which of the two is absolutely to be preferr'd before the other but it lies in the power of prudence to determine according to the variety of cases CONFERENCE XLII I. Of the Diversity of Languages II. Whether is to be preferr'd a good stature or a small I. Of the diversity of Languages WE have two notable examples in the Scripture one of God's displeasure when the Builders of the Tower of Babel were separated by the confusion of their Language the other of his favour when the Apostles were at the feast of Pentecost as it were united and incorporated into all Nations by the gift of Tongues Here we only adore Mysteries but fathom them not we seek the natural causes of the variety of speech and whether as there was but one at the first so the same may be recover'd again or any other found that may be universal to all people As to the first the variety alone of the Organs seems sufficient to diversifie speech Those Nations whose wind-pipes were more free easily retain'd the Hebrew aspirations if so be this Language were the first and not the Syriack as some hold alledging that its characters speak greatest antiquity or the Samaritane because the Thorath which is the law of God was written in it as also the most ancient Medals found in Palestine were stamp'd with it They whose breasts were more robust fram'd the German and other Languages which are pronounc'd with greater impetuosity the more delicate made the Greek Tongue the middle sort the Latine and their posterity degenerating the Italian which is pronounc'd only with the outer part of the lips and so of all the rest Whence it is that strangers never pronounce our Language perfectly nor we theirs which caus'd Scaliger to tell a German who spoke to him in Latine but pronounc'd it after his own way that he must excuse him for he did not understand Dutch Now every one of these Original Languages was chang'd again proportionably to the distance from its centre as circles made by a stone cast into the water lose their figure as they become wider Afterwards hapned the transplantations of Nations who with the confusion of blood and manners brought also that of speech for the Conquerours desiring to give Law to the vanquish'd as well in this as in all other things and the Organs of the people being unapt for the pronuntiation of a forreign tongue hence of the mixture of two arose a third Thus much for the first point But as for the second which is to reduce all Languages to one I hold the thing impossible For all things which are meerly of humane institution as Language is are as different as opinions are And if one and the same Tongue hath sundry very different Idiomes and Dialects as the French hath the Breton the Gascon the Poitevin the Parisian and many others as different as the French from the Italian which hath in like manner the Roman the Tusean the Neapolitan and the Sicilian all very differing with much more reason shall Nations divided by Seas and Climates speak diversely The opinions of men even of Philosophers themselves touching the same subject could never be reconcil'd and can it be imagin'd that all tongues should ever agree Nature affects nothing so much as variety which serves for discrimination of individuals Two men never writ or spake alike and we see that even the gestures and postures of others cannot be perfectly imitated by those who use their utmost care therein how then shall conformity be found in the expression of our thoughts besides there being no connexion or affinity between things and words which not onely signifie several things in several Languages but have different acceptions in the same Language witness Homonymous words 't is loss of time to think of such a designe The Second said That to judge of a River it must be taken at its source Languages are the several ways of interpreting or declaring our conceptions and these are the means which our mind makes use of to conceive the species or images of things It knows them according as they are represented to it and they are represented to it according to the truth of the object when the conditions requisite to sensation or perception by sense concur namely a due disposition of the object medium and Organ As therefore when all these conditions are right it cannot be but all persons of the world must agree in one and the same judgement and all say e. g. that this Rose is red and that other white so it may seem that men should agree together in the copy and transcript since they do so in the Prototype that is have one and the same Language since they have one and the same conception Otherwise as to this communication with his own species man will be inferior to other animals who signifie their passions and inclinations so plainly and intelligibly among themselves that they answer one the other afar off Moreover abundance of words are the express and natural image of the things designed by them as Taffata to hisse to creak or clash to bounce to howle or yell and many others There are words which keep the same number of letters in all the learned Languages particularly the name of God which holds also in some modern as in the French Dutch c. but not in ours There are others which vary not at all but are one and the same among all Nations as the word Sac. Many things express'd by the same characters in writing are read by each people in their own Tongue as Figures or Cyphers which are read and pronounc'd otherwise in Hebrew and Greek then in Latine or French and yet they are taken by all to signifie the same thing The same may be said of the Hieroglyphicks and letters of China yea of all the figures of the Mathematicks For every one knows a Circle a Triangle and a Square although each Nation denominate the same diversly What hinders then but as all Nations have conspir'd and agreed together in those visible words so they may do too in those which are pronounc'd The Third said That to the end words may make things understood by all the world they ought to be signs of them either natural as smoak is of fire or by institution depending upon a very intelligible principle or occasion as when a Bush denotes a Tavern As for the first many dumb persons express their conceptions so genuinely by signs that all the world understands them and the Mimicks and Pantomimes of Rome were so excellent in this kind that Roscius one of them sometimes bid defiance to Ciero that he would express as perfectly by his gestures and postures whatsover he pleas'd as that incomparable Orator could do by his words And as those who are not given to writing have the best memories so those who have not that use of speech are more excellent then others in speaking by signs and understanding them there being
