necessary Page 431 CONFERENCE LXXIII I. Of the Earth-quake II. Of Envy Page 437 CONFERENCE LXXIV I. Whence comes trembling in men II. Of Navigation and Longitudes Page 441 CONFERENCE LXXV I. Of the Leprosie why it is not so common in this Age as formerly II. Of the ways to render a place populous Page 447 CONFERENCE LXXVI I. Of Madness II. Of Community of Goods Page 452 CONFERENCE LXXVII I. Of Sorcerers II. Of Erotick or Amorous Madness Page 457 CONFERENCE LXXVIII I. Why the Sensitive Appetite rules over Reason II. Whether Speech be natural and peculiar to Man Page 461 CONFERENCE LXXIX I. What the Soul is II. Of the apparition of Spirits Page 466 CONFERENCE LXXX I. Of the Epilepsie or Falling-sickness II. Whether there be any Art of Divination Page 471 CONFERENCE LXXXI I. Of Chiromancy II. Which is the noblest part of the Body Page 475 CONFERENCE LXXXII I. Which is most powerful Art or Nature II. Whether Wine is most to be temper'd in Winter or in Summer Page 480 CONFERENCE LXXXIII I. Of Baths II. Whether the Wife hath more love for her Husband or the Husband for his Wife Page 485 CONFERENCE LXXXIV I. Of Respiration II. Whether there be any certainty in humane Sciences Page 489 CONFERENCE LXXXV I. Whether the manners of the Soul follow the temperament of the Body II. Of Sights or Shews Page 495 CONFERENCE LXXXVI I. Of the Dog-days II. Of the Mechanicks Page 500 CONFERENCE LXXXVII I. Whether the Souls Immortality is demonstrable by Natural Reasons II. Whether Travel be necessary to an Ingenious Man Page 505 CONFERENCE LXXXVIII I. Which is the best sect of Philosophers II. Whence comes the diversity of proper Names Page 512 CONFERENCE LXXXIX I. Of Genii II. Whether the Suicide of the Pagans be justifiable Page 517 CONFERENCE XC I. Of Hunting II. Which is to be preferr'd the weeping of Heraclitus or the laughing of Democritus Page 522 CONFERENCE XCI I. Whether heat or cold be more tolerable II. Who are most happy in this World Wise Men or Fools Page 527 CONFERENCE XCII I. Which is most healthful moisture or dryness II. Which is to be preferr'd the Contemplative Life or the Active Page 531 CONFERENCE XCIII I. Of the spots in the Moon and the Sun II. Whether 't is best to use severity or gentleness towards our dependents Page 536 CONFERENCE XCIV I. Of the Eclipses of the Sun and Moon II. Whether all Sciences may be profitably reduc'd to one Page 544 CONFERENCE XCV I. Of the diversity of Wits II. Of New-years Gifts Page 548 CONFERENCE XCVI I. Of Place II. Of Hieroglyphicks Page 554 CONFERENCE XCVII I. Of Weights and the causes of Cravity II. Of Coat-Armour Page 559 CONFERENCE XCVIII I. Of the causes of Contagion II. Of the ways of occult Writing Page 566 CONFERENCE XCIX I. Of Ignes fatui II. Of Eunuchs Page 571 CONFERENCE C I. Of the Green-sickness II. Of Hermaphrodites Page 575 THE First Conference I. Of Method II. Of Entity I. Of Method EVery one being seated in the great Hall of the Bureau Report was made That the Resolve of the last Conference was to Print the Matters which should be propos'd henceforward and the Disquisitions upon them which deserv'd it As also that for the bringing in of all the most excellent Subjects that are found in the Sciences and for the doing it orderly the Method requisite to be observ'd therein should this day be taken into consideration The practice of which Method was likewise thought fit to be begun upon the most Universal Subject which is Entity Wherefore every one was intreated to set cheerfully about opening the way in this so pleasant and profitable an Enterprize The first Speaker defin'd Method The succinct order of things which are to be handled in Arts and Sciences and said that it is of two sorts One of Composition which proceedeth from the Parts to the Whole and is observ'd in Speculative Disciplines The other of Resolution which descendeth from the whole to the parts and hath place in Practical disciplines He said also that hereunto might be added the Method of Definition which is a way of defining a thing first and then explicating the parts of its definition but it participateth of both the former The second said That besides those two general Methods there is a particular one which is observ'd when some particular Subject is handled according to which it behoveth to begin with the Name or Word Distinguish the same by its divers acceptations then give the Definition assign its Principles and Causes deduce its Proprieties and end with its Species or Parts After this some dilated upon the Method of Cabalists which they begin with the Archetypal World or Divine Idea thence descend to the World Intellectual or Intelligences and lastly to the Elementary which is Physicks or Natural Philosophy That of Raymond Lullie follow'd next And here the Difference of humane judgements came to be wonder'd at Most other Nations could never fancy this Art which he calls Great and Wonderful and yet the Spaniards profess it publickly at Majorca in a manner ingrossing it from all other places He maketh the same to consist in thirteen Parts The first of which he calleth the Alphabet from B to K to each of whose Letters he assigneth 1. a Transcendent after his mode 2. a Comparison 3. a Question 4. a Substance 5. a Virtue and 6. a Vice as to B 1. Goodness 2. Difference 3. Whether a thing is 4. Deity 5. Justice 6. Covetousness To C 1. Greatness 2. Agreement 3. What it is 4. Angel 5. Prudence 6. Gluttony and so of the rest The Second Part containes 4. Figures The Third Definitions Then follow Rules Tables containing the several combinations of Letters The Evacuation Multiplication and mixture of Figures The 9. Subjects The Application The Questions The custome and manner of teaching which I should deduce more largely unto you but that they require at least a whole Conference In brief such it is that he promiseth his disciples that they shall be thereby enabled to answer ex tempore yet pertinently to all questions propounded unto them The fifth said That there was no need of recurring to other means then those of the Ordinary Philosophy which maketh two sorts of Order namely one of Invention and another of Disposition or Doctrine which latter is the same thing with the Method above defined And as for the Order of Invention it is observed when some Science is invented in which we proceed from Singulars to Universals As after many experiences that the Earth interpos'd between the Sun and the Moon caus'd a Lunar Eclipse this Vniversal Conclusion hath been framed That every Lunar Eclipse is made by the interposition of the Earth between the Sun and the Moon An other alledg'd that Method might well be call'd a Fourth Operation of the Mind For the First is the bare knowledge of things without affirmation or negation The Second is a Connexion of those naked Notices
Hope which is by the testimony of Aristotle a species of Love contemnes and surmounts all difficulties which hinder its attaining to its Good Here one objecting That Anger which arises from Hatred and inward Grief hath more violent effects then Hope and the other Passions It was answer'd that Anger consists of a mixture of Love and Hatred therefore Homer sayes that to be angry is a thing more sweet then Honey For Anger tends to Revenge and ceaseth when we are reveng'd for the wrong we apprehend done to us Now Revenge seemes a Good and delectable thing to the person that seeks it and therefore all the great Ebullitions and Commotions observ'd in Anger ought to be referr'd to the Love and Desire of Revenge Besides the Motions which attend Hatred are Motions of Flight as those which accompany Love are Motions of Pursuit and Anger being rather a Pursuit and seeking of Revenge then a Flight from any evil it is more reasonably to be rank'd under Love then under Hatred Again we see amorous persons are more easily put into heat then even those which are drawn up in battalia and ready to kill one another In fine if Hatred and all the Passions attending it have any force and violence Love is the prime cause thereof we hate no thing but because we love some thing and that more or less proportionably as we love Wherefore the Philosophers who would introduce an Apathy and banish all the Passions should have done well rather to extinguish Love For he who loves no thing hates no thing and when we have lost any thing our sadness and resentment is proportionable to the Love we had for it He that loves no thing fears no thing and if it be possible that he do's not love his own life he do's not fear death It is not therefore to be inquir'd which excites the greatest Commotions Love or Hatred since even those which Hatred excites proceed from Love The Third said That the Acts or Motions of the Appetite are called Passions because they make the Body suffer and cause an alteration in the Heart and Pulse Such as aim at Pleasure enervate the Motion of Contraction because they dilate the Spirits and augment that of Dilatation Whereas on the contrary those which belong to Sadness diminish the Motion of Dilatation because they further that of Contraction We may consider the Passions either materially or formally the former consideration denotes the Impression which they make upon the Body the latter the relation to their Object So Anger consider'd materially is defin'd An Ebullition and Fervour of the Blood about the Heart and formally A Desire of Revenge This being premiz'd I affirm That Hatred is much more powerful then Love if we consider them materially not as alone but as leaders of a party viz. Love with all the train of Passions that follow the same towards Good and Hatred with all its adherents in reference to Evil. For either of them taken apart and by it self make very little impression and alteration in the Heart Love is a bare acknowledgement of and complacency in good and goeth no further as Love Hatred is nothing else but a bare rejection disavowing and aversion of Evil. In verification of which conception of the Nature of those Passions it is evident that the Effects ascrib'd to Love as Extasie Languishing are the Effects not of Love but of Hope weary and fainting through its own duration Now these Passions being thus taken Love causeth less alteration upon the Body then Hatred For its highest pitch is Delight which is materially an expansion of the Spirits of the Heart towards the parts of the whole Body wherein appeareth rather a cessation from Action then any violence But Hatred which terminates in Anger makes a furious havock It dauseth the Blood to boyle about the Heart and calls to its aid the same Passions that are subservient to Love as Hope and Boldness conceiving it a Good to be reveng'd on the present Evil. The Case is the same also if they be consider'd according to their formality For the Object of Love is a Good not absolute but according to some consideration seeing the good of an Animal is its preservation to which that kind which is called Delectable Good or the Good of