the place and part of that precious Tree into which we had a mind to be changed and having by that effort of Imagination excited our matter to the Motions necessary for producing them we transformed our selves into the same Thus my Eagle having his Eyes peckt out had no more to do for restoring of them again but to imagine himself a sharp-sighted Eagle for all our Transformations are performed by Motion and therefore it is that when from Leaves Flowers and Fruit that we were we became transmuted into Men thou sawest us dance still sometime after because we were not as yet recovered from the agitation which we ought to give to our matter for making of us Men After the manner of Bells which though they be stopt yet Chime for some time after and dully retain the same sound which was caused by the striking of the Clapper and therefore thou sawest us dance before we made that great Man because for production of him it behoved us to take all the general and particular Motions that were necessary to constitute him to the end that that agitation by degrees compressing and compacting our several Bodies by it's motion might create in every part the specifick Motion which it ought to have Ye men of the other world cannot do the same things by reason of the Heaviness of your Mass and the Coldness of your Imagination He continued his Probation and illustrated it by so familiar and palpable Instances that at length I was undeceiv'd of a great many ill prov'd opinions wherewith our obstinate Doctors possess the minds of the weak At that time I began to conceive that in reality the imagination of these Solar people which by reason of the Climate ought to be hotter their Bodies for the same reason lighter and their persons more active there being in that World as there is in ours no Activity of the Center which may divert the matter from the motion which that Imagination stamps upon it I conceived I say that that Imagination might produce without a Miracle all the Miracles which it had performed A thousand Examples of almost the like effects affirmed by people of our Globe fully perswaded me of this Cippus K. of Italy who having been present at a fight of Bulls and his imagination all the night after running upon Horns found his forehead horned next morning Gallus Vitius who bent his mind and so vigorously excited it to conceive the Nature of Folly that having by an effort of Imagination given to his matter the same motions that that matter ought to have for constituting Folly became a Fool. King Codrus being Ptisical and fixing his eyes and thoughts upon the fresh looks of a young Countenance and that florid Chearfulness which darted upon him from the youthfulness of the Boy exciting in his Body the motion whereby he fancied the healthfulness of a young man recovered his Health In short many Women have made their Children already formed in the Womb Monsters because their imagination that was not strong enough to give to themselves the Figure of the Monsters which they conceived had force sufficient to muster the matter of the Faetus that was much hotter and more moveable than their own into an order propper for the production of these Monsters Nay I was perswaded that when that famous Hypochondriacal man of Antiquity imagined himself to be a Pitcher if his two compact and heavy matter could have followed the emotion of his Fancy it would have formed of his entire Body a perfect Pitcher and he would have appeared to all men to be a real Pitcher so as he appeared to be to himself alone A great many other Instances wherewith I satisfied my self so throughly convinced me that I made no doubt any more of the wonders which the Man-spirit told me He asked me if I desired any thing else of him and I thanked him with all my Heart After that he had still the goodness to advise me that since I was an Inhabitant of the Earth I should follow the Nightingale into the obscure Regions of the Sun because they were more sutable to the pleasures which Human Nature covets No sooner had he concluded this discourse but that opening his Mouth very wide I saw the King of these little Animals come out of his Throat in shape of a Nightingale The great man instantly fell down and at the same time all his Members by morcels flew away under the form of Eagles That Nightingale self-Creator perched upon the fairest of them from whence he warbled out a most excellent Air whereby I fancy he gave me the Farewel The real Nightingale took flight also but not the way as they did nor did she soar so high so that I did not lose sight of her We travelled much about the same rate for seeing I was indifferent what Country I went to first I was very willing to accompany her besides that the obscure regions of the Birds being more conform to my Constitution I hoped also to meet with Adventures there more agreeable to my humour In that Expectation I travelled for the space of three weeks at least with all imaginable content had I had nothing but my ears to satisfie for the Nightingale let me not be without Musick when she was weary she came and rested upon my Shoulder and when I stopt she staid for me At length I arrived in a Country of the Kingdom of that little Quirister