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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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-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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Principles II. Of the End of all Things Page 5 CONFERENCE III I. Of Causes in general II. Whence it is that every one is zealous for his own Opinion though it be of no importance to him Page 12 CONFERENCE IV I. Of the First Matter II. Of Perpetual Motion Page 18 CONFERENCE V I. Of Resemblance II. Whether it behoveth to joyn Armes to Letters Page 24 CONFERENCE VI I. Of Fire II. Of the Vniversal Spirit Page 31 CONFERENCE VII I. Of the Air. II. Whether it be best for a State to have Slaves Page 38 CONFERENCE VIII I. Of Water II. Of Wine and whether it be necessary for Souldiers Page 44 CONFERENCE IX I. Of the Earth II. What it is that makes a Man wise Page 51 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 Page 57 CONFERENCE XI I. Of the little Hairy Girl lately seen in this City II. Whether it is more easie to resist Pleasure then Pain Page 64 CONFERENCE XII I. Of three Suns II. Whether an Affection can be without Interest Page 71 CONFERENCE XIII I. Whether Melancholy Persons are the most ingenious or prudent II. Which is most necessary in a State Reward or Punishment Page 77 CONFERENCE XIV I. Of the Seat of Folly II. Whether a Man or Woman be most inclin'd to Love Page 83 CONFERENCE XV I. How long a Man may continue without eating II. Of the Echo Page 89 CONFERENCE XVI I. How Spirits act upon Bodies II. Whether is more powerful Love or Hatred Page 95 CONFERENCE XVII I. Of the several fashions of wearing Mourning and why Black is us'd to that purpose rather then any other colour II. Why people are pleas'd with Musick Page 103 CONFERENCE XVIII I. Of the Original of Winds II. Why none are contented with their Condition Page 109 CONFERENCE XIX I. Of the Flowing and Ebbing of the Sea II. Of the Point of Honour Page 115 CONFERENCE XX I. Of the Original of Fountains II. Whether there be a commendable Ambition Page 121 CONFERENCE XXI I. Of Dreams II. Why Men are rather inclin'd to Vice then Virtue Page 127 CONFERENCE XXII I. Of Judiciary Astrologie II. Which is least blameable Covetousness or Prodigality Page 133 CONFERENCE XXIII I. Of Physiognomy II. Of Artificial Memory Page 139 CONFERENCE XXIV I. Which of the Five Senses is the most noble II. Of Laughter Page 144 CONFERENCE XXV I. Of the Diversity of Countenances II. Whether Man or Woman be the more noble Page 150 CONFERENCE XXVI I. Whether it be lawful for one to commend himself II. Of Beauty Page 157 CONFERENCE XXVII I. Whether the World grows old II. Of Jealousie Page 163 CONFERENCE XXVIII I. What is the greatest Delight of Man II. Of Cuckoldry Page 169 CONFERENCE XXIX I. Whence the saltness of the Sea proceeds II. Which is the best Food Flesh or Fish Page 174 CONFERENCE XXX I. Of the Terrestrial Paradise II. Of Embalmings and Mummies Page 180 CONFERENCE XXXI I. Whether the Life of Man may be prolong'd by Art II. Whether 't is better to be without Passions then to moderate them Page 185 CONFERENCE XXXII I. Sympathy and Antipathy II. Whether Love descending is stronger then ascending Page 191 CONFERENCE XXXIII I. Of those that walk in their sleep II. Which is the most excellent Moral Virtue Page 197 CONFERENCE XXXIV I. Of Lycanthropy II. Of the way to acquire Nobility Page 203 CONFERENCE XXXV I. Of feigned Diseases II. Of regulating the Poor Page 209 CONFERENCE XXXVI I. Of the tying of the Point II. Which is the greatest of all Vices Page 214 CONFERENCE XXXVII I. Of the Cabala II. Whether the Truth ought always to be spoken Page 220 CONFERENCE XXXVIII I. Of the Period called Fits of Fevers II. Of Friendship Page 226 CONFERENCE XXXIX I. Why all men naturally desire knowledge II. Whether Permutation or Exchange be more commodious then Buying and Selling Page 230 CONFERENCE XL I. Of Prognostication or Presaging by certain Animals II. Why all men love more to command then to obey Page 238 CONFERENCE XLI I. Of Comets II. Whether Pardon be better then Revenge Page 244 CONFERENCE XLII I. Of the Diversity of Languages II. Whether is to be preferr'd a great stature or a small Page 251 CONFERENCE XLIII I. Of the Philosophers stone II. Of Mont de piete or charitable provision for the Poor Page 256 CONFERENCE XLIV I. How Minerals grow II. Whether it be best to know a little of every thing or one thing exactly Page 262 CONFERENCE XLV I. Whether the Heavens be solid or liquid II. Whether it be harder to get then to preserve Page 268 CONFERENCE XLVI I. Of Vacuity II. Of the Extravagance of Women Page 274 CONFERENCE XLVII I. Of the Virtue of Numbers II. Of the Visible Species Page 280 CONFERENCE XLVIII I. Whether every thing that nourishes an Animal ought to have life II. Of Courage Page 286 CONFERENCE XLIX I. Whether there be Specifical remedies to every Disease II. Whether Tears proceed from Weakness Page 292 CONFERENCE L I. Whether Colours are real II. Whether is better to speak well or to write well Page 298 CONFERENCE LI I. At what time the year ought to begin II. Why the Load-stone draws Iron Page 309 CONFERENCE LII I. Of a Point II. Whether other Animals besides Man have the use of Reason Page 315 CONFERENCE LIII I. Whether there be more then five Senses II. Whether is better to speak or to be silent Page 319 CONFERENCE LIV I. Of Touch. II. Of Fortune Page 325 CONFERENCE LV I. Of the Taste II. Whether Poetry be useful Page 331 CONFERENCE LVI I. Of the Smelling II. Of Eloquence Page 337 CONFERENCE LVII I. Of the Hearing II. Of Harmony Page 343 CONFERENCE LVIII I. Of the Sight II. Of Painting Page 349 CONFERENCE LIX I. Of Light II. Of Age. Page 355 CONFERENCE LX I. Of Quintessence II. Which is the most in esteem Knowledge or Virtue Page 361 CONFERENCE LXI I. Which is hardest to endure Hunger or Thirst. II. Whether a General of an Army should endanger his person Page 367 CONFERENCE LXII I. Of Time II. Whether 't is best to overcome by open force or otherwise Page 373 CONFERENCE LXIII I. Of Motion II. Of Custome Page 379 CONFERENCE LXIV I. Of the Imagination II. Which is most powerful Hope or Fear Page 384 CONFERENCE LXV I. Of the Intellect II. Whether the Husband and Wife should be of the same humour Page 390 CONFERENCE LXVI I. Of Drunkenness II. Of Dancing Page 396 CONFERENCE LXVII I. Of Death II. Of the Will Page 402 CONFERENCE LXVIII I. Of the Magnetical Cure of Diseases II. Of Anger Page 408 CONFERENCE LXIX I. Of Life II. Of Fasting Page 414 CONFERENCE LXX I. Of Climacterical Years II. Of Shame Page 419 CONFERENCE LXXI I. Why motion produces heat II. Of Chastity Page 425 CONFERENCE LXXII I. Of Thunder II. Which of all the Arts is the most
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
Others dying with laughter That some pass through others without mixing therewith That others are so ponderous that no Body whatsoever can sink to the bottome Some on the contrary are so light that nothing can swim upon them and infinite other such proprieties 'T is that which seemes to surpass ordinary Ratiocination Of this kind is that which is said of a certain River in Sicily the Water whereof cannot be brought to mingle with Wine unless it be drawn by a chaste and continent Woman To which was added for a conclusion that if the Water of Seine had this property we should be many times in danger of drinking our Wine unmixt The Second said That nothing could be more natural and methodical then to treat of Water after Air. For as in the Composition of a Mixt Body the moisture which is predominant in the Air unites and knits the matters which are to be mixed So the Cold which predominates in the Water closes them and gives them consistence And as in Drawing and Painting the Embroiderer and Painter passeth not from one light colour to another without some intermediate one but he loseth the same insensibly in another more duskish out of which the bright breaketh forth again by little and little to the middle of his ground So Nature doth not pass immediately from the extreme humidity which is in the Air to the extreme coldness which is in the Water but causeth that the moisture of the former abateth its great vigour at the approach of the moisture which is in the Water in a weak and remiss degree before it meet with the Cold of the Water whereunto it is to be joyned Without which humidity of the Water in a weak and remiss degree the Cold could not compact the parts which the moisture united So that this humidity is found in two Subjects one subtile which is the Air the other more gross which is the Water As it happens also in the Fire which is partly in a rare Subject namely the fat and unctuous vapour whereby it flameth and partly in another solid and gross which is Wood Iron or Coal As Flame it is more apt to shine and burn penetrating the pores of the wood to find its Aliment there which is the interior Oyle As Coal it acts more powerfully and is more durable So if there were in the Mixt Body no other humidity but that of the Air the same inconvenience would befall it that doth a Conquerour who having subdu'd a Country reserveth no place of Retreat for the keeping thereof For at the first opposition which he meeteth he is constrain'd to let go his hold