that if a man begin at one and reckon on still numbring upright unto foure hee shall make up ten surpasse he once the quaternarie he is gone beyond the denarie as for example one and two make three three thereto arise to sixe put thereto foure and you have ten insomuch as number collected by unities resteth in ten but the force and puissance thereof 〈◊〉 in foure The Pythagoreans therefore were wont to sweare by the quaternarie or number of foure which they held to be the 〈◊〉 oath that they could take as appeereth by this Distichon I sweare by this quaternity That 〈◊〉 our soules fountaine Which of natures eternity Doth seed and root containe And our soule as he saith doth consist of the quaternary number for there is in it understanding science opinion and sence from whence proceedeth all manner of art and knowledge and whereupon we our selves are called reasonable as for understanding it is that unity for that it conceiveth and knoweth not but by unitie as for example There being many men they are not every one in particular subject to our senses but incomprehensible and infinit mary in our understanding we conceive and apprehend this one man alone unto whom none is like and so in our cogitation we consider one man onely but if they bee considered particularly apart they are infinit for all these genders and kindes are in unitie and therefore when the question is asked of a particular man what he is we yeeld a generall definition and say He is a reasonable creature apt to discourse by reason and so likewise of this or that horse wee must answer That hee is a living creature having a propertie to neigh. Thus you see how understanding is unity whereby we understand these things but the binary or number of two is by good right an indefinit science for all demonstration and proofe of any science yea and moreover all manner of syllogisme or argumentation doth collect a conclusion which was doubtfull of certeine premised propositions confessed as true whereby it sheweth easily another thing whereof the comprehension is science and so it appeereth that science by a likelihood is the binarie number but opinion by good reason may be said the ternary number by comprehension for that opinion is of many and the ternarie number implieth a pluralitie or multitude as we may see by the poet when he saith Thrice happy men Those Greeks were then And for this cause Pythagoras made no reckoning of three whose sect bare the name of Italique for that he not able to endure the tyrannicall dominion of Polycrates departed from Samos his native country and went to keepe his schoole in Italy HERACLYTUS and HIPPASUS the Metapontine were of opinion that Fire was the principle and beginning of all for of fire say they all things are made and in fire they shal have an end and when it is extrinct and quenched the universall world is in this manner engendred and framed for first and formost the grosest part thereof being condensate and thrust together into it selfe becommeth earth and afterwards when the same earth is resolved by fire it turneth to be water which when it doth evaporate is converted into aire againe the whole world and all the bodies therein conteined shall be one day consumed by fire in that generall conflagration and burning of all whereby hee concludeth that fire is the beginning of all things as that whereof all was made and the end likewise for that all things are resolved into it EPICURUS the Athenian sonne of Neocles following the philosophie of Democritus saith That the principles of all things be certeine Atomes that is to say little bodies indivisible and by reason onely perceptible the same solide and admitting no vacuitie not engendred immortall eternall incorruptible such as neither can be broken nor receive any forme of the parts ne yet be otherwise altered These quoth he being perceptible comprehended by reason moove notwithstanding in emptinesse and by emptinesse as the same voidnesse is infinite so the said bodies also be in number infinit howbeit these three qualities are incident unto them figure bignesse and waight for DIMOCRITUS allowed them but twaine to wit bignesse and figure but Epicurus added unto them a third namely poise or ponderositie For these bodies quoth he must of necessitie moove by the permission of the weight otherwise they could not possibly stirre the figures also of their bodies hee said were comprehensible and not infinit and these were neither hooked nor three-forked ne yet round in manner of a ring for such formes are apt to breake as for the Atomes themselves they be impassible and infrangible having certeine figures no otherwise perceptible but by reason and such a body is called Atomus not in this regard that it is the least of all but for that it cannot be divided as being impassible and admitting no vacuitie and therefore he that nameth an Atome saith as much as infrangible impassible and without vacuitie now that there is such an indivisible body called Atomus it is apparent for that there be elements eternall bodies void and an unitie EMPEDOCLES an Agrigentine the sonne of Meton saith There be foure elements fire aire water and earth also two principall faculties or powers namely 〈◊〉 and discord or amitie and enmitie of which the one hath puissance to unite the other to dissolve and these be his words Foure seeds and rootes of all things that you see Now listen first and hearken what they be Lord Jupiter with hisignipotence And lady Junoes vit all influence Rich Pluto and dame Nestis weeping ay Who with her teares our seed-sourse weets alway By Jupiter hee meaneth fierie heat and ardent skie by Juno giving life the aire by Pluto the earth by Nestis and this humane fountaine of naturall seed water SOCRATES the sonne of Sophroniscus and PLATO the sonne of Ariston both Athenians for the opinions of them both concerning the world and all things therein be the same have set downe three principles God Matter and Idea that is to say Forme God is an universall spirit or Minde Matter is the first and principall subject of generation and corruption Idea an incorporall substance resting in the thoughts and cogitations of God which God is the generall soule and intelligence of the world ARISTOTELES of Stagira the sonne of Nichomachus hath put downe for Principles these three to wit a certaine forme called Eutelectus Matter and Privation for elements foure and for a fifth Quintessence the heavenly bodie which is immutable ZENO the sonne of Mnaseas a Citican borne holdeth for two principles God and Mtater whereof the one is an active and efficient cause and the other passive and besides foure elements CHAP. IIII. How the the world was framed THis world then became composed formed in a round figure bending and coping after this manner those Atomes or indivisible bodies having an accidentarie and inconsiderate motion stirring continually and
none And if we will bring evill into the world without a precedent cause principle to beget it we shall run and fall into the difficult perplexities of the Stoicks for of those two principles which are it cannot be that either the good or that which is altogether without forme and quality whatsoever should give being or beginning to that which is naught Neither hath Plato done as some that came after him who for want of seeing and understanding a third principle and cause betweene God and matter have runne on end and tumbled into the most absurd and falsest reasons that is devising forsooth I wot not how that the nature of evill should come without forth casually and by accident or rather of the owne accord forasmuch as they will not graunt unto Epicurus that the least atome that is should turne never so little or decline a side saying that he bringeth in a rash and inconsiderate motion without any cause precedent whereas they themselves the meane-while affirme that sin vice wickednesse and ten thousand other deformities and imperfections of the body come by consequence without any cause efficient in the principles But Plato saith not so for he ridding matter from al different quality and remooving farre from God all cause of evill thus hath hee written as touching the world in his Politiques The world quoth he received al good things from the first author who created it but what evill thing soever there is what wickednesse what injustice in heaven the same it selfe hath from the exterior habitude which was before and the same it doth transmit give to the creatures beneath And a little after he proceedeth thus In tract of time quoth he as oblivion tooke holde and set sure footing the passion and imperfection of the old disorder came in place and got the upper hand more and more and great danger there is least growing to dissolution it be plunged againe into the vast gulfe and bottomlesse pit of confused dissimilitude But dissimilitude there can be none in matter by reason that it is without qualitie and void of all difference whereof Eudemus among others being ignorant mocked Plato for not putting that to be the cause source and first originall of evill things which in many places he calleth mother and nurse for Plato indeed tearmeth matter mother and nurse but he saith likewise That the cause of evill is the motive puissance resiant in the said matter which is in bodies become divisible to wit a reasonlesse and disorderly motion howbeit for all that not without soule which plainly and expresly in his books of lawes he tearmeth a soule contrary and repugnant to that which is the cause of all good for that the soule may well be the cause and principle of motion but understanding is the cause of order and harmony in motion for God made not the matter idle but hath kept it from being any any more 〈◊〉 troubled with a foolish and rash cause neither hath he given unto nature the beginnings and principles of mutations and passions but being as it was enwrapped and enfolded with all sorts of passions and inordinate mutations hee cleered it of all enormities disorders and errors whatsoever using as proper instruments to bring about all this numbers measures and proportions the effect whereof is not to give unto things by mooving and mutation the passions and differences of the other and of diversitie but rather to make them infallible firme and stable yea and like unto those things which are alwaies of one sort and evermore resemble themselves This is in my judgement the minde and sentence of Plato whereof my principall proofe and argument is this that by this interpretation is salved that contrariety which men say and seemeth indeed to be in his writings for a man would not attribute unto a drunken sophister much lesse than unto Plato so great unconstance and repugnance of words as to affirme one and the same nature to be created and uncreated and namely in his booke entituled Phaedrus that the soule is eternall and uncreated but in Timaeus that it was created and engendied Now as touching those words of his in the treatise Phaedrus they are well neere in every mans mouth verie rife whereby he prooveth that the soule can not perish because it was never engendred and semblably he prooveth that generation it had none because it mooveth it selfe Againe in the booke entituled Timaeus God quoth he hath not made the soule to be yoonger than the body according as now in this place we purpose to say that it commeth after it for never would he have permitted that the elder being coupled and linked with the yoonger should be commaunded by it But we standing much I wot not how upon inconsiderate rashnesse and vanity use to speake in some sort accordingly for certaine it is that God hath with the bodie joined the soule as precedent both in creation and also in power and vertue like as the dame or mistresse with her subject for to rule and commaund Againe when he had said that the soule being turned upon her selfe began to live a wise and eternall life The body of the heaven quoth he was made visible but the soule invisible participating the discourse of reason and of harmony engendred by the best of things intellectuall and eternall being likewise it selfe the best of things engendred and temporall Where it is to be noted that in this place expresly calling God the best of all eternall things and the soule the best of things created and temporall by this most evident antithesis and contrariety he taketh from the soule that eternity which is without beginning and procreation And what other solution or reconciliation is there of these contradictions but that which himself giveth to those who are willing to receive it for he pronounceth that soule to be ingenerable and not procreated which mooved all things rashly and disorderly before the constitution of the world but contrariwise he calleth that procreated and engendred which Godframed and composed of the first and of a parmanent eternall and perfect good substance namely by creating it wise and well ordered and by putting and conferring even from himselfe unto sense understanding and order unto motion which when he had thus made he ordained and appointed it to be the governor and regent of the whole world And even after the same maner he pronounceth that the body of the world is in one sort eternall to wit not created nor engendred and after another sort both created and engendred For when he saith that whatsoever is visible was never at rest but mooved rashly and without all order and that God tooke the same disposed and ranged it in good order as also when he saith that the fowre generall elements fire water earth and aire before the whole world was of them framed and ordered decently made a woonderfull trouble trembling as it were in the matter and were mightily shaken by
in him somewhat better and somewhat worse And verily by that meanes he that hath the worse part obedient to the better hath powre over himselfe yea and better than himselfe whereas he that suffreth the brutish and unreasonable part of his soule to command and go before so as the better and more noble part doth follow and is serviceable unto it he no doubt is worse than himselfe he is I say incontinent or rather impotent and hath no power over himselfe but disposed contrary to nature For according to the course and ordinance of nature meet and fit it is that reason being divine and heavenly should command and rule that which is sensuall and voide of reason which as it doth arise and spring out of the very bodie so it resembleth it as participating the properties and passions thereof yea and naturally is full of them as being deepely concorporate and throughly mixed therewith As it may appeere by all the motions which it hath tending to no other things but those that be materiall and corporall as receiving their augmentations and diminutions from thence or to say more properly being stretched out and let slacke more or lesse according to the mutations of the body Which is the cause that young persons are quicke prompt and audacious rash also for that they be full of bloud and the same hot their lusts and appetites are likewise firy violent and furious whereas contrariwise in old folke because the source of concupiscence seated about the liver is after a sort quenched yea and become weake and feeble reason is more vigorous and predominant in them as much as the sensuall and passionate part doth languish and decay together with the body And verily this is that which doth frame and dispose the nature of wilde beasts to divers passions For it is not long of any opinions good or bad which arise in them that some of them are strong venterous and fearelesse yea and ready to withstand any perils presented before them others againe be so surprised with feare and fright that they dare not stirre or do any thing but the force and power which lieth in the bloud in the spirits and in the whole bodie is that which causeth this diversitie of passions by reason that the passible part growing out of the flesh as from a roote doeth bud soorth and bring with it a qualitie and pronenesse semblable But in man that there is a sympathie and fellow mooving of the body together with the motions of the passions may be prooved by the pale colour the red flushing of the face the trembling of the joints and panting and leaping of the heart in feare and anger And againe on the contrary side by the dilations of the arteries heart and colour in hope and expectation of some pleasures But when as the divine spirit and understanding of man doeth moove of it selfe alone without any passion then the body is at repose and remaineth quiet not communicating nor participating any whit with the operation of the minde and intendement no more than it being disposed to studie upon any Mathematicall proposition or other science speculative it calleth for the helpe and assistance of the unreasonable part By which it is manifest that there be two distinct parts in us different in facultie and power one from another In summe Go through the universall world althings as they themselves affirme and evident experience doth convince are governed and ordred some by a certeine habitude others by nature some by sensuall and unreasonable soule others by that which hath reason and understanding Of all which man hath his part at once yea and was borne naturally with these differences above said For conteined he is by an habitude nourished by nature reason understanding he useth he hath his portion likewise of that which is unreasonable and inbred there is together with him the source and primitive cause of passions as a thing necessarie for him neither doth it enter into him from without in which regard it ought not to be extirped utterly but hath neede onely of ordering and government whereupon Reason dealeth not after the Thracian maner nor like king Lycurgus who commanded all vines without exception to be cut downe because wine caused drunkennes it rooteth not out I say all affections indifferently one with another the profitable as well as the hurtfull but like unto the good gods 〈◊〉 and Hemorides who teach us to order plants that they may fructifie and to make them gentle which were savage to cut away that which groweth wilde and ranke to save all the rest and so to order and manage the same that it may serve for good use For neither do they shed and spill their wine upon the floure who are afraid to be drunke but delay the same with water nor those who feare the violence of a passion do take it quite away but rather temper and qualifie the same like as folke use to breake horses and oxen from their flinging out with their heeles their stiffenes curstnes of the head stubburnes in receiving the bridle or the yoke but do not restreine them of other motions in going about their worke and doing their deed And even so verily reason maketh good use of these passions when they be well tamed and brought as it were to hand without over weakning or rooting out cleane that part of the soule which is made for to second reason and do it good service For as Pindarus saith The horse doth serve in chariot at the thill The oxe at plough doth labour hardin field Who list in chase the wild Bore for to kill The hardy hound he must provide with skill And I assure you the entertainment of these passions and their breed serve in farre better stead when they doe assist reason and give an edge as it were and vigour unto vertues than the beasts above named in their kind Thus moderate ire doth second valour and fortitude hatred of wicked persons helpeth the execution of Iustice and indignation is just and due unto those who without any merit or desert enjoie the felicitie of this life who also for that their heart is puffed up with foolish arrogancie and enflamed with disdainfull pride and insolence in regard of their prosperitie have need to be taken downe and cooled Neither is a man able by any meanes would he never so faine to separate from true friendship naturall indulgence and kind affection nor from humanitie commiseration and pitie ne yet from perfect benevolence and good will the fellowiship in joy and sorrow Now if it be true as it is indeed that they do grossely erre who would abolish all love because of foolish and wanton love surely they do amisse who for covertousnes sake and greedines of money do blame and condemne quite all other appetites and desires They do I say asmuch as those who would sorbid running altogether because a man may stumble and catch a fall as he runneth
lay hand as it were upō your person in the presence of so many men Whereupon Ptolomaeus being mooved at these suggestions sent unto the man a cup of poison with cōmandement that he should drinke it off Aristophanes also casteth this in Cleon his teeth For that when strangers were in place The towne with termes he did disgrace and thereby provoke the Athenians bring their high displeasure upon him And therfore this regard would be had especially above all others that when we would use our libertie of speech we do it not by way of ostentation in a vaine glorie to be popular and to get applause but onely with an intention to profit and do good yea and to cure some infirmitie thereby Over and besides that which Thucydides reporteth of the Corinthians how they gave out of themselves and not unfitly that it belonged unto them and meet men they were to reproove others the same ought they to have in them that will take upon them to be correctours of other persons For like as Lysander answered to a certeine Megarian who put himselfe forward in an assemblie of associates and allies to speake frankely for the libertie of Greece These words of yours my friend would beseeme to have beene spoken by some puissant State or citie even so it may be said to every one that will seeme freely to reprehend another that he had need himselfe to be in maners wel reformed And this most truly ought to be inferred upon all those that wil seeme to chastice and correct others namely to be wiser and of better government than the rest for thus Plato protested that he reformed Speusippus by example of his owne life and Xenocrates likewise casting but his eie upon Polemon who was come into his schoole like a Ruffian by his very looke onely reclaimed him from his loose life whereas on the contrary side if a light and lewd person one that is full of bad conditions himselfe would seeme to finde fault with others and be busie with his tongue he must be sure alwaies to heare this on both sides of his eares Himselfe all full of sores impure Will others seeme to heale and cure Howbeit forasmuch as oftentimes the case standeth so that by occasion of some affaires we be driven to chastice those with whom we converse when we our selves are culpable and no better than they the most cleanly least offensive way to do it is this To acknowledge in some sort that we be likewise faulty and to include and comprehend our owne persons together with them after which maner is that reproose in Homer Sir Diomede what aileth us how is it come about That we should thus forget to fight who earst were thought so stout Also in another place And now we all unwoorthy are With Hector onely to compare Thus Socrates mildly and gently would seeme to reproove yoong men making semblance as if himselfe were not void of ignorance but had need also to be instructed in vertue and professing that he had need with them to search for the knowledge of trueth for such commonly do win love and credit yea and sooner shall be beleeved who are thought subject to the same faults and seeme willing to correct their friends like as they do their owne selves whereas he who spreadeth and displaieth his owne wings in clapping other mens justifying himselfe as if he were pure sincere faultlesse and without all affections and infirmities unlesse he be much elder than we or in regard of some notable and aprooved vertue in farre higher place of authoritie and in greater reputation than our selves he shall gaine no profit nor do any good but be reputed a busie body and troublesome person And therefore it was not without just cause that good Phoenix in speaking to Achilles alledged his owne misfortunes and namely how in a fit of choler he had like one day to have killed his owne father but that sodeinly he bethought himselfe and changed his minde Least that among the Greekes I should be nam'd A parricide and ever after sham'd which he did no doubt to this end because he would not seeme in childing him to arrogate this praise unto himselfe that he was not subject to anger nor had ever done amisse by occasion of that infirmitie and passion Certes such admonitions as these enter and pierce more effectually into the heart for that they are thought to proceed from a tender compassion and more willing are we to yeeld unto such as seeme to have suffred the like than to those that despise and contemne us But forasmuch as neither the eie when it is inflamed can abide any cleere and shining light nor a passionate minde endure franke speech or a plaine and bare reprehension one of the best and most profitable helps in this case is to intermingle there with a little praise as wereade thus in Homer Now sure me thinks you do not well thus for to leave the field Who all are knowen for doughty knights and best with speare and shield A coward if I saw to slee him would I not reproove But such as you thus for to shrinke my heart doth greatly moove Likewise O Pandar where is now thy bowe where are thine arrowes flight Where is that honour in which none with thee dare strive in fight And verily such oblique reprehensions also as these are most effectuall and woonderfull in reclaming those that be ready to run on end and fall to some grosse enormities as for example What is become of wise Oedipus In riddles areeding who was so famous Also And Hercules who hath endur'd such paine Speakes he these words so foolish and so vaine For this kinde of dealing doth not onely asswage and mitigate the roughnesse and commanding power that is in a reprehension and rebuke but also breedeth in the partie in such sort reprooved a certeine emulation of himselfe causing him to be abashed and ashamed for any follies and dishonest pranks when he remembreth and calleth to minde his other good parts and commendable acts which by this meanes he setteth before his eies as examples and so taketh himselfe for a paterne and president of better things But when we make comparison betweene him and others to wit his equals in age his fellow-citizens or kinsefolks then his vice which in the owne nature is stubburne and opinionative enough becommeth by that meanes more froward and exasperate and often times he will not sticke in a sume and chase to fling away and grumble in this wise Why goe you not then to those that are so much better than I why can you not let me alone but thus trouble me as you do And therefore we must take heed especially that whiles we purpose to tel one plainly of his faults we do not praise others unlesse haply they be his parents as Agamemnon did unto Diomedes A sonne iwis sir Tideus left behinde Unlike himselfe and much growen out of kinde And ulysses in the Tragedie entituled
notwithstanding that they do reape commoditie find favour at their hands who prosper more than they yet they grieve and vexe thereat envying them still both for their good mind to benefit them and for their might and abilitie to performe the same for that the one proceedeth from vertue and the other from an happie estate both which are good things We may therefore conclude that envie is a passion farre different from hatred since it is so that wherewith the one is appeased and mollified the other is made more exasperate and greevous But let us consider a little in the end the scope and intention aswel of the one as the other Certes the man that is malicious purposeth fully to do him a mischiefe whom he hateth so that this passion is defined to be a disposition and forward will to spie out an occasion opportunitie to wait another a shrewd turne but surely this is not in envie for many there be who have an envious eie to their kinsfolke and companions whom they would not for all the good in the world see either to perish or to fall into any greevous calamitie onely they are greeved to see them in such prosperitie and would impeach what they can their power and ecclypse the brightnesse of their glorie mary they would not procure nor desire their utter overthrow nor any distresses remedilesse or extreame miseries but it would content and suffice them to take downe their height and as it were the upmost garret or turret of an high house which overlooketh them HOW A MAN MAY RECEIVE PROFIT BY HIS ENEMIES The Summarie AMong the dangerous effects of envie and hatred this is not the least nor one of the last that they shoot as it were from within our adversaries for to slide and enter into us and take possession in our hearts making us beleeve that we shall impeach one evill by another which is as much as to desire to cleanse one or dure by a new and to quench a great fire by putting into it plentie of oile As for hatred it hath another effect nothing lesse pernictous in that it maketh us blinde and causeth us that we can not tell at which end of turning to take our enemies nor know our selves how to reenter into the way of vertue Plutarch willing to cut off such effects by the helpe of morall Philosophie taketh occasion to begin this discourse with a sentence of Xenophon and prooveth in the first place by divers similitudes That a man may take profit by his enemies and this he laieth abroad in particulars shewing that their ambushes and inquisitions serve us in very great stead After this he teacheth us the true way how to be revenged of those that hate us and what we ought to consider in blaming another Now for asmuch as our life is subject to many injuries and calumniations he instructeth us a man may turne all to his owne commoditie which done he presenteth foure remedies and expedient meanes against their standerous language and how we should confound our enemies The first is To conteine our owne tongues without rendring evill for evill the second is To doe them good to love and praise their vertues the third To out-goe them in well doing and the last To provide that vertue remaine alwaies on our side in such sort that if our enemies be vicious yet we persist in doing good and if they cary some shew and apparence of goodnesse we endevour to be indeed and without all comparison better than they HOW A MAN MAY RECEIVE profit by his enemies I See that you have chosen by your selfe ô Cornelius Pulcher the meetest course that may be in the government of common-wealth wherein having a principall regard unto the weale-publike you shew your selfe most gracious and courteous in private to all those that have accesse and repaire unto you Now forasmuch as a man may well finde some countrey in the world wherein there is no venimous beast as it is written of Candie but the management and administration of State affaires was never knowen yet to this day cleere from envie jealousie emulation and contention passions of all other most apt to engender and breed enmities unto which it is subject for that if there were nothing els even amity friendship it selfe is enough to entangle and encomber us with enmities which wise Chilon the Sage knowing well enough demanded upon a time of one who vaunted that he had no enemies whether he had not a friend In regard hereof a man of State and policie in mine opinon among many other things wherein he ought to be well studied should also thorowly know what belongeth to the having of enemies and give good eare unto the saying of Xenophon namely That a man of wit and understanding is to make his profit and benefit by his enemies And therefore having gathered into a pretie Treatise that which came into my minde of late to discourse and dispute upon this matter I have sent unto you written and penned in the very same tearmes as they were delivered having this eie and regard as much as possible I could not to repeat any thing of that which heretofore I had written touching the politike precepts of governing the weale publike for that I see that you have that booke often in your hand Our fore-fathers in the olde world contented themselves in this That they might not be wounded or hurt by strange and savage beasts brought from forren countreys and this was the end of all those combats that they had against such wilde beasts but those who came after have learned moreover how to make use of them not onely take order to keepe themselves from receiving any harme or dammage by them but that which more is have the skill to draw some commoditie from them feeding of their flesh clothing their bodies with their wooll and haire curing and healing their maladies with their gall rennet arming themselves with their hides and skinnes insomuch as now from henceforth it is to be feared and not without good cause lest if beasts should faile and that there were none to be found of men their life should become brutish poore needie and savage And since it is so that whereas other men thinke it sufficient not to be offended or wronged by their enemies Xenophon writeth That the wise reape commodity by their adversaries we have no reason to derogate any thing from his credit but to beleeve him in so saying yea and we ought to search for the method art to attaine and reach unto that benefit as many of us at least-wise as can not possibly live in this world without enemies The husbandman is not able with all his skill to make all sort of trees to cast off their wilde nature and become gentle and domesticall The hunter can not with all his cunning make tame and tractable all the savage beasts of the forrest and therefore they have sought and devised other meanes and
mire confessing and declaring I wot not what sinnes and offenses that he hath committed to wit that he hath eaten or drunke this or that which his god would not permit that he hath walked or gone some whither against the will and leave of the divine power Now say he be of the best sort of these superstitious people and that he labour but of the milder superstition yet will he at leastwise sit within house having about him a number of all kindes of sacrifices and sacred aspersions yee shall have old witches come and bring all the charmes spels and sorceries they can come by and hang them about his necke or other parts of his bodie as it were upon a stake as Bion was woont to say It is reported that Tyribasus when he should have beene apprehended by the Persians drew his cemiter and as hee was a valiant man of his hands defended himselfe valiantly but so soone as they that came to lay hands on him cried out and protested that they were to attach him in the kings name by commission from his Majestie he laid downe his weapon aforesaid immediately and offred both his hands to be bound and pinnioned And is not this whereof we treat the semblable case whereas others withstand their adversitie repell and put backe their afflictions and worke all the meanes they can for to avoide escape and turne away that which they would not have to come upon them A superstitious person will heare no man but speake in this wise to himselfe Wretched man that thou art all this thou suffrest at the hands of God and this is befallen unto thee by his commandement and the divine providence all hope hee rejecteth he doth abandon and betray himselfe and looke whosoever come to succour and helpe him those he shunneth and repelleth from him Many crosses there be and calamities in the world otherwise moderate and tolerable which superstition maketh mischievous and incurable That ancient King Midas in old time being troubled and disquieted much in his minde as it should seeme with certaine dreames and visions in the end fell into such a melancholy and despaire that willingly he made himselfe away by drinking buls blood And Aristodemus king of Messenians in that warre which he waged against the Lacedaemonians when it hapned that the dogs yelled and houled like wolves and that there grew about the altar of his house the herbe called Dent de chien or Dogs grasse whereupon the wisards and soothsayers were afraid as of some tokens presaging evill conceived such an inward griefe tooke so deepe a thought that he fell into desperation and killed himselfe As for Nicias the Generall of the Athenian armie haply it had beene farre better that by the examples of Midas and Aristodemus he had beene delivered and rid from his superstition than for feare of the shadow occasioned by the eclipse of the moone to have sitten stil as he did and do nothing untill the enemies environed and enclosed him round about and after that fortie thousand of Athenians were either put to the sword or taken prisoners to come alive into the hands of his enemies and lose his life with shame and dishonor for in the darkenesse occasioned by the opposition of the earth just in the mids betweene the sunne and the moone whereby her body was shadowed and deprived of light there was nothing for him to feare and namely at such a time when there was cause for him to have stood upon his feet and served valiantly in the field but the darkenesse of blinde superstition was dangerous to trouble and confound the judgement of a man who was possessed therewith at the very instant when his occasions required most the use of his wit and understanding The sea already troubled is With billowes blew within the sound Up to the capes and clifs arise Thicke mistie clouds which gather round About their tops where they do seat Fore-shewing shortly tempests great A good and skilful pilot seeing this doth well to pray unto the gods for to escape the imminent danger and to invocate and call upon those saints for helpe which they after call Saviours but all the while that he is thus at his devout praiers he holdeth the helme hard he letteth downe the crosse saile-yard Thus having struck the maine saile downe the mast He scapes the sea with darknesse overcast Hesiodus giveth the husbandman a precept before he begin to drive the plough or sow his seede To Ceres chaste his vowes to make To Jove likewise god of his land Forgetting not the while to take The end of his plough-taile in hand And Homer bringeth in Ajax being at the point to enter into combat with Hector willing the Greeks to pray for him unto the gods but whiles they praied he forgat not to arme himselfe at all pieces Semblablie Agamemnon after he had given commandement to his souldiours who were to fight Ech one his launce and speare to whet His shield likewise fitly to set then and not before praieth unto Iupiter in this wise O Iupiter vouchsafe me of thy grace The stately hall of Priamus to race for God is the hope of vertue and valour not the pretense of sloth and cowardise But the Iewes were so superstitious that on their Sabbath sitting still even whiles the enemies reared their scaling ladders and gained the walles of their citie they never stirred foot nor rose for the matter but remained fast tied and inwrapped in their superstition as it were in a net Thus you see what superstition is in those occurrences of times and affaires which succeed not to our minde but contrary to our will that is to say in adversity and as for times and occasions of mirth when all things fall out to a mans desire it is no better than impietie or atheisme and nothing is so joyous unto man as the solemnitie of festivall holidaies great feasts and sacrifices before the temples of the gods the mysticall and sacred rites performed when wee are purified and cleansed from our sinnes the ceremoniall service of the gods when wee worship and adore them in which all a superstitious man is no better than the Atheist for marke an Atheist in all these he will laugh at them untill he be ready to go beside himselfe these toies will set him I say into a fit of Sardonian laughing when he shall see their vanities and other-whiles he will not sticke to say softly in the eare of some familiar friend about him What mad folke be these how are they out of their right wits and enraged who suppose that such things as these doe please the gods Setting this aside there is no harme at all in him As for the superstitious person willing he is but not able to joy and take pleasure for his heart is much like unto that city which Sophocles describeth in these verses Which at one time is full of incense sweet Resounding mirth with loud triumphant song And yet the
miserie WHAT PASSIONS AND MALAdies be worse those of the soule or those of the bodie HOmer having viewed and considered very well the sundry sorts of living creatures mortall compared also one kind with another as well in the continuance as the conversation and maner of their life concluded in the end with this exclamation Lo how of creatures all on earth which walke and draw their wind More miserable none there are nor wretched than mankind attributing unto man this unhappie soveraigntie that he hath the superioritie in all miseries whatsoever but we setting this downe for a supposition granted already that man carieth the victorie and surpasseth all others for his infortunitie and is already declared and pronounced the most unhappie wretch of all living creatures will set in hand to compare him with his owne selfe in a certeine conference of his proper calamities that follow him and that by dividing him not in vaine and unfruitfully but very pertinently and to good purpose into the soule and the bodie to the end that wee may learne and know thereby whether we live more miserablie in regard of our soules or our selves that is to say our bodies for a disease in our bodie is engendred by nature but vice and sinne in the soule is first an action but afterwards becommeth a passion thereof so that it is no small consolation but maketh much for the contentment of our minde to know that the worse is curable and the lighter is that which can not be avoided The fox in Aesope pleading upon a time against the leopard as touching the varietie of colours in their skins after that the leopard had shewed her bodie which to the eie and in outward apparence was well marked beset with faire spots whereas the foxes skin was tawny foule and ill-favoured to see to But you quoth he sir Judge if you looke within shall finde me more spotted and divers coloured than that leopard there meaning the craft and subtiltie which he had to turne and change himselfe in divers sorts as need required after the same maner let us say within our selves O man thy body breedeth and bringeth foorth many maladies and passions naturally of it selfe many also it receiveth and enterteineth comming from without but if thou wilt anatomize and open thy selfe thou shalt finde within a save an ambrie nay a store-house and treasurie as Democritus saith of many evils and maladies and those of divers and sundry sorts not entring and running in from abroad but having their originall sources springing out of the ground and home-bred the which vice abundant rich and plenteous in passions putteth forth Now whereas the diseases that possesse the body and the flesh are discovered and knowen by their inflamations and red colour by pulses also or beating of the arteries and namely when the visage is more red or pale than customably it is or when some extraordinarie heat or lassitude without apparent cause bewraieth them contrariwise the infirmities and maladies of the soule are hidden many times unto those that have them who never thinke that they be sicke and ill at ease and in this regard worse they be for that they deprive the patients of the sense and feeling of their sicknesse for the discourse of reason whiles it is sound and hole feeleth the maladies of the bodie but as for the diseases of the soule whiles reason herselfe is sicke she hath no judgement at all of that which she suffereth for the selfe same that should judge is diseased and we are to deeme and esteeme that the principall and greatest maladie of the soule is follie by reason whereof vice being remedilesse and incurable in many is cohabitant in them liveth and dieth with them for the first degree and very beginning of a cure is the knowledge of a disease which leadeth and directeth the patient to seeke for helpe but he who will not beleeve that he is amisse or sicke not knowing what he hath need of although a present remedie were offered unto him will refuse and reject the same And verily among those diseases which afflict the bodie those are counted worst which take a man with a privation of sense as lethargies intolerable head-ach or phrensies epilepsies or falling-evils apoplexies and feavers-ardent for these burning agues many times augment their heat so much that they bring a man to the losse of his right wits and so trouble the senses as it were in a musicall instrument that They stirre the strings at secret root of hart Which touched should not be but lie apart which is the reason that practitioners in physicke desire and wish in the first place that a man were not sicke at all but if hee be sicke that hee be not ignorant and senselesse altogether of his disease a thing that ordinarily befalleth to all those who be sicke in minde for neither witlesse fooles nor dissolute and loose persons ne yet those who be unjust and deale wrongfully thinke that they do amisse and sinne nay some of them are perswaded that they do right well Never was there man yet who esteemed an ague to be health nor the phthisicke or consumption to be a good plight and habit of the bodie nor that the gout in the feet was good footmanship ne yet that to be ruddy and pale or yellow was all one yet you shall have many who are diseased in minde to call hastines and choler valiance wanton love amitie envie emulation and cowardise warie prudence Moreover they that be bodily sicke send for the physicians because they know whereof they stand in need for to heale their diseases whereas the other avoid and shun the sage philosophers for they thinke verily that they do well when they fault most Upon this reason we holde that the ophthalmie that is to say the inflamation of bloud-shotten eies is a lesse maladie than Mania that is to say rage and furious madnesse and that the gout in the feet is nothing so bad as the phrensie which is an inflamation or impostume bred in the braine for the one of these patients finding himselfe diseased crieth out for paine calleth for the physician and no sooner is he come but he sheweth him his diseased eie for to dresse and anoint he holdeth forth his veine for to be opened yeeldeth unto him his head for to be cured whereas you shall heare ladie Agave in the Tragaedios so farre transported out of all sense and understanding by reason of her raging fit that shee knew not those persons which were most deare and entire unto her for thus she saith This little one here newly kild And cut in pieces in the field From hilles we bring to dwelling place How happy ô hath beene our chace As for him who is sicke in bodie presently he yeeldeth thereto he laies him downe upon his pallet or taketh his naked bed he easeth himselfe all that he can and is content and quiet all the while that the physician hath
services and sacrifices be acceptable which a woman will seeme to celebrate by stealth and without the knowledge and privitie of her husband 18 Plato writeth that the citie is blessed and happie wherein a man shall never heare these words This is mine and This is not mine for that the inhabitants thereof have all things there especially if they be of any woorth and importance as neere as possibly they can common among them but these words ought rather to be banished out of the state of matrimonie unlesse it be as the Physicians holde that the blowes or woundes which are given on the left side of the body are felt on the right even so a wife ought to have a fellow-feeling by way of sympathie and compassion of her husbands calamities and the husband of his wives much more to the end that like as those knots are much more fast and strong when the ends of the cords are knit and interlaced one within another even so the bond of marriage is more firme and sure when both parties the one aswell as the other bring with them a mutuall affection and reciprocall benevolence whereby the fellowship and communion betweene them is mainteined jointly by them both for nature herselfe hath made a mixture of us of two bodies to the end that by taking part of one and part of another and mixing all together she might make that which commeth thereof common to both in such sort as neither of the twaine can discerne and distinguish what is proper to the one or peculiar to the other This communion of goods especially ought principally to be among those who are linked in wedlocke for that they should put in common and have all their havorie incorporate into one substance in such wise as they repute not this part proper to one and that part peculiar to another but the whole proper to themselves and nothing to another and like as in one cuppe where there is more water than wine yet we say neverthelesse that the whole is wine even so the goods and the house ought to beare the name of the husband although peradventure the wife brought with her the bigger portion 19 Helene was covetous and Paris lascivious contrariwise Ulysses was reputed wise and Penelope chaste and therefore the mariage of these last named was blessed happie and beloved but the conjunction of those two before infortunate bringing upon the Greeks and Barbarians both a whole Iliad that is to say an infinite masse of miseries and calamities 20 A gentleman of Rome who espoused an honest rich faire and yoong ladie put her away and was divorced from her whereupon being reprooved and sharply rebuked by all his friends he put forth his foot unto them and shewed them his shoo What finde you quoth he in this shoo of mine amisse new it is and faire to see to howbeit there is not one of you all knoweth where it wringeth me but I wot well where the fault is and feele the inconvenience thereof A wife therefore is not to stand so much upon her goods and the dowrie shee brings nor in the nobilitie of her race and parentage ne yet in her beautie as in those points which touch her husband most and come neerest to his heart namely her conversation and fellowship her maners her carrage demeanor in all respects so disposed that they be all not harsh nor troublesome from day to day unto her husband but pleasant lovely obsequious and agreeable to his humor for like as Physicians feare those feavers which are engendred of secret and hidden causes within the bodie gathering in long continuance of time by little and little more than such as proceed from evident and apparent causes without even so there fall out otherwhiles petie jarres daily and continuall quarels betweene man and wife which they see and know full little that be abroad and these they be which breed separation and cause them to part sooner than any thing els these marre the pleasure of their cohabitation more than any other cause whatsoever 21 King Philip was enamoured upon a certaine Thessalian woman who was supposed and charged by her sorceries and charmes to have enchanted him to love her whereupon queene Olympias his wife wrought so that she got the woman into her hands now when she had well viewed her person and considered her beautifull visage her amiable favour her comely grace and how her speech shewed well that she was a woman of some noble house and had good bringing up Out upon these standerous surmises quoth she and false imputations for I see well that the charmes and sorceries which thou usest are in thy selfe In like maner we must thinke that an espoused and legitimate wife is as one would say a fort inexpugnable namely such an one as in her selfe reposing and placing all these things to wit her dowrie nobilitie charmes and love-drinks yea and the very tissue or girdle of Venus by her study and endevour by her gentle behavior her good grace and vertue is able to win the affectionate love of her husband for ever 22 Another time the same queene Olympias hearing that a certaine yoong gentleman of the Court had married a ladie who though she were faire and well-favoured yet had not altogether the best name This man quoth shee hath no wit at all in his head for otherwise hee would never have married according to the counsell and appetite of his eies only And in trueth we ought not to goe about for to contract marriage by the eie or the fingers as some doe who count with their fingers how much money or what goods a wife bringeth with her never casting and making computation of her demeanour and conditions whether she be so well qualified as that they may have a good life with her 23 Socrates was woont to counsell yoong men who used to see their faces and looke upon themselves in mirrours if they were foule or ill-favoured to correct that deformitie by vertue if they were faire not to soile and staine their beautie with vice semblably it were very well that the mistresse of an house having in her hand a looking glasse should say thus unto her selfe if she be foule and deformed What a one should I be if I nought or leawd withall if faire and well-favoured How highly shall I be esteemed if I be honest and wise besides for if an hard-favoured woman be loved for her faire and gentle conditions she hath more honor thereby than if she wan love by beautie onely 24 The tyrant of Sicily Dionysius sent upon a time unto the daughters of Lysander certeine rich robes costly wreathes and precious jewels as presents but Lysander would not receive these gifts saying These presents would bring more shame than honour to my daughters And the Poet Sophocles before Lysanders time wrote to the like effect in these verses This will ô wretch to thee none honour bring But may be thought a foule and shamefull
