Italy almost after that prodigious debording of waters which fell from the Alpes without any former raine Charles the 8th of France his entering thereafter and the disasterous chances that followed thereupon can testifie all which our and their stories can record besides many others as Sabellicus in the penult booke of his last Aeneids doth intimate Neither yet may I be induced to beleeve that the Starre whereof Tichobray that famous renouned and noble Astronomer maketh mention which is yet seen and was affirmed to be though the Prince now bee dead most fitly appropriated to the victorious wise and fortunate Gustavus King of Sueden to have beene no other than a Comet what ever reasons he alledgeth to the contrary Albeit such remarkable Starres are rather observed to appeare at the death of great men and Kings than at their birth Neither must we instance the example of the Starre which was observed by the wise men of the East at the birth of our Lord and Saviour at Nazareth such extraordinaries should be admired not inferred to exemplifie things For answer to this that the death of common people may as well happen under these Comets as that of Princes there is no question but that the supereminency of great persons and States making them the more remarkable maketh their death also more perspicuously to be notified And as in the Title of curiosities I have showne that not ever the most curious questions of Arts and Sciences are the most profitable Even so in this I allow not of Hali the Iew his commentary upon the centiloquy of Ptolomee where referring the death of Princes to comets he thus saith Quòd si apparuerit cometa Domino istius regni exeunte in Oriente significat mortem Regis vel principis si autem Dominus istius regni fuerit in Occidente significat aliquem de regno suo interfecturum Regem I over-slip the interpretation of these words least the divulging of them might more harme than profit Alwayes leaving Philosophicall alterations thus much by naturall experience we may resolve upon that they never appeare but some bad event followeth thereon either to the countrey over which it blazeth or to which it aspecteth or else to that countrey over which ruleth a starre which that comets tayle tendeth towards or followeth though much rather to that countrey which it hath aspect unto not by vertue of its influence but by reason of the superabundancie of maligne dry and hot exhalations regorging and dispersing themselves over it CHAP 5. Of Raine Dew hoare-frost and their cause AS hot and dry exhalations are the matter and cause of Meteors in the upper region of the aire of which before Even so cold and moist vapors are the causes of these after this manner vapors elevated up into the ayre by force of the Sunnes beames and being separated from the heat which accompanied them either by that heat 's ascending higher and leaving the grosser vapors or the subtillest of that heat being extinguisht by the grossenes aboundance of cold and moist vapors which mounted up with it in the ayre or else by the coldnesse of the place the middle region of the ayre These grosser vapors I say segregated from that heat which accompanied it and being thickned and carried about in the ayre for a time fall back againe to the earth but being first coagulated in a cloud which dissolving falleth down to the place from whence it ascended so that by a circular motion first the waters resolving in vapors the vapors thickning in a cloud then that dissolving back againe into waters imitateth in a manner the circular motion of the Sunne by whose approximation as these vapors are elevated even so by his elongation if I may say so they doe fall backe againe Now as this is the generall cause of these moyst Meteors so is it the particular cause of the falling of Rayne for Raine being a watery vapor carryed up by heat into the Ayre and there that heat leaving it resolveth and falleth downe againe in great or lesser showers according to its quantity Dew and Hoare-frost are not so generated for why When there is not such quantity of vapors elevated in the day time through want of heat to draw them up or through great drowth upon the earth they are not carried high in hoter countreys they fall downe againe before the day be spent and that by them is called Serene as in France particularly So when these elevated vapors are thickned in waters without either so much heat as may dry them up or so much cold as to congeale them then I say the dew appeareth Now the Hoar-frost happeneth otherwise as when the like exhaled vapours are congealed before they be condensed whereby you may see that dew falleth in temperate times and places whereas Hoare-frosts fall in Winter and in the colder parts of the earth and the reason may be alleadged that seeing vapors are hoter than water in respect of the concomitating heat whereby they are carried up no question but more cold is required for the congelation of vapors then of waters and so if in cold seasons and places waters congeale and harden much more may we say of vapors congealable into Hoare-frost Thus we have touched the materiall and efficient causes of dew and Hoare-frost so it shall not be amisse to shew that the time when the Sun ingendreth these Meteors in the ayre by the drawing up of these vapors from out the earth and waters must be when the lowest region of the ayre is calme serene and cleare without wind raine or cooling clouds for they being mounted thither may either hinder their ascending or condensation and thickning as also the stirring winds would hinder their condensation or at least their congregation or gathering together Now that both dew and Hoare-frost are begotten of vapors not carryed high in the ayre by this it may be knowne because we see little Hoare-frost or dew in the higher mountaines where it seemeth likeliest they are made and doe recide in regard of the cold there which is so much the more probable in this that the heat which elevateth these vapors from low and Marshy places carrying as you would say a burden heavier then their hability can comport with leaveth them ere they can ascend any higher Besides that we may say that the second region of the ayre being higher than these mountaines and carryed about and in a manner drawne after the circular wheeling about of the heavens dissolveth these vapors by its motion and by this meanes maketh the dew and Hoare-frost for so I expound Pruina Notwithstanding this a greater motion is required to disgregate and sunder apart heavy and many vapors then few and light ones now seeing the matter of Snow and Raine is greater and containeth a great many more vapors then the matter of dew and Hoare-frost Therefore it is that in exceeding high Mountaines
that fishes breath What way fishes may be said to breath If herring can â—â—ie How herring may be engendred in the Aire A sea-sawing râ—â—â—on why herring 〈◊〉 site Apodes or fowles without feet or Plumes Of Claick Geese Diverse kindes of Insects Sea Insects Reasons why Insects are not propagated by a Celestiall heat What middle Creatures are How fishes can be said to live by the Sea seeing their flesh is more firme then the water whereof they are geneâ—â—ted How fowles are brought forth in waters The cause of the firme flesh of fishes That Gold cannot bee made potable The matter of precious stones Quest. Two Philosophicall wayes to know things What leeteth that We cannot aright give up the supputation of the Earths cricumference Diversity of opinions concerning the worlds Compasse The earths circumference or compasse The thicknesse of the earth Distance of the earth from heaven The most approved opinion of the earths distance from the Sun Definition of Meteors their matter substance and height of formation Meteors severally considered by Philosophers and naâ—uralists A comparison of these Vapors â—nto the body of man chiefly to the venâ—â—icle and head Whether there be any exhalaâ—ions from the lowest Region of the ayre The lowest region of the aire is hot and moist both by nature and accident The uppermost region hot and dry The middle region is only cold at least respectively In what region of the Ayre the Meteors are composed What clouds are Clouds are fashioned in the middle region Concerning the middle â—â—gion Solution The foggy vapours which we see like clouds skimming our lakes are but ascending to frame the cloud The matter and forme of fiery Meteors from whence they proceed What are our falling-stars What maketh them fal dovvn seeing they are light Solution Of thunâ—er the matter whereof and place where The matter forme of thâ—se which we call pretty Dancers Fower sorts of vapors ascend from the earth and waters which arâ— the neerest mâ—tter of all Meteors Ayre what Raine what wind Quest. What is the cause that the falling Stars make no noyse as the Thunder seeing one matter is common to both What meaneth these fiâ—es wee see by night before us or by us when we ride at some times Why are they not seene in the day time What be these complainings and laughing which sometimes are heard in the ayre They are Aereall spirits The nature forme of comets The reason of their long hayre or beard Sometimes they are round Halos 1. area What are the Circles about the Moone which we call broughes What course the Comets observe Answer for the diverse courses of Comets What maketh the Comets commonly move from the South to the North. The place of their abode commonly Whether or not they can portend evill to come The Philosophers deny it admitting them but as naturall things The Philosophicall reason why not Other of their reasons why they can portend no evill to come Other reasons of theirs The contrary is seene by experience Lamentable accidents which have followed after the appearing of Comets The reasons which our Astronomicall Philosophers give that Comets may portend change of States Examples of Comets appearing before desolâ—tion Answer to the former objections Conclusion of comets with a particular observation The first matter of raine The way how raine falleth downe The matter manner how dew is engendred What is that which in France we call Serene The matter manner how Hoare-frost are fashioned The place where dew and hoare-frost are framed Some more good observations of dew and Hoar-frost What Snow is Much Snow in the Northerne climats and Why Difference betwixt the Snowy cloud and the rainy one The matter and cause of winde The beginning of wind is but small but it encreaseth in blowing A place of Scripture concerning winds solved What maketh raine commonly follow winde And what after raine What maketh some windes cold other hot seeing one matter is common to both What maketh that in the heat of Summer there are fewest winds seeing then there should be most The way how the wind bloweth Againe the way how the wind bloweth The matter and forme of Earthquakes What makes the Southerne countries most subject to these earthquakes The odâ— betweene wind earthquakes A very fit comparison As our bodies are stirred with a hot ague even so the earth with an inclosed wind A remarkable question Solutions both Philosophicall and Theologicall What is the matter of lightnings The right cause of the noyse of thunder after the lightning Why we see the lightning before wee heare the noyse And why doâ—â— it descend seing it is light The cause of the admirable effects of thunder Why the thunder of blacke clouds are more terrible then those of White Why those that be thunder beaten smell of brimstone The true matter of thunder The reason why the thunder of black clouds are most dangerous All weake Meteors have one common matter Their difference in forme and place Why haile is round Why raine falleth in drops From whence fountains have their courses That there is waters within the earth The Sea the mother of fountaines How Fountaines are on the tops of mountaines How mountaine furnisheth water unto fountains Why some springs cease running What maketh two fountaines a little distant one hot and another cold The veines through which the waters run maketh them salt hot or cold Gods power outreacheth mans wisdome The comparison of the great little world A worthy similitude Greatest armies have not alwayes done great Semiramis innumerable army defeated by a very few under an Indian Prince Xerxes alio overthrowne by a handfull of Greekes and Salamines The battaile of Thermopilae Iohn King of France overthrowne by Edward the black Prince of England Edward Carnarvan of england overthrowen by Bruce at Bannak-burne Scanderbeg with a handfulâ— overthrew Mahomet If Princes may hazzard their persons in a field or not Queene Elizabeth on the front of her armie in 88. The countenance of a King a great incouragement unto souldiers When a King should be in proper person in a field Why powerful subjects are not alwâ—yes fiâ—est to bee elected Generals of armies One Generall â—itter not two How the Romans and Grecians send two Commanders with their armies abroad Their foresight and prudence herein Fabius and Marcellus contrary dispositions Why the Grecians did send alwayes two in ambassage or to field The limitating of Generals Commission dangerous Great ods betwixt battels and duels To shun fighting at times is no disgrace unto a General Hannibal sueth for peace at Scipio Hannibals speech unto Scipio Sr. Fr. Drakes stratageme in 88. Hannibals stratagem A comparison of drawing up of our armies with the Old Romans If the Roman field malice exceeded ours yet our beleaguring instruments of warre exceed theirs The terriblenes of our pieces How the Romans had a fitter occasion of trying their valour then we The battell of Lepanto surpasseth all the Romans Sea-fights