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
more extinct it turns into other colours as the Blew which we behold in a clear Sky and forward into others till it come to black which is no colour but a privation of it as darkness is nothing but the privation of light So that to dispute the reality of colours is to question whether the clearest thing in the world viz. Light be real The Seventh said Light and Colour differ in that Light is the act of the Diaphanous body inasmuch as 't is Diaphanous and Colour the extremity of the Diaphanum as it is terminated For no Diaphanum whilst it remains such is colour'd but colour ariseth from the condensation and thickness of the Diaphanum which terminates our sight And though colour be as much in the inside of bodies as in their surface yet 't is not call'd colour saving when 't is visible and 't is visible only in the surface Light is incorporeal and immaterial colour on the contrary is a material and corporeal quality Light makes colour to be seen but makes it self seen by its own vertue Yet there is this resemblance between them that every thing which we see colour'd we see it as luminous whence Plato in his Timaeus call's colour a flame issuing out of bodies and every thing that we see luminous we see it inasmuch as 't is colour'd Whence the Stars appear to us of a pale yellow or red colour And as that which is terminated is seen by means of the illuminated Diaphanum so this Diaphanum is seen because 't is terminated For when we see the colour of a terminated body we judge that there must be a transparent and diaphanous body between it and our eye Wherefore as the Intellect doth not know it self but by another so the eye doth not see the Diaphanum but by seeing that which is not diaphanous But both the one and the other seems partly real and partly imaginary and arising from the various relation and proportion of the eye to the object and the medium since as for colours not only some Pictures represent several personages but one and the same Taffeta changes colour according to the divers situation of the spectator's eye And as for light you shall have a worm that appears great and shines in the night but is little and grey in the day II. Whether is better to speak well or to write well Upon the second Point it was said There is so great an affinity between Speech and Reason that the Greeks have given the same name to both As Reason is peculiar to man so is Speech and therefore saith Aristotle he alone has a large soft and moveable tongue not only for the distinguishing of Tastes as other Animals but for the uttering of words which are the interpreters of his thoughts call'd words of the mind as the other are external words 'T is this Speech which protects Innocence accuses Crimes appeases popular Tumults and Seditions inflames Courage excites to Vertue disswades from Vice and gives praise to God and vertuous Men. Writing it self hath not much force unless it be animated by Speech which gives weight and grace even to the least things This was imply'd by the Ancients when they feign'd that Orpheus assembled even Trees and Rocks by the sound of his Harp which is the Emblem of Speech And therefore I judge Speech to have the precedence of Writing The Second said There are persons who speak well and write ill others on the contrary write better then they speak others but very few do both well And yet if it be not through fault of the outward Organs it seems hard to conceive how 't is possible for a man to write well and speak ill since 't is the same judge which dictates to both Clerks the hand and the tongue For though one ordinarily goes swister then the other yet they must both express the same thought But 't is oftentimes with Speech as 't is with faces which seem handsome if you behold but a glance of them whereas fixing your eye more wistly to consider them you discern even the least faults so a discourse upon which you have not leisure to reflect may seem elegant yet displease you when 't is unfurnish'd of its external ornaments Pronunciation and Gesture Moreover we see how little effectual a Letter is in comparison of animated words to which I also give the precedence 'T is of little importance to an Advocate whom his want of Eloquence causes to dye of hunger whether his reputation be made to live after his death Nor was it from the eyes or hands of our Gallic Hercules that our Fathers made the golden chains proceed which drew the people by the ears 't was from the tongue And 't was with the voice that the Father of Roman Eloquence oversway'd the mind of Caesar and Demosthenes that of all Greece The Third said I much more prize Writing which refines and polishes our conceptions which otherwise escape from great persons but ill digested Whence arose the saying That second thoughts are usually the best Moreover Writing is of long duration and is communicated to many how remote soever in time and place Which astonish'd the people of the new world when they saw that the letters which the Spaniards carri'd to their comrades communicated the mind of one to another and they thought