and wives of the towne fearing lest the enemies would search and rifle their husbands as they went forth of the gates and not once touch and meddle with them tooke unto them short curtelasses or skeines hid them under their clothes and so went forth together with their husbands When they were all out of the towne Annibal having set a guard of Mafaesylians to attend them staied them at the end of the suburbs meane while the rest of his armie without all order put themselves within the citie and fell to the spoile and sackage of it which when the Masaesylians perceived they grew out of all patience could not containe themselves nor looke wel unto their prisoners but were woonderous angrie and in the end meant for to have as good a part and share as the rest of the spoile hereupon the women tooke up a crie and gave unto their husbands the swords which they had brought with them yea some of them fel upon the guard or garrison insomuch as one of them was so bold as to take from Banon the Truchman or interpretor the speare which he had and thrust at him with it but he had on a good corps of a cuirace which saved him but their husbands having wounded some of them and put the rest to flight escaped by this meanes away together in a troupe with their wives which when Annibal understood he set out immediately after them and surprised those who were left behind whiles the rest got away and saved themselves for the present by recovering the mountaines adjoining but after they sent unto Annibal and craved pardon who graciously granted it yea and permitted them to returne in safetie and reinhabit their owne citie THE MILESIAN WOMEN THE Milesian maidens upon a time were surprized with a verie strong passionate fit of a fearfull melancholicke humour without any apparant cause that could be rendred thereof unlesse it were as men most conjectured that the aire was infected and empoisoned which might cause that alienation of the mind and worke a distimperature in their braines to the overthrow of their right wits for all on a sudden every one had a great desire to die and namely in a furious rage would needs hang themselves and in truth many of them secretly knit their neeks in haltars and so were strangled no reasons and remonstrances no teares of father and mother no perswasions and comfortable speeches of their friends would serve the turne but looke what keepers soever they had and how carefully soever they looked unto them they could find meanes of evasion to avoide and goe beyond all their devices and inventions in such sort that it was thought to be some plague and punishment sent from the gods above and such as no humaine provision could remedie untill such time as by the advice of a sage and wise citizen there went foorth a certaine edict and the same enacted by the counsell of the citie That if any one more hapned to hang herselfe she should be carried starke naked as ever she was borne throw the market place in the view of the whole world this proclamation being thus ratified by the common-counsell of the citie did not onely represse for a while but also staied for altother this furious rage of the maidens and their inordinate desire to make themselves away Thus we may see that the fear of dishonor shame infamy is a great signe infallible token of good nature and vertue considering that they feared neither death nor paine which are the most horrible accidents that men can endure howbeit they could not abide the imagination of vilannie shame and dishonor though it hapned not unto them untill they were dead and gone THE WOMEN OF CIO THe maner and custome was for the yoong virgins of Cio to goe altogether unto their publick temples and churches and so to passe the time al the long day there one with another where their lovers who wooed them for marriage might behold them disport and daunce and in the evening they went home to each of their houses in order where they waited upō their fathers and mothers yea and the brethren one of another even to the very washing of their feet Now it hapned sometimes that many yoong men were enamoured of one and the same maide but their love was so modest good and honest that so soone as a maiden was affianced and betrothed unto one all the rest would give over sute so cease to make any more love unto her In summe the good order and cariage of these women of Cio might be knowen in this that in the space of seven hundred yeeres it was never knowen nor appeered upon record that anie wife committed adulterie nor maiden unmaried lost her virgnitie THE WOMEN OF PHOCIS THe tyrants of Phocis surprized upon a time and seized the citie of Delphos by occasion whereof the Thebans made that warre upon them which was called the Holy warre at which time it so befell that the religious women consecrated unto Bacchus named Thyades being bestraught and out of their right wits ranne wandring like vargrants up and downe in the night and knew not whither untill ere they were aware they ranne unto the citie Amphissa where being wearie but yet not come againe to their senses they lay along in the mids of the market place and couched themselves scattering heere and there to take their sleepe the wives of Amphissa being advertised heereof and fearing lest their bodies should be abused by the soldiers of the tyrants whereof there lay a garrison within the citie for that Amphissa was of the league and confederate with the Phocaeans ranne all thither to the place standing round about them with silence and not saying one word and so long as they slept troubled them not but soone as they wakened of themselves and were gotten up they tooke the charge of them gave them meat and each of them looked to one yea and afterwards having gotten leave of their husbands they conveighed and accompanied them in safetie so farre as to the mountains and marches of their owne territorie VALERIA and CLOELIA THe outrage committed upon the person of a Roman ladie named Lucretia and her vertue together were the cause that Tarquinius Superbus the seventh king of the Romanes after Romulus was deprived of his roiall estate and driven out of Rome This dame being married unto a great personage descended of the bloud roiall was abused and forced by one of the sons of the said king Tarquin who was enterteined and friendly lodged in her house by occasion of which villanous fact she called all her kinsfolke and friends together about her unto whom after she had delcared and given them to understand the shamefull dishonour that he had done upon her body she stabbed herselfe in the place before them and Tarquin the father for this cause being deposed from his princely dignitie and chased out of his kingdome levied manie warres against the
before you were acquainted therewith have ordained mine owne sonnes to be judges namely for Asia two Minos and Rhadamanthus and one for Europe to wit Aeacus These therefore after they be dead shall sit in judgement within a meddow at a quarrefour or crosse-way whereof the one leadeth to the fortunate isles the other to hell Rhadamanthus shall determine of them in Asia Aeacus of those in Europe and as for Minos I wil grant unto him a preeminence in judgement above the rest in case there happen some matter unknowen to one of the other two and escape their censure he may upon weighing and examining their opinions give his definitive sentence and so it shall be determined by a most sincere and just doome whether way each one shall goe This is that O Callicles which I have heard and beleeve to be most true whereout I gather this conclusion in the end that death is no other thing than the separation of the soule from the body Thus you see ô Apollonius my most deere friend what I have collected with great care and diligence to compose for you sake a consolatorie oration or discourse which I take to be most necessarie for you as well to asswage and rid away your present griefe to appease likewise and cause to cease this heavinesse and mourning that you make which of all things is most unpleasant and troublesome as also to comprise within it that praise and honour which me thought I owed as due unto the memoriall of your sonne Apollonius of all others exceedingly beloved of the gods which honour in my conceit is a thing most convenient and acceptable unto those who by happie memorie and everlasting glorie are consecrated to immortalitie You shall doe your part therefore and verie wisely if you obey those reasons which are therein conteined you shall gratifie your sonne likewise and doe him a great pleasure in case you take up in time and returne from this vaine affliction wherewith you punish and undoe both bodie and mind unto your accustomed ordinarie and naturall course of life for like as whiles he lived with us he was nothing well appaied and tooke no contentment to see either father or mother sadde and desolate even so now when he converseth and so laceth himselfe in all joy with the gods doubtlesse he cannot like well of this state wherein you are Therefore plucke up your heart and take courage like a man of woorth of magnanimitie and one that loveth his children well release your selfe first and then the mother of the yoong gentleman together with his kinsfolke and friends from this kind of miserie and take to a more quiet peaceable maner of life which will be both to your sonne departed and to all of us who have regard of your person as it becommeth us more agreeable A CONSOLOTARIE LETTER OR DISCOURSE SENT UNTO HIS OWNE WIFE AS TOUCHING THE DEATH OF HER AND HIS DAUGHTER The Summarie PLutarch being from home and farre absent received newes concerning the death of a little daughter of his a girle about two yeeres old named Timoxene a childe of a gentle nature and of great hope but fearing that his wife would apprehend such a lesse too neere unto her heart he comforteth her in this letter and by giving testimonie unto her of vertue and constancie 〈◊〉 at the death of other children of hers more forward in age than she was he exhorteth her likewise to patience and moderation in this newe occurrence and triall of hers condemning by sundry reasons the excessive sorrow and unwoorthy fashion of many fond mothers 〈◊〉 withall the inconveniences that such excessive heavinesse draweth after it Then continuing his consolation of her he declareth with what eie we ought to regard infants and children aswell before as during and after life how happie they be who can content themselves and rest in the will and pleasure of God that the blessings past ought to dulce and mitigate the calamities present to stay us also that we proceed not to that degree and height of infortunitie as to make account onely of the misadventures and discommodities hapning in this our life Which done he answereth to certeine objections which his wife might propose and set on foot and therewith delivereth his owne advice as touching the incorruption and immortalitie of mans soule after he had made a medly of divers opinions which the ancient Philosophers held as touching that point and in the end concludeth That it is better and more expedient to die betimes than late which position of his he confirmeth by an ordinance precisely observed in his owne countrey which expresly for bad to mourne and lament for those who departed this life in their childhood A CONSOLATORIE LETTER or Discourse sent unto his owne wife as touching the death of her and his daughter PLUTARCH unto his wife Greeting THe messenger whom you sent of purpose to bring me word as touching the death of our little daughter went out of his way as I suppose and so missed of me as he journeyed toward Athens howbeit when I was arrived at Tanagra I heard that she had changed this life Now as concerning the funerals and enterring of her I am verily perswaded that you have already taken sufficient order so as that the thing is not to doe and I pray God that you have performed that duetie in such sort that neither for the present not the time to come it worke you any grievance displeasure but if haply you have put off any such complements which you were willing enough of your selfe to accomplish untill you knew my minde and pleasure thinking that in so doing you should with better will and more patiently beare this adverse accident then I pray you let the same be performed without all curiositie and superstition and yet I must needs say you are as little given that way as any woman that I know this onely I would admonish you deare heart that in this case you shew both in regard of your selfe and also of me a constancie and tranquillitie of minde for mine owne part I conceive and measure in mine owne heart this losse according to the nature and greatnesse thereof and so I esteeme of it accordingly but if I should finde that you tooke it impatiently this would be much more grievous unto me and wound my heart more than the 〈◊〉 it selfe that causeth it and yet am not I begotten and borne either of an oake or a rocke whereof you can beare me good witnesse knowing that wee both together have reard many of our children at home in house even with our owne hands and how I loved this girle most tenderly both for that you were very desirous after foure sonnes one after another in a row to beare a daughter as also for that in regard of that fancie I tooke occasion to give her your name now besides that naturall fatherly affection which men cōmonly have toward little babes there was one
Philosophie But I pray you my very good friend quoth I unto him forbeare this vehement and accusatorie humour of yours and be not angry if haply you see that some because they be borne of leud and wicked parents are punished or else doe not rejoice so much nor be ready to praise in case you see nobilitie also of birth to be so highly honored for if we stand upon this point and dare avow that recompence of vertue ought by right and reason to continue in the line and posteritie we are by good consequence to make this account that punishment likewise should not stay and cease together with misdeeds committed but reciprocally fall upon those that are descended of misdoers and malefactors for he who willingly seeth the progenie of Cimon honoured at Athens and contrariwise is offended and displeased in his heart to see the race of Lachares or Ariston banished driven out of the citie he I say seemeth to be too soft tender and passing effeminate or rather to speake more properly over-contentious and quarrelsome even against the gods complaining and murmuring of the one side if the children childrens children of an impious wicked person do prosper in the world and contrariwise is no lesse given to blame and find fault if he doe see the posterity of wicked and ungracious men to be held under plagued or altogether destroied from the face of the earth accusing the gods if the children of a naughtie man be afflicted even as much as if they had honest persons to their parents But as for these reasons alledged make you this reckoning that they be bulwarks and rampars for you opposed against such bitter sharpe accusers as these be But now taking in hand again the end as it were of a clew of thread or a bottom of yearne to direct us as in a darke place and where there be many cranks turnings and windings to and fro I meane the matter of gods secret judgements let us conduct and guide our selves gently and warily according to that which is most likely probable considering that even of those things which we daily manage and doe our selves we are not able to set downe an undoubted certaintie as for example who can yeeld a sound reason wherefore we cause and bid the children of those parents who died either of the phthisick and consumption of the lungs or of the dropsie to sit with their feet drenched in water until the dead corps be fully burned in the funeral fire For an opiniō there is that by this meanes the said maladies shall not passe unto them as hereditarie nor take hold of their bodies as also what the cause should be that if a goat hold in her mouth the herbe called Eryngites that is to say Sea-holly the whole flocke will stand still untill such time as the goat-herd come and take the said herbe out of her mouth Other hidden properties there be which by secret influences and passages from one to another worke strange effects and incredible as well speedily as in longer tract of time and in very truth we woonder more at the intermission and stay of time betweene than we doe of the distance of place and yet there is greater occasion to marvell thereat as namely that a pestilent maladie which began in Aethiopia should raigne in the citie of Athens and fill every street and corner thereof in such sort as Pericles died and Thucydides was sicke thereof than that when the Phocaeans and Sybarits had committed some hainous sins the punishment therefore should fall upon their children go through their posteritie For surely these powers and hidden properties have certaine relations and correspondences from the last to the first the cause whereof although it be unknowen to us yet it ceaseth not secretly to bring foorth her proper effects But there seemeth to be verie apparent reason of justice that publicke vengeance from above should fall upon cities many a yeere after for that a citie is one entire thing and a continued body as it were like unto a living creature which goeth not beside or out of it selfe for any mutations of ages nor in tract and continuance of time changing first into one and then into another by succession but is alwaies uniforme and like it selfe receiving evermore and taking upon it all the thanke for well doing or the blame for misdeeds of whatsoever it doth or hath done in common so long as the societie that linketh holdeth it together maintaineth her unitie for to make many yea innumerable cities of one by dividing it according to space of time were as much as to go about to make of one man many because he is now become old who before was a yong youth in times past also a very stripling or springall or else to speake more properly this resembleth the devises of Epicharmus wherupon was invented that maner of Sophisters arguing which they cal the Croissant argument for thus they reason He that long since borrowed or tooke up mony now oweth it not because he is no more himselfe but become another he that yesterday was invited to a feast cōmeth this day as an unbidden guest cōsidering that he is now another man And verily divers ages make greater difference in ech one of us than they do commonly in cities and States for he that had seene the citie of Athens thirtie yeeres agoe and came to visit it at this day would know it to be altogether the very same that then it was insomuch as the maners customes motions games pastimes serious affaires favours of the people their pleasures displeasures and anger at this present resemble wholly those in ancient time whereas if a man be any long time out of sight hardly his very familiar friend shall be able to know him his countenance will be so much changed and as touching his maners and behaviour which alter and change so soone upon every occasion by reason of all sorts of labour travell accidents and lawes there is such varietie and so great alteration that even he who is ordinarily acquainted and conversant with him would marvell to see the strangenesse and noveltie thereof and yet the man is held and reputed still the same from his nativitie unto his dying day and in like case a citie remaineth alwaies one and the selfe same in which respect we deeme it great reason that it should participate aswell the blame and reproch of ancestours as enjoy their glorie and puissance unlesse we make no care to cast all things in the river of Heraclitus into which by report no one thing entreth twise for that it hath a propertie to alter all things and change their nature Now if it be so that a citie is an united and continued thing in it selfe we are to thinke no lesse of a race and progenie which dependeth upon one and the same stocke producing and bringing foorth a certeine power and communication of qualities and the same doth
properly to a bodie that is solid and able to resist but the onely way and true manner of chastising and punishing those who have lived badly in this world is infamie ignorance an entire abolition and totall reducement to nothing which bringeth them from the river Lethe that is to say Oblivion into another mournfull river where there is no mirth no joy nor cheerefulnesse from thence plungeth them into a vast sea which hath neither shore nor bottom even idlenesse and unaptnesse to all good which can doe nought else but draw after it a generall forgetfulnesse and buriall as it were in all ignorance and infamous obscuritie RVLES AND PRECEPTS OF HEALTH IN MANER OF A DIALOGUE The Summarie THe conjunction of the soule with the bodie being so straight as every man knowes it is I can not see how it is possible that the one should commit any disorder or excesse but the other must needs be grieved there with immediatly And if there be any thing that ought to be deplored and lamented it is the losse of time especially and above all when the same is occasioned by our own intemperance for that at such a time when as we should attend upon our dutie we become and continue unprofitable hurting many times both our selves and many others Now for that the study of good literature requireth a soule well composed and governed in a sound heathfull and vigorous bodie it is not without good cause that Plutarch in termingleth among philosophicall discourses certeine rules precepts as touching health For in truth a vaine endevor enterprise this were and hardly could a man have his mind disposed to good things in case the bodie be ill affected and misgoverned But fearing lest it would be thought that he who made profession of philosophie onely proceeded farther than in reason hee ought and brake the limits and bounds of sciences in medling with physick heere Before that he entreth into the Dialogue when he had touched the occasion of this conference and talke he sheweth that the studie of physick is agreeable to philosophie which done he representeth certeine questions proposed by a third person which serve in stead of a preface to those precepts and lessons by him set downe afterwards not following heerein any exact or exquisit method but making choise of that which he thought to be most meet for the time and suting best to those persons for whose sake this Dialogue was written He speaketh first therefore of the use of meats especially such as are sweet and pleasing to the tooth also what a man is to take heed of in this behalfe Then he treateth of the pleasures of the bodie declaring what measure therein we ought to keepe and discovering by a certeine similitude the pernicious indiscretion of those who love to keepe good cheere and mainteine dainty fare Consequently heereupon he forbiddeth us to use bodily pleasures unlesse we be in good and perfect health condemneth fulnesse and overmuch repletion which is the cause of most diseases that are incident to mans body and this he enricheth and amplifieth by another proper similitude He is desirous also that maladies were foreseene and prevented setting downe a speciall remedie therefore and prooving that the body cannot enjoy any delight whatsoever either in eating or drinking in case it be not healthy From this he proceedeth to make mention of diet and of the prognostikes of diseases breeding and roward Item how and wherewith the maladies of our friends ought to serve and stead us adding thus much moreover that for the better maintenance and preservation of health a man is not to feed to satietie that he ought to travell and not spare himselfe also that he is to save his naturall seed upon this he discourseth of the exercise and nouxishment of students and scholars desciphring particularly whatsoever in this point is most woorth the noting and observation and so cleereth this question namely Whether it be holsome for the body to dispute either at the table or presently upon meat After all this he treateth of walking of sleepe of vomiting of purgations of the belly of diets over exquisit and precise condemning expresly idlenesse as a thing contrary to the good disposition of the body Furthermore he sheweth when a man ought to be at quiet and rest as also the time that he may give himselfe to pleasure but above all he requireth of every man that he learne to know his owne nature and inclination as also the meats and drinks that be agreeable unto his stomack exhorting in the end all students to spare their bodies to looke unto them and make much of them that they may have the better meanes to proceed and goe forward in the knowledge of good letters whereby they might another day be profitable members of the common-wealth and doe more good to the societie of men RULES AND PRECEPTS OF health in maner of a dialogue The personages speaking in this dialogue MOSCHION and ZEUXIPPUS MOSCHION ANd did you then indeed my friend Zexippus turne away Glaucus the physician yesterday who was desirous to conferre with us in philosophie ZEUXIPPUS No iwis good Moschion neither did I put him away desirous was he to doe as you say But this was it that I avoided and feared namely To give him any advantage or occasion to fasten upon me and take hold on me knowing him as I doe to be litigious and quarrelsome for in physick if I may use the words of Homer He may well stand for many a one Although he be but one alone As for philosophie he is not wel affected thereto but alwaies provided of some shrewd bitter tearmes against her in all his disputations and as then especially for I observed how he came directly against us crying out upon us a farre off with a loud voice charging us that we had to enterprise a great matter and the same not very civill honest and in that we had broken the bounds and pluckt up as a man would say the very limit-marks of sciences laying all cōmon and making a confusion of them in disputing as we did of holsome diet and of the maner how to live in good health For the confines and frontiers quoth he of Physicians and Philosophers are as we use to say in the vulgar proverbe as touching Mysians and Phrygians farre different and remooved a sunder Moreover he had readily in his mouth certeine speeches and sentences of ours which we delivered by way of pastime onely and yet for all that were not impertinent or unprofitable and those he would seeme to controule reproove and scorne MOSCHION But I for my part ô Zeuxippus could be very well content yea and most desirous to heare even those speeches that mocked as others beside which yee had concerning this matter if so be it might stand with your pleasure to rehearse the same ZEUXIPPUS I thinke no lesse ô Moschion for that you are enclined naturally to philosophie and
a very hard matter it is in such assemblies and feasts of great lords or deere friends for a man to stay himselfe in a meane and mainteine his accustomed sobrietie but he shall be thought uncivill unmanerly insociable too austere and odious to all the company To the end therefore that we should not put fire to fire as they say lay gorge upon gorge surset upon surset and wine and wine good it were to imitate and follow in good earnest that which was sometime merily done by king Philip and that was this A certaine man invited him upon a time to a supper into the countrey thinking that hee would come with a small company about him but seeing that he brought a great traine and retinue with him and knowing wel that he had prepared no more then would serve for a few guests he was woonderfully troubled Philip perceiving it sent underhand to every one of his friends that came with him this word That they should keepe a roome in their stomacks for a deintie tart or cate that was comming they beleeving this message in good sadnesse made spare of other viands that stood before them looking evermore when this deintie should be served up in such sort as that the meat provided was sufficient for the whole compaine even so we ought before-hand to be prepared against the time that we are to be at such great feasts and meetings aforesaid where we shall be put to it perforce to drinke round in our turne and to answer every ones chalenge to reserue I say a place in our bodies both for meats and also for fine cates and junketting dishes yea and beleeve me if need be for drunkennesse and thither to bring an appetitie fresh and readie for such things But if peradventure such constreints and compulsions surprise us upon a sudden when we are either full and heavie or ill at ease for that we have a little before over-eaten and drunk our selves in case I say some great lords be come to us or in place unexpected or haply a friend or stranger take us at unawares and unprovided so that we be forced for shame to keepe others company who are well enough disposed in body and prepared for to drinke and make merty then must we be especially well armed against foolish bashfulnesse and to meet with such bad shamefastnesse is the cause of so many evils among men and namely by alledging and saying these verses of king Creon in a tragedie of Euripides Better it were for me you to displease My friend than at this time for your contnent To give my selfe to pleasure and mine ease But after with great sorrow to repent For to cast a mans selfe into a pleurisie or phrensie for feare to be held and reputed rustical and uncivill is the part of a rude clowne in deed and of one who hath neither wit nor judgement ne yet any skill or speech to enterteine and keepe companie with men unlesse they may be drunken and engorge themselves like gluttons for the very refusall it selfe of eating and drinking if it be handled with dexteritie and a good grace will be no lesse acceptable to the companie than drinking square and carrowsing round And if the man who maketh a feast absteine himselfe though he sit at the table as the maner is at a sacrifice whereof he tasteth not enterteining his guests with a cheerefull countenance and a friendly welcome and whiles the cups and trenchers walke about him be disposed to mirth and cast out some pretie jests of himselfe he shall no lesse content and please his guests than he that will seeme to be drunken for companie and cram his bellie with them till it be readie to cracke To this purpose he made mention of certeine ancient examples and namely among other of Alexander the Great who after he had drunke well and liberally was abashed and ashamed to denie the challenge of Medius one of his captaines who had invited him to supper and thereupon falling againe to drinke wine afresh died thereof And of those who lived in our daies he spake of one Riglis a notable Pancratiast or champion at all feats of activitie whom Titus Caesar the emperour sent for one day betimes in the morning to come and bathe with him who came indeed and after he had bathed and had drunke a great draught was by report surprised with an Apoplexie whereupon he died immediatly All these matters our Physician Glaucy mocked and reprooved calling them discourses of schoolemasters to children their scholars and as he was not very willing to heare more so were not we greatly discourse to relate and discourse farther unto him for that he had no mind to consider ech thing accordingly that was delivered Socrates verily who was the first that debarred us from eating those meats which drew us on to eat more still when we were not hungry nor had a stomacke thereto and from drinking such drinks which caused us to drinke although we were not drie and thirstie forbad us not simply to use meats and drinks but taught us rather to use them onely when we had need of them joining the pleasure of them with their necessitie like as they do who employ the publicke money of cities which before was wont to be spent at Theaters in exhibiting plaies and shewes about the charges of mainteining souldiers for the warres for that which is sweet so long as it is a part of our nourishment we hold to be proper and familiar to nature and we ought all the whiles that we be hungry to use and enjoy necessarie nourishment as sweet and pleasant but otherwise not to stirre and provoke other new and extraordinarie appetites apart after that we are delivered from those that be common and ordinarie for like as unto Socrates himselfe dancing was no unpleasant exercise even so he who maketh his whole supper or meale of junkets and banketting dishes catcheth lesse harme thereby but when a man hath taken alreadie as much as is sufficient to content nature and wherewith he is well satisfied he ought to beware as much as in any thing els how he putteth forth his hands to any such dainties And we are to flie and avoid in these things follie and ambition no lesse than friandise or gluttonie for these two vices induce us likewise often times to eat some thing when we are not hungrie and to drinke also when we be not athirst yea and they suggest and minister unto us certeine base and extravagant imaginations to wit that it were great simplicitie and a very absurd thing not to feed liberally of a rare deere and geason dish if it may be had as for example That which is made of a sowes pappes when she is newly farrowed Italian mushroomes Samian cakes or snow out of Aegypt for these toies and imaginations smelling somewhat of vain-glorie as the sent of meat comming out of a kitchin maine times set our teeth a watering and our stomacke on edge
voiages or pastimes as they deprive us of our pleasures yea and marre them quite and therefore they who love their delights and pleasures most had least need of any men in the world to neglect their health For many there be who for all they be sicke have meanes to studie philosophy and discourse thereof neither doth their sicknesse greatly hinder them but that they may be generals in the sield to leade armies yea and kings beleeve me to governe whole realmes But of bodily pleasures and fleshly delights some there be which during a maladie will never breed and such as are bred already yeeld but a small joy and short contentment which is proper and naturall unto them and the same not pure and sincere but confused depraved and corrupted with much strange stuffe yea and disguised and blemished as it were with some storme and tempest for the act of Venus is not to any purpose performed upon gourmandise and a full belly but rather when the bodie is calme and the flesh in great tranquillity for that the end of Venus is pleasure like as of eating also and of drinking and health unto pleasures is as much as their faire weather and kinde season which giveth them secure and gentle breeding much like as the calme time in winter affoords the sea-fowles called Alcyones a safe cooving sitting and hatching of their egges Prodicus is commended for this pretie speech That sire was the best sauce and a man may most truely say That health is of all sauces must divine heavenly and pleasant for our viands how delicate soever they be boiled rosted baked or stewed doe no pleasure at all unto us so long as wee are diseased drunken full of surfet or queasie stomacked as they be who are sea-sicke whereas a pure and cleane appetite causeth all things to be sweet pleasant and agreeable unto sound bodies yea and such as they will be ready to snatch at as Homer saith But like as Demades the oratour seeing the Athenians without all reason desirous of armes and warre said unto them That they never treated and agreed of peace but in their blacke robes after the losse of kinsfolke and friends even so wee never remember to keepe a spary and sober diet but when we come to be cauterized or to have cataplasmes and plasters about us we are no sooner fallen to those extremities but then we are ready to condemne our faults calling to minde what errours we have committed in times past for untill then we blame one while the aire as most men doe another while the region or countrey as unsound and unholsome we finde fault that we are out of our native soile and are woonderfull loth to accuse our owne intemperance and disordinate appetites And as king Lisymachus being constreined and enforced within the country of the Getes for very thirst to yeeld himselfe prisoner and al his armie captivate unto his enemies after he had taken a draught of cold water said Good God what a great felicitie have I forgone and lost for a momentarie and transitory pleasure even so we may make use thereof and apply the same unto our selves when wee are sicke saying thus How many delights have we marred quite how many good actions have we fore-let what honest pastimes have we lost and all by our drinking of cold water or bathing unseasonably or else for that we have over-drunke our selves for good fellowship for the bite sting of such thoughts as these toucheth our remēbrance to the quicke in such sort as the scarre remaineth still behind after that we are recovered and maketh us in time of our health more staied circumspect and sober in our diet for a bodie that is exceeding sound and healthy never bringeth foorth vehement desires and disordinate appetites hardly to be tamed or with stood but we ought to make head against them when they beginne to breake soorth and 〈◊〉 out for to enjoy the pleasures which they are affected unto for such lusts some complaine pule and crie for a little as wanton children doe and no sooner is the table taken awaie but they be quiet and still neither finde they fault and make complaint of any wrong or injurie offred unto them but contrariwise they be pure jocund and lightsome not continuing heavie nor readie to heave and cast the next day to an end like as by report captaine Timotheus having upon a time beene at a sober and frugall scholars supper in the academie with Plato said That they who supped with Plato were merry and well appaied the next day after It is reported also that king Alexander the Great when he turned backe those cooks which queene 〈◊〉 sent unto him said That he had about him all the yeere long better of his owne namely for his breakfast or dinner rising betimes and marching before day light and for his supper eating little at dinner I am not ignorant that men otherwhiles are very apt to fall into an ague upon extreme travell upon excessive heats also and colds but like as the odors and sents of 〈◊〉 he weak seeble of themselves whereas if they be mixed with some oile they take force 〈◊〉 even so fulnesse and repletion is the ground which giveth as a man would say bodie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto the outward causes and occasions of maladies and of a great quantity of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 humours there is no danger because all such indispositions and crudities are soone 〈◊〉 dissipated and dissolved when some fine or subtill bloud when some pure spirit I 〈◊〉 their motion but where there is a great repletion indeed and abundance of 〈◊〉 as it were a deepe and mirie puddle all troubled and stirred then there arise from 〈◊〉 many maligne accidents such as be dangerous and hard to cure and therefore we are 〈◊〉 to doe like some good masters of ships who never thinke their vessels bee fully fraught and charged throughly and when they have taken in all that ever they can doe nothing else but worke at the pumpe void the sinke and cast out the sea water which is gotten in even so when we have well filled and stuffed our bodies fall to purge and cleanse them with medicines and 〈◊〉 but we ought rather to keepe the bodie alwaies neat nimble and light to the end that if it chaunce otherwise at any time to be pressed and held downe it might be seene above for lightnesse like unto a piece of corke floting aloft upon the water but principally we are to beware of the very 〈◊〉 indispositions which are forerunners of maladies for all diseases walke not as Hesicdus saith in silence and say nothing when they come As whom wise Jupiter hath berest Of voice and toong to them none left But the most part of thē have their vant-curreurs as it were their messengers trumpets namely crudities of stomack wearinesse and heavinesse over all the bodie According to the 〈◊〉 of Hippocrates lassitudes and laborious heavinesse of the bodie comming
delights and pleasures as in travels and paines yea and generally in every action enterprising nothing assuredly and with confidence whereas we ought to deale by our body as with the saile of ship that is to say neither to draw it in keepe it down too straight in time of calme faire 〈◊〉 nor to spred and let it out over slacke and negligently when there is presented some 〈◊〉 of a tempest but as occasion shall require to spare it and give some ease and remission that afterwards it may be fresh and lightsome as hath beene said already and not to slacke the time and stay untill we sensibly feele crudities laskes inflamations or contrariwise stupidities and mortifications of members by which signes being as it were messengers and ushers going before a feaver which is hard at the dore hardly wil some be so much moved as to keepe in and restraine themselves no not when the very accesse and fit is readie to surprise them but rather long before to be provident and to prevent a tempest So soone as from some rocke we finde The puffing gales of northern winde For absurd it is and to no purpose to give such carefull heed unto the crying wide throates of crowes or to the craing and cackling of hennes or to swine when in a rage they tosse and fling straw about them as Democritus saith thereby to gather presages prognostications of wind raine and stormes and in the meane time not to observe the motions troubles and fiering indispositions of our bodie nor prevent the same ne yet to gather undoubted signes of a tempest ready to rise and grow even out thereof And therefore we ought not onely to have an eie unto the bodie for meat and drinke and for bodily exercises in observing whether we fall unto them more lazily and unwillingly than our manner was before time or contrariwise whether our hunger and thirst be more than ordinary but also wee are to suspect and feare if our sleeps be not milde and continued but broken interrupted we must besides regard our very dreames namely whether they be strange and unusuall for if there be represented extraordinarie fansies and imaginations they testifie and shew a repletion of grosse viscuous or slimy humours and a great perturbation of the spirits within Otherwhiles also it hapneth that the motions of the soule it selfe doe fore-signifie unto us that the body is in some neere danger of disease for many times men are surprised with timorous fittes of melancholy and heartlesse distrusts without any reason or evident cause the which suddenly extinguish all their hopes you shall have some upon every small occasion apt to fall into cholerick passions of anger they become eager and hastie troubled pensive and offended with a little thing insomuch as they will be ready to weepe and runne all to teares yea and languish for griefe and sorrow And all this commeth when evill vapours sowre and bitter fumes ingendred within doe arise and steeme up and so as Plato saith be intermingled in the waies and passages of the soule Those persons therefore who are subject to such things ought to thinke and consider with themselves that if there be no spirituall cause thereof it cannot chuse but some corporall matter had need either of evacution alteration or suppression Expedient also it is and very profitable for us when we visit our friends that be sicke to enquire diligently the causes of their maladies not upon a cavilling curiosity or vaine ostentation to dispute sophistically and discourse thereof only or to make a shew of our eloquence in talking of the instances the insults the intercidences communities of diseases and all to shew what books we have read that we know the words tearmes of physick but to make search and enquirie in good earnest and not slightly or by the way as touching these slight common and vulgar points namely whether the sicke partie be full or emptie whether he overtravelled himselfe before or no and whether he slept well or ill but principally what diet he kept and what order of life he followed when he fell for examples sake into the ague then according as Plato was woont to say unto himselfe whensoever he returned from hearing and seeing the faults that other men committed Am not I also such an one so you must compose and frame your selfe to learne by the harmes and errours of neighbours about you for to looke well unto your owne health and by calling them to mind to be so wary provident that you fall not into the same inconveniences and forced to keepe your bed and there extol commend health wishing desiring when it is too late for to enjoy so pretious a treasure but rather seeing another to have caught a disease to marke and consider well yea and to enterteine this deepe impression in your heart how deere the said health ought to be unto us how carefull we should be to preserve and chary to spare the same Moreover it would not be amisse for a man afterwards to compare his owne life with that of the foresaid patient for if it fall out so that notwithstanding we have used over-liberall diet both in drinks and meats or laboured extreamly or otherwise committed errour in any excesse and disorder our bodies minister unto nature no suspition nor threaten any signe of sicknesse toward yet ought we neverthelesse to take heed and prevent the harme that may ensue namely if we have committed any disorder in the pleasures of Venus and love-delights or otherwise bene over-travelled to repose our selves and take our quiet rest after drunkennesse or carrowsing wine round for good fellowship to make amends and recompense with drinking as much colde water for a time but especially upon a surfeit taken with eating heavie and grosse meats and namely of flesh or els feeding upon sundry and divers dishes to fast or use a sparie diet so as there be left no superfluitie in the bodie for even these things as of themselves alone if there were no more be enough to breed diseases so unto other causes they adde matter and minister more strength Full wisely therefore was it said by our ancients in old time that for to mainteine our health these three points were most expedient To feed without satietie To labour with alacritie and To preserve and make spare of naturall seed For surely lascivious intemperance in venerie of all things most decaieth and enfeebleth the strength of that naturall heat whereby our meat and food which we receive is concocted and so consequently is the cause of many excrements and superfluities engendred whereupon corrupt humours are engendered and gathered within the body To begin therefore to speake againe of every of these points let us consider first the exercises meet and agreeable to students or men of learning for like as he who first said That he wrot nothing of Teeth to those that inhabited the sea coasts taught them in so
Moreover there be other sorts of pleasant talke besides these and namely to heare and recite fables devised for mirth and pleasure discourses of playing upon the flute harpe or lute which many times give more contentment and delight than to heare the flute harpe or lute it selfe plaied upon Now the very precise time measured as it were and marked out to be most proper and meet for such recreations is when we feele that our meat is gently gone downe and setled quietly in the bottome of the stomacke shewing some signe of concoction and that naturall heat is strong and hath gotten the upper hand Now forasmuch as Aristotle is of opinion that walking after supper doth stirre up and kindle as one would say our naturall heat and to sleepe immediately after a man hath supped doth dull and quench it considering also that others be of a contrary minde and hold that rest and repose is better for concoction that motion so soone after troubleth and impeacheth the digestion and distribution of the meats which is the cause that some use to walke after supper others sit still and take their ease me thinks a man may reconcile and satisfie verie well after a sort these two opinions who cherishing and keeping his bodie close and still after supper setteth his mind a walking awakeneth it suffering it not to be heavie idle at once by and by but sharpneth and quickneth his spirits as is before said by little and little in discoursing or hearing discourses of pleasant matters and delectable such as be not biting in any wise nor offensive and odious Moreover as touching vomits or purgations of the bellie by laxative medicines which are the cursed and detestable easements and remedies of fulnesse and repletion surely they would never be used but upon right great and urgent necessitie a contrary course to many men who fill their gorges and bodies with an intent to void them soone after or otherwise who purge and emptie the same for to fill them againe even against nature who are no lesse troubled nay much more offended ordinarily by being fedde and full than fasting and emptie insomuch as such repletion is an hinderance to the contentment and satisfying of their appetites and lusts by occasion whereof they take order alwaies that their bodie may be evermore emptied as if this voidance were the proper place and seat of their pleasures But the hurt and dammage that may grow upon these ordinary purgations and vomits is very evident for that both the one and the other put the body to exceeding great straines and violent disturbances As for vomiting it bringeth with it one inconvenience by it selfe more than the former in that it procureth augmenteth an unsatiable greedinesse to meat for ingendered there is by that meanes a violent turbulent hunger like as when the course or stream of a river hath bene for a while stopped staid snatching or greedy at meat which is evermore offensive not a kind appetite indeed when as nature hath need of meat but resembling rather the inflammations occasioned by medicines or cataplasmes Hereupon it is that the pleasures proceeding from thence paste and slippe away incontinently as abortive and unperfect accompanied with inordinate pantings and beatings of the pulse great wrings in the enjoying of them and afterwards ensue dolorous tensions violent oppressions or stoppings of the conduits pores the reliques or retensions of ventosities which staie not for naturall ejections and evacuations but runne up and downe all over our bodies like as if they were shippes surcharged having more need to bee eased of their burden than still to be loden with more excrements As for the troublesome motions of the belly and guts occasioned by purgative drougues they corrupt spill and resolve the natural strength of the solide parts so that they engender more superfluties within than they thrust out and expel And this is for al the world like as if a man being discontented to see within his native citie a multitude of naturall Greekes inhabitants should for to drive them out fill the same with Scythians or Arabian strangers For even so some there be who greatly miscounting and deceiving themselves for to send foorth of their bodies the superfluous humors which are in some sort domesticall and familiar unto them put into them I wot not what Guidian graines Scammoni and other strange drougues fet from farre countries such as have no familiar reference to the bodie but are meere wilde and savage and in truth have more need to be purged and chaced out of the body themselves than power and vertue to void away and expell that wherewith nature is choked and overcharged The best way therefore is by sobrietie and regular diet to keepe the bodie alwaies in that moderate measure of evacuation and repletion that it may be able by proportionable temperature to maintaine it selfe without any outward helpe But if it fall out otherwhiles that there be some necessitie of the one or the other vomits would be provoked without the helpe of strange physicall drogues and not with much adoo and curiositie that they disquiet trouble no parts within but onely for to avoid cruditie and indigestion reject and cast up that gentlie which is too much and cannot be prepared and made meet for concoction For like as linnen clothes that bee scoured and made cleane with sopes ashes lees and other abstersive matters weare more and fret out sooner than such as be washed simply in faire water even so vomites provoked by medicines offend the body much more and marre the complexion But say the belly bee bound and costive there is not a drougue that easeth it so mildly or provoketh it to the siege so easily as doe certaine meats whereof the experience is familiar unto us and the use nothing dolorous and offensive Now in case the body be so heard that such kinde viands will not worke and cause it to be sollible then a man ought for many daies together to drinke thinne and cold water or use to fast or else take some clister rather than purgative medicines such as disquiet the body and overthrow the temperature thereof And yet many there be who ever and anon are ready to run unto them much like unto those lewd and light wanton women who use certeine inedicines to cause abortion or to send away the fruit which they have newly conceived to the end that they might conceive soone againe and have more pleasure in that fleshly action Now is it time to say no more but to let them goe that perswade such evacuations As for those on the contrarie side who interject certaine exact precise and criticall fastings observed too straightly according to just periods and circuits of daies surely they teach nature wherin they doe not well to use astriction before it have need and acquaint her with a necessarie abstinence of food which in it selfe is not necessarie even at a prefixed time which
