the greatest benefit from it in this perhaps more unhappy then others that having more knowledge by experience of what is pass'd it is harder to delight them Pleasure most easily arising from novelty Since therefore all sorts of conditions and ages sacrifice to Joy and Philosophers have judg'd nothing more proper to Man then Laughter I conceive 't is a kind of inhumanity to forbid commerce to this inseparable companion of Man and although some may abuse it yet it would be worse to interdict it then to take away the use of Wine under pretext that some people sometimes take too much of it The Third said Some contentments belong to the Mind others to the Body Not that the Body is capable of any Passion without the Minds help nor that the Soul while it informes the Body can apprehend any without its corporeal organs but they borrow their name from the part which they chiefly affect Thus I can neither love nor hate without having seen or heard the subject of my hatred or love and yet 't is the Soul not the Body which loves or hates The Body can neither drink nor eat without the Soul and nevertheless 't is not the Soul that drinks or eats 't is the Body This suppos'd me-thinks the greatest delight of the humane Mind consists in being lov'd and this is the end of all its actions Whence those words Let Men hate me provided they fear me were taken to be rather the voice of a savage beast then of a Man This appears because all from the highest to the lowest endeavour to gain the good-will of every one 'T is this which makes Men so desirous of Praise because the same renders them amiable one for the excellence of his Mind another for the beauty of his Body Moreover compare the misery of a Timon hated by all the world with the contentment of a Titus Vespatians Son surnamed the Delight of Mankind and you will see that to be lov'd surpasses all the Pleasures of the world as much as 't is unpleasing to be hated For the love which is borne towards us supposes some perfection in us which being known esteem'd and prefer'd above that of others produces the great contentments which we find therein But as for those of the Body Pani and all Greece too well found the ill consequence of adjudging the golden apple to the Goddess whom Luxury made him prefer before the others to encourage us to follow his example Demosthenes had reason when he refus'd to buy at too dear a rate the repentance which ordinarily follows this Pleasure the corners which it seeks and the shame which accompanies it together with its little duration allow it not to be equall'd with other Passions compatible with Honour and practis'd in the sight of all the world as feasts dances shews sports merry words and the like all which I conceive ought to be added together to make perfect Delight But since 't is requisite to prefer one and punctually satisfie the question I shall affirm according to the liberty allow'd in this company that nothing seemes to me more capable to delight a Man then Good Cheer there 's no better friendship then that which is acquir'd by cracking the glass friendships proceeding from sympathy of humours and this from the same viands And in brief if this receipt did not serve better to exhilarate Men then any other you should not see it so diligently practis'd in these dayes by all the world Alexander the Great and the Famous Marius took no greater pleasure then in drinking great draughts And the tediously-severe humour of the Catoes was not sweetned but at the table where they ordinarily continu'd seven or eight hours Moreover Old-age which we ought to follow for its great experience after having pass'd through all the pleasures of life fixes at last upon that of the Table as the surest and most lasting others sliding away so fast that they give not our Senses time to taste them which word testifies that 't is the Taste which ought to judge And if it be said that their bodies are not capable of other contentments I answer that the Organs of all the faculties are in them equally debilitated II. Of Cuckoldry Upon the Second Point it was said That to judge well of it it is requisite to understand all the cases which make Men Cuckolds Some are so and know nothing of it Some think they are but are not and these are more miserable then if they were and knew it not If we believe Histories some are so without their Wives fault who have mistaken others for their own Husbands Some are so and half see it yet believe nothing of it by reason of the good opinion which they have of their Wives Further some know they are so but do all they can to hinder it Such was P. Cornelius and Corn. Tacitus In fine some know it and suffer it not being able to hinder it And I account these alone infamous The Second said That the word Cuckold deriv'd from Cuckow is Ironically us'd for this Bird layes her eggs in the neast of others or else because they who frequent other Mens Wives are oftentimes serv'd in the same manner or else for the reason upon which Pliny saith Vine-dressers were anciently called Cuckows that is to say slothful who deferr'd cutting their Vines till the Cuckow began to sing which was a fortnight later then the right time And thus the same name may have been given to those who by their negligence or sloth give their Wives so much liberty that they abuse it Unless we had rather say that this Bird being as Aristotle saith cold and moist of its own nature and yet so prudent as knowing it self unable to defend and feed its own young it puts them into the neasts of other Birds who nourish them as if they were their own thus timerous soft and weak Men have been call'd Cuckolds because not being able to support their own families they cause the same to be maintain'd by others with the loss of their credit They who derive it from the Greek word Coccyx which signifies the rump are not much out of the way In brief some go so far as to derive it from the Latine word Coquus because those people lodging and feeding their Wives and taking care of their Children do like Cooks who trust out victuals to others The Third said That Cuckoldry was but an imaginary thing that the unchastity of the Wife could not dishonour the Husband considering that what is out of us and our power do's not any wayes concern us and it being impossible for the wisest Man in the world by the consent of all to hinder the lubricity of an incontinent Woman Now no body is oblig'd to what is impossible and as a vicious action ought to be onely imputed to its author so ought the shame and dishonour which follows it and 't is as absurd to reflect it upon him who
Fifth said 'T is more fit to admire these secret motions which depend only on the good pleasure of Nature who alone knows wherein consists the proportion correspondence which makes bodies symbolize one with another then to seek the true cause of them unprofitably And Aristotle himself confesses that he knew not whereunto to refer the Antipathy which is between the Wolf and the Sheep so strange that even after their deaths the strings of Instruments made of their guts never agree together as the feathers of the Eagle consume those of other Birds Likewise the subtile Scaliger after much time unprofitably spent acknowledges that he understands it not They who go about to give reasons of it are not less ignorant but more vain then others The Sixth said Words are frequently abus'd as for example when 't is attributed to Antipathy that the Dog runs after the Hare whereas 't is for the pleasure that he takes in his smelling which is an effect of Sympathy But they who refer almost every thing to Occult Proprieties are like the Country-man who not seeing the springs of a Watch thinks it moves by an occult vertue or who being ask'd why it thunders answers simply because it pleases God Wherefore instead of imitating the ignorant vulgar who are contented to admire an Eclipse without seeking the cause the difficulty ought to inflame our desire as we use more care and diligence to discover a hidden treasure nothing seeming impossible to the Sagacious wits of these times The Seventh said That according to Plato the reason of Sympathies and Antipathies is taken from the correspondence and congruity or from the disproportion which inferior bodies have with the superiour which according as they are more or less in terrestrial bodies and according to the various manner of their being so the same have more or less sympathy For as inferior things take their source from above so they have one to the other here below the same correspondence which is common to them with the celestial bodies according to the Axiom that things which agree in one third agree also among themselves Thus amongst stones those which are call'd Helites and Selenites Sun-stone and Moon-stone are luminous because they partake of the rayes of those Luminaries and the Helioselene imitates by its figure the Conjunction of the Sun and Moon Amongst Plants the Lote or Nettle-tree the Mari-gold and the Heliotrope or Sun-flower follow the motion of the Sun Amongst Solar Animals the Cock and the Lyon are the most noble and the Cock more then the Lyon he alwayes gives applauses to the Sun when he perceives him approaching our Horizon or Zenith Whereupon the Lyon fears and respects him because things which are inferior to others in one and the same degree yield to them though they surpass them in strength and bigness as the arms which fury hath put into the hands of a mutinous multitude fall out of them at the presence of some man of respect and authority though they be a thousand against one II. Whether Love descending be stronger then ascending Upon the second Point it was said Although this be a common saying and it seems that Love ought rather to descend then ascend yea that Fathers are oblig'd to love their children even with the hatred of themselves yet I conceive that the love of children towards their fathers surpasses that of fathers towards their children inasmuch as the latter proceeds from the love which the fathers bear to themselves being