them to be familiar spirits But when this Writing is well perform'd it hath great weight with Posterity too whence it is that we still admire the brave conceptions of antiquity which would have perish'd had they been deliver'd only in words which dye as they are born The Fourth said Writing hath this inconvenience that it cannot be comprehended by more then one or two persons at a time whereas the Voice reaches to many thousand together without receiving any diminution which is some resemblance of Divinity and consequently is the more noble The Fifth said If we judge of the preeminence of Speech or Writing by the difficulty there is in either according to the Proverb which saith that the most difficult things are the most excellent the question will remain undecided For there was never either a perfect Pen-man or perfect Orator but if we judge of the advantage by the effects 't is certain that Writing hath more weight then Speech and is therefore much more considerable And though words once utter'd cannot be recall'd no more then a written thing be retracted yet being consign'd to a very flitting and inconstant element they are of little duration whereas being written they last to eternity Which consideration so highly incens'd M. Anthonie against Cicero for publishing his Philippicks against him and made Bubalus hang himself for what Hippanax had written against him as Lycambes did upon Archilochus's Jambicks For the benefits and mischiefs of Writing are great Which makes for it since the more excellent a thing is the more hurtful the abuse of it is and according to Aristotle Men abuse every thing except Vertue The
to speak or write come the nearest it they can by their brevity and that upon this account the fool so long as he holds his peace differs not from the wise Therefore Pythagoras made it the chief point of his Philosophy leaving his Scholars for five years to do nothing else but hear and abstain from eating fish out of the particular esteem he had thereof for its taciturnity All Monastick persons account it one of their highest virtues and the introduction to all others and the Pagans made a God of Silence nam'd Harpocrates whose Statue held a finger upon its mouth And both the sacrifices of this god and all their other mysteries which word implyes Secrecie were perform'd without speaking Therefore Alexander meaning to teach Hephaestion that he that would serve his King well must know well how to be silent clap'd the seal of his Ring upon his lips The greatest talkers are commonly the least actors God having as 't were put in balance words on one side and effects on the other as the leaves and flowers there and the fruits here The Second said As the corruption of things is the greater by how much the more excellent they are so speech being the fairest ornament of Man the abuse thereof is the most dangerous and the rather for that too much speaking is an incurable malady since it cannot be cur'd but by the counsel of those that reprehend it whereof great speakers are incapable it being their custome not to hear any body In requital for which they are avoided by all the world For every Man thinks himself concern'd to uphold the truth and is therefore displeas'd when he meets one that would arrogate this right to himself and frustrate all others of the glory which follows that action But which is worse no credit is given to them although belief is the end of speech For Man affects nothing so much as to be esteem'd true and honest because the perfection of his being consists in these two points and therefore he employes his utmost endeavours to make himself believ'd such whereas a babler finding no belief amongst Men and goodness and truth walking with the same foot he is acounted to have neither the one nor the other Indeed great speakers are ordinarily great lyers because words are not true but so far as they are weigh'd and balanc'd in the Mind which being finite cannot know many things at once but successively and with time which the talker allows not to himself And as Truth is in Unity so is Lying in Multiplicity but especially in confusion which is a diversity without order and is almost inseparable from great discourses and produces the like in the Minds of the Hearers and consequently unbeliefs The Third said A Man should take no greater care then to govern his Tongue because 't is a member the easilest mov'd and never weary Hence old men are so much delighted with talking because they have onely this member at their devotion Which Nature fore-seeing and that Man would have frequent and long use of it hath given it a strong Ligament ten Muscles and three couple of the seven pair of Nerves which are diffus'd through the rest of the Body Besides Man being a sociable Animal is naturally much inclin'd to discourse which is the bond of humane society 'T is requisite therefore that Reason which should govern all Man's inclinations govern this of speech chiefly to which the ought not give liberty except when the same may be beneficial to the speaker or to the hearer or to some other Nevertheless to speak generally as action is more noble then Privation and Motion then Rest so to speak is a thing more excellent then to hold one's peace The Fourth said The moderation of speech call'd Taciturnity is a species of Temperance and hath its two extremes equally vicious namely immoderate talking and dull silence when one holds his peace although a just cause obliges him to speak as the acknowledgement of a truth or of some benefit and when our own interest or friends is considerably engag'd or also when an occasion makes some discourse to be expected from us as in a publick assembly feast or other place of rejoycing in which case silence is no less shameful then too much speaking is every where distateful This Virtue which holds the middle shews where when how how much we ought to speak and be silent what things