unprofitable in other kind of madnesses Therefore it happened at Antwerp that a Carpenter perswading himself that in the night-timehe had seen horrid appearances or ghosts became wholly mad with the terrour thereof And he was sent unto the Tomb of St. Dympna the Virgin where those who are possessed by an evil spirit are wont to be freed the matter being thereby wrested into an abuse that all mad men should indifferently be sent thither As if the condition of those that are possessed and mad were the same The Carpenter therefore is nourished a whole year and mad however the wonted remedies were implored and when as moneys were not sent from Antwerp for the last half year they sent back the mad man bound in a waggon who when he had loosed his bonds he leapt out of the Wain into a deep and neighbouring pool He being at length drawn out was laid up into the Waggon for a dead Carcasse but he lived for eighteen years after free from madnesse By which example I being raised unto an hope knew that not only the madnesse from a mad dog but also that an inveterate or ancient Mania or madness might be cured And that thing I afterwards often tried neither hath the event deceived me but as oft as through fear I drew these mad persons over-hastily out of the water I likewise learned by the example of the Carpenter that it would be all one whether the aforesaid plunging or choaking of the mad Idea should happen to be in fresh water or salt A certain woman to me known commendable for her much honesty in the moneth November in a dark evening rushed head-long from a bridg into a small River or Brook with a Carr of two wheels And when they were intent about the horse they neglected the poor â—id woman but she remained under the water until they had unloaded the Carr of some wares At length being mindful of that poor old woman they brought her to a neighbouring Village as it were a drowned dead carcasse wherein the wife of the Inn laid that woman on a table with her face placed downwards and her head hanging downwards And it came to pass that she thus dismissed the water drawn into the lungs It seemed to me like a fable until mat in the mountains of Hannonia or Hungarie a young man drowned in swimming is brought unto a noble Matron a companion of my journey who bad the mother bewailing the death of her son to be of good cheer Therefore she stretched the young man with his face placed downward upon his knees and when the feeble young man thus hung being altogether naked he at length the water being cast back began to breath again and revived in our sight Again I remember that in the year 1606. I returning in the evening from the Castle of Perla two leagues distant from Antwerp found a company on the bank of the Rotomagian Channel because they complained that a young man the only son of a rich widdow was drowned who was sent for and found his dead carcass laying on the ground in the stubble or straw she took him up into her lap and kissed him weeping bitterly I bad that she should turn his body with his head and shoulders hanging downwards and his back upwards and the young man began after a quarter of an hour to breath again I have learned therefore that drowned persons do not easily die seeing both the aforesaid young men lurked perhaps for the space of half an hour under the water Neither must there be a cessation from prayer as soon as he which is believed to be dead doth cease to take breath Galen for madnesse of the biting of a mad dog before the fear of waters hath arose gives Cray-fishes or Crabs calcined to drink for fourty dayes Yet if that Calx be not given presently after the beginning it profiteth nothing and so also thus the use thereof hath remained unaccustomed In the mean time it is ridiculous that in burning of Crabs they add myrrhe c. or when they melt silver for to make a cup or flagon for a Perfuming-shop that they add Triacle The antidote whereof the devouring flame consumes before the living creature be roasted But Paracelsus affirms that the Hydrophobia is cured by sharp loosening medicines but surely the event hath not answered his promises Therefore Catholiques despairing nor trusting to these remedies of the Universities our Country-men flee to St. Hubbert where by some Rites performed they are cured Yet this is remarkable therein That if the Rites be not precisely observed the madness which otherwise did hitherto long lay hid doth forthwith arise and the Hydrophobians are left without hope There is a robe or gown of S. Hubbert locked up in a chest with six divers keys and also kept by six divers Key-keepers but they do every year cut off part of that garment the garment the while remaining always whole for eight hundred years now and more Neither is it a place of jugling deceit because it is not known at this day whether the Robe be of fine flax wool hemp or cotton and so neither could a new one be yearly substituted in its room But they cut off part of the garment that they may incarnate a thread or rag thereof within the skin of the forehead of every one that is bitten by a mad dog For from hence there is another miracle That he who hath once recovered by his rites through the thread or rag taken out of the robe may delay the time for another that is bitten and stupifie the prevailing madnesse for fourty dayes and that for some years until they to their own profit can at length come to Saint Hubbert yet with that condition that if any one do tarry never so little above fourty dayes and hath not as was said before obtained by request a prolonging of the limited time he presently falls into a desperate madness For the Lombards do thus run to the Saints Belline and Donine and so do request preservation And they require the healing to be from a madnesse arising from a deed done But for foolish madness or being out of ones mind they do not hitherto as I know of invoke any heavenly Patron CHAP. XXXVII The Seat of the Soul 1. The matter is as yet before the Judge 2. A third opinion 3. The head being dead a certain Bride hath over-lived for eight hours at least 4. The mouth of the Stomach being smitten hath brought a sudden and total death 5. A Paradox of the Authour concerning the Seat of the Soul 6. The Creation teacheth this seat 7. Physitians do occultly consent to those very things unwittingly 8. The Lord confirmeth the Paradox of the Authour 9. Some reasons 10. Against the existence of the Vegetative Soul 11. The Heart is a servant to the Stomach 12. The seat remains fixt 13. That the first powers of conceptions are felt in the mouth of the Stomach 14. They unwillingly place
in the Dutch Idiome is Litch-aem as if to say a Vessel of Light having obtained a Spirit and Soul from him And one thing ought to be made of these the Body Spirit and Soul ought to be sanctifyed Hy-lichzijn he shineth or Blessed Sal-lichzijn he shall be shining but if not the Vessel and Spirit must needs be damned Wise Men We observe or take notice that thou endeavourest to express thy self to be threefold but not a Unite and thy Spirit to be Darksome or Lightsome the darkening of it to proceed from the Flesh which is earthly deadly and obscure the illumination or enlightning of it it shall attain by the Spirit by beaming in emptying out and subduing the Darkness But we covet to hear whether there be a third thing because thou namest the Light of the Vessel and a Soul are there two diverse Lights or at leastwise do they constitute or make one Light of one Light Mercurius there is one only Eternal Light Entirely and Eternally Externally and Internally in all Parts because the Life Eternal and the whole Eternal Part was inspired into Man by the Almighty God even as Moses testifies in the second Chapter of the Book of Genesis Man was made into a living Soul which Soul made or constituted the seventh Day as is demonstrated in the very same Chapter Therefore the Heavens and the Earth were perfected and all the Ornament or Dress thereof And God compleated Work which he had made on the Seventh Day and he rested on the Seventh Day from all his Work which he had made and he blessed the Seventh Day and sanctified it Because therein God had ceased from all his Work which he had created that he might make to wit Man into a living Soul Wise Men If this Light be the Seventh Day what dost thou think of the Six foregoing Dayes and of that which is extant in the eighteenth Chapter of Ecclesiasticus He who lives for ever created all things at once Mercurius In the Beginning God created all things the Heaven and the Earth and whatsoever was created the wich Moses at the entrance of Genesis comprehends into the First Day where he denotes the making of the other five Dayes Saying In the Beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth but the Earth was empty and void and Darkness was upon the face of the Deep and the Spirit of God was carried upon the Waters And God said let there be Light and Light was made And God saw the Light that it was good and he divided the Light from the Darkness And he called the Light Day and the Darkness Night And the Evening and Morning was made one Day Insomuch that Man doth constitute the Sixth Day which Dayes were distinct from each other whereby Man may know himself what he is what he is to do and what Power he hath or may have by his Spirit as a Man not likewise as a Soul over the foregoing Dayes or created things as it is found in the aforesaid Chapter of Genesis And God said Let us make Man according to our own Image and Likeness and let him bear Rule over the Fishes of the Sea and over the Fowles of the Heaven and over the Beasts of the whole Earth and over every creeping thing which is moved in the Earth Wise Men Thou dost satisfie us and besides dost also over-signifie that Man was the sixth Day and that he seperated the Light from the Darkness on the first Day which Light or Spirit he called Day and his Blood Flesh or Darkness he called Night which Evening and Morning constituted the sixth Day and so consequently the other five although according to every ones peculiar Nature But dost thou make no mention of the seventh Day Mercurius The seventh Morning Light or Life is the Spirit of God it self even as was said And therefore in Moses his description of the seventh Day it is not expressed that the Evening and Morning was made the seventh Day as in the six precedent Dayes and that for this Cause because there is no Beginning or Evening granted to be in God the Father because he is he who Is what he is but it is so accounted because on the seventh Day he inspired into Man his Face the Breath of Life and this man became into a living Soul so that of Man and the Breath of God the seventh Day was made Wise Men From thy relation we have fully understood the Beginning and Ending of the first Day and of the sixth Day following with the seventh Day not ended that Man was conjoyntly made into a living Soul But we desire to hear what Moses will have to be meant by the Word In the Beginning Mercurius The Beginning is God the Son by whom in whom and from whom the Heaven and Earth were created as the Evangelist John doth most exceeding evidently testifie in his first Chapter in these Words In the Beginning was the Word which with the Dutch also sounds Woort that is Fiat or let it be done and the Word was with God and God was the Word This Word was in the Beginning with God All things were made by him and without him was nothing made In him was Life and the Life was the Light of men And the Light shineth in Darkness and the Darkness hath not comprehended it There was a Man sent from God whose name was John This Man came for a Testimony that he might bear witness of the Light that all men through him might believe He was not that Light but that he might bear witness of the Light That was the true Light which enlightneth every Man that cometh into this Word He was in the World and the World was made by him and the World knew him not He came into his own and his own received him not But as many as received him to them he gave Power to become the Sons of God to these who believe in his name who were born not of Bloods nor of the Will of the Flesh neither of the Will of Man but of God And the Word was made Flesh and dwelt in us and we saw its Glory as the Glory of the only begotten of the Father full of Grace and Truth John gives his Testimony concerning him and cryeth out saying This was he whom I said he which is to come after me was made before me because he was before me And of his fulness we all have received and Grace for Grace Because the Law was given by Moses Grace and Truth was made by Jesus Christ No Man hath seen God at any time The onely begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father he hath declared him Wise Men Now we have perceived this Testimony of Saint John that it contains every thing serving to perfection but deliver thy Opinion unto us after what manner thou art like unto Adam and in what respect in him and how thou hast proceeded from him Mercurius Before that man was made into a living
