thus figured by the touch of any Fish of the Sea neither was it a Pearch which had been turned into a Stone for who should carry it saith he to the top of an unhabitable Mountain Plin. l. 3 is c. 5. Plinie reports that there was the Image of a Satyre found in a Marble stone sawed in two and Gesner a very learned Switzer makes mention of another Gamahe which represented two Roses and of another that was full of starres You may have recourse to the Tract which hee hath written of this subject Lib. de rerum fossil lap et gemmar figur divided into Thirteen Chapters where he tels you of many Gamahes which represent some Comets others Plants Fruits Fishes Living Creatures of the Land and some Artificiall things too I wonder notwithstanding that he should forget to speake of Embossed Gamahes which the earth produceth such as was that of the Virgin Mary holding her Sonne in her armes which was Natutally represented in a piece of a Rocke and with very great Reliefe and was found in one of the Isles of the Archipelago as Thevet testifies in his Cosmography And in the Caves that are found in a certaine Desart Loc. citat in Provence in France called l' Hermitage Sainct Maurin distant two leagues from Reiz and from Moustiers a Desart that is indeed a very horrid one by reason that it is encompassed with Rocks but which is much more to be admired then that of the Grand Chartreuse whether you consider the Aire of it which is for the most part sereene and pleasant or its Christall Fountaines whose Originall is wonderfull or the beauty of its Caves which seem to be a Palace fit for Nature to inhabit or the Flowings of its Verdon which being pent up by too small a Channell makes a noyse which causeth a Horror suitable to those holy Solitudes in these Caves I say are found good store of these Gamahes Embossed which represent almost all the severall sorts of Figures that can fall within a mans Imagination You shall see some of them as hanging on high others appeare as placed side-wayes as you see Images placed in wals as if Nature had not forgotten any thing that might serve to render a place commendable About seven leagues from Auxerre in those Caves which they call Antounoirs there are found almost the very same Gamahes or Figures and both the one and the other have all of them a little hole in them running along through them from the top to the bottome and my judgement of these Figures is that they are nothing else but water petrified or congealed to stone for they hang downe at least the greatest part of them as if they were fastened to a Roofe above Goropius Becanus speaking of this kind of Gamahe assures us that he hath seen Bones that have beene produced Naturally within the bowels of the Earth which were of a very Prodigious magnitude though they were generated of other Matter And of this Kind peradventure are those Bones whose vast bignesse hath caused people vainely to conclude that there have beene heretofore Gyants in the World So true it is that for want of the true knowledge of the Secrets of Nature men usually fall into most grosse Errors Now these Embossed Figures that are found in stones are of two sorts the first are whole Embossed round as was the Piece of Rocke in forme of the Virgin Mary and these Bones that the Earth Naturally produceth the Other are only in Reliefe or only halfe-embossed such as were those Rocks which Ortelius makes mention of scituate in the entrance of the most Western parts of Tartary on which are to be seen the Figures of Camels Horses Sheep and many other things the Marvellousnesse whereof this Geographer being not able to comprehend he saies Haec saxa hominum In Fab. Sciogr Russ camelorum pecorumque caeterarumque rerum formas referentia Horda populigregis pascentis armentaque fuit quae stupenda quadam Metamorphosi repentè in saxa riguit priori parte nullâ in parte diminutâ And then to make the story passe for a Truth he addes Evenit hoc prodigium annis circiter 300. retrò elapsis But leaving him to go along with the herd of ordinary writers who then they cannot give the Reason of any thing are faine presently to flye to Maracles I say that these Tartarian Rockes if there be any Truth in the Relation are only Gamahes generated by Nature Otherwise wee shall be forced to forge new Miracles for all the Places where ever any of the like Effects are produced which would be most ridiculous seeing that we shall by and by make it appear out of the Writings of one of the most Pious Learned Men the Ages past have brought forth that these Effects are the Workmanship of Nature only who produceth them no otherwise then shee doth Flowers Of this sort of Gamahes were those three Serpents figured within the hollow of an Oister-shell which were found by the King of Castile's Cookes in the belly of a Fish These Serpents were figured with their Head Relieved or swelling up and that so naturally as that they seemed to be alive The upper part of the Shell also afforded pretty Variety of the like Figures and which was most of all to be admired there was not one of them but had a Hole running along through it from the very Mouth to the Taile though it were indeed but a very small one Therfore saith Albertus Magnus Loc. Citat Constat per illud experimentum etiam Figuras elevatas super lapides aliquandò fieri à Naturâ 4. Those Figures that are Naturally Ingraven upon Stones are either graved Superficially only or Transparently so as the Graving passes through the body Of this later kind you shall oftentimes meet with some among the heapes of hollow stones that are found in the fields wherein you may observe the form of a Head by the little Holes which represent the Eyes the Nostrils and the Mouth and sometimes also you shall have of them that have the forme of a Death's head either of a Man or a Horse As for those other which are only superficially graved you may have store of them among the little stones on the Bankes of Rivers and upon the Sea-shore where you shall light upon some so exactly representing the figure of shells that you would think they were the Naturall shels of Fishes and this sort ought rather to be reckoned in the number of Embossed-Gamahes then those that are simply Graved My Brother hath sometime been very diligent in searching on the Sea shore and gathering together what Shels or other Stones of any rarity he could meet with and he hath presented one to Mr. Frey which perfectly resembleth a Goat's Horne and I am of opinion that it is one of those which the Ancients called Cornu Ammonis as you may see in Georg. Agricola in his Lib. 5. de Natura Fossilium