Delight is ordain'd as a means to the end But the Object of Hatred is the Evil which destroyes an Absolute and Essential being of an Animal For which reason it moves more powerfully then Good The Fourth said That for the better judging of the Question we must suppose that these two Passions are two Agents which tend each to their different End For the end of Love is a good Being That of Hatred which repels what destroyes our Being is the preservation of Being simply Now Being is much more perfect naturally then better being though morally it is not so perfect and the preservation of Being is of the same dignity with Being On the other side it is true that Love is the cause of Hatred and that we hate nothing but because we love Yet it doth not follow that Hatred is not more powerful then Love seeing many times the Daughter is more strong and fair then the Mother Now if they are brutish Passions they must be measur'd by the standard of Brutes But we see a Dog leave his Meat to follow a Beast against which he hath a natural animosity And Antipathies are more powerful then Sympathies for the former kill and the latter never give life Nevertheless sometimes Love prevailes over Hatred For a Man that loves the Daughter passionately and hates the Father as much will not cease to do good to the Father for the Daughters sake The shortness of the dayes and the enlargements upon this Subject having in this and some of the former Conferences left no room for Inventions every one was entrealed to prepare himself for the future and these two Points were chosen for the next day seven-night CONFERENCE XVII I. Of the several fashions of wearing Mourning and why Black is us'd to that purpose rather than any other colour II. Why people are pleas'd with Musick I. Of the severall fashions of wearing Mourning and why Black is us'd to that purpose rather then any other colour THe First said That the greatest part of Man-kind excepting some Barbarians lamented the death of their friends and express'd their sadness by external Mourning which is nothing but the change of Habit. Now they are observ'd to be of six sorts The Violet is for Princes The weeds of Virgins are white in reference to purity Sky-colour is in use with the people of Syria Cappadocia and Armenia to denote the place which they wish to the dead namely Heaven The Yellow or Feuille-morte among those of Aegypt to shew say they that as Herbs being faded become yellow so Death is the end of Humane Hope The Grey is worne by the Aethiopians because it denotes the colour of the Earth which receives
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
Tranquility of Mind the scope and end of Moral Philosophy is of three sorts The I. is call'd Alaraxic and is in the Understanding whose judgement it suspends and is not mov'd with any thing which was the end of the Scepticks The II. is in the Reason which regulates the Passions of the Sensitive Appetite and is term'd Metriopathy or moderation of the Passions The III. is the Apathy of the Stoicks in which they constituted their supreme Good which is an Insensibility Indolence and want of Passions attributed by the envious to a Melancholy Humour or to Ambition and Cynicall Hypocrisie For the Melancholy Man seeking solitude as the Aliment of his Phancy and the Element of his black Humour which is the step-dame of Virtues by thinking to avoid external Passions remains under the Tyranny of internal which he dares not vent but covers like Fire under ashes This mask'd Sect shuts the fore-door indeed to the Passions but opens the postern They passionately desire to shew themselves without Passion And their vanity appears in that they affect to appear unlike the rest of Men by casting off humane sentiments and affections as Charity and Compassion which they account vitious But instead of raising themselves above Men they degrade themselves below beasts by depriving themselves of the indifferent actions which are common to us with them Actions which Reason ought to regulate indeed but not wholly reject And as the supreme Region of the Air receives Exhalations to inflame them and make shining Comets but is free from Hail Thunder Winds Rains and other Meteors which are made in the Middle Region so Reason ought to receive the notices of the Sensitive Appetite which are called Passions to make use of them but 't is to moderate them and hinder the disorder caus'd by them in the Sensitive Appetite which is the Middle Faculty of the Soul In fine as Eagles and Dolphins which are in the tempests of the Winds and Sea are yet more to be esteem'd then Moles Wormes and other creeping things which live in holes so he who is agitated with Passions much surpasses him who hath none at all Nor is there any body but desires rather to be froward then stupid and insensible And if Insensibility be a Virtue then stocks and stones and inanimate bodies would be more happy then we The Second said Since Passion is an irregular motion of the Sensitive Appetite call'd therefore Perturbation it alters the state of the Soul Whence Anger and Fear hinder us from perceiving what is visible and Hatred or Love pervert the Judgement for which reason we desire that a good Judge be without Passion What a disease is to the Body whose actions it hurteth that are the Passions to the Soul Wherefore to ask whether the Soul is happiest without Passion is to question whether the Body is most at ease without sickness and to moderate instead of extirpating them is to palliate a disease instead of curing it and to inquire of a Pilot whether a Tempest be more proper for Navigation then a Calm Moreover the happiest condition of Man is that which comes nearest Eternal Bliss in which we shall have no Passions the superior and rational part having subdu'd the inferior or sensitive And Aristotle holds that the Heroes or Demi-gods are exempted from them The Third said 'T is to derogate from our Senses to say with the Stoicks that the Passions which we feele proceed onely from the depravation of our judgements For what they call diseases of the Mind is meant of those which are inordinate and not of those which are moderate and fram'd by the level of Reason 'T is therefore expedient to moderate them but not wholly extinguish them though it were possible Now that it is impossible appears because they are appurtenances of our Nature and the actions of the Sensitive Faculty which is part of our selves And our Lord not having renounc'd these appendances of our Humanity hath thereby manifested that they are not vicious Besides the first motions are not in our power and therefore 't is impossible totally to extirpate them But though we could we ought not because they are altogether necessary as appears in that I. Without the Passions there would be no Virtues for the Passions are the Objects of Virtues Thus Temperance moderates Pleasure and Pain Fortitude regulates Boldness and Fear II. They sharpen them Thus Anger serves to heighten Courage and Fear augments Prudence III. They preserve an Animal Thus Pleasure incites Animals to feed and generate and Grief makes them avoid what is noxious and recur to remedies even in spiritual distempers in which to be insensible of Grief is to be desperate The Fourth said If Men were void of Passions they might be lead to Virtue with much more success and less trouble For they would not be averted from it by the contrary motions of their Passions which hurry them with so great violence that all that the most virtuous endeavour to do is to swim against the Torrent and repress its impetuous course Upon which they unfruitfully spend their time which might be farr better employ'd in performing virtuous actions when the rebated Passions introducing an agreeable evenness in their Humours with a firm Constancy in their Manners accompany'd with a laudable indifference in their Desires would allow reason more means to incite them to the exercise of Virtues For Men having their Eyes unvail'd of the sundry affections which blind them would more perfectly know the True Good and consequently pursue it by a shorter and surer way And though they were not lead to Sensible Good with so much ardour nor decline Evil with so much horrour yet they would do both with more reason So that what Men do now by a motion of the Sensitive Appetite they would do then by a principle of Virtue For the difficulty found in attaining a total privation of Passions seemes indeed to surpass our strength yet thereby sets forth the excellence of the Atchievement The Fifth said He that were exempt from all Passions would be as unhappy as he that should always endeavour to bridle them But the former is impossible and the latter no less difficult then to walk upon a rope where the least false step procures a dangerous fall For we quit our passions but they quit not us as the thought of young maidens follow'd a good father even into his Hermitage And he that goes about to tame them is the true Sisyphus upon whom the stone which he thrusts away incessantly revolves The first would be without joy without which nevertheless a man cannot be happy The second would be without rest because he would be in perpetual combat and inquietude wherewith felicity cannot consist I conceive therefore morally speaking there 's more felicity in gently giving the bridle to one's passions and following his inclinations although this opinion may well consist with Christian Philosophy in good-natur'd persons or such as have acquir'd a good temper by