desirous to have support and assistance from those whom they bring into the world and in them to perpetuate their names honours estates and part of themselves But the love of children to Fathers is pure and dis-interested as may be observ'd in many who having no hope of a patrimony love and honour their parents with most respectful kindness Moreover the supream authority and absolute power of life and death which the Romans and our ancient Gaules frequently us'd against their children shows their little affection For not to speak of those Nations who sacrific'd theirs to false gods nor of Manlius Mithridates Philip II. King of Spain and infinite others who put them to death Fathers anciently held them of worse condition then their slaves For a slave once sold never return'd more into the Seller's power whereas a son sold and set at liberty return'd thrice into the power of his Father As also at this day in Moscovia Russia and particularly in Cyprus Rhodes and Candia where 't is an ordinary thing for fathers to sell their sons to marry their daughter which made Augustus say having heard that Herod had kill'd his own son that it was better to be the Swine then son of a Jew But Patricide was unknown to ancient Legislators and Lycurgus never ordain'd any punishment against such criminals not imagining that such a crime could come into the mind of a lawful child whom the Persians conceiv'd to declare himself a bastard by such an action For that foolish custom which reign'd some time at Rome of precipitating men of sixty years old from the bridge into Tyber is no sign of the cruelty of children towards their fathers since they imagin'd that they did an act of piety and religion therein by delivering them from the miseries of this life The Second said None can know how great a love a father bears his children but he that hath been a Father Paternal tenderness is so vehement that all the passions and affections of the soul give place to it Prudence and Philosophy may preach to us restraint and moderation but a father's love admitting no rule caus'd a King of Sparta to run with a stick between his legs a Grand Cosmo to whip a top and the wisest of all the Grecians to play at Cob-nut to make pastime to their children experiences sufficient to gain the cause to paternal love though it were not back'd by these reasons 1. That love being the issue of knowledge the more there is of knowledge the more there is of love Therefore fathers having more knowledge then their children have also more love 2. As man desires nothing so much as immortality so he loves that thing especially which procures the same to him and hating death more then any thing in the world extreamly loves what seems to keep him from dying as his children do in whom he seems to revive Whence also the Pelican feeds its young at the expence of its own blood On the contrary Man being the most ambitious of all creatures hates nothing so much as to see himself subjected to another Wherefore children that the benefits which they receive from their fathers may oblige them to gratitude and subjections they perform the same indeed but with much less love then their fathers 3. God ha's given no commandment to fathers to love their children knowing that they lov'd them but too much but he hath to children to love and honour their fathers as having need to be invited
same manner were the Crown and the Iris produc'd for they were form'd by a reflection and refraction of the Solar rayes and consequently at the intersection of the Iris and the Crown there was a double reflection and refraction Whence at the the said intersection appear'd two false Suns sufficiently bright by the new reflection of which upon the same circumference of the Iris were formed two other Suns of less brightness The Third said That this plurality of Suns ought to be attributed to a reflection of the species of the true Sun receiv'd in some Stars so oppos'd to him that they send back his light and species and the concurse of those reflected rayes causes those masses of light to appear in the centres of concave bodies that reflect them which cannot be Clouds because they are neither smooth nor opake nor void of colour the three accidents necessary for reflection Moreover the Clouds cannot receive his species upon their uppermost surface for then they could not reflect it nor upon their lowermost or interior surface for this cannot receive it unless it be reflected from the Water and then we should not see those Suns in the Air but in the Water Nor lastly upon one side because then the Spectator must not be upon the Earth but in a line perpendicular to the diametre of the side of the Cloud according to the doctrine of the Catoptricks The Fourth said That the Clouds being polite or smooth when they are turn'd into Water and their profundity serving instead of opacity as we see in deep Waters which our sight is unable to penetrate they remit the species presented to them And the same may happen in the Air when it is condens'd Whence as Aristotle reports many have seen their own Images in the Air and some affirm that they have seen whole Cities so particularly Avignon The Fifth said That the Viscosity into which the aqueousness of those Clouds had degenerated when those four Parhelij appear'd at Rome was the cause not onely of their appearance but also of their subsistence at mid-day To the which also more concocted and condens'd must those three Suns ascrib'd which were observ'd in Spain Anno 753. for the space of three years and the three others that appear'd over the City of Theodosia on the twenty ninth of October 1596. from Sun-rise to Sun-set The Sixt said That all these difficulties inclin'd him to attribute Parhelij to one or more Clouds round and resplendent like the Sun For what unlikelihood is there that an unctuous exhalation may be elevated in the Air in a round figure which being inflam'd on all sides equally may represent by its light that of the Sun seeing Nature is much more ingenious then Art which represents him at pleasure by artificial fires and we behold even from the surface of the Earth up to the Orbes of the Planets igneous bodies of all figures and colours and those of very long continuance II. Whether any Love be without self interest Upon the Second Point the First said That 't is not without a mystery that Plato in his Convivium makes two Cupids one the Son of Venus Coelestial the other the Son of the common or Terrestrial Venus intimating thereby that there are two sorts of Love one vile and abject which is that of Concupiscence whereby a Man loves that which is agreeable to him for his own interest the other divine and perfect wherewith we love a thing for it self which kind is very rare And therefore Hesiod makes it to be born of the Chaos and the Earth to intimate that it is difficult to meet any that is pure and without any interest The Ancients have also made two Loves one of Plenty Abundance by which the Perfect loves the Imperfect to communicate thereunto what it wanteth the other of Indigence which the Defective hath towards the Perfect that it may be made perfect by it The former is that of God towards his Creatures the latter that of Creatures towards God And as for that which is found between Creatures it is more or less excellent according as it partaketh of the one or the other But to speak generally it is more noble to be lov'd then to love as it is more excellent to be sought to then to seek to another to give then to receive The Second said That there are two sorts of Love the one of Friendship the other of Desire The former causeth us to love things because they are worthy of it the latter because they are convenient for us The first is not onely possible but more natural then the second For the Love of Friendship is direct that of Concupiscence is onely by reflection Now that which is direct is in the date of Nature before the reflected the stroke is before the rebound the voice before the Echo and the Ray before the reverberation For Reflection is a re-plication or re-doubling of a thing That the Love of Desire is such I manifest It is with our Knowledge as with our Love A Man knows himself less easily then he doth others because he knows all things else by a direct action and himself by reflection He sees every thing directly but he cannot see himself saving in a Looking-glass And for that nothing enters into him but passeth through the Senses it is requisite that that which is in him come forth to re-enter again by the Senses and pass into the Mind For all Knowledge is by Assimilation as that I may see the pupil of my Eye must have the Image of the thing which I would see and so become like to it Now all resemblance is between things that are distinct So that if the Mind of Man is to know any thing of it self that thing must be abstracted and sever'd from him that it may be made like to him and consequently cannot enter into his Knowledge but by reflection in which the species loseth of its virtue as we see in the Echo which is never so natural as the voice which it imitates nor the Object in the Looking-glass as the first Object The case is the same in Love For by it we love things before we desire them Which is evident both in respect to the Object and also to the Act of Love Its Object Good includeth two things First its Nature of Good which is an Entity consider'd in it as conducing to the perfection of the thing wherein it is And Secondly its communicability or relation to other things capable of receiving its diffusion The former is the foundation and efficient emanative cause of the other which is onely a Propriety and consequently less natural because posterior and subservient to the former Moreover Love taken as an act of the Will hath the same effect according to which it is defin'd an adequateness conformity and correspondence of our heart to the thing and an approbation and complacency in the goodness which is in the Object which our Mind judging good
