himselfe prisoner 43 Moreover as touching the love and desire to go trim and to decke and adorne the body I would wish you ô Eurydice to endevor for to call to your remembrance those rules which you have read in the treatise that Timoxenus wrote unto Aristilla concerning that argument And as for you ô Pollianus never thinke that your wife will absteine from such curiosity and lay away those delights and superfluities so long as she perceiveth that you despise not nor reject the like vanity in other things but that you take pleasure both to see and have your cuppes and goblets gilt your cabinets curiously and costly painted your mules and horses set out with rich caparisons sumptuous trappings and costly furniture for an hard matter it is to chase away and banish such delicate superfluities out of the nurcery and womens chamber so long as they see the same to reigne in the mens parlour and where they have to do 44 Furthermore you Pollianus being now of ripe yeres to studie those sciences which are grounded upon reason and proceed by undoubted demonstration adorne from hence forward your maners by frequenting the company of such persons and conversing with them who may serve you in good stead and farther you that way and as for your wife see you doe the part of a studious and industrious Bee in gathering for her and to her hand from all parts good things which you thinke may benefit profit her likewise bring the same home with you impart them unto her devise and commune with her about them apart and by that meanes make familiar and pleasant unto her the best bookes and the best discourses that you can meet with all For why to her you are in stead of sire and brother kind A mother deere from henceforth now to her she must you find like as in Homer Andromache said of her husband Hector And verily in mine opinion it were no lesse honorable for a man to heare his wife say thus unto him My husband you are my teacher my regent my master and instructor in Philosophie and in the knowledge of the most divine and excellent literature for these sciences and liberall arts do above all other things divert and withdraw the minds of women from other unwoorthie and unseemely exercises A matron or dame who hath studied Geometrie will be ashamed to make profession of dauncing the measures and she that is alreadie enchanted and charmed as it were with the singular discourses of Plato and Xenophon will never like of the charmed and enchantments of witches and forcerers and if any enchantresse should come unto her and make promise to draw downe the moone from heaven she would mocke those women and laugh at their grosse ignorance who suffer themselves to be perswaded for to beleeve the same as having learned somewhat in Astrologie and heard that Aganice the daughter of Hegetor a great Lord in Thesalia knowing the reason of the ecclipses of the moone when she is at the full and observing the verie time when the bodie of the moone will meet right with the shadow of the earth abused other women of that countrey and made them beleeve that it was herselfe who fetched downe the moon out of the skie 45 It was never heard yet that a woman by course of nature should conceive and bring foorth a childe of her selfe alone without the companie of man marie some there be who have beene knowen to gather in their wombe a rude masse or lumpe without the true forme of a reasonable creature resembling rather a piece of flesh engendred and growing to a consistence by meanes of some corruption which some call a Mole Great heed therefore would be taken that the like befall not to the soule and mind of women for if they receive not from others the seeds of good matters and instructions that is to say if their husbands helpe them not to conceive good doctrine and sound knowledge they will of themselves fall a breeding and be delivered of many strange conceits absurd opinions and extravagant passions But mine advice unto you Eurydice is to be studious alwaies in the notable sayings and sentences morall of sage wise and approoved men have alwaies in your mouth the good words which heretofore when you were a yoong maiden you heard and learned of us to the end that you may be a joy to your husband and be praised and commended by other women when they shall see you so honorably adorned and beautified without any cost bestowed upon brooches tablets and jewels for you can not possibly come by the precious pearles of this or that rich and wealthie woman nor have the silken gownes and velvet robes of such a Ladie of a strange countrey for to array or trim your selfe withall but you must buy them at an exceeding high and deere price but the ornaments and attire of Theano of Cleobuline of Gorgo the wife of king Leonidas of Timoclea the sister of Theagenes of Clodia the ancient Romane Ladie of dame Cornelia the sister of Scipio and of other Ladies and gentlewomen so much renowmed and bruited heretofore for their rare vertues you may have gratis freely and without a penie cost wherewith if you decke and adorne your selfe you shall live both happily and also with honor and glorie For if Sappho for her sufficiency in Poetrie and the skill that she had in verstfying stucke not to write thus to a certaine rich and wealthie dame in her time All dead thoushalt one day entombed be There shall remaine of thee no memorie For that no part of roses came to thee That flower upon the mountaine Pierie Why shouldest not thou thinke better of thy selfe and take more joy and contentment in thine heart considering thou hast thy part not onely of the roses and flowers but also of the fruits which the Muses bring foorth and yeeld to those who love good letters and highly esteeme of Philosophie THE BANQVET OF THE SEVEN SAGES The Summarie WHether it were that the persons named in this discourse following were at a banquet in deed and there discoursed of such matters as are here by Plutarch handled or that himselfe had collected and gathered the Apophthegmes and histories of his time or how soever it was we may see by this present Treatise what was the custome of Sages and wise men in ancient time at their feasts namely to invite one another courteously to solace themselves and make merrie hartily without many ceremonies and complements to shew sincers amitie and without excessive cost and expense to keepe good cheere after a plaine open and simple manner The principall part of which meetings and frequentings of the table being emploied in devising dadly and with setled minde both during their repast and a prettie while after of matters honest pleasant and tending to good instruction and edification as this booke and the Symposiakes or Table-discourses whereof we shall see more hereafter do plainly shew This manner
vehement force of action which is in them remaine idle so lively and subtile it is but they wave to and fro continually as if they were tossed by tempest and winde upon the sea untill such time as they come to be setled in a constant firme and permanent habitude of maners like as therefore he who is altogether unskilfull of husbandrie and tillage maketh no reckoning at all of a ground which he seeth full of rough bushes and thickets beset with savage trees and overspred with ranke weeds wherein also there be many wilde beasts many rivers and by consequence great store of mudde and mire but contrariwise an expert husband and one who hath good judgement and can discerne the difference of things knoweth these and all such signes to betoken a fertile and plentifull soile even so great wits and hautie spirits doe produce and put foorth at the first many strange absurd and leud pranks which we not able to endure thinke that the roughnesse offensive pricks thereof ought immediately to be cropt off and cut away but he who can judge better considering what proceedeth from thence good and generous attendeth and expecteth with patience the age and season which is cooperative with vertue and reason against which time the strong nature in such is for to bring foorth and yeeld her proper and peculiar frute And thus much may suffice of this matter But to proceed forward Thinke you not that some of the Greeks have done well and wisely to make a transcript of a law in Egypt which commaundeth that in case a woman who is attaint and convicted of a capital crime for which in justice she ought to die be with childe she should be kept in prison untill she were delivered Yes verily they all answered Well then quoth I Set case there be some one who hath no children conceived in his wombe to bring foorth but breedeth some good counsell in his head or conceiveth a great enterprise in his minde which he is to bring to light and effect in time either by discovering an hidden mischiefe or setting abroad an expedient and profitable counsell or inventing some matter of necessarie consequence Thinke you not that he did better who deferred the execution of such an ones punishment stay untill the utilitie that might grow by him were seene than he who inconsiderately in all haste proceedeth to take revenge prevent the opportunitie of such a benefit Certes for mine owne part I am fully of that minde and even we no lesse answered Patrocleas Well then quoth I it must needs be so for marke thus much If Dionysius had beene punished for his usurped rule in the beginning of his tyrannie there should not one Grecian have remained inhabitant in 〈◊〉 for the Carthaiginans would have held the same and driven them al out like as it must needs have befallen to the citie Apollonia to Anactorium and the Chersonese ordemie island Leucadia if 〈◊〉 had suffered punishment at first and not a long time after as he did And I suppose verily that the punishment and revenge of Cassander was put off and prolonged of purpose untill by that meanes the citie of Thebes was fully reedified and peopled againe And many of those mercenary soldiers and strangers who seized and held this temple wherein we are during the time of the sacred warre passed under the conduct of Timoleon into Sicilie who after they had defaited in battell the Carthaginians and withall suppressed abolished sundrie tyrannies they came to a wretched end wicked wretches as they were For God in great wisedome and providence otherwhiles maketh use of some wicked persons as of butchers and common excutioners to torment and punish others as wicked as they or woorse whom afterwards he destroieth and thus in mine opinion he dealeth with most part of tyrants For like as the gall of the wild beast Hyaena and the rendles or rennet of the Sea-calfe as also other parts of venemous beasts and serpents have one medicinable propertie or other good to heale sundry maladies of men even so God seeing some people to have need of bitte and bridle and to be chastised for their enormities sendeth unto them some inhumane tyrant or a rigorous and inexorable lord to whip and scourge them and never giveth over to afflict and vexe them untill he have purged and cleered them of that maladie wherewith they were infected Thus was Phalaris the tyrant a medicine to the Agrigentines thus Marius was sent as a remedie to cure the Romanes as for the Sicyonians even god himselfe Apollo foretold them by oracle That their citie had need of certaine officers to whippe and scourge them at what time as they would perforce take from the Cleoneans a certain yong boy named Teletias who was crowned in the solemnitie of the Pythian games pretending that he was their citizen and borne among them whom they haled and pulled in such sort as they dismembred him But these Sicyonians met afterwards with Orthagoras that tyrannized over them and when he was gone they were plagued also with Myron and Clisthenes and their favorites who held them in so short that they kept them from all outrages and staied their insolent follies whereas the Cleoneans who had not the like purgative medicine to cure them were subverted and through their misdemeanor come to nothing Marke well therefore that which Homer in one place saith His sonne he was and in all kind of valour did surmount His father farre who was to say a truth of base account And yet this sonne of Copreus never performed in all his life any memorable act beseeming a man of woorth and honour whereas the ofspring of Sisyphus the race of Antolycus and the posteritie of Phlegyas flourished in glorie and all maner of vertue among great kings and princes At Athens likewise Pericles descended from an house excommunicate and accursed And so at Rome Pompeius surnamed Magnus that is the Great had for his father one Strabo a man whom the people of Rome so hated that when he was dead they threw his corps out of the biere wherein it was caried foorth to buriall and trampled it under their feet What absurditie then were it if as the husbandman never cutteth up or stocketh the thorne or bush before he hath gathered the render sprouts and buds thereof nor they of Libya burne the boughes of the plant Ledrom untill they have gotten the aromaticall gumme or liquor out of it called Ladanum even so God never plucketh up by the root the race of any noble and roiall familie wicked and wretched though they be before it hath yeelded some good and profitable frute for it had bene farre better and more expedient for the men of Phocis that ten thousand beefs and as many horses of Iphitus had died that the Delphians likewise had lost much more gold and silver by farre than that either Ulysses or Aesculapius should not have bene borne or others in like case whose