his trunck from the Pole Artick from the North and East to the Antartick South West stretching forth the left Arme to the Mediterranean the other to the West-Indian-Seas now the Ocean as the lungs of this imagined body worketh by Systole and Diastole on the neerer parts to it maketh a flux and reflux where its force faileth in the extremities the hands and feet the Mediterranean and Indian Seas Quest. How is that possible that you admit no flux nor reflux to the West-Indian-Seas seeing their Histories informe us that at Magellanes-strait that same West Sea doth glide through the firme land of America into the Mare Del Zur and that with such rapiditie and vertiginousnesse that no Ship is able with Wind or Art to returne from that South-Sea backward Answ. That must not be thought so much a flowing as the course of Nature whereby the Heavens Sun Moone and Stars yea and the Sea doe course from East to West as that Strait doth run I may joyne to this the Easterly-wind which of all others bloweth most commonly as elsewhere so there also which furthereth that violent course and of this opinion is Peter Martyr in his Decads upon the Historie of that Countrey Quest. Admit all be true you say but what have you to say to this that the Mare Del Zur hath flux and reflux and yet your West-Indian-Seas have little or none as you confesse how then can the Moone be the cause of the universall Seas ebbing and flowing seeing they two under one Moone both are neverthelesse so different in Nature and yet so neere in place Answ. Seeing Ferdinando Oviedes who was both Cosmographer Hydographer leaveth that question undilucidated as a thing rather to be admired than solved leaving to the Reader thereby in a manner to adore the great Maker in the variousnes of his works I thinke much more may I be excused not to pry too deepely in it Quest. What is the cause then seeing the Moone is alike in power over all waters that Lakes and Rivers flow not and ebbe not as well as the Sea doth Answ. Because these waters are neither large nor deepe enough for her to worke upon and so they receive but a small portion of her influence Quest. What is the reason why seeing the Sea is salt that the Rivers and Fountaines which flow from her for we all know that the Sea is the Mother of all other waters as to her they runne all back againe exinde fluere saith the Poet retro sublapsareferri are not salt likewise Answ. Because the Earth through whose veines and conduits these waters doe passe to burst forth thereafter in springs cleanseth and mundifieth all saltnesse from them as they passe It seemeth that your former discourse maketh way for answer to such as aske why the Sea doth never debord nor accreace a whit notwithstanding that all other waters doe degorge themselves into her bosome the reason being because there runneth ever as much out of her to subministrate water to springs and rivers as she affordeth them But is it possible which is reported that our late Navigators have found by experience that the Seas water so many fathomes below the superficies is fresh so that now they may draw up waters to their shippes by certaine woodden or rather yron vessells which ovally closed doe slyde thorough the first two or three fathomes of the salted superfice downe to the fresh waters where artificially it opens and being filled straight shutteth againe and so is drawne up which they report to have but small difference in tast from the waters of fresh Rivers which if it bee true is a strange but a most happily discovered secret Answ. Yea it is possible for probably it may be thought that the Sunnes raies which before are granted to bee the cause of the Seas saltnesse penetrate no further than the first superfice like as on the contrary the coldnesse of the Northerne windes freezeth but the uppermost water congealing them into Ice or the reason may better be the perpetuall and constant running and disgolfing of Rivers brookes and springs from the earth into it And verily I could be induced to thinke the Mediterranean sea the Sound of Norwey and such like which lye low and are every where encompassed with the higher land except where they breake in from the greater Ocean that such Seas should be fresh low in regard of the incessant currents of large Rivers into them and in respect they doe not furnish water back again to the springs rivers and fountaines seeing they are low beneath the earth yea it hath troubled many braines to understand what becommeth of these waters which these Seas dayly receave but it cannot bee receaved for possible that the waters of the great Ocean are fresh at least drinkably fresh under the first two or three fathomes it being by God in natures decree made salt for portablenesse Sect. 7. That the Mountaines and valleys dispersed over the earth hindreth not the Compleatnesse of its roundnesse Of burning mountaines and Caves within the earth BVt leaving the Sea thus much may be demaunded concerning the earth why it is said to be round since there are so inaccessible high mountaines and such long tracts of plaine valleys scattered over it all Answ. These mountaines and valleys are no more in respect of the earth to hinder its roundnesse then a little flie is upon a round bowll or a naile upon a wheele to evince the rotunditie of it for the protuberances of such knobs deface not the exact roundnesse of the whole Globe as not having a comparable proportion with it But what signifie these burning mountaines so frightfull to men which may be seene in severall places of the earth as that of Island called Hecla in Sicilie called Aetna besides the burning hills of Naples which I have seene one in Mexico in our new found lands of America so formidable as is wonderfull If the earth be cold as you give it forth to be then how can these mountaines burne so excessively or if they bee chimneys of hell venting the fire which burneth there in the center of the earth or not Answ. No question but as there are waters of divers sorts some sweet others salt and others sulphureous according to the minerall veynes they run thorough right so there be some partes of the earth more combustible then others which once being enflamed and kindled either by the heate of the Sunnes beames or by some other accident and then fomented by a little water which rather redoubleth the heate then extinguisheth it as we see by experience in our farriers or smiths forges where to make their coales or charco ales burne the bolder they bedew or besprinkle them with water they hold stil burning the sulphureous ground ever subministrating fewell to the inflammation But they and the like do not hinder the earths being cold no more than one or
middle one upon the dissolution of a cloud Finally it may be said here that clouds not onely may bee seene beneath us to inviron the tops of our lower Mountaines for I my selfe crossing the lower Alpes at Genoa have seene them below me along the sides of the Mountaines they likewise may be perceived to glide over the Plaines and swimming over our Lakes and Rivers yet that serveth not to prove that they are generated in the lowest Region but rather argueth the ascending of these vapours and the gathering of them together of which the clouds must bee coagulated and no otherwise as that they are absolutely there framed But this by the way CHAP 3. Of falling Starres Fleakes in the Ayre and other such fiery Meteors THere be foure Elements as all know the Fire hot and dry the Ayre hot and moist the Earth dry and cold the Waters cold and moist Now as of the moisture of the Waters whether in their owne Element or on the Earths superfice are composed all watery vapours as clouds raine dew haile snow and hoare-frosts c. Even so from the dry parts of the Earth calefied or made hot by the Sun-beames doe proceed fumy exhalations whereof the fiery and burning Meteors are generated But so it is that of these vaporous exhalations whereof all the ignite and fiery Meteors or impressions are composed all are not framed alike for according to the diversity of the dispositions of their matter they are either round or long or more long than round or more round than long for if by the efficient and materiall causes which are the Sunne-beames exhaling these fumous evaporations from the driest part of the Earth these spumeous exhalations are such as are combustible and capable to bee kindled if it be of a like length and breadth then in that case it shall be seene to burne in the uppermost Region of the Ayre like a blazing fire of straw if it bee longer than broad then is it taken for those long falling Stars which by the Meteorologians are called Dall If otherwayes broader than long then are they called fiery inflammations which seeme to reele in the Ayre as it were and to shoot hither and thither And because sometimes these exhalations although dry have some coldnesse in them therefore the ejaculation of that cold matter maketh the Meteor to seeme by that extrusion to fall as being in labour to expell it whence more properly are our falling Stars which Stars at some times seeme to fall aside at other times strait downe or upward according as their matter is for the time either disposed or placed And if it be objected how contrary to their nature can they descend or fall downe their matter being light and not ponderous I told before that that commeth by expulsion and by way of projection for confirmation whereof may be added the experience we have of Thunder whose bolts and claps light at times even at our feet otherwhiles what in our houses beating downe Pinacles and Steeples the tops of Turrets and the like although it be both light and dry and the reason is That Thunder being generated in the middle Region of the Ayre not by exustion of any kindled hot matter but rather by a separation of an expelling cold meane while this cold thickning and coagulating it selfe together with violence in a manner detrudeth the hot matter which with it was thither drawn up and maketh such a noise and terrible din the time of that expulsion that not only the Ayre seemeth to bee rent asunder but the very Earth also appeareth to tremble at its violence Iust so as the matter of the falling Stars is placed they fall either straight down aside or upward as before I noted Even so is it with the Thunder Now as those vapors thickned in the ayre doe produce the afore-said effects so shall it not bee thought amisse to say that the same ayre being thickned with their vapors but not condensed in a cloud by susception of light but chiefly from the Suns rayes opposite to it either by night or day but chiefly by night become fiery coloured and looke as burning the same vapors stirring to and fro and being someway thickned by refraction of light doe assume unto themselves variable and diverse colours and those fires in effect are the same which vulgarly are called pretty dancers and by reason that the materiall cause of such impressions is swift and soone vanisheth therefore they abide and remaine the shorter time for such phantasmes not being come to the full perfection of other Meteors as seldome they are seene to doe so their abode and being is but short and inconstant they being composed but of hot and dry exhalations from chalky rocky sandy and sulphureous parts of the earth there being a mixture of moysture with them And to the effect that this may be somewhat better cleared we must consider That foure sorts of vapors are exhaled or drawne up out of the earth by vertue of the Sunnes rayes beside the smoake of our fires which ascending to the ayre also augments these fiery Meteors First vapors hot and dry not having so much humidity in them as may be able to overcome them but rather such as may make this dry vapor to be continued for no earthly thing can continue without moisture Secondly cold and dry which altogether are of the earth's nature virtually cold albeit formally all vapors are hot The third are those vapours which are hot and moyst where humidity predominateth over the heat The fourth kind of vapors which ascend are cold and moyst in which absolutely watry moystnesse beareth rule and this vapor virtually is called cold These foure sorts of vapors then are the neerest matter of all our meteors The first whereof viz hot and dry vapors doe ascend through the ayre quickly even to the concavity of the firy and ignean element where being enflamed and enkindled it becommeth the right generation and propagator of our fiery Meteors whereas the second being hot and moyst doth not ascend so high and because it is easily resolved it commeth to bee ayre The other two cold and dry and cold and moyst vapors are elevated aloft also but no farther then to the colder parts where they are thickned and coagulated together by the invironing cold but so as cold and moyst are converted to raine and the other cold and dry to wind or this falls downe with the pluvious or rainy vapour This being so we may see that there are foure kindes of vapors and exhalations conformable to the foure elements which make up the matter of these Meteors in such sort that as there are hot and dry exhalations and cold and dry even so there are hot vapours and cold and humid ones also Since then you know the matter of wind raine falling stars and inflammations in the ayre let us heare what can bee objected One demands what
