the latter hath not As we see paltry Pedlars that have all their shop in a pack hanging about their necks make ten times more noise then the best whole-sale Trades-men whose store-houses are fill'd with all sort of wares And amongst all Nations they who lie most are most offended with the Lie They who drink most are most offended with the name of Drunkard Wherefore since according to Aristotle 't is the truth and not the number or quality of the honourers which constitutes the true Honour which they arrogate most in whom the substance is least found it follows that what we call the Point of Honour is nothing but the appearance or shadow thereof The Fourth said The Point of Honour is nothing but a Desire we have to make our selves esteem'd such as we are Wherefore when a quality which belongs not to us is taken from us we are far from being so much concern'd as if it pertain'd to us So a Gentleman who makes profession of Valour will be offended if he be called Poltron but a Capuchin will not knowing well that that Virtue is not necessary to Christian Perfection The Fifth said That Honour according to the common opinion being the testimony which Men give us of our virtuous actions the Point of Honour is that conceit which our Mind proposes and formes to it self of that opinion Whence it follows that the Point of Honour thus taken being an Abstract which our Mind draws from things and not the things themselves there is nothing of reality in it but it is a pure Imagination which alters according to the diversity of times places and persons Such a thing was anciently honest i. e. laudable and becomming which is not so at present Whereof the Modes and Customs of the times past compar'd with those at this day are a sufficient evidence It was honourable at Rome to burn dead Bodies and shameful to all others saving to the single family of the Cornelii to bury them At this day to inter them is honourable but to burn them the most infamous of punishments It was in Lacedaemon an honourable thing to steal dextrously and now the reward of the craftiest Cut-purse is a Halter One thing is honest i. e. seemly in one age as for Children to blush which is dishonest i. e. unseemly in another as for old Men to do so Yea one Man will sometimes construe a thing within the Point of Honour which another will not And we sometimes conceive our selves interessed in one and the same thing and sometimes not Moreover though the Point of Honour should not admit all these mutations yet depending upon the imagination of another there can be nothing of reality in it And therefore the true Point of Honour consists not in the opinion which others have of us but in the exercise of honest and virtuous actions whether acknowledg'd for such or not yea though they be despis'd or punish'd it is sufficient to render such actions honourable that the Conscience alone judge of their goodness CONFERENCE XX. I. Of the Original of Fountains II. Whether there be a commendable Ambition I. Of the Original of Fountains THe First said That Springs and Rivers come from the Sea otherwise it would receive a great augmentation by the daily addition of their streams if it should not suffer an equal diminution by their derivation from it Therefore the Wise-man saith All Rivers go into the Sea and the Sea is not increased thereby and afterwards they return to the place from whence they came that they may go forth again Yea it would be a perpetual Miracle if after about six thousand years since the Creation of the World the Sea were not grown bigger by all the great Rivers it receives seeing the Danubius alone were it stop'd but during one year would be sufficient to drown all Europe But how can the Water of its own nature heavy and unactive especially that of the Sea be carried up to the highest Mountains As we see the L' Isere and the Durance and other Rivers descend from the tops of the Alps upon which there are Lakes and Springs in great number as in Mont-Cenis Saint Bernard and Saint Godart This proceeds from the gravity of the Earth which alwayes inclining towards its own centre bears upon the Sea and so pressing upon the Water causeth it to rise up into the veins and passages of the Earth a resemblance whereof is seen in Pumps by which passages it is strain'd and depriv'd of its saltness Which quality is easily separable from Sea-water for upon the shores of Africa there are pits of fresh Water which cannot come from elsewhere And if Water mingled with Wine be separated from the same by a cup made of Ivy wood why not the saltness of the Water too Thence also it is that Springs retain the qualities of the places through which they pass having put off those which they deriv'd from their Original The Second said That the Waters are carried upwards by the virtue of the Coelestial Bodies which attract the same without any violence it being in a manner natural to Inferior Bodies to obey the Superior and follow the motion which they impress upon them Unless we had rather ascribe this effect to God who having for the common good of all the world caus'd the Water in the beginning to ascend to the highest places it hath alwayes follow'd that same motion by natural consecution and the fear of that Vacuity And of this we have a small instance in the experiment of Syphons The Third said He conceiv'd with Aristotle that Springs are generated in cavities and large spaces of the Middle Region of the Earth which Nature who abhorreth Vacuity fills with Air insinuated thereinto by the pores and chinks and condensed afterwards by the coldness of the Earth Which coldness is so much the greater as that Region is remote from all external agents which might alter it This condensed Air is resolv'd into drops of Water and these drops soon after descending by their own weight into one and the same place glide along till they meet with others like themselves and so give beginning to a Spring For as of many Springs uniting their streams a great River is made so of many drops of Water is made a Spring Hence it comes to pass that we ordinarily find Springs in Mountains and high places as being most hollow and full of Air which becomes condens'd and resolv'd into Water so much the more easily as the Mountains are nearer the Middle Region of the Air apt by its vapourous quality to be turn'd into Water as well in those Gavities as in the Clouds or else because they are most expos'd to the coldest Winds and usually cover'd with Snow The Fourth said That there is no transformation of Elements and therefore Air cannot be turn'd into Water For whereas we see drops of Water fall from the surface of Marble or Glass 't is not that the Air is turn'd
greater vertues in times past then they have at the present as it is found amongst others in that Antidote made of tops of Rue a Nut and a Fig wherewith Mithridates preserv'd himself from all poysons and which is now out of credit but much more in man then other animals For besides the diminution which befalls him as a mixt body because he draws his nourishment from the substance of plants and animals he hath besides in himself a double ground of this decay of his strength every thing partaking of nature and its food Hence it is that we are much more short-liv'd then our fathers of old who in the flower of the world's age to speak with Plato who makes it an animal liv'd almost a thousand years and since the Deluge by the corruption which its waters overflowing the earth caus'd in the whole Universe they liv'd six hundred years but at present few attain to eighty Nor do we see any Gyants now a days though they were very frequent in old time Men's minds likewise have a great share of this deterioration in the exercise of vertues and arts Besides that there was never so great a multitude of Laws and Ordinances which are certain evidence of the depravation of manners The fourth said Besides that 't is dubious whether the years of our first Fathers were of equal length with ours the cause of their long life may be attributed to a special priviledge of God to the end they might by their long experience invent Arts and Sciences and people the world Moreover 't is above 4000 years since the term of 70 and 80 years became the common standard of humane life Our age is not more corrupted then the first made infamous by Fratricides Sodomites Incests Treasons and such other enormous sins so much the more detestable in that they had no example of them as their posterity hath had since And as for the inferior bodies since their actions are at present altogether the same with what they perform'd in the beginning of the world the Fire for example not burning less nor the Water cooling less then in Adam's time it must be concluded that they are not chang'd but remain always in the same state The Fifth said That as in the Microcosme we may judge of the corruption of the Body by the least alteration of its parts and fore-tell its death by the disorder observ'd in the most noble so we may make the like Judgement in the Maerocosme in which we see no Mixt Bodies but what are corruptible For things are no longer then they act action being the measure of their being And therefore seeing nothing can act perpetually because the virtue of every thing is bounded and finite nothing can be perpetual As Knives and the like instruments are blunted with much cutting so the qualities incessantly acting must of necessity be weakned and at length become impotent But the surest sign of the worlds corruption is the annihilation of corporeal formes the noblest parts of the universe For as for spiritual formes when they are separated from the Body they are no longer consider'd as parts of the world The Sixth confirm'd this opinion by the abundance of new diseases sprang up in these last Ages and unknown to the preceding as the Neapolitane Malady the Scurvy and sundry others which cannot proceed but from the corruption of Humours and Tempers and this from that of the Elements The Seventh said That the world is so far from growing worse that on the contrary it becomes more perfect as 't is proper to things created from a small beginning to increase and at length attain their perfection which the world having attain'd doth not decline because it is not an organiz'd body whose property it is to do so after it hath attain'd its State This is visible in Metals and particularly in Gold which the longer they remain in the Earth the more concoction and perfection they acquire Moreover the Wits of Men are more refin'd then ever For what could be more ignorant then the Age of our first Parents for whom God himself was fain to make Clothes those of their own making being onely fig-leaves In the Ages following you see nothing so gross as what was then accounted the highest degree of subtlety as the Learning of the Rabbins among the Jews and the Druids among the Gauls the best skill'd of whom might come to school to our Batchelors But their gross ignorance in Handy-crafts appears amongst others in our Flowers de Luce the figure whereof stamp'd on their Coin resembles any thing rather then a Flower de Luce. II. Of Jealousie Upon the Second Point it was said That Jealousie is very hard to be defin'd If you rank it under the Genius of Fear how comes it to make Rivals so venturous in attempting and executing If 't is a sort of Anger and Indignation whence do's it make them so pale If you assign this Passion to Man alone how do's it metamorphose them into beasts taking from them all exercise of reason If you admit it in beasts too how do's it render Men so ingenious I think they should speak best who should term it a Rage since the most Tragical Histories are fullest of its actions Yet you shall meet with some that make a laughter of it and if a Mistress changes them they also change their Mistress who when they are marry'd alwayes knock at the door though it be wide open for fear of finding what they do not seek Whereas others are jealous even of the sheets of their own bed Let us therefore rank it amongst the caprichious Passions or rather let us do like the Physitians who having given names to all the Veins and Bones term some which they know not how to call otherwise Innominate and sine pari So this Passion shall be the nameless and peerless Passion The Second said This Passion seem'd to depend on the Climates Northern people being very little subject to it whereas they of the South cannot hear Mass or Sermon unless there be a wall between the Men and the Women And Bodin saith 't was one of the things which Mendoza Gondamor the Spanish Ambassador wonder'd at most in France and England why Men went with Women into Churches Likewise Caesar saith of the English that twelve of them were contented with one Woman and agreed peaceably whereas the Indians and Africans have troops of Wives and yet Puna King of the Indians did not think his secure amongst his Eunuchs till he had disfigur'd them and cut off their Arms. The Third said that Jealousie may be compar'd to the Syrian Cow of whom the Proverb saith that indeed she fill'd the pail with her Milk but presently overturn'd it with a kick It gives Love and it gives Ruine And yet this Passion is so inseparable and so necessarily a companion of Love that it do's the same office to it which the bellows do to the furnace which it kindles For imagine a