calleth for that then whereto it is accustomed Better yet it were for a man to use these chasticements of his body freely and at his owne liberty without any foreknowledge of suspition and as for other diet as hath beene said before to order it so that it may frame and be obsequent to all manner of occurrences changes that shall come betweene and not to be tied and bound to one forme and manner of life exactly to keepe certaine daies just numbers and set circuits without failing or missing in any jot For this course is neither sure nor easie it is not civill nor yet agreeable to humanitie it resembleth rather the life of an oister or some stocke of a tree to captivate himselfe and be so subject and thrall that he cannot change or alter his viands he may not once varie in his fastings and abstinencies in his motions or repose but continue alwaies close and covert in a shadie kinde of life idle private to himselfe without conversing with friends without participation of honors farre remote from the administration of weale publicke which were to shut himselfe up as it were a close prisoner a life I assure you which I cannot like nor allow for wee cannot buie our health with idlenesse and doing naught which two are the principall inconveniences incident unto diseases and all one this were as if a man would thinke to preserve his eies by not employing them to see or his voice by speaking not at all thus to be perswaded that for the preservation of health it were necessarie to have continuall repose without doing ought for a man in health cannot doe better for to mainteine the same than to be emploied in many good duties and commendable offices of humanitie An absurd error therefore it is to thinke idlenesse to be either healthy or holsome considering that it destroieth the very end of health which is emploiment neither is it true that the lesse men doe the more healthfull they be For Xenocrates had not his health better than Phocion nor Theophrastus than Demetrius and as for Epicurus and all the crew of his sectaries they had no benefit at all for the atteining of that contentment and tranquillitie of the bodie which they make so great reckoning of and praise so highly by flying and avoiding all State affaires and medling in no publicke and honorable office Other meanes therefore and provision would be made to enterteine and keepe that disposion and habitude of the bodie which is according to nature for this is certeine that all sorts of life be capable as well of sicknesse as of health Howbeit polititians quoth he and States-men are to be admonished to doe cleane contrarie unto that which Plato advertised his yoong scholars to doe For Plato ever as he went out of the schoole was woont thus to say unto them Goe to my sonnes see you employ that leasure which you have in some honest sports and pastimes But we may exhort and put in minde those who deale in the administration of common-wealth to bestow their labour and travell in honest and necessarie things and not to overtoile and spend their bodies in small matters of little or no consequence as the manner is of most men who trouble and torment themselves about just nothing overwatching running to and fro heere and there up and downe about things which many times are neither good nor honest but onely because they would disgrace and shame others either upon envie that they beare unto them or upon obstinate and wilfull selfe-conceit or else to pursue and maintaine some vaine and foolish opinions that they have taken For I thinke verily it was in regard of such persons especially that Democritus said If the body should call the soule judicially into question upon an action of injurie or wrong done and for to make satisfaction of losse and damage she were not able to answer it but must needs confesse the action and be condemned And Theophrastus peradventure said well and truely when speaking by a metaphor or allegorie he affirmed that the soule paid a deere rent for her dwelling within the body For I assure you the bodie may thanke the soule for many harmes that it sustaineth when as she useth it not with reason nor intreateth it according as it is meet and convenient and looke when she hath any proper and peculiar passions of her owne or some enterprises and actions to be performed she maketh no spare of the poore bodie As for the tyrant Jason hee was wont I wot not upon what reason or ground to say That he ought to deale unjustly in small matters who would be just in the greatest affaires and even so wee may well advise a man of State and government to make no reckoning of trifling things but disport play and solace himselfe in repose with them if he would not have his bodie over-spent dull or lazie against the time that he should emploie it in great and important causes much like to an old shippe which hath beene drawen up to land for to be newly calked and trimmed after hath rested a time is fit to doe new service at sea for even so the bodie upon repose and ease whensoever the soule shall put it to any affaires will be ready to follow And runne with her as sucking fole doth go Hard by the damme and never parts her fro And therefore when occasions will permit and give leave wee are to refresh and recreat our selves not envying the bodies naturall sleepe or usuall repose and refection of dinner ne yet easement and recreation which is of a middle nature betweene pleasure and paine nor observing a strict rule which many men doe keepe and in keeping it spill and spend the bodie by sudden mutations like as iron that is often made hot and quenched againe for whensoever the body is foiled and tired with travels then they will even melt and dissolve it in excessive and unmeasurable pleasures and all upon the sudden againe when it is weakned enfeebled with the delights of Venus or by drinking out of course they will draw and drive it presently to the serious travels of the common hall or the court to the solliciting and following of some affaires of great importance which requireth earnest attendance and hot pursute Heraclitus the philosopher being fallen into a dropsie willed his physician to make drought of great raine But most men ordinarily doe fault heerein exceeding much now when they be wearied toiled and foiled with painfull labours and wants yeeld their bodies to be melted and spent quite with voluptuous pleasures and afterwards againe wrest and straine them as it were upon the teinters immediately upon the fruition of some pleasures For nature verily neither liketh nor requireth these alterations and sudden changes by turnes but it is the incontinencie and illiberall Iasciviousnesse of the soule and nothing else that abandoneth her-selfe inordinately unto pleasures and delights so soone as it is out of laborious
no insolencie some delight or disport profitable and procure laughter not accompanied with wanton reproofe and scornefull reproch but such as carieth a grace and pleasure with it for this is it wherein most part of feasts suffer shipwracke namely when they are misgoverned or not ordered as they ought to be But the part it is of a wise and prudent man to know how to avoid enmity and anger in the market-place gotten by avarice in the publicke halles of bodily exercises by contention and emulation in bearing offices and suing for them by ambition and vain-glory and last of all in feasts and banquets by such plaies and pastimes THE FIFTH QUESTION What is meant by this common proverbe Love teacheth musicke and poetrie THe question was mooved one day in Sossius Sesnerius house after certeine verses of Sappho were chanted how this saying of Euripides should be understood Love teacheth musicke marke when you will Tough one before thereof had no skill considering that the poet Philoxenus reporteth how Cyclops Polyphemus the giant cured his love by the sweet tongued muses Whereupon it was alledged that Love is of great power to moove a man for to be bold hardy and adventurous yea and ministreth a readinesse to attempt all novelties according as Plato named it the enterpriser of all things for it maketh him talkative and full of words who before was silent it causeth the bashfull and modest person to court it and put himselfe forward in all maner of service it is the meanes that an idle carelesse lubber and a negligent becommeth diligent and industrious and that which a man would most marvell at a miching hard-head and mechanicall penifather if he fall once to love doth relent and waxe soft as iron in the fire and so prooveth more liberall courteous and kinde than ever before so that this pleasant and merry proverbe seemeth not to be altogether ridiculous impertinent namely that Loves purse is tied knit up with a leeke or porret blade Moreover it was there spoken That Love resembled drunkennesse for that the one aswell as the other doth set folke in a heat it maketh them cheerfull merry and jocund and when as men be come once to that they fall soone to sing to rime and make verses And it is said that the poet Aeschylus composed his tragedies when he had well drunken and was heat with wine I had a grandfather also my selfe named Lamprias who seemed alwaies more learned witty and fuller of inventions yea and to surpasse himselfe in that kinde when he had taken his cups liberally and he was wont to say That at such a time he was like unto incense which being set on fire rendereth the sweet odour that it hath Moreover they that take exceeding great pleasure to see their loves are no lesse affected with joy when they do praise them than in looking upon them for love as it is in every thing a great pratler and full of words so especially and most of all in praises insomuch as lovers would willingly perswade others to that wherein they are themselves perswaded first namely that they love nothing but that which is perfect in goodnesse and beautie and others they would have to be witnesses with them of it This was it that induced the Lydian king Candaules to draw and traine Giges into his bed-chamber for to see the beautie of his wife naked for why such are willing to have the restimonie of others Loe what the reason is that if they write the praises of that which they love they embelish and adorne the same with verses songs and meeter like as images with golde to the end that the said praises might be heard more willingly and remembred better by more people for if they bestow a fighting-cocke an horse or any other thing whatsoever upon those whom they love their minde is principally that this their present should be faire and beautifull in it selfe afterwards that it be most gallantly and in best maner set out but above all in case they be disposed to flatter them in words or writings their chiefe care is that the same run roundly and pleasantly that they be also glorious and beautified with fine figures such as is ordinarily the stile of poets Then Sossius approving well of these reasons said moreover That it were well if some would take in hand to draw and gather arguments out of that which Theophrastus left in writing as touching musicke For long it is not quoth he since I read over that booke wherein he delivereth thus much after a divine maner That three principall causes or roots there be of musicke to wit paine or griefe pleasure or joy and the ravishment of the spirit of which three every one doth bend and turne the voice a little out of the ordinary tune for griefs and sorrowes usually bring with them moanes and plaints which quickly run into song which is the reason that we see oratours in the perorations or conclusions of their speeches the actours also in tragedies when they come to make their dolefull lamentations bring their voices downe gently to a kinde of melodie and by little and little tune them as it were thereto Also the great and vehement joies of the minde do lift up all the body of them especially who are any thing lightsome by nature yea and provoke the same to leape skip and clappe their hands observing a kinde of motion according to number and measure if they can not dance And otherwise in furious sort Like frantike folke they do disport They shake they wag they set out throat And send out many a foolish note according as Pindarus saith But in case they be somewhat more grave and staied than others when they finde themselves moved with such a passion of joy they let their voice onely go at liberty speaking aloud and singing sonnets But above all the ravishment of the spirit or that divine inspiration which is called Enthusiasmus casteth bodie mind voice and all far beyond the ordinary habit which is the cause that the furious and raging priests of Bacchus called Bacchae use rime meeter those also who by a propheticall spirit give answeres by oracle deliver the same in verse and few persons shall a man see starke mad but among their raving speeches they sing and say some verses This being so if you would now display love and view it well being unfolded and laied open abroad hardly shall you meet with another passion which hath either sharper dolours or joies more violent or greater exstasies and ravishments of the spirit lying as it were in a trance so that a man may discover in amorous persons a soule much like unto that city which Sophocles describeth Full of songs and incense sweet Of sighs and groanes in every street No marvell is it therefore nor a strange thing if love conteining comprehending in it selfe all those primitive causes of musicke to wit dolour joy and ravishment of spirit be
there is I say that bitter almonds should have power to withstand the strength of meere wine considering they drie the body within and will not permit the veines to bee full upon the tention and commotion whereof they say drunkennesse doth proceed and for evident proofe of this there may be a good argument gathered from that which befalleth foxes who having eaten bitter almonds is they drinke not presently upon them die therewith by reason that all their humors suddenly are spent and consumed THE SEVENTH QUESTION What is the cause that old folke take greater delight in pure and strong wine than others THere arose a question about old persons what the reason might be that they loved better to drink wine without water or at the leastwise delaied but a little Some alledged the habit of their bodies being cold and hard to be set into an heat in regard whereof the strength of wine was meet and agreeable to their temperature a reason very common and ready at hand but surely neither sufficient for to bee the cause of such an effect nor yet simply true for the same hapueth to their other sences as being hard to be mooved and affected yea and nothing easie to be stirred for to apprehend the qualities thereto belonging unlesse the same be passing strong and vehement whereof the true cause indeed is this that their temperature being weake dull and feeble loveth to be put in minde by knocking upon and this is the cause that for their taste they delight in such sapours as be biting their smelling likewise standeth even so to odors that be strong for affected it is with more pleasure in such as be not tempered nor delaied as for the sense of touching they feele no great paine of ulcers and sores and if it happen that they be wounded their hurt and harme is not so great the same befalleth to their hearing for their eares be in manner deafe and heereupon it is that musicians as they grow in yeeres and waxe aged straine and raise their voice in singing so much the higher and lowder as if they stirred up the organs of hearing by the vehement force of the sound for looke what is steele to the edge and temper of iron for cutting the same is spirit to the bodie for sense and feeling and when it beginnes once to slacke faile and decay the sense likewise and the instruments thereof become dull heavie and earthly having need of some such quicke thing to pricke it in good earnest as strong wine is THE EIGHTH QUESTION How it comes to passe that olde folke reade better afarre off than neere at hand AGainst those reasons which wee devised and alledged upon the subject matter and point in hand it seemed that there might be opposed the eie-sight for that elder persons for to reade any thing the better remoove the letters farther from their eies and in trueth can not well reade neere at hand which the poet Aeschylus seemeth covertly to implie and shew unto us in these verses Know him thou canst not if neere he stand to thee A good olde scribe thou maist much sooner be And Sophocles more plainly testifieth as much when he writeth of old folke in this wise The voice to them arrives not readily And hardly thorow their eares the way can finde Their eies do see farre off confusedly But neere at hand they all be very blinde If then it be so that the senses of aged persons and the instruments serving thereto are not willingly obeisant to their proper objects unlesse the same be strong and vehement what should the cause be that in reading they can not endure the reverberation of the light from letters if they be neere but setting the booke farther off from their eies they do by that meanes enfeeble as it were that light for that it is spread and dissipate in the aire like as the strength of wine when it is tempered with water To this probleme some answered thus That they remoove books and letters farre from their eie-sight not because they would make the saide light more milde or lesse radiant but contrariwise for that they are desirous to catch and gather more splendor and to fill the meane intervall which is betweene the eie and the letter with lightsome and shining aire Others accorded with those who holde that the eies do send out of them certeine raies for by reason that aswell from the one eie as the other a pyramidal beame doth issue the point whereof is in the sight of the eie and the basis doth comprehend the object that is seene probable it is that both these pyramides goe forward apart one from the other a good space and distance but after they be a great way off and come to encounter one another and be confounded together they make but one entire light and this is the reason that albeit the eies are twaine yet every thing that we see appeareth one and not two for that in trueth the meeting and shining together of those two pyramides in common do make of two sights but one This being presupposed and set downe olde men approching neere to letters comprehend the same more feebly in regard that the pyramidall beames of their eies are not yet joined and met together but ech of them reach to the objects apart but if they be farther off so that the said pyramides may be intermingled they see more perfectly much like to them who with both hands can claspe and hold that which they are not able to do with one alone Then my brother Lamprias opposed himselfe against all this and as one who had not read the booke of Hieronymus but even upon the pregnancy and quickenesse of his wit seemed to render another reason namely That we see by the meanes of certeine images arising from the objects or visible things which at the first be big and for that cause trouble the sight of old folke when they regard them neere and hard-by being indeed but hard and slow of motion but when the said images be advanced and spread farther into the aire and have gained some good distance the grosse and terrestriall parts of them breake and fall downe but the more subtill portions reach as farre as to the eies without any paine or offence unto them and do insinuate and accommodate themselves equally and smoothly into their concavities so that the eies being lesse troubled apprehend and receive them better And even so it is with the odours of flowers which are very sweet to smell unto a good way off whereas if a man come over-neere unto them they yeeld nothing so kinde and pleasant a sent the reason is because that together with the savour there goeth from the flower much earthly matter grosse and thicke which corrupteth and marreth the fragrant sweetnesse of the odour if it be smelled to very neere but in case the same be a prety way off that terrestriall vaparation is dispersed round about and so falleth
birth taking himselfe immediately with the maner But why say I so for we quoth he are come of no better seeds made the party and all the company to laugh heartily Semblably there was a minstrell or professed musician who kindly and with a very good grace repressed the presumptuous curiositie and unskilfulnesse of king Philip who forgat himselfe so much that hee would needs reade a lecture as it were unto the said minstrell how he should finger and strike finding fault with him in certeine accords of musicke Ah God forbid quoth he my good leege lord that it should go so heard with your grace as to be more skiful in this art than my selfe for thus whiles he seemed to mocke himselfe he told the king of his fault without offence and this seemeth to be a device that comicall poets otherwhiles practise to allay the bitter gall of their quips taunts namely to scoffe at themselves as Aristophanes used to make sport with his own bald pate and Cratinus noted himselfe that he loved wine so well in that comedie which he intituled Pytine that is to say a bottle or flagon of wine but above all this regard and consideration would be had that all such scoffes and merrie jestes come from a man extempore and readily either by way of answer to a present demaund or occasioned upon some other sudden scoffe and in no wise to seeme farre fetcht as a thing premeditate studied on before for like as men beare and endure with more patience the anger and debates among themselves arising now and then at the table whiles they be in the middes of their cups but if another stranger should come in place and offer abuse to any of the guests and so trouble the company hee should be reputed an enemie and for very hatred they would thrust him out of the dores by head shoulders even so we can find in our harts easily to pardon a scoffe a frump or broad jest if it proceed from some matter at the present deliverie or seeme to come naturally unforced and without all art but in case it be not occasioned presently nor respective to the purpose but drawen as one would say violently by the haire of the head from elswhere then it resembleth some ambush fore-laied afarre off for to wrong and do injurie to one person or other like to that jest of Timagenes which he discharged upon the husband of a woman who was wont ordinarily to cast up her gorge in this maner With musicke bad you doe begin Thus vomiting to bring her in As also the demand proposed unto the philosopher Athenodorus whether the love of parents to their children be musicall For surely such unseasonable cuts and taunts as these not accommodate to time and place nor fitted to the present occasion doe bewray a malicious minde and a deliberate purpose to offer wrong and abuse and therefore such persons as delight in these biting girds many times for a word which is the lightest thing in the world as Plato saith have paied a most heavie and grievous price whereas contrariwise they that know how to place their words in due time in meet place and aptly to the purpose do verifie the testimonie of the same Plato who saith That it is an assured signe of a mans good bringing up and the point of liberall nurture and instruction to know how to jest with a decent grace and without the offence of any person THE SECOND QUESTION Why men be more hungrie and eat better in Autumne than in any other quarter of the yeere IN the borough Eleusine after the ceremonies of sacred mysteries were performed whē as the solemnitie celebrated with so frequent concourse of people was at the highest we were feasted by Glaucias the oratour in his house where when others had made an end of supper Xenocles his brother began after his maner to cavill and scoffe at my brother Lamprias twitting him with his large feeding and indeed hitting in his teeth and reproching him with the voracitie of the Boeotians who are taken to be good trencher-men whereupon I in the defence of my brother and to be revenged of Xenocles tooke occasion out of the doctrine of Epicurus and said unto him What good fir all men do not define and determine the utmost point and perfection of pleasure to be indolence or the privation of paine as your good master Epicurus doth and besides my brother Lamprias who honoureth and esteemeth more the walking galleries of the Peripateticks and the schoole of the Stoicks called Lyceum than he doth the garden of Epicurus must of necessitie and in effect beare witnesse to Aristotle who affirmeth That there is no man but he eateth more in Autumne than in any other season of the yeere and a reason he giveth thereof although it be now out of my head So much the better quoth Glaucias for we our selves will see if we can finde it out after supper is done Now when the tables were taken away Glaucias and Xenocles both imputed the cause thereof to the sundry fruits of that season and that after a divers sort For one said that new fruits do make the bellie soluble and so by evacuation of the bodie engender alwaies fresh appetites to meat The other to wit Xenocles affirmed that these fruits for the most part carrie with them a certeine piercing and mordicant quallitie yet pleasant withall whereby they provoke and quicken the stomacke to appetite more than any viands or sauces whatsoever insomuch as those who be sickly and have lost their stomacks recover the same many times by eating some of those fruits new gathered But Lamprias alledged that our familiar and naturall heat by which we are nourished in Summer time is dispersed and becommeth more feeble and resolved but contrariwise upon the entrance of Autumne it gathereth it selfe together inwardly againe and is fortified by the meanes of the colde ambient aire which knitteth constreineth and closeth up the pores of the bodie Then I because it should not be thought that I would be one to participate in this conference without contributing somewhat of mine owne when my course came to speake declard that in Summer time by reason of the excessive heat of the weather we are more thirstie and in regard of the same heat and drought take in more moisture and liquid nourishment Now therefore nature quoth I by reason of the change of the aire and the season seeking as her maner is for the contrary causeth us to be more hungry in Autumne than at other times and for the temperature of the bodie tendereth unto it as much drie food as it had taken moisture in Summer time and yet a man can not well say that the cause of this effect dependeth nothing at all of the viands which we eat consisting much of new and fresh fruits not onely thicke gruels and pottage but also of pulset wheat-bread and flesh reared the same yeere which being
bodies THE THIRD QUESTION What the cause is that women hardly are made drunke but olde men very soone FLorus one day seemed to marvell that Aristotle having in his treatise of drunkennesse set downe this position That olde men are soone surprized and overseene with wine but contrariwise women hardly and very seldome rendred no reason thereof considering that his maner otherwise is not to propose any such difficulties but hee doth decide and cleere the same And when he had made this overture he mooved the companie to inquire into the cause thereof and a supper it was where familiar friends were met together Then Sylla said That the one was declared by the other for if we comprehend the cause aright as touching women it were no hard matter to finde our a reason for old men considering that their natures and constitutions be most opposit and contrary in regard of moisture and drinesse roughnesse and smoothnesse softnesse and hardnesse for first and formost suppose this of women undoubtedly that their naturall temperature is very moist which causeth their flesh to be so tender soft smooth slieke and shining to say nothing of their naturall purgations every moneth when as therefore wine meeteth with so great humiditie being overcome by the predominancy thereof it loseth the edge and tincture as it were together with the force that it had so as it becommeth dull every way discoloured and waterish And verily to this purpose somewhat may be gathered out of the words of Aristotle for he saith That those who make no long draught when they take their wine nor drinke leasurely but powre it downe at once which manner of drinking they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are not so subject to drunkennesse as others for that the wine maketh no long stay within their bodies but being forcibly thrust foorth soone passeth thorow and ordinarilie we may observe that women drinke in this manner and very probable it is that their bodies by reason of continual attraction of humours downward to the nether parts for their monethly termes is full of many conduits and passages as if they were divided into chanels pipes and trenches to draw foorth the said humours into which the wine no sooner falleth but away it passeth apace that it cannot settle nor rest upon the noble and principall parts which if they bee once troubled and possessed drunkennesse doth soone ensue Contrariwise that old men want naturall humiditie their very name in Greeke seemeth to implie sufficiently for called they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not because they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say inclining and stouping downward to the earth but because they are already in their habitude of bodie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say earthly Moreover their stiffenesse and unpliable disposition the roughnesse also of their skinne argueth their dry nature and complexion it standeth therefore to good reason that when they liberally take their wine their bodies which are rare and spungious within by occasion of that drinesse quickly catcheth and sucketh up the same and then by long staying there it worketh up into the head causeth the braine to beat and breedeth heavinesse there like as land-flouds gently glide over those fields which be solide hard washing them onely aloft and making no mire dirt but if the ground be light and hollow they enter and soke farther in even so wine being soone caught and drawne by the drinesse of old mens bodies staieth there the longer time and were not this so yet we may observe that the verie nature of old men admitteth the same symptomes and accidents which drunkennesse maketh Now these accidents occasioned by drunkennesse are very apparent to wit the trembling and shaking of their limbes faltering in their toong and speaking double immoderate and lavish speech pettishnesse and aptnesse to choler forgetfulnesse and alienation of the minde and understanding the most part whereof being incident to old men even when they are best in health and in most sober a little thing God wot will set them cleane out and any small agitation whatsoever will doe the deed so that drunkennesse in an old man engendreth not new accidents but setteth on foot and augmenteth those which be already common and ordinary with them To conclude there is not a more evident argument to proove and consirme the same than this that nothing in the world resembleth an old man more than a yoong man when hee is drunke THE FOURTH QUESTION Whether women by their naturall complexion be colder or hotter than men WHen Sylla had delivered his minde to that effect Apollonides an expert professour and well seene in raunging a battel in array seemed by his words to approove well of that which had bene alledged as touching old men but he thought that in the discourse of women the onely course was left out and overslipt to wit the coldnesse of their constitution by meanes whereof the hottest wine is quenched and forgoeth that fierie flame which flieth up to the head and troubleth the braines and this was received as a very probable and sufficient reason by all the company there in place But Athryilatus the physician a Thasian borne interjected some staie of farther searching into this cause For that quoth hee some are of opinion that women are not cold but hotter than men yea and others there be and that is a greater matter who hold that wine is not hotte at all but cold Florus woondering and amazed heereat This discourse and disputation quoth he as touching wine I reser to him there and with that pointed at me for that not many daies before wee had disputed together about that argument But as for women quoth Athryilatus that they bee rather hot than cold they argue thus First and formost they are smooth and not hairie on their face and bodie which testifieth their heat which spendeth and consumeth the excrement and so erfluitie that engendreth haire Secondly they proove it by their abundance of bloud which seemeth to be the fountaine of heat in the body and of bloud women have such store that they are ready to be inflamed yea to srie and burne withall if they have not many purgations and those quickly returning in their course to discharge and deliver them thereof Thirdly they bring in the experience observed at funerals which sheweth evidently that womens bodies be farre hotter than mens for they that have the charge of burning and enterring of dead corses doe ordinarily put into the funerall fire one dead body of a woman to tenne of men For that one corps say they helpeth to burne and consume the rest by reason that a womans flesh conteineth in it I wot not what unctuositie or oileous matter which quickly taketh fire and will burne as light as a torch so that it serveth in stead of drie sticks to kindle the sire and set all a burning Moreover if this be admitted for a
truth that whatsoever is more frutefull and apter for generation is also more hot certeine it is that yoong maidens be ripe betimes readier for marriage yea and their flesh pricketh sooner to the act of generation than boies of their age neither is this a small and feeble argument of their heat but for a greater and more pregnant proofe thereof marke how they endure very well any chilling cold and the injurie of winter season for the most part of them lesse quake for cold than men doe and generally need not so many clothes to weare Heereat Florus began to argue against him and said In my conceit these very arguments will serve well to confute the said opinion for to beginne with the last first the reason why they withstand cold better than men is because every thing is lesse offended with the like besides their seed is not apt for generation in regard of their coldnesse but serveth in stead of matter onely and yeeldeth nourishment unto the naturall seed of man Moreover women sooner give over to conceive and cease child-bearing than men to beget children and as for the burning of their dead bodies they catch fire sooner I confesse but that is by reason that commonly they be fatter than men and who knoweth not that fatte and grease is the coldest part of the bodie which is the cause that yoongmen and those that use much bodily exercise are least fatte of all others neither is their monthly sicknesse voidance of bloud a signe of the great quantity and abundance but rather of the corrupt qualitie and badnesse thereof for the crude and unconcocted part of their bloud being superfluous and finding no place to settle and rest nor to gather consistence within the bodie by reason of weaknesse passeth away as being heavy and troubled altogether for default and imbecillitie of heat to overcome it and this appeereth manisestly by this that ordinarily when their monthly sicknesse is upon them they are very chill shake for cold for that the bloud which then is stirred and in motion ready to be discharged out of the bodie is so raw and cold To come now unto the smoothnesse of their skinne and that it is not hairie who would ever say that this were an effect of heat considering that we see the hottest parts of mans bodie to be covered with haire for surely all superfluities and excrements are sent out by heat which also maketh way boring as it were holes through the skinne and opening the passages in the superficies thereof But contrariwise wee may reason that the sliecknesse of womens skinne is occasioned by coldnesse whilch doth constipate and close the pores thereof Now that womens skinne is more fast and close than mens you may learne and understand by them friend Athryilatus who use to lie in bedde with women that annoint their bodies with sweet oiles or odoriferous compositions for even with sleeping in the same bed with them although they came not so neere as to touch the women they finde themselves all perfumed by reason that their owne bodies which be hot rare and open doe draw the said ointments or oiles into them Well by this meanes quoth he this question as touching women hath beene debated pro contrà by opposit arguments right manfully THE FIFTH QUESTION Whether wine be naturally cold of operation But I would now gladly know quoth Florus still whereupon your conjecture and suspicion should arise that wine is cold of nature why And doe you thinke quoth I that this in an opinion of mine Whose then quoth the other I remember quoth I that not of late but long agoe I light upon a discourse of Aristotle as touching this probleme and Epicurus himselfe in his Symposium or banquet hath discussed the question at large the summe of which disputation as I take it is thus much For he saith that wine is not simplie of it selfe hot but that it conteineth in it certeine atomies or indivisible motes causing heat and others likewise that engender cold of which some it casteth off and loseth when it is entred into the bodie others it taketh unto it from the very bodie it selfe wherein it is according as the same petie bodies be of nature and temperature fitted and agreeable unto us in such sort as some when they be drunke with wine are well heat others againe contrariwise be as cold These reasons replied Florus directly bring us by Protagoras into the campe of Pyrrho where we shall meet with nothing but incertitude and be still to seeke and as wise as we were before for plaine it is that in speaking of oile milke honie and likewise of all other things we shall never grow to any particular resolution of them what nature they bee of but still have some evasion or other saying That they become such according as ech of them is mixed and tempered one with another But what be the arguments that your selfe alledge to prove that wine is cold Thus I see well quoth I that there be two of you at once who presse and urge mee to deliver my mind extempore and of a sudden the first reason then that commeth into my head is this which I see ordinarily practised by physicians upon those who have weake stomacks for when they are to corroborate and sortifie that part they perscribe not any thing that is hot but if they give them wine they have present ease and helpe thereby semblablie they represse fluxes of the belly yea and when the bodie runneth all to diaphoreticall sweats which they effect by the meanes of wine no lesse nay much more than by applying snow confirming and strengthening thereby the habit of the bodie which otherwise was ready to melt away and resolve now if it had a nature and facultie to heat it were all one to applie unto the region of the heart as fire unto snow furthermore most physicians do hold that sleepe is procured by cooling and the most part of soporiferous medicines which provoke sleepe be cold as for example Mandragoras and poppie Juice but these I must needs confesse with great force and violence doe compresse and as it were congeale the braine to worke that effect whereas wine cooling the same gently with ease and pleasure represeth and staieth the motion thereof so that the difference onely betweene it and the other is but in degree according to more and lesse Over and besides whatsoever is hot is also generative and apt to ingender seed for howsoever humiditie giveth it an aptitude to run and flow it is spirit by the meanes of heat that endueth it with vigor strength yea and an appetite to generation now they that drinke much wine especially if it be pure of it selfe and not delaied are more dull and slow to the act of generation and the seed which they sow is not effectuall nor of any force and vigor to ingender their medling also and conjunction with women is vaine and doth no
did rest or settele upon them Much more probable it is that when these waters and raines together with their ventosities heats occasioned by thunders lightnings come to pierce deepe into the earth it turneth and rolleth round and by that meanes are ingendred therein such like nodosities and knobs soft and apt to crumble which we call Mushromes like as in our bodies there breed and arise certeine flatuous tumors named Kirnels or Glandules formed by occasion of I wot not what bloudy humors and heats withal for a Mushrome seemeth not to be a plant neither without rain moisture doth it breed having no root at all nor any sprout springing from it it is wholly entire of selfe round about and holding upon nothing as having the consistence onely of the earth which hath bene a litle altered changed And if you thinke this reason to be but slender I say unto you more that the most part of those accidents which follow upon thunder and lightning are of the like sort and therefore it is especially that in these effects there is thought to bee a certeine divinitie Then Dorotheus the oratour who was in the companie Truth it is quoth he that you say for not onely the vulgar sort of simple and ignorant people are of that opinion but some also of the philosophers and for mine owne part I know as much by experience that the lightning which of late fell upon our house wrought many strange and woonderfull things for it emptied our sellers of wine and never did hurt unto the earthen vessell wherein it was and whereas there lay a man a sleepe it flew over him yea and flashed upon him without any harme at all to his person or sienging so much as his clothes but having a certeine belt or pouch wherein were certeine pieces of brasse money it melted and defaced them all so confusedly that a man could not know by the forme or impression one from another the man went thereupon to a certeine Pythagorian philosopher who as happe was so journed there and demaunded of him what the reason might bee thereof and what it did presage But the philosopher when hee had cleered and assoiled his minde of scrupulous feare and religion willed him to ponder and consider of the matter apart by himselfe and to pray unto the gods I heare say also that not long since there was a souldiour at Rome who keeping the Centinell upon one of the temples of the citie chaunced to have a flash of lightning to fall very neere unto him which did him no hurt in the world in his body but onely burnt the latchets of his shoes and whereas there were certeine small boxes and cruets of silver within wooden cases the silver within was found all melted into a masse in the bottome and the wood had no injurie at all but continued still entire and sound But these things a man may chuse whether he will beleeve or no. Howbeit this passeth all other miracles which we all I suppose doe know very well namely that the dead bodies of those who have beene killed by lightning continue above ground and putrifie not for many there be who will neither burne nor enterre such corses but cast a trench or banke about and so let them lie as within a rampar so as such dead bodies are to be seene alwaies above ground uncorrupt convincing Clymene in Eurypides of untruth who speaking of Phaethon said thus Beloved mine but see where dead he lies In vale below and there with putrifies And heereupon it is as I take it that brimstone taketh the name in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the resemblance of that smell which those things yeeld that have beene smitten with lightning which no doubt have a fierie and piercing sent and this may bee the reason likewise in my conceit that dogges and fowles of the aire forbeare to touch any dead bodies which in this sort are striken from heaven Thus farre foorth have I laid the first stone for a ground-worke of this cause as also of the Bay-tree Now let us intreat him heere to finish and make out the rest for that he is well acquainted with Mushromes lest haply that befall unto us which sometimes to the painter Androcydes did for whē he painted the gulfe Scylla he portraied more naturally to the life the fishes all about than any thing else besides whereby men judged that hee shewed more affection therein than cunning of his art for that naturally he loved to feed upon good fishes and even so some one might say that we have discoursed so much of Mushromes the breeding and generation whereof is so doubtfull as you see for the pleasure and delight that we take in eating of them Considering now that in these points our discourse seemed to carrie some probabilitie and that everie man was perswaded well enough that the cause and reason thereof was cleere and withall my selfe began to speake and advise that it was now time as the manner was in comedies to set up those engins devised for to counterfet thunder so to inferre a disputation at the table of lightning to which motion all the company condescended but passing over all other points very desirous and earnest they were to heare a discourse as touching this one What the reason might be that men a sleepe be never smitten or blasted with lightning Now albeit I saw well enough that I should gaine no great praise in touching a cause whereof the reason was common yet I beganne to set to it and said That the fire of lightning was fine and subtill as that which tooke the originall and beginning from a most pure liquid and sacred substance which if there had beene in it any moisture or terrestriall grosenesse mingled among the celeritie of motion is such that it would have purged and cast it foorth Nothing is smitten with lightning quoth Democritus that cannot resist the fire from heaven and therefore solide bodies as iron brasle silver and gold be corrupted and melted therewith by reason that they hold out and withstand it contrariwise such as bee rare full of holes spungious soft and lux lightning quickly pierceth through and doth them no harme as for example clothes or garments and drie wood for such as is greene will burne because the moisture within maketh resistance and so catcheth fire withall If then it be true that those who lie a sleepe be never stricken dead with thunder and lightning surely wee must search heere for the cause and never goe farther for the bodies of men awake are stronger more firme and compact yea and able to make more resistance as having all their parts full of spirits by which ruling turning and welding the naturall senses and holding them together as it were with an engine the living creature becommeth strong fast knit and uniforme whereas in sleepe it is slacke loose rare unequall soft and as it were all resolved by reason that the
thus punished **** The end of this discourse is wanting as also the discussing and deciding of the other five questions proposed in the forefront of this fourth booke THE FIFTH BOOKE OF SYMPOSIAQUES OR TABLE-QUESTIONS The Contents or Summarie 1 WHerefore we willingly heare and see them who counterfeit those that be either angry or sorowfull but such as be wroth or heavie inded we love not either to heare or see 2 That there was an ancient game of prize performed in Poetrie 3 Why the Pitch-tree is consecrated to Neptune and Bacchus also that in the beginning men used to crowne with brances of the said tree those who wan the prize at Isthmicke solemnitie of sacred games afterwards with a garland of smallach and now againe they begin to take up the crowning of them with Pitch-tree 4 What is the meaning of these words in Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 5 Of those that invite many to supper 6 What is the cause of sitting pent and with streight roome at the beginning of supper but at large afterward toward the end 7 Of those who are said to eie-bite or to bewitch 8 What is the reason that the poet called an Apple-tree 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and why Empedocles named Apples 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 9 What is the reason that a Fig-tree being it selfe in taste most sharpe and biting bringeth foorth a fruit exceeding sweet 10 Who are they that are said in the common proverbe to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THE FIFTH BOOKE OF Symposiaques or table-questions The Proëme WHat your opinion is at this present ô Sossius Sinecio as touching the pleasures of the soule and bodie I wot not For that now many a mountaine high And shady forest stand betweene The roaring seas likewise do lie So as to part us barres they beene for you seemed not greatly long agoe to approove and allow their sentence who holde That there is nothing properly and particularly delightsome nothing pleasant unto the soule nothing at all that it desireth or joieth in of it selfe but that it liveth onely according to the life of the bodie laughing as it were and sporting with it in the pleasant affections thereof and contrariwise mourning at the heavie passions afflicting it as if the soule were no other thing but a very matter apt to take the impression of sundry formes or a mirror to receive the images and resemblances of those objects which are presented unto the flesh and body for as by many reasons a man may easily refute the blind and illiberall falsitie of this opinion so by this especially that after the table is taken away and supper done men of learning and knowledge incontinently fall to discourse and devise together as it were at a banquet delighting and solacing one another with pleasant talke wherein the bodie hath no part at all unlesse it be very little and a farre off which experience beareth witnesse that this is the provision of daintie cates and delicate pleasures laid up peculiarly for the soule and that these be the onely delights indeed of the minde whereas those other be but bastards and strangers infected with the societie of the bodie like as therefore nurses whiles they give pappes and panades unto their little babes have some small pleasure in feeding them by tasting the same in their owne mouthes before but after they have filled their infants bellies and brought them a sleepe so as they crie no more then they goe themselves to their owne refection meet for them they eate and drinke and make good cheere even so the soule doth participate with the desires and appetites of the bodie in manner of a nurse attending upon it serving it and framing herselfe in some sort to do it pleasure and satisfie the necessities thereof but after that the body is sufficiently served laied at rest and repose then being delivered of her obsequious service and businesse about the bodie she betaketh herselfe from thenceforward unto her owne pleasures and delights making her repast and taking her solace in discourses of learning in good letters in sciences and histories and in seeking to heare somewhat and know more still of that which is singular What should a man say any more of this considering and seeing as he doth that even base mechanicall and unlettered fellowes after supper ordinarily withdraw their minds and employ the same upon other pleasures and recreations farre remooved from the body proposing darke riddles aenigmaticall questions and intricate propositions of names comprised under notes of certeine numbers hardly to be assoiled or gessed at and after all this come in banquets which make way unto plaiers jesters counterfet pleasants giving roome to Menander and the actours of his comedies all which sports and pastimes are not devised for to ease and take away any paine of the body ne yet to procure some gentle motion and kinde contentment in the flesh but onely for that the speculative and studious part of the minde which naturally is in every one of us doth demaund call for some particular pleasure and recreation of her owne when wee are once discharged of the businesse and offices whereabout we are emploied for the body THE FIRST QUESTION What is the cause that willingly we heare and see those who counterfet them that be angrie or sorrowfull but love not to heare or see the parties themselves in those passions OF such matters there passed many discourses when you were present with us at Athens at what time as the comedian actor Strato flourished for hee was then in so great name and reputation that there was no talke but of him But one time above the rest wee were invited and feasted by Boëthus the Epicurean and with us there supped many more of that sect now after supper the fresh remembrance of the comedie which we had seene acted gave occasion unto us being students and lovers of learning to fall into a discourse and question about the cause why we cannot abide but are greatly discōtented to heare the voices of those who are angrie sorrowful timorous or affrighted and contrariwise what the reason is that they who counterfet these passions and represent their words their jestures and behaviour doe much delight and please us And verily all in manner there in place opined the same and were in one song for they gave this reason and said Inasmuch as he who counterfeiteth those pastimes is better than he who suffereth them indeed in regard that he who is not affected himselfe excelleth the other we knowing so much take pleasure and are delighted but I albeit that I set foot as men say in the daunce of another said thus much That we being naturally framed for to discourse by reason and to love things that savour of wit and be artificially done affect and esteeme those who have a dexteritie therein if a thing succeed accordingly for like as the Bee delighting in sweetnesse flieth from flower to flower seeking busily
