men have phancied to themselves Prototypes and Parallels to serve instead of patterns and models in Policy an accomplish'd Commonwealth such as Plato Sir Thomas More and some others have delineated in Physick a Temperament most perfect and exquisite to a grain call'd temperamentum ad pondus in Eloquence a perfect Orator so they who have undertaken to speak of Beauty have imagin'd a perfect one which leaving women to set down the conditions which they require in handsome men we will make to consist as to them in thirty one particulars which go to the making up of a handsome woman The 1. of those Points is Youth which renders even the coursest animals agreeable The 2. is a Stature neither too large nor too small 3. A middle size of corpulency because too fat or too lean are counted amongst imperfections 4. Symetrie and proportion of all the parts 5. Long fair and fine hair 6. A skin soft and smooth through which appear small veins 7. A lively whiteness of Lillies blended with Roses 8. A smooth forehead pleasingly arched and always serene 9. Temples not hollow 10. Two black lines arch-wise in stead of Eye-brows Two blew eyes well set in the head well open'd and fix'd with a sweet glance 12. A nose well shap'd and rightly set on 13. Cheeks a little rounded making a dimple 14. A graceful smile 15. Two lips of Coral 16. A little mouth 17. Small Pearls smooth and well ajusted in stead of teeth 18. A sweet breath 19. A well tun'd voice 20. A chin dimpled somewhat round and fleshy 21. Ears small ruddy and well joyn'd to the head 22. A neck of Ivory 23. A bosome of Alabaster 24. Two snow-balls 25. A hand white something long and plump 26. Fingers ending by little in a Pyramide 27. Nails of mother of Pearl turn'd into an oval 28. A gesture free and not affected 29. Soft and smooth flesh 30. A modest gate The last point may be more easily imagin'd then honestly nam'd The second said that Beauty hath no more but an imaginary Being or at least is more in the phansie then in Nature Which they acknowledge who set conditions for it never to be found in any subject whatever Moreover every real Entity if it fall under the cognisance of the Senses is conceiv'd in the same manner by all people in the earth when the Organ is not hurt the medium alike and the distance equal and all other circumstances are found the same Thus Honey is every where acknowledg'd by the same sweetness and the Sun by the same light But one and the same Beauty is not conceiv'd in the same fashion nor esteemed such by all the people of the world for the judgements thereof are found different not only according to the diversity of Nations but also in reference to the same people yea the same person at several times Our ancient Gaules wore large foreheads because in those days they accounted the same handsomest and we see also to this day old Pictures representing handsome women in that sort whence arose the reproachful word Effrons Frontless denoting one that hath no forehead or shame At this day women think they cannot have too little they take so much pains to hide the same with their head-tire and men after their example Much hair is at present recommendable in many places especially in France The handsomest of the Pagan Deities was call'd Intonsus Apollo And the Scripture principally sets forth the beauty of women by their long hair without which the comeliest would be terrible Nevertheless in the latter ages in France 't was a shameful thing for men to have much hair In New France the greatest past of the people wear no hair but on one side The women of Camboya cut off theirs close to their ears The Perusians have none but a lock on the top of the head and the Romans of old ador'd Venus Calva Our Ladies shape their Eye-brows into arches The Africans paint theirs into the figure of a Triangle Some like an Aquiline and rising Nose yet the flattest are counted most graceful amongst the Abyssines Here eyes pretty prominent and of a middle size are esteem'd in China little eyes are most priz'd The Lybians love a large mouth and lips turn'd backwards here little ones are the most commendable 'T is one of the most agreeable parts that our Ladies shew and yet the Arabians esteeming the same indecorous cover it as carefully as their backside The Japonnois black their teeth and every where else the whitest are most valued Our Virgins streighten their bosomes the most they can on the contrary the Aethiopian women account those the most graceful breasts which they can cast over their shoulders Youth is elsewhere lov'd yet in the West Indies the oldest women are the handsomest In Aethiopia and many other places the blackest are counted the handsomest and in painting a Devil they make him all white as we do black In brief there is not one of the assigned Characters of Beauty which is not controverted by some Nation and therefore there is no reality in it but it depends upon our Phancie as Fashions do What is beauty then 'T is in my judgements what pleases us For whatever deformity or defect there be in the thing we love yet we account it handsome Et quae Balbinum delectat Polypus Agnae The third said 'T is too great a disparagement to the Goods of Nature to say that Beauty which is the most excellent of them is only imaginary its admirable effects being such that it perswades whatever it pleases 't is the surest commendatory Letter and hath influence not only upon rational souls but even Elephants are transported with joy as Aelian saith when they meet a fair woman And reason tells us that every thing which is goodly is good because it is desirable which is the essential qualification of good things The beauty of the body is not only the token of that of the soul which seems to be ill lodg'd when it is found in an ugly body but 't is also a sign of the body's health and good constitution Yea the very beholding of Beauty conduceth to health and continues it whence it is that handsome Nurses and Governesses are assigned to Children because the soul even from the cradle being a Forreigner and retaining in it self the idea of its Creator's beauty is marvellously pleas'd at the sight of every thing that approaches that beauty and harmony and rejoyces at its meeting acknowledging it her kindred and alley Moreover Plato saith that Beauty is produc'd when the Forme predominates over the Matter which is of it self foul and deformed Which he affirmeth to have place also in the beauty of the soul which he makes to consist in the advantage of the Intellectual part which holdeth the place of Forme in man over the Sensitive which correspondeth to Matter Aristotle will not allow it possible for Felicity to be perfect without the beauty of the Body
