proceed by Arithmetical Proportion Thus the Medes turn'd Justice into Equality whereas as Xenophon told Cyrus reproving him for awarding the coats to his Companions according to their stature and not according to the right and propriety the Persians made Justice equal This Arithmetical Proportion was observ'd by Draco Solon Lycurgus and all popular States where every thing was put to the balance Such also was the Law of Retaliation among the Jews Eye for Eye and Tooth for Tooth But this equality having so many inconveniences that many times the highest Justice is the highest Injustice Plato made Justice arbitrary without any other Laws but those drawn from the proportion of the great to the small and other circumstances which he call'd Equity or Geometrical Proportion Yet this Justice being also too vagous and left to the discretion of Magistrates who are subject to corruption therefore Aristotle chose a middle way between those two Extreams regulating Commutative Justice which judgeth of the right of private Men by Arithmetical Proportion and Distributive which is for publick Affairs by Geometrical Proportion And our usage hath approv'd an Harmonical proportion the Supream Magistrate using both Law and Equity and tempering the too great strictness of the former and the much liberty of the other which course is observ'd in good Monarchies where the Chief Courts being above the Law and yet having Equity in their Power make an agreeable Temperament of Justice with Reason being impower'd to reverse the Sentences of Subordinate Judges who are ty'd to the Letter of the Law as the Royal Authority is above both Whence it results that there are few Law-suits where Arithmetical Justice that is the inflexible rigor of the Law is exercis'd somewhat more where Geometrical Proportion hath place because 't is requisite to use Reasons which being alwayes the same cannot be alter'd as it happens in Harmonical Proportion in which the point of right which is indivisible in it self being variously balanc'd between Law and Equity and drawn from each side according to the interest of the parties the Decisions of some Cases cannot be wholly suted to others by reason of the diversity of circumstances But as Diametrical Proportions having no connexion of their quantities together though they quiet private Contests yet they cause a dangerous reflux into the body of the State by the indignation of the Nobles against the Commonalty and the People's Envy against the Nobility so Harmonical Proportion such as ours is much more prejudicial to private persons which it entertains in Suits than to the State wherein it employes turbulent Spirits to discharge their Choler upon paper against their Adversaries But in Answer to the Question Why we have more Law-suits now-a-days than formerly I believe the Reason is because the common-people have got too much Knowledg of the Laws and Statutes and Legal Pleadings for whilst these remain'd in Latin and were not understood Men were not so apt to commence Litigious Suits one against another CONFERENCE CLXXX Whether more hurt or good hath proceeded from sharing the parts of Physick between Physitians Apothecaries and Chirurgions THis Question being of the greatest moment of any that hath been discuss'd in this Company requireth also most caution because there is none of us knows how soon he may come to be at the Mercy of some one of that Profession which his Sentence shall disoblige Now all the parts of Physick were practis'd of old by one person yea in Aegypt it was no set Profession but the Priests of Memphis were bound to write in the Temples of Vulcan and Isis such Remedies as any Man came and declar'd to them that himself had found benefit by to the end others might use the same So likewise the Greeks writ in Parchment and hung at the Porch of the Temples of Apollo and Aesculapius those Receipts that had cur'd them which the Priests took from thence to pronounce to others as if they had been Oracles authorizing Medicine by Religion Afterwards this Science augmenting by degrees as all things do some were found that reduc'd those Experiences to an Art the ancientest of whom was Aesculapius the Son of Apollo and Ariadne to whom in time suceeded another Aesculapius the third of that name who as Cicero Lib. 3. de Natur. Deor. was the first Tooth-drawer and undertook first to loosen the belly leaving for his Successors his Children Podalirius and Machaon who were at the siege of Troy the former of whom profess'd the curing of Inward Diseases the other of Outward by manual operation from which time the Art of Physick began to be divided into Pharmacy and Chirurgery which were practis'd joyntly by Chiron who took his Name from the dexterity of his hand in operations and was feign'd a Centaure because he was always on Horse-back to relieve remote Patients And for that the operations of Chirurgery are more apparent than those of the other parts of Physick Plato saith that the ancient Physick was only Chirurgery Hippocrates who first spoke worthily of Medicinal Matters exercis'd the three parts of Physick conjunctly and so it was practis'd till Galen's time to wit 600. years after Moreover 'T is an Argument That Chirurgery was exercis'd by the Physicians That they were expell'd Rome because one of them had cut off a Roman Citizen's leg with bad success So also Darius's foot dislocated by a fall from his Horse and restor'd by Democedes a Crotonian Physician then his Prisoner at Sardis after the vain attempts of his Aegyptian Physician and is an evidence that he was both a Chirurgion and a Physician But since Physicians have done like the heirs of Merchants they have thought fit to avoid the pains and enjoy both the honor and the profit they have reserv'd solely to themselves the authority and power of prescribing and left to the Apothecarie's honesty and skill the choice dispensation preparation and composition of medicaments and to the Chirurgion all manual operations Nay many of these too out of heedlesness have left to Barbers and Stews-keepers the Art of triming the Hair to others the dexterity of drawing Teeth and again to others the Reduction of Luxations and Fractures all Appendances of Physick Now to determine Whether this Division hath done more good or hurt seems to me to depend upon the capacity of those employ'd in this Art For if the Physician hath not skill enough or strength of Body to attend all those functions he ought not to undertake them But he that judges himself able to discharge them all will be very heedfull when he sees the whole honor or blame must fall to himself alone whereas the division of success amongst many makes each person more negligent Besides that every one can answer better for his own deed than for another's and agrees better with himself than with a second or third between whom 't is seldom but some Clash happens and that to the detriment of the Patient Lastly the Physician represents the Intellectual