hurt their flesh nor put them to any paine whatsoever The goats of Candy when they be shotte into the body with arrowes or darts fall to eat the herbe Dictamus thereby thrust them out and make them fal off with facility by this meanes they have taught women with child that this herbe hath a propertie to cause abortive birth and the child in their wombe to miscarrie for the said goats are no sooner wounded but they runne presently to this herbe and never seeke after any other remedy Woonderfull these things are no doubt howbeit lesle miraculous when we consider the natures of beasts how they be capable of arithmeticke and have the knowledge of numbring and keeping account as the kine and oxen about Susa for appointed they be there to water the kings gardens drawing up water in buckets with a device of wheels that they turne about in maner of a windles and everie one of them for their part must draw up an hundred buckets in a day so many they will do just but more you shal not get of them neither by faire meanes nor foule for no sooner have they performed their task but presently they give over impossible it is to force them any farther then their account notwithstanding triall hath bene made so justly and exactly they both know and also keepe the reckoning as Ctesians the Guidian hath left in writing As for the Lybians they mocke the Aegyptians for reporting this of their beast called Oryx as a great singularitie that hee setteth up a certaine crie that verie day and houre when as the star named by them Sothe and by us the Dog or 〈◊〉 doth arise for they give out that with them all their goats together at the verie instant when the said starre mounteth up within their horizon with the sunne will bee sure to turne and looke into the east and this they hold to be an infallible signe of the revolution of that starre agreeing just with the rules and observations of the Mathematicians But to close up and conclude at length this discourse that it may come to an end let us as it were take in hand the sacred anchor and for a finall conclusion knit up all with a briefe speech of their divinitie and propheticall nature For certaine it is that one of the greatest most noble and ancient parts of divination or soothsaying is that which being drawen from the flight and singing of birds they call Augurie and in truth the nature of these birds being so quicke so active so spirituall and in regard of that agilitie nimblenesse verie pliable and obsequent to all visions fantasies presented offereth it selfe unto God as a proper instrument to be used turned which way he wil one while to motion another while into certaine voices laies tunes yea into divers sundrie gestures now to stop and stay anon to drive and put forward in manner of the winds by meanes whereof he impeacheth and holdeth backe some actions and affections but directeth others unto their end accomplishment And this no doubt is the reason that Euripides tearmeth al birds in generall the heraulds and messengers of the gods and particularly Socrates said that he was become a fellow servitor with the swans semblably among the kings Pyrrhus was well pleased when as men called him the Eagle and Antiochus tooke as great pleasure to be called the Sacre or the Hauke Whereas contrariwise when we are disposed to mocke to flout or to reproch those that be dull indocible and blockish wee call them fishes To bee short an hundred thousand things there be that God doth shew foretell and prognosticate unto us by the meanes of beasts as well those of the land beneath as the fowles of the aire above But who that shall plead in the behalfe of fishes or water-creatures will not be able to alledge so much as one for deafe they be all and dombe blind also for any fore-sight or providence that they have as being cast into a balefull place and bottomlesse gulfe where impious Atheists rebellious Titans or giants against God are bestowed where they have no sight of God no more than in hell where damned soules are where the reasonable and intellectuall part of the soule is utterly extinct and the rest that remaineth drenched or rather drowned as a man would say in the most base and vile sensuall part so as they seeme rather to pant then to live HERACLEON Plucke up your browes good Phaedimus open your eies awake your spirits and bestirre your selfe in the defense of us poore Ilanders and maritime inhabitants for here we have heard not a discourse iwis merrily devised to passe away the time but a serious plea premeditate and laboured before hand a verie Rhetoricall declamation which might beseeme well to bee pronounced at the barre in judiciall court or delivered from a pulpit and tribunall before a publicke audience PHAEDIMUS Now verily good sir Heracleon this is a meere surprise and a manifest ambush laid craftily of set purpose for this brave oratour as you see being yet fasting and sober himselfe and having studied his oration all night long hath set upon us at the disvantage and altogether unprovided as being still heavy in the head and drenched with the wine that we drunke yesterday Howbeit we ought not now to draw backe and recule for all this for being as I am an affectionate lover of the poet Pindarus I would not for any good in the world heare this sentence of his justly alledged against me When games of prise and combats once are set Who shrinketh backe and doth pretend some let In darknesse hides and obscuritie His fame of vertue and activitie for at great leasure we are all and not the dances onely be at repose but also dogs and horses castnets drags and all manner of nets besides yea and this day there is a generall cessation given to all creatures as wel on land as in sea for to give eare unto this disputation And as for you my masters here have no doubt nor be you affraid for I will use my libertie in a meane and not draw out an Apologie or counterplea in length by alledging the opinions of philosophers the fables of the Aegyptians the headlesse tales of the Indians or Libyans without proofe of any testimonies but quickly come to the point and looke what examples be most manifest and evident to the eie and such as shall bee testified and verified by all those marriners or travellers that are acquainted with the seas some few of them I will produce And yet verily in the proofes and arguments drawen from creatures above the ground there is nothing to empeach the sight the view of them being so apparant and daily presented unto our eie whereas the sea affoordeth us the sight of a few effects within it those hardly and with much adoe as it were by a glaunce and glimmering light hiding from us the most part
which more is among the seven sages whom he termeth by the name of Sophisters he will needs beare us downe that Thales was a Phoenician borne extracted from the ancient stocke of the Barbarians And in one place reproching in some sort the gods under the visard and person of Solon he hath these words O Croesus thou demandest of me as touching humane things who know full well that the deitie is envious and full of inconstant incertitude where attributing unto Solon that opinion which himselfe had of the gods he joineth malice unto impiety and blasphemy And as for Pittachus using him but in light matters and such as are of no consequence he passeth over in the meane while the most worthy and excellent deed that ever the man did for when the Athenians and Mitylenians were at warre about the port Sigaeum Phrynon the captaine of the Athenians having given defiance and challenged to combat hand to hand the hardiest warriour of all the Mitylenians Pittachus advanced forward and presented himselfe to his face for to performe his devoir where he bare himselfe with such dexterity that he caught this captaine as mighty a man as he was and tall of stature and so entangled him that he slew him outright And when the Mitylenians for this prowesse of his offered unto him goodly rich presents he launced his javelin out of his hand as farre as ever he could and demanded so much ground onely as he raught with that shot And thereupon that field even at this day is called Pittacium But what writeth Herodotus when he comes to this place In lieu of reciting this valiant act of Pittachus he recounteth the flight of Alcaeus the Poet who flung from him his armour and weapons and so ran away out of the battell whereby it appeareth that in avoiding to write of vertuous and valiant acts but in not concealing vicious and foule facts he testifieth on their side who say that envie to wit a griefe for the good of another and joy in other mens harmes proceed both from one root of malice After all this the Alcmaeonidae who shewed themselves brave men and generous and namely by delivering their countrey from tyranny are by him challenged for treason for he saith That they received Pisistratus upon his banishment and wrought meanes for his returne again upon condition that he should espouse and marry the daughter of Megacles and when the maiden said thus unto her mother See my good mother Pisistratus doth not company kindly with me as he should and according to the law of nature and marriage heereupon the said Alcmaeonidae tooke such indignation against the tyrant for his perverse dealing that they chased him into exile Now that the Lacedaemonians should taste aswell of his malice as the Athenians had done before them see how he defaceth and traduceth Othryadas a man esteemed and admired among them above all others for his valiance He only saith he remaining alive of those three hundred ashamed to returne to Sparta when all the rest of that company and consort of his were slaine and left dead in the field presently overwhelmed himselfe in the place under an heape of his enemies shields reared for a Trophae and so died for a little before he said that the victory betweene both sides rested doubtfull in even ballance and now he witnesseth that through the shame and bashfulnesse of Othryadas the Lacedaemonians lost the day for as it is a shame to live being vanquished so it is as great an honor to survive upon a victorie I forbeare now to note and observe how in describing Croesus every where for a foolish vain-glorious and ridiculous person in all respects yet neverthelesse he saith that being prisoner he taught and instructed Cyrus a prince who in prudence vertue and magnanimitie surpassed all the kings that ever were And having by the testimonie of his owne historie attributed no goodnesse unto Croesus but this onely that he honoured the gods with great offerings oblations and ornaments that he presented unto them which very same as himselfe declareth was the most wicked and profanest act in the world for whereas his brother Pantaleon and he were at great variance and debate about succession in the kingdome during the life of their father after that he came once to the crowne he caught one of the nobles a great friend and companion of his brother Pantaleon who had before-time beene his adversarie and within a fullers mill all to beclawed and mangled him with tuckers cards and burling combs so as he died therewith and of his money which he did confiscate and seize upon he caused those oblations and jewels to be made which he sent as a present to the gods Concerning Deioces the Median who by his vertue and justice atteined to the kingdome hesaith that he was not such an one indeed but an hypocrite and by semblance of justice was advanced to that regall dignitie But what should I stand upon the examples of Barbarous nations for he hath ministred matter enough in writing onely of the Greeks He saith that the Athenians and many other Ionians being ashamed of that as name were not only unwilling but also denied utterly to be called Ionians also as many of them as were of the noblest blood and descended from the very Senate and Prytaneum of the Athenians begat children of Barbarous women after they had killed their fathers and former children by occasion whereof those women made an ordinance among themselves which they bound with an oth and ministred the same unto their daughters never to eat nor drinke with their husbands nor to call them by their names and that the Milesians at this day be descended from the said women And having cleanly delivered thus much under hand that those onely who celebrated the feast named Apalutia were indeed true Jonians And all quoth he doe keepe and observe that solemnity save onely the Ephesians and Colophonians By this slie device he doth in effect deprive these states of the noble antiquity of their nation He writeth likewise that the Cumaeans and Mitylenaeans were compacted and agreed withall for a peece of mony to deliver into the hands of Cyrus Pactyas one of his captaines who had revolted from him But I cannot say quoth he certainly for how much because the just summe is not exactly knowen But he ought not by his leave to have charged upon any city of Greece such a note of infamy without he had bene better assured thereof And afterwards he saith that the inhabitants of Chios pulled him being brought unto them out of the temple of Minerva Poliuchos that is to say Tutelar and protectresse of the city for to deliver him unto the Persians which the Chians did after they had received for their hire a peece of land called Atarnes Howbeit Charon the Lampsacinian a more ancient writer when he handleth the story of Pactyas taxeth neither the Mitylenaeans nor the Chians for any such sacriledge but writeth of
