nothing but Water rarifi'd and subtiliz'd by heat as also when they are reduc'd into Water by condensation this Water is nothing but Air condens'd And so Air and Water differ not but by Rarefaction and Condensation which are but Accident and consequently cannot make different species of Element Both the one and the other may be seen in the Aeolipila of Vitruvius out of which the heat of Fire causeth the Water which is therein to issue in the form of Air and an impetuous wind which is the very Image of that which Nature ordinarily doth I conceive also that the Air is neither hot nor moist nor light as Philosophers commonly hold For as to the First the Air is much more cold then hot and for one torrid Zone there are two cold Besides Heat is but Accidental to it being caus'd by the incidence and reflections of the rayes of the Sun So that this cause failing in the night when the Sun shines not or in Winter when its rayes are very oblique and their reflection weak or in the Middle Region whether the Reflection reacheth not the Air becometh cold and consequently in its natural quality since there is no External Cause that produceth that coldness As for the Second The Air dryeth more then it moistneth and if it moistneth it is when it is cold and condensed and consequently mix'd with many particles of Water and when it dryeth it is by its own heat For the Definition which Aristotle giveth of Humid and Moist is onely proper to every thing which is fluid and not stable and in this respect agrees to the Air which is fluid and gives way to all sorts of Bodies As for the Last which is its levity the harmony of the world by which all things conspire to union and so to one common Centre seemeth to contradict it For if the Air hath its Motion from the Centre the parts of the world might be disunited For the Air would escape away there being no restraint upon it by any External Surface Moreover if we judge the Air light because we see it mount above water we must also say that Wax and Oyle are light since we observe the same in them But that which they do is not mounting above the Water but being repell'd by the Water And so the principal of Motion being External the same is violent and not natural Whereas when the Air descends into the Well it descends thither naturally there being no External Cause of that descent For Vacuum not existing in Nature cannot produce this Effect Since according to the received Maxime Of a Thing which is not there can be no Actions Besides it would be it self-cause of its own destruction and do contrary to its own intention preserving Nature by this Action whereas it is an Enemy to it and seeketh the ruine thereof Lastly Since many Particles of Air being condens'd and press'd together give ponderosity to a thing as is seen in a Baloon or foot-ball it must needs be ponderous it self for many light Bodies joyn'd together are more light The Second said That the difference between Water and Air is as clear as either of those Elements For that the Vapours which arise from the Water by means of the Suns heat and the wind which issueth out of the abovesaid Vessel full of Water and placed upon the Fire cannot be call'd Air saving abusively But they are mixts actually compos'd of Water and Fire For the rayes of the Sun entring into the Water raise it into Vapour And the Fire infinuating it self by the Pores of the Vessel into the Water which it containeth causeth the same to come forth in the form of wind which is compos'd of Fire and Water Of Fire because the property of Fire being to mount on high it lifts up that subtiliz'd Water with it self Of Water because this Vapour hath some coldness and humidity whence meeting with a solid Body it is resolv'd into Water because the Fire alone passeth through the Pores of that Body Besides Water being moist and Air on the contrary dry as the precedent opinion importeth they cannot be the same thing And since all Alteration is made between two different things Water and Air transmuting one into another as it hath been said cannot be the same Lastly as there are two Elements whereof one is absolutely light as the Fire the other absolutely heavy as the Earth So there are two which are such but in comparison with the rest The Water compar'd with the Earth is light because it floateth above it The Air in comparison of the Water is light too because it is above it So that when it descendeth lower then the Water into the Caverns of the Earth 't is Nature that obligeth it to renounce its proper and particular interest for preserving the general one which is destroy'd by the Vacuum not that the Vacuum is the Cause thereof for it hath no existence And the Air wherewith the Baloon is fill'd rendreth the same more heavy because it is impure and mixt with gross Vapours Which it would not do were it pure and Elementary such as is that of which we are speaking which is not to be found in our Region The Common Opinion hath also more probability which holdeth that the Air is hot and moist Hot because it is rare and light which are effects of heat Moist because it is difficultly contain'd within its own bounds and easily within those of another Thence it is that the more Bodies partake of Air the more they have of those qualities As we see in Oyl which is hot being easily set on flame And Moist in that it greatly humecteth and easily expandeth it self on all sides But if the Air seemes sometimes to be cold 't is by accident by reason of the cold vapours wherewith it is fill'd at that time The Third said That he conceiv'd that contrarily the Air is cold and dry 1. Because it freezeth the Earth and Water in Winter and therefore is colder in either of them 2. Because it refresheth the Lungs and by its coolness tempereth the extreme heat of the Heart and of the other parts which it could not do if it were hot 3. Inasmuch as hot things expos'd to the Air are cooled which they would not be but at least preserve their heat being in a place of the same Nature 4. The more it is agitated the more it refresheth as we see by Fans because then the unessential things being seperated from it it is more close and united quite contrary to the other Elements which grow hot by being agitated 5. In the night time the more pure and serene and void of mixtures the Air is the colder it is 6. Thence it is that flame burnes less then boyling water or hot Iron because in flame there is a great deal of Air which being colder then Water and Iron represseth more the strength of the Fire Lastly since according to Aristotle Air doth not putrifie what is
said of its corruption being taken improperly it is for that it is cold and dry both these qualities being Enemies to putrefication As on the contrary Hot and Moist are friends to it and the usual wayes that lead thereunto Wherefore if the Air were hot and moist it would putrifie incessantly Besides it would be easily inflam'd being so near Neighbour to the Elementary Fire which could have no food more proper then it The Fourth said 'T is true all Antiquity believ'd the Air supremely moist and moderately hot 1. For salving the Harmony of the Universe the Air becoming symbolical with the Fire by its heat and with the water by its moisture 2. Because we see Heat produceth Air which thence must have affinity of Nature with its progenitor 3. It is light and by consequence hot 4. Experience sheweth us this in Winter time in subterraneous places where the Air is hot because the external cold stopping the pores of the Earth hinders the spirits of the inclosed Air from evaporating and so it remains hot But to the First Reason it is answered That the Air without being hot sufficiently maketh good its party in the Harmony of the Universe for by its humidity alone it symbolizeth with the Water and the Coelestial Heat as is seen in Animals wherein Moist and Hot make so useful a Mass. To the Second That Heat produceth vapour too which is cold To the Third That this cold vapour is light as well as a hot exhalation To the Fourth Experience is oppos'd to Experience For in Summer the Air is cold in the Cavities of the Earth as well as hot there in the Winter Which proceedeth not from the Air but from the sense which whereas it ought to be void of the qualities of the object is here preposses'd therewith The Moderns affirm with more probability that the Air is cold 1. Because in the Middle Region where it is left in its proper Nature it is such 2. In the Northern parts remote from the Sun its rigor hath such effect as to freeze the Sea and even in our Countries we are sensible in Winter of the Sun and yet in clear weather of great Frosts To which it is answer'd 1. That the Middle Region of the Air is not so cold of its own Nature but by reason of the vapours which refrigerate it uniformly every where though those vapours ascend not equally from the Water but more in one place then in an other just as the heat of the Fire which is directly under the middle of the bottome of a great Caldron yet heats it on all sides equally and uniformly Also the coldness of the Air in the Northern parts and in our Countrie must necessarily be ascrib'd to a Constellation which is made when some Star exerteth a cold influence and is not repress'd by the Sun who then emits his rayes slopingly and hath not reverberation strong enough from the Earth This is prov'd by the Thaw which is from the influence not of the Sun for he is too weak and it sometimes happens when he is less elevated above our Horizon but of some hot Star which gaineth the ascendant over the cold And indeed we see a Frost and a Thaw happen without any foregoing mutation in the Air at least that is sensible I conceive then that the Air is neither hot nor cold but indifferent to both What it hath actual is its humidity from whence it deriveth its great mobility The reason is for that the Air is the Universal Medium of all natural Actions and the general interposer in all the transactions of Agents and Patients for which office it ought not to be an Enemy to any of them Now of Agents the most powerful are Heat and Cold. When Heat acts it consignes its impression to the Air to transfer the same by Propagation to the subject upon which it acts But if the Air were Cold instead of faithfully keeping and delivering the impression of Heat it would abate and destroy it On the contrary if it were Hot it would destroy the Cold Body which acteth instead of assisting it in its action Just as the Crystalline humour which serves as a Medium to the sight hath naturally no colour lest otherwise the Case would be the same as in colour'd glass through which all objects that are seen borrow its colour Or as in the Tongue whose Taste being deprav'd it judgeth all things bitter But the Air being onely Humid is the common friend of both parties For Moist symbolizing both with Hot and Cold fights against neither The Air then is that Humid Substance which taketh no other figure bounds or inclosure then that of the Bodies which environ it for the becoming most obedient to which it hath an incomparable Mobility Fluidity and Flexibility Which being consistent onely in a Humid Substance it is by Humidity alone as its essential propriety actuated and informed II. Whether it is best for a State to have Slaves Upon the Second Point it was said That Servitude is opposite to Dominion which is of Two sorts Despotiâ—al or Sovereign and Political or Civil The former is absolute and with pure and full Authority commands without being liable to be ask'd a reason For the pleasure of the Commander is one The Latter oft times receives check in its course by the right which inferiours have to remonstrate and also in certain Cases to declare to the Command Such is that of a Master over a workman or a hired domestick that is voluntarily subject for certain wages and time and of this the Question now is not The former is contrary to natural Law introduc'd onely by that of Nations For all Men being equal by Nature there is no Natural Reason for rendring one person slave to an other Nevertheless Servitude may be term'd Natural being founded upon the inequality of the sufficiencies and abilities of Men Some being born with Organs so nimble and pliant that their Mind acts almost Divinely Others are so dull that the Soul seemes mir'd in a slough Moreover such as are made to obey have usually robust Bodies And others born to command have weak and tender as more sutable and fit for the functions of the Mind This being premis'd There is furthermore an Absolute Good and a Relative The Absolute is such in it self and of its own essence without borrowing elsewhere the reason of its goodness The other is Derivative and hath nothing but by relation to some other Extreme Servitude or Slavery cannot be an Absolute Good since it is contrary to Natural Right But it is a Relative Good in the first place to the Slaves For 't is an exchange made by the Conquerours Clemency of Death into Servitude to the benefit of the Captives whose condition is better in living Servants then in dying Free-men 2. 'T is a Good to the Common-wealth For as God draws Good out of Evil so doth the Publick Service from those whom it might have put to death
we approach or go farther from the Poles we see the same more or less elevated 4. Because the Sun is seen daily to rise and set sooner in one place then in another Lastly it is prov'd by the conveniency of habitation For as of all Isoperimeter Figures the Circle is most capacious so the Sphere containeth more then any other Body and therefore if the Earth were not round every part of it would not have its Antipodes So that I wonder at the opinion of Lactantius and Saint Augustine who denyed them For as for that story that in the year 745. by the relation of Aventinus Virgilius a German Bishop was deprived of his Bishoprick and condemned as an Heretick by Pope Zachary it was not onely for maintaining this truth which experience hath since confirm'd but because he drew conclusions from it prejudicial to Religion Now whereas it may be doubted whether as there are uneven parts in the Earth some higher then other so there be not also Seas some of whose waters too are more elevated then the rest I affirm that since all the Seas except the Caspian have communication amongst themselves they are all level and no higher one then another And had they no such communication yet the Water being of its Nature fluid and heavy flowing into the lowest place would equal its surface with the rest and so make a perfect Sphere Whence it follows that they were mistaken who disswaded Sesostris King of Aegypt from joyning the Red Sea with the Mediterranean for fear lest the former which they judg'd the higher should come to drown Greece and part of Asia For want of which demonstration several Learned Men have been mistaken and no less then the Angelical Doctor The Second said That the Earth is very dry not for that it dispelleth moisture as Fire doth but for that it receiveth and imbibeth it into it self But it cannot be cold of its own Nature if it were it could produce nothing It is cold onely by the Air as 't is sometimes moist by the Water and hot by the Fire which insinuateth into its cavities It is also very heavy since it holdeth the lowest place in the world and hath its motion from the circumference to the Centre which is the progression that Aristotle attributeth to heavy Bodies Whence for being the lowest stage it is called the Foot-stool of God But this heaviness seemeth to me not to proceed from humidity as was urged For though the Water and Earth joyn'd together seem to weigh more then Earth alone 't is not that they weigh more indeed but this Earth which was imagined to be alone is fill'd with a quantity of Air and the Water coming to succeed in its place it appeareth more heavy For Earth and Water joyn'd together weigh more then Earth and Air so joyn'd in like quantity because Water is heavier then Air. And to justifie that Earth is heavier then Water a bucket fill'd with sand weighes more then an other fill'd with Water For that sand is Water congealed is as hard to prove as that Earth is Water The Third said That Earth composeth a Mixt Body by a double action viz. from its coldness and of its driness As for the former it secondeth the Water compacting by its coldness the parts which are to be mix'd and which moisture hath united For the Second it giveth hardness and consistence imbibing and sucking up the superfluous moisture after the due union of the parts made thereby It cannot but be cold for as good Polititians willingly reconcile two great Families at Enmity by their mutual alliances so all the strength of the mixture consisting onely in the union of Dry and Moist and its destruction coming from their disunion and the Dry and Moist being wholly Enemies and contraries in the highest degree Nature reconciles them together and brings them into union by the mediation of Water For this being ally'd to Air by the moisture which it hath in a remiss degree and Earth being ally'd to Water by the coldness which it hath in a less degree it becometh ally'd to the Air and its humidity Since according to the maxime Things which agree in the same third agree among themselves Thus you see coldness is necessary to the Earth to cause a lasting composition amongst them Earth hath also this advantage by its siccity that as the same is less active then heat and yieldeth thereunto in vigour of action so heat yieldeth to it in resistance For the dryness inducing hardness resisteth division more powerfully and consequently better preserveth the mixt Body in being resisting the Agents which are contrary to it Whereto its gravity serveth not a little it rendring the Earth less managable by the agitations of the agents its Enemies So that gravity by this means assisteth the hardness and consistence of the dryness like two Kinsmen uniting together to keep off the affronts of their Enemies The Fourth said That the gravity of the Earth and of every other Body yea that of Gold too the heaviest of all mixt Bodies dependeth onely upon its Figure since not onely a Vessel convex on the side toward the Water sinketh not but also a single leaf of Gold swimeth upon it Which is seen likewise in Tera Lemnia or Sigillata which sinketh not in the Water so that there is no probility in that decuple proportion of the Elements according to which Earth ought to weigh ten times more then Water and Water onely ten times more then Air and supposing one were in the Region of Fire and there weigh'd the Air as we do here the Water he would find it likewise ten times heavier then the Fire This is more certain that the proportion of the weight of Earth to that of sea-Sea-water is as 93. to 90 that of Sea-water to fresh as 92. to 74. But that which makes more for those who hold Water more heavy then Earth is that the proportion of Earth to Salt is found to be as 92. to 106. In fine It was remark'd that though the Earth is consider'd by Astronomers but as a point in respect of the vast extent of the Coelestial Orbs yet no Man encompas'd it round before the year 1420. when Jean de Betancourt a Norman Gentleman by the discovery of the Canaries trac'd out the way to the Spaniards who attributed the honour thereof to themselves though they began not till above fourscore years after Moreover it is 15000. leagues in circumference of which there is not much less Land uncover'd then there is cover'd by the Water But if you compare their greatness together there is far less Earth then Water For 't is held that there is no Sea that hath a league in depth there is little without bottom many to which the Anchors reach yea several places not capable of great vessels for want of Water On the other side There are Mountains upon which you still ascend upwards for many dayes journey others inaccessible even to the sight
and imperfect and so is a second in Musick Three is the first Male and the first degree of perfection hence a Third is agreeable to the Ear. The Fourth is so likewise because it makes up the Ten. Add 1 2 3 and 4 and you have the grand Number of Ten the Father of all others Also a Fifth pleases the Ear wonderfully because it is an Abridgement of the grand Number and the marriage of the Male and the first Female The other Numbers are useless except the Eighth because Musitians call it Identity or Unity which is a Divine Number or rather no Number nor is the Eighth as delightful as it is accounted by Musitians amongst their Concords The Fourth said That the Reason why some Notes are agreeable and other unpleasing in Musick is because the former move the Faculty of the Soul after a manner sutable to it and the latter do not as we see an Example of it in Ballads and Dances where when the Violin or Minstrel hath sounded a braul which goes well to the cadence not onely the Members of the Dancers comply therewith and follow the same readily but also the Souls seemes to dance with the Bodies so great Sympathy have they with that Harmony But if on the contrary the power of the Soul be otherwise agitated at the same time that Harmony how regular soever will displease us Witness the displeasure taken at cheerful aires by those who are in Mourning to whom doleful notes better agree which on the other side are disagreeable to such as are merrily dispos'd Add hereunto the humour of the Phancy which hath an aversion to some sounds as well as to some smells For as for Discords janglings and other troublesome sounds no other cause of their general inacceptableness ought to be sought then that disproportion and deformity which is sound in things Natural and Artificial the former being more intollerable then the latter because the Eye is not struck with the visible species as the Ear is with sound and can turn away from the Object which displeaseth it which the Ear cannot and is clos'd with much more difficulty CONFERENCE XVIII I. Of the Original of Winds II. Why none are contented with their Condition I. Of the Original of Winds THere is more resemblance then one would imagine between these two poynts The Wind of the Air and that of Ambition to which the discontent of Men with their condition is commonly ascribed As for the First Some have held that all Wind even that which blows upon the Sea comes from the Earth and that the first conjecture which was entertain'd of the Region of the West Indies was taken from the Wind perceiv'd to come from that quarter But the History of Christopher Columbus attributing the discovery to Chance thereof cannot consist with that opinion There is no Meteor whose effects have more of Miracle which is defin'd An Effect whereof no Natural Cause is seen For even the Lightning is seen by the brightness of the fire which accompanies it But the effects of this aim at the highest things which it overthrows and you neither see the Agent nor understand it Yet the Sagacity of Humane Wit is admirable Sins have serv'd to clear Cases of Conscience Arsenick Sublimate and other poysons are converted by Physick into Cauteries and other profitable remedies The Civil Law hath by occasion of evil manners receiv'd addition of good Laws The Winds which drown Ships are so managed by the Art of Navigation which divides them first into four principal North East South West and then into eight by the addition of four half points and hath at length subdivided them into 32. that by their help Men sail upon the main Sea and provide forreign remedies for Physick Sugar and spices for Kitchins and employments for many other professions The Second said That though many causes may agitate the Air yet all of them are not sufficient to raise a Wind but the Air must be agitated by some Fume which is raised either from the Earth and is called an Exhalation or from the Water and is called a Vapour either of which partakes of the Nature of the Element from whence it proceeds A Vapour is moist an Exhalation dry An extrinsecal Heat which predominates in them gives them all their motions and makes them mount on high And because it is the property of Heat alwayes to move and act therefore these Fumes are so long in action as the Heat lasts They arise in company together and are carry'd upwards but are presently separated For the moisture of the Vapour quencheth the Heat which animated it so that the sole absence of the Sun or the occurse of the least Cold depriving the Vapour of the little Heat which was left in it and made it still ascend upwards it becomes more condens'd and falls down in Rain But an Exhalation hath a greater degree of Heat which is render'd more active by the driness and tenacity of the matter Therefore it ascends till it meets with the Air of the Middle Region which is thick and congeal'd by which being hinder'd â—o pass further it seeks a passage on one side or the other Many times when it strives to rise higher it becomes engag'd among Clouds which inclose it on all sides Being thus inclos'd and straitned it becomes united together and thereupon being inflam'd breaks the Clouds and causes Thunder or if it â—ind less resistance towards the Earth it descends with violence to the place from whence it arose and makes Whirl-winds But if such Exhalation have not time enough to mount as far as the Middle Region as it happens most frequently but as soon as it is drawn up be hinder'd and inclos'd by the Vapour turn'd into thick and cold Air in the Lower Region of the Air then Winds are produc'd in this manner This Exhalation being unable to mount upwards because the whole Region is full of thick Air which resists it it must go either on one side or other wherefore it tends that way where it meets least resistance And whereas there are certain seasons wherein the Air is sometimes less thick towards the South others wherein it is so towards the North and the other quarters of Heaven thence it is that the Winds blow there most usually Moreover the reason why the Wind hath a kind of whistling is because the Exhalation clasheth with violence against that thick Air. Hence also it is that Winds are more ordinary in the Night and about Evening because in those times the Vapour looseth its Heat through the Suns absence and so being become a thick Air better incloseth the Exhalation and resisteth the same with more force But as the Air which issueth out of our Lungs is hot yet if it be sent forth with some little violence it becometh cold So though the Exhalation which causeth Wind be never without Heat yet we never feel the Wind hot Not that the Air loseth its Heat by motion
into Water but this moist Air is full of damp vapours which are nothing but Water rarifi'd and which meeting with those cold and solid Bodies are condens'd and return'd to their first Nature Wherefore the Air is so far from being the cause of so many Springs and Rivers which water the Earth that on the contrary all the Air in the world provided it be not mixt with Water cannot make so much as one drop It is more probable that in the beginning of the world when God divided the Elements and the Waters from the Waters which cover'd the whole surface of the Earth he gather'd the grossest and most unprofitable water into one mass which he called Sea and dispersed through the rest of the Earth the fresh Water more clear and pure to serve for the necessities of the Earth Plants and living Creatures Moreover the Scripture makes mention of four great Rivers issuing out of the terrestrial Paradise and a Fountain in the middle of it which water'd the whole surface of the Earth from the Creation In not being possible that Air resolv'd into Water could make so great a quantity of waters in so little time The Fifth added That those Waters would soon be dry'd up without a new production for which Nature hath provided by Rain which falling upon the Earth is gather'd together in Subterraneous Cavernes which are as so many Reservers for Springs according to Seneca's opinion This is prov'd 1. Because in places where it rains not as in the Desarts of Arabia and Aethiopia there is scarce any Springs on the other side they are very frequent in Europe which aboundeth with rain 2. Waters are very low in Summer when it rains but little and in Winter so high that they overflow their banks because the season is pluvious 3. Hence it is that most Rivers and Springs break forth at the foot of Mountains as being but the rain water descended thither from their tops The Sixth said That it is true that Rivers are increased by Rain but yet have not their original from it For were it so then in great droughts our Rivers would be dry'd up as well as the Brooks As for Springs they are not so much as increas'd by Rain for we see by experience that it goes no deeper into the earth then seven or eight feet On the contrary the deeper you dig the more Springs you meet with Nor is the Air in my judgement the cause thereof there being no probability that there is under the earth cavernes so spacious and full of Air sufficient to make so great a quantity of Water since there needs ten times as much Air as Water to produce it Neither can the Sea be the cause of Springs since according to the Maxime of Hydraulick Water cannot ascend higher the place of its original but if Springs were from the Sea then they could not be higher then the level thereof and we should see none upon the tops of Mountains Now that the Sea lies lower then Springs and Rivers is apparent because they descend all thitherwards The Seventh said That Waters coming from the Sea and gliding in the bowels of the Earth meet with Subterranean Fires which are there in great quantity whereby they are heated and resolv'd into Vapours These Vapours compos'd of Water and Fire mounting upwards meet some Rocks or other solid Bodies against which they stick and are return'd into Water the Fire which was in them escaping through the Pores of those Bodies the Water trickles forth by the clefts and crevisses of the Rocks or other sloping places The Eighth said That as Art can draw forth Water by Destillation Expression and other wayes taught by Chymistrie so by stronger reason Nature cannot want wayes to do the same and possibly in divers sorts according to the various disposition of places and of the matter which she employes to that use II. Whether there is any Ambition commendable Upon the Second Subject it was said That there is some correspondence between the two Questions for as Water serves for a Medium of Union in natural Composition so Ambition serves to familiarise pains and dangers in great enterprizes For it makes Children strive to get credit in little exercises and Men think nothing so high but may be soar'd to by the wings of Ambitior Juvenal indeed gives Wings to necessity when he saith A Hungry Greek will fly up to Heaven if they command him and Virgil saith Fear adds Wings to the heels of the terrifi'd but those of Ambition are much more frequent in our Language 'T is true Ambition may many times beat and stretch forth its Wings but can no more exalt it self into the Air then the Estrich Sometimes it soars too high as Icarus did and so near the light that it is burnt therein like Flyes For the ambitious usually mounts up with might and main but thinks not how he shall come down again This Passion is so envious that it makes those possess'd therewith hate all like themselves and justle them to put them behind Yea it is so eager that it meets few obstacles which yield not to its exorbitant pertinacy insomuch that it causeth Men to do contrary to do what they pretend and shamefully to obey some that they may get the command over others The importunateness of Ambition is proof against all check or denyal and the ambitious is like the Clot-burr which once fastned upon the clothes is not easily shaken off When he is once near the Court neither affronts nor other rubs can readily repell him thence And because his Essence consists in appearance he many times wears his Lands upon his back and if he cannot at once pride himself in his Table his Clothes and his Train yet he will rather shew the body of a Spaniard then the belly of a Swiss At his coming abroad he oftentimes picks his teeth while his gutts grumble he feeds upon aiery viands When he ha's been so lucky as to snap some office before he ha's warm'd the place his desires are gaping after another He looks upon the first but as a step to a second and thinks himself still to low if he be not upon the highest round of the ladder where he needs a good Brain lest he lose his judgement and where it is as hard to stand as 't is impossible to ascend and shameful to descend Others observing That Honour is like a shadow which flyes from its pursuers and follows those that flie it have indeed no less Ambition then the former for I know no condition how private soever that is free from it but they artificially conceal it like those who carry a dark Lanthorn in the night they have no less fire then others but they hide it better They are like Thieves that shooe their Horses the wrong way that they may seem by their steps to come from the place whither they are going or else like those who hunt the Hyena This Beast loves the voice
besides loss of time renders mens minds soft and effeminate and more susceptible of the passions represented therein Tragedy is too sad to serve for divertisement to the soul. If you proceed to Gladiators is any thing more inhumane and that renders men more barbarous then to see our fellow-men kill one another in cold blood and expose themselves to wild beasts and 't is always a dangerous practise to accustom the eyes to murders and bloody spectacles nature being easily perverted by custom Moreover all these Mimes Actors Sword-players and the like were always held infamous and incapable of publick charges insomuch that the Emperor Theodosius Arcadius and Honorius in L. 4. C. de Spectaculis Scenicis and Lenonibus forbid to defile their sacred images by the society of those people who act upon the Theatre ranking them with the corrupters of chastity And the Romans who practis'd the same more then any Nation felt the inconvenience of them when the most potent became masters of the Commonwealth by means of the spectacles wherewith they allur'd the people to their party as Julius Caesar who being Aedile and having given Gladiators Huntings Sports Races and sumptuous Feasts to the people of Rome they created him Chief Pontife although Q. Catulus and Servilius Isauricus two great personages were his competitors which was his first step to Sovereignty and Suetonius observes that the conflux of people was so numerous that many and amongst the rest two Senators were smother'd in the throng The Third said That Spectacles or Shews are good or bad according to the things which they represent But absolutely speaking they ought to be permitted not only for the diversion of men but also for the exercising of youth and animating them to courage by rewards for their fortitude as the Greeks sometimes appointed Statues Crowns of gold Olive Palm Smallage and other such guerdons to those who overcame in Running Wrastling Caestus or fighting with Whorlbats and such exercises carrying them in a triumphal Charriot to the Town of their Birth shewing themselves so careful of the Olympick Games that they committed the charge thereof to the Sicyonians after Corinth the place where they were formerly celebrated had been raz'd by the Romans who transferr'd those Plays into their own City by the perswasion of Cato for the same end of educating their youth For as profit delights some spirits so pleasure allures all and of pleasures none is more innocent and communicable then that of the sight CONFERENCE LXXXVI I. Of the Dog-days II. Of the Mechanicks I. Of the Dog-days THat the Stars act upon sublunary bodies is agreed upon but not the manner some holding that they impress some qualities by motion others by light others by their influence others by both together producing heat by the two first and other more extraordinary effects by influences For every thing that is mov'd heats as also all sort of light united even that of the Moon whose rays may be made to burn with glasses as well as those of the Sun But because natural agents cannot act beyond the natural bounds of their power therefore heat produc'd of light and motion here below can produce only its like heat or such other alteration in inferior bodies not those strange and irregular changes not only in the temper of the air but of every other body As that it is sometimes hotter and sometimes colder in the same elevation of the Sun cannot be attributed to his approach or remotion or to the incidence of his perpendicular or oblique rays but it must proceed from the conjunction opposition or several aspects of other Stars Amongst which the Canicula or Dog-star hath very extraordinary effects as to weaken mens bodies to make dogs run mad to turn the wine in the vessel to make the sea boile to move lakes to heat the air so much that Pliny affirms that Dolphins keep themselves hid during the 30 Dog-days at which he wonders the more because they can respire neither in the water nor upon the earth but partly in the air partly in the water Moreover Experience shews that the Hyades or Pleiades stars in the back of the Bull have such a moist quality that they alwayes cause rain at their rising which happens in November as Arcturus never rises without bringing hail or tempest the Moon being full Oysters Muscles and the sap of Trees are so too and therefore being cut at this time they soon rot and Pliny counsels to cut them during the Dog-dayes when the heat of the season ha's dry'd up all their aqueous moisture which is the cause of their corrupting The Second said That the vanity of Astrologers who have phancy'd monsters and sundry figures in Heaven and attributed imaginary effects to them the better to amuse mens minds with some resemblance of the truth hath also feign'd two dogs there one less consisting of two stars and another of eighteen the the greatest of which is the brightest in our Hemisphere and is in the tongue of this Dog whom the Greeks and Latins call Sirius and ascribe so much power to him that they conceive his conjunction with the Sun in the East causes the scorching heat of Summer yea the people of the Isle of Cea near Negropont as Cicero reports took their presages of the whole year from the rising of this star determining the same to be rainie in case this star appear'd obscure and and cloudy and the contrary But this cannot be true as well in regard of the great distance of the fix'd stars which also being of the same substance cannot have contrary qualities as also by reason of the retrogradation of their sphere which hath a motion contrary to that of the First Mover namely from West to East which motion though insensible in few years yet amounts to much at the end of many Ages As is justifi'd by the Dog-star which Ptolomy in the tables of his time places at 18. degr 10. min. of Gemini Alphonsus King of Castile at the 4. degr of Cancer and now 't is found at 9. degr 54. min. according to Tycho and at 9. degr 30. min. according to Copernicus Whereby it appears that after many years this star will be in the winter signes and that at the Creation it was in Aries at the Vernal Equinox and that consequently the Dog-dayes will be in the time of the greatest cold In brief were there such power in this conjunction the Dog-dayes would be hot and burning and yet in some years they are cold and rainie Which the Astrologers attributing to the several Aspects of Saturn or other cold stars see not that by weakning the force of some by others they subvert all Wherefore the Dog-star is at present the sign but not the cause of hot dayes that is the hapning of this Constellation in the Summer signes and its conjunction with the Sun during hot weather ha's been erroniously believ'd the principal cause thereof which in my judgement is to be
take thence a charme which the Spirit left there or to invoke the same Spirit signifies that you must go and take from under a stone agreed upon the cypher'd letter and decipher it by the same alphabet upon which it was cypher'd Vigenarius spends half his Book in speaking of the Cabala of the Jews and the Caldeans and the other half in many Alphabets of all sorts with Key and without he hath indeed abundance of Cyphers which seem undecypherable which he makes to depend on three differences 1. On the form of Characters which comprehends several figures lines and colours 2. On their order and situation but changing the Alphabet almost infinite ways 3. On their value and power giving such signification to one letter or character as you please All which are easily known for cyphers The second condition of a cypher and which follows that of secresie being not to appear such the least suspicion causing the stopping of the paper and so rendring it unprofitable to the writer which has given occasion to some to cover characters drawn in oyl with something that might be wash'd off besides other such inventions to take away suspicion such as that of having two Books of the same impression and under pretext of sending Tables of Astrology or Merchants Bills to design by cyphers the letter of the Book which you mean to express the first cypher signifying the fourth page the second the fourth line and the third the fourth letter of that line which you would denote CONFERENCE XCIX I. Of Ignes fatui II. Of Eunuchs I. Of Ignes fatui 'T Is a question whether 't would be more advantageous to mans contentment to be ignorant of nothing since then he would admire nothing which is one of his greatest pleasures Hence a Peasant beholding a flake of fire following him or going before him in the night time will be otherwise ravish'd with it then a Philosopher who knows or thinks he knows the cause of it there being little difference herein as to our satisfaction They conceive it to be an unctuous exhalation apt to be inflam'd like the fatty steam of a Candle newly put out which instantly conveighs down the neighbouring light to seek its aliment But the same example shews us that fire very suddenly devours its aliment when it is subtile and thin So that if a fire of straw which is much more material then an exhalation vanishes so quickly that we express the most transient momentary things thereby how can a far thinner exhalation keep this foolish fire so long which besides burns not as appears by its sticking innoxiously upon the hair of men and manes of horses and yet Aqua-vitae never so well rectified will singe the hair as was sometimes verified to the great prejudice of one of our Kings which would make me think that as all fire is not luminous as a hot dunghil burns your finger and fire excited by motion burns much more without blazing so there are some lights which are not igneous as in Heaven the Stars and in Earth some rotten woods certain fishes worms eyes flesh of animals and other more such subjects which cannot be more susceptible of those lights which burn not then the Air which is the prime diaphanous body and consequently most capable of receiving them although possibly we cannot truly know what temper the Air must acquire to become luminous no more then what is fit for it in other subjects For to attribute the cause thereof to purity or simplicity signifies little for earth and ashes are more simple then the flesh or other part dead or living of an Animal and yet this shines and those not The Second said That these fires may be referr'd to four sorts The first resemble falling Stars or lighted Torches which Plutarch saith were seen to fall upon Pompey's Camp the eve before the Battle of Pharsalia The second is that kind of flame which has appear'd upon the heads of some as of Ascanius in Virgil and of Servius Hostilius which was an omen to them of Royalty The third are those which appear at Sea about the Masts and Shrouds of the Ships named by the Ancient Castor and Pollux when they are two and when but one Helena and by the Moderns the fire of S. Elme The last are those which are seen in the Country in the night time and are thought to drive or draw Travellers into precipices As for the first 't is certain that the same exhalation which makes Comets in the highest Region of the Air and Thunders in the middlemost is also the matter of these falling Stars and being rais'd in small quantity from the earth is condens'd by the cold of the middle Region where finding no cloud strong enough to uphold it 't is inflam'd by the antiperistasis of its contrary or the swift motion of its fall by reason of its great heat and siccity And as they proceed from the same cause as dry winds do so they presage winds and drought especially in that quarter from whence they fall But as for the other sorts I conceive they are only lights and not fires For the Air being transparent and the first subject of Whiteness as Aristotle saith hath likewise in it self some radical light which is sustein'd by that of the Stars which shine in the night And this whiteness of the Air is prov'd by the appearance of it when t is enclos'd in moist bodies as in froth snow and crystal which whitness is very symbolical to light which it preserves and congregates as is seen by the same snow in a very dark night Yea to speak plainly whiteness is nothing else but light extinct luminous bodies appearing white neer a greater light and white luminous in darkness So 't is possible that the thinner parts of the Air being inclos'd in these unctuous vapours they appear enlightned and shining as well by reason of the condensation of its body as the inequality of its surfaces like a diamond cut into several facets or as the Stars appear luminous only by being the denser parts of their Orbs. And this kind of light has been seen upon the heads of children whose moister brain exhal'd a vapour proper for it such also as that is which forms the Will-i'th'-Wisp which may also proceed from the reflection of the Star-light from the Sea or Rocks For That two of these fires bode good to Seamen and one ill is but one of the superstitions of Antiquity unless you think that the greater number of fires argues greater purity of the Air and consequently less fear of tempest The Third said He accounted the common opinion more solid which teacheth two material principles of all Meteors Vapour and Exhalation but one and the same efficient the heat of the Sun which lifts the thinner parts of the water in a vapour and those of the earth in an exhalation the former hot and moist the latter hot and dry borrowing their heat from an extraneous heat but