lesser thing according to her Body not likewise according to her Spirit and Soul For these she holds from Adam which are Eternal and Permanent and a Part whereof Eve Possesseth and all that even as all their Parts are Eternal even as was said Now in a further consideration or avouching of the Premises thou shalt find that Women do therefore suffer monthly Issues or Menstrues serving for Propagation because they ought to beget a man as to the Body in that respect as was said Wise Men We acquiesce and moreover through occasion of two Words which thou from the Dutch Idiome hast considerately produced thou recallest two places of Scripture unto our remembrance one rehearsed by the Evangelist Mathew in the twelfth Chapter where Christ saith to the Pharisies He that is not with me is against me and he that gathereth not with me scattereth Therefore I say unto you Every Sin and Blasphemy shall be forgiven unto Men Flesh but the Blasphemy of the Spirit shall not be forgiven And whosoever shall speak a Word against the Son of Man it shall be forgiven him but he that shall speak against the holy Spirit it shall not be forgiven him neither in this Age nor in that to come Either make ye the Tree good and its Fruit good or make ye the Tree Evil and its Fruit Evil for truly the Tree is known by the Fruit. Ye Generation of Vipers how can ye speak good things seeing ye are Evil For from the abundance of the Heart the Mouth speaketh The other is mentioned by Luke in the third Chapter after the citing of a place of the Prophet Jsaiah who saith And all Flesh shall see the Salvation of God Therefore be to wit John the Baptist said unto the Multitude which went out to be Baptized of him Ye Generations of Vipers who hath shewn you to flee from the wrath to come do ye therefore Fruits meet for repentance and ye shall not begin to say We have Abraham for our Father For I say unto you because God is able of those Stones to raise up Sons unto Abraham Which two Words are also repeated in these two Texts not badly agreeing with the signification of the Dutch Word and thou shewing unto us by all thy demonstration that the Serpent so called which seduced Eve and her Spirit was certainly her own Flesh and Blood which desired the Fruits of the forbidden Tree and spake to her Spirit for that end so that the name of Serpent is not only accounted the Serpent but as well the Serpent a living Creature as a Man according to the Flesh the which is also moreover seen in the Infancy or Old Age of a Man or when the Spirit is weakened that he is and doth become a Serpent Wherefore after God had committed unto man the dominion over the living Creatures over all the Earth and over every creeping Animal which is moved in the Earth this last Dominion is the greatest whereby he ought to work his own blessedness that which thou shalt more cleerly make manifest from the Text assoon as leasure shall permit for now we hasten because half of the second day of those prefixed hath soon passed away therefore proceed thou and hasten and declare unto us the difference between thee and Adam when he was to strive against his Darkness whereby he as well as thou might have subdued it Mercurius In no other thing besides that Darkness was increased in man by the touching of the Fruits and eating of the forbidden Tree in so much that Darkness holds the prize against the Light and doth now possess it even as in Adam the Light in Adam did possess his Darkness and did illuminate it before his Fall Wise Men How comes this to pass Mercurius This hath come to pass through a Fermenting or Leavening Contagious Darksom and Deadly or Destructive eating Wise Men What wilt thou insinuate thereby explain thy self by Similitudes Mercurius As Darkness was in the face of the deep before that the Spirit of God was carried upon the Waters in like manner thou shalt find a certain Vessel or place which being shut up or hoary and filthy doth even in a very little time render all that which is cast into it alike stinking or rank and surther to infect it neither doth any thing of the first more principal Ferment and Filthiness depart Moreover that it may be demonstrated that this filthy place is also darksom is well learned by those that pertain to Wine-cellars who being desirous to know and experience whether a Hogs-head be hoary or filthy or no do open its mouth and by an End do let in a burning Candle and when the Vessel shall be clean and infected with no Muck or Filth the Candle being let down athwart it will remain burning until its own begetting Vapour doth choak it self but if the Hogs-head be filthy the Flame or Light cannot pierce through the Orifice of the Hogs-head unto the thickness of the Wood. Therefore it manifestly appears that the darkness doth also uncloath or discover it self and make other things darksom just even as the Light doth operate and that when the darkness doth overcome the Light or the Light overcome the Darkness These and the like Darknesses must needs be before all Light and by how much the more stable they are by so much the more stable also is the Body arisen from thence Now it is further to be noted that as a temporal Light doth illustrate out of it self one thing more largely than another according to their stability magnitude or increasing in the like proportion and manner the darkness powers forth its Beams out of it self as was shewn also as a burning and consuming Fire can by its Light enflame burn and stir up many Seeds into a growth or increase according to the rate of their more stable Nature that which I take notice of thou shalt evidently perceive by this Experiment it is seen and felt that by how much the nearer a Fire is kindled by so much the more it shines or enlightens and heats now this heat and brightness is one and the same thing as long as it is in the Fire as by a collection of those hot beams through the help of a certain burning glass may be proved whereby the hot beams are again collected and are made like unto those which exist in the Fire to wit hot and burning ones now when we permit a temporal dispersed and decaying Fire freely to burn we shall discern by the Light which shines forth through the Fire that other created Bodies are burnt at diverse distances from hence to wit in the nearest Body the more stable and combustible one and as the beams are diffused so far also the heat is diminished and will enflame the less stable created bodies The reason is because that which is soon made must needs also have that which soon perisheth wherefore cold and moist Regions do bring forth larger Fruits than hot and
Stone 827 2. Of Fevers 935 3. A passive deceiving and ignorance of the Schools the Humourists 1015 4. The Plague-grave 1073 A PROPHESY Concerning the AUTHOR Expressed in a POEM 1. Medicine before Hippocrates hath appeared naked and wandring about 2. A saying of Hippocrates inviting her unto the Cities 3. She having admired answers to Hippocrates 4. The Praise due to Hippocrates 5. Hippocrates the first of Physitians after what manner he manured Medicine 6. Galen gave an ornament to her tongue he nourished her not therefore she grew not 7. The Arabians have done the same thing 8. The followers of both these Sects have done the same thing hitherto 9. Paracelsus unhappily endeavoured ambitiously to compass the Title of the Monarch of Secrets and Prince of Medicine 10. Medicine despiseth Paganish attire 11. She desireth a Looking Glass that she may become the clearer by a reflex Light 12. The Book of the Author shall serve those that shall succeed for a Looking Glass 13. Medicine unfolds her own and the Authors Destinies by a Prophetick Poet. 14. Medicine praiseth the Authors Studies 15. The Prophet declares the wished Fruits of his Labors 16. The Judgement of Medicine concerning the Book of the Author THe doleful'st Daughter of a high born Birth By chance doth wander up and down the Earth In places strange among wild Beasts so fierce And spiting her own Wishes doth rehearse Then her Misfortunes blames the Powers unkind As cruel Gods she blames them in her mind Through troubled sense and straies with ire too rife Whose cause of wandring was the cause of grief Thus here 's a double slaughter for she knew Her wretched Brother did not Death eschew But perished by vengeance from above Of th' scorching flame of iracundious Jove This Aepidaurius while he boldly brake The iron Statutes of three Sisters make Is said to perish by Aethereal fumes From hence uncertain errour straight presumes To walk in doubtful steps from hence proceeds Much tears from checks beclad in mourning weeds Cous saw her wandring fortune who when seen Did love her straight whose beauty pleased him Because t was em'lous of the snowie Rose He speaks unto her thus Here 's I suppose My Nymph the Mayden Druides such are And jolly rout of the God Corniger For why thy presence halloweth these fields It hallow's them which lofty fairness yields A comely grace unto the Grecian Queen But what delights thee to visit I ween Valleys of Mountains what the hilly tops Assimilated unto stony Rocks Do not the City Pallaces thee please With lofty Roofes built up for Princes ease Art thou not pleased with the multitude Of Citizens men with great fame endis'de For a more tender life apt habitation Is it not better in thy estimation And to enjoy a more sublimed state Th' unlearned rout may vilifie thy rate Mean Peasants with their tects of rustick name And little houses much disgrace the same The comely Nymph was now astonished To see the look majestick grace of head And gesture of this noble man that spake Straight from her purple cheeks all tears did sla'ke And no complaint eccho'd with mournful sound She beam'd her starry lights upon the ground Which was so green and utter'd certain Votes Of joyfulness co-mixt with merry notes She in a little moment meditated Touching the words which he to her related And such respondent answers she began To render unto Cous the old man I am well pleas'd with these thy words thou art One of the mortals which affect my heart My proffer shall be like a gift to thee With thee I 'le dwell through thee I 'le make to flee Both Plagues and Poxes yea and all Disease When 't shall but see thee shall be ill at ease The bright Aurora whereby Cynthius hill Doth rise above the waters and doth fill Its drowned Horses in the western stream Yet shall thy glory climb more high suprem In every Kingdom yea thy praises hie Shall gently touch the lofty starry skie Posterity hereafter shall declame Thee th' only Medel'-master of great fame Nor shall there be a fewel for thy praise Whereby it can it self more highly raise While fatal Goddesses shall break thy fate Thee living fame shall plainly celebrate Throughout the World Cous returning due Thanksgivings for so great a gift in lue Upon the naked Goddess doth bestow Such gifts as these the Nymph as white as snow He doth array in linnen clean and fine Which doth surpass white Lillies in their prime With snow be sprinkled Whether Apollo rose Whether his Chariots hot to rince he chose I' th western Ocean yet his golden hair Ne're saw the like with which it might compair Medicine remain'd long with such trimmed grace The first ag'd Fathers did her thus embrace Until five ages after Galen came Wholly to deck her not to feed the same For he bestowed on her garments fil'd With Tyrian die the which a hem unskil'd As being writh'd with many knots adorns His neat gay bubbles of his glistring horns Of rings distinguish his fair flags bespread Also enrich her Virgin daughter head Next cometh Avicennas as the glory Of the Sabaean Nation and the story Also reports that he spent all his time In decking her with robes as gay and fine After which two did many moe suceed In their vast number yet in very deed They were such men who acted nothing more Than t'garnish coats which those had made before And finally from the Helvetian coasts Comes Paracelsus and he proudly boasts Himself to be the Monarch of the flock Saying he was the Goddess very stock Yet she contemns their glistring gems and eke Their pretious Jewels hanging on her neck Those help not Goddesses she said Beside Ornaments breathing forth the antient pride Can bring no help and that brings greater wrong Which hath the more of Art it spent upon To what end are your thousand robes I cry And ostentations of Luxury But certainly this vain laborious toil Doth not become my lofty Goddess stile What! to have sought out ornaments alone For many hundred years forepast and gone Woe and alass it may be shame enuff T' have watch'd so hard for faulty triffling stuff And would it might be lawful but for me My comely countenance once for to see For should I not in glass appear more fair Unto my self than now my judgements are And is my Beauty now beheld indeed If Godesses be Judges of my weed And do all men ' prove of my Majesty But haply they do fear oh Nymph I spie If thou should'st see thy face thou mayst despise All and wouldst live alone by beauties guise If thou belov'd Narcissus hadst not seen Thy proper figure in a well to gleen The crime of water being look't into Would not have prov'd thy death thee to undo But he was mortal I a Goddess am God's Daughter doing what I desire can But he alone what the Godesses would Who gives to me a glasse