the second Book of his Deipnosophists which lasted twenty years and afflicted two thirds of Men Women and Beasts although some attributed it to the want of Mulberries which fail'd during those twenty years and which they say are good against the Gowt because they loosen the Belly and correct the heat of the Stomach Women as Hippocrates saith are exempt from the Gowt saving in the suppression of their Evacuations Children before the use of Venery and Eunuchs always although the intemperance and luxury of all of them hath produc'd contrary experiences as well in this Age as in that of Seneca which made the Poets say That the Gowt was the Daughter of Bacchus and Venus the first engendring plenty of crude humours the second debilitating the heat and cooling the Body which being render'd laxe the humours fall more easily upon the Joints And to shew the oddness of this Disease Anger Fear and Joy have oftentimes both given and cured it the Humours being extreamly agitated by those Passions Upon the Second Point it was said That Wisedom being a Habit mix'd of Science and Virtue Poverty gives much more disposition to either than Riches the Mind of a Poor Man being more capable of Knowledg than that of a Rich either for that Nature compensates the want of the Goods of Fortune with those of Nature or because Necessity and Hunger sharpens and renders them more subtile or else because being free from the cares and pains caus'd by the conservation or acquisition of Riches they have a more calm Spirit and more capable of the Sciences which require quiet and tranquillity of Mind And as for Virtue whose paths are so thorny Poverty hath also many more accesses thereunto than Riches not only in the Law of Grace in which our Lord saith That 't is easier for a Cammel or a Cable to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven whereof nevertheless the gate is the practice of Virtues but likewise in the moral sense of this present life in which Poverty and affliction according to the Scripture gives Understanding and Prudence teaches Temperance Sobriety and Chastity its inseparable companion disciplines us to Patience and to suffer couragiously the miseries of Life the frequency whereof renders the Mind invincible On the contrary Riches are amost always accompanied with Vices most repugnant to Wisedom as amongst others with Presumption Vanity Voluptuousness and Delicacy the first of which is opposite to Science for Pride proceeds only from Ignorance the second to Virtue which the Poet calls masculine and laborious Moreover Nature shews us of what quality Riches are for the sand that produces Gold is always extreamly barren and naked of all sorts of Fruits and so are the Minds of those that possess it and 't is observ'd That rich Nations and such as live in a good soil are the most vicious lazy and dull whereas those who are in an unkind Land are ordinarily more virtuous addicted to Industry The Second said That as the Goods of Fortune no less than those of the Body are referr'd to those of the Mind as the Means to their End in like sort the inconveniences both of Fortune and Body are hinderances in acquiring those Goods of the Soul which are the perfection of its two principal Faculties the Understanding and the Will namely Knowledg and Virtue For Knowledg and the Arts call'd Liberal require a generous and liberal not a sordid and low Soul like that of a Poor Man whom Alciat's Embleme very well represents by a Lad with one hand stretch'd up into the Air with Wings fastened to it intimating a desire to fly higher but the other hand fastened to a heavy Stone hinders him For their Spirit being loaden with misery thinks of nothing but of the means how to live and to be deliver'd from the heavy yoak of Necessity which deprives them of the means of having either living or dumb Teachers yea makes them despise all the rigours of Laws and oft-times abandons them to Rage and Despair which makes them hate their miserable life and renders them masters of those of others Hence not only Mutinies Seditions and Revolts are commonly made by the Poor and Miserable lovers of Innovation wherein they are sure to lose nothing and may possibly gain but also are almost the sole Authors of Thefts Murders and Sacriledges Whereas Rich Persons having from their birth receiv'd such good Instruction as the poor want are more stay'd in their Actions and better inclin'd to Honesty and Virtue which without Fortunes or Estates can never produce any thing great and considerable whence in our Language Riches are justly stiled Means without assistance whereof Justice can neither render to every one what belongs to him nor repel the Enemies of the State by a just War whereof Money is the Sinew and principal Strength Upon this account they are sought after by all the World and are not only the end of the noblest part of Morality and Oeconomy Families which are the Pillars of a State not being preserv'd but by the lawful acquisition of Wealth in which for this reason some Politicians place Nobility but all agree that they serve for an Ornament thereunto and heighten its lustre but those who have parted with them cannot live without them but are constrained to beg of others And in Policy whether Riches be acquired or come by succession they are always in esteem as on the contrary Poverty is disparag'd with reproach and is a sign either of baseness of Extraction or of Negligence and profusion Hence a Poor Man is as unfit to be trusted with a Publick Charge as with a sum of Money and 't is not without reason that he who is distress'd with Poverty is extreamly asham'd of it this defect hindring and being a remora to all his designs Whereas Riches raise the Courage incite to great Attempts and serve for a spur to Virtue which thrives by Praise and Glory but freezes and languishes by the Contempt and Derision inseparable from Poverty which indeed hath been commended by the same Sacred Mouth which requires us to turn the other cheek to him that strikes us upon the one yet this hinders not but that speaking naturally as we do here 't is better to defend ones self than to be beaten patiently The Third said That in matter of Wisedom we ought to refer our selves to the wisest of all Men Solomon who prays God to give him neither Riches for fear of Pride nor Poverty for fear of becoming a Thief but a middle Estate For as too great Plenitude and an Atrophy are equally contrary to Health which consists in a moderation and temper of qualities so the condition of Persons extreamly Rich and that of Begger the degree here under consideration is equally an enemy to Wisedom And if in any case we ought to desire the Golden Mediocrity 't is in the acquisition of Wisedom especially of Virtue