seen in our days a dumb man who answer'd pertinently to all that was spoken to him only by beholding the motion of the speaker's lips which is also the reason why blind men attending only to improve the sense of Hearing best observe all differences of speech Whence I draw this consequence that the same may be practis'd in all other things which signifie by humane institution and so there may be an universal Language But the easiness every one finds in making himself understood by the Language and Writing which is familiar to him renders men careless of advancing this excellent Design which would be a means to spare the best time which our youth spends in learning the words of strange Tongues instead of applying themselves solely to the knowledge of things The Fourth said That the possibility of this Project appears in that there is an order in nature or at least consequent to the very nature of things according to which we may place next after the Creator the created spiritual substances then the corporeal one after another according to their dignity particularly the corporeal according to their place as the Heavens first and in them the Stars according to their dignity the Earth and its Animals the Sea and its Fishes the Plants according to their magnitudes those which are equal therein according to their vertues and other accidents doing the same with Metals Minerals bodies perfectly and imperfectly compounded by nature and by art and with the Elements then we may come to the Categories of accidents to which every thing in the world may be reduc'd and put in its right place Whereby it is evident that not only all things have their order but also that he who learns them according to this order easily avoids confusion the mother of ignorance It remains now to find out an order of words too which answers to that of things the first to the first and the second to the second which order is so natural to them that children make use of it to find out every thing which they seek in Dictionaries and Lexicons according to the order of the Alphabet And I know not whether we ought not to begin this handsome gradation and situation of all things in their rank correspondent to the order of the letters with the style that God gives himself Alpha and Omega But it cannot but be admir'd that the first combination of the letters makes Ab and Aba which signifies Father the first place being due to the Author and Father of all things II. Whether is to be preferr'd a great Stature or a small Upon the second Point it was said That largeness of body seems to be preferrable as well because the word Magnitude or Grandeur always includes some perfection in it self as because the Gods were anciently represented of a size exceeding the ordinary Which made Aristotle say that not only the greatness of the Heroes render'd them famous of old but that their Figures and Statues are venerable at this day Moreover we see that Saul the first King chosen by God for his own people was taller by the head then all the rest of the Israelites And amongst the conditions of Beauty magnitude so universally holds the first place that women advance themselves upon high Shooes and Patins that they may seem the handsomer How well shap'd soever a little man be he is never of so majestical a presence as one that is taller Whence you see little men affect to seem greater but never any tall men desire to be less Now the same Proportion which is between a Man and his habitation is found between the soul and the body which is its Mansion For as he who hath the largest house will be accounted to be better lodg'd then he who dwells in a Cottage though they be persons otherwise of equal condition so 't is probable that souls which are all equal find themselves better lodg'd in a great body then in a small and exercise all their functions with much more freedom The Second said That if magnitude put the value upon men the same should hold in animals nevertheless the Elephant yields to the Fox yea to the Pismire the Estrich to the Nightingale and the Whale is the most stupid of all Fishes Moreover nothing hinders the divine operations of the soul but the load of the body whereby the imperfection of our nature places us below the wholly incorporeal Intelligences and therefore the less the body is the neerer we approach the Angelical nature and our spirit is less impeded by the matter Hence little men are not only the most quick-witted but also the most active and nimble for that the strength is more united in them and diffus'd and dissipated in others Great and robust bodies as being fitter for labour were made to obey the small and tender which have more spirit then flesh Whence the Romans gave the Civil and Military charges to little men and sent the greater to guard the Baggage as those who gave the enemies more aim then the less Nor are the greater more proper for other Arts which made the Poet say as a thing impossible Sambucam potiùs caloni aptaveris alto And Samuel was reprov'd by God for offering to prefer the tall Stature of the eldest son of Jesse before the small size of David his youngest as if the Israelites had been displeas'd with the large body of Saul The Poets could not represent an enraged Cyclops and furious Ajax but under great bodies as on the contrary they made Vlysses very small And indeed natural Reasons agree well herein For amongst the causes of the bodie 's growth the material is a slimy or viscous humidity whence Fish grow most and in shortest time This Humidity is as it were Glew or Bird-lime to the soul hindring it from exercising its functions freely and therefore women being more humid have less wit then men and Fish are less disciplinable then the rest of animals The efficient is a very gentle heat for were it too great it would consume the matter in stead of dilating and fashioning it and dry the solid parts too much upon the increasing of which depends that of the rest of the body This is the reason why all gelt animals grow most and amongst Birds of prey the females are always greater then the males the excess of their heat being temper'd by the humidity of their Sex and young persons are found to have grown extraordinarily after Quotidian Agues which are caus'd by Phlegme so that it is not hard for such pernicious causes to produce a good effect The Third said That every thing is to be commended and esteem'd according to the use for which it is appointed Now Man being born for Reason and the functions of the Mind and having receiv'd a Body to be an instrument to him of Knowledg by making a faithfull report to him of what passes without by means of the species convey'd through the senses into