in this manner First Loves it in it self with a Love of Friendship and then afterwards judging it amiable applies it to it self and desires it So that there is a two-fold convenience or agreableness in every thing that is lov'd even with the Love of Concupiscence First the convenience of the Good with its proper subject And Secondly the convenience of the same Good with the thing or person whereunto it is desired The first convenience excites the Love of Friendship The second that of Concupiscence Wherefore it is more natural to Love without Interest then for it Besides Love follows Knowledge and we know things simply and in themselves sooner then such as are compounded and refer'd to another Lastly the Love of Friendship is the end of the motions of our Hearts which acquiesce and stop there The Love of Concupiscence is for the means which are posterior in the intention of Nature and as servants employ'd for the End The Third said That Love being one of the most noble acts of the Will or rather of the Soul which is created after the Image of God it hath some lineaments of that Divine Love Now God loves all things for his own sake In like manner we see all reasonable Creatures have an instinct and sympathy to such as are convenient to themselves and an abhorrence or antipathy to their contraries Moreover the Nature of Good which is the Object of Love shews that Love always precisely regards him that loves there being no Absolute Good but all is with convenience or relation without which it would not move us to affect it For no Love can be assign'd how perfect soever in which the person that loves hath not some interest Q. Curtius deliver'd Rome from an infection of the Pestilence by plunging himself into a great Vorago in the Earth but it was with a desire of glory and to be talk'd of A Father loves his Children but it is that he may perpetuate himself in them We love Virtue for the sweetness and delectation which it brings with it yea even Martyrs offer themselves couragiously to death that they may live eternally with him for whose sake they suffer And if seeing two Men play at Tennis both of them alike unknown unto me I yet wish that one may win rather then the other this proceeds from some convenience or agreeableness between us two though the reason of it be not then manifest to me The Fourth said That Disinterested Love which is the true intirely terminates in the thing lov'd purely and simply for the natural and supernatural goodness which is in it But that which reflects upon the person who loves for his Honour Profit or Pleasure is false and vicious Now although since the depravation of our Nature by sin the former sort of Love be very difficult yet is it not impossible For since there is a Relative Love there must also be an Absolute which serves for a contrary to the other It is much more hard to love an Enemy a thing commanded by God then to love another with a Disinteressed Love And though it be true that Pleasure is so essential to Love that it is inseparable from it whence one may infer that such Pleasure is an interest yet provided he who loves doth it not with reflection to his Pleasure or for the Pleasure which he takes in loving his Love is pure and simple and void of all interest So though he who loves goes out of himself to be united to the thing lov'd which is the property of Love and becomes a part of the whole which results from that union and consequently interessed for the preservation of the same Nevertheless provided he do not reflect upon himself as he is a part of that whole his love is always without interest The fifth said That as Reflex Knowledge is more excellent and perfect then direct So reflected Love which is produc'd by knowledge of the merits and perfections of the thing lov'd is more noble and judicious then that which is without any reflection and interest Gods Love towards Men ought to serve them for a rule Therefore Plato saith that when God design'd to create the World he transform'd himself into Love which is so much interessed that he hath made all things for his own Glory The Sixth said That true Love is like Virtue contented with it self and he that loves any thing for his particular interest doth not properly love that thing but himself to whom he judgeth it sutable In which respect Saint Bernard calls such kind of Love mercenary and illegitimate because true and pure Love is contented simply with loving and though it deserves reward yet that is not its motive but the sole consideration of the excellence and goodness of the thing lov'd Nor is this true Love so rare as is imagin'd there being examples of it found in all conditions of Men. Cleomenes King of Lacedaemon disguis'd himself on purpose to be slain as accordingly he was thereby to expiate to the Fate which was destinated to the loss either of the Chiestain or his Army Gracchus dy'd that his Wife Cornelia might live The Wife of Paetus slew her self for company to sweeten death to her Husband Histories are full of Fathers and Mothers that have prefer'd their own death before that of their Children At the Hour of Inventions One offering to speak of Amulets Philtres and other means to procure Love and mentioning the Hippomanes or flesh which is found in the fore-head of a young Colt whereof Virgil speaks he was interrupted by this intimation That the two most effectual means for causing Love were the graces of the Body and the Mind and to love those by whom we would be lov'd And these two points were propounded First Whether Melancholy persons are the most ingenious Secondly Which is most necessary in a State Reward or Punishment CONFERENCE XIII I. Whether Melancholy Persons are the most ingenious or prudent II. Which is most necessary in a State Reward or Punishment I. Whether Melancholy Men are the most ingenious THe First said That according to Galen Humane Actions to speak naturally depend on the complexion or composition of the Humours Which Opinion hath so far prevail'd that in common Speech the words Nature Temper and Humour signifie not onely the Inclination but the Aptitude and Disposition of persons to any thing So we say Alexander the Great was of an Ambitious and Martial Nature Mark Anthony of an Amorous Temper Cato of a severe Humour Of the Humours Melancholy whereof we are to speak is divided into the Natural wherewith the Spleen is nourish'd and that which is Preternatural called Atrabilis or black choler The one is like to a Lee or Sediment the other to the same Lee burnt and is caus'd by the adustion of all the Humours whereof the worst is that which is made of choler Again it is either innate or acquir'd by abuse of the six things which we call Non-natural
of the Ascendant and the Middle of Heaven in the Nativity which are the principal significators of the inclinations and actions of a Man The Fourth said That to attribute that property and Virtue to the Humours to make Men wise and intelligent is to prejudice the Rational Soul which being immaterial needeth no material instrument for the performing of its actions but as it is wholly Divine and the Image of God it is perfectly intelligent of its own Nature and by Reason the noblest of its Faculties of it self knows what ever is most hidden in Nature For if the actions of Knowledge and Prudence depend on the Temper of the Humours then that which now produceth ratiocination in me should have been the food which I took yesterday And so those things which whilst they were alive had no other actions but vegetative or sensitive should when they are dead produce intellectual The Spirits alone put our Humours in motion and action and when those fail these remain without any Virtue Nevertheless those Spirits onely the vehicles of the Rational Soul are not the Cause either of Knowledge or Prudence but onely of Life much less can those excellent Qualities be attributed to the Humours II. Whether is more necessary in a State Reward or Punishment Upon the Second Point the First said That Reward and Punishment are the two pillars of a State one for the satisfying of Merit and encouraging Men to Virtue the other for restraining Malefactors and turning them from Vice That consequently they are both necessary and almost inseparable Nevertheless Reward seemes to have some degree of necessity above the other because though Punishment with its eight species which are Fine Imprisonment Stripes Retaliation Ignominy Banishment Servitude and Death serves for Example and for satisfaction to Distributive Justice whose end is to extinguish Crimes and reform them and secure the Good against the Bad whence the Wise-man commandeth Magistrates to break off Iniquity and govern with a rod of Iron yet is it not good in all times nor in all places And Sylla did prudently in not punishing his Souldiers who slew the Praetor Albinus in a Sedition On the contrary Reward is alwayes necessary and every where welcome being the wages of Virtue as the other is of Vice 'T is for that the Labourer cultivates the Earth that the Souldier goes to the War and that good Wits employ their time in excellent and profitable inventions Darius preserv'd his Kingdom by having rewarded Zopyrus And on the contrary Philip lost the City of Damas for want of gratifying Milesius by whose means he had won it So that it is with good reason that Pliny saith in his Panegyrick That the recompences of good and bad deeds make Men good or bad The Second said That in the beginning of the World when our Nature was created in the perfection of a lust Aequilibrium we had on the one side the inferior part of the Soul wholly subject to the superior and on the other this superior Soul absolutely submissive to the Divine Will But the first Man having broken that Aequilibrium by his sin and turn'd the balance towards the side of Evil this Counterpoise which like infectious Leven is left in the flesh of Adam hath given us all a tendency and inclination to Evil. Hence it is that Men are lead into all sorts of Vices and because 't is the property of sin to blind the Mind and cloud the Memory with the Reason they