reason to induce us thereunto for men are wont to attribute a kinde of divinty unto things which are passing common and the commoditie whereof reacheth farre as for example to water light the seasons of the yeere as for the earth her above the rest they repute not onely divine but also to be a goddesse there is none of all these things rehearsed that salt giveth place unto one jot in regard of use and profit being as it is a fortification to our meats within the bodie and that which commendeth them unto our appetite but yet consider moreover if this be not a divine propertie that it hath namely to preserve and keepe dead bodies free from putrifaction a long while and by that meanes to resist death in some sort for that it suffereth not a mortall bodie wholly to perish and come to nothing but like as the soule being the most divine part of us is that which mainteineth all the rest alive and suffereth not the masse and substance of the bodie to be dissolved and suffer colliquation even so the nature of salt taking hold of dead bodies and imitating heerein the action of the soule preserveth the same holding and staying them that they runne not headlong to corruption giving unto all the parts an amitie accord agreement one with the other and therefore it was elegantly said by some of the Stoicks That the flesh of an hogge was even from the beginning no better than a dead carion but that life being diffused within it as if salt were strewed throughout kept it sweet and so preserved it for to last long Moreover you see that wee esteeme lightning or the fire that commeth by thunder celestiall and divine for that those bodies which have beene smitten therewith are observed by us to continue a great while unputrified and without corruption What marvell is it then if our auncients have esteemed salt divine having the same vertue and nature that this divine and celestiall fire hath Heere I staied my speech and kept silence With that Philinus followed on and pursued the same argument And what thinke you quoth he is not that to be held divine which is generative and hath power to ingender considering that God is thought to be the originall authour creatour and father of all things I avowed no lesse and said it was so And it is quoth he an opinion generally received that salt availeth not a little in the matter of generation as you your selfe touched ere-while speaking of Aegyptian priests they also who keepe and nourish dogs for the race when they see them dull to performe that act and to doe their kinde do excite and awaken their lust and vertue generative that lieth as it were asleepe by giving them aswell as other hot meats salt flesh and fish both that have lien in bring pickle also those ships vessels at sea which ordinarily are fraight with salt breed commonly an infinit number of mice and rats for that as some hold the females or does of that kinde by licking of salt onely will conceive and be bagged without the company of the males or bucks but more probable it is that saltnesse doth procure a certeine itching in the naturall parts of living creatures and by that means provokeht males females both to couple together and peradventure this may be the reason that the beauty of a woman which is not dull and unlovely but full of favor attractive and able to move concupiscence men use to name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say saltish or well seasoned And I suppose that the poets have fained Venus to have beene engendred of the sea not without some reason and that this tale that she should come of salt was devised for the nonce to signifie and make knowen under those covert tearmes that there is in salt a generative power certes this is an ordinarie and generall thing among those poets to make all the sea-gods fathers of many children and very full of issue To conclude you shall not finde any land creature finde any land-creature or flying fowle for fruitfulnesse comparable to any kinde of fishes bred in the sea which no doubt this verse of Empedocles had respect unto Leading a troupe which senselesse were and rude Even of sea-fish a breeding multitude THE SIXTH BOOKE OF SYMPOSIAQUES OR BANQUET-QUESTIONS The Summarie 1 WHat is the reason that men fasting be more at hirst than hungrie 2 Whether it be want of food that causeth hunger and thirst or the transformation and change of the pores and conduit of the bodie be the cause thereof 3 How commeth it that they who be hungrie if they drinke are eased of their hunger but contrariwise those who are thir stie if they eat be more thirstic 4 What is the reason that pit-water when it is drawen if it be left all night within the same aire of the pit becommeth more cold 5 What is the cause that little stones and plates or pellets of lead if they be cast into water cause it to be the colder 6 Why snowe is preserved by covering it with straw chaffe or garments 7 Whether wine is to run throw a strainer 8 What is the cause of extraordinarie hunger or appetites to meat 9 Why the poet Homer when he spcaketh of other liquors useth proper epithits onely oile he calleth moist 10 What is the cause that the flesh of beasts flaine for sacrifiece if they be hanged upon a fig-tree quickly become tender THE SIXTH BOOKE OF Symposiaques or banquet-questions The Proeme PLato being minded to draw Timotheus the sonne of Canon ô Sossius Senecio from sumptuous feasts and superfluous banquets which great captaines commonly make invited him one day to a supper in the Academie which was philosophicall indeed and frugall where the table was not furnished with those viands which might distemper the bodie with feaverous heats and inflamations as Iōn the poet was wont to say but such a supper I say upon which ordinarily there follow kinde and quiet sleeps such fansies also and imaginations as ingender few dreames and those short and in one word where the sleeps do testifie a great calmnesse and tranquillitie of the bodie The morrow after Timotheus perceiving the difference betweene these suppers and the other said That they who supped with Plato over-night found the pleasure and comfort therof the next day and to say a trueth a great helpe and ready meanes to a pleasant and blessed life is the good temperature of the body not drenched in wine nor loaden with viands but light nimble and ready without any feare or distrust to performe all actions and functions of the day-time But there was another commodity no lesse than this which they had who supped with Plato namely the discussing and handling of good and learned questions which were held at the table in supper time for the remembrance of the pleasures in eating and drinking is illiberall and unbeseeming men of worth
transitorie besides and soone at an end like unto the odor of a perfume and sweet ointment or the smell of rost in a kitchin a day after whereas discourses philosophicall and disputations of learning when they be remembred afterwards yeeld alwaies new pleasure and fresh delight unto those that were at them yea and cause them who were absent and left out in hearing the relation thereof to have no lesse part of learning and erudition than they who were present for thus we see that even at this day students and prosessours of learning have the fruition and enjoy the benefit of Socrates his banquets no lesse than they themselves who were personally present and had their reall part of them at the time and verily if corporall matter as dainty dishes and exquisit fare had so greatly affected and delighted their minds with pleasure Plato and Xenophon should have put downe in writing and left unto us the memoriall not of the discourses there held nor of the talke which then passed but rather of the furniture of the table have made a note of the delicate viands pastrie works comfitures and junkets served up in Callias or Agathus houses whereas now of all such matters there is no mention at all as if they were of no account nor worth the naming notwithstanding very like it is there was no want of provision no spare of cost nor defect of diligence in that behalfe but on the otherside penned they have most exactly and with great diligence the discourses of good letters and philosophy which then and there passed merrily and those they have commended unto posterities to give us example that we ought not onely to devise and reason together when we are at the boord but also to call to minde afterwards what good talke had passed and to keepe the same in memorie THE FIRST QUESTION What is the reason that those who be fasting are more thirsty than hungry NOw send I unto you Sossius Senecio this sixth booke of banquet discourses whereof the first question is Why those who be long fasting are more thirstie than hungry for it may seeme contrary unto all reason that thirst rather than hunger should ensue much fasting for that the want of dry food would seeme by course of nature to require a supplie of nutriment by the like Then began I in this manner to argue before the companie there in place That of all things within us and whereof we consist our naturall heat either alone or principally had need of nouriture and maintenance for thus verily wee doe observe in outward elements that neither aire water nor earth desire nutriment neither doe they consume whatsoever is neere unto them but it is fire onely that requireth the one and doth the other which is the reason that all yoong folke doe eat more than elder persons for that they be hotter yea and old men and women can endure to fast better because their naturall heat is already decaied and feeble in them like as it is in those living creatures which have but little bloud for small need have they of nouriture for default of naturall heat Moreover thus much we may observe in everie one of our selves that our bodily exercises our loud outcries and such like matters as by motion doe augment heat make us to take more pleasure in our meat and to have a better appetite to eat now the principall most familiar and naturall food of heat in mine opinion is moisture as we may see by daily experience that burning flames of fire increase by powring oile thereto of all things in the world ashes are the driest because the whole humiditie is burnt up and consumed but the terrestriall substance destitute of all liquor remaineth alone semblably the natures of fire is to separate and divide bodies by taking away the moisture which held them sodered and bound together when as therefore wee fast long our naturall heat draweth forcibly unto it first all the humours out of the reliques of our nourishment which done the inslammation thereof passeth farther and setteth upon the very radical humour within our flesh searching every corner for moisture to feed and nourish it there being caused therefore a woonderfull drinesse our bodie like as in earth or clay that is parched with heat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by consequence commeth to stand more in need of drinke than of meat untill such time as we have taken a good draught by meanes whereof our heat being well refreshed and 〈◊〉 worketh and procureth appetite to solide and dry nourishment THE SECOND QUESTION Whether it be want of food that causeth hunger and thirst or rather the transformation and change of the conduits and passages within our bodies THis discourse being thus ended Philo the physician went about to impugne and overthrow the first position mainteining that thirst proceeded not from default of any nourishment but was to be imputed unto the change of the forme in certaine passages of the body and for demonstration heereof hee alledged of the one side this experience That they who be a thirst in the night if they sleepe upon it lose their thirstinesse although they drinke never a drop on the other side that they who have the ague if their fit decline or be off them or in case the feaver be cleane past and gone presently they are eased of their drought likewise there be many who after they have beene bathed yea and beleeve me others when they have vomited are ridde of thirstinesse and yet they get moisture neither by the one nor the other but they are the pores and petie conduits of the body that suffer mutation because they be altered and transformed into another state and disposition and this appeereth more evidently in hunger for many sicke folke there be who at one time have need of nourishment and yet want appetite to their meat some there are againe who let them eat and fill themselves never so much have never the lesse appetite to meat nay their greedie hunger encreaseth the more semblablie you shall have many of those who lothed their meat to recover their stomacke and appetite quickly by tasting a few olives or capres condite with salt pickle whereby it appeareth plainly that hunger is not occasioned by default of nourishment but through the said alteration or passion of the pores and conduits of the body for surely such meats as those although they diminish the want of nourishment by addition of more food yet neverthelesse cause hunger and even so the poinant acrimonie of these salt viands contenting the taste and pleasant to the mouth by knitting binding and strengthening the stomacke or contrariwise by relaxing or opening the same do procure unto it and breed therein a certeine gnawing and a disposition to the liking of their meat which we call appetite The reason of these arguments seemed unto me very wittily devised and framed pretily for to carrie a good shew of probabilitie howbeit to be contrary unto the
and so maketh an equall distribution and supply thorowout But this transformation and change of the pores from which it is said that hunger and thirst doth proceed what kinde of thing is it I would gladly know For mine owne part none other differences see I but of more and lese and according as they be either stopped or opened when they bee obstructed or stopped receive they cannot either drinke or meat when they be opened and unstopped they make a voide and free place and surely that is nothing els but the want of that which is proper and naturall For the reason my good friend Philo why clothes which are to be died be dipped first in alome water is because that such water hath a piercing scouring and abstersive vertue by meanes whereof when all the superfluous filth in them is consumed and rid away the pores being opened reteine more surely the tincture which is given unto the clothes onely because they receive the same better by reason of the emptinesse occasioned by want THE THIRD QUESTION What is the cause that when men be hungry if they drinke are delivered from their hunger but contrariwise when they be athirst if they eate are more thirsty than before WHen those discourses were thus passed he who invited us to supper began in this wise It seemeth unto me my masters that this reason as touching the voidance and repletion of pores carieth with it a great apparence of truth and namely in the solution of another question besides to wit Why in them who be hungry if they drinke their hunger ceaseth immediately and contrariwise they who are a thirst if they eat are still more thirstie I am of opinion quoth he that those who alledge and urge these pores and their effects doe render the reason and cause of this accident very easilie and with exceeding great probabilitie however in many points they enforce the same not so much as probably for whereas all bodies have pores some of one measure and symmetry others of another those which be larger than the rest receive food solid as well as liquid both together such as bee narrower and more streight admit drinke the avoidance and evacuation of which causeth thirst like as of the other hunger and therefore if they who be a thirst doe eat they finde no succour and benefit thereby because the pores by reason of their streightnesse are not able to receive drie and solid nutriment but continue still indigent and destitute of that which is their due and fit for them whereas they who be hungry in case they drinke finde comfort thereby for that the liquid nouriture entring into those large pores and filling those concavities of theirs doe slake and diminish mightily the force of their hunger As touching the event and effect quoth I true it is as I thinke but I cannot accord and give my consent to the supposition of the cause pretended For if quoth I a man should hold that with these pores and conduits upon which some stand so much so greatly embrace and mainteine so stoutly the flesh is pierced and by meanes thereof full of holes surely he would make it very loose quavering flaggie and so rotten that it would not hang together moreover to say that the same parts of the body doe not receive meat and drinke together but that they doe passe and runne as it were thorough a streiner or canvase bolter some one way and some another me thinks is a very strange position a meere devised fiction for this verie mixture of humiditie tempering and making tender the meats received together with the cooperative helpe of the inward naturall heat and the spirits doth cut subtiliate and mince the foode with all manner of incisions shreddings and divisions no tooles no knives nor instruments in the world so fine and small insomuch as every part and parcell of the said nourishment is familiar meet convenient for ech part member of the bodie not applied fitted as it were to certeine vessels and holes to be filled thereby but united perfectly concorporate to the whole and every part thereof but if this were not so yet the maine point of the question is not assoiled for all that for they who eat unlesse they also drinke to it are so farre off from allaying their thirst that contrariwise they increase the same and to this point there is not yet a word said Consider now said I whether the positions reasons which we set downe are not probable apparent first we suppose that moisture being consumed by drinesse is cleane perished gone that drinesse being tempered susteined by moisture hath certeine diffusions exhalations secondly we hold that neither hunger is a general universal want of dry food nor thirst of moisture but a certeine scantnesse and defect of the one and the other when there is not enough and sufficient for those who altogether doe want the same bee neither hungrie nor thirstie but die presently Let these supposals be laid for grounds it will not be from hencefoorth hard to know the cause of that which is in question for thirst increaseth upon them that eat because meats by their drinesse doe gather together sucke and drinke up the humidity dispersed and which is left but small and feeble in all the bodie causing the same to evaporate away like as we may observe without our bodies how dry earth and dust do quickly snatch dispatch and consume quite the liquor or moisture that is mingled therewith contrariwise drinke necessarily slaketh hunger for by reason that moisture drenching and soking that little meat which it findeth dry and hard raiseth from it certeine vapors and moist exhalations and those it doth elevate and carrie up into all the body applying the same to the parts that stand in need and therefore Erasistratus not unproperly tearmed moisture the wagon of the viands for being mixed and tempered with such things as otherwise of themselves by reason of their drinesse or other evill disposition be idle and heavy it raiseth and lifteth up and heereupon it commeth that many men who have beene exceeding hungry onely by bathing or washing themselves without any drinke at all have woonderfully aswaged and allaied their hunger for the moisture from without entring into the body causeth them to be more succulent and in better plight for that it doth enlarge the parts within so that it doth mitigate the fell mood and appease the crhell rage of hunger To conclude this is the reason that they who are determined to pine themselves to death by utter abstinence from all solid meats live and continue a long time if they receive but water onely even untill the time that all be quite evaporate spent and dried up which might nourish and be united unto the bodie THE FOURTH QUESTION What is the cause that pit or well-water being drawen if it be left all night within the aire of the pit becommeth colder than it
what is that namely to carie the leaves firme and fast so as they never fall off for we do not see that either the lawrell or olive tree nor the myrtle nor any other trees which are said to shed no leafe keepe alwaies the same leaves still but as the first fall others put foorth and by this meanes they continue alwaies fresh and greene living evermore as cities and great townes doe whereas the date tree never loseth any of those leaves which once came foorth but continueth still clad with the same leaves and this is that vigour as I take it which men dedicate and appropriat especially to the force or strength of victorie When Sospis had made an end of this speech Protogenes the Grammarian calling by name unto Praxitelis the discourser and historian Shall wee suffer these oratours and rhetoricians quoth he after their usuall maner and profession to argue thus by conjectures and likely probabilities and can we alledge nothing out of histories pertinent directly unto this matter and verily for mine owne part if my memorie faile me not I have not read long since in the Attique annales that Theseus who first set out games of prize in the isle Delos brake plucked from the sacred date tree a branch which thereupon was called Spadis and Praxitelis said as much But some men quoth he might aske of Theseus himselfe what reason induced him when he proposed the prize of victorie to pull a branch from the date tree rather than from the laurell or olive tree and what will you say if this be a Pythicke prize for that the Amphyctiones honored first at Delphos the victours with a branch of date tree and laurell in honour of Pythius Apollo considering that the maner was not to consecrate unto that God the laurell or olive onely but also the date tree like as Nictas did when in the name of the Athenians he defraied the charges of games in Delos and the Athenians at Delphi and before them Cypselus the Corinthian for otherwise this God of ours hath evermore loved those games of prize yea and was desirous to win the victorie having strove personally himselfe in playing upon the harpe in singing and flinging the coit of brasse yea and as some some say at hurl-bats and fist-fight favouring men also and taking their part at such combats as Homer seemeth to testifie when he bringeth in Achilles speaking in this wise Two chumpions now who simply are of all the armie best My pleasure is shall forth advance and looke who is so blest And favoured at buffet-fight by god Apolloes grace As for to win the victorie and honour in that place Also when he speaketh of archers he saith expresly that one of them who invocated upon Apollo and praied unto him for helpe had good successe and carried away the best prize but the other who was so proud and would not call upon the god for his aid missed the marke scope whereat he shot Neither is it likely or credible that the Athenians dedicated their publicke place of exercise unto Apollo for nothing and without good cause but surely thus they thought that the same God unto whom we are beholden for our health giveth us also the force and strong disposition of bodie to performe such games and feats of activitie But whereas some combats there be sleight and easie others hard and grievous we finde in writing that the Delphians sacrificed unto Apollo by the name of Pyctes that is to say the champion at firstfight but the Candians and Lacedaemonians offered sacrifice unto the same God surnamed the Runner And seeing as we do that the maner is to present in his temple within the citie of Delphos the primices or dedications of the spoiles and bootie gained from the enemies in war as also to consecrate unto him the Trophees is not this a great argument and testimonie that in this God it lieth most to give the victorie and conquest And as he went forward and was minded to say more Cephisus the sonne of Theon interrupted his speech saying These allegations beleeve me savour not of histories nor of Cosmographicall books but being fetched immediatly out of the minds of those Peripateticall discourses are handled and argued probably to the purpose and besides whiles you take up the fabricke or engine after the maner of tragedian plaiers you intend as it should seeme to afright by intimating the name of Apollo those that contradict and gainsay your opinions and yet as well beseemeth his goodnesse and bountie he is indifferent and alike affected unto all in clemencie and benignitie but we following the tracts steps of Sospis who hath led us the way very well keepe our selves to the date tree which afoordeth us sufficient matter to discourse thereof againe for the Babylonians doe chaunt and sing the praises of this tree namely that it bringeth unto them three hundred and threescore sorts of sundrie commodities but we that are Greeks have little or no profit thereby howbeit good philosophie may be drawen out of it for the better instruction of champions and such as are to performe combats of prize in that it beareth no fruit with us for being a right goodly faire and very great tree by reason of the good habit and disposition thereof yet is it not here among us fruitfull but by this strong constitution that it hath it imploieth and spendeth all nouriture to feed and fortifie the bodie after the maner of champions by their exercise so as there remaineth but a little behinde and the same not effectuall for seed over and above all this one qualitie it hath proper and peculiar to it selfe alone and that which agreeth not to any other tree the which I intend to shew unto you For the woodie substance of this date tree aloft if a man seeme to weigh and presse downe with any heavie burden it yeeldeth not nor stoupeth under the poise but curbeth upward archwise as withstanding that wherwith it is charged and pressed and even so it is with those combatants in sacred games for such as through feeblenesse of bodie or faintnesse of heart seeme to yeeld those the said exercises doe bend and keepe under but as many as stoutly abide not onely with their strong bodies but also with magnanimous courage these be they that are raised up on high and mount unto honour THE FIFTH QUESTION What is the cause that they who saile upon the river Nilus draw up water for their use before day-light ONe there was who demanded upon a time the reason why the water-men who saile and row upon the river Nilus provided themselves of that water which they drinke in the night and not by day Some said it was because they feared the sunne which by enchafing and heating the water maketh it more subject to corruption and putrifaction for whatsoever is warmed or made hot the same is alwaies more ready and disposed to mutation and doth soone alter by relaxation
and daintie feeding which without any just or lawfull cause troubleth disquieteth the seas and descendeth into the very bottome of the deepe for we have no reason at any time to call the red sea-barbell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say corne devourer nor the guilt-head 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say vine waster or grape eater nor yet any mullets lubins or sea-pikes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say seed gatherers as we name divers land beasts noting them thereby for the harme and annoiance they doe unto us neither can we impute unto the greatest fish in the sea the least wrong or shrewd turne wherewith wee charge in our exceeding neerenesse and parsimonie some cat or wezill a mouse or rat which haunt our houses in which regard they precisely contemning themselves not for feare of law onely to doe wrong unto men but also by the very instinct of nature to offer no injurie unto any thing in the world that doth them no harme nor displeasure used to feed on fish lesse than on any other meat admit there were no injustice in the thing all busie curiositie of men in this point being so needlesse as it is bewraieth great intemperance and wastfull gluttony and therefore Homer in his poeme deviseth this that not onely the Greeks encamping upon the streight of Hellespont absteined wholy from eating fish but also that the delicate and daintie toothed Phaeacians the wanton and licorous woers likewise of lady Penelope dissolute though they were otherwise and all islanders were never served at their tables with any viands or cates from the sea no nor the companions of Ulysses in that grear and long voiage of theirs which they had at sea ever laid hooke leape or wee le or cast net into the sea for fish so long as they had a bit of bread or handfull of meale left But when their ship had vittailes none But all therein was spent and gone even a little before that they laid hands upon the kowes of the sunne then began they to fish not iwis for any deintie dishes but even for necessary food With bended hookes for now their maw Great hunger bit and guts did gnaw So that for extreme need they were forced to eat fish and to kill the sunnes kine whereby wee may perceive that it was a point of sanctimonie and chastitie not onely among the Aegyptians and Syrians but the Greeks also to forbeare feeding upon fish for that beside the injustice of the thing they abhorred as I thinke the superfluous curiositie of such food Heereupon Nestor tooke occasion to speake And why quoth he is there no reckoning made of my countrey-men and fellow-citizens no more than of the Megarians and yet you have heard me to say often times that the priests of Neptune whom we call Hieromnemones never eat fish for this god is surnamed Phytalmios that is to say the President of breeding and generation in the sea and the race descending from that ancient Hellen sacrificed unto Neptune by the name and addition of Patrogeneios that is to say the stock-father and principall Progenitour being of opinion that man came of a moist and liquid substance as also be the Syrians which is the very cause that they worship and adore a fish as being of the same kinde generation and nouriture with themselves philosophizing and arguing in this point with more apparence and shew of reason than Anaximander did who affirmed not that men and fishes were bred both in the same places but avouched that men were first engendred within fishes themselves and there nourished like their yoong frie but afterward when they became sufficient and able to shift and helpe them they were cast foorth and so tooke land like as therefore the fire eateth the wood whereby it was kindled and set a burning though it were father and mother both unto it according as he said who inserted the marriage of Ceyx among the works of Hesiodus even so Anaximander in pronouncing that fish was both father and mother unto men taxeth and condemneth the feeding thereupon THE NINTH QUESTION Whether it be possible that new diseases may be engendred by our meats PHilo the physician constantly affirmed that the leprosie called Elephantiasis was a disease not knowen long since for that none of the ancient physicians made any mention of this maladie whereas they travelled and busied their braines to treat of other small trifling matters I wot not what and yet such subtilties as the common sort could hardly comprehend But I produced and alledged unto him for a witnesse out of philosophie Athenodorus who in the first booke of his Epidemiall or popular diseases writeth that not onely the said leprosie but also Hydrophobie that is to say the feare of water occasioned by the biting of a mad dogge were first discovered in the daies of Asclepiades now as the companie there present marvelled that these maladies should newly then begin and take their consistence in nature so they wondered as much on the other side how so great and grievous diseases could be hidden so long and unknowen to men howbeit the greater part inclined rather to this second later opinion as being more respective and favourable to man for that they could not be perswaded that nature in such cases should in mans bodie as it were in some citie studie novelties and be evermore inventing and working new matters As for Diogenianus he said that the passions and maladies of the soule held on their common course and went the accustomed way still of their predecessours And yet quoth he wickednesse is very manifold in sundry sorts and exceeding audacious to enterprise any thing and the mind is a mistresse of herselfe and at her owne command having puissance to turne and change easily as she thinketh good and yet that disordinate confusion of hers hath some order in it keeping a measure in her passions and conteining herselfe within certeine bounds like as the sea in the flowings and tides in such sort as that she bringeth forth no new kinde of vice such as hath not bene knowen unto those in olde time and of which they have not written for there being many different sorts of lusts and desires infinite motions of feare as many kinds of paine and no fewer formes of pleasure which would require great labour to reckon up and not to give over These neither now nor yesterday Began but all have liveday And no man knowes nor can say well Since when they first to men befell nor yet whereupon any new maladie or moderne passion hath arisen in our body considering it hath not of it selfe the beginning of motion properly as the soule hath but is knit and conjoined with nature by common causes and composed with a certeine temperature the infinite varietie whereof wandereth notwithstanding within the pourprise of set bounds and limits like unto a vessell which lying at anchor in the sea neverthelesse doth wave and
thereof untill such time as we come to quench and allay the same thus inflamed and boiling as they doe There is no need therefore ô Diogenianus quoth I offorren and farre fetched causes from without neither of those new worlds and intervals betweene for to goe no further than to our selves the very change onely of the fashion of our diet is a sufficient meanes both to breed and also to abolish and cause to ease any maladie in us THE TENTH QUESTIOIN What is the reason that we take least heed of dreames in the end of Autumne and give small credit unto them FLorus lighting upon physicall problemes or naturall questions of Aristotle which were brought to Thermopylae for to passe the time away filled both himselfe with many doubts as ordinarily men do who are by nature studious and also put as many into the heads of others giving testimony heerein to Aristotle who saith That much knowledge breedeth many occasions of doubt as for other questions they afforded unto us no unpleasant pastime and recreation in the day time as we walked in the galleries abroad but that probleme concerning dreams namely that they be uncertein lying false especially during those moneths whē trees shed their leaves was set on foot again I wot no thow after supper by Phavorinus when he had done with other discourses As for your familiar companions my children they were of opinion that Aristotle himselfe had sufficiently solved the question there needed no farther enquirie into the matter nor any speech more to be made thereof but even to attribute the cause as he did to the new gathered fruits of that season for being as they were fresh and greene still in their strength and full of vigour they engendred in our bodies many ventosities and bred much trouble and agitation in the humours for likely it is not that new wine alone doth worke boile and chaufe nor that oile onely being new drawen and pressed yeeldeth a noise as it burneth in lampes by occasion that the heat causeth the windinesse and spirit thereof to evaporate and walme out but we see that corne also newly inned all fruits of trees presently upon their gathering are plumpe full and swelled againe untill such time as they have exhaled foorth all that is flatuous and breathed out the crudities thereof now that there be certeine meates that cause troublesome dreames and engender turbulent visions and fansies in our sleepe they brought in and alledged for their testimony the instance of beanes and the head of the pulpe or pour-cuttle fish which they are bidden to absteine from who would divine and foreshew things that come by dreames As for Phavorinus howsoever he was himselfe at all times wonderfully affected addicted to Aristotle and one who attributed unto the Peripateticks schole this singular commendation that their doctrine caried more probabilitie and resemblance of the truth than other philosophers whatsoever yet at this present he came out with an old rustie reason of Democritus taken out of the smoake where it had gathered a deale of thicke soot for to furbish scoure and make it bright againe for this was the vulgar opinion which Democritus put downe for a supposition That certeine images doe enter and pierce deepe into our bodies thorough the pores which as they rise againe from the bottome cause those visions which appeare unto us as we sleepe that these came out of al parts wandering as presented from utensils habillements plants but principally from living creatures for that they moove stir much and besides are hot having not onely the expresse similitudes and sundry formes of bodies imprinted in them as Epicurus thinketh who thus farre foorth followeth Democritus and leaveth him there but also drawing therewith the apparences of the motions of the minde of counsel of usuall milde affections as also of vehement passions wherewith they entring in doe speake as if they were living things and distinctly carie unto those that receive the same the opinions the words the discourses and affections of such as transmit the same if in their entrance they reteine still the expresse figures and nothing confused which they doe especially all while that their way and passage thorough the aire cleere and united is speedy quicke and not empeached by any hinderance considering than that the aire of the Autumnall quarter in the end when as trees doe cast their leaves hath much asperitie and inequalitie it turneth aside and putteth by diversly those images causing their evidence to be feeble and transitorie as being darkened by the tardity and slownesse of their pace in the way whereas contrariwise when they runne foorth in great number and swiftly out of those things that swell with fulnesse and burne as it were with desire to be delivered of them then as they passe they yeeld their resemblances all fresh and very significant After this casting his eie upon Autohulus and smiling withall Me thinks quoth he that I perceive you and those about you to addresse your selves alredy for to maintaine a kinde of fight against these images that you meane to fasten with your hands and catch hold of this old opinion as if it were some rotten picture to doe it some violence Goe to quoth Autobulus will you never leave these fashions to play with us in this manner for wee know well enough iwis that you hold and approove the opinion of Aristotle and that for to give a lustre thereunto you have set this of Democritus by it as a shadow and foile that conceit therefore of Democritus we will turne over and put by and take in hand for to impugne this reason of Aristotles which imputeth all to these new fruits and unjustly without al all reason blaming discrediting that which we all love so well for both Summer Autumne will beare witnesse that when we eat these fruits more fresh and greene even at such time as they are most succulent and verdant as Antimachus said our dreames are lesse lying and deceitfull but these moneths which we name the Fall of the leafe pitching their tents as it were and taking up their standings close to the Winter have reduced already both corne of the field and also the fruits of trees which remaine uneaten by their perfect concoction to this passe that they looke slender and in some sort riveled as having lost by this time that violent heady and furious force which was in them As touching new wine they that drinke it soonest doe it in the moneth Anthisteron that is to say Februarie presently after winter and that day upon which they begin to taste it we in our countrey call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say the day of good fortune but the Athenians name it of opening their tunnes or wine vessels Pithaegia but so long as the Must or new wine is working still and in the heat we see that all men even the very artificers and labourers are affraid to taste
a little troubled at this chalenge but after he had paused and thought upon the matter a while in the end he spake to this effect It is an ordinary thing quoth he with Plato to play with us many times merrily by certeine devised names that hee useth but whensoever hee inserteth some fable in any treatise of the soule he doth it right soberly and hath a deepe meaning and profound sense therein for the intelligent nature of heaven he calleth a Chariot volant to wit the harmonicall motion and revolution of the world and heere in this place whereof we are now in question to wit in the end of the tenth booke of his Common-wealth he bringeth in a messenger from hell to relate newes of that which he had there himselfe seene and calleth him by the name of Era a Pamphylian borne and the sonne of Armonius giving us covertly by an aenigmaticall conveiance thus much to understand That our soules are engendred by harmonie and so joined to our bodies but when they be disjoined and separate from them they runne together all into aire from every side and so returne againe from thence unto second generations what should hinder then but this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was put downe by him not to shew a truth whereof he spake but rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a probable speech and conjecturall fiction or else a thing spoken as it should seeme to a dead bodie and so uttered vainly and at a venture in the aire for Plato alwaies toucheth three causes as being the philosopher who either first knew or principally understood how fatall destiny is mingled with fortune and againe how our freewill is woont to bee joined with either of them or is complicate with both and now in this place before cited hee sheweth excellently well what power each of these causes hath in our humane affaires attributing the choice and election of our life unto free will for vertue and vice be free and at the commaund of no lord and tying to the necessitie of fatall destinie a religious life to God-ward in them who have made a good choise and contrariwise in those who have made a choise of the woorst but the cadences or chaunces of lots which being cast at a venture and lighting heere and there without order befall to every one of us bring in fortune and preoccupate or prevent much of that which is ours by the sundry educations or governments of common-weale wherein it hapneth each of us to live for this I would have every one of you to consider whether it bee not meere folly and without all reason to seeke for a cause of that which is done by fortune and casually for if lot should seeme to come by reason there were to be imputed no more to fortune or adventure but all to some fatall destinie or providence Whiles Lamprias delivered this speech Marcus the Grammarian seemed to count and number I wot not what upon his fingers to himselfe apart but when he had made an end the said Marcus named aloud all those soules or spirits which are called out in Homers Necya Among which quoth he the ghost onely of Elpenor wandering still in the middle confines is not reckoned with those beneath in another world for that his bodie as yet is not interred and committed to the earth as for the soule of Tiresias also it seemeth not to bee numbred with the rest To whom now dead Proserpina above the rest did give This gift alone right wise to be although he did not live as also the power to speake with the living and to understand their state and affaires even before he had drunke the bloud of sacrificed beasts If then quoth hee ô Lamprias you subtract these two and count the rest you shall finde that the soule of Ajax was just the twentieth of those which presented themselves to Ulysses and heereto alluded Plato as it should seeme by way of mirth joining his fable together with that evocation of spirits otherwise called Necyra in Homers Odyssea THE SIXTH QUESTION What is covertly meant by the fable wherein Neptune is feigned to have beene vanquished as also why the Athenians take out the second day of the moneth August NOw when the whole company were growen to a certeine uprore Menephyllus a Peripateticke philosopher calling unto Hylas by name You see quoth he now that this question was not propounded by way of mockerie and contumelious flouting but you my good friend leaving this froward and mal-contented Ajax whose name as Sophocles saith is ominous and of ill presage betake your selfe unto Neptune and side with him a while who is wont to recount unto us himselfe how he hath beene oftentimes overcome to wit in this city by Minerva at Delphi by Apollo in Argos by Juno in Aegina by Jupiter and in Naxus by Bacchus and yet in all his repulses disfavors and infortunities he bare himselfe alwaies mild and gentle carying no ranckor or malice in his heart for proofe heereof there is even in this city a temple common to him and Minerva in which there standeth also an altar dedicated to Oblivion Then Hylas who seemed by this time more pleasantly disposed But you have forgotten quoth he ô Menephyllus that we have abolished the second day of the moneth August not in regard of the moone but because it was thought to be the day upon which Neptune and Minerva pleaded for the scignorie of this territorie of Attica Now I assure you quoth Lamprias Neptune was every way much more civill and reasonable than Thrasibulus in case being not a winner as the other but a loser he could forget all grudge and malice A great breach and defect there is in the Greeke originall wherein wanteth the farther handling of this question as also 5. questions entier following and a part of the 6. to wit 7 Why the accords in musicke are devided into three 8 Wherein differ the intervals or spaces melodious from those that be accordant 9 What cause is it that maketh accord and what is the reason that when one toucheth two strings accordant together the melody is ascribed to the base 10 What is the cause that the eclipticke revolutions of sunne and moone being in number equall yet we see the moone oftner ecclipsed than the sunne 11 That we continue not alwaies one and the same in regard of the daily deflux of our substance 12 Whether of the twaine is more probable that the number of starres is even or odde Of this twelfth question thus much remaineth as followeth Lysander was wont to say That children are to be deceived with cockall bones but men with othes Then Glaucias I have heard quoth he that this speech was used against Polycrates the tyrant but it may be that it was spoken also to others But whereby do you demaund this of me Because verily quoth Sospis I see that children snatch at such bones the Academiques catch at words for it
calling one Atropos another Lachesis and a third Clotho for as touching the motions and revolutions of the eight heavenly Sphaeres hee hath attributed as presidents unto them so many Syrenes in number and not Muses Then Menephylus the Peripateticke comming in with his speech There is quoth hee some reason and probabilitie in the Delphians saying but surely the opinion of Plato is absurd in that unto those divine and eternall revolutions of the heavens he hath assigned in stead of Muses the Syrenes which are daemons or powers not verie kinde and good nor beneficiall either leaving out as he doth the Muses altogether or els calling them by the names of the Destinies and saying they be the daughters of Necessitie for surely Necessitie is a rude thing and violent whereas Perswasion is gentle and gracious by the meanes of Muses amiable taming what it will and in my minde Detesteth more the duritie And force of hard necessitie than doth that grace and Venus of Empedocles That is true indeed quoth Ammonius it abhorreth that violent and involuntarie cause which is in our selves enforcing us to doe against our evils but the necessitie which is among the gods is nothing intollerable nor violent nor hard to be obeied or perswaded but to the wicked no more than the law of a citie that unto good men is the best thing that is which they cannot pervert or transgresse not because it is impossible for them so to do but for that they are not willing to change the same Moreover as touching those Syrenes of Homer there is no reason that the fable of them should affright us for after an aenigmaticall and covert sort even he signifieth very well unto us that the power of their song and musicke is neither inhumane nor pernicious or mortall but such as imprinteth in the soules which depart from hence thither as also to such as wander in that other world after death a vehement affection to divine and celestiall things together with a certeine forgetfulnesse of those that be mortall and earthly deteining and enchanting them as it were with a pleasure that they give unto them in such sort as by reason of the joy which they receive from them they follow after and turne about with them now of this harmonie there is a little echo or obscure resonance commeth hither unto us by the meanes of certeine discourses which calleth unto our soule and putteth into her minde such things as then and there are whereof the greatest part is enclosed and stopped up with the abstructions of the flesh and passions that are not sincere howbeit our soule by reason of the generositie wherewith it is endued doth understand yea and remember the same being ravished with so vehement an affection thereof that her passion may be compared properly unto most ardent and furious fits of love whiles she still affecteth and desireth to enjoy but is not able for all that to loosen and free her-selfe from the bodie howbeit I doe not accord and hold with him altogether in these matters but it seemeth unto me that Plato as he hath somewhat strangely in this place called the axes and poles of the world and heavens by the names of spindels rocks and distaves yea tearmed the starres wherves so to the Muses also he hath given an extraordinarie denomination of Syrens as if they related and expounded unto the soules and ghosts beneath divine and celestiall things like as Ulysses in Sophocles saith that the Syrenes were come The daughters who of Phorcis were That doth of hell the lawes declare As for the Muses they be assigned unto the eight heavenly sphaeres and one hath for her portion the place and region next to the earth those then which have the presidences charge of the revolution of those eight sphaeres do keepe preserve and mainteine the harmony and consonance aswell betweene the wandering planets and fixed starres as also of themselves one to another and that one which hath the superintendence of that space betweene the moone and the earth and converseth with mortall and temporall thinges bringeth in and infuseth among them by the meanes of her speech and song so farre forth as they be capable by nature and apt to receive the same the perswasive facultie of the Graces of musicall measures and harmonie which facultie is very cooperative with civile policie and humane societie in dulsing and apeasing that which is turbulent extravagant and wandering in us reducing it gently into the right way from blind by-pathes and errors and there setleth it but according to Pyndarus Whom Iupiter from heaven above Vouchsafeth not his gracious love Amaz'd they be and flie for feare When they the voice of Muses heare Whereto when Ammonius had given acclamation alluding as his maner was unto the verse of Xenophanes in this wise These things doe cary good credence And to the trueth have reference and withall mooved us every one to opine and deliver his advice I my selfe after some little pause and silence began thus to say That as Plato himselfe by the etymologie of names as it were by traces thought to finde out the properties and powers of the gods even so let us likewise place in heaven over celestial things one of the Muses which seemeth of the heaven to to be called Urania Certes it standeth to great reason that these heavenly bodies require not much variety of governmēt for that they have but one simple cause which is nature but whereas there be many errors many enormities trespasses thither we must transfer those eight one for to correct one sort of faults and disorders and another for to amende reforme another and for that of our life one part is bestowed in serious grave affaires and another in sport game throughout the whole course thereof it hath need of a moderate temperature musicall consent that which in us is grave serious shall be ruled and conducted by Calliope Clio and Thalia being our guides in the skill and speculation as touching gods and goddesses as for the other Muses their office and charge is to support and hold up that which is inclined and prone to pleasure plaie and disport not to suffer it through weaknesse and imbecillity to runne headlong into loosnesse and bestiality but to keepe in represse and hold it in good and decent order with dauncing singing and playing such as hath their measures and is tempered with harmonie reason and proportion For mine owne part considering that Plato admitteth and setteth downe in every one two principles and causes of all our actions the one inbred and naturall to wit a desire and inclination to pleasures the other comming from without foorth to wit an opinion which covereth the best insomuch as the one he calleth sometime Reason and the other Passion and seeing that either of these againe admitteth distinct differences I see certainly that both of them require a great government and in verie
