the Old Roman THE THIRD BOOKE Section 1. That greatest armies have not alwayes carryed away the victory the reason of it two examples of Semiramis and Xerxes I FIND in Histories that not alwayes the greatest and most numerous armies have carried away the victories in Battels whether it is that the LORD of Hoasts will disappoint them who trust in their numbers and armies of men or their Martiall Horses and their strength or in their military discipline For it is probable that as their infinite numbers cannot ever be so well Marshalled as that at all times requisite they can come to blowes so on the contrary if once they chance to turne backes the Panike feare that seazeth on so grosse and peccant a body is so remedilesse that they can scarce ever bee brought againe into any right or perfect order which in lesser armies driven to such extremities we heare and reade to have hapned Or rather shall we say with that Captaine of the Volsci marching against the old Romans Armati armatis obstant virtute pares sed necessitate superiores And againe Iustum est bellum quibus necessarium pia arma quibus nulla nisi in armis relinquitur spes I need not insist too much on battels of unequall numbers for the Greeke and Roman Histories are replenished with them yet two I will produce as incredible for their numbers as unlikely for their losse The one of Semiramis Queene of Babylon who setting out for the conquest of the Indies made up an army of three millions of armed men whereof tenne hundred thousand Horsemen the rest were foot besides many hundred thousand Chariots with blades like sythes or falchions sticking out on either side with many hundred thousand Camells and Elephants to fight on Which horrible armie was so overthrown by the Indian Emperour that scarce one hundred returned home alive The other was of Xerxes that powerfull King of Persia who intending to subdue Greece came downe upon it with such an army that Rivers were drunke dry by the multitude of his souldiers Herodotus reporter of the former two reckoneth this whole army to amount to seventeene hundred thousand by land and two hundred and fifty thousand by Sea with 2200 Galleys for by Sea and land he intended their subversion and came downe for that intent The insolencie of this King environed with this terrible armie was such that intending likewise to subdue Europe and for which purpose he prepared to passe the Hellespont some seaven miles broad but because his bridge of boates by the waters impetuousnesse was overthrowne which he caused to be contrived for that effect as Alexander did at Tyre he made his Souldiers with him vainely to whip the Sea for it's resistance against his so vast power Neverthelesse this presumptuous King I say with all his forces and numbers of men by a small number of Greekes was overcome at the Battell of Thermopilae in so far that that same glorious King of Medes and Persians was forced to steale over the Hellespont slenderly accompanied in a frigat or Shallop in the yeare of the world 4720. or thereabouts if Sabellicus mistake not Now as these two remarkable and populous armies were thus defeated by the smaller number and so confirmeth this assertion afore-mentioned So who will follow forth the tract of all either divine or heathen Histories shall finde it more manifestly approved As for holy Histories unlesse I were obliged not only by an Historicall but by an Evangelicall faith also to trust all comprehended withâ—n the old and New Testament as undoubted veritie I could hardly be induced to beleeve that so little a territory as the holy land was and yet is could afford so many hundred thousand fighting men as were so often recorded to bee raised in it unlesse that some would say that beside the blessing of God upon that land in making it to overflow with milke and hony wheat wine and oyle that so he would have it to abound in men likewise Sect. 2. Examples of Greeke Roman and British Battels where the fewer number have overcome the greater THere is a freedome left to every Reader of Histories to beleeve or not beleeve every particular in them yet those battailes where the fewer numbers have overcome the greater will most startle beleefe as that victorie of Alexander over Darius the battails of Thrasymenes Cannes with the Pharsalian field and the like For Alexander with but a few did beat Darius great hosts Hannibal with lesser multitudes overthrew the Roman Consuls Paulus Aemilius and Terentius Varro Iulius Caesar with almost the halfe of Pompeys number put him and his armie to rout But neither the imparitie of the Greeke nor Roman battels fought by them can give so great assurance of possibility that small troupes have overcome the greater As that battell of Poictiers by Edward the blacke Prince of England against Iohn King of France where not onely foure times as many that day were put to rout by the worthy English but likewise the King himselfe was led captive into England whose ransome redacted his countrie unto that penury and scarcity of money that they were forced thereafter to coyne and stampe pieces of leather money as their History of that time recordeth Neither was that glorious victory over the French much more remarkeable nor more sufficient for proofe of this then was that famous victorie of our valiant Bruce at the battell of Bannak-burne against an other Edward I might adde to these two the renowned victories woone by Scanderbeg a petty Prince of the Epirots