Mountains on the South are very healthy especially if they lye towards the East the Winds whereof are most healthy And this is the cause of the diversity observ'd in Countries lying in the same Climat which experience not the same changes as the Isle of France is very temperate and yet lyes in the same Climat with Podolia a part of Poland where the cold is extreamly rigorous and in the Islands Bornaio and Sumatra men live commonly 130 years and are not black as the Africans whose life is very short and yet they lye in the same Climat namely under the Aequinoctial Line The Sixth said That Life being the continuance of the radical heat in Humidity that Climat must be properest for Longaevity which will longest preserve that conjunction The violent heat of the Climats near the Equator consumes the radical moisture and makes the natural heat languish although under the Line the coolness of the nights twelve hours long renders it more supportable whereas in our longest Summer-days when the Sun is in Cancer he is no more then 18 degrees from the Horizon and so diffuses his rays upon the vapours hovering about the Earth which reflecting the same after a refraction make the nights almost always light and consequently hot there being no light without heat On the contrary the Northern parts towards the Pole receiving the Suns rays only obliquely are very cold and unfit for long-life combating the heat and desiccating the radical moisture But the temperately hot are the most healthy especially if the air of greatest necessity to Life be pure and not corrupted by vapours CONFERENCE CXVII Which is most necessary to a State and most noble Physick or Law THese two Professions are not absolutely necessary to the subsistence of a State but only suppose some evil which they undertake to amend Physick the disorder of the humours in Mans body and Law that of Manners in the body of the State So that if all people were healthy and good both would be useless But the misery of our Nature having made us slaves to our Appetite and tributaries to Death and Diseases which lead thereto this adventitious necessity hath given rise to two powerful remedies against those two evils Physick to oppose the diseases of the Body and Law to repress the disorders of our Passions which being the sources of all mischiefs Law which restrains their course seems to have as much pre-eminence above Physick as the Body which the latter governs is inferiour to the Mind which the former regulates Moreover Health the end of Physick is common both to Men and Beasts who have a better share thereof and have taught us the best secrets of Physick but to live according to right reason which is the aim of Law is peculiar to man although oftentimes neither the one nor the other obtain its end The Second said These Disciplines are to be consider'd either according to their right use or as they are practis'd Physick consider'd in its right administration is the art of curing Diseases and preserving Health without which there is no pleasure in the World Law taken also according to its institution is that Tree of the Garden of Eden which bears the knowledg of Good and Evil Right and Wrong as Physick is the Tree of Life Now if we compare them together the latter which maintains the precious treasure of Health is as the foundation upon which Law builds its excellent Ordinances for without Health not only the administrations of Justice but all employments of Arts and Exercises cease And though Laws and Justice serve for the ornament of a State yet they are not absolutely necessary to its conservation there being society among Robbers and many States having begun and subsisted by Rapines Violences and other injustices but none without Health which is the foundation of all goods preserving the absolute Being of every thing and by that means maintaining all the faculties of Body and Mind Wherefore Physick is profitable not only to the Body but also to the Soul whose nature faculties and actions it contemplates But if these Arts be consider'd as they are practis'd now a days 't is certain that if there are Mountebanks Ignorants and Cheats who practise Physick amongst a good number of good Physitians there are also Champertors Forgers and other such black souls who live by fraud which they exercise under the mask of justice We must likewise distinguish the bad judgments of certain Nations from the truth For if the Romans sometimes banish'd their Physitians and Chirurgians this might be done out of ignorance as when they saw the Gangren'd Leg of one of their Citizens cut off And though they were for some time without Physitians yet they were never without Physick at least natural The Third said Law hath the pre-eminence above Physick upon account of the great benefits it brings to a State by delivering the same from greater more troublesome and more incurable evils And good according to the Moral axiom being the more divine by how much 't is more common and diffus'd it follows that Law is more divine then Physick For by checking our passions and obstructing the career of illegal Ambitions and Usurpations it does good not only to private persons as Physick doth but also to the whole Publick which is engag'd by particular passions whence Law-sutes Seditions Wars and other evils arise which being publick are of more importance then those to which Physick is design'd whose whole business is about the four humours either to keep them in a just temper or reduce them to their natural state from which Diseases debauch them Besides Physick only cures the Body whereas Law represses the mind's disorders and even the intentions Lastly the evils Physick defends us from are of easie cure having all sensible indications but Law remedies such as depend upon the thoughts and counsels of men impenetrable by sense Moreover Physick regards only particular persons but Law maintains a moral union and good intelligence between all the parts of a Commonwealth namely men of several conditions and keeps every one within the bounds of his own quality and station and so is like a Universal Spirit or Intelligence presiding over all our motions hindring ruptures and dissensions the bane of a State as that doth vacuity which tends to the destruction of the World The Fourth said That as the multitude of Physitians in a City is a sign of a multitude of diseases reigning therein so the multitude of Laws and Judges argues corruption of manners Wherefore both these Professions may seem equally useless to a State free from wicked and miserable persons And indeed we see many Nations have wanted both at Rome Physitians were unknown for divers ages and are so still in some Countries and most States of the World dispense very well with the want of Lawyers whose contrary opinions are as destructive to the State and particular persons as the number of Physitians is to the Sick