tyr'd with one season because another soon succeeds it On the contrary we see variety of Food raiseth the languishing Appetite the diversity of Odors which succeed one another delight the Smelling Nothing is more acceptable to the Sight then a Meadow checker'd with several colours or a garden variegated with Tulips and other Flowers of all sorts and hues which the Spring discloses Harmony proceeds from the variety of Notes and the Orator who would move his Auditors must not speak too long upon the same thing in the same words he must alter his gesture and voice and the pauses which distinguish his action are very serviceable to that purpose But as there is nothing more swift then the Sight so no Sense is sooner weary with the semblance of its objects The reason whereof is this being a most active sense its operation doth not make it self perceiv'd by the Eye but by the changing of the object So that when it beholds alwayes the same thing it seemes to it self as if it beheld nothing Look upon the Earth all cover'd with Snow or a Chamber wholly hung with Black or some other single colour the Sight is offended therewith If Green offends us less it is because it is compounded of Yellow and Blew and the best blended of all the Colours and as such reunites the visual rayes between its two extremes yet it affordeth nothing near the delightfulness that ariseth from the variety of Tapistry I conceive therefore that the chief end of the diversity of Countenances is Distinction and lest the same thing should betide Women that did Alcmena in Plautus who suffer'd Jupiter to quarter with her because she took him for her Husband Amphitryo But the subordinate end is the Contentment which Man finds in this variety As for other causes the Efficient indeed doth something for Children commonly resemble their Fathers and Mothers But the Material contributes very much hereunto so that they who for example are begotten of a Masculine and Feminine Geniture wherein the sanguine temper is equally prevalent resemble one another and have a ruddy and well shap'd Countenance But because 't is next to impossible that the said temper should be equally found in two different subjects thence ariseth the variety of Complexions and Lineaments The Second said There is as great variety in all natural things as in Faces though it be not so remarkable to us For we see Birds and Beasts distinguish one another very well Now the Final Cause of this Diversity seemes to me to be the ornament of the World which otherwise would have nothing less then the importance of its name Musick and Painting receive graces from things which in reality are nothing namely Pauses which are onely privations of Notes and shadows which are defects of light This diversity of Visages which ariseth from that of the persons and their inclinations is as well contributary to the splendour and beauty of a state as of nature For if all things were alike there would be a confus'd identity and general disorder not much different from the ancient Chaos Nothing would be acted in Nature for action is not between things like but between things contrary Nor would there be Beauty in the Countenance if there were not diversity in the parts but all the Face were Eye or Nose For Beauty ariseth from Proportion and this from the correspondence of many different parts Very little would there be amongst Men if all were alike there being no Beauty when there is no deformity whereunto it may be compar'd and who so takes away Beauty takes away Love of which it is the foundation This divine link of humane society would be destroy'd for Love is a desire to obtain what we want and another possesseth and therefore it cannot exist but between persons unlike Nor could a State consist longer because all Men being externally alike would be so internally too all would be of the same profession and no longer seek to supply one anothers mutual necessities Now this diversity of persons proceeds from the divers mixture of the four Humours which being never found twice temper'd in the same sort each one having his peculiar constitution which the Physitians call Idiosyncrasie they never produce the same person twice nor consequently one and the same surface or external shape alike If the Matter design'd to constitute and nourish the bones be in too great quantity the Man is born robust large and bony if it be defective he becomes a dwarf and a weakling Again this Matter according as it carried to every bone in particular gives a differing conformation to the same which is also derived to the Muscles spread over those bones from which they borrow the external figure which they communicate to the skin The Third said He found two Causes of the Diversity of Countenances One in Heaven The other in the Heads of Women namely in their Imaginations Heaven is never found twice in the same posture by reason of the manifold Motions and Conjunctions of the Planets and yet 't is the Sun and Man that generate a Man and what is said of the Sun ought likewise to be understood of the other Coelestial Bodies It is necessary then that this variety in the Cause produce also variety in the Effect Hence it is that Twins have so great resemblance together as having been conceiv'd and born under the same Constellation As for the Imagination 't is certain that of the Mother which intervenes at the time of Conception more powerfully determines the shape and colour of the Foetus then any other Cause as appears by the marks which Infants bring with them from their Mothers Womb who well remember that such things were in their Phancy and that they had a vehement apprehension of the same So that as many different Imaginations as Women have when they conceive make so many Countenances and other parts of the Body different II. Whether is the more noble Man or Woman Upon the Second Point it was said That in times of old there was found at Rome a Widower that had buried two and twenty Wives and at the same time a Widow that survived her two and twentieth Husband these two the people of Rome constrain'd to marry together after which both Men and Women awaited which of the two would dye first at length the Woman dy'd first and all the Men even to the little Boyes went to her interment every one with a branch of Lawrel in his Hand as having obtaind the victory over that Sex This Question of the nobleness and dignity of the one above the other is of greater consequence then that other in which not onely Women very frequently get the better there being more old women then old men through the sundry dangers whereunto men are expos'd and from which women are exempted but also Stags and Ravens which live hundreds of years much surpass either of them But one of the greatest difficulties arising in the
