Danubius and Nilus The first which runs from West to East is observ'd in Hungary to move slower about Noon then at other hours of the day as appears by the Water-mills which grinde less at that time because the motion of the Earth being then contrary to that of the Ecliptick it consequently appears more slow And as for the other effect namely the increase and inundation of Nilus which begins at the Summer Solstice this River running directly from South to North from one Tropick to another which is just the middle part of the Earth when it comes to incline its Axis and return the Antarctick part to the Sun the stream of this River which is contrary to that motion waxes slower and being besides augmented by the continual Rains of Summer swells and overflows the Plains of Egypt Which made some Ancients imagine that the North Winds blew again the stream at that time and forc'd the water back upon themselves CONFERENCE CXLVIII Whether is better to Love or to be Lov'd THe same Nature which by an instinct common to us withall things in the world causes us to seek our own good obliges us likewise to Love when we meet Goodness or Beauty in an object capable to render us happy by its possession which consisting in being united to the thing lov'd 't is in this union that the Lover places his greatest felicity and accordingly goes out of himself to joyn himself to what he loves the motions of the will of whose number Love is differing in this point from the actions of the Understanding that these are perform'd by the Species receiv'd by mediation of the Senses into the Intellect which cannot know any thing but what comes home to it but the Will when it Loves must go out of it self and become united to the thing it Loves to the end to beget somthing for Eternity And because things are not known by the Understanding till they have been first purifi'd from the grossness of their matter by the illustration and abctraction which the Agent Intellect makes of their Phantasms or Species hence the notions of the foulest and most dishonest things are always fair and laudable being spiritualis'd and made like the Faculty which knows them On the contrary the Will in loving renders it self like the object which it Loves is turn'd into its nature and receives its qualities if the object be unlawful and dishonest it becomes vicious and its love is criminal Which seems to argue that the Lover is less perfect then the Loved into which he is transform'd as food is less perfect then the body into which it is converted And as that which attracts is more excellent then what is attracted because the stronger draws the weaker so the thing Loved must be more excellent and noble then the Lover whom it attracts to it self Moreover Love according to Plato is a desire of Pulchritude which desire implies want and therefore he that Loves shews thereby that he wants some perfection which renders the thing Lov'd amiable since the Will is never carri'd to any object but what hath some goodness either apparent or real Only God loves not his Creatures for their goodness since they have none of themselves but his will being the cause of all things he renders them good by loving them and willing good to them The Second said Since friendship consists in the union of two or at most of three Wills whose mutual correspondence makes that agreeable harmony and those sweet accords which make ravishing Lovers dye in themselves to live in what they love there is no true love but what is reciprocal which is the reason why none can be contracted with inanimate things no more then with Beasts or Fools And Justice commanding us to render as much as is given us 't is a great injustice not to love those that love us yea if we may believe the Platonists 't is a kind of homicide of the Soul since he that loves being dead in himself and having no more life but in the thing lov'd if that refuses his love by means whereof it should live also in him as he in it he is constrain'd either to dye or languish miserably And whereas he that loves is no longer his own but belongs to the thing lov'd to whom he hath given himself this thing is oblig'd to love him by the same reason that obliges it to love it's self and all that pertains thereunto But though perfect love be compos'd of these two pieces to love and to be lov'd yet the one is often found without the other there being many Lovers wounded with the Poets leaden Arrows who instead of seeing their love requited with love have for all recompense nothing but contempts and refusals 'T is true that it being harder to love without being lov'd then to be lov'd without loving there is no body but would chuse rather to be lov'd then to love upon those terms because nothing flatters our ambition so much as to see our selves sought unto Yet loving is a nobler thing then to be lov'd since honor being more in the honorer then the honored the honor receiv'd by the lov'd thing reflects upon him that loves who for that reason being commended by every one that esteems a good friend as a good treasure and not he that is lov'd is also more excellent and hath more vertue inasmuch as he hath more honor and praise which are the attendants of vertue Moreover the Lover acts freely and therefore more to be valu'd then the lov'd person who is forc'd to suffer himself to be lov'd For though desire commonly follow Sensual Love yet Love is not a desire nor consequently a sign of Indigence otherwise it should cease with the desire and expire after enjoyment which is false for Mothers love their dead Children and even before they came into the world not by a desire but by a motion of Nature which causes us to love what appertains to us and the more if it cost much pain which is the reason why Mothers who contribute more to the birth of their Children and have better assurance that they are their own love them also more tenderly then Fathers do The Third said That to compare the lov'd person with the Lover is to equal the Master with the Servant for the amorous assuming to themselves the quality of Servants of the Ladies whom they call their Mistresses manifest sufficiently thereby that they yield them the pre-eminence And although they be the most interessed in this cause yet they will never have the vanity to prize themselves above what they love which would be to condemn their own choice and their love of defect of judgment which making them sigh after the enjoyment of the object they adore argues their want and indigence not to be supply'd by possession of the good they expect from it which herein like the Intelligences which move without being mov'd themselves excites passions and motions in the