Foure formes of drawing up of armies used by the Romans Description of the battell of Cannas The defeates of Cannas and Trasimenes rather by the Romans unskilfulnesse then prowesse of their foes A maxime of military discipline Pompey his oversight at the battell of Pharsalia The neerer our owne timâ—s writers are more spaâ—ing to write without sure warcâ—nds More battels of â—ate amongst the French than all countries â—eâ—ide Few fights abroad to their commendation The Spaniard more slow and mature in their doings than the French Emulation betwixt the house of Gwyse and Bourbon and not religion the cause of warres of France France most subject to Duels â—ombats authorised Lotharius tryall of his wifes Chastitie Champions in Duell to cleere Queenes Honours That Ladyes have fought combats Combats of Church-men Combats of Iudges and Counsellors aâ— Law Combats whereof Kings have been spectators Combats rewarded by Kings S. Almachius slaine for speaking against combats Six score men killed in combats in one voyage of K. Lewis of Fran. The quarrell a Commander on the Kings side * A principall man in the Dukes party and brother to him The challenge The combat Comparison of the French and Spaniard Venetian and Florentine A duel betwixt two Spaniards granted by the authority and fought in the presence of the Emperour Charâ—es the 5. The occasion and quarrell Occasion moving the challenger to petition a publike combate Conditions granted by the Emperour whereupon they should fight Ceremonies observed in this combate The event of â—heir fight What way combats permissible if they should be at all suffered The Canon Law gaine-saâ—eth their permission and Why Example where in a Duâ—ll the innocent was killed We should rather referre to God the punishment of a misdeed which by no legall meanes can be cleared rather then to a fight David his fight with Goliah should not serve for example and Why Cardinall Cajetan his permission where â—nd how Solution of certaine Obâ—â—ctions It is not a good consequence seeing I refuse Duells therefore Batteils too No more is it a good consequence if wars and Battels be lawfull therefore Combats 〈◊〉 A Notable Combat of 3. Brethren Romans against so many Albans Their fight Some Grecian Roman Hunnish Danish Kings have combated with others for saving much bloud Challenge but no meeting nor fight betwixt the Prince of Aragon and Charles of Anjou Challenge betwixt Charles the 5. and the French King Francis The occasion of the quarrell Combate of 13 French knights against so many Italians The quarrell and challenge The conditions agreed upon Observation upon this combat A memorable combat betwixt two powerfull Clan parties of our own nation dâ—bated of Pearth The conditions accepted and agreed upon An Exemplary Combat betwixt two French Barons All things we see serves to refresh our memories of death and mortality The documents of all the old Philosophers tendeth to this chiefly not to feare death Burials and tombs in most conspicuous places erected for that cause Iulius Caesar his death which hee wished not to be allowed of by a Christian. S. Augustine reputeth it a token rather of pusillanimity to put hand on our selves than of courage My usuall prayer The ancients for all their good injunctions yet feared it Not to be afraid of death and why All things except man keepe their constant course If change be in things a token of Gods wrath The Antiquity of interring the dead The Old Roman Emperoâ—s respect had thereunto Alexander of Macedon daunced about Achilles tombe Sylla his cruelty against burialls remarked in Histories The memory they carry to the dead in Vraba and the way how they use the Corps The manner of burialls observed in Find-land and Lapland That same sort observed of old in this same Country and yet in certaine parts of our Highlandâ— The Aegyptian burials and their Momies most remarkable Two sorts of interring the dead most remarkable The Romans burned consumed theirs to ashes The Indians againe did eat their dead as thinking their bellies a honorable sepulchre for them The dumbe silent obsequies of our burialls condemned A History of a Gentlewoman who for not being interred in the Church-yard molested her family by her ghost while she was disinterred and according as shee desired was buried Bartol and Vlpian admit deceit to bee used with the circumventer and no faith to be kept to particular enemies The Emperour Augustus kept faith although to a rogue Of mentall reservation what it is Cleomenes although packt up a truce with his enemy for some-dayes yet in the night surprised them Alexander the great could honourably say Malo me fortunae peâ—iteat quà m victoriae pudeat The Romane offended with their Legat L. Marcius because that in their warres under him with Perseus King of Macedon he used subtilties and circumventions The manner observed by the ancients in making their truces peace or other pactions The termes and words of their covenants The Grecians branded with that to be called Not keepers of their oathes Pope Alexander and his nephew Borgia both remarked dishonest in their deeds and words Other Popes guilty of that same fault Exhortation to his Countrey-people not to doe so The integrity of ancient Romans Of keeping no faith to enemies A fault ' committed by our Duke Aubigny at the siege of Capua or rather by the insolent French under him A Cruelty committed at Genoa against the French within by the Spanyard without Little good followeth commonly excesse of mirth and laughter Examples of Nebuchadonozor Baliasar and the rich glutton to this purpose Examples of such who in the middest of all their felicities have been taken away Wisely was it ordained that the Paschall Lambe should be eaten with foure hearbes Our Saviour did never laugh Foure famous and renowned Warriors have shed teares The Emperor Adrian even amidst all his triumphs remembring the frailty of nature The Prophet David when he did heare of Absoloms death Iulius Caesar at Pompeys head Vespasian seeing the temple of Salomon on fire Xerxes seeing all his numerous Army before him We reade of Horses which have wept The Teare which is in the Abby Church of Vandome what it can be Weeping for the dead allowable provided it be not immoderate The matter 〈◊〉 our teares We laugh and weepe diveâ—sly for the selfe-same causes Neither they commendable who laugh alwayes nor they who mourne Difference betwixt factions and seditions Vproare of the Commons at Rome against the Patricians appeased by Menenius Agrippa Emulation and ambition in well doing is allowable Curiosity the Mother of mischief Our Schooles and Learned men not exempt from it What peace hath the most curious questions brought unto the Church but rather hath divided us all In Metaphysick we crossed to know if there be in nature any other production besides Creation and Generation Whether accidents be create or concreat If God may sustayne accidents without their substances to subsist in The actions of Gods will tend unto and
matter whereof the Heavens are composed with the confutation of various opinions of Philosophers concerning it Pag. 4 Sect. 2. Of the Starres their substance and splendor where also of the Sunnes place in the Firmament 8 Sect. 3. Of the Moone her light substance and power over all sublunary bodies 10 Sect. 4. Of the Element of Fire whether it be an Element or not and of its place 12 Sect. 5. A briefe Discourse of Meteors of their causes matter and differences Sect. 6. That the Earth and Waters make but one Globe which must bee the Center of the World Of the Seas saltnesse deepnesse flux and reflux why the Mediterrancan and Indian Seas have none Of Magellanes strait what maketh so violent tyde there seeing there is none in the Indian Sea from whence it floweth Of the Southerne Sea or Mare del Zur 18 Sect. 7. That the mountaines and valleyes dispersed over the earth hindreth not the compleatnesse of its roundnes Of burning mountaines and caves within the Earth 25 Sect. 8. Of time whether it be the producer or consumer of things Of the wisedome and sagacity of some Horses and Dogges How the Adamant is mollified of the Needle in the Sea Compas and the reason of its turning alwayes to the North. 28 Sect. 9. Of Fishes if they may be said to breathe seeing they lack pulmons Of flying fishes if such things may be c. which are the reasons of their possibility are deduced exemplified 34 Sect. 10. Of fishes and their generation How fowles are generated in the waters If gold can be made potable and of the matter of precious stones 40 Sect. 11. Of the Earth its circumference thicknesse and distance from the Sunne 43 A TABLE OF THE SECOND BOOKE OF METEORS Chapt. 1. THe definition of Meteors their matter substance place and cause 46 Chap. 2. Where Meteors are composed of Clouds where they are fashioned together with the solution of some questions concerning the middle Region 52 Chapt. 3. Of falling Starres Fleakes in the ayre and other such â—â—ery Meteors 55 Chapt. 4. Of Comets their matter forme nature and what way they portend evill to come 61 Chap. â— Of Râ—ine Dew Hâ—are-frost and their cause 69 Chap. 6. Of Snow its cause matter and nature 73 Chap. 7. Of Windes their true cause matter and nature c. 75 Chap. 8. Of Earth-quakes their cause and nature 79 Chap. 9. Of Thunder Lightning Haâ—le and certaine other secrets of Nature with their solution 82 Chap. 10. Of Rivers Fountaines and Springs their sources and causes 88 A TABLE OF THE Third Booke OF ARMIES AND BATTELS Sect. 1. THat greatest Armies have not alwayes carried away the victory the reason of it two examples of Semiramis and Xerxes 97 Sect. 2. Examples of Greeke Roman and Brittish Battels where the fewer number have overcome the greater 100 Sect. 3. Whether it bee requisite that Princes hazard their Persons in field or not of the encouragement that their presence giveth to the Souldiers When a King should venture to the field and what Lievtenants are to be deputed by him all exemplified 102 Sect. 4. Of the Romans prudencie and foresight in sending two Commanders abroad with their Armies and why the Grecians conjoyned two in their Embassies and of the danger of too strict Commissions 105 Sect. 5. Difference betweene Battels and Duels that Generals may refuse challenges with some passages betwixt Hannibal and Scipio in their warres 108 Sect. 6. That the exploits of our moderne Warriours have bin every way comparable to those of the Ancient with some examples to that effect 111 Sect. 7. The different betwixt the ancient manner of warfare and the moderne how farre the moderne engines of Warre exceede those of the ancient Greekes and Romans 113 Sect. 8. That the Ancients in their warres had greater opportunities to try their prowesse in battell than the modernes have 115 Sect. 9. The manner how the Greekes and Romans ordered their battels both by sea and by land the battels of Cannas and Trasimenes described 116 Sect. 10. A Maxime in Militarie discipline inferred to confirme Pompeys oversight at the battell of Pharsalia 119 Sect. 11. That the French what within their owne Countrey and abroad have fought more battels of late times than any other Nation and of their successe in them 120 Sect. 12. That Emulation amongst the Princes in France rather than Religion was the cause of the many Civill-warres there 122 A TREATISE OF DVELS and COMBATS Sect. 1. OF Combats by Champions for cleering of Queenes honours Combats betwixt Ladies betwixt Church-men and betwixt Iudges Combatants rewarded by Kings their spectators and S. Almachius kill'd for declaiming against Duels c. Sect. 2. A recitall of two memorable duels the one in France betwixt Monsieur de Creky and Don Philippin the other in Spaine betweene Pedro Torrello and Ieronimo Anca both of Arragon in the presence of Charles the fifth 129 Sect. 3. How Combats may be thought permissible the relation of a Combat betwixt Iarnacke and Chastigneray in the presence of King Henry the second of France citations of the Canon Law against Combats Examples of a Combate where the innocent was killed that the decision of all such questions whereupon Duels were permitted ought to be left to God 133 Sect. 4. Severall objections for the tolleration of Duels and Combats confuted Cajetans opinion of Duels wherein also the lawfulnesse of Battels is allowed 136 Sect. 5. Cajetans reason for referring the event of Battels to Monomachie where also is inserted the story of the Horatii and Curiatii 139 Sect. 6. That Kings and Generals of Armies for saving of the greater bloud-shed of their Souldiers have fought single for victories Examples of both A quarrell and challenge betwixt the Emperour Charles the fifth and Francis the first King of France how it tooke no effect 141 Sect. 7. A discourse of a combate where thirteene French Knights fought against so many Italians wherein the French were overcome and some observations thereupon 144 Sect. 8. A memorable Polymachie betwixt two kindreds in the High-lands of Scotland betwixt whom there had beene a long and mortall enmity for the totall extirpation of the one of them fought before Kiâ—g Robert the second at Perth in Scotland 147 Sect. 9. A combate appointed by two French Barons the one of Gasconie the other of Poictou which was taken up of their own accord in the field the end of this Title 149 A TREATISE OF DEATH And of divers Orders and Ceremonies of Burials Sect. 1. The remembrance of death requisite in all men Ceremonies for the remembrance of it some documents against the feare of it what death Iulius Caesar wished of Autocides of selfe-murtherers c. 153 Sect. 2. That Christians ought not to feare death as the Ethnicks did All things save man keepe their constant course The uncertainty of mans life 156 Sect. 3. In what reverence the interring of the dead was amongst the Ancients Of Alexander of Sylla How
two Swallowes make not the spring of the yeare But yet if so be the earth be so solid and massie as you say it is and that it admitteth no vacuitie How and whence proceede these terrible earth-quakes tremblings palpitations to the overwhelming of Cities shaking of Towers and steeples c. Answ. No question but as these are commonly prodigies and fore-runners of Gods wrath to bee inflicted upon the Land where they happen as may be seene in the second booke of the Kings chap. 22. Commota est contremuit terra quoniamiratus est Dominus So some way lacke not their owne naturall causes and they be chiefly comprehended in one for all and this is it that the earth is not unfitly compared unto a living mans body the rocks and stones whereof are his bones the brookes and rivers serpenting thorough it the veynes and sinewes conveying moistnesse from their fountaines unto all the members the hollow of our bowells and of the trunke of our bodies to the vast and spacious cavernes and caves within the body of this earth and yet these not hindering the massinesse of the earth for where earth is it is massie indeed within the which hollow of our bodyes our vitious windes are enclosed which if they have no vent presently they beget in us Iliak passions collicks c. whereby our whole body is cast into a distemper and disturbed even as the windes enclosed in these cavernes and hollow subterranean places preassing to have vent and not finding any making way to themselves do then beget these earth-quakes And of this opinion is Aristotle lib. 2. Meteor cap. 7. Sect. 8. Of time whether it bee the Producer or Consumer of things of the wisedome and Sagacity of some Horses and Dogges How the Adamant is Mollified of the needle in the Sea compas and the reason of its turning alwayes to the North. SEeing there is nothing more properly ours than time and seeing it is the eldest daughter of nature How is this that you Philosophers bereave us of our best inheritance saying that there no time at all in respect say you the time past is gone the future and time to come is not yet and the time present is ever glyding and running away yea and your Aristotle calleth it but a number of motions seeing then it consisteth but of parts not