well also to keepe from them such schoole-fellowes as be unhappie and given to doe shrowd turnes for such as they are enough to corrupt and marre the best natures in the world All these rules and lessons which hitherto I have delivered do concerne honestie vertue and profit but those that now remaine behinde pertaine rather to humanity and are more agreeable to mans nature For in no case would I have fathers to be verie hard sharpe and rigorous to their children but I could rather wish and desire that they winke at some faults of a yoong man yea and pardon the same when they espie them remembring that they themselves were sometimes yoong For like as Physitians mingling and tempering otherwhiles some sweetejuice or liquid with bitter drugs and medicines have devised that pleasure and delight should be the meanes and way to do their patients good Even so fathers ought to delay their eager reprehensions and cutting rebukes with kindnesse and clemencie one while letting the bridle loose and giving head a little to the youthfull desires of their children another while againe reigning them short and holding them in as hard but above all with patience gently to beare with their faults But if so be fathers cannot otherwise doe but be soone angrie then they must assoone have done and be quickly pacified For I had rather that a father should be hastie with his children so he be appeased anon then show to anger and as hard to be pleased againe For when a father is so hard harted that he will not be reconciled but carieth still in minde the offence that is done it is a great signe that he hateth his children And I hold it good that fathers somtime take not knowlege of their childrens faults and in this case make some use of hard hearing and dimme sight which old age ordinarily bringeth with it as if by reason of these infirmities they neither saw somewhat when they see well ynough nor heard that which they heare plainely We beare with the faults of friends what strange matter is it then to tolerate the imperfections of our owne children Many a time when our servants have overdrunke themselves surfeited therwith we search not too narrowly into them nor rebuke them sharply therefore keepe thy sonne one while short be franke another while and give him money to spend freely Thou hast beene highly offended and angrie with him once pardon him another time for it Hath he practised secretly with any one of thy houshold servants and beguiled thee Dissemble the matter and bridle thine yre Hath he beene at one of thy farmes met with a good yoke of oxen made money therof Commeth he in the morning to do his dutie and bid thee good morrow belching sowre and smelling strongly of wine which the day before he drunke at the taverne with companions like himselfe seeme to know nothing Senteth he of sweete perfumes and costly pomanders Hold thy peace and say nothing These are the means to tame and breake a wilde and coltish youth True it is that such as naturally be subject to wantonnesse or carnall lust and will not be reclaimed from it not give eare to those that rebuke them ought to have wives of their owne and to be yoked in marriage for surely this is the best and surest meanes to bridle those affections and to keepe them in order And when fathers are resolved upon this point what wives are they to seeke for them Surely those that are neither in blood much more noble nor in state farre wealthier than they For an old said saw it is and a wise Take a wife according to thy selfe As for those that wed women farre higher in degree or much wealthier than themselves I cannot say they be husbands unto their wives but rather slaves unto their wives goods I have yet a few short lessons to annexe unto those above rehearsed which when I have set downe I will conclude and knit up these precepts of mine Above all things fathers are to take heed that they neither commit any grosse fault nor omit any one part of their owne dutie to the end they may be as lively examples to their owne children who looking into their life as into a cleere mirrour may by the precedents by them given forbeare to do or speake any thing that is unseemely and dishonest For such fathers who reproove their children for those parts which they play themselves see not how under the name of their children they condemne their owne selves But surely all those generally who are ill livers have not the heart to rebuke so much as their owne servants much lesse dare they finde fault with their children And that which is woorst of all in living ill themselves they teach and counsell their servants and children to do the same For looke where old folke be shamelesse there must yoong people of necessitie be most graceles and impudent Endevour therfore we ought for the resormation of our children to do our selves all that our dutie requireth and heerein to imitate that noble Ladie Eurydice who being a Slavonian borne and most barbarous yet for the instruction of her owne children she tooke paines to learne good letters when she was well stept in yeeres And how kinde a mother she was to her children this Epigram which she her selfe made and dedicated to the Muses doth sufficiently testifie and declare This Cupid here of honest love a true Memoriall is Which whilom Dame Eurydice of Hierapolis To Muses nine did dedicate where by in soule and mind Conceiv'd she was in later daies and brought foorth fruit in kind For when her children were well growen good ancient Lady shee And carefull mother tooke the paines to learne the A. B. C. And in good letters did so far proceed that in the end She taught them those sage lessons which they might comprehend But now to conclude this Treatise To be able to observe and keepe all these precepts and rules together which I have before set downe is a thing haply that I may wish for rather than give advise and exhort unto Howbeit to affect and follow the greater part of them although it require a rare felicitie and singular diligence yet it is a thing that man by nature is capable of and may attaine unto HOW A YOONG MAN OVGHT TO HEARE POETS AND HOW HE MAY TAKE PROFIT BY READING POEMES The Summarie FOrasmuch as yoong students are ordinarily allured as with a baite by reading of poets in such sort as willingly they employ their time therein considering that Poësie hath I wot not what Sympathie with the first heats of this age therefore by good right this present discourse is placed next unto the former And albeit it to speake properly it pertaineth unto those onely who read ancient Poëts as well Greeke as Latin to take heede and beware how they take an impression of dangerous opinions in regard either of religion or manners yet a man may comprehend
themselves a dogge or a serpent come in their way they flie from them let their brood be about them when such a danger is presented it is woonderfull how ready they will be to defend the same yea and to fight for even above their power Do we thinke now that nature hath imprinted such affections and passions in these living creatures for the great care that she hath to mainteine the race and posteritie as it were of hens dogs or beares or doe we not rather make this construction of it that she shameth pricketh and woundeth men thereby when we reason and discourse thus within our selves that these things bee good examples for as many as follow them and the reproches of those that have no sense or feeling of naturall affection by which no doubt they do blame and accuse the nature of man onely as if she alone were not affectionate without some hire and reward nor could skill of love but for gaine and profit for admired he was in the theaters that thus spake first For hope of gaine one man will love another Take it away what one will love his brother This is the reason according to the opinion and doctrine of Epicurus that the father affecteth his sonne the mother is tender over her childe and children likewise are kind unto their parents but set-case that brute beasts could both speake and understand language in some open theater and that one called to meet together a sufficient assembly of beefs horses dogs and fowles certes if their voices were demanded upon this point now in question hee would set downe in writing and openly pronounce that neither bitches loved their whelpes nor mares their foles heas their chickens and other fowles their little birds in respect of any reward but freely and by the instinct of nature and this would be found a true verdict of his iustified and verified by all those passions and affections which are observed in them and what a shame and infamie unto mankind is this to grant and avouch that the act of generation in brute beasts their conception their breeding their painfull deliverie of their young and the carefull feeding and cherishing of them be natures works meerely and duties of gratuitie and contrariwise that in men they be pawnes given them for securitie of interest hires gages and earnest pennies respective to some profit and gaine which they draw after them But surely as this project is not true so it is not woorth the hearing for nature verily as in savage plants and trees to wit wilde vines wilde figge trees and wilde olives she doth ingenerate certeine raw and unperfect rudiments such as they be of good and kinde fruits so she hath created in brute beasts a naturall love and affection to their young though the same be not absolute nor fully answerable to the rule of justice ne yet able to passe farther than the bonds and limits of necessitie As for man a living creature endued and adorned with reason created and made for a civill societie whom she hath brought into the world for to observe lawes and justice to serve honour and worship the gods to found cities and governe common-wealths and therein to exercise and performe al offices of bountie him she hath bestowed upon noble generous faire and fruitfull seeds of all these things to wit a kinde love and tender affection toward his children and these she followeth still and persisteth therein which she infused together with the first principles and elements that went to the frame of his body and soule for nature being every way perfect and exquisite and namely in this inbred love toward infants wherein there wanteth nothing that is necessarie neither from it is ought to be taken away as superfluous It hath nothing as Erasistratus was woont to say vaine frivolous and unprofitable nothing inconstant and shaking too and fro inclining now one way and then another For in the first place as touching the generation of man who is able to expresse her prudence sufficiently neither haply may it stand with the rule of decent modestie to be over-curious and exquisite in delivering the proper names and tearmes thereto belonging for those naturall parts serving in that act of generation and conception secret as they be and hidden so they neither can well