Natures order and progresse and the Skies of Heaven have their motions and changes and move by a certain order The humours are under the like law for they have certain motions and effects and periods in mans body that every humour keeps its turn according to the variety of the four parts of the year and exercises it faculties and forces on mans body so it is that the blood in the spring is in force and breeds feaver and diseases of its own nature so choler every other day in summer with cholerick burning causeth a tertian Flegm The humours keep their times corrupting in the winter quarter causeth a quotidian intermitting and melancholly when Autumn comes makes a quartan So a diary ends in one day or a little more because that consists not in the putrefaction of humours but with an aereal spirit enflamed And all these are effected by the same law as the rising and setting of Stars are as also is the flux and reflux of the Sea and the pleasant change of hearbs and plants springing forth But that is admirable that the four humours make choise of certain hours and times of the day The motion of the four humours in the body and divide the artificial day and night amongst them by twelve temporal hours which to be true I have found by experience for by observing them I use to pronounce certainly when the feaver will come For the blood is vigorous as Soranus Ephesius testifies Math. 20. which like the Evangelists measure the times and spaces of day and night by equal hours from nine at night till three in the morning Mans mind more lively in the morning from the vapour of bloud in which time the blood is concocted and elaborated in the Liver Hence it is that the mind before day break is more chearfull and all people both sound and sick are more light-hearted by reason of the sweet vapour of the blood but yellow choller hath its turn from three in the morning till nine in the morning in which time the natural faculty doth part the choller from the blood and sends it to the Gall bladder hence it is that a man is then more prone to anger and will be easily offended but black choler or melancholique juice doth its office from nine in the morning till three in the afternoon and sits at helm In this time the Liver is cleansed of this grosse humour which is sent to the Milt by nature hence it is that in those hours the understanding of man is clowded and his mind is sad All the humours are vigorous at certain hours by the dark grosse fumes that arise from thence Flegme moves from three at night till nine at night for then supper being ended concoction begins in the stomach to be perfected and the meat to be boyled and turned to juice Hence it is that flegme swimming on the stomach and carried to the brain makes a man sleepy Now if you exactly count the manner of all these you shall find that the very hours that the several humours take their turns Feavers begin to assault the sick and as the spaces are ended that serve for the several humours if they be simple and without mixture the diseases are terminated also So continent Feavers and as many as proceed from blood come upon us in the morning tertians about nout noon that is at the sixth hour which is to us the twelfth hour both of day and night Quartans come about the ninth hour which is to us three in the afternoon The quotidian comes from flegme about the first watch of the night But if the humours overflow and are mingled one with another as they are wont to be then they keep not their lawfull times and orders for they are more sharp A simile from the concours of the Winds and continue longer For as winds coming together raise more grievous tempests When East and West Aeneid 1. and rainy South do roar Roling the mighty billows to the shoar So a disease is more violent by concours of humours and diseases joyned to cruelly torture mans body For in one body Ovid. Metam l. 1. cold hot moist and dry Soft hard light heavy strive for victory It is frivolous to refer the causes of these things to ill spirits For all these things consist in the corruption or inflammation quality or quantity of the humours For it is these things that make the fits shorter or longer Why blood causes continual feavers But when bloud much abounds in the body it causeth but one continual fit because that putrefaction and inflammation is in the receptacles of the veins in which the bloud runs as through Conduit Pipes Wherefore nature like a wise and faithful consul in a Civill and intestine war is alwaies at work and without intermission to cast forth the disease But flegme A simile from the Wisdome of a Consul yellow choller and black because they are not in so great quantities and are without the straightnesse of the veins they do not constantly molest but with intermission and diseases that arise from these humours are not so deadly because they have not so open a passage to the heart and principall parts and therefore cannot easily do so much hurt Yet some of these Feavours last long partly because the humour abounds and partly because of the clamminesse thereof that it can hardly be melted and concocted Wherefore Melancholiqe men are seldome merry Melancholique people not easily drunk unlesse they drink deep and of strong wine for that humour is wonderfull cold and dry Men of this constitution are like Iron that must have a great strong fire to make it hot A simile fit for melancholique people from burning Iron that it may be hammer'd For they want much strong Wine and they can well endure it and when they are well whittled they will play the mimicks and make sport and dance like Camels For being crabbed by nature when they are in drink they desire to seem very merry Melancholique Natures when they are hot with wine and pleasant And as they are hardly overcome with drink so they can as hardly be recovered of drunkennesse For when they drink abundantly and eat excessively it falls out that the thick grosse vapours stick faster to the brain so that the day following melancholique Imaginations grow more upon them For from the Wine the day before not digested and discussed their whole body sends up stinking vapours For it happens to them as it is with houses set on fire which though they are not wholly consumed by fire nor quite burnt up yet a burnt smell affects our nostrils and brain A good Simile from houses on fire so making ill favoured sents and vapours arising from the drink the day before are very offensive unto them and trouble their brain and minds and when they cannot discusse these and that they perceive their phantasms to increase they fall
diseases have wasted or what is burnt to ashes or is passed into the first principles or into the substance of some other body For the flesh shall be restored to that man it was taken from as his Due A Simile from borrowed money that was borrowed from him They that are men shall find this to be true and those mousters that are bred from them and have the same nature with them shall be partakers of this divine gift CHAP. XVI The humours and food do change the habit of the body and state of the mind apparently And hence arise the affections and stings of conscience And by the by what Melancholy can do and how it may be cured THere is no mortal Man that is not led by his passions and perturbations but one is more driven by them than another and is more easily forced by the motions of his mind All men led by Passions Why Socrates was lesse subject to them For they that are of a good bodily temper and lead a temperate life and sober diet are lesse wont to be troubled with passions So Socrates is reported to have been of that constancy and calmnesse of mind that both at home and abroad he was alwaies of the same countenance and alacrity of mind though he had a very scolding Wife to vex him which he obtain'd no otherwise than by his frugall life and great temperance Hence it is that Cicero saith that Intemperance is the fountain of all the passions Tusc 4. which is a departing from the mind and from right reason So that the desires of the mind cannot be ruled or kept in order Temperance As therefore Temperance abates all disorderly desires and makes them submit to right reason and preserves the judgment of the Mind entire so Intemperance that is contrary thereunto inflames and disturbs every condition of the Mind and urgeth it Whence it comes that all diseases of the body and errours of the Mind spring from thence For as when blood and flegme abound or both cholers are increased sicknesses arise in the body so the disturbance of ill opinions and the jarring between them spoyls the Soul of her health The difference of passions amongst themselves and draws the body into mutual destruction For so anger rashnesse fear envy forrow emulation when they seize upon the veins and marrow and are possessed of the inward parts of the mind are hurtfull also to the body and cause many terrible diseases thereof Also the diseases of the body by sympathy and way of company affect the Soul And though objects and many outward causes stir up many troublesome motions in man yet the principall cause and original is from the heart and from the humours and spirits which if they be moderate and not infected with some strange quality the mind is not so hot The original of Passions and is more calm So if the bloud be clean and pure if the temper be equal and the body be well men are slower to be moved nor are they so exceedingly vexed with fear anger or revenge and if they be somewhat in passion as no man is without all passions presently reason being call'd to counsel and Judgment of the mind admitted all heat of stomach abates and is asswaged Examples of moderation are David and Pericies We have examples of this in David and Pericles who when a naughty fellow reviled them and upbraded them they did not revenge or hate him for it but used him with great humanity The heart receives divers motions of the mind from outward objects Yet oftimes when there are no outward objects presented it breaks forth into violent passions and some secret thought entring the mind of a contumely offered or by indignation by reason of some inconvenience received the mind it self grows hot and is disturbed within Wherefore it is of great concernment in the difference of passions to know what temper every man is of what humours are abounding in his body and what is the quality of the spirits that arise from those humours For those that are of a hot and dry temper of them bodies are soonest angry especially short little men who are presently enraged upon some trivial businesse of no value Which anger by reason of the narrownesse of the place wâ—y little men are soâ—â— angry and the small distance of the organs presently seiseth on the mind and fires and burns them as low cottages and sheep coats For the same reason these little men exceed others for wit and judgment of mind because the spirits are gathered together and not so much dispersed and so perform their forces more closely A Simile from fuel on fire and sharply But as some fuel takes fire sooner than other combustible matters do and some are sooner put out than others are so it useth to happen in spirits and humours whereof some breed long and during passions others sudden passions and fading presently whence it falls out that cholerick men are hot and presently angry The 〈◊〉 of cholerick men and as straw and stubble presently takes fire so they by the thinnesse of a hot humour and sudden inflammation are more weakly angry for their anger suddenly grows cold and they are pacified But me lancholique people are slower before they grow angry Melancholique natures but when they are provoked they are ill to be calmed again and they are so mindfull of in juries that they will hardly be friends any more Flegmatique But flegmatique people as they are cold and moist are scarse ever moved with passions of the mind and are never greatly troubled with any thing whence it is that they are slothfull and sluggish and not fit for any noble actions on them the Proverb may be verified He hath no mind that hath no anger A proverb against sluggards Sanguin complexions But sanguin people are of hot and moist constitutions and are held with no waighty or serious businesse of cares but are wholly taken upon with sports tales songs and jears and complements and take care for nothing but pleasures and delights which conditions and differences of men alter according to the quality and mixture of the humours according to the climate and Ayre they live in and they do variously affect the minds of men and therefore I am perswaded that the humours are the causes of Passions For the heart being affected the spirits are raised and the humours boyl and the minds of men by their agitation are more inflamed as if a torch or fire brand were put under For as when the General or Prince is moved in an Army his guard of Souldiers A Simile from a Captain of an Army and all that are to defend him presently make themselves ready to fall on upon the enemy So when any passion ariseth all the humours are suddenly stirred with the heart and the spirits break forth as in anger shame bashfulnesse immoderate joy but in grief sorrow fear
into the Nature and manners of men and with which by the marks and signs of the body we may judge of the motion and propension of the mind is not to be disliked Moreover I shall prove by Testimony of Scripture what is most convenient to be observed hereby Page 130 Chap. 27. Whether it be more wholesome to sleep with open mouth or with the mouth and lips shut close Page 132 Chap. 28. That the curses of Parents and the ill wishes that they wish against their Children and ban them withall do sometimes take effect and fall out so and their good wishes whereby they desire all good to happen to them are a means to make them prosper and to obtain what their Parents desired might happen to them Page 133 Chap. 29. How comes it that according to the common Proverb scarce any man returns better from his long travels or from a long disease and to lead a better life afterwards Page 134 Chap. 30. Stones or Jewels dug forth of the Earth or taken out of the Sea or out of the bodies of living Creatures what vertue they have and by what means they perform their operations Page 138 Chap. 31. Of the events of dreams and how far they ought to be observed and believed Page 140 Chap. 32. Of the Climacterick or graduall year namely the 7. and 9. in which years the bodies of men suffer manifest changes and of old Men especially 63. is the most dangerous Likewise of the reason of Criticall dayes that is of the judgments of diseases whereby Physitians undoubtedly foreshew whether the sick will live or dy Page 142 Chap. 33. How a Looking-glasse represents objects and what good the polished smoothnesse of a Looking-glasse can do to Students and such tire their eyes in reading and how it may restore a dull sight Page 144 Chap. 34. What force and vertue Aqua-vitae hath or the spirit of Wine distill'd and who may safely drink it by the way some admirable effects of this made-wine are set down Page 146 Chap. 35. The prodigious force of Quicksilver and the nature of it the Dutchmen call it so from its quick motion Page 148 Chap. 36. How when we want Salt may flesh and other meats be preserved from corruption By the way Of the wonderful force of Salt and Vineger Page 150 Chap. 27. Pale Women are more lascivious than such as are of a ruddy complexion and lean Women than fat and do more lust after men Page 152 Chap. 38. Whether a man should drink greedily and plentifully or by little and little and sparingly at severall times when he is thirsty or is sat at Table Page 153 Chap. 39. All such things as hastily come to maturity or rise to their full length do the sooner fail and cannot last long as we see it in children and some kind of plants Page 155 Chap. 40. Sometimes our meats are hurt and contract a venemous quality by the siting of some venemous creatures upon them Likewise in mens bodies from filth abounding in them some things are bred as Frogs Toads Mice Rats Bats and an example of this is set down Page 156 Chap. 41. The force and Nature of the Sun and Moon in causing and raising tempests And next to that what change may be made in the Bodies Minds and Spirits of men by the outward Ayre By the way whence proceeds the ebbing and flowing of the Sea that is interchangeably twice in the space of a naturall day Page 158 Chap. 42. Of the force and nature of Lettice and whom it is good or ill for Page 163 Chap. 43. Of Patience commonly call'd or the great Dock Page 164 Chap. 44. Of the operation of Mans spittle Page 164 Chap. 45. Of the use of Milk Beestings Cream The dutch call the first Beest the latter Room also what will keep these from cloddering in the Stomach Page 166 Chap. 46. Why Gouty people are Lascivious and Prone to venery and as many as lye on their backs and on hard beds Page 166 Chap. 47. Whether the Small-Pox and Measils may be cured with red Wine or with Milk that women use to administer when such Pushes shew themselves Page 168 Chap. 48. Wine is spoil'd by Thunder and Lightning and so is Ale and Beer and how this may be hindred and the force of them restored Page 168 Chap. 49. Predictions of Tempests by the touch of Sea-water and what Winter Thunders fore-shew Page 170 Chap. 50. Children are delighted with beautifull things and cannot away with the sight of old wrinkled women and therefore they are not to be put to lye with old women in their beds and much lesse to lye at their feet in the bed Page 171 Chap. 51. How it comes to passe that children women with child Priests and such as lead a solitary and sedentary life are of all people first infected with popular diseases and with the Plague Page 171 Chap. 52 Divers documents of Nature and a fit conjunction of several matters which because I purposed to handle them with a convenient brevity I have bound them up together in one bundle Page 172 The Contents of the Chapters contained in the Third Book Chap. 1. HOw children are forced to endure the reproaches and disgraces of their Parents and the faults and wicked actions of their Progenitors are so far imputed unto these that by reason of them they lose their reputation or substance and goods of fortune or sustain some dammages in their bodies or minds Page 180 Chap. 2. Wherefore when men grow well after a disease do their genitall parts swell and they naturally desire copulation and of this matter here is a safe admonition and wholesome counsel set down Page 184 Chap. 3. Of the effect of the Ayr and gentle blasts and of the names of the winds with their forces and natures to cause diseases and to stir the humours which being agitated sometimes move the mind and molest it Page 187 Chap. 4. Of the Marriners Compasse which Plautus calls Versoria by observation whereof Marriners sail to Sea and by what vertue and for what reason it alwaies points to the North. Page 198 Chap. 5. What it is makes Dogs mad and at what time of the year chiefly and what are the best remedies to cure them Page 201 Chap. 6. Of the Nature and force of Gold and what effect it hath if it be at any time used for the health and defence of Mans Body Page 205 Chap. 7. Of the Meazels of Hogs and other diseases of this Creature that are next kin to the Leprosie and are commonly called Orighans or contagions from the unwholesome and sickly habit of the body And how this disease may be cured in Men. Page 207 Chap. 8. Wherefore do the Low-Dutch when they have had a tumbling and unquiet night that likes them not say they have had Saint John Baptist's night Page 211 Chap. 9. Of a singular new way how to make Salt and of the Nature Effects Force Use and
in the middle and pressed down they have a crestiâ—urining upward their tail doth not turn under their belly as we see it doth in mungrels but it stands upright and bends like a sickle he hath very great eyes and that stick forth and they are both blear eyes weak legs and that are crooked about the joynts but the hinder part of his body is smooth without any hair and their tail is seen very uncomely by those that are present and they will turn their tails on purpose for people to look on This small creature because it is ridiculous for its parts and manners and hath many things that may hurt a woman when she is with child and cause the child within her to be ill formed I think not fit to keep least Women with child should be wronged thereby But this monstrous form and limbs so crooked are not naturall but artificiall Women love dogâ— too well For men shut them up in small Cages and taking their food away they make them grow small as in Terence they took away meat from maids to make them grow small as bulrushes least if any of them should grow corpulent she should seem to be a Champion See your Juglers that passe the Countries use to wrest the limbs of young boyes that they may leap and dance the better Lately A History there was a notable Knave who carried a child to be seen from Town to Town which had a very great head all the other limbs bore no proportion with it This deformity when it is naturall and not by art Physitians call Hydrocephalon Very great heed what disease by reason of the head swoln with a watry humour When a woman great with child had looked on this picture she was so frighted with this unusual sight that when her â—â—â—e came to be delivered she brought forth a child with a spongy vast bead and it had like to have cost her her life And this mischief followed it that it grew greater in the Nurses arms till it became monstrous great The woman a â—e to me and made this complaint bringing the child with hot and when I pressed the head of it with my fingers it would sink down like to a cushions and come forth again These spectacles are not onely to be a â—oided by Women with child but also by all those that may beâ—â—roubled and frighted in their sleep by such frights as it commonly happens to children sick weak old melancholique people Whence Children have ill marks yet monstrous sights will hurt them lesse that they will women with child For they by the sights of such things will frame 〈◊〉 like in their Children For since all their forces and natural faculties are wholly employed to form the child it happens that when the woman is any way offended all the humours and spirits run downwards to the womb And when the imagination of a thing that sticks fast in the mind joyns with these it frames the like fashion on the child that the mind conceives A Proverb from Imagination For it is not said in vain Imagination makes fashion For by the same reason if a Mouse a Cat a Weasel leap suddenly on a Woman or Strawberries Cornel-berries Cherries Grape-stones fall on any part of the body When a Woman doth remove marks from the Face to the Thighs or hinder parts they presently leave their mark and the print of this thing will be printed on that limb unlesse the woman at the same time that these things happen to her body do presently wipe the part and put her hand behind her back or on some remoter part of her body For so the mischief is suddenly cured or the mark is made on that part she touched all her Imagination and natural faculty being turn'd thither CHAP. V. Of the strange longing of Women with child and their insatiable desire of things And if they cannot get them they are in danger of life THe order of the former narration seems to require me to speak something concerning the longing of Women Longing a Disease For they are both all most from the same cause About three Moneths after conception a disease troubles Women which the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Latines Pica when by reason of cold vitious humours and sharp â—â—â—gm that lyes in their stomachs they earnestly desire coles parings chalk shels and other things unfit to eat this mischief prevails most when the childs hair first begins to grow and they are with child of a Girle For by reason of want of heat flegmatique humours are lesse concocted Hence it is that winds and often belchings frequently trouble Women Of kin to this is the daintinesse of Women wherewith men and Feavourish people are oft troubled But child-bearing Women that are tempted with this disease are so insatiable in their desire that if they cannot obtain what they long for they bring both themselves and their Child in danger of death Mayst Women long for strong things This disease for the most part troubles the Low Country Women because they are of moyst cold constitutions and feed on ill Nourishment There have been some in our dayes that when they saw a corpulent well â—â—d man they desired to bite at this shoulders A History and there was a man who that he might satisfie a womans longing granted her leave to bite least she might take any hurt whereupon she bâ—t out a part with her teeth and chewd it a little and then she swallowed it raw When she was not yet satisfied she desired to bite again but the man would not endure her But she presently began to languish and to be delivered She brought forth Twins the one living and the other dead for want of a second bite I can see no other reason for it than that the woman grieving in her mind the vitall spirits are lessned A Woman with child suffers if her longing be demed her and the humours appointed to nourish the child turn another way and are not carried to the womb so the child wanting the food which the mother longed for grows feeble and dies For when the passages and receptacles whereby food useth to be derived to the Matrix are stopped it must needs follow that the child will want nutriment and die But if the teeming woman be strong of nature and knows how to moderate her passions the child doth not die but grows sickly By these you may see abundantly what a womans Imagination can do and what outward objects conceived in the mind can print upon the child that is then to be formed When we must please sick people with diet Wherefore I suppose they do not much transgresse the bounds of Art that are not so rigid but do sometimes indulge to sick people such meat as they long for though they are not so proper for them in case they are such as will bring no great hurt to their bodies