having a permanent being it cannot be said to be at all say you Answ. Our true Philosophers reason not so it is but our Sophists who by their insnaring captions doe cavil thus therfore take heed of the subdolousnesse of their proposition which is not universally true for admit that maxime might hold concerning the standing and not standing of a thing in its parts in subjects materiall essentiall and permanent yet it must not evert things of a fluid and successanean nature such as time is and whereas they say that the parts of time are not they mistake in so farre as time is to be measured by now which the Greekes doe terme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which ever existeth and by which indeed time is said properly to have existence Quest. What things hold you to be in Time or whether is Time the consumer or the producer of things Answ. To the first with Aristotle I understand onely such things to be in Time as are subiect to mutations changes risings and fallings such as are all naturall things below the Sphere of the Moone by which meanes things sempiternall wanting both beginning and ending whose diuturnity cannot be measured by time cannot fall under it 2. Ans. To the second whether Time be the producer or consumer of things I answer that as in the contravertible points of Philosophy our learned disagree amongst themselves so herein they agree not aright indeed Aristotle whom customably we all follow in his 8. Cap. lib. 4. Physicâ—â—n will have Time rather to be the cause of the ruine and decay of all things and that by vertue of its motion by which sublunary bodies are altered and corrupted rather than of their rising increase or growing And with him many of our Poets Tempus edax rerum tuque invidiosa vetust as Omnia conteritis and againe Omnia fert aetas animum quoque c. Tempora labuntur tacitisque senescimus annis Et fugiunt fraeno non remorante dies To which opinion of Aristotle Cardan adhereth calling Time the Author of life and death but as Iulius Scaliger hath refuted divers of his opinions in his exercitation 352. not without reason hath he confuted this also making Time to bee an accidentall cause of the decay of things for beside Time there must be causa agens which is the Law of Nature ingrafted in all things living moving creeping vegetating by which they tend to ruine as sinne in Man besides his naturall corruption is and must bee thought the Author of his death Now seeing your Philosophy admitteth no other difference betwixt Men and Beasts but the use of reason wherewith we are endued above them how wil you tearme those many reasonable things performed by Beasts wherof our Histories are full as that of Bucephalus of Alexander the Great who would suffer none to back him but his Master though never so artificially disguised in his apparell Iulius Caesar his Horse likewise who at his death was observed to fast so long is remarkeable and that of Nicomedes who because his Lord was killed in the field choosed rather to dye starving for hunger than to survive him Stories of the sagacity of Dogs bookes are fully replenished w th the example of one only shall suffice This Dog being with his Master when a Robber killed him for his purse and had flung him into a River that he might not be found againe did first leape into the River after his dead Master and then upon his shoulders bore up his head so long as any breath was remaining within him thereafter discerning him to be dead straight followes the rogue by his sent to the Citie finds him and incessantly barketh at him whithersoever he went while at length his Master being missed and the Rogue under suspicion of robbery and the Dogs violent pursuing the fellow drew the people into a jealousie of the murther whereupon the robber being called before a Iudge after due examination confessed the murther was condemned died for the fact Now I demand if these and the like doings of Beasts be not founded upon reason whereof we men brag as of a greater prerogative above them Answ. No wayes for we must distinguish betwixt actions of true reason such as ours are and these which are done by a naturall instinct or sensitive faculty of sagacity use and custome but most especially from that which is a neere tying bond even amongst the cruellest of Beasts a perpetuall resenting of a good turne received as is manifest in the example of the Lion who not onely saved the life of that
Earth is in how many dayes a man might compasse it about if by land it were all travellable or conjecturally to shaddow how great is the distance betwixt the Earth and the Firmament I referre you to the Title of Curiosity following for as I finde a discrepance amongst our most learned Writers in divers most important heads of their professsion So in this point also I finde them variable and disassenting for Elias Vineti commenting on Sacrobosk upon that Text giveth forth the Earths compasse to extend to above two hundred and fifty thousand stadia whereof every eight maketh up our Mile which shall farre exceed the most received opinion of our expertest Mathematicians who by their moderne Computations make the reckoning of its circumference but to amount to one and twenty thousand miles and six hundred that answerably to the three hundred and sixty degrees wherewith they have divided the great heavenly Circle and proportionably thereunto the Earth Yet pondering aright the discrepance and oddes which doth arise betwixt our learned Authors concerning the compasse of the Earths Globe wee shall perceive it to proceed from the great diversity of Miles in divers Nations every man understanding them to be the Miles of that Nation wherein hee liveth but speaking to our Natives of Britanne it is found by daily experience of Mathematicians that if a man goe 60. of our British Miles further to the North then I say visibly he shall perceive the Pole to rise a degree higher and the Equinoctiall to fall a degree lower whereby it is manifest that to one degree of the great Circle of heaven such as is the Meridian there answereth on earth 60. of our myles Now there being in every such great circle 360. degrees or equall parts multiplying 360. by 60 wee finde that they produce 21600. myles British for a line imagined to passe by the South and North Poles and so encompasse the earth would easily appeare to amount to the same computation As for the diametricall thicknesse of the earth the proportions of a circles circumference to its diameter or lyne crossing from one side to the other thorough the centre being somewhat more than the triple such as is the proportion of 22 to 7. called by Arithmeticians triple Sesquiseptima triple with a seaventh part more and seeing the circumference of the great circle of the earth is a little lesse than 22000 myles it followeth that the thicknesse or diameter of it from face to face is a little more than 7000. And consequently the halfe diameter viz. from the circumference to the centre neer about 3600 miles Now then suppose a man to travell under the equinoctiall or middle lyne of the earth betwixt the two poles making every day 15. of our British myles It is manifest that such a Traveller should compasse the whole circumference of the earth in three yeares 345 dayes some 20. dayes lesse than 4 yeares As for the distance of the earth from the firmament I dare not give you it for current yet in the Schooles thus they shadow it that the aires diametrical thicknesse is ten times above that of the waters the waters diameter ten times above that of the earth By the Aire I understand here all that vast interstice betwixt us and the Moone which if it be true counteth it selfe but because the distance betwixt the centre of the earth and the centre of the Sun is more particularly specified by our Astronomers therefore to give you further content thus much of it you shall understand that if you will remarke diligently and compare together the observations of Ptolomeus Albategnius and Allacen you shall finde that the aforesaid disstance betwixt the centre of the earth and that of the Sun containeth the earths Semidiameter 1110. times Now as I have said before the earths Semidiameter being somewhat lesse then 3500. we shall take it in a number to wit 3400. Which if you multiply by the aforesaid 1110. the product will shew you the whole distance betwixt the centre of the earth and the centre of the Sun to be 3774000. Three millions seaven hundred seaventie foure thousand myles likewise if from this number you substract 3400. myles for the earths Semidiameter from the centre to the superfice and 18700 myles which is the Suns halfe diameter according to the doctrine of the afore-named Astronomers there remaineth 3751900. myles as the distance betwixt the uppermost superfice of the earth which we tread upon and the neerest superfice of the Sunne which being the chiefe and middle of the planets may conjecturally shaddow forth the distance of the earth from the heavens OF VARIETIES THE SECOND BOOKE CONTEINING A DISCOVRSE OF METEORS As of Comets falling Starrs and other fiery impressions c. Of Winde Clouds Thunder Haile Snow Raine Deaw Earth-quakes with their true Naturall Causes and effects c. Of Rivers and Fountaines their Springs and Sources c. BY DAVID PERSON of Loughlands in SCOTLAND GENTLEMAN Et quae non prosunt singula multa juvant LONDON Printed by RICHARD Badger for Thomas Alchorn and are to be sold at his shop in Pauls Church-yard at the signe of the Greene Dragon 1635. To THE MOST REVEREND FATHER IN GOD PATRICK By the providence of God Archbishop of Glasgow Primate of Scotland and one of his Majesties most Honourable Privy Councell and Exchequer in that Kingdome c. My LORD TO whom can those two Pillars IACHIN and BOAS erected before Salomons Temple bee more properly applyed then to your Grace who both in Church and common-wealth have showne your selfe to bee the lively Hieroglyphick figured by them as your Memorable deeds in both can beare record to Posterity for with what vigor did your piety and zeale extend it selfe in suppressing vice and superstition in the Churches conâ—redited to your care and in establishing vertue and learning both there and elsewhere may appeare in the peoples harmonious Concord in Religion to Gods glory your eternall praise and their eternall comfort And as your Piety so have your Iustice and travells beene extraordinary in settling of the Church rents universally through the land repossessing every man of his owne tithes upon most competent considerations all which with your great gravity Munificence and other endowments fit for the accomplishment of so venerable a Prelate have heaped upon you both Gods blessings our Royall Soveraignes favour and the peoples love and reverence But least others should deeme that adulation which the mouth of verity would even extort from your enemies without further commendations of your Person I humbly recommend this booke to your Graces Patronage acknowledging the strong tyes I have to continue Your Graces most obsequious servant D. PERSON OF METEORS THE SECOND BOOKE CHAPTER 1. The definition of Meteors their Matter substance place and cause I Define Meteors to bee things above our sight in the ayre as the Etymology of the word importeth I divide them into dry and moist according
is the cause that the falling stars or other descending flames or flashes make no such noyse as the thunder doth seeing their matter and manner of composing is almost alike Answ. Because the cloud which throweth away and expelleth them invironeth not them in her belly as their clouds doe in which the matter of the thunder is for the thunder bursting thorough the cloud occasioneth the clappe Quest. Now if it be asked what meane these fiery inflammations which at some times in the night are seene either amongst our horse feet when we ryde or about their maines or sometimes like the glaunce of a candle light before a little above or about us The answer is that these dry exhalations as diverse other things are of severall degrees some elevated to the highest region others to the middle region and these which ascend no higher then this low region where we inhabit being composed of a more oleagenous or oyly substance doe inflame sooner than these of the middle region doe as being invironed with cold Or if it be asked Why see we not such inflammations in the day time as in the night No question but that then they are and more frequent then in the night but the greater light obfuscateth the lesser Or if it be asked What meane the rents and clefts as it were which we see in the firmament as if it were opened and hollowed in 〈◊〉 places That is nothing else but the vapors and exhalations carryed up to the ayre which are condensed and thickned together where by accident if in the midst of this condensation any part be more subtile or thinner then the extremities are that thinnest part appearing black and the two extremities coloured maketh people believe that it is an open gappe which indeed is not Quest. As to that question by what cause it hapneth that moanings mournfull voyces and sometimes also laughings are heard in the ayre I thinke the Meteorologians answer not so fully satisfactorie as theirs who treate of spirits whom I may well call Physiognosticks for the Albertists upon this place say that the cause is the multitude of exhalations extracted out of graves and other Subterranean places pressing upward thorough places not proportionable for them and being of themselves of a resolutive nature doe make noyses not unlike to those of men which in my conceit is ridiculous and yet such is their glosse upon the latine Text De die igitur sol proâ—ibet Answ. But I incline rather to their opinion who speaking of the nature of spirits say that these Cachinnations or laughings and weeping voyces which we heare are rather Aereall spirits which is handled more largely in my title of spirits where you may find all their orders and natures Now because the matter of comets is of greatest moment amongst all the Meteors I hasten to them CHAP. 4. Of Comets their matter forme nature and what way they portend evill to come COmets being of the number of Ignean and fiery Meteors No question they are composed of a like matter the difference being in the quantity of that matter more or lesse to wit dry clammie and hot exhalations in their framing being