must be such Now the Matter is not contrary to the Form Therefore Privation must That every Cause is not an Element is clear by the Final and the Efficient both of them being extrinsical to the Thing And nevertheless an Element is the least part of the Thing in which it is in Act or in Power It is also manifest that an Element is not a Principle for it is compounded and corporeal which a Principle is not Particular Principles are as various as there are several things in the world So the Principle of Divinity is the Faith Of Physick to preserve the Man and destroy the disease Of Law that which is according to Nature Reason and Custome The Principle of Understanding is Natural Evidence those of Oeconomy lawful acquisition and use of Goods Of Politicks Policy Prudence applyed to right Government Of Prudence that which is expedient to do or avoid The Principles of Mathematicks are its Axiomes As if of two equal tfiings you take away from one as much as from the other the remainder shall be equal The Principles of History are Experience and Humane Faith Of other Arts and Disciplines their Rules and Precepts The Principles of Man as Man are the Body and the Soul as a mixt Substance the Four Elements as a Natural the Liver as Vital the Heart as an Animal or Sensitive the Brain as Reasonable the Intellect The Principles of an Argument are the Major and the Minor The End is the Principle of rational Actions as the Matter in things Natural and the Idea in Artificial II. Of the End of all Things The Second Hour was imploy'd in discourse touching the End concerning which it was said First that End may be taken as many wayes as Beginning Improperly for the corruption of some thing therefore saith Aristotle Death is not an End but a terme Properly 't is the Good whereunto all things tend and 't is either first as to make a medicine or last as to cure Things which can tend to this End are divided into four Classes Some are furnish'd with Reason but not with Sense as the Angels or Intelligences Others have Reason and Sense as Man Others have Sense without Reason as Brutes Others have neither Sense nor Reason as all the rest of the Creatures Onely the two former Agents namely Angel and Man act formally for some End because they alone have the four conditions requisite for so doing viz. 1. Knowledge of the End 2. Knowledge of the Means which conduce thereunto 3. A Will to attain it And 4. Election or Choice of those Means Others act indeed for it but improperly as the Spider and the Swallow though they frame onely by a natural Instinct the one its Web the other its Neast yet attain their End and the Stone is carried by its own weight to its Centre which is its Good but without the above-mention'd conditions The Second went about to prove that some of those Animals which we account void of Reason Act formally for their End For said he not to mention the Elephant recorded by Plutarch who divided his Oates in his Master's presence as to shew him that he had but half his allowance usually given him or that other who carried his Kettle to the River and fill'd it with water to try whether it had not a hole in it Nor the Ox who never went beyond the number of buckets of water which he was wont to draw Nor the Fox which layes his Ear to the Ice to listen whether the water moves still underneath before he trust himself upon it Nor the Hart of Crete which runs to the Dittany and as they say with that herb draws the Arrow out of his flesh Is it not for the good of its young that the Swallow distills into their Eyes the juice of Celandine with which she recovers their sight From whence Men have learnt to make use of that herb against the filme of the Eye Have we not Horses which let themselves blood Ha's not the Dog election of all the wayes whereof he chooses onely that which his Master went who with all the goodly prerogatives that he ascribes to himself above him cannot do so much as his Dog And though the Example be familiar do we not see Domestick Animals whom the Apprehension of beating keeps often from doing the mischief to which their natural inclination leads them Which is not onely to know an End but amongst many to choose the best The Third reply'd That these Examples evidence the dexterity of Man's wit who knows how to apply them to his own purposes But in reality it belongs not to a Brute what ever advantage it may get by commerce with Man to know its End as an End Because the End is that which measures the Means a Mean Medium being not the better for that it is greater but for that it is fitter proportion'd to its End So when Hippocrates cures the Cramp with cold water the Cure is not less excellent then if he did it with potable Gold Now this Comparing and Measuring is a work of the Understanding The Fourth said As all other Lights disappear at the Sun 's so all the other Ends must give place to the Last which is the Supreme Good or Felicity Which being either Natural or Supernatural and this latter inexpressible It seems that the present Exercise ought to terminate in the former namely Natural Felicity This Beatitude in what ever thing it is found for Saint Augustine reckons above eight hundred Opinions about it and yet more may be added to the number consists in the most excellent Action of Man which cannot depend but upon the noblest Faculties the Understanding and the Will The Action of the former is to Vnderstand That of the Latter is to Will The Felicity then of Man consists in Vnderstanding well and in Willing well or Loving For the pleasure of Enjoyment is but the relishing of this Felicity not the Felicity it self as some have thought with Epicurus who is to be blam'd onely in this regard For it is neither true nor credible that a Philosopher could so much forget himself as the vulgar imputes to him to place the Supreme Good in Pleasures even the foulest and grossest The Fifth maintain'd That it was unprofitable to speak of a Thing which is not Meaning that pretended worldly Felicity which Men onely fancy and to that Induction which Solomon makes of all the things in which Men seek their contentment in vain he added Authorities holy and profane to shew that there is nothing happy on all sides and that Solon had reason to say That Felicity is not to be found in this Life The Sixth reply'd That what is said of the Miseries of this corruptible Life compar'd with the beatitude of the other eternal ought not to be confounded and taken absolutely That the contentments of the one cannot be too much vilifi'd in respect to the ravishments of the other of which the Pagans
nothing but Water rarifi'd and subtiliz'd by heat as also when they are reduc'd into Water by condensation this Water is nothing but Air condens'd And so Air and Water differ not but by Rarefaction and Condensation which are but Accident and consequently cannot make different species of Element Both the one and the other may be seen in the Aeolipila of Vitruvius out of which the heat of Fire causeth the Water which is therein to issue in the form of Air and an impetuous wind which is the very Image of that which Nature ordinarily doth I conceive also that the Air is neither hot nor moist nor light as Philosophers commonly hold For as to the First the Air is much more cold then hot and for one torrid Zone there are two cold Besides Heat is but Accidental to it being caus'd by the incidence and reflections of the rayes of the Sun So that this cause failing in the night when the Sun shines not or in Winter when its rayes are very oblique and their reflection weak or in the Middle Region whether the Reflection reacheth not the Air becometh cold and consequently in its natural quality since there is no External Cause that produceth that coldness As for the Second The Air dryeth more then it moistneth and if it moistneth it is when it is cold and condensed and consequently mix'd with many particles of Water and when it dryeth it is by its own heat For the Definition which Aristotle giveth of Humid and Moist is onely proper to every thing which is fluid and not stable and in this respect agrees to the Air which is fluid and gives way to all sorts of Bodies As for the Last which is its levity the harmony of the world by which all things conspire to union and so to one common Centre seemeth to contradict it For if the Air hath its Motion from the Centre the parts of the world might be disunited For the Air would escape away there being no restraint upon it by any External Surface Moreover if we judge the Air light because we see it mount above water we must also say that Wax and Oyle are light since we observe the same in them But that which they do is not mounting above the Water but being repell'd by the Water And so the principal of Motion being External the same is violent and not natural Whereas when the Air descends into the Well it descends thither naturally there being no External Cause of that descent For Vacuum not existing in Nature cannot produce this Effect Since according to the received Maxime Of a Thing which is not there can be no Actions Besides it would be it self-cause of its own destruction and do contrary to its own intention preserving Nature by this Action whereas it is an Enemy to it and seeketh the ruine thereof Lastly Since many Particles of Air being condens'd and press'd together give ponderosity to a thing as is seen in a Baloon or foot-ball it must needs be ponderous it self for many light Bodies joyn'd together are more light The Second said That the difference between Water and Air is as clear as either of those Elements For that the Vapours which arise from the Water by means of the Suns heat and the wind which issueth out of the abovesaid Vessel full of Water and placed upon the Fire cannot be call'd Air saving abusively But they are mixts actually compos'd of Water and Fire For the rayes of the Sun entring into the Water raise it into Vapour And the Fire infinuating it self by the Pores of the Vessel into the Water which it containeth causeth the same to come forth in the form of wind which is compos'd of Fire and Water Of Fire because the property of Fire being to mount on high it lifts up that subtiliz'd Water with it self Of Water because this Vapour hath some coldness and humidity whence meeting with a solid Body it is resolv'd into Water because the Fire alone passeth through the Pores of that Body Besides Water being moist and Air on the contrary dry as the precedent opinion importeth they cannot be the same thing And since all Alteration is made between two different things Water and Air transmuting one into another as it hath been said cannot be the same Lastly as there are two Elements whereof one is absolutely light as the Fire the other absolutely heavy as the Earth So there are two which are such but in comparison with the rest The Water compar'd with the Earth is light because it floateth above it The Air in comparison of the Water is light too because it is above it So that when it descendeth lower then the Water into the Caverns of the Earth 't is Nature that obligeth it to renounce its proper and particular interest for preserving the general one which is destroy'd by the Vacuum not that the Vacuum is the Cause thereof for it hath no existence And the Air wherewith the Baloon is fill'd rendreth the same more heavy because it is impure and mixt with gross Vapours Which it would not do were it pure and Elementary such as is that of which we are speaking which is not to be found in our Region The Common Opinion hath also more probability which holdeth that the Air is hot and moist Hot because it is rare and light which are effects of heat Moist because it is difficultly contain'd within its own bounds and easily within those of another Thence it is that the more Bodies partake of Air the more they have of those qualities As we see in Oyl which is hot being easily set on flame And Moist in that it greatly humecteth and easily expandeth it self on all sides But if the Air seemes sometimes to be cold 't is by accident by reason of the cold vapours wherewith it is fill'd at that time The Third said That he conceiv'd that contrarily the Air is cold and dry 1. Because it freezeth the Earth and Water in Winter and therefore is colder in either of them 2. Because it refresheth the Lungs and by its coolness tempereth the extreme heat of the Heart and of the other parts which it could not do if it were hot 3. Inasmuch as hot things expos'd to the Air are cooled which they would not be but at least preserve their heat being in a place of the same Nature 4. The more it is agitated the more it refresheth as we see by Fans because then the unessential things being seperated from it it is more close and united quite contrary to the other Elements which grow hot by being agitated 5. In the night time the more pure and serene and void of mixtures the Air is the colder it is 6. Thence it is that flame burnes less then boyling water or hot Iron because in flame there is a great deal of Air which being colder then Water and Iron represseth more the strength of the Fire Lastly since according to Aristotle Air doth not putrifie what is