them a barren womb and dry breasts their root shall wither and they shall bring forth no fruit and if they do bring forth I will destroy the most dear of their Children Which must teach us all that if God be offended all means are vain and the successe will be unprofitable Ch. 8. Idolatry and super stition causes of barrenness God threatens the like in Ezekiel to superstitious women because they wept for Adonis Venus's Lover who was rent by a Boar about the privities and his Statue was set up and they adored him But if God be not angry with men and lets Nature have her ordinary course we may use outward means and help Natures weaknesse if from any secret cause one be hindred from Children What perfects genetion Wherefore there are two things especially that perfect copulation and that help to beget Children First the genital humour which proceeds partly from the brain and the whole body and partly from the Liver the fountain of blood Then the spirit that comes by the Arteries from the Heart by force whereof the yard is erected and growes stiff and by the force whereof the seed is ejected To this may be added the appetite and desire of copulation which is excited either by Imagination or by sight and feeling of handsome women Whosoever wants these helps or hath them feeble must so soon as may be use means to restore nature and to correct this errour and repair the forces as when there is a luxation or disjoynting in any part A Similitude from Husbandry For as we see barren fields grow fruitfull by tilling and mans industry and unfruitfull Trees and Plants by pruning and dunging grow very plentifull in fruit So in dressing this ground the Physical art is much to be observed that with great skill cures the defects of Nature and restores this barren field to bring forth fruit again as it were by dunging it when the heart of it was almost quite worn out So it restores the faint heat and the weak spirits coldnesse and drinesse of the genital parts and reduceth the weaknesse of the nerves to their temperament and it doth farther do all things that may serve to remove all impediments of procreation of Children But since that dyet may change the Elementary qualities and may alter the unhappy state of the body to a better it is necessary that such people should eat onely such meat as will make them fruitful for propagation What meats cause seed and stir up venery Amongst such things as stir up venery and breed seed for generation are all meats of good juice that nourish well and make the body lively and full of sap of which faculty are all hot and moist meats For the substance of seed as Galen saith is made of the pure concocted and windy superfluity of blood Matter of heaping up seed There is in many things a power to heap up seed and augment it other things are of force to cause erection and drive forth the humour Meats that afford matter are Hen-eggs Pheasants Thrushes Blackbirds Gnat-sappers Wood-cocks young Pigeons Sparrows Partridges Capons Pullets Almonds Pine-Nuts Raisins Currans all strong Wines that are sweet and pleasant especially made of grapes of Italy which they call Muscadel But the genitals are erected and provoked by Satyrium Eryngo's Cresses Erysimum Parsnips Hartichokes Onions Turneps Rapes Asparagus candid Ginger Galanga Acorns Scallions Sea shel-fish And Rocket that is next Priapus set Colum. l. 10. That makes the man his Wife with Child beget A sit Similitude from Guns These as many more will make men lusty For as we see Guns first charged with powder and then with bullets and lastly some fine powder is put in the pan and fire is given with a Linstock and the bullet is forced out with a violent noise so in this work two things must needs concur that our labour be not lost namely that there be plenty of seed and a force of a flatulent spirit whereby the seed may be driven forth into the Matrix But if these Engines be broken or nothing worth or the Gun-powder be adulterated and naught they can have no force to break down walls and Trenches and Ramparts not do they roar horribly but make a small hissing and empty noise as bladders of boys at play do when they are blown up Hence some of our lascivious women will say that such men that trouble their wives to no purpose do thunder The Womans Proverb but there follows no rain they do not water the inward ground of the matrix They have their veins puffed up with wind but there wants seed Wherefore if husbands will win their wives love by especiall service they must be well prepared to enter this conflict for if they fall short How Wives are pleased they shall find their wives so crabbed and touchy that there will be no quiet But when they are well provided they must take the opportunity of doing their businesse well And that is when the monethly terms are over For that sink hinders their seed from coagulating and fermenting and makes the womb unfit to conceive When therefore the Terms are over and the womb is well cleansed they must use no unlawful copulation or violent concussions in begetting children and when the work is over the woman must gently and softly lye down on her right side with her head lying low her body sinking down and so fall to sleep When a Boy is begot For by this means the seed will fall to the right side and a boy will be made Yet the time of the year the Climate the age of both parties the heating dyet are of great concernment here For the Summer if it be not too hot is fittest for the conceiving of boys because the seed and menstruall blood receive more heat from the Ayr about them Also a hot Countrey ripe years and lusty and hairy bodies are fittest to beget boys Also there are many things that by a speciall and hidden quality are fit for this purpose So Mercury What herb Mercury can do that is divided into male and female is held to be most effectuall in producing Children of the same kind with it so that the decoction of juice of the Male drank four dayes from the first day of purgation will give force to the womb to procreate a male Child but the juice of the Female drank for so many dayes and in the same manner will cause a female to be born especially if the man lye with his wife when the Terms are newly over I think it is because the one purgeth the right side of the matrix and the other the left and fosters it with heat So it comes to passe that the cold humour being taken away the woman is made fit for conception A Similitude from the Earth For as in boggy and watry grounds the seeds of Plants are drown'd nor do they easily grow
forth so by the superfluity of a cold humour the seeds of men are choked that the force and faculty of the womb can make no sex nor form of them Seseli of Marsilea is of the like effect Sage Nutmegs Cinamon Cassia Lignea Zedoary Lignum Aloes Masterwort Calamint Clary Dittany Elecampane Orris root juice of Motherwort and innumerable things of this kind that discuss winds What things purge the watrinesse of the womb and wipe away superfluous moysture and prepare the womb as till'd grounds for to sow the seeds on So other things by other forces cause that the matrix be not so slippery that the seed may stick the faster Of this kind are Amber shavings of Ivory Storax Calamita Harts-horn Sumach Blatta Byzantina Myrtil seed Witwalls Cypresse Nuts Frankincense with the bark Mastick Spoonwort Avens Cinquefoil red Roses whereof some applyed outwardly others taken inwardly strengthen the womb and consume superfluous moysture bind close the gaping of the matrix and make it hold the Seed and because the women on this side the Alps for the most part are subject to fits of the mother and such diseases of the womb they had need use these things before others But if the parts be overdryed and burnt they must use moderately moystning means both Meats and Physick A dry matrix what is good for it But they that would be commended for their wedlock actions and not be without Children they must observe this rule to lie with their Wives at distance of time not too often nor yet too seldome for both these hurt fruitfulnesse alike For to eject immoderately weakens a man and spends his spirits and to forbear longer than it is convenient makes the seed ineffectuall and not manly enough Also we must consider the opportunity of this matter when it is best to copulate and what sex you conceive in your mind to beget Avicenna his Counsel for Copulation Avicenna no base fellow nor an Authour of the lowest rank describes the time and manner of procreating a sex When saith he the terms are spent and the womb is cleansed which is commonly in five dayes or 7. at most if a man lye with his Wife from the first day she is purged to the fifth she will conceive a Male but from the fifth to the eighth day a female Again from the eighth day to the twelfth a male again but after that number of dayes an Hermaphrodite Though he brings no probable cause of these effects yet methinks it seems to be very probable Avicenna his opinion explan'd For the first dayes the womb being cleansed and the fordid humour perfectly purged forth the matrix hath more heat whereby the man and the womans seed stick faster together and is directed to the right side of the womb by the attractive force of the Liver and the right Kidney from which also in those dayes hot blood is derived for nutriment of the Child that shall be For the left parts as being cold and benummed and void of blood cannot contribute any thing so soon as the terms are purged but blood is drawn later and more sparingly from the veins of the left side which are called the Emulgent veins Emulgent veins that creep about the Milt and the left Kidney so that at length after the first day untill the eighth day some blood comes forth of them whereby the Child is to be nourished So that when those parts perform their office and the right side parts do cease by reason of the scituation and cold nutriment a female is begot After the eighth day the parts on the right side do their office again and blood comes from them to nourish a male After this circuit of dayes because the menstrual blood flowes without distinction from all parts and the matrix is made too moyst with cold humours flowing unto it and the seed joyns to neither side but flotes in the midst of the womb betwixt both What begus Hermaphrodites The seed of both Sexes confounded make an Hermaphrodite which conception takes its form and forces sometimes from the left sometimes from the right side and useth the help of them both Hence Hermaphrodites are begot which name is so call'd from Mercury and Venus Irregular copulation is detestable Sometimes this vicious and infamous conception is begot by undecent copulation when the woman besides Natures custome lyes uppermost and the man under her sometimes times to the great hurt of their health for by that copulation turn'd the wrong way they become subject to Ruptures and Herniaes especially if they be full with meats CHAP. X. Whether the Child be nourished with the menstrual excrement and whether Maids may conceive before they have their Terms DAily Experience proves that some have been married at 12. years old and some to their great hurt and damage of their health have had no terms at 19. years old The Courses is an argument of conception Whence many ask Whether when a Maid is fit for a Man and she never had her courses she can conceive some are of opinion it cannot be that one can conceive but after her terms are over and this seems to me to be the truth For when the helps be wanting that further conception and the matrix wants the humour should feed the Child how can a woman conceive A Similitude from flourishishing shrubs But our Matrons especially Midwives reason thus from Trees as no Plant wants fruit that bears flowers and no Tree is barren that yields blossoms but every Tree is unfruitfull that wants flowers so young Maids that have no courses conceive not nor do their wombs swell though they receive the seed When the courses stay then stayes fruitfulnesse But women in years bear Children no longer after their terms are stopt For since the flux of this excrement affords matter to generation of Mankind the seed of man like runnet and leaven heaping this up within it self it follows that a woman cannot conceive either before that humour begins to run nor after that it leaves off to run any longer because the nutriment for the Child is wanting What use of the terms But here ariseth another question whether the menstrual bloud be a profitable Excrement and fit to seed the child or onely a filthy matter which at set times is voided as a sink I know that Pliny and many more think so who suppose that the menstruall bloud is venemous and monstrous and they do wonderfully rayse this opinion So Juvenal taking an argument from hence to speak against women stirs up men to hate them Sat 6. and doth purposely write a whole Satyr against them that despising them they should never marry I know indeed that the flux of the Terms is a fowl thing and what harm may come by it if this sink be stopt longer then it should be and that Moses did well Levit. 18.20 Deut. 29. as God commanded him to forbid all
they draw themselves in not without great detriment to ones health so that the blood sometimes forsakes the heart and sometimes by coming too much unto it it strangles it So many have died suddenly by overmuch joy and others by sudden frights and fears Who are fearfull and faint-hearted which happens chiefly to such as cannot regulate their passions by reason as are commonly weak men women infants old men Anchorites who in their youth go from the company of men and lead a solitary life who have but weak heat and a thin slender animal spirit and therefore they have but small courage and are fearfull and faint hearted and cannot be valiant in resisting of dangers Moreover each mans age the temper of the climate influence of the stars education and course of life Many things change the sâ—ate of the body and course of the Country are of great concernment in the differences of the passions and manners For if you regard all nations and their several natures studies and inclinations you shall find their wayes of living to be divers as also their wits affections and manners are Wherefore it is much to be considered what age a man is of of what education under what climate he was born and bred what temper and constitution his body is of lastly whose company he keeps what diet he useth and what is the abundance and quality of the humours The manners arise from the humours at that time For these generally cause mens manners and fashions of their minds So they whose bloud is thick are commonly fierce cruel inhospitable unhumane and never regard the stings of Conscience never fear and are without all Religion they care not for godlinesse or humanity of which kind are Marriners Pipers Carters Potters Carriers and Souldiers who by reason of the thicknesse of their bloud and their grosse troublesome spirits have their Consciences ruff-cast What men are inhumane and their minds darkned with most grosse vices And if any spark of a better mind chance to shine forth or if they have any vertues that are given to these courses of life they either overwhelm them or stain them with great faults For when they have spent their whole time upon all mischief L. 1. Belli Punici their wicked course of life becomes a second nature to them So Livy saith that inhumane cruelty and more than Carthagenian perfidiousnesse was to Hannibal he made no reckoning of truth and holinesse he feared no God made nothing of perjury or Religion For as Lucan hath it Souldiers neither Faith nor truth regard L. 4. All 's venal that 's right where is most reward By which variety of wits manners and affections it seems to me that the passions and propensions of every mans mind are to be referred to many causes For though the objects and the heart it self and the parts ordain'd for nutriment and to ingender spirits are the organs and receptacles of the affections yet the humours within the body What things sharpen the passions immoderate heat influence of the Stars faculties of the Alements qualities of the Ayre about them immoderate use of Wine kindle the fire and are the Seminaries of troubling the mind and stirring the passions Hence consider what hurt may come to reason and to the mind of man where the organs spirits and humours have contracted any vice For so a man falls from his dignity and becomes a beast Which the kingly Prophet complains of Man being in honour is like the beasts that perish Psalm 48. For his reason is extinguished and the light of his mind is overwhelmed with vitious affections For as lights and Candles give lesse light A Simile from a Torch when they are set in a Candlestick that is fowl and dirty so the mind of man darkned by the grossenesse of the body shines lesse and is more slow in putting forth her self It is indeed natural for sanguin people to be merry for melancholique to be sad for flegmatique to be dull and drowsy for cholerique men to be angry When passions are mildest But all these passions are moderate and lesse faulty where the humours are moderate and are vitiated with no strange quality But if their quality or abundance be augmented or overpasse moderation a man is affected many wayes and turn'd off from the use of reason And though the Elementary qualities The Stars and humours are violent yet cause no necessity and humours and spirits impose no necessity upon any man to do this or that nor yet do the aspects of the Stars Yet they have so much force in moving the passions that men though reason strive against it are run upon rocks by the tempests of their passions For as is the distemper of the Ayre and of the Sea and as the violence of Wine drank overmuch is great such is the violence of a melancholique or cholerick humour if it be overmuch augmented All men are subject to passions And what man if he look nearly into himself and search his own nature will not presently perceive turbulent motions and passions so that sometimes he will be more angry more froward more envious more lascivious or more inclin'd to one or another passion according to the distemper of the humours And if the mind of man endure such changes where the humours do but a little degenerate from their natural tempers that in a moment the mind is hurrried with divers affections what shall we think will become of it when they are proceeded to the height of mischief and have seised forcibly on the principal parts Examples and sad spectacles of these things are mad-men lunatick frantick enraged Soul and body are affected with mutual diseases melancholique people and such as their minds are alienated or do dote or are in a delirium for the diseases of their bodies seizing upon their minds do torment them with terrible and fearfull torments Wherefore they that desire to live in good health and to be free from such mischiefs must live temperately least their minds be darkned with the thick smoak of the humours and so disquiered with strange and absurd Imaginations That all Scholers must shake off melancholy and removed from their proper places But this lesson most concerns those that manage publick employments and such as are much given to their studies because these men commonly are troubled with melancholy which humour though it sharpen the mind as Wine doth that is drank moderately yet if it be overmuch increased or vitiated it much offends the mind That Cicero chose rather to be dull of wit than to be witty and melancholique Tusc 1. Some are by nature melancholique and most men have contracted it from divers causes that were by nature free from it Melanchâ—â—y whence it breeds Many have come to this temper by long continued studies and unseasonable watchings Others fall into it by fear care sorrow sadnesse Many from the stoppings