be employ'd The Second said That the dignity of Merchandize is prov'd from its Antiquity and Utility As to the former we read in Holy Writ of Ismaelite Merchants who bought Joseph as they were going from Galaad into Egypt to Trade and in the Poets of Jason whom they feign to have voyag'd with his Ship Argos for conquest of the Golden Fleece insinuating thereby that Travelling and Trading by Sea and Land is the way to grow rich As to the latter all Arts would be unprofitable to men without distribution of their works which is done by Merchandize whereby that becomes useful and known in one place which was useless and unknown elsewhere and the Proverb is confuted that every Land beareth not all things since a Countrey of Trade abounds with every thing and the four parts of the world are brought together by Commerce 'T is Merchandize that enricheth States all which acknowledge Money which ariseth by it the sinew of War and the key of all political Enterprizes 'T is that which supplyes Princes with Metals Jewels Marble and other magnificences whereby the splendor of their Persons Courts and Palaces is advanc'd and both in Peace and War 't is the surest foundation for Impositions which maintain the expence of either 'T is that which supports the necessities of Souldiers and supplyes them with provisions both for war and sustenance whence among the Eastern Nations the Pedlers and Victuallers are the most considerable Officers of their numerous Armies In short Commerce affords Lawyers the subjects of their Pleadings Sentences and Arrests and not onely Sugar Cinamon Cloves and other Spices for our Tables but also most Drugs for Physick as Rhubarb Agarick Sena Cassia Tamarinds Guaiacum Musk Ambergreece and whatever is rare besides Books to all these Professions and to God himself Incense to perfume his Altars Nor is this employment more profitable then delightful in reference to the variety of places persons and things a divertisement which alone sufficeth to induce Travellers to adventure the dangers which accompany them As for the dignity of it I shall onely adde to what hath been said in a former Conference concerning the same That they who despise Merchandizing as if it had something of base and abject in it are more worthy of pity for their grosse error then of an answer Do they know better wherein Dignity consists then those ancient Roman Senators who fraighted and maintain'd Trading Ships the gain whereof was their best revenue and are so many other States and Republick ever the less noble for Trading Is there more honour in the idleness of a half Gentleman who for want of other employment useth no other Trade in time of Peace but to assist one of his Neighbours against another in a quarrel of his own making then in the care and vigilance of a good Merchant which redounds to the benefit both of the publick and himself Besides the diligent Merchant raises his Family whereas the idle Gentleman destroyes his being driven at last either to go in a pittiful garb or else to be cloath'd upon the credit the Merchant gives him Since therefore 't is the duty of good Legislators to countenance what is most profitable to the State and on the contrary to depress and expel whatever brings damage to the same Methinks 't were fit some new marks of esteem were added to the essential honour of Merchandizing as either Titles of Honour or Priviledges which would invite the mindes of our youth to that good employment who are otherwise apt to be drawn aside by popular error to looseness and debauchery and thereby commonly deviate from the way their predecessors trac'd out to them Whence a Merchant that hath got a good estate instead of leaving his Son to succeed his Credit lets it fall and puts him to some new profession to which he was not born as to the former The Third alledg'd as an argument of the utility of Commerce that Cities destitute of it can neither increase nor grow rich whence the sub-division made of the estates of families soon impoverishes the Citizens unless they supply that defect by their industry as many rich Nations do Thus England was for a long time enrich'd by the free trade it enjoy'd with all the neighbouring States who were at Wars one with another Thus most States of Italy especially Venice Genua and Florence have been augmented by Traffick But no place more evidently sets forth the excellent profit of Commerce then Holland where as their best Authors acknowledge and experience shews the countrey which almost their industry alone hath made habitable hath nothing but Trade and Commerce whereby they have enricht it For the Soil is not onely bad as being almost all Sandy or all Marshy especially at Amsterdam the water is unwholesome and the Air thick and noxious not to mention their Turffe firing which fills the head with vapours So that though they have all the elements contrary to them yet they scruple not to dispute the Sovereignty with the King of Spain having made War upon him for four and twenty years together with more gain then loss which they could not have done without the great treasures they draw from Commerce The Fourth said That since Trade consists in Negotiations things sold or exchang'd and their value the persons must be honest that exercise it the Commodity understood and the price certain otherwise 't is not Trafficking but meer cheating whence of all forms of Justice none ought to be more compendious and equitable and conscientious then that concerning Merchandizing which would be no less ruin'd by false judicatures and long suits then by injury and open force The way therefore to re-establish Commerce is to re-establish fair dealing to remove frauds and sophistication of commodities whereby he that thinks he buyes one thing buyes another of worse value and above all to fix and make immovable the standard of current money for want whereof no man knows what he hath The Fifth said That the first condition requisite to Traffick is the safety of wayes The second that of payment which is remitted to a set term The Third The capacity of the Merchant which keeps him both from being deceived in the worth of Commodities and in the sorts of ready payment though this kinde of payment be less us'd amongst whole sale Merchants which is the true way of Merchandizing that of Retail deserving the name less and being alwayes accounted more sordid Moreover 't is the former that enricheth States supplying what they want and carrying abroad what they abound with 'T is the nurse of Arts and Manufactures as appears in the Cities of Lions Tours and divers others where some one Merchant employes three or four hundred Artificers in Silk Wool and other such works Amongst which Merchants those that best know how to practise the Maxims of buying and selling cheaper then others that is who content themselves with least profit both in buying and selling drive the greatest