discussion of this Controversie is that there is no Judge found but is interessed in the Cause Do not think that the determination of this Point is of little importance For we should have none of those dismal feuds both in high and mean families did not women go about to command over men instead of obeying them Now whether the business be fairly arbitrated or whether it be yielded out of complacency to that Sex which loves to be commanded and out of pity its frugality and weakness upon examination of the reasons of either side I find it safer to suspend my judgement that I may neither betray my own party nor incense the other which they say is not so easily reconciled as it is offended The Second said That the courtship and suing which Men use to Women is a tacite but sufficient argument of the esteem wherein they hold them for we do not seek after a thing which we under-value But the praecellence of Women above Men is principally argu'd from the Place the Matter and the Order of their Creation For Man had not the advantage to be created in the Terrestrial Paradise as Woman had who also was produc'd out of a more noble matter then he for he was made out of the Earth and she out of one of the Man's ribbs And as for the Order of the Creation God in the production of Mixt Bodies begun with the meanest things and ended with the noblest He first made the Earth and the Sea then Plants Fishes and the other Brutes After which he created Man as the Master of all things and lastly Woman as the Master-piece of Nature and the Model of all Perfections Mistress of Man stronger then he as the Scripture saith and consequently Mistress of all the Creatures Moreover there is no sort of Goods but are found in a higher degree in Woman then in Man For as for the Goods of the Body the chief whereof is Beauty Men have therein utterly lost the cause which they will be as little able to carry in reference to the Goods of the Mind For the same are found more vigorous and attain sooner to maturity in Women who upon that account are by the Laws adjudg'd Puberes at twelve years of age and Boyes not till fourteen They commonly perform more actions of Virtue then Men and indeed they have more need thereof to with-stand the assaults continually made upon their Chastity which is not too often found in the other Sex They are acknowledg'd by all to be more merciful faithful and charitable then Men so Devout that the Church which cannot err termes them by no other name and so patient that God hath judg'd them alone worthy to carry their Children nine moneths in their bellies no doubt because Men had not Virtue and Resolution enough for that office The Poets never feign'd but one Jupiter that was able to bear an Infant in his Body though it were but for a few moneths In fine there is no Science or Art in which Women have not excell'd witness the two Virgins Desroches and de Gournai the Vicountess of Auchi and Juliana Morel a Sister Jacobine of Avignon who understands fourteen Languages and at Lyons maintain'd Theses in Philosophy at the age of thirteen years so also of old Diotima and Aspacia were so excellent in Philosophy that Socrates was not asham'd to go to their publick Lectures in Astrology Hipatia of Alexandria the Wife of Isidore the Philosopher in Oratory Tullia the Daughter and doubly heiress of Cicero and Cornelia who taught Eloquence to the Gracchi her Sons in Poetry Sappho the inventress of Saphick Verses and the three Corynnae of whom the first overcame Pindar the Prince of Lyrick Poets five times and in Painture Irene and Calypso in the dayes of Varro If there have been Prophets there have also been Prophetesses and Sybils yea they were Virgins of old that render'd the Oracles at Delphos In brief if there have been war-like Men there have been Amazons too who have shew'd that Valour is not solely Masculine And in our dayes there have been found Maidens that have fought very courageously whose Sex was not known till they were stript after they had been slain in battle But these Feminine Virtues are not so much celebrated as those of Men by reason of the Envy which they bear to the Sex having subjected the same to such a pass that they are enforc'd to support all our defects Though indeed Women may say to Men as the Lyon did to a Man who shew'd him the picture of a Man killing a Lyon If Lyons said he were addicted to painting you would see more Men kill'd by Lyons then Lyons by Men. If Women had had the making of Laws and Histories you would see more Virtues exercis'd by Women then by Men. The Third said That although none but Men are at the ventilating of this Controversie yet Women ought not to alledge that it is easie to commend the Athenians in the City of Athens since God himself hath pass'd a Decree upon them in these words The Woman shall be subject to the Man And 't is to no purpose to say that it was otherwise before the first sin and that subjection was impos'd upon the Woman for a punishment seeing the punishment of the Serpent That he should creep upon the Earth doth not presuppose that he had feet before he caus'd Man to sin by the intervention of his Wife but indeed God converted that into a penalty which before was natural unto him The same ought to be said concerning the Woman who was no less subject to the Man before then after his sin Moreover after God had taken the Woman out of Adam's side whence they say it comes that their heads are so hard he did not say that she was good as he had pronounc'd all the rest of his Creatures And to get Adam to marry her there was no other expedient found but to cast him into a sleep no doubt because had he been awake he would have been very much puzzl'd to resolve upon it So that they who considering on one side the usefulness of that Sex for the preservation of the species of Men and on the other the mischiefs whereof it is the cause have not ill determin'd when they term'd Woman a Necessary Evil to which Men are addicted by natural instinct for the general good and to the prejudice of the particular just as Water ascends upwards contrary to its own nature for the eschewing of Vacuity Woman is an imperfect Animall whom Plato doubted whether he should not rank amongst the irrational and whom Aristotle termes a Monster they who treat her most gently stile her a simple Error of Nature which through the deficiency of natural heat could not attain to the making of a Male. Women big with Female Children are more discolour'd have their taste deprav'd and usually lift up their left leg first as it were for an evidence of that sinister conception