have also forgotten the way which they ought to keep that they might live like reasonable Men. For remedy whereof not onely God who from all Eternity purposed our Reparation but also Men most vers'd in the knowledge of Good and Evil have establish'd Laws to restore Man to his Aequilibrium and contain him in his duty both towards God and Humane Society But because Original Sin powerfully inclines us to Evil from our Nativitie and it is very rare if not impossible to find any one that erres and perseveres so wilfully without fear or hope therefore God and Kings have appointed two powerful counterpoises Rewards and Punishments the former for good and virtuous actions the latter for the Transgression of their Laws Since then Punishment is onely for Transgression of Laws and Reward for those who besides observing them proceed further to virtuous actions and such as are profitable to the publick It is certain the former of the two is most necessary in a State as that to which Men are most prone For it is most true that Men are naturally more inclin'd to Evil then to Good because they are corrupted by Original Sin and we know the most part would willingly desire to grow great by the loss of others and to plunge themselves in Pleasures and Riches if they were not restrain'd by the rigor of Laws This is further confirmed because the Laws of Men are better observed then the Divine Laws not but that Men are as ready to infringe those as these of God who forbears and is patient after the sin of Man but because the penalties of Humane Laws are appointed for this Life and we behold Criminals publickly executed Wherefore Punishment is the most necessary in a State Nevertheless Reward is not unprofitable because it serves to excite to well doing and is frequently propos'd in the Divine Laws the corruption of our Nature not permitting us to be lead to do good for the sake of good alone Moreover our own necessity constrains us to seek the support of our Life by our Labours and to eat our Bread in the sweat of our Countenances as our Sentence importeth But to determine whether it be alwayes fit to reward or punish when there is occasion this depends upon many circumstances of Times Places and Persons wherein a good part of the skill of a States-man consists Yet when Reward or Punishment tends to the good of the publick or the honour of the Prince neither the one nor the other ought to be omitted in my opinion so far as is possible The Third said That the Distick which imports That the good hate sin out of the love of Virtue and the wicked out of the fear of Punishment voids the question For since the good have nothing to do with any other Reward but what they find in their own satisfaction knowing otherwise that they are oblig'd to do well and the wicked need no other salary but the Punishment due to their Crimes it seemes Punishment is not onely necessary but alone necessary in a State Not but that Reward serves for ornament and for its better being as Sauces do to raise the languishing Appetite But in reference to absolute necessity no person can say that they are to be compar'd together For although Plato calls Reward and Punishment the two grand Daemons of Humane Society yet it is not thence to be infer'd that the one ought to be parallel'd with the other which is better understood by experience For compare
the dead and into which they return But the most common and us'd throughout all Europe is Black which also was always worne by the Romans when they went into Mourning except during sixty years that they wore white The wearing of Mourning continu'd ten moneths at Rome the Athenians wore it but one moneth the Spartans no more but eleven dayes The reason why they have all chosen Black for denoting Sadness is because Black is the privation of White and proceedeth from the defect of Light so Death is the privation of Life and Light Possibly too the reason why the Cypress Tree was esteem'd a Funeral Tree was because the leaves were of a dark Green and the Nutts tincture Black and being cut it never puts forth again as also Beans were in regard of the blackness which appears in them and their flowers The Second said That Experience shews us sufficiently that the Black colour doth not onely put us in Mind of our griefs and sadnesses pass'd but also is apt excite new This is known to the Senses and unknown to Reason by a certain Divine Appointment which hath caus'd that what is manifest to the one is hidden to the other As appears for that nothing is so natural to the Sense of Seeing as Light and Colours But yet there is nothing in which our Mind sooner finds its weakness then in the enquiry into the Nature and properties of Colours and Light Now there are two sorts of blackness the one Internal when the Soul turning it self towards the Images upon report of which a judgement is made if that Image is Black and deform'd the Soul must conceive that the Objects represented by it are so also and thence ariseth horror and sadness the other external for the explicating of which I must crave leave to deflect a little from the ordinary opinion touching the Nature of Colours I affirm that Colour and Light are one and the same thing and differ onely in regard of the Subject so that the lustre of a simple Body is Light but the lustre of a mixt Body is call'd Colour By which account Light is the Colour of a simple Body and Colour is the Light of a mixt Body Whence Mixts approaching nearest to the simplicity of the Element predominant in them are all Luminous as precious stones which are a simple Earth and without mixture of other Element and rotten Wood which having lost the little Air and Fire it had its humidity also being absum'd by the putrefaction and there remaining nothing almost but Earth you see how it keeps its splendour amidst the darkness of the night And this in my conceit is the meaning of what Moses saith when he saith that God created the Light before the Sun For God having created the Elements in their natural purity they were sometimes in that state before mixture the Earth appeared not but the Water cover'd its whole Surface Every Element was in its own place and the purity of its Nature for which reason they had then their first Colour which is splendour But as soon as God had mingled them for the forming of Mixts their Light became clouded and chang'd into Colour And hence it was necessary to form a Sun in Heaven far from all sort of mixture and composition to the end he might alwayes preserve his Light and enlighten the world therewith The Fire preserves it self the most of all in its purity by reason of its great activity which consumes what ever approaches near it The other Elements would do so too if they could preserve themselves in their purity as well as the Fire But because they would be unprofitable should they remain such it is necessary that they be mingled one with another as well to serve for the production of Compounds as for their Aliment and several uses Hence their Light becomes chang'd into Colour which is nothing else but a Light extinguish'd more or less and accordingly we see some Colours more luminous then others The White is still wholly luminous the Red wholly resplendent the Green less and the Brown begins to grow dark Lastly the Black is nothing but Light wholly extinct and a kind of darkness and consequently hath nothing of reality but is a pure Privation which our Eyes perceive not As our Ear discerneth or perceiveth not silence but onely by not hearing any sound so neither doth the Sight behold Black and darkness but when it sees neither Colour nor Light So that to hear Silence and see darkness is to speak properly a vain attempt of the Soul which would fain exert its action of seeing and hearing and cannot Hence ariseth the sadness and terror which a deep silence and the sight of extreme blackness and darkness excites in the Soul For the Soul knows well that Life is nothing else but Exercise of its Faculties of which as soon as any thing is depriv'd there remains nothing to be expected but death She would fain exert her action and cannot she distinguishes not whether it be through default of the Object or whether her Faculty be lost but she finds a privation of her actions and represents to her self to be in the state of Death whence ariseth Sadness and Fear For as our Soul dreadeth nothing so much as Death so the least suspition the least sign and umbrage of Death is apt to put her into great dejection And this makes way for the Second Reason why the Soul becomes sad at the sight of a black Colour namely because it never appears in the Body but Death is at hand For this Colour is produc'd by the mortification and extinction of the Spirits as a Gangrene which is either caus'd by Adustion whereby Coals become black or by extreme coldness thus Old Men are of a leaden Colour tending to blackness Now the excess of heat and coldness is equally contrary to Life Wherefore as often as the Soul perceives blackness either in her own Body or in another she remembers the Qualities which produc'd it and are contrary to Life which she loves hence ariseth sadness And hence also it is that we naturally love a Countenance well proportion'd with an agreeable Colour wherein there is found a redness mingled with whiteness bright and lively with Spirits which is nothing else but an effect of the Love which our Soul bears to Life For knowing this to be the Colour of Health it affects the same even in another as on the other side it abhorreth Death Look upon a living Body it is full of brightness but a dead one is gloomy and dismal and at the instant that the Soul parts from the Body a dark shade seemes as it were to veil the Countenance Now that the Soul may understand it must become like to its Object Whence Aristotle said that the Intellect is potentially all things forasmuch as it can form it self into as many shapes as there are Objects So then it will perceive blackness it must become conformable to Black which it
