magirus his definition of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or forma Quae absolvit expolit informat rem naturalem ut per eam una ab altera distinguatur 4. His barbarous translation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Consummatio or Finitatio and a repetition of his former cavil 5. He exhorts the Peripateticks to change their Abstractions into Extractions that they may discerne the substantial formes themselves in the inward closet of Matter 6. Tells us that the motions of the heavens are from an internal Principle and that Intelligences are fabulous 7. Reproaches the Scriblers concerning Matâ—er and Forme as writing nothing to their own credit or profit of the Reader 8. Informes us that the Anima mundi retained in the Matter and missing a vent organizeth bodies 9. His misapplication of that Hemistichium of Virgil Auraï simplicis ignem The passive spirit the inmost vestment of the soul applying to Generation and that the vital liquour or aethereal water attracts the passive spirit 10. His chain of Descent whereby the soule is caught in the Matter 11. His declaring of the foregoing mystery makes him suspect that he has too publikely prostituted the secrets of Nature Observation 1. ANd here Philalethes in the very threshold you begin to worrey the poor Perepateticks more fiercely then any English mastive and bark and scold into the air that is in general more cursedly and bitterly then any Butter-quean but at last in the first line of the second page you begin to take to task some particular Documents of Aristotles viz. The description of Nature of Form and of the Soul Whereby we shall understand of what great judgement and perspicacity you are in other points of Philosophy And first of the Definition of Nature which you say is defined Principium motus quietis A little thing serves your turn Anthroposophus is this the entire Definition of Nature in Aristotle But what you unskilfully take no notice of I willingly
as a pipe of Tobacco should be multiplied into so very much superficies above what it had before go to those that beat out leaf gold and understand there how the superficies of the same body may be to wonder increased And beside I could demonstrate to thee that a body whose basis thou shouldst imagine at the center of the Earth and top as farre above the starry Heaven as it is from thence to the Earth without any condensation used thereunto is but equal to a body that will he within the boll of a Tobacco-pipe Where art thou now thou miserable Philosophaster But to the next Analogie The aire is the outward refreshing spirit where this vast Creaure breaths Two things I here object to shew the ineptnesse and incongruity of this comparison The one is taken from the office of respiration which is to refresh by way of refrigerating or cooling Is not the main end of the lungs to cool the bloud before it enter into the left ventricle of the heart But thou art so Magical thou knowst none of these sober and usefull mysteries of Nature All that thou answerest to this is That we are refresh'd by heat as well as by coolnesse Why then is that generall sufficient to make up your analogie or similitude This is as well fancied as it is reasoned when men conclude affirmatively in the second figure There are laws in fancy too Philalethes and I shall shew thee anon how ridiculous thou hast made thy self by transgressing them If thou meanest by refresh'd to be cheared or restored onely and what ever do's this must be ground enough to fancy a respiration then thou breathest in thy cawdle when thou eatest it and hast spoyled that conceit of his that said he never would drink sack whilst he breathed for if sack do in any sense refresh and comfort a man it seems he breaths while he drinks I tell thee in the Homologi termini of similitudes there ought to be something in some sort peculiar and restrained or else it is flat ridiculous and non-sense The other objection was taken from the situation of this aire that is to he the matter of Respiration in this great Animal What a wild difference is there in this The aire that an ordinary Animal breaths in is external the aire of this World-Animal internall so that it is rather wind in the guts then aire for the lungs and therefore we may well adde the Colick to the Anasarca Is the wind-Colick an outward refreshing spirit or an inward griping pain Being thou hast no guts in thy brains I suspect thy brains have slipt down into thy guts whither thy tongue should follow to be able to speak sense Answer now like an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O thou man of Magick He answers and the point and sting of all the sense of his answer is in the tail of it pag. 29. lin 11. and it is their outward refreshing spirit He means the Earths and the Waters O feeble sting O foolish answer This onely reaches so farre as to save the Earth alive from my jugulating objection The globe of Earth and Water indeed may be still an Animal for all that objection But thou saidst the whole World was an Animal What is the whole world an Animal because the Earth is one O bundle of simples to return thee thine own parcell of ware again for it belongs not to me this is as well argued as if thou shouldest say That a cheese is an Animal because there is one living mite in it But that this Earth neither is a breathing Animal is plain enough For what respiration what attraction and reddition of aire is there in it There may be indeed something answering to sweating and perspiration nothing to respiration my good Philalethes But to shew thee thy folly I will follow thy liberty and impudently pronounce that a pair of bellows is an Animal Why is it not It has a nose to breathe through that 's plain the two handles are the two eares the leather the lungs and that which is the most seemly analogie of all the two holes in the back-side are the two eyes as like the eyes in the fore-side of a Crab as ever thou seest any thing in thy life Look thee