In the Old Testament they who were deliver'd of a Female were unclean for sixty dayes but if of a Male but thirty The Male is fully form'd in thirty dayes but the Female onely in forty two The Males have life at the seventh moneth but Females not till the ninth as if Nature hid her fault as long as she could The Females have less vigour in all their actions because less heat which appears in that they are never ambidextrous as Men oftentimes are Now if in some species of Animals the Females have the advantage above Males as Tygresses Lyonesses and She-wolves it is in fierceness and therein we also yield to Women But what more competent Judge amongst Men can they find then he who try'd so many Solomon who inquires Who can find a Wise Woman And who after he had compar'd them to the bottomeless pit concludes that all wickedness is supportable provided it be not the wickedness of a Woman yea that the wickedness of a Man is better then the goodness of a Woman The Fourth said Every thing is esteemed according to its Author Structure and Composition the means it makes use of the manner how it employes the same and its end Now Man and Woman having the same Author namely God and being compos'd almost of the same parts it remains to inquire what means both the one and the other makes use of for attaining their end which is Happiness It is certain that the being either Man or Woman doth not make either of them good or bad handsome or deform'd noble or infamous happy or unhappy There are found of both sorts in either Sex As to begin in Paradise the eleven thousand Virgins alone shew that the Feminine Sex hath as good a share therein as Men. In Thrones Semiramis Thomiris many Queens and Emperesses have manifested that Women as well know how to command as Men. Judith cutting off the Head of Holofernes and the Maid of Orleans in the dayes of our Fore-fathers have shewn that Men alone were not courageous and fit for Martial Atchievements In brief there is no kind of performances in which examples are not to be found both of Men and Women that have acquitted themselves happily therein In Oeconomy or the management of a Family if some Men are the Masters there are found Women too that have the supremacy and that in such sort that the Men dare not complain Wherefore they who seek the cause of the nobleness or abjectness of Man and Woman in the Sex seek a cause where it is not 'T is not the being a Man or a Woman that makes noble or ignoble 't is the being an excellent Man or an excellent Woman For as they are mistaken who impute some Vice or Virtue to a whole Province because to be vicious or virtuous are personal things the same ought to be said concerning Man or Woman who are Citizens of the whole world either of whom taken in general hath nothing in themselves but what is very decorous Good and perfect and consequently very noble as proceeding from an Author who communicated to them what perfection and nobleness was respectively requisite If there be any defect it proceeds from the individual person and ought no more to be attributed to the Sex then to the Species CONFERENCE XXVI I. Whether it be lawful for one to commend himself II. Of Beauty I. Whether it be lawful for a Man to commend himself IF things could speak or if Men spoke alwayes of them as is fitting the Question would be needless but for that neither the one nor the other are to be expected it is reasonably demanded whether ever it be lawful to supply this default our selves Three sorts of persons there are each of a different opinion touching this Subject The first prize and respect themselves so highly that as one of the great Wits of these times said to a certain Author who would have had more praise had he given himself less They catch cold with too much speaking to themselves bare-headed The Second having heard that Glory is a shadow that follows those that flie it affect blame with so palpable design that it is plainly seen that they fall down onely to be lifted up like those brides who would not hide themselves if they knew that they should not certainly be found out The Third observing how odious self-praise is to all the world never attribute any to themselves and cannot so much as endure to hear themselves commended accounting it no other then flattery The first maintain that they who say that a Man must not praise himself establish a Maxime to which none obey Do not great Captains say they succesfully animate their Souldiers by their own commendations Doth not the expert Physitian preserve his own good reputation together with the health of his Patient Do not they who make Panegyricks for others find their own in the same Doth not the Excellent Preacher preach his own Doctrine and Eloquence together with the Gospel Doth not the acute Advocate argue as well for his own reputation as for the carrying of his Clients Cause Then for Arts and Trades we see he is accounted the best Trades-man that ha's the nimblest Tongue in commending his own wares Moreover he that asks an Almes by a sign asks it no less then if he spoke and consequently as many wayes as there are to signifie any thing the same are as so many words and although the one are vocal and the other mute yet they equally signifie Whence it follows that a Man is as little to blame in speaking well as in doing well He that hangs a bush at his door doth no less say I have Wine to sell then if he proclaim'd it A fair Woman who exposes her self to the view of every one and a Painter who hangs forth his pieces to sell to passengers prize and commend themselves more then if they spoke and yet neither is censur'd for so doing In brief as we may blame our selves without speaking by doing some evil action so Men in effect commend themselves by performing virtuous actions The Second who contemn themselves incessantly that they may be the more esteem'd by others find nothing that more removes the mask of their Hypocrisie then the assent of others to what they say and indeed they are no less unacceptable and tedious then the former But the last please much more justifying their Principle by the enumeration of all Professions in which all that excell abhor this vanity which is odious to all the world War requires great deeds and few words Humility the prime Virtue in Divinity cannot consist with boasting A good Physitian cannot hear the relation of his great cures without blushing and 't is the property of a Mountebank to publish his own Atchievements in that kind Plutarch in an express Treatise renders the reasons hereof 1. Because a Man must be impudent that can commend himself instead of being asham'd to hear his own