prizes of the Commodity he intends to deal in Which hath gain'd great Credit to this Assembly by the printed Bills it hath sometimes sent abroad containing the currant prizes of all Wares for every week in imitation of the City of Amsterdam For by this means the Merchant needs only discount the charges of transportation and make a Reduction of Weights and Measures to see his evident profit yet alwayes carefully observing to draw a line with some imaginary summ for hazards and contingences which may happen unexpectedly it being impossible what-ever care be us'd to regulate exactly the gain of Merchandize as depending partly on Chance and partly on the Will and Phansie of Men so that a Commodity which for being to day in fashion or otherwise in credit would yield twenty in the hundred profit to the Owner sometimes leaves him a loser or he is forc'd to keep it long in his Ware-house CONFERENCE CLXXIX What are the most common Causes of Law-suits and why they are more now than heretofore PLato designing a Common-wealth whose Citizens might live in good intelligence justly excludes out of it the words of Mine and Thine conceiving that so long as there was any thing to be divided there would ever be Male-contents because Self-love the root from whence the too great desire of keeping and acquiring arises acts variously in Men by main force and strong hand in time of War and in Peace by Law-suits Now the desire of Getting having never been so great as at this day nor so much countenanc'd and rewarded since in consideration of wealth most Offices are dispos'd of 't is no wonder if Law-suits be more numerous at this day than in times past The Second said That Community of Goods feign'd by the Poets and exemplifi'd in the Primitive Church bating the Charity which produc'd it would cause as many mischiefs and consequently Law-suits as there are at present For every one would endeavour to appropriate what should be common and despise it if not able to compass it as we see common Causes are neglected and commonly lost for private interest Whence appears the impertinence of some Legislators and of the Nicolaitans who that the Children might be lov'd the more would have Wives common for common Wives and Children would be own'd by no Body and if such Women as belong but to two or three keep them alwayes in jealousie and many times ingage them in a Law-suit what would those do that belong'd to all the world Wherefore I conceive that if contrary Effects have contrary Causes 't is Plenty and its Daughter Pride that causeth Law-suits and Poverty and Humility makes Peace and Agreements Which the French Democritus intimates where he introduces an old man reconciling two Adversaries but 't is after they are both undone Thus also the Circle of Humane Life represents Labour holding Wealth by the Hand Wealth holding Pride Pride holding Contention which causeth Poverty this Humility which again produces Labour that Wealth and so round again For of fifty Law-suits not one would begin between the parties or at least it would soon be determin'd if either would humble themselves as much one to the other as they do to their Judges yea oftentimes to their Council Wherefore Vanity being greater in this Age than ever it was although with less reason in most 't is no wonder if our times abound more with Law-suits than the former The Third said That such as are at their ease have no mind to Law-suits and therefore 't is not Plenty that begets them but Necessity yet not an absolute one for he that hath nothing cannot go to Law but such that the one cannot pay what he owes and the other cannot be without it In every other Case Accommodements are possible 'T is from this Source that so many Seisures and Sentences proceed which the indebted would never suffer had they wherewithall to pay considering that the whole charges must fall upon themselves Now as there were never so many rich so there were never so many poor as there are at this day in France because every body labours out of the vanity above-mention'd to disable themselves every day more and more laughing at the Constitutions which are made to reduce us to frugality and ascribing all inconveniences both publick and private to any other Cause but themselves The Fourth said That though the Ages past having had the same vicissitudes of Peace and War and of Poverty and Riches yet had they not so many Law-suits as there are at present and therefore some other Cause thereof must be sought which possibly is this That the Spirits of Men are become more refin'd and subtle in the several Ages of the world and consequently advanc'd to a higher pitch of maliciousness whence many difficulties and contest arise in such matters wherein the goodness and simplicity of our Ancestors found none at all Nor hath the multitude and diversity of Laws been a small occasion of this bad event For besides the Roman Laws which lay long in oblivion and were restor'd to light by Veruher in the year 1127. and the Canons compil'd by Gratian whence came the judicial formalities our Customs and our Ordinances and amongst others those made since Charls VIII with long preambles and reasonings in imitation of Justinian have stirr'd up more Law-suits than there were in a thousand years before So that hath been good work for such as were minded to draw profit thereby to make so confus'd and intricate an Art of the Law that there is almost no Case wherein they cannot find some trick to multiply a Suit and render it immortal Moral Reason the foundation of the Law admits a thousand different faces not only in circumstances of Fact but also in matter of Law whence there are few Laws but have their contraries The Fifth said That the multiplicity of our Law-suits is to be attributed to the humor of the French Nation which is desirous of change and naturally subtle and eloquent Whence a Latine Poet stills France the Nurse of Lawyers Likewise the improvement of Learning in this last Age hath contributed much thereunto And the sight of great Estates gotten by the Law hath induc'd many Parents to put their Children to that profession as the readiest way to advancement Such as could not be Counsellors have been made Attornies Solliciters Sergeants and this great number of people employ their inventions to get a livelyhood which they cannot do without Law-suits And therefore 't is no wonder if they advise continue multiply and eternise them as much as they can egging on the Plaintiff by the motive of Profit and the Defendant by that of Self-preservation and refusing to the more simple their writings and other such helps as might bring them to accord The Sixth said That Law-suits increase or diminish according to the diversities of proportions kept in the Administration of Justice For some measure them by the Law of Nature whereby all Men are born equal and