objection from Arts. 17. Why the Water may be reckoned the first-born Element MY sight is carried on a useful good but not on vain reasoning Wherefore seeing the Auncients do call back nature and every of its operations to the account of Elements Qualities and Complexions resulting in mixture and the Schooles do even to this day hand forth this Doctrine to their young beginners in Medicine to the destruction of mankinde I will again and again set upon the dissection of the Elements whereby it may appear that they have erred hitherto in the Causes of Diseases I will every where relate Paradoxes and things unaccustomed to the Schooles and it will be hard for those to cease from the Doctrine drunk in who do believe the whole truth to have flowed into Galen Galen hath delivered in many Volumes and with a tedious boasting of the Greeks that every Body the Earth Water Air and Fire excepted doth consist of the Wedlock of these four united together and so from hence that a Body is to be called mixt Moreover that the whole likeness and diversity of bodies doth arise from the unlike conflux or concurrence and continual fight of four Elements But the Schooles that came after do as yet dispute it as undecided whether the Elements with their forms do remain in the thing mixt or indeed whether in every particular mixture they are deprived of their essential forms and the which by a peculiar indulgence they do re-take from the seperation and general privation of the form of the thing mixed At length from the unlikeness and combate of the Elements they bid all the infirmities and first-born fewels of our mortality to descend Surely it is a wonder to see how much brawling and writing there hath been about these things and it is to be pitied how much these loose dreams of trifles have hitherto circumvented or beset the World they have prostituted destructive vain talkings in the faires of the Schooles instead of the knowledge of Medicine and so so damnable a delusion hath thereby deceived the obedience of the sick in healing Therefore the juggling deceipts of Pagans being cast behinde me I direct my experiences and the light fteely given me according to the Authority of the holy Scriptures at the beholding of which light the night-Birds do fly away Therefore it is chiefly to be grieved at that the light of truth being had darkness is as yet taught in the Schooles of Christians In the beginning therefore the Almighty created the Heaven and the Earth before that the first day had shone forth Afterwards in the first day he created the light and divided it from the darkness Secondly he created the Firmament which should seperate the inferior Waters from the waters that were above it self and named that Heaven Therefore it is hence plainly to be seen that before the first day the waters were already created from the beginning being partakers of a certain heavenly disposition because they were hidden under the Etymologie of the Word Heaven Yet they were a-kinne to these lower waters to which they were once conjoyned before their seperation In the next place that darkness covered the face of the deep and that that deep did point out the Waters because then all the Waters above the Heaven being as yet conjoyned to ours upon the Earth did make an Abysse of incomprehensible deepness upon which the Spirit whose name is Eternall was carried that he might with his blessing replenish his new Creature of water Therefore it is manifest that the Creation of the Heaven the Water and the Earth was before a day neither that it may be numbred with the six dayes Creation afterwards described Because it pleased the Eternall also to rest on the seventh day which in respect of the aforesaid Creation would have been the eighth if it had been a day And therefore it is not reckoned among the number of dayes because the Creation of the Elementary matter was made before a day sprang forth Lastly by this Text the Firmament is not onely the eighth Starry Heaven but and also that which by our Authority we distinguish into seven wandring Orbs or Circles Which the teacher of the Gentiles hath seemed to contain in one But the Chrystalline and first mover for another and at length the huge Heaven of an incomprehensible greatness wherein every righteous man shineth like the Sun for the third although that Empyrean Heaven joyned with its two fellowes being taken for the second perhaps another may remain for the third Which may be the bottomless retiring place of Fountain-light full of Divine Majesty and unsearchable At leastwise the Firmament reacheth from the Moon even to the conjoyning of the Starry Heaven and seperateth the water that is above it from these lower ones and therefore the Heaven with the Hebrews soundeth where there are waters But the Lights and the Stars began on the fourth day and were set in order in the Firmament Therefore in the beginning the Heaven Earth and Water the matter of all Bodies that were afterwards to arise was created But in the Heaven were the Waters contained but not in the Earth hence I think the Waters to be more noble than the Earth yea the Water to be more pure simple indivisible firm or constant neerer to a Principle and more partaking of a heavenly condition than the Earth is Therefore the Eternall would have the Heaven to contain Waters above it and as yet something more by reason whereof it is called Heaven that which we call the Air the Skie or vitall Air. For therefore neither is there mention made of the creating of the Water and Air for that both of them the Etymologie of the Word Heaven did include Therefore I call these two Elements Primigeniall or first-born in respect of the Earth But no where any thing is read of the Creation of the fire neither therefore do I acknowledge it among the Elements and I reject my honour or esteem with Paganisme Neither also may we with Paracelsus acknowledge the fire by the name of Lights and Stars to be a superlunary Element as neither to have been framed from the beginning the which notwithstandig it should needs be if it ought to resemble or partake of the condition of an Element Therefore I deny that God created four Elements because not the fire the fourth And therefore it is vain that the fire doth materially concurre unto the mixture of bodies Therefore the fourfold kinde of Elements Qualities Temperaments or Complexions and also the foundation of Diseases falls to the ground For our handicraft operation hath made manifest to me that every body to wit the Rockie Stone the small Stone the Gemme or pretious Stone the Flint the Sand the Fire-stone the white Clay the Earth cocted or boyled Stones Glasse Lime Sulphur or Brimstone c. is changed into an actual Salt equall in weight to its own body from whence it was made and that that Salt being sometimes
quickly decaying Therefore all earth Clay and every body that may be touched is truly and materially the off-spring of water onely and is reduced again into water by nature and art Neither doth that hinder because of Clay and sand a Tile or Brick is boyled even as of sand and ashes Glasse For truly whatsoever is of Clay is at length of its own accord resolved into a salt the same sand remaining which the clay had contracted into it self Glasse also as it hath passed by art and without a seed into an artificial composure So by art again its bond being unloosed it refurns to its auntient Beginnings so that sand is drawn out from thence altogether the same in number and weight the which by the flowing of the Furnace had grown together with the fixed salt into a clear stone or glasse For from hence it appeares that the sand or the Element of the earth doth never concur to natural and seminal generations And that as oft as it serves for artificial things for often the sand doth alway remain unchanged in the bright burning-glasse being hidden in the flux of the salt and taken into transparent glasse For silver hath not lost its being when it is dissolved by Aqua Fortis although the Eye hath lost that thing and it hath obtained a clearness like Christall Seeing therefore the Sand or original earth doth resist as well art as nature neither can it by any helps the one onely fire of artificial Hell-fire excepted of nature or art depart from its first-born constancy under which artificial fire the Sand is made salt and at length water because it hath the force of acting upon any sublunary things without a re-acting it followes also that the original earth is never by any meanes taken unto the seminall generations of nature Neither doth that convince because some unskilful man will have glasse to be the last subject of art and the which can therefore be blotted out neither by art nor by fire For he will be instructed if he shall co-melt the fine powder of glasse with more of the Alcali and shall set them forth in a moyst place he shall straightway finde all the glasse to be resolved into water on which if Chrysâ—ca be powred so much being added as sufficeth to the filling or satisfying of the Alcali he shall presently finde in the bottom the Sand to settle it being of the same weight which at first was fitted for the making of the glasse Therefore the Earth remains unchanged although it may seem throughout the whole World to be moveable and to have been moved Yea a mold by digging thorow an heap makes an inundation of a great tract or space of Land and so the despised Creature can remove the Earth from its Centre and the World from its place if we believe the Centre to hold the place of an equall tenor of height and we do see the Seas lately to fall and lean on the back of the earth In Rekem high the passage of the River Mose a Sea-ship was found under a sandy Hill in the year 1594. In the Region of Peele Pine-Tlees were found standing in rank under the Earth which willingly grow not but in Mountains In Hingsen nigh Scalds twelve foot under the Horizon in a moyst Meadow was found an Elephants Tooth with the whole Cheek-bone whose third part being two foot long I keep with me And so living Elephants were once in this Countrey But very lately Groenland hath ceased to be found subverted by the Sea whence the Centre of the Earth ought necessarily to be changed or removed CHAP. X. The Water 1. The scituation of the Earth and Water before the Floud 2. The Authours Meditation 3. A Whirle-poole of Waters or a Gulf. 4. The distributing of that Whirle-poole 5. The cutting of the veins of that Whirle-poole 6. The fruit of the Minerall Soil on Ground 7. Salts do passe into Bur. 8. The progress of Mineralls to their ripenesses 9. From whence Fishes are digged out of the Earth 10. The right of the veines over their contained Liquor 11. The scanty place of the wise man Coheleth or the Preacher 12. The rise of Fountains were unknown to Aristotle 13. That the World is round from East to East but from South to South that it is long and round 14. A prevention of Objections 15. The Centrall property takes its limitation from necessity 16. A Reason from Springs 17. From the motion of the Sun 18. From the true figure of the Heaven 19. From the authority of the holy Scriptures 20. From shadowes and the quantity of