nor would willingly be named but the composition and framing thereof so aptly made for the purpose the disposition and situation likewise so convenient we ought rather to conceive in our minde than utter in speech Leaving therefore those privie members to our private thoughts passe we to the confection disposition and distribution of the milke which is sufficient to shew most evidently her providence in desire and diligence for the superfluous portion of blood which remaineth in a womans bodie over and above that which serveth for the use whereunto it is ordeined floting up and downe within her afterwards for defect or feeblenesse of spirits wandereth as it were to and fro and is a burden to her bodie but at certaine set-times daies to wit in every monthly revolution nature is carefull and diligent to open certeine scluces and conducts by which the said superfluous blood doth void and passe away whereupon shee doth not onely purge and lighten all the bodie besides but also cleanseth the matrice and maketh it like a piece of ground brought in order and temper apt to receive the plough and desirous of the seed after it in due season now when it hath once conceived and reteined the said seed so as the same take root and be knit presently it draweth it selfe strait and close together round and holdeth the conception within it for the navill as Democritus saith being the first thing framed within the matrice and serving in stead of an anchor against the waving and wandering of it to and fro holdeth sure the fruit conceived which both now groweth and heereafter is to be delivered as it were by a sure cable and strong bough then also it stoppeth and shutteth up the said riverets and passages of those monethly purgations and taking the foresaid blood which otherwise would run an void by those pipes and conducts it maketh use thereof for to nourish and as it were to water the infant which beginneth by this time to take some consistence and receive shape and forme so long untill a certaine number of daies which are necessarie for the full growth thereof within be expired at which time it had need to remove from thence for a kinde of nutriment else-where in another place and then diverting the said course of blood with all dexterity a skilfull hand no gardener nor fountainer in drawing of his trenches and chanels with all his cunning so artificiall and employing it from one use to another she hath certeine cesternes as it were or fountaine-heads prepared of purpose from a running source most readie to receive that liquor of blood quickly and not without some sense of pleasure and contentment but
primitive nourishment of mankinde and namely among other things very common and which grow of themselves without mans hand the Mallow and the Asphodell which two hearbs it is verie probable and like that Hesiodus also recommended unto us for their simplicitie profit Not in those regards onely quoth Anacharsis but for that they both the one as well as the other are commended as especiall hearbs for the health of man True quoth Cleodemus and great reason you have so to say for Hesiodus was well seene in Physicke as may appeare by that which he hath written so exactly and skilfully of diet and the regiment of our feeding of the manner of tempering wine of the vertue and goodnesse of water the use of baines bathes and women of the time of keeping companie with them and of the positure of infants in the wombe and when they should be borne But to judge aright Aesope had more reason than Epimenides to avow himselfe the disciple of Hesiodus for the talke which the hauke had with the nightingall gave unto Aesope the first beginning of his faire variable and many tongued learning of his But willing I am to heare Solon for verie like it is that he having lived and conversed so familiarly many yeeres together with Epimenides at Athens asked of him oftentimes and knew full well upon what accident or occasion and for what purpose he chose and followed this strait course of life And what need was there quoth Solon to demaund that of him for all the world knoweth and most evident it is that as the greatest and most soveraigne good of man is to have no need at all of nouriture so the next unto it is to require the least nourishment that is Not so quoth Cleodemus if I may be so bold as to speake my mind For I do not thinke that the soveraigne good of man is to eate nothing especially when the table is laide and furnished with meat for to take away the viands set thereupon is as much as to subvert the altar and sacrifice unto the gods and to overthrow the amity and hospitalitie among men And like as Thales saith That if the earth were taken out of the world there must of necessitie ensue a generall confusion of all things even so we may say put downe the boord you doe as much as ruinate the whole house for with it you abolish fire which keepeth the house the tutelar-deitie of Vesta the amiable custome of drinking together out of one boll and cup the laudable manner of feasting friends the kind fashion of entertaining strangers and all reciprocall hospitalitie and mutuall usage of guests which be the principalland most courteous conversations that can bee devised among men one with another and to speake in summe more truely farewell then all the sweetnes of humane life and societie in case there be allowed any retrait at all solace and passion apart from businesse and affaires whereof the need of sustenance and the preparation thereto belonging yeeldeth most matter and affoordeth the greatest part Moreover the mischiefe hereof would reach as far as to agriculture and that were great pity considering that if husbandrie were laid downe with the decay ruine therof there would ensue againe a rude deformed face of the whole earth as being neglected not clensed from fruitlesse trees bushes weeds and overflowed with the inundation of waters rivers running out of their chanels to and fro without order for want of good husbandrie and the diligent hand of man over and besides perish there shall with it all arts and handicrafts which the table mainteineth and keepeth in traine giving unto them their foundation matter in such sort as they will come all to nothing if you take it away nay more than that What will become of religion and worship done to the gods for surely men will exhibit but little or none honour at all unto the Sunne and much lesse unto the Moone as having nought els from them but their light heat onely and who will ever cause an altar to be reared and furnished as it ought to be to Jupiter for sending downe seasonable raine or to Ceres the patronesse of agriculture or to Neptune the protectour of trees and plants who will ever-after offer any sacrifices unto them how shall Bacchus be the authour of joy and mirth if we have no more any need of that pleasant liquor of wine which he giveth what shall we sacrifice what shall wee powre upon the altars what oblations shall we offer unto the gods and whereof shall wee present any first fruits In one word this abuse would bring with it a totall subversion and generall confusion of the best and chiefest things True it is that to follow all kinde of pleasures and in every maner were bruitishnesse and even so to flie them all and in no wise to embrace them were no lesse follie and sottishnesse The soule may well enough enjoy other pleasures and delights which are better and more noble but the bodie can finde none at all more harmlesse and honest to content it selfe with than to eat and drinke whereby it is fed and nourished a thing that there is no man but he both knoweth and acknowledgeth in regard whereof men use to set and spread their tables in publicke and open places for to eat and drinke together in the broad day-light whereas to take the pleasure of Venus they wait for the night and seeke all the darknesse they can supposing it to be as beastly and shamelesse to do the one in publike and common as not at all to doe the other but forbeare it altogether When Cleodemus herewith brake off and ended his speech I followed in the same traine and seconded his words in this wise But you overpasse one thing besides namely that by this meanes together with our food and nourishment we banish and drive away all sleepe now if there be no sleepe there will be no dreames so by consequence we may bid farewell to a most ancient kinde of oracle and divination which we have by them Over and besides our life will be alwaies after one fashion and to no purpose but in vaine shall the soule be clad as a man would say within the bodie seeing that the greatest number and the principall parts of the said bodie were made and framed by nature for to serve as instruments of nourishment as for example the tongue the teeth the stomacke and the liver c. for there is nothing in the whole structure and composition of mans body that either lieth still idle or is ordeined for any other use insomuch as whosoever hath no need of food needeth not the body also which is as much to say as that hee standeth in no need of himselfe for every one of us doth consist aswell of bodie as soule Thus much may serve for my part to have spoken in the defence of the bellie now if Solon or any
should salute their kinsfolke and those that be joined in blood to them by kissing their lips for the Trojan men seeing as it should seeme in what necessitie they stood were well enough content and withal finding the inhabitants of the sea-coasts courteous and ready to receive and entertaine them friendly approoved that which the women had done and so remained and dwelt in the same part of Italy among the Latines THE DAMES OF PHOCIS THE woorthy act of the dames of Phocis whereof we now meane to make mention no Historiographer of name hath yet recorded and set downe in writing howbeit there was never a more memorable deed of vertue wrought by women and the same testified by the great sacrifices which the Phocians do celebrate even at this day neere unto the citie Hyampolis and that according to the ancient decrees of the countrey Now is the totall historie of this whole action from point to point particularly recorded in the life of Daiphantus as for that which the said women did thus stood the case There was an irreconcilable and mortall warre betweene the Thessalians and those of Phocis for that the Phocians upon a certaine fore-set day killed all the magistrates and rulers of the Thessalians who exercised tyrannie in the cities of Phocis and they againe of Thessalia had beaten and bruised to death two hundred and fiftie hostages of the Phocaeans whom they had in custodie and after that with all their puissance entred and invaded their countrey by the way of the Locrians having before hand concluded this resolution in their generall counsell not to pardon nor spare any one that was of age sufficient to beare armes and as for their wives and children to leade them away captives as slaves whereupon Daiphantus the sonne of Bathyllus one of the three soveraign governours of Phocis mooved and perswaded the Phocaeans as many as were of yeeres to fight for to go forth and encounter the Thessalians but their wives and children to assemble all together unto a certaine place in Phocis environe the whole pourprise and precinct thereof with a huge quantity of wood and there to set certaine guards to watch and ward whom hee gave in charge that so soone as ever they heard how their countrey-men were defaited they should set the wood on fire and burne all the bodies within the compasse thereof which desseigne when all others had approoved there was one man among them stood up and said It were just and meet that they had the consent also of the women as touching this matter and if they would not approve and allow of this counsell to leave it unexecuted and not to force them thereto this consultation being come to the eares of the said women they held a counsell together apart by themselves as touching this entended action where other resolved to follow the advice of Daiphantus and that with so great alacritie and contentment that they crowned Daiphantus with a chaplet of flowers as having given the best counsell that could be devised for Phocis It is reported also that their verie children sat in counsell hereabout by themselves and concluded the same but it fortuned so that the Phocaeans having given the Thessalians battell neere unto a village called Cleonae in the marches or territorie of Hyampolis defaited them This resolution of the Phocaeans was afterwards by the Greekes named Aponaea that is A desperat desseigne and in memoriall of the said victorie all the