and would not 3. Their Example and the terrible prospect of their condition holds such in duty as Vice would otherwise drive on to the perpetration of mischief An other said That Slavery is an Institution of the law of nations by which one is contrary to Nature subjected to the Dominion of another Which Dominion before the Emperour Antoninus Pius extended to Life and Death But since that power hath been restrain'd so that he that grievously outraged his Slave was forc'd to sell him But if he kill'd him he incurr'd the same penalty as if he had slain the Servant of another It being for the good of the Common-wealth that none abuse even what belongeth to himself Since that time the Master had absolute Power over his Slave to employ him in all kind of work as he pleased to hire him forth and draw profit by him and in case of non-obedience to chastise him more or less according to the attrocity of his crime Provided that there follow'd not thereby mutilation of Members He hath also Power to alienate him and that Power is extended likewise to the Children which happen to be begotten by him during the servitude The Slave also cannot acquire any thing but it is his Master's Nor can he complain of his master or forsake him for having been lightly punish'd But he may for mortal Hunger or grievous Contumely as if the Master offer to force his Slave in which case the Slave of either Sex running to the Temples Sepulchres and Statues which serv'd them for Sanctuary ought to be sold and his price paid to the Master Now there are Four sorts of Slaves The First and most ancient are such as have been taken in war who of Free-men as they were before being conquer'd become in the power of the Conquerours The Second are those who having deserved Death are condemned to the punishment of the Gallies Common-shores and publick works and anciently to the Mines and Mills in which Mines the Spaniards at this day employ the Americans And they are called Forcats or Slaves of punishment The Third are those who being unable to satisfie their Creditors by reason of their poverty are sold with their own consent and pay the price of their liberty to be acquitted by them that so they may avoid the cruelty of the said Creditors who had to dismember them These three sorts of Servants became such having before been free-men But the Fourth sort is of those that are such by Nature and are born Servants being descended from a Slave Now in my Judgement 't is fitting to introduce and retain these four sorts of Servitude in a State since they are very natural and reasonable For besides that there are Men who are born to command others to obey It seemes that Servitude having been from the Beginning of the World and presently after the Deluge when Noah cursing Canaan his younger Son pronounc'd him Servant of the Servants of his Brethren And being as ancient yea ancienter then the foundation of States and Empires and having been approv'd by ancient Law-givers and wise Politicians and by God himself it cannot be esteemed but reasonable and natural For in the First Place What is so just and so sutable to the Law of Nature The First containing onely Marriages Procreation and Education of Children as to give life to him whom you may justly deprive thereof to feed him and cloath him And in exchange for so many benefits to make use of him and of all that he can earn and to make him return to his duty by some moderate punishments in case he recede from it Which is the advice of Aristotle in his Oeconomicks where he saith That a good Father of a Family ought to give Three Things to his Servants viz. Work Food and Discipline I conceive it also less unsutable to Nature yea to Christianity to make use of Criminals then to put them to death If Example for which principally they are punish'd will permit And also instead of sending so many stout men to the Gallows for common crimes or putting them to the Sword as they do in War to put them to the chain for the service of the publick either for labouring in Buildings Cloysters and Fortificatlons of Cities repairing of wayes cleansing of Streets Towing of Boots drawing of Charriots labouring in High-wayes Mines and other publick works after the Gallies are furnish'd them Possibly too it would not be unmeet that he who is so endebted that he cannot satisfie his Creditors should instead of suffering himself to lie rotting in Goal pay with the Service of his Body what he cannot in Money But it would be fit to use a difference therein And as for those that are born of Slaves is there any thing more ours then such fruits grown within our walls and sprung from our own stock The Last opposed that it is difficult for an Absolute Dominion to keep any measure Witness Quintus Flaminius a Roman Senator who kill'd his Slave to content the curiosity which a Bardash of his had to see what aspect a Man hath when he is dying Besides if there be any place where Liberty ought to carry the Cause were not Christian Brother-hood alone sufficient it is France of which the priviledge is such that the Slaves of any part of the world onely setting their foot therein obtain their freedom immediately The Inventions propounded were the Experiment of Vitruvius's Aeolipila that of walking under the Water and the Subjects of the next Conference The First Water the Second Wine and Whether it be necessary in War CONFERENCE VIII I. Of Water II. Of Wine and whether it be necessary for Souldiers I. Of Water THe Discourse upon the First Point began with the division of the qualities of Water into First and Second alledging that the First viz. Cold and Moist are so manifest that it is difficult to deny them Cold because Water being heated returns presently to its natural coldness Moist because it moistneth more then any other Element and is not contained within its own bounds But its Second and the proprieties resulting from them are so numerous that they justly administer ground to the doubt which is raised Whence proceedeth the cause of so many Varieties in Colour Taste Odour and the other Objects of the Senses Possibly one may assign the cause of the Waters Whiteness to the Mines of Plaster Of its Blackness to those of Iron or Stones of the same colour The Red to those of Cinnabar The Green to those of Copper The Blew to those of Silver The Yellow to those of Orpiment The Hot to Sulphur The Acid to Vitriol The Stinking to Bitumen But that some parts of the Sea and Rivers abound with Fish and that with certain kinds and others not That the Water of some Springs is converted into Stone and all that is cast thereinto Others as they say make Women fruitful or barren Some as it is reported of the Fortunate Islands cause weeping
we approach or go farther from the Poles we see the same more or less elevated 4. Because the Sun is seen daily to rise and set sooner in one place then in another Lastly it is prov'd by the conveniency of habitation For as of all Isoperimeter Figures the Circle is most capacious so the Sphere containeth more then any other Body and therefore if the Earth were not round every part of it would not have its Antipodes So that I wonder at the opinion of Lactantius and Saint Augustine who denyed them For as for that story that in the year 745. by the relation of Aventinus Virgilius a German Bishop was deprived of his Bishoprick and condemned as an Heretick by Pope Zachary it was not onely for maintaining this truth which experience hath since confirm'd but because he drew conclusions from it prejudicial to Religion Now whereas it may be doubted whether as there are uneven parts in the Earth some higher then other so there be not also Seas some of whose waters too are more elevated then the rest I affirm that since all the Seas except the Caspian have communication amongst themselves they are all level and no higher one then another And had they no such communication yet the Water being of its Nature fluid and heavy flowing into the lowest place would equal its surface with the rest and so make a perfect Sphere Whence it follows that they were mistaken who disswaded Sesostris King of Aegypt from joyning the Red Sea with the Mediterranean for fear lest the former which they judg'd the higher should come to drown Greece and part of Asia For want of which demonstration several Learned Men have been mistaken and no less then the Angelical Doctor The Second said That the Earth is very dry not for that it dispelleth moisture as Fire doth but for that it receiveth and imbibeth it into it self But it cannot be cold of its own Nature if it were it could produce nothing It is cold onely by the Air as 't is sometimes moist by the Water and hot by the Fire which insinuateth into its cavities It is also very heavy since it holdeth the lowest place in the world and hath its motion from the circumference to the Centre which is the progression that Aristotle attributeth to heavy Bodies Whence for being the lowest stage it is called the Foot-stool of God But this heaviness seemeth to me not to proceed from humidity as was urged For though the Water and Earth joyn'd together seem to weigh more then Earth alone 't is not that they weigh more indeed but this Earth which was imagined to be alone is fill'd with a quantity of Air and the Water coming to succeed in its place it appeareth more heavy For Earth and Water joyn'd together weigh more then Earth and Air so joyn'd in like quantity because Water is heavier then Air. And to justifie that Earth is heavier then Water a bucket fill'd with sand weighes more then an other fill'd with Water For that sand is Water congealed is as hard to prove as that Earth is Water The Third said That Earth composeth a Mixt Body by a double action viz. from its coldness and of its driness As for the former it secondeth the Water compacting by its coldness the parts which are to be mix'd and which moisture hath united For the Second it giveth hardness and consistence imbibing and sucking up the superfluous moisture after the due union of the parts made thereby It cannot but be cold for as good Polititians willingly reconcile two great Families at Enmity by their mutual alliances so all the strength of the mixture consisting onely in the union of Dry and Moist and its destruction coming from their disunion and the Dry and Moist being wholly Enemies and contraries in the highest degree Nature reconciles them together and brings them into union by the mediation of Water For this being ally'd to Air by the moisture which it hath in a remiss degree and Earth being ally'd to Water by the coldness which it hath in a less degree it becometh ally'd to the Air and its humidity Since according to the maxime Things which agree in the same third agree among themselves Thus you see coldness is necessary to the Earth to cause a lasting composition amongst them Earth hath also this advantage by its siccity that as the same is less active then heat and yieldeth thereunto in vigour of action so heat yieldeth to it in resistance For the dryness inducing hardness resisteth division more powerfully and consequently better preserveth the mixt Body in being resisting the Agents which are contrary to it Whereto its gravity serveth not a little it rendring the Earth less managable by the agitations of the agents its Enemies So that gravity by this means assisteth the hardness and consistence of the dryness like two Kinsmen uniting together to keep off the affronts of their Enemies The Fourth said That the gravity of the Earth and of every other Body yea that of Gold too the heaviest of all mixt Bodies dependeth onely upon its Figure since not onely a Vessel convex on the side toward the Water sinketh not but also a single leaf of Gold swimeth upon it Which is seen likewise in Tera Lemnia or Sigillata which sinketh not in the Water so that there is no probility in that decuple proportion of the Elements according to which Earth ought to weigh ten times more then Water and Water onely ten times more then Air and supposing one were in the Region of Fire and there weigh'd the Air as we do here the Water he would find it likewise ten times heavier then the Fire This is more certain that the proportion of the weight of Earth to that of Sea-water is as 93. to 90 that of Sea-water to fresh as 92. to 74. But that which makes more for those who hold Water more heavy then Earth is that the proportion of Earth to Salt is found to be as 92. to 106. In fine It was remark'd that though the Earth is consider'd by Astronomers but as a point in respect of the vast extent of the Coelestial Orbs yet no Man encompas'd it round before the year 1420. when Jean de Betancourt a Norman Gentleman by the discovery of the Canaries trac'd out the way to the Spaniards who attributed the honour thereof to themselves though they began not till above fourscore years after Moreover it is 15000. leagues in circumference of which there is not much less Land uncover'd then there is cover'd by the Water But if you compare their greatness together there is far less Earth then Water For 't is held that there is no Sea that hath a league in depth there is little without bottom many to which the Anchors reach yea several places not capable of great vessels for want of Water On the other side There are Mountains upon which you still ascend upwards for many dayes journey others inaccessible even to the sight