out of which the Agents which destroy the formes opposite to their own may draw forth those which they will produce which is the term of their Action Otherwise Things must become nothing to pass from one being to another which would presuppose Creation and destroy those Two Maximes That a Thing cannot be reduc'd into Nothing and Of Nothing is not made something It is defin'd An Imperfect and Incomplete Substance the First Subject of Natural Things which are compos'd of it as an Internal and Essential part not by accident It s quality is to be a pure Passive Power which is nothing distinct from it self but is taken for a Thing begun and not perfected yet design'd to be finished by the Supervening of the Form and the interposing of Agents who by their activities drawing the Form out of the bosome of it perfect and accomplish it It serves for two purposes First To give durance and Consistence to all Things which last so much the longer as their Matter is less compounded That is to say less alienated from its naked and pure Nature of First Matter As it appears in the Heavens and the Elements which I conceive are not changed one into another In the Second place it serves Agents for to act and Patients to resist Whence it comes to pass that the more compact and close their Matter is the more powerfully they resist As appears in a hot Iron which burnes more then common flame in Water which moistens more then aire though it be less humid and in Steel which resists more then Lead The Fourth said That to know what this First Matter is it behoveth to proceed thereunto by the way of the Senses and then examine whether Reason can correct what they have dictated to us Now our Senses tell us that most part of mixt Bodies are resolved into Salt Sulphur and Mercury And the Chymists affirm that these Three Bodies cannot be reduced into any other Matter by any Artifice But Reason correcting Sense teacheth us that though these Three Bodies are Chymical Sensible Principles yet they are not First Principles nor the true First Matter for that all Bodies are not made of them as 't is seen in the Coelestial and they may yet be reduc'd into another Matter viz. into the Elements For in Sulphur there is Fire seeing it is inflamable And it hath also some Aqueous or Terrestrial Substance which makes visible that Fire Likewise there is Fire in Salt seeing it is tart and biting and according to the Chymists the subject of natural heat There is Water too for it melteth and it extinguisheth Fire There is also Earth in it for it is dry fixt compact and weighty Wherefore Reason leading us as far as the Elements it remaineth to consider whether we must stop there or go yet further to find out a Matter into which these are reduc'd But not finding any I conceive they must be the First Matter The Fifth reply'd That the Elements being complete Substances and consequently compounded of Matter and Form we must not stop there but go further in search of that first and ultimate subject of all Natural Mutations it being inconsistent that a Compound of Matter and Form should be but one of those Two The sixth held That Water is the First Matter if not the Elementary at least the Aethereal Water which was for that purpose created first The Holy Scripture witnessing that In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth Where the Hebrew word that is render'd Heaven signifie The Waters and 't is added That the Spirit of God moved upon the Waters Moreover our Life consisteth solely in Humidity which failing Death ensueth The Seventh said That the First Matter being a Thing most imperfect and least active such as the Earth is too she ought rather to bear that Name then any of the Elements To shew further that the Elements are the First Matter it was alledg'd that they are not transmuted one into another but are ingenerable and incorruptible that consequently in every kind of Generation or Corruption there is not made any Substantial Mutation but only an Vnion or Separation of the Elements And therefore it is not needful to recur to another First Matter that may be Permanent under all Mutations since Entities are not to be multiply'd without necessity For as to the former They are not transmuted one into another because before the Transmutation or Substantial Generation of a Thing Alteration is requisite that is the Introduction of Quality and Dispositions sutable to the Form which is to be produc'd For Example before Fire be turn'd into Water Air or Earth it must first receive Cold Moisture and Gravity which are the Qualities sutable to those Formes which it is to receive but this is impossible For Fire while it is Fire cannot be Cold Moist and Heavy As for the Second viz. That the Elements are ingenerable and incorruptible he shew'd it by this other Example From Wood that burnes proceed the Four Elements or Four different Natures correspondent to them viz. Flame Smoke Liquor and Ashes but they were in it before because they could not be produc'd out of Nothing And in the Conflagration of this Wood there is onely the Fire that Acts which being Hot Light and Dry cannot produce such Things as are contrary to it self Here Experience was alledg'd against him which evidenceth that Water upon the Fire is turn'd into Vapour and then into Air that Air is turnd into Fire and so of the other Elements But he reply'd That the Water is not turn'd into Vapour or into Air but the Fire insinuating and joyning it self with the Water frames that Vapour composed Actually of Water and Fire Whence when you put a Cover upon a Dish of hot Viands the Particles of Fire which are in those Vapours being subtle pass through the Pores of the Cover and sever themselves from those of the Water which being unable to pass through too by reason of their grosness they adhere to the upper part of it In like manner said he when the Air seemes set on fire 't is not chang'd or turn'd into Fire but onely the Particles of Fire which were dispers'd here and there in the Air become collected and united together And when the Fire disappears it proceeds from its Particles being diffus'd amongst the other Particles of Air Water and Earth The Last strengthned this Opinion saying That the pure Elements have the same Proprieties that are attributed to the First Matter and amongst the rest fall not under the perception of Sense Yea that 't is as hard to see a pure Element as to see the First Matter For the Elementary Fire ex gr cannot be expos'd to the Air nor the Air to the Water nor the Water to the Earth and much less those which are contrary to one another without being alter'd by their mutual contract that is to say without losing their Nature of Element which moreover cannot be
President or Counsellor were seen carrying the Flower de Luce beyond our Frontiers in the head of an Army and the other Officers by their Example Armes making Laws respected and Laws polishing Armes The Inventions were very different yea diametrically opposite one amongst the rest propounding a way to build an impregnable Fortress another an Engine to which nothing could resist And the Matters of the next Conference were the Vniversal Spirit and Fire CONFERENCE VI. I. Of Fire II. Of the Vniversal Spirit I. Of Fire UPon the First Subject it was said That there is no Elementary Fire and that this Opinion doth not destroy the Four First Qualities Seeing Heat may be without that Fire as in the Sun Moreover that supposed Elementary Fire cannot be under the Moon For if it were the Refraction or Parallax caused by it would cause the Stars to be seen in another place then they are and of different Magnitudes As the Opticks clearly demonstrate to us and justifie by the experiment of a piece of Money put into a Basin which we behold not by reason of the interposition of its sides and yet it appears when you put water into the Vessel Because the Visual Ray is alwayes broken and makes an Angle when it passeth through a Medium of differing thickness as the Air and the Water are and as the Air and the Fire would be through which the Stars must be seen and consequently we should not see them in their true place when they are out of our Zenith in which alone the Visual Ray is not broken But this the Prediction of Eclipses to a set moment convinceth to be false In the Third Place That Fire being but an Accident cannot be an Element That it is but an Accident appears by a combustible Body in which for the kindling of Fire there is nothing else introduc'd but a great heat In the Fourth Place This same Fire being produc'd by an Accident as by the Motion of some Body cannot be a Substance For Accidents do not produce Substances Lastly we are compos'd of the same Things by which we are conserv'd and yet there is no Animal that lives of Fire as of the other Elements that which is said of the Flies called Pyraustae being but a Fable Besides 'T is hard to conceive how Fire being in that High Region could concur to all kinds of Generation And therefore if there be any Fire that enters into the Composition of mixt Bodies 't is onely the heat of the Sun which quickens and animates all things As for our common Fire they say it is light and dry But for the former as they do not prove it but by the Sight which beholds it ascend so the same Sight sees it descend in a Candle in Wood and other Matters which the Fire consumes from the top to the bottom And therefore of it self it is indifferent to all Motion and follows its Aliment upwards when it mounts thither by its rarefaction and downwards when the same is detain'd there by the gravity of its Matter And though it should ascend above the Air yet would it not follow from thence that it is light but onely less ponderous then the Air which thrust it out of its place as the Earth doth the Water and the Water the Air. Besides whereas the Fire imparteth ponderosity as is seen in Calcined Lead it cannot be said to be Light Next to say that Fire is dry I account not less strange For it cannot have Siccity since it introduceth it not actually into Bodies but when it drieth any humid Body it doth nothing else but take away its humidity which being separated from that Body it remains in the Siccity which was there before but appeared not by reason of the predominancy of its humidity and consequently is not introduc'd anew by the Fire Besides by the definition which Aristotle gives of Humid viz. That it is that which is easily containd'n in an other but hardly in it self the Fire should be more humid then the Air yea then water it self The Second said That Fire is neither Element nor Substance For Qualities are perceiv'd by every Thing 's manifesting those of the Element predominant in it and whereof it is compos'd Terrestrial Bodies as Stones Metals and Minerals are actually cold and dry to the touch Aquatick as Fish and Fruits are cold and moist Aerial as Oyle and Wood indifferent sometimes hot sometimes cold according to the disposition of the place where they are Animals alone are actually hot but they derive that heat solely from the Soul We see nothing in the World actually hot of its own Nature Why then should we establish an Element of which we can have no tidings As we have of the other Elements of which some would make it a companion contrary to the Maxime which alloweth not That Entities be multiply'd in Nature without Necessity 'T is of no validity to object the actual heat of Mineral Waters For the least Curious know the cause thereof to be this that those Waters passing through Mines of Sulphur or Bitumen imbibe the Spirits thereof which by the Motion of the Water are heated accidentally As appears in that being taken out of their own place they presently lose that heat which shews that this heat is no part of them but is derived elsewhere Moreover that Sublunary Fire would be to no purpose For either it would descend to enter into the composition of Things with the rest or not If it descend that is against its Nature which is as they commonly say light and alwayes tending upwards besides it would consume all by its great Activity If it descend not it would be unprofitable to the World and so not Element For neither Man nor the other mixt Substances which are generated go to seek it in the Circle of the Moon Besides Generations are made without it by the heat of the Sun For in the First Place Humidity is requisite thereto for the uniting and binding together of the Matter which otherwise would be dust and that Humidity the Air or the Water affordeth In the Second Place such Matter united by Humidity is made close firm and compact by the coldness of Water the propriety of which is to congeal In the Third Place the driness which the Earth contributes gives it a consistence and permanent hardness And lastly the heat alone of the Sun digests all this together and unites it very perfectly without need of any other Fire I confess indeed that we have Fire but it never enters into the composition of Natural Things nor ever was it a Substance because Two Substantial Formes cannot be in the same Subject and yet the true form of Fire is in a hot Iron together with the Substantial Form of the Iron Which shews that Fire is but an Accidental Form which is consistent with the Substantial as the Servant with her Mistress Moreover according to Aristotle l. 2. Of Generation and Corruption Fire is nothing
else but an execess of heat which is a meer Accident as well in its little degrees as in its excesses More and less making no change in the species Our Fire then is an excessive heat which adheres to Things that have some crass and oleaginous humour in them and continues there by a continual efflux and successive Generation without any permanence like the Water of a River which Heat lasts so long till that humour be consumed If it be said that it ascends upwards seeking its own place I answer that 't is the Exhalation that carries it up yea that it descends too as we see in a Candle blown out and still smoaking if it be held beneath another burning one the flame descendeth along the smoak and lighteth it again So that the Fire is indifferent of it self where it goes for it lets it self be govern'd and carry'd by the Exhalation And it appears further That Fire is less subtile then Air for flame is not transparent and it engendreth soot which is very gross The Third added That indeed Fire cannot be a Substance because it hath a Contrary viz. The Water Besides every Substantial Form preserves its own Matter and acts not against it but Fire destroyes its own Moreover a certain degree of some Quality is never necessary to a Substantial Form as the Earth ceaseth not to be Earth though it be less cold or dry and so of the rest But Fire cannot be Fire unless the supreme degree of heat be in it Add hereunto that Fire may be produc'd in a Substance without corrupting it as we see in a Flint or a burning Bullet Now a Substantial Form is not produc'd in a Subject till the preceding be destroy'd the Generation of the one being the corruption of the other Lastly Every substance produceth by way of Generation an indivisible substantial Form But Fire produceth a divisible Quality For that which was cold becometh first warm then hot and by degrees becometh Fire which cannot be with a mixture of cold non consist therewith unless as degrees of qualities The Fourth said That Fire is a most perfect Element hot and dry according to Aristotle of the most perfect form and activity of all the Elements according to Plato the principal instrument of Nature according to Empedocles the Father of Things Whence it was that the Assyrians ador'd it The Persians carry'd it out of Honour before their Kings and at the head of their Armies The Romans made so great account of it that they assign'd it to the care of certain Virgins to be kept immortal Pythagoras believ'd it to be an Animal because it is nourish'd as Animals and for want of Aliment dyes And because a lighted Torch being cast into the Water the Fire extinguishing sendeth forth such a noyse as Animals do at the gasps of Death But he esteemed its natural place to be the Centre of the Subterranean World Whence it is said he that we see so many Volcanoes and other Fires issue out of the entrals of the Earth as those of Monte Vesuvio in the Kingdom of Naples Monte Gibello formerly Aetna in Sicily and Monte Hecla in Iseland and so many other burning Mountains The Fifth said That as the Sea is the Principle from whence all the Waters come and the end whether they return So the Sun is the Element of Fire from whence all other Fires come and whether at length they reascend as to their Source 1. For that all Effects Qualities and Properties of Fire agree particularly to the Sun seeing he heats burnes dryes and is the cause of all the Generations that are made here below 2. Because the Elements stay in their natural places Now the Fire not onely ascendeth from the Subterraneous places where it is detain'd by reason of a sulphureous and bituminous Matter which serves it for food but it passeth also beyond the Heavens of the Moon Mercury and Venus as appears by Comets which are igneous and particularly by that which appear'd in the year 1618. acknowledg'd by all the Astronomers upon the reasons of Opticks to have been above the said places The Sixth denyed That the Sun can be the Element of Fire 1. Because 't is a Coelestial and Incorruptible Body and by consequence not Igneous or Elementary 2. If all Fires come from the Sun it will follow that all his rayes are Igneous Bodies for there cannot be imagin'd other Fires to come from the Sun hither but his beams Now the Sun-beams are neither Bodies nor Igneous Not Bodies since Illumination and Eradiation being made in an instant it will follow that a Body cometh from Heaven to Earth in a Moment Which is absurd because No Motion is made in an instant Besides being those Rayes penetrate Glass and such other solid and diaphanous Bodies there would be a penetration of Dimensions which is impossible Nor are they Igneous seeing Fire being of its own nature light descendeth not but the beams of the Sun descend down hither Moreover Fire is actually hot but the Sun-beams are onely so in power viz. when they are reflected by an opake body as appears in the Middle Region of the Air where it is colder then upon the Earth though its beams are nearer Wherefore it is more reasonable to hold to the common opinion which placeth the Fire immediately under the Heaven of the Moon For there is no fear that that Fire how great soever can burn the World it s hear being allay'd and dull'd by the extreme humidity of the Air its Neighbour and by the great coldness of the same Air which is in the Middle Region and counter-checketh that heat which on one side hath already lost its violence and acrimony by its natural Rarity Nor is there any trouble to be taken for its nourishment for being in its own Centre and Empire it hath no enemies nor contraries and needeth no food for its support as our common Fire doth What if we behold it not 'T is not because there is none but because it is so rare and so pure that it cannot fall within the perception of our Senses As there is such a thing as Air though we see it not How many Colours Odours Sapours and Sounds are there which we never knew And as for what is observ'd in a Candle newly put out it is clear that the Fire descendeth not to it but inflameth the unctuous Matter which it toucheth and this the next even to the Candle from whence that Matter proceedeth II Of the Vniversal Spirit Upon the Second Point it was said That it must First be known what is meant by Universal Spirit 2. Whether there be one 3. What it is As for the First By the word Universal Spirit is understood some universal cause and principle of all the actions and motions which are made in Generation Just as they assign one same First Matter for the Subject of all Formes so they speak of an Vniversal Form which containes all the rest in
becomes oblig'd by the various contingencies of War when the Leaders miscarrying or being elsewhere employ'd the Souldier must supply the place of Captain to his Companions and himself This hath mov'd almost all the Oriental Nations and particularly the Turks to abstain from Wine though they also adjoyn reasons for it drawn from their false Religion to confirm their Minds more in conformity to this piece of Policy Therefore Mahomet to induce them to it by their own experience invited the principal Persons of his Army to a Feast where he caus'd them to be served with the most exquisite Wines First they all agreed upon the Excellency of Wine but having taken too much of it there arose such a tumult amongst them that he took occasion thence the next morning to represent to them that Wine was nothing else but the Blood of the first Serpent whose colour it also beareth as the stock of the Vine which produceth it retaineth the crooked form of that vile Animal and the rage whereinto it putteth those that use it doth testifie And to content them that still lov'd the taste of it he promis'd them that they should drink no-nothing else in their Paradise where their Bodies would be proof against its violence Which Prohibition hath been the most apparent cause of the amplification of his Empire and propagation of his Sect not onely because Wine was by its acrimony dangerous to the most part of his Subjects of Africa and Arabia where such as are addicted to it are subject to the Leprosie and that his people who cultivated Vines might employ themselves more profitably in tilling the Earth but principally it hath been more easie for him and his successors to keep 200000 men of War in the field without the use of Wine then for another Prince as potent as he to keep 50000 with the use of Wine which besides is difficult to transport and incumbreth the place of Ammunition which is absolutely necessary The Third said That Mahomet was not the first that prohibited Wine for before him Zaleucus forbad the Locrians to drink it upon pain of Death The Lacedemoniaus and the Carthaginians as Aristotle reporteth had an express Law by which they forbad the use of it to all people that belong'd to War And the wise man counselleth onely the afflicted to drink it to the end to forget their miseries But for all this he conceiv'd that it ought not to be prohibited now to our Souldiers since it augmenteth Courage envigorateth strength and taketh away the fear of danger though indeed it is fit to forbid them the excess thereof if it be possible In Conclusion It was maintain'd that Wine ought to be forbidden not onely to Souldiers but to all such as are of hot and dry tempers and use violent exercises because it hurts them as much as it profits weak persons Wherefore Saint Paul counselleth Timothy to use it for the weakness of his stomack But God inhibited it to the Nazarens and to those which enter'd into his Tabernacle under pain of death Moreover you see that Noah who us'd it first abus'd it And anciently it was to be had onely in the shops of Apothecaries because 't is an Antidote and most excellent Cordial provided its continual use render not its virtue ineffectual our Bodies receiving no considerable impression from accustomed things Therefore Augustus gave ear to all the other complaints which the Romans made to him but when they mention'd the dearness of Wine he derided them telling them that his Son in Law Agrippa having brought Aquaeducts to the City had taken care that they should not dye of Thirst. At the Hour of Inventions amongst many others these two were propos'd The first to prepare common Water so that it shall dissolve Gold without the addition of any other Body c. The second to make a Waggon capable to transport by the help of one Man who shall be in it the burdens of ordinary Waggons in the accustomed time of which the Inventers deliver'd their Memories and offer'd to make the experiments at their own charges These Subjects were propounded to be treated of at the next Conference First The Earth Secondly What it is that makes a Man wise CONFERENCE IX I. Of the Earth II. What it is that makes a Man wise I. Of the Earth UPon the first Point it was said That the Earth is a simple Body cold and dry the Basis of Nature For since there is a Hot and Moist it is requisite for the intire perfection of Mixts that there be a Cold and a Dry to bound them and give them shape This Earth then upon which we tread is not Elementary for it is almost every where moist and being opened affordeth water which was necessary to it not onely for the union of its parts which without moisture would be nothing but Dust but also in regard of its gravity which I conceive cometh from humidity because as the lightest things are the hottest and driest so the heaviest are usually the coldest and moistest Besides gravity proceeding from compactedness and compactedness from moisture it seemeth that moisture is the cause of gravity Which is prov'd again by the dissolution of mixt Bodies whereby we may judge of their composition For the heaviest Bodies which are easily dissolvable are those from which most Water is drawn whence it is that there is more drawn from one pound of Ebeny then from twenty of Cork From this gravity of the Earth its roundness necessarily follows For since 't is the nature of heavy things to tend all to one Centre and approach thereto as much as they can it follows that they must make a Body round and spherical whereof all the parts are equally distant from the Centre For if they made any other Figure for Example a Pyramide or a Cube there would be some parts not in their natural place i. e. the nearest their Centre that might be Moreover in the beginning the Earth was perfectly spherical and the Waters encompassed it on all sides as themselves were again encompassed by the Air. But afterwards these Waters to make place for Man retiring into the hollows and concavities made for that purpose in the Earth it could not be but that those parts of the Earth which came out of those cavities must make those tumours which are the Mountains and Hills for the convenience of Man And nevertheless it ceaseth not to be Physically round although it be not so Mathematically As a bowle of Pumice is round as to the whole though the parts are uneven and rough They prove this roundness 1. By the shadow of the Earth which appearing round in the Eclipses of the Moon argueth that the Body whence it proceedeth is also round 2. Because they who travel both by Sea and by Land sooner discern the tops of Mountains and the spires of Steeples then the bottome which would be seen at the same time if the Earth were flat 3. Because according as
entirely to the Will of God who is its Supreme Good who saith to it Eschew Evil and Follow Good The Fourth said That by the word Wisedom is generally understood all that which contributes to perfectionate a Man according to the rational part as by the word Faith we understand Christianity and a Summary of all the Christian Virtues Now it is hard to prescribe a way to such Wisedom seeing it requireth two points namely The Knowledge of Things and Moral Habits both which are infinite For all which is Sensible is the Object of our Senses and enters not by one but by all That which is Intelligible is the Object of our Understanding Moreover all the Good in the world is under the notion of Convenience or sutableness which gives it Amability the Object of our Sensitive appetite which is guided in this acquitst by the knowledge of the Senses If it is Spiritual it is the Object of the Will which pursues it by the light of the Understanding And for the eschewing of Errour in the search of those Goods Prudence intervenes which hath at its service an infinite of habits of the Mind yea the whole troop of Moral Virtues in the exercise of which there is always something to be got as there is always to be learnt in the knowledge of things Therefore every Man being fully furnish'd with what is needful to be wise he is not excusable if he become not so For he hath the seeds of Wisedom in as many manners as there are wayes to obtain it In the Understanding he hath from the Cradle Intelligence which is the Habit of first Principles and Maximes which he knoweth by the Induction of the Senses by the help of which he attaineth Science In the Will he hath the Synteresis or Conscience which is an Habitual Cognition of the Principles of Moral Actions by which he easily proceedeth to the exercise of Virtues and to the acquisition of them And further these pure Natural Principles may be assisted and reliev'd by good Instructions and especially if they who learn have Organs well dispos'd and a temper proper for becoming wise At the Hour of Inventions one undertook the proof of Archimedes's Proposition To move the Earth from its Centre if he had assign'd elsewhere a solid space and instruments proportion'd thereto in greatness and strength And it was prov'd that the Centre of Magnitude is different from that of gravity by many Mechanical Experiments After which it was resolv'd to treat at the next Conference First Of the Motion or rest of the Earth Secondly Of two monstrous Brethren living in one Body to be seen at present in this City CONFERENCE X. I. Of the Motion or Rest of the Earth II. Of Two Monstrous Brethren living in the same Body which are to be seen in this City I. Of the Motion or Rest of the Earth HE that spake first to this Point Said this Question had been in debate for more then two thousand years and the reasons brought on either side seem'd to him so strong that he knew not which to embrace That the most common opinion was that of Aristotle Ptolomy Tycho Brahe and the greatest part of Philosophers namely That the Earth is unmoveable and plac'd in the midst of the World Which Scituation is prov'd I. Because the Decorum and Symmetry of the Universe requires that every thing be plac'd according to its dignity But the Earth being the ignoblest and meanest of the Elements all which yield in point of dignity to the Heavens it ought consequently to be in the lowest place which is the Centre of the World II. The Gravity of the Earth inferreth both the one and the other namely its being in the Centre and its Immobility The former because the heaviest things tend toward the lowest place and the latter because by reason of their gravity they are less apt for motion then for rest whereunto the lowest place also contributeth For in a Circle the Centre remains unmoveable whilst the other parts thereof are mov'd III. In whatsoever place of the Earth we are we can alwayes discover one half of the Heaven and the opposite signes of the Zodiack as also experience witnesseth that when the Moon is at the Full we behold her rise just at the same time that the Sun sets Whence it followeth that the Earth is at the Centre and as it were a point in comparison to the Firmament IV. We alwayes see the Stars of the same magnitude both when they are directly over our heads and on the edge of the Horizon unless there be some hindrance by the refraction of Vapours and Clouds All which things would not be thus unless the Earth were in the midst of the World Now they have concluded the Rest and Immobility of the Earth from the following Reasons I. It is the nature of Simple Bodies to have but one Sole and Simple Motion For if two contrary Motions were in the same Subject the one would hinder the other Wherefore the Earth having by reason of its gravity a Direct perpendicular Motion of its own cannot have also a Circular and by reason of the same gravity it must needs be firm and stable not moveable II. If the Earth were mov'd then a stone or other heavy thing cast upwards would never fall down at the foot of the caster but at distance from him for during the short interval of its being in the Air the Earth will have made a great progress as it happens when one in a boat that passeth swiftly upon the Water casteth any thing upwards the same falleth a far off instead of falling into the boat III. If the Earth turn'd round then a Bullet discharg'd out of a Cannon from the West towards the East would not fly so far from the piece as one discharg'd from the East towards the West because the Earth will in the mean time by its Motion have carried the Cannon forwards to the former Bullet and remov'd it backwards from the latter IV. We should never see the Clouds unmov'd nor going towards the East but as for them that move Westward they would seem to fly as swift as lightning V. Cities and all kind of buidings would be shatter'd the Surface of the Earth would be disunited and all its parts dissipated being not so firmly link'd together as to endure such a Motion Lastly did the Earth turn round and the Air with it as is alledg'd in answer to the former reasons the Air would have been so heated since its Motion with that swiftness that the Earth would have been uninhabitable and all Animals suffocated Besides that the violence of that could Motion not have been supported by Men so long time for it is acknowledg'd that Daemons themselves cannot carry a Man from one Climate to another remote one within that short time that some Magicians have phanci'd because he would not be able to resist the violence of the agitation of the Air. The Second confirm'd this
same manner were the Crown and the Iris produc'd for they were form'd by a reflection and refraction of the Solar rayes and consequently at the intersection of the Iris and the Crown there was a double reflection and refraction Whence at the the said intersection appear'd two false Suns sufficiently bright by the new reflection of which upon the same circumference of the Iris were formed two other Suns of less brightness The Third said That this plurality of Suns ought to be attributed to a reflection of the species of the true Sun receiv'd in some Stars so oppos'd to him that they send back his light and species and the concurse of those reflected rayes causes those masses of light to appear in the centres of concave bodies that reflect them which cannot be Clouds because they are neither smooth nor opake nor void of colour the three accidents necessary for reflection Moreover the Clouds cannot receive his species upon their uppermost surface for then they could not reflect it nor upon their lowermost or interior surface for this cannot receive it unless it be reflected from the Water and then we should not see those Suns in the Air but in the Water Nor lastly upon one side because then the Spectator must not be upon the Earth but in a line perpendicular to the diametre of the side of the Cloud according to the doctrine of the Catoptricks The Fourth said That the Clouds being polite or smooth when they are turn'd into Water and their profundity serving instead of opacity as we see in deep Waters which our sight is unable to penetrate they remit the species presented to them And the same may happen in the Air when it is condens'd Whence as Aristotle reports many have seen their own Images in the Air and some affirm that they have seen whole Cities so particularly Avignon The Fifth said That the Viscosity into which the aqueousness of those Clouds had degenerated when those four Parhelij appear'd at Rome was the cause not onely of their appearance but also of their subsistence at mid-day To the which also more concocted and condens'd must those three Suns ascrib'd which were observ'd in Spain Anno 753. for the space of three years and the three others that appear'd over the City of Theodosia on the twenty ninth of October 1596. from Sun-rise to Sun-set The Sixt said That all these difficulties inclin'd him to attribute Parhelij to one or more Clouds round and resplendent like the Sun For what unlikelihood is there that an unctuous exhalation may be elevated in the Air in a round figure which being inflam'd on all sides equally may represent by its light that of the Sun seeing Nature is much more ingenious then Art which represents him at pleasure by artificial fires and we behold even from the surface of the Earth up to the Orbes of the Planets igneous bodies of all figures and colours and those of very long continuance II. Whether any Love be without self interest Upon the Second Point the First said That 't is not without a mystery that Plato in his Convivium makes two Cupids one the Son of Venus Coelestial the other the Son of the common or Terrestrial Venus intimating thereby that there are two sorts of Love one vile and abject which is that of Concupiscence whereby a Man loves that which is agreeable to him for his own interest the other divine and perfect wherewith we love a thing for it self which kind is very rare And therefore Hesiod makes it to be born of the Chaos and the Earth to intimate that it is difficult to meet any that is pure and without any interest The Ancients have also made two Loves one of Plenty Abundance by which the Perfect loves the Imperfect to communicate thereunto what it wanteth the other of Indigence which the Defective hath towards the Perfect that it may be made perfect by it The former is that of God towards his Creatures the latter that of Creatures towards God And as for that which is found between Creatures it is more or less excellent according as it partaketh of the one or the other But to speak generally it is more noble to be lov'd then to love as it is more excellent to be sought to then to seek to another to give then to receive The Second said That there are two sorts of Love the one of Friendship the other of Desire The former causeth us to love things because they are worthy of it the latter because they are convenient for us The first is not onely possible but more natural then the second For the Love of Friendship is direct that of Concupiscence is onely by reflection Now that which is direct is in the date of Nature before the reflected the stroke is before the rebound the voice before the Echo and the Ray before the reverberation For Reflection is a re-plication or re-doubling of a thing That the Love of Desire is such I manifest It is with our Knowledge as with our Love A Man knows himself less easily then he doth others because he knows all things else by a direct action and himself by reflection He sees every thing directly but he cannot see himself saving in a Looking-glass And for that nothing enters into him but passeth through the Senses it is requisite that that which is in him come forth to re-enter again by the Senses and pass into the Mind For all Knowledge is by Assimilation as that I may see the pupil of my Eye must have the Image of the thing which I would see and so become like to it Now all resemblance is between things that are distinct So that if the Mind of Man is to know any thing of it self that thing must be abstracted and sever'd from him that it may be made like to him and consequently cannot enter into his Knowledge but by reflection in which the species loseth of its virtue as we see in the Echo which is never so natural as the voice which it imitates nor the Object in the Looking-glass as the first Object The case is the same in Love For by it we love things before we desire them Which is evident both in respect to the Object and also to the Act of Love Its Object Good includeth two things First its Nature of Good which is an Entity consider'd in it as conducing to the perfection of the thing wherein it is And Secondly its communicability or relation to other things capable of receiving its diffusion The former is the foundation and efficient emanative cause of the other which is onely a Propriety and consequently less natural because posterior and subservient to the former Moreover Love taken as an act of the Will hath the same effect according to which it is defin'd an adequateness conformity and correspondence of our heart to the thing and an approbation and complacency in the goodness which is in the Object which our Mind judging good
the dead and into which they return But the most common and us'd throughout all Europe is Black which also was always worne by the Romans when they went into Mourning except during sixty years that they wore white The wearing of Mourning continu'd ten moneths at Rome the Athenians wore it but one moneth the Spartans no more but eleven dayes The reason why they have all chosen Black for denoting Sadness is because Black is the privation of White and proceedeth from the defect of Light so Death is the privation of Life and Light Possibly too the reason why the Cypress Tree was esteem'd a Funeral Tree was because the leaves were of a dark Green and the Nutts tincture Black and being cut it never puts forth again as also Beans were in regard of the blackness which appears in them and their flowers The Second said That Experience shews us sufficiently that the Black colour doth not onely put us in Mind of our griefs and sadnesses pass'd but also is apt excite new This is known to the Senses and unknown to Reason by a certain Divine Appointment which hath caus'd that what is manifest to the one is hidden to the other As appears for that nothing is so natural to the Sense of Seeing as Light and Colours But yet there is nothing in which our Mind sooner finds its weakness then in the enquiry into the Nature and properties of Colours and Light Now there are two sorts of blackness the one Internal when the Soul turning it self towards the Images upon report of which a judgement is made if that Image is Black and deform'd the Soul must conceive that the Objects represented by it are so also and thence ariseth horror and sadness the other external for the explicating of which I must crave leave to deflect a little from the ordinary opinion touching the Nature of Colours I affirm that Colour and Light are one and the same thing and differ onely in regard of the Subject so that the lustre of a simple Body is Light but the lustre of a mixt Body is call'd Colour By which account Light is the Colour of a simple Body and Colour is the Light of a mixt Body Whence Mixts approaching nearest to the simplicity of the Element predominant in them are all Luminous as precious stones which are a simple Earth and without mixture of other Element and rotten Wood which having lost the little Air and Fire it had its humidity also being absum'd by the putrefaction and there remaining nothing almost but Earth you see how it keeps its splendour amidst the darkness of the night And this in my conceit is the meaning of what Moses saith when he saith that God created the Light before the Sun For God having created the Elements in their natural purity they were sometimes in that state before mixture the Earth appeared not but the Water cover'd its whole Surface Every Element was in its own place and the purity of its Nature for which reason they had then their first Colour which is splendour But as soon as God had mingled them for the forming of Mixts their Light became clouded and chang'd into Colour And hence it was necessary to form a Sun in Heaven far from all sort of mixture and composition to the end he might alwayes preserve his Light and enlighten the world therewith The Fire preserves it self the most of all in its purity by reason of its great activity which consumes what ever approaches near it The other Elements would do so too if they could preserve themselves in their purity as well as the Fire But because they would be unprofitable should they remain such it is necessary that they be mingled one with another as well to serve for the production of Compounds as for their Aliment and several uses Hence their Light becomes chang'd into Colour which is nothing else but a Light extinguish'd more or less and accordingly we see some Colours more luminous then others The White is still wholly luminous the Red wholly resplendent the Green less and the Brown begins to grow dark Lastly the Black is nothing but Light wholly extinct and a kind of darkness and consequently hath nothing of reality but is a pure Privation which our Eyes perceive not As our Ear discerneth or perceiveth not silence but onely by not hearing any sound so neither doth the Sight behold Black and darkness but when it sees neither Colour nor Light So that to hear Silence and see darkness is to speak properly a vain attempt of the Soul which would fain exert its action of seeing and hearing and cannot Hence ariseth the sadness and terror which a deep silence and the sight of extreme blackness and darkness excites in the Soul For the Soul knows well that Life is nothing else but Exercise of its Faculties of which as soon as any thing is depriv'd there remains nothing to be expected but death She would fain exert her action and cannot she distinguishes not whether it be through default of the Object or whether her Faculty be lost but she finds a privation of her actions and represents to her self to be in the state of Death whence ariseth Sadness and Fear For as our Soul dreadeth nothing so much as Death so the least suspition the least sign and umbrage of Death is apt to put her into great dejection And this makes way for the Second Reason why the Soul becomes sad at the sight of a black Colour namely because it never appears in the Body but Death is at hand For this Colour is produc'd by the mortification and extinction of the Spirits as a Gangrene which is either caus'd by Adustion whereby Coals become black or by extreme coldness thus Old Men are of a leaden Colour tending to blackness Now the excess of heat and coldness is equally contrary to Life Wherefore as often as the Soul perceives blackness either in her own Body or in another she remembers the Qualities which produc'd it and are contrary to Life which she loves hence ariseth sadness And hence also it is that we naturally love a Countenance well proportion'd with an agreeable Colour wherein there is found a redness mingled with whiteness bright and lively with Spirits which is nothing else but an effect of the Love which our Soul bears to Life For knowing this to be the Colour of Health it affects the same even in another as on the other side it abhorreth Death Look upon a living Body it is full of brightness but a dead one is gloomy and dismal and at the instant that the Soul parts from the Body a dark shade seemes as it were to veil the Countenance Now that the Soul may understand it must become like to its Object Whence Aristotle said that the Intellect is potentially all things forasmuch as it can form it self into as many shapes as there are Objects So then it will perceive blackness it must become conformable to Black which it
the latter hath not As we see paltry Pedlars that have all their shop in a pack hanging about their necks make ten times more noise then the best whole-sale Trades-men whose store-houses are fill'd with all sort of wares And amongst all Nations they who lie most are most offended with the Lie They who drink most are most offended with the name of Drunkard Wherefore since according to Aristotle 't is the truth and not the number or quality of the honourers which constitutes the true Honour which they arrogate most in whom the substance is least found it follows that what we call the Point of Honour is nothing but the appearance or shadow thereof The Fourth said The Point of Honour is nothing but a Desire we have to make our selves esteem'd such as we are Wherefore when a quality which belongs not to us is taken from us we are far from being so much concern'd as if it pertain'd to us So a Gentleman who makes profession of Valour will be offended if he be called Poltron but a Capuchin will not knowing well that that Virtue is not necessary to Christian Perfection The Fifth said That Honour according to the common opinion being the testimony which Men give us of our virtuous actions the Point of Honour is that conceit which our Mind proposes and formes to it self of that opinion Whence it follows that the Point of Honour thus taken being an Abstract which our Mind draws from things and not the things themselves there is nothing of reality in it but it is a pure Imagination which alters according to the diversity of times places and persons Such a thing was anciently honest i. e. laudable and becomming which is not so at present Whereof the Modes and Customs of the times past compar'd with those at this day are a sufficient evidence It was honourable at Rome to burn dead Bodies and shameful to all others saving to the single family of the Cornelii to bury them At this day to inter them is honourable but to burn them the most infamous of punishments It was in Lacedaemon an honourable thing to steal dextrously and now the reward of the craftiest Cut-purse is a Halter One thing is honest i. e. seemly in one age as for Children to blush which is dishonest i. e. unseemly in another as for old Men to do so Yea one Man will sometimes construe a thing within the Point of Honour which another will not And we sometimes conceive our selves interessed in one and the same thing and sometimes not Moreover though the Point of Honour should not admit all these mutations yet depending upon the imagination of another there can be nothing of reality in it And therefore the true Point of Honour consists not in the opinion which others have of us but in the exercise of honest and virtuous actions whether acknowledg'd for such or not yea though they be despis'd or punish'd it is sufficient to render such actions honourable that the Conscience alone judge of their goodness CONFERENCE XX. I. Of the Original of Fountains II. Whether there be a commendable Ambition I. Of the Original of Fountains THe First said That Springs and Rivers come from the Sea otherwise it would receive a great augmentation by the daily addition of their streams if it should not suffer an equal diminution by their derivation from it Therefore the Wise-man saith All Rivers go into the Sea and the Sea is not increased thereby and afterwards they return to the place from whence they came that they may go forth again Yea it would be a perpetual Miracle if after about six thousand years since the Creation of the World the Sea were not grown bigger by all the great Rivers it receives seeing the Danubius alone were it stop'd but during one year would be sufficient to drown all Europe But how can the Water of its own nature heavy and unactive especially that of the Sea be carried up to the highest Mountains As we see the L' Isere and the Durance and other Rivers descend from the tops of the Alps upon which there are Lakes and Springs in great number as in Mont-Cenis Saint Bernard and Saint Godart This proceeds from the gravity of the Earth which alwayes inclining towards its own centre bears upon the Sea and so pressing upon the Water causeth it to rise up into the veins and passages of the Earth a resemblance whereof is seen in Pumps by which passages it is strain'd and depriv'd of its saltness Which quality is easily separable from sea-Sea-water for upon the shores of Africa there are pits of fresh Water which cannot come from elsewhere And if Water mingled with Wine be separated from the same by a cup made of Ivy wood why not the saltness of the Water too Thence also it is that Springs retain the qualities of the places through which they pass having put off those which they deriv'd from their Original The Second said That the Waters are carried upwards by the virtue of the Coelestial Bodies which attract the same without any violence it being in a manner natural to Inferior Bodies to obey the Superior and follow the motion which they impress upon them Unless we had rather ascribe this effect to God who having for the common good of all the world caus'd the Water in the beginning to ascend to the highest places it hath alwayes follow'd that same motion by natural consecution and the fear of that Vacuity And of this we have a small instance in the experiment of Syphons The Third said He conceiv'd with Aristotle that Springs are generated in cavities and large spaces of the Middle Region of the Earth which Nature who abhorreth Vacuity fills with Air insinuated thereinto by the pores and chinks and condensed afterwards by the coldness of the Earth Which coldness is so much the greater as that Region is remote from all external agents which might alter it This condensed Air is resolv'd into drops of Water and these drops soon after descending by their own weight into one and the same place glide along till they meet with others like themselves and so give beginning to a Spring For as of many Springs uniting their streams a great River is made so of many drops of Water is made a Spring Hence it comes to pass that we ordinarily find Springs in Mountains and high places as being most hollow and full of Air which becomes condens'd and resolv'd into Water so much the more easily as the Mountains are nearer the Middle Region of the Air apt by its vapourous quality to be turn'd into Water as well in those Gavities as in the Clouds or else because they are most expos'd to the coldest Winds and usually cover'd with Snow The Fourth said That there is no transformation of Elements and therefore Air cannot be turn'd into Water For whereas we see drops of Water fall from the surface of Marble or Glass 't is not that the Air is turn'd