So if moisture were not in the Air it would indeed penetrate the Compounded Bodies still as it doth as readily but it would suddenly dislodge again if it had not its refuge in the Water which is more proper to preserve it The Third said That Water cannot be cold in the highest degree First because if it were so it could generate nothing Cold being an Enemy to all Generation because it locketh up the particles within As on the contrary Heat is the Proximate Cause thereof by the extension and attraction which it causeth outwards Nevertheless we see Plants and Animals in the Waters Secondly If it were so cold being moist too it would be alwayes frozen since according to Aristotle Ice is nothing but an excess of coldness with moisture Thirdly Those qualities which are attributed to Water are common to many other things besides As to the Air when it is cold and do not necessarily belong to it but may be separated from it since remaining Water still it may become hot by the Fire and frozen by the Air and so be found destitute of its fluidity and humidity If it be said That it loseth not its qualities but by accident and that of its own Nature it is cold I answer That the Natural and Necessary Proprieties of Things proceding immediately from their Essence such as those of Water are held to be cannot be taken from them but by Miracle And on the contrary That it is not cold but by the vicinity of the cold Air which encompasseth it and not of its own Nature Whence the surface of the Water is cold in Winter and sometimes frozen the bottome remaining warm And therefore the Fish do not come much to the upper part of the Water in Winter but stay below where it is in its own Nature and is not so easily alter'd with forrein qualities Moreover since we know the Qualities of a Thing by its Effects the Effect of Water being even in the Judgement of Sense to moisten more then any of the Elements it ought to be held the Chief or First Humid Body If it be said that it moistneth more then the Air because it is more gross and compact as hot Iron burneth more then flame I answer That although it may owe that humidity to the thickness of its Matter yet the same is not the less essential to it since Matter is one part of the Element And besides it proceedeth from the Form too since it can never be separated from it Water alwayes necessarily moistning whilst it is Water Which cannot be said of its coldness for when it is warm it doth not lose its name of Water though it be no longer cold but it is alwayes moist The Fourth said That to speak properly Water is never hot in it self but 't is the Fire insinuating and mingling it self with the little Particles of the Water that we feel hot and accordingly that Fire being evaporated the Water not onely returneth to its natural quality but also the Fire leaving its pores more open renders them more accessible to the Air which freezes the same in Winter sooner then it would do otherwise And this is no more then as Salt and Sulphureous Waters are made such by the Salt and Sulphur mingled therewith Which being separated from them they lose also the taste thereof And as Wine mingled with Water is still truly Wine and hath the same Virtue as before though its activity be repress'd by the power of the Water So Water mingled with Salt Sulphur and Fire is true Water and hath intrinfecally the same qualities as before that mixture though indeed its action be retarded and its qualities be checked and rebated by the other contraries which are more powerful In like manner Water is not cold of it self but by the absence of Fire As it happens in Winter that the igneous beams of the Sun not staying upon the Water it persisteth cold and so that coldness is but a privation of heat As appears in the shivering of an Ague which proceedeth from the retiring of the natural heat inwards and deserting the external parts But if there happen a total privation of those igneous parts which are infus'd into it mediately or immediately by the Sun then it becometh frozen And because those fiery Particles occupied some space in its Body
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
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
that of the Moon is cause of that of the Sea For if it were then when the Moon is longest above our Horizon as in long dayes the ebbing and flowing would be greatest but it is equal and regular as well when the Moon is below the Horizon as above it And why also doth not she move the other Seas and all sorts of Waters as well as the Ocean The Third said That there are two sorts of Water in the Sea one terrene thick and viscous which contains the Salt the other thin sweet and vaporous such as that which Aristotle saith enters through the Pores of a vessel of wax exactly stop'd and plung'd to the bottome of the Sea This thin Water being heated is rarifi'd and turn'd into vapours which consequently require more room then before They seek for it but being restrain'd and inclos'd in the thick and viscous Water can find no issue and therefore make the Water of the Sea to swell and rise till that Exhalation be disengag'd from those thick Waters and then the Sea returnes to its natural state by falling flat and becoming level This is abundantly confirm'd by the Tydes which are alwayes greater in March and August then at other seasons because at that time more abundance of vapours is drawn up But why have not Lakes also an Ebbing and Flowing Because their Water being more thin le ts pass those vapours which the Sun hath stirr'd and so not being hinder'd from going away as those of the Sea are they do not make the Water rise and swell So Heat having subtiliz'd and converted into vapours the most tenuious parts of the Milk upon the Fire the thicker parts of the same coming to enclose them are the cause that it swells and rises up But when it is remov'd from the fire or its vapours have gotten passage by agitation it takes up no more roome then it did at first But it is not so with Water plac'd upon the Fire the rarity of its Body giving free issue to the vapours which the Heat excites in it The Jewish Sea is bituminous and therefore no more inflated then pitch possibly because the parts thereof being Homogeneous cannot be subtiliz'd apart For as for the Mediterranean Seas having no Flux and Reflux I conceive it is hindred by another motion from North to South because the Septentrional parts being higher then the Austral all Waters by their natural gravity tend that way The Fourth said I acknowledge with Aristotle that 't is partly the Sun that causes the Flux and Reflux of the Sea because 't is he that raises most of the Exhalations and Winds which beating upon the Sea make it swell and so cause the Flux and soon after failing the Sea falls again which is the Reflux Nevertheless because this cause is not sufficient and cannot be apply'd to all kinds of Flux and Reflux which we see differ almost in all Seas I add another thereunto Subterranean Fires which sending forth continually abundance of Exhalations or subtile Spirits and these Spirits seeking issue drive the Water of the Sea which they meet till it overflows and thus it continues till being deliver'd from those Spirits it falls back into its channel till it be agitated anew by other Exhalations which successively follow one another and that more or less according to the greater or lesser quantity of those Spirits The Tydes which happen every two hours are an evidence of great quantity those which happen every four hours of less and those which happen every six of least of all So there is made in our Bodies a Flux and Reflux of Spirits by the motion of Reciprocation call'd the Pulse consisting of a Diastole and a Systole or Dilatation and Contraction caus'd by the Vital Faculty of the Heart the Fountain of Heat Moreover as the Pulse is ordinarily perceiv'd better in the Arms and other extreme parts then in the rest of the Body So the Flux and Reflux is more evident at the shores then in the main Sea Therefore Aristotle proposing the Question why if some solid Body as an Anchor be cast into the Sea when it swells it instantly becomes calm answers That the solid Body cast into the Sea makes a separation in the surface thereof and thereby gives passage to the Spirits which were the cause of that Commotion Now if it be demanded Why such motion is not so manifest in the Mediterranean Sea and some others as in the Ocean it is answer'd that the reasons thereof are 1. Because Nature having given sluces to the Mediterranean higher then to the Ocean it hath not room wherein to extend it self so commodiously 2. Because the Subterranean Fires being united and continually vented forth by the Out-lets which they have in Aetna Vesuvius and other Mountains within or near that Sea there remains less then is needful to make a rising of the Waters The Fifth said I conceive there is as little cause and reason to be sought of the Flux and Reflux of the Sea as of all other motions proceeding from Forms informing or assisting the Bodies which they move As it would be impertinent to ask what is the cause of the motion of a Horse seeing the most ignorant confess that it is from his Soul which is his Form So there is more likelihood of truth in attributing the motion of the Sea to its Form then to any other