Selected quad for the lemma: hand_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
hand_n	hold_v	let_v	right_a	4,358	5	6.7900	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A23301	Hæc homo wherein the excellency of the creation of woman is described, by way of an essay. By William Austin Esquire.	Austin, William, 1587-1634.	1637 (1637)	STC 974; ESTC S100237	46,771	198

and winnes the eyes of all men Therfore it cannot chuse but be very beautifull I will but even touch the hands and breasts and then proceed to the beauty vocall The instrument of instruments the Hand as it is of singular use in the body sodeserves it in Women as singular observation commendation For nature delivering man nacked into the world neither armed with hoofe or tooth for his defence gave him yet two things wherein he is armed far more excellently then any other creature that is to say the mind and the hand The one to advise the other to execute And indeed if we curiously advise with the Palmisters we shall finde the Minde written in the Hand For in the lines and circles thereof like our nativity in the Starres is set downe the manner of our dispositions bee they good or bad Moreover as the minde is written in the hand so is it a fit companion of the mind For we may observe it to bee the chiefe agent and best interpreter of our words and meaning which with lively action it sets forth and expresses in such sort that if the tongue were missing it would most aptly supply the place For with it we call unto us we give leave to depart wee command wee intreat wee threaten wee promise wee salute wee strike wee give wee receive wee make wee destroy wee defend wee offend so that it is in the morall of a building like the guard for defence the Vsher for entertainment the servant for imploment the Cater for the provision and the Cooke of the provision This excellent and necessary part is in Women much more delicate then in man and hath qualities equall to all his and some farre above them For she doth not only such grosser workes and actions of meaner estimation as well as he but expresseth all musicke with as swift motion and performance together with such arts and works of curicsity by reason of the slender softnesse and nimblenesse of her hand as are too hote for his fingers But one thing more I will observe out of Agrippa from the hand for the greater commendation of this creatures purenesse and innocency a gift given unto them inseparable even in nature that let men wash their hands never so often they shall still foule and trouble the water But let a Woman wash them but once cleane and she shall after foule it no more To conclude this point the hand among the Aegyptians was a Hieroglyphick of fortitude And therefore they that require auxilium helpe tooke hold of the right hand not of the left which was a figure and pledge of faith to which may be alluded that as Woman was made auxilium commodum a fit faithfull and right hand help for man in all his vocation So it is even expressed in her by nature For as Plin● and Hippocrates observe though many men are often times wholly left-handed women are very seldome so or never at all For the last I meane the breasts As in medio consistit virtus so between the head and hands of this building remaines to bee spoken of the Breasts the beautifull and vertuous springs and fountaines that not only adde beauty but utility to the whole aedifice The best commendation of a house is that it stand in a good aire and be well watered The first of these is observed to bee in this building out of the etymology of her name by Bartholdus Mulier quasi mollis aer propter puritatem a sweet and pure aire And the second is made good in the office of her brests which are the springs and conduit heads which are commended in their forme their place and their use First for their forme they are round a figure most capable of all others and fittest for them seeing they must containe like fountaines moysture for nourishment And they resemble in making two little hills or mounts pleasantly garnished with disparted and streaming veines on whose tops arise the conduit heads in hew like Strawberries from whence proceed the streames so much commended both for food and physick This forme imitating the world is very beautifull From the observation of which the skilfull beholder shall not only distinguish the difference of Sex but also of age and health in women as Laurentius noteth Secondly for the place they are not set in the lower parts of the body as in other creatures but to preserve modesty and for comelinesse sake in the very breast nere the head and right against the heart For this cause as Plutarch saith that women being most loving and tenderly affected to their children might at their greater ease in the earnestnesse of their love both feed with their milke imbrace with their armes and kisse with their lips their children at one time together which they could not doe were they placed elsewhere Lastly for their use First they are to feed and to that end they are indeed with milke and such as no other creature hath For there is no milke whatsoever so nourishing and cherishing in effect nor so sweet and honied in taste as that of a Woman Which milke it is possible for them to have without the help of man as Hippocrates affirmes So that seeing shee is compared in Ecclesiasticus to a possession and in the Proverbs preferred before a possession she may well be likened to that holy habitation and possession the land of Promise which flowed with milke and hony or with honied milke which was promised to those that feared God For shee also being so indued is both the gift and promise of God Whose breasts have the properties of a Possession also First to feed as I have said Secondly to Defend for with their round fleshinesse they protect and preserve the Heart from outward stormes more safely then those in m●n Thirdly they do adorne the habitation And therein not only give delight but satisfaction to man So that as a man content with his owne possession which he hath obtained from the Lord he neither can or ought desire more Which is well advised by Solomon in the Proverbs Rejoyce with the wife of thy youth c. Let her breasts satisfie thee at all times and delight in her love continually So that both delight profit and satisfaction proceeds from this forme others as is declared sufficiently in the description of the beauty of her face hands and breasts And thus much for the beauty Corporall For the beauty Vocall which is in Women It is such as makes them no whit inferiour but rather superiour to men And it is of good consequence for their commendation First then in generall for the voyce Though it have neither dimensions proportion or substance whereby it may be seen or felt yet is it like another face and visage in man and hath many of the same properties For it not only like the face distinguishes man from beast But man from man and man from woman who