speake of that other Gamahe or Wonderfull Figure meerly Naturall which is to be seen in the same Church upon an Altar of Jasper-coloured Marble This Figure is a Death's Head so exactly drawne that you cannot find any part of it defective How prodigiously full of Wonder the Effects of Nature are which shewes her selfe Admirable in all her waies And here we are to take notice that these Figures are more frequently found toward the Eastern and the Southern Countries then in any other by reason of the Heat Tract 3. cap. 4. by which they are generated and the Virtue of the Stars In India saies Albertus Magnus plures quà m hîc Gamahe quià potentiora astra In Italy there are also more of them seen then in France for the same reason and even in France at Limans a Village in Provence about a League distant from Forcalquier a City of good Note there hath been sometime found in a certain Mine of a kind of Reddish soft stone a great number of these Gamahes or Painted Figures of Birds Mice Trees Serpents and Letters so exactly shaped that little Children could tell what they were and although I had purposed at my returne out of Italy to have gone to search for some of them yet a Fever which hindred me from enjoying the sweetnesse of my Native Soile made me also forget to inquire after these Curiosities yet I have some while since written for some of them that so I may be able to let let my Friends see the Raritie of this Wonder Three leagues from Lions which is a Country hotter yet then This there are found on the Coast of Iseron great store of Stones Lib. de Mirab. tr 3. which divided in two yeild many of these Gamahes exactly figured You may adde to these Painted Figures that which Albertus Magnus saw at Collen on the Tombe of the Three Kings which was the Heads of two Young Men very white Onychine drawne by Nature upon a Cornaline but so ordered as that the one was placed upon the other so that there appeared of the undermost only the Nose and a little of the other parts of the Face in a manner like to those Medals of Gold and Silver which were made at the Marriage of the Last French King where His Face was figured upo that of his Queen There was likewise seen upon this Gornaline a Black Serpent that encircled the two Heads in manner of a Garland and that with so much perfection that Albertus could not believe that it was the workmanship of Nature Probavi autem saies he quod non est vitrum sed lapis propter quod praesumpsi Picturam illam esse à naturâ Exod. Tract C. 1. non ab arte The same Author also saw at Venice one of these Gamahes upon a Marble Stone that had been sawed asunder and this was the Figure of a Kings Head with a Crowne upon it and there was so much perfection in this Naturall Peice of Picture as that the skilfullest Painter in the World would have found it a very hard Task to have copied it Such was the Majesty of his Countenance Eyes and Mouth that it filled with A stonishment all that beheld it In a word it was in nothing defective save that the Forehead was somewhat greater then the Life and the reason of it was saith he because that the hot Vapour whereof this stone had beene formed being too vehement it mounted higher then it should have done in the forming of this Figure Cardan tels also of another of these Gamahes on an Agate where was represented the Hemisphere of the Heavens with the Earth placed in the midst and as it were upon the waters and many other the like wonderfull Rarities hee makes mention of as the Reader may see in the above-cited Book of his 3. Those Figures which are not painted at all cannot be knowne otherwise then by the ending of the Lines and yet do they notwithstanding perfectly expresse that which they represent Of this sort in my judgement Enses Relat. fol. 476. is that M. de Breves saw at Bethlehem upon one of the Tables of Marble that adorne the place where the Cratch is upon which you have represented an Old man with a beard and a long Gown with a Cowle fitted to it and all meerly by the meeting together and Casuall corresponding of the Lines of the Stone In Formic l. 6.5 c. 6. Nider reports that in Mauritania neer to the city of Septa there is a Fountaine where there is found a certaine kind of stones that naturally represent all the words of the Ave Maria. As for example in one you shall have Ave Maria written at length in another Gratia plena and in others Dominus tecum Neither will this Story seeme so incredible to any man that shall but consider that the late King of France was sometime presented with a company of little Flint-stones that by the Letters naturally figured on them did make up his Name at large Now if Nature doth produce among these litle Flints some that bear One Letter and many also that have Two or Three why may she not as well produce One greater stone where the word Maria may be found at length And if any man have a minde to impute this to some extraordinary Working of God I shall not hinder him as it is in like manner said of the fore-mentioned Old man at Bethlehem which is conceaved to be the Portraiture of St. Jerome which was thus wonderfully represented upon the Marble by reason of the great Devotion he bare to the Cratch And in this sense I shall be able much more easily to make good the Power of Figures which I have undertaken to maintaine although I shall notwithstanding endeavour hereafter to produce such naturall Reasons as shall confirme the truth of my Assertion The same Nider reports also that the Marquesse de Bade had a Precious Stone that on which side so ever you looked on it it alwayes represented a Crucifixe naturally figured on it As for that other strange Effect which was observed in it it was rather Externall then particularly Appropriate either to the Stone or to the Figure For they say that if a woman that had her Monethly Courses upon her chanced to look on it it instantly covered it selfe with a little darke Cloud which afterwards vanished by little and little Peradventure it was polished and made as smooth as Looking-glasses are which are often observed to be sullied and loose their Lustre when women in that Condition have looked upon them Goropius Becanus also affirmes that he himselfe saw in England In Niloscop lib. 3. a Pearch-fish so perfectly figured on a stone that you might distinguish both every part of the body and every little Scale This Stone was taken up upon one of the highest mountaines in the Kingdome So that Cardan may learn from hence that this stone could not possibly have been