which hath sometimes conferr'd the Scepter in elective Kingdoms And our Saviour amidst all the infirmities of our nature caus'd to shine in himself the most perfect beauty that ever was in the rest of mankind Now several beautiful things gratifie variously White is esteem'd amongst Northern Nations because there issues out of white bodies a certain brightness or light agreeable to the eyes of those people But the same colour loseth that pre-eminence proportionably to a nearer approach toward the South CONFERENCE XXVII I. Whether the World grows old II. Of Jealousie I. Whether the World grows old WEre we in those Commonwealths where the voice of the people is admitted this Question would be very easie to resolve there being no body but proclaims that the world is declining and thinks that we are now in the very dregs of Time 'T is the ordinary discourse of old men But possibly herein they resemble the old woman who when she was grown blind said the Sky was overcast or those who sailing from the shore think that the earth retreats back while 't is themselves that are in motion These good people no longer finding the same gust and pleasure in the delights of the world that they found in their youth lay the fault upon the world instead of imputing the same to themselves Indeed their accusation is too old to be receivable having been from all time which made Horace say that to represent an old man right he must be introduc'd praising the time past Yet we may give their reasons the hearing They affirm that every thing which hath had a beginning and must have an end grows old That since all the parts of the world are variously corrupted the same ought to be believ'd of the whole That as for the Heavens all the observations of Ptolomy are found at this day false unless they be rectifi'd by the addition of certain motions of Trepidation which cause all the rest to vary In the Air the inconstancy of it and the irregularity of the Seasons makes us not know when we are sure of any the Spring sometimes appearing in Winter as at present and Winter in Autumn In the Sea you see it dismembers Provinces gains and loses whole Countries by its inundations and recessions And as for the Earth it is very probably shown that in time it must naturally return to its first state in which it was all cover'd with water and consequently void of men and most part of animals and plants which make the three noblest parts of the Universe For they who endeavour the raising of low grounds know that the same is accomplish'd by giving entrance to the slime which the water brings thither and which gathers together at the bottom whence it comes to pass that Valleys through which torrents and brooks of rain-water pass grow hollower daily the impetuousness of the water sweeping the surface of the earth into rivers and thence into the Sea Wherefore though the world should not end by Conflagration as it must do since all the rain-rain-waters those of rivers and brooks go into the Sea and carry thither with them the upper parts of the Earth which is that that makes the waters so troubled and muddy it is necessary that this earth in time fill up the cavities of the Sea and reduce it to exact roundness and then the water having no longer any channel must as necessarily cover the whole surface of the earth excepting perhaps some points of rocks which will decay and fall down in time as about fifteen years ago a mountain in Suizzerland by its fall crush'd under its ruines the Town of Pleurs which by that means made good the importance of its name And although this may not come to pass till after divers thousands of years if the world should last so long yet it is not the less feasible since it is a doing at the present though by little and little The second said That since the end of the world is to be supernatural it shall not proceed from old age that though the earth were all cover'd over with waters yet the world would not perish for all that since the Elements would subsist yea the same earth and the winds by succession of time would come to imbibe and dry up those waters and so again discover the face of the earth That if one of the Elements be diminish'd another increases if the water evaporate the air is augmented if the air be condens'd it addes to the water and so the world cannot fail by all the alterations and changes which happen in simple and mixt bodies For its order consists in the alternative succession of various dispositions and not in one sole disposition like a circle which being finite in its parts is infinite in its whole Moreover if the world perish it must be either by the annihilation of its whole or of its parts or else by their transmutation into some matter which cannot be part of the world Not the first for there needs no less a miracle to annihilate then to create and therefore nothing is annihilated Not the second for mixt bodies cannot be chang'd but either into other mixt bodies or into the Elements now these are transmuted one into another wherefore in either case they are still parts of the world The most active of the Elements Fire without the miracle of the last conflagration if you consider it in the Sphere which some have assign'd to it it cannot burn the rest for should it act in its own Sphere which it doth not it would at length be extinguish'd for want of air into which consequently part of it would be converted or if you place it in the subterranean parts the vapours and the exhalations which it would raise from the Sea and the Earth being resolv'd into water and air would always preserve the being of those Elements Moreover the world would not serve at the day of judgement as Philo the Jew saith for a Holocaust to its author if it were then found defective in any of its parts The third said If you take the world for all the inferiour bodies contain'd under the concave of the Moon it is certain that it changeth For the Heavens are not alter'd according to their substance though they be according to their places But it is impossible that the Elements acting so powerfully one against another by their contrary qualities be not at length weakned and their activities refracted and impair'd and particularly the earth wherein those subterranean fires do the same thing that natural heat doth in animals when by the consumption of their radical humidity it makes them grow dry and old External Agents as the Air and the Celestial Bodies which in time undermine Palaces of Marble Brass and other bodies contribute greatly to this alteration of the earth which is the mark and but of actions of the superiour bodies by whom it suffers incessantly This declination is observ'd in Plants which had
of rivers not being sufficient alone to hinder it if the salt did not preserve it from corruption as it doth all other things and to the end that its waters being salt and by that means more terrene and thick might bear not onely Whales and other Fishes of enormous bignes but also the great Ships necessary for the commerce of distant Climates and the mutual transportation of commodities wherewith each Country abounds whereby the life of men is render'd far more delightful For experience teaches that an egge will swim in a Vessel of water sufficiently salted but sink in fresh And the Chirurgions have no surer way then this to know whether the Lixivium or Lee wherewith they make their potential Cauteries be strong enough Now the Ocean imparts its saltness to all Seas which have communication with it Whence the Caspian Sea is fresh because 't is separated from it And 't is no more strange that saltness is natural to the Sea then that many other bodies amongst Plants and Minerals have a measure of it The earth is almost every where salt as appears by Salt-peter Vitriol Alum and other kinds of Salt which are drawn out of pits little deeper then the surface and crust of the earth which is incessantly wash'd and temper'd with water And amongst Plants Sage Fearn and many other taste of salt which being augmented turns into the bitterness and acrimony which is found in Wormwood Spurge and many other Herbs all which yea every other body partake thereof more or less as Chymical operations manifest The Second said Being we are not to recur to supernatural causes unless natural fail us methinks 't is more fit to refer the Sea's saltness to some natural cause then to the first creation or to the will of the Creator I conceive therefore that the cause of this Saltness is the Sun who burning the surface of the earth leaves as 't were hot and dry ashes upon it which by rain are carried into the rivers and thence into the Sea Besides the Sun elevating continually from the Sea by its heat the freshest parts of it as being the lightest and neerest the nature of air the more terrestrial and salt remain in the bottom or else the Sea-waters gliding through the bowels of the earth to maintain springs leave thicker parts as those dry and acid ashes behind which by their mixture produce this saltness and bitterness in the Sea Nor is it to be wonder'd that the heavenly bodies draw so great a quantity of waters out of the Sea for though the Vessel be very large yet is the heat of the Sun able to heat it since it reaches so deep as to concoct Metals in the entrails of the earth And if it were not thus all the rivers disgorging themselves into the sea it would long ago have overflown the earth But to know how nature makes the saltness of the Sea let us see by what artifice Salt is made in our Pits 'T is made by the same activity of the Sun which draws up the sweet parts of the water and condenseth the salt Whereby it appears that it is but a further progress of the first action of the same Sun who dispos'd the Sea-water to become the matter of such Salt The Third said A thing may become salt two ways either by separation of the sweetest and subtilest parts and leaving only the earthy which come neer the nature of salt or else by mixture of some other body either actually or potentially salt The Sea acquires saltness by both these ways For first it hath two sorts of water the one subtile and light the other thick and terrestrial after the Sun hath drawn up in vapour the more subtile of these waters and by its continual heat concocted the thick and terrene remainder which having not been able to ascend by reason of its ponderosity remains on the upper part of the water and gives it that saltness which is again remov'd when the sea-water being strain'd and filtr'd through the earth or by other ways formerly mention'd in this Company in discourse concerning the original of waters comes forth in springs and rivers which no longer retain the nature of their source because they bring not along with them the earthy part in which the saltness consists Now that the salt part is more gross then the fresh appeares in that the former becomes thick and the latter not Thus the freshest things become salt by the fire whose heat separates the subtile parts from the thick As for the second way as the waters carry with them the qualities of places through which they pass whence they are mineral or metallick and as in a Lixivium fresh water passing through ashes becomes salt so the sea-waters acquire and increase their saltness by mixture of salt bodies such as are the Hills of salt as Cardan holds which are produc'd anew like Sulphur and Bitumen in burning Mountains Now this saltness is caus'd either by rains full of mineral spirits which abound in acrimony or by the cinereous parts of the earth scorch'd by the Sun or lastly as things pass'd through the fire taste always of an Empyreuma or turning-to so the subterranean fires likely to be as well in the bottom as in the middle and borders of the Sea as they are ordinarily impart bitterness and saltness to it For as for those who say 't is nothing else but the sweat of the earth they speak saith Aristotle more like Poets then Philosophers And this metaphor is more proper to explain the thing then shew its true cause The Fourth said That all secrets consisting in the salt if we believe the Chymists 't is not to be wonder'd if it be difficult to find the cause of it it being the property of secrets to be hid And to practise the Rule which injoyns to credit every expert person in his own Art I shall for this time be contented with this reason drawn from their Art They hold the Salt to be the balsam of nature the connecter of the body with the spirit for they alot spirits to all bodies so that every body lasts more or less according to the salt which it hath and the salt in like manner remains longer or shorter according as it is fix'd or volatile This being premis'd I should think that this great compounded body the World needing a great quantity of Salt answerable to its vast bulk Nature could not find any other sufficient receptacle for it but the Ocean II. Whether is the better Flesh or Fish Upon the second Point it was said The word Best is taken at the table and amongst food with reference to the Taste in Physick for most healthful or wholsome In Divinity for most conducible to salvation and proper to the soul In Policy for most commodious to the publick For as the word good is a Transcendent passing through all the Categories of substances and accidents its comparatives also do the like Leaving to Divines the
not be made in the Eye but in the Air. CONFERENCE XLVIII I. Whether every thing that nourishes an Animal ought to have life II. Of Courage I. Whether every thing that nourishes an Animal ought to have Life EVery thing in the world is effected by an order and disposition of causes and means subalternate one to another God makes himself known to Men by the marvellous effects of Nature The immaterial and incorruptible Heavens communicate their virtues and influences here below first through the Element of Fire which is most subtile and then through the Air which is most pure in the upper Region more gross in the middle and in the lower infected by the vapours and exhalations of the Water and Earth and all compounds in the production whereof Nature observes such order as that she begins alwayes with the more simple and never passes from one extremity to another without a medium Thus the Plant springeth out of the ground like an herb becomes a shrub and then a tree The Embryo lives onely a vegetable life at first then arrives to motion and lastly is indu'd with reason Even in civil life too speedy advancements are taken ill whereas he who grows great by degrees do's not so much offend the Minds of others and provokes less jealousie Hence also the deaths and especially the violent astonish us more then the births of Men because they come into the world and grow up by little and little but are cut off in a moment So likewise the burning of Cities and overthrow of States cause the more admiration because sudden vicissitudes seem less conformable to the order of Nature then their progressive erections That which is observ'd in the composition and generation of bodies holds also in their nutrition for both of them proceed from the same Faculty and are almost the same thing For to nourish is to be chang'd into the substance of that which is nourish'd Nature makes no change from one term to another by a violent motion and progress but by little and little of a matter capable of being converted into the substance of the living thing as onely that is which hath life it being as impossible to make a living thing of that which never was such and consequently whose matter hath no disposition to become such as 't is to make a thing be which cannot be The Second said setting aside Cardan's opinion who extends life even to Stones as there are three orders of living things so there are three that have need of nutrition Plants Animals and Men. Plants are nourish'd with the juice of the earth Animals for the most part with Plants and Men better with the Flesh of Animals then with any other thing by reason of the resemblance of their natures The first order is not here spoken of because Plants must needs be nourish'd with that which hath not had life unless we will say that the universal spirit informing the earth gives it vertue to produce and nourish them The two latter are only in question and I think it no more inconvenient that what hath not had life may serve for aliment and be converted into the substance of a living creature then that the earth and water simple elements in respect of a Plant are assimilated by it and made partakers of vegetable life For as fire makes green wood combustible by exsiccating its humidity so an Animal may render such matter fit for its nourishment which was not so before Not only the Oestrich is nourish'd with Iron which it digests Pigeons and Pullen with gravel the stones of which are found in their crops smooth and round but also men may be nourish'd with bread made of earth And the Spaniards are much addicted to the use of an earth call'd Soccolante which they mingle with water and sugar its terrene consistence refuting their opinion who hold it to be the juice of a Plant. Yea some in Sieges have supported their lives with inanimate things as with bread of Slate as 't is reported of that of Sancerre And moreover 't is manifest that some sick people are nourish'd with water alone for many days together The Third said Nutrition is made by the help of heat which alters and divides the aliments and reduces them to a most simple substance capable of being converted into every similary part the property of heat being to separate heterogeneous things and conjoyn those of the same nature Hence things least compounded are more easily assimilated And as among Medicaments so among aliments the more simple are the best and make fewest excrements The air doth not only refresh the natural heat but serves for food and aliment to the spirits our best and noblest parts with which air alone as the common opinion holds the Camelion is nourish'd as the Grashopper with dew which is nothing but concreted air and the Jews were fed fourty years with Manna which is a kind of dew for the Scripture saith it vanish'd with the heat of the Sun yea the Manna which is found at this day in Calabria other places is capable of nourishing an animal and yet it never had life but fall's from heaven upon the stones from which it is collected The same may be said of hony which is a kind of dew too falling upon the leaves flowers of Plants and serving for food to Bees who only gather it without other preparation And a sort of Flyes call'd Pyraustae live with nothing but fire as many Fishes do of plain water Moles and Worms of simple earth Antimony and divers other Minerals purg'd from their malignant qualities serve for aliment and they who are expert in Chymistry make a kind of bread of them The Magistery of Pearls and Coral many precious Stones and Gold it self by the consent of all antiquity wonderfully repair our radical moisture by their fix'd spirits whence they are call'd Cordials The Fourth said If man were homogeneous and all of a piece he would be not only immortal according to Hippocrates but need no food which is necessary only for reparation of what substance is consum'd now nothing would be destroy'd in man were it not for the heterogeneous pieces of which he is made up Wherefore since we are nourish'd with the same things whereof we are compos'd and we are not compos'd of one pure and simple element but of four it follows that whatever nourishes us must be mix'd of those four Elements and therefore the more compounded it is as animate things are the more proper it is to nourish Otherwise were the aliment pure it could not be assimilated And although it could be assimilated yet it could not nourish the whole body but only either the terrestrial parts if it were earth or the humours if it were water or the spirits if it were fire or air The Fifth said The life of man cost Nature dear if it must be maintain'd at the expence of so many other animals lives If you say that being
not eat the meat she sees for fear of the whip which she sees not All which he said were so many Syllogismes and concluded with an induction of sundry Animals which gave Man the knowledge of building as the Swallow of spinning as the Spider of hoarding provisions as the Pismire to whose School Solomon sends the sluggard of presaging fair weather as the Kings-fisher the downfall of houses as Rats and Mice of making Clysters as the Ibis of letting blood as the Hippopotamus or Sea-horse That to accuse our Masters of want of Reason is an act of notorious ingratitude The Fourth said Faculties are discover'd by their actions and these are determin'd by their end Now the actions of Men and beasts are alike and have the same End Good Profitable Delightful or Honest. There is no Controversie concerning the two former And Honesty which consists in the exercise of Virtue they have in an eminent degree Witness the courage of the Lyon in whom this Virtue is not produc'd by vanity or interest as it is in men Nor was it ever seen that Lyons became servants to other Lyons as we see Men are to one another for want of courage which prefers a thousand deaths before servitude Their Temperance and Continence is apparent in that they are contented with pleasures lawful and necessary not resembling the disorderly Appetites of Men who not contented with one sort of food depopulate the Air the Earth and the Waters rather to provoke then satiate their gluttony The fidelity of the Turtle and the Chastity of the Dove are such as have serv'd for a Comparison in the Canticles of the Spouse The fidelity of the Dog to his Master exceeds that of Men. The Raven is so Continent that 't is observ'd to live 600. years without a Male if her own happen to be kill'd For their good Constitution gives them so long a life which in Men Nature or their own disorders terminate within a few years As for Justice the foundation of all Humane Laws is the Natural which is common to beasts with Men. The Fifth said Reason is a proportion correspondence and adjustment of two or more things compar'd one with another whence it follows that being Comparison cannot be made but by Man he alone is capable of Reason Moreover he alone exercises Justice which is nothing else but the same reason which he judges to every one under which is comprehended Religion a thing unknown to brutes when Prudence Fortitude and Temperance are improperly attributed because these are habits of the Will which Faculty brutes have not and presuppose a knowledge which they want too of the vicious Extremes of every of their actions The Sixth said 'T was not without Reason that the first Age of Innocence and afterwards Pythagoras upon the account of his Metempsychosis spar'd the lives of beasts that when God sav'd but four couple of all Mankind from the deluge he preserv'd seven of every clean Animal and made the Angel which with-stood the Prophet Balaam rather visible to his Ass then to him that this Animal and the Ox whose acknowledgement towards their Masters is alledg'd by Isaiah to exprobriate to the Israelites their ingratitude towards God were the first witnesses of our Saviours Birth who commands to be innocent and prudent like some of them Which presupposes not onely Reason in them but that they have more thereof then Man with what ever cavillation he may disguise their virtues saying that what is Knowledge in God Intelligence in Angels Reason in Man Inclination in Inanimate Bodies is Instinct in brutes For since a beast attaines to his End better then Man and is not so subject to change as he it may seem that a nobler name should be given to that Faculty which accomplisheth its work best then to that is for the most part deficient therein And therefore either a brute hath more reason then Man or that which Man calls Instinct in a beast is more excellent then his Reason a Faculty ordinarily faulty subject to surprize and to be surpriz'd The Seventh said 'T is too rustick an impiety to use Saint Austine's words against the Manichees who inclin'd to this Error to believe that beasts have Reason since they have not a perfect use of all the outward Senses but onely of such as are altogether necessary to their being Touching and Tasting For Smells Sounds and Colours move them not further then the same are serviceable to those two senses Nor must we deceive our selves by their having a Phancy or Inferior Judgement so long as they have nothing of that Divine Piece by which Man knows Universals defines composes and divides comprehends similitudes and dissimilitudes with their causes They have an Appetite too by which they are carry'd towards their proper Good But because their knowledge of this Good is neither sufficient nor intire as that of Man is who alone knows Good as Good the End as such this Appetite is rul'd and guided by a superior cause as a Ship by the Pilot which cause necessarily leads this Appetite to good as it also inclines the stone to its centre which it never fails to find So that this infallibility alledg'd in the works of brutes is rather a sign of their want of Reason which is the cause that Man endued with sufficient knowledge and for this reason plac'd between Good and Evil Fire and Water can alone freely move towards the one or the other whence it comes to pass that he frequently fails in his purposes because his Reason oftentimes takes appearance for truth CONFERENCE LIII I. Whether there be more then five Senses II. Whether is better to speak or to be silent I. Whether there be more then five Senses THe Maxime That things are not to be multipli'd without Reason is founded upon the capacity of the Humane Mind which being one though its faculties be distinct in their Operations conceives things onely under the species of unity So that when there are many in number it makes one species of them of many specifically different one Genus and consequently can much less suffer the making two things of that which is but one This has given ground to some to affirm That there is but one External Sense which ought no more to be distributed into five species under pretext that there are five Organs then one and the same River which here makes bellows blow and hammers beat presses cloth and decorticates oats or grinds flour For 't is one breath which passing through several Organes and Pipes renders several tones one and the same Sun which penetrating through various glasses represents as many colours Moreover their end is to all the same namely to avoid what may hurt and pursue what may profit the Creature The Second said This would be true if the Soul alone were the Subject of Sensation but when the Eye is pull'd out although the visual spirits remain entire or if the Eye being sound and clear yet some
a simple alteration which requireth not the time necessary to local motion whereby Hearing is perform'd and by this means distinguish'd from vision in which at the same time the medium and the Organ are both alter'd whereas in Hearing the Organ is not alter'd till after the medium Hence it is that the wind helps greatly to the carrying of sounds which would not be if they were only intentional species for visible things are seen as well in a contrary wind as in a calm air and that sounds seem weaker a far off then neer hand The Sixth said Among the objects of the Senses sounds and odours have alone had the honour to be dedicated to the Deity Melodie and Incense having always been employ'd in Divine Service either because the humane soul is most delighted therewith or for that either of them being somewise spiritual and corporeal God requires that we offer him both the body and the spirit whereas Daemons abhor nothing more then Harmony and Perfumes as ill suting to their irregular and infected nature And sounds have so great affinity with the soul that according to their cadence and their tones they excite compassion cruelty joy sadness courage fear lasciviousness and chastity whence it was said that Aegysthus could never debauch Clytemnestra till he had kill'd her Musitian Because all our actions and inclinations depending upon our spirits they are modefi'd and made like to the sounds which they receive by the ear So that if the sounds be tremulous grave sharp quick or flow the spirits become so too and consequently the Muscles which are instruments of voluntary motion having no action but by means of the spirits they impress upon them and make them follow such cadence as they like Hence it is that hearing others sing we fall a singing too without thinking of it with those that whisper we whisper too with those that speak loud we speak so also that the air of the Musitian stirs our members to conform to it and that our spirits are displeas'd with bad cadences as if the outward air had an absolute dominion over our spirits II. Of Harmony Upon the second Point it was said That Harmony is taken for any proportion and agreement but chiefly for that of sounds in which it is more perceptible and that even by the ignorant It s invention is ascrib'd to Tubal the first Smith upon his observation of the various sounds that the strokes of his Hammer made upon his Anvil which Pythagoras also made use of to find out the proportion of his musical numbers Of which having elsewhere spoken I shall only add here that Harmony presupposes many sounds for one alone makes but a Monotone and two an unpleasing reciprocation but six notes are requisite to perfect Musick industriously compriz'd in the Hymn VT queant LAxis REsonare fibris MIra gestorum c. This harmony is either vocal or instrumental the former whereof having graces and variations inimitable by instruments far surpasses the latter but their mixture is most agreeable The Second said Nature seems to have made a show of her goodliest effects to our Senses and conceal'd their causes from our knowledge Musical harmony aims at the instruction of men that of man's body is the admirable artifice of the Formative faculty which Galen calls divine but the harmony of the world puts our curiosity most to a non-plus 'T is the cause why water notwithstanding its fluidity gathers it self into a heap to leave dry land for the habitation of animals and that the earth which should settle about its centre by its equal gravity yet rises up in mountains The air is alter'd by all sort of qualities that it may give a good one to the earth The fire descends from its sphere to be captivated in Furnaces for our use and is imprison'd in cavities of the earth to promote the generation of Metals The Heavens move for the benefit of inferiour bodies in a place where they might enjoy eternal rest 'T is through this harmony that the water becomes thick at the bottom and contracts alliance with the earth while its surface resolves into vapours the rudiments of air whose highest region likewise approaches the nature of fire and this has somewhat of Aethereal and the constitution of the Heavens on which it borders and conjoyns with this inferiour world The cause of this chain and connexion is an universal vertue comprehended in the extent of each being besides the proper motive vertue destinated to content its appetite The necessity of this vertue is a certain evidence of its existence for since every thing conspires for the general good of the world and withstands the division of its parts Nature must have allotted them a power which may guide them to that end now this power is not extrinsecal since it resides in the subject it self Nor is it the motive vertue for this and that have two different objects and ends namely the publick and the particular good which are not always contain'd one in the other Besides 't would be a manifest contradiction to say that by one and the same vertue things expose themselves to the loss of their proper qualities for the publick good and keep them when only their particular is concern'd Wherefore there is one general law which having authority to force all things to contract amities not sorting to their inclination is above that vertue which leads things directly to their own good which is the cause of the excellent harmony observ'd in the whole world The Third said Indeed Harmony is every where between the Creator and his Creatures both spiritual and corporeal in the Hierarchies of bless'd Spirits one with another in the assistance of the motive Intelligences with their orbs between the great and the little world in the latter of which the Scripture sets forth to us a perpetual musick of the blessed in the the Empireal Heaven Plato a harmony proceeding from the motion of the Celestial bodies Daily experience makes us hear in the air a consort of winds the Sea beats a measure by its ebbing and flowing the Birds of the air perform the Cantus the Beasts the Base the Fishes the Tacet Man the Tenor who again in the structure of his body and soul is a perfect harmony In the body the temperature of the humours is so harmonical that their disproportion drives away the soul which Galen upon this account calls harmony In the soul so long as Reason holds the sovereignty and constrains the murmuring Appetite to hold its base there results from it a harmony delectable to God and Men. On the contrary if you would apprehend its discord do but imagine the disorderly uproar excited by choler and the other passions get the mastery over Reason Yea mans whole life is either a perpetual harmony or discord In Religion when one Head is acknowledg'd and every one submits thereunto for Conscience sake and keeps his station how beautiful are those Tabernacles of
others and the Apostle saith Widows in deed are worthy of double honour The Conjugal hath also made Penelope renown'd and hath for example the Etnaean fish of which the male and female never part The Second said Virgineal Chastity is not absolutely vertuous of it self having been practis'd by Pagans and Idolaters who devoted themselves to their false gods and being found in children newly born which cannot be said of vertues which are acquir'd by precepts and good manners not by nature Moreover it may be lost without sin as in Virgins violated or those that are married yea sometimes with merit as when Hosea the Prophet took a Harlot to wife by God's express command And being once lost it cannot be repair'd by repentance as other vertues may Whence S. Jerome writing to Eustochium saith that God who is able to do all things yet cannot restore virginity 'T is therefore commendable so far as it is referr'd to God in which case 't is a most admirable thing and the more because 't is above nature which by Marriage peoples the Earth but Virginity peoples Heaven where there shall be no marrying but we shall be as the Angels of God who being a pure Spirit loves purity above all things The Third said That Virginity is wholly contrary to the nature of man who desires nothing so much as immortality which being not attainable in his own person he seeks in his successors who are part of himself Yea it seems to have somewhat of insensibility the vicious excess of temperance since it wholly abstains from all pleasures some of which are lawful Therefore Plato sacrific'd to Nature as if to make her satisfaction for his having continu'd a virgin all his life and the Romans laid great fines upon such as would not marry as on the other side they granted immunities to those that brought children into the world whence remains at this day the right of three four and five children observ'd still amongst us those that have five children being exempted from Wardships Yea among the Jews it could not be without reproach since sterility was ignominious among them and was accounted the greatest curse Moreover Marriage not only supplies Labourers Artisans Souldiers and Citizens to the State but Kings and Princes to the People Prelates and Pastors to the Church and a Nursery to Paradise which would not be peopled with Virgins did not the married give them being Whence S. Austustin justly makes a Question Who merited most before God Abraham in Marriage or S. John Baptist in the Virgineal State The Fourth said That being things are term'd vertuous when they are according to right reason which requires that we make use of means proportionately to their end therefore Virginity is a vertue and the more sublime in that it is in order to the most excellent end namely the contemplation of Divine Mysteries For amongst the goods of men some are external as riches others of the body as health others of the soul amongst which those of the contemplative life are more excellent then those of the active As therefore 't is according to right reason that external goods are made subservient to those of the body and these to the goods of the soul so is the denying the pleasures of the body the better to intend the actions of the contemplative life as Virginity do's which freeing us from carnal thoughts affords us more convenience to mind the things of God and to be pure in body and spirit 'T is therefore the end which makes Virginity to be vertuous Whence those Roman Vestals and the Brachmans among the Indians who abstain'd wholly from Marriage nevertheless deserve the name of Virgins And Spurina mention'd by Valerius Maximus so chaste that perceiving himself as much lov'd by the Thuscan Ladies as he was hated by their Husbands disfigur'd his face with voluntary wounds had indeed some shadow but not the body of this vertue The invention of Gaila and Papa Daughters of Gisuphe Duke of Friuli was much more ingenious who at the sacking of their City beholding the chastity of their sex prostituted to the lust of the Souldiers fill'd their laps with stinking flesh whose bad smell kept those from them who would have attempted their honour The fifth said That the excellence of Virgineal Chastity is such that it hath no vitious excess for the more we abstain from pleasures the more pure we are And as it is blemish'd many wayes so it is preserv'd by many others Amongst which is first Employment or Business whence Cupid in Lucian excuses himself to his Mother that he could not wound Minerva because he never found her idle Modesty is also the Guardian of it as to appear seldome in publick whence the Hebrews call'd their Virgins Almach which signifies Recluses Moreover dishonest gestures words and looks are to be avoided And amongst corporeal means Abstinence and Maceration of the body are very effectual as amongst Aliments such as are cold as Nenuphar or Water-lilly call'd therefore Nymphaea and Lettice which the Pythagoreans for this reason Eunuch and under which upon the same account the Poets feign Venus to have hid Adonis As likewise the leaves of Willows bruised the ashes of Tamarisk and the flowers of Agnus Castus which is a sort of Ozier so call'd by the Greeks because the Athenian Ladies lay upon them during the festivals of Ceres to represse the ardour of Love whereof they say such are not sensible as have drunk wine wherein the fish nam'd Trigla is suffocated or who have eaten Rue But because these remedies are not infallible Origen took another course making himself actually an Eunuch for fear of losing that rare treasure of Virginity whose loss is both inestimable and irreparable CONFERENCE LXXII I. Of Thunder II. Which of all the Arts is the most necessary I. Of Thunder AS Water and Earth are the grossest of the Elements so they receive most sensibly the actions of the Celestial Bodies chiefly the Sun's heat which exhaling and drawing up their purer parts vapours from the Water and exhalations from the Earth forms meteors of them And as the cold and moist vapours make tempests dew and frost in the lower Region and in the middle clouds rain hail snow Exhalations if fat and unctuous cause Comets in the higher Region and in the lower the two Ignes Fatui if dry and subtile they make Earth-quakes in the bowels of the Earth in its surface winds and tempests in the middle Region of the Air Lightning Fulgur or the Thunder-bolts and Thunder For these three commonly follow and produce one another Lightning is the coruscation or flashing of the matter inflam'd And though produc'd by Thunder yet is sooner perceiv'd then the other heard because the Sight is quicker then the Hearing by reason its object the visible species are mov'd in an instant but sound successively because of the resistance of the Air its medium Thunder is the noise excited by the shock and shattering of the
the campaigne War is the fair where wares are had best cheap and in sack'd Cities commodities are taken without weighing and Stuffs are not measur'd but with the Pike instead of the Ell if any complain there needs no more but to imitate Brennus's treating with the Romans besiedg'd in the Capitol cast the sword into the balance it will carry it Wherefore being Master of all Arts it is more necessary then they For he that is strongest finds sufficient of every thing The Seventh said As amongst the Arts some have others subservient to them as the Ephippians to the Military Art Chyrurgery Pharmacy the Gymnastick and all that relate to Health to Medicine or Physick Carpentry Masonry and others employ'd about building to Architecture and these Master Arts are call'd Architectonical So there is one above all these which is Policy the Eye and Soul of the State which governs all Arts gives them their rewards and punishes their defects sets what price it pleases upon things affords convenient place for the merit of every one sends Armies into the field and calls them back according to the necessity of affairs hath care of Piety and Justice establishes Magistracy appoints quarters to Souldiers and gives free exercise to all other Arts. All which considerations and accounts argue it the most necessary of all CONFERENCE LXXIII I. Of the Earthquake II. Of Envy I. Of the Earthquake IRregular motions are as strange as regular are agreeable especially those of bodies destinated to rest as the Earth is being the immoveable centre about which the whole fabrick of the world is turn'd For though the whole Heaven cannot rest any more then the whole Earth move yet the parts of them may the Scripture informing us that Joshuah made the Sun stand still that he might have time to pursue the Amorites and every Age having experiences of Earthquakes To which Aristotle ascribes the appearing of a new Island in the Pontick Sea call'd Heraclia and of another call'd Sacrea Many Geographers affirm that the Islands of Rhodes and Delos were produc'd by the like cause and that Sicily sometimes joyn'd to Italy was separated from it by an Earthquake whence the place of separation is still call'd by the Greek word Rhegium which signifies separation and fracture Pliny affirms that the Island of Cyprus was by this means divided from Syria and Euboea from Boeotia Histories tell of some Mountains that have clash'd together contrary to the Proverb which saith that they never meet of Towns transported to some distance from their first situation as hapned by an Earthquake in Syria in the ninth year of Constantinus Copronomus of others swallowed up as sometimes the greatest part of the City of Sparta upon which at the same time fell a part of Mount Taygetus which completed its ruine twenty thousand inhabitants of which City were also overwhelm'd by an other Earthquake by the relation of Diodorus about the 78. Olympiade Josephus reports that thirty thousand Jews were swallow'd up by another And Justin that when Tigranes King of Armenia became Master of Syria there hapned so dreadful an Earthquake that a hundred and thirty thousand Syrians perish'd by it Four hundred years agoe twelve thousand houses were shaken down at Lisbon Italy was much endamag'd in the year 1116 by one which lasted forty dayes principally Tuscany Puglia the Territory of Venice and Campagnia where twelve Cities perish'd and that of Pompey was swallow'd up in Winter which season neverthelesse is accounted free from it Four years agoe the City of Naples was horribly shaken especially the borders of Mount Visuvius The common opinion refers these effects to a dry Exhalation which makes the same concussion in the belly of the Earth as in that of a cloud shattering many times both the one and the other when it cannot otherwise get free from its confinement how hard or dense soever the bodies be that inclose it The Second said That the causes of Earthquakes are either Divine or Astrological or Physical The first have no other foundation but the Will of God who thereby oftentimes manifests to Men his justice and power and sometimes contrary to the course of ordinary and natural causes Such was that at the death of our Saviour in the 18th year of Tiberius which was universal and wherewith twelve Cities of Asia perish'd and that mention'd by Sigonius hapning in the year 343. under Constantine the Arrian Emperor whereby the City of Neocaesaria was wholly swallow'd up except the Catholick Church and its Bishop The Astrological causes are if we may credit the professors of this Art the malignant influences of Jupiter and Mars in the Houses of Taurus Virgo and Capricorn But as the first are too general so these are very uncertain being built for the most part upon false principles as also those which suppose the Earth a great Animal whose tremors are made in the same manner as those which befall other Animals Wherefore holding to the most perceptible causes I conceive with Democritus that torrents of rain coming to fill the concavities of the Earth by their impetuousnesse drive out the other waters and that upon their motion and swaying from one side to another the Earth also reels this way and by and by the other or rather that these Torrents drive out the winds impetuously as Air issues out of a bottle when it is filling which wind repells and agitates the Earth till it find some issue whence also come the sounds and lowings which accompany Earthquakes As is seen in Hydraulick instruments which by arificial mixing Air and Water when they are impell'd into pipes fit to receive the same excite sounds like those emitted by the wind-pipe of Animals agitated with the wind of their lungs and moistned with the salivous liquor or natural water The Third said That he could not be of their mind who because water is found by digging to a good depth in the Earth therefore interpret that place literally where 't is said That God hath founded the Earth upon the Water upon which it floats and that according to their agitation the Earth is like a Ship which fluctuates in a tempestuous Sea and lyes even and still in a calm since if this were so then the whole Earth should tremble at the same time which is contrary to experience The opinion of Anaximenes is more probable that as part of the Earth upon a droughth after a wet season cleaves and crackles so the same happens to Regions and whole Countries The Fourth said That if this opinion were true then they would begin increase diminish and cease by degrees nor would they last long Yet 't is observ'd some have continu'd forty days yea six moneths as that of Constantinople under Theodosius the younger and miraculously ceas'd upon the first singing of those words by all the people Sanctus Sanctus c. Aristotle also makes mention of some that lasted two years the cause whereof depends either upon the quality or