the day 21. From the sight of the Sun by Saylors IN like manner after that the Firmament did seperate the waters from the waters the Eternall gathered together the sublunary ones and their Collection he called Sea From the opposition of a Diameter the dry Land appeared which he named Earth and both these framed one Globe the which in the middle of the Earth should be therefore a little more eminent or standing out because in the midst of the earth it should gape with a huge gulf from whence a Fountain should break forth appointed for the moystening of the earth For if neither besides the wonted roundness of the Globe whereby all lines do equally differ from their Center within their Circumference the earth in its middle had not been far deeper the Fountain could not have thence run down unto the more steep Sea but straight way from its beginning had stood as a pool Whence I conceive that the earth in the beginning was con-tinuall or holding together and undivided Because it was that which wholly ought to be watered by one onely Fountain Lastly neither that it had Islands but the whole Globe shewed in one part Sea and in the other Land This indeed was the face of the World before the floud Under which afterwards the earth did cleave into divers divisions and from the deep pit of chaps the waters abundantly brake forth The great falls of waters as well of the Iower abysse as of the Heavens were opened that they might wholly drown the whole Globe of the earth Great God I thou intendest to cut off thy Vine from the unprofitable branch and to punish the World for its desert but yet thou couldest not abstain but being mindefull of thy Fatherly affection in the midst of thy most just anger thou seperatest the earth and rentest it asunder for their greater profit necessity and Commodity The Sea which being onely one stood onely on the whole side of the Globe thou sendest over into divers Coasts of the earth neither ceasest thou from a new blessing upon the ungrateful work of thy hands For upon the earth guilty in thy sight thou abundantly powrest out the lively effusions or showers of thy super-celestiall waters which do far exceed the dew in fruitfulness But the earth being sufficiently made drunken with them again appeared and incontinently returned to her wonted Workmanships
At length the one onely Fountain and Spring of waters which thou hadst placed in the heart and top of the Earth is afterwards spread abroad into a thousand veins which did almost every where pierce thorow the Globe of the earth to far better uses And moreover thou hast also dashed the Sea almost into every Creek of the earth that there might be the greater fellowship of Mortalls thereby Therefore if thy punishment be blessed and happy what shall the free gifts of thy blessings be Oh Lord keep us for the exceeding greatness of thy goodness within that number who shall praise thy great and mighty deeds for ever in the sanctifying of thy name But although that one onely Fountain now ceased neither Lands being now rent asunder one alone was not enough yet perhaps the same entrance of waters remained Because in the sweet Sea between Roest and Loefelt according to the Table of Gothland a Gulf of waters is described by Olaus whereinto Ships Marriners being not aware and their endeavours being in vain are supt up For indeed it is the mouth into which the waters of that Ocean do fall and by one onely passage were before the Floud carried thence unto the aforesaid Fountain But afterwards that passage like the hollow vein was diversly distributed and hedged in by a Rock by some thousands of veins ending upon the face of the Quellem from which afterwards the waters being drunk up do hasten from far unto their appointed offices Moreover that Whirle-poole or Gulf if it ought to be any where and Olaus be a true Writer or if not at leastwise it is fitly in the Sea as well for the sweetness of the Sea as for the long and round figure of the World by me straightway to be proved In the next place if one onely Fountain were for the moystening of the Earth the aforesaid Whirle-poole shall be sufficient especially because the bottom of the Sea hath the Sand Quellem longly and largely laying open which would be sufficient for the drinking up the water And the rather because the Sea doth sometimes wash upon and rince the earth on every side and thorow many middle spaces Therefore the Sea being supt up in the said Whirle-poole it is by little and little brought thorow stony Channels and hence by lesser pipes thorow a great part of the earth Notwithstanding they are scarce over whelmed beneath the Soil Keyberch but as often as the veins of the Whirle-poole do cut or touch at the Quellem rising up thorow middle places and rushing forth into a Fountain indeed the sweet veins do perish and veins of Sea-Salt are produced Otherwise the briny Liquor if there be also any in the Gothick Sea doth through the lively Archeus of the Earth lose by degrees the nature of Salts or if the Ferments of Salts in places do any where exist those very waters do put on the seeds as well of divers Salts as of Stones and Mettalls and are changed into the same fruits For so neat gemme nitre aluminous vitriolated Sea Salts do grow of the water they as it were promising the first birth of the water to themselves And then from hence they do decline or decay into Bur or the first off-spring of Mineralls and degenerate by the guidance of the seeds So some fruits of the water do stop up the passages of their own Fountain and by their last ripeness do attain the perfection of that Minerall whose appointments the seeds did bear before them which were entertained in the Ferments of places Moreover as that Northern Whirlepoole or Gulf doth also sup up Fishes within it so it sups up the same exceeding small ones the greater being detained within the Channels Where oft-times they are either made Rockie or wax filthy through putrifying or also are seasoned with the Balsam of the soils as also that Fishes are oft-times found digged up which the Husband-man and others being amazed at do think they were born in undue places and without a seed Furthermore whether the Conduits have received the water or at length have drunk up that Quellem the waters are at least there endowed with a lively and seminall property For no otherwise than as a vein even in a dead Carease preserveth the bloud contained in it from coagulating or curdling which is a corruption of the first degree truly by a stronger Reason that right agrees to the veins of the earth which is not yet dead Therefore the water is supt and drawn within the lively soil of the Earth whence it having gotten a common life Come let us worship the King by whom all things live it knoweth not the Scituations of places it easily ascendeth unto the tops of Mountains without trouble together with the Quellem that it may from thence send forth fountains without ceasing VVhich things surely being unknown to the Schooles they have left that place of the wise man Coheleth or the Preacher scanty or barren where he saith all Rivers hasten towards the Sea the which notwithstanding doth not therefore re-gorgethem again For truly Rivers do return to the place from whence they came forth that they may flowagain Which words have been corrupted heretofore with divers modellings or qualifications Because springs in the tops of Mountains were not seen to proceed from the Sea whither they at length do rush Therefore Springs have been hitherto falsely judged by the Schooles to take their Beginnings and Causes from Air condensed or co-thickned by the force of cold between the hollow places of Mountains ready to fall upon each other The which I in a little Book concerning the Fountains of the Spaw printed in the year 1624 at Leidon have shewne that they have themselves after the manner now delivered in this place Therefore the true originall of true Springs being manifested it hitherto remains unknown to the Schooles The Scripture-Text entire and cleared But seeing the same Law course and re-course of waters from the Quellem into Fountains and at length from Fountains into the Sea was kept no lesse in dayes wherein it hath not rained for three years and more than when the whole year doth almost wax barren with a continual showre we must know that it is sumcient for the Earth that it doth not send forth such bountiful Springs through its Water-pipes and steep-running Brooks as by the common besprinkling of Dew and Rain Moreover before I shall come to the unchangeable substance of the water wherein the Schooles do promise that Air is easily changed into water and this likewise into it I will first clear up another Paradox To wit that the Globe being composed of Earth and Water is indeed round from the East thorow the West into the East yet not from the North into the South but long and round or of the figure of an Egge Which thing in the first place hath much deceived Saylors Because the Waters do slide with a more swift course from North to South than otherwise
retorted or struck back by an Alembick it returns into its antient weight of water Yet it may be doubted whether water consumed by the cold of the air is not changed into the nature and properties of air Because after the floud the Almighty sent the windes that they might dry the face of the Earth And even unto this day water is sooner supt up under the most cold North than in Summer heats Also a Fountain falling into a place or Vessel of Stone or Marble under the most chilled cold with a continuall Gulf the motion of the steep falling Fountain hinders indeed the water from congealing yet a certain vapour is seen to ascend which being straightway invisible is snatched away in the Air. That which is presupposed is that the every way nature of air is at least consumed by cold if not by heat First of all I answer that absurdity being granted the Schooles in the first place have not any thing for themselves from thence that therefore the air by it self should be moyst so far is it that the air as they determine should be far moyster than the water Because it is at least water dried up For that which is transchanged doth alwayes loose the properties which it had in the terme or bound from which and borroweth the qualities of the thing transchanging For however either the whole air was sometimes water or that onely should be moyst which was born of water but the other first-born air should be dry from its Creation And so there should be two aires essentially different But that the air in its own purity is dry by an inward property it appeares from the objection of the aforesaid cold because if the air from its Root were moyst windes had not been sent to dry the Earth But if indeed through the windes the waters of the floud were truly changed into air there should be much more air after the floud than before Consequently either some part of the World had been empty or certainly now by reason of a pressing together and thickning caused by a new air of so great an heap we should be choaked which thing shall hereafter be manifested by the handicraft operation of a Candle or an equall part of air ought successively to had been annihilated or brought to nothing under the generation of so great a new air For the Text will have it that so deep waters and the whole superficies of the Earth also was dryed by the windes Or if before the floud the waters had been air in the floud-gates of Heaven in like manner therefore in the whole floud there had been an emptiness in those floud-gates of Heaven to wit if the water be thicker and more condensed by a hundred fold at least than the air Therefore I lay it down for a position That the water doth never perish indeed not through cold or that it can be changed by any endeavours of nature or art and likewise that the air in no ages or by no dispositions not so much as in one onely small drop can be reduced into water For the water doth not endure an emptiness as neither the co-pressing of it self in being pressed together by any moover Onely it is pressed together in a seminall in-thickning through a formal transchanging of it self But on the contrary the air cannot subsist without a Vacuum or emptiness which thing I will prove in its Chapter and therefore it suffers an enlarging and straightning of it self Therefore there are two stable Elements differing in nature and properties among themselves because it is impossible for them to be changed into each other I confess indeed