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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	law_n	nature_n	power_n	4,564	5	5.3735	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70920	A general collection of discourses of the virtuosi of France, upon questions of all sorts of philosophy, and other natural knowledg made in the assembly of the Beaux Esprits at Paris, by the most ingenious persons of that nation / render'd into English by G. Havers, Gent.; Recueil général des questions traitées és conférences du Bureau d'adresse. 1-100. English	Bureau d'adresse et de rencontre (Paris, France); Havers, G. (George); Renaudot, Théophraste, 1586-1653.; Renaudot, Eusèbe, 1613-1679.; Renaudot, Isaac, d. 1680.	1664 (1664)	Wing R1034; ESTC R1662	597,620	597

decrepit Parents instead of believing themselves parricides call us cruel for letting ours continue so long in the miseries of age Infinite like instances have caus'd some to say that 't is another nature but I hold it stronger then nature since by it Mithridates render'd poyson innoxious to himself and some whole Nations of India live upon Toads Lizards and Spiders Yea it hath made death as lovely and desireable as life amongst great Nations whereas Philosophy with all its pompous discourses hath labour'd much to render the same indifferent to a few persons 'T is call'd by Pindar the Emperess of the world and caus'd Seneca to say that we govern not our selves by reason but by custom accounting that most honest which is most practis'd and error serves us for a law when it is become publick Lastly 't is stronger then the laws themselves since it gives them all the power and authority which they have The Fifth said That Vertue it self is nothing but a custom For we have it not by nature as Plato holds in his Menander because of those things which we have by nature the faculties are found in us before the actions So the power of seeing hearing and speaking is in man before these acts but we perform vertuous actions before we have the habit of vertue Moreover these vertues are for this reason call'd moral because they are implanted by custom and as an Architect learns his Art by frequent building so by constant performance of acts of justice or courage men become just or courageous Therefore the true way to become virtuous is to be accustom'd to vertue from one's infancy and hence Fathers are so careful to have their children well instructed and to give them good examples For being nothing but difficulty keeps men off from the practice of virtue if this difficulty were remov'd by custom which makes the hardest things easie vertue which seems so knotty would be delightful and pass into nature And 't is a token of perfect vertue when men take pleasure in exercising it CONFERENCE LXIV I. Of the Imagination II. Which is most powerful Hope or Fear I. Of the Imagination BEcause the knowledge of the present suffic'd not for the preservation of animals but requir'd also that of the past and the future therefore Nature hath made provision for the same giving them not only five Outward Senses whereby they know their objects present for every sensation is a sort of knowledge but likewise a Common Sense to Distinguish those objects an Imagination to represent the same to it when they are absent and a Memory to preserve the Species Now as amongst the external Senses those are exercis'd most perfectly whose organs are best dispos'd so amongst the internal those are most vigorous which are found in a brain best temper'd for their action If its constitution be humid then the Common Sense acts most perfectly if dry the Memory is most tenacious if hot the Phancy or Imagination is strongest But if the temper of the same Brain be cold and dry then Prudence reigns in it as we see in old men and melancholy persons For 't is more reasonable to say that the Organ of these faculties is the whole Brain then any one part of it And what is brought for proof of the contrary that oftimes one of the faculties is hurt while the rest are entire some having a sound Memory when their Imagination is deprav'd argues not that they have different seats but as the natural faculty in the whole Liver sometimes attracts but cannot retain retains but cannot digest or separate excrements so the animal faculty equally dispers'd through the whole substance of the Brain sometimes judges well of the difference of objects acknowledges conveniences and disconveniences receives the true species but yet cannot retain them on the contrary the Memory will be sometimes entire although the Imagination be disorder'd because the constitution which is then found in the whole Brain is fit for the exercise of one of those functions not of the other Moreover it happens not unusually that those faculties are wounded although the Ventricles assign'd for their residence be not as in the head-ach or distemper of the Brain and in Phrensies caus'd only by inflammation of the Meninges without any laesion of the Ventricles The Second said That the Imagination is not distinct from the other faculties but our soul resembles the Sun which in the continuity of the same action hath different effects not acting in the diaphanous parts of Heaven refrigerating the middle region of the air heating the lower and again herein corrupting some bodies