quantity of the Exhalations which cannot all get forth but in a long time or are not strong enough to break the gates of their prison The Fifth said That to move the most ponderous Body the Earth requires the most active of all Agents which is fire whose centre the Pythagoreans therefore plac'd in the middle of the Earth because the noblest Element deserves the noblest place which is the middle and for that 't is necessary to the generations which are made there Hence Maritime places where most Vulcano's are observ'd whose Fire is fed with the oylie and unctuous humours of the adjacent Sea are more obnoxious to Earthquakes and the last eruption of Mount Vesuvius was preceded by a horrible Earthquake As likewise the Island Sacrea above mention'd being first lifted up with a great noise and concussion open'd it self and cast forth flame and ashes as far as the City Lipara and some others of Italy Now according to the different matter of these Fires the concussions which they produce by attenuation of the inflam'd Air are different if it be nitrous they are very violent because Salt Petre being very Dry is suddenly fir'd in all its parts and being of a terrestrial nature takes up more room when inflam'd then Sulphur which is fat and aerious and consequently not so quickly inflameable in the whole but only in its surface by reason of its extreme humidity which checks the Fire and when it is inflam'd it takes not up so much room being of it self aerious and consequently needing less space when it is rarifi'd to be converted into Fire whence the tremors caus'd by it are less But when the matter which feeds those Fires is bituminous the tremors are moderate because Bitumen is of a middle nature between the two former Now because these materials when they begin to be inflam'd have not strength enough to make the Earth tremble till their Fire be increas'd proportionately to the enormous weight of the load which they are to move their first effect reaches no farther then to trouble and infect by their vapors the springs of Subterranean Waters as most susceptible of impression Hence according to the different taste smell and consistence of the water of Fountains and Wells some have fore-told Earthquakes as Apollonius saith that Pherecides having tasted the water of a spring in Scyros fore-told one which hapned three dayes after Moreover if these vapors infect the Air too the Earthquakes are follow'd by contagions The Sixth said That without determining the famous Question of the Earth's Motion it may be said that it moves about the Heaven as a stone in a circle it would have the same tremors and titubatious as those which Astronomers attribute to the Bodies of the Planets besides the regular motions of their spheres of which Agitations 't is not strange if Men who are mov'd with it discern not the differences so well as they do those of the Heavens since they who are in a Ship do not so well discern their own motion as that of others II. Of Envy Upon the Second Poynt it was said That 't is no wonder Man is so miserable since not onely the evil but also the good of others render him equally unhappy For if we think them unworthy of it it afflicts us and raises indignation If it begets sadnesse in us for not having obtain'd as much it causes Emulation but if this good disgusts us meerly because we are sorry that another enjoyes it it produces Envy and these several affections are not to be confounded For the two former are not any wayes vicious but oftentimes virtuous and signes of a Soul well dispos'd whereas the last is a grosse vice directly opposite to Charity which is the life of the Soul and to Humane Society violating virtue which is the principal bond of it and when the same is so bright and manifest as not to fear its assaults whose lustre it obscures as much as possible by its stinking breath and black calumnies Pride is the Mother of it Self-love the Father Treachery Dissimulation Detraction and Ruine its Daughters And as 't is the eldest of all vices so 't is the most enormous having cast Lucifer and millions of Angels out of Heaven and by his snares caus'd the fall of Man through the perswasion of the Woman who was ambitious to become a Goddess and who as more weak and proud is more inclin'd to this passion then Man Therefore Aristotle saith that the Peacock the proudest is also the most envious of all Animals The Second said Other Vices have alwayes some sort of pretext Covetousnesse the fear of want and Ambition doing service to the publick but Envy cannot find any because it malignes what ever is laudable and good out of it self herein much more pernicious then all other vices each of which is opposite but to one good as Lust to Continence Pride to Humility But this sets it self to ruine if it can all the goods of the Body of Forutne and of the Mind and so is a sworn Enemy of Mankind Such it was in extremity in that Man-hater Timon who invited all his fellow Citizens to come and hang themselves upon his Fig-tree before he cut it down to build with in one Mutius a Roman who being very sad it was said of him Either some Evill is hapned to Mutius or some good to some other For the Envious looks only askew upon others prosperity the thought of which incessantly gnaws his heart and consumes him by drying up the blood in his veins Which made the Poets represent Envy in the shape of a squinting woman with a dull dejected countenance of a livid complexion her head wreath'd with vipers and all the rest of the body lean and ugly Physitians say Melancholy persons are most subject to it by reason of that black humour which produces and is produc'd by it 'T was through envy that Tyberius put to death an excellent Architect being unable to behold with a good eye a pendant Porch which he had built and much less his invention of malleable Glass and it so tormented the spirit of Caligula that he burnt all he could of Virgil's Works and he could not endure the sight of handsome youths but caus'd their goodly locks to be cut off that they might become deform'd The Third said That envy as vicious as it is hath nevertheless some utility not only amongst private persons to excite emulation amongst Artists and make them strive who shall sell the best peny-worths but also for the State it being held a political maxime to hinder as much as possible the grandeur of neighbouring States And the Ostracism of Athens although a balance to preserve democratical equality was nevertheless an effect of Envy against such as had gotten most credit and authority in the City whom they banish'd for ten years Yea had envy no other good in it but to afford occasion of exercising vertue it were not unprofitable The attempt to
of the Island of Tenos can endure wine CONFERENCE LXXXIII I. Of Baths II. Whether the Wife hath more love for her Husband or the Husband for his Wife I. Of Baths 'T Is not in vain that Physitians examine the nature of the places wherein man's body is contain'd For the ambient air water or earth as in Dropsies hath great influence upon the same Now Baths are either total for the whole body or partial for some members such as the Half-bath where the head breast and arms are remaining out of the water fomentations pumpings and the like This Bath was in such request among the Romans that their Emperors were at great care and charge in building them not only at Rome but even in this City of Paris where the Emperor Julian made one Its benefits are great when us'd in due time and place and its effects different according to its divers composition For it always moistens more or less but it heats cools or tempers according as 't is hot cold or temperate It opens the pores by removing the scurfe which stop'd them and dilating them by its heat whereby it insinuates into the inward parts especially the muscles which by this means it swells up and by colliquating the humour corrects their dryness and repairs the emptiness introduc'd thereinto by lassitude Whence us'd moderately it takes away weariness and repairs strength but continu'd too long and being hot it draws forth the strength of the party too much and causes faintings a cold Bath cools the parts it touches but by accident and consequence heats them by obstructing the pores and passages of the spirits Hence they that come out of this Bath are very hungry and Hippocrates saith that the Convulsion is cur'd by casting cold water upon the shoulders which moves nature to expell its enemy So in fainting nothing recovers the spirits and revives the heart more then cold water cast on the face where the skin is thinnest and the spirits abound most The Second said That those at Rome anciently pass'd through three places In the first where the air was well warm'd like the Stoves of Germany they put off their clothes In the second a little more heated by fire underneath or on the sides they sweat the water which steam'd from the heated vessels sticking to their naked bodies and being thence gently wip'd off all the filth was brought off with Curry-combs of Ivory Here also they were anointed with Oyle either before the Bath of warm water when they would not relax the pores nor evaporate the spirits as in those that newly recover a sickness or are exhausted by labour or after the Bath to hinder the sweat which follows For the oyl stops the pores of the skin and so hinders transpiration In the third place was the water luke-warm or something more where they bath'd themselves afterwards plung'd into cold water or a little less hot which was on the side of the same place to fortifie the relaxed members Lastly they return'd to the second place there to sweat and be rub'd repassing by the first to avoid the sudden mutation from hot air to cold the danger of which Alexander found when being too hot he went into a river falling into shiverings and convulsions wherewith he had perish'd had it not been for his Physitian Philip. Whereby it appears that a Bath profits or hurts according as it is well or ill administred and that our wise Ancestors were more circumspect in it then we which possibly is the cause why it was in so frequent use that Galen speaks of divers of his time who commonly bath'd themselves twice a day the good which we receive from any thing being the inducement to the frequent practice of it The Third said That unless upon urgent necessity and a medicinal account bathing is not only superfluous but very hurtful to men For besides that 't is unnatural not water but air being man's element it opens the body and makes it susceptible of any bad qualities of the air for which reason 't is forbidden in time of pestilence For as Oke lasts longer then Fig-tree because 't is more solid so soft bodies are more unhealthy and short-liv'd then firme as those of peasants are who arrive to ages without experience of any of those delicacies For so many conditions are requisite to a Bath that 't is commonly more hurtful then profitable It must be vari'd according to the diversity of seasons and complexions which Galen confesses he understood not And one and the same day will be of different temper as it happens in Autumn so that one and the same Bath will be proper and not proper Besides 't is prescrib'd to be as hot as milk from the Cow which it cannot be for two moments but is immediately alter'd by the ambient air If it be said that the body suffers well the same variations of the air I answer that it is not expos'd naked to the air whose excessive qualities are abated by our clothes Otherwise every one would be inconvenienc'd therewith unless he were accustom'd to it from his birth as the Savages are Besides the air adheres not to the skin and so makes but a transient impression It must be us'd after digestion we know not when this is ended the body being purg'd which it seldom is as it ought otherwise it excites fluxions in such as are full-bodied and subject to catarrhs It fills the head with vapours it relaxes the nerves and ligaments so that some have never felt the Gout but after bathing It kills the infant in the womb even when it is too hot 'T is an enemy to those that have Tetters or Erysipelas to fat and full bodi'd persons and generally to all that are not accustom'd to it as if this element were not innocent but as the most mischievous things are when made familiar by custom As for bathing in rivers those that swim therein as most do strain themselves more then do's them good besides the incommodities which they receive from the air whereunto they are expos'd So that if you add the loss of time to the rich the charge to the poor and incommodity to all you will not wonder that most men abstain from them and that Seneca chose no fitter place to dye in then a Bath The Fourth said That a Bath being one of the things call'd by the Physitians not-natural that is whose right or ill use hurts or do's good no more distinction need be us'd in it then there is in eating drinking sleeping waking and such other things But the advantages of a Bath rightly us'd have none equal to them First it cleanses the body and gives a man a new skin opens the pores to let out the fumes and steams of the vessels which also are temper'd by the water 's sweet and mild quality It corrects dryness the enemy of life which consists in humidity reducing the same to a just temper whence lean and hectical persons
hunt for profit and by the contentment of possessing what they sought besides the consideration of the subtilty of the Fox and Wolf the trouble which the Hare gives her displeas'd pursuers The Second said 'T is the only pleasure which does wrong to no person but delivers Countries from the injuries and depredations of beasts And though 't is the most laborious of all pleasures yet 't is least follow'd by repentance and instead of wearying those that are once addicted to it makes them love it in excess for which reason 't is prohibited to the meaner sort of people All the Heroes are represented under the form of Hunters as Perseus who first hunted the wild Goat Castor who taught the management of the horse before wild to chase the Stag Pollux who first trac'd beasts with Lime-hounds Meleager who invented the Spears to assault the Boar Hyppolytus Toyles Hayes and Nets Orion Kennels and Leashes which were so admir'd in his age that the Poets translated him into Heaven where he makes a glorious sign as they put Castor and Pollux among the Gods and feign'd a Diana the Goddess of Hunters Moreover the holy Scripture gives Nimrod the first King in the world no greater title then that of Mighty Hunter And the good man Isaac would not give his blessing to his son Esau till after he had brought him of his Venison The Third said That Man being since the loss of his dominion over the beasts by his sin oblig'd to defend himself against their invasion this gave rise to hunting which is consequently as ancient as the world There are three sorts of it according to the three sorts of animals which it pursues in the air on the earth and in the waters namely Hawking Hunting properly so call'd and Fishing Hawking is the pursuit of Birds by Birds and it s of divers kinds according to the diversity of Hawks and quarries Hunting is the chase of four-footed beasts which are either great as Lyons Bears Stags Boars or small as Wolves Foxes Badgers and Hares Both the one and the other is perform'd by Dogs of which there are good of all sizes and colours and some peculiar to one sort of Game Fishing is the venation of Fishes whereof Plato makes two kinds one by the Line and the other by Nets the more recommendable in that 't was practis'd by the Apostles and our Lord himself who was figur'd by the first Christians under the Hieroglyphicks of a Fish with the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which they explicated thus by the first Letters of that Language Jesus Christ God our Saviour The Fourth said That Hunting being as various as men's conditions its variety makes it as agreeable as necessary gunning which is the least instructs the Souldier to shoot exactly to be patient and fits him for war especially the hunting of the Badger who makes head in his entries then fights from trench to trench and at length retreats to his last fort where he practises all the sleights of war usual in besieg'd Cities till he be taken by the undermining of the Pioneers For Pythagoras his prohibition to kill animals is no less light then his Metempsychosis or his reason to forbear fishing or eating of fish out of respect to their silence The objection that God permitted our first Parents to eat the fruits of the earth not the flesh of animals and that during two thousand years none was eaten concludes nothing from a Negative Authority and Abel spar'd not the life of the Lamb of his flock which he offer'd to God then God had done that of the beasts of whose skins he made Coats for Adam and Eve And God's prohibition to the Jews to eat any thing taken by a beast as Dogs or Birds being abolish'd together with other ceremonies Moreover all animals being made for man they have no reason to complain if they be apply'd to that end but especially the hunting of mischievous beasts is profitable II. Which is to be prefer'd the weeping of Heraclitus or the laughing of Democritus Upon the second Point 't was said That in this Question to justifie weeping we have the example of our Lord whom we read not ever to have been seen laughing not even at the marriage feast whereat he was present but he lamented the death of Lazarus though he knew that himself was going to raise him up again And he compares the entrance into Paradise to the gate of a Judge which a good woman cannot get open nor move the Judge to do her justice but by many complaints and tears and he pronounceth the house of mourning blessed saying that GOD abides there on the contrary laughter and rejoycing not onely were the forerunners of the Deluge but at present occasion a thousand offences against God our Neighbour and our Selves Moreover all the Exhortations and Sermons of Preachers tend only to move tears of contrition and some observe in the trial of Witches and Conjurers that they never weep which is a certain argument of an ill nature especially in women and children And Dido speaking of the ingrateful Aeneas more resents his not weeping when he bid her adieu then all the rest For we are naturally inclin'd to weeping as being the most humid of all animals and nature seems to have made the brain only for the eyes which being always moist have also a glandule in the greater corner call'd from its office Lachrymalis which is a spungy flesh full of little holes serving to attract the moisture of the brain which furnishes the matter of tears and disperses it drop by drop lest falling too much together the brain should be left dry which is a temper contrary to its natural one Now as for objects without us 't is evident there is more cause of weeping then of laughter For if we look under our feet there the ground presents it self which sooner then every one hopes is to bury every on 's ambition and afford him but six foot of earth if on each side of us there appear so many miseries that the Spaniards who are accustom'd thereunto say proverbially that they who are afflicted with the miseries of others bear the whole world upon their shoulders If upwards what a cause of sadness is it to see that so great and vast a Kingdom is at this day in less esteem then the meanest part of this valley of tears the earth and to see God dishonour'd so many ways Come we down to our selves the infirmities of the body the afflictions of the mind all the passions of the soul and the crosses of fortune have made those that have most tasted the pleasures of this life acknowledge that it is nothing but thorns and miseries and with the wise man nothing but vanity of which not to speak a word were to be insensible to laugh impiety and to imitate Aesop's Snails who laugh'd at their cost It remains therefore that 't is wisdom to bewail them The Second said There is a time
recedes from a perpendicular falling upon the common surface of the two mediums as on the contrary entring into a less diaphanous medium out of one more diaphanous it breaks and Cones neerer a perpendicular then it would have done had it continu'd directly Secondly 'T is to be observ'd that bodies which cause reflection or refraction are either smooth or unequal and rough Smooth bodies make reflection and refraction with order and the reflected or refracted image resembles its object although it may be alter'd by the various figures of the reflecting or refracting bodies as convex Looking-glasses diminish it hollow enlarge it whereas on the contrary convex Perspective Glasses enlarge and concave lessen the object but both the Looking-glasses and the other represent the Image perfect Unequal and scabrous bodies reflect or refract confusedly without distinct representation of the Image because these Bodies being terminated with infinite little imperceptible surfaces looking every way they also reflect every way as is seen in stones wood and other bodies of different ruggedness and so causing different reflections and refractions in the third place we must observe some prime properties of Looking-glasses as That if a species fall perpendicularly upon the surface 't is likewise perpendicularly reflected and consequently upon its own object as when the Eye beholds it self in the glass But if the species fall obliquely upon the glass it will be reflected as obliquely the other way making the angles of the incidence equal to those of reflection as when the Eye beholds something else then it self in the glass And an Eye constituted in the place where it may receive the reflection shall see the image of the object by help of the glass But if the mirror reflect no species to the place where the Eye is then the surface of the mirror shall appear so much more dark as the mirror is exact that is smooth and more opake the greater the light is As the Eye being in the place of reflection cannot bear the Sun-beams reflected from the mirror no more then the Sun it self but being in another place it shall see nothing but darkness and take the glass for a hole especially if it lie upon the ground Moreover a Convex Spherical glass hath this property that it represents the image very small and more small when the Eye and object are remote from the mirror which is small or appears such In which glasses also the Image never takes up the whole plane of the glass but a very small part of it Lastly Every object which appears lucid and not by its own light transmits light to us either by reflection or refraction after having receiv'd the same from some other luminous object From these truths here suppos'd but clearly demonstrated in the Catoptricks I conclude necessarily That the body of the Moon is not smooth but rough or scabrous For 't is manifest by its various faces that it borrows from the Sun the greater light of the two which appear in her the least whereof namely that which appears in the part which the Sun enlightens not in the increase and decrease many think to be her own which borrow'd light increases or diminishes according as she removes farther from or comes nearer to the Sun whence the diversity of her faces From which diversity of faces 't is concluded further that the figure of the face towards us is spherical convex either rough or smooth But smooth it cannot be because then it would represent the very Image of the Sun to us very small and in a small part of its face the rest remaining dark by the aforesaid observations of Looking-glasses wherefore it must be rough or unequal because the whole face appears lucid when 't is beheld by the Sun at the full and no image of the Sun appears distinctly in it For 't is certain that the Moon sends her borrow'd light by reflection and not by refraction otherwise she should be diaphanous and would appear most illuminated when near the Sun and be full in her conjunction and obscure in her full because she 's lower then the Sun and so in conjunction his light would appear through her and in her full which is her opposition the Sun's light would pass through her towards Heaven not towards us Wherefore as to the spots of the Moon it may be said in general that she is unequally seabrous and the dark parts are nearest smoothness and so make a more orderly reflection but another way then to the Earth the Angles of Incidence and Reflection being not dispos'd thereunto But they are not perfectly smooth because they transmit a little light to us which they could not do being perfectly smooth unless at a certain time when the Sun were so dispos'd as that his Image might be seen in those parts as in a Spherical Mirror The other more scabrous parts making a disorderly and irregular reflection are seen on all parts as if you fasten pieces of glass marble or the like smooth bodies to a wall enlighten'd by the Sun the rough parts of the wall will appear very bright and the smooth obscure But because we know not truly what is the matter of the Heavenly Bodies we can onely say for proof of this unevenness in the Moon 's body that the rougher parts are more hard and the less rough are liquid for then the liquor surrounding the centre of the Moon as the water doth about that of the earth will have a surface more approaching to smoothness as the water hath and this without inferring it compos'd of earth and water but of some celestial matter like to our elementary and whose fluidity or hardness doth not prejudice its incorruptibility those who hold the Heavens solid or liquid holding them equally incorruptible Unless we had rather say that the body of the Moon being all of the same hardness may nevertheless have parts unequally rough and smooth The Third said That he apprehended two causes of these spots First the diverse conformation of these celestial bodies which being no more perfectly round then the earth which nevertheless would appear spherical to us if it were luminous make shadows inseparable from bodies of other figure then the plain Secondly from the weakness of our Sight which as it phancies colours in the clouds which are not in them no more then the Air is blew though it appear to us and we paint it such so being dazled by a luminous body and the visual ray being disgregated it makes sundry appearances therein which can be onely dark and obscure in a thing which is lucid For I would not attribute these spots which represent the lineaments of a face to such a phancy as that of Antiphon who saw his own picture in the Air since they are observ'd by all people after the same manner but the weakness of our Sight may contribute something thereunto For if we say that every celestial body is an earth and that the bright part is
the terrestrial mass and the dark the water or the contrary it will be necessary that this earth also have its Heaven that its stars and so to infinity The Fourth said That they who have imagin'd spots in the Sun had them in their Eyes it being improbable that there is any defect of light in that Star which is the fountain of it but they are produc'd by the vapours between the Sun and the Eye and therefore appear not at full noon and change with the vapours and clouds As for those which appear in the Moon 's face there is great diversity of opinions as of the Rabbines and Mahometans of the ancient Philosophers reported by Plutarch in his treatise thereof and of the moderns The first are ridiculous in believing that Lucifer by his fall and the beating of his wings struck down part of the light of this great Luminary or that the same was taken away to frame the Spirits of the Prophets Those Philosophers who attributed the cause to the violence of the Sun-beams reflected from the Moon to our Eyes would conclude well if the like spots appear'd in the Sun as do in the Moon because the rayes coming directly from the Sun to the Eyes have more brightness and dazle more then those reflected by the Moon Nor can these spots be the Images of the Sea and its Streights for the Ocean surrounding the Terrestrial Globe that part of it which remains in the lower part of the Globe cannot send its species so far as the Moon whilst she enlightens the upper part the Moon being able to receive onely the species of that part which she enlightens according to the principles of Theodosius who teaches us that from the Zenith of one Hemisphere right lines cannot be drawn to the other Hemisphere by reason of the solidity of the Globe the caliginous fire the wind the condensation of the Air and the like opinions of the Stoicks and other ancient Philosophers though erroneous yet seem to me more probable then those of some Moderns who will have the Moon inhabited not considering that 't is too small to make an habitable earth her body being the fortieth part of the Terrestrial Globe and its surface the thirteenth of that of the Earth or thereabouts besides that she comes too near the Sun whose Eclipse her interposition causeth They who make the Moon and the Earth to move about the Sun may indeed with Copernicus explicate the most signal motions and phaenomena But the stability of the Pole and the Stars about it requires a fix'd point in the Earth with which the inequality of the dayes and seasons could not consist if the Sun were stable and in one place Moreover the difference of dayes proceeds from the obliquity of the Ecliptick which is the cause that the parallels of the Solstice are nearer one to another and the dayes then less unequal then at the Equinoxes which cannot hold good in this Scheme But 't is less reasonable to say that the hollow places in the Moon seem dark for by the rules of perspective they should remit the Sun's rayes redoubled by their reflection by reason of the cone which is form'd in hollow parts nor can they be eminences which appear obscure because in this case the spots should not appear so great or not come at all to us being surpass'd by the dilatation of the rayes redoubled by the conical figure of the cavities of the Moon 'T is therefore more probable that as a Star is the thicker part of its Orbe so the Moon hath some dense then others which are the most luminous as those which are more diaphanous letting those beams of the Sun pass through them which they are not able to reflect for want of sufficient density seem more obscure and make the spots The fifth said The spots of the Sun cannot be from the same causes with those of the Moon which experience shews us changes place and figure those of the Sun remaining always alike and in the same figure whereby we may also understand the validity of what is alledg'd by some That the Sun moving upon his own Centre carries his spots about with him For granting this motion yet if these spots interr'd in the Sun they would always appear in the same manner and at regular times by reason of the Sun 's equal and uniform revolution Nevertheless the most diligent observers find that some of them are generated and disappear at the same time in the Solar face Which would incline me to their opinion who hold those spots to be generated out of the body of the Sun in the same manner that exhalations are out of the bosom of the earth did not this derogate from the receiv'd incorruptibility of the Heavens For it cannot be any defect of our sight mistaking the vapours between the eye and the Sun for spots inherent in his body since they are seen by all almost in the same number and figure which should alter with the medium if this were the cause of them and 't is impossible that vapours should follow the Sun in his course for so many days together as one of these spots appears for it must move above 6000 leagues a day though it were not much elevated above the earth Nor do our Telescopes deceive us since without them we behold these spots in a Basin of water or upon a white paper in a close Chamber whereinto the Sun is admitted only by a small hole Nor Lastly are they small Stars call'd by some Borboneae and Mediceae because we perceive both their nativity and their end II. Whether 't is best to use â—â—verity or gentleness towards our dependents Upon the second Point 't was said That he who said a man hath as many domestick enemies as servants imply'd that we are to use them as such converse with them as in an Enemy-Country and according to the Counsel of good Captains build some Fort therein for our security Which Fort is severity and its Bastions the reasons obliging us to this rigour The first of which is drawn from the contempt ensuing upon gentleness and familiarity and from the respect arising from severity and gravity especially in low and servile souls which being ill educated would easily fall into vice to which men are more inclin'd then to vertue if they be not restrain'd by fear of punishment which makes deeper impression upon their minds then the sweetness and love of virtue wherewith they are not acquainted Besides that servants are apt to grow slack and luke-warm in their duties unless they be spurr'd up by severity And 't is a great disorder when a servant becomes equal to his master as it happens by mildness nor was Paganism ever more ridiculous then in the Saturnalia when the servants play'd the masters It must likewise be confess'd that severity hath a certain majesty which exacts such honour and service as gentleness cannot obtain By this virtue Germanicus became so considerable and was
a Gorgon's head a Crane a Dragon a Serpent a fish call'd Scarus or the Gilt-head a Mulberry-tree a Hiacynth Royalty by the reins of a bridle an Elephant and a Dog Wisdom by the breast or the wand of Pallas Concord by a Crow a Caduceus or Mercurius's rod a Peacock a Bee and a Lute Fear by waves a Dove a Hart a Hare and a Wolf All which figures signifi'd other things besides yea oftentimes contraries as the Ass is the Hieroglyphick of wisdom with the Cabalists and with us of stupidity and the same wisdom was denoted among the Egyptians by a sieve which with us is the emblem of a loose-tongu'd person that can retain nothing In fine this Hieroglyphical invention is good for nothing but to make the ignorant admire what they must reverence without knowing it For that which secures all professions from contempt is the use of terms not understood by the vulgar CONFERENCE XCVII I. Of Weights and the causes of Gravity II. Of Coat-Armour I. Of Weights and the causes of Gravity THe World is Man's Palace whereof God is the Architect sustaining the same with the three fingers of his Power Goodness and Wisdom And the Scripture saith He hath hung the Earth in the midst of the Air and ordained all things in number weight and Measure which are the three pillars of this stately Edifice Number is the cause of Beauty Measure of Goodness and Weight of Order which is not found but in the place towards which bodies are carry'd by their Gravity A quality depending upon the four first which by their rarefaction or condensation of things cause more or less ponderosity For light signifies nothing but less heavy it being certain that as the Earth gravitates in the Water and this in the Air so would the Air in the sphere of Fire Fire in the Heaven of the Moon this in the mixt and so forwards till you come to nothing which hath no weight because it hath no corporeity The Second said That gravity and the descent of natural bodies to the centre cannot proceed from the predominance of terrestrial parts in mixts since Gold the heaviest of metals and Mercury which is next it have more humidity then siccity that is to say more Water then Earth in comparison of other metallick bodies God being the most ductile and Mercury the most fluid So also Salt which is heavier then wood or stone is nothing but water cogeal'd and dissolving again in a moist place Wherefore Gravity seems rather to proceed from these three things namely place comparison and figure Place is so considerable herein that bodies gravitate not in their proper places but onely when they are remov'd from the same and more or less proportionally to their distance Comparison makes us judge a body light because 't is less heavy then an other On the contrary Figure makes heavy bodies light causing Leaf-gold to swim which in the same quantity reduc'd into a Globe would sink and an expanded body weighs less in a balance then when it is in a less volumn Which is also observ'd of the thinner parts of the Air which being of a more moveable figure are seen to play therein when the Sun shines clear The Third said That the cause why a broader figure swims or is upheld in the Air more easily then if it were in a Globe or other closer figure is not for that figure makes a thing lighter but from the resistance of the medium which hath more hold in one then in the other Nor do's gravity proceed from the inclination of a thing to its Centre since the Centre is but a Point wherein nothing can lodge And if the Centre of the world were the Centre of heavy things the stars which are the denser and solider parts of their orbs and consequently have more gravity which necessarily follows the density of corporeal matter especially the Moon which is demonstrated to be solid and massie because it reflects the light of the Sun should not remain suspended above the Air which is lighter but descend to this Centre of the Universe For to believe with some that the Moon is kept up like a stone in a sling by the rapid motion of the First Mover is to hold the Stars the greatest and noblest part of the Universe in a violent state onely to give rest and a natural state to the least and meanest which is the Earth Wherefore the descent of bodies is not because of themselves they affect the Centre of the Earth but for that they are upon a body lighter then themselves order obliging every thing to take its own place and till it be so every body being necessitated to move it self the heaviest downwards and the less heavy upwards Hence water gravitates not in its channel although it be not in its Centre because the upper part of the water is not heavier then the lower The Fourth said That Gravity is a certain quality which carries all bodies towards a common point continuing the union of the parts of the world hindring Vacuity by the concentration of all bodies which press one another the heavy having more matter in less quantity For when we see Air mount above Water and Fire above Air they yield and give place to heavier bodies as Oyle being in the bottom of Water ascends to the top not by its lightness but by the weight of the water which thrusts it up So Lead and all other metals except Gold swim in Mercury to which they yield in gravity For in equal quantities Gold weighs 19 Mercury 13 Lead 11 and ½ Silver 10 and ⅓ Copper 9 Iron 8 and Tin 7 and ½ As for the cause of this gravity which some say is in heavy bodies others in their Centre to which they attribute a magnetical virtue I conceive it consists in a reciprocal attraction of the same bodies which draw and are drawn and others are drawn to the inferiour body which attracts with all its parts so that bodies are carry'd towards the Earth and the Earth attracts them reciprocally as the Load-stone attracts Iron and is attracted by it For 't is evident that the Load-stone draws Iron and to prove that 't is drawn by Iron lay a Load-stone in one scale and in the other an equal weight to it If you apply Iron to the bottom of the scale where the Load-stone is this scale will raise up the other the Iron attracting the Load-stone to it self On the contrary if you approach with the Iron over the Load-stone the scale wherein it is will ascend towards the Iron which attracts it For whereas 't is objected that if the Earth attracted things with all its parts then it would follow that things let down in some hollow of the Earth being attracted by the parts above and those below would not descend by reason of contrary attractions I answer that those bodies being out of their Centres the greatest and strongest part of the Earth which is towards
it self and causes them to act and move in the Matter rightly dispos'd As for the Second Like as they argue that the world is finite round and corruptible because its parts are so So also it may be said that the world hath a Spirit which enlivens it since all its principal parts have a particular one for their Conservation Action and Motion the parts being of the same Nature with the whole This Universal Spirit is prov'd by the impotency of the Matter which of it self having no activity or principle of Life and Motion needeth some other to animate and quicken it Now particular Forms cannot do that for then they would be principles of that Virtue that is to say principles of themselves which is impossible Wherefore there must be some Superiour Form which is the Universal Spirit the principle of Action and Motion the Uniter of the Matter and the Form the Life of all Nature and the Universal Soul of the World Whence it may confidently be affirm'd that the World is animated but with what Soul or Spirit is the difficulty For if we prove by Local Motion or by that of Generation that a Plant or Animal are animated why may we not say the same of all the World since its more noble and principal parts afford evidence thereof As for the Heaven and the Stars they are in continual Motion which the more â—ober Opinion at this day confesseth to produce from their Internal Form rather then from the Intelligences which some would have fastned to the Spheres as a Potter to his wheel The Sun besides his own Motion which some call in controversie gives Life to all things by his heat and influences The Air Water and Earth afford also instances of this Life in the production and nourishing of Plants and Animals Thus the principal parts being animated this sufficeth for the Denomination of the whole seeing even in Man there are found some parts not animated as the Hair and the Nails As for the Last Point which is to know what this Universal Soul is there are many Opinions The Rabbins and Cabalists say that it is the RVAH ELOHIM that is the Spirit of God which moved upon Waters Trismegistus saith that it is a Corporeal Spirit or a Spiritual Body and elsewhere calleth it the Blessed GreenWood or the Green Lyon which causeth all things to grow Plato affirmeth it to be the Ideas The Peripateticks a certain Quintessence above the Four Elements Heraclitus and after him the Chymists that it is a certain Aethereal Fire For my part I conceive that if by this Spirit they mean a thing which gives Life and Spirit and Motion to all which is found every where and on which all depends there is no doubt but 't is the Spirit of God or rather God himself in whom and through whom we live and move But if we will seek another in created Nature we must not seek it elsewhere then in that corporeal creature which hath most resemblance with the Deity The Sun who more lively represents the same then any other by his Light Heat Figure and Power And therefore the Sun is that Spirit of the World which causeth to move and act here below all that hath Life and Motion The Second said That that Soul is a certain common Form diffus'd through all things which are moved by it as the wind of the Bellows maketh the Organs to play applying them to that whereunto they are proper and according to their natural condition So this Spirit with the Matter of Fire maketh Fire with that of Air maketh Air and so of the rest Some give it the name of Love for that it serves as a link or tye between all Bodies into which it insinuates it self with incredible Subtility which Opinion will not be rejected by the Poets and the Amorous who attribute so great power to it The Third said That the Soul being the First Act of an Organical Body and the word Life being taken onely for Vegetation Sensation and Ratiocination the world cannot be animated since the Heavens the Elements and the greatest part of Mixed Bodies want such a Soul and such Life That the Stoicks never attributed a Soul to this world but onely a Body which by reason of its Subtility is called Spirit and for that it is expanded through all the parts of the world is termed Vniversal which is the cause of all Motions and is the same thing with what the Ancients call'd Nature which they defined the Principle of Motion The reason of the Stoicks for this Universal Spirit is drawn from the Rarefaction and Condensation of Bodies For if Rarefaction be made by the insinuation of an other subtile Body and Condensation by its pressing out it follows that since all the Elements and mixt Bodies are rarifi'd and condens'd there is some Body more subtile then those Elements and mixts which insinuating it self into the parts rarifies them and makes them take up greater space and going forth is the Cause that they close together and take up less Now Rarefaction is alwayes made by the entrance of a more subtile Body and Condensation by its going out This is seen in a very thick Vessel of Iron or Brass which being fill'd with hot Water or heated Air and being well stop'd if you set it into the cold it will condense what is contain'd therein which by that means must fill less space then before Now either there must be a Vacuum in the Vessel which Nature abhorreth or some subtile Body must enter into it which comes out of the Air or the Water which fills that space Which Body also must be more subtile then the Elements which cannot penetrate through the thickness of the Vessel There is also seen an Instance of this in the Sun-beams which penetrate the most solid Bodies if they be never so little diaphanous which yet are impenetrable by any Element how subtile soever And because a great part of the Hour design'd for Inventions was found to have slip'd away during the Reciprocation of other reasons brought for and against this opinion some curiosities were onely mention'd and the examination of them referr'd to the next Conference In which it was determin'd first to treat of the Air and then to debate that Question Whether it is expedient in a State to have Slaves CONFERENCE VII I. Of the Air. II. Whether it be best for a State to have Slaves I. Of the Air. THe First said That he thought fit to step aside a little out of the ordinary way not so much to impugne the Maximes of the School as to clear them and that for this end he propros'd That the Air is not distinguish'd from the Water because they are chang'd one into the other For what else are those Vapours which are drawn up from the Water by the power of the Sun and those which arise in an Alembic or from boyling Water if we do not call them Air Now those Vapours are
it is now straitned and takes less room then before Whence Water freezing in Vessels well stopp'd the same break for the avoidance of Vacuum Moreover Humidity is not one of its essential proprieties because it may be separated from it as we see in frozen water which is less humid then when it was cold It followes then that Second Qualities being Tokens of the First and the goodness of Water requiring that it have the least weight that can be as also that it have neither Taste nor Smell the most pure i. e. the Elementary of which we are speaking is without First Qualities having been created by God onely to be the band or tye of the other parts of a mixt body The Fifth said That the Scripture divideth the Waters into those which are above the Heavens and those upon the Earth as if to teach us that Water is the Centre the Middle and the end of the Universe Which agrees with the opinion of those who establish it for the Sole Principle of all things Those Supercoelestial Waters are prov'd by the Etymology of the word for Heavens Schamaim which signifies in Hebrew There are Waters Because 't is said that God divided the Waters from the Waters and placed them above the Firmament Which Supercoelestial Waters are also invited by the Psalmist to bless the Lord And lastly because it is said that at the time of the Deluge the windows of Heaven were opened The Sixth said That the gravity of those Supercoelestial Waters would not suffer them to remain long out of the place destinated to that Element which is below the Air And therefore it were better to take the word Heaven in those places for the Air as 't is elsewhere in the Scripture which mentioneth the Dew and the Birds of Heaven Since also the Hebrew word which there signifies Firmament is also taken for the Expansion of the Air and those Supercoelestial Waters for Rain II. Of Wine and whether it be necessary for Souldiers Upon the Second Point it was said That if we speak of Wine moderately taken the Sacred Text voids the Question saying that it rejoyceth the Heart Which it performeth by supplying ample matter to the Influent Spirits which the Heart by the Arteries transmitteth to all the parts and which joyning themselves to the private Spirits strengthen them and labour in common with them And so the Souldier entring into fight with a cheerful Heart is half victorious Yea the greatest exploits of War are atchieved by the Spirits which constitute Courage the Blood heated by them over-powring the coldness of Melancholy and Phlegme which cause backwardness and slowness of Action For it is with the Virtues as with Medicines which become not active and pass not from power into act but by help of the natural faculties So the Virtues do not produce their effects but by the Spirits But Wine taken in excess is wholly prejudicial to the Valour of a Souldier who hath need of a double strength One of Mind to lead him on valiantly to dangers and keep him undaunted at dreadful occurrences The other of Body to undergo the long toiles of War and not draw back in fight Now Wine destroyes both of these For as for the former Valour or Fortitude is a Moral Virtue which as all other Virtues its companions acteth under the conduct of Prudence which alone ruleth and employeth them and knoweth where and how they ought to act So that what assists Prudence assists Valour too and that which hureth the one hurteth the other also Now excessive Wine hurteth the former very much For by its immoderate heat it causeth a tumult and disorder in the humours it maketh the Brain boyle and work and consequently embroyleth and confoundeth the Phantasines which are imprinted in it as it happeneth in sleep or in the Phrensie and by its gross vapour it obstructeth all its passages So that the Understanding cannot take its Survey there having no free access to come and form its judgements and conclusions upon the Ideas and Phantasmes And although it should have its Avenues free yet the Phantasmes being in confusion like Images in stirred waters it would be impossible for it to judge aright and prudently to discern what fear or what eagerness ought to be check'd and repel'd For all Fear is not to be rejected no more then 't is to be follow'd nor is the bridle to be let loose at all adventures nor alwayes restrain'd The strength of the Body is also impaird by Wine For though Galen and others will have it Hot and Dry yet it being so but potentially 't is as subject to deceive us as that Dutchman was who hearing that Cresses were hot commanded his Man to fill his Boots therewith to warm him For the truth is Wine is moist and vapourous and that to such a degree that by reason of its extreme humidity it cannot be corrupted with a total corruption For this happeneth when the external heat hath wholly drawn out the moisture of the corrupted Body and so dissolved the Union of all the dry parts which moisture keeps together So that the Elements flying away there remains nothing to be seen but Earth alone Which cannot come to pass in Wine by reason of the little dry substance in it and of its great humidity which cannot be wholly separated In which regard it is never corrupted but in part viz. when the external heat draws away the more pure substance and the better Spirits as we see when it grows sour thick or turbid Being then humid to such a degree and our parts partaking of the nature of their food if Souldiers nourish their Bodies excessively with Wine they must retain the qualities thereof viz. softness and weakness which follow humidity Whence possibly came the word Dissolute for such as addict themselves to this debauchery and the other which follow it Therefore the Souldier would be more robust if he never drank Wine because he would eat the more and produce the more solid substance which would make him more vigorous less subject to diseases and more fit to indure in sight and undergo the other toils of War The Second said That it belongs to the prudent States-man to weigh the benefit and the mischief which may arise from his orders So that he alwayes propose to himself that he hath to do with imperfect men and who incline rather to the abuse then the right use of things This holds principally in War Souldiers willingly aiming at nothing else but pleasure and profit Even in this Age wherein we are past the Apprentisage of War except some constant Regiments Souldiers are tumultuously chosen almost alwayes out of the dregs of the people of whom to require the exercise of Temperance in the use of that which ordinarily costs them nothing were to seek an impossibility Such is Wine that though it makes the Souldier sturdy yet it makes him unfit to govern himself much less others Whereunto notwithstanding he oftentimes