who then cared no more for my Company so that I lost sight of her I sought her and called to her but at length growing weary of running up and down in vain after her I resolved to take some rest For that end I laid my self along upon a soft Carpet of Grass spread at the Root of a lofty Rock that was covered with many trees whose blith and fresh Verdure was a perfect Emblem of Youth But whilst softened by the Charms of the place The History of BIRDS I Began to fall asleep in the Shade I perceived in the Air a strange Bird that hovered over my Head it supported it self by so slight and imperceptible a motion that I was many times in doubt whether it might not be also a little Universe balanced by its own Center However by little and little it descended and at length came so near that it filled my Eyes with a delightful Prospect The Tail of it seemed to be green its Breast Azure-enamel'd its Wings Incarnate and its Head Purple which tossed a glittering Crown of Gold the Rayes whereof sparkled from its Eyes It kept a long time upon the Wing and I was so attentive to observe what became on 't that my Soul being contracted and in a manner wrapt up in the sole action of Seeing it hardly reached my Ear to let me hear that the Bird spoke as it sung However being by little and little unbent from my Extasie I distinctly remarked the Syllables Words and Discourse which it uttered To the best of
Image still burning in the cold Fountains but attracted his Body to join it In a word poor Narcissus fell desperately in Love with himself I will not be tedious in relating to you his deplorable Catastrophy the Ages of Antiquity have spoken enough of that And besides I have Two Adventures still to acquaint you with which will take up the time far better You shall know then that the fair Salmacis frequented the company of the Shepherd Hermaphroditus but with no other Privacies than what the Neighbourhood of their Houses could allow of When Fortune who delights to disturb the most quiet and harmless Lives so ordered that in an Assembly of Plays where the rewards for Beauty and Running were two of these Apples Hermaphroditus gained that of the Race and Salmacis the other of Beauty Though they had been gathered together yet it was from different Branches because these amorous Fruits mingled together so cunningly that one of Pylades was never without another of Orestes and that was the reason why appearing to be Twins they plucked always a Couple at a time The fair Salmacis eat her Apple and pretty Hermaphroditus lockt his up in a Cupboard Salmacis being inspired with the effects of her own Apple and of that of the Shepherd which began to grow hot in his Cupboard felt her self attracted towards him by the Sympathetick Flux and Reflux of the two The Shepherds Parents who perceived the Amours of the Nymph finding their advantage in that Alliance endeavoured to entertain and promote it And therefore having heard much talking of the Twin-Apples as of a Fruit whose Juyce inclined People to Love they distilled some of them and having rectified the Spirit to the highest degree found a means to make their Son and his Lover drink of it The virtue of the Juyce being sublimed to the highest degree it could be raised to kindled in the Hearts of the Lovers so vehement a desire of Conjunction that at first sight Hermaphroditus was swallowed up in Salmacis and Salmacis melted away in the Arms of Hermaphroditus The one past into the other and of two of different Sexes they made up I know not what double Person that was neither Man nor Woman When Hermaphroditus had a mind to enjoy Salmacis he found himself to be the Nymph and when Salmacis desired to be embraced by Hermaphroditus she perceived her self to be the Shepherd This couple though still retained its Unity it Begat and Conceived and yet was neither Man nor Woman In short in it Nature hath shewn a Miracle which she hath never been able since to hinder from being One. Well now are not these pretty surprising Stories Really they are for to see a Daughter couple with her Father a young Princess glut her self with the Amours of a Bull a Man aspire to the Emjoyment of a Stone Another to espouse himself a Maid to Celebrate a Marriage which she consummated as a youth to cease to be a Man without beginning to be a Woman to become a Twin out of the Mothers Womb and the Twin of another who had no Relation to him These are things quite out of the common Road of Nature and nevertheless you 'll be more surprised at what I am about to tell you Amongst the sumptuous Variety of all sorts of Fruits and Trees which were brought from distant Climates for the Marriage-Feast of Cambyses there was presented to him a Cien of Orestes which he caused to be grafted upon a Plane Tree and amongst the Dainties of the last course some Apples of the same Tree were served up to him The delicacy of the Dish invited him to eat heartily of it and the substance of that Fruit being after the three Concoctions converted into a perfect Seed it formed in the Womb of the Queen the Embryo of his Son Artaxerxes for all the particulars of his Life have made Physicians conjecture that he must needs have been produced after this manner When