the Capacities of those who love since that considering the amiable objects whether they be such and consequently there be cause for the loving of them or are not really such but only so conceiv'd by the apprehensive faculty they are equally fit to move the Will to love them and to gain its affections and they ought to be the more agreeable to it in that it finds in them its perfection and the accomplishment of its desires And so the plurality of Friends is so far from being any prejudice to Friendship that it sets a greater esteem upon it as also on him who loves The Fourth said That Friendship taken generally is a mutual Good-will between those who are desirous to do one another some reciprocal kindness but taking it more precisely it may be defin'd a Vertue by means whereof vertuous persons are so united in Affection and Will that they become absolutely like one another through a hearty good Will Concord and good Turns mutually done and receiv'd The former resides particularly in the interior motions of the mind the second in words and discourse the third in effects These are the three essential marks of a vertuous Friendship which not regarding its proper interest as those do who love upon the account of pleasure or profit courts not the objects it loves out of any other consideration than that of the Vertue or Science which render it recommendable Now these qualities being seldom found among many who ought to be equally furnish'd therewith that the Friendship may be reciprocal it is very hard to meet with so many Subjects capable of so sublime a Vertue as that which besides that combination of Vertues requiring much experience and a great process of time that we might not be deceiv'd in the choice of Friends with each whereof a Man according to the common saying should eat a bushel of Salt before he contracted a Friendship it will be found a much harder task to make such a strict examination of the qualities and dispositions of many than it will be to do it of one alone with whom consequently it is more safe to enter into Friendship than it can be with many The Fifth said That Friendship being grounded on conversation and there being not any more divertive and delightful than that between those who eat and drink together the Case is the same with friends as it is with guests which ought not to be under the number of three nor exceed that of nine whence came the ancient Proverb that a well-ordered Feast should not be under the number of the Graces nor transcend that of the Muses In a word since conversation is the ground-work of perfect Friendship as the former cannot be pleasant among less than three and must be confus'd and wearisome among above nine but is most divertive when five or six persons well-qualifi'd and perfectly understanding one the other fall into mutual discourse so Friendship cannot be of long continuance between two but there must be a third to encourage it yet with this further caution that it is better maintain'd among a greater number of persons equally vertuous provided nevertheless it exceed not that of nine to prevent the confusion and inconvenices attending a greater The Sixth said That though there be an absolute necessity of Friendship in all he transactions of humane life in order to the more pleasant expence of it yet are there principally two certain times wherein its necessity is more apparent to wit those of Prosperity and Adversity In the former our friends participate of our happiness in the latter of our misfortunes and whereas these last are commonly more frequent than good successes the plurality of Friends who are our second-selves making the burthen the more supportable by the part every one takes in our misfortunes it is much more expedient that a Man should have many then content himself with a small number which being not able to bear the brunt of so violent an assault he would be in danger of being overcome thereby Nay though all things should happen according to our wishes yet were it convenient to have a considerable number of Friends the more to congratulate our good fortune which will make the greater noise in the world the greater their number is who approve and applaud it The Seventh said That the plurality of Friends was equally inconvenient as well in good as bad fortune For in the latter it must needs trouble us very much to give occasion of grief to a great number of Friends who though they bemoan us ever so much yet are we still in the same period of misfortune nay our unhappiness is the greater in that it is contagiously communicated to so many persons at the same time In the former there cannot be any thing more troublesom then that great number of people who love or pretend to love us in our prosperity it being then impossible for us equally to satisfie them all as we might easily do one single Friend from whom we may also derive greater comfort in Adversity than from many addressing themselves to us at the same time to whose humours to accommodate our selves well we must study an unconstancy equal to that of Proteus and put on as many Countenances as they have different Inclinations The Eighth said That since a good thing is so much the more excellent the more it is communicated and diffus'd several ways Friendship ought to derive its esteem from that communication which the greater it shall be the more recommendable shall it make the Friendship which consequently is the more perfect among many to whom it is always advantageous since it comprehends the three kinds of Goods the profitable the pleasant and the vertuous For is there not much to be gain'd in a society which the more numerous it is the greater advantages and assistances may be deriv'd from it There is not any thing so highly delightful as to love and to be belov'd of many But whereas Friendship is the Livery of Vertue whose inseparable