of their Emrods and monthly terms or from some usual evacuation restrain'd who when as their brain is filled with a black and dark smoke their mind is vexed with absurd Imaginations and is so changed and forced that sometimes men of good lives and of great esteem have been brought to fearfull ends thereby That a man would wonder there should be such great force and violence in a melancholique humour that it should overwhelm reason and take away a mans understanding A simile from a dark Cloud But as a thick dark cloud shadows the Suns light so a melancholique humour darkneth the mind and drives it on to many mischiefs The evil spirits also mingle themselves with ill humours and especially with black choler Evill spirits mix with melancholy because that humour when it exceeds Natures bounds is most fit to move us to any wickednesse For men of this constitution conceive grievous and sharp passions and that last long for the contumacy of the humour that will hardly melt and be dissolved Whence it followes that evill thoughts and apprehensions stay long in their minds Whence melancholique people Imagine absurd things which sometimes break forth into action that they fall foul upon those they know and those they know not making no difference and do mischief both to others and sometimes to themselves So the humours do afford fire-brands to cholerick men but when they are angry they hurt others and not themselves But that the cause of these things consists in the humours and not in the wicked spirits though they help to trouble the humours may be collected from hence for that mad melancholique and frantique persons are wont to be cured by opening the emrods that are stopped and so are reduced to better minds those fuliginous smokes of the humours being removed that did vitiate the imagination and animal spirits L. 6. Aph. 21. as may appear by Hippocrates his Aphorism If the melancholique veins or emrods run in those that are mad they are thereby cured nature deriving the ill humours from the principal part to the parts more ignoble Again II. Aph. Ill vapours hurt the brain the Emrods are healthfull for mad people and such as are troubled with diseases of the kidneys For when that humour whether it be in the Hypochondres or the Spleen or be heaped up in the whole body or in any part fills the brain with an ill and filthy exhalation it causeth fear sadnesse sorrow heavy groans astriction of the heart ringings in the ears and reason being oppressed and the light of the mind extinguished they begin to despair sometimes desiring death sometimes fearing and abhorring it How Melancholy may be driven out Wherefore as Galen saith when the Spring and Autumn begin that humour must be gently and by degrees purged out by vomit belching purging downward breaking of wind by opening a vein and by causing the Emrods and courses to run And whosoever is subject to this disease he must earnestly and with great care resist it and must by no means entertain Imaginations that falsly creep into his mind at first pleasing and amiable but afterwards as they grow strong they can hardly be resisted A fault by hiding will the stronger grow Virg. 3. Georg. Physick can cure that onely which we know But if adversities and misfortunes have brought on this mischief you must oppose against it an undaunted courage of your mind and support your self with Gods Word and with confidence in him and so with the lesse labour you shall overthrow those terrible phantasms and representations that assault you The Mind must be underpropt by Gods Word For by these helps the most noble Heroes have stood firm who when all was come to be almost past recovery and they desired to put an end to their miseries by death yet the greatnesse of their griefs could not overcome them 3 Kings c. 19. So Helias in his afflictions desired to die So David so often assaulted by his enemies began to distrust So Job even in despair chose rather to die Ch. 7. and to end his life any way We must not do violence to our life than longer to endure so great miseries Lastly Christ like one in despair and taking our cause upon him complains that he was forsaken by his Father But all these by the hope and assurance of better things cast away all trembling and distrust looking unto God with a steadfast mind In Som. Scip. But this as Cicero saith all men should be perswaded of that the Soul must be kept in the custody and watchfulnesse of the body nor must it leave its station untill God command that gave it lest we should seem to reject so great a gift of God Bel Judaic l. 3. Wherefore Josephus seems to speak excellently that what evil soever comes to us we should bear it with a cheerfull and undaunted courage And let no man think it lawful for him to end his life basely beneath the worthy condition of Man appointment of nature Melancholique people worthy to be pitied But if any man by reason of a disease or alienation of his mind do come to an unhappy end let no man trample on men of such a condition or censure them too severely but let every one rather pity their case and grieve for their mishap for since they were not well in their wits and had lost their reason understanding their mind was turned upside down and they were deceived and blind in the choice of things For when the vertue of imagination is corrupted absurd things present themselves to our minds and we judge confusedly of things and discourse erroneously For the like happens to our minds as doth to our eyes A simile from Glasse where glasses are looked through that are of many colours for through them all things seem to be blew or green or red or yellow or of the same colour alwaies as the Glasse is so that the objects appear in their species otherwise then they are in themselves Why feavourish and drunken men dote Hence men that are drunk or angry think they see double objects when there is but one So those that are doting in Feavers think they see divers Hobgoblins and the corrupt Imagination and organs vitiated present strange fantasmes to the mind by reason of the agitation of ill humours and the spirits that passe here and there and wander up and down in the brain Corporeal spirits stir the mind wherefore the spirits and humours are of great efficacy in troubling the mind and moving the affections and wounding the conscience But if they be sincere and no way defiled men are of a pleasing disposition and not complaining and touchy But if they be once stain'd and troublesome many passions of the mind arise and turbulent affections Since therefore both Soul and body are affected together first care must be taken to sweeten and abate the troubles of
of drives away Caterpillars and it kills Moths and cloathflies as Wormwood Rue wild Mints Southernwood Savory Walnut-leafs Fern Lavender Gith Coriander being green Fleawort Bean trifoly kills fleas and Wiglice either put under the beds or sprinkled upon the bedsteads with the decoction of the vinegar of Squils It is observed that in our times and also in our Ancestors days the seed of Navews that the Low-Countrey factors make so great profit of hath a wonderful force in killing Weezels not by any venomous quality but by the sweetnesse of it For it is sweet and oyly and the Weezels will leave the Corn and eat greedily on this till they be killed with Sweet things sometimes kill Worms And the same thing happens to them when they get into frails of Raisins So I know by experience that eating many Raisins will kill the Worms in Children if they eat them fasting without any thing else eaten with them For as bitter so sweet things taken abundantly will kill worms For they swell and burst with eating too much sweet meats So the stomach of a man will swell and be tortured if he cram in too much sweet things CHAP. XXII The cunningnesse of Worms in Mans body and what it portends when they come forth by the Mouth and Nostrils IT hath been seen sometimes miraculously that long and round Worms especially have crambled upwards and crept forth at the mouth and the nostrils and they do this by an imbred natural motion if a man be long fasting For then they bite the stomach Worms creeping out at the Nostrils and seek for meat and when they find none to satisfie them and preserve their lives they creep upwards and hunt for meat as far as the very throat For they by their natural instinct perceive that the food comes in that way and the nostrils being open to the very throat almost they creep thither and tickle the part or else they are cast forth by sneesing or are pulled forth with ones forefingers I have oft-times observed this in sound people and when I shewed them the cause of it I gave them content I have seen this also happen in sick people but not without some imminent danger foreshew'd by it For so great is the putrefaction and inflammation of humours in such bodies that the Worms cannot endure the deadly force of the disease wherefore they break forth of themselves not urged by any Crisis or naturally but from the malignity of the disease But when the violence of the disease abates and they are carried downwards with other excrements Hippocrates holds that to be healthfull but to come forth of their own accord L. 2. Aph. 18. and not forced by any faculty as we see in people that are dying is ill for the patient for by a sagacity of nature they find the body ready to fail and that they shall want their food and therefore they leave their habitation Mice forsake old houses So it is observed that Rats and Mice will forsake ruinous houses three moneths before they fall For they naturally perceive that the frame of the house begins to part and that the house will shortly fall So Lice and Fleas where they find mens bodies decay and that the blood fails in every part they either leave the body or lay hold on those parts that the blood and naturall heat stay longest in Experience from the sagacity of Lice For it is approved by those that search and bury the dead that they will hide themselves in that pit of the stomach where the breast blade ends or in that grisle that lyes upon the vocal arterie For those parts being next the heart are hot untill the last breath which when some related unto me that were employed about sick people I said presently That it was a certain sign of death and that the Soul was ready to breathe forth But since we formerly made mention of Worms I thought fit to add this That many things will kill all worms and drive them forth But nothing is better than Worms dryed upon a tile at the fire and the powder given to those that are full of worms will presently drive forth all within the body As Pliny and other searchers of Natural things assert that a man being stung by a Scorpion L. 10. c. 2. the remedy is to drink in oyl or wine the ashes of Scorpions So our Countrey-men say that the biting of a mad-dog is cured by the burnt hairs of the same creature drank in wine For it drives forth the venome and keeps off all the danger of it and makes the body that is bit that it is of force to attract and overcome the venome So sometimes two contrary poysons mingled do cure and not kill As Ausonius wittily sets down in an Epigram concerning a woman that would have poysoned her husband with Wolfs-bane A whorish Wife her jealous Husband to Gave poyson yet she fear'd it would not do Wherefore Quicksilver intermingled shee Thought for to hasten death which set him free For if apart these poysons you shall give They kill but joyn'd together make him live Laevinus Lemnius a Physitian of Zirizea CONCERNING Hidden and Natural Questions The Second Book CHAP. I. That humours and not bad Angels cause diseases yet the aereal spirits do mix themselves therewith and increase the diseases by adding fire unto them THere are some amongst us that are but moderately versed in the Works of Nature and know not the causes of diseases their original progresse and symptoms that follow or accidents and because they cannot attain to the reason of them they refer all to evil Angels and say they are bewitcht since the Devils do constantly employ themselves to hurt us Plenty and malignity of humours is the beginning of diseases So they that are sick of a Tertian Ague the humours entring the veins every third day are said to be troubled with an evil spirit and the like is said for quartans and continent feavers as quotidians diurnals and all burning Feavers But how unreasonable and absurd this is any man can tell that is moderately versed in the Secrets of Nature For since man's body consists of the mixture of the four Elements and hath as many humours which from the faculty of the seed partake of four qualities hot moyst cold dry what can be said more than that diseases arise from the distemper of these by defect or excesse and from thence they take their original It is proved because we see they grow mild and quiet by vomit sweat opening a vein cupping-glasses set to the part affected by the opening of the Terms and Emrods also by the giving of Glysters and Suppositaries But God for his inestimable Wisdome hath appointed orderly motions in the nature of things and would have nothing done rashly or by chance but all things in a decent order and continued series So the Stars the Elements the Sea the times of the year
to drinking again to expell those vapours of the former wine Crudity hurts Melancholique people and imagination rising from thence as one nail with another since therefore the causes and original of diseases are so and the nature and condition of the humours is such that no reason can be thought on for the accesse and coming on of feavers than from the quantity or quality of the humours Let no man think that evill spirits do raise these tempests or distempers I know Ill spirits offend our minds and bodies and raise winds also and shall easily grant that the Divels or aereal spirits are very knowing and find out all things for their purposes and do not onely mix themselves with the humours but also they entice and urge the minds of men to all wickednesse and that the good Angels help men in all good things and are companions and assistants unto them So Raphael travelled with Tobias his Son So the spirit of the Lord came upon Sampson and he rent the Lion like a Kid. Tob. 14. Also a divine spirit came upon Saul 1 King 10. and he Prophesied with the other Prophets But after wards an evill spirit troubled his mind and stirred him up against David So they thrust themselves into tempests and cause thundrings and lightnings So that with their help we see Towers and Mountains are rent in pieces Corn Cattel and flocks of Sheep are destroyed yet the violence of the winds can do this without them So those winds Saint Luke speaks of are very violent upon Sea and Land Act. 27. and by the breaking and clashing of clowds fire is cast forth that sail-yards and sails are burnt with it A simile from the violence of Guns and Ordinance The like violence is wrought by great Guns upon Ramparts be they never so strong that not onely the ball strikes those that are near but the very wind and noise of them hurts some that are farther off These and many such like things though they may be done by natural reason Job 12. yet the Divell by Gods permission or grant may intermingle with them and make all worse So Satan exasperated Sauls melancholy and provoked him to commit many murders and to lie in wait and to commit many horrible things But because this affect of the mind and errour may be referred to natural causes therefore it appears that the Musick of the Harp took away the fury of him and his mind grew more calm For as when strong winds blow upon the Sea A simile from the flowing of the Sea the waves are more frequent and the Sea rages and as melancholique men grow more sad by losse of their estates and other casualties and cholerick people grow angry by drinking Wine or by being jear'd and mock'd So evill spirits or witches drive on such men headlong to wicked actions that though the will be ready and desires it yet can it not moderate the actions and force of counsels Which our Saviour seems to intimate when he said to Peter by way of reprehension Math. 16. Get thee behind me Sathan For Christ cal'd him so because he was against him and strove to divert him from our redemption that he was about And unlesse the great good God by his singular favour should bridle the fury of the adversary against us 1 Pet. 5. man could not subsist or defend himself against the fury of this Monster For he tryes all waies and searches all passages that he may set upon us and winnow us as Wheat Wherefore as Job saith God sets a sword against him that is Luk. 22. ch 40. A place of Job explained sets him his bounds that he cannot passe and limits Satans rage for he can go no further then God will give him leave and God will let no man be afflicted beyond his strength By which Antidote St. Paul comforts all that are in danger 1 Cor. 10. or in calamity but shews a way to escape from the tentation that the affliction may be no more then we can suffer or that we may be suddenly delivered I have been the longer in this that the Reader may understand that the humours are the cause of diseases principally But the divells the Stars and the quality of the ambient Ayre and other external causes are but accidental For since all passions of the mind are quieted by reason but the diseases of the body are cured by fit remedies who can refer the causes of diseases better than to the quantity and quality of the humours And if a man please to examine the humours of the body What manners come from bodily humours and what force they have he shall find that they do not onely constitute the habit of the body but the manners also of the mind yet so that manners and Religion are set above them in the uppermost place For blood or if you regard the qualities heat and moysture produce men of a flourishing constitution but as for the mind they are lascivious merry truly honest without dissembling and they are something above Fools But yellow chollerbrings forth men of a dry and swartish colour but they are hot deceitful ingenious of a fierce angry constitution wise industrious cunning inconstant false Who naught but a fair countenance reveal Pers sat In a false heart a crafty Fox conceal Melancholy juice makes men stable and constant and that will not easily depart from what they once undertake or forsake their opinion that if they happen to addict themselves to any sect they will hold it tooth and nail and not be easily drawn off This affect is milder in cholerick people for they by reason of their unstable floting humours and thin spirits are quickly transported and though they be very hot and clamorous yet they are soon pleased and not so obstinate Flegme is unprofitable to form mens manners and therefore flegmatique people are dull and unfit for any great matters CHAP. II. Melancholique Mad and Frenzy people and such as are furious from other causes will sometimes speak strange Tongues they never learned and yet not be possessed with the Divell The wonderful force of the humours in stirring the mind A Great force troubles the humours and a great heat troubles the mind for those that are in strong feavers will speak some tongue they never learned sometimes elegantly sometimes im perfectly and confusedly which I do not much wonder to be done by those that are possessed with the Divell because they have the knowledge of all natural things As Wine so humours trouble the mind Now the humours are so violent and forcible where they are inflamed or corrupted that the dark smoak of them ascending unto the brain as we see when men drink too much strong Wine will make men speak languages they understand not should this come from the Divell these diseases would not be cured with purging medicaments nor opiats by procuring of sleep For by
these and many more wherewith the Art of Physick abounds being rightly administred we see such persons restored and to be the same they formerly were When therefore the humours very frequently boil and the spirits are much troubled thereby and the exceeding swift motion of the mind brings forth some language not known before as we see sparks fall from striking of a flint A simile from striking sire with a flint Now it is natural to mans mind to be fit and ready to learn and it is endowed with Arts before it hath the use of them so that Plato's saying is not unlikely that all our knowledge is but remembrance The mind is endowed with Arts before we learn them In Phaed. For the mind of man contains in it self the knowledge of all things but it being oppressed with the weight of the body and thick humours cannot easily illustrate it self and as fire raked up in ashes it must be stirred and fostered A simile from fire racked up in ashes though imbred sparks and light of nature may shine forth When therefore this diviner part of man the Soul is shaken with diseases she brings forth such things as lay hid within her and useth her imbred forces An excellent simile from the sweetnesse of plants For as some plants smell not at all till you crush them in your hand so the imbred faculties will not shew themselves unlesse they be tried like Gold on a Touchstone By the same reason Jet Amber will not alwaies draw chaff and straws and such other things as are driven with the wind A simile from the effect of stones and plants but onely when they are rubbed and heated So when you whet daggers often and swiftly you make sparks fly forth Also the force of nature may be known in plants and Jewels For Piony Misseltoe Fruticulus Vervain Corall bloudstone Pearls Emrods Whence there is force in raysing spirits and other Amulets that is such things as drive away things hurtfull applied to the body or hanged about the neck by a present force either discusse diseases or stop bloud and do other things according as their natural quality is But all these are of more force taken inwardly A simile from the efficacy of wine You may make experience by strong wine that if you smell to it it refresheth the mind and spirits and heart but when you drink it down into the body for it doth nothing in the vessel but when it comes into the veins then it shewes its force and will make dull fellows very eloquent in speech For the heat of the wine sharpens the mind and brings forth what lyes hid in the brain Just so do the humours affect men when the whole force of the disease hath filled the cranies of the brain and the mind and spirits both vital and animal begin to be stirred We see some in burning Feavers that are most vigorous commonly in Summer who will discourse very well and speak very eloquently and in that dialect which when they are recovered they cannot perform which I said were not troubled with the devil and that they did not this by the devils instigation but from the force of the disease and violence of the humours whereby the mind of man is inflamed as if a firebrand were put under it I have recovered some of these by Opiates in potion and fomentations applyed to their heads and so brought them to their right minds when the disease was gone they forgot all they spake or did and when I told them of some things they were ashamed of them and wondred they had so much forgot themselves So those that are dying because there is an ardent force of the mind rais'd in them and some divine Inspiration comes into them before their Souls depart use to prophesie and to foretell certainly what shall follow hereafter and that so considerately and handsomely that the standers by admire at it Why a Soul departing will foretell things to come But that the Soul as it partakes of a heavenly original can foreknow things to come especially when death is near shall be shewed by me in its proper place CHAP. III. Of the Epilepsie's violence which disease the common people both now and formerly ascribe to certain Saints lastly how it may be cured And by the way that such are not to be buried presently that die of the Falling-sicknesse Lethargy or Apoplex WE have shewed elsewhere what effects the humours work in the bodies of men but since they do diversly affect us according to the diversity of places I thought good to speak of those also that are inherent in the brain For those diseases that are in the highest part of the body do not onely afflict us with pain but also take away sense and motion and hurt the mind as we may see in the Apoplex Lethargy and the Epilepsie that is weaker in children and women To whom the Epilepsie must be ascribed The Falling-sicknesse against Hippocrates mind was ascribed by the Antients to some special Saints for when those that stood next saw the diseased so suddenly tortur'd and pull'd We must not ascribe to Saints the torments of diseases they thought some Saints that were their Enemies or some ill spirits must be the cause thereof and sent such mischief wherefore they made vowes to them and set up Tables for their deliverance Hence our Age hath distinguished the Epilepsie into many sorts and one they ascribe to St. John the Baptist another to Cornelius and Hubert but as no man should deride the folly of these men so I think by degrees we should perswade them better to understand that these things should be referred to natural causes For they are of divers sorts in respect of the habit of the body or largenesse of the passages or abundance of clammy humours hence some howl and bark like dogs some hiss and gnash their teeth some cry loud and terribly Differences of Falling-sicknesses some are wholly mute especially their brain being stuffed with grosse humours and their midriff oppressed and the conduits of breathing stopped Whence it comes that they cannot freely draw their breath and these are most tormented of all men in my opinion But the symptoms increase most at the full and new Moon or when she is in those signs that respect the brain or heart For then the humours abound most especially when after North winds the South winds begin to blow for as these winds are turbulent and unwholesome so are they cold and moyst The Moon exasperates moyst diseases For moyst bodies that use moyst meats and are in a moyst climate are more fit and subject to this disease which is evident because children and women are most subject unto this and if it cease not about the 25th year when the natural heat is augmented Aphor. 7. Com. 5. and causeth a dryer temper and if it continue beyond that age it useth to