into Water but this moist Air is full of damp vapours which are nothing but Water rarifi'd and which meeting with those cold and solid Bodies are condens'd and return'd to their first Nature Wherefore the Air is so far from being the cause of so many Springs and Rivers which water the Earth that on the contrary all the Air in the world provided it be not mixt with Water cannot make so much as one drop It is more probable that in the beginning of the world when God divided the Elements and the Waters from the Waters which cover'd the whole surface of the Earth he gather'd the grossest and most unprofitable water into one mass which he called Sea and dispersed through the rest of the Earth the fresh Water more clear and pure to serve for the necessities of the Earth Plants and living Creatures Moreover the Scripture makes mention of four great Rivers issuing out of the terrestrial Paradise and a Fountain in the middle of it which water'd the whole surface of the Earth from the Creation In not being possible that Air resolv'd into Water could make so great a quantity of waters in so little time The Fifth added That those Waters would soon be dry'd up without a new production for which Nature hath provided by Rain which falling upon the Earth is gather'd together in Subterraneous Cavernes which are as so many Reservers for Springs according to Seneca's opinion This is prov'd 1. Because in places where it rains not as in the Desarts of Arabia and Aethiopia there is scarce any Springs on the other side they are very frequent in Europe which aboundeth with rain 2. Waters are very low in Summer when it rains but little and in Winter so high that they overflow their banks because the season is pluvious 3. Hence it is that most Rivers and Springs break forth at the foot of Mountains as being but the rain water descended thither from their tops The Sixth said That it is true that Rivers are increased by Rain but yet have not their original from it For were it so then in great droughts our Rivers would be dry'd up as well as the Brooks As for Springs they are not so much as increas'd by Rain for we see by experience that it goes no deeper into the earth then seven or eight feet On the contrary the deeper you dig the more Springs you meet with Nor is the Air in my judgement the cause thereof there being no probability that there is under the earth cavernes so spacious and full of Air sufficient to make so great a quantity of Water since there needs ten times as much Air as Water to produce it Neither can the Sea be the cause of Springs since according to the Maxime of Hydraulick Water cannot ascend higher the place of its original but if Springs were from the Sea then they could not be higher then the level thereof and we should see none upon the tops of Mountains Now that the Sea lies lower then Springs and Rivers is apparent because they descend all thitherwards The Seventh said That Waters coming from the Sea and gliding in the bowels of the Earth meet with Subterranean Fires which are there in great quantity whereby they are heated and resolv'd into Vapours These Vapours compos'd of Water and Fire mounting upwards meet some Rocks or other solid Bodies against which they stick and are return'd into Water the Fire which was in them escaping through the Pores of those Bodies the Water trickles forth by the clefts and crevisses of the Rocks or other sloping places The Eighth said That as Art can draw forth Water by Destillation Expression and other wayes taught by Chymistrie so by stronger reason Nature cannot want wayes to do the same and possibly in divers sorts according to the various disposition of places and of the matter which she employes to that use II. Whether there is any Ambition commendable Upon the Second Subject it was said That there is some correspondence between the two Questions for as Water serves for a Medium of Union in natural Composition so Ambition serves to familiarise pains and dangers in great enterprizes For it makes Children strive to get credit in little exercises and Men think nothing so high but may be soar'd to by the wings of Ambitior Juvenal indeed gives Wings to necessity when he saith A Hungry Greek will fly up to Heaven if they command him and Virgil saith Fear adds Wings to the heels of the terrifi'd but those of Ambition are much more frequent in our Language 'T is true Ambition may many times beat and stretch forth its Wings but can no more exalt it self into the Air then the Estrich Sometimes it soars too high as Icarus did and so near the light that it is burnt therein like Flyes For the ambitious usually mounts up with might and main but thinks not how he shall come down again This Passion is so envious that it makes those possess'd therewith hate all like themselves and justle them to put them behind Yea it is so eager that it meets few obstacles which yield not to its exorbitant pertinacy insomuch that it causeth Men to do contrary to do what they pretend and shamefully to obey some that they may get the command over others The importunateness of Ambition is proof against all check or denyal and the ambitious is like the Clot-burr which once fastned upon the clothes is not easily shaken off When he is once near the Court neither affronts nor other rubs can readily repell him thence And because his Essence consists in appearance he many times wears his Lands upon his back and if he cannot at once pride himself in his Table his Clothes and his Train yet he will rather shew the body of a Spaniard then the belly of a Swiss At his coming abroad he oftentimes picks his teeth while his gutts grumble he feeds upon aiery viands When he ha's been so lucky as to snap some office before he ha's warm'd the place his desires are gaping after another He looks upon the first but as a step to a second and thinks himself still to low if he be not upon the highest round of the ladder where he needs a good Brain lest he lose his judgement and where it is as hard to stand as 't is impossible to ascend and shameful to descend Others observing That Honour is like a shadow which flyes from its pursuers and follows those that flie it have indeed no less Ambition then the former for I know no condition how private soever that is free from it but they artificially conceal it like those who carry a dark Lanthorn in the night they have no less fire then others but they hide it better They are like Thieves that shooe their Horses the wrong way that they may seem by their steps to come from the place whither they are going or else like those who hunt the Hyena This Beast loves the voice
which hath sometimes conferr'd the Scepter in elective Kingdoms And our Saviour amidst all the infirmities of our nature caus'd to shine in himself the most perfect beauty that ever was in the rest of mankind Now several beautiful things gratifie variously White is esteem'd amongst Northern Nations because there issues out of white bodies a certain brightness or light agreeable to the eyes of those people But the same colour loseth that pre-eminence proportionably to a nearer approach toward the South CONFERENCE XXVII I. Whether the World grows old II. Of Jealousie I. Whether the World grows old WEre we in those Commonwealths where the voice of the people is admitted this Question would be very easie to resolve there being no body but proclaims that the world is declining and thinks that we are now in the very dregs of Time 'T is the ordinary discourse of old men But possibly herein they resemble the old woman who when she was grown blind said the Sky was overcast or those who sailing from the shore think that the earth retreats back while 't is themselves that are in motion These good people no longer finding the same gust and pleasure in the delights of the world that they found in their youth lay the fault upon the world instead of imputing the same to themselves Indeed their accusation is too old to be receivable having been from all time which made Horace say that to represent an old man right he must be introduc'd praising the time past Yet we may give their reasons the hearing They affirm that every thing which hath had a beginning and must have an end grows old That since all the parts of the world are variously corrupted the same ought to be believ'd of the whole That as for the Heavens all the observations of Ptolomy are found at this day false unless they be rectifi'd by the addition of certain motions of Trepidation which cause all the rest to vary In the Air the inconstancy of it and the irregularity of the Seasons makes us not know when we are sure of any the Spring sometimes appearing in Winter as at present and Winter in Autumn In the Sea you see it dismembers Provinces gains and loses whole Countries by its inundations and recessions And as for the Earth it is very probably shown that in time it must naturally return to its first state in which it was all cover'd with water and consequently void of men and most part of animals and plants which make the three noblest parts of the Universe For they who endeavour the raising of low grounds know that the same is accomplish'd by giving entrance to the slime which the water brings thither and which gathers together at the bottom whence it comes to pass that Valleys through which torrents and brooks of rain-water pass grow hollower daily the impetuousness of the water sweeping the surface of the earth into rivers and thence into the Sea Wherefore though the world should not end by Conflagration as it must do since all the rain-rain-waters those of rivers and brooks go into the Sea and carry thither with them the upper parts of the Earth which is that that makes the waters so troubled and muddy it is necessary that this earth in time fill up the cavities of the Sea and reduce it to exact roundness and then the water having no longer any channel must as necessarily cover the whole surface of the earth excepting perhaps some points of rocks which will decay and fall down in time as about fifteen years ago a mountain in Suizzerland by its fall crush'd under its ruines the Town of Pleurs which by that means made good the importance of its name And although this may not come to pass till after divers thousands of years if the world should last so long yet it is not the less feasible since it is a doing at the present though by little and little The second said That since the end of the world is to be supernatural it shall not proceed from old age that though the earth were all cover'd over with waters yet the world would not perish for all that since the Elements would subsist yea the same earth and the winds by succession of time would come to imbibe and dry up those waters and so again discover the face of the earth That if one of the Elements be diminish'd another increases if the water evaporate the air is augmented if the air be condens'd it addes to the water and so the world cannot fail by all the alterations and changes which happen in simple and mixt bodies For its order consists in the alternative succession of various dispositions and not in one sole disposition like a circle which being finite in its parts is infinite in its whole Moreover if the world perish it must be either by the annihilation of its whole or of its parts or else by their transmutation into some matter which cannot be part of the world Not the first for there needs no less a miracle to annihilate then to create and therefore nothing is annihilated Not the second for mixt bodies cannot be chang'd but either into other mixt bodies or into the Elements now these are transmuted one into another wherefore in either case they are still parts of the world The most active of the Elements Fire without the miracle of the last conflagration if you consider it in the Sphere which some have assign'd to it it cannot burn the rest for should it act in its own Sphere which it doth not it would at length be extinguish'd for want of air into which consequently part of it would be converted or if you place it in the subterranean parts the vapours and the exhalations which it would raise from the Sea and the Earth being resolv'd into water and air would always preserve the being of those Elements Moreover the world would not serve at the day of judgement as Philo the Jew saith for a Holocaust to its author if it were then found defective in any of its parts The third said If you take the world for all the inferiour bodies contain'd under the concave of the Moon it is certain that it changeth For the Heavens are not alter'd according to their substance though they be according to their places But it is impossible that the Elements acting so powerfully one against another by their contrary qualities be not at length weakned and their activities refracted and impair'd and particularly the earth wherein those subterranean fires do the same thing that natural heat doth in animals when by the consumption of their radical humidity it makes them grow dry and old External Agents as the Air and the Celestial Bodies which in time undermine Palaces of Marble Brass and other bodies contribute greatly to this alteration of the earth which is the mark and but of actions of the superiour bodies by whom it suffers incessantly This declination is observ'd in Plants which had