done among others by the Marigold which for that reason is called Heliotropium for the great correspondence there is between it and that all-enlivening Star Nay that correspondence is also so remarkably obvious in the other Plants that those who have observ'd them most exactly affirm that there is not any herb so despicable but it hath an interiour character answerable to that of some Star which communicates its vertues and qualities to it and thence it comes to be called a terrestrial Star Why therefore should it come into dispute whether Man hath such a Priviledge as that he may be sensible of what is prejudicial or advantageous to him by that tingling of the Ear which may well be the sign thereof though the cause be not absolutely manifest For experience it self and the effects consequent to the observation do very much confirm it for those being commonly answerable to what had been conceiv'd by those to whom that kind of Divination by the Ears had happened there is as much ground to give it some credit as there is to deduce any thing from some other less considerable accidents from which the like conjectures are made such as are for example among others the twinkling of the Eyes sneezing the meeting of something extraordinary especially a Negro an Eunuch or some other defective person and the striking of ones feet against the threshold of his own door which prov'd fatal to C. Gracchus who was murther'd the very day that such an accident had happened to him as also to Crassus the day he was defeated by the Parthians In all which signs there is much less likelihood of declaring the accidents which some would attribute thereto than may be imagin'd in the Tingling of the Ear as being the seat of the Memory which the Ancients for that reason were wont to stir up by plucking the tip of it and if it be true what Plato saith that all our Knowledge is but Reminiscence and that we only remember the Species of things which had been before in our Understanding it will be no hard matter to find out some ground for this praesension The Fourth said That there was no other conjecture to be drawn from this Tingling of the Ear than that the Person subject thereto hath a weak and ill-dispos'd Brain which breeding abundance of ill humours if they come to make any stoppage in the passages of the Ear its action is vitiated and obstructed by that Tingling which is a symptom of a deprav'd Hearing and causes the party to hear an importunate sound or noise though there be not any made without and that there be not any application of the hollowness of the hand to the Ear in which case it hears some such noise 'T would therefore be ridiculous to look after any other causes thereof than what may be in the disposition of the Brain and the excrements it produceth on the diversity whereof as also on that of their Motion in the Ears that Tingling depends as do also the Breathing the Ringing the Buzzing and the Swimming of the Ear which are Symptoms of a deprav'd Hearing the breathing or blowing being done by a little blast which gets out gently the Tingling by the interruption of its motion the ringing proceeds from a more gross vapour and such as blows more strongly as the resounding does from an impulsion yet more vehement and lastly the Swimming is caus'd by the agitation of these as well vaporous as spirituous matters which being different and differently moved produce those different sounds And therefore it is absurd to derive any other marks of what should happen to us then those laid down in Medicine which teaches us that they who are subject to these frequent tinglings and ringings of the Ears are in their way to Deafness by reason of the danger there is that these vaporous humours should make so strong an obstruction in the organs of Hearing that the auditory air cannot get into it to make sensation and if this happen in a burning Feaver together with dimness of the eyes it is a certain presage of the distraction or madness which ordinarily follows that noise of the Ear. CONFERENCE CCXXIX Of Philtres and whether there be any proper Remedies for the procuring of Love THere is not any thing so pleasant and delightful as to be belov'd To procure that it is requisite there should be some perfection which being conceiv'd such by the person whose favour is courted it prevails so far upon his Inclinations that he cannot forbear being in Love with it Thus is it that a known Truth doth so fully satisfie our Understanding that it cannot deny its consent thereto Thus is the Will so strongly engag'd upon the pursuance of a Good which seems delightful to her that it is hardly in her power to gain-say it nay she is of her self inclin'd thereto not needing any other Charms to induce her thereto than those she meets with in the goodness of the Object which she loves These are real Philtres which never fail to raise Love in those that have them there is no necessity of looking after other Remedies all which are us'd either to a bad end or to none at all Deianira desirous to make use of them in order to her being better belov'd by her Husband Hercules prov'd the occasion of his death by the means of a garment which she sent him dy'd with the Blood of the Centaur Nessus Another Woman as Aristotle affirms in his greater work of Ethicks brought her Husband to the same Fate after she had made him take a Medicine of that kind Lucilia administring such a Philtre to the Poët Lucretius her Husband put him into such a distraction that he kill'd himself The like was done by the Emperour Lucilius after he had taken such a one from the hands of Callisthenes as also by Caligula after he had drunk off one of these potions into which there had been put a piece of that flesh which is found on the fore-heads of young Colts as soon as they are cast called in Latine Hippomanes an ingredient particularly recommended among these Medicaments In which Receipts we find also the brains of Cows when they would go to Bull and those of young Asses the bones of a green Frog the little Fish called the Remora the Matrix of the Hyaena and the little Bird call'd Motacilla the Wagtail from its continual wagging of the tail which it seems is so effectual a Remedy for the procuring of Love that Pindar in his fourth Ode of the Nemaea acknowledges that his Heart was so strongly drawn away and charm'd by the means thereof that he could not forbear Loving But though it were granted that these Remedies had some particular Vertues to excite Love in those to whom they had been administred yet would it not follow thence that they should make that Love mutual by obliging them to love those by whom they are belov'd For those to whom they are given commonly not