difference betweene a Principle and an Element but Thales Milesius thinketh they be both one howbeit there is a great difference betweene the one and the other for elements be compounded whereas we holde that the first Principles neither be compounded nor are any complet substance and verily earth water aire and fire we tearme Elements but Principles we call other Natures in this respect that there is nothing precedent or before them wherof they are ingendred for otherwise if they were not the first they should in no wise be Principles but that rather were to be so called wherof they be ingendred Now certeine things there are precedent whereof earth and water c. be composed to wit the first matter without all forme and shape as also the first forme it selfe which we call Entelechia and thirdly Privation Thales therefore is in an error when he saith that water was both the Element and Principle or first beginning of all things CHAP. III. Of principles or first beginnings what they be THALES the Milesian affirmed that Water was the first principle of the whole world and this man seemeth to have beene the first author of philosophie and of him tooke the Ionique fect of Philosophers their name for many families there were successively of Philosophers who having studied Philosophie in Aegypt went to Miletum when hee was farre stept in yeeres where he mainteined this position That all things were made of Water so all things were to be resolved againe into Water The reasons of this conjecture of his were these first because naturall seed is the principle and beginning of all living creatures and that is of a moist substance therefore probable it is that all other things likewise have humiditie for their principle secondly for that all sorts of plants be nourished by moisture which if they want they wither and fade away thirdly considering that the fire or the sunne it selfe and the starres is nourished and mainteined by vapours proceeding from the waters the whole world also by consequence consisteth of the same which is the reason that Homer supposing all things to be engendred of water saith thus The ocean sea from whence 〈◊〉 thing 〈◊〉 is and hath beginning But ANAXIMANDER the Milesian holdeth that Infinitie is the principle of al for every thing proceedeth from it resolveth into it againe therefore there be engendred infinit worlds and those vanish againe into that whereof they bee engendred and why is there this Infinitie Because quoth he there should never faile any generation but still have 〈◊〉 howbeit even he also erreth heerein for that he declareth not what is this Infinitie whereof he speaketh whether it be aire water or any other body he faileth likewise in this that he putteth downe a subject matter but overthroweth the efficient cause for this Infinity whereof he talketh is nothing else but matter and matter cannot atteine to perfection nor come into act unlesse there be some mooving and efficient cause ANAXIMENES the Milesian mainteineth that aire is the principle of the world for that all things come of it and returne unto it Like as quoth he our soule which is aire keepeth us alive even so spirit and aire mainteine the Being of the whole world for spirit and aire be two words signifying both one thing But this Philosopher is out of the way as well as the rest in that hee thinketh that living creatures be composed of a simple spirit or uniforme aire and impossible it is that there should be but one principle of all things to wit matter but there ought withall to be supposed an efficient cause for it is not enough to be provided of silver or gold for to make a vessell or piece of plate if there come not unto it the efficient cause to wit the gold-smith semblably we are to say of brasse wood and all other sorts of matter ANAXAGORAS the Clazomenian is perswaded and so teacheth That the principles of the world and all that therein is are small like parcels which hee tearmeth Homaeomeries for hee thought it altogether absurd and impossible that any thing should bee made of that which is not or bee dissolved into that which hath no being for howsoever we take our nourishment simple and uniforme as for example eat bread of corne and drinke water yet with this nutriment are nourished haires veines arteries sinewes bones and other parts of the bodie which being so Confesse wee must quoth hee likewise that in this food which wee receive are all things which have their Being and that all things doe grow and encrease of that which hath Being so that in this nourishment be those parcels which breed bloud sinewes bones and other parts of our body which may bee comprehended by discourse of reason for we are not to reduce all unto the outward sense to shew and proove that bread and water effect these things but it may suffice that in them these parts are conceived by reason Inasmuch therefore as in nourishment there be parcels semblable unto that which they breed in that regard he called them Homaeomeries affirming them to be the principles of all things and even so he would have these semblable parcels to be the matter of all things and for efficient cause he setteth downe a Minde or understanding that ordereth and disposeth al. And thus beginneth he to goe to worke and reasoneth in this wise All things at first were consumed and hudled together pell mell but that Minde or understanding doth sever dispose and set them in order in this one thing yet he hath done wel and is to be commended that unto the matter he hath adjoined a workman ARCHELAUS an Athenian the sonne of Apollodorus affirmeth that the principle of all things was the infinit aire together with the condensation and rarefaction thereof of which the one is fire and the other water and these Philosophers following by continuall succession one upon another after Thales made that sect which is called 〈◊〉 But from another head PYTHAGORAS the sonne of Mnesarchus a Samian borne the first author of the name of Philosophie held that the principle of all things were Numbers and their symmetries that is to say the proportions that they have in their correspondency one unto another which hee calleth otherwise Harmonies those elements that be composed of them both are tearmed by him 〈◊〉 furthermore hee reckoneth among Principles Unitie and Twaine indefioit of which the one tendeth and hasteneth to an efficient and specificall cause to wit a Minde and the same is God the other unto a passive and materiall cause namely the visible world Moreover he thought that the Denarie or Ten was the absolute nature and perfection of numbers for that all men as well Greeks as Barbarians count untill ten and when they be thither come they returne backe againe unto unitie over and besides hee said That all the power of ten consisted within fower and in a quaternarie the reason is this
maner of Gods service and worship declare the same unto us after three sorts the first naturall the second fabulous and the third civill that is to say restified by the statutes and ordinances of every city and State the naturall is taught by philosophers the fabulous by poets the civill and legall by the customes of ech citie but all this doctrine and maner of teaching is divided into seven sorts the first consisteth in the celestiall bodies appearing aloft in heaven for men had an apprehension of God by starres that shew above seeing how they are the causes of great symphonie and accord and that they keepe a certeine constant order of day and night of Winter and Summer of rising and setting yea and among those living creatures and fruits which the earth beneath bringeth forth whereupon it hath bene thought that heaven was the father and earth the mother to these for that the powring downe of showers and raine seemed in stead of naturall seeds and the earth as a mother to conceive and bring the same forth Men also seeing and considering the starres alwaies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say holding on their course and that they were the cause that we did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say beholde and contemplate therefore they called the sunne and moone c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say gods of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say to run and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say to behold Now they range the gods into a second and third degree namely by dividing them into those that be prositable and such as are hurtfull calling the good and profitable Jupiter Juno Mercurie and Ceres but the noisome and hurtfull 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say maligne spirits 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say furies and Ares that is to say Mars whom they detested as badde and violent yea and devised meanes to appease and qualifie their wrath Moreover the fourth and fifth place and degree they attributed unto affaires passions and affections namely love Venus lust or desire and as for affaires they had hope justice good policie and equitie In the sixth place be those whom the poets have fained for 〈◊〉 being minded to set downe a father for the gods begotten and engendred devised and brought in such progenitors as these To wit 〈◊〉 Ceus and Crius Hyperion and Iapetus whereupon all this kind is named Fabulous But in the seventh place are those who were adorned with divine honors in regard of the great benefits and good deeds done unto the common life of mankind although they were begotten and borne after the maner of men and such were Hercules Castor Pollux and 〈◊〉 and these they said had an humane forme for that as the most noble and excellent nature of all is that of gods so of living creatures the most beautiful is man as adorned with sundry vertues above the rest and simply the best considering the constitution of his minde and soule they thought it therefore meet and reasonable that those who had done best and performed most noble acts resembled that which was the most beautifull and excellent of all other CHAP. VII What is God SOme of the philosophers and namely Diagor as of the isle of Melos Theodorus the Cyrenaean and Euemerus of Tegea held resolutely that there were no gods And verily as touching Euemerus the poet Callimachus of Cyrene writeth covertly in Iambique verses after this maner All in a troupe into that chapell go Without the walles the city not farre fro Whereas sometime that old vain-glorious asse When as he had the image cast in brasse Of Jupiter proceeded for to write Those wicked books which shame was to indite And what books were they even those wherein he discoursed that there were no gods at all And Euripides the tragaedian poet although he durst not discover set abroad in open 〈◊〉 the same for feare of that high court and councell of Areopagus yet he signified as much in this maner for he brought in Sisyphus as the principall author of this opinion and afterwards favourizeth even that sentence of his himselfe for thus he saith The time was when the life of man was rude And as wilde beasts with reason not endu'd Disordinate when wrong was done alway As might and force in ech one bare the sway But afterwards these enormities were laied away and put downe by the bringing in of lawes howbeit for that the law was able to represse injuries and wicked deeds which were notorious and evidently seene and yet many men notwithstanding offended and sinned secretly then some wise man there was who considered and thought with himselfe that needfull it was alwaies to blindfold the trueth with some devised and forged lies yea and to perswade men that A God there is who lives immortally Who heares who sees and knowes all woondrously For away quoth he with vaine dreames and poeticall fictions together with Callimachus who saith If God thou knowest wot well his power divine All things can well performe and bring to fine For God is not able to effect all things for say there be a God let him make snow blacke fire cold him that sitteth or lieth to stand upright or the contrary at one instant and even Plato himselfe that speaketh so bigge when he saith That God created and formed the world to his owne pattern and likenesse smelleth heerein very strongly of some old dotards foolerie to speake according to the poets of the old comedie For how could hee looke upon himselfe quoth he to frame the world according to his owne similitude of how hath he made it round in manner of a globe being himselfe lower than a man ANAXAGORAS is of opinion that the first bodies in the beginning stood still and stirred not but then the minde and understanding of God digested and aranged them in order yea and effected the generations of all things in the universall world PLATO is of a contrary mind saying That those first bodies were not in repose but that they moved confusedly and without order whereupon God quoth he knowing that order was much better than disorder and confusion disposed all these things but as well the one as the other have heerein faulted in common for that they imagined and devised that God was entangled and encumbred with humane affaires as also that he framed the world in regard of man and for the care that he had of him for surely living as he doth happy immortal acomplished with all sorts of good things and wholly exempt from all evill as being altogether implored and given to prefer and mainteine his owne beatitude and immortallity he intermedleth not in the affaires and occasions of men for so he should be as unhappy and 〈◊〉 as some 〈◊〉 mason or labouring workman bearing heavie burdens travelling and sweting about the 〈◊〉 of the world Againe this god of who they
speake of necessity either was not before the creation of the world at what time as those first bodies lay still unmoveable or stirred confusedly or else if he were before he either slept or watched or did neither the one nor the other but as the former of these we may not admit for that God is eternall so the latter we cannot 〈◊〉 for if God slept from all eternity and time out of minde he was no better than dead for what is eternal sleep other than death but surely God is not subject to death for the immortallity of God and this vicinity to death are much distant asunder and cannot stand both together but if wee say that God was awake all that while either he was defectuous in his blessed state of felicity or els he enjoyed the same complet but in the first condition God is not happy for whatsoever wanteth ought of felitity cannot be happy and verily in the second state he is not better for if he were defective in nothing before to what purpose busied he himselfe in such vaine enterprises moreover if there be a God and that by his prudent care mens affaires be governed how commeth it to passe that wicked men prosper in the world and finde fortune their 〈◊〉 mother but the good and honest suffer the contrary and feele her to be a curst stepdame for king Agamemnon as the poet faith Aprince right good and gracious A knight with all most 〈◊〉 was by an adulterer and adulteresse surprised and murdered trecherously and Hercules one of his race and kinred after he had ridde and purged the life of man from so many monsters that troubled his reposewas poisoned by Deianeira and so by indirect meanes lost his life THALES saith that God is the soule of the world ANAXIMANDER is of opinion that the starres be celestiall gods DEMOCRITUS is perswaded that God is a minde of a fierie nature and the soule of the world PYTHAGORAS affirmeth that of the two first principles Unitie was God and the soveraigne good which is the very nature of one and is Understanding it selfe but the indefinite binarie is the divell and evill about which is the multitude materiall and the visible world SOCRATES and PLATO doe hold that he is one and of a simple nature begotten and borne of himselfe alone truly good All which tearmes and attributes tend unto a Minde so that this minde is God a forme separate apart that is to say neither mingled with any matter nor entangled and joined with any thing passible whatsoever ARISTOTLE supposeth that this supreme God is an abstract forme setled upon the round sphaere of the universall world which is an heavenly and celestiall body and therefore tearmed by him the fifth body or quinta essentia which celestial body being divided into many sphaeres coherent by nature but separate and distinct by reason and understanding hee thinketh each of these sphaeres to be a kinde of animall composed of body and soule of which twaine the bodie is celestiall mooving circularly and the soule reason unmooveable in it selfe but the cause in effect of motion The Stoicks teach after a more generall manner and define God to be a working and artificiall fire proceeding methodically and in order to the generation of the world which comprehendeth in itselfe all the spermaticall proportions and reasons of seed according to which every thing by fatall destinie is produced and commeth foorth also to be a spirit piercing and spreading through the whole world howbeit changing his denomination throughout the whole matter as it passeth by transition from the one to the other Semblably that the world is God the starres likewise and the earth yea and the supreme minde above in heaven Finally Epicurus conceiveth thus of the gods that they all have the forme of man and yet be perceptable onely by reason and cogitation in regard of the subtile parts and fine nature of their imaginative figures he also affirmeth that those other foure natures in generall be incorruptible to wit the atomes vacuitie infinitie and resemblances which also be called semblable parcels and elements CHAP. VIII Of Daemons and demy-gods otherwise named Heroes TO this treatise of the gods meet it is to adjoine a discourse as touching the nature of Daemones and Heroes THALES PYTHAGORAS PLATO and the STOICKS hold that these Daemons be spirituall substances and the Heroes soule separate from their bodies of which sort there be good and bad the good Heroes are the good soules and the bad Heroes the bad soules but EPICURUS admitteth none of all this CHAP. IX Of Matter MAtter is the first and principall subject exposed to generation corruption and other mutations The Sectaries of THALES and PYTHAGORAS together with the Stoicks doe say that this Matter is variable mutable alterable and fluxible all wholly thorow the universall world The disciples and followers of DEMOCRITUS are of opinion that the first principles be impassible to wit the small indivisible bodie Atomos Voidnesse and Incorporall ARISTOTLE and PLATO doe holde that Matter is corporall without forme shape figure and qualitie in the owne nature and propertie but when it hath received formes once it becommeth as it were a nurse a molde pattern and a mother They who set downe for this Matter water earth fire or aire do not say that now it is without forme but that it is a very bodie but such as affirme that these Atomes and indivisible bodies be the said Matter make it altogether formelesse CHAP. X. Of Idea IDea is a bodilesse substance which of it selfe hath no subsistence but giveth figure and forme unto shapelesse matters and becommeth the very cause that bringeth them into shew and evidence SOCRATES and PLATO suppose that these Ideae bee substances separate and distinct from Matter howbeit subsisting in the thoughts and imaginations of God that is to say of Minde and Understanding ARISTOTLE admitteth verily these formes and Ideae howbeit not separate from matter as being the patterns of all that which God hath made The STOICKS such as were the scholars of Zeno have delivered that our thoughts and conceits were the Ideae CHAP. XI Of Causes A Cause is that whereupon dependeth or followeth an effect or by which any thing hapneth PLATO hath set downe three kinds of Causes and those are distinguished by these tearmes By which Of which and For which but he taketh the most principall to be that By which that is to say the efficient cause which is the minde or understanding PYTHAGORAS and ARISTOTLE do hold that the principall Causes be incorporall and as for other Causes either by participation or by accident they are of a corporal substance and so the world is a bodie But the STOICKS are of opinion that all Causes are corporall inasmuch as they be spirits CHAP. XII Of Bodies A Bodie is measurable and hath three dimensions length bredth and depth or thicknesse Or thus A Bodie is a masse that resisteth touching naturally of it selfe
and DEMOCRITUS were of opinion that all things were made by Necessitie and that destinie justice providence and the Creatour of the world were all one CHAP. XXVI Of the Essence of Necessitie PLATO referreth some events to providence and others he attributeth to Necessitie EMPEDOCLES saith that the Essence of Necessitie is a cause apt to make use of the principles and elements DEMOCRITUS affirmeth it to be the resistance the lation motion and permission of the matter PLATO holdeth it to be one while matter it selfe and another while the habitude of that which is agent to the matter CHAP. XXVII Of Destinie HERACLITUS affirmeth that all things were done by fatall Destinie and that it and Necessitie be both one PLATO admitteth willingly this Destinie in the soules lives and actions of men but hee inferreth withall a cause proceeding from our selves The STOICKES likewise according with the opinion of Plato do hold that Necessitie is a cause invincible most violent and inforcing all things also that Destinie is a connexion of causes interlaced linked orderly in which concatenation or chaine is therein comprised also that cause which proceedeth from us in such sort as some events are destined and others not CHAP. XXVIII Of the substance of 〈◊〉 HERACLITUS saith that the substance of Destinie is the reason that pierceth throughout the substance of the universall world PLATO affirmeth it to be an eternall reason and a perpetuall law of the nature of the whole world CHRYSIPPUS holdeth it to be a certaine puissance spirituall which by order governeth and administreth all things And againe in his booke of definitions hee writeth thus Destinie is the reason of the world or rather the law of all things in the world administred and governed by providence or else the reason whereby things past have beene things present are and future things shall be The STOICKES are of opinion that it is the chaine of causes that is to say an order and connexion which cannot be surmounted and transgressed POSIDONIUS supposeth it to be the third after Jupiter for that Jupiter is in the first degree Nature in the second and fatall Destinie in the third CHAP. XXIX Of Fortune PLATO defineth Fortune to be in things proceeding from mans counsell and election a cause by accident and a verie casuall consequence ARISTOTLE holdeth it to be an accidentall cause in those things which from some deliberate purpose and impulsion tend to a certaine end which cause is not apparent but hidden and uncertaine And he putteth a difference between Fortune and rash adventure for that all Fortune in the affaires and actions of this world is adventurous but everie adventure is not by and by Fortune for that it consisteth in things without action againe Fortune is properly in actions of reasonable creatures but adventure indifferently in creatures as well unreasonable as reasonable yea and in those bodies which have neither life nor soule EPICURUS saith that Fortune is a cause which will not stand and accord with persons times and manners ANAXAGORAS and the STOICKS affirme it to be a cause unknowne and hidden to humane reason for that some things come by necessitie others by fatall destinie some by deliberate counsell others by Fortune and some againe by casualitie or adventure CHAP. XXX Of Nature 〈◊〉 holdeth that Nature is nothing only that there is a mixture and divulsion or separation of Elements for in this manner writeth he in the first booke of his Phisicks This one thing more I will yet say of things that be humane And Mortall mature none there is and deaths end is but vaine Amixture and divulsion of Elements and of all Onely there is and this is that which men do Nature call Semblably ANAXAGORAS saith that Nature is nothing else but a concretion and dissipation that is to say generation and corruption THE SECOND BOOKE OF Philosophers opinions The Prooeme HAving now finished the Treatise of PRINCIPLES ELEMENTS and such other matters linked and concurring with them I will turne my pen unto the discourse as touching their effects and works composed of them beginning first at that which is most spatious and capable of all things CHAP. I. Of the World PYTHAGORAS was the first who called the Roundle that containeth and comprehendeth all to wit the World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the orderly digestion observed therein THALES and his disciples held that there is but one World DEMOCRITUS EPICURUS and their scholler METRODORUS affirme that there be innumerable Worlds in an infinite space according to all dimensions and circumstances EMPEDOCLES saith that the course and race of the Sunne is the verie circumscription of the bounds and limits of the World and that it is the verie confinement thereof SELEUCUS held the World to be infinite DIOGENES affirmed the universalitie to be infinite but the world finite and determinate The STOICKS put a difference betweene universall and whole for they say that the universall together with voidnesse is infinite and that the whole without voidnes is the World so as these termes the Whole and the World be not both one CHAP. II. Of the figure and forme of the World THe STOICKS affirme the World to be round some say it is pointed or pyramidal others that it is fashioned in manner of an egge but EPICURUS holdeth that his Worlds may be round and it may be that they are apt besides to receive other formes CHAP. III. Whether the World be animate or endued with a soule ALL other Philosophers agree that the World is animate governed by providence but DEMOCRITUS EPICURUS and as many as maintaine ATOMES and with all bring in VACUITY that it is neither animate nor governed by providence but by a certaine nature void of reason ARISTOTLE holdeth that it is not animate wholy and throughout all parts nor sensitive nor reasonable nor yet intellectuall or directed by providence True it is quoth he that celestiall bodies be capable of all these qualities as being compassed about with sphaeres both animate and vitall whereas bodies terrestriall and approching neere unto the earth are endued with none of them and as for the order and decent composition therein it came by accident and not by prepensed reason and counsell CHAP. IIII. Whether the World be incorruptible and eternall PYTHAGORAS and PLATO affirme that the world was ingendred and made by God and of the owne nature being corruptible shall perish for sensible it is and therefore corporall howbeit in regard of the divine providence which preserveth and mainteineth it perish it shall never EPICURUS saith that it is corruptible for that it is engendred like as a living creature or a plant XENOPHANES holdeth the world to be eternall ingenerable uncreated and incorruptible ARISTOTLE is of opinion that the part of the world under the moone is passible wherein the bodies also adjacent to the earth be subject to corruption CHAP. V. Whereof the World is nourished ARISTOTLE saith that if the World be nourished it is
side it lieth lowest of all things in the world and by occasion thereof resteth unmooveable hauing no cause why it should encline more to one part than to another but yet some places of her because of their raritie do jogge and shake EPICURUS keepeth his old tune saying it may well be that the earth being shogged and as it were rocked and beaten by the aire underneath which is grosse and of the nature of water therefore mooveth and quaketh As also it may be quoth he that being holow and full of holes in the parts below it is forced to tremble and shake by the aire that is gotten within the caves and concavities and there enclosed CHAP. XVI Of the Sea how it was made and commeth to be bitter ANAXIMANDER affirmeth that the Sea is a residue remaining of the primitive humidity whereof the Sunne hauing burnt up and consumed a great part the rest behind he altered and turned from the naturall kind by his excessive ardent heat ANAXAGORAS is of opinion that the said first humiditie being diffused and spred abroad in manner of a poole or great meere was burnt by the motion of the sunne about it and when the oileous substance thereof was exhaled and consumed the rest setled below and turned into a brackish and bitter-saltnesse which is the Sea EMPEDOCLES saith that the Sea is the sweat of the earth enchafed by the sunne being bathed and washed all over aloft ANTISTON thinketh it to be the sweat of heat the moisture whereof which was within being by much seething and boiling sent out becommeth salt a thing ordinary in all sweats METRODORUS supposeth the Sea to be that moisture which running thorough the earth reteined some part of the densitie thereof like as that which passeth through ashes The disciples of PLATO imagine that so much of the elementarie water which is congealed of the aire by refrigeration is sweet and fresh but whatsoever did evaporate by burning and inflammation became salt CHAP. XVII Of the Tides to wit the ebbing and flowing of the sea what is the cause thereof ARISTOTLE and HERACLITUS affirme that it is the sunne which doth it as who stirreth raiseth and carieth about with him the most part of the windes which comming to blow upon the Ocean cause the Atlanticke sea to swell and so make the flux or high water but when the same are allaied and cleane downe the sea falleth low and so causeth a reflux and ebbe or low water PYTHEAS of Marseils referreth the cause of Flowing to the full moone and of Ebbing to the moone in the wane PLATO attributeth all to a certeine rising of the waters saying There is such an elevation that through the mouth of a cave carieth the Ebbe and Flow to and fro by the meanes whereof the seas doe rise and flow contrarily TIMAEUS alledgeth the cause hereof to be the rivers which falling from the mountaines in Gaule enter into the Atlantique sea which by their violent corruptions driving before them the water of the sea cause the Flow and by their ceasing and returne backe by times the Ebbe SELEUCUS the Mathematician who affirmed also that the earth mooved saith that the motion thereof is opposit and contrary to that of the moone also that the winde being driven to and fro by these two contrary revolutions bloweth and beateth upon the Atlanticke ocean troubleth the sea also and no marvell according as it is disquieted it selfe CHAP. XVIII Of the round circle called Halo THis Halo is made after this manner betweene the body of the moone or any other starre and our eie-sight there gathereth a grosse and mistie aire by which aire anon our sight commeth to be reflected and diffused and afterwards the same incurreth upon the said starre according to the exterior circumference thereof and thereupon appeereth a circle round about the starre which being there seene is called Halo for that it seemeth that the apparent impression is close unto that upon which our sight so enlarged as is before said doth fall THE FOURTH BOOKE OF Philosophers opinions The Prooeme HAving runne through the generall parts of the world I will now passe unto the particulars CHAP. I. Of the rising and inundation of Nilus THALES thinketh that the anniversarie windes called Etcsiae blowing directly against Aegypt cause the water of Nilus to swell for that the sea being driven by these windes entreth within the mouth of the said river and hindereth it that it cannot discharge it selfe freely into the sea but is repulsed backward EUTHYMENES of Marseils supposeth that this river is filled with the water of the ocean and the great sea lying without the continent which he imagineth to be fresh and sweet ANAXAGORAS saith that this hapneth by the snowe in Aethiopia which melteth in summer and is congealed and frozen in winter DEMOCRITUS is of opinion that it is long of the snowe in the north parts which about the aestival solstice and returne of the sunne being dissolved and dilated breedeth vapors and of them be engendred clouds which being driven by the Etesian windes into Aethiopia and Aegypt toward the south cause great and violent raines wherewith both lakes and the river also Nilus be filled HERODOTUS the Historian writeth that this river hath as much water from his sources and springs in winter as in summer but to us it seemeth lesse in winter because the sunne being then neerer unto Aegypt causeth the said water to evaporate EPHORUS the Historiographer reporteth that all Aegypt doth resolve and runne at it were wholly into swet in summer time whereunto Arabia and Libya doe conferre and contribute also their waters for that the earth there is light and sandy EUDOXUS saith that the priests of Aegypt assigne the cause hereof to the great raines and the Antiperistasis or contrarie occurse of seasons for that when it is Summer with us who inhabit within the Zone toward the Summer Tropicke it is Winter with those who dwell in the opposit Zone under the Winter Tropicke whereupon saith he proceedeth this great inundation of waters breaking downe unto the river Nilus CHAP. II. Of the Soule THALES was the first that defined the Soule to be a nature moving alwaies or having motion of it selfe PYTHAGORAS saith it is a certeine number moving it selfe and this number he taketh for intelligence or understanding PLATO supposeth it to be an intellectuall substance mooving it selfe and that according to harmonicall number ARISTOTLE is of opinion that it is the first Entelechia or primitive act of a naturall and organicall bodie having life potentially DICEARCHUS thinketh it to be the harmonie and concordance of the foure elements ASCLEPIADES the Physician defineth it to be an exercise in common of all the senses together CHAP. III. Whether the Soule be a body and what is the substance of it ALl these Philsosophers before rehearsed suppose that the Soule is incorporall that of the owne nature it mooveth and is a spirituall substance and the action of a
rest of the bodie like unto the armes or hairie braunches of a poulp fish of which seven the naturall senses make five namely Sight Smelling Hearing Tasting and Feeling Of these the Sight is a spirit passing from the chiefest part unto the eies Hearing a spirit reaching from the understand to the eares Smelling a spirit issuing from reason to the nosethirls Tasting a spirit going from the foresaid principall part unto the tongue and last of all Feeling a spirit stretching and extended from the same predominant part as farre as to the sensible superficies of those objects which are easie to be felt and handled Of the twaine behind the one is called genetall seed and that is likewise wise a spirit transmitted from the principall part unto the genetories or members of generation the other which is the seventh and last of all Zeno calleth Vocall and wee Voice a spirit also which from the principall part passeth to the windpipe to the tongue and other instruments appropriat for the voice And to conclude that mistresse her selfe and ladie of the rest is seated as it were in the midst of her owne world within our round head and there dwelleth CHAP. XXII Of Respiration EMPEDOCLES is of opinion that the first Respiration of the first living creature was occasioned when the humiditie in young ones within the mothers wombe retired and the outward aire came to succeed in place thereof and to enter into the void vessels now open to receive the same but afterwards the naturall heat driving without forth this aerie substance for to evaporate and breath away caused exspiration and likewise when the same returned in again there ensued inspiration which gave new entrance to that aerious substance But as touching the Respiration that now is he thinketh it to be when the blood is carried to the exterior superficies of the bodie and by this fluxion doth drive and chase the aerie substance through the nosethirls and cause exspiration and inspiration when the blood returneth inward and when the aire reentreth withall through the rarities which the blood hath left void and emptie And for to make this better to be understood he bringeth in the example of a Clepsidre or water houre-glasse ASCLEPIADES maketh the lungs in manner of a tunnel supposing that the cause of Respiration is the aire smooth and of subtil parts which is within the breast unto which the aire without being thicke and grosse floweth and runneth but is repelled backe againe for that the brest is not able to receive any more nor yet to be cleane without Now when as there remaineth still behind some little of the subtile aire within the breast for it cannot all be cleane driven out that aire without rechargeth againe with equall force upon that within being able to support and abide the waight thereof and this compareth he to Phisicians ventoses or cupping glasses Moreover as touching voluntarie Respiration he maketh this reason that the smallest holes within the substance of the lungs are drawen together and their pipes closed up For these things obey our will HEROPHILUS leaveth the motive faculties of the bodie unto the nerves arteries and muskles for thus he thinketh and saith that the lungs only have a naturall appetite to dilation and contraction that is to say to draw in and deliver the breath and so by consequence other parts For this is the proper action of the lungs to draw wind from without where with when it is filled there is made another attraction by a second appetition and the breast deriveth the said wind into it which being likewise repleat therewith not able to draw any more it transmitteth backe againe the superfluitie thereof into the lungs whereby it is sent forth by way of exspiration and thus the parts of the bodie reciprocally suffer one of another by way of interchange For when the lungs are occupied in dilatation the breast is busied in contraction and thus they make repletion and evacuation by a mutuall participation one with the other in such sort as we may observe about the lungs foure manner of motions The first whereby it receiveth the aire from without the second by which it transfuseth into the breast that aire which it drew and received from without the third whereby it admitteth againe unto it selfe that which was sent out of the brest and the fourth by which it sendeth quite forth that which so returned into it And of these motions two be dilatations the one occasioned from without the other from the breast and other two contractions the one when the brest draweth wind into it and the other when it doth expell the aire insinuated into it But in the breast parts there be but two onely the one dilatation when it draweth wind from the lungs the other contraction when it rendreth it againe CHAP. XXIII Of the Passion of the body and whether the soule have a fellow-feelling with it of paine and dolour THe STOICKS say that affections are in the passible parts but senses in the principall part of the soule EPICURUS is of opinion that both the affections and also the senses are in the passible places for that reason which is the principall part of the soule he holdeth to be unpassible STRATO contrariwise affirmeth that as well the Passions of the soule as the senses are in the said principall part and not in the affected and grieved places for that in it consisteth patience which we may observe in terrible and dolorous things as also in fearefull and maguanimous persons THE FIFTH BOOKE OF Philosophers opinions CHAP. I. Of Divination PLATO and the STOICKS bring in a fore-deeming and fore-knowledge of things by inspiration or divine instinct according to the divinity of the soule namely when as it is ravished with a fanaticall spirit or revelation by dreames and these admit and allow many kinds of divination XENOPHANES and EPICURUS on the contrary side abolish and annull all Divination whatsoever PYTHAGORAS condemneth that onely which is wrought by sacrifices ARISTOTLE DICEARCHUS receive none but that which commeth by Divine inspiration or by dreames not supposing the soule to be immortall but to have some participation of Divinitie CHAP. II. How Dreames are caused DEMOCRITUS is of of opinion that Dreames come by the representation of images STRATO saith that our understanding is I wot not how naturally and yet by no reason more sensative in sleepe than otherwise and therefore sollicited the rather by the appetit and desire of knowledge HEROPHILUS affirmeth that Dreames divinely inspired come by necessitie but natural Dreames by this meanes that the soule formeth an image and representation of that which is good and commodious unto it and of that which must ensue thereupon as for such as be of a mixt nature of both they fall out casually by an accidentall accesse of images namely when we imagine that we see that which wee desire as it falleth out with those who in their sleepe thinke they have their
those places where the aire toucheth them the bones of water and earth within and of these fower medled and contempered together sweat and teares proceed CHAP. XXIII When and how doth man begin to come to his perfection HERACLITUS and the STOICKS suppose that men doe enter into their perfection about the second septimane of their age at what time as their naturall seed doth moove and runne for even the very trees begin then to grow unto their perfection namely when as they begin to engender their 〈◊〉 for before then unperfect they are namely so long as they be unripe and fruitlesse and therefore a man likewise about that time is perfect and at this septenarie of yeeres he beginneth to conceive and understand what is good and evill yea and to learne the same Some thinke that a man is consummate at the end of the third septimane of yeeres what time as he maketh use of his full strength CHAP. XXIIII In what manner Sleepe is occasioned or death ALCMEON is of this mind that Sleepe is caused by the returne of blood into the confluent veines and Waking is the diffusion and spreading of the said blood abroad but Death the utter departure thereof EMPEDOCLES holdeth that Sleepe is occasioned by a moderate cooling of the naturall heat of blood within us and Death by an extreme coldnesse of the said blood DIOGENES is of opinion that if blood being diffused and spred throughout fill the veines and withall drive backe the aire setled 〈◊〉 into the breast and the interior belly under it then ensueth Sleepe and the breast with the precordiall parts are 〈◊〉 thereby but if that aereous substance in the 〈◊〉 exspire altogether and exhale forth presently 〈◊〉 Death PLATO and the 〈◊〉 affirme that the 〈◊〉 of Sleep is the 〈◊〉 of the spirit sensitive not by way of 〈◊〉 and to the earth 〈◊〉 by elevation aloft namely when it is carried to the 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 between the 〈◊〉 the very 〈◊〉 of reason but when there is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the 〈◊〉 sensitive 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 Death doth ensue CHAP. XXV Whether of the twaine it is that 〈◊〉 or dieth the Soule or the Bodie ARISTOTLE vorely 〈◊〉 that Sleepe is common to Bodie and Soule both and the cause thereof is a certaine humiditie which doth steeme and arise in manner of a vapour out of the stomack and the food therein up into the region of the head and the naturall heat about the heart cooled thereby But death he deemeth to be an entire and totall refrigeration and the same of the Bodie onely and in no wise of the Soule for it is immortall ANAXAGORAS saith that Sleepe belongeth to corporall action as being a passion of the Bodie and not of the Soule also that there is 〈◊〉 wife a certaine death of the Bodie to wit the separation of it and the Bodie 〈◊〉 LEUCIPPUS is of opinion that Sleepe pertaineth to the Bodie onely by concretion of that which was of subtile parts but the excessive excretion of the animall heat is Death which both saith he be passions of the Bodie and not of the Soule EMPEDOCLES saith that Death is a separation of those elements whereof mans Bodie is compounded according to which position Death is common to Soule and Bodie and Sleep a certaine dissipation of that which is of the nature of fire CHAP. XXVI How Plants come to grow and whether they be animate PLATO and EMPEDOCLES hold that Plants have life yea and be animall creatures which appeareth say they by this that they wag to and fro and stretch forth their boughs like armes also that when they be violently strained and bent they yeeld but if they be let loose they returne againe yea in their growth are able to overcome waight laid upon them ARISTOTLE granteth that they be living creatures but not animall for that animal creatures have motions and appetites are sensitive and endued with reason The STOICKS and the EPIGUREANS hold that they have no soule or life at all for of animallcreatures some have the appetitive concupsicible soule others the reasonable but Plants grow after a sort casually of their owne accord and not by the meanes of any soule EMPEDOCLES saith that Trees sprang and grew out of the ground before animall creatures to wit ere the Sunne desplaied his beames and before that day and night were distinct Also that according to the proportion of temperature one came to be named Male another Female that they 〈◊〉 up and grow by the power of heat within the earth in such sort as they be parts of the earth like as unborne fruits in the wombe be parts of the matrice As for the fruits of trees they are the superfluous excrements of water and fire but such as have defect of that humiditie when it is dried up by the heat of the Summer lose their leaves whereas they that have plentie thereof keepe their leaves on still as for example the Laurell Olive and Date tree Now as touching the difference of their juices and sapors it proceedeth from the diversitie of that which nourisheth them as appeareth in Vines for the difference of Vine trees maketh not the goodnesse of Vines for to be drunke but the nutriment that the territorie and soile doth affoord CHAP. XXVII Of 〈◊〉 and Growth EMPEDOCLES is of opinion that animall creatures are nourished by the substance of that which is proper and familiar unto them that they grow by the presence of naturall heat that they diminish 〈◊〉 and perish through the default both of the one and the other And as for men now a daies living in comparison of their auncestos they be but babes new borne CHAP. XXVIII How 〈◊〉 creatures came to have appetite and pleasure EMPEDOCLES supposeth that Lust and Appetites are incident to animall creatures through the defect of those elements which went unto the framing of ech one that pleasures arise from humiditie as for the motions of perils and such like as also troubles and hinderances c. **** CHAP. XXIX After what sort a Fever is engendred and whether it is an accessary to another malady ERASISTRATUS defineth a Fever thus A Fever quoth he is the motion of bloud which is entred into the veines or vessels proper unto the spirits to wit the arteries and that against the will of the patient for like as the sea when nothing troubleth it lieth still and quiet but if a boisterous and violent winde be up and bloweth upon it contrary unto nature it surgeth and riseth up into billowes even from the very bottom so in the body of man when the bloud is mooved it invadeth the vitall and spirituall vessels and being set on fire it enchafeth the whole body And according to the same physicians opinion a Fever is an accessary or consequent comming upon another disease But DIOCLES affirmeth that Symptones apparent without foorth doe shew that which lieth hidden within Now we see that an Ague followeth upon those accidents
that outwardly appeere as for example wounds inflammations impostumes biles and botches in the share and other emunctories CHAP. XXX Of Health Sicknesse and old age ALCMAEON is of opinion that the equall dispensing and distribution of the faculties in the body to wit of moisture heat drinesse cold bitter sweet and the rest is that which holdeth maintaineth Health contrariwise the monarchie that is to say the predominant soveraignty of any of them causeth sicknesse for the predomination and principality of any one bringeth the corruption of all the other and is the very cause of maladies the efficient in regard of excessive heat or cold and the materiall in respect of superabundance or defect of humors like as in some there is want of bloud or brain whereas Health is a proportionable temperature of all these qualities DIOCLES supposeth that most diseases grow by the inequality of the elements and of the habit and constitution of the body ERASISTRATUS saith that sicknesse proceedeth from the excesse of feeding from crudities indigestions and corruption of meat whereas good order and suffisance is Health The STOICKS accord heereunto and hold that Old age commeth for want of naturall heat for they who are most furnished therewith live longest and be old a great time ASCLEPIADES reporteth that the Aethiopians age quickly namely when they be thirtie yeeres old by reason that their bodies bee over-heat and even burnt againe with the sunne whereas in England and all 〈◊〉 folke in their age continue 120. yeeres for that those parts be cold and in that people the naturall heat by that meanes is united and kept in their bodies for the bodies of the Aethiopians are more open and rare in that they be relaxed and resolved by the sunnes heat Contrariwise their bodies who live toward the North pole bee more compact knit and fast and therefore such are long lived ROMANE QVESTIONS THAT IS TO SAY AN ENQUIRIE INTO THE CAUSES OF MANIE FASHIONS AND CUSTOMES OF ROME A Treatise fit for them who are conversant in the reading of Romane histories and antiquities giving a light to many places otherwise obscure and hard to be understood 1 What is the reason that new wedded wives are bidden to touch fire and water 1 IS it because that among the elements and principles whereof are composed naturall bodies the one of these twaine to wit fire is the male and water the female of which that infuseth the beginning of motion and this affoordeth the propertie of the subject and matter 2 Or rather for that as the fire purgeth and water washeth so a wise ought to continue pure chaste and cleane all her life 3 Or is it in this regard that as fire without humidity yeeldeth no nourishment but is dry and moisture without heat is idle fruitlesse and barren even so the male is feeble and the female likewise when they be apart and severed a sunder but the conjunction of two maried folke yeeldeth unto both their cohabitation and perfection of living together 4 Or last of all because man and wife ought not to forsake and abandon one another but to take part of all fortunes though they had no other good in the world common betweene them but fire and water onely 2 How is it that they use to light at weddings five torches and neither more nor lesse which they call Wax-lights 1 WHether is it as Varro saith because the Praetours or generals of armies use three and the Aediles two therefore it is not meet that they should have more than the Praetours and Aediles together considering that new maried folke goe unto the Aediles to light their fire 2 Or because having use of many numbers the odde number seemed unto them as in all other respects better and more perfect than the even so it was fitter and more agreeable for marriage for the even number implieth a kinde of discord and division in respect of the equall parts in it meet for siding quarrell and contention whereas the odde number cannot be divided so just equally but there will remaine somwhat still in common for to be parted Now among al odde numbers it seemeth that Cinque is most nuptial best beseeming mariage for that 〈◊〉 is the first odde number Deuz the first even of which twaine five is compounded as of the male and the female 3 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 because light is a signe of being and of life and a woman may beare at the most five children at one burden and so they used to cary five tapers or waxe candels 4 Or lastly for that they thought that those who were maried had need of five gods and goddesses namely Jupiter genial Juno genial Venus Suade and above all Diana whom last named women in their labour and travell of childe-birth are wont to call upon for helpe 3 What is the cause that there being many Temples of Diana in Rome into that onely which standeth in the 〈◊〉 street men enter not 1 IS it not because of a tale which is told in this maner In old time a certeine woman being come thither for to adore and worship this goddesse chaunced there to bee abused and suffer violence in her honor and he who forced her was torne in pieces by hounds upon which accident ever after a certeine superstitious feare possessed mens heads that they would not presume to goe into the said temple 4 Wherefore is it that in other temples of Diana men are woont ordinarily to set up and fasten Harts hornes onely in that which is upon mount Aventine the hornes of oxen and other beefes are to be seene MAy it not be that this is respective to the remembrance of an ancient occurrent that sometime befell For reported it is that long since in the Sabines countrey one Antion Coratius had a cow which grew to be exceeding faire and woonderfull bigge withall above any other and a certeine wizard or soothfaier came unto him and said How predestined it was that the citie which sacrificed that cow unto Diana in the mount Aventine should become most puissant and rule all Italy This Coratius therefore came to Rome of a deliberate purpose to sacrifice the said cow accordingly but a certaine houshold servant that he had gave notice secretly unto king Servius Tullius of this prediction delivered by the abovesaid soothfaier whereupon Servius acquainted the priest of Diana Cornelius with the matter and therefore when Antion Coratius presented himselfe for to performe his sacrifice Cornelius advertised him first to goe downe into the river there to wash for that the custome and maner of those that sacrificed was so to doe now whiles Antion was gone to wash himselfe in the river Servius steps into his place prevented his returne sacrificed the cow unto the goddesse and nailed up the hornes when he had so done within her temple Juba thus relateth this historie and Varro likewise saving that Varro expressely fetteth not downe the name of Antion neither doth he write
and above all others when Oeonus the sonne of Licymnius was slaine by a dog he was enforced by the Hippocoontides to give the battell in which he lost many of his friends and among the rest his owne brother Iphicles 91 Wherefore was it not lawfull for the Patricians or nobles of Rome to dwell upon the mount Capitoll MIght it not be in regard of M. Manlius who dwelling there attempted and plotted to be king of Rome and to usurpe tyrannie in hatred and detestation of whom it is said that ever after those of the house of Manlij might not have Marcus for their fore-name Or rather was not this an old feare that the Romans had time out of mind For albeit Valerius Poplicola was a personage verie popular and well affected unto the common people yet never ceased the great and mightie men of the citie to suspect and traduce him nor the meane commoners and multitude to feare him untill such time as himselfe caused his owne house to be demolished and pulled down because it seemed to overlooke and commaund the common market place of the citie 〈◊〉 What is the reason that he who saved the life of a citizen in the warres was rewarded with a coronet made of oake braunches WAs it not for that in everie place and readily they might meet with an oake as they matched in their warlike expeditions Or rather because this maner of garland is dedicated unto Jupiter and Juno who are reputed protectors of cities Or might not this be an ancient custome proceeding from the Arcadians who have a kind of consanguinitie with oakes for that they report of themselves that they were the first men that issued out of the earth like as the oake of all other trees 93 Why observe they the Vultures or Geirs most of any other fowles in taking of presages by bird-flight IS it not because at the foundation of Rome there appeared twelve of them unto Romulus Or because this is no ordinarie bird nor familiar for it is not so easie a matter to meete with an airie of Vultures but all on a sudden they come out of some strange countrey and therefore the sight of them doth prognosticke and presage much Or else haply the Romains learned this of Hercules if that be true which Hero dot us reporteth namely that Hercules tooke great contentment when in the enterprise of any exploit of his there appeared Vultures unto him for that he was of opinion that the Vulture of all birds of prey was the justest for first and formost never toucheth he ought that hath life neither killeth hee any living creature like as eagles falcons hauks and other fowles do that prey by night but feedeth upon dead carrions over and besides he forbeareth to set upon his owne kind for never was there man yet who saw a Vulture eat the slesh of any fowle like as eagles and other birds of prey do which chase pursue and plucke in pieces those especially of the same kind to wit other fowle And verily as Aeschylus the poet writeth How can that bird which bird doth eat Be counted cleanly pure andneat And as for men it is the most innocent bird and doth least hurt unto them of all other for it destroieth no fruit nor plant whatsoever neither doth it harme to any tame creature And if the tale be true that the Aegyptians doe tell that all the kinde of these birds be females that they conceive and be with yoong by receiving the East-wind blowing upon them like as some trees by the Western wind it is verie profitable that the signes and prognosticks drawen from them be more sure and certaine than from any others considering that of all besides their violence in treading and breeding time their eagernesse in flight when they pursue their prey their flying away from some and chasing of others must needs cause much trouble and uncertaintie in their prognostications 94 Why stands the temple of Aesculapius without the citie of Rome IS it because they thought the abode without the citie more holesome than that within For in this regard the Greekes ordinarily built the temples of Aesculapius upon high ground wherein the aire is more pure and cleere Or in this respect that this god 〈◊〉 was sent for out of the citie Epidaurus And true it is that the Epidaurians founded his temple not within the walles of their city but a good way from it Or lastly for that the serpent when it was landed out of the galley in the Isle and then vanished out of sight seemed thereby to tell them where he would that they should build the place of his abode 95 Why doth the law for 〈◊〉 them that are to live chaste the eating of pulse AS touching beanes is it not in respect of those very reasons for which it is said That the Pythagoreans counted them abominable And as for the richling and rich pease whereof the one in Greeke is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which words seeme to be derived of Erebus that fignifieth the darknesse of hell and of Lethe which is as much as oblivion and one besides of the rivers infernall it carieth some reason that they should be abhorred therfore Or it may be for that the solemne suppers and bankets at funerals for the dead were usually served with pulse above all other viands Or rather for that those who are desirous to be chaste and to live an holy life ought to 〈◊〉 their bodies pure and slender but so it is that pulse be flateous and windy breeding superfluous excrements in the body which had need of great purging and evacuation Or lastly because they pricke and provoke the fleshly lust for that they be full of ventosities 96 What is the reason that the Romans panish the holy Vestall virgins who have suffered their bodies to be abused and defiled by no other meanes than by interring them quicke under the ground IS this the cause for that the maner is to burne the bodies of them that be dead and to burie by the meanes of fire their bodies who have not devoutly and religiously kept or preserved the divine fire seemed not just nor reasonable Or haply because they thought it was not lawfull to kill any person who had bene consecrated with the most holy and religious ceremonies in the world nor to lay violent hands upon a woman consecrated and therefore they devised this invention of suffering them to die of their owne selves namely to let them downe into a little vaulted chamber under the earth where they left with them a lampe burning and somebread with a little water and milke and having so done cast earth and covered them aloft And yet for all this can they not be exempt from a superstitious feare of them thus interred for even to this day the priests going over this place performe I wot not what anniversary services and rites for to appease and pacifie their ghosts