Phil. are they not You 'll say The analogie of the nose is indeed as plain as the nose on a mans face But how can the handles be eares when they stand one behind another whereas the eares of Animals stand one on one side and the other on the other side of the head And then how can the leather be lungs they being the very outside of its body Or those two holes eyes They have neither the situation as being placed behind nor office of eyes Answer me all these objections O Mastix I can fully answer them O Magicus This is an Animal drawn out according to thine own skill and principles The leather sayst thou must be no lungs because it is without Why then the aire must be no aire for thy World-Animal to breath because it is within And if thou canst dispense with within and without much more mayst thou with before and behind or behind and on the sides So the eares and lungs of this Animal hold good against thee still Now to preserve my monsters eyes against this Harpy that would scratch them out They are no eyes say you because they have not the situation of eyes But I told thee before thou makest nothing of situation But they have not the office of eyes Why They can see as much as the eyes of thy World-Animal for ought thou knowest I but this Bellows-Animal breaths at these eyes And have not I shewed thee thy World-Animal breaths in his guts But I will make it plain to thee that those two holes are eyes For they are two as the two eyes are and transmit the thin air through them as the eyes do the pure light So that they agree gainly well in the generall As your Respiration in the World-Animal in refreshing though by heat when in others it is by cold Fie on thee for a Zoographicall Bungler These Bellows thou seest is not my Animal but thine and the learned shall no longer call that instrument by that vulgar name of a pair of Bellows but Tom Vaughans Animal So famous shalt thou grow for thy conceited foolery The interstellar skies are his vitall ethereall waters Here I object O Eugenius that there is an over-proportionated plenty of those waters in thy World-Animal and that thus thou hast distended the skin of thy Animal God knows how many millions of miles off from the flesh O prodigious Anasarca But what dost thou answer here viz. That I say that the body which we see betwixt the starres namely the interstellar waters is excessive in proportion No I do not say so but that they are too excessive in proportion to be the fluid parts of a World-Animal But however as if I had said so he
willow Rod is thine for not learning this plain lesson any better all this while For to speak to thy own sense and conceit of the Soul that it is an Intelligent Fire or Light thou canst not frame any notion of Intelligent but from intellectuall operations nor of Light but from what it operates upon thy sense thy sight which is a truth most evidently plain to any man that is not stark blind Page 92. line 5. You say Mastix I have not considered the difference added in the definition of Nature No You had not when you cavilled at the Genus as angry at it because it did not monopolize the whole office of the definition to it self and supply also the place of a Difference Fond Cavil But thou supposed'st it seems that I would never deigne to answer so unclean an Adversary as thou hast shown thy self and that thy Readers would never take the pains to see whether thou spoke true or false and that hath made thee say any thing that with undaunted confidence and foulest insultations that the simple might be sure to belieue thee without any more ado Eugenius enjoy thou the applause of the simple 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But one wise man to me is as much as ten thousands of such and infinite swarms of them not so much as one I am fully of Heraclitus his mind for that Philalethes Observation 3. Here Philalethes you contemning Definitions made from the proper Operations of the things defined I intimate to you that you necessarily imply that you look after the knowledge of a stark-naked substance which is impossible ever to be had What do you answer to this Nothing Let the Reader judge else Observation 4. Let any body compare thy Finihabia with the expositions of those terms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made by Iulius Scaliger for it is he that is more cunning at nonsense then the devil not I and he shall find that thou hast spent a page and an half here to no purpose but onely to shew some few faint flashes of wit For at last thou dost acknowledge the aptnesse and significancie of the words but still complainest that there is no news of the substance of the soul in them To which I answer again A substance is a thing impossible to be knoâ—n otherwise then by its proper operations or peculiar relations to this or that as I have often inculcated But how do you take away this answer Onely by making a wry mouth Away away Have I not already demonstrated unto thee that it is impossible to know substances themselves but onely by their operations Here he answers again that that cannot be For then a Plowman would be as wise as himself and mother Bunch as his mother Oxenford But to satisfie this inconvenience if it be any to grant a Plow-man wiser then thou art I say Thou and thy mother may be wiser then a Plow-man in other things though not in this and in this if your notion be more adequate and precise then his is that is If you are able according to the Rules of Logick to examine whether your assertion may go for an axiome that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and are able to rest fatisfied by finding your selves to know according to the capacity of the subject But now Phil. you indeavour to go so far beyond the Plow-man that you fall short of him and reach at so high strains that you have strain'd your self till you seem half crackt to the sober For this truth That a Substance is not to be known but by its proper operations is a truth so clear that it is clear