CL. Whether Alterations of States have natural Causes 195 CONFERENCE CLI Which is more healthful To become warm by the Fire or by Exercise 198 CONFERENCE CLII. Whether Wine helps or hinders Digestion and why 201 CONFERENCE CLIII Why 't is colder at Day-break than any other time of the Night or Day 203 CONFERENCE CLIV Whence the whiteness of Snow proceeds 206 CONFERENCE CLV Whether Courage be natural or acquir'd 209 CONFERENCE CLVI Whether Men not having learn'd of others would frame Language to themselves 112 CONFERENCE CLVII Whether is better to guard the Frontier or carry the VVar into the Enemies Country 215 CONFERENCE CLVIII Whence diversity of Opinions proceeds 218 CONFERENCE CLIX. Why there is more VVind at Sea than at Land 221 CONFERENCE CLIX. Whether it be easier to procure Obedience by Gentleness than by Terrour 224 CONFERENCE CLX VVhether Trading derogate from Gentility 225 CONFERENCE CLXI VVhy the French are so much incensed with the Lie 128 CONFERENCE CLXII VVhy every one thinks himself well enough provided with VVit and some better than others 231 CONFERENCE CLXIII How Animals are bred of Putrefaction 234 CONFERENCE CLXIV Of Zoophytes or Plant-Animals 237 CONFERENCE CLXV Of Trubbs or Truffs and Mushroms 240 CONFERENCE CLXVI Which is to be preferred Company or Solitude 242 CONFERENCE CLXVII Whether Birds or four-footed Animals or Fishes be most Intelligent 245 CONFERENCE CLXVIII What is the cause of the Crisis of Diseases 248 CONFERENCE CLXIX What Bodily Exercise is the most healthful 252 CONFERENCE CLXX Whether Vertue consists in Mediocrity 255 CONFERENCE CLXXI. Whether the Imagination be able to produce and cure Diseases 258 CONFERENCE CLXXII Of Fascination or Bewitching 261 CONFERENCE CLXXIII Of Amulets and whether Diseases are curable by Words Tickets or other things hang'd at the Neck or applyed to the Body of the Diseased 264 CONFERENCE CLXXIV Whether Fruition diminishes Love 266 CONFERENCE CLXXV Whether 't were better to know all that men now know or all that they ignore 269 CONFERENCE CLXXVI Whether Musick doth more hurt or good 272 CONFERENCE CLXXVII Whether Barrenness is most commonly the fault of Husbands or of Wives 275 CONFERENCE CLXXVIII Whether Complaisance proceeds from Magnanimity or Poorness of Spirit 279 Touching the means of re-establishing Commerce 282 CONFERENCE CLXXIX What are the most common Causes of Law-suits and why they are more now than heretofore 288 CONFERENCE CLXXX Whether more hurt or good hath proceeded from sharing the parts of Physick between Physitions Apothecaries and Chirurgions 291 CONFERENCE CLXXXI Whether there be any Real Evil besides Pain 293 CONFERENCE CLXXXII Whether man be most diseas'd of all Creature and why 295 CONFERENCE CLXXXIII Of the Greeness of Plants 298 CONFERENCE CLXXXIV Of the Cold of the middle Region of the Air. 300 CONFERENCE CLXXXV Of the Generation of Males and Females 302 CONFERENCE CLXXXVI Whether the French Tongue be sufficient for learning all the Sciences 304 CONFERENCE CLXXXVII Of diversity of Colours in one and the same Subject 306 CONFERENCE CLXXXVIII Whether we are more perspicacious in the Affairs of others or our own and why 308 CONFERENCE CLXXXIX Of the Original of Mountains 310 CONFERENCE CXC Whence proceed good and bad Gestures Gracefulness and ill Aspects 313 CONFERENCE CXCI. Which is most proper for Study the Evening or the Morning 316 CONFERENCE CXCII Who are the most Ingenious of the World 319 CONFERENCE CXCIII Of the Fraternity of the Rosie-Cross CONFERENCE CXCXIV What Paracelsus meant by the Book M. 326 CONFERENCE CXCV. Of the Art of Raimond Lully 329 CONFERENCE CXCVI. Why a Needle Touch'd by a Loadstone turns towards the North 332 CONFERENCE CXCVII What Sect of Philosophers is most to be follow'd 334 CONFERENCE CXCVIII. Why Mules breed not 336 CONFERENCE CXCIX Of the Mandrake 338 CONFERENCE CC. Of Panick Fear 343 CONFERENCE CCI. Of the Water-drinker of S. Germain's Fair. 345 CONFERENCE CCII. Why dead Bodies bleed in the presence of their Murderers 350 CONFERENCE CCIII Of the Vnicorn 353 CONFERENCE CIV Of Satyrs 357 CONFERENCE CCV Of the Phoenix 360 CONFERENCE CCVI. Of the Sensitive Plants 362 CONFERENCE CCVII. Of the Bezoar 365 CONFERENCE CCVIII Whence proceeds the sudden Death of Men and Animals upon descending into certain Pits 371 CONFERENCE CCIX. Whether a Dead Body can be preserv'd naturally many years 373 CONFERENCE CCX Of the Remora 375 CONFERENCE CCXI. Of Negroes 377 CONFERENCE CCXII. Of Ecstacies 380 CONFERENCE CCXIII. Of the Cock and whether the Lyon be frightned at his Crowing 388 CONFERENCE CCXIV. Of the Sibyls 392 CONFERENCE CCXV Whether of two Bodies of different weight the one descends faster than the other and why 399 CONFERENCE CCXVI Of the Silk-worm 402 CONFERENCE CCXVII Why Ice being harder than Water is yet lighter 406 CONFERENCE CCXVIII Of Masks and whether it be lawful for any to disguise themselves 409 CONFERENCE CCXIX. Of Fables and Fictions and whether their conveniences or inveniences be greater 413 CONFERENCE CCXX VVhether it be better to go to Bed late and rise betimes in the Morning or do the contrary 416 CONFERENCE CCXXI Whether the Child derives more from the Father or the Mother 420 CONFERENCE CCXXII Whether is harder for a Vertuous Man to do that which is Evil or for a Vicious Man to do that which is good 423 CONFERENCE CCXXII Whether a piece of Iron laid upon the Cask prevents Thunder from marring Wine contain'd within it and why 427 CONFERENCE CCXXIV. Of Stage-Plays and whether they be advantageous to a State or not 431 CONFERENCE CCXXV. Whether that Temperament of the Body which conduces most to Health be also the most convenient for the Mind 434 CONFERENCE CCXXVI Whether it be more expedient for a Man to have only one Friend or many 438 CONFERENCE CCXXVII Of the Oracles 442 CONFERENCE CCXXVIII Of the Tingling of the Ears 447 CONFERENCE CCXXIX Of Philtres and whether there be any proper Remedies for the procuring of Love 451 CONFERENCE CCXXX Of Atoms 454 CONFERENCE CCXXXI Whether the King 's Evil may be cur'd by the touching of a Seventh Son and why 458 CONFERENCE CCXXXII Of Conjuration 462 CONFERENCE CCXXXIII Of Natural Magick 465 CONFERENCE CCXXXIV Of the moles and marks appearing in the Face 468 CONFERENCE CCXXXV Of Auguries and Auspices 473 CONFERENCE CCXXXVI Whether those Children who are born with Cawls about their whole or some parts of their Bodies are always fortunate and why 478 CONFERENCE CCXXXVII Of Antiperistasis 482 CONFERENCE CCXXXVIII Of the Sympathetical Powder 486 CONFERENCE CCXXXIX Whether there be any such Creatures as the Ancients conceiv'd the Satyrs to be 489 CONFERENCE CCXL Whether it be better to bury or to burn the bodies of the Dead 493 PHILOSOPHICAL CONFERENCES Part II. CONFERENCE CI. I. Of Sleep and how long it ought to be II. Which is the strongest thing in the World AS Nature is the Principle of Motion so she is also of Rest and Sleep which is the cessation of the actions of an Animal to whom alone it hath been assigned in