the Liver You may see all the Other Simples in the same Author that represent the rest of the Parts of Man's body as the Breasts Ventride Navell Spleen Entrals Bladder Rheins Privy parts Matrix Backbone Flesh Bones Nerves Pores Veines and even as far as the Privities as the Phallus Hollandica which is particularly described by Adaianus Junius 9. And here it may be Objected that the greatest part of these plants though they be reduced into Ashes yet do they not faile to worke the same Effects and to have the same Quality that they had before and that therefore this Power is to be attributed to the Nature of the Plant and not at all to the Figure which it now no longer retaines when it is once reduced into Powder I answer that though they be chopt in pieces brayed in a Mortar and even burnt to Ashes yet do they neverthelesse retaine by a certaine Secret and wonderfull Power of Nature both in the Juyce and in the Ashes the selfe same Forme and Figure that they had before and though it be not there Visible yet it may by Art be drawne forth and made Visible to the Eye by an Artist This perhaps will seem a Ridiculous story to those who reade only the Titles of Bookes but those that please may see this Truth confirmed if they but have recourse to the Workes of M. du Chesne S. de la Violette one of the best Chymists that our Age hath produced who affirmes that himselfe saw an Excellent Polish Physician of Cracovia who kept in Glasses the Ashes of almost all the Hearbs that are knowne so that when any one out of Curiosity had a desire to see any of them as for example a Rose in one of his Glasses he tooke That where the Ashes of a Rose were preserved and holding it over a lighted Candle so soone as ever it began to feele the Heat you should presently see the Ashes begin to Move which afterwards rising up and dispersing themselves about the Glasse you should immediately observe a kind of little Dark Cloud which dividing it selfe into many parts it came at length to represent a Rose but so Faire so Fresh and so Perfect a one that you would have thought it to have been as Substantial as Odoriferous a Rose as any growes on the Rose-tree This Learned Gentleman sayes that Himselfe hath often tryed to do the like but not finding the successe to answer all the Industry hee could use Fortune at length gave him a sight of this Prodigy For as he was one day practising with M. de Luynes called otherwise De Fomentieres Counseller to the Parliament to see the Curiosity of diverse Experiments having extracted the Salt of certaine Nettles burnt to Ashes and set the Lye abroad all night in a winter Evening in the Morning he found it all Frozen but with this Wonder attending it that the Nettles themselves with their Forme and Figure were so Lively and so perfectly represented on the Ice that the Living Nettles were not more This Gentleman being as it were ravished at the sight sent for the said Counseller to be a Witnesse of this Secret the Rarity whereof he exprest in these Verses Secret dont on Comprend que quoy que le corps meure Les Formes font pourtant aux cendres leur demeure In English thus This Secret proves that though the Body die The Forme doth Still within it's Ashes lie But now this Secret is not so Rare for M. de Claves one of the most Excellent Chymists of our Times shewes the Experient every day 10. From hence we may draw this Conclusion that the Ghosts of Dead Men which are often seen to appeare in Church-yards are Naturall Effects being only the Formes of the Bodies which are buried in those places or their Outward shapes or Figures and not the Souls of those Men or any such like Apparition caused by Evill Spirits as the Common Opinion is The Ancients thought that these Ghosts were the Good and Evill Genij which attended alwaies upon Armies but they are to be excused seeing they knew not how to give any other reason of these Apparitions it being most Certain that in Armies where by reason of their great numbers many die you shall see some such Ghosts very often especially after a Battell which are as we have said only the Figures of the Bodies excited and raised up partly by an Internall Heat either of the Body or of the Earth or else by some Externall one as that of the Sun or of the Multitudes of the Living or by the Violent Noise or Heat of great Guns which puts the Aire into a Heat In Cribr I have elsewhere handled the Curious History of Spirits wherein I have propounded these following Questions Cabal touching these Ghosts namely Whether or no we may by These explaine all the Visions that are mentioned by Writers Whether those Wonderfull Effects which we attribute to Demons or Spirits may proceed from these Figures or not And then Whether they have any Power at all or not And if so Whence they have it And if it be granted they have any Whether they have greater Power then the Dead Body it selfe whence they proceed Or Whether the Dead Body is of more Power then when 't was Living Tom. 2. lib. 4. de caus morber invisib as Paracelsus is of Opinion who saies that Mummie hath in it all the Vertue of Plants Stones c. And that it hath an Occult Magnetique Vertue which draws Men to the Sepulchers of those whom they account to have been Holy men where by the Vertue of the same Mummie there are those Effects wrought which we call Miracles which are observed saith he to be much more Frequent in the Summer then in any other Season of the Year by reason of the Heat of the Sun which awakens and excites the Humour that is in the Mummie But these are meere Fooleries which we there refute by such Principles as the Rabbins have drawn from the Secrets of this so Famous and Renowned Mummie After those other Questions these follow namely Whether or no these Wonderfull Formes which proceed from the Bloud the Bones or the Ashes of Dead Bodies may serve for an Undeniable Argument of the Resurrection a thing unknown to most of the Philosophers Whether after they are Raised up they can in any thing be serviceable unto us And Whether by their Meanes we may be Naturally able to attaine to the Knowledge of diverse Secrets which are Unknowne to Us Diverse other like Questions are there proposed and discussed plainly and thoroughly as I shall let the World see in a short time In the meane while we may safely account the Objection before proposed to be Invalid and of no Force seeing that though the Body be reduced into Ashes yet neverthelesse the Figure is not thereby destroyed 11. And this peradventure is the Reason why it oftentimes raineth Frogs for the Sun drawing up Vapours