that he is destitute of sight and judgement that doth not discern it even at the first proposall Observation 5 6 7. What thou answerest to these 5th 6th and 7th Observations is nothing at all to the purpose and therefore to no purpose at all to answer any thing to them as I have already said in the like case and I must leave something to the candour and judgement of the Reader Observation 8. Page 97. line 1. Mastix you place the difficulty in the Rudiments or Sperms because they are lax and fluid No Magicus but I do not For I think they are alwayes so or else the Ratio Seminalis would have a hard task of it But when thou sayest That the Anima in the Matter missing a vent c. the difficulty is how a thing so subtile as a Soul is should misse a vent in so lax a matter as the first Rudiments of life This is the difficulty Magicus But thou understandest not the force of any thing I propound to thee thy apprehension is so out of tune with straining at high things nothing to the purpose But I perceive though thou wouldst dissemble it Magicus that I have beat thee from the Bung-hole and that rude expression borrowed thence And now thou art as busie as a Moth about a candle to fetch a Metaphor thence For thou tellest us that this union is like that betwixt the candle and the flame This indeed for some Poeticall illustration may do well but what Philosophicall satisfaction is there in it Philalethes For first the flame is wâ—thout the candle not in it but the Soul within the body not without it Secondly the flame is â—n effect of the candle but the Soul is not an effect of the body the body is not the pabulum thereof and the very substance of which it is made by superinducing a new modification Thirdly and lastly the Soul is still the same individuall soul but the flame is no more the same flame then the water betwixt such and such banks of the river is still the same water If thou hadst put thy finger into thy nose and said Lo the mystery of the union of the Soul and Body it had been as much Philosophicall satisfaction as this from the union of flame and candle Thou pitifull puzled thing thou are not yet able to weigh what thou sayest And now I have drove thee from the flame of the candle thou hast scudded away quite into the dark flown to I know not what strange obscure expressions a story of old grand-dame Nature with a set Ruff and a gold chain about her neck which thou callest propinquity of Complexions and I know not what I prethee how much doth this differ from Sympathy and Antipathy which all knowing men call Asylum ignorantiae and now I have drove thee thither I will leave thee in that Sanctuary of fools What I have said I have already made good That the Souls union with the Body is more Theomagicall then Magicus himself is aware of Observation 9. Page 98. line 16. This aethereall sense and Fire of simple Aire both which he makes to be one and the same thing All that I say there is That those verses are understood of the vehicle of the soul not of the soul
it self and it is Theupolus his opinion as well as mine who cites those verses of Virgil and gives that sense of them to wit that the two-fold vehicle of the soul is there meant the AEthereall and Spirituous not the Soul it self Academic Contemplat lib. 4. So that Virgil doth not at all patronize thy grosse conceit of making the Soul consist of fire and aire Page 99. line 10. I grant the soul to be a hodily substance that hath dimensions too Why Phil Is there any bodily Substances without dimensions I could very willingly grant thee a mere body without a soul thou hast so little reason and sense in thee or if thou hast a soul that it is a corporeall one and it may well be so But my question is meant of souls that have Sense and Reason in them whether they be corporeall substances or no Yes say you they are They are intelligent Fire and Light I say Phil. thou art all fire but no light nor intelligent at all Thou art the hottest fellow that ever I met with in all my dayes as hot as a Taylours Goose when it hisseth and yet as dark But let 's endeavour if it be possible to vitrifie thy opake carcase and transmit a little light into thâ—e Doest thou know then what fire is how it is a very fluid body whose particles rest not one by another but fridge one against another being very swiftly and variously agitated In this condition is the matter of fire But now I demand of thee Is there any substance in this fire thou speakest of for thou sayest it is really fire and usest no Metaphor which we may call the essentiall Form thereof or no If there be I ask thee wheâ—her that Form be Intelligent or no If it be then that is the soul and this subtile agitated matter is â—ut the vehicle But if thou wilt say that the subtile fiery matter is the Intelligent Soul see what inconveniencies thou intanglest thy self in For Fire being as homogeneall a body as water is and having all the parts much what alike agitated how can this fire do those offices that commonly are attributed to the soul First how can it organize the body into so wise a structure and contrivement the parts of this fire tending as much this way as that way or at least tending onely one way suppose upward Secondly how can it inform the whole body of an Embryo in the wombe and of a grown man For if it was but big enough for the first it will be too little for the latter unlesse you suppose it to grow and to be nourished But thus you will not have the same Indiuiduall Soul you was Christened with and must be forced to turn not onely Independent but Anabaptist that your new soul may be baptized for it is not now the same that you was Christened with before For I say that ten spoonfulls of water added to one should rather individuate the whole then that one of that whole number should individuate the ten Thirdly how can it move it self or the body in a spontaneous way For all the particles of this fiery matter wriggling and playing on their own centers or joyntly endeavouring to tend