also instanc'd to comprehend all Vices as Justice contains in it self all Virtues For he who is proud covetous prodigal or a Murtherer would not be so if he were not unjust whilst he attributes more to himself and less to others then is due And for conclusion it was said That as of the diseases of the Body those are term'd the greatest which invade the most noble part or have the most dangerous symptomes as the prick of a pin in the heart is more mortal then the cutting off of an arm and the same puncture is more perillous when Convulsions thereupon befall the whole body then a wound with a sword in some fleshy part without any accidents so Ignorance and Imprudence are the greatest vices because they possess the most noble Faculty of man the Understanding and produce all the rest At the hour of Inventions a Proposition was reported to draw Smith's-coal out of the lands of this Kingdom and in so doing to cut channels for the draining of Marshes and making rivers Navigable in order to the conveniency of transportation sacilitation of commerce feeding of Cattel and preservation of Forests This Invention besides the advantage it will bring to the meaner sort of people in reference to their domestick fuel is of much benefit for the making of Brick Tile and Lime as much of which may be made thereby in three days as is made in eight or nine with wood which is the ordinary fashion It will be a matter of great saving to the whole Kingdom especially to the abovesaid Artists who are here in great number and are forc'd to buy such Coal from England at dear rates The Proposer offer'd to continue the experience which he had made thereof at his own charges for satisfaction of the curious CONFERENCE XXXVII I. Of the Cabala II. Whether the truth ought always to be spoken I. Of the Cabala THat which hath hapned to many other words as Tyrant and Magician which at their first institution were taken in a good sense but have abusively degenerated into odious significations is found likewise in the word Cabala which according to its genuine importance signifies nothing else but Tradition and comes from the Verb Cabal denoting with the Hebrews to give or receive 'T is a mystical doctrine concerning God and the creatures which the Jews receiv'd by tradition from Father to Son If we may give credit to them it Began in Adam who had a perfect knowledge not only of the whole nature and property of things corporeal but also of the Divine nature of the mysteries of Religion and of the redemption of mankind which his Angel Raziel assur'd him was to come to pass by means of a just man whose name should consist of four letters which is the cause say they that most part of the Hebrew names are of four letters in their language wherein the vowels are no letters Adam taught these mysteries to his children they to their successors until Abraham and the Patriarchs But they say Moses learn'd it anew from the mouth of God during the forty days that he was in the Mount where he receiv'd two Laws one written with the hand of God compriz'd in the two Tables of stone the other not written and more mysterious the former for all in general the latter for the learned and skill'd in mysteries of Religion which is that which Moses taught the seventy Elders of the People chosen by himself according to the counsel of Jethro his Father-in-law and they transfer'd the same to the Prophets Doctors of the Law Scribes Pharisees Rabbines and Cabalists The Second said That in order to judge of the Cabala 't is requisite to know what the Philosophy of the Jews was as the Stoicks Peripateticks Pyrrhonians and other Philosophers had their peculiar Sects 'T is divided commonly into that of things and that of words or names The first is call'd by the Rabbines Bereschit the second Mercana That which treats of things by the Cabalists call'd Sephiroch that is to say numbers or knowledges for with them to number and to know are almost synonymous is either Philosophical or Theological The Philosophical comprehends their Logick Physicks Metaphysicks and Astronomy In Logick they treat of the ten lesser Sephiroth which are so many steps or degrees for attaining to the knowledge of all things by means of Sense Knowledge or Faith and they are divided into three Regions In the lowest which is made by the sense are 1 the Object 2 the Medium or Diaphanum 3 the External sense In the second and middle region are 4 the Internal or common Sense 5 the Imagination or Phancie 6 the Estimative Faculty or inferior Judgement In the third and supream 7 the Superior and Humane Judgement 8 Reason 9 The Intellect 10 and lastly the Understanding or Mens which performs the same office to the Soul that the Eye doth to the Body whom it enlightens For example when I hear a Cannon discharg'd the sound comes to my ears by the medium of the air then the Common Sense receiving this species of the sound transmits the same to the Imagination and the Estimative Faculty judges thereof simply as beasts would do afterwards the Judgement apprehends the essence of the sound Reason searches the causes thereof and the Intellect considers them but lastly the Understanding or Mens call'd by the Cabalists Ceter that is a Crown by way of excellence receiving light from on high irradiates the Intellect and this all the other Faculties And these are the degrees of Cabalistical knowledge In the other parts of their Philosophy they treat of the fifty gates of light Whereof the 1. is the Divine Essence the Symbol of which is the Tetragrammaton and ineffable name of God The 2. gate is the Archetypal World the knowledge of which two gates they say was hid even to Moses The 3. is the Earth 4. Matter 5. Vacuum or Privation 6. The Abysse 7. The Fire 8. The Air 9. The Water 10. The Light 11. The Day 12. Accidents 13. The Night 14. The Evening 15. The Morning And after many other things they constitute Man for the 50th gate To arrive to the knowledge of these 50 gates they have invented 32 Flambeaux or Torches to guide them into the secrets contained therein which they call the paths of Wisdom namely the Intelligence miraculous or occult Intelligence sanctifying resplendent pure dispositive eternal corporeal c. The Theological Cabala treats of God and Angles Of God by expounding the names of 12 and 42 letters yea they attribute seven hundred several ones to him and particularly the ten Divine Attributes which they term the grand Sephiroth namely Infinity Wisdom Intelligence Clemency or Goodness Severity Ornament Triumph Confession of praise Foundation and Royalty whereby God governs all things by weight number and measure Of Angels namely of the 32 abovesaid Intelligences call'd by them the paths of wisdom for they make them so many Angels and of seventy two other
this charge comes to may be taken for profit upon the Pawn and added to the principal but the remainder restor'd to the owner And nothing above this is to be suffer'd CONFERENCE XLIV I. How Minerals grow II. Whether it be best to know a little of every thing or one thing exactly I. How Minerals grow UNder Minerals are comprehended Metals Stones and all sorts of Fossilia or things dig'd out of the earth The causes of their growing or augmentation are here inquir'd All the world agrees that they grow excepting those who hold that God created them at the beginning together with the earth But they who have kept a stone in water for a long time and find the same increas'd in bigness will confute that opinion by this experiment as also the experience of Miners doth who having exhausted a Mine of its Metal find more in it after some years and when they discover Mines as yet imperfect they cover the same again with earth and after some space of time find them fit to be wrought upon and as it were arriv'd to their maturity This is also verifi'd by that Chymical operation call'd vegetable Gold and pieces of Cinnabar or Quick-silver mingled with Sulphur melted and put amongst the filings of Silver being set over a furnace in a well luted Vessel produceth pure Silver though of less profit then curiosity For this visible artifice seems to prove the invisible one of nature according to the opinion of Philosophers who hold that all Metals are made of Quick-silver and Sulphur So that we must not seek other causes of their generation and increasing then a new accession of that matter either gliding along the veins of the earth or reduc'd first into vapour by heat and then condens'd by cold The Second said That he was of Cardan's opinion who assigns a particular vegetative soul to all Minerals as well as to all Plants whereunto they have great resemblance not only in that they have some virtues and faculties alike yea far more excellent which cannot come but from a principle of life since action is the indication of life but also because they grow according to all their dimensions as Plants do have a conformation and configuration which is common to Plants with them attract retain and concoct the nourishment which they receive from the earth by their veins and passages and have also an expulsive faculty which is not in Plants casting forth their dross and exhaling their superfluous vapours They have also roots and barks as Trees have their substance is of parts organical and really dissimilar though in appearance some of them seem to be similar and homogeneous and Lead out of which are extracted Salt or Sugar Quick-silver and Sulphur is no more a similar body then Ebeny Box and Milk out of which such different substances are drawn The Third said That before we can know whether Minerals live we must first understand how life is caus'd in man who is to be as the rule of all living things It consists but in one sole action to wit that of Heat upon Humidity which it rarefies and subtilizes causing the same to ascend by little and little out of the intestines through the Mesentery to the Liver Heart and Brain in each of which it casting off its excrementitious parts it acquires a new perfection the utmost in the Brain where it becomes a very thin spirit capable of receiving any form even that of light as appears by the internal splendor of our sight and that brightness which is sometimes seen outwardly upon some Bodies In Plants are found the like cavities destinated to receive and prepare their nourishment which heat attracts into them and their knots are so many repositories wherein that heat is re-united and takes new strength till being arriv'd at the top of the Plant according to the rectitude of the fibres it circulates the matter so carried up that it spreads into branches leaves and fruit For as humidity is of it self immoveable and incapable of any action so being accompani'd with heat it moves every way and there is no need of admitting an attractive faculty in each part since it is carried thereunto sufficiently of it self Natural heat indeed drives it upwards but all unusual heat makes it break out collaterally as is seen in sweat for no eruption of humidity is caus'd but by the excess of some strange heat not proper or natural Now we may observe these tokens of life in the production of Minerals their vaporous matter being first sublim'd and purifi'd by heat and then incorporated with themselves But because all Natures works are occult and the instrument she uses to wit natural heat is imperceptible 't is no wonder if it be hard to know truly how Minerals hid in the earth grow since we are ignorant how the accretion of Plants expos'd to our view is made we perceive them to have grown but not to grow as the shadow on on the Dyal is observ'd to have gone its round yet appears not to move at all Nevertheless the Arborists would have us except the Plant of Aloes out of this number whose flower and trunk at a certain time shoot forth so high and so speedily that the motion thereof is perceptible to the eye The Fourth said That the generation of some Minerals is effected by heat and of others by cold the former by coction and the latter by concretion or co-agulation which two agents are discover'd by the dissolution of Metals For such as are made by cold are melted by its contrary Heat as Lead Silver and other Metals and those which are made by heat dissolve in water as all Salts provided neither the one nor the other be so compact and close that they admit not the qualities of their contraries for which reason Glass which is concocted by fire is not dissolv'd in water and the Diamond Marble and some other stones congealed by cold are not melted by fire But their accretion is not made by any vital principle but only by a new apposition of matter Moreover they have no sign of inward life as nutrition equal and uniform augmentation in all their parts which should be distinct and organiz'd certain constant terms and limits of magnitude and resemblance of figure and conformation both internal and external between all individuals of the same species For Minerals having no cavities cannot receive aliment inwardly They grow as long as matter is supply'd to them and that inequally Their figure is indeterminate and various according to the casual application of their matter in the veins of the earth and their parts are all alike The barks roots and veins attributed to them have nothing but the shape of those things not the use no more then the paps of men Nor do they bear flowers fruits or seeds nor produce or multiply themselves any other way as Plants do The Fifth said We give appellations or names to things from their external form because