people of Phocis to this day do celebrate in Hyampolis the greatest and most solemne feast that they have to the honour of Diana and call it Elaphebolia THE WOMEN OF CHIOS THE men of Chios inhabited sometime the colonie Leuconia upon such an occasion as this A gentleman one of the best houses in Chios chanced to contract a marriage and when the bride was to be brought home to his house in a coach King Hippoclus being a familiar friend unto the bridegroom one who was present with others at the espousales and wedding after he had taken his wine wel being set upon a merrie pin and disposed to make sport leapt up into the coach where the new wedded wife was not with any entent to offer violence or vilanny but only to dallie toy make pastime in a meriment as the maner was at such a feast howbeit the friends of the bridegroome tooke it not so but fell upon him and killed him outright in the place upon which murder there appeered unto those of Chios many evident tokens and signes of Gods anger yea and when they understood by the oracle of Apollo that for to appease their wrath they should put all those to death who had murdered Hippoclus they made answere That they all were guiltie of the fact and when the god Apollo commanded them that if they were all tainted with the said murder they should all depart out of the citie Chios they sent away as manie as either were parties and principals or accessaries and privie to the said blood-shed yea and whosoever approoved and praised the fact and those were neither few in number nor men of meane qualitie and power as far as to Leuconta which citie the Chians first conquered from the Coroneans and possessed by the helpe of the Erythraeans but afterwardes when there was warre betweene the said Chians and the Erythraeans who in those daies were the mightiest people in all Ionia insomuch as the Erythraeans came against Leuconia with a power intending to assault it the Chians being not able to resist grew to make a cōposition in which capitulated it was agreed that they should quit the city depart every person with one coat cassock only without taking any thing els with them The women understanding of this agreement gave them foule words bitterly reproched them for being so base minded as to lay off their armor thus to go naked thorow the mids of their enimies but when their husbands alleaged that they had sworn taken a corporal oth so to do they gave them counsel in any wise not to leave their armes and weapons behind them but to say that a javelin was a coat and a shield the cassocke of a valiant and hardie man The Chians perswaded hereunto spake boldly to the Erythraeans to that effect and shewed them their armes insomuch as the Erythraeans were affraid to see their resolute boldnesse and there was not one of them so hardie as to come neere for to empeach them but were verie well content that they abandoned the place and were gone in that sort Thus you may see how these men having learned of their wives to be couragious and confident saved their honours and their lives Long after this the wives of the Chians atchieved an other act nothing inferiour to this in vertue and prowesse At what time as Philip the sonne of Demetrius holding their citie besieged caused this barbarous edict and proud proclamation to be published That all the slaves of the
likewise in all other things diligent industrious talkative and namely inclined to making of verses and chanting songs as much or rather more than any other passion which can enter into the heart of man THE SIXTH QUESTION Whether king Alexander of Macedonie were a great drinker THere was some speech upon a time as touching king Alexander the Great to this effect That he dranke not so much as sat long at his meat and passed the time away in devising and talking with his friends but Philinus shewed by certeine scroles papers and day-books of the said kings house that they who held that opinion knew not well what they said for that this particular instance was ordinarily and usually found in those records That such a day the king slept all day long upon his liberall drinking of wine yea and other-whiles it appeareth that he slept the morrow after likewise which is the reason that hee was not so forward in venerous matters nor given much to women though otherwise he was hastie quicke and couragious great arguments of an inward heat of bodie and it is to be seene upon record That his flesh yeelded from it and breathed a passing sweet smell insomuch as his shirts and other clothes were full of an aromaticall sent and savour as if they had bene perfumed which seemeth also to be an argument and signe of heat For we see that those be the hottest driest countries which bring foorth cynamon and frankincense according as Theophrastus saith That a sweet odour proceedeth of perfect concoction and digestion of humours namely when by naturall heat all superfluous moisture is quite chased and expelled And by all likelihood this was the principall cause that Callisthenes grew into disgrace and lost the kings favour for that he was unwilling to sup with him in regard that he would impose upon him to drinke so much For it is reported that upon a time the great boule or goblet surnamed Alexanders boule having passed round about the table thorowout untill it came to Callisthenes he refused it and put it backe saying withall I will not drinke in Alexander for to have need of Aesculapius And thus much was said then concerning king Alexanders much wine-bibbing Moreover king Mithridates he who warred against the Romans among other games of prise which hee exhibited ordeined one for those who could drinke best and eat most and by mens saying himselfe performed them both so well that he won the prize in the one and the other for he could eat and drinke more than any man living in his time by occasion whereof he was commonly surnamed Dionysus that is to say Bacchus But as touching the reason of this surname wee say it is an opinion rashly received for when hee was a very infant lying in the cradle the lightning caught the swadling clothes and set them on fire but never touched or hurt his body save onely that there remained a little marke of the fire upon his forehead which notwithstanding the haire did cover that it was not greatly seene so long as he was a childe againe when he was a man growen it chaunced that the lightning pierced into the bed chamber where he lay asleepe and for his owne person it was not so much as singed therewith but it blasted a quiver of arrowes that hung at his bed-side went through it and burnt the arrowes within which as the soothsaiers and wise men out of their learning did intepret signified that one day he should be puissant in archers and light armed men But most men affirme that hee gat his surname of Bacchus or Dionysus in regard of the resemblance and likenesse of such accidents of lightning and blasting as many times befall After these words passed they entred into a speech as touching great drinkers among whom was reckoned also one Heraclides a famous wrestler or champion whom the men of Alexandria in our fathers daies pleasantly called little Hercules This good fellow when he could not meet with a companion able to set foot to his and drinke with him continually used to invite some to breake their fast with him in a morning others to beare him company at dinner some he would bidde to supper and intreat others last of all to sit with him at his collation or banquet after supper now when the first were gone came in the second immediatly then you should have the third succeed them in place and no sooner were they departed but in steps the fourth crew without any interruption and he himselfe sat it out still and making no intermission was able to hold out with all and beare those fower repasts and refections one after another Among those who were familiarly acquainted with Drusus sonne to the emperour Tibetius a physician there was who in drinking would chalenge and defie all the world but observed it was by some that spied and looked neere unto him That to prevent drunkennesse he used to take alwaies five or sixe bitter almonds before every cuppe that he drunke and when he was once debarred of them and not suffered so to doe he was not able to beare his drinke nor resist the least headinesse and strength thereof And verily some there be who say that these almonds have an abstersive propertie to bite to clense and scoure the flesh in such sort as that they will take away the spottes and freckles of the visage by reason of which qualitie when they be taken afore drinke with their bitternesse they fret the pores of the skinne and leave the impression of a certeine biting behinde them by meanes whereof there ensueth a certaine revulsion downward from the head of those vapours which flie up thither and so evaporate away through the said pores But for mine owne part I am of this opinion rather that their bitternesse hath a vertue to dry up and spend humors which is the reason that of all vapours the bitter is most unpleasant and disagreeable to the taste for that indeed as Plato saith consuming moisture as it doth by meanes of the drinesse which it hath it doth unnaturally binde and draw in the little veines of the toong which of themselves be soft and spungeous after the same manner men use to restraine such wounds or ulcers which be moist with medicines or salves composed of bitter drougues according as the poet Homer testisieth in these verses A bitter roote he bruis'd with hands and laid upon the sore To take the anguish cleane away that it might ake no more And so applied when it was all paines were soone allaid The running ulcer dried anon and flux of bloud was staid He said well and truly of that which is in taste bitter That it hath a vertue propertie to drie And it should seeme also that the powders which women strew upon their bodies for to represse diaphoneticall and extraordinarie sweets be by nature bitter and astringent so forcible is their bitternesse to binde and restreine which being so great reason
bodies THE THIRD QUESTION What the cause is that women hardly are made drunke but olde men very soone FLorus one day seemed to marvell that Aristotle having in his treatise of drunkennesse set downe this position That olde men are soone surprized and overseene with wine but contrariwise women hardly and very seldome rendred no reason thereof considering that his maner otherwise is not to propose any such difficulties but hee doth decide and cleere the same And when he had made this overture he mooved the companie to inquire into the cause thereof and a supper it was where familiar friends were met together Then Sylla said That the one was declared by the other for if we comprehend the cause aright as touching women it were no hard matter to finde our a reason for old men considering that their natures and constitutions be most opposit and contrary in regard of moisture and drinesse roughnesse and smoothnesse softnesse and hardnesse for first and formost suppose this of women undoubtedly that their naturall temperature is very moist which causeth their flesh to be so tender soft smooth slieke and shining to say nothing of their naturall purgations every moneth when as therefore wine meeteth with so great humiditie being overcome by the predominancy thereof it loseth the edge and tincture as it were together with the force that it had so as it becommeth dull every way discoloured and waterish And verily to this purpose somewhat may be gathered out of the words of Aristotle for he saith That those who make no long draught when they take their wine nor drinke leasurely but powre it downe at once which manner of drinking they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are not so subject to drunkennesse as others for that the wine maketh no long stay within their bodies but being forcibly thrust foorth soone passeth thorow and ordinarilie we may observe that women drinke in this manner and very probable it is that their bodies by reason of continual attraction of humours downward to the nether parts for their monethly termes is full of many conduits and passages as if they were divided into chanels pipes and trenches to draw foorth the said humours into which the wine no sooner falleth but away it passeth apace that it cannot settle nor rest upon the noble and principall parts which if they bee once troubled and possessed drunkennesse doth soone ensue Contrariwise that old men want naturall humiditie their very name in Greeke seemeth to implie sufficiently for called they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not