producing and giving life to others The conservation of the species and their reception not being two different actions but rather as the wax by one and the same action receives a figure and retains it so the Imagination which receives the species of objects must not be distinguish'd from it self when it preserves and retains them unless by reason or mental discrimination whereby we call Memory it self an action although it be but the continuation and preservation of the first The Third said The effects of the Imagination are so marvellous that most of those are ascrib'd to it whereof we can find no other reason As the likeness of Children to their Fathers although they be only putatives because the apprehension of disloyal Wives of being surpriz'd by their Husbands makes them conceive them always present the production of most Monsters the marks imprinted upon the Child in the Womb and the like But that it is the Mistress of Reason and the Will deserves most admiration For the Soul imagining no danger or proposing to it self a good greater then the mischief of the danger carries the body upon the ridges of houses upon ropes and breaches even upon the mouths of Canons makes some swim cross rivers asleep who destroy and drown themselves and are frighted where they have least cause namely when they awake or find themselves alone in the dark so soon as their Phancy proposes some terrible object to them how absurd soever it be Wherefore they who desire to encourage Souldiers heat their Brains with Wine which keeps their imagination from representing the danger to them or raise some extraordinary boldness in them by generous discourses whose new impressions drive their bodies upon dangers Hence the Turks disorder the imagination of their Souldiers by Opium the effect whereof in the quantity wherein they take it is contrary to that whereby it casts sick persons into a sleep in this climate Reason never acquiesces in the propositions which our Imagination hath not apprehended as true and therefore weak minds are less capable of relinquishing an error wherewith they have been imbu'd Offences are not such but so far as our phancy conceives them such For a great hurt which we have receiv'd if an excuse follow it offends us not whereas an indifferent word a coldness a gesture which we interpret for a scorn even a privation

Fifth said 'T is more fit to admire these secret motions which depend only on the good pleasure of Nature who alone knows wherein consists the proportion correspondence which makes bodies symbolize one with another then to seek the true cause of them unprofitably And Aristotle himself confesses that he knew not whereunto to refer the Antipathy which is between the Wolf and the Sheep so strange that even after their deaths the strings of Instruments made of their guts never agree together as the feathers of the Eagle consume those of other Birds Likewise the subtile Scaliger after much time unprofitably spent acknowledges that he understands it not They who go about to give reasons of it are not less ignorant but more vain then others The Sixth said Words are frequently abus'd as for example when 't is attributed to Antipathy that the Dog runs after the Hare whereas 't is for the pleasure that he takes in his smelling which is an effect of Sympathy But they who refer almost every thing to Occult Proprieties are like the Country-man who not seeing the springs of a Watch thinks it moves by an occult vertue or who being ask'd why it thunders answers simply because it pleases God Wherefore instead of imitating the ignorant vulgar who are contented to admire an Eclipse without seeking the cause the difficulty ought to inflame our desire as we use more care and diligence to discover a hidden treasure nothing seeming impossible to the Sagacious wits of these times The Seventh said That according to Plato the reason of Sympathies and Antipathies is taken from the correspondence and congruity or from the disproportion which inferior bodies have with the superiour which according as they are more or less in terrestrial bodies and according to the various manner of their being so the same have more or less sympathy For as inferior things take their source from above so they have one to the other here below the same correspondence which is common to them with the celestial bodies according to the Axiom that things which agree in one third agree also among themselves Thus amongst stones those which are call'd Helites and Selenites Sun-stone and Moon-stone are luminous because they partake of the rayes of those Luminaries and the Helioselene imitates by its figure the Conjunction of the Sun and Moon Amongst Plants the Lote or Nettle-tree the Mari-gold and the Heliotrope or Sun-flower follow the motion of the Sun Amongst Solar Animals the Cock and the Lyon are the most noble and the Cock more then the Lyon he alwayes gives applauses to the Sun when he perceives him approaching our Horizon or Zenith Whereupon the Lyon fears and respects him because things which are inferior to others in one and the same degree yield to them though they surpass them in strength and bigness as the arms which fury hath put into the hands of a mutinous multitude fall out of them at the presence of some man of respect and authority though they be a thousand