thing Yet because they who assign a Soul to the World and all its parts cannot make out such a proportion therein as is requisite to the parts of an Animal I think more fit to affirm that the Sea hath a Form and Intelligence assisting to it which was assign'd to it by God from the beginning to move it in the same manner as the Intelligences according to Aristotle are assistant to the Coelestial Orbes and continue their motion II. Of the Point of Honour It was said upon the Second Point That since Contraries give light to one another we may better understand what Honour is by considering the Nature of Dishonour For where ever there is Blame there is also Honour opposite to it Now there is no Man that sees a vile action as amongst Souldiers Murder or Cowardice Collusion or Perfidiousness in Justice but he blames the same and judges the Author thereof worthy of Dishonour On the conrary a brave Exploit and a Courageous Action is esteemed by Enemies themselves The incorruptible Integrity of a Judge is oftentimes commended by him that â—oses his Suit and the Courageous Fidelity of an Advocate in well defending his Client receives Praise even from the Adversary so odious is Vice and so commendable is Virtue Wherefore every one abhorring Blame and Dishonour doth so vehemently hate the memory and reproach of any thing that may bring it upon him that many imitate what the Fable telleth of Jupiter who going to shake off the ordure which the Beetle had laid upon the skirt of his garment by that means shook out the Eggs
greater vertues in times past then they have at the present as it is found amongst others in that Antidote made of tops of Rue a Nut and a Fig wherewith Mithridates preserv'd himself from all poysons and which is now out of credit but much more in man then other animals For besides the diminution which befalls him as a mixt body because he draws his nourishment from the substance of plants and animals he hath besides in himself a double ground of this decay of his strength every thing partaking of nature and its food Hence it is that we are much more short-liv'd then our fathers of old who in the flower of the world's age to speak with Plato who makes it an animal liv'd almost a thousand years and since the Deluge by the corruption which its waters overflowing the earth caus'd in the whole Universe they liv'd six hundred years but at present few attain to eighty Nor do we see any Gyants now a days though they were very frequent in old time Men's minds likewise have a great share of this deterioration in the exercise of vertues and arts Besides that there was never so great a multitude of Laws and Ordinances which are certain evidence of the depravation of manners The fourth said Besides that 't is dubious whether the years of our first Fathers were of equal length with ours the cause of their long life may be attributed to a special priviledge of God to the end they might by their long experience invent Arts and Sciences and people the world Moreover 't is above 4000 years since the term of 70 and 80 years became the common standard of humane life Our age is not more corrupted then the first made infamous by Fratricides Sodomites Incests Treasons and such other enormous sins so much the more detestable in that they had no example of them as their posterity hath had since And as for the inferior bodies since their actions are at present altogether the same with what they perform'd in the beginning of the world the Fire for example not burning less nor the Water cooling less then in Adam's time it must be concluded that they are not chang'd but remain always in the same state The Fifth said That as in the Microcosme we may judge of the corruption of the Body by the least alteration of its parts and fore-tell its death by the disorder observ'd in the most noble so we may make the like Judgement in the Maerocosme in which we see no Mixt Bodies but what are corruptible For things are no longer then they act action being the measure of their being And therefore seeing nothing can act perpetually because the virtue of every thing is bounded and finite nothing can be perpetual As Knives and the like instruments are blunted with much cutting so the qualities incessantly acting must of necessity be weakned and at length become impotent But the surest sign of the worlds corruption is the annihilation of corporeal formes the noblest parts of the universe For as for spiritual formes when they are separated from the Body they are no longer consider'd as parts of the world The Sixth confirm'd this opinion by the abundance of new diseases sprang up in these last Ages and unknown to the preceding as the Neapolitane Malady the Scurvy and sundry others which cannot proceed but from the corruption of Humours and Tempers and this from that of the Elements The Seventh said That the world is so far from growing worse that on the contrary it becomes more perfect as 't is proper to things created from a small beginning to increase and at length attain their perfection which the world having attain'd doth not decline because it is not an organiz'd body whose property it is to do so after it hath attain'd its State This is visible in Metals and particularly in Gold which the longer they remain in the Earth the more concoction and perfection they acquire Moreover the Wits of Men are more refin'd then ever For what could be more ignorant then the Age of our first Parents for whom God himself was fain to make Clothes those of their own making being onely fig-leaves In the Ages following you see nothing so gross as what was then accounted the highest degree of subtlety as the Learning of the Rabbins among the Jews and the Druids among the Gauls the best skill'd of whom might come to school to our Batchelors But their gross ignorance in Handy-crafts appears amongst others in our Flowers de Luce the figure whereof stamp'd on their Coin resembles any thing rather then a Flower de Luce. II. Of Jealousie Upon the Second Point it was said That Jealousie is very hard to be defin'd If you rank it under the Genius of Fear how comes it to make Rivals so venturous in attempting and executing If 't is a sort of Anger and Indignation whence do's it make them so pale If you assign this Passion to Man alone how do's it metamorphose them into beasts taking from them all exercise of reason If you admit it in beasts too how do's it render Men so ingenious I think they should speak best who should term it a Rage since the most Tragical Histories are fullest of its actions Yet you shall meet with some that make a laughter of it and if a Mistress changes them they also change their Mistress who when they are marry'd alwayes knock at the door though it be wide open for fear of finding what they do not seek Whereas others are jealous even of the sheets of their own bed Let us therefore rank it amongst the caprichious Passions or rather let us do like the Physitians who having given names to all the Veins and Bones term some which they know not how to call otherwise Innominate and sine pari So this Passion shall be the nameless and peerless Passion The Second said This Passion seem'd to depend on the Climates Northern people being very little subject to it whereas they of the South cannot hear Mass or Sermon unless there be a wall between the Men and the Women And Bodin saith 't was one of the things which Mendoza Gondamor the Spanish Ambassador wonder'd at most in France and England why Men went with Women into Churches Likewise Caesar saith of the English that twelve of them were contented with one Woman and agreed peaceably whereas the Indians and Africans have troops of Wives and yet Puna King of the Indians did not think his secure amongst his Eunuchs till he had disfigur'd them and cut off their Arms. The Third said that Jealousie may be compar'd to the Syrian Cow of whom the Proverb saith that indeed she fill'd the pail with her Milk but presently overturn'd it with a kick It gives Love and it gives Ruine And yet this Passion is so inseparable and so necessarily a companion of Love that it do's the same office to it which the bellows do to the furnace which it kindles For imagine a