condensed and by reason of the motion of the superior bodyes in the fiery element beginning to kindle doe make these comets and thus they differ from the fiery Dragons and falling sttars for these Meteors once kindled by way of exustion and extrusion or projection are throwne downe suddenly and so vanish where on the other side the dry and hot exhalations whereof Thunder is composed by way of detrusion the cloud renting asunder in whose body it was enclosed doe presently vanish as lightnings their forerunners doe Now where the nature of comets must be such that neither the firy kindling of them may soone consume it by the greatnesse and violence of it neither must their matter be so weake and thinne that the fire may on a sudden overcome it but such as may endure at least for a little season both with the quality of the fire and the disposition of the matter condensed and thickned and yet so as the exustion or kindling of the matter and condensed exhalation beginning at end of it may ascend upward til it consume the whole extent of its rayes and beames upon the matter combustible in forme of a beard or long discheveld look of haire continuing so for a time from whence Cometa à Coma hayre hath its denomination Now the forme and shape of these exhalations is not ever after a like proportion or fashion that is alwayes long and broad so that the one end being kindled the other remaineth but enlightned like a beard from whence they are called Crinitae stellae or Barbatae Cometae bearded Comets For sometimes their figure wil be Spherick and round so that the fire taking these Spherick exhalations in the middest maketh the blazing beames which extend from the centre to the circumferences to looke like long hayre circled about a face or head Neither must it be thought that this haire or invironing beames are like to these which before a storme we see incompassing the Sunne but more frequently the Moone which Aristotle calleth Halae Halones for these Circles by us called broughes are a world of way remote from the bodies of the Sunne and Moone and in effect are but in the troubled Ayre with aboundance of exhalations and vapours thorow which the Sunne and Moones rayes making way to themselves do fashion these circles about them there Whereas these circles or long beards of the Comets aâ—e directly under yea sometime above the concave of the Moone and thence to the first Region of the Ayre they are conveyed with the Comets of that same matter of exhalation and nature although our moderne Astronomers now averting this Aristotelian opinion have found out some Comets place to bee above the Moone This being briefly spoken of the matter and forme of Comets it may be asked what course they have to which I answer first that the motion of Comets is common with that naturall course of the world for either it is from the Orient to the Occident or from the West to the East at times most frequently it declineth to the South and at other times to the North now high then low now seeming neere to the Earth then remote from it And if it be said how can Comets have so many different courses seeing a simple body can have no more but one motion of it selfe To this I say that as the Sphere of fire and the supreme Region of the Ayre by the heavenly motions are wheeled about from the Orient to the Occident thus the Comets exist above the first Region and so naturally with it they should keepe the same course in respect that conformably a thing placed must turne with the place in which it existeth So if this first Region by the rapidity of the Heavens be moved much more
aproaching the North Climat but afarre off and obliquely or side-wayes occasioning the cold of it and consequently of the winds blowne from thence Whereas more perpendicularly it glanceth on the other Meridian and Westerne parts by which means as the Earth is warmed so are the winds And if it be asked why in the height of Summer the Sun being in Cancer that then are fewest and lowest winds as in the extremity and cold of Winter there are few likewise as by experience may be seene To that may be answered That as in all things extremities are vicious even so in this matter for great heat and drought in Iune Iuly and August doe keepe back the winds and their matter as extremity of cold doth in December and Ianuary The Earth in that time of Summer being burnd up with scorching heate hindereth the winds to rise because the earth then is burningly dry wthout any mixture of moistnesse out of which drougth of the earth without some moistnesse no fumes can be exhaled So the Ayre clogged with cold thick heavie and lumpish clouds of raine and waters holdeth as it were the winds within their Precinct hindring them to blow then till the Ayre be disburdened of that load and doe give way to the winds to sport themselves in the spring recompensing their long captivity with licencious unbridled blasts Or to know how the wind bloweth is this First the exhalations whereof it is composed are carried from the Earth high up to the middle Region of the Ayre but so that when it is there it is encountered and repercussed tossed and moved with cold and condensed Ayre finally it is put aside from whence againe by violence it is throwne downe by the cold predominating in that Region so it striketh upon this lower Region of the aire in the descent of it not right and diametrically downe but slentingly which ayre againe beating the Earth by the superiour impulsion and the earths repelling it upward or back againe maketh it following the round circumference of the Ayre to blow about filling it with its noise As for the number of the winds what Countries be subject to such or such winds what maketh the Northerly winds to blow dry the Southerly moist I refer the first to Sea-men whose experience is surer than our contemplation the other are soone solved by a good Naturalist for the Sunne shining upon the South Countries more kindlie and hotter than upon the North maketh the winds conforme to the Ayre of the Countries hotter there than in the North and moister CHAP. 8. Of Earthquakes their cause and nature THIS question dependeth upon the knowledge of the former for the nature and matter of winds being well understood will cleere this the sooner I formerly said then that cold and dry exhalations by the force of the Sun elevated up in the Ayre and from thence by predominating cold beaten aside and from that through the Ayre downward to the Earth back againe whirling upon the face of it and round about through this lowest Region are the matter and nature of the winds which cold and dry exhalations I say are the matter of these winds which often times so lowdly blow upon the superfice of the Earth that not onely Ships on the Seas Trees in the Woods are overturned by their violence but likewise high Steeples and Towers are made to shake and tremble in such sort that even Bels have beene blowne out of the one the roofe of the other uncovered our fruits and cornes beaten downe to the terror and amazement of the beholders Even so dry and cold exhalations but these more grosse and not so Elementary as the first enclosed within the bowels and concavities of the Earth for Nature hath no vacuity and there converted into winds doe struggle and strive as it were to burst up through this earth to attaine to its owne right place which is upwards and that is the cause of this trembling and motion of the Earth which we call Earthquakes And because the Southerne Countries are hotter than the Northerne in respect of the Suns approach to them I meane in its perpendicular beholding of them they I say are consequently more apt to bee enflamed and so to be concaved and wasted within yea and to be more capable of the engendring and reception of these exhalations and winds and their effects therefore it is that these Countries are more subject to the motions and tremblings of the earth whereof their particular Histories afford us testimonies enough than the more Northerly are for they having grosser and lesse matter evaporated from them by the Sunnes heat doe admit lesse concavities and so fewer exhalations so then both winds and Earthquakes are of one selfesame matter and subject viz. of cold and dry exhalations wherof they are framed and they differ onely in this That the exhalations whereof the winds are doe rise more purified of the superfice of the earth and as we say in Schooles Ex Elemento superiori whereas the other more grosser are from below Et ex Elemento inferiori so that both in matter and motion they doe agree Neither is this called in question by Aristotle handling the same matter Lib. 3. Meteor Where his Commentator Albertus Coloniensis compareth this motion of the Earth by the power of these inclosed vapours in the bowels and cavernes of it to the motions and tremblings of our pulse by the Systole and Diastole of our spirits in and above our hearts and so within the cavity or hollownesse of our bodie And yet not content with this comparison he insisteth in the duration and continuance of the Earths motion saying that even as the tremblings wherewith our bodies are agitated during the fits of a Feaver doe continue so long as the faulty and peccant humour reigneth in our veines and accordingly diminisheth its proportion as the matter occasioning the feaver impaireth even so it is with this trembling of the earth having respect to the multitude of vapours and to their declining for the more these vapours are the Earthquake lasteth the longer and is more violent but when they spend and decline its violence and continuance is remitted I know now the Philosopher and Naturallist who admit nothing done in nature to bee otherwise than by naturall meanes will admit nothing beyond the reach of Nature when they are posed How is it then that commonly after Earthquakes Plagues Pestilences and death of Bestiall doe ensue To this they answer That the exhalations which causeth the Earths motion having burst up through the Earth infecteth our Ayre with the infective breath of it which it contracteth when it was incarcerated within the bowels and wast places of the said Earth Likewise they ascribe some such or not farre different reasons in their owne degree to the cause of evils which usually I wil not say ever befall after blazing Comets which although in effect they have their owne
probabilities yet they should not deprive our great Creator from the supernaturall working thereof who by such unusual and terrible Syncopes of nature would even foretell and have mortall men whom these prodigies admonish forewarned of some effects of his wrath to ensue to the effect that if they will amend and turne to their God by humiliation and repentance they may avert that evill threatned and prevent his judgments CHAP. 9. Of Thunder Lightning Haile and certaine other secrets of Nature with their solution AND first concerning Thunder Quest. What can bee the causes of the lightning and firefleakes which in Latine are termed Fulgura coruscationes either in the clouds themselves from whence Thunder proceeds or wavering in the ayre Whether or no the exhalations inclosed within the cloud from whence they doe proceede be the cause and occasion both of the Thunder it selfe it 's sound and of the coruscation and lightning also Answ. Yea but diversly and by it's owne course for first by the agitation and motion of it within the cloud it causeth the sound after this manner The dry exhalation whereof this sound thunder it selfe and lightnings are generated ascending upward in the vapour to the middle region of the aire is engrossed in a cloud through the coldnesse of the place so it is compacted and this exhalation coarcted within the belly of that thickned and condensed matter which dry or firy exhalation thus inclosed by Antiperistasis or contrariety by the environing cold in the outward body of the cloud striveth to get out and make way for it selfe at last with much reluctance overcomming the environing cold maketh that hideous and horrible noyse wherewith here on earth wee are so terrified that sometimes Women are strooke in such feare by it that they part with child So by that same agitation it kindleth too being of a combustible substance viz. of a dry terrestriall and inflamable matter which once kindled by Antiperistasis expelleth it selfe with violence through that cold thickned cloud but first in and about the cloud it maketh these flashes and coruscations spoken of before so in lightnings it disperseth it selfe here and there through the aire both clearing the cloud above and the aire beneath Now if it be asked What is the cause why we see sooner the lightning then we heare the thunder clap That is because our sight is both nobler and the eye is sooner perceptive of its object then our eare as being the more active part and priore to our hearing beside the visible species are more subtile and lesse corporeal then the audible species this being reall the former intentionall as the skilfull in Opticks know and this is the reason why likewise we see the flash ere we heare the noyse of discharged gunnes Question Againe being asked why fire being naturally light doth not rather ascend then descend Answ. To that as before Because it is extruded by violence from its abode Besides this it being accoupled to a matter contrary to its owne nature and that matter predominating viz. A dry terrestriall substance in which it existeth that I say this terrestriall matter tending downe-ward draweth the fire perforce with it which may be perceaved by a kindled charcoale throwne out of ones hand which carryeth the fire along with it Againe if it be expostulated what can be the cause of the admirable effects of this thunder at some times bruising the blade of a sword the sheath un-offended melting mony and gold in a pocket the pocket remaining entire and killing a Man and not harming his cloathes And what maketh things touched by it smell of sulphure and brimstone And to kill a man in such sort that the bolts shall bruise all his bones the flesh never a whit hurt nor by appearance touched and the like Thus much for answer The thunder which is expelled or extruded from blacke clouds is more violent and hath greater force than that which is ejaculated from the whiter clouds This thunder then by nature subtile and pearcing but much more purified in it's distent when