certain Conclusion and Foundation That the Stars and their Influences in these Figures have no Power at all over our Wills And therefore do I account as Ridiculous Damnable and Scandalous those Operations which Albinus Villanovensis saies may be effected by means of these Images In Magia Astr Ad fugandos latrones Ut Mulieres transeuntes super imaginem rideant cantent Ad sistendum equum in cursu Vid. infrà cap. 7. Ad recipiendam substantiam ablatam Ad expugnandos hostes c. L * ΜΘΡΙΑ L * ΜΘΡΙΑ L * ΜΘΡΙΑ And now it is no hard matter to conceive how the Power of Talismans comes at this day to be so undervalued for those that have written of this Subject have mixed so many both Confused and Dangerous things together in their writings that people making no distinction at all betwixt the Good and the Bad do equally abhor all whatsoever beares but the very name of Figure or Talisman But we shall in the prosecution of this Discourse sever the good Corn from the Darnell and shall shew that in the Making of these Figures all words are indifferent and that they serve but to amuse the simpler sort of people As when Albinus Villanovensis saies that for to cure the Tertian and Quartan Ague the pain of the Nerves Ventricle and Privy parts you must grave the Image of a Scorpion upon a piece of Gold or Silver when the Sun is in his proper House and the Moone in Capricorne and while you are graving it you must say these words Exurge Domine gloria mea Exurge Psalterium Cithara exurgam diluculò and then rehearse this Psalme Miserere mei Deus miserere mei quia in te confidit anima mea From hence it is that so many Superstitions have sprung and that people at length begun to undertake the curing of Diseased persons meerly by the bare Reciting of Certain Words without any regard had either to the Stars or any thing else Let us now come to the First Quaere which we are to prove for the Establishing of the Power of Figures namely Whether the Starres have any Influence upon and doe cause any Motion in things here below 19. Primo Meteor Aristotle endeavouring to prove the Affirmative brings a most Excellent Argument and worthy of so great a Philosopher which is this That saith He from whom Motion took its beginning the same hath no doubt given to all other things the Power of Self-motion now without all Dispute the Motion of the Heavens was the First in Nature therefore whatsoever Moves Moves by the Motion of the Heavens Insomuch that if the Motion of these should cease both Growth and Motion would also cease in all things here below In Sphoer Sacr. c. 3. Junctin brings here an Example of a Man's heart which as it is the beginning of Life and Motion so doth it communicate Life and Motion to all the rest of the Members So that if it once be wounded not onely the Motion ceaseth in all the parts of he body but even Life also You may see this Position confirmed by Hippocrates who backs it with so many reasons Lib. de Aëre Aquis and so strongly asserts the truth of these Celestiall Influences as that he confidently affirmes that by the rising and setting of the Starres a man may foretell Tempests raine Stormes and other changes of weather through the neglect of which Observations Physitians are very often deceived in their Cures and Diseases Cùm temporum mutationes saith he Astrorum ortus occasus observaverit medicus quemadmodum singula horum eveniant praenoscit utique de anno qualis hic sit futurus c. And then afterwards shewing what time and what Seasons are dangerous for Sick People by reason of the diverse motions of the Starres he presently addes Periculosissima sunt ambo Solstitia maximè verò aestivum periculosum etiam Aequinoctium utrumque magis verò Autumnale Oportet autem Astrorum ortus considerare praecipuè Canis deinde Arcturi Plejadum occasum Morbi enim in his maximè diebus judicantur aliique perimunt alij verò desinunt aut in aliam speciem aliumque statum transmutantur It would be but lost time if I should stand longer upon the Proof of this so clear a Truth which all men ought to confesse to be so were there no other Argument for it but this that it hath been constantly observed ever since the first beginning of Astronomy in the World that the Rising and Setting of the Fixed Starres have been the cause of very great changes here on Earth and he must either be a very Ridiculous senselesse man or else a very Ignorant that should go about to deny that the Hyades and the Plejades are not Watry Cloudy Constellations that is to say do cause Rainy Cloudy Darks weather as Leo and the Dog-starre bring Heat and Drowth and Orion a Wet and tempestuous season and so of the rest And after all Vid. Gul. Rovill hist Plant. do we not observe that there are some certain Flowers that turn about as the Sun does and others that appear above the Water at his Rising and when He sets sinke downe againe and hide themselves as it were bewayling his absence Neither are the Influences of the Stars shed upon Hearbs alone but even upon Stones also Some wherof do so exactly observe the motion of those particular Starres whose Influences they bear as that they change their Aspects with them An Example of this Truth you have in the Stone called Lunaria which is indued with such wonderfull qualities as that it changeth its Appearance in like manner as the Moon doth whose name it beareth In a word do not the Humours in our bodies increase with this Planet and decrease when It decreaseth If any man yet desire to have more of these Instances backed with Convincing Reasons he may have recourse to the Astronomicall Praedictions of Ptolomy and he shall there finde that the truth of these Influences is too clear to be called in question 20. The other Point concerning the Resemblance of the Heavenly Constellations to Sublunary things is something more Difficult to prove though not lesse True Neverthelesse this objection is brought against it If the Constellations of the Ramme the Bull the Twins c. do resemble these Living Creatures it is either Really or else by Imagination If Really they are then either in the Eighth Sphear or else in some other but they are not in the Eighth For in the Constellations of the Ramme the Bull c. there is no signe at all of these Beasts being figured or represented by the Stars neither are they in the Christaline Heaven nor yet in any of the Sphears of the Planets for we should then see them as we do the other Starres nor yet in a Ninth Heaven as some have thought If they are only by Imagination then are their Effects also Imaginary and have no