who with but a handfull of men as it were did overcome the hundreds of thousands of that victorious Mahomet as at length may bee read in the Turkish Historie Sect. 3. Whether it be requisite that Princes hazard their Persons in field or not of the Encouragement that their presence giveth to the Souldiers When a King should venter to the field and what Lievtenants are to bee deputed by him all exemplified OVr Politicians of latter times have made it a great question whether a Soveraigne Prince should hazard his person in battell or not considering the great losse that ensueth either by his death or captivitie a thing never doubted of in former ages no not by such Kings who though sickly and diseased have caused to carry their bodyes from their bed unto the field thereby the more to encourage with their presence their mutining and doubting armies as Plutarch witnesseth in the life of Eumenes Yea Xisca had such a conciete of himselfe and his owne presence that after his death he ordained his skinne to be flead off him and a drumme to be covered with it imagining thereby that as he in his life had terrified and sorely beaten his enemies so the sound of this after his death would be a terrour unto them Neither was there any thing encouraged our brave English at the approch of the Spanish armado more
that fishes breath What way fishes may be said to breath If herring can â—â—ie How herring may be engendred in the Aire A sea-sawing râ—â—â—on why herring 〈◊〉 site Apodes or fowles without feet or Plumes Of Claick Geese Diverse kindes of Insects Sea Insects Reasons why Insects are not propagated by a Celestiall heat What middle Creatures are How fishes can be said to live by the Sea seeing their flesh is more firme then the water whereof they are geneâ—â—ted How fowles are brought forth in waters The cause of the firme flesh of fishes That Gold cannot bee made potable The matter of precious stones Quest. Two Philosophicall wayes to know things What leeteth that We cannot aright give up the supputation of the Earths cricumference Diversity of opinions concerning the worlds Compasse The earths circumference or compasse The thicknesse of the earth Distance of the earth from heaven The most approved opinion of the earths distance from the Sun Definition of Meteors their matter substance and height of formation Meteors severally considered by Philosophers and naâ—uralists A comparison of these Vapors â—nto the body of man chiefly to the venâ—â—icle and head Whether there be any exhalaâ—ions from the lowest Region of the ayre The lowest region of the aire is hot and moist both by nature and accident The uppermost region hot and dry The middle region is only cold at least respectively In what region of the Ayre the Meteors are composed What clouds are Clouds are fashioned in the middle region Concerning the middle â—â—gion Solution The foggy vapours which we see like clouds skimming our lakes are but ascending to frame the cloud The matter and forme of fiery Meteors from whence they proceed What are our falling-stars What maketh them fal dovvn seeing they are light Solution Of thunâ—er the matter whereof and place where The matter forme of thâ—se which we call pretty Dancers Fower sorts of vapors ascend from the earth and waters which arâ— the neerest mâ—tter of all Meteors Ayre what Raine what wind Quest. What is the cause that the falling Stars make no noyse as the Thunder seeing one matter is common to both What meaneth these fiâ—es wee see by night before us or by us when we ride at some times Why are they not seene in the day time What be these complainings and laughing which sometimes are heard in the ayre They are Aereall spirits The nature forme of comets The reason of their long hayre or beard Sometimes they are round Halos 1. area What are the Circles about the Moone which we call broughes What course the Comets observe Answer for the diverse courses of Comets What maketh the Comets commonly move from the South to the North. The place of their abode commonly Whether or not they can portend evill to come The Philosophers deny it admitting them but as naturall things The Philosophicall reason why not Other of their reasons why they can portend no evill to come Other reasons of theirs The contrary is seene by experience Lamentable accidents which have followed after the appearing of Comets The reasons which our Astronomicall Philosophers give that Comets may portend change of States Examples of Comets appearing before desolâ—tion Answer to the former objections Conclusion of comets with a particular observation The first matter of raine The way how raine falleth downe The matter manner how dew is engendred What is that which in France we call Serene The matter manner how Hoare-frost are fashioned The place where dew and hoare-frost are framed Some more good observations of dew and Hoar-frost What Snow is Much Snow in the Northerne climats and Why Difference betwixt the Snowy cloud and the rainy one The matter and cause of winde The beginning of wind is but small but it encreaseth in blowing A place of Scripture concerning winds solved What maketh raine commonly follow winde And what after raine What maketh some windes cold other hot seeing one matter is common to both What maketh that in the heat of Summer there are fewest winds seeing then there should be most The way how the wind bloweth Againe the way how the wind bloweth The matter and forme of Earthquakes What