In a word where ever there is Sea there is Land but not on the contrary So that taking the sixt part of the compass of the Terrestrial Globe for its Semidiametre according to the ordinary proportion of the circle to its ray the Earth will be found several times greater then the Water the Springs that are found in opening it being not considerable in comparison of the rest of its bulk II. What it is that makes a Man wise He that spake first upon the second point said that he wonder'd not that Wisedom was taken for a Subject to be treated of in so good company since 't is the point which all desire most not onely in themselves but also in others with whom they are to converse But it behoveth to distinguish the same according to its several acceptions For anciently Wisedom was taken for the knowledge of things Divine and Humane before Pythagoras call'd it Philosophy At present it is confounded with Prudence and is either infused or acquired The former which springeth from the knowledge and fear of God joyn'd with a good life is obtain'd by begging it of God and rendring one's self worthy to receive it Such was that of Solomon which brought to him all other goods The latter of which we now speak is obtain'd by Precepts Experience or both Whereunto Travel is conceiv'd greatly to conduce according to the testimony of Homer who calls his wise Vlysses a Visitor of Cities and according to the opinion of the ancient French Gentry who would not have had a good opinion of their Children unless they had seen Italy and other forreign Countries It is also divided according to Sex Conditions and Age. For there is difference in the Wisedom of a Woman of a Child of a Man grown and of an Old Man and so there is in that of a Father of a Family of his Domestick of a Captain of a Souldier of a Magistrate of a Citizen of a Master of a Varlet and of infinite others who may become wise by several yea sometimes by contrary means For Example a wise Souldier ought to expose himself to all dangers and events of War quite the contrary to a wise Captain who ought to preserve himself the most he can A Prince a Magistrate a Master a Father are wise if they command as is fitting Whereas a Subject a Burgess a Servant and a Child are esteemed such in obeying them Besides Precepts and Experience Example serves much to the acquiring of Wisedom whether the same be drawn from the reading of Books or from converse and conference with wise persons or sometimes too from the sight of undecent things As of old the Lacedemonians taught their Children Sobriety by shewing their Helots drunk The Example of Animals is not useless thereunto and therefore Solomon sends the sluggard to the Pismire and Lycurgus taught the same Lacedemonians that Education alone made the difference between Men by shewing them two Dogs of the same litter run one after a Hare the other to his Meat Fables likewise have many times their use But true it is that Nature layeth the great Foundations Whence Cold and Dry Tempers such as the Melancholly have a natural restraint which participateth much of Wisedom Whereas the Sanguine by reason of their jollity and the Cholerick in regard of their hastiness have greater difficulty to attain the same as Socrates confessed of himself The Second said That the true Moral Wisedom of a Man consider'd alone consisteth in taming his Passions and subjecting them to the Command of Reason which alone serveth for a Rule and Square to all the Actions of Life whereas the common sort leave themselves to be govern'd by the Laws And the ancient Philosophy had no other aim but that Apathy That of a Master of a Family consisteth in the management of the same That of a Polititian in the Administration of the State punishing the evil-doers and recompencing the good establishing wholesome Laws and maintaining Trade The Third said That He alone deserves to wear the name of Wise who seeketh and embraceth the means whereby to be in favour with him who is the Chief Wisedom Those means are two First That his Understanding be duely inform'd of what he ought to know and what he ought to be ignorant of Secondly That his Will be dispos'd to what he ought either to love or hate As for the first he must be ignorant of Humane Sciences since they shake and undermine the foundations of true Wisedom their Principles being for the most part opposite to the Articles of our Faith For of the ancient Philosophers the Pythagoreans are full of Magical superstitions The Platonists hold a Matter coeternal to God Democritus and all the Epicureans have thought the same of their Atomes not to mention their Voluptuous End The Stoicks have made their Sage equal and sometimes superiour to God whom they subjected to their celebrated Destiny or Fate The Pyrrhonians have doubted of every thing and consequently of the truth of Religion The Cynicks publickly made Virtue of Vice The Peripateticks are as much to be fear'd as the former with their Eternity of the World which destroyeth all Religion and gave occasion to Saint Ambrose to say in his Offices That the Lycaeum was much more dangerous then the gardens of Epicurus Moreover the Principles of the Sciences do not accord with those of Faith And Saint Thomas said with good right that Humane Reason greatly diminisheth it And that happens oft times to those who busie themselves about those goodly principles which the Poets relate fabulously of Bellerophon who attempting to fly up to Heaven Jupiter angry at him sent onely a Fly which overturned the winged Horse-man So those vain-glorious wits puff'd up with some Humane Knowledge venturing to hoise themselves into Heaven and penetrate into the secret Cabinets of the Divine Providence it gives them up to a thousand dubious Controversies which precipitate them into the darkness of Confusion and Errour Moreover Solomon the pattern of Wisedom saith that after having lead his Mind through all Nature he perceiv'd that all was nothing but vanity and vexation of spirit And Saint Paul saith that Knowledge puffeth up and swelleth with Pride that this Humane Wisedom is nought but Folly before God by which he admonisheth us to beware of being deceived and that if any one will be wise let him profess Ignorance and become a fool since the Folly and Ignorance of the world is the true Wisedom and Knowledge in the sight of God who loveth the poor of spirit that is the simple ideots and ignorant As for what our Understanding ought to know for becoming wise 't is To know that Chief Wisedom and the Christian Doctrine by the example of the same Saint Paul who would not know any thing besides Jesus and him crucisi'd For the Second means which regardeth the Will of Man it will be disposed to that which is to be lov'd or hated when it hath submitted it self
Opinion alledging That such Motion would be violent in respect of the Earth which for that it naturally tendeth downwards cannot be hois'd towards Heaven but against its own Nature and no violent thing is durable He added also the testimony of the Scripture which saith God hath establish'd the Earth that it shall not be moved that it is firm or stable for ever that the Sun riseth and setteth passing by the South toward the North And lastly it relateth the Joshuah's word as one of the greatest Miracles On the other side it was affirm'd That the Opinion of Copernicus is the more probable which Orpheus Thales Aristarchus and Philolaus held of old and hath been follow'd by Kepler Longomontanus Origanus and divers others of our times viz. That the Earth is mov'd about the Sun who remaineth unmoveable in the Centre of the World Their Reasons are I. The middle being the most noble place is therefore due to the most noble Body of the World which is the Sun II. It is not more necessary that the Heart be seated in the midst of Man then that the Sun be plac'd in the midst of the Universe quickning and heating the greater as that doth the lesser World Nor do we place the Candle in a corner but in the midst of the Room III. The circular Motion of the Planets round about the Sun seemes to argue that the Earth doth the same IV. It is more reasonable that the Earth which hath need of Light Heat and Influence go to seek the same then that the Sun go to seek that which he needeth not Just as the Fire doth not turn before the Roast-meat but the Roast-meat before the Fire V. Rest and Immobility is a nobler condition then Motion and ought to belong to the visible Image of the Deity viz. the Sun who in that regard hath been adored by sundry Nations VI. We see heavy things kept up in the Air onely by virture of Motion For instance a stone plac'd in a sling and turn'd round about VII They who deny the Motion of the Earth by the same means deny its aequilibrium which is absurd to do For if a grain of Wheat laid upon a Sphere exactly pendulous upon its Poles causeth the same to move the like ought to come to pass in the Terrestrial Globe when any heavy Body is transported upon it from one place to another Seeing the greater a circle is the less force is needful to move it and there is no impediment from the Air much less from its Centre which is but a point The same comes to pass when a Bullet is shot out of a Cannon against a Wall VIII If both the Direct and the Circular Motion be found in the Load-stone which tendeth by its gravity to the Centre and mov'd circularly by its magnetick virtue the same cannot be conceiv'd impossible in the Earth IX By this Simple Motion a multitude of imaginary Orbs in the Heavens without which their Motion cannot be understood is wholly sav'd and Nature alwayes acts by the most compendious way X. It is much more likely that the Earth moves about five leagues in a minute then that the eight Sphere in the same time moves above forty Millions yea infinitely more if it be true that the extent of the Heavens is infinite and that beyond them there is neither time nor place So that to have all the Heavens move round in four and twenty Hours were to measure an infinite thing by a finite II. Of two Monstrous Brethren living in the same Body He who spoke first to the Second Point said That in his judgement the Anger of God is the true cause of Monsters since the Scripture threatens to cause the Wives of those whom God intends to punish to bring forth Monsters The same is the universal conceipt of the vulgar who are terrifi'd at the sight of such prodigies which are termed Monsters not so much because the people shews them with the finger as for that they demonstrate the Divine Anger whereof they are always taken for infallible arguments Upon which account the Pagans were wont to make expiation for them with sacrifices And most Writers begin or end their Histories with such presages The Second said That as it is impious not to ascribe the Natural Actions on Earth to Heaven so it seem'd to him superstitious to attribute the same to the Supreme Author without seeking out the means whereby he produceth them For though they may be very extraordinary in regard of their seldomness yet they have their true causes as well as ordinary events Which doth not diminish the Omnipotence of the Divine Majesty but on the contrary renders it more visible and palpable to our Senses As the Ministers Ambassadors and military people employ'd by a great King for the putting of his command in execution are no disparagement to his Grandeur That he conceiv'd the cause of such Monsters was the quantity of the Geniture being too much for the making of one Child and too little for the finishing of two which the Formative Virtue designed to produce as also the incapacity of the Womb which could not receive its usual extension and that by reason of some fall or blow hapned when the parts of the Embryo's began to be distinguish'd and separated one from the other whence an Abortion would have follow'd had not there been a great vigour in the two faetus which was sufficient to retain their internal formes namely their Souls but could not repair the defects of the external formes at least in that wherein the matter hath been most deficient As the Founder how excellent an Artist soever he be makes an imperfect Image when his material is defective The Third said That for the passing of a certain Judgement upon the present subject he conceiv'd fitting to make this description of it The greater of this two-fold body is called Lazarus and the other John Baptista Son of John Baptista Coloreto and Perigrine his Wife of the Parish of Saint Bartholomew on the Coast of the Seigniory of Genua They were born in the year 1617. between the eleventh and twelfth of March about mid-night and baptiz'd by Julio Codonio Curé of the place by direction of the Abbot Tasty Vicar general of the Archbishop of Genua and three moneths after confirm'd by Pope Paul V. Their Mother dy'd three years after their birth The first is of low stature considering his age of more then sixteen years of temper very melancholly and lean Both the one and the other have brown chestnut hair They are united together by the belly four fingers above the Navel the skin of the one being continu'd to the other and yet their feeling and motion are so distinct that the one being prick'd the other feeleth nothing The first saving this conjunction is well proportion'd and furnish'd with all his Members The other who came into the world with a head much less then his Brother hath one at the present twice
Hierome speaks in his Epistles desiring at any rate to make a young Christian sin that he might afterwards avert him from the true Religion and finding that he had to no purpose employ'd tortures and other cruelties upon him at length shook him by the allurements of two immodest Women whose embraces he being unable longer to resist or fly from because he was bound with soft fetters he had recourse to grief biting his Tongue in two with his Teeth which were alone at liberty to moderate the excess of pleasure by that pain In fine as Enemies hid under the mask of Friends are more to be fear'd then open Enemies So Grief though a manifest Enemy to our Nature yet is not so much to be dreaded as Pleasure which under a false mask and pretext of kindness insinuates its sweet poyson into us And as of old the Psylli poyson'd Men by commending them becomes Mistress of the Man and blindes his Reason Wherefore Aristotle considering the power of Pleasure counsels him that would resist it not to behold its fore-part as it presents it self to us but the hinder-part when it parts from us and for all recompence leaves us nought but a sad repentance At the Hour of Inventions many wayes were spoken of conducing to the production or hindrance of Hair as also to the changing of its colour and some of the chief stupifyers were mention'd that serve to asswage Grief or Pain After which these two Points were chosen for that day seven-night First Of three Suns appearing at the same time Secondly Whether it be possible to love without interest and without making reflection upon one's self CONFERENCE XII I. Of Three Suns II. Whether an Affection can be without Interest I. Of three Suns HE that spake first said That the occasion of this Discourse of three Suns was the report that in August last upon the day of our Ladies Assumption there appeared three in a Village within two Leagues of Vernevil in Normandy But lest any should attribute the cause thereof to what Virgil saith made two Suns and two Cities of Thebes appear to Pentheus we read in the first book of the fifth Decade of Livius's History that there appear'd three Suns of Rome during the War against Perseus King of Macedonia and the night following many burning torches Faces Ardentes a kind of Meteor fell down in the territory of Rome which was then afflicted with a raging Pestilence The same hapned again when Cassius and Brutus were overthrown when the Civil Wars were between Augustus and Antonius and under the Emperor Claudius But the most remarkable were those two which appear'd under the Empire of Vitellius one in the East and the other in the West I come now to inquire into the Causes For if it be true that Man alone was created with a Countenance erected towards Heaven on purpose to contemplate its Wonders I conceive there are none more admirable then Meteors so nam'd by reason of the elevated aspect of Men when they admire them and amongst those Meteors there is none more excellent then that Triple Sun if the Copies resemble their Original the most admirable of all the Coelestial Bodies Nevertheless Reason given Man by God to render the most strange things familiar to him finds more facility in the knowledge of these then of many other things which are at our feet and that by Induction which it draws from Examples The Sun as every other Body fills the Air with its Images or Species which pass quite through the same unless they be reflected by some Body smooth and resplendent in its surface but opake at the bottome Such are Looking-glasses and Water whether it be upon the Earth or in the Clouds Now when a smooth Cloud that is ready to fall down in rain happens to be opposite against the Sun being terminated either by its own profundity or some other opake body it represents the figure or image of the Sun and if there happen to be another opposite to this first it reflecteth the figure in the same manner As a Looking-glass opposite to that wherein we look receives the species from the former and represents the same And if we believe Seneca there is nothing less worthy of admiration For if no body wonders to see the representation of the Sun here below in clear Water or any other resplendent body it ought to be no greater marvel that the same Sun imprints his image as well on high as below not in one Cloud or two onely but also in many as Pliny affirms that himself beheld This multiplicity of Suns which are call'd Parhelij happens usually but either at the rising or at the setting of the Sun First because the Refraction which is necessary for seeing them is not so well made to our eyes which is more remote when the Sun is in the Meridian Secondly because when the Sun is in the Meridian he is more hot and allows not the Cloud time to stay but dissolves it as soon as it becomes opposite to him which he doth not at his rising or setting being then more weak The same Cause that shews us three Suns hath also represented three Moons under the Consulship of Cn Domitius and C. Faminus as also three other which appear'd in the year 1314. after the death of S. Lewis three moneths together Which impression is called Paraselene and cannot be made but at full Moon The Second said That Parhelij do not onely appear upon the Clouds or at Sun-rise and Sun-set as the common opinion importeth for in the year 1629. on the twentieth of March the day of the Vernal Equinox four Parhelij appear'd at Rome about the true Sun between Noon and one a clock the Heaven being clear and the Sun encompass'd with a double Crown of a deeper colour then those which are seen sometimes about the Moon and are found in the circumference of a Rain-bow whose Circle is perfect Two of those false Suns occupi'd the intersections of the Solary Crown and the Iris and two others were opposite to the former in the same circumference of the Iris. Yet in my judgement this cause may be rendred of these five Suns As in the Night when the Air appears serene we many times see that the Moon radiating upon the Air of the lower Region which is more thick then the superior by reason of vapours and exhalations formes about it self a great bright Crown of about forty five degrees diametre which space is fit for the reflecting and uniting of the Lunar rayes to the Eye and by such reflection and union to cause the appearance of that Crown So also when the lower Region is full of vapours and exhalations which have not been dissipated by the Sun either because of their great quantity or viscosity or else of the coldness of the Air they render the Air more dense though serene in appearance and so more proper to receive the like impressions of the Sun In the
as Imprisonment solitary and gloomy places immoderate watchings Agitations and Motions of Body and Mind especially Sadness and Fear immoderate fasting the use of base and black Wines gross food as Pulse Coleworts Beef especially salted and Animals that have black hair such as are the Stag the Hare and all Water fowle Aristotle conceiv'd that this Natural Melancholy was the fittest humour to make Men ingenious as he treats at large in his Problemes and shews that the greatest persons that have excell'd in Philosophy Policy Poetry and other Arts have partaken most of it yea of the atribilarious Humour as Hercules Ajax and Bellerophon And before him Hippocrates in his Book De Flatibus saith That nothing contributes more to Prudence then the blood in a good consistence as the Melancholy Humour is Galen will have Dexterity to proceed from Choler Integrity and Constancy from Melancholy The first reasons are taken from the similitude which Melancholy hath with Wine I. First as Wine is stronger upon its Lee and keeps longer so is the blood upon Melancholy II. The Spirit which is drawn from Wine mingled with its Lee is far better then that which is drawn from Wine alone So the Spirits which proceed from blood joyn'd with Melancholy are much more vigorous thereby III. As it easier to leap on high when one hath his foot upon firm ground then in a fluid place So Melancholy being more firm then the other Humours makes the Spirits bound the higher and they are also better reflected as the rayes of the Sun are better reflected by the Earth then by the Water IV. Melancholy persons have a stronger Imagination and so more proper for the Sciences because Knowledge is acquir'd by the reception of Phantasines into the Imagination V. Old Men who are prudent are Melancholy Whence came that saying The prudent Mind is in a dry Body And the blood of studious and contemplative persons becomes dry and Melancholy by study Therefore Plato said That the Mind begins to flourish when the Body is pass'd its flower In fine the Melancholy are very patient and are not discourag'd by any obstacles which they meet with And as they are very slow in taking resolutions so when they are once taken they perform them notwithstanding what ever difficulties they encounter therein The Second said He could not conceive how this Humour which causeth the greatest diseases in the Spleen and in the Veins the Hypochondriacal Dotage and the Quartan Ague in any part the Scirrhus and the Cancer and in the whole Body the Leprosie and other incurable diseases should increase Wit and contribute to Prudence For considering it even in its natural constitution it renders those in whom it predominates of a leaden colour pensive solitary slow in motion sad and timerous and causes them to have a small Pulse which is an argment of the weakness of their Spirits On the contrary the Sanguine Humour opposite to it hath none but commendable signes and effects a rosey colour a cheerful aspect a sociable humour an active promptitude In brief all actions in perfection Whence it follows that the Humours of a well temper'd Man being more exquisite the Spirits which proceed from purer blood must be also more more refin'd The Third Said That to know whether the Melancholy Temper be most proper for Prudence it behoveth to consider the nature both of Prudence and of Melancholy and see how they agree together Prudence is the Habit of acting according to Reason Whereunto is requisite a clear Knowledge of the End of Man and of his actions as also of the Means which conduce to that end together with an integrity and firmness of Mind to guide a Man in the election and practice of those means Wherefore it is not without good reason that Prudence is accounted the Queen and Rule of all Virtues and that all of them are but species or kinds of Prudence Whence he that hath all the Virtues and hath not Prudence cannot be said to have any Virtue For indeed it is to Action what Sapience or Wisedom is to Contemplation Melancholy not-natural which becometh such by adustion of the natural of the Blood Choler and salt Flegme is easily inflam'd and being inflam'd renders Men furious and so is very contrary to Prudence which requires a great tranquillity and moderation of Mind for right judging of the End of things and of the Means to attain thereunto Choler indeed makes good Wits capable of well judging of the End and the Means yea it gives Courage for the execution But the bilious Spirits are usually fickle and want constancy in resolutions and patience in executions which defects are very remote from Prudence The Flegmatick have as we say ny bouche ny esperon neither counsel nor dispatch They are dull both of Body and Mind and incapable of understanding and performing well The Sanguine have Wit good enough and gentle qualities but they they are too sensual and tender by reason of the softness and mildness of the numour which ought to be moderated in a Prudent Man But Natural Melancholy gives a solid Judgement Gravity Constancy Patience and Temperance which are the principal pillars of Prudence So then the Melancholy Temper alone is proper for it and of the rest that which nearest approacheth it namely the Sanguine Now every Temper being compounded of the Four Humours that in which Blood and Natural Melancholy predominate will be the most proper of all for Prudence For these two Humours make a very perspicacious Wit and a profound and solid Judgement Melancholy when moderately heated by the Blood and Choler carries a Man to undertake and execute boldly and confidently because it is with knowledge of the End and Means Thus I have given you the Common Opinion But I esteem it absurd to believe that the Elementary Qualities cause such noble Effects as the Inclinations to Prudence Magnanimity Justice and other Virtues For they are caus'd by the Influence of the Stars as is found most evidently in Nativities by which without seeing the person or his temper one may tell his Inclinations But because in every Generation the superior and inferior causes concur together and the temper almost alwayes corresponds to the Influences thence Aristotle and Galen who understood not the true Science of Coelestial Powers have affirm'd the former in his Physiognomy That the Manners of Man follow his Temper And the latter That the Temperament is by it self the first and true efficient cause of all the actions of the mixt Body and consequently of the Manners of a Man Whereby they ascribe that to the Temper which ought to be attributed onely to the Influences And indeed the Hermetick Philosophy assignes to the Elementary Qualities no other Virtues but of heating cooling moistning drying condensing and rarifying Now according to Astrologers Prudence is from the influence of Saturn and Jupiter who preside over Melancholly and Blood according as those Planets reign or favourably regard all the points
contributed not at all to the crime as 't is to ascribe the glory of a virtuous action to him who not onely did nothing towards it but with-stood it as much as he could The Lawyers hold that a Contract made in secret and without calling all the parties who have interest in it cannot prejudice them so neither can what Wives do without privity of their Husbands be any thing to their prejudice Besides if the dishonour were real it would be so every where and to all Men but there are whole Nations who account not themselves dishonour'd by the business The Abyssines take it not ill that their High Priest lyes with their Wives on the marriage-night to purifie them The people of the East Indies permit the injoyment of their Wives to those who give them an Elephant being proud of having a Wife valu'd at so high a price The Romans though the most honourable of their time were so little sollicitous what their Wives did in their absence that returning out of the Country they alwayes us'd to send some body to advertise them of their arrival so afraid they were to surprize them And indeed Pompey Caesar Augustus Lucullus Cato and many other great personages were not the less esteem'd for having the Bulls feather given them by their Wives The Fourth said Horns are not alwayes imaginary since Histories assures us that they have really gor'd some persons as M. Benutius Cippus Praetor of Rome the Ignominy likewise of them is real and to say otherwise is to go against the common opinion For since Honour is in him who honours not in him who is honour'd the reason of contraries being alike dishonour shall consequently come from him who dishonours Now 't is certain most agree in this that Cuckolds are derided though they know nothing of it For as true honour may be given to one who deserves it not so may he be really dishonour'd who deserves nothing less A good man publickly punish'd is truly dishonour'd though he be innocent for 't is requisite that the Sovereign Courts take away the infamy which he has incurr'd A Virgin unwillingly deflower'd is yet dishonour'd by it and the vicious deportments and ignominious deaths of men derive shame to their relations Much more therefore shall the shame attending the disgraceful lightness of a wife reflect upon her husband for being two in one flesh that which touches one touches the other also the innocence of the husbands who are also usually styl'd good remaining intire So that one may be dishonour'd and yet be vertuous as also a Cuckold and an honest man together 5. The Fifth said That he counted it strange that Horns were the sign of infamy and ignominy in Marriage considering that otherwise they were always badges of grandeur and power When one dreams that Horns are upon his forehead 't is always a presage of dignity Thus at the birth of Cl. Albinus a Cow of his Father's having brought forth a Calfe with two red Horns the Augurs foretold the Empire to him which accordingly came to pass And to honour those horns which had been the omen of his grandeur he caus'd them to be hung up in Apollo's Temple The Majesty of Jupiter Hammon Bacchus and Pan is represented by horns Plenty also is signifi'd by a horn fill'd with all sort of fruits The Sixth said Though every one's honesty and vertue depend on himself and not on the actions of another yet the point of his honour and esteem is drawn from divers circumstance and conditions of things neerly pertaining to him which the tyranny of common or rather phantastick opinion have establish'd as marks either to raise or blemish the lustre of his reputation Hence we value those most who are descended of an illustrious Family though they have no other mark of it but the name Because to speak after the common rate our happiness or infelicity and the compleat degree of our reputation are the effects or consequents of what we call ours Now our Kindred are not only ours but are accounted to be our own blood and our other selves and wives are not only so much to their husbands or part of them but they are the half of whatever they are But if a part resent alteration by the affection of a part 't is impossible but the one half must be infected with the ignominious impudicity wherewith the other is contaminated 'T is true all crimes ought to be personal but because men have mistakingly plac'd their happiness in external things instead of establishing it in vertue which they ought to have in themselves 't is not to be wonder'd if having made the principal of the accessory they bear the punishment of so doing Besides for chastisement of this folly their felicity is never perfect because they constitute it in that which is without their own power Let it not be said that since women derive all their lustre and splendor from their husbands they cannot either increase or diminish the same for the Moon receives all its light from the Sun nevertheless when she is ill dispos'd or looks with a bad aspect or is in conjunction with him in the Nodes and especially when she is apply'd to some infortunate Planet she covers his face with darkness and clouds at least to our view though indeed he loses nothing of his clearness or light A comparison the more sutable to a woman of bad life in that the one and the other shine and rejoyce most at distance from him of whom they receive their light and in that they do not approach neer him but to make horns and lastly in that they are never so sad as when they are with him In brief a Cuckold cannot avoid blame either of defect of judgement in having made so bad a choice or of indiscretion weakness and want of authority in not being able to regulate the deportment of his inferior or else of little wit in not discovering her artifices to remedy the same And should he always avoid them yet he will still have the name of unhappy and in the Age we now live in unhappiness or misery draw shame and contempt along with them CONFERENCE XXIX I. Whence the saltness of the Sea proceeds II. Which is the best Food Flesh or Fish I. Whence the Saltness of the Sea proceeds ALthough the water and other Elements were in the beginning created in their natural purity and without mixture of any forreign quality such as saltness is to the water which covering the whole surface of the earth would have made the same as barren as the Sea shores yet it seems that in the separation of things every one going its several way God assign'd its peculiar qualities not only for its own preservation but for the general benefit Thus the water being retir'd into the Ocean receiv'd saltness lest that great humid body coming to be heated by the Sun might putrifie its flux and reflx and its motion much slower then that
considerations which pertain to them in this matters in which they are much puzzled to apply a Rule to so many different Climates Seasons and Persons we may here make comparison of Flesh and Fish in the other three Cases In regard of the state of Physick and the Table All which have this common That it cannot be pronounc'd as to one of them which of the two is best Flesh or Fish because 't is requisite to have regard to places and persons To begin with Policy 'T is true a time must be left to fowls to lay their egges hatch and bring up their young to other animals to suckle theirs otherwise the earth and the air would soon be depopulated which time is usually the spring But being this season and all others follow the course of the Sun in the Zodiack which renders it various according to the diversity of Climates we cannot find a time equally and universally proper for that release of Animals Besides there are Countries as England and Holland so abounding with fish and persons addicted to fishing that nature offering them fish of her own accord and their land not producing enough of other food for its inhabitants the meaner people could not live of their industry unless they were oblig'd by political Rule to live a certain time with Fish and abstain from Flesh. As on the contrary there 's such a defect of fish in the middle parts of Spain that they keep fast with the least nutritive parts of Animals Feet and Entrails Wherefore a general political rule cannot be establish'd but as in most other things of the world we must make use of a leaden Rule and conform it to the stone Secondly for Physick the Case is much the same For by reason of the variety of Tempers fish will not only be wholsome but also appointed by the Physitians to some persons as to the Cholerick whose stomacks need refreshment True it is there are found more to whom Fish do's hurt then otherwise But this proceeds from satiety and too great repletion which would not be so frequent if we liv'd in the ancient Frugality For we see they who eat no supper receive less hurt from fish then others do But 't is always true that fish cannot be absolutely pronounc'd wholesome or unwholsome As for the goodness of Taste that is yet more controverted as depending on the several phancies of men The Second said That to judge this Question well the same conditions are to be observ'd as in Juridical Sentences in which alliances or friendships are allowable causes of exception and credit is not given to those whose converse and particular inclination to one of the Parties renders their judgements suspected No doubt he who had been fed with Stock-fish from his youth and lov'd it so much that being arriv'd to the Pontifical Dignity even then made his most delicious fare of it would have concluded for fish On the contrary most others whose stomacks agree not so well with fish will give the advantage to flesh 'T is true If it be here as 't is in petty Courts where he who cries loudest carries the Cause then fish to whom nature has deny'd the use of voice must lose it unless we maturely weigh their reasons 1. The value and delicacy of Meats is usually rated according to their rarity and the scarcity of getting them and therefore Heliogabalus never ate flesh but on the main Sea nor fish but when he was very distant from it Now Nature has separated fish from the habitation of men and divided the one from the other as much as the water is from the Earth 2. There 's no kind of taste upon land which is not found in the water nor any terrestrial animal but hath its like in the Sea But we cannot say the same of Fishes that there are terrestrial animals which have all their several tastes and this proceeds from the almost infinite number of Fishes good to eat whereas the Kinds of land-animals serviceable for man's food are very few To that we may answer such as ask whether there be more delicacy in Flesh or Fish as those who should ask whether Table is more delicious that of a Citizen cover'd only with his ordinary fare or that of Lucullus abounding besides with all imaginable rarities You have some fishes who have nothing of fish but the name having the consistence colour smell and taste of flesh and the Hashes and Bisques made of them differ not from others But you have no flesh which hath the taste of fish 3. Animals more subject to infirmities and diseases ought less to delight our taste and make us more afraid of them Now land-animals are more sickly then fish whose healthiness occasion'd the Proverb As sound as a Fish 4. Our taste is chiefly delighted in variety Now there is not only incomparably more sorts of Fishes then of other Animals but each of them is prepar'd after many more fashions then Flesh there being some Fish which is dress'd five several ways whereas when you have roasted a Partrich or made a hash Capilotade or the Cook is at the end of his skill 5. That which cloyes most is less delicate as we see the most delicious things are those which whet instead of satiating the Appetite presently Now Fish fills less then Flesh. 6. 'T is a more friable food and easier to be grownd by the teeth then the flesh of land-animals and consequently more delicate 3. The Third said There 's no flesh how delicate soever which comes neer the odour and savour of the little Pulpe the fish Spaga taken in Sicily the Tunny and Atolle of Phrygia of those little fishes call'd Cappes found in the stones in Marca d' Ancona and infinite others so esteem'd by the ancients that they reckon'd amongst their greatest Delights Ponds and Conservatories of Fish which they nourish'd even with the bodies of their Slaves to the end they might be more tender and delicate as 't is reported of Lucullus and Pollio who caus'd theirs to be devour'd by Lampreys Nor is fish less nutritive then flesh seeing there are whole Nations as the Ichthyophagi which have no other bread but fish of which dry'd in the Sun and reduc'd into powder they make a bread as nourishing as ours By which means Fish serves both for bread and for meat which Flesh cannot be made to do The Fourth said That the more affinity food hath with our nature the more agreeable it is to us it being the property of aliment to be like the thing nourish'd Now 't is certain there 's more resemblance between our bodies and those of land-animals then those of fish considering that the former breathe the same air with us and are nourish'd with the same things Besides aliment the more concocted and digested is also the more delicate raw flesh is not so delicate as dress'd nor boil'd as roast upon which the Fire acts more and the parts of animals neerest the heart
or which are most stirr'd as in Sheep the breast and shoulder are the most savoury Now Fish have much less heat then terrestrial animals as appears in that 't is scarce perceivable and consequently are less concoct and savoury but fuller of excrementitious and superfluous humidity which renders them more flat and insipid then the flesh of animals call'd Meat by way of excelience Whence also all hunted flesh or Venison are more delicate then domestick food because wild animals dissipate by the continual motion wherewith they are chafed the superfluous humours which domestick acquire by rest But experience alone and the Church's command are reasons sufficiently strong to establish this truth For experience the mistress of things always causing the most to seek the best shews us that more people eat flesh then fish And the Church doth not forbid us flesh and injoyn fish but to mortifie us The fifth said That the Flesh of Animals is the rule of the goodness of Fish which is the better the nearer it comes to Flesh whence arose the Proverb Young Flesh and old Fish because in time it acquires the consistence of Flesh. Now that which serves for a rule must needs excell the thing to be judged of by it Nor doth the variety of sauces wherewith Fish is prepar'd make more to its advantage then the goodness of the heaft doth to prove that a knife is very sharp CONFERENCE XXX I. Of the Terrestrial Paradise II. Of Embalmings and Mummies I. Of the Terrestrial Paradise THe existence of the Terrestrial Paradise cannot without impiety be doubted since the Scripture assures us that it was in the Eastern parts towards Eden which place Cain inhabited afterwards and is design'd by Ezechiel cap. 27. neer Coran in Mesopotamia But though 't is not easie to know its true place yet I am of their mind who hold that it was in the Mountain Paliedo in Armenia the four Rivers mention'd to water Paradise issuing out of that Mountain to wit Lareze and Araxes Tigris and Euphrates Lareze running towards the West falls into Palus Maeotis or the Mar del Zabac Araxes going towards the East discharges it self into the Caspian Sea or Mar de Sala Tigris and Euphrates run into the Mar de Messedin or Persian Gulph And so Lareze and Araxes will be the Pison and Gihon mentioned in Scripture not the Nile and Ganges as some have thought for the head of Nile being distant from that of Ganges 70 degrees which make 1800 Leagues how can they come from the same place Nor is it to be wonder'd if those Rivers have chang'd their names it being ordinary not only to Rivers but to Seas Cities and Provinces Thus the River Tanais is now call'd Don Ister is nam'd Danubius Eridanus Padus or the Poe Pactolus Tagus and almost all others The second said 'T is with this delicious place as with Illustrious Persons whose Country being unknown every one challenges for theirs Thus after Homer's death seven Cities fell into debate about his birth every one pretending to the glory of it And thus the place of terrestrial Paradise being unknown to men many have assign'd it to their own Country but especially the Orientals have right to appropriate the same to themselves having a title for it Some have conceiv'd That before the Deluge it took up the most fertile Regions of the East namely Syria Damascus Arabia Aegypt and the adjacent Provinces but the Waters having by their inundation disfigured the whole surface of the earth and chang'd the course of the four Rivers there remains not any trace or foot-step of it Many believe that it was in Palestine and that the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was planted upon Mount Calvary where our Lord was Crucified to the end the sin of our first Father might be expiated in the same place where it was committed For they who place it under the Equinoctial Line may find some reason for it as to the Heaven but not as to the Earth But they who assign it to the concave of the Moon had need establish new Principles to keep themselves from being ridiculous They best excuse our ignorance who say That 't is indeed in some place upon the Earth but Seas or Rocks or intemperateness of Climate hinder access to it Whereunto others add That when God punish'd the sin of man with the Flood his Justice left the place where the first was committed still cover'd with waters The third said What is commonly alledg'd That the way to Paradise is not easie though meant of the Coelestial may also be applied to the Terrestrial for it is amongst us and yet the way which leads to it cannot be found The diversity of opinions touching its true place hath given ground to some Fathers to take this History in a mystical sence and say That this Paradise was the Universal Church That the four Rivers which watered it and all the Earth were the four Evangdlists their Gospels which at first were written for the benefit of the faithful having resounded through all the corners of the Earth That the Trees laden with good Fruits are the good Works of the many holy Personages the Tree of Life our Lord Christ the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil our Free-will Adam our Soul Eve our Senses the Serpent Temptation the banishment of Adam out of Paradise the loss of Grace the Cherubim wielding his flaming Sword the Divine Anger and Vengeance and the leaves of the Fig-tree the vain excuses of our first Parents But some Geographers having taken notice of a place not far from Babylon where the Rivers Euphrates and Tigris joyn together and afterwards are divided again and change their names one of the Arms which descends into the Persian Sea being call'd Phasis which is Pison the other which is Gihon passing through Arabia Deserta and Aethiopia which is neer it have conceiv'd that the Terrestrial Paradise was at the place of the Conjunction of those four Rivers between the Caspian Persian and Mediterranean Seas towards Mesopotamia and Arabia And consequently it seems best to take this History according to the Letter there being a place still which agrees with the truth of that description Nevertheless the Objection That the small portion of Land which appears between those Rivers would not have suffic'd to lodg and feed Adam and his Posterity as would have been necessary in case he had not finn'd makes me rather incline to their opinion who think that the Terrestrial Paradise was all the habitable Earth such as it was before sin the four Rivers the four Seasons of the Year or the four Cardinal Winds or the four Elements which is manifested in that the Scripture doth not set down that Adam went to Travel into any other Land after he was driven out of Paradise 'T was enough for him that this Earth was no longer a Paradise to him but produc'd nothing but thorns and thistles instead of the fruits and flowers which it