Land had no doubt experienc'd the michiefs of that unfaithful Element the cruellest whereof is the Scurvy a Disease complicated with several others and whose chief symptoms are the ulceration and swelling of the Gums and Legs with pains over all the Body caus'd by the impurity and malignity of the Air. But the most frequent is vomiting caus'd by the sole agitation and violence of the Air. For our aerious Spirits not only receive the qualities of the air we breathe but also follow its temper and motion as is seen by the Head-ach seising those that are beaten by winds in the Country and by the seeming turning of their heads who attentively behold the circumgyration of a Wheel or some other Body So the Air at Sea being much agitated puts in motion the Spirits which are of the same nature and these being stirr'd set the humours on work which incommoding the parts are by them driven out by vomits and other ejections according to every one's temper and propensity For the cholerick and broad-breasted vomit more easily and successfully then the phlegmatick and narrow-breasted whose Organs of respiration are not sufficiently free Whereunto also the season of the year contributes for Summer provokes vomit more then Winter when the humours being more heavy rather tend downwards But especially Custom is considerable herein which renders those that go frequently to Sea not obnoxious to its inconveniences The Fourth said That the Earth consists of three substances one Unctuous which is the inflammable moisture call'd by the Chymists Sulphur another Cinereouâ— which they call the Faeces or Caput mortuum the third humid and incombustible which they divide into Mercury and Salt this latter again into Salt-nitre and Vitriol of which the Sea being full the same is communicated to the first Region of the Air contiguous to the Waters and insinuating it self into our Bodies by inspiration produces the same effects therein that it doth taken in substance four Grains of which is a sufficient Vomit Whereto also helps the gentle agitation of the waves which makes it penetrate the examples of others vomiting and especially the fear commonly incident to such as were never upon the Sea before who are most obnoxious to this trouble For that Passion so constringes the whole Body especially the inward parts that it weakens and relaxes the Nerves especially the Fibres which keep the parts in a just tenor and so the oblique Fibres and orbicular Muscles which serve to retain them being languid suffer the juices and humours to pass out The same fear which causes relaxation of the Sphincter Ani Vesicae relaxing the Muscles which serve to open and close the upper Orifice of the Ventricle Hence fear is commonly accompani'd with the pain of this part whose sense being very exquisite is the cause that the Vulgar call it The pain of the Heart which also for the same reason happens to such as look down upon low places CONFERENCE CXIX Of Love by Inclination or Sympathy 'T Is not only amongst the Poets that Love is blind the obscurity of this causes evidencing him no less so amongst the Philosophers who assign two sorts of it one of Knowledge which tends to a good known the other of Inclination whereby we love without knowing why Indeed there is no love without ground and some sort of knowledge but yet when the cause obliging us to love is manifest it makes the former kind of love when obscure the latter whereof we have many examples in nature not only in the Symbolical qualities of the Elements Electrical and Magnetical attractions of Stones particular alliances of Metals and all the amities of Plants and Trees as of the female Palm which is said to lean towards the male and those which are found amongst Animals but especially in the particular inclinations of some Persons to others unknown and void of all recommendations to qualifie them for the same and the emotions some have felt both in Soul and Body at the first sight of their unknown Parents as also of a contrary effect when a dead body bleeds upon the presence of its Murderer which is a testimony of an antipathetical hatred contrary to the abovesaid Love which we find in our selves almost upon all occurrences as when two equally strangers play at Tennis we wish that one may win and the other lose For the first motions of Love as well as of all other Passions are not in our power and afford not the Mind time to deliberate and make reflexion upon them Hence oftentimes Anger Sadness Panick fright and such other Passions seise upon us without cause and Love doth the like frequently without any apparent reason Yea we may say there is no Love of Knowledg but what took its first rise from that of Inclination which presently makes us enamor'd of the proportions of a Face which displeases another that understands the same as well as we but without being any way affected therewith because he finds not in it that correspondence and sympathetical resemblance that produces a Love of Inclination which may also arise without any knowledge as in that blind man who lov'd a Lass whom he had never seen as also in Petrarch who made so many Verses upon his Lawra whom he could never behold The cause whereof I should attribute to the power of the Imagination which fancies somthing of loveliness where there is none or else to the sole action of the Will which not able to remain neuter between love and hatred since its action is to will and to will is to love when it meets no cause of hatred in an object loves it and hates it when it finds nothing amiable therein For if you assign the reason of this love to the transpiration of Spirits issuing out of the lov'd person's body their substance is too volatile to act so far off and their issuing being never alike because the pores of the skin are more stopt at one time then at another this love would be remarkably alter'd every moment Besides we many times love by an inclination an absent person for his merit and many have been enamour'd of Beauties at the first sight of their Pictures but love was never produc'd between two blind persons notwithstanding any emission of sympathetical Spirits Moreover 't is the Species and not the Spirits that are receiv'd by our Senses and so none should ever love those they had not seen but by a Prospective-glass The Second said That it imports not much to the causing of love whether the object be really or only imaginarily good and indeed our minds seem to interess themselves more in the pursute and preservation of the latter then the former which maintains it self by its proper worth Wherefore if Love of Inclination presuppose goodness in the object the same must be apprehended either by the Imagination or by some other Faculty to which it must therefore be approximated either immediately by it self or by it self So the