Principles II. Of the End of all Things Page 5 CONFERENCE III I. Of Causes in general II. Whence it is that every one is zealous for his own Opinion though it be of no importance to him Page 12 CONFERENCE IV I. Of the First Matter II. Of Perpetual Motion Page 18 CONFERENCE V I. Of Resemblance II. Whether it behoveth to joyn Armes to Letters Page 24 CONFERENCE VI I. Of Fire II. Of the Vniversal Spirit Page 31 CONFERENCE VII I. Of the Air. II. Whether it be best for a State to have Slaves Page 38 CONFERENCE VIII I. Of Water II. Of Wine and whether it be necessary for Souldiers Page 44 CONFERENCE IX I. Of the Earth II. What it is that makes a Man wise Page 51 CONFERENCE X I. Of the Motion or Rest of the Earth II. Of two Monstrous Brethren living in the same Body which are to be seen in this City Page 57 CONFERENCE XI I. Of the little Hairy Girl lately seen in this City II. Whether it is more easie to resist Pleasure then Pain Page 64 CONFERENCE XII I. Of three Suns II. Whether an Affection can be without Interest Page 71 CONFERENCE XIII I. Whether Melancholy Persons are the most ingenious or prudent II. Which is most necessary in a State Reward or Punishment Page 77 CONFERENCE XIV I. Of the Seat of Folly II. Whether a Man or Woman be most inclin'd to Love Page 83 CONFERENCE XV I. How long a Man may continue without eating II. Of the Echo Page 89 CONFERENCE XVI I. How Spirits act upon Bodies II. Whether is more powerful Love or Hatred Page 95 CONFERENCE XVII I. Of the several fashions of wearing Mourning and why Black is us'd to that purpose rather then any other colour II. Why people are pleas'd with Musick Page 103 CONFERENCE XVIII I. Of the Original of Winds II. Why none are contented with their Condition Page 109 CONFERENCE XIX I. Of the Flowing and Ebbing of the Sea II. Of the Point of Honour Page 115 CONFERENCE XX I. Of the Original of Fountains II. Whether there be a commendable Ambition Page 121 CONFERENCE XXI I. Of Dreams II. Why Men are rather inclin'd to Vice then Virtue Page 127 CONFERENCE XXII I. Of Judiciary Astrologie II. Which is least blameable Covetousness or Prodigality Page 133 CONFERENCE XXIII I. Of Physiognomy II. Of Artificial Memory Page 139 CONFERENCE XXIV I. Which of the Five Senses is the most noble II. Of Laughter Page 144 CONFERENCE XXV I. Of the Diversity of Countenances II. Whether Man or Woman be the more noble Page 150 CONFERENCE XXVI I. Whether it be lawful for one to commend himself II. Of Beauty Page 157 CONFERENCE XXVII I. Whether the World grows old II. Of Jealousie Page 163 CONFERENCE XXVIII I. What is the greatest Delight of Man II. Of Cuckoldry Page 169 CONFERENCE XXIX I. Whence the saltness of the Sea proceeds II. Which is the best Food Flesh or Fish Page 174 CONFERENCE XXX I. Of the Terrestrial Paradise II. Of Embalmings and Mummies Page 180 CONFERENCE XXXI I. Whether the Life of Man may be prolong'd by Art II. Whether 't is better to be without Passions then to moderate them Page 185 CONFERENCE XXXII I. Sympathy and Antipathy II. Whether Love descending is stronger then ascending Page 191 CONFERENCE XXXIII I. Of those that walk in their sleep II. Which is the most excellent Moral Virtue Page 197 CONFERENCE XXXIV I. Of Lycanthropy II. Of the way to acquire Nobility Page 203 CONFERENCE XXXV I. Of feigned Diseases II. Of regulating the Poor Page 209 CONFERENCE XXXVI I. Of the tying of the Point II. Which is the greatest of all Vices Page 214 CONFERENCE XXXVII I. Of the Cabala II. Whether the Truth ought always to be spoken Page 220 CONFERENCE XXXVIII I. Of the Period called Fits of Fevers II. Of Friendship Page 226 CONFERENCE XXXIX I. Why all men naturally desire knowledge II. Whether Permutation or Exchange be more commodious then Buying and Selling Page 230 CONFERENCE XL I. Of Prognostication or Presaging by certain Animals II. Why all men love more to command then to obey Page 238 CONFERENCE XLI I. Of Comets II. Whether Pardon be better then Revenge Page 244 CONFERENCE XLII I. Of the Diversity of Languages II. Whether is to be preferr'd a great stature or a small Page 251 CONFERENCE XLIII I. Of the Philosophers stone II. Of Mont de piete or charitable provision for the Poor Page 256 CONFERENCE XLIV I. How Minerals grow II. Whether it be best to know a little of every thing or one thing exactly Page 262 CONFERENCE XLV I. Whether the Heavens be solid or liquid II. Whether it be harder to get then to preserve Page 268 CONFERENCE XLVI I. Of Vacuity II. Of the Extravagance of Women Page 274 CONFERENCE XLVII I. Of the Virtue of Numbers II. Of the Visible Species Page 280 CONFERENCE XLVIII I. Whether every thing that nourishes an Animal ought to have life II. Of Courage Page 286 CONFERENCE XLIX I. Whether there be Specifical remedies to every Disease II. Whether Tears proceed from Weakness Page 292 CONFERENCE L I. Whether Colours are real II. Whether is better to speak well or to write well Page 298 CONFERENCE LI I. At what time the year ought to begin II. Why the Load-stone draws Iron Page 309 CONFERENCE LII I. Of a Point II. Whether other Animals besides Man have the use of Reason Page 315 CONFERENCE LIII I. Whether there be more then five Senses II. Whether is better to speak or to be silent Page 319 CONFERENCE LIV I. Of Touch. II. Of Fortune Page 325 CONFERENCE LV I. Of the Taste II. Whether Poetry be useful Page 331 CONFERENCE LVI I. Of the Smelling II. Of Eloquence Page 337 CONFERENCE LVII I. Of the Hearing II. Of Harmony Page 343 CONFERENCE LVIII I. Of the Sight II. Of Painting Page 349 CONFERENCE LIX I. Of Light II. Of Age. Page 355 CONFERENCE LX I. Of Quintessence II. Which is the most in esteem Knowledge or Virtue Page 361 CONFERENCE LXI I. Which is hardest to endure Hunger or Thirst. II. Whether a General of an Army should endanger his person Page 367 CONFERENCE LXII I. Of Time II. Whether 't is best to overcome by open force or otherwise Page 373 CONFERENCE LXIII I. Of Motion II. Of Custome Page 379 CONFERENCE LXIV I. Of the Imagination II. Which is most powerful Hope or Fear Page 384 CONFERENCE LXV I. Of the Intellect II. Whether the Husband and Wife should be of the same humour Page 390 CONFERENCE LXVI I. Of Drunkenness II. Of Dancing Page 396 CONFERENCE LXVII I. Of Death II. Of the Will Page 402 CONFERENCE LXVIII I. Of the Magnetical Cure of Diseases II. Of Anger Page 408 CONFERENCE LXIX I. Of Life II. Of Fasting Page 414 CONFERENCE LXX I. Of Climacterical Years II. Of Shame Page 419 CONFERENCE LXXI I. Why motion produces heat II. Of Chastity Page 425 CONFERENCE LXXII I. Of Thunder II. Which of all the Arts is the most
it self and causes them to act and move in the Matter rightly dispos'd As for the Second Like as they argue that the world is finite round and corruptible because its parts are so So also it may be said that the world hath a Spirit which enlivens it since all its principal parts have a particular one for their Conservation Action and Motion the parts being of the same Nature with the whole This Universal Spirit is prov'd by the impotency of the Matter which of it self having no activity or principle of Life and Motion needeth some other to animate and quicken it Now particular Forms cannot do that for then they would be principles of that Virtue that is to say principles of themselves which is impossible Wherefore there must be some Superiour Form which is the Universal Spirit the principle of Action and Motion the Uniter of the Matter and the Form the Life of all Nature and the Universal Soul of the World Whence it may confidently be affirm'd that the World is animated but with what Soul or Spirit is the difficulty For if we prove by Local Motion or by that of Generation that a Plant or Animal are animated why may we not say the same of all the World since its more noble and principal parts afford evidence thereof As for the Heaven and the Stars they are in continual Motion which the more â—ober Opinion at this day confesseth to produce from their Internal Form rather then from the Intelligences which some would have fastned to the Spheres as a Potter to his wheel The Sun besides his own Motion which some call in controversie gives Life to all things by his heat and influences The Air Water and Earth afford also instances of this Life in the production and nourishing of Plants and Animals Thus the principal parts being animated this sufficeth for the Denomination of the whole seeing even in Man there are found some parts not animated as the Hair and the Nails As for the Last Point which is to know what this Universal Soul is there are many Opinions The Rabbins and Cabalists say that it is the RVAH ELOHIM that is the Spirit of God which moved upon Waters Trismegistus saith that it is a Corporeal Spirit or a Spiritual Body and elsewhere calleth it the Blessed GreenWood or the Green Lyon which causeth all things to grow Plato affirmeth it to be the Ideas The Peripateticks a certain Quintessence above the Four Elements Heraclitus and after him the Chymists that it is a certain Aethereal Fire For my part I conceive that if by this Spirit they mean a thing which gives Life and Spirit and Motion to all which is found every where and on which all depends there is no doubt but 't is the Spirit of God or rather God himself in whom and through whom we live and move But if we will seek another in created Nature we must not seek it elsewhere then in that corporeal creature which hath most resemblance with the Deity The Sun who more lively represents the same then any other by his Light Heat Figure and Power And therefore the Sun is that Spirit of the World which causeth to move and act here below all that hath Life and Motion The Second said That that Soul is a certain common Form diffus'd through all things which are moved by it as the wind of the Bellows maketh the Organs to play applying them to that whereunto they are proper and according to their natural condition So this Spirit with the Matter of Fire maketh Fire with that of Air maketh Air and so of the rest Some give it the name of Love for that it serves as a link or tye between all Bodies into which it insinuates it self with incredible Subtility which Opinion will not be rejected by the Poets and the Amorous who attribute so great power to it The Third said That the Soul being the First Act of an Organical Body and the word Life being taken onely for Vegetation Sensation and Ratiocination the world cannot be animated since the Heavens the Elements and the greatest part of Mixed Bodies want such a Soul and such Life That the Stoicks never attributed a Soul to this world but onely a Body which by reason of its Subtility is called Spirit and for that it is expanded through all the parts of the world is termed Vniversal which is the cause of all Motions and is the same thing with what the Ancients call'd Nature which they defined the Principle of Motion The reason of the Stoicks for this Universal Spirit is drawn from the Rarefaction and Condensation of Bodies For if Rarefaction be made by the insinuation of an other subtile Body and Condensation by its pressing out it follows that since all the Elements and mixt Bodies are rarifi'd and condens'd there is some Body more subtile then those Elements and mixts which insinuating it self into the parts rarifies them and makes them take up greater space and going forth is the Cause that they close together and take up less Now Rarefaction is alwayes made by the entrance of a more subtile Body and Condensation by its going out This is seen in a very thick Vessel of Iron or Brass which being fill'd with hot Water or heated Air and being well stop'd if you set it into the cold it will condense what is contain'd therein which by that means must fill less space then before Now either there must be a Vacuum in the Vessel which Nature abhorreth or some subtile Body must enter into it which comes out of the Air or the Water which fills that space Which Body also must be more subtile then the Elements which cannot penetrate through the thickness of the Vessel There is also seen an Instance of this in the Sun-beams which penetrate the most solid Bodies if they be never so little diaphanous which yet are impenetrable by any Element how subtile soever And because a great part of the Hour design'd for Inventions was found to have slip'd away during the Reciprocation of other reasons brought for and against this opinion some curiosities were onely mention'd and the examination of them referr'd to the next Conference In which it was determin'd first to treat of the Air and then to debate that Question Whether it is expedient in a State to have Slaves CONFERENCE VII I. Of the Air. II. Whether it be best for a State to have Slaves I. Of the Air. THe First said That he thought fit to step aside a little out of the ordinary way not so much to impugne the Maximes of the School as to clear them and that for this end he propros'd That the Air is not distinguish'd from the Water because they are chang'd one into the other For what else are those Vapours which are drawn up from the Water by the power of the Sun and those which arise in an Alembic or from boyling Water if we do not call them Air Now those Vapours are