afterwards fell away and came to nothing so as at this present that goodly countrey is become subject and made thrall to the most violent wicked and wretched nation under heaven THE LIVES OF THE ten oratours ANTIPHON I. ANtipho the sonne of Saphilus and borne in the borough and corporation of Karannum was brought up as a scholar under his owne father who kept a Rhetorick schoole whereunto Alcibiades also by report was wont to go and resort when he was a young boy who having gotten sufficiencie of speech and eloquence as some thinke himselfe such was the quicknesse of his wit and inclination of of his nature he betooke himselfe to affaires of State and yet he held a schoole neverthelesse where he was at some difference with Socrates the Philosopher in matter of learning and oratorie not by way of contention and aemulation but in maner of reprehension finding fault with some points as Xenophon testifieth in the first booke of his Commentaries as touching the deeds and sayings of Socrates He penned orations for some citizens at their request for to be pleaded and pronounced in judiciall courts and as it is given out by some was the first who gave himselfe to this course and professed so to do for there is not extant one oration written in maner of a plea by any oratours who lived before his time no more by those that flourished in his daies for it was not the maner yet and custome to compose oraions for others Themistocles I meane Pericles and Aristides notwithstanding that the time presented unto them many occasions yea and meere necessiries so to do neither was it upon their insufficiencie that they thus abstained as it may appeare by that which Historians have written of everie one of these men above mentioned Moreover if we looke into the most ancient oratours whom we can cal to mind to wit Alcibiades Critias Lysius and Archilochus who have written one the same stile and exercised the same forme maner of pleading it wil be found that they all conversed and conferred with Antiphon being now very aged and farre stept in yeeres for being a man of an excellent quicke and readie wit he was the first that made and put forth the Institutions of oratorie so as for his profound knowledge he was surnamed Nestor And Cecilius in a certaine treatise which he compiled of him conjectureth that he had beene sometime schoolemaster to Thucydides the Historiographer for that Antipho is so highly commended by him In his speeches and orations he is verie exquisite and ful of perswasion quicke and subtil in his inventions in difficult matters verie artificiall assailing his adversarie after a covert maner turning his words and sayings respective to the lawes and to move affections withal aiming alwaies to that which is decent seemely and carying the best apparance shew with it He lived about the time of the Persian warre when Gorgias Leontinus the great professor in Rhetoricke flourished being somewhat yonger than he was and he continued to the subversion of the popular state and government which was wrought by the 400 conspirators wherin himselfe seemed to have had a principall hand for that he had the charge and command of two great gallies at sea and was besides a captaine and had the leading of certaine forces during which time he wan the victorie in divers battels and procured unto them the aide of many allies also he moved the young and lustie able man of warre to take armes he rigged manned and set out sixtie gallies and in all their occasions was sent embassadour to the Lacedaemonians when as the citie Ectionia was fortified with a wall but after that those 400 before said were put downe and overthrowen he was together with Archiptolemus one of the 400 accused for the conspiracie condemned and adjudged to the punishment which is due unto traitours His corps was cast forth without sepulture himselfe and all his posteritie registred for infamous persons upon record and yet some there be who report that he was put to death by the 30 tyrants and namely among the rest Lysias testifieth as much in an oration which he made for Antiphoes daughter for a little daughter he had unto whom Calleschrus made claime in right for his wife and that the thirtie tyrants wee they who put him to death Theopompus beareth witnesse in the fifteenth of his Philippickes But more moderne surely was this man and of a later time yea and the sonne of one Lysidonides of whom 〈◊〉 maketh mention as of no wicked man in his commedie called Pytine For how should he who before was executed by those 400 returne to life againe in the time of the thirtie usurpers or tyrants but his death is reported otherwise namely that being verie aged he sailed into Cicily when as the tyrannie of the former Denys was at the highest and when the question was proposed at the table which was the best brasse as some said this and others that he answered that for his part he thought that brasse was best whereof the statues of Harmodius and Aristogiton were made which when Denys heard he imagining that the speech imported thus much covertly as to set on the Syracusians for to attempt some violence upon his person commanded him to be put to death Others report that the said tyrant gave order that he should be made away upon indignation that he skoffed at his tragoedies There be extant in this oratours name three score orations whereof as Cecilius saith 25 are untruly reported to be his Noted he is and taxed by Plato the comicall poet together with Pysander for avarice love of money It is said moreover that he composed certaine tragoedies alone and others with Dionysius the tyrant who joined with him At the same time also when he gave his mind unto Poetrie he devised the art of curing the griefes and maladies of the minde like as physicians pretend skill for to heale the diseases and paines of the bodie Certes having built a little house at Corinth in the market place hee set up a bill on the gate wherein hee made profession That he had the skill to remedie by words those who were vexed and grieved in spirit and he would demaund of those who were amisse the causes of their sorrow and according thereto apply his comforts and consolations Howbeit afterwards supposing this art and profession to be too base and meane for him he turned his studie to Rhetoricke and taught it Some there be who attribute unto Antipho the booke of Glaucus the Rhegine as touching poets but principally is that treatise commended which he made unto Herodotus as also that which is dedicated to Erasistratus touching the Ideaes and the oration of Message which he penned for his owne selfe another against Demosthenes the captaine which he named Paranomon for that he charged him to have broken the lawes Also another oration he wrote against Hippocrates the general commander
sent by king Ptolomaeus surnamed Soter to the city Sinope for to carie the god Serapis together with their captaine Dionysius were by force of winde and tempest driven against their willes beyond the cape or promontorie Malea where they had Peloponnesus on the right hand and when they wandered and were tossed to and fro upon the seas not knowing where they were making account they were lost and cast away there shewed himslefe before the prow of their ship a dolphin which seemed to call unto them and who guided them unto those coasts where there were many commodious havens and faire baies for ships to harbour and ride in with safetie and thus he conducted and accompanied their ship from place to place untill at length he brought it within the rode of Cirrha where after they had sacrificed for their safe arrivall and landing they understood that of two images there they were to have away that of Pluto and carrie it with them but the other of Proserpina to leave behinde them when they had taken onely the mould and patterne thereof Probable it is therefore that the god Apollo carried an affection to this dolphin for that it loveth musicke so well whereupon the poet Pindarus comparing himselfe unto the dolphin saith that he was provoked and stirred up to musicke by the leaping and dauncing of this fish Like as the dolphin swimmes apace Directly forward to that place Whereas the pleasant shawmes do sound And whence their noice doth soone rebound What time both winds and waves do lie At sea and let no harmonie or rather we are to thinke that the god is well affected unto him because he is so kind and loving unto man for the onely creature it is that loveth man for his owne sake and in regard that he is a man whereas of land-beasts some you shall have that love none at all others and those that be of the tamest kinde make much of those onely of whom they have some use and benefit namely such as feed them or converse with them familiarly as the dogge the horse and the elephant and as for swallowes received though they be into our houses where they have enterteinment and whatsoever they need to wit shade harbour and a necessary retrait for their safetie yet they be afraied of man and shun him as if he were some savage beast whereas the dolphin alone of all other creatures in the world by a certeine instinct of nature carrieth that sincere affection unto man which is so much sought for and desired by our best philosophers even without any respect at all of commoditie for having no need at all of mans helpe yet is he neverthelesse friendly and courteous unto all and hath succoured many in their distresse as the storie of Arion will testifie which is so famous as no man is ignorant thereof and even you Aristotimus your owne selfe rehearsed to very good purpose the example of Hesiodus But yet by your good leave my friend Of that your tale you made no end for when you reported unto us the fidelitie of his dogge you should have proceeded farther and told out all not leaving out as you did the narration of the dolphins for surely the notice that the dogge gave by baying barking and running after the murderers with open mouth was I may tell you but a blinde presumption and no evident argument About the citie Nemium the dolphins meeting with the dead corps of a man floting up and downe upon the sea tooke it up and laied it on their backs shifting it from one to another by turnes as any of them were wearie with the carriage and very willingly yea and as it should seeme with great affection they conveied it as farre as to the port Rhium where they laied it downe upon the shore and so made it knowen that there was a man murdered Myrtilus the Lesbian writeth that Aenalus the Acolian being fallen in fansie with a daughter of Phineus who according to the oracle of Amphirite was by the daughters of Pentheus cast downe headlong into the sea threw himselfe after her but there was a dolphin tooke him up and brought him safe unto the isle Lesbos Over and besides the affection and good will which a dolphin bare unto a yoong lad of the citie Iasos was so hot and vehement in the highest degree that if ever one creature was in love with another it was he for there was not a day went over his head but he would disport play and swimme with him yea and suffer himselfe to be handled and tickled by him upon his bare skinne and if the boy were disposed to mount aloft upon his backe he would not refuse nor seeme to avoide him nay hee was verie well content with such a carriage turning what way soever hee reined him or seemed to encline and thus would hee doe in the presence of the Iasians who oftentimes would all runne foorth to the sea side of purpose to behold this sight Well on a daie above the rest when this ladde was upon the dolphins backe there fell an exceeding great shower of raine together with a monstrous storme of haile by reason whereof the poore boy fell into the sea and there died but the dolphin tooke up his bodie dead as it was and together with it shut himselfe upon the land neither would he depart from the corps so long as there was any life in him and so died judging it great reason to take part with him of his death who seemed partly to be the cause thereof In remembrance of which memorable accident the Iasians represent the historie thereof stamped and printed upon their coine to wit a boy riding upon a dolphin which storie hath caused that the fable or tale that goeth of Caeranus is beleeved for a truth for this caeranus as they say borne in Paros chanced to be upon a time at Byzantium where seeing a great draught of dolphins taken up in a casting-net by the fishers whom they meant to kill and cut into pieces bought them all alive and let them go againe into the sea Not long after it hapned that he sailed homeward in a foist of fiftie oares which had aboord by report a number of pyrates and rovers but in the streights betweene Naxos and Paros the vessel was cast away and swallowed up in a gust in which shipwracke when all the rest perished he onely was saved by meanes as they say of a dolphin which comming under his bodie as he was newly plunged into the sea bare him up tooke him upon his backe and carried him as farre as to a certaine cave about Zacynthus and there landed him which place is shewed for a monument at this day and after his name is called Coeranium upon this occasion Archilachus the poet is said to have made these verses Of fiftie men by tempest drown'd And left in sea all dead behind Coeran alone alive was found God Neptune was to him so kind
or distaste that which they feed upon Or because that like as they who boile sea water rid it from that salt brackish and biting qualitie that it hath so in those that are hot by nature the salt savour is dulled and mortified by heat Or rather for that a savour or smacke according as Plato saith is a water or juice passing thorow the stem or stalke of a plant but we see that the sea water rūning as thorow a streiner loseth the saltnesse being the terrestriall and grossest part that is in it And hereupon it is that when as men digge along by the sea side they meet with springs of fresh and potable water And many there be who draw out of the very sea fresh water and good to be drunke namely when it hath 〈◊〉 thorow certeine vessels of wax by reason that the terrestriall and saltish parts thereof be streined out In one word cley or marle also yea and the carrying of sea water in long conduct pipes causeth the same when it is so streined to be potable for that there are kept still in them the terrestriall parts and are not suffered to passe thorow Which being so very probable it is that plants neither receive from without forth any salt savour nor if haply any such qualitie breed in them doe they transfuse the same into their fruits for that the conducts of their pores being very small and streight there can not be transmitted thorow them any grosse or terrestriall substance Or els we must say that saltnesse is in some sort a kinde of bitternesse according as Homer signifieth in these verses Bitter salt-water at mouth he cast againe And all therewith his head did drop amaine And Plato affirmeth that both the one and the other savour is abstersive and liquefactive but the saltish lesse of the twaine as that which is not rough and so it will seeme that bitter differeth from salt in excesse of drinesse for that the salt savour is also a great drier 6 What is the cause that if folke use ordinarily and continually to goe among yong trees or shrubs full of deaw those parts of their bodies which do touch the twigs of the said plants are wont to have a scurfe or mange rise upon their skin IS it as Laet us saith for that the deaw by the subtiltie thereof doth fret and pierce the skin Or rather because like as the blast and mil-deaw is incident to those 〈◊〉 or plants that take wet and be drenched even so when the smoothe and tender superficiall parts of the skinne be fretted scarified and dissolved a little with the deaw there ariseth a certeine humour and filleth the fretted place with a smart and angry scurfe for lighting upon those parts which have but little bloud such as be the smalles of the legs and the feet it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the superficies of them Now that there is in deaw a certeine inordinate qualitie it appeareth by this that it maketh those who are grosse and corpulent to be leaner and more spare of bodie witnesse our women who are given to be fat and would be fine who gather deaw with linnen clothes or els with locks or fleeces of wooll thinking therewith to take downe and spend their fogginesse and make themselves more gant and slender 7 What is the cause that barges and other vessels in Winter time go more slowly upon the rivers than at other seasons but they do not so upon the sea WHat say you to this May it not be for that the aire of rivers being alwaies grosse and heavy in Winter is more inspissate by reason of the circumstant cold and so is an hindrance to the course of ships Or haply this accident is to be imputed to the water of rivers rather than to the aire about them for colde driving in and restraining the water maketh it more heavy and grosse as we may perceive in water houre-glasses for the water runneth out of them more leasurely and slowly in winter then in summer And Theophrastus writeth that in Thracia neere unto the mount called Pangaeon there is a fountaine the water whereof is twice as much heavie in winter than it is in summer waigh it in one the same vessell full That the thicknesse of water maketh a vessell to passe more sluggishly it may appeare by this that the barges of the river carry greater fraights by farre in winter than in summer because the water being thicke is stronger and able to beare more As for the sea water it cannot be made more thicke in winter by reason of the owne heat which is the cause that it congealeth not and if it gather any thickening it seemeth to be very slender and little 8 What is the reason that we observe all other waters if they be mooved and troubled are the colder but the sea the more surging and waving the hotter it is IS it because if there be any heat in other waters the same is a stranger unto it and comming from without and so the motion and agitation thereof doth dissipate and drive the same forth againe but that heat of the sea which is proper and naturall to it the windes doe stirre up and augment That the sea is naturally hot may evidently be proved by this that it is so transparent and shining as also for that it is not ordinarily frozen heavy though it be and terrestriall 9 What should be the cause that in winter the sea water is lesse bitter and brackish in taste FOr so by report writeth Dionysus the great convaier of conduicts who in a treatise of that argument saith that the bitternesse of the sea water is not without some sweetnesse seeing that the sea receiveth so many and so great rivers for admit that the sunne doe draw up that which is fresh and potable out of it because it is light and subtill that is but from the upper part onely and withall it doth more in Summer than in any other season by reason that in Winter his beames are not so strong to strike for that his heat likewise is but saint and feeble and so a good portion of the sweetnesse remaining behinde doth delay that excessive bitternesse and brackishnesse like a medicine that it hath And the same befalleth unto river waters and all other that be potable for even such in Summer time become worse and more offensive to the raste than in Winter by how much the heat of the sunne doth resolve and dissipate the light and sweet parts thereof but in Winter it runneth alwaies new and fresh whereof the sea cannot chuse but have a good part as well because it is evermore in motion as also for that the rivers running into it be great and impart their fresh water unto it 10 What is the reason that men are wont to powre sea water into their wine vessels among the wine And the common report goeth that there were sometime certeine mariners and fisher-men who brought with them
wit the skill of measures then afterwards to Astrologie which is the knowledge of the stars in the highest place above all the rest setteth Harmonicae which is the skill of sounds and accords for the subject of Geometrie is this when as to quantity in generall there is adjoined magnitude in length bredth of Stereometrie when to the magnitude of length and bredth there is added depth or profunditie Likewise the proper subject of Astrology is this when to the solid magnitude there cōmeth motion The subject of harmony or musick when to a bodie moving there is adjoined sound or voice If we subtract then and take away from moving bodies voice from solid bodies motion from superficies depth and profundity and from quantities magnitude we shall come by this time to the intelligible Ideae which have no difference among them in regard of one and sole thing for unitie maketh no number unlesse it come once to touch binarie or two which is infinite but in this wise having produced a number it proceedeth to points and pricks from pricks to lines and so forth from lines to superficies from superficies to profundities from thence to bodies and so forward to the qualities of bodies subject to passions and alrerations Moreover of intellectuall things there is no other judge but the understanding or the mind for cogitation or intelligence is no other thing but the understanding so long as it is applied unto Mathematicals wherein things intellectuall appeare as within mirrours whereas for the knowledge of bodies by reason of their great number nature hath given unto us five powers and faculties of severall and different senses for to judge withall and yet sufficient they are not to discover all objects for many there be of them so small that they can not be perceived by the senses And like as although every one of us being composed of soule and bodie yet that principall part which is our spirit and understanding is a very small thing hidden and inclosed within a great masse of flesh even so very like it is that there is the same proportion within the universall world betweene things sensible and intellectuall for the intellectuall are the beginning of corporall now that which proceedeth from a beginning is alwaies in number more and in magnitude greater than the said beginning But on the contrary a man may reason thus and say First and formost that in comparing sensible and corporall things with intellectuall we doe in some sort make mortall things equall with devine for God is to be reckened among intellectuals Now this is to be granted that the content is alwaies lesse then the continent but the nature of the universall world within the intellectuall comprehendeth the sensible For God having set the soule in the midst hath spred and stretched it through all within and yet without forth hath covered all bodies with it As for the soule it is invisible yea and inperceptible to all the naturall senses according as he hath written in his booke of lawes and therefore every one of us is corruptible but the world shall never perish for that in each of us that which is mortall and subject to dissolution containeth within it the power which is vitall but in the world it is cleane contrary for the principall puissance and nature which is ever after one sort immutable and doth alwaies preserve the corporall part which it containeth and imbraceth within it selfe Besides in a bodily nature and corporall a thing is called individuall and importible for the smallnesse therof to wit when it is so little that it cannot be devided but in the spirituall and incorporall it is so called for the simplicity sincerity purity thereof as being exempt from all multiplicity diversity for otherwise folly it were to cast a guesse at spirituall things by corporal Furthermore the very present time which we call Now is said to be inpartible and indivisible howbeit instant together it is every where neither is their any part of this habitable world without it but all passions all actions all corruptions generations throughout the world are comprised in this very present Now. Now the onely instrument to judge of things intellectuall is the understanding like as the eie of light which for simplicity is uniforme every way like unto it selfe but bodies having many diversities differences are comprehended by divers instruments judged some by this and others by that And yet some there be who unwoorthily disesteeme and contemne the intellectuall puissance and spirituall which is in us for in truth being goodly and great it surmounteth every sensible thing and reacheth up as farre as to the gods But that which of all others is most himselfe in his booke entituled Symposium teaching how to use love and love matters in withdrawing the soule from the affection of beauties corporall and applying the same to those which are intellectuall exhorteth us not to subject and inthrall our selves into the lovely beauty of any body nor of one study and science but by erecting and lifting up our mindes aloft from such base objects to turne unto that vast ocean indeed of pulcritude and beauty which is vertue 3 How commeth it to passe that considering he affirmeth evermore the soule to be more ancient than the body as the very cause of the generation of it and the beginning likewise thereof yea contrariwise he saith that the soule was never without the bodie nor the understanding without the soule and that of necessitie the soule must be within the bodie and the understanding in the soule for it seemeth that heere in there is some contradiction namely that the body both is and is not in case it be true that it is together with the soule and yet neverthelesse ingendred by the soule IS it because that is true which we oftentimes doe say namely that the soule without understanding and the body without forme have alwaies beene together neither the one nor the other had ever commensment of being nor beginning of generation but when the soule came to have participation of understanding and of harmonie and became to be wise by the meanes of consonance and accord then caused she mutation in matter and being more powerfull and strong in her owne motions drew and turned into her the motions of the other and even so the bodies of the world had the first generation from the soule whereby it was shaped and made uniforme For the soule of her selfe brought not foorth the nature of a body nor created it of nothing but of a body without all order and forme whatsoever he made it orderly and very obeisant as if one said that the force of a seed or kernell is alwaies with the bodie but yet neverthelesse the body of the sig tree or olive tree is engendred of the seed or kernell he should not speake contrarieties for the very body it selfe being mooved and altered by the seed
wing because it lifteth up the soule from things base and mortall unto the consideration of heavenly and celestiall matters 6 How is it that Plato in some places saith the Anteperistasis of motion that is to say the circumstant contrariety debarring a body to moove in regard that there is no voidnesse or vaculty in nature is the cause of those effects which we see in physicians ventoses and cupping glasses of swallowing downe our viands of throwing of 〈◊〉 waights of the course and conveiance of waters of the fall of lightenings of the attraction that amber maketh of the drawing of the lodestone and of the accord and consonance of voices For it seemeth against all reason to yeeld one onely cause for so many effects so divers and so different in kinde First as touching the respiration in living creatures by the anteperistasis of the aire he hath elsewhere sufficiently declared but of the other effects which seeme as he saith to be miracles and woonders in nature and are nothing for that they be nought else but bodies reciprocally and by alternative course driving one another out of place round about and mutually succeeding in their roomes he hath left for to be discussed by us how each of them particularly is done FIrst and formost for ventoses and cupping glasses thus it is The aire that is contained within the ventose stricking as it doth into the flesh being inflamed with heat and being now more fine and subtil than the holes of the brasse box or glasse whereof the ventose is made getteth forth not into a void place for that is impossible but into that other aire which is round about the said ventose without forth and driveth the same from it and that forceth other before it and thus as it were from hand to hand whiles the one giveth place and the other driveth continually and so entreth into the vacant place which the first left it commeth at length to fall upon the flesh which the ventose sticketh fast unto and by heating and inchasing it expresseth the humor that is within into the ventose or cupping vessell The swallowing of our victuals is after the same maner for the cavities as well of the mouth as of the stomacke be alwaies full of aire when as then the meat is driven within the passage or gullet of the throat partly by the tongue and partly by the glandulous parts or kernelles called tonsells and the muscles which now are stretched the aire being pressed and strained by the said meat followeth it hard as it giveth place and sticking close it is a meanes to helpe for to drive it downeward Semblably the waighty things that be flung as bigge stones and such like cut the aire and divide it by reason that they were sent out and levelled with a violent force then the aire all about behind according to the nature thereof which is to follow where a place is lest vacant and to fill it up pursueth the masle or waight aforesaid that is lanced or discharged forcibly and setteth forward the motion thereof The shooting and ejaculation of lightening is much what after the maner of these waights throwen in maner aforesaid for being enflamed and set on a light fire it flasheth out of a cloud by the violence of a stroke into the aire which being once open and broken givith place unto it and then closing up together above it driveth it downe forcibly against the owne nature As for amber we must not thinke that it draweth any thing to it of that which is presented before it no more than doth the lode stone neither that any thing comming nere to the one or the other leapeth thereupon But first as touching the said stone it sendeth from it I wot not what strong and flatuous fluxions by which the aire next adjoining giving backe driveth that which is before it and the same turning round and reentring againe into the void place doth 〈◊〉 from it and withall carry with it the yron to the stone And for amber it hath likewise a certeine flagrant and flatulent spirit which when the out-side thereof is rubbed it putteth forth by reason that the pores thereof are by that meanes opened And verily that which issueth out of it worketh in some measure the like effect that the Magnet or lode-stone did and drawen there are unto it such matters neere at hand as be most light and dry by reason that the substance comming thereof is but slender and weake neither is it selfe strong nor hath sufficient waight and force for to chase and drive before it a great deale of aire by means whereof it might overcome greater things as the lode-stone doth But how is it that this aire driveth and sendeth before it neither wood nor stone but yron onely and so bringeth it to the Magnet This is a doubt and dificulty that much troubleth all those who suppose that this meeting and cleaving of two bodies together is either by the attraction of the stone or by the naturall motion of the yron Yron is neither so hollow and spungeous as is wood nor so fast and close as is gold or stone but it hath small holes passages and rough aspecties which in regard of the unequality are well proportionate and fortable to the aire in such wise as it runneth not easily through but hath certaine staies by the way to catch hold of so as it may stand steady and take such sure footing as to be able to force and drive before it the yron untill it have brought it to kisse the lode-stone And thus much for the causes and reasons that may be rendred of these effects As considering the running of water above ground by what maner of compression and coarctation roud about it should be performed it is not so easy either to be perceived or declared But thus much we are to learne that for waters of lakes which stirre not but continue alwaies in one place it is because the aire spred all about and keeping them in on every side mooveth not nor leaveth unto them any vacant place For even so the upper face of the water as well in lakes as in the sea riseth up into waves and billowes according to the agitation of the aire for the water still followeth the motion of the aire and floweth or is troubled with it by reason of the inequalities For the stroke of the aire downeward maketh the hollow dent of the wave but as the same is driven upward it causeth the swelling and surging tumor of the wave untill such time as all the place above containing the water be setled and laied for then the waves also doe cease and the water likewise is still and quiet But now for the course of waters which glide and run continually above the face of the ground the cause thereof is because they alwaies follow hard after the aire that giveth way and yet are chased by those behinde by compression and driving forward and so
as touching the generation or creation of the world and of the soule thereof as if the same had not bene from all eternity nor had time out of minde their essence whereof we have particularly spoken a part else where and for this present suffice it shall to say by the way that the arguing and contestation which Plato confesseth himselfe to have used with more vehemencie than his age would well beare against Atheists the same I say they confound and shufflle up or to speake more truely abolish altogether For if it be so that the world be eternall and was never created the reason of Plato falleth to the ground namely that the soule being more ancient than the bodie and the cause and principall author of all motion and mutation the chiefe governour also and head Architect as he himselfe hath said is placed and bestowed therein But what and where of the soule is and how it is said and to be understood that it is more ancient than the body and before it in time the progresse of our discourse hereafter shall declare for this point being either unknowen or not well understood brings great difficulty as I thinke in the well conceiving and hinderance in beleeving the opinion of the trueth In the first place therefore I will shew what mine owne conceit is proving and fortifying my sentence and withall mollifying the same because at the first sight it seemeth a strange paradox with as probable reasons as I can devise which done both this interpretation and proofe also of mine I will lay unto the words of the text out of Plato and reconcile the one unto the other For thus in mine opinion stands the case This world quoth Heraclitus there was never any god or man that made as if in so saying he feared that if we disavow God for creatour we must of necessitie confesse that man was the architect and maker thereof But much better it were therefore that we subscribe unto Plato and both say and sing aloud that the world was created by God for as the one is the goodliest piece of worke that ever was made so the other the most excellent workman and greatest cause that is Now the substance and matter whereof it was created was never made or engendred but was for ever time out of minde and from all eternitie subject unto the workman for to dispose and order it yea and to make as like as possible was to himselfe For of nothing and that which had no being there could not possibly be made ought but of that which was notwell made nor as it ought to bee there may be made somewhat that is good to wit an house a garment or an image and statue But before the creation of the world there was nothing but a chaos that is to say all things in confusion and disorder and yet was not the same without a bodie without motion or without soule howbeit that bodie which it had was without forme and consistence and that mooving that it had was altogether rash without reason and understanding which was no other but a disorder of the soule not guided by reason For God created not that bodie which was incorporall nor a soule which was inanimate like as we say that the musician maketh not a voice nor the dancer motion but the one maketh the voice sweet accordant and harmonious and the other the motion to keepe measure time and compasse with a good grace And even so God created not that palpable soliditie of a bodie nor that moving and imaginative puissance of the soule but finding these two principles the one darke and obscure the other turbulent foolish and senselesse both imperfect disordered and indeterminate he so digested and disposed them that he composed of them the most goodly beautifull and absolute living creature that is The substance then of the bodie which is a certeine nature that he calleth susceptible of all things the very seat the nourse also of all things engendred is no other thing than this But as touching the substance of the soule he tearmeth it in his booke entituled Philebus Infinitie that is to say the privation of all number and proportion having in it neither end limit nor measure neither excesse nor defect neither similitude nor dissimilitude And that which hee delivereth in Timaeus namely that it is mingled with the indivisible nature is become divisible in bodies we must not understand this to be either multitude in unities or length and breadth in points or pricks which things agree unto bodies and belong rather to bodies than to soules but that mooving principle disordinate indefinite and mooving of it selfe which hee calleth in manie places Necessitie the same in his books of lawes hee tearmeth directly a disorderly soule wicked and evill doing This is the soule simply and of it selfe it is so called which afterwards was made to participate understanding and discourse of reason yea wife proportion to the end that it might become the soule of the world Semblably this materiall principle capable of all had in it a certeine magnitude distance and place beauty forme proportionate figure and measure it had none but all these it gat afterwards to the end that being thus digested and brought into decent order it might affoord the bodies and organs of the earth the sea the heavens the starres the plants and living creatures of all sorts But as for them who attribute give that which he calleth in Timaeus necessitie and in his treatise Philebus infinity and immensity of excesse defect of too much and too little unto matter and not unto the soule how are they able to maintaine that it is the cause of evill considering that he supposeth alwaies that the said matter is without forme or figure whatsoever destitute of all qualities and faculties proper unto it comparing it unto those oiles which having no smell of their owne perfumers use in the composition of their odors and precious ointments for impossible it is that Plato should suppose the thing which of it selfe is idle without active qualitie without mooving and inclination to any thing to be the cause and beginning of evill or name it an infinity wicked evill doing not likewise a necessitie which in many things repugneth against God as being rebellious and refusing to obey him for as touching that necessitie which overthroweth heaven as he saith in his Politiques and turneth it cleane contrary that inbred concupiscence and confusion of the first and auncient nature wherein there was no order at all before it was ranged to that beautifull disposition of the world as now it is how came it among things if the subject which is matter was without all qualities and void of that efficacie which is in causes and considering that the Creatour himselfe being of his owne nature all good desired as much as might be to make all things like unto himselfe for a third besides these two principles there is
remaineth now that we should treat of Fortune and casuall adventure and of whatsoever besides that requireth discourse and consideration First this is certeine that Fortune is a kinde of cause but among causes some are of themselves others by accident as for example of an house or ship the proper causes and of themselves be the Mason Carpenter or Shipwright but by accident the Musician and Geometrician yea and whatsoever incident to the mason carpenter or shipwright either in regard of body or minde or outward things whereby it appeereth that the essentiall cause which is by it selfe must needs be determinate certeine in one whereas the accidentall causes are not alwaies one and the same but infinit and indeterminate for many accidents in number infinit and in nature different one from another may be together in one and the same subject This cause then by accident when it is found not onely in such things which are done for some end but also in those wherein our election and will taketh place is called fortune as namely to find treasure when a man diggeth a hole or grave to plant a tree in or to do and suffer any extraordinary thing in flying pursuing or otherwise going and marching or onely in retiring provided alwaies that he doeth it not to that end which ensueth thereupon but upon some other intention And heereupon it is that some of the anncient philosophers have defined fortune to be a cause unknowen and not foreseene by mans reason But according to the Platoniques who come neerer unto it in reason it is defined thus Fortune is an accidentall cause in those things that are done for some end and which are in our election and afterwards they adjoine moreover not foreseene nor knowen by the discourse of humane reason although that which is rare and strange by the same meanes appeareth also in this kinde of cause by accident But what this is if it appeere not manifestly by the oppositions and contradictory disputations yet at leastwise it will be declared most evidently by that which is writtē in a treatise of Plato entituled Phaedon where these words are found What Have you not heard how in what maner the judgement passed Yes iwis For one there was who came and told us of it whereat we marvelled very much that seeing the sentence of judgement was pronounced long before he died a good while after And what might be the cause thereof Ô Phaedon Surely there hapned unto him Ô Echecrates a certeine fortune For it chanced that the day before the judgement the prow of the galley which the Athenians sent to isle Delos was crowned In which words it is to be noted that by this tearme There hapned you must not understand There was but rather it so befell upon a concourse and meeting of many causes together one after another For the priest adorned the ship with coronets for another end and intention and not for the love of Socrates yea and the judges had condemned him also for some other cause but the event it selfe was so strange admirable as if it had hapned by some providence or by an humane creature or rather indeed by some superior nature And thus much may suffice as touching fortune and the definition thereof as also that necessarily it ought to subsist together with some one contingent thing of those which are meant to some end whereupon it tooke the name yea and there must be some subject before of such things which are in us and in our election But casuall adventure reacheth and extendeth farther than fortune for it compriseth both it and also many other things which may chance aswell one way as another and according as the very etymologie and derivation of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sheweth it is that which hapneth for and in stead of another namely when that which was ordinary sell not out but another thing in lieu thereof as namely when it chanceth to be colde weather in the Dog daies for sometimes it falleth out to be then colde and not without cause In summe like as that which is in us and arbitrary is part of contingent even so is fortune a part of casuall or accidental adventure and both these events are conjunct and dependant one of another to wit casual adventure hangeth upon contingent and fortune upon that which is in us and arbitrarie and yet not simply and in generall but of that onely which is in our election according as hath beene before said And hereupon it is that this casuall adventure is common aswell to things which have no life as to those which are animate whereas fortune is proper to man onely who is able to performe voluntarie actions An argument whereof is this that to be fortunate happie and blessed are thought to be all one for blessed happinesse is a kinde of well doing and to doe well properly belongeth to a man and him that is perfect Thus you see what things are comprised within fatall destiny namely contingent possible election that which is within us fortune casuall accident or chance adventure together with their circumstant adjuncts signified by these words haply peradventure or perchance howbeit we are not to inferre that because they be conteined within destinie therefore they be fatall It remaineth now to discourse of divine providence considering that it selfe comprehendeth fatall destinie This supreame and first providence therefore is the intelligence and will of the sovereigne god doing good unto all that is in the world whereby all divine things universally and thorowout have bene most excellently and wisely ordeined and disposed The second providence is the intelligence and will of the second gods who have their course thorow the heaven by which temporall and mortall things are ingendred regularly and in order as also whatsoever perteineth to the preservation and continuance of every kinde of thing The third by all probabilitie and likelihood may well be called the providence and prospicience of the Daemonds or angels as many as be placed and ordeined about the earth as superintendents for to observe marke and governe mens actions Now albeit there be seene this threefolde providence yet properly and principally that first and supreame is named Providence so as we may be bolde and never doubt to say howsoever herein we seeme to contradict some Philosophers That all things are done by fatall destinie and by providence but not likewise by nature howbeit some by providence and that after divers sorts these by one and those by another yea and some also by fatall destinie As for fatall destinie it is altogether by providence but providence in no wise by fatall destinie where by the way this is to be noted that in this present place I understand the principall and sovereigne providence Now whatsoever is done by another be it what it will is evermore after that which causeth or maketh it even as that which is erected by law is after the law
out of water having earth under it there ex haleth aire which aire comming to be subtilized the fire is produced and environeth it round about as for the stars they are set on fire out of these together with the sunne what is more contrary than to be set on fire and to be cooled what more opposite to subtilization and rarefaction than inspissation and condensation the one maketh water and earth of fire and aire the other turneth that which is moist and terrestriall into fire and aire And yet in one place he maketh kindling of fire and in another refrigeration to bee the cause of quickning and giving soule unto a thing for when the said firing and inflammation comes generall throughout then it liveth and is become an annimall creature but after it commeth to be quenched and thickned it turneth into water and earth and so into a corporall substance In the first booke of Providence he writeth thus For the world being throughout on fire presently it is with all the soule and governour of it selfe but when it is turned into moisture and the soule left within it and is after a sort converted into a soule and body so as it seemeth compounded of them both then the case is altered In which text he affirmeth plainly that the very inanimat parts of the world by exustion and inflammation turne and change into the soule thereof and contrariwise by extinction the soule is relaxed and moistned againe and so returneth into a corporall nature Heereupon I inferre that he is very absurd one while to make of senselesse things animat and living by way of refrigeration and another while to transmure the most part of the soule of the world into insensible and inanimat things But over and above all this the discourse which he maketh as touching the generation of the soule conteineth a proofe demonstration contrary to his owne opinion for he saith That the soule is engendred after that the infant is gone out of the mothers wombe for that the spirit then is transformed by refrigeration even as the temper is gotten of steele Now to prove that the soule is engendred and that after the birth of the infant hee bringeth this for a principall argument Because children become like unto their parents in behaviour and naturall inclination wherein the contrariety that he delivereth is so evident as that a man may see it by the very eie for it is not possible that the soule which is engendred after birth should be framed to the maners and disposition of the parents before nativity or else we must say and fall out it will that the soule before it was in esse was already like unto a soule which is all one as that it was by similitude and resemblance and yet was not because as yet it had not a reall substance Now if any one doe say that it ariseth from the temperature and complexion of the bodies that this similitude is imprinted in them howbeit when the soules are once engendred they become changed he shall overthrow the argument and proofe whereby it is shewed that the soule was engendred for heereupon it would follow that the soule although it were ingenerable when it entreth from without into the body is changed by the temperature of the like Chrysippus sometime saith that the aire is light that it mounteth upward on high and otherwhiles for it againe that it is neither heavy nor light To prove this see what he saith in his second booke of Motion namely that fire having in it no ponderosity at all ascendeth aloft semblably the aire and as the water is more conformable to the earth so the aire doth rather resemble the fire But in his booke entituled Naturall arts he bendeth to the contrary opinion to wit that the aire hath neither ponderosity nor lightnesse of it selfe He affirmeth that the aire by nature is darke and for that cause by consequence it is also the primitive cold and that tenebrosity or darknesse is directly opposite unto light and cleerenesse and the coldnesse thereof to the heat of fire Mooving this discourse in the first booke of his Naturall questions contrary to all this in his treatise of Habitudes he saith That these habitudes be nothing else but aires For that bodies quoth he be 〈◊〉 by them and the cause why every body conteined by any habitude is such as it is is the continent aire which in iron is called hardnesse in stone spissitude or thicknesse in silver whitenesse in which words there is great contrariety and as much false absurditie for if this aire remaine the same still as it is in the owne nature how commeth blacke in that which is not white to be called whitenesse softnesse in that which is not hard to be named hardnesse or rare in that which is not solide and massie to be called solidity But in case it be said that by mixture therein it is altered and so becommeth semblable how then can it be an habitude a faculty power or cause of these effects whereby it selfe is brought under and subdued for that were to suffer rather than to doe and this alteration is not of a nature conteining but of a languishing impotencie whereby it loseth all the properties and qualities of the owne and yet in every place they hold that matter of it selfe idle and without motion is subject and exposed to the receit of qualities which qualities are spirits and those powers of the aire which into what parts soever of the matter they get and insinuate themselves doe give a forme and imprint a figure into them But how can they mainteine this supposing as they do the aire to be such as they say it is for if it be an habitude and power it will conforme and shape unto it selfe every body so as it will make the same both blacke and soft but if by being mixed and contempered with them it take formes contrary unto those which it hath by nature it followeth then that it is the matter of matter and neither the habitude cause nor power thereof Chrysippus hath written often times that without the world there is an infinit voidnesse and that this infinitie hath neither beginning middle nor end And this is the principall reason whereby they resute that motion downward of the 〈◊〉 by themselves which Epicurus hath brought in for in that which is infinit there are no locall differences whereby a man may understand or specifie either high or low But in the fourth booke of Things possible he supposeth a certeine middle space and meane place betweene wherein he saith the world is founded The very text where he affirmeth this runneth in these words And therefore we must say of the world that it is corruptible and although it be very hard to proove it yet me thinks rather it should be so than otherwise Neverthelesse this maketh much to the inducing of us to beleeve that it hath a certeine incorruptibility if I may