because they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say inclining and stouping downward to the earth but because they are already in their habitude of bodie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say earthly Moreover their stiffenesse and unpliable disposition the roughnesse also of their skinne argueth their dry nature and complexion it standeth therefore to good reason that when they liberally take their wine their bodies which are rare and spungious within by occasion of that drinesse quickly catcheth and sucketh up the same and then by long staying there it worketh up into the head causeth the braine to beat and breedeth heavinesse there like as land-flouds gently glide over those fields which be solide hard washing them onely aloft and making no mire dirt but if the ground be light and hollow they enter and soke farther in even so wine being soone caught and drawne by the drinesse of old mens bodies staieth there the longer time and were not this so yet we may observe that the verie nature of old men admitteth the same symptomes and accidents which drunkennesse maketh Now these accidents occasioned by drunkennesse are very apparent to wit the trembling and shaking of their limbes faltering in their toong and speaking double immoderate and lavish speech pettishnesse and aptnesse to choler forgetfulnesse and alienation of the minde and understanding the most part whereof being incident to old men even when they are best in health and in most sober a little thing God wot will set them cleane out and any small agitation whatsoever will doe the deed so that drunkennesse in an old man engendreth not new accidents but setteth on foot and augmenteth those which be already common and ordinary with them To conclude there is not a more evident argument to proove and consirme the same than this that nothing in the world resembleth an old man more than a yoong man when hee is drunke THE FOURTH QUESTION Whether women by their naturall complexion be colder or hotter than men WHen Sylla had delivered his minde to that effect Apollonides an expert professour and well seene in raunging a battel in array seemed by his words to approove well of that which had bene alledged as touching old men but he thought that in the discourse of women the onely course was left out and overslipt to wit the coldnesse of their constitution by meanes whereof the hottest wine is quenched and forgoeth that fierie flame which flieth up to the head and troubleth the braines and this was received as a very probable and sufficient reason by all the company there in place But Athryilatus the physician a Thasian borne interjected some staie of farther searching into this cause For that quoth hee some are of opinion that women are not cold but hotter than men yea and others there be and that is a greater matter who hold that wine is not hotte at all but cold Florus woondering and amazed heereat This discourse and disputation quoth he as touching wine I reser to him there and with that pointed at me for that not many daies before wee had disputed together about that argument But as for women quoth Athryilatus that they bee rather hot than cold they argue thus First and formost they are smooth and not hairie on their face and bodie which testifieth their heat which spendeth and consumeth the excrement and so erfluitie that engendreth haire Secondly they proove it by their abundance of bloud which seemeth to be the fountaine of heat in the body and of bloud women have such store that they are ready to be inflamed yea to srie and burne withall if they have not many purgations and those quickly returning in their course to discharge and deliver them thereof Thirdly they bring in the experience observed at funerals which sheweth evidently that womens bodies be farre hotter than mens for they that have the charge of burning and enterring of dead corses doe ordinarily put into the funerall fire one dead body of a woman to tenne of men For that one corps say they helpeth to burne and consume the rest by reason that a womans flesh conteineth in it I wot not what unctuositie or oileous matter which quickly taketh fire and will burne as light as a torch so that it serveth in stead of drie sticks to kindle the sire and set all a burning Moreover if this be admitted for a
that a stone hath beene ingendred in the paunch or guts and yet good reason it were that moisture there should congeale or gather to a stone as it doth within the bladder if true it were that all our drinke descended into the belly and the guts by passing through the stomacke onely but it seemeth that the stomacke incontinently when we begin to drinke sucketh and draweth out of that liquor which passeth along by it in the wezill pipe as much onely as is needfull and requisit for it to mollifie and to convert into a nutritive pap or juice the solid meat and so it leaveth no liquid excrement at all whereas the lungs so soone as they have distributed both spirit and liquor from thence unto those parts that have need thereof expell and send out the rest into the bladder Well to conclude more likelihood there is of truth by farre in this than in the other and yet peradventure the truth in deed of these matters lieth hidden still and incomprehensible in regard whereof it is not meet to proceed so rashly and insolently to pronounce sentence against a man who as well for his owne sufficiency as the singular opinion of the world is reputed the prince and chiefe of al philosophers especially in so uncerteine a thing as this and in defence whereof there may bee so many reasons collected out of the readings and writings of Plato THE SECOND QUESTION What is meant in Plato by this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and why those seeds which in sowing light upon oxe hornes become hard and not easie to be concoted THere hath beene alwaies much question and controversie about 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not who or what is so called for certeine it is that seeds falling upon ox hornes according to the common opinion yeeld frute hard and not easily concocted whereupon by waie of Metaphor a stubborne and stiffe-necked person men use to tearme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but as touching the cause why such graine or seeds hitting against the hornes of an ox should come to be so untoward And many times refused I have yea and denied my friends to search into the thing the rather for that Theophrastus hath rendred so darke and obscure a reason raunging it among many other examples which he hath gathered and put downe in writing of strange and wonderfull effects whereof the cause is hard to be found namely That an henne after that she hath laid an egge turneth round about and with a festure or straw seemeth to purifie and halow her-selfe and the egge also that the sea-calfe or seale consumeth the pine and yet swalloweth it not downe semblably that stagges hide their hornes within the ground and burie them likewise that if one goat hold the herbe Eryngium that is to say sea-holly in his mouth all the rest of the flocke will stand still Among these miraculous effects Theophrastus I say hath put downe the seeds falling upon the hornes of an ox a thing knowen for certeine to be so but whereof the cause is most difficult if not impossible to be delivered But at a supper in the citie Delphi as I sat one day certeine of my familiar friends came upon me in this maner that seeing not onely according to the common saying From bellie full best counsell doth arise And surest plots men in that case devise but also we are more ready with our questions and lesse to seeke for answeres when as wine is in our heads causing us to be forward in the one and resolute in the other they would request me therefore to say somewhat unto the foresaid matter in question howbeit I held off still as being well backed with no bad advocates who tooke my part and were ready to defend my cause and by name Euthydemus my colleague or companion with me in the sacerdotall dignitie and Patrocleas my sonne in law who brought foorth and alledged many such things observed aswell in agriculture as by hunters of which sort is that which is practised by those who take upon them skill in the foresight and prevention of haile namely that it may be averted and turned aside by the bloud of a mould-warpe or linnen ragges stained with the monethly purgations of women Item that if a man take the figs of a wilde fig-tree and tie them to a tame fig-tree of the orchard it is a meanes that the fruit of the said fig-tree shall not fall but tarrie on and ripen kindly also that stags weepe salt teares but wilde bores shed sweet drops from their eies when they be taken For if you will set in hand to seeke out the cause hereof quoth Euthydemus then presently you must render a reason also of smallach and cumin of which the former if it be troden under foot and trampled on in the comming up men have an opinion it will grow and prosper the better and as for the other they sow it with curses and all the fowlest words that can be devised and so it will spring and thrive best Tush quoth Florus these be but toies and ridiculous mockeries to make sport with but as touching the cause of the other matters above specified I would not have you to reject the inquisition thereof as if it were incomprehensible Well quoth I now I have found a medicine and remedie which if you do use you shall bring this man with reason to our opinion that you also your selfe may solve some of these questions propounded It seemeth unto me therefore that it is colde that causeth this rebellious hardnesse aswell in wheat and other corne as also in pulse namely by pressing and driving in their solid substance untill it be hard againe for heat maketh things soft and easie to be dissolved and therefore they do not well and truely in alledging against Homer this versicle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The yeere not field Doth beare and yeeld For surely those fields and grounds which are by nature hot if the aire withall affoord a kinde and seasonable temperature of the weather bring forth more tender fruits and therefore such corne or seed which presently and directly from the husbandmans hands lighteth upon the ground entring into it and there covered finde the benefit both of the heat and moisture of the soile whereby they soone spurt and come up whereas those which as they be cast do hit upon the hornes of the beasts they meet not with that direct positure or rectitude called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Hesiodus commendeth for the best but falling downe I wot not how and missing of their right place seem rather to have bene flung at a venture than orderly sowen therfore the cold comming upon them either marreth and killeth them outright or els lighting upon their naked husks causeth them to bring fruit that proveth hard and churlish as drie as chips and such as will not be made tender sidow without they