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
in the Tuilleries justifies him Yet Art finds a greater facility in this matter near Lakes Hills and Woods naturally dispos'd for such a re-percussion But which increases the wonder of the Echo is its reduplication which is multiply'd in some places seven times and more the reason whereof seemes to be the same with that of multiplication of Images in Mirrors For as there are Mirrors which not onely receive the species on their surface so plainly as our Eye beholds but cannot see the same in the Air though they are no less there then in the Mirror so there are some that cast forth the species into the Air so that stretching out your arm you see another arm as it were coming out of the Mirror to meet yours In like manner it is with the voice And as a second and a third Mirror rightly situated double and trebble the same species so other Angles and Concavities opposite to the first cause the voice to bound and by their sending it from one to another multiply it as many times as there are several Angles but indeed weaker in the end then in the beginning because all Reaction is less then the First Action CONFERENCE XVI I. How Spirits act upon Bodies II. Whether is more powerful Love or Hatred I. How Spirits act upon Bodies IT is requisite to understand the Nature of ordinary and sensible actions that we may judge of others as in all Sciences a known Term is laid down to serve for a rule to those which are inquir'd So Architects have a Level and a Square whereby to discern perpendicular Lines and Angles Now in Natural Actions between two Bodies there is an Agent a Patient a Contact either Physical or Mathematical or compounded of both a Proportion of Nature and Place and a Reaction Moreover Action is onely between Contraries so that Substances and Bodies having no contraries act not one against the other saving by their qualities Which nevertheless inhering in the subjects which support them cause Philosophers to say that Actions proceed from Supposita Now that which causeth the difficulty in the Question is not that which results from the Agent for the Spirit is not onely a perpetual Agent but also a pure Act nor that which proceedeth from the Patient for Matter which predominates in Bodies is of its own Nature purely Passive But 't is from the want of Contact For it seemeth not possible for a Physical Contact to be between any but two complete substances And if we speak of the Soul which informes the Body it is not complete because it hath an essence ordinated and relative to the Body If we speak of Angels or Daemons there is no proportion of Nature between them and Bodies and much less resemblance as to the manner of being in a place For Angels are in a place onely definitively and Bodies are circumscrib'd with the internal surface of their place How then can they act one upon the other Nor can there be reaction between them For Spirits cannot part from Bodies But on the other side since Action is onely between Contraries and Contraries are under the same next Genus and Substance is divided into Spiritual and Corporeal there ought to be no more true Action then between the Soul and the Body both Contraries not onely according to the acception of Divines who constantly oppose the Body to the Spirit and make them fight one with the other but speaking naturally it is evident that the proprieties of the one being diametrically opposite to those of the other cause a perpetual conflict with them which is the same that we call Action Contact is no more necessary between the Soul and the Body to infer their action then it is between the Iron and the Load-stone which attracts it What Proportion can be found greater then between Act and Power the Form and the Matter the Soul and the Body which are in the same place As for Reaction supposing it to be necessary whereof yet we see no effect in the Sun nor the other Coelestial Bodies which no Man will say suffer any thing from our Eye upon which nevertheless they act making themselves seen by us And Lovers are not wholly without reason when they say a subject makes them suffer remaining it self unmoveable It is certain that our Soul suffers little less then our Body as is seen in griefs and corporal maladies which alter the free functions of the Mind caus'd by the influence of the Soul upon the Body through Anger Fear Hope and the other Passions The Soul then acts upon the Body over which it is accustom'd to exercise Dominion from the time of our Formation in our Mothers womb it governs and inures it to obey in the same manner as a good Rider doth a Horse whom he hath manag'd from his youth and rides upon every day Their common contentment facilitates this obedience the instruments the Soul makes use of are the Spirits which are of a middle nature between it and the Body Not that I fancy them half spiritual and half corporeal as some would suppose but by reason they are of so subtile a Nature that they vanish together with the Soul So that the Arteries Ventricles and other parts which contain them are found wholly empty immediately after death The Second said That if we would judge aright what ways the Soul takes to act upon the Body we need onely seek what the Body takes to act upon the Soul For the lines drawn from the centre to the circumference are equal to those from the circumference to the centre Now the course which it holds towards the Soul is thus The Objects imprint their species in the Organ of the outward Sense this carries the same to the Common Sense and this to the Phancy The Memory at the same time presents to the Judgement the fore-past Experiences which she hath kept in her Treasury The Judgement by comparing them with the knowledge newly arriv'd to it by its Phantasmes together with its natural habit of first principles draws from the same a conclusion which the Will approves as soon as Reason acquiesseth therein According to the same order the Will consignes the Phantasmes in the Memory and the Phancy this to the Common Sense and this to the Organs of the Senses For Example as soon as my Judgement hath approv'd the discourse which I make to you and my Will hath agreed thereunto she consign'd the species to my Memory that it might remember to reduce them into this order according to which my Memory distributed them to my Imagination this to my Common Sense this to the Nerves appointed for the Motion of my Tongue and the other Organs of Speech to recite the same and now into those of my hand to write them down to you The Third said That the clearing of the Question propounded depended upon two others First what link or union there may be between a Spiritual and a Corporeal thing Secondly supposing
Thus and more easily can the Devil trasfer the humours and managing them at his pleasure make them put on what figure he will to cause delusion In fine all this is perform'd by the Local Motion of the parts humours or Spirits The Fifth said That the foundation of doubting is that there is requir'd proportion between the Agent and the Patient Which is prov'd because it is requisite that the patient which is in Power be determin'd by the form receiv'd and it seemeth that a spiritual thing cannot produce a form that may determine a material thing That it produceth nothing material is evident because the action and the product are of the same Nature Now the action of a Spiritual Entity cannot be material to speak naturally Yet it is certain that God acts in corporeal things though he is a pure Spirit But it may be answered That an Infinite Power is not oblig'd to the Rules of Creatures Besides that his Ubiquitary Presence sufficeth to impart Motion to all as also that he containing all things eminently is able to produce all things But if to contain eminently is to have a more perfect Being capable to do what the lesser cannot this is not satisfactory For the Question is How that more perfect Immaterial Being can produce that which Material Beings produce To which the saying that it is a more perfect Being doth not satisfie For then an Angel should be naturally able to produce all the perfections which are inferior to him which is absurd It followes therefore that the Cause must contain the Effect that it may be able to produce it and that since a spiritual Being doth not contain material things either those which we call Immaterial are not so at all or else God immediately produceth in them the effects which we attribute to them For I see not how immateriality is infer'd from immortality since there may be an incorruptible matter such as that of the Heavens is Which nevertheless is spoken rather to make way for some better thought then that I hold it as my own The Sixth said That there may be some Medium serving for the union between the Body and the Soul beside the Animal Vital and Natural Spirits to which Medium the many wonderful effects which we are constrain'd to ascribe to Occult Qualities ought to be referd'd For as they who know not that the Ring which Juglers make to skip upon a Table according to the motion of their fingers is fasten'd to them by the long Hair of a Woman attribute that Motion to the Devil So they who cannot comprehend the subtility of the Medium uniting not onely the Body with the Soul which informes it but also the other Spirits with the Body which they agitate find no proportion therein and are constrain'd to let experience cross their reason Now to understand the Nature of this uniting Medium I conceive is as difficult as to give an account of the Sympathies and Antipathies of things II. Which is more powerfull Love or Hatred Upon the Second Point the First said That Eâ—pedocles had reason to constitute Love and Hatred for the two Principles of Nature which though Aristotle endeavours to confute yet is he constrain'd to acknowledge the same thing though disguis'd under other words For when he saith that two of his Principles are contraries and enemies namely Form and Privation and nevertheless that they are united in one common Subject which is the Matter what is it else but to confess that all things are made and compos'd by the means