that out of the Stone-Vessel of a Fountain a watery exhalation doth ascend like a mist from the smallest Atomes of the water which exhalation although departing but a little from thence it be made altogether invisible it doth not therefore corrupt the Doctrine delivered For truly of one equall agent there is one onely and equall action Wherefore if cold doth first change the water into an icy exhalation the same cold cannot afterwards have another action upon that exhalation than of more extenuating and dispersing the same so as that through its fineness it may soon be made invisible And afterwards may be made more and more fine For neither could the hundredth extenuation of the same exhalation more transchange the water than the first Because it is an Element and Body impossible by its appointment to be reduced into a greater simplicity since subtilizing made by the division of parts is nothing but a certain simple shifting For example Beat Gold into Plates and then into the thinnest leaves but thence into the Gold of Painters straightway again make it smooth or plain in a Marble Morter And then with minium or red Lead and Salt bring it into an impalpable or exceeding fine Powder seperate the minium by the fire and wash away the Salt with water and repeat or renew it often as thou listest At length also with Sal armoniac Stibium and Mercurie Sublimate drive it through a retort and renew that seven times that the whole Gold may be brought into the form of a flitting Oil of a light red colour For it is a very smooth yea and a hard sound that which may be hammered and a most fixed Body which now seemeth to be turned into the nature of an Oil. But truly that dissembled Liquor is easily reduced into its former weight and body of Gold What if therefore Gold doth not change its antient nature by so many manglings nor doth by any meanes loose its own seed much lesse doth water a thing appointed for a simple Element by the Lord of things for the upholding of the Universe Although water should be potent in the three divulged Beginnings and should truly consist in Salt Sulphur and Mercurie mingled together yet it suffers no seperation of the same things by reason of the most exquisite simpleness of its nature and the most firm continuance of its constancy For Bodies when they are made subtile or fine to the utmost that they could be no more fine if they should continue in making them fine at length they depart into another substance with a retaining of their seminall properties And in this respect the Alkahest of Paracelsus by piercing all Bodies of nature transchangeth them by making them subtile Which happens not in the Elements Water and Air because by reason of their highest simplicity and priority of their appointment they refuse to passe or to be transchanged into any thing that is before or more simple than themselves Therefore when exhalations being gotten with child by the odours or smells and seeds of compound Bodies are translated from the lower parts to the middle Region of the air there through the most subtile dividing of the vapours by cold as much as is possible for nature to do they are reduced indeed into their most simple and primitive purity of Elementary water but in
oftner because the number of Commissionary smitings did contain the number of Victories and repeated turns of the enemy as yet to be beaten Therefore for the keeping of peace with my friend I have explained my self I confess I say willingly that I would not search into Divine Mysteries But the manner and meanes which God useth in the Earth-quake I have attained onely by conjecture But neither at length have I desired to make these things known nor that I might be taken notice of as a brawler but that the fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom may arise from the trembling of the Earth D. Streithagen Cannon of Hemsberg in his Germane Flourish hath writ down a Chronograph or Verse of the time of this Earthly trembling by reason of its unwonted strangeness and largeness of the places Smitten the 4th of April was the Earth with tumult wide From which unwonted slaughter covered Bodies down do slide From the face of the Lord the Earth was moved from the face of the God of Jacob. CHAP. XVIII The fiction of Elementary Complexions and Mixtures 1. Why the Earth hath seemed not to be a primary Element 2. That the fire is neither a substance nor an accident 3. That all visible things are materially of water onely 4. Why the place of the Air which is called the middle Region is cold 5. What the three first things of the Chymists may be 6. Some Bodies are not reduced into the three first things 7. The unconstancie of Paracelsus 8. The errour of the Chymists 9. The reducing of the three first things into the water of a Cloud is demonstrated 10. The swift or volatile Salt of simple Bodies may be fixed by co-melting 11. The three first things were not before but are made in seperating and that indeed a new Creature 12. The Oil of things is nothing but water the seed of the compound Body being abstracted or withdrawn 13. The same thing is proved in a live Coal 14. What the wilde Gas of things is 15. How a Gas is bred in the Grape 16. The Gas of Wines 17. Why much of the Grape may hurt 18. That the Gas of new Wine is not the Spirit of Wine 19. An erroneous opinion of Paracelsus 20. A twofold Sulphur in Tinne from whence the lightness of the same 21. Gun-powder proves Gas 22. Some things do mutually transchange themselves into Gas. 23. The mutuall unsufferableness of some things that are melted together 24. That Gas materially is not Earth or Air. 25. The same thing by a supposition of a falshood and seven absurdities 26. That a mixt Body is not converted into an Element by the force of an Element the Conquerour 27. A Handicraft operation of the Liquor Alkahest 28. Gas is wholly of the Element of Water 29. It is proved by the Handicraft operation of a live Coal 30. By Handicraft operation that every Vegetable is totally and materially of water alone 31. So a stone is wholly of water 32. Fishes and all fatness are wholly of water 33. Every smoak is onely of water 34. All Sulphurs are reduced into a smoak and Gas but these are reduced into water 35. Why fire cannot make Air of Water 36. Ashes and Glasse are of Water alone 37. The Gas of Salts is nothing but an un-savourie Water 38. The Gas of fruits is nothing but water 39. The Comments or devises of Schollars concerning exhalations 40. Naturall Philosophie is in darkness without the Art of the fire 41. The spirit or breath of life is materially the Gas of the Water 42. The sweat before death is not sweat but the melting of a Liquor 43. By an Endemicall or common Gas we are easily snatched away I Have said that there are two primary Elements the Air and the Water because they do not return into each other but that the Earth is as it were born of water because it may be reduced into water But if water be changed into an Earthy Body that happens by the force or virtue of the Seed and so it hath then put of the simpleness of an Element For a flint is of water which is broken asunder into Sand. But surely that Sand doth lesse resist in its reducing into water than the Sand which is the Virgin-Earth Therefore the Sand of Marble of a Gemme or Flint do disclose the presence of the Seed But if the Virgin-earth may at length by much labour be brought into water and if it was in the beginning created as an Element yet it seemes then to have come down to something that is more simple than it selfe and therefore I have called those two Primary ones I have denied the fire to be an Element and Substance but to be death in the hand of the Artificer given for great uses I say an artificial Death for Arts which the Almighty hath created but not a natural one But now I take upon me to demonstrate that Bodies which are believed to be mixt are materially the fruits of water onely neither that they have need of the Wedlock of another Element to wit that Bodies whether they are dark or clear sound or fluide bodies of one and the same kindâ— or those that are unlike Suppose them to be Stones Sulphurs Mettalls Hony wax Oils a Bone the Brain a Grisle Wood Barke Leaves lastly that all things and all particular things are wholly reduced into a water altogether without savour and so that they do consist and are contained in simple water onely For indeed most of those things are destroyed by fire and do straightway of their own accord give their part to the water which part although it after some sort resembles the nature of the composed body at length at least-wise the contagion of that composed Seed being taken away that water or Mercury of things returns into the simple and un-savoury water of rain So Oils and fats being seperated by the fire a little of the Alcali Salt being added to them do at length assume the nature of Soap and depart into Elementary water yea whatsoever things are inflamed by an open fire in the very entertainment of the Clouds are reduced voluntarily into water For such was the necessity of the cold of that place as I have already taught above that whatsoever things should rise up thither from the lower places should forget their seeds by the mortall cold in that place and their sub-division into a Gas of almost infinite Atomes For Salt Sulphur and Mercurie or Salt Liquor and Fat are in the most speciall particular kindes or Species not indeed as certain universall Bodies which are common to all particular kindes but they are similar or like parts in composed bodies being distinguished by a three-fold variety according to the requirance of the seeds Therefore if the seminall properties shall the more toughly remain in the three things now seperated then by things being admixed with them the impressions of those properties are taken away and estranged
manner of a dew but I believe it to be framed in all the least Kitchins of the parts whereby it may moysten the same and for that cause defend them from dryness the calamity of old age as much and as long as it can At length that dew doth unperceiveably flee thorow the pores of the skin neither doth it leave any thing of a solid sediment remaining behinde it For so do nourishments at length exspire thorow the skin in the shew of a Vapour and like water But the Schooles will have this secondary humour after that it hath slidden like a dew into the parts to be assimilated or made like them and to be informed by the Soul But I permit it to be assimilated onely under the growing of youth but no longer afterwards seeing that neither is it any longer turned into the substance of the similar parts For which way should that dew be assimilated to a Bone in strength hardness and driness c. if the bones do now no longer receive an increase Let the same judgement be of the other parts for all particular things in nature have a birth an increase a state or standing a declining and a death This is therefore the Tragedy and Metamorphosis or transforming of the bloud by the virtue of the seed But otherwise the bloud being distilled doth at length lay down much of its salt Coal neither hath it any manner of volatility which the operation of the ferment doth consequently grant unto it under the other digestions Because heat seeing it wanteth a transmutative ferment of things it onely seperates the parts but doth not change them Therefore the bloud doth obtain its aforesaid ferments in the very Cook-roomes of our body and is thereby made so volatile that moreover it leaveth no remainder of it selfe I admire at Paracelsus that he teacheth the bloud to be the universall Mercurie of the body as also of meats yet that he will have sweat to be an excrementitious Sulphur Seeing all bloud doth exhale thorow the skin but if together with the watery Liquor or juyce of sweat but a very little of fat flowes out it is not therefore presently of Mercury made Sulphur unless he be unmindfull of his own Doctrine Although something of fatness may infect our garments in manner of sweat for greases are not unchangeable but they perish daily even as they do increase Surely I have hated the proportionable resemblance of the principles of Paracelsus brought back into the three principles of nature because they are those things which are neither in bodies actually nor are they present nor are seperated unless by changing them first as it were by the fire or by the reducement of melting they are prepared as it were new things For truly I do willingly