not attribute this impediment of generation to charms and enchantments but rather to the power of the Imagination which is of great moment in this case as we see also in Love or Hatred which though by several ways render a man incapable of this action For if one be sollicited by a woman whom he thinks unhandsome and hates he cannot satisfie her because sadness makes his spirits to retire Another being surpriz'd with the enjoyment of some rare beauty becomes alike impotent because joy dissipates the same spirits The desire of doing well and the fear of failing are also frequently obstacles to it witness the impotence of Ovid Regnier the man mention'd in Petronius the Count spoken of by Montague and many others Now these passions making an impression in the Phancie disturb and hinder it from moving the Appetite and consequently the motive faculties depriving them by this means of their ordinary functions The Third said There are two sorts of Impotence one natural and the other supernatural The first happens two ways either through want of matter which is the geniture and spirits or through defect of emission The former not to mention the parts serving to generation happens through the extinction of virility and that by reason of old age sickness violent exercises aliments or medicaments cold and dry and generally by all causes which dissolve the strength and dissipate the spirits and flatuosities as Rue according to Aristotle The second defect proceeds from the obstruction of the Vessels or from a Resolution or Palsie befalling the foresaid parts That which is supernatural is acknowledg'd according to the Canon by the practise of the Church which ordains the two parties to be unmarried if at the end of three years they cannot undo this Gordian knot in the presence of seven witnesses It is made by Sorceries and charms which indeed have no action of themselves yet when men make use of them the Devil according to a compact either tacite or express acts with them imploying to that end the natural things whereof he hath perfect knowledge and hinders generation in two manners either by disturbing the phancie with some images and species of hatred and aversion or else by suspending the generative faculty by the dissipation of flatuosities retention of spirits and concretion of the geniture Now natural impotence is discern'd from supernatural because the first is alwayes alike towards all sort of persons but the second is onely in reference to some particular Woman the Man being well enough dispos'd for all others But change is to no purpose when the impotence is natural The Fourth said That Ligature is a subverting of the order establish'd in order by which all things are destinated to some particular action and are lead to what is sutable for them 'T is an impediment whereby the actions of agents as it were repress'd and restrain'd and 't is either Physical or Magical The former proceeds from a particular Antipathy between two Agents the stronger whereof by some occult contrary property extinguishes and mortifies the virtue of the weaker Thus Garlick or a Diamond hinder the Loadstone from attracting Iron Oyle keeps Amber from drawing straw and the spirits of the Basilisk fix those of a Man The second of which kind is the tying of the Point is done by Magick which thereunto employes certain words images circles characters rings sounds numbers ointments philtres charmes imprecations sacrifices points and other such diabolical inventions but especially barbarous names without signification yea sometimes to that degree of impiety as to make use of sacred things as the divine appellations prayers and verses taken out of the Holy Scripture which it prophanes in its charmes and fascinations Because as Saint Augustine saith the Devils cannot deceive Christians and therefore cover their poyson with a little honey to the end that the bitterness being disguis'd by the sweetness it may be the more easily swallow'd to their ruine These Magical Ligatures if we may credit those who treat of them are almost infinite For there are some particularly against Thieves restraining them from carrying away any thing out of the house others that hinder Merchants from buying or selling in certain Faires and retain ships in the Port so that they cannot get out to sea either by wind or oars or keep a mill from grinding the fire from burning the water from wetting the Earth from producing fruits and upholding buildings swords and all sorts of weapons and even lightning it self from doing mischief dogs from biting or barking the most swift and savage beasts from stirring or committing hurt and the blood of a wound from flowing Yea if we believe Virgil there are some which draw down the Moon to the Earth and effect other like wonders by means for the most part ridiculous or prophane Which nevertheless I conceive are to be referr'd either to natural causes or to the credulity of those who make use of them or to the illusions of the Devil or to the hidden pleasure of God sometimes permitting such impostures to deceive our senses for the punishing of the over-great curiosity of Men and chastising of the wicked For I see not what power of action there is in a number even or odd a barbarous word pronounc'd lowdly or softly and in a certain order a figure square or triangular and such other things which being onely quantities have not any virtue power or action for these belong onely to Qualities The Fifth said That we ought not to do as the vulgar do who refer almost every thing to supernatural causes If they behold a Tempest or Lightning fall down upon any place they cry the Devil is broke loose As for effects which are attributed to Occult Properties 't is Sorcery as they say to doubt that the same are other then the works of Sorcerers But we must rather imitate true Philosophers who never recurr to Occult Properties but where reasons fail them much less to supernatural causes so long as they can find any in nature how abstruse soever they may be Those of this knot or impotence are of three sorts Some proceed from the want of due Temper as from too great cold or heat either of the whole constitution or of the parts serving to generation For a good Temperature being requisite to this action which is the most perfect of any Animal immoderate heat prejudices the same as much as cold because it dries the Body and instead of producing consumes the Spirits The Second Cause is in the Mind for the Body is of it self immoveable unless it be agitated by the Soul which doth the same office to it that a Piper doth to his instrument which speaks not a jot if he blow not into it Now the Phancy may be carri'd away else where or prepossess'd with fear or some other predominant passion Whence he that imagines himself impotent and becomes so indeed and the first fault serves for a preparatory to the second Hereupon
in imitation of that which the Heavens excite here below The Third said The Philosophers stone is a Powder of Projection a very little of which being cast upon imperfect Metals as all are except Gold purifies and cures them of their Leprosie and impurity in such a manner that having first taken away their feculency and then multiply'd their degrees they acquire a more perfect nature Metals not differing among themselves but in degrees of perfection It is of two sorts the white which serves to make Silver and the red which being more concocted is proper to make Gold Now to attain it you need onely have the perfect knowledge of three things to wit the Agent the Matter and the Proportion requisite to the end the Agent may educe the form out of the bosome of that Matter duly prepar'd by the application of actives to passives The first two are easie to be known For the Agent is nothing else but Heat either of the Sun or of our common fire or of a dunghill which they call a Horse's belly or of Balneum Mariae hot water or else that of an Animal The patients are Salt Sulphur or Mercury Gold Silver Antimony Vitriol or some little of such other things the experience whereof easily shews what is to be expected from them But the Application of the Agent to the Patient the determination of the degrees of Heat and the utmost preparation and disposition of the Matter cannot be known but by great labour and long experience Which being difficult thence we see more delusions and impostures in this Art then truths Nevertheless Histories bear witness that Hermes Trismegistus Glauber Raimond Lully Arnauld Flamel Trevisanus and some others had knowledge of it But because for those few that are said to have it almost infinite others have been ruin'd by it therefore the search of it seemes more curious then profitable The Fourth said That as Mathematicians have by their search after the Quadrature of a circle arriv'd to the knowledge of many things which were before unknown to them so though the Chymists have not discover'd the Philosophers stone yet they have found out admirable secrets in the three families of Vegetables Animals and Minerals But it not the less possible although none should ever attain it not onely for this general reason that Nature gives us no desire in vain but particularly because all Metals are of the same species being made of one and the same Matter Sulphur and Mercury and concocted by one and the same celestial heat not differing but in concoction alone as the grains of the same raisin do which ripen at several times This is evident by the extraction of Gold and Silver out of all Metals even out of Lead and Iron the most imperfect of them So that the Art ought not to be judg'd inferior in this matter to all others which it perfectionates Moreover the Greek Etymology of Metals shews that they are transmutable one into another The Fifth said That as in the production of Corn by Nature the seed and the fat of the Earth are its matter and its efficient is partly internal included in the grain and partly external viz. the heat of the Sun and the place in the bosome of the Earth so in the production of Gold by Art its matter is Gold it self and its Quick-silver and the efficient cause is partly in the Gold partly in the external heat the place is the furnace containing the Egg of Glass wherein the matter is inclos'd dissolve'd and grows black call'd the Crowes head waxes white and then is hardned into a red mass the hardness whereof gives it the name of a stone which being reduc'd into powder and kept