the young Heart of that Prince was old enough to deserve the anger of Love it was not observed that he sighed at all after any of his own kind he loved nothing but Trees Groves and Woods but above all those that affected him the lovely Plane Tree whereon his Father Cambyses had formerly caused that shoot of Orestes to be graffed wun his greatest affection His Constitution suited so nicely with the progress of the Plane Tree that he seemed to grow with the Branches of it He daily went and embraced it in his Sleep he dreamt of nothing else and under the Canopy of its Green Hangings he dispatched all his Affairs It was easily perceived that the Plane Tree smitten with a reciprocal Flame was ravished with his Caresses For on all occasions without any apparent reason its Leaves were seen to shake and in a manner leap for Joy the Branches bend round about his Head as it were to make a Crown for him and to reach down so near to his Face that it was easie to be known that it was rather to kiss him than out of any natural inclination of bending downwards Nay it was also observed that out of Jealousie it ranked its Leaves in order joining one close to the other for fear least the Sun-Beams piercing through might kiss him as well as it The King on his part set no more bounds to his Love he had his Bed made under the Plane Tree and the Tree not not knowing how to repay his Friendship bestowed upon him the most precious thing that Trees have which was its Honey-dew that every Morning dropt upon his Face Their Caresses would have lasted longer had not Death the Enemy of Noble Actions put an end to them Artaxerxes died of Love in the embraces of his dear Plane Tree and the Persians extreamly afflicted at the death of so good a Prince resolved that they might give him satisfaction even after his Death that his Body should be burnt with the Branches of that Tree and no other Wood employed in Consuming it When the Funeral Pile was kindled the Flame was seen to twist it self with that of the Fat of the Body and their burning Locks which curled one into the other to taper into a Pyramide as far as could be discerned That pure and subtile Fire divided not but when it arrived at the Sun whither you know all igneous matter tends it formed the sprout of the Apple-Tree of Orestes which you see there on your Right Hand Now the Breed of that Fruit is lost in your World and I 'll tell you how that mischance happened Fathers and Mothers who as you know are only guided by interest in the management of their Domestick Affairs being vext that their Children so soon as they had eaten of these Apples squandered away upon their Friends all that they had burnt all the young Plants they could find of that Tree so that the kind being lost is the reason why no true Friend is now to be found As fast then as these Trees
the like was never heard before And that was that all of a sudden we perceived the Earth blackened under our Feet and the Heavens kindled before with Beams extinguished over head as if a Canopy Four Leagues broad had been spread betwixt us and the Sun. It would be no easie matter for me to express what we imagined in that Juncture All sorts of Terrors even that of the Worlds end seized us and none of these Apprehensions seemed to us to be improbable for to see night in the Sun or the Air overcast with Clouds is a Miracle that never happens there And yet this was not all for immediately after a sharp and skreaking noise like to that of the winding up of a Jack came to grate our Ears and at the very same time a Cage fell at our Feet No sooner had it rested upon the Sand but it opened and was brought to bed of a Man and a Woman they had an Anchor with them which they fastened to the Roots of a Rock the next thing they did was to make towards us The Woman led the Man and with threats dragged him forward When she was come very near us Gentlemen said she in some little disorder Is not this the Province of Philosophers I made answer No but that we hoped to be there within the space of Four and twenty hours and that the old Man who allowed me his Company was one of the chief Ministers of that Monarchy Seeing you are a Philosopher replied the Woman addressing her self to Campanella without going further I must discharge my heart to you To tell you then in a few Words the occasion of my coming hither you must know that I come to complain of a Murder committed on the person of the Youngest of my Children the Barbarian whom I hold here hath twice kill'd him though he be the Father We were extreamly puzled at this Discourse and therefore I desired to know what she meant by a Child killed twice Know anssered the Woman that in our Country amongst the other Statutes of Love there is a Law regulates the number of Kisses which a Husband is obliged to give his Wife And it 's for that reason that every evening a Physician within his own precinct visits all the Houses where having viewed the Husband and Wife he taxes them for that night according to their Health strong or weak in more or less Embraces Now my Husband there was adjudged to Seven Nevertheless being netled at some angry words I gave him as we were going to Bed he did not so much as touch me