also instanc'd to comprehend all Vices as Justice contains in it self all Virtues For he who is proud covetous prodigal or a Murtherer would not be so if he were not unjust whilst he attributes more to himself and less to others then is due And for conclusion it was said That as of the diseases of the Body those are term'd the greatest which invade the most noble part or have the most dangerous symptomes as the prick of a pin in the heart is more mortal then the cutting off of an arm and the same puncture is more perillous when Convulsions thereupon befall the whole body then a wound with a sword in some fleshy part without any accidents so Ignorance and Imprudence are the greatest vices because they possess the most noble Faculty of man the Understanding and produce all the rest At the hour of Inventions a Proposition was reported to draw Smith's-coal out of the lands of this Kingdom and in so doing to cut channels for the draining of Marshes and making rivers Navigable in order to the conveniency of transportation sacilitation of commerce feeding of Cattel and preservation of Forests This Invention besides the advantage it will bring to the meaner sort of people in reference to their domestick fuel is of much benefit for the making of Brick Tile and Lime as much of which may be made thereby in three days as is made in eight or nine with wood which is the ordinary fashion It will be a matter of great saving to the whole Kingdom especially to the abovesaid Artists who are here in great number and are forc'd to buy such Coal from England at dear rates The Proposer offer'd to continue the experience which he had made thereof at his own charges for satisfaction of the curious CONFERENCE XXXVII I. Of the Cabala II. Whether the truth ought always to be spoken I. Of the Cabala THat which hath hapned to many other words as Tyrant and Magician which at their first institution were taken in a good sense but have abusively degenerated into odious significations is found likewise in the word Cabala which according to its genuine importance signifies nothing else but Tradition and comes from the Verb Cabal denoting with the Hebrews to give or receive 'T is a mystical doctrine concerning God and the creatures which the Jews receiv'd by tradition from Father to Son If we may give credit to them it Began in Adam who had a perfect knowledge not only of the whole nature and property of things corporeal but also of the Divine nature of the mysteries of Religion and of the redemption of mankind which his Angel Raziel assur'd him was to come to pass by means of a just man whose name should consist of four letters which is the cause say they that most part of the Hebrew names are of four letters in their language wherein the vowels are no letters Adam taught these mysteries to his children they to their successors until Abraham and the Patriarchs But they say Moses learn'd it anew from the mouth of God during the forty days that he was in the Mount where he receiv'd two Laws one written with the hand of God compriz'd in the two Tables of stone the other not written and more mysterious the former for all in general the latter for the learned and skill'd in mysteries of Religion which is that which Moses taught the seventy Elders of the People chosen by himself according to the counsel of Jethro his Father-in-law and they transfer'd the same to the Prophets Doctors of the Law Scribes Pharisees Rabbines and Cabalists The Second said That in order to judge of the Cabala 't is requisite to know what the Philosophy of the Jews was as the Stoicks Peripateticks Pyrrhonians and other Philosophers had their peculiar Sects 'T is divided commonly into that of things and that of words or names The first is call'd by the Rabbines Bereschit the second Mercana That which treats of things by the Cabalists call'd Sephiroch that is to say numbers or knowledges for with them to number and to know are almost synonymous is either Philosophical or Theological The Philosophical comprehends their Logick Physicks Metaphysicks and Astronomy In Logick they treat of the ten lesser Sephiroth which are so many steps or degrees for attaining to the knowledge of all things by means of Sense Knowledge or Faith and they are divided into three Regions In the lowest which is made by the sense are 1 the Object 2 the Medium or Diaphanum 3 the External sense In the second and middle region are 4 the Internal or common Sense 5 the Imagination or Phancie 6 the Estimative Faculty or inferior Judgement In the third and supream 7 the Superior and Humane Judgement 8 Reason 9 The Intellect 10 and lastly the Understanding or Mens which performs the same office to the Soul that the Eye doth to the Body whom it enlightens For example when I hear a Cannon discharg'd the sound comes to my ears by the medium of the air then the Common Sense receiving this species of the sound transmits the same to the Imagination and the Estimative Faculty judges thereof simply as beasts would do afterwards the Judgement apprehends the essence of the sound Reason searches the causes thereof and the Intellect considers them but lastly the Understanding or Mens call'd by the Cabalists Ceter that is a Crown by way of excellence receiving light from on high irradiates the Intellect and this all the other Faculties And these are the degrees of Cabalistical knowledge In the other parts of their Philosophy they treat of the fifty gates of light Whereof the 1. is the Divine Essence the Symbol of which is the Tetragrammaton and ineffable name of God The 2. gate is the Archetypal World the knowledge of which two gates they say was hid even to Moses The 3. is the Earth 4. Matter 5. Vacuum or Privation 6. The Abysse 7. The Fire 8. The Air 9. The Water 10. The Light 11. The Day 12. Accidents 13. The Night 14. The Evening 15. The Morning And after many other things they constitute Man for the 50th gate To arrive to the knowledge of these 50 gates they have invented 32 Flambeaux or Torches to guide them into the secrets contained therein which they call the paths of Wisdom namely the Intelligence miraculous or occult Intelligence sanctifying resplendent pure dispositive eternal corporeal c. The Theological Cabala treats of God and Angles Of God by expounding the names of 12 and 42 letters yea they attribute seven hundred several ones to him and particularly the ten Divine Attributes which they term the grand Sephiroth namely Infinity Wisdom Intelligence Clemency or Goodness Severity Ornament Triumph Confession of praise Foundation and Royalty whereby God governs all things by weight number and measure Of Angels namely of the 32 abovesaid Intelligences call'd by them the paths of wisdom for they make them so many Angels and of seventy two other
by the Sun or regard several quarters of the world so the Comets have different shapes or figures which ought no more to astonish us then these of the Clouds which according to their conjunction together represent innumerable formes or at least then those of other fiery Meteors variously figur'd according to the casual occurrence of the matter which composes them Therefore Scaliger in his Exercitations holds that Comets are neither signes nor causes of the events which follow them and derides those who believe that they fore-shew the death of Great Persons or that destruction of Nations and Kingdomes alledging that many great Great Men have dy'd yea many Illustrious Families and States been destroy'd without the appearance of any Comet and on the contrary that many Comets have appear'd and no such accidents ensu'd The Fourth said That Comets are certain Stars whose motion is unknown to us and who being rais'd very high in their Apogaeum remain for a long time invisible This is of no unfrequent observation in Mars who as many Astrologers affirm is at some times lower then the Sun and at other times so high above the rest of the Planets superior to his sphere that his body remains hid when his opposition to the Sun ought to render it most conspicuous In like sort those Stars which God reserves as instruments of the greatest events which he hath fore-ordain'd to come to pass in the Universe remain a long time elevated in their Apogaeum till they come at length to descend towards the Earth from whence as soon as they begin to manifest themselves they attract great quantity of vapours which receiving the light variously according to the nature of the places whence they were rais'd represent to us sundry shapes of hairy and bearded Stars or in form of a Dart Sword Dish Tub Horns Lamps Torches Axes Rods and such others as it falls out And although those Stars incessantly act yet coming to be produc'd anew and being nearer the Earth their effects are augmented and become more sensible As the Fish ceases neither to be nor to move when it is in the bottome of the Sea yet it appears not to us to have either existence or motion unless when it comes near the surface of the Water The Fifth said that Comets must needs be some extraordinary things since they alwayes presignifie strange events especially in Religion Histories observe that of sixty six Comets which have appear'd since the Resurrection of our Saviour there is not one but hath been immediately follow'd by some disorder or division in the Church caus'd by Persecutions Schismes or Heresies That which Josephus relates to have appear'd over the Temple of Jerusalem and lasted a year contrary to the custom of others which exceed not sixty days was follow'd by the ruine of Judaism That of which Seneca speaks to have appear'd in Nero's time was the forerunner of the Heresies of Cerinthus and Ebion That of the year 1440 foreshew'd the Heresie of Nestorius That of the year 1200 the division caus'd by the Waldenses and Albingenses And lastly those which have been seen since the year 1330 have sufficiently manifested the truth of this effect by the multiplicity of Sects wherewith Christendom abounds at this day But especially the thirty Comets which have appear'd in France since the year 1556 four of which were in the same year namely in the year 1560 but too well witness the verity of their presignifications which as S. Augustine saith are ordinarily fulfill'd before the same are known by men The Sixth said That as in all things else so in Comets the magnitude demonstrates the vehemence and considerableness of the future event The colour signifies the nature of the Planet under whose dominion it is The splendor or brightness shews the quick and effectual activity thereof as its less lively colour testifies the contrary The Form is a Celestial character or hicroglyphick denoting an effect in the earth as if God spoke to us by signs or writ to us after the mode of China where the figures of things stand for letters not contenting himself to destinate to this purpose the combinations of the Planets with the other Stars which are the next causes of all natural effects here below The place of the Air or of Heaven namely the sign of the Zodiack wherein the Comet is serves to design the Country which is threatned by it and if it be in a falling House it signifies sudden death It s motion from West to East indicates some forreign enemy whose coming is to be fear'd If it move not at all 't is a sign that the enemy shall be of the same Land upon which the Meteor stops so likewise if it goes in twenty four hours from East to West because this motion is imputed to the first mover which hurries along withall the other Celestial Bodies Their effects also belong to the places towards which their hairs or tails incline Those which appear at day-break and continue long have their effects more sudden those of the evening and of less continuance later They are especially of great importance when they are found with any Eclipse and the Precept which Ptolomy and his Interpreters enjoyn principally to observe is that those are deceiv'd who believe that every Comet signifies the death of some great person but they only hold that as when the fiery Planets rise at day-break as so many attendants on the Sun he that is then born shall be a King so when a Comet is the fore-runner of the Sun at day-break it signifies the death of some great person The Seventh said That Comets do not so much foretel as cause Dearths and Famines Wars and Seditions burning Fevers and other diseases by the inflammation which they impress upon the Air and by it upon all other bodies and most easily upon our spirits For seeing twinkling and falling Stars are signs of great drought and impetuous winds when they shoot from several parts of Heaven how much more are those great fiery Meteors which we contemplate with such sollicitude and which act no less by conceit upon our souls then by their qualities upon our bodies Which being found to have place in those of delicate constitutions as great persons are occasion'd the opinion that those grand causes exercise their effects most powerfully upon people of high rank besides that the accidents which befall such persons are much more taken notice of then those of the vulgar But herein there is found less of demonstration then of conjecture II. Whether Pardon be better then Revenge Upon the second Point it was said That there is none but prizes an action of clemency and forgiveness more then an action of vengeance But all the difficulty is to distinguish what is done through fear from what proceeds from greatness of mind Thus when a Lyon vouchsafes not to rise for a Cat or little Dog that comes neer him but employs his strength only against some more stout creature
this charge comes to may be taken for profit upon the Pawn and added to the principal but the remainder restor'd to the owner And nothing above this is to be suffer'd CONFERENCE XLIV I. How Minerals grow II. Whether it be best to know a little of every thing or one thing exactly I. How Minerals grow UNder Minerals are comprehended Metals Stones and all sorts of Fossilia or things dig'd out of the earth The causes of their growing or augmentation are here inquir'd All the world agrees that they grow excepting those who hold that God created them at the beginning together with the earth But they who have kept a stone in water for a long time and find the same increas'd in bigness will confute that opinion by this experiment as also the experience of Miners doth who having exhausted a Mine of its Metal find more in it after some years and when they discover Mines as yet imperfect they cover the same again with earth and after some space of time find them fit to be wrought upon and as it were arriv'd to their maturity This is also verifi'd by that Chymical operation call'd vegetable Gold and pieces of Cinnabar or Quick-silver mingled with Sulphur melted and put amongst the filings of Silver being set over a furnace in a well luted Vessel produceth pure Silver though of less profit then curiosity For this visible artifice seems to prove the invisible one of nature according to the opinion of Philosophers who hold that all Metals are made of Quick-silver and Sulphur So that we must not seek other causes of their generation and increasing then a new accession of that matter either gliding along the veins of the earth or reduc'd first into vapour by heat and then condens'd by cold The Second said That he was of Cardan's opinion who assigns a particular vegetative soul to all Minerals as well as to all Plants whereunto they have great resemblance not only in that they have some virtues and faculties alike yea far more excellent which cannot come but from a principle of life since action is the indication of life but also because they grow according to all their dimensions as Plants do have a conformation and configuration which is common to Plants with them attract retain and concoct the nourishment which they receive from the earth by their veins and passages and have also an expulsive faculty which is not in Plants casting forth their dross and exhaling their superfluous vapours They have also roots and barks as Trees have their substance is of parts organical and really dissimilar though in appearance some of them seem to be similar and homogeneous and Lead out of which are extracted Salt or Sugar Quick-silver and Sulphur is no more a similar body then Ebeny Box and Milk out of which such different substances are drawn The Third said That before we can know whether Minerals live we must first understand how life is caus'd in man who is to be as the rule of all living things It consists but in one sole action to wit that of Heat upon Humidity which it rarefies and subtilizes causing the same to ascend by little and little out of the intestines through the Mesentery to the Liver Heart and Brain in each of which it casting off its excrementitious parts it acquires a new perfection the utmost in the Brain where it becomes a very thin spirit capable of receiving any form even that of light as appears by the internal splendor of our sight and that brightness which is sometimes seen outwardly upon some Bodies In Plants are found the like cavities destinated to receive and prepare their nourishment which heat attracts into them and their knots are so many repositories wherein that heat is re-united and takes new strength till being arriv'd at the top of the Plant according to the rectitude of the fibres it circulates the matter so carried up that it spreads into branches leaves and fruit For as humidity is of it self immoveable and incapable of any action so being accompani'd with heat it moves every way and there is no need of admitting an attractive faculty in each part since it is carried thereunto sufficiently of it self Natural heat indeed drives it upwards but all unusual heat makes it break out collaterally as is seen in sweat for no eruption of humidity is caus'd but by the excess of some strange heat not proper or natural Now we may observe these tokens of life in the production of Minerals their vaporous matter being first sublim'd and purifi'd by heat and then incorporated with themselves But because all Natures works are occult and the instrument she uses to wit natural heat is imperceptible 't is no wonder if it be hard to know truly how Minerals hid in the earth grow since we are ignorant how the accretion of Plants expos'd to our view is made we perceive them to have grown but not to grow as the shadow on on the Dyal is observ'd to have gone its round yet appears not to move at all Nevertheless the Arborists would have us except the Plant of Aloes out of this number whose flower and trunk at a certain time shoot forth so high and so speedily that the motion thereof is perceptible to the eye The Fourth said That the generation of some Minerals is effected by heat and of others by cold the former by coction and the latter by concretion or co-agulation which two agents are discover'd by the dissolution of Metals For such as are made by cold are melted by its contrary Heat as Lead Silver and other Metals and those which are made by heat dissolve in water as all Salts provided neither the one nor the other be so compact and close that they admit not the qualities of their contraries for which reason Glass which is concocted by fire is not dissolv'd in water and the Diamond Marble and some other stones congealed by cold are not melted by fire But their accretion is not made by any vital principle but only by a new apposition of matter Moreover they have no sign of inward life as nutrition equal and uniform augmentation in all their parts which should be distinct and organiz'd certain constant terms and limits of magnitude and resemblance of figure and conformation both internal and external between all individuals of the same species For Minerals having no cavities cannot receive aliment inwardly They grow as long as matter is supply'd to them and that inequally Their figure is indeterminate and various according to the casual application of their matter in the veins of the earth and their parts are all alike The barks roots and veins attributed to them have nothing but the shape of those things not the use no more then the paps of men Nor do they bear flowers fruits or seeds nor produce or multiply themselves any other way as Plants do The Fifth said We give appellations or names to things from their external form because
one thing rather then another infus'd into every one for the preservation of Sciences Which end of Nature would be frustrated should we run to the inquisition of new Sciences before we have attain'd the first considering the brevity of our lives compar'd with the amplitude of Arts. Wherefore it were more expedient not onely that every one apply'd himself to that whereunto he finds himself inclin'd but that there were as many distinct Artists as the Art hath principal parts and that for example as Physick hath been commodiously divided between Physitians Chirugeons and Apothecaries which were anciently but one so their functions were again subdivided Because by this means every one of them would attain a more perfect knowledge of his Subject Therefore Plato instead of cultivating as he could have done the spacious field of Philosophy apply'd himself onely to Metaphysicks Socrates to Morality Democritus to Natural Philosophy Archimedes to the Mathematicks For they who would possess all the parts of a Science at once are like those who should try to pluck off a Horse's tail at one pull instead of doing it hair by hair Whence it was said of Erasmus that he had been greater if he had been contented to be less The Fifth said That determination of the question depends upon the capacity of wits For as in a poor little Mansion where there is not room enough to place all necessary moveables 't were impertinence to desire to place such as serve onely for luxury and ornament So mean wits yea the indifferent such as most are take safer course in keeping to those few things of which they have most use then if they embrac'd too many for fear of verifying the Proverb He that grasps too much holds nothing But there are some Heroick Spirits capable of every thing and of which comparing them to others that may be said which a Father once said of the different degrees of bliss comparing the Souls of the blessed to vessels of several sizes all fill'd from the same Fountain There are little vulgar capacities which the initiation of a Science or the Etymologie of a word satisfies and they never get beyond the Apprentiship of the least trade Others are so transcendent that they go like the Sun into all corners of the world without being wearied or contaminated with several objects Nothing tires them but rest They draw every thing to themselves become Masters of what ever they undertake and reduce all Sciences to their principal study Thus the Divine the Physitian and the Lawyer will make use of History The first to enrich a Sermon or raise a Soul dejected by the consideration of its miseries whereunto it believes none equal The Second to divert his Patient whose Mind ha's no less need of redress then his body The Third to shew that the same judgement ha's been given in a parallel case They will call in the demonstrations of the Mathematicks to back their own and the experiments of other Arts to serve for examples and similitudes To these Nature how vast soever it be seemes still too little and they would complain upon occasion like Alexander that there were not worlds enough Such were of old Hippocrates and Aristotle and in the time of our Fathers the Count of Mirandula Scaliger and some others who though they writ and spoke of all things did nevertheless excel in all Besides nothing can be known perfectly without knowing a little of every thing and this by reason of the Encyclopaedie or Circle of Arts as we cannot understand a particular map without having some knowledge of the general and also of the neighbouring Countries CONFERENCE XLV I. Whether the Heavens be solid or liquid II. Whether it be harder to get then to preserve I. Whether the Heavens be solid or liquid WHen the proportion requisite to the necessary distance between the sense and its object fails either in excess or defect there is no more credit to be given to Sense That which we look upon too near and which is apply'd upon the Eye appears greater then ordinary as that which is too remote seems very small and diminishes commensurately to its distance By which also the figure or shape of the object becomes chang'd to our apprehension and we are apt to mistake a square Tower to be round one colour for another nothing for a body a tree for a living creature a beast for a man one face for another Some things likewise deceive us near hand as the certain of Timanthus But if we are abus'd in objects which are terminated by an opake surface capable of bounding our view and reflecting our visual rayes the same happens with more reason in diaphanous and transparent bodies as Light Fire Air Water Glass and every thing of that nature The two last especially have such conformity that they have divers effects alike as to serve instead of burning-glasses to recollect the Sun-beams and represent the species which are opposite to them For fill a viol with water and set it in the Sun his beams will produce the same effect with it as with a burning-glass Now by reason of the possibility that our Sight may be mistaken we are many times forc'd to have recourse to some other Sense as to that of Touching to the end the one may be back'd with the testimony of the other But this cannot be practis'd in the present Subject and therefore I conceive that the Heavens taken for the Celestial Orbes and not for the Air nor the third or Empyrreal Heaven are neither solid nor liquid because solidity is an effect of dryness and liquidity of moisture which are Elementary Qualities but the Heavens not being compos'd of the Elements cannot partake of their qualities But as they constitute a Fifth Essence of no affinity with that of the Four Elements so the accidents which belong to them are wholly different from ours and can no more be conceiv'd then those of glorifi'd bodies which if you imagine solid you can never think how they should bow the knee or exercise any the like function If they be imagin'd rare and liquid and consequently penetrable they will seem to us divisible qualities contrary to their immortality Wherefore I conclude that the things of Heaven are not to be measur'd by the standard of those on Earth The Second said That when things are remote from our external Senses we must joyn the internal in their disquisition now reason requires that there be some utmost solid surface serving as a boundary and limit to the Elements otherwise the same thing would happen to the Air or the Elementary Fire if there be any such above the Air that doth to the Water and the Earth which exhale and evaporate their more rare and subtile parts into the Air for so would the Air exhale its vapours into the Heavens and the Fire whose Nature is alwayes to mount directly upwards till the occurse of some solid body checks its course and make it circulate
this reformation was still imperfect Julius Caesar 670 years after him assisted by Sosigenes a great Mathematician corrected the defect adding three moneths to the year in which he made this rectification which was the 708th year of the building of Rome namely two moneths between November and December one of 29 days and the other of 30 and another of 30 days at the end of December to make up the days which were pass'd So that this year Debtors had three moneths respite Then he divided the year into 365 days for this cause call'd from his name the Julian year But because the Sun is neer six hours more in accomplishing his Period he added a day every fourth year after the twenty third of February which they call'd Sexto Calendas and because in counting it twice they said bis sexto Calendas this year truth thence retain'd the name of Bissextile attributed by the vulgar to sinister and unfortunate things And to confirm the moneths to the Lunations he was contented to observe that every nineteenth year the Moon is found in the same place which was the discovery of another Mathematician of Athens nam'd Meton And forasmuch as they mark'd this number of 19 in their Kalendar with a Cypher of gold thence it came to be call'd the Gold Number The Christians took up this Calculation as the best of all But because there wants eleven minutes every fourth year to make the Bissextile or Leap-year intire it was found that from the time of Julius Caesar to Gregory XIII the Lunations and Aequinoxes had anticipated ten days which render'd the Golden Number useless and remov'd Easter and other moveable Feasts out of their true place Therefore this Pope assisted by Doctor Lilio a Physitian retrench'd those ten days throughout all Christendom except in places who are not pleas'd with novelty unless so far as it displeases the Pope Which anticipation will always oblige future Ages to use a like reformation of the Julian year which we begin from the mid-night which precedes the first Sun-rise of the moneth of January But the most sensible knowledge to be had of the duration and beginning of the Solar year is obtain'd by observing the day on which the shadow of the perpendicular needle of a Quadrant is found longest at noon being a certain sign that the Sun is then most depress'd and consequently that we must there set down the end of the preceding year and the beginning of the next which is visible by the exaltation of the Sun whose shadow will not be found equal again till after the revolution of a just year II. Why the Load-stone draws Iron Had Stones life as Cardan held the solution of the second Question would be easie For the Load-stone's drawing Iron would be no more a wonder then an Animal's going to seek its food Now of those things which draw others some do it for eschewing of vacuity so water and other more ponderous bodies ascend air and other light bodies descend either of them against its proper inclination to prevent a vacuum Others do it out of desire to obtain what they need as their nourishment So Plants attract the juice of the earth the Gall-bladder Choler the Splene the Melancholy humour and every part blood Others do it by the mutual resemblance of the spirits issuing out of them such is the first motion of affection arising between two persons of the same humour and inclination But others are mov'd locally with out any manifest and corporeal cause so are the vapours and the dew drawn up by the Sun straw by Amber the womb by good smells the Load-stone by the North-star the Heliotrope and Selenotrope by the Sun and the Moon whose motions they follow Now in attraction it is requisite that the attractive vertue be stronger then the resistance of the body which is attracted The greatest resistance is from the ponderosity of a body the elevation of which without manifest cause is accounted miraculous and attributed by Divines to the Divine Power alone as when our Lord walk'd upon the water And so indeed would be the suspension of the gravity of iron attracted by the Load-stone if it were not ordinary the cause whereof may be ascrib'd to the meeting of spirits streaming out of the Iron and the Load-stone which being viscous and once joyn'd together are somewhat hard to be separated The Second said That as every body diffuses about it visible odorable and sonorous species which appear not to us unless they be reflected by some body proper to unite them the visible species by a Glass odours by heat sound by a hollow body such as makes the Echo In like manner the Load-stone and the Iron emit attractive species round about which are lost unless these of the one light upon those of the other for then their nature is so to conjoyn themselves that their union is indissoluble otherwise then by violence wherein there seems to be no greater marvel then in all other motions of natural bodies which act variously one upon another according to the disposition of the next matter So the fire acts upon combustible matter and not upon other the reason of these affects depending upon the determination of every particular cause the chain whereof is invisible and conceal'd from men The Third said The Superior bodies act upon the inferior and all motions here below proceed from those of the Celestial Bodies which are therefore purposely contiguous That of the Load-stone and Iron proceeds from the polar Stars which act so sensibly upon this Stone that being hung up in aequilibrio it spontaneously turns one part towards the Arctick and the other towards the Antarctick Pole unless in certain places where it varies between five and six degrees because 't is drawn by a stronger magnetick virtue proceeding from the Earth But this Stone draws Iron the more easily because 't is almost of the same nature with it self and the Magnet is easily turn'd into Iron in the Mines by a coction made by the virtue of the same stars For the liker things are the more inclin'd they are to unite together so Flame unites with Flame the drops of water joyn together a great Load-stone draws the less and Steel attracts the filings of steel The Fourth said As there is a civil converse between men for preservation of society so there is a natural one establish'd by God amongst the other creatures for the support of their common being consisting chiefly in their being mov'd one towards another Fire attracts unctuous exhalations and it self tends towards the Etherial fire the Air is drawn by the Lungs the Sea is drawn up by the Moon which causes its ebbing and flowing straw and dust by the Agate Iron by the Load-stone the virtue whereof together with the occult properties of all other bodies I attribute to that universal Spirit which carries every entity to its particular good The Fifth said If we would understand the causes of the
all the situations of place whereunto parts answer namely before behind above below right and left and the point of the Globe touches the point of the plain in the upper part now that which hath an upper part hath also an under part Moreover every point is part of the body in which it inheres for a Part is one finite thing united to another composing the whole with the other parts together But the point of the Globe is such else it must be said that the surface of the Globe is no part of it Seeing there is the same proportion between a point and a line a line and a surface as there is between a surface and a body and that when a Globe rouls upon many points it rouls also upon the surface which therefore differs not from them but by More and Less Whence it follows that a Mathematical point is a small term of quantity uniting and terminating Mathematical lines without length breadth and depth mensurable and consequently a body For it is compos'd of parts irrational and inexpressible that is which the Mathematician cannot tell how long broad and deep they are The Fourth said Nature has hid the highest mysteries in the lowest and seemingly vilest things which also are hardest to be understood not so much through imperfection of essence for an atome flying in the air is as true an essence as the whole earth But because our senses perceive only such objects as are able to excite a motion in the Organs now a Point cannot do this and so the Intellect which judges of things by the species receiv'd cannot receive those of a Point nor consequently have perfect knowledge of it Therefore the Philosopher defines not a point By what it is but By what it is not when he saith that a Point is something imperceptible inherent in the Continuum Yet this knowledge of a point by negation is not by negation of essence but of divisibility it being of its own nature an indivisible entity For if it can be divided into other parts 't is no longer a point 't is a line and must be so term'd how small soever it be Essence not finite is incommunicable to the Creator being a perfection of immense grandeur yet a Point may be of an essence not finite too because such essence is in a Point an imperfection and privation of greatness Moreover a Point is either continuant or terminant each of which is nothing but a mode of being a respect and correspondence of parts one to another which consequently may be produc'd and annihilated without miracle as modes forms and figures are For supposing a Globe exactly divided into two parts there 's no more inconvenience in saying that the Central point is perish'd then that when a ball of Wax is press'd flat the Spherical figure ceases to be The Fifth said That as in the Creation natural bodies were made of nothing so the production of Mathematical bodies begins by a Point which is a nothing And indeed a Point is so far from being demonstrated a reality by the application of a Globe upon a Plain which cannot touch one the other but by a line that the most slender and inperceptible point of a Needle falling perpendicularly upon the most polish'd steel yea if 't were possible upon as small a point of another Needle cannot touch one another but by the surface of their body Whence it appears that a Mathematical Point is infinitely less then any material point whatsoever which only represents the figure thereof grosly to our senses II. Whether Brutes have Reason The second Point was prefac'd with the consideration of the difficulty of a fair discussion because men are parties and none is competent to determine the question but either he that is above both man and beast or equally participates of both it being as likely in the general cause as 't is usual in all particular that men will arrogate the advantage to their own species Yet man's dominion over beasts the conformation of his body the operations of his mind and the works of both compar'd to those of other animals seem to decide the question For man alone knows not only God and the other creatures but also himself by a reflection of the Understanding which is the highest act of Reason His body alone is shap'd so that his eyes are erected towards heaven his members are flexible and versatile especially his hand the organ of organs he sits down most commodiously and gracefully at the exercising of all Arts and his manifold artificial productions perfecting and surpasing those of nature find nothing comparable to them amongst those of other animals And therefore I adhere to the Holy Scripture which denies understanding to beasts and to what antiquity especially Philosophy determines which hath found no more peculiar difference whereby to distinguish man from beast then Reason The Second said Since Reason is the hand of Judgement as the speech is of Reason and the hand it self is the instrument subservient to speech one of these degrees must lead us to the knowledge of the other I mean that since Reason is the hand of the Judgement such animals as shall be found to have judgement can no more be without Reason then a man naturally without a hand Now all are constrain'd to acknowledge some judgement in animals for otherwise they could not exercise the functions of their external and internal senses which divers have in a more eminent degree then we They have a Common Sense for they distinguish the objects of the senses a Phancy since they are all equally lead to sensible good many of them are indu'd with memory as Dogs and Horses which bark and neigh in their sleep which cannot be done but by some higher faculty uniting and enjoyning the species drawn out of their memory an effect not possible to proceed from any other cause then Reason But that which removes all scruple is that they are capable of discipline and there 's no feat of activity but they learn it sooner then Man witness the Elephants which danc'd upon the rope at Rome and the Goats which do as much here at this time not to mention Dogs Horses Apes and other Creatures which are manag'd and Birds which are taught to speak The Third confirm'd this Opinion by the Example of the Elephant who before the Tinker was paid try'd whether the kettle wherein he us'd to have his food was well mended by filling it with water of the Ox who never drew up above a certain number of buckets of water of the Fox who caus'd the water in a pitcher to ascend by filling it with stones and alwayes layes his Ear to a frozen river to hear whether the water moves under the Ice before he trusts himself upon it of the Dog who having scented two paths casts himself into the third without Smelling at all and concludes that the tract of his game of the Cat which although hungry dares
obstruction hinders the afflux of the spirits to it as in a Gutta Serena there is no vision made An Evidence that seeing is an action of both and consequently the Senses are as many as the several Organs which determine and specificate the same But the Taste being comprehended under the Touch by the Philosophers definition must be a species thereof and therefore there are but four Senses as four Elements the Taste and the Touch which it comprehends being exercis'd in the earth gross as themselves the Sight in Water in which its Organ swims and of which it almost wholly consists the Smelling by the Fire which awakens odours and reduces them out of power into act and the Hearing in the Air which is found naturally implanted in the Ear and is the sole medium of this sense according to Aristotle the hearing of Fishes being particular to them in the Water and very obscure The Third said He was of Scaliger's mind who reckons Titillation for the sixth sense For if the Taste though comprehended under the Touching as was said constitutes a distinct sense why not Titillation which is a species of Touching too considering that it represents things otherwise then the ordinary Touch doth and hath its particular Organs as the soles of the Feet the palmes of the Hands the Flanks the Arm-pits and some other places Yea Touching may be accounted the Genus of the Senses since all partake thereof The Fourth said That those actions which some Animals perform more perfectly then we as the Dog exceeds us in Smelling the Spider in Touching the Eagle in Seeing and many in presaging the seasons and weather seem'd to be the effects of 6 7 or 8 Senses there being no proportion between such great extraordinary effects and their Organes the structure whereof is the same with those of other Animals which come not near the same Yea that 't is by some supernumerary sense found in each Animal that they have knowledge of what is serviceable or hurtful to them in particular For example who teaches the Dog the virtue of Grass the Hart of Dittany their ordinary Senses cannot Nor is it likely that so many occult properties have been produc'd by Nature to remain unknown But they cannot be understood unless by some Sense which is not vulgar considering that all the Senses together understand not their substance The Fifth said There are five external Senses neither more nor less because there needs so many and no more to perceive and apprehend all external objects And as when one of our Senses is deprav'd or abolish'd another cannot repair it nor succeed it in all its functions so if there were more then five the over-plus would be useless there being no accident but falls under the cognisance of these five Senses And although each of them is not sufficient thereunto severally yet they serve well enough all together as in the perception of motion rest number magnitude and figure which are common objects to divers Senses Now if there were need of more then five Senses 't would be to judge of objects wherein the others fail So that the supernumeraries being unprofitable 't is not necessary to establish more then five And as for substance 't is not consistent with its Nature to be known by the external Senses The Sixth said Man being compos'd of three Pieces a Soul a Body and Spirits of a middle Nature between both the five Senses suffice to the perfection and support of these three parts Knowledge which is the sole Good of the Soul is acquir'd by invention and discipline for which we have Eyes and Ears Good Odours recreate and repair the Spirits The Touch and Taste are the Bodie 's guards the first by preserving it from hurtfull qualities which invade it from without and the second from such as enter and are taken in by the mouth And therefore 't is in vain to establish more The Seventh said Since according to the Philosophers Sense is a passive quality and Sensation is made when the Organ is alter'd by the object there must be as many several Senses as there are different objects which variously alter the Organs Now amongst Colours Odours and other sensible objects there are many different species and the qualities perceiv'd by the Touch are almost infinite Nor is it material to say that they all proceed from the first qualities since Colors Odours and Tasts are likewise second qualities arising from those first and nevertheless make different Senses The Eighth said Although it be true that Faculties are determin'd by objects yet must not these Faculties be therefore multiply'd according to the multitude of objects So though White and Black are different nevertheless because they both act after the same manner namely by sending their intentional species through the same medium to the same Organ the Sight alone sufficeth for judging of their difference The Ninth said Since four things are requisite to Sensation to wit the Faculty the Organ the Medium and the Object 't is by them that the number of Senses is determin'd The Object cannot do it otherwise there would not be five Senses but infinitely more Nor can the Faculty do it being inseparable from the Soul or rather the Soul it self and consequently but one and to say that there is but one Sense is erroneously to make an external Sense of the Common Sense Much less can the Medium do it since one and the same Medium serves to many Senses and one and the same Sense is exercis'd in several Mediums as the Sight in the Air and the Water It remains therefore that the diversity proceed from that of the Organs which being but five make the like number of Senses II. Whether is better to be silent or to speak Upon the Second Point it was said 'T is a greater difficulty and consequently more a virtue to hold one's peace then to speak the latter being natural to Man and very easie when he has once got the habit of it but the former is a constrain'd Action and to practise which handsomely the Mind must be disciplin'd to do violence to the itch of declaring it self every one conceiving it his interest that the truth be known And there are fewer examples of those that have sav'd themselves by speaking then of those that have lost themselves by not keeping Secrecie justly term'd the Soul of the State and of affairs which once vented of easie become impossible Whence arose the name of Secretaries for principal Ministers and Officers of States and great Houses and indeed 't is at this day a title affected by the meanest Clerks testifying thereby in what esteem they have Silence And the unworthiest of all Vices Treachery ordinarily takes advantage of this defect of Secrecie which renders Men full of chinks and like a sieve so that many can more easily keep a coal in their mouths then a secret On the contrary Silence is so much reverenc'd that the wisest persons when they are