are fit to be spoken and to what persons As for things they must be true honest and approved by us within before they are expos'd and lay'd abroad the Tongue must follow and not go before the Mind whose interpreter it is as the Hand is the Tongue 's Secretary and for this purpose is lay'd upon the Heart out of whose abundance it alwayes speaks unless dissimulation alter the case And as the constitution and temper of the Tongue is taken by Physitians for a certain signe of that of the internal parts so the words are of the inclinations and habits of the Soul which has its throne in the Tongue to make it self understood as in the Eyes to render it self visible Now the Tongue being the principal Organ of speech hereby serves to put a manifest discrimination between Man and brutes some of which make a sound as Grashoppers others have a voice as all those that have Lungs but none have speech As for other circumstances we must refrain as much as possible from speaking with fools of wicked persons notoriously known such and a little before persons of age and authority or who understand more then our selvs as also from speaking of a serious matter amongst mirth or of a ridiculous matter in grave and serious affairs we must take care to be silent in places destinated onely to hear as in the Church and in Judiciary Courts Which injunction lies most upon Women Children and Servants In brief 't is one of the greatest points of Prudence to know when 't is a fit time to speak and when to be silent The Fifth said The Reason of Man is that Universal Spirit which is the Soul of the world giving activity and motion to every thing 't is this that turns about the Celestial Spheres and moves the inferior Elements by an innate principle It makes it self understood by speech and writing the nobleness of one whereof above the other seems to determine the question Now Reason is more in controversie between us and beasts then speech and speech then writing for some admit a certain degree of Reason and Judgement in brutes and many of them whose Tongues are soft large and free perfectly imitate our speech but they have nothing that comes near writing which is solely peculiar to Man Moreover by Reason we are onely wise to our selves by speech we are so to some few others who hear us But by writing our Wisedom is communicated to all the world and lasts to eternity 'T was by writing with the finger in the dust that
our Lord confounded the Jews without speaking a word and when he was falsely accus'd before Pilate he open'd not his mouth to defend himself Now this writing free from the troublesomeness of praters borrows all its force from silence which is more eloquent then all the talk of Men but especially in respect of God whose praise saith the Psalmist is silence and with whom the lifting up of the Heart and mental prayer is more prevalent then all the voices and speeches in the world Such was that of Moses of whom it was said in Exod. that he pray'd in his Heart and yet God saith to him Wherefore cryest thou to me in this manner Such is the silence of true worshippers who worship in Spirit and Truth Moreover the Prophet Jeremy assures us That 't is a good thing to wait for the mercy of God in silence The Angel Gabriel began his combate against the Dragon with silence And Judith being upon the point to slay Holofernes made her prayers to God with tears and silence Besides 't is a signe of Humility and Modesty amongst Men. The Sixth said That to judge well of the Question we must recur to Nature who having given Man two Ears open for one Tongue shut up intimates plainly that he has more need of hearing and holding his peace then of speaking And because the wounds of the Tongue compar'd by the Royal Prophet to a sharp razor and to a consuming fire by the Apostle Saint James aresometimes more mortal then those of the Sword she is not contented to put a reine under it call'd Froenum Linguae to stop its intemperance but hath also surrounded it with strong barriers the two rows of Teeth besides those of the Lips But that which makes very much for silence is that Men oftner repent of having spoken then of having held their peace And 't is not said in the Holy Scripture that Men shall be blam'd for having been silent but that they shall give account even of the least idle words Speaking therefore is more graceful but silence is more safe speech is the property of Man but silence of the wise Man CONFERENCE LIV. I. Of Touch. II. Of Fortune I. Of the Touch WHat the Centre is in the Earth the Earth amongst the Elements a Star in Heaven Sovereignty in a State Faith in Religion Natural Motion in Physick Equity in Law Reason in Philosophy the Body in Man the Sense in a living Creature that the Touch is in all the other Senses that is to say 't is their foundation and the condition without which none of them can subsist For there are Animals which see not as Moles which hear not as the Asp and most Insects which have not Smelling as those who are troubled with rheume which have no Taste as most sick persons But if there be found any which hath not the Sense of Touching at the same time it ceases to be an Animal since it is not term'd such but inasmuch as it hath a sensitive life which consists in the knowledge of good and evil sensible by pleasure and pain the two symptoms of the Touch and which alone bear the sway and turn the balance in all the actions of Man the scope of all which is either to pursue good or to avoid evil The Second said That for this purpose as sensitive life is diffus'd throughout the Body so the Touch which is inseparable from that life hath not as the other Senses a particular and limited Organ but is extended into all the parts of the Body Because as among the objects of the Senses onely the tangible Qualities give being and constitute the Animal by their proportion and temperature so they alone destroy it by their excess and