upwards makes nothing to a spontaneous motion no more then the Atomes of dust that are seen playing in the Sun beams striking through a chink of a wall into a dark room can conspire into one spontaneous motion and go which way they please Wherefore I say there ought to be some superintendent Form that takes hold of all these fiery particles and commands them as one body and guides them this way or that way and must be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of this fiery substance that is There must be such an essence in this fiery matter and that is noted by the preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that doth hold together that doth drive this way according to its nature or will and yet thus driving doth keep possession of this fiery Matter and what is this but â— Soul not the indument the smock or peticote of the Soul as thou call'st it Eugenius thou art old excellent at finding out naked essences it seems that takest the garment for the body Thou art so young that thou canst not distinguish betwixt a living barn and a baby made of clouts But this is not all that I have to say Phil. Fourthly I say that this Fire cannot be the Soul because fire is devoid of sense I but you say you understand an Intelligent fire Learnedly answered and to as much purpose as if you should say that a Soul is a Post or a Pillar and then you should distinguish and tell me you meant an Intelligent Post or Pillar but I say Fire hath no more sense then a Post or Pillar has reason For if it have sense it must have that which the Schools call Sensus communis And now tell me Phil to which of all the playing particles of this Ignis fatuus of thine thou wilt appoint the office of the Sensus communis or why to any one more then to the rest But if thou appoint all there will be as many severall sensations as there are particles Indeed so many distinct living things And thou wilt become more numerous within then the possessed in the Gospel whose name was Legion because they were many But if thou wilt pitch upon any one particle above the rest tell me where it is In the middle or at the out-side of this fire I will interpret thee the most favourably and answer for thee In the middle But I demand of thee Why shall this in the middle have the priviledge of being the Sensus Communis rather then any other or how will it be able to keep it self in the middle in so fluid a body And if it were kept there what priviledge hath it but what the most of the rest have as well as it to make it fit for the office of a Sensus Communis For it must be either because it is otherwise moved on its Center then the other are on theirs which you can not prove either to be or if it were to be to any purpose Or it must be because it hath some advantage in consideration of the joynt motion of the particles Let the joynt motion therefore of the particles be either rectilinear or circular If rectilinear as suppose in a square let the processe of motion be from side to side parallel Hath not then any particle in a right line that is drawn through the center of this Square figure parallel to two of the sides equal advantage for this office the transmission of outward sense being perpendicular to the said right line that the middle particle hath For thus it can receive but what comes in one line transmission of sense being parallel as is supposed Nay the points of any other inward line parallel to this will
he seems to have a very liquoursome desire to be thought to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some great man in the World And for the prosecution of this main end he layes himself out chiefly in these three subordinate designes First to be thought to have found out some new concerning Truths hitherto undiscovered Secondly to be more learned knowing then Aristotle that great light of these European parts for these many hundred years together and not onely so but to be so far above him that he may be his Master that he may tew him and lugge him and lash him more cruelly then any Orbilius or cholerick Pedagogue his puny scholars Thirdly and lastly that he may strike home for the getting of a fame of profound learning indeed he do's most affectedly and industriously raise in the Reader a strong surmise and suspicion that he is very deeply seen in Art Magick and is a very knowing Disciple of Agrippa and puts in as far for the name of a Magician as honesty will permit and safety from that troublesome fellow Hopkins the Witch-finder And indeed the very clatter of the Title of his Book Anthroposophia Theomagica sounds not much unlike some conjuration or charm that would either call up or scare away the Devil And Zoroaster forsooth at the bottome of the page that old reputed Magician must stand as an Assistent to this preludiall Exorcism with this Oracle in his mouth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Audi ignis vocem That is in plain English Hear the voice or noise of fire Me thinks I smell a Gunpowder-plot What can this voice of fire be Why how now Anthroposophus you intend certainly to make the Rosy Brotherhood merry with squibs and crackers For certainly your Mysteriousnesse does not mean those lesser or greater fire-squirts Carbines or Cannons So might the Fratres R. C. be received with like solemnity that those Apostles at Rome the Cardinals But the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which implies a subsultation or skipping this way and that way which is in the context of this Oracle seems to allude to and prognosticate of Fire-crackers and Squibs rather then Cannons or Carbines But how ever if this dog-trick fail Anthroposophus has another as puerile and innocent a Present to entertain that Reverend Fraternity And that 's a very queint and trim Latine Epistle which he like a good Schoolboy to shew them what a good Proficient he is grown in his Latine Grammar presents to their assembled Gravities 'T is a good child Anthroposophus and 't is well done Qui nescit obedire