attendant she is Can there be any thing more vertuous and commendable then after that manner to love several others who love us and by that reflux of mutual kindness give assurances of our Vertue answerable to the acknowledgements we had made of their merit the multitude of Friends not abating any thing of the esteem of civil Friendship no more than the great number of charitable persons does prejudice Charity which is a consummate Love and equally embraces all CONFERENCE CCXXVII Of Oracles THere is not anything disquiets the Spirit of Man so much as the desire he hath to know things to come and whereas he cannot of himself attain thereto by reason of the weakness of his knowledge which he derives from the Senses and other corporeal powers he will needs try what he can do out of himself and there is no place into which his curiosity hath not found a way to discover what he so much desir'd
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
ANOTHER COLLECTION OF Philosophical CONFERENCES OF THE French Virtuosi UPON QUESTIONS of all SORTS For the Improving of Natural Knowledg Made in the Assembly of the Beaux Esprits at Paris by the most Ingenious Persons of that Nation Render'd into English By G. HAVERS Gent. J. DAVIES of Kidwelly Gent. LONDON Printed for Thomas Dring and John Starkey and are to be sold at their Shops at the George in Fleet-street neer Clifford's-Inn and the Mitre between the Middle-Temple-Gate and Temple-bar 1665. IMPRIMATUR Novemb. 20. 1663. WILLIAM MORICE PREFACE THe good Reception a Volume of the like Conferences appears to have found last year by the speedy distribution of the Copies hath given encouragement to the Version and Publication of this wherein I assure my self the Readers will not find themselves worse entertain'd at the second Course then they were at the first the Questions here being proportionably more Philosophical and chosen from such Subjects as are most inquir'd into at this day by the Curious of our own Nation who undoubtedly will find some contentment if not satisfaction in reading what the Virtuosi of our Neighbour-Nation have discours'd touching those Matters I have often heard it spoken to the Commendation of an Eminent Peer in the last Reign That for an hour or two together he made the most agreeable Conversation in the World but if upon parting any one of the Company happened to reflect upon what he had heard he could not remember the least particular passage saving that he had spent such a portion of Time very deliciously 'T was a happy Faculty for the Man for he did his business by it and partly ow'd his Promotion to this Talent I shall pronounce no otherwise upon him but thus That perhaps as Tully said in almost a like case he was a better Gallant than a Wise Man should be At least this way of consuming Time argued a great Disease in Mens Minds when they could be contented to feed upon Air and were so squeamish as not to be able to bear the wholsom Diet of solid Discourse 'T is too apparent that the same Humor is still predominant in these our days wherein Gaming makes the whole Converse amongst the Gentry who like rapacious Animals meet together but to prey upon one another whilst old Stories or News and for want of matter so innocent Detractions Derisions and Abuses are the only things that furnish talk to the Plebeians Thus we live and yet pretend to be Reasonable Creatures whilst true and solid Reason is almost as obscurely discernable in our Commerce as Sense and Motion are in Sponges and Oisters But 't is hop'd the better practice of some Excellent Persons amongst our selves may contribute much to the Reformation of this and to help it forward it cannot but do some good by exciting us to emulation to see what been already done by some Gentlemen of France to whose excellent Wits the World is beholden for these Conferences THE CONTENTS CONFERENCE CI. I. OF Sleep and how long it ought to be II. Which is the strongest thing in the World Page 1 CONFERENCE CII I. Of the Gowt II. Which Condition is most expedient for the acquisition of Wisdom Riches or Poverty 7 CONFERENCE CIII I. Of Glass II. Of Fucusses or Cosmeticks 13 CONFERENCE CIV I. Of Tobacco II. Whether the Invention of Guns hath done more hurt than good 19 CONFERENCE CV I. Of Blood-letting II. Which is the most Excellent of the Soul 's three Faculties Imagination Memory or Judgment 25 CONFERENCE CVI. I. Of Dew II. Whether it be expedient for Women to be Learned 31 CONFERENCE CVII I. Whether it be good to use Chymical Remedies II. Whether the Reading of Romances be profitable 37 CONFERENCE CVIII I. Of Talismans II. Whether a Country-life or a City-life is to be preferr'd 43 CONFERENCE CIX I. Of Volcano's or Subterranean Fires II. Which age is most desirable 49 CONFERENCE CX I. Of Mineral Waters II. Whether it be better to give than to receive p. 55 CONFERENCE CXI I. Of Antidotes II. Which is most communicative Good or Evil. 61 CONFERENCE CXII I. Why Animals cry when they feel Pain II. Whether it be expedient to have Enemies 66 CONFERENCE CXIII I. Of the Iris or Rain-bow II. Whether the Reading of Books is a fitter way for Learning than Vocal Instructions 71 CONFERENCE CXIV I. Of the Milkie-Way II Which is most powerful Gold or Iron 79 CONFERENCE CXV I. Of the cause of Vapours II. Which is less culpable Rashness or Cowardice 85 CONFERENCE CXVI Which Climate is most proper for Long-life The second Question is remitted to the next Conference and 't is Resolv'd for divers Reasons that hereafter but one be handled at a time 90 CONFERENCE CXVII Which is most necessary to a State and most noble Physick or Law 93 CONFERENCE CXVIII Of Sea-sickness 96 CONFERENCE CXIX Of Love by Inclination or Sympathy 99 CONFERENCE CXX How the Vnderstanding moves the Will 102 CONFERENCE CXXI Whence come the Marks or Spots wherewith Children are born 107 CONFERENCE CXXII