accompany one untill Death that is it never ends till death put an end thereto Since therefore the cause of the Falling-sicknesse is so Evident The habit of Epileptick persons terrible I would perswade the ignorant people to think of no other cause of this disease than the motion of the humours that men may not fear so much when they see their mouths draw awry their cheeks swoln and strutting forth with a frothy humour and should not be dismaid to come near them and lend them their help For so are all those that stand by and are fearful amazed when they see them rending themselves and beating their heads and bodies against posts that they think there is no hopes of them and so cause them to be buried before their Souls are departed from them For I have found it in our own dayes and in former Ages also that some have broken the Coffin and lived again Wherefore it is fit a Law should be made that those who are to take care of the dead bodies should not presently put them into their coffins whom they think to be dead Apoplecticks are not to be presently buried especially those that are strangled by the Apoplex Epilepsie or rising of the Mother for oft-times their soul lies within them and they live again But when the Plague and pestilent Feavers rule Men dead of the Plague must be presently enterred I think it not necessary nor fit to observe this so strictly because the contagion will presently spread when they are dead and infect those that are near For there is lesse danger to stand by those that have the Plague and to attend upon them when they are alive than to stand by them when they are dead A fit Simile from Candles put out for then the contagion spreads and infects as it goes For it is with bodies newly dead as with Torches and Candles that whilest they are lighted they do not stink but when they are put out they fill the room with a stinking savour Wherefore the danger is greater to be present when a man dies of the plague than when he is yet alive or dead and grown cold and stiff But if you keep these bodies a little too long unburied they become stinking Carkasses and they do by little and little send forth filthy exhalations and corrupt filthy matter runs from them which happens but seldome in the Apoplex and other cold diseases of the brain The motion and revolution of humours in such as are dead unlesse it be very hot weather or the bodies be very fat And if there be no such matter to hinder they need not be buried till three dayes be over For when seventy two hours are over the humours cease to move and stir not because in that time the Moon hath passed one sign in the Zodiack by force whereof the humours run in the body which some say was the reason that Christ took occasion to raise Lazarus miraculously that was dead four dayes John 11. lest any man should say he was not dead but onely in a trance and come to himself again Why Christ raised Lazarus no sooner Also when he by his Death and Resurrection wrought mans salvation he took the same occasion For besider that he had a mortal wound on his side he lay three dayes in the Sepulchre to take away all objections from them who would speak irreverently and not as they ought concerning his Death and Resurrection but calumniate all he said or did In which errour and madnesse the Jews continue even to this day But since those diseases are so formidable that bereave a man of his understanding that all the standers by are frighted at it I shall do a considerable work to add some present remedies and those not ordinary whereby every one that is unskilful in Physick may preserve himself and his family from them And because all diseases of the brain especially such as proceed from a cold humour are near of kin these remedies may be used to them all indifferently as to losse of memory vertigo's panting of the heart trembling Epilepsies Lethargies Apoplexies and for the hag and night mare and other diseases of the night which disease is called by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Amongst innumerable remedies against these diseases I have found four especially to be most effectuall Remedies for the Night-mare not so much approved by experience as by reason The round black Piony seed for the corner'd and red colour'd seed is uselesse herein the round bulbous root of Squils the shavings of mans skull and Misseltoe I should shew severally how they perform these effects The force of Pionie and by what reason they perform it Galen eryes up Pionie as much as Cato did Coleworts which not onely by an Elementary quality but from the whole substance of it and secret property resists this disease And it will raise children that fall because it is not so strong in them if it be but banged about their necks For it discusseth and consumes the flegmatique humour that is the seminary of this disease Also the seeds of this given inwardly will do it more effectually in such as are of years For it drinks up the windy venemous miosture and brings the body to a hotter and dryer temper Some say this seed is the best that comes from the first increase of the male Pionie For a long time it brings forth unprofitable shoots without seed But when it is of perfect growth the husks cleave and in one part you shall see berries very smooth and black in another kernels of a shining scarlet red colour The black seed must be kept for use Yet not so superstitiously as to hold that the seed of the next year is uneffectual for that seed that comes after ten years is a present remedy if it be not rotten and decay'd What sorce Squills have in the Epilepsie Squills are better than Pionie and have a wonderfull force and faculty not onely for the Epilepsie but also for all diseases that proceed of a clammy viscous humour in what part soever of the body For it hath an abstergent force to dissolve all clammy things For which use I use to give a spoonful of an oxymel that I make of it which because it is exceeding bitter I use to mingle it with syrup of French Lavender and I put in a little Nutmeg to it also I command them to wash their mouthes with vinegar of Squills so as to swallow it down by degrees Also I find that the shavings of mans skull are a present remedy to dry up those humours that cause those diseases if some part of a mans skull scraped off be given to a man or of a womans skull to a woman and that in wine or Oxymel of Squills not by any hidden quality but because it dryes exceedingly for which cause the runner and blood of a Hare stayes the bloody flux and other fluxes of
the belly so I find by experience that mans bones grated given for the dysentery in red wine will stop it by a binding quality and drying force which also is excellently performed by artificial Pissaphaltum that is Arabian Mummie if you mingle but a little sea-Amber which is called Sperma Coeti Misselto a Plant what force it hath against the Epilepsie Misselto is next to these if not before them and it is called viscus because there is a clammy humour in the berries which if you rub it with your fingers is like birdlime for by that word is not meant venemous glew and snotty matter called Ixia that will inflame the tongue and glew all the Entrals together But a shrubby plant that the Priests and Druides of France as Caesar calls them held most sacred Comment l. 6. It never growes on the earth but is alwayes green upon the Oke and Holm Tree nor of any seed but from the excrement of the wood pigeon and blackbird I have often seen that shrub a cubit in height green as a leek within brownish without and the leaf like box leafs almost Saffron colour'd Which Virgil the Father of all Learning and who was as well versed in the knowledg of all things as any man sets down in elegant verse Talis erat species auri frondentis opaca â—â—â—id â— Ilice sit leni crepitabant bractea vento Quale solet silvis brumali tempore Viscum Fronde virere nova quod non sua seminat arbos Et croceo foetu teretes circundare truncos Latet arbore opaca Aureus foliis lento vimine ramus Auricomos generans acinos atque arbore soetus Whereby the Poet intimates that the deadly assaults and terrible diseases of the brain will yield to nothing sooner than to the use and medicament made of this golden colour'd shrub For it discusses extenuates and dryes clammy humours and by a wonderful force it cures the Falling-sicknesse if sand or the powder of it be drank in wine The Elk. Now we shall speak of the force of the Elk. Cajus Caesar in his Commentary saith it is a Creature of a Goat kind but greater in bulk Bel. Gal. 6. Deut. 14. In the Bible it is called a stone buck like to the wild Goats that the Jews might seed on The claw of this Beast is a present remedy against the Epilepsie as I have proved by many Experiments though the reason seem hard to me In the Low-Countries there are many subject to this disease because this Country is cold and moyst The South wind raiseth the Epilepsie and the South-wind blowes most commonly which is the most unhealthful of all winds so that you shall see them in the publike wayes and streets miserable spectacles and they fly to this remedy as the cure of it It chanced that in my Entry twice a woman fell down suddenly as if she had been thunder-stricken A true History which when I saw I came near and I put a Ring on her finger next her little finger that had a piece of an Elks claw set in it She presently arose and drank and went merrily on her way Another woman when I was not at home cryed out strangely and fell down on the earth and knockt her head against the ground One of my family laid a piece of the Elks claw on the palm of her hand and so shutting her hand because it was not set in a ring How things applyed outwardly can abate diseases the disease presently left her I think this is done by some special hidden property or because it dryes and discusseth mightily Were it not a solid substance some might say a vapour goes forth of it as from flowers and herbs which yet I think may be done though the spirits that come forth be very thin and dry and not windy so that they are not so sensible and cannot be perceived but by a secret operation So Stones Jewels Gold Iron and all brasen metals breathe forth a hidden force but they must be heated by rubbing for when they are on fire they smell more manifestly and insinuate themselves into the body A Simile from Wheels heated and spakling flints As we see when wheels grow hot with a quick motion or when a horses shoes strike fire on the pavement For presently a smoky burnt sent is raised into the Ayr. And if the cause of this Effect is not evident enough and no probable reason can be thought on yet we may say that these things are effected by that force by which the Unicorns horn put into wine or water dispels the poyson Unicorns horn resists venom and kills spiders by touching them I shall speak of stones taken out of the mawes of Swallowes and by what vertue they cure the Falling-sicknesse in another place CHAP. IV. Whence comes it that diseases are long and Chronical and will not easily be cured Whence come Feavers to revive again and to be with intermission and truce for a time which all men ought to know that they may not easily fall into a disease or being fallen may soon cure it LOng diseases may be well compared to long and tedious voyages that a weak man A simile from a journey that is difficult or one that carries a great burden is forced to go on his feet He by reason of the difficulty of the way and weight of his burden goes forward the more slowly and is more pressed than if he were carried in a Chariot or had some loving partner to help him carry his pack But since there are many causes that lengthen out diseases amongst the rest this seems to me to be the chief because so soon as diseases take hold Withstand in the beginning they neglect to call a skilfull Physitian who by prescribing a wholesome diet and fit remedies in time may help nature and by his Art may underprop her when she fails For the Physitian is Natures servant and takes care for her preservation with all his might The Physitian is Natures servant Whence it comes that they that know not what may do them good or ill feed on naughty meats even when diseases are seizing upon them and make no choice of diet and so stoppings and corruption is augmented and the disease gathers strength and all force of the body fails But if diseases fall in Autumn For diseases are like unto the year Turning about the same way like a sphere Now there riseth together a double cause of duration partly from the abundance of cold clammy matter and partly from the toughnesse and clamminesse of it For Autumn and Winter parts of the year cool and thicken the humours and cause a continuance that diseases are longer for the diseases cannot be discussed because the humours are thick and fast together and the skin is not so full of transpiration For as Wax Pitch Tallow Rosin and all fluxible matter grows hard in winter season
and will not be so easily handled and made pliable A Simile from a fluxible thing so when the weather is cold the humours are hardly melâ—ed and dissolved and it is proved because in winter men sweat lesse wherefore we must give such medicaments as will wipe away forcibly and open the pores For the filth and rubbish of the humours stick no lesse to these mens bodies than the lees and dregs do to vessels which must be soked with salt water or pickle A simile from rubbing of vessels and rub'd with beesoms to make them clean and take away all ill smels from them Otherwise whatsoever is put into them will grow sowre and be spoiled Wherefore Hippocrates seems to me to have spoken very right Impure bodies the more you feed them the more you hurt them L. 2. Aphor. 12. For the food corrupts being mingled with vitious humours and so the disease lasts the longer or if at any time by the Physitians skill or force of nature the disease begins to abate it will grow again by the least occasion For new corruption is bred in the body and a filthy smell accompanies it as we may perceive by the breath and this diffused in the body vitiates the spirits and extinguisheth natural heat for want of transpiration To this belongs that sentence of Hippocrates If there be any remainders in the body or reliques L. 2. Aph. 12. the diseases will grow again for the nutriment taken in doth not strengthen the sick but corrupts by mingling with ill Juice and increaseth the disease as we see in quartans and bastard tertians when the Patients will not be ruled by the Physitian not use a good diet Now these Feavers are with Intermission because the humour is without the veins and farther from the heart Whence comes intermission in Peavers But in continual feavers men are tormented constantly by reason of the sharp biting vapours of blood and choler inflamed within the veines which when they cannot freely get forth and breathe out they immediately offend the heart and liver and do more hurt by their corruption arising from stopping Blood subject to corruption than if they were without the veins For when there is great plenty of humours and the corruption is vehement and the proportion of this is great for putrefaction for blood is of a hot and moist quality and soon corrupts it falls out that these feavers alwaies rage and soon come to their state Whence Hippocrates maintains that such diseases dure not above fourteen daies L. 2. Aph. 23. and sometimes where the matter is surious and swels they end on the fifth seventh ninth or eleventh day The causes of Feavers that come by circuits and at set times are contrary for they come from some force bred in the humour and by reason of place and time whence it happens that they come with intermission that they anted are the time or come slower and later that they are unstable and unconstant and the fits last longer sometimes Feavers grow stronger and come sooner where the humours are increased and more inflamed Anticipating Feavers or where some errour hath been committed or there hath been some intemperance in meat and drink Feavers that come later But Feavers come later and more gently when the matter decreaseth and the stopping and corruption being discussed it abates and decayes sensibly Instable wandring feavers But when one humour takes upon it anothers nature or changeth its place or is mingled and confounded with another the fits come in no order but with uncertain motion and no certain time is observed by them Long Feavers A long fit is made by a plentifull humour and vapour and that is diffused all through the body and that which is clammy and grosse For as moyst green wood is long a lighting and burning A simile from green wood and old flesh and as Ox beef if it be old requires long seething so a clammy humour must be longer a steeping and grow soft by concoction and made fluxible that it may be fit for excretion But since we shew'd before that humours corrupting without the veins and when they are inflamed in any other part of the body Intermitting Feavers cause intermitting feavers than give us time to breathe yet of times we observe that these will more continually though they be without the veins both by reason of plenty of humours and from the sharpnesse of them As we see in parts that are inflamed as in carbuncles bubo's Carbuncles without the body cause continual feavers and all contagious and pestilent Impostumes In which a continual feaver and not an intermitting is kindled though the venome break forth without the veins and be far from the heart for the pestilent venemous force penetrates to the heart and hurts the principal parts infecting both the naturall and viral spirits Whence it is that these diseases are numbred amongst acute diseases because they soon come to their state and the change to health or death is very sudden For the like befalls those bodies as happens to a City besieged A simile taken from a City besieged which is so stormed without intermission by the Enemy with Guns and other engines of war that it can hardly stand out any longer against the violence of the enemy and looks every moment to be subdued unlesse it can with Ordnance and Engines make opposition or can sally out and beat the enemy away For to yeild and to make an agreement for life and safety as they do that fight faintly against an enemy or a disease were ignoble and commonly very hurtfull for the Conquerours of times will not stand to agreements but will break their words so in acute diseases it used to fall out that the sick cannot endure violence of the disease and cannot live above fourteen dayes if they can hold out so long unlesse nature be strong and well assisted by the Physitians art and can conquer the disease which being obtained she can hardly recollect her forces As the assaults of enemies so diseases must be driven off and cannot presently recover what she hath lost by violence but recovers her forces by degrees and to reedifie and fortifie her batter'd walls CHAP. V. Of those that come forth of their Beds and walk in their sleep and go over tops of Towrs and roofs of houses and do many things in their sleep which men that are awake can hardly do by the greatest care and industry IT happens that some in their youth and flourishing years for old men want vital spirits and are to weak too undertake such things Whence it comes that some men walk and cry out in their sleep and are slow in venerious actions will leap out of their beds at mid night or about break of day and do such things that men that are awake can hardly do and to do it with so little danger that all that see it admire
13. c. 1. when men drink in expectation of sleep For sleep helps to discusse and to take off the fumes of the wine The use of Bread But since bread is a great part of mans nourishment and all meats without it are unsavoury and not very healthful I think fit to speak something of the use thereof For some maintain that to eat much bread is hurtfull to the stomach and that eating of it immoderately and to repletion doth as much harm as wine drank in too great abundance I think their reason is because it stayes long in the stomach and binds the belly But my opinion is that choyce and a difference should be made For wheaten bread well moulded and made with leaven and well baked is the most commendable and healthful food for sound bodies Wherefore I would have all men perswaded that it is not good to joyn too little bread with their meat They that eat little bread their breath stinks For they that eat bread too sparingly and flesh or fish plentifully their body growes spungy and their flesh loose and their breath stinks and corrupts Wherefore eating of fish because they soonest corrupt requires most bread with them We see that all meats will suddenly corrupt and stink in three days or a little more unlesse you salt them And Egs Fish Flesh and all such meats will be unsavoury But bread never corrupts or smells amisse Being over long kept it will grow mouldy but it putrifies not Wherefore such as cram themselves with meats and eat little or no bread send a stinking smell from their very entralls and offend all that are near them Wherefore those that desire to be of strong and firm constitution of body let them eat bread with moderation at least chiefly when they must exercise and labour hard For unlesse Ditchers Porters Marriners Charriers Fencers Wrestlers should eat bread in abundance they could not subsist and endure such labours But I prescribe the use of bread more sparingly to tender weak sickly constitutions and to such whose stomachs are faint and the passages narrow It is best to refresh them with liquid meats and to restore their strength for these will soon enter the veins For such bodies are too tender and delicate for to receive hard meats And the kingly Prophet David seems to me to have observed and considered all these things very exactly Psalm 103. God the maker of all things causeth the Grasse to grow for the Cattle and hearbs for the service of man both sick and well So that his body anointed with oyle may shine and anointed with ointment may be refreshed That the heart of man may be cheered with Wine and sadnesse being driven away may be made merry and that bread the staffe of life may confirm and strengthen him CHAP. XXII A Nutmeg and a Coral-stone carried about a man will grow the better but about a woman the worse A man excels a woman THat a man excels a woman and that his condition is fat better than hers besides the noble gifts and endowments of his soul and body whereby he abundantly goes beyond her inanimate creatures and such as have left growing and increasing do testify and prove by experience For a Nutmeg if a man carry it about him doth not onely keep its force but will swell and become more full of juice For since among these the best weighs most and is most full of juice and being pressed or pricked with a needle How to try Nutmegs will sweat forth an oyly substance with an excellent sweet smell the heat of man preserves these properties and which is wonderfull will make it more pleasant to behold and to swell more with this oyly juice especially if young lusty men carry it about with them For so pleasant and sweet smell comes forth of such bodies Comment l. 2. Aph. 14. and such excellent vapours by reason of the temper of their natural heat and so gentile and pleasing that the Nutmeg will draw them to it and so it being soked with them grows more clear and sweet sented For it is fed and delights in an aereal vapour and a warmayre inclining to heat and such youthfull bodies do breath it forth as a thing that is most familiar and agreeing with it Why the cloths of Alexander the great smelt sweet So it is written that Alexander the great King of Macedonia had his cloths perfumed not by any external perfume put upon them but from the natural breathing forth of his imbred heat But a woman abounding with excrements and sending out ill smells by reason of her terms makes all things worse and spoils their natural forces and imbred qualities Hence it is that a Nutmeg by her touching of it will grow dry light rotten pale and blackish and so she will corrupt and spoil hearbs destroy seed and take off the Lustre from a Looking Glasse The like reason serves for Coral Coral grows redder if a man wear it for this made into round pieces and polished smooth if a man carry it it will grow more red than if a woman should wear it about her For by being long with a woman it will grow pale and wan A woman makes Coral worse and lose its natural heat partly by reason of the fuliginous thick vapours that breath from her and partly because she hath but a weak heat and is cold and moist of constitution What makes Corall led which qualities can keep and preserve nothing but a man hath a gentle sweet vapour that proceeds from his substance by naturall heat and he is allmost aromatised by it To make mustard seed or Corall red For which cause Mustard-seed will make Coral more red if it be covered with it namely by reason of its heat whereby it grows hot as by a thing that is on fire CHAP. XXIII For the most part such are barren and unfruitfull whose seed runs from them of its own accord and they pollute themselves and how that comes to passe IT is so foul a mischief that amongst the Jews those that were polluted with it Levit. 19. were driven out from the Temple and all mens company The Greeks call it Gonorrhaea the Latines Seminis profluvium both men and women are troubled with it For their seed runs from them against their wills almost without any pleasure or desire or erection and it is watry and thin Wherefore it is unfruitfull and unfit to beget children For as a Willow that loseth its fruit A Simile from unfruitfull Trees casts off his seed for lack of heat before it be ripe So these have their generative humour too cold and moyst and it runs away from them For the natural faculties are not able to perfect the seed and make it prolifical Whence it comes that the humour is altogether excremental and is the rudiment of seed newly begun and imperfect and wants the power of generation But since this disease