disproportion So that as onely a small part of the Body sees another hears another smells and another tasts if there had been but one part of the Body that could by touching have discern'd the quality of its object it would have hapned that whilst this part were delighted with one of those objects the excess of some other might have destroy'd all the rest of the Animal without its perceiving the same and so it would have perish'd without knowing and consequently being able to avoid the same which is the principal end of the Senses which for this reason represent death to themselves so terrible to the end that the horrour thereof might oblige them to a greater care of their preservation The Third said That as Man is surpass'd in other senses by brutes so he excells them in Touching which he hath most exquisite and perfect He alone of all creatures has Hands wherewith to touch and a smooth soft skin the better to judge of tangible qualities For being he was made to judge of things it was requisite that he should be provided of a faithful messenger as the touch is to make him a true report thereof And because he was design'd to more sublime actions then brutes therefore he needed a more perfect temperature of which the goodness of Touch is a most sure sign Hence the Physiognomist reckons the subtlety of this sense to a most certain token of that of the Mind as its contrary of stupidity an exquisite Touch denoting the softness and tenderness of the flesh upon which consequently tangible Qualities easily make their impression and this tenderness denotes the good temper of the Body which is followed by sutable actions of the Mind Hence it is that great wits have commonly weak and delicate bodies but the stupid and dull the most robust and brawny Therefore as the Touch distinguishes Men from brutes so it does Men from one another But the Sight and the other Senses do not so for on the contrary it frequently comes to pass that great spirits have the shortest sight and the other Senses less exquisite The Fourth said That the Touch is not only the most necessary in all Animals since it serves them for a specifical difference sensibility which distinguishes them from Plants being commonly taken for the faculty of Touching witness our vulgar phrase which calls one man more sensible then another when he is more easily affected by the tactile qualities but 't is the sole sense of many Animals especially Zoophytes or Plant-animals such as Spunge Coral and all kind of Oysters The first of which hears not sees not smells not and tastes not its nourishment but only dilates it self to receive it and contracts it self to retain it as soon as it feels it neer The second by the relation of divers who fetch it from under the water averts it self by bowing the contrary way as soon as it feels the touch of their instruments The last have no Organical parts and if they had the same would be useless to them because they are destitute of local motion and of every other sense except that of Touching by which they open and shut themselves And which Nature has given as gross as it is for a supplement to
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
the campaigne War is the fair where wares are had best cheap and in sack'd Cities commodities are taken without weighing and Stuffs are not measur'd but with the Pike instead of the Ell if any complain there needs no more but to imitate Brennus's treating with the Romans besiedg'd in the Capitol cast the sword into the balance it will carry it Wherefore being Master of all Arts it is more necessary then they For he that is strongest finds sufficient of every thing The Seventh said As amongst the Arts some have others subservient to them as the Ephippians to the Military Art Chyrurgery Pharmacy the Gymnastick and all that relate to Health to Medicine or Physick Carpentry Masonry and others employ'd about building to Architecture and these Master Arts are call'd Architectonical So there is one above all these which is Policy the Eye and Soul of the State which governs all Arts gives them their rewards and punishes their defects sets what price it pleases upon things affords convenient place for the merit of every one sends Armies into the field and calls them back according to the necessity of affairs hath care of Piety and Justice establishes Magistracy appoints quarters to Souldiers and gives free exercise to all other Arts. All which considerations and accounts argue it the most necessary of all CONFERENCE LXXIII I. Of the Earthquake II. Of Envy I. Of the Earthquake IRregular motions are as strange as regular are agreeable especially those of bodies destinated to rest as the Earth is being the immoveable centre about which the whole fabrick of the world is turn'd For though the whole Heaven cannot rest any more then the whole Earth move yet the parts of them may the Scripture informing us that Joshuah made the Sun stand still that he might have time to pursue the Amorites and every Age having experiences of Earthquakes To which Aristotle ascribes the appearing of a new Island in the Pontick Sea call'd Heraclia and of another call'd Sacrea Many Geographers affirm that the Islands of Rhodes and Delos were produc'd by the like cause and that Sicily sometimes joyn'd to Italy was separated from it by an Earthquake whence the place of separation is still call'd by the Greek word Rhegium which signifies separation and fracture Pliny affirms that the Island of Cyprus was by this means divided from Syria and Euboea from Boeotia Histories tell of some Mountains that have clash'd together contrary to the Proverb which saith that they never meet of Towns transported to some distance from their first situation as hapned by an Earthquake in Syria in the ninth year of Constantinus Copronomus of others swallowed up as sometimes the greatest part of the City of Sparta upon which at the same time fell a part