it mixeth with the aire is far more subtilized And againe being by the fire and heate of the thunder repurged of all grossenesse it is made so purely spirituall that is pearceth suddenly and insensible as it were almost all porous bodyes and never exerciseth it's force till it finde resistance And hereby it appeareth plainely how the skin is as it were untouched when the bone is broken which may serve for all accidents in this kinde But when it onely toucheth the outward of things without any great hurt it betokens the weaknes and imbecillity of the matter And where commonly bodyes so thunder beaten doe smell of sulphure and brimstone the matter of Thunder giveth the reason for it is composed of dry and sulphureous exhalations as of the smoake of Sulphur-terrae by Naples of hot smoke in bathes and rocks there of Monte de Sommi of Aetna in Sicilie of the burning hills at Mexico in America of our Hecla in Island and such like chalkie lymie and sulphureous places so vapors elevated out of these and the like places must make thunder which is composed of them to savour of them Now to those who aske which is the place where thunder is procreated and begotten answere may be made from the grosse humidity having in it some terrestriall glutinous and viscous humor not easily separated from it that it existeth in which being thickned in a cloud in the highest part of the middle region whither they are elevated above all other clouds composed of other moist vapours from thence I say by the invironing cold by Antiperistasis or a stronger opposite part they are extended and throwne downe Qu. Again if any demand why blacke clouds are conjectured most to containe and send forth thunder bolts most fearefull I answer indeed as blacke clouds flashes and lightnings are little to be regarded in respect that the blacnesse of them argueth but little firy matter to bee within But contrarywayes that it aboundeth in waterish vapours So commonly after thunder great raines ensue the cloud being dissolved and the fire expelled But indeed if the lightning bee not much to be feared of such a blacke cloud yet the thunder bolt of it is terrible as being violently expelled by the predominating cold even as the great charge of a Cannon enforceth the bullets flight and causeth the roaring noyse of it Of reddish or whitish coloured clouds the bolt is but weake in regard of the rarity and paucity of cold vapours to expell it but the flashes and lightning will be found dreadfull in respect of the abundance of exhalations wherewith after their owne colour the cloud is dyed But leaving these fiery and hot Meteors we betake us againe unto the moyst and watery ones as more consonant and frequent to our climate First if it bee asked whether our moyst Meteors such as snow haile and raine
have one common matter whereof they are generated and if they have one what can be the cause of their different shapes and formes for we see the snow broad and soft contrarieways haile round and hard No question but one matter is common to all viz. Waters from which by vapours they are elevated to the aire and in which they are dissolved againe but the difference standeth here That the neerest matter to say so of snow is vapours congealed in a cloud which hath in it a great mixture of aire by which meanes being some way heated when the snow dissolveth you see it holdeth open and soft by reason of that aire whereas haile hath no airy substance in it and thus qualified by experience that we see haile fall downe on a suddaine and ofttimes with violence because of the terrestriall heavinesse of it whereas snow falleth but leasurely The reason why haile is round may be this because falling down from the middle region where it is congealed by the way it reencountereth with some circular and round drop of raine or water which accordingly by the rolling about of the haile it selfe becommeth hard likewise more especially as not having any hot place but the cold aire to fall through till it light on our lowest region which accidentally hot for the time you see maketh them immediately after their lighting upon the earth to dissolve quickly or at least not long after And as these two are formed in the highest of the middle regions and for the extreame cold which is there are congealed so on the other side because the clouds from whence raine issueth doe not ascend so high therefore they dissolve in drops before they can be congealed And so by degrees dew and Hoar-frost because they are not mounted so high as the matter and clouds of raine Therefore they fall sooner and softlyer then raine doth so one matter is common mother unto all of them but the degrees of their elevation in the aire maketh their differences the haile higher then the Snow the Snow then the Raine the Raine then the Hoar-frost mildew or dew is CHAP 10. Of Rivers Fountaines and Springs their sources and causes THere ariseth a question here not unworthy of our consideration Whether the Springs and Rivers in and on the earth have their originall from the waters of the Sea by subterranean conduits or from the waters on the superfice of the earth which is caused by raine or finally from the huge and unmeasurable caverns and hollow places of the earth in whose bowells are monstrous lakes pooles and other standing waters created of the ayre therein enclosed which not having any vent to ascend upward but being condensed there dissolveth it selfe into these waters Now before we enter into the solution of this question we must understand that when I speake of the vast and endlesse caves like valleys within the bowels of the earth wherein waters are that it is no invention of mine own for Seneca with him Aristotle in his Meteorologicks in the 19 booke of his naturall questions instanceth it saying Quid miraris saith he si distructos terra non sentiat cum adjectos mare non sentit And againe Quemad modum supra nos imbres it a infra nos fluvios aer facit supra autem nos diu segnis aer stare non potest qui aut sole atteâ—uatur aut vento expâ—nditur sub terra autem quod aerem in aquam vertit idem semper est scilicet umbra aeterna frigus perenne in excitato densitas quae semper materiam fontibus fluminibusque praebebunt and so forth all which hee confirmeth in that same place by authority of Theophrast whom hee bringeth in saying That since the Earth hath swallowed Townes Cities and houses who can doubt but that there are within her bowels Brookes Caves Dens and Valleyes which seeing they cannot be empty must of necessity bee full of waters Seeing then all things are composed of all the Elements as of their common causes For water is a thickned ayre and the Ayre againe a rarified water How then can these subterranean hollow places but be full of waters since the Earth doth dissolve in waters to fil them up For the earth being delved or digged but a very few footsteps downe water doth straight appeare earth and water being of as great affinity as ayre and waters are howbeit Zeno and others doe contradict this opinion saying That the Earth is a massie solid and homogenean body I say that absolutely the Sea as a common Mother to all waters is she from whence all Rivers and Springs have their source but yet not so wholly but that they may be augmented by raine and water as wee see by experience that after huge raines both Fountaines and rivers doe accreasse And if it bee asked how water being of its owne nature heavie can leave its owne element and centre and bee conveighed to the tops of Mountaines and high places as may bee daily seene almost every where To this first I say that the Sea being some way higher than the Earth most easily by its owne conduits and channels it may make passage unto it selfe as through so many veines Besides this the vapours which the Suns heat and the power of some other Planets raiseth from the waters even under the earth are not ever exhaled and carried aloft to the Ayre but sometimes are even retained for a long time in solid places of the innermost parts of the earth where gathering themselves into the concavities thereof they boile upward by the force of the said agitation as a pot upon the fire by the force of an under heare so these waters bubling up through the earth cause our fountaines which running downeward againe to the Valleys and Plaines doe make our Brookes Rivers and Springs And of this opinion is venerable Albertus Coloniensis commenting Aristotle upon this question Dubio nono decimo Or it may be said that the caverns and concavities of the earth being filled up with waters which distill from the want of the caved earth above are procured by the grosse Ayre there inclosed and converted into waters which issuing out of the rarer or voider parts of the Earth above do occasion these Springs Rivers and Brookes If it be demanded if steepe Mountaines do not retribute and send downe waters to feed our Springs and Rivers there is no question for in their concavities of certaine there are treasures of waters which bursting out at their lower parts doe yeeld plenty enough to bedew the lower Countries not that these waters are gathered there by raines which fall for raine-waters penetrate not so deepe into the earth but rather that the Mountaines themselves being spongeous doe attract and draw together their whole dissolved waterish matter to the frontiers and concavities from whence surging and breaking-forth through orifices they grow into springs brooks and sometimes rivers
I may say and impious to be propounded And it is great presumption for mortall men to reduce under the precinct of humane sciences those things the knowledge of which GOD out of His infinite wisedome hath thought fit not to impart to mortalls For as God is above nature so worketh He after His owne will either supernaturally or else by some secret power of Nature unknowne to us To which point the most subtile of all the Ancient Philosophers some times were driven And yet these great spirits who could not content themselves but w th the speculation of such things as fell not under the reach and capacity of the weaker and meaner sort did sometimes in the meaner subjects stumble most miserably So while they ranne above the heavens roaving and tormenting themselves with their numbers matter force motions sounding depths and centre yea and turning the circumference of the earth overskimming the Seas saluting the Antipodes and bringing novells from their Courts and of their Caballs dreaming with themselves as Archimedes did that they might remove the Globe of the universe out of its owne place and turne it about if they had whereon and wherein to fixe their machins they in the end I say doe stumble and fall in grosse absurdities like those men who peradventure having sailed the better part of their lives upon the stormy Ocean and past her greatest dangers may neverthelesse at last be drowned in a little Brooke Medium tenuere Beati Section 10. An inducement to the studie and search of the secrets of Nature Of the Needle in the Sea compasse Of the inundations of the River of Nilus And from whence it hath its sourse and beginning Of the severall dispositions of men Why continuall burning hills and Mountaines doe not diminish c. BVt on what more fertill and spacious a field can curious Spirits extend and expatiate the wings of their fancies then the discovery and searching out of the secrets of Nature as in those things which are obvious to our outward senses leaving those contemplative mysteries afore spoken of to the omniscious Author of them for when mans curiosity hath reached or rather dived into the depth of the secrets of the heavenly bodies and their changes then the Creator to checke as it were their curiosities and presumption altereth that orderly course that they presumed to have gathered thereby which made Dionysius Areopagita seeing the Sunne Ecclipsed at full Moone when our LORD and SAVIOUR suffered contrary to their Astronomicall position to cry out that either the God of Nature suffered at that time or the course of Nature was inverted or the Machine of the universe was to dissolve with other the like examples knowne to all that are versed in the Scripture Now to speake a little more of the incertainty of these curiosities Mercator and other more moderne Geographers hold that the needle in the compasse doth vary more or lesse from the Pole as the place of observation is more or lesse distant from the Azorick Meridian from whence it hath its longitude Whereas the more ancient tooke its longitude to be from the Canaries Meridian Some againe as Herodotus will the River of Nilus to take its source and beginning from the forked top of the Mountaine Sienna in Ethiopia from whence saith he doe surge two admirable Currents one towards the South and Ethiopia the other toward the North and Aegypt I call these currents admirable because the Whirlepooles and bublings in these waters are so great violent and absorping that though a Boate were there tyde with most strong Cables yet they would suck it in and ingurgitate it Others will have its inundations and Increment to issue from the hills of the Moone in Arabia A montibus lunae Arabia-Australis whereupon such abundance of Snow falleth that it liquifying and melting runneth so abundantly and violently downe that it procureth these wonderfull inundations Plinius againe if Sabell mistake not lib. 3. Eneid 1. maketh its source and deboarding to flow from Affrick crossing Media as the Danube doth Europe Or else from Mauritania the lesser instancing for possibility that the melted snow discending from thence causeth the overflowings in Aegypt from whence say they serpenting and gliding through a vast tract of ground in the bowels of the earth that striving as it were to be refreshed with new aire it bursteth out in Mauritania Caesariensi where it runneth the space of twenty dayes journey againe under ground from whence it issueth againe and plentifully stretcheth it selfe through Ethiopia with many meandres and turnings and separateth Aegypt from the rest of Africk where finally through most rockie Precipitious and Declivous Mountaines with most hideous rumbling and terrible noyse it casteth it selfe down where the Catadupae dwell and running through Aegypt disburdeneth it selfe into the Mediterranean Sea Others againe not without great contradiction doe variously picture out the severall dispositions of men according to their severall Countryes whereof read Bodinus in his sixth Chapter lib. 5. of his Republick where he saith that those who are borne towards the South are more humane ingenious and affable then those towards the North with severall other distinctions which hee setteth downe in that Chapter Some too give the reason why so many great hills in severall places of the earth doe incessantly burne without great diminution of the earth or their greatnesse to be because the Sea winding it selfe in by secret Conduits doth continually arrouse or water the Sulphureous vaine which subministrates fewell to their flame as the endlesnesse of the combustible matter is the cause of the not diminishing of the earth with many of the like as may bee read in severall authors Wherefore thus much for the contemplative and coniecturall curiosity Now to the Practick Section 11. Of Christopher Columbus his Practicall Curiosity in his discovery of the new World or America NOw lastly to conclude this treatise with Practicall curiosity instead of many I will onely touch that so fortunate and so much famed one of Columbus in the discovery of America He was an Italian borne in Genoa whose most pregnant curious and searching wit farre excelled all that ever were before him in the like attempts This worthy Columbus I say imagining that since the Globe of the universe the celestiall Spheares Aire Waters and all superior bodies were round concluded with himselfe that the earth could not bee triangular as in a manner it then was when hee knew no other lands but Europe Africk Asia but circular and round also as the rest of the Elements and so consequently that there behooved to be some vaste tract of land yet unknowne which should extend it selfe from South West to North West Which conception of his he thus fortified That seeing of three hundred and sixty degrees which the world containeth in longitude there being onely one hundred eighty filled up with land that the Almighty Creator would not have