nescit imperare He that knows not how to submit himself in the form of a breeching boy to the Fratres R. C. how can he know so unmercifully to whip and domineer over poor Aristotle Surely Anthroposophus when the Rosy brethren ride swooping through the Air in their Theomagicall chariots they will hail down sugar plums and Carua's on thy blessed pate if thou hast but the good hap at that time to walk abroad with thy hat off to cool thy heated nodle But stay a while I am afraid I am mistaken It may well be that Anthroposophus rides along with them as being the Proloquutour of their Assembly For he writes himself Oratoris vestri How can that belong to a short Epistle unlesse it were some Title of office But it may be my Gentleman being not so dextrous and quick in Latine as in English measured the length of it more by his labour then the lines and thought that that which took him so much pains could not prove so little as an Epistle and therefore would insinuate that it was an Oration made to the Fratres R. C. I suppose at their meeting at Fryer Bacon's brasen head in Oxford Well â— be it what it will be my observation here Anthroposophus is that you would also by your addresse to the Fratres R. C. make the world belâ—eve that you are now mellowing a pace and are not much unripe for admission into that Society And then Anthroposophus would be a rare Theomagician indeed But enough of this vein of mirth and levity Now Philalethes your brother Tel-troth intends to fall more closely on your bones and to discover whether you have not a greater minde to seem to be wise then to be so indeed or to make others so But yet you may assure your self I will onely find flaws not make any in you but rather candidly passe over what may receive any tolerably good interpretation nor touch the sore any where but where I may hope to heal it either in your self or others And that this may be done without any tedious taking a pieces of what you have put together I shall fairly passe from page to page without any Analyticall Artifice And truly from the First page to the middle of the Fourth page of your Epistle to the Reader there be many pretty smart elegant humourous contextures of phrases and things But there presently after Fryer Bacons Fool and his fellow you fall upon our Peripateticks as such superficiall Philosophasters because they cannot lay open to you the very essence of the Soul Why Anthroposophus can you tell the very essence of any Substantiall thing Hereby you show your self very raw unexercised in meditation in that you have not yet taken notice what things are knowable what not And thus may you have as ill a trick put upon you for want of this discerning as the old dim and doting woman had that with her rotten teeth endeavoured to crack a round pebble stone in stead of a nut which was a thing impossible Nor will any mans understanding be it as sharp as it will enter the bare essence of any thing But the nearest we can get is to know the powers and operations the respects and fitnesses that things have in themselves or toward others Which is so true that any man in a little search will presently satisfie himself in the evidence thereof From the middle of this Fourth page to the middle of the sixth is continued a dance of Anticks or various ridiculous shiftings and postures of phansieâ— to make Aristotle and his followers contemptible But such generall railings as they are mis-beseeming the Writer so they teach the Reader nothing but that the Authour of them is a Mome or a Mimick and more like an Ape by far then him that he compares to one If this man clap the wings so when he has really got the foil for hitherto he has charged Aristotle with no particular piece of ignorance but of what is impossible to be known what would he do if he hâ—d the victory The second particular taxation for generals I hold nothing Dolosus ambulat in universalibus is that the Peripateticks fancy God to have made the World as a Carpenter of stone and timber But this is false because they give an inward principle of motion to all naturall bodies and there is one continuity of all as much as of the
parts of water among themselves But their grand fault is that they do not say the World is Animate But is not yours far greater Anthroposophus that gives so ridiculous unproportionable account of that Tenet The whole World is an Animal say you whose flesh is the earth whose bloud is the water the air the outward refreshing spirit in which it breathâ— the interstellar skies his vitall waters the Stars his sensitive fire But are not you a meer Animal your self to say so For it is as irrationall and incredible as if you should tell us a tale of a Beast whose bloud and flesh put together bears not so great a proportion to the rest of the more fluid parts of the Animal suppose his vitall and animal spirits as a mite in a cheese to the whole globe of the earth And beside this how shall this water which you call bloud be refreshed by the air that is warmer then it And then those waters which you place in the outmost parts towards his dappled or spotted skin the coelum stellatum what over-pâ—oportionated plenty of them is there there In so much that this creature you make a diseased Animall from its first birth and ever labouring with an Anasarca Lastly how unproperly is the air said to be the outward refreshing spirit of this Animal when it is ever in the very midst of it And how rashly is the Flux and Reflux of the Sea assimilated to the pulse when the pulse is from the heart not the brain but the flux and reflux of the Sea from the Moon not the Sun which they that be more discreetly phantasticall then your self do call Cor Mundi Wherefore Anthroposophus your phansies to sober men will seem as vain and puerile as those of idle children that imagine the fortuitous postures of spaul and snivell on plaster-walls to bear the form of mens or dogs faces or of Lyons and what not And yet see the supine stupidity and senslesnesse of