of Love and Hatred They who own no other Principles but the Four Elements are of the same opinion when they say that all Mixt Bodies are made with a discording concord and a concording discord For as the Elements united together will never compose an Animal unless they be reduc'd to a just proportion and animated by rebatement of some little of the vigor of their active qualities so if there be no kind of War and Amity between them if the Hot act not against the Humid the Animal will never live since Life is nothing but the action of Heat upon Humidity However Amity hath something more noble and excites greater effects then Enmity For the former is the cause of the Generation and Preservation of Mixt Bodies and the latter of their dissolution and corruption Now it is much more noble to give and preserve Being then to destroy it Whence God himself found such perfection in his Creation and was so pleas'd with his Divine Work that though it frequently deserves by its crimes to be annihilated yet his Punishments have not hitherto proceeded so far This is no less true in Spiritual and Intellectual Substances then in Natural Gods Love hath more noble effects then his Hatred For to leave to Divines the consideration of that Love which had the power to draw the Second Person of the Trinity from Heaven with that which produces the Third as also to leave them to proclaim that God loves Good Actions and that the effect of this Love is Eternal Bliss that he hates Sins and that the effects of this hatred are the punishments of Hell that it is manifest that the glory of Paradise is much greater then of those Chastisements since what ever penalties God inflicts upon Man for his mis-deeds he renders Justice to him and do's not reduce him into a state inferior to or against his Nature but when he rewards with Eternal Glory he exalts our Nature infinitely higher then it could aspire let us consider Love and Hatred in Men and particularly as Passions according as the Question propounded seemes principally to be understood and no doubt Love will be found more violent then Hatred To judge the better whereof we must not consider them nakedly and simply as Love is nothing else but an inclination towards Good and Hatred an Aversion from Evil nor yet as such Good or Evil is present For in these two manners they have no violence nor any Motions since according to the receiv'd Maxime When the End is present all Motion and Action ceaseth But to know which of these two passions acts with most force and violence for the attaining of its end we must contemplate them with all the train and attendance of the other Passions which accompany them not as the one is an inclination to Good and the other an Aversion from Evil present For in this sense no doubt a Present Evil which causeth Grief is more sensible and violent then a Present Good which causeth Pleasure but as the one is a Desire of the Absent Good which is propos'd and the other a Flight from an Absent Evil which is fear'd I conceive the Passions excited by an Absent Evil have no great violence but rather partake of heaviness and stupidity as Fear and Sadness which render us rather unmoveable and insensible then active and violent in our Motions The Passions which lead towards an Absent Good are otherwise For
the dead and into which they return But the most common and us'd throughout all Europe is Black which also was always worne by the Romans when they went into Mourning except during sixty years that they wore white The wearing of Mourning continu'd ten moneths at Rome the Athenians wore it but one moneth the Spartans no more but eleven dayes The reason why they have all chosen Black for denoting Sadness is because Black is the privation of White and proceedeth from the defect of Light so Death is the privation of Life and Light Possibly too the reason why the Cypress Tree was esteem'd a Funeral Tree was because the leaves were of a dark Green and the Nutts tincture Black and being cut it never puts forth again as also Beans were in regard of the blackness which appears in them and their flowers The Second said That Experience shews us sufficiently that the Black colour doth not onely put us in Mind of our griefs and sadnesses pass'd but also is apt excite new This is known to the Senses and unknown to Reason by a certain Divine Appointment which hath caus'd that what is manifest to the one is hidden to the other As appears for that nothing is so natural to the Sense of Seeing as Light and Colours But yet there is nothing in which our Mind sooner finds its weakness then in the enquiry into the Nature and properties of Colours and Light Now there are two sorts of blackness the one Internal when the Soul turning it self towards the Images upon report of which a judgement is made if that Image is Black and deform'd the Soul must conceive that the Objects represented by it are so also and thence ariseth horror and sadness the other external for the explicating of which I must crave leave to deflect a little from the ordinary opinion touching the Nature of Colours I affirm that Colour and Light are one and the same thing and differ onely in regard of the Subject so that the lustre of a simple Body is Light but the lustre of a mixt Body is call'd Colour By which account Light is the Colour of a simple Body and Colour is the Light of a mixt Body Whence Mixts approaching nearest to the simplicity of the Element predominant in them are all Luminous as precious stones which are a simple Earth and without mixture of other Element and rotten Wood which having lost the little Air and Fire it had its humidity also being absum'd by the putrefaction and there remaining nothing almost but Earth you see how it keeps its splendour amidst the darkness of the night And this in my conceit is the meaning of what Moses saith when he saith that God created the Light before the Sun For God having created the Elements in their natural purity they were sometimes in that state before mixture the Earth appeared not but the Water cover'd its whole Surface Every Element was in its own place and the purity of its Nature for which reason they had then their first Colour which is splendour But as soon as God had mingled them for the forming of Mixts their Light became clouded and chang'd into Colour And hence it was necessary to form a Sun in Heaven far from all sort of mixture and composition to the end he might alwayes preserve his Light and enlighten the world therewith The Fire preserves it self the most of all in its purity by reason of its great activity which consumes what ever approaches near it The other Elements would do so too if they could preserve themselves in their purity as well as the Fire But because they would be unprofitable should they remain such it is necessary that they be mingled one with another as well to serve for the production of Compounds as for their Aliment and several uses Hence their Light becomes chang'd into Colour which is nothing else but a Light extinguish'd more or less and accordingly we see some Colours more luminous then others The White is still wholly luminous the Red wholly resplendent the Green less and the Brown begins to grow dark Lastly the Black is nothing but Light wholly extinct and a kind of darkness and consequently hath nothing of reality but is a pure Privation which our Eyes perceive not As our Ear discerneth or perceiveth not silence but onely by not hearing any sound so neither doth the Sight behold Black and darkness but when it sees neither Colour nor Light So that to hear Silence and see darkness is to speak properly a vain attempt of the Soul which would fain exert its action of seeing and hearing and cannot Hence ariseth the sadness and terror which a deep silence and the sight of extreme blackness and darkness excites in the Soul For the Soul knows well that Life is nothing else but Exercise of its Faculties of which as soon as any thing is depriv'd there remains nothing to be expected but death She would fain exert her action and cannot she distinguishes not whether it be through default of the Object or whether her Faculty be lost but she finds a privation of her actions and represents to her self to be in the state of Death whence ariseth Sadness and Fear For as our Soul dreadeth nothing so much as Death so the least suspition the least sign and umbrage of Death is apt to put her into great dejection And this makes way for the Second Reason why the Soul becomes sad at the sight of a black Colour namely because it never appears in the Body but Death is at hand For this Colour is produc'd by the mortification and extinction of the Spirits as a Gangrene which is either caus'd by Adustion whereby Coals become black or by extreme coldness thus Old Men are of a leaden Colour tending to blackness Now the excess of heat and coldness is equally contrary to Life Wherefore as often as the Soul perceives blackness either in her own Body or in another she remembers the Qualities which produc'd it and are contrary to Life which she loves hence ariseth sadness And hence also it is that we naturally love a Countenance well proportion'd with an agreeable Colour wherein there is found a redness mingled with whiteness bright and lively with Spirits which is nothing else but an effect of the Love which our Soul bears to Life For knowing this to be the Colour of Health it affects the same even in another as on the other side it abhorreth Death Look upon a living Body it is full of brightness but a dead one is gloomy and dismal and at the instant that the Soul parts from the Body a dark shade seemes as it were to veil the Countenance Now that the Soul may understand it must become like to its Object Whence Aristotle said that the Intellect is potentially all things forasmuch as it can form it self into as many shapes as there are Objects So then it will perceive blackness it must become conformable to Black which it