sweetness of Honey makes it self perceptible to the Tongue by it self but the proportion of a fair countenance cannot make it self known but by its species which is the picture and representation of it This way is produc'd the Love of Inclination as well as that of Knowledge only with this difference that the Species which produce the former act imperceptibly and more suddenly then those that produce the latter which is more deliberate and rational The Third said There are but two sorts of Love one improper and Metaphorical the other proper and formal That precedes Knowledg and is an Instinct inclining natural things to their proper good This follows Knowledg as its guide and is the first Expansion of the Heart pleasing it self with the good it likes And as that is diffus'd over all Creatures so this is restrain'd only to the sensible and rational The Appetite whence the former proceeds is immers'd and incorporated in the nature of every thing and not distinguish'd from the faculties and powers they have to act But the latter ariseth from the Appetite properly so call'd whose functions or motions are the eleven Passions to which as many acts correspond in the Rational Appetite The Question cannot be concerning that improper Appetite for then Stones should have Love as well as Instinct towards their Centre but of the true and proper Love subsequent to Knowledg which gives Amability to good as Light doth Visibility to colours Wherefore they who talk of certain Spirits issuing out of the lov'd person's body into the eyes of the Lover and seising upon the heart without falling under knowledge seem ignorant of the nature of Love For should such spirits arrive at the heart without being observ'd yet they must come out thence again to be known before they can cause Love as we cannot know any thing that is in the soul unless it come first out thence and become sensible since nothing is in the Understanding but what pass'd through the Sense So a man cannot know his own face but by reflection from a Looking-glass without him For the Soul at our Nativity is like a smooth table or white-sheet of Paper and thence its primitive notions during this present state is by Phantasms supplied to us by our Senses Now the essential reason of this dependance which keeps Love subject to Knowledg is that the Appetite which is the Principle of Love is only a Passion or Propriety of the thing wherein it is but the Principle of Knowledge is an essential degree of Nature Hence Souls are distinguish'd by Cognition not by Appetite we call the Sensitive Soul so from the knowledg of Sense which constitutes its essential difference and the Rational Soul so because Reason the principle of Knowledg is a degree of Nature but Appetite is a propriety which follows it And being there is the same reason of Actions and their Principles as the Appetite supposes a principle of Knowledg so Love which is the action of the Appetite supposes actual and clear Knowledg Hence there is no love without knowledg For that we have more phansie to the one of two persons playing then to the other 't is because we discern somthing in his face gestures or motion that pleases us better Sympathy pretended the cause of this love may indeed be the foundation of it inasmuch as we naturally love those like our selves but it can never make us love till we have found in the thing some Je-ne-scay-quoy of lovely It cannot be the sole cause of our love since 't is of it self imperceptible to our knowledg and consequently cannot produce love till the effects of such sympathy to wit such an Air such a Motion and such a Deportment have pleas'd us And whereas 't is said that from eyes which behold us attentively we perceive something come forth that animates us I answer that oftentimes quick fix'd and sweet intuitions are tokens of love from which 't is no wonder if ours take rise and growth as from its proper cause since Love begets Love CONFERENCE CXX How the Vnderstanding moves the Will 'T Is proper to the Understanding not only to conjoyn things wholly different but oftentimes to abstract and separate such as are perfectly united in one and the same substance and differ only in accidents which it severs from their subjects Hence reflecting upon it self it distinguishes in its operation two Faculties to wit its Cognition and the Reasonable Appetite or Will although they are one and the same thing not only in the Soul whose essence is simple but also in the Intellect nor are their objects different Truth the object of the Understanding being convertible and all one with Good the object of the Will Hence Civilians acknowledg no Will in those that want Understanding as Ideots and Children And as the same Sun-beam that produces light causes heat too by the continuation of its action or by its re-union in a Burning-glass so an object long consider'd or strongly apprehended by the Understanding as good immediately incites and inflames the same to seek and desire it So that the cognition of a thing in the Understanding is only Theory which the Will applying it self thereunto by desire reduces into Practice As the Theorical habit of an Art differs not from the Practical and the conclusion of a Syllogism is only a dependance upon its two Premisses Wherefore the Will which is the practice of the Understandings speculation and a result of its ratiocination is not distinguish'd from the Understanding and to know good to desire and seek means to possess it are operations continu'd by one sole motion Besides to separate the actions of the Souls faculties and make them independent one of another would infer a kind of divisibility in the Soul but the Will being only a desire every desire a species of motion and motion an accident it is separable from its subject the Understanding whereof 't is only an affection and propiety So that the Intellect and the Will being the same thing when the former is carried towards an apprehended good we say it moves the Will as it doth the other powers which it employs in quest of that good when the same is external and it cannot attain to it by it self The Second said That to know to will and to be able although of the same extent in things purely natural as in a Stone whose knowledge desire and power to tend to its centre are the same thing yet are different actions in rational agents For oftentimes we know without willing and will what we cannot do and sometimes we know not that which we would Oftentimes we will things not only without but even against Reason witness the irregular Appetite of breeding Women and Green-sickness Maids Wherefore these actions being different the Faculties from which they proceed the Intellect Will and Motive Faculty must be wholly distinct seeing their two adequate Objects which specifie Faculties are consider'd under divers formal Reasons which