this mans judgement that he triumphs so in this figment of his as so rare and excellent a truth that Aristotles Philosophy must be groundlesse superstition and Popery in respect of it this the primevall truth of the creation when as it is a thousand times more froth then His is vomit My friend Anthroposophus is this to appear for the truth as you professe in a day of necessity Certainly she 'll be well holpe at a dead lift if she find no better champions then your self Verily Philalethes if you be no better in your Book then in your Preface to the Reader you have abused Moses his Text beyond measure For your Principles will have neither heaven nor earth in them head nor foot reason nor sense They will be things extra intellectum and extra sensum meer vagrant imaginations seated in your own subsultorious skip-jack phansie onely But what they are we shall now begin to examine according to the number of pages Anthroposophia Theomagica SECT II. 1. Mastix makes himself merry with Eugenius his rash assertion that all Souls at their entrance into the body have an explicite knowledge of things 22. And that after a whole Springs experience he had found out those two known principles of Aristotle Matter and Privation His absurd hope of seeing Substances 3. The vanity of Devotion without purification of the mind That Aristotle agrees with Moses in acknowledging the World to be framed by a knowing Principle 4. Life alwayes accompanied with a naturall warmth 5. Eugenius his fond mistake as if either the Divine Light or Ideas could be kept out any space of time from shining in the opakest matter 6. The little fruit of that rarity of Doctour Marci in making the figure of a Plant suddenly rise up in a glasse 7. Eugenius his naturall Idea which he affirms to be a subtile invisible fire no Idea at all 8. His vain boasting of himself as if he were more knowing amd communicative then any that has wrote before him 9. His tearming the Darknesse or the first Matter the fuliginous spawn of Nature 10. His inconstancy in creating and uncreating this Matter 11. The horrible confused Qualme he fancies in the moist Matter at the creation of the world Heat and Siceitie the two active qualities in the Principle of Light assisting by their Mid-wifry Observation 1. Pag. 2. l. 11. So have all souls before their entrance c. But hear you me Mr. Anthroposophus are you in good earnest that all Souls before their entrance into the body have an explicite methodicall knowledge and would you venture to lose your wit so much by imprisoning your self in so dark a dungeon as to be able to write no better sense in your Preface to the Reader But I 'll excuse him it may be he was riding before his entrance into the body on some Theomagicall jade or other that stumbled and flung him into a mysticall quagmire against his will where he was so soused and doused and bedaubed and dirtyed face and eyes and all that he could never since the midwife raked him out all wet and dropping like a drown'd mouse once see clearly what was sense and what non-sense to this very day Wherefore we will set the saddle on the right Horse and his Theomagick Nag shall bear the blame of the miscarriage Observation 2. Pag. 3. Lin. 3. I took to task the fruits of one Spring c. Here Anthroposophus is turned Herbalist for one whole Spring damned to the grasse and fields like Nebuchadnezzar when he went on all four among the Beasts But see how slow this Snail amongst the herbs is in finding out the truth when he confesses it was the work of one whole Spring to find out That the Earth or seeds of flowers are nothing like the flowers There 's not any old Garden-weeder in all London but without a pair of spectacles will discover that in four minutes which he has been a full fourth part of a year about But certainly he intends a great deal of pomp and ceremony that will not take up such a Conclusion as this viz. That things that are produced in Nature are out of something in Nature which is not like the things produced but upon the full experience and meditation of one entire Spring And now after this whole Springs meditation and experience he is forced to turn about to him whom he so disdainfully flies and confesse two of the three principles of the Aristotelean Physicks viz. Matâ—er and Privation that homo is ex non homine arbor ex non arbore c. But this Matter he sayes and it is the wisest word he has spoken yet he knows not what it is But presently blots his credit again with a new piece of folly intimating he will finde it out by experience Which is as good sense as if he should say he would see it when his eyes are out For it is alike easie to see visibles without eyes as to see invisibles with eyes But he
which are the clouds The Almighties lodgings therefore according to the letter are placed in the clouds Thereabout also is his field for exercise and warre Deut. 33. 26. There is none like to the God of Ieshurun who rideth upon the Heavens for thy help in his excellency on the skie that is upon the upper clouds as Buxtorf interprets it and indeed what can 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifie above but clouds for below it signifies pulvis tenuissimus small dust and the clouds are as it were the dust of heaven Vatablus also interprets that place of Gods riding on the clouds And this agrees well with that of Nahum chap. 1. v. 3. The Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and the clouds are the dust of his feet Here he is running as swift as a whirlwind and raiseth a dust of clouds about him You shall find him riding again Psalme 68. 