of Mount Taygetus which completed its ruine twenty thousand inhabitants of which City were also overwhelm'd by an other Earthquake by the relation of Diodorus about the 78. Olympiade Josephus reports that thirty thousand Jews were swallow'd up by another And Justin that when Tigranes King of Armenia became Master of Syria there hapned so dreadful an Earthquake that a hundred and thirty thousand Syrians perish'd by it Four hundred years agoe twelve thousand houses were shaken down at Lisbon Italy was much endamag'd in the year 1116 by one which lasted forty dayes principally Tuscany Puglia the Territory of Venice and Campagnia where twelve Cities perish'd and that of Pompey was swallow'd up in Winter which season neverthelesse is accounted free from it Four years agoe the City of Naples was horribly shaken especially the borders of Mount Visuvius The common opinion refers these effects to a dry Exhalation which makes the same concussion in the belly of the Earth as in that of a cloud shattering many times both the one and the other when it cannot otherwise get free from its confinement how hard or dense soever the bodies be that inclose it The Second said That the causes of Earthquakes are either Divine or Astrological or Physical The first have no other foundation but the Will of God who thereby oftentimes manifests to Men his justice and power and sometimes contrary to the course of ordinary and natural causes Such was that at the death of our Saviour in the 18th year of Tiberius which was universal and wherewith twelve Cities of Asia perish'd and that mention'd by Sigonius hapning in the year 343. under Constantine the Arrian Emperor whereby the City of Neocaesaria was wholly swallow'd up except the Catholick Church and its Bishop The Astrological causes are if we may credit the professors of this Art the malignant influences of Jupiter and Mars in the Houses of Taurus Virgo and Capricorn But as the first are too general so these are very uncertain being built for the most part upon false principles as also those which suppose the Earth a great Animal whose tremors are made in the same manner as those which befall other Animals Wherefore holding to the most perceptible causes I conceive with Democritus that torrents of rain coming to fill the concavities of the Earth by their impetuousnesse drive out the other waters and that upon their motion and swaying from one side to another the Earth also reels this way and by and by the other or rather that these Torrents drive out the winds impetuously as Air issues out of a bottle when it is filling which wind repells and agitates the Earth till it find some issue whence also come the sounds and lowings which accompany Earthquakes As is seen in Hydraulick instruments which by arificial mixing Air and Water when they are impell'd into pipes fit to receive the same excite sounds like those emitted by the wind-pipe of Animals agitated with the wind of their lungs and moistned with the salivous liquor or natural water The Third said That he could not be of their mind who because water is found by digging to a good depth in the Earth therefore interpret that place literally where 't is said That God hath founded the Earth upon the Water upon which it floats and that according to their agitation the Earth is like a Ship which fluctuates in a tempestuous Sea and lyes even and still in a calm since if this were so then the whole Earth should tremble at the same time which is contrary to experience The opinion of Anaximenes is more probable that as part of the Earth upon a droughth after a wet season cleaves and crackles so the same happens to Regions and whole Countries The Fourth said That if this opinion were true then they would begin increase diminish and cease by degrees nor would they last long Yet 't is observ'd some have continu'd forty days yea six moneths as that of Constantinople under Theodosius the younger and miraculously ceas'd upon the first singing of those words by all the people Sanctus Sanctus c. Aristotle also makes mention of some that lasted two years the cause whereof depends either upon the quality or
to weep and a time to laugh as the Wiseman testifies so that to do either continually is equally vicious Yet laughter being most sutable to man who is defin'd by the faculty he hath to laugh and not by that of weeping which is common to Harts and Crocodiles who shed true tears and other beasts weep after their manner but none laughs I conceive that the laughter of Democritus was lesse blameable then the weeping of Heraclitus whose tears render'd him odious and iusupportable to all the world which on the contrary is greatly pleas'd with the company of laughers and easily side with them Moreover their Jovial and sanguine humour is always to be preferr'd before the Saturnine and melancholy humour of weepers who are their own greatest enemies exhausting their moisture and by concentration of the spirits hindring the free functions of reason Whereas laughter which is a sign of joy and contentment dilates the spirits and causes all the actions of life to be perform'd better And the laughter of Democritus exciting the like motion of joy in the spectators their joy dilated their spirits and render'd them more docible and capable to receive his counsels The Third said That as a Physitian were no lesse impertinent in laughing at his Patient then imprudent in weeping for the malady which he sees him endure So Democritus and Heraclitus were as ridiculous the one as the other in laughing at or lamenting the misery of men Moreover it seems to be a sign of repentance that he put out his own eyes and not to Philosophize the better otherwise he should have done as one that cut off his own legs that he might leap the better since the eyes are the windows of the soul whereby it admits almost all its informations Heraclitus therefore was more excusable because tears