three dayes in a vessel hermetically seal'd upon a strong fire acquires a purple colour and one dram of it converts two hundred of Quicksilver into pure Gold yea the whole Sea were it of like substance The Sixth said That Art indeed may imitate but cannot surpass Nature But it should if we could change other metals into Gold which is impossible to Nature it self even in the Mines in how long time soever those of Iron Lead Tin or Copper never becoming Mines of Gold or Silver Therefore much less can the Alchymist do it in his furnaces no more then he can produce some thing more excellent then Gold as this Philosophical stone would be Gold being the most perfect compound of all mixt bodies and for that reason incorruptible And indeed how should these Artists accomplish such a work when they are not agreed upon the next matter of it nor upon the efcien tcause time place and manner of working there being as many opinions as there are different Authors Moreover 't is untrue that all Metals are of one species and differ onely in degree of concoction for Iron is more concocted then Silver as also more hard and less fusible and their difference was necessary in reference to humane uses Now perfect species which are under the same next genius as Metals are can never be transmuted one into another no more then a Horse into a Lyon Yea could this Philosophical stone act upon Metals yet it would not produce Gold or Silver but other stones like it self or onely imprint upon them its own qualities according to the ordinary effects of all natural Agents And if it were true that the powder of Gold produc'd other Gold being cast upon Metals as a grain of wheat brings forth many others being cast into the Earth it would be requisite to observe the same order and progress in the multiplication of Gold which Men do in that of grains of Wheat Yet the Chymists do not so but will have their multiplication to be made in an instant The Seventh said That since Art draws so many natural effects out of fitting matter as Worms Serpents Frogs Mice Toads and Bees although the subject of these Metamorphoses be much more difficult to be dispos'd and made susceptible of a sensitive soul then insensible metal is to receive a Form divisible like its matter he saw no absurdity in it but that at least by the extraordinary instruction of good or bad spirits some knowledge of this operation may be deriv'd to men considering that we see other species naturally trans-form'd one into another as Egyptain Nitre into stone a Jasper into an Emerald the herb Basil into wild Thyme Wheat into Darnel a Caterpiller into a Butter-fly yea if we will believe the Scotch they have a Tree whose fruit falling into the water is turn'd into a Bird. II. Of a Mont de Pieté or Bank for lending to the Poor Upon the second Point it was said That Charity toward our Neighbour being the most certain sign of Piety towards God and Hills having been chosen almost by all Nations to sacrifice upon as neerest to Heaven upon these accounts the name of Mont de Pieté hath been given to all institutions made for relief of the poor whereof lending
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
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
as its cause and ceases when this fails contrary to other qualities which have a fix'd and permanent existence in Nature For the tingling of a bell which continues some while after the stroke is not one single sound but many the parts of the bell being put into a trembling motion by the blow and communicating the same to the parts of the Air contain'd in the cavity of the bell which Air is so long clash'd together till all the insensible parts of the bell be return'd to their first rest and therefore the laying of the hand upon it hinders this motion and consequently stops the sound And 't is for this reason that it resounds more when it hangs freely then when it is held in the hand and some bells have been seen to fly in pieces upon the application of a piece of Iron to them whilst they were trembling The cause whereof is this if while all the parts of the bell tremble and equally move from their place one part be check'd it becomes immoveable and so not following the agitation of the rest is separated from them The Second said Though sound the object of the Hearing containing under it Voice and Speech is oftentimes accompany'd with three things the body striking the body struck and the Medium resounding yet these three do not alwayes meet in all sort of sounds as we see in that which is made by our bellows the noise of a Petar Salt Chestnuts and other aerious and flatuous bodies cast into the fire because these flatuosities being rarifi'd require an outlet and therefore impetuously break forth out of their restraint which eruption striking the neighbouring Air produces a sound The same is seen also in the Voice which is form'd by collision of the Air in the Lungs against the Larynx the palate and the teeth So that the proximate cause of sound is not the shock of two bodies but the breaking of the Air when its motion is hindred A piece of cloth makes a noise in the tearing but not in the cutting because of the sudden separation of the parts of the Air which on the other side for fear of Vacuum are impetuously carry'd towards the place of their separation and the wind whistles by reason of the violent motion which it causeth in the Air sometimes driving the same before it sometimes pressing and wracking it or because it meets some other wind or body that opposes its natural motion The Third said A perfect sound cannot be made without the encountring of two bodies and Air between them for want of which there would be local motion but no sound in a Vacuum and the motion of those great celestial orbes is not audible Now these bodies must be hard and solid either of their own Nature as Copper and Silver or by the union and construction of their parts which makes them act and resist as if they were solid such are the Air and Water agitated Moreover that this sound be perfect 't is requisite that the bodies be large and smooth for if they be rough and scabrous the Air which is compress'd finds means to expand it self in the interstices of the higher parts if they be acute and pointed they cut and divide but do not break it So a needle striking the point of another needle makes no noise because it onely cuts the Air but do's not compresse it If these solid bodies be hollow and dry the sound is made the better and yet more if they be aerious Hence among metals Brass Silver and Gold resound more then Lead and Iron which are of a terrene nature Among Trees the Sallow and the Fig-tree have a sound and the leaves of Laurel crackle in the fire by reason of their aerious parts Lastly the bodies must be friable that is to say divisible at the same time into very small particles as Air Glass and Ice or in case they break not at least they must tremble in all their parts as bells do Therefore Water not being friable by reason of its tenacious humidity which keeps the particles together cannot be the subject of sounds that of running Water being made by the occurse of the Air upon its surface not in the Water it self in which no sound can be made although it may be somewhat confus'dly transmitted as 't is to fishes whom the noise makes to abandon the shore The Fourth said Hearing was given to Man to satisfie his natural inclination to understand the thoughts of his species by the utterance of words which would be useless to conversation if they were not receiv'd by this faculty whose dignity appears chiefly in the structure of its Organ the Ear both external and internal which is destinated to the reception of sounds Therefore the Philosopher derides Alcmaeon for saying that Goats respire at the ears The external is Cartilaginous and tortuous unmoveable in man alone always open on each side the head to receive sounds from all parts which are carri'd upwards in an orbicular figure The internal situate in the os petrosum or bone of the Temples hath four passages viz. the auditory meatus clos'd with a membrane call'd the Drum behind which is a cord fastned to the stirrup the anvil and hammer small bones as dry and big in children as in old men 2. That which incloseth the natural and immoveable Air the principal Organ of hearing 3. The Labyrinth 4. The Cochle or Shell-work But the passage which goes from the Ear to the Palate and the orifice of the Wind-pipe is most remarkable by which the inspir'd air doth not only refresh the Lungs but also the natural implanted air in the ear Hence ariseth that sympathy of the Palate and the Ears and to hear well we sometimes hold our breath for fear of disordering the species of sounds and those that gape or yawn hear little or not at all because the vaporous spirit which causeth oscitation so puts up the drum of the ear that it cannot well receive sounds and for the same reason they that yawn dare not pick their ears at that time for fear of hurting the inflated Drum which if it come to be touch'd the yawning ceaseth those that scratch their ears put themselves into a hawking or coughing And lastly 't is for this reason that such as are born deaf are also dumb because of the straight connexion of the auditory Nerve being of the fifth conjugation with the seventh which is at the root of the Tongue The Fifth said Sounds are carri'd to the ear in the same manner as they are produc'd namely by a fraction of the air adjoyning which hath a sphere of activity and is like that which is caus'd in the water by casting a stone into it but without any intentional species Otherwise sounds would be heard at the same time and in the same manner by those that are neer and those that are far off in regard the intentional species being spiritual is carri'd in an instant being caus'd by