4. and that in triumph but yet but on the clouds sutably to that in Deut. Sing unto God sing praises unto his Name extoll him that rideth upon the heavens by his name IAH and rejoyce before Him That rideth upon the Heavens the Hebrew is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which I would be bold with Aben Ezraes leave to translate that rideth upon the clouds For clouds cause darknesse and the root from whence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies obtenebrari obscurari But for the ground of this Rabbies interpretation to wit Vpon the heavens it is taken out of the 33. verse of the 68. Psalme To him that rideth upon the heaven of heavens of old But if we read on there we shall find that those heavens of heavens in all probability reach no higher then the clouds For let 's read the whole verse together To him that rideth upon the heaven of heavens that were of old Lo he doth send out his voice and that a mighty voice what 's that but thunder and whence is thunder but out of the clouds and where then doth God ride but on the clouds The following verse makes all plain Ascribe ye strength unto God His excellency is over Israel and his strength is in the clouds which doth notably confirm that the Extent of the Heavens according to the letter of Moses and David too are but about the height of the clouds For here the heaven of heavens is the seat of thunder and Gods strength and power is said to be in the clouds Nor doth this expression of this height to wit the heaven of heavens of old imply any distance higher For sith all the Firmament from the lower to the upper waters is called Heaven it is not a whit unreasonable that the highest part of this Heaven or Firmament be called the Heaven of Heavens And this is my first argument that the heaven or firmaments Extent is but from the Sea to the Clouds because God is seaâ—ed no higher in the outward phrase of Scripture My second argument is taken from the adjoyning the heavens with the clouds exegetically one with another for the setting out of that which is exceeding high as high as we can expresse And this the Psalmist doth often Psalme 36. 5. Thy mercy O Lord is in the Heavens and thy faithfulnesse reacheth unto the Cloudâ— And Psalme 57.10 For thy mercy is great unto the Heavens and thy truth unto the Clouds And Psalme 108. 4. For thy mercy is great above the Heavens and thy truth reacheth above the Clouds Where heaven and clouds set off one and the same height that which is exceeding high the mercie and truth of God My last argument is from the Psalmists placing the Sunne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the clouds or in the cloudy heaven For the word must so signifie as I did above prove both from Testimony and might also from the Etymon of the word For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies comminuere contundere to beat to dust and what are clouds but the dust of heaven as I may so speak Psalme 89. v. 36 37. His seed shall endure for ever and his throne as the Sunne before me It shall be established for ever as the Moon and as the faithfull witnesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in heaven that is in the sky the place where the clouds are The drawing down therefore of the Sun that faithfull witnesse in heaven so low as the clouds implies that the letter of the Scripture takes no notice of any considerable part of the firmament above the clouds it terminating its expressions alwayes at that Extent And this sutes very well with Moses his calling the Sun and the Moon the great lights and making nothing as it were of the starres as is manifest out of the 16 verse of the first of Genesis And God made two great lights the greater light to rule the day and the lesse to rule the night He made the stars also But they come as cast into the bargain as not so considerable when as indeed a Starre of the first magnitude is according to the calculation of the Astronomers twenty thousand times bigger then the earth and the earth five and fourty times bigger then the Moon so that one starre of the first magnitude will prove about nine hundred thousand times bigger then the Moon Which notwithstanding according to the letter of Moses is one of the two great lights the sole Empresse of the night But here the letter of Moses is very consistent with it self For sith that the Extent of heaven is not acknowledged any higher then the clouds or thereabout wherein as I shewed you the Sun is and consequently the Moon aud it will not be more harsh to mak the stars stoop so low too nay they must indeed of necessity all of them be so low they having no where else to be higher according to the usuall phrase of Scripture the appearances of the starres will then to our sight sufficiently set out their proportions one to another and the Sun and the Moon according to this Hypothesis will prove the two great lights and the starres but scatter'd sky-pebbles Wherefore from all this harmony and correspondency of things I think I may safely conclude that the Extent of the Firmament according to Moses is but the distance from the sea to the clouds or thereabouts as well as it is to our sight which cannot discern any intervall of altitudes betwixt the clouds and the Moon the Moon and the Sunne and lastly betwixt the Sunne and the fixed Starres Which interpretation I am confident any man will admit of that can bring down the tumour of his Philosophick fancy unto a vulgar consistency and fit compliance with the sweetnesse and simplicity of Moses his style And thus Philalethes have I proved that there is no room for thy interstellar waters within the compasse of Moses his Creation unlesse they run into one and mingle with the rain or clouds SECT VII Eugenius his ignorance in the English tongue His grosse