so say namely the occupation or taking up of the middle place wherein it standeth because it is in the mids for if it were thought otherwise to be founded it were altogether necessarie that some corruption should take holde of it And againe a little after for even so in some sort hath that essence bene ordeined from all eternity to occupie the middle region being presently at the very first such as if not by another maner yet by attaining this place it is eternall and subject to no corruption These words conteine one manifest repugnance and visible contrariety considering that in them he admitteth and alloweth in that which is infinit a middle place But there is a second also which as it is more darke and obscure so it implieth also a more monstrous absurditie than the other for supposing that the world can not continue incorruptible if it were seated and founded in any other place of the infinitie than in the mids it appeareth manifestly that he feared if the parts of the substance did not moove and tend toward the mids there would ensue a dissolution corruption of the world But this would he never have feared if he had not thought that bodies naturally from all sides tend to the middes not of the substance but of the place that conteineth the substance where of he had spoken in many places that it was a thing impossible and against nature for that within voidnesse there is no difference by which bodies can be said to move more one way than another and that the construction of the world is cause of the motion to the center as also that all things from every side do bend to the mids But to see this more plainly it may suffice to alledge the very text in his second booke of Motion for when he had delivered thus much That the world is a perfect body and the parts of the world not perfect because they are respective to the whole and not of themselves Having also discoursed as touching the motion thereof for that it was apt and fitted by nature to moove it selfe in all parts for to conteine and preserve and not to breake dissolve and burne it selfe he saith afterwards But the universall world tending and mooving to the same point and the parts thereof having the same motion from the nature of the body like it is that this first motion is naturally proper to all bodies namely to encline toward the mids of the world considering that the world mooveth so in regard of it selfe and the parts likewise in that they be the parts of the whole How now my goodfriend may some one say what accident is befallen unto you that you should forget to pronounce these words withall That the world in case it had not fortuned for to settle in the mids must needs have bene subject to corruption and dissolution For if it be proper and naturall to the world to tend alwaies to the same middle as also to addresse the parts thereof from all sides thereto into what place soever of the voidnesse it be carried and transported certes thus 〈◊〉 and embracing as it were it selfe as it doth it must needs continue incorruptible immortall and past all danger of fracture or dissolution for to such things as be broken bruised dissipated and dissolved this is incident by the division and dissolution of their parts when ech one runneth and retireth into their proper and naturall place out of that which is against their owne nature But you sir supposing that if the world were seated in any other place of voidnesse but in the mids there would follow a totall ruine and corruption thereof giving out also as much and therefore imagining a middle in that where naturally there can be none to wit in that which is infinit have verily quit cleane and fled from these tensions cohaerences and inclinations as having in them no assured meanes for to mainteine and holde the world together and attributed all the cause of the eternall maintenance and preservation thereof unto the occupation of a place And yet as if you tooke pleasure to argue and convince yourselfe you adjoine to the premisses thus much In what sort every severall part moveth as it is cohaerent to the rest of the body it stands with good reason that after the same maner it should moove by it selfe alone yea if for disputation sake we imagine and suppose it to be in some void part of this world and like as being kept in and enclosed on every side it would move toward the mids so it would continue in this same motion although by way of disputation we should admit that all on a sudden there should appeare some vacuity and void place round about it And is it so indeed that every part what ever it be compassed about with voidnesse forgoeth not her naturall inclination to move tend to the mids and should the world it selfe unlesse some fortune blind chance had not prepared for it a place in the mids have lost that vigor power which conteineth and holdeth all together so some parts of the substance of it moove one way and some another Now surely heerein there be many other maine contrarieties repugnant even to natural reason but this particularly among the rest encountreth the doctrine of God divine providence to wit that in attributing unto them the least and smallest causes that be he taketh from them the most principall and greatest of all other For what greater power can there be than the maintenance and preservation of this universall world or to cause the substance united together in all parts to cohaere unto it selfe But this according to the opinion of Chrysippus hapneth by meere hazzard and chance for if the occupation of a place is the cause of worlds incorruption and eternity and the same chanced by fortune we must inferre there upon that the safety of all things dependeth upon hazzard and adventure and not upon fatall destiny and divine providence As for his doctrine disputation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say of things possible which Chrysippus hath delivered directly agaisnt that of fatall destiny how can it chuse but be repugnant to it selfe for if that be not possible according to the opiniō of Diodorus which either is or shall be true but whatsoever is susceptible naturally of a power to be although the same never come into act or esse is to be counted possible there will be a number of things possible which never shal have being by destiny invincible inexpugnable surmoūting al things And therefore either this doctrine overthroweth al the force and puissance of destiny or if it be admitted as Chrysippus would have it that which potentially may be wil fal out oftentimes to be impossible whatsoever is true shall be also necessary as being comprised contained by the greatest and most powerfull necessity of all others and whatsoever is false impossible as
substances flow and runne partly by yeelding and sending foorth somewhat out of themselves and in part by receiving other things from without and that by reason of the number and multitude of that which comes in or goes out things continue not one and the same but become altered and divers by the foresaid additions and detractation so as their substance receiveth a change Also that contrary to all right and reason custome hath so farre prevailed that such mutations be called augmentations and diminutions whereas rather they ought to be termed generations and corruptions for that they force an alteration of one present state and being into another but to grow and diminish are passions and accidents of a body and subject that is permanent Which reasons and assertions being after a sort thus delivered in their schooles what is it that these defenders of Perspicuity and Evidence these canonicall reformers I say of common notions would have namely that every one of us should be double like twinnes or of a two-fold nature not as the poets feigned the Molionides to be in some parts 〈◊〉 and united and in other severed and disjoined but two bodies having the same colour the same shape the same weight and place a thing that no man ever saw before mary these Philosophers onely have perceived this duplicity this composition and 〈◊〉 whereby every one of us are two subjects the one being substance the other ** the one of them runneth and floweth continually and yet without augmentation and diminution or remaining in the same state such as it is the other continueth still and yet groweth and decreaseth and yet suffreth all things quite contrary to the other wherewith it is concorporate united and knit leaving to the exteriour sense no shew of distinct difference And yet verily it is said of that 〈◊〉 how in old time hee had so quicke and piereing an eie-sight that he was able to see through stocks and stones And one there was by report who fitting in Sicily could from a watch-tower sensibly discerne the shippes sailing out of the haven of Carthage which was distant a day a nights failing with a good forewind And as for Callicrates and Myrmecides they have the name to have made chariots so smal as that the wings of a fly might cover them yea in a millet graine or sesam seed to have engraven Homers verses But surely this perpetuall fluxion diversity in us there was never any yet that could divide distinguish neither could we our selves ever find that we were double that partly we ranne out continually and in part againe remained alwaies one and the same even from our nativity to our end But I am about to deale with them more simply and plainly for whereas they devise in every one of us foure subjects or to speake more directly make ech of us to be foure it shall suffice to take but two for to shew their absurditie When we doe heare Pentheus in a tragedy saying that he seeth two Sunnes and two cities of Thebes we deeme of him that he seeth not two but that his eies doe dazzell and looke amisse having his discourse troubled and understanding cleane transported And even these persons who suppose and set downe not one city alone but all men all beasts all trees plants tooles vessels utensils and garments to be double and composed of two natures reject wee not and bid farewell as men who would force us not to understand any thing aright but to take every thing wrong Howbeit haply heerein they might be pardoned and winked at for feining and devising other natures of subjects because they have no meanes else for all the paines they take to mainteine and preserve their augmentations But in the soule what they should aile what their meaning might be and upon what grounds and suppositions they devised to frame other different sorts and formes of bodies and those in maner innumerable who is able to say or what may be the cause unlesse they ment to displace or rather to abolish and destroy altogether the common and familiar conceptions inbred in us for to bring in and set up new fangles and other strange and forren novelties For this is woonderfull extravagant and absurd for to make bodies of vertues and vices and besides of sciences arts memories fansies apprehensions passions inclinations and assents and to affirme that these neither lie nor have any place subsisting in any subject but to leave them one little hole like a pricke within the heart wherein they range and draw in the principall part of the soule and the discourse of reason being choked up as it were with such a number of bodies that even they are not able to count a great sort of them who seeme to know best how to distinguish and discerne one from another But to make these not onely bodies but also living creatures and those endued with reason to make I say a swarme of them the same not gentle mild tame but a turbulent sort rable by their malicious shrewdnesse opposit repugnant to al evidence usual custome what wanteth this of absurdity in the highest degree And these men verily do hold that not onely vertues vices be animall and living creatures nor passions alone as anger wrath envy griefe sorrow malice nor apprehensions onely fantasies imaginations and ignorances nor arts and mysteries as the shoomakers smithscraft but also over and besides al these things they make the very operations and actions themselves to be bodies yea and living creatures they would have walking to be an animall dancing likewise shoping saluting and reprochfull railing and so consequently they make laughing weeping to be animall And in granting these they admit also coughing sneesing and groaning yea and withall spitting reaching snitting and snuffing of the nose and such like actions which are as evident as the rest And let them not thinke much and take it grievously if they be driven to this point by way of particular reasonning calling to minde Chrysippus who in his third booke of Naturall questions saith thus What say you of the night is it not a body evening morning midnight are they not bodies Is not the day a body The new moone is it not a bodie the tenth the fifteenth the thirtieth day of the moone the moneth it selfe Summer Autumne and the whole yeere be they not bodies Certes all these things by me named they hold with tooth and naile even against common prenotions But as for these hereafter they maintaine contrary to their owne proper conceptions when as they would produce the hottest thing that is by refrigeration and that which is most subtile by inspissation For the soule is a substance most hot and consisting of most subtill parts which they would make by the refrigeration and condensation of the body which as it were by a certaine perfusion and tincture it hardeneth altereth the spirit from being vegetative to be
love of Lysandra have made you to forget your olde sports and delights wherewith you were wont to passe the time away call to minde I beseech you and rehearse unto us those sweet verses of faire Sappho wherein she saith that when her love came in her sight she lost her voice presently and was speechlesse her bodie ran all over into colde sweats she became pale and wan she fell a trembling and quaking her braines turned round surprised she was with dizzinesse and fell into a fainting fit of swowning Thrice happy do I holde that wight Who may est soones enjoy thy sight Of thy sweet voice to reape delight And pleasant smiles Which kindle in me such a fire That as I them do much admire My heart they ravish and desire Transport the whiles Thy face no sooner doe I see But sudden silence comes on me My tongue strings all dissolved bee And speech quite gone Then underneath my skin is spred A firy flush of colour red With that mine eyes be darkened And sight yeeld none Mine eares also do buzze and ring And yet distinctly heare nothing Cold drops of swet run down trickling Or stand as dew My joints anon and sinewes shake My heart-root pants my flesh doth quake And palenesse soone doth overtake My former hew And thus full wan I do remaine As flower in house that long hath laine Or grasse in field which wanting raine Doth quickly fade Untill at length in extasie Withouten sense and breath I lie As if death of me suddenly Surprize had made When Daphnaeus had recited this sonet Is not this quoth my father in the name of Jupiter I beseech you a plaine possession of the minde by some heavenly power is not this I say an evident motion and a very celestiall ravishment of the spirit What furious passion was there ever so great and strong that came upon the prophetesse Pythia when she mounted that three-footed fabricke from whence she delivered oracles Who ever was there so farre transported and caried beside himselfe by the pipes and flutes of fanaticall persons supposed to be surprized by some divine spirit of furie by the tabour and other strange ceremonies in the service of Cybele the mother of the gods Many there be that holde the same body and looke upon the same beautie but the amourous person onely is caught and ravished therewith What should be the reason of it Certes there is some cause thereof Verily when Menander sheweth it unto us yet we learne it not nor understand his meaning by these verses There is a maladie of the minde That it surpriseth fatally Who smitten is therewith doth finde Himselfe sore wounded inwardly And heereof is god Love the cause who toucheth one and spareth another But that which ought indeed to have been spoken rather at the first Since now it comes into my minde And way out of my mouth would finde as Aeschilus saith I thinke not good to overpasse in silence being a matter of so great importance For of all things els my good friend in a maner whereof we take knowledge not by the ministerie of the five naturall senses some there be that came into credit at the beginning and authority by fables other by lawes and the rest by doctrine and discourse of reason Now the constant beleese and full perswasion of the gods the first masters teachers and authors altother thereof were Poets Law givers and in a third ranke Philosophers who all with one accord jointly did set this downe as a verity that Gods there be howbeit they are at great discord and variance touching the number order nature essence and power of them For those whom the Philosophers acknowledge to be gods are not subject to diseases nor to age neither know they what it is to fele paine or endure trauell Escape they doe the passage of the firth Of roaring Acheron and live in joy and mirth And in that regard Philosophers admit not at all the Poeticall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say contentions and reconsiliations they will not allow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be gods nor confesse them to be the sonnes of Mars and in many points doe they differ also and dissent from law givers as Xenophanes did who said unto the Egyptians as touching Osiris if you take him for a mortall man adore him not if you account him an immortall god lament not for him Againe the the Poets and law givers on the other side deigne not nor will abide so much as to heare those Philosophers who of certeine Idees numbers unities and spirits make gods neither can they possibly conceive and understand such doctrine In summe much variety there is dissonance in their opinions about this one point but like as in old time there were three sects or factions in Athens al adverse opposite malicious one unto the other to wit of the Paralli the Epacrii and Paediaei yet notwithstanding when they were assembled and met together in a generall councell they gave all their voices and suffrages to Solon and elected him with one common assent their peace-maker their governour and law giver as one woorthy without any question or doubt at all to have conferred upon him the principality and highest degree of vertue and honour even so those three sects differing in opinion about the gods and giving their voices some on this side and others on that and not willing to subscribe one unto another nor easily receiving that which is otherwise delivered than by themselves be all of one and the same minde as touching this one god Love and him the most excellent Poets the best Law givers and the principall Philosophers admit with one voice into the register and kalender of the gods praising and extolling him highly in all their writings and like as Alcaeus saith That all the Mitylenaeans with one accord and generall consent chose Pittacus for their soveraigne prince and tyrant even so Hesiodus Plato and Solon bring and conduct Love out of Helicon into the Academie unto us for our king prince and president crowned and adorned gaily with garlands and chaplets of flowers honored also and accompanied with many shackles and couples professing amitie and mutuall societie not such as Euripides saith With fetters bound and tied was Farre stronger than of iron and brasse Linking them by a cold heavy and massie chaine of need and necessitie as a colourable vaile and pretence to shame and turpitude but such as are caried by winged chariots unto the most goodly and beautifull things in the world whereof others have treated better and more at large When my father had thus said See you not quoth Soclarus how being fallen now againe the second time into one and the same matter you forced your selfe to turne away from it I wot not how avoiding to enter into this holy discourse and if I may be so bold to say what I thinke shifting
signified as much when he called the night 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the sharpenesse at the point of the said shadow and yet the Moone as it appeareth in her ecclypses being caught and comprehended within the compasse of that shadow hath much adoo to get out of it by going forward in length thrice as much as her owne bignesse comes to Consider then how many times greater must the earth needs be than the Moone if it be so that the shadow which it casteth where it is sharpest and narrowest is thrice as much as the Moone But yee are afraid least the Moone should fall if she were avowed to the earth for it may be haply that Aeschylus hath sealed you a warrant and secured you for the earth when he said thus of Atlas He standeth like a pillar strong and sure From earth to heaven above that reacheth streight To beare on shoulders twaine he doeth endure A massie burden and unweldy weight if under the Moone there runne and be spred a light and thin aire not firme and sufficient for to susteine a solide masse whereas according to Pindarus To beare the earth there standmost putssant Columns and pillars of hard diamant And therefore Pharnaces for himselfe is out of all feare that the earth will fall mary he pittieth those who are directly and plumbe under the course of the Moone and namely the Aethiopians and those of Taprobana least so weightie a masse should tumble downe upon their heads And yet the Moone hath one good meanes and helpe to keepe her from falling to wit her very motion and violent revolution like unto those bullets or stones or whatsoever weights be put within a sling they are sure enough from slipping or falling out so long as they be violently swong and whirled about For every body is caried according to the naturall motion thereof if there be no other cause to empeach or turne it aside out of course which is the reason that the Moone mooveth not according to the motion of her poise considering the inclination thereof downward is staied and hindred by the violence of a circular revolution But peradventure more cause there were to marvel if she should stand altogether as the earth immoveable whereas now the Moone hath this great cause to empeach her for not tending downward hither As for the earth which hath no other motion at all to hinder it great reason there is that according to that onely weight of the owne it should moove downward and there settle for more heavy it is than the Moone not so much in this regard that greater it is but more for that the Moone by reason of heat and adustion of fire is made the lighter In briefe it appeareth by that which you say if it be true that the Moone be fire it hath need of earth or some other marter to rest upon and cleave 〈◊〉 for to mainteine nourish and quicken still the power that it hath for it cannot be conceived or imagined how fire should be preserved without fuell or matter combustible And you your selves affirme doe yee not that the earth abideth firme and sure without any base or piedstall to susteine and hold it up Yes verily quoth Pharnaces being in the proper and naturall place which is the very mids and center For this is it whereto all heavy and weightie things doe 〈◊〉 incline and are caried to from every side and about which they cling and be counterpeized but the upper region throughout if haply there be any terrestriall and heavy matter by violence sent up thither repelleth and casteth it downe againe with force incontinently or to speake more truely letteth it goe and fall according to the owne naturall inclination which is to tend and settle downward For the answer and refutation whereof I willing to give Luctus some reasonable time to summon his wits together and to thinke upon his reasons and calling unto Theon by name Which of the tragicall Poets was it Theon quoth I who said that Physicians Bitter medicines into the body powre When bitter choler they meane to purge and scoure And when he made me answere that it was Sophocles Well quoth I we must permit them so to doc upon necessity but we ought not to give eare unto Philosophers if they would maintaine strange paradoxes by other positions as absurd or to confute admirable opinions devise others much more extravagant and wonderfull like as these here who broch and bring in a motion forsooth tending unto a middle wherein what absurdity is there not Holde not they that the earth is as round as a ball and yet we see how many deepe profundities hautie sublimities manifold inequalities it hath affirme not they that there be antipodes dwelling opposit one unto another and those sticking as it were to the sides of the earth with their heeles upward their heads downward all arse verse like unto these woodwormes or cats which hang by their sharpe clawes Would not they have even us also that are here for to goe upon the ground not plumbe upright but bending or enclining sidelong reeling and staggering like drunken folke Doe they not tell us tales and would make us beleeve that if barres and masses of iron waighing a thousand talents a peece were let fall downe into the bottom of the earth when they came once to the middle centre thereof will stay and rest there albeit nothing els came against them nor sustained them up And if peradventure by some forcible violence they should passe beyond the said midst they would soone rebound backe thither againe of their owne accord Say not they that if a man should saw off the trunks or ends of beams on either side of the earth the same would never settle downeward still throughout but from without forth fall both into the earth and so equally meet one another and cling together about the hart or centre thereof Suppose not they that if a violent streame of water should runne downeward still into the ground when it met once with the very point or centre in the midst which they holde to be incorporall it would then gather together and turne round in maner of a whirlepoole about a pole waving to and fro there continually like one of these pendant buckets and as it hangeth wagge incessantly without end And verily some of these assertions of theirs are so absurd that no man is able to enforce himselfe to imagine in his minde although falsely that they are possible For this indeed is to make high and low all one this is to turne all upside downe that those things which become as farre as to the midst shal be thought below and under and what is under the middle shall be supposed above and aloft in such sort as that if a man by the sufferance and consent of the earth stood with his navell just against the middle and centre of it he should by this meanes have his head and his heeles both
upon him with this contradiction and say that he may aswel hold that whatsoever is beneath the Primum mobile or starrie firmament ought to be called Below In summe how is the earth called The middle and whereof is it the middle for the universall frame of the world called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is infinit and this infinit which hath neither head nor foot how can it in reason have a navill for even that which we call the mids of any thing is a kinde of limitation whereas infinitie is a meere privation of all limits and bounds As for him who saith it is not in the mids of that universalitie but of the world he is a pleasant man if he thinke not withall that the world it selfe is subject to the same doubts and difficulties for the said universall frame leaveth not unto the very world a middle but is without a certeine seat without assured footing mooving in a voidnesse infinite not into some one place proper unto it and if haply it should meet with some any other cause of stay and so abide stil the same is not according to the nature of the place And as much may we conjecture of the Moone that by the meanes of some other soule or nature or rather of some difference the earth 〈◊〉 firme beneeath and the Moone mooveth Furthermore you see how they are not ignorant of a great errour and inconvenience for if it be true that whatsoever is without the centre of the earth it skils not how is to be counted Above and Aloft then is there no part of the world to be reckoned Below or Beneath but aswell the earth it selfe as al that is upon it shal be above aloft and to be short every bodie neere or about the centre must go among those things that are aloft neither must we reckon any thing to be under or beneath but one pricke or point which hath no bodie and the same forsooth must make head and stand in opposition necessarily against all the whole nature besides of the world in case according to the course of nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say above and beneath be opposite And not onely this absurdity will follow but also all heavie and ponderous bodies must needs lose the cause for which they bend and incline hither for bodie there will be none toward which it should move and as for this pricke or centre that hath no bodie there is no likelihood neither would they themselves have it so that it should be so puissant and forcible as to draw to it and reteine about it all things And if it be found unreasonable and repugnant to the course of nature that the world should be all above and nothing beneath but a terme or limit and the same without body without space and distance then this that we say is yet more reasonable namely that the region beneath and that above being parted distinctly one from another have neverthelesse ech of them a large and spacious roume to round themselves in But suppose if it please you it were against nature that terrestriall bodies should have any motion in heaven let us consider gently and in good termes not after a tragicall maner but mildly This prooveth not by-and-by that the Moone is not earth but rather that earth is in some place where naturally it should not be for the fire of the mountaine Aetna is verily under the ground against the nature of it howbeit the same ceaseth not therefore to be fire The winde conteined within leather bottles is of the owne nature light and given to mount upward but by force it commeth to be there where naturally it ought not to be Our very soule it selfe I beseech you in the name of Jupiter is it not against nature deteined within the body being light in that which is heavie being of a firie substance in that which is colde as yee your 〈◊〉 and being invisible in that which is grosse and palpable do we therefore denie that the soule is within the bodie that it is a divine substance under a grosse and heavie masse that in a moment it passeth thorowout heaven earth and sea that it pierceth and entreth within flesh nerves and marrow and finally is the cause together with the humors of infinit passions And even this Jupiter of yours such as you imagine and depaint him to be is he not of his owne nature a mighty and perpetuall fire howbeit now he submitteth himselfe and is pliable subject he is to all formes and apt to admit divers mutations Take heed therefore and be well advised good sir lest that in transferring and reducing every thing to their naturall place you doe not so philosophize as that you will bring in a dissolution of all the world and set on foot againe that olde quarrell and contention among all things which Empedocles writeth of or to speake more to the purpose beware you raise not those ancient Titans and Giants to put on armes against nature and so consequently endevour to receive and see againe that fabulous disorder and confusion whereby all that is weightie goeth one way and whatsoever is light another way apart Where neither light some countenance of Sunne nor earth all greene With herbs and plants admired is nor surging sea is seene according as Empedocles hath written wherein the earth feeleth no heat nor the water any winde wherein there is no ponderosity above nor lightnesse beneath but the principles and elements of all things be by themselves solitary without any mutuall love or dilection betweene them not admitting any society or mixture together but avoiding and turning away one from the other mooving apart by particular motions as being disdainfull proud and carying themselves in such sort as all things do where no god is as Plato saith that is as those bodies are affected wherein there is no understanding nor soule untill such time as by some divine providence there come into nature a desire and so amity Venus and Love be there engendred according to the sayings of Empedocles Parmenides and Hesiodus to the end that changing their naturall places and communicating reciprocally their gifts and faculties some driven by necessity to moove other bound to rest they be all forced to a better state remitting somewhat of their 〈◊〉 and yeelding one to another they grew at length unto accord harmony and societie For if there had not beene any other part of the world against nature but that ech one had bene both in place and for quality as it ought naturally to be without any need of change or transposition so that there had beene nothing at the first wanting I greatly doubt what and wherein was the worke of divine providence or whereupon it is that Jupiter was the father creator and maker For in a campe or field there would be no need of a man who is expert and skilfull in ranging and ordering of battell
be possible that there should be in the Moone so great profundities and such rugged inequalities as to make so bigge a shadow and then whether being so great their bignesse should not be descried and seene by us Heereupon I smiling upon him Now I assure you Apollonides quoth I I con you thanke you have done it very well in devising such a proper demonstration whereby you will proove both me and your selfe also to be greater than those Giants Aloïades I meane not at every houre of the day but especially in the morning and evening doe you thinke that when the Sunne maketh our shadowes so long hee yeeldeth unto our sense this goodly collection and augmentation that if the thing which is shadowed be great then that which maketh the shadow must needs be exceeding great Neither of us twaine I wot well hath ever beene in the isle Lemnos and yet both of us have many a time heard this vulgar Iambique verse so rise in every mans mouth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The mountaine Athos shall on either side The cow that stands in Lemnos hide For this shadow of the bill falleth as it should seeme upon a certeine brazen image of an 〈◊〉 in that Isle reaching in lengthover sea no lesse than 700 stadia not because the said mountaine which maketh the shadow is of that height but because the distāces of the light causeth the shadowes of bodies to be by many folds greater than the bodies are Go to then consider that when the Moone is at the full at what time as she rendreth unto our eie the forme of a visage most expresly by reason of the profunditic of the shadow within then is she also farthest distant from the Sunne for the farre recoiling and withdrawing backward of the light is it that makes the shadow great and not the bignesse of those inequalities which are upon the superficies of the Moone Moreover you see that the excessive glittering of the Sunne shining all about will not suffer a man to see in the day time the very tops of mountaines but the deepe hollow and shadowy parts therein appeare very farre off It carieth therefore no absurditie at all that a man is not able exacty to see and discerne that full light and illumination of the Moone but that the opposition of darke shadowes unto cleare lights by reason of their diversitie is more exquisitely seene But this quoth I seemeth rather to checke and consute that reflexion and reverberation which is said to rebound from the Moone for that they who stand within the raies or beames that are returned and retorted backe have meanes to see not onely that which is illumined but that also which doeth illuminate For when in the resultation of a light from the water upon some wall the sight falleth upon the very place it selfe which is thus illuminate by the reflexion the eie seeth three things to wit the beames or shining light driven backe the water which maketh that reflexion and the Sunne it selfe whose light hitting upon the superficies of the water is reflexed and sent backe This being generally granted as a thing evidently seene yet by way of objection they bid those who affirme that the earth is illuminate from the Moone by the reflection of the Sunnes light from it to shew by night the Sunne appearing in the superficies of the Moone like as he may be seene in the day time within the water upon which she shineth when there is the foresaid reflexion of his beames But because he cannot then be seene they inferre that it must be by some other manner and not by reflexion that the Moone is illuminate and if there be no such reflexion then cannot the Moone in any wise be earth How shall this be met withall and what answere shall be shaped unto it quoth Apollonides for the reason of reflexion seemeth all one and common as well to us as to you True quoth I common it is in some sort and in some sort not but first marke I beseech you the comparison how they go cleane kim kam and against the streame as if rivers ranne up hilles for the water is heere beneath upon the earth and the Moone is above and in the heaven in such sort as the beames reflected make the forme of their angles opposite and quite contrarie one unto the other the one carrying the head or point upward against the supersicies of the Moone the other downeward to the ground Let them not then demand and require that a mirrour should render every forme or face alike nor that in every distance there should be equall or semblable reflexion for in so dooing they would goe against apparent evidence And they who holde the Moone to be a bodie not smooth even subtile as water is but solid massy and terrestriall I cannot conceive why they should looke for to see the Sunne in it as in a glasse For milke verily doth not yeeld such specularie images nor cause reflexion of the sight by reason of the inequallity and rugged asperity of the parts how is it possible then that the Moone should send backe from it the sight as mirrours doe which are more polished And even this also if any rase blur filth or confused spot have caught them in the superficies from whence the sight being reflected is wont to receive the impression of some figure may welbe seene but counter-light they yeeld none and he who requireth that either the Sunne should appeare in the Moone or our sight be redubled against the Sunne let him require withall that the eie be the Sunne the sight thereof the light and man heaven For like it is that the reflexion of the Sunne beames against the Moone for their vehement exeeding great brightnesse should with a stroke rebound upon us but seeing our sight is weake and feeble what marvel is it if it neither give such a stroke as might rebound nor maintaine the continuity thereof if it leaped backe againe but is broken and faileth as not having that abundance of light whereby it should not be disgregate and dissipated within those unneven and unnequall asperities For it is not possible that the reflexion of our sight upon water or other sorts of mirrours whiles the same is yet strong and able as being neere unto the spring from whence it commeth should not returne againe upon the eie But from the Moone suppose there may rebound some glimmering glances certes they be all weake and obscure failing in the very way by reason of so long a distance For otherwise arched and hollow mirrors send backe their reflected raies with more force than they came in such sort as many times they catch fire and doe burne whereas the imbossed and courled mirrours made round and bearing out like a bowle cast from them feeble and darke raies because they beate them not backe on all sides You see certainely when two rainebowes appeare in the heaven by reason that one cloud doth inviron
another when they be parted and asunder and they embrace one the other in the darke many times Moreover that this Core or Proserpina is one while above in heaven and in the light another while in darkenesse and the night is not untrue onely there is some error in reckoning and numbring the time For we see her not six moneths but every sixth moneth or from six moneths to six moneths under the earth as under her mother caught with the shadow and seldome is it found that this should happen within five moneths for that it is impossible that she should abandon and leave Pluto being his wife according as Homer hath signified although under darke and covert wordes not untruely saying But to the farthest borders of the earth and utmost end Even to the faire Elysian fields the gods then shall thee send For looke where the shadow endeth and goeth no farther that is called the limit and end of the earth and thither no wicked and impure person shall ever be able to come But good folke after their death in the world being thither carried lead there another easie life in peace and repose howbeit not altogether a blessed happie and divine life untill they die a second death but what death this is aske me not my Sylla for I purpose of my selfe to declare shew it unto you hereafter The vulgar sort be of opinion that man is a subject compounded and good reason they have so to thinke but in beleeving that he consisteth of two parts onely they are deceived for they imagine that the understanding is in some sort a part of the soule but the understanding is better than the soule by how much the soule is better and more divine than the bodie Now the conjunction or composition of the soule with understanding maketh reason but with the bodie passion whereof this is the beginning and principle of pleasure and paine the other of vertue and vice Of these three conjoined and compact in one the earth yeeldeth for her part the body the Moone the soule and the Sunne understanding to the generation or creation of man and understanding giveth reason unto the soule **** even as the Sunne light and brightnesse to the Moone As touching the deathes which we die the one maketh man of 3. two and the other of 2. one And the former verily is in the region and jurisdiction of Ceres which is the cause that we sacrifice unto her Thus it commeth to passe that the Athenians called in olde time those that were departed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Cereales As for the other death it is in the Moone or region of Proserpina And as with the one terrestriall Mercury so with the other celestiall Mercurie doth inhabit And verily Ceres dissolveth and seperateth the soule from the bodie sodainly and forcibly with violence but Proserpina parteth the understanding from the soule gently and in long time And heereupon it is that the is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as one would say begetting one for that the better part in a man becommeth one and alone when by her it is separated and both the one and the other hapneth according to nature Every soule without understanding as also endued with understanding when it is departed out of the body is ordeined by fatall destiny to wander for a time but not both alike in a middle region betweene the earth and the Moone For such soules as have beene unjust wicked and dissolute suffer due punishment and paines for their sinfull deserts whereas the good and honest untill such time as they have purified and by expiration purged foorth of them all those infections which might be contracted by the contagion of the body as the cause of all evill must remaine for a certeine set time in the mildest region of the aire which they call the meddowes of Pluto Afterwards as if they were returned from some long pilgrimage or wandring exile into their owne countrey they have a taste of joy such as they fecie especially who are professed in holy mysteries mixed with trouble and admiration and ech one with their proper and peculiar hope for it driveth and chaseth foorth many soules which longed already after the Moone Some take pleasure to be still beneath and even yet looke downward as it were to the bottome but such as be mounted aloft and are there most surely bestowed first as victorious stand round about adorned with garlands and those made of the wings of Eustathia that is to saie Constancie because in their life time here upon earth they had bridled and restreined the unreasonable and passible part of the soule and made it subject and obedient to the bridle of reason Secondly they resemble in sight the raies of the Sunne Thirdly the soule thus ascended on high is there confirmed and fortified by the pure aire about the Moone where it doth gather strength and solidity like as iron and steele by their tincture become hard For that which hitherto was loose rare and spongeous groweth close compact and firme yea and becommeth shining and transparent in such sort as nourished it is with the least exhalation in the world This is that Heracletus meant when he said that the soules in Plutoes region have a quicke sent or smelling And first they behold there the greatnesse of the Moone her beauty and nature which is not simple nor void of mixture but as it were a composition of a starre and of earth And as earth mingled with a spirituall aire and moisture becommeth soft and the blood tempered with flesh giveth it sense even so say they the Moone mingled with a celestiall quintessence even to the very bottome of it is made animate fruitfull and generative and withall equally counterpeised with ponderosity and lightnesse For the whole world it selfe being thus composed of things which naturally moove downward and upward is altogether void of motion locall from place to place which it seemth that Xenocrates himselfe by a divine discourse of reason understood taking the first light thereof from Plato For Plato was he who first affirmed that every starre was compounded of fire and earth by the meanes of middle natures given in certeine proportion in as much as there is nothing object to the sense of man which hath not in some proportion a mixture of earth and light And Xenocrates said that the Sunne is compounded of fire and the first or primitive solid the Moone of a second solid and her proper aire in summe throughout neither solid alone by it selfe nor the rare apart is capable and susceptible of a soule Thus much as touching the substance of the Moone As for the grandence bignesse thereof it is not such as the Geometricians set downe but farre greater by many degrees And seldome doth it measure the shadow of the earth by her greatnesse not for that the same is small but for that it bringeth a most servent and swift motion to the end
senses being inserted and ingraffed in our bodies by harmony but principally those which are celestiall and divine namely sight and hearing which together with God give understanding and discourse of reason unto men with the voice and the light doe represent harmony yea and the other inferrior senses which follow them in as much as they be senses are likewise composed by harmony for all their effects they performe not without harmony and howsoever they be under them and lesse noble yet they yeeld not for all that for even they entring into the body accompanied with the presence of a certaine divinity together with the discourse of reason obtaine a forcible and excellent nature By these reasons evident it is that the ancient Greeks made great account and not without good cause of being from their infancie well instructed and trained up in Musicke for they were of opinion that they ought to frame and temper the mindes of yoong folke unto vertue and honesty by the meanes of Musicke as being right profitable to all honest things and which wee should have in great recommendation but especially and principally for the perillous hazzards of warre In which case some used the Hautboies as the Lacedaemonians who chaunted the song called Castorium to the said instruments when they marched in ordinance of battell for to charge their enimies Others made their approch for to encounter and give the first onset with the noise of the Lyra that is to say the harpe or such like stringed instruments And this we finde to have bene the practise of the Candiots for a long time for to use this kinde of Musicke when they set forth and advanced forward to the doubtfull dangers of battell And some againe continue even to our time in the use of Trumpets sound As for the Argives they went to wrestle at the solemne games in their city called Sthenia with the sound of the Hautboies And these games were by report instituted at first in the honor and memory of their king Danaus and afterwards againe were consecrated to the honor of Jupiter surnamed Sthenius And verily even at this day in the Pentathlian games of prise the maner and custome is to play upon the Hautboies and to sing a song thereto although the same be not antique nor exquisite nor such as was wont to be plaied and sung in times past as that Canticle composed sometime by Hierax for this kinde of combat and named it was Eudrome Well though it be a faint and feeble maner of song yet somewhat such as it was they used with the Hautboies And in the times of greater antiquity it is said that the Greeks did not so much as know Theatricall Musicke for that they emploied all the skill knowledge thereof in the service and worship of the gods in the institution and bringing up of youth before any Theater was built in Greece by that people but all the Musicke that yet was they bestowed to the honor of the gods and their divine service in the temples also in the praises of valiant and woorthy men So that it is very probable that these termes Theater afterwards and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 long before were derived of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say God And verily in our daies Musicke is growen to such an heigth of difference and diversity that there is no mention made nor memory remaining of any kinde of Musicke for youth to be taught neither doth any man set his minde thereto or make profession thereof but looke whosoever are given to Musicke betake them selves wholy to that of Theaters for their delight But some man may haply say unto me What good sir thinke you that in old time they devised no new Musicke and added nothing at all to the former Yes I wis I confesse they did adjoine thereto some new inventions but it was with gravity and decency For the historians who wrote of these matters attributed unto Terpander the Dorian Nete which before time they used not in their songs and tunes And even so it is said that the Myxolidien tune was wholly by him devised to the rest as also the note of the melody Orthien and the song named Orthius by the Trochaeus for sounding the al' arme and to encourage unto battell And if it be true as Pindarus saith Terpander was the inventour of those songs called Scolia which were sung at feasts Archilochus also adjoined those rhymes or Iambicke measures called Trimetra the translation also and change into other number and measures of a different kinde yea and the maner how to touch and strike them Moreover unto him as first inventour are attributed the Epodes Tetrameter Iambicks Procritique and Prosodiacks as also the augmentation of the first yea and as some thinke the Elegie it selfe over and besides the intension of Iambus unto Paean Epibatos of the Herous augmented both unto the Prosodiaque also the Creticke Furthermore that of Iambique notes some be pronounced according to the stroke others sung out Archilochus was the man by report who shewed all this first and afterwards tragicall Poets used the same likewise it is said that Crexus receiving it from him transported it to be used at the Bacchanall songs called Dithyrambs And he was the first also by their saying who devised the stroake after the song for that beforetime they used to sing and strike the strings together Likewise unto Polymnestus is ascribed all that kinde of note or tune which now is called Hypolydius and of him they say that he first made the drawing out of the note longer and the dissolution and ejection thereof much greater than before Moreover that Olympus upon whom is fathered the invention of the Greeke musicke that is tied to lawes and rules was hee who first brought by their saying all the kinde of harmonie and of rhymes or measures the Prosodiaque wherein is conteined the tune and song of Mars also the Chorios whereof there is great use in the solemnities of the great mother of the gods yea and some there be who make Olympus the authour also of the measure Bacchius And thus much concerning every one of the ancient tunes and songs But Lasus the harmonian having transferred the rhymes into the order of Dithyrambs and followed the multiplicitie in voice of hautboies in using many sounds and those diffused and dispersed to and fro brought a great change into Musicke which never was before Semblably Melanippides who came after him conteined not himselfe in that maner of Musicke which then was in use no more than Philoxenus did Timotheus for he whereas beforetime unto the daies of Terpander the Antissaean the harpe had but seven strings distinguished it into many more sounds and strings yea and the sound of the pipe or hautboies being simple and plaine before was changed into a Musicke of more distinct varietie For in olde time unto the daies of Melanippides a Dithyrambicke Poet the plaiers of the