know that the Sun penetrates very farre into the Earth and there gives life to Plants and Living Creatures too which when we see taken up astonish us very much as appeares out of Georgius Agricola De Animal subt and the Learned Licetus who is still Professor at Padua As for Subterraneous Fishes we find them but too often enlivened by the Stars to our great Disadvantage as you may observe out of the Third book of Seneca's Nat. quaest c. 19. Who also in another place sayes that Philip having sent men downe into an old Gold-mine to see if the Covetousnesse of Man had yet left there any thing Undiscovered they perceived Rivers running along those deep Cavernes and many other Prodigious Sights by which we may be certainely assured that the Heavens do operate through every part of the Universe Descendisse illos sayes this Learned Author Lib. 5. 〈◊〉 15. cum multo lumine multos durasse dies deinde longa via fatigatos vidisse flumina ingentia conceptus aquarum inertium vastos pares nostris nec compressos quidem terra supereminente sed liberae laxitatis non sine horrore visos And those that write of the Riches of America assure us that the Mine of Ptosi where Gold is generated is so hollow and so deep that nothing can more fitly represent the Dreadfull Image of Hell If then the Starres do operate within the bowels of the Earth upon Living Creatures Plants and Metals why not upon Stones also I do therefore account the Conclusion of Hieron Hangest an Ancient Learned Sorbonist to be most True who searching after the Reason of Gamahes concludes after a long dispute that the Figure or Painting on them proceeds from two Causes from the Starres and from the Property of the Earth Lib. de caus fol. 88. See here his own words Quid igitur discendum sit respondeo ex duplici radice posse contingere Uno modo ex radice Siderea secundum Astrologorum authoritatem multis experimentis comprobatam Alio modo ex radice inferiore c. Now this Power or Vertue of the Starres works Indifferently upon All Things which Consideration hath moved many that stand up for the Power of Figures to believe that all sorts of Stones Metalls or other Matter indifferently if it be graved and wrought according to the Rules before delivered would worke the same Effect For as Fire heateth all things that are set before it in like manner do the Stars Operate say they upon All Things Indifferently But I hold the First Opinion to be the Truer and more certaine not that this Later is False but because the Effect Here is Slower For the Fire will indeed heat all things that are placed neare it but if the Matter be Indisposed the Heat will not worke so speedily as we see in Green Wood and in a Pibble stone which requireth a longer time to grow hot in then a Brick doth and so in all other things It is required then to the end that the Stars may Operate the more Easily and in lesse time that the Matter be before hand indued with some Quality that is proper to the Effect which we have proposed to our selves and have also some Sympathy with those Celestiall Signes which we intend to make use of You may see this Sympathy and the Wonderfull Correspondence that there is betwixt Stones Mineralls Herbs Plants Flowers Tasts Smels Colours Beasts Fishes Birds and all things else and the Stars Ton. 4. Cant. 1. c. 31. in Georgius Venetus his booke De Harmonia Mundi and in the Learned Comment of M. Moreau a Physician upon Schola Salernitana the reading whereof Cap. 19. p. 322. seq in all sorts of books what ever is truly very Admirable 5. The Fourth Objection which is brought by the above-named Authors is that if this Art of preparing Images be Certaine and their Vertue so great as is said the Egyptians Arabians and Persians who were the First Inventers of them would then have made themselves Lords of the whole Earth in subduing all their Enemies which thing they have not done but contrariwise have themselves all been Conquered To this I answer that no Image or Talismanicall Figure can possibly be Capable of operating so Great an Effect they may indeed possibly excite in some small measure the courage of Combatants and make them lesse fearefull of the Terrors of Warre but these Qualities alone will never be sufficient for the obtaining of a Victory If any here urge against me the Story of Nectanabo who is said to have drowned all his Enemies Ships by making certaine little Vessels of Waxe and then drowning Them I answer that the Story lookes very Doubtfully neither doe I give any more Credit to it then to those Flams we heare reported of Sorcerers in our owne daies who are said by pricking a little Image of Waxe in any part of it to wound the same part of the body in the person whom it represents But suppose These Things were so yet it could not be from hence concluded that these Effects were wrought by the Vertue of the Stars but rather by some Evill Angels to whom God may have given some such Power Lib. citato Gulielmus Parisiensis utterly denies these stories to be True as indeed they are meerly Fabulous neither do I believe there is any one of them that hath any Truth it in If it be returned upon us that there is nothing in them but a man may believe since Possibly they Might be True I answer that Many Things Might have been which never yet Haven been as for instance there might have been more Sunnes and more Worlds then one 6. The Fift Objection is that it is Necessary that Naturall Agents should Arist Phys 7. some way or other Touch the thing they are to Operate upon but a Figure which cureth the Stone Collicke or any other Disease toucheth not at all the Part Affected the Vertue of it therefore cannot be Naturall The answer to this Objection is so easie that Dist 37. in Sent. without troubling our selves to reckon up with Scotus the severall wayes of Touching we need no more but give an Instance in a Hot Bricke For as a Bricke receives heate from the Fire without touching either Cole or Flame in like manner doth an Image receive the Influence of the Stars without Touching Any Part of the Heavens In a word all the Touching which is here found is only a Virtuall Touching as we see in the Sunne which though it be so farre distant from the Earth doth neverthelesse warme it by Its Vertue And as a Bricke heated either by the Sun or by the Fire doth afterwards operate upon any other body communicating its Vertue to it if it be applied unto it in the same manner doth a Figure or Image operate upon Another Body communicating the Influences which it hath received from the Stars unto It if it be in like manner applyed