which the Eagle had laid in his lap that is by thinking to repel a small Blame they incur a greater and oftentimes with the prejudice of another As it is manifest in the rage and wildness of Duels when for the repelling of a small injury a Man engages the life of a Second who usually becomes involv'd in the same destruction with himself It is not my purpose to declaim further here against that Madness for the Folly of Men is come to such excess that they who go most unwillingly to the field considering that they are going possibly to destroy both their Bodies and their Souls yet dare not seem to obey the injunctions and prohibitions against the same by the Laws both of God and Men. A brutishness worthy of Admiration as it would be of Pity were it not voluntary among those who value themselves above others But to leave them to themselves let us onely consider what a strange Power the Point of Honour hath which is able to carry before it all the torrent of Arguments and Reasons which disswade a furious Resolution Now it is as various as the Humours and Conditions of Men. Not that I think it imaginary but as there are actions of themselves honest or dishonest which are the real foundation of this Point of Honour so it is of the same Nature And although Diogenes accounted nothing dishonest i.e. unbecoming which is lawfull yet it cannot be believ'd by any but a Diogenes So that the Ingenuous Youth upon whose shoulder that Cynick laid a flitch of Bacon and lead him about the City in that equipage to accustome him to put off all shame obey'd Reason and not his Caprichio when he cast the same down and ran away When the Executioner causeth a Criminal to make an honourable amends by which understand a most ignominious punishment inflicted upon an extreme Offender who must go through the streets bare-foot and bare-headed with a burning link in his hand unto the seat of Justice or some such publick place and there confess his Offence and ask forgiveness of the party he hath wrong'd he many times endures no other evil but that of shame and yet I would not blame him that should prefer a natural death before such a dishonour It may be said that the Point of Honour reacheth not so far but is onely an image and shadow since words are but the images of things and that a Man will fight a Duel when another hath reproach'd him for a fault either of his own or of some other for whom he is concern'd But I answer that Men fight oftner for actions and bad offices then for words And although they commonly reflect thus what will people say of me if I put up this Yet the truth is 't is out of fear lest one contempt making way for another might give occasion to effects not onely prejudicial to our Reputation but also to our Fortune which we know in these dayes depends upon our Reputation A Captain known for a Coward will be cashier'd A Souldier that doth not defend himself will be beaten A Gentleman that doth not swagger when he is affronted he will be abus'd not onely in his Honour but also in his goods by all his Neighbours So that the Point of Honour is not so little real as it is imagin'd since it hath an influence not onely upon a Mans Honour but likewise upon his goods and life In brief we may consult those who deny the Point of Honour to be a real thing by all this Honourable Assembly and especially by the many excellent Wits who are excited by Honour to appear therein and acquire what they may justly expect the commendation which is due to their merits The Second said That he found some difference between being an Honest Man and a Man of Honour for that to be an Honest Man it is requisite onely to possess the Honest Good Bonum Honestum which is Virtue But to be a Man of Honour besides that the world must know that we possess the same and give us the reputation of being virtuous For 't is stupidity not to care what opinion Men have of us Which caus'd the Wise-man to pronounce a Curse against those who neglect a good Fame which is so natural and so neerly alli'd to Virtue that she seems not to have her utmost perfection when she is separated from it and a Prudent Man desires equally to be virtuous and to be esteemed such Now if Honour consist in the possession of Virtue thus accompani'd the Point of Honour will be the Point of Virtue that is the perfection thereof or rather Virtue most perfect accompani'd with a compleat Reputation This perfection in my Judgement is the War-like Virtue call'd by the Greeks by way of excellence The Virtue of Man and so esteemed by all the world that no people however otherwise barbarous ever deny'd it the Title of Nobleness It is not then to be wonder'd if Men of Courage think that the Point of Honour consists in preserving to themselves the Reputation of being Valiant and endeavour by all means to make it appear to every one that they are endew'd with this War-like Virtue Whence most Quarrels are occasion'd by Mens accusing one another of want of Courage or other appurtenances of that Virtue The Third said That which we call the Point of Honour is nothing else in my Judgement but the desire of being esteem'd more honest persons then we are For Man being the greatest dissembler of all Creatures endeavours to make himself thought what he is not because it being essential to him to desire Good and his perverse Inclination not leading him to the true therefore at least he desires the apparent This is seen in all his actions which aim onely at three kinds of Good namely the Honest the Profitable and the Delightful Now of these three onely the Honest is called the Good of Man because the two latter usually corrupt him the former preserves him And nevertheless many addict themselves to Pleasures more run after Profit but very few comparatively follow the Honest Good for its own sake unless it be joyn'd with one of the other In the mean time there is none but would perswade others that he is passionately in love with the latter and not anxious for Honour But I conceive we may know persons of Honour by the little account they make of injuries which seem to tend to their disparagement especially when they think the same do not belong unto them and they who are worthy of Honour seek it least and are not troubled so much as others at the injury which any one thinks he doth them So we see a Prince will not be so sollicitous to employ his qualities in a publick act as a Man of low condition newly exalted An Honest Woman will not be so much troubled at an injury offer'd to her Honour as she that is of an evil Life because the former hath true Honour which
thereunto even by promise of reward 4. We naturally love that which proceeds from us be it the most imperfect in the world The Workman loves his work more then that loves him as the Creator loves his creature better then he is lov'd by it Moreover we find in Scripture fathers who desir'd and obtain'd the raising of their children from the dead but no child that pray'd God to raise his father yea one that desir'd leave to go and bury his To conclude our will is carri'd to an object by the opinion true or false which it conceives of it and accordingly we see that a man's only believing himself to be a father inspires this paternal love into him though he be not The Third said In this sweet debate between fathers and children I conceive the former ought to yield to the latter as in all other cases the latter to the former And as the whole goes not to seek its part but the part its whole so the child who is part of his father loves him more tenderly and is more willingly lead towards him then the father towards his child If fathers love their children because they resemble them the resemblance is common to both and so children shall love them as much for the same reason And the being which fathers give their children is as much an effect of the love which they bear to themselves as of that which they bear to their children Indeed if love be a fire as the Poets say it must according to its natural motion rather ascend then descend and if in humane love the lover is less perfect then the loved the child who hath less perfection then the father must be the lover and the father the subject of his love And this the examples of Filial love sufficiently manifest For not to speak of Aeneas who sav'd his father from the fire and sack of Troy nor of Amphinomus and Anapias who went to draw theirs out of the midst of Aetna's flames nor of Cimon the son of Miltiades who sold his liberty to redeem the dead body of his father which was retain'd for debts and to give it an honourable burial nor of Athamanes King of Crete who voluntarily brought death upon himself that he might prolong his fathers life according to the answer of the Oracle Appius alone decides the question He had the choice of leaving either his father or his own family in evident danger he chose rather to be a good son then a good father and husband abandoning his wife and children to the proscription of the Triumvirate that he might secure his father from it The Fourth said It seems that Filial love is rather a payment of a debt an acknowledgement of a benefit and shunning of ingratitude then a free and natural affection such as that of the father is Besides he who gives loves more then he who receives Yea it seems that he who began to do good is oblig'd to continue it that his work be not imperfect Now fathers give not only being which nevertheless is the foundation of well-being but also usually education and their riches acquir'd by their labours induc'd so to do by the sole consideration of honesty upon which their love being grounded is much more noble and admirable then that of children which is commonly establish'd upon the profit which they receive from their fathers The Fifth said 'T is not so much the being a father or a son that causes the amity as the being a good father or good son otherwise all fathers should love their children in the same manner and all children their fathers which do's not hold Nature casts the seeds of it co-habitation cultivates it custom cherishes it example fashions it