hautboies were wont to receive their salaries and wages at the hands of Poets for that Poetrie you must thinke bare the greatest stroke and had the principal place in Musicke and acting of plaies so as the Minstrels beforesaid were but their ministers but afterwards this custome was corrupted upon occasion whereof Pherecrates the Comicall Poet bringeth in Musicke in forme and habit of a woman with her bodie piteously scourged and mangled all over and he deviseth besides that Dame Justice demandeth of her the cause why and how she became thus misused unto whom Poësie or Musicke maketh answere in this wise MUSICKE I will gladly tell since that we pleasure take You for to heare and I to answere make One of the first who did me thus displease And worke my woe was Melanippides He with twelve strings my bodie whipt so sore That soft it is and looser than before Yet was this man unto me tolerable And not to these my harmes now comparable For one of Athick land Cynesias he Shame come to him and cursed may he be By making turnes and winding cranks so strange In all his strophes and those without the range Of harmony hath me perverted so That where I am unneth I now do kno His Dithyrambs are framed in such guise That left seeme right in shield and targuet wise And yet of him one can not truly say That cruelly he me ant me for to slay Phrynis it was who set to me a wrest His owne device that I could never rest Wherewith he did me winde and writhe so hard That I well neere for ever was quite marr'd Out of five strings for sooth he would devise No fewer than twelve harmonies to rise Well of this man I cannot most complaine For what he mist he soone repair'd againe Timotheus sweet Lady out alas Hath me undone Timotheus it was Most shamefully who wrought me all despite He hath me torne he hath me buried quite JUSTICE And who might this Timotheus be deere hart That was the cause of this thy wofull smart MUSICKE I meane him of Miletus Pyrrhias Surnam'd his head and haire so ruddy was This fellow brought upon me sorrowes more Than all the rest whom I have nam'd before A sort he of unpleasant quavers brings And running points when as he plaies or sings He never meets me when I walke alone Upon the way but me assailes anone Off go my robes and thus devested bare He teawes me with twelve strings and makes no spare Aristophanes also the Comicall Poet maketh mention of Philoxenus and saith that he brought songs into the dances called Rounds and in this maner he deviseth that Musick should speake and complaine What with his Exharmonians Niglars and Hyperbolians And such loud notes I wot not what He hath me stuft so full as that My voice is brittle when I speake Like radish root that soone will breake Semblably other Comicall Poets have blasoned and set out in their colours our moderne Musicians for their absurd curiositie in hewing and cutting Musicke thus by peace-meale and mincing it so small But that this science is of great power and efficacie aswell to set strait and reforme as to pervert deprave and corrupt youth in their education and learning Aristoxenus hath made very plaine and evident for he saith that of those who lived in his time Telesias the Theban happened when he was yoong to be brought up and instructed in the most excellent kinde of Musicke and to learne many notable ditties and songs among which those also of Pindarus of Dionysius the Theban of Lamprus Pratinas and other Lyricall Poets singular men in their facultie and profession of playing cunningly upon the harpe and other stringed instruments He had learned likewise to sound the hautboies passing well and was sufficiently exercised and practised in all other parts of good literature but when he was once past the flower and middle of his age he became so farre rivished and caried away with this Scenicall musicke so ful of varietie that he despised that excellent musicke and poesie wherein he was nourtred all for to learne the ditties and tunes of Philoxenus and Timotheus and principally such of them as had most varietie and noveltie and when he betooke himselfe to compose ditties and set songs making triall what he could do in both kinds aswell in that of Pindarus and this of Philoxenus he was able to performe nothing wel and to the purpose in that Musicke of Philoxenus the reason whereof was his excellent education from his infancie If rhen a man be desirous to use musicke well and judiciously let him imitate the olde maner and yet in the meane while furnish the same with other sciences learne Philosophie as a mistresse to guide and leade for shee is able to judge what kinde of measures is meet for musicke and profitable For whereas three principal points and kinds there be unto which all musicke is universally divided to wit Diatonos Chroma and Harmonie he ought to be skilfull in Poetrie which useth these severall kinds who commeth to learne Musicke and withall he must atteine to that sufficiencie as to know how to expresse and couch in writing his poeticall inventions First and formost therefore he is to underst and that all musicall science is a certeine custome and usage which hath not yet atteined so farre as the knowledge to what end every thing is to be leatned by him that is the scholar Next to this it would be considered that to this teaching and instruction there be not yet adjoined presently the enumeration of the measures maners of musicke But the most part learne rashly and without discretion that which seemeth good is pleasant either to the learner or the teacher as the Lacedaemonians in old time the Mantineans likewise and the Pellenians for these making choise of one maner above the rest or els of very few which they tooke to be meet for the reformation and correction of maners used no other musicke but it which more evidently may appeare if a man will enquire and consider what it is that every one of these sciences taketh for the subject matter to handle for certaine it is that the Harmonique skill conteineth the knowledge of intervals compositions sounds notes and mutations of that kinde which is named Hermosmenon that is to say well befitting and convenient neither is it possible for it to proceed farther So that we must not require nor exact of her that she should be able to discerne whether a Poet hath well properly and fitly used for example sake in musicke the Hyperdorian tune in his entrance the Mixolydian and the Dorian at his going forth and the Phrygian or Hypophrygian in the mids for this perteineth not at all to the subject matter of the Harmonicke kinde and hath need of many other things for he knoweth not well the force of the proprietie And if he be ignorant of the Chromaticke kinde and Enharmonian he shall never atteine to
to be a goddesse craved the pillar of wood which she cut downe with facility and tooke from underneath the truncke of the Tamarix or Erice which she anointed with perfumed oile and enwrapped within a linnen cloth and gave it to the kings for to be kept whereof it commeth that the Byblians even at this day reverence this piece of wood which lieth confecrate within the temple of Isis. Furthermore it is said that in the end she light upon the coffer over which she wept and lamented so much that the yongest of the kings sonnes died for very pity of her but she herselfe accompanied with the eldest of them together with the coffer embarked tooke sea departed But when the river Phaedrus turned the wind somwhat roughly about the dawning of the day Isis was so much displeased and angry that she dried it quite And so soone as she came unto a solitary place where she was by herselfe alone she opened the coffer where finding the corps of Osiris she laid her face close to his embraced it and wept Herewith came the child softly behinde and espied what she was doing whom when she perceived she looked backe casting an untoward eie and beheld him with such an angry aspect that the poore infant not able to endure so terrible a looke died upon it Some say it was not so but that he fell into the sea in maner aforesaid and was honored for the goddesse sake and that he is the same whom the Aegyptians chaunt at their feasts under the name of Maneros But others give out that this child was named Palestinus and that the city Pelusium was built in remembrance of him by the goddesse Isis and so tooke the name after him and how this Maneros whom they so celebrate in their songs was the first inventour of musicke Howbeit others there are againe who affirme that this was the name of no person but a kinde of dialect or language proper and agreeable unto those who drinke and banquet together as if a man should say In good houre and happily may this or that come For the Aegyptians were wont ordinarily to use this terme Maneros in such a sense like as no doubt the drie sceletos or dead corps of a man which they used to carie about and shew in a bierre or coffin at the table was not the representation or memoriall of this accident which befell unto Osiris as some doe imagine but served as an admonition to put the guests in minde to be merry and take their pleasure and joy in those things that were present for that soone after they should be like unto it This I say was the reason that it was brought in at their feasts and mery meetings Furthermore when Isis was gone to see her sonne Horus who was fostered and brought up in the city Butus and had laid the foresaid coffer with Osiris body out of the way Typhon fortuned as he hunted in a cleere moone-shine night to meet with it and taking knowledge of the body cut it into foureteene peeces and flung them heere and there one from another which when Isis understood she searched for them in a bote or punt made of papyr reed all over the moores and marishes whereof it comes that the Crocodiles never hurt those who saile or row in vessels made of that plant whether it be that they are affraid of it or reverence it for this goddesse sake I know not And thus you may know the reason why there be found many sepulchres of Osiris in the country of Aegypt for ever as she found any peece of him she caused a tombe to be made for it others say no but that she made many images of him which she left in every city as if she had bestowed among them his very body indeed to the end that in many places he might be honored and that if happly Typhon when he sought for the true sepulcher of Osiris having vanquished and overcome Horus many of them being reported and shewed he might not know which was it and so give over seeking farther Over and besides the report goes that Isis found all other parts of Osiris body but onely his privy member for that it was immediately cast into a river and the fishes named Lepidotus Phagrus and Oxyrynchus devoured it for which cause Isis detesteth them above all other fishes but in sted of that natural part she made a counterfet one called Phallus which she consecrated and in the honor thereof the Aegyptians hold a solemne feast After all this it followeth in the fable that Osiris being returned out of the infernall parts appeared unto Horus for to exercise instruct and traine him against the battell of whom he demanded what he thought to be the most beautifull thing in the world who answered To be revenged of the wrong and injury which had bene done to a mans parents Secondly what beast he thought most profitable to goe into the field withall unto whom Horus should make answere The horse whereat Osiris marvelled and asked him why he named the horse and not the lion rather Because quoth Horus the lion serveth him in good sted who stands upon his owne guard and defense onely and hath need of aid but the horse is good to defait the enimy quite to follow him in chace and take him prisoner When Osiris heard him say so he tooke great pleasure and contentment heerein judging heereby that his sonne was sufficiently appointed and prepared to give battell unto his enimies And verily it is said that among many that daily revolted from Typhon and sided with Horus even the very concubine of Typhon named Thueris was one who came to him and when a certaine serpent followed after and pursued her the same was cut in peeces by the guard about Horus in remembrance whereof at this very day they bring forth a certaine cord which likewise they chop in peeces Well they say the battell continued many daies but in the end Horus had the victory As also that Isis having Typhon prisoner fast bound in her hands killed him not but loosed him and let him goe which Horus not able to endure with patience laid violent hands upon his mother and plucked from her head the roiall ornament that she had thereon in sted whereof Mercury set one a morion made in maner of a cowes head Then Typhon called Horus judicially into question charging him that he was a bastard but by the helpe of Mercury who pleaded his cause he was judged by the gods legitimate who also in two other battel 's vanquished Typhon And more than all this the tale saith that Isis after death was with child by Osiris by whom she had Helitomenus and Harpocrates who wanted his nether parts Thus you see what be in maner all the principall points of this fable setting aside and excepting those which are most execrable to wit the dismembring of Horus and the beheading of Isis. Now that if any there be
hundred and eight yeeres saying that foure and fifty is the just moity or one halfe of a mans life which number is composed of an unitie the two first plaines two squares and two cubiques which numbers Plato also tooke to the procreation of the soule which he describeth But it seemeth verily that Hesiodus by these words covertly did signifie that generall conflagration of the world at what time it is very probable that the Nymphs together with all humors and liquid matters shall perish Those Nymphs I meane which many a tree and plant In forrests faire and goodly groves do hant Or neere to springs and river streames are seene Or keepe about the medowes gay and greene Then Cleombrotus I have heard many quoth he talke hereof and I perceive very well how this conflagration which the Stoicks have devised as it hath crept into the Poems of Heraclitus and Orpheus and so perverted their verses so it hath seized upon and caught hold of Hesiodus and given a perverse interpretation of him aswell as of others But neither can I endure to admit this consummation and end of the world which they talke of nor any such impossible matters and namely those speeches as touching the life of the Crow and the Stag or Hinde which yeeres if they were summed together would grow to an excessive number Moreover a yere conteining in it the beginning and the end of all things which the seasons thereof doe produce and the earth bring forth may in mine opinion not impertinently be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say the age of men for even your selves confesse that Hesiodus in one passage called mans life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How say you is it not so Then Demetrius avowed as much This also quoth Cleombrotus is as certeine that both the measure and also the things which be measured are called by one and the same names as it appeareth by Cotyla Chaenix Amphora and Medimnus Like as therefore we name Unitie a number which indeed of all numbers is the least measure and beginning onely of them semblably Hesiodus termed Yeere the age of man for that with it principally we measure his age and so communicate that word with the thing that it measureth as for those numbers which they make there is no singularity at all or matter of importance in them as touching the renowmed numbers indeed But the number of 9720 hath a speciall ground and beginning as being composed of the foure first numbers arising in order from one and the same added together or multiplied by foure every way arise to fortie Now if these be reduced into triangles five times they make the just summe of the number before named But as touching these matters what need I to contend with Demetrius for whether there be meant thereby a longer time or a shorter a certeine or uncerteine wherein Hesiodus would have the soule of a Daemon to change or the life of a Demi god or Heros to end it skilleth not for he prooveth neverthelesse that which he would and that by the evidence of most ancient and wise witnesses that there be certeine natures neuter and meane as it were situate in the confines betweene gods and men and the same subject to mortall passions and apt to receive necessarie changes and mutations which natures according to the traditions examples of our forefathers meet it is that we call Daemons and honour them accordingly And to this purpose Xenocrates one of the familiar friends of Plato was woont to bring in the demonstration and example of triangles which agreed very well to the present matter in hand for that triangle which had three sides and angles equall he compared unto the nature divine and immortall that which had all sides unequall unto the humane and mortall nature and that which had two equall and one unequall unto the nature of the Daemons for the first is every way equall the second on every side unequall and the last in some sort equall and in other unequall like unto the nature of the Daemons having humane passions and affections yet withall the divine power of some god But nature herselfe hath proposed unto us sensible figures and similitudes visible above of gods vetily the Sunne and other starres but of mortall men sudden lights and flashes in the night blazing comets and shooting of starres for unto such Euripides compared them when he said Who was ere while and lately in the floure Of his fresh youth at sudden in an houre Became extinct as starre which seemes to fall From skie and into aire sent breath and all Now for a mixt body representing the nature of Daemons or Angels there is the Moone which they seeing to be so subject to growing and decreasing yea and to perishing altogether and departing out of sight thought to accord very well and to be sortable unto the mutability of the Daemons kinde For which cause some have called her a terrestriall starre others an Olympian or celestiall earth and there be againe who have named her The heritage and possession of Proserpina both heavenly and earthly Like as therefore if one tooke the aire out of the world and remooved it from betweene the Moone and the earth he should dissolve the continuation coherence and composition of the whole universall frame by leaving a voide and emptie place in the middes without any bond to joine and linke the extremes together even so they who admit not the nation and kind of the Daemons abolish all communication convers and conference betweene gods and men considering they take away that nature which serveth as a hanchman interpreter and minister betweene both as Plato said or rather they would drive us to confound and huddle together yea and to jumble all in one if we came to interningle the divine nature and deity among humane passions and actions and so plucke it out of heaven for to make it intermeddle in the negocies and affaires of men like as they faie the wives of Thessalie draw downe the Moone from heaven Which devise fiction hath taken roote and is beleeved among women by reason that Aglaonica the daughter of Agetor by report being a wise dame and well seene in Astrologie made semblance and perswaded the vulgar sort that in every ecclipse of the Moone she used alwaies some charmes and enchantments by vertue whereof she fetched the Moone out of heaven As for us give we no eare and credit unto them who say there be some Oracles and divinations without a deity or that the gods regard not sacrifices divine services and other sacred ceremonies exhibited 〈◊〉 them neither on the other side let us beleeve that God is present to intermeddle or employ himselfe in person but betaking and referring that charge unto the ministers of the gods as it is meet and just like as if they were deputies officers and secretaries let us constantly hold that those be the Daemons which are
situate in their naturall seats as it is meet and appertaineth and each of those worlds shall have superior inferiour circular and a centre in the midst not in regard of another world nor of that which is without but in it selfe and in respect of it selfe And as for the supposition which some make of a stone without the world it cannot be imagined how possibly it should either rest or moove for how can it hang still seeing it is ponderous and waighty or moove toward the midst of the world as other heavy bodies considering it is neither part of it nor counted in the substance thereof As concerning that earth which is contained in another world and fast bound we need not to make doubt and question how it should not fall downe hither by reason of the wieght not be plucked away from the whole seeing as we doe that it hath a naturall strength to containe every part thereof For if we shall take high and low not within and in respect of the world but without forth we shall be driven unto the same difficulties and distresses which Epicurus is fallen into who maketh his little Atomes or indivisible bodies to move and tend toward those places which are under foot as if either his voidnesse had feet or the infinity which he speaketh of permit a man to imagine either high or low And therefore some cause there is to marvell at Chrysippus or rather to enquire and demand what fansie hath come into his head and mooved him to say that this world is seated and placed directly in the midst and that the substance thereof from all 〈◊〉 having taken up and occupied the place of the midst yet neverthelesse it is so compact and tied together that it endureth alwaies and is as one would say immortalized for so much hath he written in his fourth booke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Of possible things dreaming to no purpose of a middle place in that vast 〈◊〉 and yet more absurdly attributing unto that middle which is not nor hath any subsistence the cause of the worlds continuance and stabilitie especially having written thus much many times in other places that the substance is governed and mainteined partly by the motions tending to the mids and partly by others from the mids of it As for other oppositions besides that the Stoicks make who is there that feareth them as namely when they demand How it is possible to mainteine one fatall necessity and one divine providence and how it can otherwise be but that there should be many DIES and ZENES that is to say Joves and Jupiters if we grant that there be many worlds For to begin withall if it be an inconvenience to allow many such Joves and Jupiters their opinions verily be farre more absurd for they devise an infinit sort of Sunnes Moones Apolloes Dianaes and Neptunes in innumerable conversions revolutions of worlds Moreover what necessitie is there to enforce us to avow many Jupiters if there be many worlds and not rather in every of them a severall god as a sovereigne governor and ruler of the whole furnished with all understanding and reason as he whom we surname the Lord and Father of all things Or what should hinder but that all worlds might be subject to the providence destiny of Jupiter and he reciprocally have an eie to oversee all to direct digest and conduct all in ministring unto them the principles beginnings seeds and reasons of all things that are done and made For it being so that we do see even here many times a bodie composed of many other distinct bodies as for example the assembly or congregation of a city an armie and a daunce in every one of which bodies there is life prudence and intelligence as Chrysippus thinketh impossible it is not likewise that in this universall nature there should be ten fifty yea and a hundred worlds using all one and the same reason and correspondent to one beginning But contrariwise this order and disposition is best beseeming the gods For we ought not to make the gods like unto the kings of a swarme of bees which go not forth but keepe within the hive nor to holde them enclosed and imprisoned as it were rather and shut up fast within Matter as these men do who would have the gods to be certeine habitudes or dispositions of the aire and supposing them to be powers of waters and of fire infused and mixed within make them to arise and be engendred together with the world and so afterwards to be burnt likewise with it not allowing them to be loose and at libertie like as coatch-men and pilots are but in maner of statues or images are set fast unto their bases with nailes and sodered with lead even so they enclose the gods within bodily matter and pin them hard thereto so as being jointed as it were sure unto it they participate therewith all changes and alterations even to finall corruption and dissolution Yet is this opinion fare more grave religious and magnificent in my conceit to holde that the gods be of themselves free and without all command of any other power And like as they firy light Castor and Pollux succour those who are tossed in a tempest and by their comming and presence Allay the surging waves of sea below And still the blustring winds aloft that blow and not sailing themselves nor partaking the same perils with the mariners but onely appearing in the aire above save those that were in danger even so the gods for their pleasure goe from one world to another to visit them and together with nature rule and governe every one of them For Jupiter verily in Homer cast not his eies far from the city of Troy either into Thracia or the Nomades and vagrant Scythians along the river Ister or Daunbie but the true Jupiter indeed hath many faire passages goodly changes beseeming his majesty out of one world into another neither looking into the infinit voidnesse without nor beholding himselfe and nothing els as some have thought but considering the deeds of men and of gods the motions also and revolutions of the starres in their sphaeres For surely the deity is not offended with variety nor hateth mutations but taketh much pleasure therein as a man may guesse by the circuitions conversions and changes which appeare in the heaven I conclude therefore that the infinitie of worlds is a very senselesse and false conceit such as in no wise will beare and admit any god but emploieth fortune and chance in the managing of all things but contrariwise the administration and providence of a certeine quantity and determinate number of worlds seemeth unto me neither in majestie and worthinesse inferior nor in travell more laborious than that which is emploied and restreined to the direction of one alone which is transformed renewed and metamorphozed as it were an infinit sort of times After I had delivered this speech I
also powre forth our praiers unto them for to have their answere from the Oracles and to what purpose I pray you if it be true that our owne soules bring with them a propheticall facultie and vertue of divination and the cause which doth excite and actuate the same be some temperature of the aire or rather of winde What meanes then the sacred institutions and creations of these religious prophetesses ordained for the pronouncing of answeres And what is the reason that they give no answere at all unlesse the host or sacrifice to be killed tremble all over even from the very feet and shake whiles the libaments effusions of halowed liquors be powred upon it For it is not enough to wag the head as other beasts doe which are slaine for sacrifice but this quaking panting and shivering must be throughout all the parts of the body and that with a trembling noise For if this be wanting they say the Oracle giveth no answere neither doe they so much as bring in the religious priestesse Pythia And yet it were probable that they should both doe and thinke thus who attribute the greatest part of this propheticall inspiration either to God or Daemon But according as you say there is no reason or likelihood therof for the exhalation that ariseth out of the ground whether the beast tremble or no will alwaies if it be present cause a ravishment and transportation of the spirit and evermore dispose the soule alike not onely of Pythia but also of any body else that first commeth or is presented And thereupon it followeth that a meere folly it is to employ one silly woman in the Oracle and to put her to it poore soule to be a votary and live a pure maiden all the daies of her life sequestred from the company of man And as for that Coretas whom the Delphians name to have beene the first that chancing to fall into this chinke or crevasse of the ground gave the hansell of the vertue and property of the place in mine opinion he differed nothing at all from other goteheards or shepheards nor excelled them one whit at least wise if this be a truth that is reported of him and not a meere fable and vaine fiction as I suppose it is no better And verily when I consider and discourse in my selfe how many good things this Oracle hath beene cause of unto the Greeks as well in their warres and martiall affaires as in the foundations of cities in the distresses of famine and pestilence me thinkes it were a very indignity and unworthy part to attribute the invention and originall thereof unto meere fortune and chance and not unto God and divine providence But upon this point I would gladly ô Lamprias quoth he have you to dispute and discourse a little how say you Philippus may it please you to have patience the while Most willingly quoth Philippus for my part and so much I may be bold also to promise in the behalfe of all the company for I see well that the question by you proposed hath moved them all And as for my selfe quoth I ô Philippus it hath not onely moved but also abashed and dismaied me for that in this so notable assembly and conference of so many worthy parsonages I may seeme above mine age in bearing my selfe and taking pride in the probability of my wordes to overthrow or to call into question any of those things which truely have beene delivered or religiously beleeved as touching God and divine matters But satisfie you I will and in the defence of my selfe produce for my witnesse and advocate both Plato For this Philosopher reprooved old Anaxagoras in that being to much addicted to naturall causes and entangled with them following also and pursuing alwaies that which necessarily is effected in the passions and affections of naturall bodies he overpassed the finall and efficient causes for which and by which thinges are done and those are indeed the better causes and principles of greater importance whereas himselfe either before or else most of all other Philosophers hath prosecuted them both attributing unto God the beginning of all things wrought by reason and not depriving in the meane while the matter of those causes which are necessary unto the worke done but acknowledging heerein that the adorning and dispose of all this world sensible dependeth not upon one simple cause alone as being pure and uncompound but was engendred and tooke essence when matter was coupled and conjoined with reason That this is so doe but consider first the workes wrought by the hand of Artisans as for example not to goe farther for the matter that same foot heere and basis so much renowmed of the standing cup among other ornaments and oblations of this temple which Herodotus called Hypocreteridion this hath for the materiall cause verily fire iron the mollefying by the meanes of fire and the tincture or dipping in water without which this peece of worke could not possibly have bene wrought But the more principall cause and mistresse indeed which mooved all this and did worke by all these was art and reason applied unto the worke And verily we see that over such peeces whether they be pictures or other representations of things the name of the artificer and workeman is written as for example This picture Polygnotus drew of Troy won long beforne Who father had Aglaophon and was in Thasos borne And verily he it was indeed as you see who painted the destruction of Troy but without colours ground confused and mingled one with another impossible had it beene for him to have exhibited such a picture so faire and beautifull to the eie as it is If then some one come now and will needs medle with the materiall cause searching into the alterations and mutations thereof particularizing of Sinopre mixed with Ochre or Cerusse with blacke doth he impaire or diminish the glory of the painter 〈◊〉 He also who discourseth how iron is hardned and by what meanes mollified and how being made soft and tender in the fire it yeeldeth and obaieth them who by beating and knocking drive it out in length and bredth and afterwards being dipped and plunged into fresh waters still by the actuall coldnesse of the said water for that the fire heats had softened and rarefied it before it is thrust close together and condensate by meanes whereof it getteth that stiffe compact and hard temper of steele which Homer calleth the very force of iron reserveth he for the workeman any thing lesse heereby in the principall cause and operation of his worke I suppose he doth not For some there be who make proofe and triall of Physicke drogues and yet I trow they condemne not thereby the skill of Physicke like as Plato also himselfe when he saith That we doe see because the light of our eie is mixed with the cleerenesse of the Sunne and heare by the percussion and beating of the aire doth not deny that we have the
governour of all moisture 1301.40 Bactrians desire to have their dead bodies devoured by birds of the aire 299.50 Baines and stouphes 612.1 in old time very temperate 783.30 the occasion of many diseases 783.30 Balance not to be passed over 15.10 Ballachrades 903.30 Bal what it signifieth in the Aegyptian language 1319.1 Banishment of Bulimus 738.20 Banishment how to be made tolerable 275.1.10 no marke of infamie 278.20 seemeth to be condemned by Euripides ib. 30 Banished persons we are all in this world 281.20 Banquet of the seven Sages 326.30 Barbarians and Greeks compared 39.40 Barbell the fish honoured 976.40 Barbers be commonly praters 200.40 a pratling Barber checked k. Archelaus 408.10 Barber to K. 〈◊〉 crucified for his 〈◊〉 tongue 200.30 Barbers shops dry bankets 721.20 a Barber handled in his kinde for his 〈◊〉 tongue 201.1 Barly likes well in sandy ground 1008.10.20 Barrennesse in women how occasioned 844.20 Evill Bashfulnesse cause of much 〈◊〉 danger 165.10.20.30 over-much Bashfulnesse how to be avoided 164.30 Bashfulnesse 163.10 of two sorts 72.1 Bashfulnesse to be avoided in diet 613.1 Bathing in cold water upon exercise 620.20 Bathing in hot water ib. 30. Bathing and 〈◊〉 before meat 612.20 Bathyllion 759.10 Battus the sonne of Arcesilaus 504.30 Battus a buffon or 〈◊〉 775.10 Battus surnamed Daemon 504.20 Battus 1199.20 Beanes absteined from 15.20 Beare a subtill beast 965.10 why they are saide to have a sweet hand 1010.50 why they gnaw not the 〈◊〉 1012.30 tender over their yoong 218.20 a Bearded comet 827.20 Beasts haue taught us Physicke al the parts thereof 967.60 Beasts capable of vertue 564.50 docible apt to learne arts 570.1 able to teach ib. 10. we ought to have pittie of them 575.30 brute Beasts teach parents naturall kindnesse 217.218 Beasts braines in old time rejected 783.10 they cure themselves by Physicke 1012.1 Beasts of land their properties 958.50 what beasts will be mad 955.20 beasts not sacrificed without their owne consent 779.20 skilful in Arithmetick 968.20 kind to their yong 218.10 beasts wilde what use men make of them 237.40 of land or water whether have more use of reason 951. 30. beasts have use of reason 954.955 how to be used without injurie 956.40 how they came first to be killed 779.10 whether they feed more simply than we 702.1 whether more healthfull than men 702.1 Beauty the blossome of vertue 1153.10 beauty of what worth 6.50 beauty of woman called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 728.50 beauty without vertue not 〈◊〉 47.1 Beboeon 1370.40 Bebon ib. Bed of maried folke 〈◊〉 many quarrels betweene them 322 20. bed-clothes to bee shuffled when we be newly risen 777.40 Bees of Candie how witty they be 959. 50. bees cannot abide smoke 1014.30 they sting unchaste persons ib. 40. the bee a wise creature 218.1 The Beetill flie what it signisieth 〈◊〉 1291.30 why honoured by the Aegyptians 1316.30 Beer a counterfeit wine 685.40 Begged flesh what is ment by it 891.50 Bellerophontes continent everie way 739.30 Bellerophontes commended for his continence 42.30.139.30 he slew Chimarchus 489.10 not rewarded by Iobates ib. Belestre 1137.1 The Bellies of dead men how they be served by the Aegyptians 576.40 of belly belly cheere pro contra 339.340 belly pleasures most esteemed by lipicurus and Metrodorus 595. 10. belly hath no cares 620.40 Bepolitanus strangely escaped execution 502.40 Berronice the good wife of 〈◊〉 1111.40 〈◊〉 detected for killing his father 545.30 Bias his answer to a pratling fellow 194.20 his answer to king Amasis 327.10 his apophthegme 456.1 his apophthegme touching the most dangerous beast 47.30 Binarie number 807.10 Binarie number or Two called contention 1317.30 Bion his answere to Theognis 28.20 his apophthegme 254. 50. his saying of Philosophie 9.1 〈◊〉 hath divers significations 29.20 Birds why they have no wezill flap 745.10 birds how they drinke 745.10 skilfull in divination 968.40 taught to imitate mans mans voice 966.30 Biton and Cleobis rewarded with death 518.10 See Cleobis Bitternesse what effects it worketh 656.10 a 〈◊〉 of his toong how he was served by K. Seleucus 200.20 Blacknesse commeth of water 997. 10 Blacke potage at Lacedaemon 475. 20 Bladder answereth to the winde-pipe like as the guts to the wezand 745.20 Blames properly imputed for vice 47.30 Blasing 〈◊〉 827.10 The Blessed state of good folke departed 530.50 Bletonesians sacrificed a man 878.10 Blushing face better than pale 38 50 Bocchoris a k. of AEgypt 164.40 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 898.40 Bodily health by two arts preserved 9.10 Body fitter to entertaine paine than pleasure 583.10 body feeble no hinderance to aged rulers 389.40 bodies what they be 813. bodies smallest 813.50 body cause of all vices and calamities 517.30 body may well have an action against the soule 625.1 much injuried by the soule ib. Boeotarchie 367.10 Boeotians good trencher men 669 10. noted for gluttony 575.1 Boeotians reproched for hating good letters 1203.50 Boldnesse in children and youth 8.40 Bona a goddesse at Rome 856.50 Books of Philosophers to be read by yoong men 9.50 Boreas what winde 829.30 Bottiaeans 898.30 their virgins song ib. Brasidas his saying of a silly mouse 251.20 Brasidas his apophthegmes 423. 30.456.1 his death and commendation ib. 10 A Brason spike keepeth dead bodies from putrefaction 697.50 Brasse swords or speares wounde with lesse hurt 698.1 Brasse why called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 698.1 why it is so resonant 770.10 Brasse of Corinth 1187.1 Bread a present remedie for fainting 739.1 Brennus king of the Gallogreeks 910.40 Brethren how they are to divide their patrimonie 180.40 one brother ought not to steale his fathers heart from another 179 30. they are to excuse one another to their parents 179.50 how they should cary themselves in regard of age 184.185 Briareus a giant the same that Ogygius 1180.20 Bride lifted over the threshold of her husbands dore 860.30 bridegrome commeth first to his bride without a light 872.10 20. bride why she eateth a quince before she enter into the bed-chamber 872.20 brides haire parted with a javelin 879. 50 Brimstone why called in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 705.30 Brison a famous runner 154.30 Brotherly amity a strange thing 174.20 Brutus surprised with the hunger 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 738.50 his gracious thankefulnesse to the 〈◊〉 739.1 Decim Brutus why he sacrificed to the dead in December 862. 10 Brutus beheadeth his owne sonnes 909.50 The Bryer bush 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 892. 50 Bubulci the name at Rome how it came 865.10 Bucephalus K. Alexanders horse 963.50 how he was woont to ride him 396.20 Buggery in brute beasts not known 568.30 Building costly forbidden by Lycurgus 577.30.880.1 Bulb roote 704.20 Buls and beares how they prepare to fight 959.1 Buls affraied of red clothes tied to figge-trees become tame 323. 741.30 Bulla what ornament or jewell 40. why worne by Romaines children 883.40 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fainting
of themselves without any evident cause prognosticate and fore-signifie diseases for that as it should seeme the spirits that should passe unto the nerves and sinewes are obstructed stopped and excluded by the great repletion of humors and albeit the bodie it selfe tendeth as it were to the contrarie and pulleth us to our bedde and repose yet some there be who for very gluttony and disordinate lust put themselves into baines hot-houses making haste from thence to drinking square with good fellowes as if they would make provision before-hand of victuals against some long siege of a citie or feare that the feaver should surprise them fasting or before they had taken their full dinner others somwhat more honest yea civill than they are not this way 〈◊〉 but being ashamed fooles as they are to confesse that they have eaten or drunke overmuch that they feele any heavinesse in head or cruditie in stomacke loth also to be knowen for to keepe their chamber all the day long in their night gownes whiles their companions goe to tennis and other bodily exercises abroad in publicke place and call them foorth to beare them companie rise up and make them ready to goe with them cast off their clothes to their naked skinne with others and put themselves to doe all that men in perfect health are to performe But the most part of these induced and drawen on by hope perswaded are bold to arise and to doe hardly after their wonted maner assisted by a certaine hope grounded upon a proverbe 〈◊〉 an advocate to desend gourmandise and wanton life which adviseth them that they should 〈◊〉 wine with wine drive or digest one surfeit with another Howbeit against all such hope 〈◊〉 are to oppose the warie and considerat caution that Cato speaketh of which as that wise 〈◊〉 saith doth diminish and lessen great things and as for small matters it reduceth them to nothing also that it were better to endure want of meat and to keepe the bodie emptie and in 〈◊〉 than so to hazard it by entring into a baine or runne to an high ordinarie to dine and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be some disposition to sicknesse hurtfull it will be that we have not taken heed nor conteined our selves but beene secure if none dangerous it will not be that we have held 〈◊〉 restrained our selves and by that restraint made our body so much more pure and cleare But that 〈◊〉 foole whosoever he be that is afraid to let his friends and those of his owne house know that he is amisse or ill at ease for that he hath eaten overmuch or surfeited with strong drinke as being ashamed to confesse this day his indigestion shall be forced to morrow even against his will to bewray either an inordinate catarrh and fluxe or an ague or else some wrings and torments of the belly thou takest it for a great shame to be knowen that thou didst want or were hungry but farre greater shame it is to avow crudity and rawnesse to bewray heavinesse proceeding from full diet and upon repletion of the bodie to be drawen neverthelesse into a baine as if some rotten vessell or leaking shippe that would not keepe out water should be shot into the sea Certes such persons as these resemble some sailers or sea-faring men who in the tempestuous time of winter be ashamed to be seene upon the shore doing nothing but when they have once weighed anker spred saile and launched into the deepe and open sea they are very ill appaied crying out piteously and ready to cast up their gorge even so they that doubt some sicknesse or finde a disposition of the bodie ready to fall into it thinke it a great shame and discredit to stand upon their guard one day to keepe their beds and forbeare their ordinarie table and accustomed diet but afterwards with more shame they are faine to lie by it many daies together whiles they be driven to take purgations to applie many cataplasmes to speake the physicians faire and fawne upon them when they would have leave of them to drinke wine or cold water being so base minded as to doe absurdly and to speake many words impertinently feeling their hearts to faile and be ready to faint for the paine they endure alreadie and the feare they are in to abide more Howbeit very good it were to teach and admonish such persons as otherwise cannot rule and conteine themselves but either yeeld or be transported and carried away by their lusts that their pleasures take the most and best part of the bodie for their share And like as the Lacedaemonians after that they had given vinegar and salt to the cooke willed him to seeke for the rest in the beast sacrificed even so in a bodie which one would nourish the best sauces for the meat are these which are presented unto it when it is sound in health and cleane For that a dish of meat is sweet or deere is a thing by it selfe without the bodie of him who taketh it and eateth thereof but for the pleasantnesse or contentment thereof we ought to have regard unto the body that receiveth it also for to delight therein it should be so disposed as nature doth require for otherwise if the body be troubled ill affected or overcharged with wine the best devices and sauces in the world will lose their grace and all their goodnesse whatsoever and therefore it would not be so much looked unto whether the fish be new taken the bread made of pure and fine flowre the bathe hot or the harlot faire and beautifull as considered precisely whether the man himselfe have not a lothing stomacke apt to heave and vomit be not full of crudities error vanity and trouble else it will come to passe that she shall incurre the same fault and absurditie that they doe who after they are drunken will needs goe in a maske to plaie and daunce in an house where they all mourne for the death of the master thereof lately deceased for in stead of making sport and mirth this were enough to set all the house upon weeping and piteous wailing For even so the sports of love or Venus exquisit uiands pleasant baines and good wines in a bodie ill disposed and not according to nature doe no other good but stirre trouble fleame and and choler in them who have no setled and compact constitution and yet be not altogether corrput as also they trouble the body and put it out of tune more than any thing else yeelding no joy that we may make any reckoning of nor that contentment which wee hoped and expected True it is that an exquisit diet observed streightly and precisely according to rule and missing not one jot causeth not onely the bodie to be thinne hollow and in danger to fall into many diseases but also dulleth all the vigor and daunteth the cheerefulnesse of the verie mind in such sort as that she suspecteth all things and feareth continually to stay long as well in
and taught that the affirmative doth conteine of connexed propositions one hundred thousand and besides one thousand fortie and nine but the negative of the same propositions comprehendeth three hundred and ten thousand with a surplusage of nine hundred fiftie and two and Xenocrates hath set downe that the number of syllables which the letters in the alphabet being coupled and combined together do affoord amount to the number of one hundred millions and two hundred thousand over why should it therefore bee thought strange and wonderfull that our body having in it so many faculties and gathering still daily by that which it eateth and drinketh so many different qualities considering withall that it useth motions and mutations which keepe not one time nor the same order alwaies the complications and mixtures of so many things together bring evermore new and unusuall kinds of maladies such as Thucydides wrot was the pestilence at Athens conjecturing that this was no ordinarie and usuall maladie by this especially for that the beasts of prey which otherwise did eat of flesh would not touch a dead bodie those also who fell sicke about the red sea as Agathircides maketh report were afflicted with strange symptomes and accidents which no man had ever read or seene and among others that there crawled from them certeine vermin like small serpents which did eat the calves of their legs and the brawnes of their armes and looke whensoever a man thought to touch them in they would againe and winding about the muskles of the flesh ingendered inflammations and impostumes with intolerable paine This pestilent disease no man ever knew before neither was it ever seene since by others but by them alone like as many other such accidents for there was a man who having beene a long time tormented with the disurie or difficultie of his urine delivered in the end by his yard a barley straw knotted as it was with joints and we know a friend and guest of ours a yoong man who together with a great quantitie of naturall seed cast foorth a little hairie worme or vermin with many feet and therewith it ranne very swiftly Aristotle writeth also that the nourse of one Timon of Cilicia retired her selfe for two moneths space every yeere and lurked in a certeine cave all the while without drinke or meat or giving any other apparence of life but onely that shee tooke her breath certes recorded it is in the Melonian books that it is a certeine signe of the liver diseased when the sicke partie is verie busie in spying seeking and chasing the mice and rats about the house a thing that now a daies is not seene let us not marvell therefore if a thing be now engendred that never was seene before and the same afterward cease as if it had never beene for the cause lieth in the nature of the bodie which sometime taketh one temperature and one while another but if Diogemanus bring in a new aire and a strange water let him alone seeing he is so disposed and yet we know well that the followers of Democritus both say and write that by the worlds which perish without this and by the straunge bodies which from that infinitie of worlds runne into this there arise many times the beginnings of plageu and pestilence yea and of other extraordinarie accidents we will passe over likewise the particular corruptions which happen in divers countries either by earthquakes excessive droughts extreme heats and unusuall raines with which it cannot be chosen but that both winds and rivers which arise out of the earth must needs be likewise infected diseased and altered but howsoever those causes wee let goe by yet omit we must not what great alterations and changes be in our bodies occasioned by our meats and viands and other diet and usage of our selves for many things which before time were not wont to hee tasted or eaten are become now most pleasant dainties as for example the drinke made of honie and wine as also the delicate dish of a farrowing swines shape or wombe as for the braine of a beast it is said that in old time they were wont to reject and cast it from them yea and so much to detest and abhorre it that they would not abide to heare one to name it and for the cucumber the melon or pompion the pomeeitron and pepper I know many old folke at this day that cannot away with their taste credible it is therefore that our bodies receive a woonderfull change and strange alteration by such things in their temperature acquiring by little and little a divers qualitie and superfluitie of excrements farre different from those before semblably wee are to beleeve that the change of order in our viands maketh much heereto for the services at the boord which in times past were called the cold tables to wit of oisters sea-urchings greene sallads of raw lettuce such other herbs be as it were the light forerunners of the feast as transferred now by Plato from the rereward to the forefront and have the first place whereas besore in old time they came in last a great matter there is also in those beavers or fore-drinkings called Propomata for our ancients would not drinke so much as water before they did eat and now a daies when as men are otherwise fasting have eat nothing they will be in maner drunke after they have well drenched their bodies they begin to fall unto their meats and whiles they be yet boiling they put into the stomacke those things that bee attenuant incisive and sharpe for to provoke and stirre up the appetite and still fill themselves up full with other viands but none of all this hath more power to make mutation in our bodies nor to breed new maladies than the varietie of sundry fashions of bathing of flesh for first formost it is made soft liquid and fluid as iron is by the fire and afterwards it receiveth the temper and tincture of hard sleele by cold water so that me thinks if any one of those who lived a little before us should see the dore of our stouphes and baines open he might say thus Heere into runneth Acheron And fire-like burning Phlegethon Whereas in our forefathers daies they used their bathes and hot-houses so milde so kinde and temperate that king Alexander the Great being in a fever lay and slept within them yea the Gaules wives bringing thither their pots of pottage and other viands did eat even there with their children who bathed together with them but it seemeth in these daies that those who are within the stouphes and baines be like unto those that are raging madde and barke as dogs they puffe and blow like fed swine they lay about them and tosse every way the aire that they draw in as it were mingled with fire water suffereth no piece nor corner of the body in quiet and rest it shaketh tosseth and remooveth out of place the least indivisible parcell