monuments of his workes shall find that not without reason hee hath beene so styled for all other sects of Philosophers have but like men in Cimmerian darkenesse gropingly stumbled now and then upon the nature of the true God-head and every nation in those dayes had their severall and those strangely imaginarie Gods distinguished in so many rankes imployed in so many businesses appointed to so many different and sometime base offices that their number in fine became almost innumerable In the meane time this man soaring above them al hath more neerly jumped with our beliefe touching the God-head In so farre that Amuleus that great Doctor in Porphyre his Schooles having read Saint Iohn the Evangelist his proeme was strooke with silence and admiration as ravished with his words but at length burst out in these termes by Iupiter saith he so thinketh a Barbarian meaning Plato that in the beginning the word was with God that it is this great God by whom all things were made and created Now that this is true This much I find in his Parmenides concerning the nature of the God-head That there are three things to bee established concerning the maker of all which three must be coeternal viz. That he is good that he hath a minde or understanding and that he is the life of the world Section 2. Of Gods Creating and conserving of all things in an orderly order Plato's Reasons that the world hath a life Aristotles opinion of God hee is praysed and at his dying preferred before many doubtfull Christians THis King or father of all which is above all nature immoveable yet moving all hath in him an exuberant and overflowing goodnesse From the Father and goodnesse the minde or understanding proceedeth as from the inbred light of the Sun commeth a certaine splendor which minde is the divine or Fathers Intelligence and the first borne Son of goodnesse From this minde the life of the world floweth a certaine brightnesse as from light which breatheth over all distributeth yeeldeth and conteyneth all things in life So that the world which consisteth of foure principles or elements comprehended within the compasse of the heavens is but a body whose partes as the members of a living creature cohering and linked together are moved and doe draw breath by benefit of this life or spirit as he thinks This Virgil in his sixth of the Aeneids aymed at when he saith Principio coelum terras camposque liquentes Lucentemque globum lunae Titaniaque astra Spiritus intus alit totamque infusa per artus Mens agitat molem magno se corpore miscet By his opinion here as all animalls and living creatures doe live every one by their owne life so the world as of greater dignity then any of the rest hath a more noble life whereby it moveth then they And in effect many pithy reasons he produceth both in his Epimenides in Timaeo and in the 10. Booke of his Lawes to prove the world to bee an animall both from the constant and perpetuall course of the heavens from that naturall heat of the Sun seeing the Sun and man ingender man to which as to all the Starres he attributeth a soule by which they live but so that as they are of a delicate and transparent body so live they a most blessed life yet not that they are moved with an other life then the whole world is For as in the body of man the soule whereby our sinewes bones flesh bloud and all are moved is one and the same notwithstanding all the members be not alike vivificated so is it there For what reason is there saith he that man who is called a little world and encompassed of the foure elements as well as the great world is should be said to live and in the meane time to deprive the greater one of life Seeing the motion of the heavens and of her lights the moving of the Seas the seasons of the yeare all keepe their equall and constant courses Alwayes as Plato here before setleth a Trinity in the God-head the Father the minde or mens which is the Son and the life of the world flowing from them as the Spirit and as brightnesse from light So in his Timaeo he avoucheth that there is in the heavens one certaine Ens which is ever alike unto it selfe without beginning or ending which neither needeth nor taketh helpe of any which can neither be seene by mortall eye nor yet perceived by any mortall sense but onely to be contemplated by our minde and understanding So Aristotle in his Metaphysicks and in his workes De mundo esteemeth this Ens sempiternall unmeasurable incorporeall and individuall not resting in this habitable world but above it in a sublime one unchangeable not subject unto any passion or affection who as hee hath of himselfe a most blessed and perfect life so without errour may it be said of him that he giveth life unto all other things below and it is to be observed that as in his writings hee acknowledged this God so in his dying-houre he made his writings and words jumpe together Which is so much the rather to be remarked because whereas many Christians did professe a sort of religion in their life-time which on their death-beds they did disclaime yet this man as he acknowledged God in his writings so dying he recommended his soule unto him in these words Ens entium miserere mei And particularly in his Booke of the Heavens the 9. cap. as is cleere there saith he without the outmost heavens there is no place vacuity or end because those that are there are not apt or meet to bee in place neither yet maketh time them any older nor are they subject to change or alteration being exexempted from all passion affection or change they leade a most blessed and eternall life And in the 12. of his Metaphysicks cap. 7. but more especially cap. 10. De unitate primi motoris In God saith he is age and life eternall and continuall which is God himselfe Section 3. Platos opinion concerning the Creation of the world seconded by Socrates and Antisthenes Opinions of Plato Aristotle and other Philosophers confirming God onely to be the Creator of all things AS the Philosophers doe agree with us herein and in sundry other places about the nature of God so doe they likewise that this God made the world and all that is in it governeth it and sustaineth it And first Plato in Timaeo if saith he this world be created and begotten it must necessarily be by some preceding cause which cause must be eternall and be gotten of none other Now what this cause is in his Epimenides thus he expresseth I saith he there maintaine God to be the cause of all things neither can it be other wayes And in that dispute which is betwixt Socrates and his friend Crito let us not be solicitous what the people esteeme of us but what hee thinketh who knoweth
equity from iniquity who is above and the only verity who cannot be knowne nor pourtrayed by any image or representation saith he because no eye hath or can see him who whilest hee moveth all things yet abideth unmoveable who is knowne to be mighty and powerfull and who is onely knowne by his workes to be the Creator of this world as Socrates so his disciple Antisthenes acknowledged this yea Plato in Epimenide maintaineth these Gods to know all things to heare and see them then that nothing escapeth their knowledge whatsoever mortall things they be that live or breathe And Aristotle in his booke De mundo proveth that all things which it comprehendeth are conserved by God that he is the perfecter of all things that are here on earth not wearied saith hee like man but by his endlesse vertue indefatigable By all which we may discerne that hee acknowledgeth I may say religiously this visible world and all things therein to be created of God as in the 2 Book and 10. chap. of his Worke of generation and corruption at large appeareth To which authorities we may adde these of Galenus lib. 2. De foetu formando and of Plato Deum opificem rectorem nostri esse and that of Aristotle Deum cum genitorem tum conservatorem nostri esse quorum principium medium finem continet Of Theophrast Divinum quiddam omnium principium cujus beneficio sint permaneant universa Of Theodoret Deus ut Creator naturae sic conservator non enim quam fecit naviculam destituet but chiefly Galen Eum qui corpus nostrum finxit quicunqueis fuerit adhuc in confâ—rmatis particulis manere Now although in these particulars they agree both with us and amongst themselves yet in one point as may be seene in the subsequent section they differ Sect. 4. Opinions of Plato Aristotle and some Hebrewes concerning the worlds eternity The consonancy of opinions betwixt some ancient Philosophers and Moses about the worlds creation ARistotle would conclude the eternity of the world saying that as it had being from before all beginning so that it should never have an end to which opinions some of the Hebrewes particularly Leo the Thesbite seeme to assent so far howbeit they speake not of the ever durancie of it that after six thousand yeeres expired they understand it shall rest one thousand which then ended it shall begin of new againe and last other seven And so by course last and rest till the revolution of that great jubile of seven times seven be out runne At which time then this elementary world and nature the mother of all things shall cease To which opinion some way Origen in his worke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quod mundus cum tempore coeperit did incline Yet for all this I say Plato in his Timaeo speaking of the procreation of the world and of the vertues of the heavens proved that the world had a beginning and consequently that it shall have an end And that this is true saith he it is aspectable and may bee seene it may be handled it hath a body whence followeth that it hath beene begotten and seeing it is begotten it must bee by some preceding cause Now saith hee as it is a great worke to search out this causer of it so by our enquiry having found him to divulge him unto the vulgar is not altogether convenient Further he saith that God willing to beautifie this world as his chiefe worke made it a living creature subject to our sight containing within the inclosure of it all other living creatures according unto their severall species and kindes whereas he approcheth neerer the minde and sense of our profession than his fellow Aristotle so directly in his Timaeo he maintaineth that as God created or begat the world so he infused in it a procreative power which by divine or heavenly heate induced from above might propagate and procreate every thing according unto the owne kinde of it whether living or vegetable whether above or below And as the great Prophet and servant of God Moses bringeth in God speaking unto his creatures after their creation was finished Increase and multiply c. So Plato in his Timaeo bringeth in God speaking of the world and all contained therein in these words All ye who are created by mee give eare to what I am to say I will give you seed and a beginning of being wherefore doe ye for your parts beget and bring to light living creatures after your kinds augment and nourish them with food and when they shall cease to be let the earth receive them back againe from whence they came And to this Aristotle in his 2 Book De generatione corruptione cap. 10. giveth way where preferring in that place generation unto corruption hee saith that it is more worthy to be then not to be seeing properly to be appertaineth onely unto God and not unto creatures After the fabrick of the universe was accomplished it should have beene for no purpose if creatures had beene wanting in it therefore lest God should seeme to have forgot it he infused in every one according unto their owne kind a procreative power by which the generation of things might be perpetuated But how did he this saith hee First generally having spread abroad in the Heavens and Starres his divine seed for they claime a part in our generation Then particularly in every thing the owne proper seed of it all which he avoucheth in the 12. Booke of his Metaphysicks cap. 7. Section 5. Ancient Philosophers attributed the framing and continuance of all sublunary Creatures as we Christians doe unto God with a recapitulation of severall consonancies betwixt us and them IN which places and severall others of their workes as these worthy men have ascribed the cause of the being of all things unto God contrary to the opinion of these other frivolous preceding Philosophers who imputed the cause of it unto the concourse of Atomes So ascribe they the government of all these sublunary things unto the powers above with us Christians and not unto chance or fortune as these former Philosophers did Thus Aristotle in the first of his Meteorologicks It is necessary saith he that this whole world which environeth the earth should be continuated with the superior conversions or revolutions of those celestiall circles and bodies which roll and wheele above because the whole vertue of it dependeth from thence Neither is it probable that he who hath created the world and all that is within it should abandon and leave it so but that as the frame of the fabricke was his so likewise the guiding and ruling of it should be ascribed unto him also Which is more cleerely exprest by the said Aristotle in his booke De mundo Where he saith that it is an old saying and left by tradition from our forefathers that all things both are of God and likewise sustained by him and that there is