that evil is the cause that we are never contented therewith I add further If it were possible to heap all the goods of the world into one condition and all kind of evils were banish'd from the same yet could it not fill the Appetite of our Soul which being capable of an infinite Good if she receive any thing below infinite she is not fill'd nor contented therewith Nevertheless this dissatisfaction doth not proceed from the infirmity and ignorance of the Humane Soul but rather from her great perfection and knowledge whereby she judging all the goods of the world less then her self the goods intermingled with miseries serve her for so many admonitions that she ought not to stay there but aspire to other goods more pure and solid Besides these I have two natural reasons thereof First Every Good being of it self desirable every one in particular may desire all the goods which all Men together possess Yet it is not possible for him to obtain them wherefore every one may desire more then he can possess Whence there must alwayes be frustrated desires and discontents Secondly The Desires of Men cannot be contented but by giving them the enjoyment of what they desire Now they cannot be dealt withall butas a bad Physitian doth with his Patients in whom for one disease that he cures he causeth three more dangerous For satisfie one Desire and you raise many others The poor hungry person asketh onely Bread give it him and then he is thirsty and when he is provided for the present he is sollicitous for the future If he hath money he is troubled both how to keep it and how to spend it Which caus'd Solomon after he had deny'd his Soul nothing that it desir'd to pronounce That All is vanity and vexation of Spirit The Third conceiv'd That the Cause of this Dissatisfaction is for that the conditions of others seem more suitable to us and for that our Election dependeth on the Imagination which incessantly proposeth new Objects to the Soul which she beholding afar off esteemes highly afterwards considering them nearer sees as the Fable saith that what she accounted a treasure is but a bottle of Hay The Fourth said That because every thing which we possess gives us some ground of disgust and we do not yet perceive the inconvenience of the thing we desire therefore we are weary of the present and hope to find less in the future Whence we despise the one and desire the other The Fifth added That Man being compos'd of two parts Body and Soul which love change it is necessary that he love it too Choose the best posture and the best food you will it will weary you in a little time Let the most Eloquent Orator entertain you with the most excellent Subject suppose God himself you will count his Sermon too long if it exceed two hours or perhaps less Is it a wonder then if the Whole be of the same Nature with the Parts The Sixth attributed the Cause of this Discontent to the comparison which every one makes of his own State with that of others For as a Man of middle stature seemes low near a Gyant so a Man of moderate fortune comparing his own with the greater of another becomes discontented therewith Wherefore as long as there are different conditions they of the lowest will always endeavour to rise to the greatest and for the taking away of this Displeasure Lycurgus's Law must be introduc'd who made all the people of Sparta of equal condition If it be reply'd that nevertheless they of the highest condition will be contented I answer that our Mind being infinite will rather fancy to it self Epicurus's plurality of worlds as Alexander did then be contented with the possession of a single one and so 't will be sufficient to discontent us not that there is but that there may be some more contented then our selves The Seventh said That the Cause hereof is the desire of attaining perfection which in Bodies is Light whence they are alwayes chang'd till they become transparent as Glass and in Spirits their satisfaction which is impossible For Man having two principles of his Actions which alone are capable of being contented namely the Vnderstanding and the Will he cannot satiate either of them One truth known makes him desire another The sign of a moderate Mind is to be contented with it self whereas that of a great Mind is to have alwayes an insatiable appetite of knowing Whence proceedeth this It is for that it knows that God created every thing in the world for it and that it cannot make use thereof unless it have an exact and particular knowledge of the virtues and properties of all things It knows also that it self was created for God and the knowledge of the Creatures is nothing but a means to guide it to that of God So that if it take those means which lead it to the end for the end it self it deceives it self and finds not the contentment which it seeks and will never find the same till it be united to its First Principle which is God who alone can content the Vnderstanding His Will is also hard to be satifi'd The more goods it hath the more it desires It can love nothing but what is perfect It finds nothing absolutely perfect but goodness it self For the Light and knowledge wherewith the Understanding supplieth it discover to it so many imperfections and impurities in the particular goods it possesseth that it distasts and despises them as unworthy to have entertainment in it Wherefore it is not to be wonder'd if Man can never be contented in this world since he cannot attain his utmost End in it either for Body or Soul CONFERENCE XIX I. Of the Flowing and Ebbing of the Sea II. Of the Point of Honour I. Of the Flux of the Sea THe First said That if there be any other cause of this Flux then the heaping together of the Waters from the beginning under the Aequinoctial by Gods Command whence they descend again by their natural gravity and are again driven thither by the obedience which they owe to that Command which is so evident that they who sail under the Aequator perceive them selves lifted up so high by the currents that are usually there that they are many times terrifi'd thereat there is none more probable then the Moon which hath dominon overall moist Bodies and augments or diminishes this Flux according as she is in the increase or the wane The Second said That the Moon indeed makes the Flux and Reflux of the Sea greater or less yea she governes and rules it because being at the Full she causeth a Rarefaction of its Waters But this doth not argue that she is the Efficient Cause of the said Flux The Sea rises at the shore when the Moon riseth in the Heaven and retires again when the Moon is going down their motions are indeed correspondent one to the other yet I know not how
us On the contrary Prodigality ruines and perverts the Laws of Nature leading a Man to the destruction of his relatives and the undoing of himself like Saturn and Time it devours its own issue and consumes it self to the damage of the Common-wealth whose interest it is that every Man use well what belongs to him Therefore all Laws have enacted penalties against Prodigals depriving them of the administration of their own Estates and the most Sacred Edicts of our Kings aim at the correcting of the Luxury of Prodigality But never were any Laws Punishments or inflictions ordained against Covetousness because Prodigality causeth the down-fall and destruction of the most Illustrious Houses which cannot be attributed to Covetousness for this seemes rather to have built them The Second said That according to Aristotle amongst all the virtuous none wins more Love then the Liberal because there is alwayes something to be gotten by him as amongst all the vicious none is more hated and shun'd by all the world then the covetous who doth not onely not give any thing but draws to himself the most he can from every one and from the publick in which he accounts himself so little concern'd that he considers it no farther then how he may make his profit of it He is so loath to part with his treasures when he dyes that he would gladly be his own Heir as Hermocrates appointed himself by his Testament or else he would swallow down his Crowns as that other Miser did whom Athenaeus mentions But the Prodigal free from that self-interest which causes so great troubles in the world gives all to the publick and keeps nothing for himself Whence according to Aristotle the Prodigal is not so remote from Virtue as the Covetous it being easier to make the former Liberal then the latter The Third said These two Vices are equally oppos'd to Liberality and consequently one as distant from it as the other For as the Covetous is Vicious in that he receives too much and gives nothing so is the Prodigal in that he gives too much and receives nothing at all or receives onely to give But Covetousness hath this priviledge that it finds a Virtue from which it is very little distant namely Frugality or Parsimony to which Prodigality is diametrically oppos'd Nor is it of little advantage to it that it is ordinarily found in Old Men whom we account wiser then others for having learn't by the experience of many years that all friends have fail'd them in time of need and that their surest refuge hath been their own Purse they do not willingly part with what they have taken pains to gather together which is another reason in favour of Covetousness For Virtue and Difficulty seem in a manner reciprocal But Prodigality is very easie and usual to foolish Youth which thinking never to find the bottome of the barrel draws forth incessantly and gives so freely that being over-taken with necessity it is constraind to have recourse to Covetousness which sets it upon its leggs again Nor ever was there a Father that counsel'd his Son to be prodigal but rather to be thrifty and close-handed And yet the Gospel and Experience shew that Fathers give and advise what is most expedient to their Children The Fourth said As Rashness is much less blameable then Cowardice so is Prodigality then Avarice For the Prodigal holding it ignominious to receive and glorious alwayes to give likes rather to deprive and devest himself of his goods then to deny any one whatsoever On the other side the Covetous doth nothing but receive on all hands and never gives any thing but with hope to receive more Now it is much more noble to give then to receive for Giving supposes Having The Prodigal knowing well that goods and riches are given by God onely to serve for necessary instruments to the living more commodiously and that they are not riches if they be not made use of employes them and accommodates himself and others therewith but the Covetous doth not so much as make use of them for himself and so destroyes their end The Fifth said If the Question did not oblige us to compare these two Vices together I should follow Demosthenes's sentence which he gave in the quarrel of two Thieves that accus'd one another which was that the one should be banish'd Athens and the other should run after him I should no less drive out of a well-policy'd State the Covetous and the Prodigal The first is Aesop's Dogg who keeps the Ox from eating the hay whereof himself tasts not like the Bears who hinder Men from approaching Mines of Gold and yet make no use thereof The other is like those Fruit-trees which grow in Precipices of which onely Crows and Birds of prey eat the Fruit vicious persons alone ordinarily get benefit by them But yet this latter Vice seemes to me more pernicious then the other For whether you consider them in particular The Covetous raises an Estate which many times serves to educate and support better Men then himself But Prodigality is the certain ruine of their Fortunes who are addicted to it and carries them further to all other Vices to which Necessity serves more truly for a cause then reasonably for an excuse or whether you consider them in general 't is the most ordinary overthrow of States And possibly he that should seek the true cause of publick Inconveniences would sooner find it in Luxury and Prodigality then in any thing else Therefore Solons's Law declar'd Prodigals infamous and gave power to their Creditors to dis-member them and cut them in pieces Our Ordinances in imitation of the Roman Law which ranks them under the predicament of Mad-men forbids and deprives them of the administration of their own goods as not knowing how to use them The Sixth said Avarice is like those Gulfes that swallow up Ships and never disgorge them again and Prodigality like a Rock that causes shipwracks the ruines whereof are cast upon the coasts of Barbarians and therefore both of them ought to be banish'd and I have no Vote for either Yet Prodigality seemes to me more fair and Covetousness more severe CONFERENCE XXIII I. Of Physiognomy II. Of Artificial Memory I. Of Physiognomy THeophrastus accusing Nature for not having made a window to the Heart perhaps meant to the Soul For though the Heart were seen naked yet would not the intentions be visible they reside in another apartment The Countenance and amongst its other parts the Eye seemes to be the most faithfull messenger thereof It doth not onely intimate sickness and health it shews also hatred and love anger and fear joy and sadness In short 't is the true mirror of the Body and the Soul unless when the Visage puts on the mask of Hypocrisie against which we read indeed some experiences as when Vlysses discover'd the dissimulation of Achilles disguis'd in the dress of a Damsel by the gracefullness wherewith he saw him wield