all the while we were in bed But God who avenges the cause of the afflicted permitted That that Wretch being tickled in a dream by remembring the Kisses which he unjustly detained from me let a Man be lost I told you that his Father hath killed him twice because by hindering him to be he is the cause that he is not there is his first Murder and he is likewise the cause why he hath not been there 's his second Whereas an ordinary Murderer knows very well that he whom he destroys is no more in being but he cannot hinder but that he hath had a Being Our Magistrates would have rendred Justice in the matter but the Crafty Man alledged for excuse That he would have performed his conjugal Duty had he not been apprehensive that kissing me in the rage that I had put him into he might have begot a Mad-man The Senate puzled at that Plea ordered us to go and appear before the Philosophers and plead our Cause there So soon as we received the Order to be gone we put or selves into a Cage hung by the Neck of that great Fowl which you see there from whence by means of a Pully which we fastned to it we let our selves down to the ground and hoist our selves up into the Air. There are people in our Province purposely appointed to tame them when they are young and breed them up to the work we employ them in That which chiefly makes them tractable contrary to their fierce nature is that to satisfie their unsatiable Hunger we give them the Bodies of all the Beasts that die to feed on After all when we have a mind to sleep for because of the constant excesses of Love which weaken us we stand in need of Rest We let loose into the open Fields at convenient distances Twenty or Thirty of these Fowls each tied to a rope who taking flight with their great Wings display in the Sky a Night larger than the Horizon I was very attentive both to her Discourse and in great extasie to consider the prodigious bulk of that Giant-Bird But so soon as Campanella had lookt a little upon it Ha! verily cried he it is one of those Feathered Monsters called Condores which are to be seen in the Isle of Mandragora in our World and all over the Torrid Zone they cover an Acre of ground with their Wings But seeing these Animals grow Huger according as the Sun under which they are bred is hotter in the World of the Sun they must needs be of a prodigious Greatness However added he turning to the Woman you must of necessity accomplish your Journey for it belongs to Socrates who hath the inspection of Manners to decide your Cause In the mean time I adjure you to tell us what Country you are of because seeing it is but three or four years since I arrived in this World I am but very little as yet acquainted with the Map of it We are answered she of the Kingdom of Lovers That great State is on one side bordered by the Republick of Peace and on the other by that of the Just In the Country I come from at Sixteen years of Age Boys are put into the Novitiat of Love It is a very stately Palace that takes up almost a quarter of the City The Maids are put into it at Thirteen and both accomplish their year of Probation there during which the Boys are only employed in meriting the affection of the Girls and the Girls in rendring themselves worthy of the Love of the Boys When the Twelve Months are up the faculty of medicine in Body go and visit this Seminary of Lovers They feel them all over one after another even to the most Privy parts of their Body make them couple before them and then according as the Male upon Tryal is found to be vigorous and well-shaped they give him for Wives Ten Twenty Thirty or Forty Maids such as loved him provided he reciprocally love them The Husband nevertheless cannot lie but with Two at a time and it is not lawful for him to Embrace any of them so long as she is with Child Such as are found to be Barren are only employed in Service and Men who are impotent are made Slaves and may carnally mingle with the Female-Drudges After all when a Family hath more Children than it can bring up the Republick takes care of
them But that 's a misfortune that very seldom happens because so soon as a Woman is brought to Bed in the City the publick Treasury furnishes a yearly Pension for the Education of the Child according to its Quality which on certain days the Treasurers of State themselves carry to the House of the Father But if you have a mind to know more step into our Pannier it is big enough for Four. Seeing we are going the same way we 'll talk and make our Journey the shorter Campanella was of the mind that we should embrace the offer and I was likewise very glad of it to avoid being tired But when I came to help them to weigh their Anchor I was much surprized to find that instead of a great Cable which ought to bear it up it hung only by a Silken thread as small as a Hair. I asked Campanella how it could be that a Mass so heavy as that Anchor was did not by its weight break so weak a thing And the good Man made answer That that Line did not break because being spun all of an equal bigness there was no reason why it should sooner break at one place than another We all stowed ourselves into the Pannier and then hoisted up our selves by the Pully as high as