cold Whence we may well take occasion to attribute both to the Influences which coming to meet with and possibly to introduce also into the water the conditions requisite such as is cold in respect of ice do insinuate themselves into the water And whereas there is in these Influences somewhat of a celestial nature and that they are rather spiritual than material Quintessences the same thing happens to them as to Spirits which make those Bodies which they animate lighter than they would be if they were inanimate CONFERENCE CCXVIII Of Masks and whether it be lawful for any to disguise themselves THat the wearing of Masks and other ways for people to disguize themselves is of great Antiquity is apparent by the prohibition which God made to his own people that the man should not put on the habit of the woman which is a disguise commonly made with the Mask in regard that otherwise the hair and beard of the man would discover his Sex So that the Question seems to be already decided and that it follows from this prohibition that Masks are not to be allowed But however we may enquire What repute they were in among other Nations And we find that they were frequently us'd among the Romans who about the beginning of the Spring celebrated a Feast in Honor of the Mother of the gods in the pomp of which solemnity it was lawful for any one to mask and disguise himself and to represent what person or part he pleas'd which was done bluntly enough as the French Comedians were heretofore content to have only a certain powder or meal cast over their faces as they still have in the Farce To shew the viciousness of that posture we need only urge the indecency of it and alledge that the use of it ought not to be allow'd in regard that all Dissimulation and Hypocrisie is a great sin in the sight of God and men Now the Mask is so hypocritical that the very word it self is commonly taken for Hypocrisie Thence it comes that Seneca defining the masked or hypocritical person gives him this Character Cum prae se fert aliquis quod non est When any one would seem or appear to be what he is not Besides if Painting be forbidden and be accounted a capricious humour so prejudicial to decency and good manners that there is no Maid nor Woman but thinks it an injury to be reproach'd with painting her self what opinion ought we to conceive of those who disguise themselves For it is imagin'd done out of no other end than to cloak their lewd actions who make use of it as we frequently find in the informations for Murthers and Felonies that they are committed by disguis'd persons who thereby would prevent the discovery of their crimes Let therefore the use of the Mask be utterly discarded as a thing which is contrary to that uprightness of disposition the signs whereof are modesty and shamefastness and by a prevention of blushing ushers in impudence abusiveness and a contempt and falsification of God's Image imprinted on the face of man The Second said That in times of War the Horsemen who are commanded out against the Enemy having close head-pieces over their faces seem to be so mask'd and disguis'd that they are not to be known not so much to prevent their being wounded in the face as to elude their Enemies so as that they may not discover the Commanders and persons of quality upon whose safety the gaining or loss of a battel depends And this Dissimulation hath sometimes been practis'd with great advantage when some private Souldier hath put on the armour and rid the horse of the General of the Army so to draw the Enemies Forces from that side while they unexpectedly charge him on the other And whereas he is commonly the Master of his desires who can discover the counsels of his Enemy and those cannot be known otherwise than by Spies who would never be admitted either into Cities or the Enemy's Camp if they did not in their habit and demeanour imitate him what Question is to be made but that it is lawful to put on disguises upon such a design to get the more certain intelligence To divert from Military Affairs to Merchandize it is the safest way for him who would travel to dissemble his condition and whereas Poverty is that which is least of any expos'd to dangers unless a man will follow the example of Vlysses who counterfeited himself a Beggar or Pedlar of which profession all are not equally capable it will not misbeseem a great Lord to demean himself as an ordinary Gentleman and sometimes to avoid surprizes to act the part of his Servant while the Servant acts that of a Prince Let us divert thence and make our appearance before the Courts of Justice and we shall there find that Attorneys and Lawyers when they speak are ever mask'd disguis'd in laying open the Causes of their Clients who on their side are also apt enough to dissemble conceal whatever they think might prejudice them So that the Painters had much more reason to represent the Lawyers Attorneys and their Clients with a veil over their Eyes then Justice since that among them he hath the reputation of the bravest man who is the greatest Orator and hath the best Lungs and according to their saying who have best defin'd the Art of Oratory It is the Art of perswading people to what they please by making great things little and little things great which in other Language is for a man to disguise all things and himself into the bargain inasmuch as he seems to believe the contrary to what he sayes and knows and that among the rules of Oratory this is one that the Orator is to personate even to his voice and gesture and accommodate himself to what he sayes which is properly to mask himself and that not only the face but also the feet the hands the tongue and all those parts of the body which are employ'd in pronunciation elocution and the gestures suitable to the thing treated of Nor is it to be expected that Divines and Physicians are absolutely exempted from these kinds of disguises since that the better to insinuate into the affections of their Penitents and Patients which is the way to gain their hearts and by that means to Convert and Cure them they ought to be very complaisant towards them comply with their infirmities and accommodate themselves to their humors in all things indifferent that they on the other side may submit to their advice in those things which are necessary And not to descend to particular Instances which might be made in all other Professions this will be the result that those who will find fault with Masks and Disguises must with the same breath cast an aspersion on all humane society which as Augustus said at his departure out of this world is nothing but a Comedy wherein every one acts his part under a disguise