against one II. Whether Love descending be stronger then ascending Upon the second Point it was said Although this be a common saying and it seems that Love ought rather to descend then ascend yea that Fathers are oblig'd to love their children even with the hatred of themselves yet I conceive that the love of children towards their fathers surpasses that of fathers towards their children inasmuch as the latter proceeds from the love which the fathers bear to themselves being desirous to have support and assistance from those whom they bring into the world and in them to perpetuate their names honours estates and part of themselves But the love of children to Fathers is pure and dis-interested as may be observ'd in many who having no hope of a patrimony love and honour their parents with most respectful kindness Moreover the supream authority and absolute power of life and death which the Romans and our ancient Gaules frequently us'd against their children shows their little affection For not to speak of those Nations who sacrific'd theirs to false gods nor of Manlius Mithridates Philip II. King of Spain and infinite others who put them to death Fathers anciently held them of worse condition then their slaves For a slave once sold never return'd more into the Seller's power whereas a son sold and set at liberty return'd thrice into the power of his Father As also at this day in Moscovia Russia and particularly in Cyprus Rhodes and Candia where 't is an ordinary thing for fathers to sell their sons to marry their daughter which made Augustus say having heard that Herod had kill'd his own son that it was better to be the Swine then son of a Jew But Patricide was unknown to ancient Legislators and Lycurgus never ordain'd any punishment against such criminals not imagining that such a crime could come into the mind of a lawful child whom the Persians conceiv'd to declare himself a bastard by such an action For that foolish custom which reign'd some time at Rome of precipitating men of sixty years old from the bridge into Tyber is no sign of the cruelty of children towards their fathers since they imagin'd that they did an act of piety and religion therein by delivering them from the miseries of this life The Second said None can know how great a love a father bears his children but he that hath been a Father Paternal tenderness is so vehement that all the passions and affections of the soul give place to it Prudence and Philosophy may preach to us restraint and moderation but a father's love admitting no rule caus'd a King of Sparta to run with a stick between his legs a Grand Cosmo to whip a top and the wisest of all the Grecians to play at Cob-nut to make pastime to their children experiences sufficient to gain the cause to paternal love though it were not back'd by these reasons 1. That love being the issue of knowledge the more there is of knowledge the more there is of love Therefore fathers having more knowledge then their children have also more love 2. As man desires nothing so much as immortality so he loves that thing especially which procures the same to him and hating death more then any thing in the world extreamly loves what seems to keep him from dying as his children do in whom he seems to revive Whence also the Pelican feeds its young at the expence of its own blood On the contrary Man being the most ambitious of all creatures hates nothing so much as to see himself subjected to another Wherefore children that the benefits which they receive from their fathers may oblige them to gratitude and subjections they perform the same indeed but with much less love then their fathers 3. God ha's given no commandment to fathers to love their children knowing that they lov'd them but too much but he hath to children to love and honour their fathers as having need to be invited

a simple alteration which requireth not the time necessary to local motion whereby Hearing is perform'd and by this means distinguish'd from vision in which at the same time the medium and the Organ are both alter'd whereas in Hearing the Organ is not alter'd till after the medium Hence it is that the wind helps greatly to the carrying of sounds which would not be if they were only intentional species for visible things are seen as well in a contrary wind as in a calm air and that sounds seem weaker a far off then neer hand The Sixth said Among the objects of the Senses sounds and odours have alone had the honour to be dedicated to the Deity Melodie and Incense having always been employ'd in Divine Service either because the humane soul is most delighted therewith or for that either of them being somewise spiritual and corporeal God requires that we offer him both the body and the spirit whereas Daemons abhor nothing more then Harmony and Perfumes as ill suting to their irregular and infected nature And sounds have so great affinity with the soul that according to their cadence and their tones they excite compassion cruelty joy sadness courage fear lasciviousness and chastity whence it was said that Aegysthus could never debauch Clytemnestra till he had kill'd her Musitian Because all our actions and inclinations depending upon our spirits they are modefi'd and made like to the sounds which they receive by the ear So that if the sounds be tremulous