makes the Southerne countries most subject to these earthquakes The odâ— betweene wind earthquakes A very fit comparison As our bodies are stirred with a hot ague even so the earth with an inclosed wind A remarkable question Solutions both Philosophicall and Theologicall What is the matter of lightnings The right cause of the noyse of thunder after the lightning Why we see the lightning before wee heare the noyse And why doâ—â— it descend seing it is light The cause of the admirable effects of thunder Why the thunder of blacke clouds are more terrible then those of White Why those that be thunder beaten smell of brimstone The true matter of thunder The reason why the thunder of black clouds are most dangerous All weake Meteors have one common matter Their difference in forme and place Why haile is round Why raine falleth in drops From whence fountains have their courses That there is waters within the earth The Sea the mother of fountaines How Fountaines are on the tops of mountaines How mountaine furnisheth water unto fountains Why some springs cease running What maketh two fountaines a little distant one hot and another cold The veines through which the waters run maketh them salt hot or cold Gods power outreacheth mans wisdome The comparison of the great little world A worthy similitude Greatest armies have not alwayes done great Semiramis innumerable army defeated by a very few under an Indian Prince Xerxes alio overthrowne by a handfull of Greekes and Salamines The battaile of Thermopilae Iohn King of France overthrowne by Edward the black Prince of England Edward Carnarvan of england overthrowen by Bruce at Bannak-burne Scanderbeg with a handfulâ— overthrew Mahomet If Princes may hazzard their persons in a field or not Queene Elizabeth on the front of her armie in 88. The countenance of a King a great incouragement unto souldiers When a King should be in proper person in a field Why powerful subjects are not alwâ—yes fiâ—est to bee elected Generals of armies One Generall â—itter not two How the Romans and Grecians send two Commanders with their armies abroad Their foresight and prudence herein Fabius and Marcellus contrary dispositions Why the Grecians did send alwayes two in ambassage or to field The limitating of Generals Commission dangerous Great ods betwixt battels and duels To shun fighting at times is no disgrace unto a General Hannibal sueth for peace at Scipio Hannibals speech unto Scipio Sr. Fr. Drakes stratageme in 88. Hannibals stratagem A comparison of drawing up of our armies with the Old Romans If the Roman field malice exceeded ours yet our beleaguring instruments of warre exceed theirs The terriblenes of our pieces How the Romans had a fitter occasion of trying their valour then we The battell of Lepanto surpasseth all the Romans Sea-fights
people was plagued Iulius Caesar in his imperiall Throne having by the overthrow of his enemies attained that verticall point of earthly honour was even then and there murdered King Henry the second of France was amidst the triumphs and tiltings of his Sisters wedding solemnities killed King Henry the third at the rendering up of his rebellious Citie of Paris to him was murthered by the trayterous stroake of a blacke Frier his predecessors both shortly taken away But more miserably his great and valorous successor Henry 4th in the middest of that glorious City and of the pompous shewes at his Queenes coronation was murdered Our hopefull Prince Henry taken away about the time of his sisters mirthfull Nuptialls And I read of a Prince in an Historian whose torch dedicated and lighted to Hymen in his nuptialls served to kindle his funerall pile Not to speake a word of Philip of Macedon killed in the middest of his Army while he is assisting the sacrifice to the Gods Nor of his Son Alexander the great cut off in the floure of his yeares Ioyes and glorious great victories with a thousand of this same kinde Section 3. Stories of severall worthy and brave men that upon occasions have shed teares of the sensible greefe of some Horses Dogges and Hawkes upon the losse of their Masters WHich being so we may see that the Lord ordained wisely the Pascall Lambe to be eaten with bitter hearbes And providently the old heathen enjoyned us to mingle cares amidst our joyes Laeta tibi austeris varientur festa profestis From holy Scripture we have warrant that it is better to be in the house of mourning and weeping then in that of laughing And blessed are they that weepe for they shall bee comforted and their teares washt from their eyes our Saviour is said to have wept and never to have laughed we reade of St. Peters teares of the royall Prophets of the Prophet Ieremy his complaints of the groanings howlings and lamentings of the best servants of GOD of none or little of their rejoycing except it had beene under the Crosse or at least in the Lord finally with teares wee come into this world with care wee abide in it and with paine we remove from it Yea even of those who are most enured and hardened with fights bloudsheds alarmes and consequently who should seeme most averse from teares pitie and compassion some I marke to have solemnly wept and are signalized more peradventure in consideration of humane frailty as measuring things by themselves then otherwise for any great matter or reason they had to shedd teares for the time seeing they had obtained the thing they so eagerly desired Nam cum praeda sternitur alter