the example of the crooked and ill-shap'd Tree which supplies us with the best of Liquors Wine whereas the strait and fair-spreading Oaks bear nothing but acorns for the feeding of Swine Besides as the word spirit or mind is sometimes taken for the Invention which principally consists in the Imagination sometimes for the Judgment or Understanding and might be also taken for the Memory among which this last requires a hot and moist temperament as the first is pleas'd with a hot and dry and the second to wit the judgment consists in the dry and cold which makes men staid and settled so is it accordingly requisite that we should distinguish of which of these three faculties the question is to be understood But generally speaking it is not easily imaginable that there should be a well-fram'd mind in a much-indispos'd body inasmuch as there is the same proportion between them as there is between the mold and the figure cast in it a Palace and him who dwells in it The same thing may much more rationally be said of the humours from which the spirits being drawn bring their quality along with them so that the Temperament which is most convenient in order to health will also be the most convenient for the functions of the Soul CONFERENCE CCXXVI Whether it be more expedient for a Man to have only one Friend or many SInce Man is no further to be called so then as he is sociable and that there is no Society more delightful then that of Conversation which cannot be better maintain'd then by the relation and correspondence there is between such as are of a like disposition which presuppose a Friendship it should seem that it is not grounded only on Reason but also on Nature her self which subsists altogether by that Union as she is absolutely destroy'd by discord And this is principally made apparent in civil life wherein Friendship is so powerful that being religiously observ'd there will be no need of Justice since every one would voluntarily render that to another which is due to him which is the proper Work of that Vertue which being in like manner well administred that of Fortitude would also be unnecessary and it would be superfluous to use the rigour of the Laws to oblige men to the doing of a thing which they exercised without any compulsion Hence it came that the wisest Law-givers as Aristotle affirms in his Ethicks took more pains in establishing the Laws of Friendship among their Citizens then those of Justice inasmuch as these latter take place only upon the non-observance of the former which are so much the more durable in regard they are grounded upon the pure freedom of the Will without any other obligation then that which our own choice hath impos'd on it self of its own accord in a legal friendship It s nature also is as much conceal'd as its effects are manifest which are so convincing that those who have spoken most advantageously of them affirm that to take away Friendship were to deprive the World of the light of the Sun and that humane Society may as well be without it as want the use of Fire and Water Nor is it their meaning to speak of that irregular Passion produc'd by the motion of the concupiscible Appetite which is inclin'd towards a delightful good and which only flattering the Senses those who are carry'd away with it are called amorous Persons and not Friends but of that Queen of Vertues which is enthron'd in the rational Appetite excited by a vertuous Good which being conceiv'd as amiable and proportion'd to the Will she loves and strictly embraces it causing such a perfect union between him who loves and him who is belov'd that they are but one heart and one soul which for that reason is said to be rather where it loves then where it lives So that it being not to be imagin'd that such an union can be among many neither can true friendship be among many but only between two whose mutual correspondence being the greater their Friendship is consequently more firm and durable And it is more compleat between these two Relatives then it can be among many whose correspondence being more difficult for want of the conditions requisite to Friendship which are not so easily met with in a greater number it is possible they may have a certain kindness and good-will one towards another but not a solid and sincere Friendship which looks on a friend as a second Self a relation that hath place only between two whom Antiquity for that reason order'd always to go by Couples The Second said That Friendship could not continue long only between two friends in regard that there being not any one but is chargeable with some imperfection it is impossible but that it should produce some coldness and indifference in his apprehensions who takes notice of it and that in time will come to an alienation as it commonly happens in Friendship And this is yet the farther from being wel-setled upon this accompt that continual familiarity coming to discover the weaknesses of one or the other it can never be long without some punctilio's and disputes which are many times advanc'd to such a height that there is a necessity of a third person to compose their differences Now this must be done by one who is a common friend to both and consequently to establish a permanent friendship it is requisite there should be three a number the more highly to be esteemed in that the Graces consist of it without which Friendship will be but of a short continuance Upon that accompt it was that the Tyrant Dionysius wish'd that he might make up the third with those two intimate friends Damon and Pythias The Scythians also as Lucian affirms to make up a perfect friendship requir'd that there should be three persons who drunk together out of a Vessel into which they had spilt some drops of their blood wherewith they dy'd the points of their swords The Third said That Friendship in respect of our Will was as Science in respect of our Understanding For as this latter hath a natural inclination to Knowledge so the Will is endu'd with such another to Love inasmuch as in it she finds her soveraign good Thence it comes that as there are some spirits so sublime that not content with one only knowledge they embrace several whereas there are others so circumscrib'd and confin'd that only one Science wholly takes them up so as that they are not able to make any progress into others so are there some Souls so limitted in their affection that it can be dilated but to one object which checks and makes them incapable of loving any more as those generous and heroick hearts do which have so strong a bent to do well and to love that not satifi'd with one object they diffuse their affections to all those whom they think worthy thereof And so the decision of the question should depend on