a sword but there are no rules or maximes against it and never less then in this Age of counterseits in which he that is not deceiv'd well deserves the name of Master For security from it some ingenious persons have invented Rules whereby the inclinations of every one may be discern'd as Masons applying the Rule Square and Level upon a stone judge whether it incline more to one side then the other For you see there are many different species of Animals every one whereof is again subdivided into many others as is observ'd in Doggs and Horses but there are more different sorts of Men. Whence the Philosophers of old took up the opinion of Metempsychoses or Transanimations imagining there could not but be for example the Soul of a Fox in those whom they found very crafty and that the Soul which delighted to plunge it self in filthiness and impurity must needs have been heretofore in the Body of a swine And though the outward shape of Man puts a vail upon all those differences yet they are visible through the same to those who have a good sight as we may distinguish Ladies through the Cypress with which they vail themselves at this day it we take good heed otherwise we may be mistaken We must therefore inquire here whether through the external figure common to all Men what every one hath peculiar be not the sign of his inclinations either as the Effect or as the Cause of the same As redness of the Cheeks is usually an argument of the disposition of the Lungs Nor is it material to know why it is a sign it sufficeth to me to know that it is so To which the variety of Bodies and especially of Faces affords great probability because Nature hath made nothing in vain and why this variety unless to serve for a sign since it serves to distinguish them The Second said Physiognomy is the knowledge of the inside by the outside that is of the affections and inclinations of the Mind by external and sensible signes as colour and Figure It is grounded upon the correspondence of the Soul with the Body which is such that they manifestly participate the affections one of the other If the Body be sick the Soul is alter'd in its operations as we see in high Fevers On the contrary let the Soul be sad or joyful the Body is so too Therefore the Sophisters of old purg'd themselves with Hellebor when they would dispute best For though in its essence the Soul depends not on the corporeal Organs yet it depends upon the same in its operations which are different according to the divers structure of the Organs which if they were alike dispos'd their actions would be alike in all and at all times Whence saith Aristotle an old man would see as clear as a young man if he had the Eyes of a young man The Third said To make a certain judgement upon external signes heed must be taken that they be natural For 't is possible for one of a Sanguine Constitution to have a pale and whitish colour either through fear sickness study or some other accident The Phlegmatick when he hath drunk to excess been at a good fire is in anger or asham'd of something will have a red Face And yet he that should argue from these signes would be mistaken The Fourth said Since Physiognomists grant that their Rules are not to be apply'd but to Men void of all Passions which so change the Body that it seemes another from it self I conceive this Art is altogether impossible For I would know in what moment we are to be taken without Sadness Joy Hatred Love Anger in short without any of those Passions so inseparable from our Life that Xanthus found no better way to be reveng'd on Aesop then to ask him for a Man that car'd for nothing such as he would be that should have no Passions What then will become of the goodly Rules of Physiognomy after that Education of Youth hath corrected perverse inclinations that Philosophy hath given the lie to the Physiognomists of this Age as it did heretofore to Zopyrus when he pronounc'd his opinion upon Socrates or that Piety as is seen in so many holy personages hath reform'd the Will evil habits and Nature it self The Fifth said As there is nothing more wonderful then to judge of a Man's manners at the first sight so there is nothing more difficult It is endeavour'd four wayes First By the structure of each part of the Body So the great Head and square Fore-head denote Prudence and good judgement the small Head shews that there is little brain and narrow room for the exercise of the internal senses the sharp Head denotes impudence The Second way is by the Temperament So the ruddy countenance yellow hair and other signes of the Sanguine Humour shew an indifferent Spirit pleasant and inclin'd to Love A pale complexion fat Body clear voice slow gate which are the characters of Phlegme denote cowardice and sloth Soft and tender flesh is a token of subtlety of the Senses and consequently of the wit hard flesh of dulness Whence Man the wisest of all Animals hath a more delicate flesh then any of them The Third way is by comparing the external signes of every one with those which are observ'd in Men when they are in Passion So because he that is in Choler hath sparkling Eyes hoarse voice and the jugular veins turgid we conclude that he who hath all these signes naturally is naturally inclin'd to that Passion But as for the Fourth and last which is by comparing Man with other Animals heed must be taken how we credit such a sign alone For as a single letter doth not make a discourse so an external similitude alone with an Animal doth not infer the resemblance of our Nature to that of that Animal There must be a concurrence of many of these signes together As if I see a Man with a neck moderately fleshy a large breast and the other parts in proportion as the Lyon hath harsh hair as the Bear a strong sight as the Eagle I shall conclude that this Man is strong and courageous The Sixth said That the reason why Physiognomists choose irrational creatures to signifie the inclinations and manners of Men rather then Men themselves is because Man is a variable Animal and most commonly useth dissimulation in his actions Whereas Animals void of Reason less conceal from us the inclinations of their Nature by which they permit themselves to be guided So we see the same person will sometimes do an act of Courage sometime another of Cowardice sometimes he will be merciful at another time cruel But other Animals are uniform in all their actions The Lyon is alwayes generous the Hare ever cowardly the Tyger cruel the Fox crafty the Sheep harmless So that a certain judgement may be pass'd upon these but not upon Men. The Seventh said That as the accidents superven'd to our Bodies
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
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
nothing can be annihilated so nothing can be made of nothing Which was likewise the error of Aristotle who is more intricate then the Stoicks in his explication of the first matter which he desines to be almost nothing True it is they believ'd that every thing really existent was corporeal and that there were but four things incorporeal Time Place Vacuum and the Accident of some thing whence it follows that not onely Souls and God himself but also the Passions Virtues and Vices are Bodies yea Animals since according to their supposition the mind of man is a living animal inasmuch as 't is the cause that we are such but Virtues and Vices say they are nothing else but the mind so dispos'd But because knowledge of sublime things is commonly more pleasant then profitable and that according to them Philosophy is the Physick of the Soul they study chiefly to eradicate their Vices and Passions Nor do they call any wise but him that is free from all fear hope love hatred and such other passions which they term the diseases of the Soul Moreover 't was their Maxime that Virtue was sufficient to Happiness that it consisted in things not in words that the sage is absolute master not onely of his own will but also of all men that the supream good consisted in living according to nature and such other conclusions to which being modifi'd by faith I willingly subscribe although Paradoxes to the vulgar II. Whence comes the diversity of proper names Upon the Second Point 't was said That a name is an artificial voice representing a thing by humane institution who being unable to conceive all things at once distinguish the same by their differences either specifical or individual the former by appellative names and the other by proper as those of Cities Rivers Mountains and particularly those of men who also give the like to Horses Dogs and other domestick creatures Now since conceptions of the Mind which represent things have affinity with them and words with conceptions it follows that words have also affinity with things by the Maxime of Agreement in the same third Therefore the wise to whom alone it belongs to assign names have made them most conformable to the nature of things For example when we pronounce the word Nous we make an attraction inwards On the contrary in pronouncing Vous we make an expulsion outwards The same holds in the voices of Animals and those arising from the sounds of inanimate things But 't is particularly observ'd that proper names have been tokens of good or bad success arriving to the bearers of them whence arose the reasoning of the Nominal Philosophers and the Art of Divination by names call'd