Praemia solliciti certa laboris habet The good Emperor Adrian at his triumphant entrie into Rome after a remarkable victorie seeing the innumerable spoyles of his enemies before his Imperiall chayre and the Captives themselves manicled and fettered with chaines doing homage unto him It is recorded of him that though he rejoyced in publike yet in private hee wept and in a manner expressed by all likelihood no lesse than our famous Buchanan in this distich Tuquoque crudelis Babylon dabis improba paenas Et rerum instabiles experiêre vices King David shed teares at the sight or hearing of his sonne Absoloms death Iulius Caesar at the sight of Pompeys head Vespasian seeing the holy and magnificent Sanctum Sanctorum on fire Xerxes the insolent Persian King yet seeing a number of hundred thousands in a plaine wept considering the frailty of nature for that of so many as hee saw there they might bee all dead in few houres dayes or yeeres To these I may subjoyne Bajazet successor to Mahomet Emperour of the Turks Anno 1481. his teares after his brother Zizimus had surrendered himselfe to the great Master of Malta in name of all the Christian Princes whom neverthelesse he drove to that extremity As for Heraclitus his perpetuall weeping for the misery of this world I thinke it as worthy of blame as Democritus his continuall laughing at the folly of it seeing with Salomon there are times to laugh and times to weepe also Nam res humana fatiscit Laeta nisi austeris varientur festa profestis And if we trust Sabellicus not onely Men but also Horses and Dogs have beene seene to weepe for the losse of their Masters he instanceth particularly that those Horses which Iulius Caesar vowed to Mars at his passage over Rubicon were observed before his murther to stray carelessely up and downe prognosticating as it were their masters death by their unaccustomed drooping dejectednesse and shedding of teares Du Bartas Hawke which hee relateth to have cast it selfe after some other signes of sorrow into the grave with the corps of its dead Master may be mentioned as rare and memorable Section 4. Risus Sardonicus what and how to be taken Of the holy teare kept in the Abby Church at Vandesme in France NOw for laughing that which we call Risus Sardonicus is a perfect modell and patterne of our humane laughing for as they who have eaten of the hearb Sardis do all the perfect gestures of one tickled with joy or mirth as dimpling their cheeks and other like gestures yet it is onely the contracting power of that venomous herbe that procureth that convulsive gesture in them the Crocodiles teares may be compared oftentimes to our weeping as being either delusive treacherous or revengefull and too many I feare doe like Iudas kisse onely to deceive But what shall be said to the Teare which is conserved in a Violl and kept in a little Chappell on the North-side of the Abbey-Church at Vandome in France which they give forth to be a teare which fell from our Lords eyes and was kept since in that Violl by some holy Saint living in those dayes which in an overpious beleefe they say hath continued since without diminution by them called La Sainte larme The holy teare this at solemne festivall dayes they shew and exhibite to the superstitiously credulous people that repaire thither from the remotest parts of that kingdome who with great and submissive prostration and kneeling kisse it to the great and gainefull profit of the keeper truly for my owne part I am not so universally catholick though I have seene it as to beleeve that no more than their religious paradoxes of the transportation of our Lady De Loretta her chamber from so many diverse places and countries to the place where now it is neither finde I any motion to pray God for helpe in my unbeliefe of this and other such fained miracles of theirs being so meerely and palpably grosse inventions of men Sect. 5. Of weeping for the dead how to be moderated The matter of teares of laughing and weeping for one and the same thing moderation in both commended ALthough Tertullian in his booke De patientia did forbid the people in his
another of which sort yet some were of opinion that of these same soules some removed to heaven againe and within a space thereafter reddescended to the lower parts which Virgill intimateth when hee saith O Pater Anne aliquas ad caelum hinc ire putandum est Sublimes animas rursumque ad tarda reverti Corpora est And againe Lathos culices longa oblivia potant Plato and that he hath out of Pindarus esteemeth that as a man hath lived well or ill in this world accordingly his soule shall bee requited hereafter if well that then it shall be rejoyned to the Starre to which it was first assigned if ill that then it shall be coupled to one of some malignant influence Finally Apuleius Madaurensis in his tractate of the Moone bringeth in Plutarch maintaining that the soules of well doers here during their abode in bodies to be converted into Demi-gods or Saints On the contrary the ill ones or at the least the worst are turned into Demons As for the absolute eternity of them they medled with that opinion rather more Sperantium quà m probantium By this preceding discourse wee may see how farre we are obliged to the infinite mercies of our great God who as he hath revealed himselfe truly unto us at whom these ancient wise men but in a glimpse obscurely aymed so hath hee ridde our mindes of that perplexity wherein they were wrapt and infolded