true it were absurd to look for the Causes of it in Nature whose forces are not able to attain an Effect so transcendent and so much above her reach It must therefore be a supernatural gift which God bestows on certain persons out of a pure gratuitous favour and more for the ease and comfort of others than out of any advantage to those who receive it as are also the gifts of Prophecy and doing Miracles For it is a demonstration of God's Omnipotence not to heal diseases only by ordinary means the dispensation whereof he hath left to Physicians who to that end make use of natural remedies but to do the same thing without any assistance of Nature by extraordinary and supernatural means in the application whereof he sometimes uses the Ministery of Angels as in the curing of Tobit and those sick people who came to the Pool at Jerusalem after the water had been stirr'd by the Angel sometimes by the Saints of whom it is written that the very shadow of their Bodies hath many times been effectual to that purpose as was that of Saint Peter and oftentimes those of other persons to whom he had communicated the gift for reasons unknown to us as he granted that of Divination to the Sibyls though they liv'd in Idolatry The Fourth said That Man was potentially all things and that consisting of a Body exactly temperate and of such a Soul as is the most perfect of forms he comprehended in an eminent degree within himself all the vertues of things as well corporeal as animate Whence comes it then that he shall not have the vertues and properties which are observable not only in stones wherewith he participates Being but also in Plants which are capable of Vegetation as well as he Animals with whom he hath motion sense and life and lastly in the separated Spirits as having answerably to them certain powers that are spiritual and remov'd from materiality And so since the Vertue of healing Diseases is found in most Beings which are of some nature with Man it is but reasonable he also should have the same one such as is the gift of healing the Evil which happens principally in the Seventh Male-child by reason of the perfection of his nature which performs all the most compleat functions in that number which Hippocrates upon that occasion affirms to be the dispenser of life Nay if there have been some who have had the Vertue of communicating several Diseases by their sight and touching as it is related of the Psylli Tribales Illyrians and other Nations who bewitch'd those whom they touch'd and of him whom Philostratus makes mention of in the life of Apollonius who kill'd with his very aspect as the Basilisk does far greater reason is there that there should be some to communicate health For though this latter requiring more preparations and conditions is so much the more difficultly transferr'd from one Subject to another then sickness is yet the reason of contraries will have it so that if the one is the other may be communicated and that with the greater justice inasmuch as health participating of the nature of good ought to be more communicative from one subject to another then sickness CONFERENCE CCXXXII Of Conjuration THere is as much fault to be found with the excessive curiosity of those who would know all things as there is with the unsufferable stupidity of some others who are not any way touch'd with that natural desire of Knowledge for as these latter by renouncing that accomplishment deprive themselves of the greatest satisfaction of life so the others being transported beyond the limits prescrib'd to the mind of Man wander they know not which way and precipitate themselves into the abysses of errours and impieties That of the Necromancers who make it their boast that they can command out of their Tombs the Souls of the deceas'd that they may be by them inform'd of what they desire to know is so much the more enormous in that they have made an Art of it call'd by them the Black Art or the Art of Conjuration a name as ridiculous as the precepts whereof it consists which having no ground but what they derive from the capriccio's and fantastick extravagances of those Impostors they sufficiently destroy themselves so as there needs nothing else to discover their palpable vanity no more then there is to make appear the errour of those who to confirm that diabolical invention maintain that there are abundance of effects above those of Nature which are to be attributed to those souls separated from their bodies especially that of foretelling things to come and informing those thereof who consult them it being consider'd that besides the gift they have of Science which is common to them with all spirits disengag'd from matter they have a particular inclination of doing good to men by advertising them of those things which so much concern them But this is not only absurd in it self but also impious and contrary to Christian Faith which teaching us that there are but three places where these souls have their abode to wit Paradice Hell and Purgatory it is to be believ'd that those which are confin'd to the last never come out thence but upon a special permission of God which he sometimes grants them that they may sollicit the suffrages of the Living those of the damned are further from being in a capacity to get out of that infernal prison to which Divine Justice hath condemn'd them to be there eternally tormented And the Blessed Spirits are yet more unlikely to quit their blissful State and the joys of Paradice wherewith they are inebriated to satisfie the vain curiosities of those who invocate them and for the most part make use of them rather to compass the mischievous Sorceries and such like Crimes whereof that Black Art makes profession then to procure good to any one or if it happen that at any time they do any 't is in order to the doing of some greater mischief afterwards such as may be that of Superstition and Idolatry whereto these spirits inclining those who invocate them and requiring of them such Sacrifices and Adorations as are due only to the Deity it is more then a presumption that they cannot be the souls of the Blessed but downright Devils who transform'd into Angels of Light impose upon those who are so willing to be seduc'd The Second said That as the employments of the Devils are different so is there also a remarkable difference in their natures which depends principally on the places of their abode according to which if we may believe Orpheus some of them are Celestial or Fiery some Aery some Watery and some Terrestrial and Subterraneous and among those the Aerial to whom Plato attributes the invention of Magick are by the Students of that Art accounted to be the most ingenious to deceive men by reason of their more easie putting on of the grosser parts of the air and