but above all compassion enforces it Thus fathers seeing the weakness of their children ha's need of their aid love them the more And for this reason Grand-fathers love their Nephews more tenderly then their own children And when fathers through sicknesses or decrepit age become objects of compassion to their children their kindness is redoubled bur 't is not usually so strong as that of fathers towards them CONFERENCE XXXIII I. Of those that walk in their sleep II. Which is the most excellent Moral Virtue I. Of those that walk in sleep SLeep-walkers call'd by the Greeks Hypnobatae are such as rising out of their beds in the night walk about in their sleep and do the same things as if they were awake then return to bed again and think not that they were out of it unless in a dream This affection is rank'd under the symptomes of the animal faculty and particularly of the common sense and though it be not a disease yet it seems in some sort to be against nature For since men sleep for the resting of their senses and motion and wake to exercise the same whatever hinders and alters the one or the other as to move when we should rest is against nature And if it be strange persons remain stupid when they are awake as Exstaticks do 't is no less to see a man in sleep do as much or more then if he were awake I ascribe the natural causes hereof 1. To the Imagination which receives the impression of objects no less during sleep then waking yea it represents them to it self much greater then they are as it hapned to him whose leg being become paralytical in his sleep he dream'd that he had a leg of stone Now these species being strong act so powerfully upon the Imagination of the Hypnobatae that they constrain them to move and go towards the things represented therein For though sense be hindred in sleep yet motion is not as appears by Respiration which is always free and by infants who stir in their mothers belly though they sleep continually For the hinder part of the head destinated to motion is full of abundance of spirits especially at the beginning of the Spinal Marrow where there is a very apparent Cavity which cannot be stop'd by vapours as the anterior part of the head is in which the organs of the senses are which being stop'd by vapours can have no perception during sleep Wherefore 't is groundless to say with Aristotle that sleep-walkers see as well as if they were awake for 't is impossible for one not awake to see because visible objects make a more lively impression in their organ then any other and a man asleep is not distinguish'd from another but by cessation of the sense of seeing For one may Hear Taste Smell and Touch without waking but not See 2. The thick and tenacious vapours seising upon the brain and obstructing its out-lets contribute much to this effect For since the smoak of Tobacco is sometimes kept in our bodies two whole days the same may happen to the gross and viscous vapours rais'd from the humours or aliments 3. The particular constitution of their bodies is of some moment towards it as an active hot dry and robust
said That as health is a Symmetrie and fit proportion of all the humours while they continue in society one with another so a Fever is a discomposure thereof when some one comes to infringe the obedience which it owes to the laws of the Compositum and to usurp a Tyranny over the rest In which case they do as States who apprehend their own ruine by the too great increase of a potent neighbour they unite against it and go to assail it all together Upon this shock the natural heat retires to the Heart which is the centre of the Body as if it call'd its Councel hence proceeds the cold fit of the Fever during which the extreme parts destitute of their ordinary heat fall into trembling shivering and chattering as it comes to pass upon the Earth when the Sun is very remote from it But Nature at length getting the mastery is not contented to return the Blood to the parts who were depriv'd thereof in the same condition that they lent it to her she drives it into them with a new heat acquir'd by the vicinity of the Heart which is the source thereof and augmented by the reciprocation of its motion But as no violent thing is of long continuance this heated Blood causing its sharpest serosities to pass through the skin by sweat becomes asswaged and as water remov'd from off the fire ceases to boyle it no longer extends the Veins nor stimulates the Arteries whether this Crisis perfectly terminates the disease as in Continual Fevers or the Fit onely as in Intermitting which leaving a leven of the Fever how little soever in the humours and an empyreuma or combustion in the parts the best Aliments yea the most laudable humours if any such remain in the Body are as easily turn'd into the matter of the Fever as the best Wine is spoyl'd when it is pour'd upon a corrupted lee in a musty vessel And 't is not so much to be wonder'd that this corruption is made regularly in the time of half a day in Quotidians of one day in Tertians and of two in Quartans as that the Periods of Fevers are sometimes irregular as is seen in Erratical Fevers considering that all generations and corruptions are reciprocal and have their limited time Thus 't is a less wonder that Women are ordinarily deliver'd of Children likely to live in the ninth and seventh moneths then if they were deliver'd so in all the other moneths indifferently which hath place in all other motions of Nature who doth every thing according to number weight and measure II. Of Friendship Upon the Second Point the First said Friendship is a powerfull and streight Union which conjoynes the lover and the loved party together making one whole of these two parts like that bond which in Nature unites the Matter and the Form the Accident and the Substance The cause of it is Goodness which being proportionate to the Body produceth a natural Amity to the Passions an Animal Amity to the Understanding a Rational one to the Laws a Political or Civil to Religion a Divine one This Goodness consisting in a Proportion and Symmetry is not different from Beauty and therefore we apprehend Beauty in good things and goodness and convenience in such as are handsome and gracefull The Second said besides goodness which is the cause of Friendship and towards which our will is as necessarily carry'd as the Intellect is towards Truth and all the Senses towards their proper objects Resemblance and Friendship it self are the causes of Friendship The first is founded upon the Love which we bear to our selves For as we love our selves above any thing else in this world so we love those who resemble us and symbolize with our humours and inclinations Hence it is that one of the most common courses to please is to conform our selves to those by whom we desire to be affected we never contradict their Judgement we have no other Will but theirs we frame our selves to their gestures and actions without excepting those which are imperfect Then Friendship the second means of acquiring Love is no less effectual it being almost impossible not to love them who love us Whence the Ancients feign'd Love to be the most ancient of all the gods intimating that Love hath no other Principle or Origine but Love it self And they who assign'd him a Companion which they styl'd Anteros signifi'd thereby that Friendship cannot last unless it be mutual The Third said That Friendship must be distinguish'd from Love For Love is a Passion of the Concupiscible Appetite arising from the imagination of a sensible good and is found even in brute beasts But friendship is one of the most excellent vertues or rather the fruit of accomplish'd and perfect vertue 't is indeed very rare because it hath place only amongst excellent persons who are very few uniting and making them conspire together in the exercises of vertue But being once establish'd it is very durable inasmuch as its cause and foundation Vertue always remains and may be exercis'd Therefore Seneca pronounces that the friendship which knows an end was never true Some friendships there are indeed the most whose foundation is Profit and Pleasure but they are always imperfect Whence it is that old men and young men are ordinarily accounted incapable of true friendship the former because they scarce regard any thing besides Profit and the latter because their minds are more set upon what is pleasant and agreeable then upon what is honest or vertuous Nor is it ever found amongst wicked persons For 1. a perfect friend must love another as much as himself And although the affection we bear to our selves be not true friendship because this must always have reference to another yet it is the most certain yea the measure of perfect friendship and God hath appointed it as the rule of our love to our Neighbour Now how can he be a perfect friend who doth not love himself How can he agree with another who accords not with himself and how will he do good to another who doth none to himself for a vicious man is his own chiefest enemy whilst he pursues the false and imaginary good in stead of the true vice instead of vertue the shadow for the body and many times he becomes his own murderer by intemperance and other vices He hath always a civil war within himself his Reason is never at peace with his Appetite what one desires the other rejects Consequently he hath never any inward joy but he is greatly displeas'd with being alone and for that reason always seeks the company of those like himself to divert his sad thoughts The Fourth said There is nothing comparable to Friendship which is the salt and seasoning of humane life the presever of societies and the most agreeable and sweetest consolation that persons of vertue and honour can have by help of which a man finds another self to whom he may entrust his most secret