proceed from charity and compassion but laughter is an effect of contempt and procures us as much hatred as the other do's affection Besides Democritus's laughter could neither make others better nor himself for what profit can be made by the ironies and gibes of a mocker On the contrary tears are so perswasive that Augustus as subtle as he was suffer'd himself to be deceiv'd by those of Cleopatra and believ'd her willing to live when she had resolv'd to dye The Fourth said That both of them had reason considering the vanity of the things of the world which are equally ridiculous and deplorable For though laughter and weeping seem contraries yet they may proceed from the same cause Some Nations have wept at the birth of their children whereas we make exultations Many have laugh'd at Alexander who wept because he had no more worlds to conquer Xerxes wept when he beheld his goodly Army of which not one person was to be left after a hundred years whilst a Philosopher of his train laugh'd at it And in both passions there is a retraction of the nerves whence the features of the countenance of one that laughs are like those of him that weeps Moreover the three subjects which may oblige men to laughter namely the crosses of furtune and what they call Virtue and Science afford equal matter of laughing and weeping When fortune casts down such as she had advanc'd to the top of her wheel are not they as worthy of commiseration as of derision for having trusted to her inconstancy When our Gentry cut one another's throats for an ambiguous word lest they should seem cowards are they not as deplorable as ridiculous in taking the shadow of virtue for it self And as for Science should these two Philosophers come from the dead and behold our youth spend ten years in learning to speak and all our Philosophy reduc'd to a bundle of obscure distinctions would not they dye once more with equal reason the one with weeping and the other with laughing CONFERENCE XCI I. Whether heat or cold be more tolerable II. Who are most happy in this World Wise Men or Fools I. Whether heat or cold be more tolerable COmparison moves us more then any other thing And though no sense be less fallacious then the Touch yet 't is guided by comparison as well as the rest Thus Caves seem cold in the Summer because we come out of the hot air and hot in Winter because the same air which we forsake is cold the Cave remaining always in the same temper without recurring to those Antiperistases which have no foundation in the thing the organs of the Touch being the sole competent judges of the several degrees of tangible qualities the first of which are heat and cold provided those Organs be neither too obtuse as in the Paralytical nor too exquisite as when the nerve lyes naked 'T is requisite also that the man who judges be in health for he that has an Ague thinks nothing too cold in his hot fit and nothing too hot or so much as temperate during the cold fit so the phlegmatick and melancholy bear heat better then cold the bilious and sanguine the latter better then the former as correcting the excess of their own temper Now at first sight heat seems more supportable because more congruous to life which consists in heat by which Galen defines the soul as death in its contrary cold Moreover nature hath made the hot Climates more large and capacious then the cold which are two very streight ones although she hath supply'd those Regions with the remedy of Furs all the rest of the world is either hot or temperate and always more hot then cold Nevertheless I conclude for cold because heat joyn'd to our heat renders it excessive whereas cold being encounter'd by it there results a temperate third Besides the opposition of cold redoubles the natural heat whence we have greater appetite in Winter then in Summer sleep longer and perform all natural functions better and are more cheerful in mind whereas in Summer our bodies and minds are languid and less capable of labour and 't is more dangerous in reference to health to cool our selves in Summer then to heat our selves in in Winter the first occasioning the latter preventing most diseases The Second said That cold being an enemy to nature it excess must be more hurtful and consequently more insupportable then that of heat particularly that of the Sun For this grand Luminary the soul of the Universe and whose heat is the cause of all generations must also be that of their preservation not of their destruction Whence the excess of his heat is much more tolerable then that of cold Moreover hot Countries are more fertile and the Scripture teaches us that the first Colonies came from the South Yea some Doctors place the Terrestrial Paradise under the Aequinoctial whence it follows that hot Regions having been first inhabited have also been most habitable even the Torrid Zone thought unhabitable by all antiquity experience hath found very populous whereas the cold are but very little habitable and not at all beyond the 78 degree The
likewise by contrary qualities Besides the Spirits being igneous cannot be corrupted and the corruption observ'd sometimes in the humors is not essential to the Pestilence but onely accidental and however but an antecedent cause For if putrefaction were the conjunct cause then putrid Fevers and the Gangrene which is a total putrefaction should be contagious Wherefore it appears that the cause of this diseases are as occult as its effects are sensible and that 't is chiefly in this kind of malady that 't is to be inquir'd as Hippocrates speaks whether there be not something divine Which we are not to understand as he doth concerning what proceeds from the Air seeing God threatens in Ezechiel to cause the third part of his people to dye of the Pestilence as in one night he caus'd all the first born of Egypt to perish and in three dayes under David seventy thousand Israelites The Fifth said That to attribute