resolves what is to be done So Man by his Senses discovers the nature of Objects as by so many Spies which make their report to the Imagination after which the Understanding judges of the same and lastly the Man resolves and determines by his Will Thus 't is the Man that makes all this progress employing all his Faculties diversly for that purpose And as 't were impertinent to ask how the Scouts and Council of War acted and mov'd the Troops which execute the General 's resolution to make them fight but it suffices to say That 't is his Order So 't is absurd to inquire how the Senses or Understanding move the Appetite or the Will 't is sufficient to say That a Man resolves to will after cognisance of the matter The Fifth said That that which moves the Will is something divine and more excellent then Reason namely that part of the Intellect which is the knowledg of First Principles and is to the Soul what she is to the Body which she informs This appears in all the Will 's actions whereof those that tend to the End are to Will to Desire to Enjoy when the said End is a Good and is either absent or present not to Will to Flee to be Sad when the said End is an Evil and that consider'd too either as absent or present those which respect the means leading to such End are To Chuse to Consent and to Employ some rather then others All which actions it cannot exert of it self but being mov'd by that divine power of the Intellect which represents to it the goodness of the End and the sutableness of the Means for attaining the same in like manner as the End moves the efficient Cause attracting it to its prosecution by an improper and metaphorical Motion The Sixth said As the Will is mov'd by the Intellect so is the Intellect mov'd reciprocally by the Will which commands it to divide define abstract and perform its operations in such and such manner Yea there is no Faculty but is subject to its empire It commands the Imagination to frame Idea's and Species the Memory to recall and represent them the Motive Faculty to speak walk and the like other actions the Sensitive Appetite to love hate be angry to raise and appease its passions though many times these are deaf to its dictats The Seventh said Since the Rational Soul is a simple Form and every Form a perfection of the subject wherein it resides that of Man being to know Truth to love Good and to be united to both by Fruition the same Soul when it knows is call'd the Intellect when it desires or loves the thing known the Will So that there is no need for the one to be mov'd by the other for 't is the Soul that moves it self which therefore Aristotle calls Entelechia and the Principle of motion the Pythagoreans a Self-moving number The Eighth said That the Will depends not any way on the Intellect and consequently is not mov'd by it Which is prov'd first because the Will is mutable and oftimes contrary upon the same ratiocination as it would not be if it were mov'd by the Understanding For if the Will were according to Aristotles definition a desire of good with reason the one ought always to follow the other But it not doing so 't is an argument that the Will hath another principle then the ratiocination In the second place as it was lately argu'd there are amities of Inclination properly so call'd because not grounded upon any Reason and therefore the Will which never exercises its dominion more freely then in Love follows not the Intellect in that kind of amities and consequently is not mov'd by it Thirdly whatever the Civilians say Fools and Children have their Wills as well as the Wiser and Elder yea both the former Will as resolvedly as the latter and Women who we say have less judgment then Men are yet more self-will'd and obstinate then they On the contrary the most judicious are commonly the least resolute and find most difficulties in willing An Emperick and ignorant Physician will be bolder and resolve things more pertinaciously then an old experienc'd Methodist A young and giddy Captain will sooner tell his opinion which is the issue of his Will then an old beaten Souldier who doubts of every thing and labours much to bring himself to a resolution But the contrary would happen if the Will follow'd the Duct of the Judgment Wherefore I conceive rather that the Will moves the Understanding as well as all the other Faculties since no body can reason inspite of himself but he must will to set his Mind upon a thing before the Intellect can make its reviews The Ninth said The best course was rather to salve the Opinions of the School by some Expedient then wholly to depart from them as a way too difficult to keep and that he conceiv'd it better to untye the Gordian knot then to cut it which belongs only to Alexander 'T is acknowledg'd that the Intellect and the Will are two Faculties of the Rational Soul that we will nothing unless the judgment believe it good whether it be really or only apparently such But the difficulty is concerning the means that the Intellect employs to carry the Will to such good Take it thus The Will is carri'd of it self to good as a Stone to the Centre but as this Stone is sometimes hinder'd from arriving thereunto by obstacles which stay it so Ignorance puts a bar to the Will Hereupon the Understanding falls to work till it have remov'd that obstacle by its reasoning Which done as there is nothing between the end of a shadow and the beginning of light so there is nothing between the end of our ignorance and the beginning of our volition where the operation of the Understanding ends there begins that of the Will no more induc'd mov'd and as little forc'd as the weight that tends downwards which cannot be said carri'd towards the Centre unless improperly by him that takes away the piece of wood or other obstacle that stop'd it in the Air. Moreover it were no longer a Will if mov'd by any other principle but it self As is seen in those who having a will to do somthing when the same is once commanded them change their resolution or do only with regret what before they desir'd with passion as the same motion which was natural to the Stone becomes violent to it when it is impell'd instead of being suffer'd to descend downwards CONFERENCE CXXI Whence come the Marks or Spots wherewith Children are born AS the Degrees of Life have dominion over the First Qualities so they have authority one over another each in his order The Vegetative life in Man makes use of the Elementary Qualities at pleasure even to the prejudice of their own Nature So Heat congregates things of the same and separates those of different Nature but our Vegetative Soul makes it do the