Insect being attributed to Jupiter and Venus plenty is prognosticated Now did we know all the internal or external characters of Animals we might by their motion and disposition obtain some knowledge of that of their Star and thence draw some conjectures of futurities But this cannot be done by the deportments of Men because these are varied by a thousand businesses imagination and troubles and especially by their free Will and Dissimulations the latter whereof puts them upon outward motions contrary to their internal and the former carries them by the sway of their wills against the course of coelestial impressions II. Why Men love more to command then obey Upon the Second Point it was said Man is one of the weakest but the most ambitious of all Creatures He accounts himself worthy to command not onely over all that is below him but also over all his equals And did not shame restrain him he would willingly give his own suffrage for himself when the person of greatest sufficiency were to be nominated Hence it is as I conceive that we have as many Enemies as Servants if the Proverb be true For the Servant accounting himself equally or more able to command then his Master believes that Nature of Fortune do's him wrong in leaving him in that condition and therefore he aspires to change it The opposition of Contraries contributes also thereunto for observing the evils which attend such as are reduc'd under the will of another and on the other side the content which Masters seem to have while they live at their own discretion and more easily suffer any evil of their own doing because every Man can better bear with himself then with another hereupon they as much desire command as they detest obedience Now besides all this the reason why we are so enamor'd of command is for that every thing desires to be in action because all being consists primarily in action Our Will accordingly is forward to exert the act of volition but it willeth onely by halves when it is controll'd and nothing offends us more then when we command and no body stirs to obey us so that some are impatient of being gain-said even in things notoriously impertinent or unjust Witness Philip of Macedon who having unjustly condemn'd a poor woman chose rather to pay her condemnation for her to her Adversary then retract his own judgement 'T will perhaps be objected that there are good Fryars and Nuns who love better to obey then to command I answer that in this act as well as in other mortifications of their appetites they acknowledge that they under-go very great difficulties and these prove the truth of the Proposition Yea obedience and the resignation of our own will is more hard to observe then Poverty and Chastity inasmuch as the goods of Fortune and the Body are inferior to those of the Mind The Second said This Question hath no difficulty in the general since all they who are contented with a servile condition make their obedience subservient to their desire of raising a fortune which may one day enable them to command Nor is the reason of it less easie For since no motive is more powerfull to incline the Will of Man then Delight and Profit no other reason of this desire need be search'd since superiority affords such sensible pleasure and conspicuous advantage command being to speak truth nothing else but an effective power of applying what means we please wherewith to compass our Profit or Delight But seeing Nature hath establish'd this Law that Inferior things ought to obey the Superior the less worthy the more worthy so that Obedience and Command are the different consonances which compose the Harmony of the world Whence is it that Man alone raising up the Tones or Notes of his Ambition interrupts the Consort of the Universe and makes Discord amongst this agreeable Musick The reason hereof is that as Nature gives no desires but she also gives power so she gives no power without desire Wherefore having made Man free by a power to wit a Will most free and independent she ha's also made him free by Inclination and Desire Now forasmuch as Obedience is the restriction and modification or rather an annihilation of and contrary motion to this Will and desire of freedome 't is no wonder that Man so abhors servitude and desires command because in doing so he most powerfully exercises his will in all its extent The Third said The Will of Man being alwayes mutable and in perpetual motion 't is no marvel if it abhors Obedience which checks its course deprives it of the means of change and usually carries it by a retrograde motion against its own inclination Yea 't is an ordinary thing for Men to be averse to do or abstain from any matter whatsoever onely because it is commanded or forbidden although we had a desire to do it before or at least it was indifferent to us Whence arose the Proverb That Forbidding inflames Appetite and the more for that the order which is given us introduces into our Will another strange Will which though like and conformable to ours yet displeases us as it is forinsecal as the motion which would have been natural to the stone if it had been barely let fall from on high downwards becomes violent to it when it is cast down The Fourth said This desire proceeds from the love which we bear to our selves so natural to Man that it lives first and dyes last in him Now Man loving himself more then any else and love having for its foundation the perfection and merit of the thing lov'd hence he esteemes himself more perfect and consequently more worthy to command then any other And this causes him to desire a thing which he accounts due to him The Fifth said That as some Men are naturally lead to command so others are inclin'd of their own accord to obey and serve The former are call'd by the Philosopher Lords and Masters by Nature having an Heroick Spirit and capable of governing not themselves onely but others too their Bodies being usually weak and delicate hair fine and skin smooth and thin Others are servants by Nature being strong and sturdy fit to carry burthens to undergo labour and such incommodities as attend those who are subject to another's Will they have also many times so little capacity that they have more of the beast then of the Man and this by the ordering of Divine Providence lest having good judgements and quick wits they might reflect upon the equity or injustice of their Masters commands and so not execute them as they ought or lest the consideration of their misery being thereby alwayes present with them might render them more unhappy The Sixth said That Man having been created by God for command as holy writ attesteth he alwayes retaines the remembrance of his original and would be Master every where For though the Creatures upon which the dominion given him by God extends
foal'd whence it must be taken betimes else the Mare bites it off and if she be deceiv'd of it never affects the foal afterwards and therefore 't is call'd by Virgil Matri praereptus Amor. The same effect is attributed to the seed of Mares to a plant call'd Hippomanes and by Pliny to the hair of a Wolfs tail the fish Remora the brain of a Cat and a Lizard and by Wierus to Swallows starv'd to death in an earthen pot the bones of a green Frog excarnated by Pismires the right parts of which he saith conciliate Love and the left hatred But to shew the vanity and impurity of these inventions most Philtres are taken from Animals generated of corruption excrements and other filthy and abominable things and commonly all rather excite Fury then Love as appears by many to whom Cantharides have been given and Caligula who was render'd mad by a drink of his wife Cesonia one Frederick of Austria and the Poet Lucretius by a Philtre given him by his Wife Lucilia Love is free and fixes not by constraint 't is not taken in at the mouth but the eyes the graces of the body being the most powerful charm as Olympia Wife of Philip of Macedon acknowledg'd when being jealous that her Husband lov'd a young Lady that was said to have given him amorous potions the Queen sent for her and having beheld her great Beauty said that she had those Philtres in her self Now if these gifts of the body be accompany'd with those of the mind and the party endu'd therewith testifie Love to another 't is impossible but the affection will become mutual Love being the parent of Love whence the Poets feign'd two Cupids Eros and Anteros and Ovid an intelligent person in this matter knew no surer course then this Vt ameris amabilis esto The Fourth said Love is a spiritual thing and consequently produc'd by means of the same nature Hence an ill report which is a thing not onely incorporeal but commonly phantastical and imaginary extinguishes all Love for a person otherwise lovely as to the graces of the body And the choice between equal Beauties shews that Love is not founded upon the outside Wherefore they take the wisest course to get themselves lov'd who use inductions and perswasions which are the common means to make marriages By all which it appears that Amorous Madness is a distemper of the mind and as such to be cur'd CONFERENCE LXXVIII I. Why the Sensitive Appetite rules over Reason II. Whether Speech be natural and peculiar to Man I. Why the Sensitive Appetite rules over Reason APpetite is an inclination of every thing to what is good for it self There are three sorts in Man First the Natural which is in plants who attract their nourishment and also in some inanimate things as the Load-stone and Iron yea in the Elements as the dry earth covets water and all heavy bodies tend to their centre 'T is without Knowledge and Will even in Man for all natural actions are perform'd best in sleep Secondly the Sensitive common to Man and Beast which some erroneously deny to be a humane faculty because 't is the seat of the Passions the enemies of Reason which constitutes Man But the encounter of it with Reason argues their distinction Thirdly the Rational call'd the Will which is Mistress of the former two and besides makes use of Reason for the knowing of one or more things And because desire cannot be without knowledge therefore the Sensitive Appetite presupposes the knowledge of the Imagination and the Will that of the Understanding but the