Onomatomancy and whence Socrates advises Fathers to give their Children good names whereby they may be excited to Virtue and the Athenians forbad their slaves to take the names of Harmodius and Aristogiton whom they had in reverence Lawyers enjoyn heed to be taken to the name of the accused in whom 't is capital to disguise it and Catholicks affect those of the Law of Grace as Sectaries do those of the old Law the originals whereof were taken from circumstances of the Bodie as from its colour the Romans took those of Albus Niger Nigidius Fulvius Ruffus Flavius we those of white black grey red-man c. from its habit Crassus Macer Macrinus Longus Longinus Curtius we le Gros long tall c From its other accidents the Latines took Caesar Claudius Cocles Varus Naso we le Gouteux gowty le Camus flat-nos'd from Virtues or Vices Tranquillus Severus we hardy bold sharp from Profession Parson Serjeant Marshal and infinite others But chiefly the names of places have been much affected even to this day even since the taking of the name of the family for a sirname And if we cannot find the reason of all names and sirnames 't is because of the confusion of languages and alteration happening therein upon frequent occasions The Fourth said That the cause of names is casual at least in most things as appears by equivocal words and the common observation of worthless persons bearing the most glorious names as amongst us a family whose males are the tallest in France bears the name of Petit. Nor can there be any affinity between a thing and a word either pronounc'd or written and the Rabbins endeavour to find in Hebrew names which if any must be capable of this correspondence in regard of Adam's great knowledge who impos'd them is no less an extravagance then that of matters of Anagrams In brief if Nero signifi'd an execrable Tyrant why was he so good an Emperor the first five years And of that name import any token of a good Prince why was he so execrable in all the rest of his life CONFERENCE LXXXIX I. Of Genii II. Whether the Suicide of the Pagans be justifiable I. Of Genii PLato held three sorts of reasonable natures the Gods in Heaven Men on Earth and a third middle nature between those two whose mansion is from the sphere of the Moon to the Earth he calls them Genii from their being the causes of Generations here below and Daemons from their great knowledge These Genii whom his followers accounted to be subtile bodies and the instruments of Divine Providence are according to them of three sorts Igneous Aereous and Aqueous the first excite to contemplation the second to action the third to pleasure And 't was the belief of all Antiquity that every person had two Genii one good which excited to honesty and virtue as the good Genius of Socrates whom they reckon'd in order of the Igneous and the other bad who incited to evil such as that was which appeard to Brutus and told him he should see him at Philippi Yet none can perceive the assistance of their Genius but onely such whose Souls are calm and free from passions and perturbations of life Whence Avicenna saith that onely Prophets and other holy Personages have found their aid in reference to the knowledge of future things and government of life For my part I think these Genii are nothing else but our reasonable souls whose intellectual and superior part which inclines us to honest good and to virtue is the good Genius and the sensitive inferior part which aims onely to sensible and delightful good is the evil genius which incessantly sollicites us to evil Or if the Genii be any thing without us they are no other then our good and evil Angels constituted the former to guard us the second to make us stand upon our guard Moreover 't was expedient that since inferior bodies receive their motion from the superior so spiritual substances inherent in bodies should be assisted in their operations by superior spirits free from matter as 't is an ordinary thing in Nature for the more perfect to give law to such as are less in the same kind And not onely men but also all other parts of the world have Angels deputed
likewise by contrary qualities Besides the Spirits being igneous cannot be corrupted and the corruption observ'd sometimes in the humors is not essential to the Pestilence but onely accidental and however but an antecedent cause For if putrefaction were the conjunct cause then putrid Fevers and the Gangrene which is a total putrefaction should be contagious Wherefore it appears that the cause of this diseases are as occult as its effects are sensible and that 't is chiefly in this kind of malady that 't is to be inquir'd as Hippocrates speaks whether there be not something divine Which we are not to understand as he doth concerning what proceeds from the Air seeing God threatens in Ezechiel to cause the third part of his people to dye of the Pestilence as in one night he caus'd all the first born of Egypt to perish and in three dayes under David seventy thousand Israelites The Fifth said That to attribute the cause of the Pestilence to putrefaction without assigning the degree of it is to say nothing more then to recur to the properties of substance and less then to seek it in the divine Divine Justice these terms manifesting our ignorance rather then the thing inquir'd Moreover the signes of this malady are all equivocal and common to other diseases yea oftentimes contrary one to another in some a pulse is violent bleeding at the nose thirst the tongue dry and black delirations purple spots and buboes in others a small pulse vomiting tongue yellow livid and sleepiness And some sick are cur'd by remedies which kill others as by Vomits Purges and bleeding Even of Sudorificks the most sutable to this disease some are temperate and others hor. So that 't is no wonder if a disease so irregular being known to us onely by the relation of people oftimes ignorant the skilful being unwilling to venture themselves makes such havock since the small pox and other diseases would make no less though possibly in longer time if they were as little understood II. Of the wayes of occult writing Upon the Second Point 't was said That the Ancients deservedly reckon'd secrecie amongst their fabulous Deities under the name of Harpocrates the God of silence since 't is not onely as the Poet saith the God of the master of Gods that is Love but the Governour of the mysteries of Religion the Guardian of Civil Society and as the Philosopher speaks the God of the publick and private Fortune which is maintain'd by secrecie the Soul of the state and business whence cyphers and occult ways of writing took their birth The Hebrews were the first that practis'd cyphers of which they had six sorts L'Etbah by transposition of Letters Themurah by their commutation Ziruph by combination and changing of their power Ghilgal by changing of their numeral quotitié Notariaszon putting one Letter or one Syllable for a word and Gematry which is an equivalence of measures and proportions But these sorts of cyphers have been found too troublesome and equivocal and besides more recreative then solid The truncheon encompassed with a thong which was the Laconick Scytale the cypher of the Lacedaemonians that of Julius Caesar who put D for A and E for B and so of the other Letters and the odd figures given by others to the twenty four Letters are too gross to be well conceal'd The Dactylogie of Beda is pretty whereby we speak as nimbly with the fingers as with the tongue taking the five fingers of one hand for Vowels and the several positions of the other for Consonants But it can be us'd onely in presence They talk also of the same way by bells trumpets arquebuses fires torches and other such means but because they depend on the sight and the hearing which act at a certain distance they cannot be useful in all cases The transmission of thoughts and spirits contriv'd by Trithemius and Agrippa and that invention of quadrants whereby some have phancy'd it possible to speak at any distance by help of a Load-stone are as ridiculous as that of Pythagoras to write with blood on a Looking-glass and reflect the same upon the face of the Moon For besides that the Moon is not alwayes in a fit position could a fit glass be found the writing would not be secret because that Luminary is expos'd to the Eyes of all the world No cypher is comparable to that of writing when 't is well contriv'd to which purpose they make use of keys to cypher upon the Alphabets which are infinite depending upon every one's phancy being sometimes either one Letter or one word or altering in the same discourse and at every word Sometimes they divide the discourse and one half serves for a key to the other sometimes they put key upon key and cypher the key it self with other keys They put Naughts at the end of words to distinguish them or every where amongst the Letters to deceive the Decypherer and under these they cypher another hidden sense by other keys yea they insert other Naughts amongst them for a third sense or to cause more difficulty Some make use of numbers abridge or multiply the Alphabet and prepare tables wherein they put three Letters for one In fine humane wit hath left nothing unattempted for the concealment of thoughts under the veil of cyphers of which the most perfect are those which seem not to be such hiding under a known sense and an intelligible discourse an other sense unknown to all others besides the correspondents such is that of Trithemius by those three hundred seventy five Alphabets of significative words each expressing one single Letter The Second said All the several wayes of occult writing depend either upon the matter or the form To the first belong the sending of Swallows Pigeons or other birds as also the inventions of writing with Salt Armoniack Alumn Camphire and Onyon which appear onely at the fire The formal depends upon cyphers which are fram'd either by the fiction of Characters or by their commutation using three or four Letters to write every thing with some dashes or aspirations which yet may be easily decypher'd by reason of the frequent repetition of the Vowels and those which are thought impossible to be discover'd are commonly subject to great ambiguities and so are dangerous The Third said Of the three Authors which have writ concerning this matter Baptista Porta teaches rather to decypher then to cypher and all his inventions are little secrets as to write with Alumn Those of Trithemius are very gross of which nevertheless he hath compos'd three Books the two first intelligible enough but the third so obscure and promising so many miracles that Bellarmine and many others thought it full of Sorceries which yet are nothing but the same secrets mention'd in the two foregoing Books but hid under more suspicious words amongst which that of the Spirit which is very frequent signifies the Alphabet or the Key of the Secret and to look under a stone and