and is healthfull for the body by the vertue that proceeds from it and that not onely by a hidden and secret faculty which it hath from the stars as Marsilius thinks but from a vertue that proceeds out of it A similitude from Jewels that recreates the vitall spirit For as Jewels are clowded by the ambient ayre and receive in a grosse vapour and abundance of fumes so they do send out of them a thin and invisible vertue For though a Jewel be a solid body yet natural heat and touching and rubbing it draws forth the force within it and communicates it to the brain and heart For a Jewel called Erananos vulgarly a Turquois doth change often and wax pale and lose its natural colour as I have often seen it where he that wears it is sick or not in good health and as the body grows well so will this stone revive and will represent a most amiable sky-colour as in the clearest day from the temperament of its native heat Polluted people desile Jewels And there is scarce any Jewel but will change colour if a man be intemperate or not continent as he ought to be For their inward vertue perisheth and all their beauty and lustre is defiled Whence it is that he that commits adultery or defiles the marriage bed and all that run a whoring can never keep their Jewels beautiful and perfect but they are clowdy and dark by the foul vapours they contract from those that wear them and from whores whose company they frequent For they draw some venemous qualities to them from corrupt bodies that exhale such virulent vapours and infect them as women when they have their courses will foul a clean looking-glasse But if Jewels were ineffectual and of no vertue Exod. 28. Moses would not so accurately and diligently have commanded to adorn the Priests vestment which they call Rationale with twelve Jewels whereof both Ezechiel and St. John in the Apocalyps make mention wherein he would not have men to observe the beauty and alluring rarities of the colours but the wonderfull force and effects of them also concerning which because other men have spoken so largely I shall speak of stones that are taken out of the bodies of Animals birds and fishes whereof many of them stick in the stomach and some in the head of them When Autumn begins and the Moon increaseth there is a stone taken out of the belly of a Swallow The Swallow-stone called a Swallow-Stone or Chelidonius from the bird it comes from this is a present remedy against the falling sicknesse for it dryes exceedingly and drinks up the viscous and clammy moisture that is the root of this disease For the swallow whose dung blinded Tobias's eyes Tob. 2. is of a hot and dry nature whence it is that they make their nests so artificially of moyst and soft mud and hang them up in arched and vaulted places For by touching of it they consume the moysture and make the mud hard Hence it is that Physitians make Cataplasms of them and find the powder of burnt swallowes to be most effectual in dissolving the quinsey and other swellings of the throat Also snails that are very great yield unto white something long rough The Snail-stone what vertue it hath and hollow stones in their lower part which I use to take out of their heads and to keep them for many uses For they cause one to make water that hath the strangullion and being bruised and their powder given in wine they make the urinary passages slippery and give ease That kind of stone grows of a clammy matter and slippery humour which makes an easie passage for the humours and so do these stones help in childbirth for they dilate and loosen the places and cause the matrix to open wider but one or two of them put under the tongue hath a strange force to cause salivation Wherefore I advise such as are thirsty and dry to role one of them in their mouths For it will make the tongue moist and run with humour and stay both heat and drieth Crystall is of the same vertue if a while steeped in cold water it be put into the mouth Amongst hearbs Purslane Cucumbers Housleek commonly called Jupiters beard do the same Also Toads yeild a stone that sometimes represents the picture of that Creature but they are very old A Toad-stone and have layn hid a long time amongst reeds or amongst thorns and bushes before the stone grows in their head or comes to any magnitude And there is a Toad stone kept and preserved in the family of the Lemnians that is bigger than a small nut which I have often proved that it will discusse swellings and tumours arising from venemous beasts if you oft rub the places with it For it hath the same nature the toad hath that it will draw forth and consume all venome For if a Rat Spider Wasp black Betle or rere-mouse fasten upon the part and hurt it our country folks presently run to this remedy and by rubbing the place with this stone the pain is abated and the swelling allayed There are also many kinds of Fish that have exceeding hard stones in their heads as the Sea-wolf the Coracinus Umbrae the river-Pike the Muller and Haddock whereof there is great plenty in winter The Low-Countries call them Schelvisch from the rough scaly skin it hath For those that are called from the form of their body and ash-colour Asells or Coo-fish are for the most part without these stones especially the females for out of the head of a male I took a white stone that was like the keel of a ship on the lower side All these kinds bruised and given in wine ease the cholick and break the stone of the reins not onely by their weight and heavinesse as some think but by an imbred property whereby they discusse and dissipate the collection of humours A stone is taken out of the head of a Carp The triangular stone of a Carp powdred will stop the blood that runs out of the nostrills by its great astriction which you may perceive also by tast CHAP. XXXI Of the events of dreams and how far they ought to be observed and believed SInce of old time men were wont to observe dreams with incredible vanity and superstition and to credit and believe them The great and good God that would have no man troubled in undoubtfull and uncertain things that disturb the tranquillity of the mind forbad that no man should be curious in observing them and make rash interpretations upon them Levit. 19. Deut. 13. and fain doubtfull events For by these impostures many have fallen from God and turned to false worships And if God when we are asleep doth warn our minds that are dull to seek out what his will is and doth put into our souls such things as were good for the salvation of them and are agreeable to his word and doctrine
as Pome Citrons Oranges Lemmons The juice of Lemmon corrodes for the Lemmon that is commonly Ovall hath a juyce so sharp and corroding naturally that if you put a peice of Gold some hours in a Lemmon you shall find it lighter and not so ponderous when you take it out But as it doth that by its excessive and penetrating cold which burns as well as fire So Spirit of Wine is most effectuall to preserve things Aquavitae for flesh and fish wet in it are safe from putrefaction and will never breed Worms But Commin if there be plenty of it Commin Carway-seed and carway seed next Salt are present remedies to preserve meats if you rub the meats with them and lay them up by reason of their drying quality so that such as use them often wax pale and wan for want of blood because they eat up all the naturall moysture Honey Syrup Also Honey and Strope as they call it from its last like honey though it look somwhat black and sod Wine which the Spaniards call Aroba have a virtue to preserve especially Cherries Prunes Peaches Grapes and all wild fruices Verjuyce which I have tried in sowre Grapes But most effectually if you place in order any kinds of fruits in an earthen-pot and cover the pot well with a cover and smeer the same with Pitch that no Ayre nor Water can enter it and so let it down into the bottom of a Well Fruits laid in a pot and sunk in a Well will last very long after a yeare is over you shall find them all fresh and of an excellent tast For when they are so farr removed from the ambient Ayre and all corrupt vapours they cannot corrupt For moysture makes all things subject to corruption which being removed and driness put in the place things will not easily consume So stock-fish as we call them in Latine Merlucae Stock-fish for Salpa is another kind and many more hardned and dried in the wind may be kept many yeares as also bisquit that will never mold because all the moysture is baked out of it Wherefore extream heat or cold because they both equally cause driness will keep things from Corruption Hence you may collect whence it comes to passe that in Winter and hard frosts Frost is apt to break ones legs a mans leg will break with the least touch almost For the bone will easily grow brittle and break by reaon of the drinesse of the outward Ayre whereas when it is a moist season it is more tough and flexible the which thing also we observe in Candles and such things are made of fat CHAP. XXXVII Pale Women are more lascivious than such as are of a ruddy complexion and lean Women than fat and do more lust after men THose Women are more hot and prone to venery and more mad after pleasure that have more imbred heat which is commonly found in pale lean Women such as are of a brown colour for their genital parts are full of a sharp salt biting humour therefore they require to be more moistned hence it comes to passe that women are more lustfull in Summer more desire mens company Women more salacious in Summer because at that time heat increaseth in them but in men it flags and grows more weak Wherefore Rue and Thime and many very hot things extinguish lust in men and sharpen it in Women For in men they consume and dry up the naturall moisture but they heat the Matrix of Women by consuming the superfluous mixture and so make them Lustfull Wherefore it is that that Sex desires to be filled with strong Wine but fat ruddy Women that are full of moysture and that have their generative seed very wet are of a faint and very sedate appetite in their Lust Wherefore men must make a good choice and not presently take what comes next to hand rashly For he that hath got a lean slender woman of declining years hath such a one as is alwaies itching and will never be satisfied let him know that he hath got a perpetuall torment that is continually lusting and is daily more and more exasperated she will stick to her Husband like a Horseleach and she will never let him rest though he be tired out quite nor give him so much respite as to recover his strength CHAP. XXVIII Whether a man should drink greedily and plentifully or by little and little and sparingly at severall times when he is thirsty or is sat at Table THe principall way of preserving a mans health consists in his temperance and moderation in eating and drinking But because I have spoken elsewhere abundantly of eating dry food and of bread I shall here speak of drink and in what manner and measure it ought to be used First it cannot be prescribed certainly and absolutely to those that are in Health Because some are accustomed to divers wayes or doctrine which no man may presently break off but he will be in danger to fall into some sicknesse The best and safest way of drinking is to be judged of according to the age of people and difference of times as also the customes they have long used and as their strength is and as the Wine is strong or weak So Beere or Wine or other drink must be prescribed to quench a mans thirst and that the meat may not be dry nor flote but be moderately wet Wherefore the body must be refreshed by times and at moderate distances and the meat must be now and then steeped with moisture that it may the more commodiously goe into the veins by concoction and be digested into the body But all drunkennesse Dioscorides detests drunkennesse L. 50. c. 7. especially continuall as Dioscorides saith is pernicious because the nerves being soked continually with much Wine are softned and the whole frame of the body is dissolved Wherefore a man ought to drink moderately all drinks that cause drunkennesse and in that we ought to imitate all Fishmongers and Butchers A simile from Butchers who when they store up their fish or flesh cut into peices they poure in brine upon every row as they lay it and season it with Salt in order So we if we will take care of our health must water our meat in order as we eate it by drinking moderately When digestion begins we must not drink But it is hurtfull to tire the stomach with drink when concoction is begun for it hinders and stops the faculties and functions of Nature that she is about and will not let the meat boil and concoct A simile from the Kitchin For as pots leave off boiling and cool by powring in cold water So the stomach hindred by drink powred in ceaseth to digest what it hath begun and is longer about it nor doth it concoct it so well for so the meat is driven into the narrow veins undigested or into the capacity of the
comprehended in excellent verse Virgils praise for his great knowledge who being he was most versed in the knowledge of things and had so exactly sought out all the works of Nature he did also in some measure subject the 〈◊〉 of men to their forces and effects For men are diversly 〈◊〉 and otherwise constituted according as the time is according as the Starrs set or the Ayre varies The condition of the sky changeth mens minds and the four seasons of the year differ So when the skie is clowdy and dark and the aire grosse and thick men are sad and sour countenanced and sleepy but when the sky is clear and in the spring-time when all things flourish men are cheerfull and lightsome and very much given to mirth For the pleasant aire dissipates all foulnesse of humours and grosse vapours that darken our minds and makes our Spirits cheerfull and our minds quick and lively which Virgil expressed in this elegant verse But when the season and the flitting Ayre Grow moist L. 1. Georg. and Southern-winds begin to blow Things are then thickned that before were rare And a great change is made in things below Mens minds do alter as the times go round When Tempests are they do not hold the same As in fair weather sometimes birds abound And sing beasts skip Crows a hoarse note do frame For the Spirits that were before kept in break forth when the ayre is calme and pleasant A simile from smoky houses and when they are recreated with the West-wind For as Smoke and vapours when the houses are unlockt and the dores set open the ayre and wind entring use to be dissipated and blown away and all Galleries and Chambers that were full of filth begin to be more lightsome so in mens bodies all soul vapours and all stinking sents that were in them and all dullnesse of Spirits are discussed and ventilated Wherefore not onely internall causes and imbred humours are helps to health or diseases but the outward conjunction of the Starrs and constitution of the outward ayre and breathings and qualities of the winds breed divers and sudden mutations in the bodies of men The body is subject to the constitution of the ayre which every man may find true in himself every moment almost of time For who is there to passe over the affections of the mind who when some tempest is at hand or distemper of the Ayre three days also before it comes doth not perceive some pricking in his limbs and some beating pains contractions of the nerves palpitations or some other sensible pains For Watts Corns Horny substances Cicatrices Knots Kernells or if any thing be strain'd or disjoynted or broken torn or dissolved in any part of the body all these will foreshew a tempest coming which doth not use to come but with most bitter torments to such that have any secret touch of the Whores Pox. For these when cold winds begin to blow are soonest sensible of their pains for their Nervs are stretched and their Muscles grow stiffe Sick people perceive the change of the aire and the vitious humours in their bodies being agitated do trouble them grievously For there is under those parts a kind of distemper like to the weather that tortures them strangely in their inward parts But such as are of a sound habit of body and in good health feel no inconvenience or distemper by it For as patcht broken leaking ships are sooner swallow'd up in a tempest A simile from Ships that are shaken so diseased people and such as are of a decai'd and uncertaine health are expossed to all injuries and subject to all inconveniences for upon the least distemper of the Ayre arising they use to feel most terrible pains or when the Sun or Moon cause any mutation in the inferiour bodies For these Planets put forth their forces The force of the Sun and Moon upon inferiour bodies not only upon mens bodies but upon all terrestriall things the force whereof is so great and is extended so wide that all things contained in the circumference of the Heavens have their order Ornament and Glory from them and the whole course of things and times of the yeare are governed by them And though the power of the upper Starrs be not ineffectuall yet by the help of the Sun all things of greatest concernment are brought to passe For the Sun chiefly adorns this World and disposeth and guideth all things very decently For by the Suns operation seeds are propagated and corn grows ripe and all things increase and proceed And thus the year doth trace it self about Georg. 2. Also the works of the Moon appeare very great in the Nature of things but not so great as the effects of the Sun For she enjoyes the benefit of the Sun and borrows her light from him Opposition makes a full◠Moon Conjunction a new Moon that so much of the Moon is light as the Sun shines upon but she fails and hath no light when the earth comes between and causeth an ecclips But then especially she shews her forces upon earthly things when she is full the Sun being right over against her and makes her round or when she is in Conjunction with him for at these times Corn grows and augments shell-fish swell the veines are full of blood and the bones full of marrow whence it is that copulation at those times offends least And because she moisteneth all things flesh that are subjected and exposed to the Moon-beames corrupt and men that are drunk dead asleep allmost Wax pale and are troubled with the Head-ache and are affected with Epilepsie for it looseneth the Nerves She causeth the ebbing and flowing of the Sea and moisteneth the brain over-much and by its chilling force it stupefies the mind Also no man may doubt but that she is the cause of the ebbing and flowing of the Sea For being that we fee that when the Moon is dark and silent or a halfe Moon or crooked with Horns or increaseth or diminisheth the waters do not run much together nor are there any high tides The Moon moves the Sea upon any shores whatsoever but again when she is in Conjunction with the Sun and begins to be a new Moon or to be round and a full Moon the tides are very great and the waves rise exceedingly who then can ascribe the flowing and ebbing of the Sea to any thing than to the motion of the Moon For as the Loadstone draws Iron A simile from the Load-stones forces so this Planet being next the earth moves and draws the Sea For when the Moon riseth the Sea roules about those parts namely the Eastern parts and leaves the Western parts but when she goes to the West and sets the flouds increase in those parts and abate in the Eastern parts and this more abundantly or sparingly as the Moon increaseth or decreaseth in her light that is conveighed by the
with the greatest presents you can give them Whence Solomon compares their yawning and wide open dores to the Jaws of hell and the grave that are never satisfied Proverb 30. Wherefore if they that are married will take good counsel when they recover of a disease and begin to be well let them not presently fall to lying with their wives to be milked by them but let them moderate their affectiâ—â—s and put reigns on their pleasures that are exorbitant for they have then nothing to spare as young tender trees that must not be lopt nor have their branches cut off from them An example from young Trees For if the disease thus chance to revive and a man fall into a relapse they either dye suddenly or very hardly recover And if lusty and stout men when they first marry can hardly hold out when they too frequently use venerious actions and to speak in Tullyes language enter their wives too often how much more must weak and sickly men be dejected and cast down Immoderate venery spoils beauty And such as are uxorious will make this appear by their Weesil-colour for being too much given to venery they look yellow burnt or like Box or bloudlesse Lead-colour'd their limbs and joynts are feeble and weak whereas others that use this action moderately all fuliginous vapours are discussed by it and they appear fresh in their countenances and lively and their faces so comely red as if they were painted There is indeed in every part an imbred force and vertue as sight to the eyes Eath part hath its imbred faculty hearing to the ears smelling to the Nose to the Tongue taste and savour which is of all the senses the most voluptuous the bladder and its muscles serve to make water and the Intestins to void other excrements the genitals to procreate children and for copulation so other parts have other offices they are designed for and in all of these there must be temperance and moderation used For the eyes with continual poring are toyled and grow dim The Ears with too great noise grow deafe What is to much is alwaies naught as we see that Smiths are thick of hearing The Taste is abolished with immoderate eating or drinking Why Smiths are half deaf and all things become unsavoury and unpleasant so that the stomach loaths and refuseth the meat The Nostrils that have a smelling faculty when they are full of snot cannot swell the most fragrant sents All parts have their distinct offices Also the generative parts that all the parts do service to and if by chance they fail or be exhausted other parts will assist them in their courses for from the whole body humours and spirits flow thither and are derived unto them and if they be tired with immoderate and profuse lust not so much they as the whole body decayes and suffers Wherefore in preserving the forces of nature and corroborating the state of the body all things must be used temperately and with moderation that every man may seasonably and maturely grow old without trouble for lustfull youth will when old age comes leave a froward and peevish mind and a decayed and feeble body CHAP. III. Of the effect of the Ayre and gentle blasts and of the names of the winds with their forces and natures to cause diseases and to stir the humours which being agitated sometimes move the mind and molest it THere are two external accidental things that are no lesse hurtfull than they are healthfull to our bodies Which do support our health and sometimes make us sick The Ayre and winds sometimes make us well and sometimes sick namely nourishments and the Ayre that surrounds us by the agitation and motion whereof there ariseth wind and blasts to which our bodies are exposed every moment and thereby suffer manifest changes But winds and windy vapours breed in our bodies Whence come winds in the body partly by reason of the external beating of the Ayre and partly from meats and drinks that being taken in cause winds and stretch the belly as are Beans Peason raw hearbs Rapes Radishes fruits of Trees sweet wine new beer and Ale and Winds rising from these trouble the stomach and are offensive to the Intestines and the hypochondres and Middriff These To drink greedily fills the body with winds as also those blasts that use to enter when we feed greedily or drink in haste abundantly either come forth by belching or by breaking wind backwards But if they stay over long in the body or fasten upon any part they cause pains and must be excluded by applying hot remedies outwardly and inwardly by such things as dispell winds as Cummin What things expell winds Bay-berries Anniseed Fennel-seed Carway-seed strong Wines as Malmsey and Candey Wine For these will force and make the winds to rore Aeneid And to flye out where they can find a dore But since outward winds are commonly offensive to us and by their penetrating force do us much hurt I shall chiefly speak of them here For they sometimes get secretly into our bodies and sometimes openly and by violence they rush in and do great hurt to men heards of cattle Corn hearbs Trees The original of winds The wind proceeds from the Ayre and small blasts moved and tossed whence it is that sometimes it is gentle easy and pleasant sometimes strong violent and vehement as the Ayre is calm or moved What the wind is Wherefore the wind is nothing else then an effusion and flowing form of the forces of the Ayre troubled which receives strength and nutriment from the exhalations and vapours of the earth Or as Vitruvius saith The wind is the flowing sourge of the Ayre moved by uncertain and unstable motion John 3. A place of the Gospel explained Which when our Saviour speaks of he saith The wind bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof but canst not tell whence it cometh nor whither it goeth For taking a similitude from the outward blasts he instructs Nicodemus by what force and what secret operation the spirit of God affects the minds of men For as the aereal blast is not quiet nor obedient to any mans command but is restlesse and unquiet and is carried by its own violence and driven here and there so that being diffused all over it shews it self by the effect and noise of it and not by sight sometimes wholesome for the earth Gods spirit compared with the winds and sometimes hurtfull so the Spirit of God by a secret and unspeakable blast beats upon the minds of men drives forces inflames stirs up transforms and makes spiritual of carnal men But as the mind of man subsists and is supported by the spirit of God so this animal living body of ours is no lesse refreshed with the whole some outward Ayre than with meat and drink For the use of Ayre and breath that we draw into our bodies is