a simple alteration which requireth not the time necessary to local motion whereby Hearing is perform'd and by this means distinguish'd from vision in which at the same time the medium and the Organ are both alter'd whereas in Hearing the Organ is not alter'd till after the medium Hence it is that the wind helps greatly to the carrying of sounds which would not be if they were only intentional species for visible things are seen as well in a contrary wind as in a calm air and that sounds seem weaker a far off then neer hand The Sixth said Among the objects of the Senses sounds and odours have alone had the honour to be dedicated to the Deity Melodie and Incense having always been employ'd in Divine Service either because the humane soul is most delighted therewith or for that either of them being somewise spiritual and corporeal God requires that we offer him both the body and the spirit whereas Daemons abhor nothing more then Harmony and Perfumes as ill suting to their irregular and infected nature And sounds have so great affinity with the soul that according to their cadence and their tones they excite compassion cruelty joy sadness courage fear lasciviousness and chastity whence it was said that Aegysthus could never debauch Clytemnestra till he had kill'd her Musitian Because all our actions and inclinations depending upon our spirits they are modefi'd and made like to the sounds which they receive by the ear So that if the sounds be tremulous grave sharp quick or flow the spirits become so too and consequently the Muscles which are instruments of voluntary motion having no action but by means of the spirits they impress upon them and make them follow such cadence as they like Hence it is that hearing others sing we fall a singing too without thinking of it with those that whisper we whisper too with those that speak loud we speak so also that the air of the Musitian stirs our members to conform to it and that our spirits are displeas'd with bad cadences as if the outward air had an absolute dominion over our spirits II. Of Harmony Upon the second Point it was said That Harmony is taken for any proportion and agreement but chiefly for that of sounds in which it is more perceptible and that even by the ignorant It s invention is ascrib'd to Tubal the first Smith upon his observation of the various sounds that the strokes of his Hammer made upon his Anvil which Pythagoras also made use of to find out the proportion of his musical numbers Of which having elsewhere spoken I shall only add here that Harmony presupposes many sounds for one alone makes but a Monotone and two an unpleasing reciprocation but six notes are requisite to perfect Musick industriously compriz'd in the Hymn VT queant LAxis REsonare fibris MIra gestorum c. This harmony is either vocal or instrumental the former whereof having graces and variations inimitable by instruments far surpasses the latter but their mixture is most agreeable The Second said Nature seems to have made a show of her goodliest effects to our Senses and conceal'd their causes from our knowledge Musical harmony aims at the instruction of men that of man's body is the admirable artifice of the Formative faculty which Galen calls divine but the harmony of the world puts our curiosity most to a non-plus 'T is the cause why water notwithstanding its fluidity gathers it self into a heap to leave dry land for the habitation of animals and that the earth which should settle about its centre by its equal gravity yet rises up in mountains The air is alter'd by all sort of qualities that it may give a good one to the earth The fire descends from its sphere to be captivated in Furnaces for our use and is imprison'd in cavities of the earth to promote the generation of Metals The Heavens move for the benefit of inferiour bodies in a place where they might enjoy eternal rest 'T is through this harmony that the water becomes thick at the bottom and contracts alliance with the earth while its surface resolves into vapours the rudiments of air whose highest region likewise approaches the nature of fire and this has somewhat of Aethereal and the constitution of the Heavens on which it borders and conjoyns with this inferiour world The cause of this chain and connexion is an universal vertue comprehended in the extent of each being besides the proper motive vertue destinated to content its appetite The necessity of this vertue is a certain evidence of its existence for since every thing conspires for the general good of the world and withstands the division of its parts Nature must have allotted them a power which may guide them to that end now this power is not extrinsecal since it resides in the subject it self Nor is it the motive vertue for this and that have two different objects and ends namely the publick and the particular good which are not always contain'd one in the other Besides 't would be a manifest contradiction to say that by one and the same vertue things expose themselves to the loss of their proper qualities for the publick good and keep them when only their particular is concern'd Wherefore there is one general law which having authority to force all things to contract amities not sorting to their inclination is above that vertue which leads things directly to their own good which is the cause of the excellent harmony observ'd in the whole world The Third said Indeed Harmony is every where between the Creator and his Creatures both spiritual and corporeal in the Hierarchies of bless'd Spirits one with another in the assistance of the motive Intelligences with their orbs between the great and the little world in the latter of which the Scripture sets forth to us a perpetual musick of the blessed in the the Empireal Heaven Plato a harmony proceeding from the motion of the Celestial bodies Daily experience makes us hear in the air a consort of winds the Sea beats a measure by its ebbing and flowing the Birds of the air perform the Cantus the Beasts the Base the Fishes the Tacet Man the Tenor who again in the structure of his body and soul is a perfect harmony In the body the temperature of the humours is so harmonical that their disproportion drives away the soul which Galen upon this account calls harmony In the soul so long as Reason holds the sovereignty and constrains the murmuring Appetite to hold its base there results from it a harmony delectable to God and Men. On the contrary if you would apprehend its discord do but imagine the disorderly uproar excited by choler and the other passions get the mastery over Reason Yea mans whole life is either a perpetual harmony or discord In Religion when one Head is acknowledg'd and every one submits thereunto for Conscience sake and keeps his station how beautiful are those Tabernacles of
return to his first habit The Fifth said Nature being taken for every thing compounded of matter and form and Art for Humane Wit which applies them to its own use this must be so much more excellent then that as it gives perfection to the same by introduction of an artificial form besides its natural Marble of no price in the mine yet turn'd into the statue of an old woman becomes highly valuable The Dragon in the Tapistry is as agreeable to behold as the natural one would be terrible And even of things profitable a dish of fruits well drawn is more esteem'd then a hundred natural And who prizes not a Table Cabinet or other moveables more then so much wood a glasse then the ashes it is made of 'T were to accuse all Antiquity of error and unprofitably inventing and increasing Arts to prefer the rudenesse and simplicity of Nature before them which teaching us from the birth to defend our selves by arts against all defects of the body therefore tacitely yields them the preheminence The sixth said That the meaness and imperfection of the matter sets off the excellence of the workman when his work borrows all its noblenesse from its form which he gives it and not from its matter Hence God the most perfect of all Agents needed no matter wherewith to make all his works Nothing being a sufficient material object of his Omnipotence Nature a subordinate and lesse perfect Agent then God makes all her works of the First Matter which is not a pure nothing nor yet a perfect Entity but on Entity in power and as Aristotle saith almost nothing But Art can make nothing but by the help of natural and perfect bodies compos'd of matter and form which it onely divides or conjoyns as when the Architect builds a House he joynes many stones pieces of wood and other perfect bodies together and the Statuary pares off the gross pieces of Marble till he brings forth the resemblance of what he would represent Wherefore as much as God is above Nature so much is Nature above Art II. Whether Wine is most to be temper'd in Winter or in Summer Upon the Second Poynt 't was said They who impute most diseases to the use of Wine because the Eastern people who use it not are free or less troubled with maladies will conclude as he did who marri'd a very little Woman as the least Evil that Wine most qualifid is best in case it cannot be wholly let alone But the Question will still remain in which season Winter or Summer it is most to be mix'd Now there being less heat and more humidity in the body during Winter by reason of the outward cold and closing of the pores it seems that Wine should be taken unmixt in this season For being heat consists in a proportion of the qualities that which exceds must be corrected by its contrary and the weak strengthened as they that would walk upright on a rope must turn their counterpoize to the side opposite to that whereunto they incline The Second said That in Summer the Wine should be more temper'd because then the natural heat is least as Caves are cold in Summer and hot in Winter Whence Hippocrates said that the bowels are hotter in Winter and Spring whence people have then better stomacks the capacities being enlarged by the dilatation of heat and sleep likewise longer through the abundance of vapours rising from the blood which is made in greater quantity when the natural is strong then when it is weak Moreover bodies are more healthy in cold weather then in hot which causing great dissipation of heat and spirits the losse cannot be better repair'd then by unmixt Wine whose actual coldness being overcome by our Nature its potential heat is reduc'd into act and fortifies ours adding also its volatile spirits to our spirits as old regiments are recruited by new levies The Third said That the best food being assimilated and least excrementitious as Wine is in all seasons it ought not to be mix'd either in Summer or Winter aqueous Wine making many serous excrements which cause obstructions whereas pure Wine is good in Winter to assist the natural heat assaulted by the outward cold and to digest the crudities commonly generated during this season and in Summer to support the languishing spirits by supplying new matter But if the necessity of a hot distemper require mixture of water I would have it pour'd into the wine two hours before it be drunk that so fermentation may in some measure turn the water into the nature of the wine and the encounter of these two enemies may be rather in a strange Country then in ours The Fourth said 'T was not without mystery that the Poets feign'd Bacchus new come forth out of Jupiter's thigh with an inflam'd countenance to have been deliver'd to the Nymphs to wash him and that the seven Pleiades whose rising denounces rain had the principal charge of him and that the Mythologists represent this God of Wine follow'd by a company of mischievous demons call'd Cabals the chief of which they name Acrat which signifies pure wine hereby intimating the disorders it causes when its fumes are not abated with water Moreover when Amplychion King of Athens had first put water into his wine and every one by his example a Temple was built in the City to Bacchus erect or standing intimating that as mere wine causes reeling so temper'd makes one walk upright The truth is unmix'd wine is always dangerous filling the brain with hot and pungent vapours which water allays and gives a temper to sutable to our natural heat which is mild and gentle whereas these spirits are of themselves igneous as the burning of Aqua-vitae testifies But 't is less hurtful to drink pure wine in Winter then in Summer when the natural heat being igneous and encreas'd by the outward would turn into a distemper by the adventitious heat of wine which on the contrary in Winter counter-checks the outward coldness of the air The Fifth said If we believe the Poet Orpheus who advises to drink unmix'd wine twenty days before the rising of the Dog-star and as many after then wine must not be temper'd in Summer a custom practis'd still in Italy where in the heats of Summers they drink the strongest and most delicious wines without water Moreover people eating less in this hot season should therefore drink the more pure wine as more nourishing Besides that the aqueous crudities of fruits eaten in Summer is corrected by the heat of wine The Sixth said That regard is herein to be had to every one's constitution phlegmatick old men and such as have cold stomacks may drink wine without water as also those that have Fames Canina but the cholerick and young must temper it if they do not wholly abstain yet always having regard to custom and the nature of wines amongst which if we believe the Germans their wine cannot endure water no more then the water