the Stoicks call a god others a divine member and the Luminary of the little World Theophrastus Beauty because it resides principally in the Eyes the most charming part of a handsome face Their colour twinkling fixedness and other dispositions serve the Physiognomists for certain indications of the inclinations of the soul which all antiquity believ'd to have its seat in the eyes in which you read pride humility anger mildness joy sadness love hatred and the other humane affections And as the inclinations and actions of men are more various then those of other creatures so their eyes alone are variously colour'd whereas the eyes of all beasts of the same species are alike Yea the eyes are no less eloquent then the tongue since they express our conceptions by a dumb but very emphatical language and a twinkle of the eye many times moves more to obedience then speech Plato being unable to conceive the admirable effects of the Sight without somewhat of divinity believ'd there was a celestial light in the eye which issuing forth to receive the outward light brought the same to the soul to be judg'd of which nevertheless we perceive not in the dark because then the internal streaming forth into the obscure air which is unlike to it self is alter'd and corrupted by it Indeed if it be true that there is a natural implanted sound in the ear why may there not be a natural light in the eye considering too that the Organs ought to have a similitude and agreement with their objects And hence it is that the eyes sometimes flash like lightning in the night as Cardan saith his did and Suetonious relates the same of Tiberius and that those that are in a Phrensy imagine that they see lightning For it seems to me more rational to refer this Phaenomenon to the lucid and igneous spirits of the sight which being unable to penetrate the crystalline or vitreous humour by reason of some gross vapours reflect back into the eye and make those flashes then to the smoothness of the eye or to attrition of the spirits or as Galen holds to an exhalation caus'd by the blood which is carri'd to the head though this latter may sometimes be a joynt cause The Third said The Eye is compos'd of six Muscles as many Tunicles three Humours two pair of Nerves and abundance of small Veins and Arteries its object is every thing that is visible as colour light and splendor light in the Celestial Bodies wherein the object and the medium are the same thing since the light of the Sun is seen by it self colour in inferiour bodies where the object and the medium are two for colour cannot be seen without light splendor in the scales of Fishes rotten wood the eyes of some animals Gloe-worms and the like for it is different from their natural colour It s Organ is the Eye so regarded by Nature that she hath fortifi'd it on all sides for its safety with the bone of the Forehead the Eye-brows the Eye-lids the hair thereof the Nose the rising of the Cheeks and the Hands to ward off outward injuries and if Galen may be believ'd the Brain it self the noblest part of the body was made only for the eyes whence Anaxagoras conceiv'd that men were created only to see or contemplate The Eyes are dearer to us then any other part because saith Aristotle they are the instruments of most exact knowledge and so serve not only for the body but the soul whose food is the knowledge which the eye supplies call'd for this reason the Sense of Invention as the Ear is that of discipline 'T is of an aqueous nature because it was requisite that it should be diaphanous to receive the visible species and light for if it had been of a terrestrial matter it would have been opake and dark if aerious or igneous it could not have long retain'd the species air and fire being thin diaphanous bodies which receive well but retain not for though the air be full of the species of objects which move through it from all parts yet they are not visible in it by reason of its rarity It was fit therefore that the Eye should be of a pellucid and dense substance that it might both receive and retain the visible species which kind of substance is proper to water as appears by the images which it represents Moreover the Eye being neer and conjoyn'd to the Brain by the Nerves of the first and second conjugation and to the membranes thereof by its Tunicles could not be of an igneous nature perfectly contrary to that of the Brain as Plato held it to be because of its agility lucidity and orbicular figure like that of fire as he said and because the Eye is never tense or stiff as all the other parts all which he conceiv'd could not be but from fire For the Eyes agility or nimbleness of motion is from its Muscles and its lubricity its brightness from the external light its round figure rather denotes water whose least particles are so then fire whose figure is pyramidal 'T is never stiff because of the fat wherewith it is stuff'd and because it is destitute of flesh II. Of Painting Upon the second Point it was said That Painting is a sort of writing by which many times that is express'd which cannot be spoken witness the story of Progne and Philomel and as the latter represents things by letters so doth the former by their natural figure so perfectly that it is understood by the most ignorant because it exhibits in their proper colour bigness proportion and other natural accidents whereas Writing makes use of characters and figures which have no affinity with the things denoted by them but only signifie the same by the institution of men who therefore differ in Writing but all agree in painting Both the one and the other like all Arts whose scope is imitation as Oratory Statuary Sculpture Architecture and many others depend upon the strength of the Imagination and that Painter succeeds bests who hath in his mind the most perfect idea of his work And because a Painter is to imitate every thing 't is requir'd to his being a Master that he be ignorant of nothing particularly he must know both the natural and artificial proportions and agreements of things with their several modes and uses And where there are three ways of representing the first in surfaces by flat painting the other in bodies themselves which belongs to Statuary and the Plastick Art the third between both as Graving and Carving Painting is the most difficult and consequently the most noble For it must so deceive the sight as to make cavities folds and bosses appear in a flat surface by the help of shadows which although a meer nothing because but a privation of light yet they gave all the gracefulness and value to Pictures For the way of painting without shadows us'd in China being nothing but a simple delineation without hatchment
as it is very excellent so 't is exceeding rare and being not us'd amongst us cannot come into comparison with the rest Whereas Sculpture and Statuary consisting only in paring away the overplus of matter or if the matter be fusible in casting it into a mould made from the original as the moulds of Plaster are from the faces of persons newly deceas'd need less industry The Second said Although Painting be sensible and visible yet it belongs to very few persons to judge well of it witness Alexander who going to see Appelles and offering to talk concerning Painting he spoke so ill that the Apprentices of that Artist could not forbear laughing Indeed Painting is one of the noblest parts of the Mechanicks and ought as well to be rank'd amongst the Mathematicks as Astronomy For if the reason of the Celestial motions gave cause for accounting this Science amongst the Mathematicks more justly may the reason of the motions and proportions of mans body the object of Painting more admirable and of which more certain and real knowledge may be had then of those remote bodies deserves to be of that rank considering that it makes use of the same Mathematical Rules Proportions whose Rules are so infallible that seven excellent Statuaries very distant one from the other being employ'd to make a brazen Colossus perform'd their tasks by the precepts of their Art and the parts which each of them made severally being put together represented a well proportion'd man According to which proportion a mans body must be eight lengths of his head from the less corner of the eye to the tip of the Ear is to be twice the length of the Eye the Feet and Hands stretch'd forth equally distant from the Navil and such other remarks The Third said The reason of the measures and proportions observ'd in Painting consists principally in four points viz. in the form and figure of the thing represented which is taken from the visual rays in the shadow which is to be taken from the rays of light in colour which is to imitate the natural and in the handsome posture or situation of the thing painted