be prepossess'd with the quality of its object the Tongue which perceives Sapours which are all moist call'd therefore by the Greeks Juice must be destitute of all humidity for that cannot be receiv'd which is possess'd already And as there is in every Organ a principal part which makes the sensation more perfectly then the rest so the tip of the tongue is more proper to perceive tastes by reason of the Nerves destinated to the sense of tasting which are found more soft there then its root and of the liquor which is more retain'd and more subtile there and consequently makes rellishes penetrate more effectually And although some parts of these Nerves are expanded to the palate and gullet yet the taste is very little perceiveable there Therefore Philoxenus went upon a mistake when he wish'd for the neck of a Crane for a long neck conduces nothing either to the advancing or continuing of the taste The Third said Most Animals have the sense of Tasting to the end they may distinguish their food from poyson and what food is best as the sweetest is For all animals and particularly man are nourish'd only with what is sweet Whence children in whom nature being neerer its original is less corrupted desire sweets so much and if we mix other Sapours 't is either because sweet things glut and disgust sooner easily filling the Stomack in which by reason of their unctuous consistence they swim uppermost or else because the depravation of our temper makes us sometimes desire contrary things to correct it and sometimes like to preserve it The Fourth said Many Animals have no taste nor perception of Sapours as amongst others the Crocodile which also wants a tongue the Organ of it the Estrich when it eats Iron and the Wolf earth both which are insipid Such was that Lazarus mention'd by Columbus who swallow'd glass pitch tallow and other things without disgust and that Maid in the King of Persia's Court who eat all sort of poysons how corroding soever and was nourish'd therewith It being observ'd in the dissection of their bodies that the third couple of Nerves which serve to the Taste was reflected towards the back part of the head The Fifth said Sapour is a quality of the aliment but nourisheth not because 't is a meer accident only by it the animal judges of the qualities of its food The matter of Sapour is humid because sapours are easily receiv'd and expanded in that which is humid not in that which is dry This humidity is not aerious but aqueous otherwise Sapours might be receiv'd in the air which cannot be because the nature of this element is too thin and tenuious but Sapour being gross requires a subject that hath some consistence to receive it Nevertheless this aqueous humidity alone is not sapoury because 't is a simple body and consequently insipid But Sapour proceeds from mixtion It must therefore be joyn'd with somewhat that is dry not with igneous siccity because this makes the mixtum subtile and apt to exhale as odour ought to be not sapour but with that of the earth which gives a body and consistence to sapours without which they could not be tasted And 't is by means of this siccity with the humidity that Mineral waters acquire the sapours of the places through which they pass and that the liquor of a Lie or Lixivium becomes salt by mixtion of the more dry and adust parts of the ashes But because these dry and humid substances difficultly mix the particles of the one being unapt to touch the particles of the other because both are gross and terrestrial therefore there needs some superior agent more powerful then either to open and penetrate them such as heat is which by its various coction makes a different mixtion of the dry and the moist whence arise different sapours as may be observ'd in our meats and fruits of Trees which differ in taste according to the degrees of heat The sweet and fat taste is for the most part produc'd by a temperate heat the bitter salt and acrimonious by immoderate heat the acide or sharp the austere or harsh and the sowre by cold The Sweet such as that of Honey comes from a perfect mixture of terrestrious with aqueous humidity The Bitter as that of Gall from abundance of gross siccity mix'd with little humidity The Fat as Oyl and Fat are produc'd by excess of humidity The Salt hath more humidity then the bitter The Acrimonious or biting as Pepper hath much of tenuity and very little of humidity The Sowre as that of unripe fruits comes from siccity and humidity equally indigested The Austere or pontick as the juice of Oranges and the Acide or Sharp as that of Vinegar proceed from very much humidity and little siccity II. Whether Poetry be useful Upon the second Point it was said This division of things into necessary profitable and delightful is observ'd particularly in speech the soul's interpreter For at the beginning Languages were only for necessity void of all artifice being employ'd to no other use but to make us understand one another which sort of Language the first Philosophers employ'd to express the essence and nature of things Afterwards History and Oratory enrich'd it with the addition of flowers and flourishes And Lastly Poetry added to those Words Number and Cadence not barely to teach and instruct as the other liberal Sciences but withall to recreate and delight which is an excellent method to prevent the disgust which the disciplines bring even in their rudiments I therefore compare our Language consider'd in its original to Gold yet in the Oar mingled with earth the same Language polish'd by Rhetorick to an Ingot refin'd from its dross but Poetry to a goodly vessel of gold not less rich for the workmanship then for the matter The Second said That which gave birth to Poetry and makes it so much esteem'd is the desire of imitation proper to man alone as he alone that understands the similitudes correspondencies and proportions of things Hence it is that we admire the Picture of a Serpent a dead body and other things whose original we have in horrour and we are ravish'd to hear the voice of a Swine naturally counterfeited though we hate it in that animal So Poetry and Painture imitate and in some manner do every thing that is done in nature whence Poetry is term'd a speaking Picture and Picture dumb Poetry For a Poet do's not signifie meerly a Versifier and one that relates things done which is the property of a Historian but as an Actor or Player by his postures do's the very things so the Poet must both describe things and make them And the word Poet do's not signifie one that feigns but one that makes When he speaks of a tempest he makes the Winds mutiny Ships split mountains of water clash and lose themselves in gulfes when of War he makes you hear the clashing of Arms the thundring of
Sion and how agreeable is this Church to its Spouse to those that behold it in this estate and to it self On the contrary in Schism and Heresie when every one abounds in his own sence and will not depend upon any other how unpleasing is this division even to those that foment it In the State when a just Monarch well counsell'd holds the Sovereignty the Church the Nobility and the third Estate the other parts nothing is impossible to him either within or without He may do every thing that he will because he will do nothing but what is just On the contrary represent to your self the horrible Tragedies of a Faction revolted against its Prince or of a furious Triumvirate and you will see the difference between harmony and discord whereof the difference and power is so notable as to all our actions that he shall speak truth who shall establish it for the cause of all that is either pleasing to us or disagreeable So the same materials of two buildings differently set together will render one beautiful the other deformed Of two countenances compos'd of the same parts the proportion of the one will invite love while there is nothing but hatred and aversion for the other Yea this Harmony extends its jurisdiction even to things incorporeal An injust action displeases though it do not concern us and the most peaceable man in the world can hardly forbear to interess himself when he sees a great scoundrel outrage some poor little child The disproportion which appears in the attire of another offends us as when we see a Porter's wife better cloth'd then a Counsellours of which the reason seems to me that our soul being a harmony is not pleas'd but with what resembles it self The Fourth said Effects the surest evidences of their causes so apparently speak the power of Harmony that Orpheus by the relation of the Poets recover'd his Euridice out of Hell by it Timotheus made Alexander leave his feast and betake himself to his Arms but changing his tune return'd him again to the Table Orators made use of it to regulate their gestures and voices and at this day not only the harmonious sound of Organs serves to enflame our zeal but that of Bells is successfully employ'd to drive away the Daemons of the air when they raise tempests in it CONFERENCE LVIII I. Of the Sight II. Of Painting I. Of the Sight AN ignorant Philosopher was he who pull'd out his eyes that he might the better Philosophize since on the contrary 't is by the sight that we have cognition of all the goodly objects of the world the ornament and agreeable variety of which seem purposely made to gratifie this Sense whose excellence and priviledge appears in that 't is free from the condition requisite to all the other Senses viz. that their objects be at a moderate distance for it discerns as far as the Stars of the Firmament knows more things then they there being nothing but has some light and colour which are its objects and that most exactly distinguishing even their least differences yea it hath this of divinity that it acteth in an instant being no more confin'd to time then place and much more certain then any of the other Senses And as if it alone were left in the free enjoyment of its own rights there 's none besides it that hath the power to exercise or not exercise its function as it lists the muscles of the eye-lids serving to open or close the curtain when it pleaseth whereas all the rest are constrain'd to do their offices when their objects are present Moreover man's noblest faculty the Understanding is call'd the Eye of the Soul because it performs the same office to it that the Eye doth to the Body which guides and governs And therefore in the dark which hinders the use of this sense the most daring are not without some fear which cannot proceed from the black colour as some hold but from our being destitute of our guide and conductor which serves for a sentinel to us to discover such things as are hurtful for in the same darkness we are pretty confident in case we be in the company of persons that can conduct us and supply the use of our own eyes The Second said Were it not for custom which renders all things common there would be nothing so admir'd as the Eye which as small as it is gives reception to all corporeal things of what magnitude soever yea every one is represented there in its own natural proportion though the species of an Elephant be no bigger in mine Eye then that of a Flye and nevertheless the Senses judge of their objects by the species streaming from them And the convex fabrick of the eye representing a mirror seems to argue that we do not behold objects in their true magnitude but very much smaller then they are For we see things so as they are receiv'd in the eye But they are receiv'd there as the visible species are in Looking-glasses which if plain represent the same in their true magnitude if spherical as the eye is render them much smaller And nevertheless we see things in their just proportion Whence 't is to be concluded that our Sight which is the most certain of all the Senses is in a perpetuall yea a general errour which consequently is no longer an errour since to erre is to deviate from rule which is a general law Moreover this too is wonderful in the Sight that all the other Organs make several reports to the Senses one accounts that hot which another judges cold or tepid one taste seems fresh to one which another thinks too salt they are of one opinion in odours and sounds and these are of another though their Organs be rightly dispos'd But that which appears black to one seems so likewise to every body else And if the Sight happen to be deceiv'd as when we judge the Moon greater in the Horizon by reason of the vapours of the earth then when she is in the Meridian or when a straight stick seems crooked in the water the same eye which is deceiv'd finds its own errour by comparison of other objects Hence ariseth the doctrine of the Parallaxes and the rules of Opticks Catoptricks and Dioptricks which are practis'd by the sight So that as he doth not perfectly delire who knows that he is in a delirium so the sense cannot be said altogether faculty when it discerns its fault Which the other senses do not The Third said The excellence of the Sight will be better understood by considering its contrary Blindness and the misery of the Blind their life being an image of death whilst they pass it in perpetual darkness Therefore the Civilians exclude them from publick Offices because say they they cannot perceive nor consequently esteem the badges and ensigns of their Magistracy Moreover the Egyptians thought nothing fitter to represent their Deity then the figure of the Eye which
our Senses in regard of its aethereal nature the most searching Naturalists give its name to the most subtile extracts especially such as are made by fire although the same be not eternal as Quintessence ought to be but only of long duration The Fourth said 'T is the humour of unsetled heads instead of cultivating the precepts of antiquity to go about to fabricate new and hence comes the contemplation and the extraction of Quintessences For besides that 't is not certain that what is drawn out of a Plant was there before it being probable that the action of the fire may have introduc'd it in part or in whole into the compositum this Quintessence hath not the conditions requisite to merit that name because it has both first and second qualities and consequently is not only corporeal but also corruptible And if it were incorruptible it would be wholly unprofitable yea hurtful to mans body since it could not be chang'd or alter'd by it and none but poysons are such For Medicaments and aliments are alter'd by our nature But however the Empyrema or Adustion which these Quintessences commonly acquire in the fire renders their activity too great and disproportionate to our temper Which is the cause that things already excessive in quality as Salt and Vitriol are very hurtful being made into Quintessences because there is no more proportion between them and us And therefore I am of the judgement of the Vulgar who never speak of those drawers of Quintessences but with contempt considering that they make profession of a thing which is not and which if there were any such would be either unprofitable or hurtful The Fifth said That the Chymical Quintessence is an aethereal celestial and most subtile substance compos'd of the Salt Sulphur and Mercury of bodies dissolv'd spoil'd of all their elementary qualities corruptible and mortal united to a spiritual body or corporeal spirit which is the medium and bond uniting bodies and spirits in nature and call'd by some for its rarity Elixir for its wonderful use in preserving the health of mans body the Sovereign Medicine by which they hold that youth may be restor'd and all sorts of diseases cur'd it not being requisite in its action that it be alter'd by our natural heat which on the contrary it changes and perfectionates taking the part of nature as all poysons destroy it And 't is certain that since there are bodies which are barely alter'd by our nature as aliments others which are alter'd by it but reciprocally alter it as medicaments others which destroy it without being alter'd by it so there is a fourth sort which preserves it without being alter'd by it which is the Quintessence thoroughly separated from the four Elements yea from every thing that enters into the composition as is seen in Treacle whose vertue proceeds from some body which is not any of all the ingredients but results from them all together after convenient fermentation And possibly they who blame this curious inquisition do it to decline the pains or because they understand it not as 't is said the Fox that wanted a tail counsell'd all his fellows to cut off theirs The Sixth said Being all the Chymical Principles are resolv'd into our four Elements their Quintessence which is compounded thereof will be nothing else but these Elements more pure and refin'd and consequently no more a Quintessence then all mixts are in respect of the Elements whereof they consist For a Quintessence must be a simple body not any of the four Elements much less compounded of them and Heaven alone is such whatever certain Philosophers have said some holding it to be onely a continuation of the air others that 't is of an igneous nature because its denser parts appear such and its name Aether signifies Fire some that 't is a fluid and aqueous substance others on the contrary a pure and solid earth For Heaven hath a simple to wit a circular motion which as the most perfect of all ought to belong to the most noble of all bodies and this circular motion belongs not to any of the Elements since each of them moves in a direct line two from the Centre and two others towards the Centre But a simple body cannot have two motions it follows therefore that Heaven hath a motion different from that of the four Elements since motion particularly local the first and commonest of all is an effect of the nature of every thing which is the principle of motion Moreover Heaven alone is exempt from all elementary and corporeal qualities 'T is neither heavy nor light because it neither moves towards the Centre nor the circumference but about the Centre 'T is neither generated nor corrupted because it hath no contrary And for this reason it hath neither augmentation nor diminution inasmuch as these are species of generation and corruption 'T is not any way alter'd since alteration is caus'd by the action of some contrary Lastly it cannot enter into any composition and consequently there is indeed a Quintessence but 't is not in sublunary bodies II. Which is most in esteem Knowledge or Vertue Upon the second Point it was said That 't is first requisite to remove the equivocation of those who comprehend Knowledge under Vertue since by the word Vertuous we understand here not a Virtuoso but a good man who though he deserves to be more yet is always less esteem'd then a knowing or learned man because every one esteems that most which hath most shew and price Now a vertuous man is not only destitute of this but his greatest vertue consists in not seeking vain-glory whereof the greatest part of manking being adorers and every one affecting such as resemble themselves therefore the learned is commonly esteem'd above the other Moreover the reasoning of man being wholly deprav'd since the Fall he is rather for Verisimilitude then Verity Now the learned easily perswades that he is more to be esteem'd then the vertuous who doth good because it is good and not to be esteem'd for it whereas the other is like those bad Officers who make amends for their ill deeds by fair writing So Demosthenes having run with the first from the Battel made such an excellent Oration that he was commended for that which deserv'd perpetual shame But that which makes vertue less priz'd is because it falls upon all sorts of conditions and sexes a poor man and a poor woman exercising not less vertue in supporting their misery with constancy then a great Captain in overcoming his enemy and learning being not so common especially that which is sublime 't is the more esteem'd for its rarity They who judge of the worth of mens actions account of them according to the pains that there is in performing them But 't is judg'd more painful to become learned then to live well Others say 'T is best to be vertuous for the other world and knowing for this good Nature which is no way
bashfulness on the one side and impudence on the other The former is found in those who are asham'd of vertue or cannot deny any thing although it be contrary to honesty good manners and their own will or in such who cannot look a man in the face which although frequently an obstacle to brave actions yet is a common token of a good soul rather inclin'd to honesty then to vice like Edler and other wild herbs which being good for nothing and hindring the growth of others are yet signs of a good soil On the contrary impudence is the symptome of a soul extreamly deprav'd the defect of inward grief which comes from the perversion of the Intellect and the loss of Conscience rendring the maladies of the soul incurable as insensibility makes those of the body desperate But modesty and true shame fears true dishonours and is griev'd for them having this of vertue which the greater it is the more it fears things greatly formidable and infamous such as vice and its concomitant ignominy are but not much other things which depend only on the imagination and are not any way dishonest of themselves in which 't is poorness of mind to blush Thus S. Paul saith he was not asham'd of the Gospel And our Lord that they who shall be asham'd of him before men he will deny them before his Father For to speak truth we ought not to be asham'd of any thing but vice and its effects Before sin our first Parents knew not what it was to be asham'd but after it they were asham'd of their nakedness the same sense whereof remains to all their posterity The Third said As some things are of themselves shameful because they are vicious so some are not shameful saving at certain times and places to which the customs of each Country for the most part give Law others are always so although of themselves lawful and far from being vicious as those things which civility and honesty forbid to do publickly whence Diogenes merited the name of Dog for transgressing those laws of seemliness For as honour is drawn not only from vertue but from many other circumstances which for the most part depend upon the opinion of men who dispose of this honour so doth dishonour and the shame which follows it The Fourth said That shame is not a passion as neither compassion nor emulation because it hath no vertue which regulates its disorders much less a vertue not being firm and constant but a simple motion to good and a slight impression of honesty in the will and affections produc'd either by nature or custom and not yet so firmly rooted as vertue whence it is very mutable and incertain For we are asham'd of being too tall or too low commended or blam'd yea we blush no less for defects which cannot be imputed to us as mean extraction or some corporal imperfection which we cannot mend then we do for being found lyars or surpriz'd in some other fault To which inconstancy is the agitation of the blood and spirits to be referr'd whose tincture diffus'd in the face betrays our dissimulation in spite of us CONFERENCE LXXI I. Why motion produces heat II. Of Chastity I. Why motion produces heat LOcal motion is not only the most common but likewise the most noble of all since 't is not found in animals till they have acquir'd their perfection Besides it produces heat the noblest and most active of all qualities upon this account Physians enjoyn exercise to discuss cold and phlegmatick humours because animal motion cannot be perform'd without spirits and these being of an igneous nature calefie all the parts towards which they flow But being motion produces heat in life-less things too 't is harder to render a reason of this effect in them then in animals Thus Arrows have been seen to become 〈◊〉 by the swiftness of their flight Millers turn part of their 〈◊〉 upon the axle-tree of their wheel otherwise it would be on fire and Waggoners as well for this purpose as to facilitate their turning grease their wheels thereby to remedy the dryness of the axle-tree which disposes the same to ignition Those that hold it for a Principle That motion heats account is as absurd to inquire the cause thereof as to ask why fire do's so But without ground since every motion heats not that of inanimate bodies if slow produces no heat but only when it is swift 't is requisite too that the bodies be solid otherwise we see motion cools water and air and hinders their corruption which proceeds from heat This argues that it cannot be a principle for a principle must hold good in all subjects and be such as no instance can be brought against it Such heat therefore comes from the attrition of the air which being rarefi'd beyond what its nature permits waxes hot and sometimes is turn'd into fire wherewith it symbolizes upon the account of its heat as on the contrary when the same air is too much condens'd 't is resolv'd into water wherewith also it symbolizes by it moisture For as there are terms of quantity in all mix'd bodies so in all simple bodies there are terms of rarity and density beyond which the Element cannot preserve it self without admitting vacuity when it is more rare then its matter can endure or without penetration of dimension when it hath more matter then it needeth The Second said That to ascribe that heat caus'd by motion to the air inflam'd and turn'd into fire by attrition and attenuation of its parts is to explicate a manifest thing by one more obscure and whereupon all are not agreed such is the transmutation of one element into another 'T is Therefore more probable that this heat is not produc'd anew but is the same which is in all mix'd bodies wherein there is an elementary fire which being buri'd and as 't were intangled in the bonds of the other Elements appears not unless it be excited by motion As in putrefaction the same heat being attracted by the outward heat of the air becomes perceptible by the sense And as those that have drawn a Landskip in distemper upon a table of oyl coming to wash the table make the first draught appear which before was hid or as the earth of a Mine which contains Gold or Silver being wash'd exhibites these Metals visible but produces them not anew because they were there before so motion do's not make but discover heat introducing a disposition in the subject by friction rarefying and drying the surfaces of two contiguous bodies which two qualities being proper to receive the impression of fire are also more so to make that appear which is in all bodies not only potentially but likewise actually For if 't were the air included between two bodies rub'd and mov'd with violence it would follow that every sort of body would be apt to produce fire and especially the most aerious as being most inflammable Moreover nothing hindring but
that two Spheres may be so contiguous as the Celestial are that there can be no air between them yet they might nevertheless be mov'd and heated yea much more then if there were air interpos'd between them The Third said As a form cannot be receiv'd into any subject without previous dispositions so when they are present they suddenly snatch the form to themselves Those of fire are rarity lightness and dryness of which the more bodies partake the more they will be susceptible of the nature of fire Therefore what is capable of being heated by motion must be dry not moist whence fire is never produced by water any more then of air agitated by reason of their excessive humidity perfectly contrary to the dryness of fire But that which is extreamly dry is half fire needing no more but to become hot as happens necessarily when it is rarefi'd and attenuated by motion and consequently inflam'd every substance extreamly tenuious and dry being igneous since in the order of nature all matter necessarily receives the form whereof it hath all the dispositions For there being a separation and divulsion of parts made in every sort of motion as is seen in water when it falls from on high it follows that they are render'd more rare and capable of being converted into fire The Fourth said That motion rarity and heat ordinarily follow and are the causes one of another Thus the Heavens by their rapid motion excite heat in all sublunary bodies and this heat as 't is its property opening the parts rarefies the whole Water receiving the rayes of the Sun is mov'd and agitated by them this motion produces rarity this heat which makes the subtilest parts ascend upwards as on the contrary heat being the most active quality is the cause of motion this of rarity by collision attenuating the mov'd parts So that motion is not more the cause of heat then this is of motion The Fifth said That heat and fire which is only an excess of heat are produc'd four ways by propagation union putrefaction and motion In the first way one way generates another fire a thing common to it with all other bodies in nature which is so fruitful that even the least things produce their like In the second manner when the Sun-beams are reflected by bellow glasses they burn in the point of union provided the matter be not white because whitenesse takes away the reason upon which they burn which is their uniting whereas white disunites and disgregates the rayes To which manner that of antiperistasis is also to be referr'd when external cold causes such a union of the degrees of heat that it becomes inflam'd The third cause of heat is putrefaction proceeding from disunion of the Elements amongst which fire being the most active becomes becomes also more sensible to us The last is motion by which bodies rub'd or clash'd one against another take fire by reason of the Sulphur contain'd in them which alone is inflamable as we see Marble and Free-stone yield not fire as Flints do whose smell after the blew seems sulphureous For if only the air be fir'd whence comes it that in striking the steel the sparkles of fire fall downwards contrary to the nature of fire which ascends besides the air would be turn'd into flames not into sparkles and two stones rub'd one against the other would cause as much fire as steel and the flint or other stones out of whose substance these igneous particles are struck Whence according to their differences they make different sparkles If the stones be hard and struck strongly they render a sprightly fire if soft they either render none at all or such as is less vigorous Moreover the observations of fire issuing forth upon the rubbing of a Lyon's bones as also Laurel and Ivy and Crystal with Chalcedon and that which comes from stroking the back of a Cat in the dark and from the casting a drop of rectifi'd oyl of Vitriol into cold water evidence that this fire is produc'd out of the bosom of the matter which is more dispos'd thereunto then any other not from the encompassing air But that which serves most to shew that 't is from the matter this fire of motion comes is the duration of the Heavens which being in all probability solid would have been set on fire were it not that they are not of a combustible matter nor apt to conceive fire for how little soever that heat were there would be more neer the Sphere of the Moon then at the Centre of the Earth and nevertheless the air is frozen while heat causes corruptions and generations upon the earth and at the centre of it and this heat having been always encreasing as is that of the motion would be insupportable II. Of Chastity Upon the second Point it was said That Reason regulates the inclinations of the appetite by the vertues amongst which temperance serves to moderate that of eating by abstinence and of drinking by sobriety as also the concupiscence of the flesh by chastity which is more excellent then the two former in that its business lies with more powerful adversaries which assail it without as well as within by so many avenues as there are senses amongst which the hearing and sight receiving the poyson of glances and words cause chastity to stagger and languish but it receives the deadly blow when the touch surrenders it self to the inchantment of kisses and the other delights which follow them Moreover the necessity of natural actions being the standard of pleasure and generation which concerns the general being more necessary then nutrition which relates only to the particular it hath also more pleasure and consequently being more hard to withstand chastity which surmounts it not only deserves Palmes and Triumphs in the other world but also in this hath been rewarded by God with the gift of Prophecy in the Sibyls and is honour'd by all even the most wicked for its rarity which made the Poet say that there was none in his time chaste but she that had not been tempted Now Chastity is of three sorts Virgineal Conjugal and that of Widows to which the Fathers attribute what is said of the grains of Corn which brought forth one a hundred other thirty and other sixty For Virgineal Chastity in either sex consisting in integrity of body and purity of soul and in a firm purpose to abstain from all sort of carnal pleasures the better to attend divine service is more worthy then the other two and prefer'd before any other condition by S. Paul who counsels every one to desire to be like him in this point Hence the Church hath chosen it and is so immutably affected to it to the end souls freed from worldly care might be more at leisure for divine things from which Matrimony extreamly diverts The chastity of Widows hath for pattern the Turtle and the Raven who having lost their mates live nine ages of men without coupling with
cloud by the inclos'd exhalation whence rain commonly follows it Fulgur is the exhalation inflam'd which impetuously breaks out at the sides of the cloud wherein it is oftentimes turn'd into a stone of the shape of a wedge the celestial heat then working the same effect in the cavities of the cloud that our common fire doth in crucibles in which equal portions of Sulphur Tartara and Antimony inflam'd turn into a very hard stone of the colour of the Thunder-bolt call'd Regulus Antimonii The Second said As fire is sometimes produc'd in the Air without noise and noise without fire so a great fire is made there with little noise as when what they call a Falling Star passes through a moist cloud in which it makes a hissing like that of hot Iron in cold water whence Winds proceed and sometimes a great noise with little fire as when an Exhalation inflam'd hollows and breaks the cloud which encloses it or else impressing a violent and rapid motion upon it makes it clash impetuously against other clouds For impetuousness supplies for hardnesse as is seen in Air which whistles when beaten by Winds there being some things which tension renders hard as Wind included in a foot-ball And what is reported of the Cataracts of Nile whose waters make so vehement a noise that it renders the people there abouts deaf is a sufficient evidence that two fluid bodies clashing violently together make as great a sound as two solid bodies mov'd with lesse violence The Third said That what is done below being the figure of what is done on high the one may be clearly explicated by the other Wherefore as Exhalation with vapor makes metals in the entrails of the Earth so in the Air it makes Thunder whither they ascend together the vapor being blended with the Exhalation or severally this latter being set on fire in the cold and vaporous cloud or being no longer containable there through its great rarity encounter'd by the coldness of the cloud and the Air it seeks some out-let which not finding 't is necessitated to hollow the bollow the belly of the cloud which obstructed it This rarity proceeds from its heat and drynesse which are commonly turn'd into fire by the sole motion of the Exhalation or by the rayes of the Sun or of some other Stars reflected by the smooth surface of an opposite cloud in the same manner as Burning-glasses set on fire such things as are plac'd at some convenient distance Which should be thought no more strange then mock-suns and mock-moons which are made in the same manner but in a flat or plain cloud not parabolical such as the figure of Burning-glasses must be Moreover fire may be excited by the Antiperistasis of the vehement cold in the middle Region of the Air which causes the degrees of heat to unite as those of other qualities strengthen one another in an enemy country and become flame Hence Thunders are more frequent in Southern then in Northern Countries in hot seasons then in Winter wherein the cold closing the pores of the Earth hinders the free issue of the Exhalations and the middle Region of the Air is found less cold But the most sensible example of Thunder is that of our Guns the powder being so suddenly inflam'd that it cannot reside in the barrel where it takes up a thousand times more room then it did whilst it remain'd in its terrene nature according to the decuple proportion of the Elements violently breaks forth and carries with it what ever resists it breaking the Gun unless the mouth be open though much stronger then a cloud whose spissitude nevertheless supplies for its rarity The Fourth said That the Nature of Thunder and Thunderbolts is so occult that all antiquity call'd them the weapons of Jupiter which he discharg'd upon the wicked as is testifi'd by their fables of the Giants Salmoneus Phaeton and some others Nor is there any so hardned in wickedness but trembles at the cracking of Thunder and Thunder-bolts which Socrates in Xenophon calls the Invisible Ministers of God And one Emperor acknowledg'd himself no God by going to hide himself in a cave while it thunder'd because Thunder-bolts are conceiv'd not to enter the Earth above five foot deep Others have thought that there is something supernatural in it and that Daemons have commonly a hand in it because its effects being unlike those of corporeal Agents seem to be produc'd by spirits who are able to move what ever there is in Nature and this the more easily being not ty'd to the conditions of the matter but mov'd in an instant and penetrating all bodies whatever For Thunder hath kill'd many who had no appearance of hurt upon them the Hair of some hath been taken off without other inconvenience it hath consum'd the Tongues of some or turn'd them downwards it hath melted the money in the purse and the sword in the scabbard without other mischief it sowres Wine in the vessel spoils Eggs under a Hen and makes Sheep abortive Moreover the Scripture tells us that God hath many times us'd Thunder either to punish or terrifie men as he did in Aegypt by the rod of Moses who calls Thunder-bolts God's swords as David doth his Arrows and the Thunder his voice The Law was given to the Israelites with Thunders and Lightnings and Saint John in his Revelation saith that Thunders and Lightnings proceed from Gods Throne Indeed nothing more visibly notifies his presence power and justice yet alwayes accompany'd with Clemency for he threatens by Lightning and speaks by Thunder before he strikes by the Thunder-bolt and the rumbling of this Thunder menaces a whole Region though commonly it carries the blow but upon one person or oftentimes none at all The Fifth said Fear which not onely sometimes made the Romans worship Famine and the Fever but makes it self an Idol in the Minds of the Ignorant has perswaded men that there is something Divine in Thunder because they dread the dismal effects of it and know not the cause although it be as natural as that of all other Meteors Hence some have had recourse to impertinent and superstitious remedies as to pronounce certain barbarous words to carry certain figures or characters about them and according to Wierus to lay a Thunder-stone call'd by the Greeks Ceraunium between two Eggs upon a Table in the house which you would preserve or hang an Egg lay'd on Ascension-day to the roof of the House and such other absurd and prophane means The Northern people were much more ridiculous who as Olaus reports shot Arrows up to Heaven when it Thunder'd thereby as they said to help their Gods who were assail'd by others The Thracians fell a howling against Heaven struck their shields with their swords and rung all their bells which latter is practis'd at this day to the end the vehement agitation of the Air may divert the Thunder-bolt from the steeples upon which as upon all other high places especially
foal'd whence it must be taken betimes else the Mare bites it off and if she be deceiv'd of it never affects the foal afterwards and therefore 't is call'd by Virgil Matri praereptus Amor. The same effect is attributed to the seed of Mares to a plant call'd Hippomanes and by Pliny to the hair of a Wolfs tail the fish Remora the brain of a Cat and a Lizard and by Wierus to Swallows starv'd to death in an earthen pot the bones of a green Frog excarnated by Pismires the right parts of which he saith conciliate Love and the left hatred But to shew the vanity and impurity of these inventions most Philtres are taken from Animals generated of corruption excrements and other filthy and abominable things and commonly all rather excite Fury then Love as appears by many to whom Cantharides have been given and Caligula who was render'd mad by a drink of his wife Cesonia one Frederick of Austria and the Poet Lucretius by a Philtre given him by his Wife Lucilia Love is free and fixes not by constraint 't is not taken in at the mouth but the eyes the graces of the body being the most powerful charm as Olympia Wife of Philip of Macedon acknowledg'd when being jealous that her Husband lov'd a young Lady that was said to have given him amorous potions the Queen sent for her and having beheld her great Beauty said that she had those Philtres in her self Now if these gifts of the body be accompany'd with those of the mind and the party endu'd therewith testifie Love to another 't is impossible but the affection will become mutual Love being the parent of Love whence the Poets feign'd two Cupids Eros and Anteros and Ovid an intelligent person in this matter knew no surer course then this Vt ameris amabilis esto The Fourth said Love is a spiritual thing and consequently produc'd by means of the same nature Hence an ill report which is a thing not onely incorporeal but commonly phantastical and imaginary extinguishes all Love for a person otherwise lovely as to the graces of the body And the choice between equal Beauties shews that Love is not founded upon the outside Wherefore they take the wisest course to get themselves lov'd who use inductions and perswasions which are the common means to make marriages By all which it appears that Amorous Madness is a distemper of the mind and as such to be cur'd CONFERENCE LXXVIII I. Why the Sensitive Appetite rules over Reason II. Whether Speech be natural and peculiar to Man I. Why the Sensitive Appetite rules over Reason APpetite is an inclination of every thing to what is good for it self There are three sorts in Man First the Natural which is in plants who attract their nourishment and also in some inanimate things as the Load-stone and Iron yea in the Elements as the dry earth covets water and all heavy bodies tend to their centre 'T is without Knowledge and Will even in Man for all natural actions are perform'd best in sleep Secondly the Sensitive common to Man and Beast which some erroneously deny to be a humane faculty because 't is the seat of the Passions the enemies of Reason which constitutes Man But the encounter of it with Reason argues their distinction Thirdly the Rational call'd the Will which is Mistress of the former two and besides makes use of Reason for the knowing of one or more things And because desire cannot be without knowledge therefore the Sensitive Appetite presupposes the knowledge of the Imagination and the Will that of the Understanding but the Natural Appetite depends on that of a First Cause which directs every natural form to its particular good though it know not the same Now 't is demanded how the Mistresse comes to obey the Servants notwithstanding the Maxime That the Will tends to nothing but what is good which cannot be without truth and this is not such unless it be approv'd by the Intellect It seems to me improper to say that the Sensitive Appetite prevails over Reason but rather hinders it by its disturbance from pronouncing sentence as a brawling Lawyer doth a Judge by his noise The Second said That Reason is alwayes Mistress For Men govern themselves according to Nature the universal rule of all things and this nature being rational they cannot be guided otherwise then the motions of Reason But some find Reason where other finds none The Thief accounts riches ill divided and therefore he may justly possess himself of what he wants and however he sees evil in the action yet he conceives more in his necessity which his Reason makes him account the greatest of all evils So that comparing them together he concludes the less evil to be good and wittingly attempts the crime not owning it for such whilst he commits it The same may be said of all other sins wherein the present sweetness exceeds the fear of future punishment If Conscience interpose they either extinguish it or else wholly forbear the action Unless the Mind happen to be balanc'd and then they are in confusion like the Ass which dy'd of hunger between two measures of corn not knowing which to go to For 't is impossible for the Will to be carry'd to one thing rather then another unless it find the one better and more convenient The Third said 'T is congruous to nature for the Inferior to receive Law from the Superior So Man commands over beasts and amongst Men some are born Masters and others slaves the Male hath dominion over the Female the Father over his Children the Prince over his Subjects the Body receives Law from the Soul the Matter from its Form the Angels of Inferior Hierarchies receive their intelligence from the Superior and the lower Heavens the rule of their motions from the higher the Elements are subject to the influences of those celestial bodies and in all mixts one quality predominates over the rest Since therefore the Sensitive Appetite is as much below Reason as a beast below a Man and the Imagination below the Intellect according to the same order establish'd in Nature Reason ought alwayes to have the command over it because having more knowledge 't is capable to direct it to its end But through the perversity of our Nature we more willingly follow the dictates of Sense then Reason of the Flesh then the Spirit because the former being more familiar and ordinary touch us nearer then Reason whose wholsome counsels move not our Will so much which being Mistress of all the faculties according to its natural liberty may sometimes command a virtuous action of whose goodnesse Reason hath inform'd it sometimes a vitious one by the suggestion of the Sensitive Appetite which makes it taste the present sweetness and delight whose attraction is greater then that of future rewards promis'd by virtue to her followers Hence the Law of the members so prevails over the law of the mind as sometimes wholly to eclipse the
and use specially by the hearing whnce people deaf by nature are also dumb yea 't is very peculiare to man Wherefore Speech is improperly figuratively artificially or else miraculously ascrib'd to other things as when The Heavens are said to declare the glory of God one deep to call on another c. When Balaams Ass spoke 't was by Miracle But when Magus's dog spoke to Saint Peter 't was by operation of the Devil as also what is reported of the two Pigeons the Oke at Achilles's Horse the keel of Argo and that Elm of the Gymnosophists mention'd by Philostratus to have saluted Apollonius at his arrival as the River Causus bid Pythagoras good-morrow But Speech properly belongs onely to man other creatures are incapable of it both because they want Reason which is the principle of it and organs which are a tongue a palate teeth and lipps all rightly proportionated for the articulation of voice for man's tongue alone is soft large moveable and loose to which qualities those of Pies and Parrots come nearest The Third said A natural thing is either born with us as sense and motion or comes afterwards of it self as laughter or whereof we are naturally capable and inclin'd to as Arts and Sciences In the first and second signification speech is not natural to man who could not speak without learning whence the two children caus'd by Psammetichus King of Egypt to be nurs'd in a Desart by two dumb Nurses pronounc'd no other word but Bec which they had heard of the Goats But in the last signification 't is peculiar to man who is so inclin'd to it that were children let alone from their Cradle they would in time make some language by signs or words 'T is to be understood too that 't is articulate speech such as may be written that is peculiar to man not inarticulate which though a natural sign of the affections within yet cannot properly be called speech because found also in beasts whose jargon Apollonius and some others are said to have understood for hearing the chattering of a Swallow to her companions he told those that were present that this bird advertis'd the others of a sack of Wheat fallen off an Asse's back neer the City which upon trial was found to be true CONFERENCE LXXIX I. What the Soul is II. Of the apparition of Spirits I. What the Soul is THe difference of inanimate living and dead bodies manifestly evince the existence of a soul. But its essence is so unknown that Philosophers doubt in what degree of Category to put it For 't is of that kind of things which are not known by themselves but only by their effects as local motion and substance which is not perceptible but by its accidents So the outward shape of animated bodies acquaints us with their inward form For the soul shapes all the external parts after the same manner as Plants and Animals of the same species have commonly their leaves and members of the same external figure whereas you scarce find two stones or other inanimate bodies of the same shape The Second said That the soul according to Aristotle is the first act of a natural body organiz'd having life in power or potentially Meaning by act perfection which he expresses by the word Entellechie which signifies to be in its end and form which two are the same in natural things 'T is call'd Form upon account of its beauty and divine from heaven its original and 't is the first of all other second acts which are produc'd by it such as all vital actions are For as in the most imperfect of beings Matter there is a First or remote power as in water to become fire another second or next as in the same water to become air by rarefaction so in the nature of Forms the noblest created Beings there is a First act the source of all vital actions and a Second comprehending the faculties and functions Now this Soul is not a pure act as God and Angels are but an act of the Body on whom it depends either in its being and preservation or else only in operation Hence Sensitive and Vegetable Souls cease to be upon the change of the dispositions which produc'd and supported them The reasonable Soul too in some manner depends upon the Bodies disposition as to its operation not as to its being and preservation being immaterial and immortal 'T is call'd an act of a natural Body to distinguish it from Machines or Engines which move artificial and inanimate Bodies organical because Organs are requisite to its action It must also have life in power that is be able to exercise the vital functions For want of which a carcase though organiz'd yet cannot be said to be animated no more then Egges and Seed for want of Organs although they have life in power The Third said He was of Pythagoras's opinion who call'd it a number there being nothing in the world wherewith it hath more correspondence and proportion 'T is one in its essence it makes the binary which is the first number by its conjunction with the body and division of its Faculties into the Intellect and Will the ternary by its three species of soul Vegetative Sensitive Rational the quaternary by the four qualities constituting the temper requisite to its introduction into the body of which four numbers put together is form'd the number ten whence all others proceed as from simple Apprehension Enuntiation Argumentation and Method which are the four operations of the reasonable soul whence all its notions proceed The Fourth said 'T is not enough to say with the Philosopher that the soul is an act or perfection or that by whose means we live it must be shewn what this act is whether Substance or Accident Pythagoras by calling the soul a number moving it self reduces it under Quantity According to Galen who acknowledges no other Soul but the Temper 't is a Quality as also according to Clearchus who defines it harmony Of those who believ'd the soul a substance some have call'd it the purest part of some Element as Heraclitus of fire Anaximenes of air and Thales of water none of earth in regard of its gross matter Critelaus said 't was a Quintessence Democritus a substance compos'd of round Atoms and therefore easily movable Now the soul is a substance not an accident because it composes a substance making with the body a total by it self Nor is it Quantity because Quantity is not active much less a self-moving number because number is an Entity of Reason and nothing is mov'd of it self but of some other Nor is it any of the four qualities which being indifferent of themselves must be determin'd by some form much less a temper which is found in all mixts of which some are inanimate nor a harmony for this is compos'd of contrarieties but the soul is simple and consequently not susceptible of contraries 'T is therefore an incorporeal substance otherwise were