some cause of corruption and inflammation to the bloud But in Winter it causeth extream cold weather East South-East is most cold in Winter that is commonly attended with snow and bitter frosts so that such as go forth when this wind blows can hardly defend their noses faces eyes cheeks from the piercing and deadly cold of it and the same force is ascribed by some to North-East wind The nature of the North-East wind that is a very fierce blast and differs something from the East South-East The South-East wind is next the South which in Summer for the most part is calm though sometime it not onely troubles the Ayre with clouds but the minds of men also For this wind being turbulent makes the mind melancholly but it lasts not long for it is no sharp bitter wind to stir the humours as some winds are But as the waves of the sea by the violence of the winds A simile from the waves of the Sea tossed with the winds swell and are lifted up so in mans body the humours are moved and rage by the same force the vapours and sumes whereof carried upwards trouble the mind and make it peevish froward angry hard and untractable The winds distemper mans mind also that whilst that distemper of the affections last you shall hardly obtain any petition from those men especially from women or covetous old men who as they are jealous and suspitious they think that men craftily come to delude them Opportunity to be taken and therefore they will repell them with great incivility and give them ill language unlesse they come very seasonably and in good time that is the chiefest of all things For those that take opportunity by the forelock Do prove their passage Virgil Aeneid L. 4. and consider when It 's time to speak and hold their peace agen Since therefore there are many things that are apt to change mans condition especially the concourse of the winds and unstable motions of the Ayre can do it by whose violence not onely our bodies but our animal spirits suffer wrong and the mind it self is somewhat distemper'd that as the Ayre and winds vary so is it calm or troubled though the diet and Intemperance in meats and drinks is of great concernment to constitute the habit of the body and to foster our affections The South Wind is unstable The South wind amongst them all is most hurtfull and offensive to mans health being by nature and operation hot and moist For when that wind blows the rain wets the earth abundantly What diseases the South wind causeth whence it is that our bodies and humours are soon corrupted and Catarrhs and defluxions fall upon our throats vocal artery and Lungs Whence arise Poses hoarsnesse Coughs Epilepsies Vertigoes Lethargies Apoplexies Blear-eyes deafnesse noise in the Ears and many more diseases that scatter every where when the South-wind blows I have observed oft that when the South-wind blew long The South wind causeth abortion great bellied women did miscarry and by an immoderate flux arising to have been in danger of their lives For when the parts of the body that serve to carry the burden begin to flag namely the ligaments Nerves Muscles Membranes Flaps Cauls and the Matrix from too great moisture begins to grow slippery and to be dilated by degrees it cannot be that nature should carry the burden to the full time especially when after a dry time moist weather falls in which as it is not hurtfull for dry and cholerick people The South wind not ill for cholerick people so is it extream ill for women and children and flegmatique constitutions and such as dwell in boggy and fenny lands The South wind naught for flegmatique people Hence Infants and children are troubled with an implacable cough the Low-dutch call it Kindthoest that comes forth with a kind of Hiccop and will give them no time so much as to take their breath For when they cough continually and painfully and never stop at all A cough ill from liquid humour yet all their straining is in vain nor do they prevail a whit so that their breath is stopt and they are ready to be strangled and all their Pipes of breathing being shut A cough that strangleth children their breath that goes and comes will come forth behind and break out not without great danger of their lives if you do not hold their buttocks close pressed together with both your knees that so the breath that strives to come out behind the wrong way may be forced to return back and come forth at the wind pipes as it should This kind of cough comes by a thin fluxible humour that doth not clot and grow together but falls into the receptacles of the Lungs so that the faculty and power of nature cannot cast up so moist an excrement that is not compacted together A simile from a moist running matter For as a drop of water or any other liquor powred on a table doth not cleave together but runs all abroad so that you cannot take it up with the tops of your fingers so the humours falling from the head upon the throat the vocal artery and Lungs and fibres cannot be taken away though nature by a continuall cough strives to drive it forth yet all in vain and yet it is so thin that it cannot be touched but it will slip away also grosse flegme that sticks to the Lungs like Birdlime troubles men as much as thin matter doth but it doth not endanger to strangle us Wherefore it is the South winds that are the cause of these diseases and inconveniencies in our health and are the seminary of many more infirmities For the humours being melted and flowing up and down The South wind causeth the joynt-Gout to move the Gout and joynt aches are stirred up whereby all the parts of our bodies being afflicted they become unapt to perform their duties But as for the internall forces and offices of the mind the mind when the South wind blows The South wind hurts the mind is feeble stupid dull dejected and cast down and sleepy that she goes drowsily about all her businesse And this force puts forth it self in inanimate and dead things For we see that when the South wind blows all things in the house are moist and flagging Linnen Clothes Sheets cover-lids blankets Paper skins pictures Geographical The South wind over-clouds all and the North clears all up and the rest of the houshold stuff Also Lakes and Moorish places Rivers Ponds Seas are muddy and troubled and dark But when the Northwinds blow all things are clear lightsome pure and cleansed that you may see the bottom and all things that are on the ground under water The like happens in our bloud and humours the dregs whereof swim up when the South wind blows and darken the mind but when the East wind or West blow they hide
choak the seed and Plants if they be not carefully pulled up by the roots Next to these is the North wind Italians call it Tramontano bending a little towards the East North North-East and North-East holds the middle place between the Summer or Solstitial Sun-rising But East North-East is environed by the North-East The nature of the Northern Wind. The North wind is by nature and effect cold and dry commonly clear yet sometimes rainy but it abates the violence of North-West and of vehement Southern winds For when they have raged as much as they can and are almost weary they commonly conclude in a North-wind so that presently the Ayre grows calm and the tempest ends wherefore the Inhabitants desire onely that those winds might be changed into this for if they turn toward the South the Tempest grows more raging and collects new forces whence it is that many great Ships and vessels are endangered The North and South winds cause Catarrhs by a diverse reason and almost in the very havens entrance and fall upon shelves and Quick-sands and fords where they are broken in pieces to the Merchants incredible damage and losse of his Merchandise Wherefore the North wind is not onely more healthfull than the North-West or South-West but also more calm and more mild in raising of tempests though in winter sometimes it be fierce and blow violently whence it causeth Catarrhs Pleuresies The North and South winds cause Catarrhs by a diverse reason Quinses but by a different reason from the South wind For when the South-wind blows the humours are melted and dissolve of themselves and so run from the head to the parts that are under it But when the North wind blows because the Muscles are thereby bound and so are the Membranes flegme is pressed forth as when we crush a sponge of water between our fingers A simile from pressing of a Sponge clinching our hand together to wring it our But what time soever of the year these winds blow they make the body cold they stop the pores they dissipate contagions of the Ayre and keeping in natural heat they help concoction The Southern winds by dissolving the frame of the body and affecting the limbs with faintnesse and idlenesse make men sleepy dull slothfull nauseating and unfit to perform any duties or function But the North winds as Hippocrates saith L. 3. Aph. make men active lightsome merry lively stirring and fit for all employments especially such as are of a more moist temper for they better fulfill the gifts and functions of Nature and all things proceed more healthfully with them as a moist state and condition of the Ayre is most wholesome for dry withered bodies South and North winds the chief in moving the Ayre For so they are the lesse chill'd with cold or burnt with heat Since therefore these two winds North and South and those that border upon them do constitute almost in all Europe the yearly changes I think that these two should be chiefly regarded For no wind through the whole course of the year blows more constantly For one of them having done blowing the other begins and keeps its station yet the other winds I spake of before keep their turns but they sooner leave off and give out Wherefore we must have respect to these two winds not onely for preservation of our health and driving away inconveniencies but when we undertake a voyage by Sea or land exposed to the open Ayre For I have found this by long experience that the North-wind rising in the night will not last long and stand nor keep that point for three dayes together which Aristotle confirms and Homer shews whil'st he taxed the errours of Ulisses The North Wind for three nights doth never blow When the North wind lasts not very long The reason is because it hath but a few exhalations and little plenty of matter for to subsist by and to blow longer For the motion and agitation of the Ayre that makes the wind and receives from it force and augmentation is feeble weak thin small that it wants forces by help whereof it might proceed and endure For as in diseases and Feavers A simile from the fit of an Ague the abundance of humours makes the disease longer and the fit more violent and lasting so a violent agitation of the Ayre and a frequent and thick concourse of exhalations and vapours that come forth of the earth exasperate the winds and make them both violent and long lasting A simile from the fires fuel And as the fire is presently put out where there wants dry iâ—â—l and wood to feed it So the North wind rising in a dark tempestuous night or about the twilight of the evening vanishâ—th presently and leaves its station and thence it is that experienced Marriners will not easily trust the North wind at the first rising and will attempt nothing till three dayes be over Pilots and Ship-Masters are most observant of the winds and yet they will trust the South wind the first day it riseth that it will continue and blow a long time and this the Italian Pilots and Masters of ships make a Proverb of The first South wind the third dayes North wind Andreas ab Aurea an expert Pilot. Andreas ab Aurea being addicted to that opinion who was Admiral of the Caesarian Fleet amongst the Genuenses gave this counsell to Charls the fist who was Emperour to take notice of that For when he intended an expedition into Africa and the Emperour thought at the first appearance of the North wind to go against the Morts Andreas ab Aurea his counsell to Charls the Emperour Andreas admonished them that the Galleys must not stir nor the Fleet adventure to Sea unlesse the North wind had continued blowing three daies but if the South wind blew to Launch forth presently at the first sight without any delay if all things were ready and the Navy fitted to set to sail for there was no fear that the South wind would presently give over and not last long being commonly supported by thick clouds and vapours and compassed with grosse darknesse that give hopes that it will be constant and continue a long time The North-East wind and its nature The North-East is next the East at very little distance on the right hand it is not so violent as the North wind or so loud nor is the cold so piercing and extream because it is nearer the Sun but it heaps and wraps up the Clouds How the North-East draws clouds and draws them to it because they being driven by meeting with some mountains or clouds they flye back again which I have oft observed in Rivers and flouds and flowing of the Ocean it self wherein the floud runs not in a constant channel but on both sides of the shores and banks it turns back and is retorted the course of it being diverted and turned on the right
with the other thence comes the attraction as if the Loadstone did scent the Iron in the Northern Mountains out of which the Loadstone was dug even as vultures do by quicknesse of smell A simile from the sagacity of Vultures by nature discern dead carcases at huge distances and that two daies as many think before any battel is fought or men slain It is evident that many things are done by secret and hidden properties that it will be hard for us to give reasons for we see the effects of things but we know not the causes So Râ—eubarb and Scammony purge out yellow choller Epithyme Polypod Senna the Melancholique humour Agarick Flegme Amber Jet the Diamond draw chaff and straws Quicksilver loves Gold and will delight to joyn with it Whence hearbs have their purgative vertue Which vertues we see also in hearbs for some desire to grow together and embrace one another some again disagree and cannot endure to be near By the same affection and inclination doth the Loadstone do these things in the Mariners Compasse and Solar minuts A Sun-dial because it shews the Sun by which when we enter upon our volage we try these hours by the Sun where the utmost end of the needle is polished and not rusty being rubbed with this stone and it ever turns to the North and shews the pole Sea-men call this Leyt which is a word borrowed from conducting for Leydtsman is a conductor A Marriner or companion in the journey by whose help we steer our course The little Bear callâ—d commonly by Marriners Leye The little Bear as the Antients called it is by long use and experience observed by those that go to Sea because it is fixed and unmoveable but the great Bear is called Helice which Cicero speaks of in his Academicks almost in these words L. 4. I do not direct my thoughts to that little Bear but the great Bear called Helice or Charls-Wain those famous seven North Stars that is These reasons are larger and not so narrow and therefore I must wander and exspatiate a great deal farther whereby he intimates that he cannot be bounded in so small a compasse but must have leave to proceed and go farther out yet the more certain course and not so wandring is that is performed by looking upon the little Bear As Aratus declared In Phaenom Here shines Joves nurses Great and Little Bear By the great Stars the Grecians ruled are But the Phoenicians do the least respect And Sea-men on those Stars do most reflect Their course is short and certain and perfect Cicero his simile from the Pole This figure Cicero borrowed in speaking from Marriners whereof some that are exact in their observations have respect to the little Bear but others that are not so curious nor in any danger look on the great Bear A place of Cicero in his Academicks explain'd So Cicero who would not follow narrow and straight waies but walk over the large and broad fields of Rhetoricians takes the great Bear for his Pole-Star for so he hath room to wander in at pleasure and is not shut up in any certain bounds but the safer and more certain sailing is and the Ship takes not so great a compasse where the lesser Bear which is called the Pole and by our men the Leye that is the guide is regarded But our Marriners besides the Pole which they do not carelessely regard look to the Compasse constantly by the use and commodity whereof in the darkest and most tempestuou's night they stand at the helm and steer the Ship Whether the Compasse were a new Invention I dare not certainly say whether this be a new invention of our age or that this instrument was of Antient use Yet I perswade my self that Marriners compasse Plautus speaks of was the same with ours or very like it And yet I think that our Compasse is more compleat and brought to a greater perfection and shews things more exactly But since the Carthagenians The Carthagenians well skill'd in Sailing very skillfull in sailing for above two thousand years did not onely frequent the Ports and havens of the Mediterranean Seas but went farther into the Ocean and with a very great fleet sailed into Mauritania round about It is very likely that they wanted not this invention to say nothing of the Tyrians and Sidonians Chap. 27. who as Ezechiel speaks had great skill in Navigation and used much Merchandise and besides these Solomons Marriners sailed with a great fleet by the Red-Sea 3 Kings c. 10. and the Persian Gulph whereby there lyes an open passage into India the Jews call it Ophir and brought a vast treasure of Gold Apes Peacocks Elephants Jewels from thence as the Portingals do now and can hardly make their voyage in the space of a year Wherefore I think no man ought rashly to believe that in those times they wanted these helps for sayling Many things in nature grow out of use especially in so happy an age that was abundant in wise and painfull Artificers But it may be by reason of the incursions of the Barbarians who wasted killed destroyed and depopulated all such a noble instrument might be lost and the Artificers all slain and dead but when peace grew on again and all wars ceased by the care and industry of man whose wits are ready to find out things it was brought into use again strangely So some say that in former years many things were in use that we think to be new Inventions which Solomon constantly affirms What was Eccles 1. saith he afore-time is now and what is past shall be renewed and there is no new thing under the Sun and if any thing seem to be new Solomon held nothing to be new it was in the dayes that were before us and the things that now are shall be forgotten because they shall perish and decay with age So some think there was some Art of Printing formerly used as they conjecture from some Antient pictures Whether the Art of Printing be old seals rings medals in which there are seen some Characters of Letters as though they were printed for in that age they wanted not Seal-cutters and Engravers and such Artificers yet if any of the Antients had invented any such matter as no man ought to lose his deserved commendation we must confesse it was not so perfect exact and compleat nor were the Letters so artificially set and directed Also Guns and Ordinance of Brasse and Iron Whether Guns were of old and Pistols and Musquets that are more tractible than the great Guns because by putting the hand to the trigger as to the helm of a ship and by the snap of the flint with the sparks of fire they are discharged against the Enemy are thought to be inventions of former ages as appears by these Verses of Virgil. Aeneid L. 6. I saw Salmoneus tortur'd cruelly Whil'st he Joves
that hectical people that is such as are lean and consumed dry for want of nutriment and old decayd decrepit people will dye when the tide goeth forth and the Moon is hid And the greater or lesse cause there is in the body of fullnesse or want of humours they dye the sooner or laâ—er So they that are swoln with water or have full and fat bodies if they lye sick of a dangerous disease that comes from fullnesse of humours they dye presently when the floods rise and the Moon is either new or in the full some when the waters are in the mid'st between both Sound people so well as sick feel the force of the Moon and others dye when it is full high water On the contrary dry bodies lean stravlings wan bloodlesse wasted people dye easily when the tide goeth out and the Moon hasteth to the West Some of them as they fail in strength dye about the middle of the tide others when the flood is gon and the Haven is empty And not onely sick mens bodies are affected with these externall causes but also those that are sound feel the forces of the Moon 's effects but the more any man declines from a sound temper the more is he subject to pains and to the change of the Ayre and of the Moon especially when in such bodies there are vicious humours So when the Moon is in the first quarter or when she is full and a cold wind blows the Muscles Membranes Nerves Pannicles tendons Wax stiff and being contracted and wrested they endure sharpe pains Thus much of the Moon 's force and efficacy and of the motion of the Sea which let no man think to be vain or old Wives Fables and so reject it for there is nothing more certain than this or more consonant to truth for experience confirms this and reason makes it good even in things inanimate and that want sense For the hairy skins of seal-Calves taken off The Nature of some skins in raysing up hair will grow stiffe and the haire will stand upright when the Sea comes in and when the Sea goes out they fall down againe and this Pliny speaks of We observe the like in some land Creatures that have four feet whereof most of them hunt for their food upon trees for Sabel and Ermins skins if they be layd in the bottom of a Chest and other Cloaths laid thick upon them after three days more or lesse they will come to the top especially the Sabel skins for that Creature being active and restlesse the like motion up and down almost remains in the skin taken off chiefly when it is pulled off the North wind blowing and it is exceeding cold and dry in Winter When skins must be taken off from living Creatures For if you take off any living Creatures skin in Summer as from Coneys Panthers Leopards Lynxes Hienas Cats Foxes Squirrils Weesils Ferrets Pole-Cats and many more of which we make coverings to use in Winter for the most part the hayrs fall off because the roots of them do not stick fast the skins being loose and the pores open hence it comes that Cloaths lined with such skins are sooner spoiled with Moths because they were taken off at an unseasonable time of the year Wherefore they do not wisely who in summer when the South-wind or South-West-wind blow lay forth their Mattresses Coverlids Hangings Tapistry and their best wearing apparel laid up for festival days and for bravery which St. Mathew calls marriage garments to be ayred in a Southern ayre Ch. 21. and not by the North-wind and expose them in a moyst season What will hinder Moths from breeding in Cloths For covers and skins and Cloaths grow hard in a cold dry time and become better because this way are Worms Moths and all Creatures that destroy Cloaths or that eat and wear them abolished and consume For cold and dry is good to preserve things and often shaking and beating of them to shake off all dust and filth from them And whatsoever is kept in Chests or Trunks and is never moved nor ventilated and ayr'd will stink and grow for did and musty and suffer wrong and be much worse continually Heat of the bed makes skins the worse Also they must not at night be laid upon ones bed for the sweat that comes from our warm bodies that are wet with it in the night when we sleep is sucked up by our Cloths and Garments that cover us so that being moystned by this warm exhalation coming forth they receive matter for corruption For hot and moyst is fit to breed filthy vermine What quality breeds Worms hence in Summer when the ayre is warm our Chambers Houses Parlours Dining-rooms Kitchins Chests Cellars Butteries In Summer houses and bodies are troubled with vermine Gardens abound with Snails Worms Wiglice Flyes Gnats Catterpillars Hornets Wasps Beetls and our bodies with Lice and Nits and Fleas which are lesse seen in Winter and do not trouble us so much Wherefore all those ruffe and hairy Beasts and such also as have a tender and soft skin whereof rich skins and coverings are made live rather in cold than in hot Countryes and thereupon their haire sheds the lesse because their skin is more contracted and their hide is more condensed and bound up by the cold so that it holds the hayr 's the faster that they will not soon fall off or flye away Zeland full of Conies So in Zealand in the very entrance all most of the Ocean there are abundance of Coneys to be seen wherewith all Brabant is furnished after the Winter solstice till the beginning of the Spring and there is no small number of Hares of an unusuall bignesse the flesh whereof is sweet and wholesome and as some ridiculously triflle will never take Salt But they run here and there in the small mountains and amongst the sandy hills some part whereof lies opposite to the North or Western Solstice not by Art but naturally so that by reason of the cold Ayre and drinesse of the sand they are most wholesome and very nimble far beyond those that are fed and fatted in coops Conies fed with mans bloud are not wholesome especially if they be fed with mans bloud as I have heard that some Chirurgions have done in divers Nations that when they opened a vein to bleed the sick they gave the bloud to such creatures and this will wonderfully feed them and fat them but they are unwholesome and hurtfull to eat Wherefore wild ones that run up and down as they list wandring here and there are the most wholesome to be eaten and their skins are thicker and their hair grows faster and closer to their hides CHAP. II. Of the Islands in Zeland and of the nature of people there and their Conditions Manners Original and what great benefits the land of this fruitfull Countrey affords to strangers in a short and clear description