Circles of the Planets had upon it the number of yeares that it finisheth its Course in and that of the Moon had ingraved on it these twelve Characters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which are the first letters of these names of the twelve Moneths 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nisan Aijar Sivan Tamouz Ab Aelol Tisri Tisvan Kislieu Tebet Schebat Adar that is to say MARCH APRIL MAY JUNE JULY AVGVST SEPTEMBER OCTOBER NOVEMBER DECEMBER JANUARY FEBRUARY Now these Circles were ordered so exactly as that one might perfectly distinguish the Degrees and distances there set downe In the Midst of all and in the very Center there was placed a little Blew Ball which was a little hollowed on which were described many letters accompanied with certaine Lines acrosse which ran a little Greene Streake or Circle like to another made in the same manner which went round about the Great Circle of all which included all the rest and all along both of these you had these words engraved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ceter Chochmab Binah Chesed Gedolah Tipheret Netsac Hod Jesod Maleout which signifie in order CROWNE WISDOME INTELLIGENCE MERCY MAGNIFICENCE GLORY VICTORY POWER FOVNDATION KINGDOME And these are the Ten Names which the Hebrewes call ZEPHIROTS I shall not here meddle with any of these Questions namely Whether this hollow Blew Ball intimates that the Ancients conceived the Earth to be of this Figure whence peradventure some of the Greeke Writers tooke occasion to say that it was of the forme of an Omega 2. Whether the great number of Stars which had each his Proper Circle shewed that every one of them had a Peculiar Orbe and that consequently there are many more Heavens then our Philosophers reckon upon Whence R. Moses also tooke occasion to say Non est autem impossibile quod quaelibet Stellarum fixarum sit in caelo sueproprio et motus omnium ipsorum sit unus et omnes sphaerae ipsarum revolvantur super eosdem Polos 3. Whether the three Great Circles represent the Three Heavens which the most Learned do acknowledge Only accounting the Aire or the Vast Extent which is betwixt the Earth and the Heavens for the First the Heaven wherein the Stars are for the Second and the Place of the Blessed for the Third avoyding by this meanes that Dispute concerning the Heaven that S. Paul was caught up into Neither will I Positively determine whether or no this Green Line or Circle be the same with That which is called by the Cabbalists Linea viridis quae circuit Universum I shall passe by all these Questions which some other may resolve that I may come to those Conjectures which I promised which wil let us see how little Assurance we an have of the Antiquity of this Instrument 4. The First is that seeing that before the time of these Rabbins no man ever made mention of this Instrument and that before these men gave us the Description of it the Doctrine on which it was built was known it is Probable that it was invented afterwards upon this Doctrine The Second is that Rabbi Kapol who was a very Learned Astrologer makes not any mention at all of it in any of his Astrologicall writings as neither hath Abraham Avenar nor before Them Both R. Moses It is true indeed that Aben Esra in his Sphere of the Hebrewes Indians Persians Egyptians and Arabians an Author often cited by Scaliger cals to mind a certaine Instrument that was arciently much in use among these People but seeing he gives us no Description of it at all and speakes but sparingly of it we may conclude that it is Vncertaine what the Fabrick of it was for otherwise he would certainly have described it as being Necessary in the matter he had in hand The Last Conjecture which makes me thinke that this Instrument was never in use among the Ancient Hebrewes is because that the Names of the Moneths which are graved on the Circle of the Moon are not Hebrew but Chaldee and although seven of these names are to be found in the Hebrew Bible which are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nisan Sivan Elol Kisleiu Tevet Schevat Adar MARCH MAY AUGUST NOVEMBER DECEMBER JANUARY FEBRUARY yet are they not therefore Hebrew for they are no where found save only in the Bookes that were written during the Captivity as Haggai Zechariah Daniel Esra and Esther If the Author of this Instrument had made use of these three names of Moneths which are indeed Hebrew though out of use a man would have had the lesse suspition of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ziu Aitanim Boul 3. Reg. c. 6. v. 37. 38. et cap. 8. vers 2. which are used in the Third Booke of the Kings The Translator of our Bible interprets them not nor specifies what moneths they were Lucas Burgensis Elias Levita Marinus In 12. Exod. In Thisb In Kalend Heb. Glob ling. Sanct. Lib 8. Anaceph Hebraic mens Ludovicus S. Francisci say that they were APRIL SEPTEMBER OCTOBER We may conclude then from these three Conjectures that this Instrument is none of those which were in use among the Ancient Hebrewes and we may adde to this Conclusion that as well the Figure as the Invention of it is unknown to us 5. The Figure of Ahaz his Diall is more certaine or rather is lesse suspected of Novelty but that the Fabricke of it as it is delivered to us is entirely perfect and such as it was Anciently I finde not many Reasons to induce me to beleeve For as much as except only one Rabbine who is indeed a very Learned man I have not met with any Historian either Christian Hebrew Aegyptian or Arabick that hath taken any notice of it or so much as touched upon it Yet because there is lesse uncertainty found in it then in the Sphere aforesaid and also in case any man should have a minde to take one single Authors word in this matter I am content to give you the Description of it as he hath delivered it seeing it is Proper to my Subject in hand For the Ancients in their Horoscopes did often make use of these Dials whatsoever the Fashion of them was observing exactly the just motion of the two Greater Luminaries We doe not finde then throughout the whole Bible any mention made of these Sciotericall or Sunne Dials save only in the Last Booke of the Kings the Author whereof speaking of the Cure of that Good King who was Sonne and Father to two other so Abominable ones saith Invocavit itaque Isaias Propheta Dominum et reduxit umbram per lineas quibus jam descenderat in Horologii Achas retrorsùm decem gradibus The Originall Hebrew calls this Instrument 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Maghalot Achaz that is to say the Ascensions or Degrees of Achaz So much for the Name but as for the Figure of it there is no man hitherto that hath published what it was I shall therefore be the First