to their conservation tutelary Angels being nothing but the organs of Divine Providence which embraces all things The Second said That the Genii produce in us those effects whereof we know not the cause every one finding motions in himself to good or evil proceeding from some external power yea otherwise then he had resolved Simonides was no sooner gone out of a house but it fell upon all the company and 't is said that as Socrates was going in the fields he caus'd his friends who were gone before him to be recall'd saying that his familiar spirit forbad him to go that way which those that would not listen to were all mired and some torn and hurt by a herd of swine Two persons formerly unknown love at the first sight allies not knowing one another oftimes feel themselves seiz'd with unusual joy one man is alwayes unfortunate to another every thing succeeds well which cannot proceed but from the favour or opposition of some Genii Hence also some Genii are of greater power then others and give men such authority over other men that they are respected and fear'd by them Such was the Genius of Augustus in comparison of Mark Antonie and that of J. Caesar against Pompey But though nothing is more common then the word Genius yet 't is not easie to understand the true meaning of it Plato saith 't is the guardian of our lives Epictetus the over-seer and sentinel of the Soul The Greeks call it the Mystagogue or imitator of life which is our guardian Angel The Stoicks made two sorts one singular the Soul of every one the other universal the Soul of the world Varro as Saint Augustine reports in his eighth book of the City of God having divided the immortal Souls which are in the Air and mortal which are in the Water and Earth saith that between the Moon and the middle region of the Air there are aerious Souls call'd Heroes Lares and Genii of which an Ancient said it is as full as the Air is full of flies in Summer as Pythagoras said that the Air is full of Souls which is not dissonant from the Catholick Faith which holds that Spirits are infinitely more numerous then corporeal substances because as celestial bodies are incomparably more excellent and ample then sublunary so pure Spirits being the noblest works of God ought to be in greater number then other creatures What the Poets say of the Genius which they feign to be the Son of Jupiter and the earth representing him sometimes in the figure of a serpent as Virgil do's that which appear'd to Aenaeas sometimes of a horn of plenty which was principally the representation of the Genius of the Prince by which his flatterers us'd to swear and their sacrificing Wine and Flowers to him is as mysterious as all the rest The Third said That the Genius is nothing but the temperament of every thing which consists in a certain harmonious mixture of the four qualities and being never altogether alike but more perfect in some then in others is the cause of the diversity of actions The Genius of a place is its temperature which being seconded with celestial influences call'd by some the superior Genii is the cause of all productions herein Prepensed crimes proceed from the melancholy humour the Genius of anger and murders is the bilious humour that of idleness and the vices it draws after it is phlegme and the Genius of love is the sanguine humour Whence to follow one's Genius is to follow one's natural inclinations either to good or to evil II. Whether the Suicide of the Pagans be justifiable Upon the Second Point 't was said That evil appears such onely by comparison and he that sees himself threatned with greater evils then that of death ought not onely to attend it without fear but seek it as the onely sovereign medicine of a desperate malady What then if death be nothing as the Pagans believ'd and leave nothing after it For we must distinguish Paganisme and Man consider'd in his pure state of nature from Christianity and the state of Grace In the former I think Diogenes had reason when meeting Speusippus languishing with an incurable disease who gave him the good day he answer'd I wish not you the like since thou sufferest an evil from which thou maist deliver thy self as accordingly he did when he returned home For all that they fear'd in their Religion after death was Not-Being what their Fasti taught them of the state of souls in the other life being so little believ'd that they reckon'd it amongst the Fables of the Poets Or if they thought they left any thing behind them 't was only their renown of which a couragious man that kill'd himself had more hope then the soft and effeminate The same is still the custom of those great Sea Captains who blow themselves up with Gun-powder to avoid falling into the enemies hands Yet there 's none but more esteems their resolution then the demeanor of cowards who yield at mercy This is the sole means of making great Captains and good Souldiers by their example to teach them not to fear death not to hold it with poltron Philosophers the most terrible of terribles And to judge well of both compare we the abjectness of a Perseus a slave led in triumph with the generosity of a Brutus or a Cato Vticensis For 't were more generous to endure patiently the incommodities of the body the injuries of an enemy and the infamy of death if man had a spirit proof against the strokes of fortune But he though he may ward himself with his courage yet he can never surmount all sort of evils and according to the opinion of the same Philosopher all fear is not to be rejected Some evils are so vehement that they cannot be disposed without stupidity as torments of the body fire the wheel the loss of honour and the like which 't is oftentimes better to abandon then vainly to strive to overcome them Wherefore as 't is weakness to have recourse to death for any pain whatsoever so 't was an ignominious cowardize amongst the Pagans to live only for grief The Second said That nature having given all individuals a particular instinct for self-preservation their design is unnatural who commit homicide upon themselves And if civil intestine wars are worse then forreign then the most dangerous of all is that which we make to our selves Wherefore the ancients who would have this brutality pass for a virtue were ridiculous because acknowledging the tenure of their lives from some Deity 't was temerity in them to believe they could dispose thereof to any then the donor and before he demanded it In which they were as culpable as a Souldier that should quit his rank without his Captain 's leave or depart from his station where he was plac'd Sentinel And did not virtue which is a habit require many reiterated acts which cannot be found in Suicide since we have
hunt for profit and by the contentment of possessing what they sought besides the consideration of the subtilty of the Fox and Wolf the trouble which the Hare gives her displeas'd pursuers The Second said 'T is the only pleasure which does wrong to no person but delivers Countries from the injuries and depredations of beasts And though 't is the most laborious of all pleasures yet 't is least follow'd by repentance and instead of wearying those that are once addicted to it makes them love it in excess for which reason 't is prohibited to the meaner sort of people All the Heroes are represented under the form of Hunters as Perseus who first hunted the wild Goat Castor who taught the management of the horse before wild to chase the Stag Pollux who first trac'd beasts with Lime-hounds Meleager who invented the Spears to assault the Boar Hyppolytus Toyles Hayes and Nets Orion Kennels and Leashes which were so admir'd in his age that the Poets translated him into Heaven where he makes a glorious sign as they put Castor and Pollux among the Gods and feign'd a Diana the Goddess of Hunters Moreover the holy Scripture gives Nimrod the first King in the world no greater title then that of Mighty Hunter And the good man Isaac would not give his blessing to his son Esau till after he had brought him of his Venison The Third said That Man being since the loss of his dominion over the beasts by his sin oblig'd to defend himself against their invasion this gave rise to hunting which is consequently as ancient as the world There are three sorts of it according to the three sorts of animals which it pursues in the air on the earth and in the waters namely Hawking Hunting properly so call'd and Fishing Hawking is the pursuit of Birds by Birds and it s of divers kinds according to the diversity of Hawks and quarries Hunting is the chase of four-footed beasts which are either great as Lyons Bears Stags Boars or small as Wolves Foxes Badgers and Hares Both the one and the other is perform'd by Dogs of which there are good of all sizes and colours and some peculiar to one sort of Game Fishing is the venation of Fishes whereof Plato makes two kinds one by the Line and the other by Nets the more recommendable in that 't was practis'd by the Apostles and our Lord himself who was figur'd by the first Christians under the Hieroglyphicks of a Fish with the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which they explicated thus by the first Letters of that Language Jesus Christ God our Saviour The Fourth said That Hunting being as various as men's conditions its variety makes it as agreeable as necessary gunning which is the least instructs the Souldier to shoot exactly to be patient and fits him for war especially the hunting of the Badger who makes head in his entries then fights from trench to trench and at length retreats to his last fort where he practises all the sleights of war usual in besieg'd Cities till he be taken by the undermining of the Pioneers For Pythagoras his prohibition to kill animals is no less light then his Metempsychosis or his reason to forbear fishing or eating of fish out of respect to their silence The objection that God permitted our first Parents to eat the fruits of the earth not the flesh of animals and that during two thousand years none was eaten concludes nothing from a Negative Authority and Abel spar'd not the life of the Lamb of his flock which he offer'd to God then God had done that of the beasts of whose skins he made Coats for Adam and Eve And God's prohibition to the Jews to eat any thing taken by a beast as Dogs or Birds being abolish'd together with other ceremonies Moreover all animals being made for man they have no reason to complain if they be apply'd to that end but especially the hunting of mischievous beasts is profitable II. Which is to be prefer'd the weeping of Heraclitus or the laughing of Democritus Upon the second Point 't was said That in this Question to justifie weeping we have the example of our Lord whom we read not ever to have been seen laughing not even at the marriage feast whereat he was present but he lamented the death of Lazarus though he knew that himself was going to raise him up again And he compares the entrance into Paradise to the gate of a Judge which a good woman cannot get open nor move the Judge to do her justice but by many complaints and tears and he pronounceth the house of mourning blessed saying that GOD abides there on the contrary laughter and rejoycing not onely were the forerunners of the Deluge but at present occasion a thousand offences against God our Neighbour and our Selves Moreover all the Exhortations and Sermons of Preachers tend only to move tears of contrition and some observe in the trial of Witches and Conjurers that they never weep which is a certain argument of an ill nature especially in women and children And Dido speaking of the ingrateful Aeneas more resents his not weeping when he bid her adieu then all the rest For we are naturally inclin'd to weeping as being the most humid of all animals and nature seems to have made the brain only for the eyes which being always moist have also a glandule in the greater corner call'd from its office Lachrymalis which is a spungy flesh full of little holes serving to attract the moisture of the brain which furnishes the matter of tears and disperses it drop by drop lest falling too much together the brain should be left dry which is a temper contrary to its natural one Now as for objects without us 't is evident there is more cause of weeping then of laughter For if we look under our feet there the ground presents it self which sooner then every one hopes is to bury every on 's ambition and afford him but six foot of earth if on each side of us there appear so many miseries that the Spaniards who are accustom'd thereunto say proverbially that they who are afflicted with the miseries of others bear the whole world upon their shoulders If upwards what a cause of sadness is it to see that so great and vast a Kingdom is at this day in less esteem then the meanest part of this valley of tears the earth and to see God dishonour'd so many ways Come we down to our selves the infirmities of the body the afflictions of the mind all the passions of the soul and the crosses of fortune have made those that have most tasted the pleasures of this life acknowledge that it is nothing but thorns and miseries and with the wise man nothing but vanity of which not to speak a word were to be insensible to laugh impiety and to imitate Aesop's Snails who laugh'd at their cost It remains therefore that 't is wisdom to bewail them The Second said There is a time