division of the earth 15 The zones or climates of the earth how many and how great they be 16 Of earth quakes 17 Of the sea how it is concret and how it comes to be bitter 18 How come the tides that is to say the ebbing and flowing of the seas 19 Of the circle called Halo Chapters of the fourth Booke 1 Of the rising of Nilus 2 Of the soule 3 Whether the soule be corporall and what is her substance 4 The parts of the soule 5 Which is the mistresse or principall part of the soule and wherein it doth consist 6 Of the soules motion 7 Of the soules immortalitie 8 Of the senses and sensible things 9 Whether the senses and imaginations be true 10 How many senses there be 11 How sense and notion is performed as also how reason is ingendred according to disposition 12 What difference there is betweene imagination imaginable and imagined 13 Of sight and how we doe see 14 Of the reflexions or resemblances in mirrors 15 Whether darknesse be visible 16 Of hearing 17 Of smelling 18 Of tasting 19 Of the voice 20 Whether the voice be incorporall and how commeth the resonance called eccho 21 How it is that the soule hath sense and what is the principal predomināt part therof 22 Of respiration 23 Of the passions of the body and whether the soule have a fellow-feeling with it of paine Chapters of the fift Booke 1 Of divination or 〈◊〉 of future things 2 How dreames 〈◊〉 3 What is the substance of naturall seed 4 Whether naturall seed be a body 5 Whether femals as well as males doe yeeld naturall seed 6 After what maner conceptions are 7 How males and females are engendred 8 How monsters are ingendred 9 What is the reason that a woman accompanying often times carnally with a man doth not 〈◊〉 10 How twinnes both two and three at once be occasioned 11 How commeth the resemblance of parents 12 What is the cause that infants be like to some other and not to the parents 13 How women proove barren and men unable to ingender 14 What is the reason that mules be barren 15 Whether the fruit within the wombe is to be accounted a living creature or no. 16 How such fruits be nourished within the wombe 17 What part is first accomplished in the wombe 18 How it commeth to passe that infants borne at seven moneths end doe live and are livelike 19 Of the generation of living creatures how they be ingendred and whether they be corruptible 20 How many kindes there be of living creatures whether they all have sense and use of reason 21 In what time living creatures receive forme within the mothers wombe 22 Of what elements is every generall part in us composed 23 How commeth sleepe and death whether it is of soule or bodie 24 When and how a man beginneth to come unto his perfection 25 Whether it is soule or bodie that either sleepeth or dieth 26 How plants come to grow and whether they be living creatures 27 Of nourishment and growth 28 From whence proceed appetites lusts and pleasures in living creatures 29 How the feaver is ingendred and whether it be an accessarie or symptome to another disease 30 Of health sicknesse and olde age THE FIRST BOOKE OF Philosophers opinions The Prooeme BEing minded to write of naturall philosophie we thinke it necessary in the first place and before all things els to set downe the whole disputation of Philosophie by way of division to the end that we may know which is naturall and what part it is of the whole Now the Stoicks say that sapience or wisdom is the science of all things aswell divine as humane and that Philosophie is the profession and exercise of the art expedient thereto which is the onely supreame and sovereigne vertue and the same divided into three most generall vertues to wit Naturall Morall and Verball by reason whereof Philosophie also admitteth a three-folde distribution to wit into Naturall Morall Rationall or Verball the Naturall part is that when as we enquire and dispute of the world and the things conteined therein Morall is occupied in intreating of the good and ill that concerneth mans life Rationall or Verball handleth that which perteineth unto the discourse of reason and to speech which also is named Logique or Dialelectique that is to say Disputative But Aristotle and Theophrastus with the Peripateticks in maner all divide Philosophie in this maner namely into Contemplative and Active For necessarie it is say they that a man to atteine unto perfection should be a spectatour of all things that are and an actour of such things as be seemely and decent and may the better be understood by these examples The question is demanded whether the Sunne be a living creature according as it seemeth to the sight to be or no He that searcheth and enquireth into the trueth of this question is altogether therein speculative for he seeketh no farther than the contemplation of that which is semblably if the demand be made whether the world is infinit or if there be any thing without the pourprise of the world for all these questions be meere contemplative But on the other side mooved it may be How a man ought to live how he should governe his children how he is to beare rule and office of State and lastly in what maner lawes are to be ordeined and made for all these are sought into in regard of action and a man conversant therein is altogether active and practique CHAP. I. What is Nature SInce then our intent and purpose is to consider and treat of Naturall philosophie I thinke it needfull to shew first what is Nature for absurd it were to enterprise a discourse of Naturall things and meane-while to be ignorant of Nature and the power thereof Nature then according to the opinion of Aristotle is the beginning of motion and rest in that thing wherein it is properly and principally not by accident for all things to be seene which are done neither by fortune nor by necessitie and are not divine nor have any such efficient cause be called Naturall as having a proper and peculiar nature of their owne as the earth fire water aire plants and living creatures Moreover those other things which we do see ordinarily engendered as raine haile lightning presteres winds and such like for all these have a certeine beginning and every one of them was not so for ever and from all eternitie but did proceed from some originall likewise living creatures and plants have a beginning of their motion and this first principle is Nature the beginning not of motion onely but also of rest and quiet for whatsoever hath had a beginning of motion the same also may have an end and for this cause Nature is the beginning aswell of rest as of moving CHAP. II. What difference there is betweene a principle and an element ARistotle and Plato are of opinion that there is a
paramouts in their armes CHAP. III. What is the substance of Naturall seed ARISTOTLE defineth Seed to be that which hath power to moove in it selfe for the effecting of some such thing as it was from whence it came PYTHAGORAS taketh it to be the foame of the best and purest bloud the superfluitie and excrement of nouriture like as bloud and marrow ALCMAEON saith it is a portion of the braine PLATO supposeth it to be a decision or deflux of the marrow in the backe bone EPICURUS imagineth it to be an abstract of soule and body DEMOCRITUS holdeth that it is the geneture of the fleshy nerves proceeding from the whole body and the principall parts thereof CHAP. IIII. Whether genetall Seed be a body LEUCIPPUS and ZENO take it to be a body for that it is an abstract parcell of the soule PYTHAGORAS PLATO and ARISTOTLE acknowledge indeed and confesse that the power and force of Seed is bodilesse like as the understanding which is the author of motion but the matter thereof say they which is shed and sent foorth is corporall STRATO and DEMOCRITUS affirme the very puissance thereof to be a body howbeit spirituall CHAP. V. Whether femals send foorth Seed as well as males PYTHAGORAS EPICURUS and DEMOCRITUS hold that the Female likewise dischargeth Seed for that it hath seminarie vessels turned backward which is the reason that she hath lust unto the act of generation ARISTOTLE and ZENO be of opinion that the Female delivereth from it a moist matter resembling the sweat which commeth from their bodies who wrestle or exercise together but they will not have it to be Seed HIPPON avoucheth that Femals doe ejaculate Seed no lesse than males howbeit the same is not effectuall for generation for that it falleth without the matrix whereupon it commeth to passe that some women though very few and widdowes especially doe cast from them Seed without the company of men and he affirmeth that of the male Seed are made the bones of the female the flesh CHAP. VI. The maner of Conception ARISTOTLE thinketh that Conceptions come in this maner when as the matrix drawn before from the naturall purgation and there withall the monthly tearmes fetch some part of pure bloud from the whole masse of the body so that the males genetall may come to it and so concurre to engender Contrariwise that which hindereth conception is this namely when the matrix is impure or full of ventosities as it maybe by occasion of feare of sorrow or weaknesse of women yea and by the impuissance and defect in men CHAP. VII How it commeth that Males are engendred and how Females EMPEDOCLES supposeth that Males and Females are begotten by the meanes of heat and cold accordingly and heereupon recorded it is in Histories that the first Males in the world were procreated and borne out of the earth rather in the East and Southern parts but Females toward the North. PARMENIDES mainteineth the contrary and saith that Males were bred toward the Northern quarters for that the aire there is more grosse and thicker than else where on the other side Females toward the South by reason of the raritie and subtilitie of the aire HIPPONAX attributeth the cause heereof unto the seed as it is either more thick or powerfull or thinner and weaker ANAXAGORAS and PARMENIDES hold that the seed which commeth from the right side of a man ordinarily is cast into the right side of the matrix and from the left side likewise into the same side of the matrix but if this ejection of seed fall out otherwise cleane crosse then Females be engendred LEOPHANES of whom ARISTOTLE maketh mention affirmeth that the Males be engendred by the right genetory and females by the left LEUCIPPUS ascribeth it to the permutation of the naturall parts of generation for that according to it the man hath his yerd of one sort and the woman her matrix of another more than this he saith nothing DEMOCRITUS saith that the common parts are engendred indifferently by the one and the other as it falleth out but the 〈◊〉 parts that make distinction of sex of the party which is more prevalent HIPPONAX resolveth thus that if the seed be predominant it will be a Male but if the food and nourishment a Female CHAP. VIII How Monsters are engendred EMPEDOCLES affirmeth that Monsters be engendred either through the abundance of seed or default thereof either through the turbulent perturbation of the mooving or the distraction and division of the seed into sundry parts or else through the declination thereof out of the right way and thus he seemeth to have preoccupated in maner all the answers to this question STRATO alledgeth for this part addition or substraction transposition or inflation and ventosities And some physicians there be who say that at such a time as monsters be engendred the matrix suffereth distortion for that it is distended with winde CHAP. IX What is the reason that a woman though oftentime she companieth with a man doeth not conceive DIOCLES the Physician rendreth this reason for that some doe send soorth no seed at all or lesse in quantity than is sufficient or such in quality which hath no vivificant or quickning power or else it is for defect of heat of cold of moisture or drinesse or last of all by occasion of the paralysie or resolution of the privy parts and members of generation The STOICKS lay the cause hereof upon the obliquitie or crookednesse of the mans member by occasion whereof he cannot shoot foorth his 〈◊〉 directly or else it is by reason of the disproportion of the parts as namely when the matrix lieth to farre within that the yerd cannot reach unto it ERASISTRATUS findeth fault in this case with the matrix when it hath either hard callosities or too much carnositie or when it is more rare and spungeous or else smaller than it ought to be CHAP. X. How it commeth that two Twinnes and three Twinnes are borne EMPEDOCLES saith that two Twinnes or three are engendred by occasioneither of the abundance or the divulsion of the seed ASCLEPIADES assigneth it unto the difference of bodies or the excellence of seed after which manner we see how some barly from one root beareth two or three stalkes with their eares upon them according as the seed was most fruitfull and generative ERASISTRATUS 〈◊〉 it unto divers conceptions and superfaetations like as in brute beasts for when as the matrix is clensed then it commeth soone to conception and superfaetation The 〈◊〉 alledge to this purpose the cels or conceptacles within the matrix for as the seed falleth into the first and second there follow conceptions and superfaetations and after the same sort may three Twinnes be engendred CHAP. XI How commeth it to passe that children resemble their parents or progenitours before them EMPEDOCLES affirmeth that as similitudes are caused by the exceeding force of the genetall seed so the dissimilitudes arise from