mistakes concerning the Epicycles of Ptolemie That Aire is an Element of our body That the vulgar notion of Rarefaction and Condensation implies a contradiction Of Eugenius his Magnet That Temperance and Charity is of more consequence to man-kinde then his Philosophers stone His misapplication of S. Johns Prophecie for the proving of a Vitrification of the Earth Observation 13. HEre I called the Ptolemaick Systeme a rumbling confused Labyrinth So you did Philalethes and I perceive you will do so again But prethee tell me dost thou mean the Heavens rumble and so understandest or rather hearest the rumbling harmony of the Sphears or dost thou mean the Labyrinâ—h rumbles I tell thee Philalethâ—s a wheel-barrow may be said to rumble for to rumble is to make an ill-favour'd ungratefull noise but no body will say the heavens or a labyrinth doth rumble but such as are no Englishmen as you say somewhere you are not and so do not understand the language Pag. 53. A confused wheel-barrow is a bull Is a wheel-barrow a bull what a bull is that But confused I added not confused to wheel-barrow that 's thy doing thou authour of confusionâ— Line 18. The Epicycles in respect of their orbâ—â—re but as a Mite inâ—â— cheese Do yoâ— say so Mr. Lilly No. Do you say so Mr. Booker No. Look thee now Phil. how thy confident ignorance hath abused those two learned Artists as thou callest them They are ashamed to utter such loud nonsense And now they have denied it darest thou venture to say it Anthroposophus Tell me then how little and diminutive those Epicycles will prove in respect of their orbs that have their diameters equall to the diameter of the orbit of the earth or which is all one of the sun Thou wilt answer me with the Cyclops in Erasmus Istiusmodi subtilitates non capio I do not believe thou understandest the Question though it be plainly propounded and so I shall expect no answer But come thy wayes hither again Phil. thou shalt not scape thus I will not let thee go till I have called thee to an account for thy great bull of Basan as thou wouldst call it Thou sayest That the Epicycles of Ptolomy though they are too bigge to be true yet that they are very diminutive things in respect of their orbs that sustain them as little and diminutive as mites in a cheese in respect of the cheese To speak the most favourably of this assertion of thine that may be it is sublime Astronomicall Nonsense And if we could find any Nonsense sublunary to parallel it it would be some such stuff as this Although the cannon bullets in the tower be as bigge as mount Athos yet they are so little that they will not fill the compasse of a walnut This is a bundle of falsities and so is that That is Both the parts of these compound Axioms are false and the composition it self also illegitimate These are Discrete Axioms Eugenius and both the parts ought to be true but they are both false here And there ought also especially these notes Quamvis and tamen being in them to be onely a Discretion of parts but here is an implacable Opposition things put together that imply a contradiction In the latter of these Axioms it is manifest but I will shew you it is so also in that former of yours For first the Epicyoles of Ptolemy are not too bigge to be true For they do not suppose them bigger then will be contained within the thicknesse of their own orbs And you your self say that they are but as mites in a cheese in respect of their orbs So that it is plain according to what you your self grant as well as according to the Hypothesis of Ptolemy that they are not too bigge to be true But secondly I say they are not as little as Mites in respect of the cheese they are in For the semi-diameter of Saturns Epicycle is to the semi-diameter of hâ—s Eccentrick at least as 1 to 10. and the semi-diameter of Iupiters Epicycle to the semi-diameter of his Eccentrick more then as 1 to 6. but Mars his as 2 to 3 or thereabout and the semidiameter of the Epicycle of Venus to the semidiameter of her eccentrick more then as 2 to 3 by a good deal And is it not plain hence Eugenius that thy mite in a cheese must swell up at least to the bignesse of a Mouse in a cheese though thy cheese were almost as little as a trundle bed wheel or a box of Marmalade and what a vast difference is there betwixt a Mite and a Mouse but thy ignorance emboldens thee to speak any thing But now in the last place the putting these two falsities together is contradiction as well as they are severally false For it is evident that if the Epicycles be too bigge to be true they cannot be so little as Mites in a cheese in respect of their orbs For then would they be easily contain'd within the crassities or thicknesse of their orbs But their not being able to be contained within the Crassities of their orbs that 's the thing that must make them too bigge to be true And questionlesse if we will joyn the Epicycle with its right office which is to bring down the Planet to its lowest Perigee then the Epicycles of the planets will be too bigge to be true For there will be of them that are half as big again as their Deferents nay five times if not ten times as big And of these Epicycles I said and Ptolemies ought to have been such unlesse they did desert their office that they were too bigge to be true But thou pronouncest concerning these things thou knowst not what and therefore art easily tost up and down like a shittle cock thou knowst not whither How do I blow thee about as the dust or the down of thistles ut plumas avium pappósque volantes Observation 16. Thou Moore à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As much as à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou art so drunk and intoxicated with thine own bloud as Aristotle saith of all young men that they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that thou seest double two O's in my name for one Observation 19. See what I answer at observation the 23. Observation 20. Phy Phy some rose-water Who speaks like a Puritan now Phil but why some rose water hast thou devoured an Orenge like an apple pulp and pill and all and so made thy mouth bitter O thou man of Wales But it is to wash hur mouth from bawdry Why wilt thou be so bold then as to name the Lawyers phrase rem in re Or hast thou a purpose to call all the Lawyers bawdy Gentlemen by craft I tell thee Phil. To the pure all things are pure but thy venerious fancy which I rebuked in this passage thou exceptedst against doth soyl and corrupt what is chast and pure Observation 21. I do Mastix I do Why doest thou not then explain it thou