how to get to some Shelter But as he was got a good way into the Wood which led to his Dwelling thinking with himself that he should not be able to reach his own House before the Rain fell which commonly followes such kind of Tempests he took up his harbour under a Rock under which he had not staied about the space of a Quarter of an houre but that thinking the Malice of the Storm had been spent by a light Showre of Raine that had fallen he began to go on with his Journey But he was not gone a Stones cast but he saw some Haile begin to fall which made him think of going back again Notwithstanding upon better Consideration he began to think that this Haile could not be very troublesome to him seeing it fell in so small a Quantity and presuming withall that the Thicknesse of the Trees would be well enough able to secure him from the violence of it This Consideration had certainly put him upon his Journey again had he not by Chance casting his eye upon some of the Hailestones as they fell observed that they appeared to be of another kind of shape then commonly they used to be This made him stay to take better notice of them so that taking one of the Hailestones up in his hand he instantly perceived a Fearfull Prodigy in it For some of them bare the figure of a Head-piece others of a Scutcheon and others of a Sword This Prodigious Novelty amazed him and the Apprehension of some Disaster at hand made him return back to the Rock again where he was no sooner arrived but that there fell so great and so violent a Storm of Haile as that it killed not only Birds but very many Beasts also The like to this I my self have also sometime observed in Provence This man then returning home after the Storme was past could find no more such figures upon the Hailstones as he had seen at first which made him conclude that this Prodigy would not end with the Death of these Beasts as he had indeed most Truly Conjectured For within a little while after this Miserable Country had its Fields covered with Souldiers and its Revolted places besieged and assaulted with so much Blood-shed that the very Memory of it will be alwaies very grievous unto us The Story of this Figured Haile In Cosmocrit l. 1. c. 8. confirms that which Cornelius Gemma hath observed in these words Inventa est saepiùs Grando cui futurárum rerum manifestè ut Mortis Clypei aut pugnae aut Crucis insculptae imagines spectarentur Kepler hath observed that Snow also is not without It's Wonders for he affirms that Himself hath seen some figured like a Star having perfectly Six Angles of an Exact Proportion Others have also observed some that hath had the Figure of Branches of Trees or Leaves and Some which by its small Unequall Parts represented the figure of some Old Ruines of Buildings but without any Design in my opinion the Generation of It being Naturall and daily to be seen as you may see in the said Kepler And yet perhaps if These Figures were not too Frequent They also would be observed to foretell something to come as well as any of the rest which are observed to happen but very seldome which God makes to serve for Admonishments to Us as we shall shew more plainly when we come to discourse of Comers 10. I had almost forgot to set down this following Observation upon the Rainebow one of the most Noble Meteors that are formed in the Clouds namely that the Figure of it as R. Kapol saith represents the letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Caph which the Jewes write in this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which might peradventure be the Reason why God placed it in the Heavens to be a Sorrowfull Memoriall of the Deluge past For This Character standeth for 20. which is the Number of Sorrow Thus we read Gen. 37. that Jacob served in Labans house Twenty yeares and Joseph was sold for Twenty Peices of Silver The Flying Roll wherein were written the Sinnes of all Men was Twenty Cubits long and at Twenty Yeares of Age Num. 7. the Israelites were reckoned able to serve in the Warres And Helena in Homer Hiad l. 24. complaining of her own Misfortunes takes notice of this number also Quatuor hic jam lustra moror quo temport nunquam Iratus miserae mihi verba indigna dedisti In a word the Poets as well as the Prophets when they would expresse any thing of Sorrow made use of no other number Thus Vlisses is reported to have endured full Twenty yeares Misfortunes Quosque tuli post tot terrae pelagique labores In patriam veni jam nunc labentibus annis Vicenis Many Examples of this Nature Numb Myster Num. 20 are produced by Bungus which I shall here omit that I may proceed to Fiery Meteors 11. And among These Comets are the First which are of use in the discovery of such Secrets as we now treat of I am not Ignorant that many are of opinion that These Wonderfull Lights are not Exhalations drawen up from the Earth because it is Impossible in Nature that it should be so for as much as the whole Earth converted into Exhalations would not be sufficient say they to produce so Vast a Body as that of a Comet is if so be it be true which some have observed that they are not in the Aire but in the very Heavens But let us Suppose them to be either meere Exhalations drawen up from the Earth and Kindled in the Aire which was the opinion of most of the Ancients and among the Modernes of Picolomeneus Regiomontanus Vogelinus Librâ—â— Metâ— and Fracastorius or else Beames gathered together or Exhalations sent forth from the Starres De Comet as Snellius affirmes Or else Aire condensed by the Cold as Fromundus thinks or Thicke and Diaphanous Aire Shining and not Burning De Comet l. 1. Parad. 5. p. 27. De nov Sid. Serp. cap. 19. De nov Stel. l. 1. p. 793. seq Rab. Panissahal de Animant aethereis interpr Petro Cambaforte as Puteanus or a kind of Celestiall Waterish or Oyly substance as Kepler indeavours to prove or some of the Grosser Parts of the Galaxia or Milky way as Ticho Brahe maintaines or lastly whether these Comets be certaine Fiery Animals which sometimes appeare on the Superficies of That Element as one of the Rabbins will have them to be however it is most certaine that they doe appeare to us in some kinde of Figure or other which is the businesse of our present Discourse Now whether the Body of a Comet or its Figure doe naturally presage some disaster to follow upon the vanishing of it the reason of its so doing is not easily given Yet many are of opinion that the Body of a Comet being kindled produceth by its Heat a very great Drowth upon the Earth which