being not in sight are as well knowne by their voice as countenance and much sooner as Pliny testifies Moreover it is so singular an ornament to the body that Zeno Cittieus was wont to say Vocem esse formae florem that the voyse was the very flower or chiefest grace of a good forme For the eloquence of the voyce commends the forme as much as the forme commends eloquence Nay it not only sets forth the forme but declares the disposition as well as the face For a soft gentle and tender voyce declare a gentle tender and tractable Soule and affection in the body that owes it as that excellent Scholar Michael Scot hath well observed Wherefore the voyce in women being much more gentle tender and delicate then in men declares that in the modesty gentleness and sweetnesse of affection they far surpasse them Which may be observed even in this that men also while they are in their child-hood and infancy free from unbridled affections full of tendernesse and pitie are voiced like women whom in disposition they resemble But being once growne to more hardnesse and inclined to more unbridled immodesty they change their voyce with their manners Which is observed not to happen to women whose voice continues still in their first purenesse and innocency Moreover man hath no use of his voyce that woman hath not and as excellently For First her eloquence is as sweet and plentifull Secondly her speach more pleasant and fluent And good reason For seeing her tongue is her chiefest weapon of defence therefore she ought to handle it the readiest Lastly their skill in Musicke hath not beene meanely praised by divers But their meanes of expressing their skill especiall in voyce so far excells above that of mans that all they are said but to Faine that seeke to imitate it Wherefore Ovid that well knew what gave an especiall ornament to a good corporall forme above all things advised women who are so angel like voyced to learne by musicks rules to order it Seeing in his opinion it gives them much grace which hee expresses in these verses Res est blanda canor discant cantare puellae Pro facie multies vox sua Laena fuit To sing is good learne that in any case The voyce hath oft beene broaker to the face Lastly I should with like brevity speake of the beauty spirituall and inward At the fairenesse whereof you may ghesse by the Physiognomie of the face and the rest But because I intend to speake of their vertues which is the true beauty inward by it selfe I will referre you thither And to make this corporall and vocall beauty compleat with the forme see if it hold good with the description of an absolute beauty in Paulo Lamazo who was a cunning Painter and could well judge of beauty Beauty saith he is compleat in forme motion and action of head feet and hands For the forme you have already heard what it is For the motion I will only translate you a peece of Agrippa who joynes it to the forme and stands wondring at it Adde to these saith he their modest pace and gate their more comely behaviour their more worthy carriage together with the whole Symmetry and order of their whole body in figure and habit every way most beautifull Not any sight in all the order of Creatures being so miraculous nor any miracle so worthy the sight so that any but a blind man may see how God himselfe hath gathered together what beauty the whole world is capable of and placed it in woman that all creatures should stand amazed and for many causes should love and honour her insomuch that not onely men but incorporate spirits have very often most earnestly affected and doted on their beauties Which is not a false opinion but a truth confirmed by many experiments Thus far Agrippa If then a large spacious and faire building where nothing is scanted nor any uncomelinesse seene but all the pillars nerves joynts and cover have their full measure smoothnesse and roundnesse in the amplest manner the eyes fuller the cover larger the face fairer the gate and gesture more modest and comely If I say all these may bee preferred before a narrow rough and scantie cottage then may her body bee preferred and commended before his whose joynts sinews and muscles are more shrunk and whose bones and ribbes for want of soft flesh to cloath them are more discovered through the whole body then hers Which thing is well knowne to the best and most judicious workemen who if they intend to draw a perfect figure indeed take their dimensions from the womans body and not from the mans Which is in truth the fairest and though much more hard to imitate yet much more pleasant to behold And this for the beauty Corporall and Vocall There remaines the use that redounds unto man for them both Which is as most things else that are for his sake of two sorts Pleasure and Profit From the voyce in the musicke thereof to which no other is comparable hee receives much pleasure And though other creatures as birds are indued with musicall tunes and voices in their severall kinds for his delight yet he receives not the pleasure of communication with sence and reason from any of them but from woman onely yea much profit For from their voyce men learne to frame their owne to be understood of others For in our infancy we learne our language from them Which men therein not ingratefull have justly termed our Mother tongue but for the Profits and Commodities that proceed from their Body omitting the pleasure that it gives in the beautious forme they are so great that Pliny is amazed to write them and holds them rather miracles than effects of Nature some few I will recite from him First for the roof or cover of this house the haire which like Philemons thatch of gold covers a Temple where the Gods abide it is of much vertue For though men lay the fault on woman for being over familiar with the serpent in the beginning yet not only at that time was it promised that her off-spring should break the serpents head for amends But at this day the haire of her head being sacrificed in fire the very smoake thereof drives away all Serpents from the place saith Pliny Secondly seeing many mischances and wounds in this world happen unto miserable man who will yet bee called and accompted womans head there is a remedy even from her head appointed for him The ashes of a womans haire cures the wounds in the head Nay it is so speciall a cure for man as he describes it that it heales even contraries for his sake For it takes away the flesh of wartes and excrescences in the body and contrariwise adds and fills up with flesh hollow and eating ulcers Moreover from the milke of the Breasts proceeds not only nourishment to children but helpe and medicine both to