For Painting is the imitation of the affections of bodies with reference to the light made upon a solid Plane Hence a face is otherwise represented under the water then bare distant then neer in the Sun-shine then in the shadow by Candle-light or Moon-light And though the Painter represents also the dispositions of the soul as anger or sadness yet he doth it always by the features and qualities of the body The Fourth said They who blame Painting and Statuary because they represent unfitting objects and gave occasion to the Idolatry of antiquity may as justly blame beauty because 't is sometimes the occasion of sinning Painting hath this preeminence above all Arts that it imitates God more perfectly then they for God was the first Painter when he made man the goodliest piece of the world after his own image and likeness and all the bless'd spirits are but contracted copies of so perfect an original 'T is that which frees the body from the tombe and like a second table after shipwrack preserves the memory of virtuous men renders present those who are absent and makes almost as strong impressions upon our Soul as the thing it self witnesse the friendships of the greatest personages of the world contracted by its means And as if the desire of pourtraying it self were natural to all things there is no body but incessantly produces its own image which flies and wanders in the Air till it meet with some solid and smooth body whereon to represent it self as we see in Looking-glasses and polish'd marble where the images are much more exact then those which Art draws with a pencil yea then their own originals of whose corporeal matter they are wholly divested And as the beginning of all Arts are rude this of Painting is attributed to the Daughter of Belus who observing her Fathers shadow upon a wall delineated it with a coal For Pourtraiture invented by Philocles the Aegyptian is ancienter then Painting invented either by Gyges the Lydian in Aegypt according to Pliny or by Pyrhus Cousin to Daedalus according to Aristotle The Fifth said That in Painting as in other disciplines Ignorance of the principles is the cause that so few succeed well in it These principles are the methodical proportion of Mans Body Perspective the reason of shadows Natural Colours Designing and History all which must be found in a good Piece and the defect of some of them as it frequently happens causes us to wonder though we know not the reason that there is commonly something in all draughts that does not satisfie our Minds For oftentimes when all the rest is good Perspective hath not been well observ'd or the Design is nought or the History ill follow'd But as things are the more to be esteem'd which are the most simple so there is more of wonder in Painting to the life with a coal as Appelles did before Ptolomy to denote a person to him whom he could not name then with colours the least part of Painting which consists properly onely in proportion and this being the most divine action of Understanding 't is no wonder if there be so few good Painters For they are mistaken who place the excellence of painting in the smallness of the strokes because they fancy that Appelles was discover'd to Protogenes by having made a smaller line then he For on the contrary the most excellent strokes of Masters are many times the grossest and that this proportion may be exact it must imitate not onely particular subjects but generally the species of every thing Which Michel Caravague neglecting to do about 90. years since and instead of following Durer's excellent Rules addicting himself to draw onely after the life hath lead the way to all his successors who care not for his Rules but give themselves onely to imitation and this is the cause of the defects of painting at this day CONFERENCE LIX I. Of Light II. Of Age. I. Of Light I Conceive with a learned Physitian of the most worthy Chancellor that France ever had in his Treatise of this subject that Light is of two sorts one radical and essential which is found perfectly in the Stars the fire and some other subjects but imperfectly in colour'd bodies because Colour is a species of Light The other secondary and derivative which is found in bodies illuminated by the Light Both are made in Transparent Bodies those of the Stars in the Heaven and that of flame and bodies ignited in the fire whiteness in the Air and blackness in the Water But these transparent bodies must be condens'd that those Lights and Colours may appear and therefore the principle of Light is in transparence alone whereof neither purity rarity tenuity nor equality of surfaces are the causes but they all proceed from the quantity of matter some bodies having more matter then others
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
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
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
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
likewise had their Magi the Egyptians their Priests the Chaldeans and Babylonians their Astrologers and Sooth-sayers the Gaules their Druyds and Bards But the Greeks had more plenty and variety then any Their ancientest Philosophy was that of Musaeus Linus Orpheus Hesiod Homer who cover'd the Science of natural and supernatural things under the veil of Poetry and Fiction till the time of Pherecydes the master of Pythagoras who first writ the same in Prose Their Philosophers may be distinguish'd according to the diversity of subjects whereof they treat whence they who amuz'd themselves about ratiocination were nam'd Logicians the first of whom was Zeno. They who contemplated Nature Naturalists the first of whom was Thales they who soar'd to supernatural speculations Metaphysitians wherein Aristotle excell'd those who regulated manners Moralists of whom Socrates was the principal who was the son of a Sculptor and a Midwise But their principal division is of their different Sects which though in great number may be reduc'd to these following I. The Academick so called of the place where 't was taught so famous that all places destinated to instruction in Liberal Sciences retain the same name at this day 'T was divided into three namely the old Academy whereof Socrates and Plato were authors the middle which ow'd its institution to Archesilaus author of the famous Epoche or suspension of judgement concerning all things whom for that reason Tertullian calls Master of Ignorance and the new founded by Carneades and Lacides who held that there is something true but 't was incomprehensible which was almost the same Sect with the Scepticks and Pyrrhoneans II. The Cyrenaick introduc'd by Aristippus the Cyrenian disciple of Socrates who first took money for teaching others and held it as one of his principal maximes not to refuse any pleasure which presented it self to him yet not to seek it III. The Magarian establish'd by Euclides of Magara which proceeded by interrogations IV. The Cynick founded by Antisthenes Master to Diogenes and Menippus V. The Stoick whereof Zeno Cyttiensis Auditor of Crates the Cynick was author VI. The Epicurean of Epicurus the Athenian who conceiv'd that every thing was made by chance and that the chief good consisted in pleasure some say of the body others of the mind VII The Peripatetick instituted by Aristotle 'T would be endless to relate the extravagances of all particular persons But I conceive that of the Cynicks was the most dishonest that of the Stoicks most majestical that of the Epicureans most blameable that of Aristotle most honourable that of the Academicks most safe that of the Pyrrhoneans or Scepticks the most easie For as 't is not very creditable so nothing is easier when any thing is ask'd of us then to say that we are incertain of it instead of answering with certainty or else to say that we know nothing of it since to know our ignorance of a thing is not to be wholly ignorant of it The Third said That the Sect of the Scepticks had more followers then any other doubters being incomparably more numerous then Doctors and is the more likely to be true For compare a Gorgias Leontinus or other Sophister of old time or one of the most vers'd in Philosophy in this age who glory of knowing all and of resolving all questions propounded with a Pyrrhonean the first will torture his wit into a thousand postures to feigen and perswade to the hearers what himself knows not and by distinctions cast dust in their eyes as the Cuttle-fish vomits Ink to soil the water when it finds it self caught On the contrary the Sceptick will freely confess the debt and whether you convince him or not will always shew that he has reason to doubt Nevertheless though this Sect be the easiest 't is not in every thing the truest For as 't is temerity and intolerable arrogance to pronounce sentence confidently upon things which are hid to us and whereof we have not any certain knowledge as the quadrature of the circle the duplication of the cube the perpetual motion the Philosophers Stone so 't is too gross stupidity to doubt of the existence of things to judge whereof we need no other help but perfect senses as that it is this day when the Sun shines that the fire burns and that the whole is greater then its parts The Fourth said That Philosophy being the desire of Wisdom or rather Wisdom