the evaporation of naturall hear conteined within the same seed PARMENIDES is of opinion that when the seed descendeth out of the right side of the matrix the children be like unto the fathers but when it passeth from the left side unto the mothers The STOICKS opine thus from the whole body and the soule passeth the seed and so the similitudes doe forme of the same kinds the figures and characters like as a painter of the like colours draweth the image of that which he seeth before him also the woman for her part doth conferre genetall seed which if it be prevalent then the infant is like unto the mother but if the mans seed be more predominant it will resemble the father CHAP. XII How it falleth out that children resemble others and not their fathers and mothers THe most part of the Physicians affirme this to happen by chaunce and aventure but upon this occasion that the seed as well of the man as the woman waxeth cold for then the infants resemble neither the one nor the other EMPEDOCLES attributeth the forme and resemblance of yoong babes in the wombe unto the strong imagination of the woman in time of conception for many times it hath beene knowen that women have beene enamoured of painted images and statues and so deli vered of children like unto them The STOICKS say that by a sympathie of the minde and understanding through the insinuation of beames and not of images these resemblances are caused CHAP. XIII How it commeth that some women be barren and men likewise unable to get children PHYSICIANS hold that women be barren by reason that the matrix is either too streight over rare or too hard or else by occasion of certeine callosities or carnosities or for that the women themselves be weaklings and heartlesse or doe not thrive but mislike or else because they are fallen into some Cachexia and evill habit of body or by reason that they are distorted or otherwise in a convulsion DIOCLES saith that men in this action of generation are impotent for that some send foorth no seed at all or at leastwise in quantitie lesse than is meet or such as hath no generative power or because their genetals be paralyticall or relaxed or by reason that the yerd is crooked that it cannot cast the seed forward or for that the genetall members be disproportioned and not of a competent length considering the distance of the matrix The STOICKS lay the fault upon certeine faculties and qualities discordant in the parties themselves that come together about this businesse who being parted one from another and conjoined with others uniting well with their complexion there followeth a temperature according to nature and a childe is gotten betweene them CHAP. XIIII Why Mules be barrain ALCMAEON is of opinion that Mulets that is to say male Mules be not able to engender for that their seed or geneture is of a thin substance which procecdeth from the coldnesse therof The Females also because their shaps do not open wide enough that is to say the mouth therof doth not gape sufficiently for these be the verie tearmes that he useth EMPEDOCLES blameth exilitie or smalnesse the low positure and the over streight conformation of the matrix being so turned backward and tied unto the belly that neither seed can be directly cast into the capacitie of it nor if it were caried thither would it receive the same Unto whom DIOCLES also beareth witnesse saying Many times quoth he in the dissection of Anatomies we have seene such matrices of Mules and it may be therefore that in regard of such causes some women also be barrain CHAP. XV. Whether the Infant lying yet in the mothers wombe is to be accounted a living creature or no PLATO directly pronounceth that such an Infant is a living creature for that it moveth and is fed within the bellie of the mother The STOCKS say it is a part of the wombe and not an animall by it selfe For like as fruits be parts of the trees which when they be ripe do fall even so it is with an Infant in the mothers wombe EMPEDOCLES denieth it to be a creature animall howbeit that it hath life and breath within the bellie mary the first 〈◊〉 that it 〈◊〉 respiration is at the birth namely when the superfluous humiditie which is in such unborne 〈◊〉 is retired and gone so that the aire from without entreth into the void vessels lying open DIOGENES saith that such Infants are bred within the matrice inanimate howbeit in heat whereupon it commeth that 〈◊〉 hear so soone as ever the Infant is turned out of the mothers wombe is drawen into the lungs 〈◊〉 leaveth to unborne babes a mooving naturall but not a respiration of which motion the 〈◊〉 be the 〈◊〉 cause but afterwards they become perfect living animall creatures when being come forth of the wombe they take in breath from the aire CHAP. XVI How unborne babes are fed in the wombe DEMOCRITUS and EPICURUS hold that this unperfect fruit of the wombe receiveth nourishment at the mouth and thereupon it commeth that so soone as ever it is borne it seeketh and nuzzeleth with the mouth for the brest head or nipple of the pappe for that within the matrice there be certaine tears yea and mouths too whereby they are nourished The STOICKS say that it is fed by the secundine and the navell whereupon it is that Midwives presently knit up and tie the navell string fast but open the Infants mouth to the end that it be acquainted with another kind of nourishment ALCMAEON affirmeth that the Infant within the mothers wombe feedeth by the whole body throughout for that it sucketh to it and draweth in manner of a spunge of all the food that which is good for nourishment CHAP. XVII What part of the Child is first made perfect within the mothers bellie THe STOICKS are of opinion that the most parts are formed all at once but ARISTOTEE saith the backe bone and the loines are first framed like as the keele in a ship ALCMAEON affirmeth that the head is first made as being the seat of reason PHYSICIANS will have the heart to be the first wherein the veines and arteries are Some thinke the great toe is framed first and others the navill CHAP. XVIII What is the cause that Infants borne at seven moneths end be livelike EMPEDOCLES thinketh that when mankind was first bred of the earth one day then by reason of the slow motion of the Sunne was full as long as in this age of ours tenne moneths and that in processe of time and by succession it came to be of the length of seven moneths And therefore quoth hee infants borne either at ten or seven moneths end doe ordinarily live the nature of the world being so accustomed in one day to bring that fruit to maturitie after that night wherein it was committed into the wombe thereof TIMAEUS saith that they bee not ten moneths but are
that it was Cornelius the priest but the sexton onely of the church that thus beguiled the Sabine 5 Why are they who have beene 〈◊〉 reported dead in a strange countrey although they returne home alive not received nor suffred to enter directly at the dores but forced to climbe up to the tiles of the house and so to get downe from the rouse into the house VArro rendreth a reason heereof which I take to be altogether fabulous for hee writeth that during the Sicilian warre there was a great battell fought upon the sea and immediately upon it there ranne a rumour of many that they were dead in this fight who notwithstanding they returned home safe died all within a little while after howbeit one there was among the rest who when he would have entred into his owne house found the dore of the owne accord fast shut up against him and for all the forcible meanes that was made to open the same yet it would not prevaile whereupon this man taking up his lodging without just before his dore as he slept in the night had a vision which advertised and taught him how he should from the roofe of the house let himselfe downe by a rope and so get in now when he had so done he became fortunate ever after all the rest of his life and hee lived to be a very aged man and heereof arose the foresaid custome which alwaies afterwards was kept and observed But haply this fashion may seeme in some fort to have beene derived from the Greeks for in Greece they thought not those pure and cleane who had beene caried foorth for dead to be enterred or whose sepulchre and funerals were 〈◊〉 or prepared neither were such allowed to frequent the company of others nor suffred to come neere unto their sacrifices And there goeth a report of a certaine man named Aristinus one of those who had beene possessed with this superstition how he sent unto the oracle of Apollo at Delphos for to make supplication and praier unto the god for to bee delivered out of this perplexed anxietie that troubled him by occasion of the said custome or law then in force and that the prophetesse Pythia returned this answer Looke what soever women doe in childbed newly laid Unto their babes which they brought foorth the verie same I say See that be done to thee againe and after that be sure Unto the blessed gods with hands to sacrifice most pure Which oracle thus delivered Aristinus having well pondered and considered committed himselfe as an infant new borne unto women for to be washed to be wrapped in swadling clothes and to be suckled with the brest-head after which all such others whom we call Hysteropotmous that is to say those whose graves were made as if they had beene dead did the semblable Howbeit some doe say that before Aristinus was borne these creremonies were observed about those Histropotmi and that this was a right auncient custome kept in the semblable case and therefore no marvell it is that the Romans also thought that such as were supposed to have beene once buried and raunged with the dead in another world ought not to enter in at the same porch out of which they goe when they purpose to sacrifice unto the gods or at which they reenter when they returne from sacrifice but would have them from above to descend through the tiles of the roufe into the close house with the aire open over their heads for all their purifications ordinarily they performed without the house abroad in the aire 6 Why doe women kisse the lips of their kinsfolks IS it as most men thinke for that women being forbidden to drinke wine the manner was brought up That whensoever they met their kinsfolke they should kisse their lips to the end they might not be unknowen but convicted if they had drunke wine or rather for another reason which Aristotle the philosopher hath alledged for as touching that occasion which is so famous and commonly voiced in every mans mouth yea and reported of divers and sundrie places it was no doubt the hardy attempt executed by the dames of Troie and that upon the coasts of Italy for when the men upon their arrivall were landed the women in the meane while set fire upon their ships for very desire that they had to see an end once one way or other of their long voiage to be delivered frō their tedious travel at sea but fearing the fury of their men when they should returne they went forth to meet their kinsfolke and friends upon the way and welcomed them with amiable embracing sweet kisses of their lips by which means having appeased their angrie mood and recovered their favours they continued ever after the custome of kindgreeting and loving salutation in this manner Or was not this a priviledge granted unto women for their greater honour and credit namely to be knowen and seen for to have many of their race and kinred and those of good worth and reputation Or because it was not lawfull to espouse women of their blood and kinred therefore permitted they were to entertaine them kindly and familiarly with a kisse so they proceeded no farther insomuch as this was the onely matke and token left of their consanguinitie For before time they might not marrie women of their owne blood no more than in these daies their aunts by the mothers side or their sisters and long it was ere men were permitted to contract marriage with their cousin germains and that upon such an occasion as this There was a certaine man of poore estate and small living howbeit otherwise of good and honest cariage and of all others that managed the publike affairs of State most popular and gracious with the commons who was supposed to keepe as his espoused wife a kinswoman of his and cousin germain an inheritresse by whom he had great wealth and became verie rich for which he was accused judicially before the people but upon a speciall favour that they bare unto him they would not enquire into the cause in question but not onely suppressed his bill of enditement and let her go as quit of all crime but also even they enacted a statute by vertue whereof lawfull it was for all men from that time forward to marrie as far as to their cousin germains but in any higher or neerer degree of consanguinitie they were expresly forbidden 7 Wherefore is it not lawfull either for the husband to receive a gift of his wife or for the wife of her husband MAy it not be for that as Solon ordained that the donations and bequests made by those that die shall stand good unlesse they besuch as a man hath granted upon necessitie or by the inducement and flatterie of his wife in which proviso he excepted necessitie as forcing and constraining the will and likewise pleasure as deceiving the judgement even so have men suspected the mutuall gifts passing between the husband and