of Thirois and his two Sonnes ALL motion tendeth to and endeth in rest except that of the Heavens Which in a perennall rotation wheeleth ever about Wherefore men beasts Fowle Fishes after the dayes travell doe covet and betake themselves to rest as it is in the Poet. Nox erat placidum carpebant fessa soporem Corpora per terras syluaeque saua quierunt Aequora cum medio volvuntur sider a lapsu Cum tacet omnis ager pecudes pictaeque volucres Et corda oblita laborum c. Captabant placidi tranquilla oblivia somni This sleepe is so necessary to the life of man that for want of it many have dyed as Perseus King of Macedon who being prisoner in Rome and for torture being kept from sleepe there dyed Causes of sleep are two fold Primary and secondary The true Primary Philosophicall and immediate cause of sleepe may be said to be this the heart the fountaine and seat of life having much adoe to furnish every part of the body with the streames of vitall spirits hath most adoe to furnish the braines which are the greatest wasters of them in regard of the many and ample employments it hath for them as for Pensing Projecting consulting reasoning hearing seeing and so forth which functions of the braine doe so exhaust the animall spirits sent up thither per venas carotides through the veines organs after by circulation in that admirable Rete or net of the braine they are there setled that of all necessity either our life in the heart behooveth to cease or it must betake it selfe to rest againe for the recollection and drawing backe of her spent vitall spirits to refurnish the braines with a new recrew of them Secondary causes of sleepe are divers as excessive labour agitation of the body repletion as by excesse of meates or drinkes inanition as by Copulation and many more of this kinde which doe so waste the spirits that of necessity there behooveth a cessation to be for a time that new spirits may be recollected for refreshing of it Ausonius wittily chiding his servants lasie drowsinesse imputes it to excesse of meate and drinke Dormiunt glires hiemem Perennem At cibo parcunt tibi causa somni est Multa quod potes nimiaque tendas Mole saginam Adde to these causes the tranquillity of a sound Conscience Whereupon it was that the two Sons of Thirois mentioned by Quintilian upon most reasonable judgement were quitted from the murther of their Father who was found in that same Chamber with them alone and they both in a sound sleepe the murtherer perchance having fled away for it was reasoned no men guilty of so heynous a crime as Patricide could sleepe so soundly as they were found to doe by the discoverers of their murdered Father But leaving examples of this or the former causes whereof every where are plenty I proceed Section 2. Examples of Kings and great Commanders that upon the thoughtfulnesse of some great exploite or encounter have beene extraordinarily surprized with unusuall sleepe and the resons thereof agitated VVE reade that great men and Commanders upon the most important poynt of their exploytes and affaires have sometime fallen in so deepe sleepes that their servants and followers have had much adoe to get them to awake the like formerly being never perceaved in them Iustinus and Quintus Curtius in the life of Alexander the great relate of him That in the morning of that day appoynted for that memorable battell betwixt him and Darius he fell in so deepe a sleepe and slept so long that on the very shock of the battell very hardly could his favorite Parmenio after two or three tryalls get him to awake It is agreed upon that hotter constitutions are least subject to sleepe and all his actions and proceedings marke him out to be such an one so it could not be his constitution that brought that sleepinesse on him but he being then in hazard either to loose or conquer a field whereby both his Crowne Countrey and reputation lay at the stake motives to keep a man awake had so no question toyled his minde and body in the right preparing and ordering of all things befitting a man of his place for the encounter that being at a resolution he gave himselfe to sleepe which his former thoughtfulnesse and paines did augment upon him and not as some would have it the terror of his enemies forces as Marcus Anthonius objected to Augustus in that Navall combat against Pompey in Sicilie that he had not courage enough to behold the order of the battell for indeed he fell asleepe and slept so long till the Victory was his which he knew not of till Agrippa with much adoe had awaked him But indeed I construe both their courages rather to have beene so great as their former and succeeding actions may witnesse that they disdayned that the appâ—â—hension of such hazards or accidents as might ensue so great encounters should any way startle them from giving way to their owne inclinations whether to sleepe or wake or doe or not doe this or that Section 3. Alexander the great his sound sleeping when hee should have encountred Darius in battell heere excused Catoes sleeping before his death whereupon is inferred a discourse against selfe-Murder BVt laying all these excuses aside I cannot much marvell at this sleeping of Alexander he being so young in the flower of his age and so more subject to sleepe besides being so puffed up with the fortunate successes of his affaires which made him have so high a conceit of himselfe as to whom sayth one fortune gave up townes captive and to whose pillow whilest he slept victories were brought as I must admire that strange sleepe of Cato who after Caesars Conquest of the field at Pharsalia despairing of the liberty of his enslaved Countrey resolved to kill himselfe rather then behold the ensuing alteration which Caesars government would bring with it He then I say having put all his domestick affaires in order expecting newes of the departure of his Colleagues from the Port of Vtica fell in so sound a sleepe that his servants in the next roome overheard him to snort extreamly yet after that sleepe which as it should seeme would have opened the eyes of any mans reason and understanding so farre as not onely to abhorre his first so ill-sett resolution but totally to extirpate a future thought of so damned an intention he awaked so strongly confirmed in his former intent that forthwith he stabbed himselfe And sleepe is sayd to mollifie and mitigate fury or rage in any mans minde Praeter Catonis invictum animum Now though this man whom his many other excellent vertues had made famous and many other worthy men amongst the ancients did imagine for the like deathes to be highly commended for courage yet Saint Augustine and with him every good Christian reputeth it rather to be an infallible
as Suarez noteth writing upon this place in his Index locupletissimus in Phisicam lib. 12. cap. 7. yea he seemeth to have beene ravished with the sweetnesse of this heavenly contemplation It is no wonder that Davâ—d in the 104 Psalme vers 34. said My meditation of him that is of God shall be sweete aud â— wâ—ll bee glad in the Lord. For if Aristotle found such sweetnesse in the contemplation of God as hee is Pater mund or Pater entium what sweetnesse yea what heavenly what ravishing joy may a man living within the Church have in the contemplation of God as he is Pater Ecclesiae and Pater misericordiarum 2 Cor. 1. 3. SECT 7. The secoâ—d Respect for the dignity That the consideration of the soule of man belongeth to the Metaphysicks with severall Reasons for the proofe thereof THere are some who thinke that not onely the contemplation of God and of the Angels doe belong unto the Metaphysicks but also the contemplation De anima humana seu rationali and that because it is a spirituall or immateriall substance Suarez in the first Tome of his Metaphysicks Disput. 1. Sect. 2. Parag. 18. most justly condemneth this opinion and that 1. because consideratio totius consideratio partium ejus ad unam eandem scientiam pertinet Now the consideration of man himselfe belongeth not to Metaphysick but to Physick and therefore the consideration of the soule of man which is a part of man belongeth also to Physick or naturall Philosophy 2. Albeit the soule of man be an immateriall substance in it selfe and although in the reall beeing of it it hath not a necessary dependencie from bodily matter yet God hath appointed that the ordinary and naturall existence or beeing of it as also the operation of it should be in materia corporea It is farre more probable that which is affirmed by Ruvins and Conimbricenses in the Frontispiece of their Treaties de anima separata à corpore and in their first questio prooemialis before their disputes de anima that the consideration of the beeing and operation of the soule in statu separationis à corpore after death untill the day of the generall resurrection doth belong not to Physick but in some respects to Theologie and in other respects to Metaphysick For the handling of these questions An status separationis à corpore sit animae rationali naturalis an anima à corpore separata habeat naturalem appetitum redeundi ad corpus an anima separata specie ab Angelis differat quas facultates seu potentias quas species intelligibiles quos habitus quem modum cognoscendi habeat anima separata à corpore the handling I say of these questions doth belong properly to Metaphysick neverthelesse these same Authors whom I have now cited as also Suarez in the place already spoken of affirme that the Tractatus de anima separata may most commodiously be added to the Bookes de anima not as a proper part of the Science de anima but as an Appendiâ— to it SECT 8. The third Respect for the Vsefulnesse Of the great use Metaphysick is towards the furthering of all Divines in Controversies and other things A Conclusion THirdly and lastly this Science exceedeth all the rest indignity in respect of the great use it hath in all other Sciences and Arts especially in Theology it selfe I neede not to insist in the confirmation of this for it is very well known that by the grounds of Metaphysick wee may demonstrate against Atheists that there is a God against Pagans that this God is one against Cerdon Marcion and the Manichaean Hereticks that there are not duo principia but unum summum primum principium against the Stoickes that there is not such a fatall necessity in all events as they dreamed of against that damnable and detestable Heretick Conradus Vorstius that Deus est infinitus immensus indivisibilis simplex totus in qualibet re in qua est aeternus quoad substantiam suam quoad ejus decret a immutabilis omnium accidentium expers for that wretched and madde Doctor denied all these things In many other Questions and Controversies which the Church hath against Hereticks ancient and moderne there is great use of Metaphysick But I feare to weary the Reader with these Generalls For I intend hereafter God willing to put forth a small Treatise of Metaphysicks wherein you shall finde that noble Science more perspicuously delineated FINIS The praise of Philosophy Effects of Philosophy Vses and ends of Philosophy Of Logick Of Metaphysicks Of Mathematicks The Authors Apologie Questions concerning the World The way how these questions are propounded Diverse opinions of the heavens substance What is the true matter substance of the firmament The earth rolled about with the heavens What is the substance of the stars What maketh them so cleare The Sun placed amiddest the Planets why What light the Moone thineth with what signifieth the black spots in the face of the Moone The Moones power over sublunarie bodies Reasons that there is not an lement of fire Comparison of a Mirrour to variety Why Commets are seene and not the Element of fire Knowledge of Meteors fit for men of spirit The remotest cause of Meteors The neerest cause Their remotest matter Matter and cause of the moist Meteors Difference betwixt fumes and vapours Great differences of the Meteors What are our S. Anthonies fires The earth and waters not seâ—cred like the other elements but linked together Quest. Why the waters are not about the earth Quest. Quest. Why lakes and running flouds are not salt Why some fountaines savour of brasse or salt c. Quest. Of the Seas ebbing and flowing Why the Mediterranean West-Indian Seas have no flux or reflux Of Magellanes Strait what maketh so violent a tyde there Why the Mare Del Zur hath flux and not the neighbouring Sea Why Lakes Rivers ebbe not nor flow not Why the Sea wâ—xes never more nor lesse for all the waters runne to and from it Quest. If the Seas be fresh some fathomes below he superfice The probability that certaine Seas may be fresh low Quest. Reason for the burning hiâ—ls which are in divers Countries The true cause of earth-quakes The comparison of the earth and mans a body Reasons why there is no time The Reasons confuted What things are said to be in Time Aristotles opinion that Time is the ruine of things how to be expounded Quest. Of the wittinesse of Dogs â—nd Horses Of the love of a Dog to his Master Discourse of a Dogs memory Distinction between things done by reason and a naturall inclination That certaine plants herbs vvill grow hiâ—dlier together than others The true cause how the hard Adamant is dissolved in a dish of Goats bloud What maketh the Loadstone draw Iron What maketh the Needle in a Sea compasse turne ever to the North. Reasons prâ— and contra