touching both the discent and event of our Soules SECT 5. Philosophicall tenents of plurality of Words confuted of Gods Creation of male and femall of all living Creatures BEcause the discourse of the World and the Philosophers opinions touching the beginning continuance and ending of it is the Theame which directly here I intend to handle I haste me to it That there were more worlds than one Democritus Epicurus and others mantained as an undoubted verity whence the Poet Terramque Solem Lunam Mare caetera quae sunt Non esse unica sed numero magis innumerali The reason whereupon they grounded the probability of their opinion was this because that in all the Vniverse there was nothing created alone without a mate or fellow as in all birds fishes beasts Yea in plants and hearbs and in man their under Monarch may be seene but as Aristotle himselfe hath confounded that opinion of his prior Philosophers concerning their plurality of worlds so naturall reason may leade us by the hand to its convincing for if there was another world it behoveth to be as this is spherite and round because that of all figures the orbicular is as most perfect so most spacious then if they were round howbeit in their sides they might touch and kisse one another yet sure betwixt the superior convexes and lower concaves there behoved to bee vacuities which their owne Maximes admit not for Natura say they abhorret à vacuo As for that conjugality if abusively I might say so of all living Creatures in paires it was ordained by the great maker for the propagation and multiplication of their kindes which otherwise had decayed for with Apulcias Cunctatim sumus perpetui sigillatim mortales SECT 6. Severall opinions of severall Phylosophers concerning the Worlds Eternitie their naturall reasons for approving of it and what the Egyptians thought concerning the antiquitie of the World THeir other opinion of the Eternitie of the World hath had more Patrons than this and that so much the rather because that seeing the Godhead their supreame Ens was from all Eternitie that therefore I say hee could not then even from all beginning if Eternitie could admit a beginning be a Creator without a creature for otherwise he should have nothing to do as they say So that those of this opinion doe not infringe that of the most famous in all the Greeke schooles favoring the Eternitie of the World saying that the World was a god created by a greater One this World being a body composed of soule and bodie which Soule had its seate and residence in the Center from whence it diffused by musicall numbers her force and power to the remotest extremities of the circumference having within it other lesser gods as the Seas Aire Starres which doe corresponde to other in a mutuall harmonie in perpetuall agitation and motion The Earth sending up vapors to the Aire the Aire rayning downe upon the Seas againe the Seas by secret conduits and channells transmitting them into the earth like veines ramifying themselves and bubbling up in fountaines rivers and brookes c. The Sunne and starres infusing their force upon all Creatures and vegetables The Moone hers upon the Sea Apuleius as in his tractat de Mundo Luna Deo Socrates aimes at this above spoken So Herodotus when he enquired at the Aethiopian and Aegyptian Gymnosophists what they thought of the Eternitie of the Word had for answere That since their first king of whom they shew him the picture exquisitely done There had runne out a leven thousand and so many hundred yeares and that by their observations the Sunne had changed foure times his ordinary course and the heavens theirs also And Diodorus setteth downe that in his dayes the Chaldeans kept Register of foure hundreth thousand yeares since the first beginning which admit were but Lunarie which is problematicke neverthelesse it is above all measure farre beyond the reckoning of their neighbours the Iewes To this opinion of the Egyptian and Indian Gymnosophists favouring the Eternitie of the World may be added the opinion of the Materiarie philosophers who howbeit they admit the beautie of the World to have come unto it with time yet they hold confidently that the Chaos and matter it selfe whence I call them Materiarcy was coetanean and contemporary from all beginning with the Maker Of this opinion was Hesiod in his Theogoma saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Now to speake of the divers opinions of the other old Philosophers who admitted a beginning to this world and what principalls they supposed for it Heraclitus was of opinion that the world was begunne with fire and that by the fatall order of the Destinies it should bee destroyed by it againe and dissolved in flames yet in such sort that after some ages thus being purified it should be renewed againe which Leo Hebraeus some way admits Thales againe would have the beginning of it to have beene of water having fished that out of Homer as it seemeth and Virgill from him againe At nos interram lympham vertaminor omnes And we often reade in Homer and Virgil pater oceanus But what more foolish or idle conceit than that of Democritus and Leucippus who imagined the beginning of the world and of all contained therein to have beene by the casuall encounter of Atoms which are little infectile bodies not unlike the Moates which wee see to tumble and rowle about in the Sunne beames when they pierce any glasse-window or cranice whose encounter like unto these