grave sharp quick or flow the spirits become so too and consequently the Muscles which are instruments of voluntary motion having no action but by means of the spirits they impress upon them and make them follow such cadence as they like Hence it is that hearing others sing we fall a singing too without thinking of it with those that whisper we whisper too with those that speak loud we speak so also that the air of the Musitian stirs our members to conform to it and that our spirits are displeas'd with bad cadences as if the outward air had an absolute dominion over our spirits II. Of Harmony Upon the second Point it was said That Harmony is taken for any proportion and agreement but chiefly for that of sounds in which it is more perceptible and that even by the ignorant It s invention is ascrib'd to Tubal the first Smith upon his observation of the various sounds that the strokes of his Hammer made upon his Anvil which Pythagoras also made use of to find out the proportion of his musical numbers Of which having elsewhere spoken I shall only add here that Harmony presupposes many sounds for one alone makes but a Monotone and two an unpleasing reciprocation but six notes are requisite to perfect Musick industriously compriz'd in the Hymn VT queant LAxis REsonare fibris MIra gestorum c. This harmony is either vocal or instrumental the former whereof having graces and variations inimitable by instruments far surpasses the latter but their mixture is most agreeable The Second said Nature seems to have made a show of her goodliest effects to our Senses and conceal'd their causes from our knowledge Musical harmony aims at the instruction of men that of man's body is the admirable artifice of the Formative faculty which Galen calls divine but the harmony of the world puts our curiosity most to a non-plus 'T is the cause why water notwithstanding its fluidity gathers it self into a heap to leave dry land for the habitation of animals and that the earth which should settle about its centre by its equal gravity yet rises up in mountains The air is alter'd by all sort of qualities that it may give a good one to the earth The fire descends from its sphere to be captivated in Furnaces for our use and is imprison'd in cavities of the earth to promote the generation of Metals The Heavens move for the benefit of inferiour bodies in a place where they might enjoy eternal rest 'T is through this harmony that the water becomes thick at the bottom and contracts alliance with the earth while its surface resolves into vapours the rudiments of air whose highest region likewise approaches the nature of fire and this has somewhat of Aethereal and the constitution of the Heavens on which it borders and conjoyns with this inferiour world The cause of this chain and connexion is an universal vertue comprehended in the extent of each being besides the proper motive vertue destinated to content its appetite The necessity of this vertue is a certain evidence of its existence for since every thing conspires for the general good of the world and withstands the division of its parts Nature must have allotted them a power which may guide them to that end now this power is not extrinsecal since it resides in the subject it self Nor is it the motive vertue for this and that have two different objects and ends namely the publick and the particular good which are not always contain'd one in the other Besides 't would be a manifest contradiction to say that by one and the same vertue things expose themselves to the loss of their proper qualities for the publick good and keep them when only their particular is concern'd Wherefore there is one general law which having authority to force all things to contract amities not sorting to their inclination is above that vertue which leads things directly to their own good which is the cause of the excellent harmony observ'd in the whole world The Third said Indeed Harmony is every where between the Creator and his Creatures both spiritual and corporeal in the Hierarchies of bless'd Spirits one with another in the assistance of the motive Intelligences with their orbs between the great and the little world in the latter of which the Scripture sets forth to us a perpetual musick of the blessed in the the Empireal Heaven Plato a harmony proceeding from the motion of the Celestial bodies Daily experience makes us hear in the air a consort of winds the Sea beats a measure by its ebbing and flowing the Birds of the air perform the Cantus the Beasts the Base the Fishes the Tacet Man the Tenor who again in the structure of his body and soul is a perfect harmony In the body the temperature of the humours is so harmonical that their disproportion drives away the soul which Galen upon this account calls harmony In the soul so long as Reason holds the sovereignty and constrains the murmuring Appetite to hold its base there results from it a harmony delectable to God and Men. On the contrary if you would apprehend its discord do but imagine the disorderly uproar excited by choler and the other passions get the mastery over Reason Yea mans whole life is either a perpetual harmony or discord In Religion when one Head is acknowledg'd and every one submits thereunto for Conscience sake and keeps his station how beautiful are those Tabernacles of