to his sight and he can see at the first glance but cannot exactly distinguish things for grossenesse hinders sharp sight which may be observed in a cold or moist complexion which is the flegmatique A moyst and small spirit what sight it makes But he that hath a moist and mean animal spirit to serve the organ or sight he can neither see things near hand exactly nor at all things afar off for a few spirits soon vanish and are dispersed but grosse ones hinder the function of sight since the rays that proceed from the sight of the eyes are not carried to the object nor do they receive the species of things that come to the eye from without A thin and rare spirit binders the sight when spectacles are good But a rare thin slender dark spirit such as is in old decayed people and such as are wasted by sicknesse doth make a weak sight and almost none at all wherefore they do well to help their dull sight with spectacles for by them all things seem bigger and the visual spirits are restored and collected into one they do not vanish and disperse so much but I advise no man to use them too soon for when they want them they will be quite blind For that these are dark and grow blind comes from want of spirits Wherefore spectacles refresh the sight because the rays are reflected and retorted by them Spectacles refresh the sight and the spirits gain strength new ones continually coming thither from the brain But there are besides these things spoken of many more that darken the eyes and either hurt or hinder the sight For if the pupil chance to be moved from its place How many things hinder the sight or be dilated too much contorted contracted or diminished or from some stroke or wound fall or contusion be tumefied or inflamed the faculty of seeing is wonderfully offended Eyes that stick out or sink in are dark also eyes that stick out too far or sink in too deep do bring some inconvenience to our sight for prominent eyes are hurt by the external light so that in the clear Ayre and Sun shine they see not their objects well for the immoderate light hinders them but if the skye be dark and clowdy they see the better hence it is that they see perfectly what is near them but things afar off darkly and obscurely again such whose eyes lye hid and deep within and their balls stick lesse without their eye-lids are contrary to the former For these see things hard by not so distinctly but they see things afar off very well Hid eyes and such as stick forth are contrary to seeing wherefore when we would see things afar off we half shut our eyes and wink almost for so the spirits compacted and heaped together do send forth their rayes very far Hence we use to wink with one eye and put a vail before it which may darken the Ayre and hinder the light whereby we can more forcibly and fixedly look upon the object as men do that shoot in Guns and Crosse-bows for they shutting their left eye From Archers a reason for sight is taken the spirits run more plentifully to the right and make the sight stronger therefore Archers ayme thus and so come to hit the mark they shoot at To which we may apply that Ironical speech in Persius He can direct a verse as fine Sat. 1. As winking with one eye hee 'd draw a line But that some men see two things for one is caused by the distraction of their eyes into divers parts Why some men see double For when the rayes of the eyes do not direct themselves to the same point of the object but are carried divers waies and the spirit that uncertainly receives the species of things fluctuates with inordinate and wandring motion here and there we see two for one Why things seem divided But things seem divided cut in sunder full of chinks and holes when part of the pupil is blinded with some humour standing before it also thick fumes and vapours rising from the stomach to the brain do present various sights and images to our eyes so that sometimes all things seem to run round and turn here and there Some think they see straws fleas gnats flyes Beetles spiders Why we see such absurd things Hobgoblins witches fairies and drunkennesse and gluttony cause these effects as also a melancholique humour which cloud the brain with most grosse vapours But that the right eye is duller than the left every man may prove in himself The right eye duller than the est In our perfect age a grosse and thick spirit occasioneth this and because commonly by lying on our right side nocturnal vapours rise and flow thither but in old age the right eye grows drier and the heat of the Liver devours the humours that serve the sight but the left eye is moyster and in that the spirits are not so easily extenuated nor do the humours grow dry But the heart The heart lives first and dies last the fountain of life begins first to live and dieth last and being taken forth of some living creatures will pant a long time after yet the eyes which are thought to be perfected last first cease to move and shew signs of death The eyes dye first and they dye before the rest because the spirits being taken from them when death comes they must vanish or the spirits are drawn back from the eyes to the brain that is the beginning of motion and sight But as for the causes of divers colours that are seen in the eyes I shall speak something here to it They proceed from the humours that are round about Whence come diversity of colours in the eyes whose quality plenty want thinnesse thicknesse mixture make divers colours and species of the eyes as black blew gray Owl or Goats eyes red yellow tawny pale light-red clay-colour green dark-red fiery flaming bloud-red violet-colour saffron-colour golden-colour white as milk whitish But eyes that are all with black colour whose beauty if the eye-lids be of the same colour make a man seem comely proceed from this Whence come black eyes when the visible spirit is weak and the humour plentifull thick dark and shady so that one cannot see through it by reason of the abounding humour and the profundity of it for no light that comes from our eyes is carried into his eyes that stands over against us but the rayes flye back again and are as it were retorted upon us So in Fountains and cisterns Why the water shews black in wells and deep pits the water seems to be black and serves for a Looking glasse the sight of the eyes being beaten back by the thicknesse of the water and reflected upon it self for it forceth back our sight upon us What sight black eyes have But black eyes are of that nature and condition
understanding and reason and judgement and upon every small occasion she casts off the bridle of reason Why a woman grows angry suddenly and like a mad dogg forgetting all decency and her selfe without choice she sets uppon all be they known or unknown If any man desires a naturall reason for it I answer him thus that a womans flesh is loose soft and tender so that the choler being kindled presently spreads all the body over and causeth a sudden boyling of the blood about the heart A simile from things on fire A woman is soon hot soon cold For as fire soonest takes hold of light straw and makes a great flame but it is soon at an end and quiet so a woman is quickly angry and flaming hot and rageth strangely but this rage and crying out is soon abated and grows calm in a body that is not so strong and valiant Why a woman will cry when she is angry What men are more subject to weep and that is more moyst and all her heat and fury is quenched by her shedding of teares as if you should throw water upon fire to put it out Which we see also in some effeminate men whose magnanimity and fiercenesse ends almost as Childrens do in weeping when the adversary doth strongly oppose himselfe against them If any man would more neerely have the cause of this thing explain'd Whence do women become furious and desires a more exact reason I can find no neerer cause that can be imagined than the venim and collection of humours that she every month heaps together and purgeth forth by the course of the Moon For when she chanceth to be anry as she will presently be all that sink of humours being stirred fumeth and runs through the body so that the Heart and Brain are affected with the smoky vapours of it and the Spirits both vitall and animal that serve those parts are inflamed and thence it is that women stirred up especially the younger women for the elder that are past childing are more quiet and calme Old women lesse â—â—gry because their terms are ended will bark and brawle like mad doggs and clap their hands and behave themselves very unseemly in their actions and speeches and reason being but weak in them and their judgement feeble and their mind not well order'd they are sharply enraged and cannot rule their passions And the baser any woman is in that sex the more she scolds and rails and is unplacable in her anger hence the vulgar woman and Whores for Noble women and Gentle women will usually observe a decorum though oft times they will be silent and bend their brows and scarse vouchsafe to give their husbands an answer the Dutch call it Proncken because their Bodies are commonly polluted with faulty humours are full of impudence joyn'd with equall malice as if the Divell drove them and they cannot be perswaded by counsell reason shame flattery admonition that will ordinarily make wild beasts quiet and you cannot hold them from their cruelty or make them forbear their mad and lowd exclamations They see not right nor good nor just Terent. Heaut Scen. 1. Act. 4. What may help or hurt them their lust Doth govern all So forgetting themselves they despise their faith honour chastity fame honesty reputation and hazard all To which may be applyed that enquiry of Solomon concerning mans condition Eccles 7. I applyed my heart to know and to search and to seek out wisdome and the reason of things and to know the wickednesse of folly and of foolishnesse and madnesse and I find more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and nets and her hands as bands I have laboured to this hour to find a good and cordiall woman and could find none one man amongst a thousand have I found but a woman amongst all those have I not found A good woman is rare Pro. 36. And that enquiry in the Proverbs is not much different from this Who can find a vertuous or good woman as if he should say you shall not easily in any Country no not in the remotest parts of the earth or any corners of it find an honest and well manner'd woman and if by chance you should light upon her Solomons place explained she may be equal'd with the most precious Jewells and no Merchandise be they never so costly can be compared to her But because I have fall'n upon this argument and have begun to examine the condition of women I shall by the way clear the meaning of those words of Solomon the wisest Eccles 25. The iniquity of a man is better than a woman doing good I interpret that sentence thus That a man The wise Hebrew his sentence interpreted be he never so sluggish idle unskillfull and rude in merchandise will do his businesse better than a headlong and rash woman that undertakes any thing with a vain perswasion of wisdome and inconsiderate confidence and thereupon doth all things more uprightly than a woman doth For a man distrusting himselfe doth by leasure and circumspectly all his actions using other mens help that he calls to counsell with him so that the successe is more happy than when the same things are performed by an arrogant woman that is puffed up with a proud opinion of her own wisdome as they commonly are For such a womans endeavours commonly run to the worst and are unsuccessefull A Dutch Proverb against women why a woman is not so ingenious which the Dutch commonly signifie by this Proverb Het quaeste van Een man is better dan het beste van een vrouwe that is If any thing be done and brought to perfection by a woman it deserves lesse praise than what is but yet rude and imperfect begun by a man namely by reason of a woman's want of mind and counsell her dullnesse and blockishnesse for want of naturall heat and because their languishing mind is soked into great moysture so that the faculties of their souls come forth more slowly and are not so fit for action and to do noble things The Roman Law concerning women Wherefore the Romans who took great care to order and to confirm the Common-wealth would have women as Tully saith Pro Murena to be under Guardians by reason of the infirmity of their natures and to bear no civill office Also St. Paul who with indefatigable labour instructed mens minds in the sound faith St. Pauls precept concerning Women and diligently informs us what is godlinesse commands silence unto women in publick solemnities in the Congregation by reason of the impotency of their minds 1 Cor. 14. and want of moderation in their affections and will not suffer a woman to preach or to aske a question in publick meetings or to be present in voting or to give her opinion concerning it Since therefore so great is the frailty and weaknesse and imperfection of womens nature Platoes
in moving the mind and in raising or stilling the motions of Conscience So Marriners Souldiers Porters Carriers Hucksters Victuallers Hosts Bankers Usurers Bauds and many Factors and petty Merchants Brokers Shopkeepers and Tradesmen are not much moved with any motion of conscience that they have made it large enough and it is become like wide nets that let all things through straining at a Gnat as our Saviour Christ saith and swallowing down a Camell A simile from Nets Math. 23. Others that are addicted to a solitary and melancholique life are too much troubled about it and tremble for fear when there is no cause of fear So the force of Conscience drives superstitious people farther than they ought to go and they will not be quit of their vain perswasions So melancholique people are more anxious than other men but cholerique people by reason of the thinnesse of humours and heat make no regard of conscience and they either cast it off or extenuate it or strive to forget it Sanguine people are not much affected with any such motion in their souls nor do they ever think of their life past Job 15. To this belongs that of Job Thou writest bitter things against me and thou wilt consume me with the sins of my youth ' Jobes place is explained For those things that we did insolently in our youth and were not much perplexed with them the same will in times of diseases calamities danger or old age An clegant simile from such as are oppressed by usury come fresh to our memory like to accounts that are crossed and blotted out Like to those that have borrowed great sums of other mens moneys and have quite forgotten to pay are called upon for it and compelled by Law to make all good But Phlegmatique people are slow sluggish forgetfull carelesse nor do they ever think what conscience is nor doth their mind ever wax hot or can they be stirred up by any meanes to think of goodnesse as being drown'd in too much moysture Wicked men who are sunk into the deep and who are strangers from the word and knowledge of God depise laugh and jeare at all Psa 1. Some between both will palliat excuse deny or charge their faults upon others which thing David prays against and desires not to fall into that sinne Psa 140. Incline not my heart to malitious words that I should excuse my selfe in my sinns Wherefore many things hinder the light of conscience and overshadow it as youth drunkennesse gluttony intemperance love night delights pleasures all which cast off the bridle of conscience shame and modesty so Plautus writes Night Amor. L. 1. Eleg. 6. Woman Wine are most pernicious things For young men and that most destruction brings Ovid is of the same opinion Night Love and Wine all moderation fly Night knows no shame Wine and Love fear defie For these Counsellors are not safe and carry the mind the wrong way Youth neglects conscience and turn us from harkning to good counsell and advice and if Conscience sting wound any of thes and would draw any such people to what is good they contemne neglect deride it cavill and cast a Cloud upon all things they aggravate or extenuate and lay it upon their youthfull yeares that must be spent jovially and without melancholly and that all sad thoughts must be driven far from them and laid aside for old age to think on Thus rejecting the documents of reason and avoiding the instruction of conscience with mirth Eccle. 11. they frame all their thoughts rather by the rule of pleasure than the square of moderation Whence Solomon speaks to the purpose Youth void of counsell Youth is vain rash slippery inconstant mad thoughtlesse improvident inconsiderate and the pleasures that use to accompany it are transitory and soon gon sometimes they are damnable and have a lamentable and miserable event But because commonly the companions of this age are ignorance want of experience want of counsell inconsideration therefore it lesse apprehends what is good for it and may make it prosperous Also some there are that are at their full age who have the government of the Commonwealth and are to take care for the Church and Religion whose consciences are blinded with errour and darknesse so that oft times they do not measure all things out exactly and by rule or call reason into Counsell Men are not led by conscience but by their passions with Judgment and election of things or performe what they do by the right rule of Gods Word and Spirit but oft times either humane passions drive them or else the favour and gratifying of Princes prevails with them which we read that Paul did or else some errour of setling some inveterate superstition or an old vitious custome that is crept in not by the consent and authority of good men but by the misunderstanding of the ignorant common people Old errours are hardly left yet as if it were a rule for men to walk by no man will suffer to be taken away or abolished whence it comes to passe that in the choice of things in the difference of good and bad in setting up and restoring and propagating true Religion and the worship of God they are blind and deceived and wander from the truth John 16. to the great detriment of conscience So the Jews were perswaded that they did God good service when they raged against those that had given up their names unto Christ Paul was stirred up with the same violence and desire to punish the Christians and he persecuted them fiercely Acts. 9. with a zeal of godlinesse but which was wrapt up in errour and as he saith being an Apostle was not according to knowledge Rom. 10. that is it was not done with judgment or reason and with a right unstanding of the cause as Gamaliel did Acts 5. not first knowing and observing what the will of God is not by the instigation and inspiration of the the spirit of God which he will have to be tried and examined by the expresse word of God 1 Joh. 4. whether it proceed from thence Wherefore there is errour committed in the choice of religion not by an affection and propension to godlinesse because they wanted the Spirit of God who puts into mens minds things that are certain and out of all doubt So the wise man saith There is a way seems good unto a man but the last end thereof Prov. 24. tends unto death Paul shews us an example of it who of a persecutour was made a Preacher and a defender and maintainer of the Gospell of Christ who professeth that he obtained mercy 1 Tim. 1. because he did it ignorantly through unbeleife and that thereby in him Christ Jesus had shew'd all clemency to be an example to those that should believe in him unto eternall life Some perchance may say that I have used too many