the Fowl's Throat where we appeared no bigger than a Bead hanging at its Neck When we were up as high as the Pully we fastened the Cable by which our Cage hung to one of its smallest Down-feathers which nevertheless was as big as ones Thumb and so soon as the Woman had made a sign to the Bird to be gone we perceived it cleave the Air with a violent Rapidity The Condore hastned or slackened its flight soared or stooped according to its Mistresses pleasure whose Voice served it for a Bridle We had not flow'n Two hundred Leagues when we perceived on the Earth to the lest Hand a night like to that which our living Umbrello made under us We asked the stranger Woman what she thought it might be It 's another Malefactor answered she who is going also to receive Justice in the Province whither we are going His Fowl without doubt is stronger than ours or otherwise we have trifled away a great deal of time by the way for he set not out till after I was gone I asked her what Crime that poor Wretch was accused of He is not barely accused answered she he is condemned to dye because he is already convicted of not being afraid of Death How then said Campanella to her do the Laws of your Country enjoyn Men to be afraid of Death Yes replied the Woman they enjoyn all except those who are admitted into the Colledge of the Wise for our Magistrates have found by sad Experience that he who fears not to lose Life may take it from any Body else After some other discourses that followed these Campanella had a mind to make a larger enquiry into the Manners of her Country He asked her then what were the Laws and Customs of the Kingdom of Lovers But she begged his pardon if she did not answer him because since she was not born there and knew them but in part she was afraid she might say too much or too little I came into that Province continued the Woman but I and all my Prodecessors are originally of the Kingdom of Truth my Mother was delivered of me there and never had another Child she brought me up in the Country till I was Thirteen Years of Age when the King by the advice of Physicians commanded her to carry me to the Kingdom of Lovers from whence I come to the end that having my Breeding in the Palace of Love that Education which is more chearful and soft than the Breeding of our Country might render me more Fruitful than she had been My Mother carried me thither and placed me out into that House of Pleasure I had much ado to comply with their Customs At first they appeared to me to be very rude for as you know the opinions that we have suckt in with our Mothers Milk seem always to us to be the most rational and then I was but just come from the Kingdom of Truth my native Country Not but that I perceived very well that the Nation of Lovers lived with more Condescension and Indulgence than ours did for though every one gave it out That my Sight wounded dangerously that my Looks killed and that my Eyes glanced out Flames which consumed Hearts yet the Goodness of all and especially of the Young Men was so great that they carressed kissed and hugg'd me instead of revenging the Evil that I had done them Nay I was even vexed with my self for the disorders that I was the cause of and that was the reason that out of Pity I told them one day That I was resolved to run away But alas how can you save your self cryed they all embracing my Neck and kissing my Hands Your House is on all Hands beset with Water and so great the danger appears to be that undoubtedly you and we both had been already drowned without a Miracle How said I to our Historian is the Country of Lovers then subject to Inundations It may very well be said to be replied she for one of my Gallants and that Man would not have deceived me because he loved me wrote to me That for grief of my departure he had shed an Ocean of Tears I saw another who assured me That within the space of three days his Eyes had distilled a Fountain of Water And as I was cursing for their sakes the fatal Hour when first they saw me one who reckoned himself of the number of my Slaves sent me word that the night before an overflowing of his Eyes had caused a Deluge I was about to have left the World that I might no longer be the cause of so many Evils had not the Messenger subjoined that his Master had charged him to assure me That I had no cause to fear any thing seeing the Furnace of his Breast had dried up that Deluge In fine you may Conjecture how waterish the Kingdom of Lovers must needs be since with them it is to weep but by halves when from under their Eye-lids there springs no more but Rivulets Fountains and Torrents I was in great pain what Machine I could find to save my self out of all these Waters that were like to over-whelm me But one of my Lovers who was called The Jealous advised me to pluck out my Heart and then embark in it that I needed not fear but that it would hold me because it held so many others nor that I should sink because it was too light That all I was to be afraid of was to be burnt because the Materials of such a Vessel was much subject to Fire That I should be gone then upon the Sea of his Tears that the Fillet of his Love would serve me for a Sail and that the favourable