behold a naked naturall Phylosophy every where surely I do not apply figures or moving forces in Mathematicall demonstration unto nature I shun proportionable resemblance as also metaphoricall speeches as much as I can I have dedicated every necessity of nature to the seeds but the seeds of many things I fetch not so much from the Parents as from the Ferments There are therefore double Ferments in nature one indeed containeth in it a flowable air the seminall Archeus which aspireth by its flowing into a living Soul But the other doth onely contain the beginning of the moving or the generation of a thing into a thing The which indeed although in its beginning it should not have a seminall air which may embrace or contain the aims of things to be done yet it straightway obtains a vapour which as well the locall ferments as those things which the disposition of the matter it self attaineth by externall nourishing warmth do awaken Whence something like an Archeus is made which changeth fitteth and increaseth it self and its own perceived entertainment Moreover afterwards it acteth the other things unto a proportion of perfection and to what is required of that air For this seed doth at first abound with a certain and that a genericall largeness For although it rejoyceth to have directed the masse subjected under it unto the scope of the conceived ferment yet oft-times it receiveth the fewels of a more hidden light from elsewhere and a rash boldness being taken it aspireth also into a living soul For from hence not onely lice wall-lice or flies breeding in Wood Gnats and Worms become the guests and neighbours of our misery and are as it were bred or born of our inner parts and excrements but also if a foul shirt be pressed together within the mouth of a Vessel wherein Wheat is within a few dayes to wit 21 a ferment being drawn from the shirt and changed by the odour of the grain the Wheat it self being incrusted in its own skin transchangeth into Mice and it is therefore the more to be wondered at because such kinde of insects being distinguished by the Signatures of the Sexes do generate with those which were born of the seed of Parents That from hence also the likeness or quality of both the seeds and a like vitall strength of the ferments may plainly appear And which is more wonderfull out of the Bread-corn and the shirt do leap forth not indeed little or sucking or very small or abortive Mice but those that are wholly or fully formed Now and then the lowsie evill ariseth in us and a louse mans upper skin being opened goes forth he is also otherwise generated in the pores being not indeed enclosed in the Egge-shell of a nit but small and scarce to be beheld But the gnat is alwayes not generated but by the ferment being drawn more outward Neither hath it been sufficient to have said in the Schooles that such insects do proceed from putrified things For Birds Eggs also do notably putrifie and stink hugely before the constituting of a chick Therefore life is in those putrified things no lesse than in Eggs nor is it sufficient to have doubted from whence those kindes of Insects may draw a uniform and specificall vitall spirit out of our Body seeing a natural generation doth presuppose an imprinted Seal of likeness For truly in an irregular generation an Archeus sufficeth not indeed a humane one but such a one which by a fermental virtue and for identity or sameliness sake doth alwayes generate in excrements such Insects of a like or an equall form And so although in respect of us it be a monstrous and irregular generation yet it is naturall and ordinary in order to its causes to wit we affording onely a ferment and nourishing warmth therefore the ferment of the shirt being sprinkled on the Wheat doth resolve the matter by going or entring backwards and so a youthful mouse but not a new one is born For that it hath respect unto another manner of making Therefore in the former and vitall seedes the generater inspires the Archeus and the vitall air together with the masse of the seed with his own likeness But in the
principiating material cause from a formal effect So I have sufficiently and over-proved that neither of them is true For it hath hitherto been unknown that all Bodies are materially of water onely Indeed Paracelsus had seen Mettals and Wood to stonifie and to be immediately reduced into a Salt yet he knew not that the hardness of things as also their solidity compactedness and weight is not from the nature of his thorowly taught principles because they are those things which are demonstrated to be non-beings in the nature of principiating as neither from a material virtue elementarily but onely from the appointment of the Seeds Therefore I collect two things one is that Paracelsus is unconstant to himself touching the Coagulum or curd of Bodies and concerning Tartars But the other is that the Maxim of Aristotle falls to the ground That for which every thing is such that thing it self is more such For although hardness do proceed from the Seed and its appointments the Seeds ought not therefore to be harder than the things constituted For the Archeus which disposeth the bones to their hardness is not therefore harder than the bones yea neither are the means directed to the end more hard solid or compacted than the things constituted For Aristotle being readily inclined unto Maxims brought over his experiences from artificial things into nature therefore hath he every where slid in nature because he being wholly ignorant of nature doth miserably quarrel CHAP. XXXIII Tartar is not in drink 1. Some suppositions proved before 2. That Tartarers are not in things constituted 3. Three Monarchies of things whence a threefold stone 4. It far differs from the Tartar of Wine 5. The Stone in man is made from errour but not from the intention of Nature 6. An Argument from the like is not of value 7. Some Arguments taking away Tartar out of drink 8. An opposite Argument 9. The rashness or heedlesness of the Schools 10. Two Histories 11. The boastings of Paracelsus 12. The swellings in the neck or Kings-Evill are not from Tartar 13. Wine is innocent of humane Tartar 14. Whether stony or Rockie waters do contain Tartar 15. Whence there are Strumaes or swellings in mans neck and not in that of Bruits 16. A Remedy against those swellings 17. A Remedy against Scirrus's and swelling pimples in the face 18. A preoccupation or prevention 19. A distinction by a Maxim VVHatsoever Arguments do take away Tartar out of Meats are like premises in this place But seeing waters do immediately wax stony the proposition is to be confirmed by a stronger Engine In the first place I have taught that every Stone is immediately the Son of water but not of Tartar And then that the concretion or growing together of every Body is from the Seed but not from the Law of Tartar Thirdly that the concretion appointed by the Seed is from the integrity of nature and so from the gift of Creation but not from Tartar which according to Paracelsus is nothing but the excrement of a thing But a natural product is of its Mother matter but not of a step-mother and moreover of a seminal or efficient beginning in which all the figures Idea's and knowledges of things to be done are At length the Types or figures of Tartars are not in things by Creation framed for our destruction as neither a Medicine of destruction in the Earth what therefore doth it make to the introducing of the nature of Tartat into Diseases that a stone is the fruit of water if the condition of Tartar be not in a stone Or that Tartar is the fruit of Wine if there be no such thing in other things For what doth it prejudice nature if the phantasie deluding a Stone external or the Stone internal with a name shall call it Tartar And he weakly enough and without proof affirmeth that Stones and every solid Body do mutually agree with Tartar of Wine in every property For truly that his own assertion is free without truth and probability For the Stone in us is generated by another seed mean and progress than Tartar out of Wine or a Stone out of water are To wit there are three Monarchies of Bodies in the Universe the Animal Vegetable and Mineral therefore there is a threefold Stone and that distinct in the whole Monarchy For a Mineral Stone differs from the Case of the Kernel of Medlers Peachies c. and both these again from the Stone of Crabs Bezoar Snall-shels Fish-stones the Stone of Man c. Again those three Stones do also far differ from the Tartar of Wine which is not to be reckoned among Stones seeing it is the concreted Liquor of a Salt For a Mineral is either a Rockie Stone which may be turned into Lime or a small Stone which is not calcined as Gems Marbles Flints But both are now concluded in one onely name of Petra or a Rock But a Vegetable Stone seeing it is burnable as the Jeat or Agath otherwise also Mineral Sulphurous Stones it is rather a knotty Wood than a Rockie Stone But an Animal Stone is rather a stony bone because it is partly burnt than a Rockie Stone Also for distinction of the stone of man from other stones that is by Paracelsus called Duelech Because rockie stones as well the mineral as vegetable ones are fruits natural necessary and of the first intention in creating But Duelech is onely a Disease and like to a monster But in other enliâ—ened Creatures the stone hath obtained a profitable appointment Whence it is made manifest that although waters do beget a Rockie stone yet that they do not therefore follow the essence seed and manner of generation out of the Tartar of Wine For Duelech after sin doth from a diseasie excrement but not from the intention of nature nor from a Rockie or tartarous matter but by accident to wit through the errour of the faculty breed a diseasie seed through the necessity of a connexed agent wherefore I do not admit of Tartar rather in drink than in meat but if it be potentially in Wine that comes to passe by the necessity of a connexed agent and by accident neither can it have place of exercising forces or actuating in us to wit that by a power a potential Tartar may be actuated in us and therefore I do not admit of a tartarous generation in drink appointed by God for our destruction for what if bones are found in the flesh and the seeds of a Mineral Rock are stablished in the waters shall therefore the seed and immediate matter of bones be in Fountains or the seed of a Mineral Rock and its immediate matter be in the flesh or venal bloud If not in the venal bloud then neither therefore in drink and meat For death is not the handy-work of God And God saw that whatsoever things he had made they were good as well in his own intention of goodness as in the essence of the Creature Therefore there is