often as little Children and Old people whose heat being weak and easily dissipated they must be often nourish'd but by a little at a time for fear of overcharging their too weak Stomacks The last and commonest way is to eat plentifully but seldom which is the manner of middle-ag'd people who usually eat twice a day and more at one Meal than at the other it being hard for a Man to satiate himself both at Dinner and Supper without indammaging his Health Which made Plato wonder when he heard that the Sicilians fill'd themselves with Meat twice a day and oblig'd the Romans to make a light repast about Noon and a splendid Supper which I am for Upon this account the Church hath to macerate us forbidden Suppers on Fasting dayes which is an Argument that they are more agreeable and more conducing to Health than Dinners For such quantity of Food is to be taken as answers to the natural heat which being not onely more vigorous but also of longer duration between Supper and Dinner than between Dinner and Supper the interval whereof is seldom above six or seven hours whereas that between Supper and Dinner is about seventeen 't is more reasonable to sup more largely than dine For if the Dinner be largest we shall eat either as much as the heat is able to digest by Supper-time or more If we eat more and go to Supper before the digestion of the Dinner is wholly finish'd we shall beget crudities which are the seed of most diseases If we eat as much as the heat can digest and the Supper be less then the Dinner then the heat which follows the Supper being stronger and more active will soon concoct the meat taken at Supper and because 't is a natural agent not acting from a principle of liberty but of necessity and cannot remain idle having no extraventitious matter to work upon it will necessarily consume the laudable juices of the body drying up the same during sleep For whereas sleep is said to moisten whence arose the Proverb Qui dort mange He that sleeps eats 't is true when the stomach and entrals being fill'd with sufficient nourishment the Heat raises and disperses to all the parts the purest of the juices and vapours like gentle dews which it cannot do when the Stomach is empty The fourth said Nature having given us an Appetite to advertise us of the need of all parts there is no certainer rule of the time of Repast than this Appetite which for this reason is seated in the upper Orifice of the Stomach render'd sensible by the Nerves of the sixth Pair terminating therein For there is a continual dissipation of our substance in all the parts which being exhausted attract from their neighbours wherewith to fill their own emptiness these solicit the Liver for supply that the Guts by the Mesaraick Veins these the Stomack at the top whereof this suction terminates the sense or perception whereof is call'd Appetite which if of hot and dry is call'd Hunger if of cold and moist Thirst So that Nutrition being onely to recruit and repair the loss of our Substance there is no more assured sign of the fitting time to eat then when the said Appetite is most eager at what hour soever it be The fifth said That this might have place in well temper'd bodies which desire onely so much as they are able to digest but not in those whose Appetite is greater than their Digestion as cold and melancholy Stomacks or who desire less as the hot and bilious whose heat melting the juices abates the Appetite as on the contrary Coldness contracting the membranes of the Stomack augments it So that 't is most expedient for every one to consult his own Temper Age Nature and Custom of living Old people little Children such as are subject to Defluxions or have weak Stomacks must sup sparingly on the other side the Cholerick and such as are subject to the Head-ach must eat a larger Supper than Dinner But above all the Custom of every particular person is most considerable herein CONFERENCE CXXIII Which of the Humane Passions is most excusable MAn being compos'd of two Pieces Body and Soul and upon that account styl'd by Trismegistus The Horizon of the Universe because he unites in himself the spiritual nature with the Corporeal the Inclinations whereof are different he hath also need of two guides to conduct those two Parts the Rational and the Animal and make them know the Good towards which they are carried of their own Nature The Intellect makes him see the Honest and Spiritual Good the Imagination enables him to conceive a sensible and corporeal Good And as the Rational Appetite which is the Will follows the light afforded to it by the Intellect in pursuit of Honest Good whence Vertue ariseth so the sensitive Appetite is carri'd to the enjoyment of sensible Good which the Imagination makes it conceive as profitable and pleasant and that by motions commonly so disorderly and violent that they make impression not only upon the Mind but upon the Body whose Oeconomy they discompose and for this reason they are call'd Passions or Perturbations and Affections of the Mind These Passions either are carri'd towards Good and Evil simply as Love and Hatred the first inclining us to Good which is the Parent of Beauty the latter averting us from Evil or else they consider both Good and Evil Absent as Desire and Flight or Lastly they consider them being present and cause Pleasure and Grief which if of longer duration produce Joy and Sadness Now because difficulties frequently occurr in the pursuit of Cood and flight of Evil therefore Nature not contented to have indu'd Animals with a Concupiscible Appetite which by means of the six above-mention'd Passions might be carri'd towards Good and avoid Evil hath also given them another Appetite call'd Irascible to surmount the Obstacles occurring in the pursuit of Good or flight of Evil whence arise five other Passions Hope Despair Boldness Fear and Anger Hope excites the soul to the prosecution of a difficult but obtainable good Despair checks the motions of the soul towards the pursuit of a Good no longer obtainable Boldness regards an absent Evil which assures it self able to surmount Fear considers the same absent Evil without any means of being able to avoid it Lastly the violence of Anger is bent against a present Evil whereof it believes a possibility to be reveng'd And because a present and enjoyed Good cannot be accompani'd with difficulty hence there is no Passion in the Irascible Appetite answering to Anger as there is in the other Passions which again are divided according to the several objects about which they are exercis'd The desire of Honours is call'd Ambition that of Riches Covetousness that of fleshly Pleasures Concupiscence that of Meats Gourmandise or Gluttony The Hatred of Vice causes Zeal that of a Rival Jealousie The sorrow arising upon the sight of Evil suffer'd by an