naturally keep up above the water yet by enclosing it in some sort of vessel you may violently make it continue under the water II. Of the capricious or extravagant humours of women Upon the second Point it was said It is not here pronounc'd that all women are capricious but only the reason inquir'd of those that are such and why they are more so then men To alledge the difference of souls and suppose that as there is an order in the Celestial Hierarchies whereby the Archangels are plac'd above Angels so the spirits of men are more perfect then those of women were to fetch a reason too far off and prove one obscure thing by another more so Nor is the cause to be found in their bodies taken in particular for then the handsome would be free from this vice the actions which borrow grace from their subject appearing to us of the same nature and consequently their vertues would seem more perfect and their defects more excusable whereas for the most part the fairest are the most culpable We must therefore recur to the correspondence and proportion of the body and the soul. For sometimes a soul lights upon a body so well fram'd and organs so commodious for the exercise of its faculties that there seems more of a God then of a man in its actions whence some persons of either Sex attract the admiration of all world On the contrary other souls are so ill lodg'd that their actions have less of man then of brute And because there 's more women then men found whose spirits are ill quarter'd and faculties deprav'd hence comes their capricious and peevish humour For as melancholy persons whose blood is more heavy are with good reason accounted the more wise so those whose blood and consequently spirits are more agile and moveable must have a less degree of wisdom and their minds sooner off the hooks The irregular motions of the organ which distinguishes their Sex and which is call'd an animal within an animal many times have an influence in the business and increase the mobility of the humours Whence the health of their minds as well as that of their bodies many times suffers alteration A woman fallen into a fit of the Mother becomes oftentimes enrag'd weeps laughs and has such irregular motions as not only torment her body and mind but also that of the Physitian to assign the true cause of them Moreover the manner of living whereunto the Laws and Customs subject women contributes much to their defects For leading a sedentary life wherein they have always the same objects before their eyes and their minds being not diverted by civil actions as those of men are they make a thousand reflections upon their present condition comparing it with those whereof they account themselves worthy this puts their modesty to the rack and oftentimes carries them beyond the respect and bounds which they propos'd to themselves Especially if a woman of good wit sees her self marri'd to a weak husband and is ambitious of shewing her self Another judging her self to merit more then her rival not knowing to whom to complain of her unhappiness does every thing in despight And indeed they are the less culpable inasmuch as they always have the principles of this vice within themselves and frequently find occasions abroad The Second said that the word Caprichio is us'd to signifie the extravagant humour of most women because there is no animal to which they more resemble then a Goat whose motions are so irregular that prendre la chevre signifies to take snuffe without cause and to change a resolution unexpectedly For such as have search'd into the nature of this animal find that its blood is so sharp and spirits so ardent that it is always in a Fever and hence it is that being agitated with this heat which is natural to it it leaps as soon as it comes into the world Now the cause of this temper is the conformation of the Brain which they say is like that of a woman the Ventricles of which being very little are easily fill'd with sharp and biting vapours which cannot evaporate as Aristotle affirms because their Sutures are closer then those of men those vapours prick the Nerves and Membranes and so cause those extraordinary and capricious motions Hence it is that women are more subject to the Meagrim and other diseases of the head then men And if those that sell a Goat never warrant it sound as they do other animals there is no less excuse in reference to women Which caus'd the Emperour Aurelius to say that his Father in law Antoninus who had done so much good to others had done him mischief enough in giving him his daughter because he found so much bone to pick in a little flesh Moreover the Naturalists say that the Goat is an enemy to the Olive-tree especially which is a symbol of peace whereunto women are not over-well affected For not to mention the first divorce which woman caus'd between God and man by her lickorishness her talking her ambition her luxury her obstinacy and other vices are the most common causes of all the quarrels which arise in families and in civil life If you would have a troop of Goats pass over any difficult place you need force but one to do it and all the rest will follow So women are naturally envious and no sooner see a new fashion but they must follow it And Gard'ners compare women and girles to a flock of Goats who roam and browse incessantly holding nothing inaccessible to their curiosity There is but one considerable difference between them the Goat wears horns and the woman makes others wear them The Third said There is more correspondence between a woman and a Mule then between a woman and a Goat for leaving the Etymology of Mulier to Grammarians the Mule is the most teasty and capricious of all beasts fearing the shadow of a man or a Tree overturn'd more then the spur of the rider So a woman fears every thing but what she ought to fear The obstinacy of the Mule which is so great that it has grown into a Proverb is inseparable from the whole Sex most of them being gifted with a spirit of contradiction Mules delight to go in companies so do women the bells and muzzles of the one have some correspondence with the earings and masks of the other and both love priority The more quiet you allow a Mule it becomes the more resty so women become more vitious in idleness neither of them willingly admits the bridle between their teeth The Mule is so untoward that it kicks in the night time while 't is asleep so women are oftner laid then quiet Lastly the Mule that hath seem'd most tractable all its time one day or other pays his master with a kick and the woman that has seem'd most discreet at one time or other commits some notorious folly The Fourth said That those who invented the little