Natural Appetite depends on that of a First Cause which directs every natural form to its particular good though it know not the same Now 't is demanded how the Mistresse comes to obey the Servants notwithstanding the Maxime That the Will tends to nothing but what is good which cannot be without truth and this is not such unless it be approv'd by the Intellect It seems to me improper to say that the Sensitive Appetite prevails over Reason but rather hinders it by its disturbance from pronouncing sentence as a brawling Lawyer doth a Judge by his noise The Second said That Reason is alwayes Mistress For Men govern themselves according to Nature the universal rule of all things and this nature being rational they cannot be guided otherwise then the motions of Reason But some find Reason where other finds none The Thief accounts riches ill divided and therefore he may justly possess himself of what he wants and however he sees evil in the action yet he conceives more in his necessity which his Reason makes him account the greatest of all evils So that comparing them together he concludes the less evil to be good and wittingly attempts the crime not owning it for such whilst he commits it The same may be said of all other sins wherein the present sweetness exceeds the fear of future punishment If Conscience interpose they either extinguish it or else wholly forbear the action Unless the Mind happen to be balanc'd and then they are in confusion like the Ass which dy'd of hunger between two measures of corn not knowing which to go to For 't is impossible for the Will to be carry'd to one thing rather then another unless it find the one better and more convenient The Third said 'T is congruous to nature for the Inferior to receive Law from the Superior So Man commands over beasts and amongst Men some are born Masters and others slaves the Male hath dominion over the Female the Father over his Children the Prince over his Subjects the Body receives Law from the Soul the Matter from its Form the Angels of Inferior Hierarchies receive their intelligence from the Superior and the lower Heavens the rule of their motions from the higher the Elements are subject to the influences of those celestial bodies and in all mixts one quality predominates over the rest Since therefore the Sensitive Appetite is as much below Reason as a beast below a Man and the Imagination below the Intellect according to the same order establish'd in Nature Reason ought alwayes to have the command over it because having more knowledge 't is capable to direct it to its end But through the perversity of our Nature we more willingly follow the dictates of Sense then Reason of the Flesh then the Spirit because the former being more familiar and ordinary touch us nearer then Reason whose wholsome counsels move not our Will so much which being Mistress of all the faculties according to its natural liberty may sometimes command a virtuous action of whose goodnesse Reason hath inform'd it sometimes a vitious one by the suggestion of the Sensitive Appetite which makes it taste the present sweetness and delight whose attraction is greater then that of future rewards promis'd by virtue to her followers Hence the Law of the members so prevails over the law of the mind as sometimes wholly to eclipse the
receive more benefit from it then any others Moreover Nature hath provided for other habits and complexions by the various mixtures of mineral-waters having compos'd hot baths of Salt Bitumen Sulphur and other Minerals through which they pass which strengthen the nerves and joynts cure Palsies as sea-water doth scabs But bathing chiefly regards fresh water It takes away weariness tempers the heat of weather causes sleep and is one of the most innocent pleasures of life But he that would know all the commodities of it must have try'd what ease it gives in the greatest pains especially in Colicks of all sorts whence 't is call'd Paradise by those that are tormented therewith Wherefore to take away bathing is to reject one of the best remedies in Physick and one of the greatest benefits of life The Fifth said That the Ancients having not yet the use of linen to free themselves from the soil contracted upon their bodies chiefly in wrastling and exercising naked upon the sand were oblig'd to the use of Bathes which became so easie and of so little cost to the multitude that they paid but a farthing a time whence Seneca calls the Bath rem quadrantariam And it cost them nothing after Antoninus Pius had caus'd a stately Bath to be built for the publick as Capitolinus reports But at length their use grew into abuse after women came to bathe themselves with men the Censors were fain to forbid them under penalty of Divorce and loss of Dowry II. Whether the Wife hath more love for her Husband or the Husband for his Wife Upon the second Point it was said That the Poet of our time who said that he would marry his Mistress that so he might love her less imply'd thereby that we less love what is already obtain'd But he determines not the Question who is soonest weary of loving or who loves most the Husband or the Wife where love must be distinguish'd from friendship being a passion of the Concupiscible appetite tending towards sensible good apprehended such by the Phancy whereas friendship is a most perfect vertue leading the will to honest good known such by the Understanding the former many times being opposite to the latter inasmuch as the Passions of the Appetite disturb Reason and by excess rise up to jealousie whereas the latter can have no excess for the more it is excessive the more it deserves the name of friendship 'T is therefore necessary that the woman whose phancy is stronger and intellect less perfect have more love and less friendship the husband on the contrary more friendship and less love Which extends also to children whom the mothers love with more passion and tendernss but the fathers more solidly which affection may serve for a proof and evidence of that in question The Second said That the praise of constancy in love is due to man whose mind is more perfect and consequently less mutable And whereas love proceeds from knowledge it will follow that men who understand more do also love more And want of affection would be more blameable in the man then in the woman as presupposing his defect of judgement in being mistaken in his choice men usually chusing their wives and the wives only accepting of the husbands who address to them For there 's great difference between the liberty our will hath to be carried to what object it pleases and only the turn of approving or rejecting what is offer'd to it So that the woman who loves not her husband may say that she was mistaken but in one point namely in accepting what she should have refus'd but the husband in as many as he had objects in the world capable of his friendship Besides 't would be shameful to the husband the head and master of the family to be inferior to his wife in the essential point which renders their marriage happy or unfortunate And Gracchus's choosing death that his wife Cornelia might live having slain the male of two Serpents whom he found together upon the Augur's assuring him of the said effect as it came to pass shews that we want not examples for proof of this truth as that of Semiramis who having the supream authority committed to her but for one day caus'd her husband who had granted the same and been indulgent to her all his life to be put to death and the 49 daughters of Danaus who all slew their husbands in one night prove the same The Third said That amity being begotten and encreased by necessity the woman as the weaker hath more need of support and protection from the man and so is more oblig'd to love him and therefore nature hath providently implanted in her a greater tenderness and inclination to love because all her happiness depends on her husbands good or ill treatment of her which is commonly according to her love to him To which end also the woman is endu'd with beauty and a more delicate body and consequently more apt to give and receive love then men whose exercises require a temper more hot and dry whereby to undergo the travels of life And if examples be needful the contest of the Indian wives who should cast her self into her husband's funeral fire together with whatever most precious thing she hath in testimony of greatest love suffices to prove this conclusion no men having ever been seen to burn for love of their wives Yea when anciently one man had abundance of wives a custom still practis'd amongst the Turks 't was impossible for the husband to have as much love for his wives as they had for him being in all ages contented with one alone and consecrating to him their whole affection which the more common it is is so much the less strong CONFERENCE LXXXIV I. Of Respiration II. Whether there be any certainty in humane Sciences I. Of Respiration ALthough our natural heat be of a degree more eminent then the elementary yet 't is preserv'd after the same manner namely by addition of new matter and emission of fuliginous vapours ever resulting from the action of heat upon humidity both which are done by the means of respiration which is the attraction of air by the mouth or nostrils into the Lungs and from thence into the Heart where the purest part of this air is chang'd into vital spirits which are also refresh'd and ventilated by it For though as much goes forth by exspiration as is taken in by inspirations yet the air we breathe is nevertheless turn'd into our spirits for that which issues forth is not air alone but 't is accompani'd with hot gross vapours streaming from the heart the furnace of our heat And as respiration is proper to perfect animals so the imperfect have only transpiration which is when the same air is attracted by the imperceptible pores of the body Which is sufficient for animals whose heat is languid as Insects the Child in the womb and hysterical women in whom also hereupon the pulse ceases for