of good juice conduceth much to render Women fruitful On the contrary the frequent use of food hot and dry gross and of bad juice may render them barren as Leeks and Garlick do and amongst other Plants Mint which was therefore forbidden to be eaten or planted in time of war wherein 't is needful to repair by Fecundity the loss of Men it causeth In like manner want of Exercise by the heaping up of superfluous Humors and too violent and continual Exercises by desiccating the parts oftentimes occasion sterility Amongst the Passions Sadness is the greatest Enemy to Generation whence Hesiod forbids marry'd people to see one another after a Funeral but only at their coming from a Bath or from places of Mirth In fine what ever is capable to impair the goodness of the Temper is contrary to Fruitfulness and Generation which above all other Natural Actions requires an exact harmony of the qualities and a perfect disposition of the noble parts which supply Matter and Spirits fit for this Action And although Men and Women are alike expos'd to External Causes yet Women being less vigorous are sooner wrought upon by them For to Internal Causes which are the most considerable Women are undoubtedly more subject since beside Seed which they supply as well as Man who to deserve the name of fruitful ought only to supply the same in requisite quantity quality and consistence and place it in convenient Recepticles the Woman must also afford Blood and also a place for receiving and preserving both the Seeds and Blood namely her Womb the least disorder whereof is sufficient to marr the whole work of Generation Wherefore since she contributes most to Generation and there are more Causes in her concurring thereunto if it take not Effect she is more in fault than the Man who hath not so many several concurrences in the business The Fourth said That the Causes of sterility being either Natural or Adventitious and equal in the Man and the Woman nothing can be determin'd upon this Question For in either Sex there are both universal and particular deficiences of right Temper and as many Effeminate Men as Viragoes the one not less unfit for Generation than the other as Aristotle saith Castration is practis'd in both and disorderly living is equal as well in Male as Female in these dayes For if Men exceed in drinking Maids and Women are as bad in Gluttony and Lickerishness If there be any difference 't is from the diversity of Climate Women being found more fruitful in hot Countries and less in cold but Men contrarily the intemperies of either Sex being corrected by an opposite constitution of Air. Hence such Women as have been long barren sometimes become fruitful by change of Air Places manner of Life and especially of Age by which the temperament of the Body being sensibly alter'd it acquires the Fruitfulness it wanted by acquiring the Qualities and Conditions necessary to Generation Many likewise upon the same reason become fuitful after the use of Mineral Waters or Baths and being thereby deliver'd from several Diseases to which barren Women are more subject than such as have Children whom Parturition rids of abundance of Excrements peculiar to that Sex and occasioning many disorders in the barren The Fifth said That the observation made by Bodin in his Republick and several other famous Authors that the number of Women much exceeds that of Men seems to void the Question Nature having thereby sufficiently given us to understand That fewer men are as fruitful as more women Which observation is verifi'd not only in the East and other Countries where plurality of Wives hath places but also in France where there is no Province wherein Virgins remain not unmarry'd for want of Husbands Moreover one man may beget abundance of Children in the space of nine moneths during which a woman breeds but one or two and therefore Man seems more fruitful then Woman who beginning to be capable of Generation but two years before Man doth viz. at 12 years old at the soonest ends 23 years sooner then he for men generate at 70 years of age and more but women end at 50. During which time also they are subject to far more infirmities and maladies than men who have not above four or five whereof women are not capable but women have fifty or threescore peculiar to themselves CONFERENCE CLXXVIII Whether Complaisance proceeds from Magnanimity or Poorness of Spirit COmplaisance is a habit opposite to Roughness the first being a Species of Civility the latter of Rusticity Now since we are complaisant either in good or bad things to be so must be commendable or blameable according to the nature of the object But because no body doubts that we ought to be complaisant in vertuous actions and that they are as culpable who connive at vice as they that commit it It remains to consider of Complaisance in indifferent things as 't is in common practise amongst men and as Juvenal represents it in a person that falls a weeping as soon as he sees his friends tears and when he smiles laughs aloud and if you say you are very hot he sweats if cold he runs to his Fur-gown Now the Question is whether such a man hath more of courage or baseness I conceive he shews himself a very pitiful fellow For this deportment differs not from that servile Vice Flattery which is near akin to Lying and easily turns from an indifferent to a vicious action Thus Courtiers varnish vices with the name of such vertues as have most conformity therewith calling Avarice Frugality Lasciviousness Love Obstinacy Constancy and so in other cases till they render themselves ridiculous even to those they praise who how vain soever they may be yet cannot hear their own praises without blushing at them being conscious that they displease all the hearers Indeed when I am complaisant to any one 't is for fear to offend him and fear was never an effect of Magnanimity To which all that can be excepted is that it belongs also to Prudence to fear formidable things But Fortitude and Courage are never employ'd in the practise of this vertue which therefore is very much suspected and oft-times serves for an excuse of cowardice Hence old men whom their cold blood makes less courageous are esteem'd the most prudent and if they be not the most complaisant 't is to be imputed to the sullenness attending that age as jollity doth youth Moreover as Courage leads us to act without fear of danger what we conceive good and just so it teaches us to call things by their proper names as Philip's Souldiers did On the contrary Complaisance teaches people to admire beauty in a deformed woman to commend a bad Poets Verses and desire a copy of them from him to give fair words to such as we will not or cannot do any kindness to in brief to dissemble all things and to disguise our words contrary to the frequent express