infinity Nor can it be a vacuum which receives bodies For either this vacuum remains after the admission of a body and so the same place will be full and empty both together or this vacuum recedes to make place for supervening bodies which cannot be for then it will be capable of local motion which is an affection and property of body Or else lastly this vacuum perishes and is annihilated which is impossible too for then it should be subject to generation and corruption which are found only in bodies Wherefore if ever the Scepticks had reason to suspend their judgement 't is in the nature of place which they justly doubted whether it were something or nothing The Fifth said That to doubt of place is to doubt of the clearest thing in the world nothing being so certain as the existence of things which cannot be but in some place And we see a thing no sooner exists in nature but it hath its place and its station which alone made the distinction of the parts of the world from their ancient Chaos in which things were confus'd and without order which is not found saving when every entity occupies the place due to its nature which is preserv'd therein Amongst simple bodies Heaven hath the highest place Fire and Air the next Water and Earth the lowest amongst mixts Minerals and Metals are form'd in the Entrails of the Earth Plants and Animals are preserv'd upon the earth and in the air and the centre of every thing is nothing else but its place Wherefore as God contains in himself all the perfections of his creatures so he is in all places by his presence his essence and his power II. Of Hieroglyphicks Upon the second Point it was said That the Ancient Sages were always curious to hide the mysteries of their learning under some obscure things the Poets under the shell of Fables whom Plato and Aesop imitated the Pythagoreans under their Riddles Solomon under Parables the Chaldeans in the sacred Letters of their Cabala But especially the Egyptians have observ'd this mystery For having learn'd from the Jews and the Chaldeans the principal notions of the Sciences and the Deity the Principles whereof were taken from those famous Columns which preserv'd the Characters thereof after the Deluge they transmitted the same to posterity by the figures and images of things engraven upon Pyramids and Obeliscks whereof we still see some fragments in their Hieroglyphicks which signifies sacred and mysterious figures or sculpture not so much for the things employ'd to that purpose which oftentimes were common and natural as for the mystical and hidden sence which they attributed to the same The use of these figures was the more profitable in that having some similitude and correspondence to the quality of the thing signifi'd they not only denoted the same but also its nature and property So painting an Eye upon a Scepter which signifi'd God they intimated also his properties by the Scepter his Omnipotence and by the Eye his Providence Another advantage of these Hieroglyphicks is that they were equally understood by all Nations of several Languages as at this day the Chineses and Japoneses make use of some Letters like Hieroglyphicks which signifie rather things then words Which would be a good way to reduce all Tongues into one and so to facilitate all Sciences were not this Hieroglyphical writing too diffuse For there must be as many Characters as there are things in the World which being almost infinite and every day new would render this Art endless which hath made the use of it laid aside as it would also be among the Chineses were not honour which supports and feeds all other Arts annex'd to this knowledge of Characters which advances those alone who are skill'd in their Letters to Magistracies and the chief charges of that great State The Second said That the signs for representing things are either Natural or Artificial Amongst the natural employ'd by men to express their conceptions are the pictures and images of thigns as to represent a Man or a Tree they paint a man and a Tree by which way Philomela describ'd the wrong which had been done her The Aegyptians had the same design in their Hieroglyphicks but finding that it would never have an end they in this imitated the Hebrews who make the same Root serve to produce a great number of words and employ'd one figure to signifie first one thing namely that whose image it is and afterwards many others wherewith it hath some affinity So the figure of a Serpent signifies a Serpent and the Prudence which is attributed to that animal and because they observ'd that the last day of the year joynd to the first and made a continual circle they represented the year by a Serpent with his tail in his mouth Upon the same ground Emblems were invented So Alciate to represent Fortitude and Wisedom gives the pourtraicts of Ajax and Vlisses to signifie a good Merchant who trusts only to what he holds he paints a hand with an eye in the middle of it the Fox signifies cunning the Pismire Providence the Bee Policie an earthen pot joyn'd to an iron pot dangerous Alliance In brief so many fables and phancies are so many writings after this manner from which to speak truth if you abstract the reverence which is due to Antiquity I see nothing that comes neer the marvel of our Letters which in respect of other inventions I cannot but compare to the Philosophers Stone so much talk'd of which whoso possesses may by its projection make as much gold as he needs to travel over the world and those other inventions to the money or if you please the provisions which a Traveller carries with him For these are incommodious and serve but to one or few uses whereas writing by combination of sixteen several characters the rest being found superfluous is sufficient to represent what ever hath been is may or may not be The Third said That no doubt 't was necessity which put the Aegyptians first upon the invention of Hieroglyphicks then which our Letters are much less significative because they express not the nature of natural things as their figures do but only words Yet the use of Hieroglyphicks was very pernicious to the vulgar who seeing the Attributes of God represented under the shapes of Animals and Plants took occasion to adore those corporeal things and became the most superstitious of all Nations going so far as to deifie garlick onyons rats and toads Moreover Mans life is too short for this Art his wit too weak to invent figures sutable to all the parts of speech diversifi'd by numbers cases persons tenses and other Grammatical differences of words and his memory too slippery to retain all those figures because they represented not one single thing but many different and for that one and the same thing was diversly figur'd as God was express'd by an Eye a Circle and an Unite Prudence by a double head
a Gorgon's head a Crane a Dragon a Serpent a fish call'd Scarus or the Gilt-head a Mulberry-tree a Hiacynth Royalty by the reins of a bridle an Elephant and a Dog Wisdom by the breast or the wand of Pallas Concord by a Crow a Caduceus or Mercurius's rod a Peacock a Bee and a Lute Fear by waves a Dove a Hart a Hare and a Wolf All which figures signifi'd other things besides yea oftentimes contraries as the Ass is the Hieroglyphick of wisdom with the Cabalists and with us of stupidity and the same wisdom was denoted among the Egyptians by a sieve which with us is the emblem of a loose-tongu'd person that can retain nothing In fine this Hieroglyphical invention is good for nothing but to make the ignorant admire what they must reverence without knowing it For that which secures all professions from contempt is the use of terms not understood by the vulgar CONFERENCE XCVII I. Of Weights and the causes of Gravity II. Of Coat-Armour I. Of Weights and the causes of Gravity THe World is Man's Palace whereof God is the Architect sustaining the same with the three fingers of his Power Goodness and Wisdom And the Scripture saith He hath hung the Earth in the midst of the Air and ordained all things in number weight and Measure which are the three pillars of this stately Edifice Number is the cause of Beauty Measure of Goodness and Weight of Order which is not found but in the place towards which bodies are carry'd by their Gravity A quality depending upon the four first which by their rarefaction or condensation of things cause more or less ponderosity For light signifies nothing but less heavy it being certain that as the Earth gravitates in the Water and this in the Air so would the Air in the sphere of Fire Fire in the Heaven of the Moon this in the mixt and so forwards till you come to nothing which hath no weight because it hath no corporeity The Second said That gravity and the descent of natural bodies to the centre cannot proceed from the predominance of terrestrial parts in mixts since Gold the heaviest of metals and Mercury which is next it have more humidity then siccity that is to say more Water then Earth in comparison of other metallick bodies God being the most ductile and Mercury the most fluid So also Salt which is heavier then wood or stone is nothing but water cogeal'd and dissolving again in a moist place Wherefore Gravity seems rather to proceed from these three things namely place comparison and figure Place is so considerable herein that bodies gravitate not in their proper places but onely when they are remov'd from the same and more or less proportionally to their distance Comparison makes us judge a body light because 't is less heavy then an other On the contrary Figure makes heavy bodies light causing Leaf-gold to swim which in the same quantity reduc'd into a Globe would sink and an expanded body weighs less in a balance then when it is in a less volumn Which is also observ'd of the thinner parts of the Air which being of a more moveable figure are seen to play therein when the Sun shines clear The Third said That the cause why a broader figure swims or is upheld in the Air more easily then if it were in a Globe or other closer figure is not for that figure makes a thing lighter but from the resistance of the medium which hath more hold in one then in the other Nor do's gravity proceed from the inclination of a thing to its Centre since the Centre is but a Point wherein nothing can lodge And if the Centre of the world were the Centre of heavy things the stars which are the denser and solider parts of their orbs and consequently have more gravity which necessarily follows the density of corporeal matter especially the Moon which is demonstrated to be solid and massie because it reflects the light of the Sun should not remain suspended above the Air which is lighter but descend to this Centre of the Universe For to believe with some that the Moon is kept up like a stone in a sling by the rapid motion of the First Mover is to hold the Stars the greatest and noblest part of the Universe in a violent state onely to give rest and a natural state to the least and meanest which is the Earth Wherefore the descent of bodies is not because of themselves they affect the Centre of the Earth but for that they are upon a body lighter then themselves order obliging every thing to take its own place and till it be so every body being necessitated to move it self the heaviest downwards and the less heavy upwards Hence water gravitates not in its channel although it be not in its Centre because the upper part of the water is not heavier then the lower The Fourth said That Gravity is a certain quality which carries all bodies towards a common point continuing the union of the parts of the world hindring Vacuity by the concentration of all bodies which press one another the heavy having more matter in less quantity For when we see Air mount above Water and Fire above Air they yield and give place to heavier bodies as Oyle being in the bottom of Water ascends to the top not by its lightness but by the weight of the water which thrusts it up So Lead and all other metals except Gold swim in Mercury to which they yield in gravity For in equal quantities Gold weighs 19 Mercury 13 Lead 11 and ½ Silver 10 and ⅓ Copper 9 Iron 8 and Tin 7 and ½ As for the cause of this gravity which some say is in heavy bodies others in their Centre to which they attribute a magnetical virtue I conceive it consists in a reciprocal attraction of the same bodies which draw and are drawn and others are drawn to the inferiour body which attracts with all its parts so that bodies are carry'd towards the Earth and the Earth attracts them reciprocally as the Load-stone attracts Iron and is attracted by it For 't is evident that the Load-stone draws Iron and to prove that 't is drawn by Iron lay a Load-stone in one scale and in the other an equal weight to it If you apply Iron to the bottom of the scale where the Load-stone is this scale will raise up the other the Iron attracting the Load-stone to it self On the contrary if you approach with the Iron over the Load-stone the scale wherein it is will ascend towards the Iron which attracts it For whereas 't is objected that if the Earth attracted things with all its parts then it would follow that things let down in some hollow of the Earth being attracted by the parts above and those below would not descend by reason of contrary attractions I answer that those bodies being out of their Centres the greatest and strongest part of the Earth which is towards