of the Book of seven horns of the Lamb and seven eyes which are the seven Spirits of God sent throughout all the earth of the seven heads and seven questions of the Dragon of the seven heads of the Woman which are seven hills of seven Kings seven Angels seven Trumpets seven vials seven plagues The Scripture makes mention of seven resurrections to that of our Saviours The 1. of the Widows Son of Sarepta by Elias The 2. of the Shunamite's Son by Elisha The 3. of the Souldier who touch'd the bones of that Prophet The 4. of the Daughter of the Ruler of the Synagogue The 5. of the Widows Son of Naim The 6. of Lazarus And the 7. of our Lord. The Rabbins say that God employ'd the power of this Number to make Samuel so great as he was his name answering in value of the Letters to the Hebrew word which signifies seven whence Hannah his Mother in her thanks to God saith That the barren had brought forth seven Solomon spent seven years in building Gods Temple Jacob serv'd seven years for Leah and as many for Rachel The wall of Jericho fell down at the sound of Joshuah's seven Trumpets after the Israelites had gone seven times about it on the seventh day Nabuchadononosor did penance for his pride seven years amongst the beasts Moreover there are seven Penitential Psalms The Nile and the Danow have seven mouths There are seven hills at Rome Prague and Constantinople Noah entred into the Ark with seven persons and seven pairs of all clean Animals After seven dayes the waters fell from Heaven during seven times seven dayes On the seventh moneth the Ark rested upon the Mountain of Ararat The Ecclesiastes limits mourning to seven dayes There were seven years of plenty and as many of famine in Aegypt There were seven Lamps in the Tabernacle typifying seven gifts of the Spirit The Jews ate unleavened bread seven dayes and as many celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles They let their land rest every seventh year and after seven times seven had their Jubilee The strength of Sampson lay in seven locks of his Hair There are seven Sacraments in the Church as in Heaven seven Planets seven Pleiades seven Stars in the two Bears The Periodical course of the Moon is made in four times seven days at each of which septenaries it changes its face In brief there were seven miracles of the World and seven Sages of Greece There are seven Electors seven liberal Arts seven pairs of Nerves seven Orifices serving for gates to the Senses Natural sleep is limited to seven hours and this Number is by some justly esteem'd the knot or principal band of all things and the symbol of Nature The Fifth said It was not without cause that Augustus was so extreamly fearful of the Climactericals that when he had pass'd his 63d year he writ in great joy to all his friends but he dy'd in the second Climacterick after his 77th year consisting of eleven septenaries which was also fatal to Tiberius Severus T. Livius Empedocles S. Augustin Bessarion as the sixty third was to Aristotle Cicero who also was banish'd in his Climacterick of 49 Demosthenes Trajan Adrian Constantine S. Bernard the blessed Virgin and many others And the next Climacterick of 70 to three of the Sages of Greece to Marius Vespasian Antoninus Golienus David who was also driven from his Kingdom by his Son at his sixty third year and committed his adultery and homicide at his forty nineth both climactericals And as much might be observ'd of the fates and actions of other men were regard had of them Our first Father dy'd at the age of 931 years which was climacterical to him because it contains in it self seven times 133. Lamech dy'd at 777 years climacterical likewise as Abraham dy'd at 175 which contains 25 times seven Jacob at 147 consisting of 21 times seven Judas at 119 made of 17 times seven the power of which Climactericals many make to extend to the duration of States which Plato conceiv'd not to be much above 70 weeks of years The Sixth said That regular changes proceeding necessarily from a regular cause and no motion being exactly regular in all nature but that of the Heavens supposing there be climacterical years and not so many deaths and remarkable accidents in all the other numbers of days moneths and years had they been all as carefully observ'd as some of them have been their power of alteration cannot but be ascrib'd to the celestial bodies That which befalls us every seventh year arises hence as every Planet rules its hour so it makes every day moneth and year septenary beginning by Saturn and ending at the Moon which governs the seventh and therein causes all mutations which acquire malignity by the approach of Saturn presiding again over the eighth which is the cause why births in the eighth moneth are seldom vital II. Of Shame Upon the second Point it was said That the Passions consider evil and good not only absolutely but also under certain differences Desire hath regard to absent good not in general but in particular sometimes under the respect of Riches and then 't is call'd Covetousness sometimes of Honour and then 't is call'd Ambition sometimes of Beauties and then 't is an amorous inclination So grief looks upon present evil if it be in another it causes compassion in us if in our selves and apprehended prejudicial to our honour it causes shame which is a grief for an evil which we judge brings ignominy to us a grief so much the greater in that no offence goes more to the quick then that which touches our reputation It occasion'd the death of a Sophist because he could not answer a question and of Homer because he could not resolve the riddle of the Fishers and of others also upon their having been non-plus'd in publick For as nothing is more honorable then vertue and knowledge so nothing is so ignominious as ignorance and vice nor consequently that makes us so much asham'd being reproaches of our falling short of our end which is to understand and to will and so of being less then men but as Plato said Monsters of nature But amongst all the vices Nature hath render'd none so shameful as that of lasciviousness whereof not only the act but also the gestures and signs cause shame Hence an immodest or ambiguous word and a fix'd look make women and children blush whom shame becomes very well being the guard of chastity and the colour of vertue as it ill becomes old men and persons confirm'd in vertue who ought not to commit any thing whereof they may be asham'd The Second said That shame is either before vice and the infamy which follows it or after both In the first sence shame is a fear of dishonour In the second 't is a grief for being fallen thereinto Neither of the two is ever wthout love of honesty but lies between the two extreams or sottish and rustick