undigestions as they do contain strange or forreign things But they do not therefore materially contain Duelech in them altbough they do occasionally destroy digestion do imprint a rockie middle life whence the enfeebled vegetative faculty of man puts on that wild inclination But that makes nothing for the Author of Tartars For truly it is a far different thing to be made stony occasionally from a stonifying virtue of the middle life of things imprintingly and sealingly introduced into the Archeus and to be made to have the stone from Tartar melted and resolved in waters which at length in the period of dayes may re-assume its former coagulation in the drinker For this latter to be in Nature I deny but the former I affirm to be among ordinary effects But as concerning Strumaes or Kings-Evil-swellings in the Neck and swelling pimples in the face many think that they proceed from mineral waters being drunk also Paracelsus from the use of waters of an evil juyce or disposition But I could wish according to the mans own Doctrine that he may shew by the fire those evil juyces in waters whose property it is to be coagulated onely in our last digestion nor elsewhere than about the neck or throat-bone But I know that he never found in waters such a Tartar Therefore he may be condemned by his own Law wherein he gives a caution that none is to be believed but so far as he is able to demonstrate that thing by the fire I confess indeed that there is in the water a middle life whose property it is to stir up the Archeus and to infect it in the exchanging of good nourishment but not of a forreign Tartar existing in it materially into a Rockie hardness But unto Strumaes a matter is required which by the property of its own Archeus may be bred to stop up our jawes and as it were to strangle us and that without the tast of astriction or an earthly sharpness or harshness for otherwise this tast sticking fast in the bosom of the matter being ripened by the first digestion dieth and which being transchanged into nourishment and retaining the antient virtues of the middle life performs its power more about the throat than elsewhere which power being left to it by an heredicary right in nourishments and from hence in the venal bloud doth convert the nearest nourishment of solid Bodies into a Rockie excrement which goes unto the throat by a strangling faculty of the directer And I narrowly examining that thing in Germany have found Mushromes to be strong in the aforesaid poyson of strangling and that those do often grow out of the Root of a Fountain the Fir-tree and Pine-trees in steep Rocks toward the North where black Agarick an Heir of the same crime is often in the Trunk or Stem I have learned therefore that the whole Leffas or Planty juyce of the Earth is there defiled with a Mushromy disposition Therefore I have believed that hard swellings of the Neck are bred by the use of Herbs and waters which have drunk in this sort of Leffas Furthermore that an Archeal power of the middle life in things doth beget Strumaes but not a reviving ill juycy Tartar of the water the thing it self doth speak For otherwise a Struma should bewray it self no lesse in the bottom of the Belly and Liver nor more slowly than in the throat For River or ill juicy waters do not respect the throat nor should promise so great hardness Not surely should the hard swelling of the neck or throat dissolve by an astrictive and earthy Remedy whereby I have many times seen very great Strumaes or hard swellings of the Neck to have vanished away in one onely month and the strangling suddenly brought on people by a poysonous Mushrome to be cured which Remedy is on this wise Take of Sea-Sponge burnt up into a Coal 3 ounces of the bone of the Fish Sepia burnt long Pepper Ginger Pellitory of Spain Gauls Sal gemmae calcined Egg-shels of each 1 ounce mix them with the stilled water of the aforesaid Spongei and let it be dried up by degrees Take of this Powder half a dram with half an ounce of Sugar the Moon decreasing that it being melted by degrees may be swallowed Or make a Lincture or Lohoch It shall also disperse Botium or the swelling pimpâ—â— in the face Others for want of the Sponge did take the hairy excrescency growing on wild Rose-Trees very like to the outward Rhine of the Chesnut rough and briery or hairy the powder of which alone they did use succesfully Likewise I have used an unction in Strumaes and Schirrus's Of Oyl of Bay not adulterated by Hogs-grease 8 ounces of Olibanum Mastich Gum Arabick Rosin of the Fir-tree of each 3 ounces distil them then distil them again with Pot-Ashes If therefore the hard swelling of the Neck or a hard Scirrhus elsewhere should grow together from a forreign Tartar it should rather wax hard by hot Remedies neither should it be so easily dissolved Therefore the Struma is a defect of the Archeus the transchanger and not through the coagulation of Tartar even as concerning Duelech or the stone in man I have more clearly and abundantly demonstrated For the Archeus transchangeth every masse subjected unto him unless being overcome by a more powerful middle life he shall give place Therefore the Strama is of good venal bloud on which a strangling power of the middle life is felt And Botium or the swelling pimple of the face a remedy being taken perisheth which is not for dissolving a Rockie matter if it were of Tartar brought over thither otherwise it is altogether impossible that Tartar if there should be any should conceive a breathing hole of our life be made lively be co-sitted to the members and be admitted inwards unto the last digestion conceive a ferment of the Arterial bloud but to be discussed or blown away by an unsensible transpiration as also Schirrhus's bred of vital venal bloud the aforesaid Remedy being administred But besides the contention is not about the Asses shadow for truly it is not all one to have denied Tartar to be materially in meats and drinks and likewise to remain throughout the shops of the digestions and therefore at length to be coagulated in miserable men and it is far remote from thence to admit of a thing in us to be transchanged out of a good Cream Chyle or venal bloud into an evil one by virtue of the middle life transplanting the directions of the Archeus For as there is one order of generation so also is there every where another of fore-caution and healing Therefore there is no foundation truth appearance or necessity of tartarizing For which way doth it conduce to devise Tartar to be the stubborn Prince of coagulations which oweth his Birth to a fiction For truly the dispositions coagulations and resolutions of things do depend on their own Seeds Duelech is made no lesse of the purest
the Legs is recocted into good Blood about the Ancles without the Shop of Sanguification and dominion of the Liver That is that the once out-hunted and cocted Blood is by a forreign agent and unfit organ at length received into favour that it doth by an inspired motion retire into the mouths of the Veines and is received or associated as equally fit for vital Offices But whence do they spend so much labour in drying up of the Dropsical affect that they can scarce command a possible abstinence of one year from liquid things if the Dropsie be the vice of the one Digestion of the Liver Why do they referre it among Diseases offending onely in moisture the which was to be attributed unto a full half Digestion For I will first dispute about the Liver and under the same by-work I will discover the occasional cause of the Dropsie I saw a certain un-savory Simple nor by any meanes to be manifested administred by a Physitian in the Suspition of the Stone of the Kidneys which suspended the Urine for eights dayes and even unto death the which presently before death was loosed and then it throughly be-pissed the bed cloathes The Disease brought forth another thing like it For truly neither in the Urine-pipe or Bladder appeared any obstacle after dissection But he had his left Kidney triangular free or undamnified from all obstruction and Stone But the right Kidney was plainely monstruous and scarce of the bigness of a Filburd-nut Therefore he had pissed 76 years with his left Kidney not letted or stopped That the Liver therefore is guiltless in the Dropsie I will declare my experiences For because the precepts of the Schooles did the less satisfie me in the Dropsie therefore I was wont being as yet a young Man to hasten although not called unto the Dissections of Dropsical Bodies that I might search out the birth-places of the Dropsie For I thought with my self to what end hath there been Anatomie now for two thousand years if there be not at this day a more successful curing of the Dropsie than in times past For wherefore are we the Butchers of dead Carcases if we do not learn by the errors of the Antients If we do not amend fore-past things For we flee unto Anatomie with a prejudice and sweep the purses of Heires if we do not look into the causes of Death that we may learn the cures For truly dissection profits the Dead nothing Heires also do not expend their moneys that they may heal the dead by Anatomy and much less that they may wound the same least happily he should rise againe nor also that they may learn to cure others which are unwilling to be healed But only the dead Carcase is opened for the Physitian and that he may more perfectly learn the Heire paies the reward of his learning Thus Oxen yee that yoaked are The Plow not for your selves do beare But Physitians seeing they scarce any longer expect to learn they stand by stop their Noses and hope by the expences of the Heires for the most part to escape the mark of Death A Lawyer after divers Gripings or Wringings of his Bowels died of a Dropsie But in the Dissection we saw his Liver without blemish An English-man my Neighbour by eating his fill of roasted Porke sliding into a daylie Flux and presently after into a Dropsie he died and being dissected his Liver was seen to be unhurt Hitherto also doth the Tragedie of Count Stegrius tend In the Autumne of the year 1605. I returning out of England to Antwerp found some hundreds after a malignant and popular Fever to be dropsical I cured many and many under the unhappy experiments of others in the mean time Perished But that People have a perswasion in them that unless all the Water be drawn out of the dead Carcases the Dropsie will passe over into the next Heire And so they are Solicitous of Dissection And I certainly affirme that I found the Liver of none defiled A certain Citizen was long pained between his bastard Ribs neither breathed he without Pain at length the Conjectures of Physitians being tried he died of a Dropsie But his Liver was seen to be without hurt One pertayning to the Kings Treasurie of Brabant after a sudden pissing of Blood was long handled by Physitians in vain and thefore being sent by his Physitians unto the Fountains of the Spaw he returning began to shew a hardness in the left Side of his Abdomen under his Ribs and thereupon the Leg of that side was swollen But the chief Physitians and those of Lovain although they saw his Urine like unto that of healthy Persons and thereby did betoken his Liver to be guiltless yet they desisted not from the continual use of solutive opening and Urine-provoking things yea they gave him steel diversly masked against the obstructions of the Liver to drink And at length having a huge Abdomen he Perished with a Dropsie For neither was there place for excuse as to say they were called late who were present with him from the hour of his bloudie Pissing But his dead Carcase being dissected his Liver was found innocent But his left Kidney had swollen and that more than was meet with a clot of out-hunted Blood such as is in a boyled Gut A Major of Souldiers from a bloudie Flux which was at length appeased died of a Dropsie whose Liver notwithstanding was without blemish however the Schooles may grin A certain Merchant keeping his bed through a Colick of four months fell into a Dropsie but being dissected he had his Liver without fault A Woman of sixty years old hearing in the night Theeves at the windows and rising dashed her Belly beyond the Breast-bone against a corner of the Table But first it pained her and then her Menstru'es brake forth as she thought the which although it was little yet it desisted not but with the birth of a Dropsie it also expurged into the masse of a greater Tympanie But she being dissected Her Liver offered it self undefiled Another old Woman being vexed with a more cruel Husband after inordinate menstru'es Perished with a Dropsie and shewed an unblamed Liver A certain Hand-maid hanging some washed webs of Cloath to high for her Stature sliding into a flux of the Womb at length died of a Dropsie neither offered her Liver it self guiltie to the beholders A Cuaplaine of Bruxells of the age of 31 years complaines to me of the shortness of his Breath he shews his Legs to be puffed up and his Belly to be swollen And he saith that his Cod was swelled to the bigness of ones Head For I saw that he had a face bespotted with red pricks or spects as it were with the marks of stripes He as yet celebrated the Masse yet with difficulty presently after three dayes from thence he suddenly dieth but he being dissected his Belly was found to be without water But in his Breast much Blood had choaked him And