which makes water ascend in the Pneumaticks whereof Hero writ a Treatise rendring the same melodious and resembling the singing of birds in the Hydraulicks It makes use of the four Elements which are the causes of the motions of engines as of Fire in Granadoes Air in Artificial Fountains both Fire and Air by their compression which water not admitting since we see a vessel full of water can contain nothing more its violence consists in its gravity when it descends from high places The Earth is also the cause of motion by its gravity when 't is out of Aequilibrium as also of rest when 't is equally poiz'd as is seen in weights The Second said The wit of Man could never preserve the dominion given him by God over other creatures without help of the Mechanicks but by this art he hath brought the most savage and rebellious Animals to his service Moreover by help of mechanical inventions the four Elements are his slaves and as it were at his pay to do his works Thus we see by means of the Hydraulicks or engines moving by water wheels and pumps are set continually at work the Wind is made to turn a Mill manag'd by the admirable Art of Navigation or employ'd to other uses by Aealipila's Fire the noblest of all Elements becomes the vassal of the meanest Artisans or serves to delight the sight by the pleasant inventions of some Ingineer or employes its violence to arm our thunders more powerfully then the ancient machines of Demetrius The Earth is the Theatre of all these inventions and Archimedes boasted he could move that too had he place where to fix his engine By its means the Sun descends to the Earth and by the artificial union of his rayes is enabled to effect more then he can do in his own sphere The curiosity of man hath carry'd him even to Heaven by his Astrological Instrumens so that nothing is now done in that republick of the stars but what he knows and keeps in record The Third said That since Arts need Instruments to perform their works they owe all they can do to the Mechanicks which supply them with utensils and inventions 'T was the Mechanicks which furnish'd the Smith with a hammer and an anvil the Carpenter with a saw and a wedge the Architect with a rule the Mason with a square the Geometrician with a compass the Astronomer with an astrolabe the Souldier with sword and musket in brief they have in a manner given man other hands Hence came paper writing printing the mariner's box the gun in these latter ages and in the preceding the Helepoles or takecities flying bridges ambulatory towers rams and other engines of war which gives law to the world Hence Archimedes easily drew a ship to him which all the strength of Sicily could not stir fram'd a heaven of glass in which all the celestial motions were to be seen according to which model the representation of the sphere remains to us at this day Hence he burnt the Roman ships even in their harbour defended the City of Syracuse for a long time against the Roman Army conducted by the brave Marcellus And indeed I wonder not that this great Archimedes was in so high in Reputaion For if men be valued according to their strength is it not a miracle that one single man by help of mechanicks could lift as much as ten a hundred yea a thousand others And his pretension to move the whole Earth were a poynt given him out of it where to stand will not seem presumptuous though the supposition be impossible to such as know his screw without-end or of wheels plac'd one above another for by addition of new wheels the strength of the same might be so multiply'd that no humane power could resist it yea a child might by this means displace the whole City of Paris and France it self were it upon a moveable plane But the greatest wonder is the simplicity of the means employ'd by this Queen of Arts to produce such excellent effects For Aristotle who writ a book of mechanicks assignes no other principles thereof but the Lever its Hypomoclion or Support and a balance it being certain that of these three multiply'd proceed all Machines both Automata and such as are mov'd by force of wind fire water or animals as wind-mills water-mills horse-mills a turn-broch by smoak and as many other inventions as things in the world CONFERENCE LXXXVII I. Whether the Soul's Immortality is demonstrable by Natural Reasons II. Whether Travel be necessary to an Ingenuous Man I. Whether the Soul's Immortality is demonstrable by Natural Reasons NAtural Philosophy considers natural bodies as they are subject to alteration and treats not of the Soul but so far as it informes the Body and either partakes or is the cause of such alteration And therefore they are injust who require this Science to prove supernatural things as the Soul's Immortality is Although its admirable effects the vast extent of its thoughts even beyond the imaginary spaces its manner of acting and vigor in old age the terrors of future judgement the satisfaction or remorse of Conscience and Gods Justice which not punishing all sins in this life presupposes another are sufficiently valid testimonies thereof should not the universal consent of heathens themselves some of which have hastned their deaths to enjoy this immortality and man 's particular external shape infer the particular excellence of his internal form So that by the Philosophical Maxime which requires that there be contraries in every species of things if the souls of beasts joyn'd to bodies die there must be others joyn'd to other bodies free from death when separated from the same And the Harmony of the world which permits not things to pass from on extreme to another without some mean requires as that there are pure spirits and intelligences which are immortal and substances corporeal and mortal so there be a middle nature between these two Man call'd by the Platonists upon this account the horizon of the Universe because he serves for a link and medium uniting the hemisphere of the Angelical Nature with the inferior hemisphere of corporeal nature But there is difference between that which is and that which may be demonstrated by Humane Reason which falls short in proving the most sensible things as the specifical proprieties of things and much less can it prove what it sees not or demonstrate the attribute of a subject which it sees not For to prove the Immortality of the Soul 't is requisite at least to know the two termes of this proportion The Soul is immortal But neither of them is known to natural reason not immortality for it denotes a thing which shall never have end but infinitie surpasses the reach of humane wit which is finite And the term Soul is so obscure that no Philosophy hath yet been able to determine truly whether it be a Spirit or something corporeal a substance or an accident single
to their conservation tutelary Angels being nothing but the organs of Divine Providence which embraces all things The Second said That the Genii produce in us those effects whereof we know not the cause every one finding motions in himself to good or evil proceeding from some external power yea otherwise then he had resolved Simonides was no sooner gone out of a house but it fell upon all the company and 't is said that as Socrates was going in the fields he caus'd his friends who were gone before him to be recall'd saying that his familiar spirit forbad him to go that way which those that would not listen to were all mired and some torn and hurt by a herd of swine Two persons formerly unknown love at the first sight allies not knowing one another oftimes feel themselves seiz'd with unusual joy one man is alwayes unfortunate to another every thing succeeds well which cannot proceed but from the favour or opposition of some Genii Hence also some Genii are of greater power then others and give men such authority over other men that they are respected and fear'd by them Such was the Genius of Augustus in comparison of Mark Antonie and that of J. Caesar against Pompey But though nothing is more common then the word Genius yet 't is not easie to understand the true meaning of it Plato saith 't is the guardian of our lives Epictetus the over-seer and sentinel of the Soul The Greeks call it the Mystagogue or imitator of life which is our guardian Angel The Stoicks made two sorts one singular the Soul of every one the other universal the Soul of the world Varro as Saint Augustine reports in his eighth book of the City of God having divided the immortal Souls which are in the Air and mortal which are in the Water and Earth saith that between the Moon and the middle region of the Air there are aerious Souls call'd Heroes Lares and Genii of which an Ancient said it is as full as the Air is full of flies in Summer as Pythagoras said that the Air is full of Souls which is not dissonant from the Catholick Faith which holds that Spirits are infinitely more numerous then corporeal substances because as celestial bodies are incomparably more excellent and ample then sublunary so pure Spirits being the noblest works of God ought to be in greater number then other creatures What the Poets say of the Genius which they feign to be the Son of Jupiter and the earth representing him sometimes in the figure of a serpent as Virgil do's that which appear'd to Aenaeas sometimes of a horn of plenty which was principally the representation of the Genius of the Prince by which his flatterers us'd to swear and their sacrificing Wine and Flowers to him is as mysterious as all the rest The Third said That the Genius is nothing but the temperament of every thing which consists in a certain harmonious mixture of the four qualities and being never altogether alike but more perfect in some then in others is the cause of the diversity of actions The Genius of a place is its temperature which being seconded with celestial influences call'd by some the superior Genii is the cause of all productions herein Prepensed crimes proceed from the melancholy humour the Genius of anger and murders is the bilious humour that of idleness and the vices it draws after it is phlegme and the Genius of love is the sanguine humour Whence to follow one's Genius is to follow one's natural inclinations either to good or to evil II. Whether the Suicide of the Pagans be justifiable Upon the Second Point 't was said That evil appears such onely by comparison and he that sees himself threatned with greater evils then that of death ought not onely to attend it without fear but seek it as the onely sovereign medicine of a desperate malady What then if death be nothing as the Pagans believ'd and leave nothing after it For we must distinguish Paganisme and Man consider'd in his pure state of nature from Christianity and the state of Grace In the former I think Diogenes had reason when meeting Speusippus languishing with an incurable disease who gave him the good day he answer'd I wish not you the like since thou sufferest an evil from which thou maist deliver thy self as accordingly he did when he returned home For all that they fear'd in their Religion after death was Not-Being what their Fasti taught them of the state of souls in the other life being so little believ'd that they reckon'd it amongst the Fables of the Poets Or if they thought they left any thing behind them 't was only their renown of which a couragious man that kill'd himself had more hope then the soft and effeminate The same is still the custom of those great Sea Captains who blow themselves up with Gun-powder to avoid falling into the enemies hands Yet there 's none but more esteems their resolution then the demeanor of cowards who yield at mercy This is the sole means of making great Captains and good Souldiers by their example to teach them not to fear death not to hold it with poltron Philosophers the most terrible of terribles And to judge well of both compare we the abjectness of a Perseus a slave led in triumph with the generosity of a Brutus or a Cato Vticensis For 't were more generous to endure patiently the incommodities of the body the injuries of an enemy and the infamy of death if man had a spirit proof against the strokes of fortune But he though he may ward himself with his courage yet he can never surmount all sort of evils and according to the opinion of the same Philosopher all fear is not to be rejected Some evils are so vehement that they cannot be disposed without stupidity as torments of the body fire the wheel the loss of honour and the like which 't is oftentimes better to abandon then vainly to strive to overcome them Wherefore as 't is weakness to have recourse to death for any pain whatsoever so 't was an ignominious cowardize amongst the Pagans to live only for grief The Second said That nature having given all individuals a particular instinct for self-preservation their design is unnatural who commit homicide upon themselves And if civil intestine wars are worse then forreign then the most dangerous of all is that which we make to our selves Wherefore the ancients who would have this brutality pass for a virtue were ridiculous because acknowledging the tenure of their lives from some Deity 't was temerity in them to believe they could dispose thereof to any then the donor and before he demanded it In which they were as culpable as a Souldier that should quit his rank without his Captain 's leave or depart from his station where he was plac'd Sentinel And did not virtue which is a habit require many reiterated acts which cannot be found in Suicide since we have
Third said That the heat which preserves our lives is natural gentle and agreeable not extraneous as that meant in the question is Therefore external cold must be compar'd with heat likewise external and extraneous not with the vital heat which is of a more sublime order then these elementary qualities Now 't is certain external heat is more powerful and active then external cold since it consumes and dissolves Metals which cold cannot and is more hurtful because it dries up humidity which is the foundation of life 'T is also less tolerable for we can bear the touch of the coldest body in the world namely Ice yea eat it without harm but none could ever resist flames Whence fire is the cruellest of punishments not cold from which besides we may more easily defend our selves then from excessive heat which may be abated a little by winds shadows or other artifices but not wholly as cold is by help of fire clothes and motion The Fourth said If it be true which Cardan saith that cold is nothing but a privation of heat Nature which dreads nothing so much as non-entity must abhor it most nor can it be any way active since that which exists not cannot act But I will suppose as 't is most probable that both the one and the other are positive entities since cold enters into the composition of bodies as well as heat the bones membranes skin nerves and all but the fleshy parts being cold as also the brain the noblest part of man And I conceive that heat and cold consider'd either as internal principles of a living body or as two external agents enemies of life cold is always more hurtful then heat On the one side hot distempers alter the functions but cold abolish them depriving us of sense motion and life as in the Lethargy Apoplexie Epilepsie and other cold diseases And on the other external heat indeed draws forth part of our spirits and thereby weakens us whence come faintings after too hot a bath or too great a fire but it never wholly quenches and destroys them as the light of the Sun drowns that of a Candle at noon but do's not extinguish it The Fifth said Because as Hippocrates saith in his Aphorisms some natures are best in Winter others in Summer as old men are not much inconvenienc'd by the most vehement heats whereas cold kills them on the contrary young people of hot tempers endure heat more impatiently then cold and there is no temperament ad pondus or exact Reason must be call'd to the aid of our senses not only to judge of moist and dry as Galen thinks but also of hot and cold which being absolutely consider'd in their own nature without respect to us I conceive heat much more active then cold and consequently less supportable because the more a thing hath of form and less of matter 't is the more active the one of these principles being purely active and the cause of all natural actions the other simply passive Thus the earth and water are dull and heavy elements in comparison of the air and fire which are less dense and material Heaven the universal cause of all sublunary things is a form without matter as Averroës affirms Now heat rarifies and dilates its subject and seems to make it more spiritual and so is more active then cold which condenses and stops all the pores and passages Which also appears in that the hottest diseases are the most acute and if cold diseases kill sometimes they charm and dull the senses and so render death more gentle and supportable On the contrary the cruellest deaths great pains and the most violent diseases are ordinarily caus'd by some hot humour Hence it is that no person dyes without a Fever and Hippocrates affirms that the same heat which generates us kills us In fine God who is the prime Reason hath judg'd heat more active and less supportable then cold since he appoints fire to torment the devils and damned souls II. Who are most happy in this world Wise Men or Fools Upon the second Point 't was said As there is but one right line and infinite crooked so there is but one wisdom and one way to attain it namely to follow right reason but follies are of all sorts and of as many fashions as there are different minds which conceive things under divers apparences of goodness So that the number of fools being greater then that of wise men these will always lose their cause Moreover if happiness be well defin'd by contentment who is there but accounts fools more happy then the wise Witness he who otherwise intelligent enough was a fool in this only point that he would diligently repair alone to the Theatre and phancy that he saw and heard the Actors and applauded them although no body was there besides himself but being cur'd of his folly he complain'd of his friends in stead of thanking them for having been too careful to render him miserable being a happy man before Besides folly hath this priviledge that we bear with that truth from the mouth of a fool which would be odious in another and the tribe of fools is indeed exceeding great since we are born such for a child is agreeable upon no other account but its simplicity which is nothing else but folly by which many faults are excusable in youth which are not to be endur'd in other ages And those whom we account happiest and that dye of old age end thus and are therefore call'd twice children and folly serves to take away the sense of all the discontents and incommodities of old age Yea he that more neerly considers the course of our life will find more of folly in it then of wisdom For if self-conceit play love and the other passions be so many follies who is free from it The Second said That wise men alone are happy is justly accounted a Stoical Paradox since 't is contrary to true natural sentiments which shew us that the happiness of this life consists only in two points namely in the privation of grief and the possession of good As for the first not to speak of bodily pains from which the wise are no more exempt then fools the strongest minds are more intelligent by their more vigorous reasoning and consequently more susceptible of inward grief and affliction of hope fear desire and as other passions besides that they are ordinary of a melancholy temper and more fix'd upon their objects then fools who are more inconstant to say nothing of the scruples of conscience which many times rack their spirits of the points of honour of civilities nor of the knotty questions in the Sciences As for the latter the possession of good fools have a better share then the wise because there is no absolute but onely relative good in this world whence proceeded the many different opinions touching the chief good and the saying that none is truly happy unless he thinks himself
of Art which we learn'd from them for the most part but they have also virtues as Chastity Simplicity Prudence Piety On the contrary God as the Philosopher teaches exercises neither virtues nor any external actions but contemplation is his sole employment and consequently the most divine of all though it were not calm agreeable permanent sufficient proper to man and independent of others which are the tokens of beatitude and the chief good The Third said since 't is true which Plato saith that while we are in this world we do nothing but behold by the favour of a glimmering light the phantasms and shadows of things which custom makes us to take for truths and bodies they who amuse themselves in contemplation in this life cannot be said contented unless after the manner of Tantalus who could not drink in the midst of the water because they cannot satisfie that general inclination of nature who suffers nothing idle in all her precincts to reduce powers into act and dead notions into living actions If they receive any pleasure in the knowledge of some truths 't is much less then that which is afforded by action and the exercise of the moral virtues of the active life the more excellent in that they are profitable to many since the most excellent good is the most communicable Moreover all men have given the pre-eminence to civil Prudence and active life by proposing rewards and honours thereunto but they have punish'd the ingratitude and pride of speculative persons abandoning them to contempt poverty and all incommodities of life And since the Vice which is opposite to active life is worse then ignorance which is oppos'd to the contemplative by the reason of contraries action must be better then contemplation and the rather because virtuous action without contemplation is always laudable and many times meritorious for its simplicity on the contrary contemplation without virtuous acts is more criminal and pernicious In fine if it be true that he who withdraws himself from active life to intend contemplation is either a god or a beast as Aristotle saith 't is more likely that he is the latter since man can hardly become like to God The Fourth said That to separate active life from contemplative is to cut off the stream from the fountain the fruit from the tree and the effect from its cause as likewise contemplation without the vertues of the active life is impossible rest and tranquillity which are not found in vice being necessary to contemplate and know Wherefore as the active life is most necessary during this life so the contemplative is more noble and divine if this present life be consider'd as the end and not as the means and way to attain to the other life in which actions not contemplations shall be put to account Contemplation is the Sun Action the Moon of this little World receiving its directions from contemplation as the Moon of the great World borrows its light from the Sun the former presides in the day of contemplative life the second which is neerer to us as the Moon is presides in the darkness of our passions Both of them represented in Pallas the Goddess of Wisdom and War being joyn'd together make the double-fronted Janus or Hermaphrodite of Plato square of all sides compos'd of Contemplation which is the Male and Action which is the Female CONFERENCE XCIII I. Of the spots in the Moon and the Sun II. Whether 't is best to use severity or gentleness towards our dependents I. Of the spots in the Moon and the Sun THere is nothing perfect in the world spots being observ'd in the brightest bodies of Nature And not to speak of those in the Sun which seem to proceed from the same cause with those observ'd in our flame according as 't is condens'd or rarifi'd we may well give account of those in the Moon by saying with the Pythagoreans and some later excellent Mathematicians that the Moon is an earthly habitable Globe as the eminences and inequalities observ'd therein by the Telescope the great communications of the Moon with our earth depriving one another of the Sun by the opacity rotundity and solidty of both and the cold and moist qualities which it transmits hither like those of this terr-aqueous Globe since the same apparences and illumination of the Earth would be seen from the Heaven of the Moon if a man were carri'd thither And because solid massie bodies as wood and stone reflect light most strongly therefore the brightest parts of the Moon answer the terrestrial dense parts and the dark the water which being rarer and liker the air is also more transparent and consequently less apt to stop and reflect light This we experience in the prospect of high Mountains very remote or the points of Rocks in the open Sea which reflect a light and have a colour like that of the Moon when the Sun is still above the Horizon with her whereas the Sea and great Lakes being less capable of remitting this light seem dark and like clouds So that were this Globe of Ocean and Earth seen from far it would appear illuminated and spotted like the Moon For the opinion of Plurality of Worlds which can be no way dangerous of it self but only in the consequences the weakness of humane wit would draw from it much less is it contrary to the faith as some imagine is rather an argument of Gods Omnipotence and more abundant communication of his goodness in the production of more creatures whereas his immense goodness seems to be restrain'd in the creation of but one world and of but one kind Nor is it impossible but that as we see about some Planets namely Jupiter and Saturn some other Stars which move in Epicycles and in respect of their stations and those Planets seem like Moons to them and are of the same substance so that which shines to us here below may be of the same substance with our earth and plac'd as a bound to this elementary Globe The Second said That the spots of the Sun and Moon cannot be explicated without some Optical presuppositions And first 't is to be known that Vision is perform'd three ways directly by reflection and by refraction Direct Vision which is the most ordinary is when an object sends its species to the eye by a direct way that is when all the points of one and the same object make themselves seen by so many right lines Reflective Vision is when the species of an object falling upon the surface of an opake body is remitted back to the sight as 't is in our Looking-glasses Vision by refraction is when the species of an object having pass'd through a medium diaphanous to a certain degree enters obliquely into another medium more or less diaphanous for then 't is broken and continues not its way directly but with this diversity that coming from a thicker medium into a thinner as from water into air the species in breaking
infinity Nor can it be a vacuum which receives bodies For either this vacuum remains after the admission of a body and so the same place will be full and empty both together or this vacuum recedes to make place for supervening bodies which cannot be for then it will be capable of local motion which is an affection and property of body Or else lastly this vacuum perishes and is annihilated which is impossible too for then it should be subject to generation and corruption which are found only in bodies Wherefore if ever the Scepticks had reason to suspend their judgement 't is in the nature of place which they justly doubted whether it were something or nothing The Fifth said That to doubt of place is to doubt of the clearest thing in the world nothing being so certain as the existence of things which cannot be but in some place And we see a thing no sooner exists in nature but it hath its place and its station which alone made the distinction of the parts of the world from their ancient Chaos in which things were confus'd and without order which is not found saving when every entity occupies the place due to its nature which is preserv'd therein Amongst simple bodies Heaven hath the highest place Fire and Air the next Water and Earth the lowest amongst mixts Minerals and Metals are form'd in the Entrails of the Earth Plants and Animals are preserv'd upon the earth and in the air and the centre of every thing is nothing else but its place Wherefore as God contains in himself all the perfections of his creatures so he is in all places by his presence his essence and his power II. Of Hieroglyphicks Upon the second Point it was said That the Ancient Sages were always curious to hide the mysteries of their learning under some obscure things the Poets under the shell of Fables whom Plato and Aesop imitated the Pythagoreans under their Riddles Solomon under Parables the Chaldeans in the sacred Letters of their Cabala But especially the Egyptians have observ'd this mystery For having learn'd from the Jews and the Chaldeans the principal notions of the Sciences and the Deity the Principles whereof were taken from those famous Columns which preserv'd the Characters thereof after the Deluge they transmitted the same to posterity by the figures and images of things engraven upon Pyramids and Obeliscks whereof we still see some fragments in their Hieroglyphicks which signifies sacred and mysterious figures or sculpture not so much for the things employ'd to that purpose which oftentimes were common and natural as for the mystical and hidden sence which they attributed to the same The use of these figures was the more profitable in that having some similitude and correspondence to the quality of the thing signifi'd they not only denoted the same but also its nature and property So painting an Eye upon a Scepter which signifi'd God they intimated also his properties by the Scepter his Omnipotence and by the Eye his Providence Another advantage of these Hieroglyphicks is that they were equally understood by all Nations of several Languages as at this day the Chineses and Japoneses make use of some Letters like Hieroglyphicks which signifie rather things then words Which would be a good way to reduce all Tongues into one and so to facilitate all Sciences were not this Hieroglyphical writing too diffuse For there must be as many Characters as there are things in the World which being almost infinite and every day new would render this Art endless which hath made the use of it laid aside as it would also be among the Chineses were not honour which supports and feeds all other Arts annex'd to this knowledge of Characters which advances those alone who are skill'd in their Letters to Magistracies and the chief charges of that great State The Second said That the signs for representing things are either Natural or Artificial Amongst the natural employ'd by men to express their conceptions are the pictures and images of thigns as to represent a Man or a Tree they paint a man and a Tree by which way Philomela describ'd the wrong which had been done her The Aegyptians had the same design in their Hieroglyphicks but finding that it would never have an end they in this imitated the Hebrews who make the same Root serve to produce a great number of words and employ'd one figure to signifie first one thing namely that whose image it is and afterwards many others wherewith it hath some affinity So the figure of a Serpent signifies a Serpent and the Prudence which is attributed to that animal and because they observ'd that the last day of the year joynd to the first and made a continual circle they represented the year by a Serpent with his tail in his mouth Upon the same ground Emblems were invented So Alciate to represent Fortitude and Wisedom gives the pourtraicts of Ajax and Vlisses to signifie a good Merchant who trusts only to what he holds he paints a hand with an eye in the middle of it the Fox signifies cunning the Pismire Providence the Bee Policie an earthen pot joyn'd to an iron pot dangerous Alliance In brief so many fables and phancies are so many writings after this manner from which to speak truth if you abstract the reverence which is due to Antiquity I see nothing that comes neer the marvel of our Letters which in respect of other inventions I cannot but compare to the Philosophers Stone so much talk'd of which whoso possesses may by its projection make as much gold as he needs to travel over the world and those other inventions to the money or if you please the provisions which a Traveller carries with him For these are incommodious and serve but to one or few uses whereas writing by combination of sixteen several characters the rest being found superfluous is sufficient to represent what ever hath been is may or may not be The Third said That no doubt 't was necessity which put the Aegyptians first upon the invention of Hieroglyphicks then which our Letters are much less significative because they express not the nature of natural things as their figures do but only words Yet the use of Hieroglyphicks was very pernicious to the vulgar who seeing the Attributes of God represented under the shapes of Animals and Plants took occasion to adore those corporeal things and became the most superstitious of all Nations going so far as to deifie garlick onyons rats and toads Moreover Mans life is too short for this Art his wit too weak to invent figures sutable to all the parts of speech diversifi'd by numbers cases persons tenses and other Grammatical differences of words and his memory too slippery to retain all those figures because they represented not one single thing but many different and for that one and the same thing was diversly figur'd as God was express'd by an Eye a Circle and an Unite Prudence by a double head
the first Inventors of Armes which are the Badges of it seem to have affected obscurity in their terms to render the same more recommendable to the vulgar by being less understood Armes are compos'd of Images pourtray'd upon a ground call'd the Field into which mens ambition hath introduc'd every thing in Nature the Heaven the Stars the Air with its Birds the Sea and its Fishes the Earth and whatever rarity it hath upon its surface and in its bowels all the parts of man and all the instruments of Arts especially those of War to which Armories owe their birth Whence the Shield or Buckler hath been chosen to receive the same and to serve as a badge of Nobility for the distinction of Families And as all Nations have preferr'd Valour before the other Virtues because 't is most useful for the preservation of States so they have destinated to it Palms Crowns Triumphs and such other badges of Honour amongst which all Nations have apprehended something of Divinity in their Shields The Getes made their solemnest Oaths upon them the ancient Germans ador'd every one his Shield and the Moon The Poets relate that the fate of Troy lay in a Buckler which was kept in the Temple of their Goddess A Buckler sent from Heaven kept the fortune of the Romans like to which one of their Kings caus'd 400 to be made Two Grecian Captains disputed the possession of Achilles's Buckler That of Aenaeas had graven upon it all the destiny of Rome In brief our ancient Kings were carri'd upon a great Target or Shield to the solemnity of their Coronation The highest of our Coins bears the name and figure of an Escu or Shield and true gentry amongst us is that of Esquiers a title drawn from Escu or a Shield Which hinders not but that learning and management of affairs being ways of ennobling men though less frequent and more difficult deserve also to bear Arms as we read that Charles IV. granted to Bartolus the famous Civilian a Lyon gules with two tails in a field Or. The Third said That some Armories are commonly conceiv'd to have been sent from heaven as the Cross of Constantinople and the Flowers de lys of France Others are taken from memorable qualities and actions of Ancestors as those of Austria a Prince whereof returning out of battel cover'd all over with blood except his Belt gave occasion to his descendants to bear a Fesse Argent on a Shield gules Such is the Cross of Savoy which the Christian Princes granted to one of the Amadei for having driven away the enemies from behind the Island of Rhodes and the three Wings of Lorrain because a Duke pierc'd three Birds flying with one arrow Others have some correspondence or allusion to the name of the bearer as those of Castile Leon Galicia and Granada which have a Castle a Lyon a Chalice and a Pomegranate Others have distinctions for younger brothers as a Battoon in the middle or a Label with 2 3 or more pendants in the Chief Bastards commonly bear a Battoon in contrebende that is coming from the sinister point of the Chief to the dexter of the Base Likewise other pieces distinguish younger brothers as Mullets Cressants c. plac'd in the middle of the Chief or else at the first Quarter But 't is remarkable in blazoning of Arms that Metal must always be put upon Colour or Colour upon Metal only Godfry of Bouillon made his Shield of argent charg'd with a Cross potencé Or and four other Corslets of the same Metal The Fourth said That being the injury of times consumes all things the Arms or Devises of Families hath been found the best monuments to preserve their memory through many ages This gave occasion to our Gaules for they brought Coat-armour into greatest use it being yet unknown to divers Nations to engrave upon their Gates the same badges which distinguish'd them whilst they fought arm'd cap-a-pe and could not otherwise be known and if it hapned that two Cavaliers bare the same Shield the one would either have the life of the other or make him alter his devise Such an expedient as once agreed two Gentlemen who were ready to fight because both of them bore a Bulls head not always occurring for they were contented with this decision that one of them should Blazon his Coat with the head of a Bull and the other with the head of an Ox or Cow at his choice Because every one was suffer'd as they are at this day abusively to chuse Arms to himself which is the cause that the handsomest Arms are the worst as being the newest because they are invented according to phancy Whereas anciently to give Arms was one of the chief rights of Sovereignty and joyn'd with the power of conferring Knighthood and the advices of the noblest and ancientest Families were taken concerning the blazoning of them as being interessed in this novelty And as for Sovereigns they chose the most ancient Arms they could Those of France are found in the brain of a Cock the Imperial Eagle in the root of Fern cut athwart So the figure of Cheverons Torteuxes Lozenges Macles Fusils and most other things which enter into the Field of Scutcheons occur at every turn and in most Trees Stones Fishes and other animals their design being that their Families should appear not less ancient then nature It remains to give some examples of particular Blazons The King of France bears two Scutcheons The first is Azure three Flowers de lys Or two in chief and one in point which is France The second is Gules two Chains Or plac'd in orle pale fesse bende and bar which is Navarre The Supporters are two Angels one on the right side cloth'd with a Coat of Arms azure semé with Flowers de lys Or the other on the left clad with the Arms of Navarre The Crest is a double Flowers de lys And to speak something of strangers without observing any order which would be too troublesome Presbyter John bears azure a Crucifix argent The Turk bears Vert a Crescent argent England bears gules three Leopards Or armed and langued azure Hungary bears barry argent and gules of eight pieces Arragon Or four pales gules Rhodes Malta and Savoy bear gules a Cross argent Flanders Or a Lyon sables langued gules Artois semé of France a lable of three pendants chastellated with Chasteaux Or. Leon argent a Lyon gules Saxony barry Or and sable of eight pieces a Demy Crown or Crancelin Vert plac'd bend-wise Bohemia argent a Lyon gules his tail nowed and pass'd in saltyre Lombardy gules a Lyon Or armed and langued sable Florence argent a Flower de lys expansed gules The great Cham of Tartary bears Or an Owl sables Parma Or six Flowers de lys azure Sweden azure three Crowns Or two in chief and one in base Denmark Or semé of Hearts gules three Lyons Leopardez azure langued and armed Or. Poland gules an Eagle argent beaked membred and
vapour hath humidity from the water and exhalation siccity from the earth yet this siccity must be joyn'd with some unctuosity to admit the heat which acts not upon bodies destitute of all humidity as the driest ashes are not alter'd by the hottest fire The driest and least unctuous of these Exhalations are in the middle Region transform'd into winds and tempests in the entrails of the earth they cause Earth-quakes and if they be somewhat more unctuous they make subterranean fires in the upper Region they form Comets and in the lower our Ignes fatui which are different according to the divers coition of their matter in length breadth or circularly whence comes the difference of these Meteors call'd falling Stars Flames leaping Goats flying Dragons Beams Lances Javelins and other like names from the figure of their matter Yet all these differences are chiefly taken from the magnitude figure colour time motion and place of these fires Magnitude because some are large and spatious others very small Their figure comes from chance their colour from the mixture rarity or density of the matter Their time is chiefly the night being then most visible Their place from the Heaven of the Moon to the centre of the Earth Their motion according to the six differences of place and the situation of their subject Hence they pursue those that fly them and on the contrary fly before those that pursue them whereupon the ignorant vulgar takes them for evil spirits because they drive and lead them into precipices and bogs which is from their following the unctuous matters which they exhale from those places whence also they commonly appear near places of execution and Church-yards II. Of Eunuchs Upon the Second Point 't was said That the Canons make three sorts of Eunuchs the natural the factitious and the voluntary congruously to our Lords division in the Gospel that some are born others are made by men and others make themselves Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven which is no more to be taken literally then the plucking out of the eyes or the cutting off of the hands when they offend us but mystically for those who voluntarily renounce the pleasures of the flesh Their original is as ancient as the Law of Nations whereby the Conquerors giving law to the conquer'd chang'd the punishment of killing them into mutilation of some members and amongst the rest of these to make them more faithful and affectionate by depriving them of the means of getting children and more trusty in keeping of their goods and wives Hence they have come to be so highly esteem'd that not only the Emperors of Constantinople the Kings of Egypt Persia and Chaldea have entrusted them with the management of all their affairs but also in the Roman Empire an Eunuch Slave was valu'd at five times as much as another Besides that their purity has qualifi'd them amongst the Heathen for Priests of their Deities amongst which the Goddesses Isis and Cybele admitted no other which possibly by antiphrasis were call'd Galli Even in Christianity the Eunuch of the Queen Candace was the first Gentile call'd to the light of the Gospel the expressions whereof Origen understanding literally castrated himself by an example so singular that St. Jerome chose rather to admire then to blame the greatness of his courage The Second said If it be true that good consists in the perfection of all parts and evil in their least defect the deficiency of those necessary to the conservation of the species is the greatest of all since it devests us of the noble quality and character of man which an Eunuch is no longer nor yet a Woman but something less then both And as the propagation of men is an effect of the divine benediction at the beginning of the World so the barrenness and impotence of Eunuchs contrary to that fruitfulness is abhorr'd by all the world and was taken by the Jews for a curse Moreover Nature which is the principle of motions and generations seems to disown those who want the parts requisite to this action The Laws forbid them the priviledge of adoption and most Offices and Dignities God himself in the old Law prohibited them entrance into his Church and in the New the Church forbids them the use of her Sacraments namely Orders and Marriage Nor is it any wonder since every thing in nature is fruitful even accidents reproducing their species which are so many generations Wherefore finding no place among natural things nor in the Categories it follows that they are monsters The Emperor Adrian extended the penalty of the Law Cornelia against those who make Eunuchs or consent any way thereunto L. 4. S. ad L. Corn. And before him the Pretors had introduc'd divers actions touching this matter as the action of Injuries of the Edict of the Aediles and of Quadruple in the Law 27. S. ad leg Aquil. And lastly the Emperor Constantine expresly interdicted Castration in all the Empire under pain of life and others contain'd in two Laws De Eunuchis in the Code The Third said That whether you consider Eunuchs in reference to the body or the mind they are happier then others They are out of danger of being gouty and bald two maladies whereof the one extremely torments a man and the other dishonours him and it cures the most horrible of all maladies the Leprosie On the other side it puts the same difference between the manners of men as it doth between untractable horses and others Hence the Castrated are more pleasant company and to contribute thereunto Nature has afforded them the grace of a delicate voice all their lives which forsakes children as soon as they come to puberty and being exempted from the diseases which the excess of Venery brings to others they are longer-liv'd and more easily bear the excess of wine They are deliver'd from the cruel servitude of lust and all the other passions which attend it And in recompence of those parts wherewith Asses and Mules are better provided then men they are early furnish'd with wisdom and continence which as the example of Susanna's old Lovers shews happens later to man then grey hairs Moreover Eunuchs have a fit temper for goodness of wit which according to some occasion'd the Greek name Eunuch and not their charge of guarding the bed and observing the deportments of Wives whole subtilty and infidelity may delude their Husbands but could never deceive the vigilance of these Argusses who in this alone shew what they can do since they have the skill to govern that sex which is indisciplinable by all other CONFERENCE C. I. Of the Green-Sickness II. Of Hermaphrodites I. Of the Green-sickness AS women have commonly more defects in mind so their bodies are subject to more diseases then those of men amongst which this is call'd Love-sickness because it ordinarily happens to marriageable Virgins and the Green-sickness by Hippocrates Chlorosis from a colour between green and livid which it imprints upon the