blemish Cato's reputation by making him appear 46 times in full Senate to justifie himself from the accusations Envy had charg'd upon him made him more famous And the poyson which it made Socrates drink kill'd his body indeed but render'd his memory immortal The truth is if the Greek Proverb hold good which calls a life without envy unhappy Envy seems in some manner necessary to beatitude it self Whence Themistocles told one who would needs flatter him with commendations of his brave actions that he had yet done nothing remarkable since he had no enviers The Fourth said 'T is such an irregular passion that it seems to aim at subverting the establish'd order of nature and making other laws after its own phancy yea so monstrous that 't is not a bare grief for another's good or a hatred of choler or such other passion but a monster compos'd of all vicious passions and consequently the most mischievous and odious of all CONFERENCE LXXIV I. Whence comes trembling in men II. Of Navigation and Longitudes I. Whence comes trembling in men THe correspondence of the great to the little world requir'd that after the tremblings of the earth those should be spoken which happen to men some of which seize but one part of the body as the head lips hands or legs some the whole body with such violence sometimes that Cardan relates of a woman taken with such a trembling that three strong persons could not hold her 'T is a symptom of motion hurt in which the part is otherwise mov'd then it ought being sometimes lifted up and sometimes cast down For in trembling there are two contrary motions One proceeds from the motive faculty endeavouring to lift up the member which is done by retraction of the muscles towards their original which by shortning themselves draw their tail to the head and at the same time what is annex'd thereunto This motive power serves also to retain the elevated member in the posture wherein we would have it continue the abbreviation of the Muscles not suffering it to return to its first situation The other motion is contrary to the will and to that of the motive power the member being depress'd by its own gravity From which contrariety and perpetual war of these two motions arises trembling one of them carrying the part as the will guides it and the other resisting thereunto which is done more speedily then the pulse and with such short intervals that the senses cannot distinguish any middle and makes us doubt whether there be two motions or but one as a ball sometimes returns so suddenly towards him that struck it that the point of its reflexion is not perceiv'd The causes are very different as amongst others the debility of the part and of the animal faculty as in decrepit old men impotent persons and such as are recovering out of long and dangerous diseases or who have fasted long the weakness of the Nerve the instrument of the animal spirits its obstruction contraction or relaxation the coarctation of the Arteries which send the vital spirits to the Brain there to be made animal spirits and proper for motion as in fear which puts the whole body into an involuntary trembling An Ague also do's the same the natural heat which resides in the arterial being carri'd to the relief of the labouring heart and so the outward parts particularly the nerves whose nature is cold and dry becoming refrigerated and less capable of exercising voluntary motion The Second said That the actions of the motive faculty as of all others may be hurt three ways being either abolish'd diminish'd or deprav'd They are abolish'd in a Palsie which is a total privation of voluntary motion They are diminish'd in Lassitude caus'd either by sharp humors within or by tension of the muscles and tendons or by dissipation of the spirits They are deprav'd in trembling convulsion horror and rigor or shivering Convulsion is a contraction of the muscles towards their original caus'd either by repletion or inanition Rigor shaking and concussion of all the muscles of the body accompani'd with coldness and pain is caus'd according to Galen by the reciprocal motion of natural heat and its encounter with cold in the parts which it endeavours to expell or according to some others by any sharp mordicant and troublesome matter which incommoding the muscles and sensitive parts the expulsive faculty attempts to reject by this commotion Horror differs not from Rigor but in degrees this being in the muscles and that only in the skin produc'd by some matter less sharp and in less quantity But trembling being a depravation and perversion of motion cannot be known but by comparison with that which is regular Now that voluntary motion may be rightly perform'd the brain must be of a due temper for supplying animal spirits and the nerves and parts rightly dispos'd Hence the cause of tremblings is either the distemper of the brain or the defect of animal spirits or the defect of animal spirits or the bad disposition of the nerves and parts A fitting temper being the first condition requisite to action every intemperature of the brain but especially the cold is the cause it cannot elaborate spirits enough to move all the parts But this defect of spirits comes not always from such bad temper but also from want of vital spirits which are sent from the heart to the brain by the arteries to serve for matter to the animal spirits These vital spirits are deficient either when they are not generated in the ventricles of the heart through the fault either of matter or of the generative faculty or are carri'd elsewhere then to the brain by reason of their concentration or effusion As in all violent passions these spirits are either concentred in the heart as in fear and grief or diffus'd from the centre to the circumference as in joy and not sent to the brain and in these cases the motive faculty remains weakned and uncapable of well exercising its motions Lastly the nerves being ill dispos'd by some distemper caus'd either by external cold or other internal causes or else being shrunk or stop'd by some gross humors not totally for then there would be no motion at all they cause tremblings which are imperfect motions like those of Porters who endeavouring to move a greater burthen then they are able to carry the weight which draws downwards and the weakness of their faculty which supports it causes in them a motion like to those that tremble The Third said That to these causes Mercury Hellebore Henbane Wine and Women must be added For they who deal with Quick-silver who have super-purgations use stupefactives and things extreamly cold and Venery in excess and Drunkards have all these tremblings according to the diversity of which causes the remedies are also different Gold is an Antidote against Mercury which will adhere to it Repletion against the second Heat Continence and Sobriety against the rest Galen saith that blood