that very thing is the first Receiver and efficiently effecter of pain But a Sword stroak bruise Corrosives c. are indeed the occasional or effective Instrumentals but not the chief efficients of pain And then seeing pain is for the most part bred in an instant Also that which is stir'd up by external objects Therefore for pain there is no need of recourse to the Brain that by reflextion it should have need as it were of a Counsellour Wherefore the Schooles going back a little from the Brain had rather receive the sinew for the chief Organ which is to perceive of the objects of Sense as they are besprinkled either with a Beam of Light or with a material bedewing of Spirits for they have not yet resolved themselves in most things continually dismissed from the Brain And so that the Brain doth deny sense and motion to the inferiour parts unlesse it doth uncessantly inspire its own favour by the Spirits its Mediatours But herein also I find many perplexities First of all I spy out divers Touchings in man To wit almost particular Touchings to be in all particular members yea in the Bowels and other parts that are almost destitute of all fellowship with sinews Such as are the Teeth themselves the Root whereof although a small Nerve toucheth yet not the Teeth themselves more outwardly The which notwithstanding to have a feeling many against their wills will testifie So the Urine-pipes want a sinew and the Scull it self under the boring of the Chirurgians wimble resounds a wonderfull sense even into the Toes I have believed therefore that there could not be so great a latitude of one Touching distributed from one onely and common Fountain the Brain or from the Nerve of a simple Texture or Composure Therefore have I supposed that which I have before already proved That Sense doth chiefly reside in the sensitive Soul which is every where present and for that cause also immediately in the implanted Spirit of the parts And that thing I have the more boldly asserted because the Brain itself which is the shop of the in-flowing Spirit doth excell in so dull and irregular a Touching as that it hath been thought to be without feeling Therefore either that Maxime falls to the ground For the which things sake every thing is such that thing it self is more such or the Brain is not the primary seat and fountain of Touching In the next place all pain is made in the place and is felt as it were out of hand Therefore also Touching is made in the place and not after an afore-made signification to the Head And moreover in Nature or at leastwise in a round figure there is not right and left and so that neither can there be a side kept for phlegme in the Palsie by its fliding down except there are in the one onely Thorny Marrow especially in its Beginning two pipes throughout its length conteining the necessity of a side which is ridiculous even to have thought especially in the slender hollownesse of the fourth Bosom For truly Motion and Sense are in one and the same muscle which receiveth a simple and flender sinew Yet in fingers that are affected with benummednesse the feeling only is oftentimes suspended Motion being in the mean time safe and free Therefore either it must needs be that Sense and Motion do not depend on the same Nerve on the in-flowing Spirit and the common principle of these or it is of necessity that from the same one onely small Nerve Motion onely and not Sense or Sense onely and not Motion hath its dependance or that there are other forreign things hitherto unknown which take away or hurt Sense onely and not Motion but other things which stop Motion alone and some things which affect both Wherefore in a more thorow attention I have beheld that the astonishment of Touching unsensiblenesse want or defect in Motion were passions that sometimes arose from a primitive mean and that those passions were then also of necessity privative As in the straining of a turning joynt in strangling c. For I have known an honest Citizen to have been thrice hung up by Robbers for the wiping him of his money's sake and that he told me that at that very moment wherein the three-legged stool was withdrawn from his feet he had lost motion sense and every operation of his mind At leastwise the fourth little Bosome of his Brain was not then filled up nor the Thorny marrow pressed together which lived safe within the turning joynts and the Cord being cut the stopping phlegme was not again taken away out of that fourth Bosome that those Functions of his Soul and Body might return into their antient state A certain Astrologer being willing to try whether the death of hanging was a painfull death cast a Rope about his Neck and bad his Son a Youth that he should give heed when he moved his Thumb after the stool was withdrawn from under his feet so as presently to cut the Cord. The Lad therefore fixing his eyes on his Fathers fingers and not beholding motion in them and looking up vards he saw his Father black and blew and his Tongue thrust forth Therefore the Cord being cut the Astrologer falls on the ground and scarce recovered after a month Almost after the same manner doth drowning proceed Wherein assoon as at the first drawing the water is drawn through the mouth into the Lungs the use of the mental faculties is lost and by a repeated draught of water the former effects are confirmed Yet neither do they so quickly dye but that if they lay on their Face that the water may flow forth even those who appear to have been a good while dead do for the most part revive or live again The pipes of the Lungs therefore being filled up with a forreign Guest the vital Beam prepetually shining from the Midriffs into the Head is intercepted From whence consequently as it were a privative Apoplexy straightway ariseth Surely it is a wonder that the Functions of the mind should on both sides so quickly fail And so that also a continued importunity and dependance of necessity from the aspiring and vital favour of inferiour parts not yet acknowledged in the Schooles is conjectured wherefore I have promoted a Treatise concerning the Duum Virate I considered therefore if the Brain be the chief Fountain and Seat of the Immortall Soul understanding and memory at least as long as the Soul was in the Brain those faculties ought to remain untouched Seeing that for Cogitation there is neither need of the Leg nor of the Arm nor of Breathing Notwithstanding hanging doth as it were at one stroak totally take away the faculties of the mind For while the jugular Arteries did deny a community with the inferiour parts or the Lungs were filled up with water presently not onely the faculties do stumble but also such a stoppage did act by way of an universal Apoplexy and
grieved Wherefore sympathy and antipathy are observed to be even in stones but in the Load-stone most manifestly the which notwithstanding cannot consist without a sense or feeling But wheresoever that sense is although it be dull it happens also that some shew of imagination agreeable to its subject doth accompany it For otherwise it is altogether impossible for any thing to love desire attract and apply that which is consonant to it self or to shun any thing adverse to it self unless a certain sense knowledge desire of and averâ—eness from the object are reciprocally present All which things do enclose in them an obscure act of feeling imagination and certain image of choice For else by what means shall a thing be moved or altered at the presence of its object unlesse it feel or percieve that very object to be present with it self If it perceive how shall it be altered except under a conception of the passion felt by it self And unlesse that felt conception doth include some certain imagination in it self Take notice Reader that in this corner all the abstruse knowledge of occult or hidden properties layeth which the Schools have banished from their diligent search they desisting from whence they were to begin according to that Maxim A Phylosopher must begin where nature ends I have therefore deliberated more exactly to demonstrate that in inanimate things â—here inhabiteth a kind of sense phantasie yea and of choice yet in a proportionable respect according to the capacity and degree of every one I do not in the mean time make mention of Zoophytes or Plant-Animals which remote absence of proving might unto many seem to be ridiculous But our paradox will offend none who moderatly understands it First of all it is not to be doubted but that some flowers do accompany the Sun as well in cleer days in those wherein the Sun doth not shine as in nights themselves they attesting that they have a motion sense and love of the Sun because without which it is impossible for them to accompany the hidden Sun For even as late in the evening they loose the Sun in the West the which while he hastens towards the East doth not operate amongst us who abide in the shadow of the earth yet in the mean time whether the night be hot be cold be cleer or rainy the flowers notwithstanding do not cease equally to bend themselves towards the east Which thing first of all poynts out that there is in them a knowledge of the rising and circuite of the Sun in what part he is to set and in what to rise cal thou it the instinct of nature or as it listeth thee For names will not change the matter the matter it self is of a deed done but the deed hath its cause in the flower But that these things do thus happen in plants vegetatively enlivened it is the lesse wonder But that they have place also in Minerals I thus prove There is almost nothing made in nature without a proper motion and nothing is moved voluntarily or by it self but by reason of the property put into it by the Creator which property the Antients name a proper love and for this cause they will have self-love to be the first born daughter of nature given unto it and bred in it for its own preservation And when this is present there is of necessity also a Sympathy and Antipathy in respect of the diversity of objects For so the feathers of other birds are said to undergo rottennesse by the feathers or wings of an Eagle and cloath made of the wools of sheep that died of their own accord is soon of its own accord in the holes which are beaten thorow it resolved as it were with rottennesse in what places the threds of the dead wool run down So a drum made of a sheep and asses skin is dumb if a neighbouring drum made of the hide of a wolf be beaten The skin of a Gulo it is a most devouring creature in Swethland stirs up in a man however sober he be and not a hunter the ordinary sleeps from hunting and eating if the party sleeping be covered with the same But what are these things to minerals Truly I proceed from the vegetable kingdom through dead things by degrees unto stones whereunto the holy Scriptures attribute great virtue For indeed stones could neither move nor alter if they had not an act of feeling of their own object For neither could red Coral wax pale if being born about it shall touch the flesh of a menstruous woman unlesse it self felt the defects thereof For the Load-stone bewrays it self as the most manifest of stones which by a proper local motion inclines it self to the North as if it were vital But not that it is drawn by the north Because if a Load-stone be placed toward the north in a woodden box in the averse part of it upon the face of a standing pool of water the box with the other and opposite corner of the stone speedily as may be rowls it self to the North Therefore if that should be done by a drawing of the north and not by a voluntary impulsive motion of the Load-stone it self the box should in like manner presently also by the same attraction yield it self unto the north bank The which notwithstanding comes not to passe but the box together with its stone remains unmoved after that the stone together with the box hath retorted it self on the requisite side and by a requisite motion It is clear therefore that the Load-stone doth of its own free accord rowl it self to the North From whence afterwards it followes that there is in it a sense knowledge and desire unto the north and also the beginning of a conformable motion Furthermore if any one doth hold a polished piece of steel nighâ— the aforesaid box toward the South-side the Load-stone then forthwith neglects the north and turns it self to the steel so that the box not only turns it self to the steel but that it wholly also swims toward the north whence also it is plain to be seen that the Load-stone is carried with a stronger appetite to the iron than to the North and that the steel hath lesse of a successive alteration in it than the North Consequently also it is manifest that it is strong in a manifest choice of objects Some have moved a frivolous doubt about this matter To wit whether the Load stone draws the iron or indeed the iron drawes the Load-stone it self As not knowing that there is a mutual attraction on both sides which comes not by little and little by reason of much familiarity neither doth it keep respects not observe the ends of its own gain fruition circumstances or consequence Neither is that drawing subject to a flatterer oâ— defamer out it is a gift originally inbred by nature in the Archeusses on either part and marked with a proprietary character by him who made all things so that indeed if