it self which is nothing else but a store of all the virtues Intellectual and Moral that is the perfectest Philophy which renders those addicted to it most sure in their knowledge and inclin'd to virtue And because there was never sect but had some defect neither in the theory or the practice the best of all is not to be any but to imitate the Bee and gather what is good of each sort without espousing it which was the way of Potamon of Alexandria who as Diogenes Laertius records founded a Sect call'd Elective which allow'd every one to choose what was best in all Philosophies 'T is also the way that Aristotle held in all his Philosophy especially in his Physicks and Politicks which are nothing but a collection of opinions of the Ancients amongst whom he hath often taken whole pages out of Hippocrates though he name him not Nor are we more oblig'd to embrace Aristotle's Philosophy then he did that of his Predecessors it being free for us to frame one out of his precepts those of Raimond Lully Ramus and all others The Fifth said That amongst all sects the most excellent as also the most severe is that of the Stoicks whom Seneca ranks as much above other Philosophers as men above women Their manner of discoursing and arguing was so exquisite that if the Gods said one would reason with men they would make use of the Logick of Chrysippus the Stoick Their Physicks treated partly of bodies partly of incorporeal Beings Bodies according to them are either principles or elements which are ours Their principles are two God and Matter which are the same with the Unity and Binary of Pythagoras the fire and water of Thales They call God the cause and reason of all things and say that he is fire not the common and elementary but that which gives all things their being life and motion And they believ'd that there is one God supremely good bountiful and provident but that he is single in his essence herein following Pythagoras who said that God is not so much one as Unity it self Seneca saith that he is all that thou seest all intire in every part of the world which he sustaines by his power Briefly they conclude their natural knowledge of God as the sovereign cause by his Providence by Destiny which he hath establish'd in all things and by the Genii Heroes and Lares whom they constitute Angels and Ministers of this Supreme Providence The Second Principle Matter they make coeternal to God grounding their doctrine upon the Maxime of Democritus that as
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
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
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
would mingle it self with the substance of the Heavens which by this means would be no longer pure and free from corruption nor consequently eternal yea it might happen that such Meteors as should be form'd in the Heavens would disorder the motions of the Planets which we behold so regular And besides 't is not possible that the Stars of the Firmament should not have come nearer one another in these 6000. years and the Planets have been so exact in their wandrings unless the Heavens were solid The Third said That because the weakness of our reasoning cannot conceive how the creatures obey the Creator otherwise then by such wayes as Artificers use who fasten nails in wheels to make their motion regular therefore Men phancy the like in Heaven As if it had not been as easiy to God to have appointed a Law to the Stars to move regulary in a liquid space as fishes do in the water yea in a Vacuum if there were any in Nature as to have riveted and fix'd them to some solid body For 't is true we cannot make a durable Sphere but of solid matter But if Children make aiery spheres or balls with water and soap could not God who is an infinitely more excellent work-man make some of a more subtile matter Moreover The supposition of liquid Heavens serves better to interpret these openings of Heaven mention'd in the Scripture then if they be suppos'd solid The melted brass to which Job compares the Heavens proves the contrary to what is usually inferr'd from it for immediately after this comparison made by one of Job's friends God reproves him and taxes his discourse of ignorance Whereas it is said that Heaven is God's throne which is stable and which God hath established in the Heavens and also that it is called a Firmament the same construction is to be made of these expressions as of that in the beginning of Genesis where the Sun and the Moon are styl'd the two great Lights of Heaven not because they are so in reality but because they appear so But that which to me seemes most conclusive for the liquidity of the Heavens is That Comets have been oftentimes observ'd above some Planets which could not be were the Heavens solid Besides that all the Elements are terminated by themselves and need no vessel to be contain'd in The Fourth said If the matter of the Heavens were as firm as glass or crystal or onely as water our sight could no more perceive the Stars then it doth things in the bottome of a deep water how clear soever it be for the visual rayes or species of things cannot penetrate so thick a medium But although the Stars are exceedingly remote from us yet our eyes discern their different magnitudes colours and motions and distinguish such as twinckle from others Besides those who should behold the same Star from different places would perceive it of different magnitudes as it happens to those who look upon the same body through water or glass in regard of the diversity of the medium which is thicker in one place then in another Nor is it harder to conceive how the Stars hang in the Air then to imagine the same of the Terr-aqueous Globe The Fifth said Liquid is defin'd that which is hardly contain'd within its own bounds and easily in those of another which is the true definition of Liquid and not of Humid since Quick-silver Lead and all metals melted are difficultly contain'd in their own bounds and easily in those of another yet are not humid the Heaven must be solid and not liquid for it is contain'd within its own bounds yea according to the Scripture it upholds the Supercelestial Waters The Sixth said The great diversity found in the motions of the Celestial Bodies and especially in the Planets makes very much for the Fluidity of the Heavens For Astronomers observing that the Planets not onely go from East to West by their diurnal motion common to all the celestial bodies but have a particular one of their own after a sort contrary to the former which makes them stray from their situation whereunto they return onely at a certain time therefore they will have them to be turn'd about by a Heaven term'd by them Primum Mobile but add that each of the Planets hath a sphere of its own which is the cause of its second motion Moreover observing the Planets to be sometimes nearer and sometimes further off from the Earth therefore they assign'd them another sphere call'd an Excentrick But what needs this multiplication of spheres when as it may reasonably be affirm'd that God hath appointed to every Star the course which it is to observe as he hath assign'd to every thing its action what ever variety be found in Planetary bodies there being more in other Bodies If it be said That the wonder lies in their Regularity I answer There is nothing here below but ha's and keeps a rule Whence Monsters are so much wonder'd at Nor is there less wonder in the natural instincts of things and all their various operations which they alwayes inviolably observe then in Uniformity which hath much more ease in it as it is a more facile thing for a stone to move alwayes downwards then for an Animal to move according to all the diversities of place and exercise so many several actions The Seventh said The matter of the Heavens if they have any is according to Empedocles a most pure and subtile Air and that of the Stars is Light Wherefore they cannot be either solid or liquid Moreover the Centre of the World is most compact and it grows more and more subtile still towards the Circumference which therefore must be immaterial as Light is Now the Stars are onely the thicker parts of their Orbes like the knots in a Tree which density renders them visible to us multiplying and fortifying the degrees of Light by this union as on the contrary the rarity of the intermediate space between the Stars doth not terminate or bound our sight either because the species which it sends forth are not strong enough to act upon the Eye and cause perception which is the reason why we see not the Elementary Fire though we see the same Fire when it comes to be united and condensed into an igneous meteor or into our culinary flames The Heavens therefore may be more or less dense but not solid in that sence as we attribute solidity to Crystal Diamonds or other hard bodies which resist the touch But indeed we may call them so if we take the word solid for that which is fill'd with it self and not with any other intermix'd thing all whose parts are of the same nature according to which signification not onely the Water but the Air yea the Light it self if it be material may be said to be solid II. Whether is it easier to get or to keep Upon the Second Point it was said That the difficulty of acquiring and preserving is