the cause of the Pestilence to putrefaction without assigning the degree of it is to say nothing more then to recur to the properties of substance and less then to seek it in the divine Divine Justice these terms manifesting our ignorance rather then the thing inquir'd Moreover the signes of this malady are all equivocal and common to other diseases yea oftentimes contrary one to another in some a pulse is violent bleeding at the nose thirst the tongue dry and black delirations purple spots and buboes in others a small pulse vomiting tongue yellow livid and sleepiness And some sick are cur'd by remedies which kill others as by Vomits Purges and bleeding Even of Sudorificks the most sutable to this disease some are temperate and others hor. So that 't is no wonder if a disease so irregular being known to us onely by the relation of people oftimes ignorant the skilful being unwilling to venture themselves makes such havock since the small pox and other diseases would make no less though possibly in longer time if they were as little understood II. Of the wayes of occult writing Upon the Second Point 't was said That the Ancients deservedly reckon'd secrecie amongst their fabulous Deities under the name of Harpocrates the God of silence since 't is not onely as the Poet saith the God of the master of Gods that is Love but the Governour of the mysteries of Religion the Guardian of Civil Society and as the Philosopher speaks the God of the publick and private Fortune which is maintain'd by secrecie the Soul of the state and business whence cyphers and occult ways of writing took their birth The Hebrews were the first that practis'd cyphers of which they had six sorts L'Etbah by transposition of Letters Themurah by their commutation Ziruph by combination and changing of their power Ghilgal by changing of their numeral quotitié Notariaszon putting one Letter or one Syllable for a word and Gematry which is an equivalence of measures and proportions But these sorts of cyphers have been found too troublesome and equivocal and besides more recreative then solid The truncheon encompassed with a thong which was the Laconick Scytale the cypher of the Lacedaemonians that of Julius Caesar who put D for A and E for B and so of the other Letters and the odd figures given by others to the twenty four Letters are too gross to be well conceal'd The Dactylogie of Beda is pretty whereby we speak as nimbly with the fingers as with the tongue taking the five fingers of one hand for Vowels and the several positions of the other for Consonants But it can be us'd onely in presence They talk also of the same way by bells trumpets arquebuses fires torches and other such means but because they depend on the sight and the hearing which act at a certain distance they cannot be useful in all cases The transmission of thoughts and spirits contriv'd by Trithemius and Agrippa and that invention of quadrants whereby some have phancy'd it possible to speak at any distance by help of a Load-stone are as ridiculous as that of Pythagoras to write with blood on a Looking-glass and reflect the same upon the face of the Moon For besides that the Moon is not alwayes in a fit position could a fit glass be found the writing would not be secret because that Luminary is expos'd to the Eyes of all the world No cypher is comparable to that of writing when 't is well contriv'd to which purpose they make use of keys to cypher upon the Alphabets which are infinite depending upon every one's phancy being sometimes either one Letter or one word or altering in the same discourse and at every word Sometimes they divide the discourse and one half serves for a key to the other sometimes they put key upon key and cypher the key it self with other keys They put Naughts at the end of words to distinguish them or every where amongst the Letters to deceive the Decypherer and under these they cypher another hidden sense by other keys yea they insert other Naughts amongst them for a third sense or to cause more difficulty Some make use of numbers abridge or multiply the Alphabet and prepare tables wherein they put three Letters for one In fine humane wit hath left nothing unattempted for the concealment of thoughts under the veil of cyphers of which the most perfect are those which seem not to be such hiding under a known sense and an intelligible discourse an other sense unknown to all others besides the correspondents such is that of Trithemius by those three hundred seventy five Alphabets of significative words each expressing one single Letter The Second said All the several wayes of occult writing depend either upon the matter or the form To the first belong the sending of Swallows Pigeons or other birds as also the inventions of writing with Salt Armoniack Alumn Camphire and Onyon which appear onely at the fire The formal depends upon cyphers which are fram'd either by the fiction of Characters or by their commutation using three or four Letters to write every thing with some dashes or aspirations which yet may be easily decypher'd by reason of the frequent repetition of the Vowels and those which are thought impossible to be discover'd are commonly subject to great ambiguities and so are dangerous The Third said Of the three Authors which have writ concerning this matter Baptista Porta teaches rather to decypher then to cypher and all his inventions are little secrets as to write with Alumn Those of Trithemius are very gross of which nevertheless he hath compos'd three Books the two first intelligible enough but the third so obscure and promising so many miracles that Bellarmine and many others thought it full of Sorceries which yet are nothing but the same secrets mention'd in the two foregoing Books but hid under more suspicious words amongst which that of the Spirit which is very frequent signifies the Alphabet or the Key of the Secret and to look under a stone and