ordinarily causeth the death of Princes and great Potentates who are otherwise much dried up by their Cares Watchings Rich Wine and high Odoriferous Meats And this is the reason Julius Caesar died shortly after the appearing of the like Comets Non aliàs Caelo toties cecidêre sereno Fulgura nec diri toties arsêre Cometae saith Virgil. These Comets therefore may presage the Death of Great Persons De Subtil l. 4. and be not onely the Signe of it as Cardan holds but the Cause also See what Ericius Puteanus hath said De Comet in this Particular They may also cause Barrennesse and consequently Famine for the Earth being two much dryed and suffering an Alteration either by the Exhalations that are drawn out of it or else by the immoderate Heat of the Aire and being also corrupted by the stinking Fumes issuing from the body of the Comet cannot give any perfect and Sufficient Nutriment to the Corne and other Fruits Then followeth the Pestilence and all other Diseases by reason saith Kepler of the Corruption of the Aire and Earth-quakes also which are caused not by Winds that are generated by the Vapours issuing from the Comer and getting into Cavernes and Subterraneous places as Kepler maintaines but by the Vapours that are Naturally ingendred within the bowels of the Earth by the great Heat caused in it which searching for some passage to get forth at and finding none by an extreame Violence causeth this Motion which is for the most part accompanied with some Diseases or other caused by the Noysome Vapours that ascend out of These Cavernes Besides the Aire being Heated together with the Malignity of the Matter of the Comet after it is extinguished or else when it beginneth first to ascend over-heating our blood is a Means of driving Princes and Great personages into strange Furies whence presently follow Wars Battels Heresies and a world of other sad Accidents Thus a little before the Wars of Peloponesus there appeared a Terrible Comet for the space of Seventy five daies together So did another before the Athenians suffered that great Losse in Sicily another before the Lacedemonians were vanquished by the Thebans another before Arrius vented his Heresy another before the Change of the Romane Empire another before the Mischeifs that happened during the time of Claudius the Emperour and this Comet is reported to have lasted six moneths Another presaged the Warres of Achaia and the Destruction of Corinth and of Thebes Another appeared immediately before the Gothes invading Italy another before the Army of Charles the Fift sacked Rome another foreshewed the breaking forth of the Faction of the Guelphes and Gibelines another the Bulgarians breaking in upon Thrace and another the Civill Warres of Caesar Pompey of which Lucan writes thus Jgnota obscurae viderunt sidera noctes Ardentemque polum flammis Caeloque volantes Obliquas per inane faces crinemque tremendi Sideris et terris minitantem bella Cometem Now all these Effects may proceed meerly from some such Causes as These But if it be so that Comets burne not nor are generated by any Elemntary Exhalations here below but that they are Above in the very Heavens which is the Opinion of the Learnedest Mathematicians we must then search for some other Causes so that those men then who affirme that these New Fires are Miracles are not wholy to be neglected for as much as it is recorded that in the time of Augustus there was seen One of these Comets wherein appeared the Figure of a Child Whereupon the Divines being demanded what they thought of it returned answer That This Child should be Greater and more Powerfull then Augustus himselfe and such a one as should deserve to be Worshipped by Him But now whether these Comets be the Handiwork of God or whether they be but meere Exhalations or lastly suppose them to be New Stars appearing in the Heavens we shall in the next place proceed to shew that their Figures are Mysticall Characters or as it were a kind of Hieroglyphicks by which we may be able to read by vertue of Analogy what Good or Evill accidents shall befall us The General Rules whereof do here follow 12. The First is that if they are figured like a Columne or Piller they denote the Constancy of some Prince or of some Great Saint or else of some People or Nation And hence some of the Jewes have taken occasion to affirme that the Pillar of Fire which went along with the Children of Israel in the Wildernesse was given unto them as a Hieroglyphicke of Constancy and Stedfastnesse and that it was no Ordinary Comet whatever Andreas Rosa affirms to the Contrary De nov sid l. 1. pag. 783. who maintaines that it was meerly Naturall and had nothing Divine in it it being the Ordinary Course of Nature saith He once in two Thousand years to produce some such Light as This. Thus two thousand yeares or thereabout after the Creation of the world This Pillar of Fire appeared Two Thousand yeares after which was the Second Age was That Wonderfull Star seen that appeared to the Wise men at the Birth of our Saviour Christ and Two Thousand yeares after that which is the Third Age and which We Now live in a New Starre appeared in the Constellation of Cassiopeia Seneca Phavorinus Alpetragius and Elias Talmudista 7. Qu. Nat. cap. 19. Apud Agell Noc Att. c. 1. Apud Tichon Brah. de nov Stel. p. 783. seem to favour this Opinion But it hath nothing of Truth in it For besides that this Pillar of Fire had no Proper Motion at all as other Compets have no more then had the Starre which appeared to the Wise men which had nothing of the Nature of the Other Starres in it but only the Figure and Light neither yet did it appeare in the Second Age as Rosa affirmes but in the Third for they reckoned then Five Thousand yeares from the Creation these New Starres and Comets have been known to appeare much oftner and consequently it is most False that they are seene but every Two Thousand yeares De nov astr Comet l. 2. c. 51. Thus the Learned Licetus hath observed that within the space of 30. years or thereabouts namely betwixt the yeares 1572. 1604. Three new Stars were seene One in Cassiopeia another in the Constellation called Serpentarius and a Third in the Necke of the Swan The Second Rule is that when a Comet or fiery Meteor is Round Cleare Bright and not Duskie at all but lookes as it were like another Sun it may signifie the Birth of some Great Prince as Justin the Historian writes that the yeare that Mithridates was borne during the space of seventy daies there appeared a Comet some say that it was a Star but so Wonderfull a one as that the Greatnesse of it tooke up the fourth part of the Heavens and the Light of It eclipsed That of the Sun Nam saith he et quo genitus