14th year of their age or somewhat later shew some signes of maturity their courses then running so that they are fit to conceive which force continues with them till 44 yeares of their age and some that are lusty and lively will be fruitfull till 55 as I have observed amongst our Country women When a womans courses stop I know that the flowing of the terms is extended farther in some women of good tempers but that is rare nor doth allwaies that excrementitious humour flow from a naturall cause Wherefore their opinion must be examined who say that as there is no certain time of womens termes to end so neither of their conception nor cannot any set bounds be prefixed for these things For though some have their courses at 60 yeares old yet that proceeds not from a naturall cause but from some affect that is contrary to Nature which also hinders all conception For anger indignation wrath and sudden fear may cause the vessels and passages to open and cleave asunder so by a violent concourse of humours such a thing may run out many by falls and accidents having the fibres of the veins pulled asunder But since women for the most part about the yeare 45 or at the most 50 have their termes stopt and no hopes are to be had of Children by lying with them Old wives should not marry young men they do contrary to the law of Nature that marry young men or men that for greedinesse of mony woe and marry such old women For the labour is lost on both sides just as if a man should cast good seed into dry hungry lean ground It is more tolerable for a full bodied lively old man that he should marry a very young Mayd in her green and tender years For from that society they may hope for some benefit for posterity because a man is never thought to be so old and barren and exhausted but that he may get a Child But what is the Nature of man and how long the force lasts in him to get Children must be shewed by the way For since young men as Hippocrates saith are full of imbred heat about the age of 16. or somewhat more they have much vitall strength and their secrets begin to be hairy How long a man is fruitful and their chins begin to shoot forth with fine decent down which force and heat of procreating Children increaseth daily more and more untill 45 yeares or till 50 and ends at 65. For then for the most part the manhood begins to flag and the seed becomes unfruitfull the naturall spirits being extinguished and the humours drying up out of which by the benefit of heat the seed is wont to be made There are indeed some strong lusty old men who have spent their younger dayes continently and moderately who are fruitfull untill 70 yeares and subsist very manly in performing nuptiall duties examples whereof there are sufficient in Brabant and amongst the Goths and Sweeds A History done so I heard a trusty Pilate relate that when he traficked at Stockholme when Gustavus the Father of the most invincible Ericus who now reigns ruled the Land he was called by the King to be at the marriage of a man that was a hundred years old who married a Bride of 30 years old and he professed sincerely that the old man had many Children by her For he was a man as there are many in that Country who was very green and fresh in his old age that one would hardly think him to be 50 yeares old The Brabanders live very â—old Also amongst the Tungri and Campania in Brabant where the Ayre is wonderfull calme and the Nation is very temperate and frugall it is no new thing but allmost common that men of 80 yeares marry young Mayds and have Children by them wherefore Age doth nothing hinder a man forgetting of Children unlesse he be wholy exhausted by incontinence in his youngest dayes and his genitall parts be withered and barren wherefore the Dutch have a scoffing Proverb against such that are worn out A Proverb against such as are spent A simile from horses exhausted and quite broken by venery Vroech hengst Vroech ghuyle the comparison being taken from horses who if they back Mares often or too soon they will quickly grow old and will never be fit for any warlick service But what difference there is between men and women or what cause or reason there is in it that a woman is sooner barren than a man and ceaseth to eject her seed if any perhaps should require to know I say it is the natural hear wherein a man excells For since a woman is more moyst than a man A man is hotter than a woman as her courses declare and the softnesse of her body a man doth exceed her in native heat Now heat is the chief thing that concocts the humours and changes them into the substance of seed A man is longer fruitfull than a Woman which aliment the woman wanting she grows fat indeed with age but she grows barren sooner than a man doth whose fat melts by his heat and his humours are dissolved but by the benefit thereof they are elaborated into seed Also I ascribe it to this that a woman is not so strong as a man nor so wise and prudent nor hath so much reason nor is so ingenious in contriving her affairs as a man is CHAP. XXV Who chiefly take diseases from others And how it comes about that children grow well when Physick is given to the Nurse SInce contagious diseases infect all that come in the way of them yet they infect no men sooner than such whose Natures are of much affinity one with another as are Parents and Children Sisters Brothers Cousins who are in danger almost on all hand and the disease spreads amongst them And the nearer any man is of bloud and kindred the sooner he catcheth this mischief from others by reason of Sympathy that is consanguinity and agreement in humours and spirits Kindred soonest infected Wherefore when the Plague is hot and contagious diseases rage I use to speak to people of one blood to stay one from another and live something farther from them least the pestilent Ayre should infect them that will sooner lay hold of acquaintance and kindred than strangers and such as are not allyed Nurses infect children though none be free from danger The same reason serves for Nurses and children sucking at their brests for when the Nurse is sick all the force of the disease comes to the child and the Nurse is helped by it and escapes the danger For the force of the disease being diffused through the veins that are the receptacles of bloud and milk useth to be made exactly from bloud the child draws forth the worst and impure aliment whence it falls out that the whole force of the disease rests upon the child because the bloud which is the substance
affection and feavourish cold which our countreymen call Wanlust the old Latines called it Helucus Helucus is a nauseating affection which word signifies those that loath and are nagging by reason of some surfer or sleeping at noon-day and who are alwaies forced to yawn To sleep aâ— noon good for old People But old men and such as are of ripe years may safely sleep at noon that is after dinner so that there be some distance between chiefly in Summer and hot weather for that distemper of the Ayre makes men sleepy and at that time we may take the convenience either to sleep sitting in a chair or lying down on a bed our heads being laid high upon a pillow For by such refreshment in sleep the spirits both natural and vital from whence the animal spirits of the brain receive their nutriment are restored and revived But immoderate watching is hurtful for all ages but most hurtfull for old age as is also fasting for both these dry the brain Watching dries and besides that they make men frantick and doring they dry the whole body and make it lean and starved Wherefore if by immoderate watchings fastings or night lucubrations or too much labour or immoderate venery our forces and spirits are exhausted and worn away and we grow lean the vital moysture being consumed we must renew our strength with moistning diet and sleeping drinks Sleepy remedies that moisten the Brain such are Lettice Spinach like Mallows in effect Orach Buglosse and Burrage the fresh seed of Poppy Water-Lilly-flowers called commonly Nenuphar or water and Marsh-Lillies the Hollanders call them Plompen or Waterlelien to these add Violet flowers Pine-kernels sweet Almonds Pistaches or fistick nuts creme of Barley Raysins and Currans that have small kernels but no stones Dates Oranges or Citron-pills Candied with Sugar or Honey for the vital or innate humour is refreshed by them and the Brain which is the seat of the mind is moistned with a moist dew and sweet vapour from whence ariseth sweet sleep and rest How drowsinesse may be shaken off without trouble or tossing up and down But if any man be naturally drowsy and he hath no spirit to any brave actions let him continually labour and exercise himself let him avoid all moist and cold meats and eat onely such things that by their heating qualities can dry up the superfluous humours that are the cause of sleep as are Hysop Rosemary Sage Origanum Marjoram Savoury red Coleworts Ginger Pepper Nutmegs Cloves and many more that relieve the brain that is filled with moyst vapours and raise the mind that is oppressed with damps and thick mists and make it ready and prepared for to conceive honest intentions CHAP. XXVII What profit or disprofit comes by fullnesse or emptinesse or when the belly is bound too much or is too loose THe same moderation must be used in all other things that may profit or hurt our health as are repletion and inanition whereby the body is either refreshed by meat and drink or is emptied when it is full of humours Moderation must be used in â—aring But as students and magistrates must be frugal in diet so they must not keep too sparing a diet least their spirits should waste who must also observe this accurately that their bellies be not too costive or too loose For both these if they exceed the mean are equally hurtfull to our health What loosen the belly For if it be too loose and we go to stool too often it will make the body lean and starved and keeps us from sleep dries our brains and impairs our memory but if we be too much bound and costive it clouds the memory and makes our eyes dull causing troublesome and tumultuous dreams grosse thick humours being carryed to the Brain What hearbs make the Belly slippery But such things as gently soften the belly are violets Lettice Spinach Orach a kind of Mallows which Martial shews was commended by the Antients for that use The Country Wife to make my belly loose Did bring me Mallows c. To these add Buglosse and Borage Chervil in Dutch Kervel Betes Blites Damask-Prunes Grapes and Currans with small stones Mulberries Figs. Physical things that do it are Mercury Fumitary Polypod Senna Rheubarb Wild Saffron Epithyme Cassia Manna or aery honey for Sammoney Tripolium or Turbith Melaerean c. deject our forces and therefore are to be exhibited to none but such as are strong as when we seek for a hard wedg for a hard knot But if the belly be more loose than is good for our health it may be stopt with the frequent use of red Mints What bind the belly or by the Syrrup of it which is frequent in the Apothecaries shops Also Quinces stop the belly and whatsoever is made of them Red Roses to these add Medlars before they grow soft and tender Cornels with a stone kernel within them but with a very good pleasant taste that is sowre and astringent Pontick Sumach our men call it Ribes which wonderfully stirs up appetite and discusseth loathing of meat and strengthens the stomach to retain the meat especially in Summer-time when the cholerick humour causeth the belly to be loose and makes fluxes for which use we have the juice of it made up with Sugar which Avicenna calls Rob What is Rob in Avicenna and this is ready and will serve to stop a loose belly and to get one an appetite and desire to his meat as also Pomegranates that have red corner'd stones in them and are some sweet some sowre CHAP. XXVIII Students and Magistrates must often purge the passages of their excrements The passages ordained for excrements must be purged GOd that made the body of man hath not in vain created so many wayes and passages to purge forth the humours and to wash away the excrements lest a man might be choked or oppressed by the abundance of them or the vapours that arise from them So the head purgeth it self by the Nostrills Ears the Palate and unburdens it self by neesing and spitting The Breast and Lungs by the vocal artery send forth flegme by coughing the Stomach and Ventricie cleanseth its sink by vomit and belching The Intestines purge themselves by the belly and with breaking wind backward the guts are cleansed from their excrements The Reins and Bladder send away the Urine by the urinary passages but the superficies of the body discusseth all fumes and sweat through the skin that is full of holes and pores Wherefore since the body cannot be well unlesse all parts be rightly constituted and do their office as they should care must chiefly be had that no errour or distemper arise that may vitiate or impair the actings of the organical parts for the mind it self useth the ministery of them and by them doth famous things If any disease offend them if the head be heavy or full of flegme if the stone strangury or dripping of
a sure Anchor and let him continually think of that the Prophet David speaks I beheld the Lord allwaies before me because he is at my right hand that I should not be moved In which words he shews that he hath his eyes allwaies fixed upon God and that he depends wholly upon him that he subsists onely by him in doubtfull and dangerous matters that he did not waver or was carryed about with every wind of doctrine but was constant and stable and was not moved from the firm confidence in God for this reason onely that he finds God gracious unto him Ephes 4. Heb. 13. Psalm 27. and present with him in all things So that he confidently breaks forth into these words Behold the Lord is my helper in him have I trusted and I am helped and my flesh hath rejoyced in him I will confesse unto him from my whole heart CHAP. LVII Concerning the amplitude Majesty and power of the name Iesus by which onely we may resist Magical Charms and all deceits of the Divels are to be conquered and all mischiefs or dangers that may happen to the Soul or body I Said before that Inchantments and Magical Arts were to be rooted out and that no man ought to exercise what may do mischief It remains to shew by the way by what force and efficacy by what words and prayers the minds of men possessed and afflicted may be relieved The Devils are enemies to men and such as are entangled by the snares of the divels also by what means witchcrafts may be removed which are brought upon miserable men by the wicked Instruments of the divels whereby their bodies and Souls are tortured These insinuate themselves closely into mens bodies and offer violence to mans nature and spoil it of its faculties or at least make a change in them The evil spirits mingle themselves with our food humours spirits with the ayre and breath The Devils mingle with the humours as contagious diseases do with our bodies that we draw in and breathe out and they pollute many other things that serve for our use and whereby our health is preserved Wheefore I think I shall do something worth my pains if I can shew by what means miserable people may be happily freed from those chains wherewith they find themselves entangled and hindred For the inconveniences and hurts they sustain cannot be referred to any natural causes nor be cured by the same remedies that common diseases are If any disease proceed from Gluttony Venery wearinesse cold heat satiety hunger each of these is cured by its proper remedies The mischiefs the devils bring upon us cannot be referred unto natural causes God useth the malice of the devils to correct sins Why God sussers us to be tortured by the devil 3 Kings 32. Ahab deceived But such diseases as the divells bring upon us do not in any sort require natural remedies but such as are divine and supercelestial Some wonder that so great power is given to the divell and his instruments to vex and torment men But God doth partly wink at those hurts witches bring upon sinfull men and he suffers them to be afflicted and in so doing he hath a sufficient reason of his own counsell and providence and he partly instigates the Divells and their instruments to rage against many that have deserved to be so punished and he useth to another end their malice to chastise wicked men So a lying spirit was sent into the mouths of all the Prophets whereby the King Ahab being deceived might go to the battel wherein present destruction was made ready for him Sometimes God suffers some to be hurt to try their patience So he suffered Iob not onely to lose all his goods and to be spoiled of all his estate but to be tormented in his body also And this God suffered to be done partly to try the constancy of the man and that he might stir up other mortal men to endure evills Why Job was tormented by the Devil least when trouble comes upon them they should revolt from God and partly to declare his power whereby he comforts and stayes those that trust in him and raiseth such as are quite down restoring them to their former dignities But the reason is different in those vulgar operations of such as are possessed by the Devil or are tortured by him in any part of their bodies For a great part of those people are stupid and know not God upon whom as fit instruments and ready for him he exerciseth his tyranny â—he Divel sets â—pon stupid people So Satan assaults idle people Idolaters Superstitious in whose minds he rather lodges than in those that know God and are supported by trust in him for he is rather afraid of these and is fearfull to plant any engines against them because he knows that all his endeavours and attempts against such who stand upon their guards and trust in God are too weak and shall be frustrate and come to nothing A simile from a City not well-fenced For as Forts and Towns that have no walls ditches or Trenches to defend them nor guards of Souldiers to keep them are easily surprised so dull and sluggish minds that have no saving nor heavenly doctrine to support them and are strengthned by no trust in God are more exposed to the wiles of the divell The Devil provokes a man to all mischief and soonest yeild to him But since Satans chiefest end is to abolish the glory of God and to draw men from Salvation and to sollicite them to revolt he doth not cease to assault him both within and without and sometimes he troubles the body Sometimes the Soul and sometimes both to work their destruction Judas Iscariot besides Cain and King Saul affords us an example Gen. 4. 1 Kings 31. who when the Divel had driven his mind to desperation and distrust he caused him to hang himself being weary of his life Math. 27. and he made his body reproachfull by being hanged And though Satan the greatest enemy of mankind hath a thousand wayes and Arts to mischief The Devil is driven off by trust in God yet by one effectual means that is ready at hand is he chiefly driven away conquered namely by solid faith certain confidence in God the Father by Christ Met een vaest gheloove Saint Peter instructs us against the Devil ende een goedt betrowen op Godt Also the Apostle Peter shews that by this means we ought to fight against the snares of that Tyrant against his frauds impostures deceits subtilties rage cruelty namely by sobriety and vigilancy garded and defended by Faith 2 Pet. 5. For so he warns such as are secure Be sober and watchfull because your adversary the Devill goes about like to a roaring Lyon seeking whom he may devour whom resist constantly in the faith 1 John 5. For this saith Saint John is the victory which conquers the
with divine gifts CHAP. LVIII Whether hearbs and pretious stones have any force to drive away Devills and to put to flight things hurtfull THough plants have principally that use and those forces given them by the Authour of nature Plants profitable for many things that they serve for nutriment and Physick for mens bodies yet in antient writings some plants are honoured for that they resist witchcraft and drive away all charms and fascinations whatsoever These are called Amulets and remedies against witchcrafts because they drive away from man all hurtfull things Jewels have a secret vertue This vertue is ascribed to Jewels and pretious stones also which they have not from their first qualities that is their temperament of heat cold moysture drinesse but by a specifique vertue and hidden quality and secret property the cause whereof cannot at all be explained So the Loadstone draws iron to it Jet and Amber draw chaff and straws the Saphir which is of a blew heavenly colour defends chastity The Jacinth and Chrysolite worn upon the ring-finger resist the Plague The Emrauld and Prasius being green stones refresheth the Heart Erranos that is a blew coloured stone commonly called a Turcois preserves a man from falling down and from ruine or if any such thing happen it keeps the body from hurt Corall bound to the neck takes off turbulent dreams and allays the nightly fears of Children The Carbuncle and stone called Sardius commonly called the Corncel having this name from the red berry of the Tree called the Cornel-Tree makes a mans heart merry and his countenance lively diffusing the bloud into the body So other Jewels have other vertues and drive away Hobgoblins Witches Night-mares and other evill spirits if we will believe the Monuments of the Antients So amongst hearbs there are some that resist diseases Strange diseases driven away by the help of plants which have much assinity with the vexations and tortures of the Devils As Melancholly Frezy Madnesse Epilepsie and most cruel diseases that befall maids and widows from the affection of the Matrix or when their courses are long before they come or they stay long unmarried For by these fumes and black thick vapours their mind is so affected that they seem to be tormented by some hurtfull spirit and they are perswaded that the Devil possesseth their minds and drives them to conceive many absurd imaginations Against this evil first opening a vein in the ankle it is good to apply such wholesome plants that can free them from these accidents as are Mugwort Savory wild Marjoram wild Thyme Pennitoyal Origanum Clary But amongst hearbs which relieve afflicted minds and keep them free from venemous vapours that offend the brain or from the Devil or an imagination that some have of him are Rue Squils of the juice whereof there is made both an Oxymel and Vinegar Masterwort Angelica which is a kind of Ferula or Laserpitium Alysson or Rubia Minor which cures the Madnesse of Dogs and such as are bit by them which disease is not much different from theirs who rage and are tormented by the Devil Rosemary purgeth houses and a branch of this hung at the entrance of howses drives away devills and contagions of the Plague as also Ricinus commonly called Palma Christi because the leaves are like a hand opened wide So Coral Piony Misseltoe Contrary to the Epilepsy drive away the falling sicknesse either hung about the neck or drank with Wine Some of these if any man think they may be given to drive away devills let heathenish superstition and vanity be laid aside let there be no foolish prayers and strange words used whereby such as professe Magical Arts are use to effect their Incantations if there be any force in plants as we find by experience there is Plants have their effects from God you must remember they had it from God For all Medicaments and hearbs that are applyed to mens bodies become effectual not from themselves but by the blessing of God and so they procure some safe operation Wherefore if thou determine to do any thing by the help of hearbs trust not so much to hearbs as unto God For so in curing of diseases you shall come to a happy end with good successe otherwise all your endeavours are vain and the Artist fails of the event when there is no thought of God from whom all things have their being and effects and we do not rely upon him Hence it was that Asa king of Judah Why King Asa was not cured 3 Kings 15.2 Chron. 16. when he was afflicted with most sharp pains in his feet and asked no Counsel of God but onely trusted to the Physicians found no help by all their fomentations but died as the History saith of the Gowt in his Joynts God doth not forbid to use the Physitians assistance but onely that we should not rely on them too much and not to regard him who makes men whole and whose gift it is that all things become effectual Psalm 3. Yet they do superstitiously and they attempt a thing not far from Idolatry who apply hearbs that are consecrated with some fained prayers to cure witchorafts or go about to conjure away discases by them So they prepare Fern gathered in the Summer Solstice pulled up in a tempestuous night Rue Trisoly Vervain against Magicall impostures and thus they gull the rude and ignorant people and dazel their eyes that they may cheat them of some moneys and wipe their noses of what they have Yet those vain Artists never grow rich Hearbs must not be used for Magical inchantments Studious Reader I thought fit to insert these things to this argument that so every man may abstain from Magical inchantments and observe from whom we ought to ask aid against diseases too and how despising heathenish superstition we may use ready and obvious remedies which God hath given us abundantly of his munificence CHAP. LIX Of the Majesty and Power of the Supream Deity and how various appellations the one Essence of God distinguished into three Persons hath by the contemplation whereof the mind of man receives comfort and tranquillity and conceives the highest confidence in God BEcause that excellent and Almighty Power God and that eternal Mind is free from all mortall concretion The nature of God is Inserutable and is immense filling all places governing all things and ruling them by his power for these reasons that one God is distinguished by many names by reason of the vertues and excellency of his works John â— and he is illustrated by many famous titles both amongst the Hebrewes and other Nations that had any knowledg of a God So in the holy Scripture he is called Iehovah El Elohim Adonai God hath many names Emanuel whereof every one siguifies a peculiar power and vertue and ascribes great force unto God which he exerciseth upon inferiour creatures Whence when he propounds the precepts of