Of the Original of Forms 111 CONFERENCE CXXIII Whether Lean People are more healthy and long-liv'd than Fat 114 CONFERENCE CXXIV Whether we may better trust one whom we have oblig'd or one that hath oblig'd us 117 CONFERENCE CXXV Of the Causes of Freezing and Thawing 119 CONFERENCE CXXVI Of the Causes of the Small Pox. 123 CONFERENCE CXVII Whether we profit best by Precepts or Examples 126 CONFERENCE CXXVIII Of Incubi and Succubae and whether Devils can generate 129 CONFERENCE CXXIX VVhich Animal is happiest according to Nature 132 CONFERENCE CXXX VVhether is better that Men have many VVives or VVomen many Husbands 135 CONFERENCE CXXXI Of the manner of Accretion 138 CONFERENCE CXXXII VVhether the Dinner or Supper ought to be largest 141 CONFERENCE CXXXIII VVhich of the Humane Passions is most excusable 144 CONFERENCE CXXXIV VVhich is the most laudable Temperament 147 CONFERENCE CXXXV Of Happiness and Vnhappiness and whether men are Happy or Vnhappy because they really are so or because they think themselves so 150 CONFERENCE CXXXVI Of the Original of Precious Stones 153 CONFERENCE CXXXVII Of the Generation of Metals 156 CONFERENCE CXXXVIII Whether there be an Elementary Fire other than the Sun p. 159 CONFERENCE CXXXIX Which is most desirable long or short Life 162 CONFERENCE CXL Of the Lethargy 165 CONFERENCE CXLI Whether it be better to marry or not to marry 168 CONFERENCE CXLII At what time the Rational Soul is infus'd 171 CONFERENCE CXLIII Of Metempsychosis or Transmigration of Souls 174 CONFERENCE CXLIV Whether there were braver Men in any preceding Age than in the present 177 CONFERENCE CXLV Of the Serene which is a hurtful Dew falling in Summer-Evenings 180 CONFERENCE CXLVI Whether the French are light and inconstant and why 183 CONFERENCE CXLVII Of the sundry Motions of the Sea and Rivers 186 CONFERENCE CXLVIII Whether is better to Love or to be Lov'd 189 CONFERENCE CXLIX Of Hair 192 CONFERENCE
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
produce either of an honest profitable or delightful Good this Opinion and Imagination must be the strongest of all moral agents Amongst the actions of the Imagination which are the Passions that of Love is the strongest because it serves for a foundation to all the rest it being true that we fear desire and hate nothing but so far as we love some other thing so that he who can be free from this Passion would be exempt from all others Amongst Transcendents Truth is strongest not that which is ill defin'd The conformity of our Vnderstanding with the thing known since there are things above us which surpass the reach of our capacity and yet cease not to be true But this Truth is a property and affection of Entity wherewith it is convertible and consequently cannot be truly defin'd no more then the other Transcendents since a Definition requires a Genus which being superiour and more common cannot be assign'd to Entity or Truth which is the same with Entity otherwise there should be something more general then Entity which is absurd And although the nature of this Truth is not distinctly known nevertheless the virtue of its effects is very sensible for it acts every where and in all yea above the strongest things in the world whose actions depend upon the verity of their Essence which they suppose And as this Verity is the Principle of the actions of all Agents so it is the End and First Mover which gives rise to all their inclinations whereby they all tend towards one Good which is nothing else but Truth which gives weight and value to Goodness But the force of Verity appears principally in that it acts upon the most excellent thing in the World to wit the Understanding which it convinces by its light wherewith it extorts consent and this so much the more as the Understanding is perfect as we see in the Understandings of the Wise and Learned who more easily suffer themselves to be overcome by Truth than the Vulgar and in those of Angels and Intelligences who likewise yield to Truth And because Verity and Entity are the same thing therefore God who possesses Entity Originally is also the Prime Verity which our Lord attributes to himself in the Gospel when he saith That he is the Truth and the Life For whereas Truth is oft-times altered and clouded in the world and frequently produces Hatred the most infamous of all Passions 't is a defect not found but in dissolute Spirits who cannot support the brightness of it and hate its light because it discovers their faults Yea even when men contradict the Truth and follow the deprav'd motions of their most disorderly Passions 't is allways under an appearance of Goodness and Truth But if the shadow and appearance alone of Truth hath so great an Empire over our minds as is seen in the most erroneous Opinions which never want followers with more just reason must it self when known be invincible and the strongest thing in the World In conclusion were propos'd amongst the strongest things Time which consumes all Death which overthrows all the Powers of the Earth Place which embraces all in it self and Necessity so potent that it is not subject to any Law but gives the same to all other things which cannot avoid its Empire insomuch that the Ancients esteem'd the Gods themselves not exempted from it but subject to the necessity of a Destiny CONFERENCE CII I. Of the Gowt II. Which Condition is most expedient for the acquisition of Wisedom Riches or Poverty THe Gowt called Arthritis or Morbus Articularis is the general name of all aches of the Joynts caus'd by fluxion which gave it the name of Gowt and is different according to the divers connexions of the Bones and the Parts which it afflicts being term'd Podagra in the Feet Chiragra in the Hand and the Ischiatick ach by the vulgar Schiatica in the Hip. Nevertheless every Articular Pain is not the Gowt as appears by Contusions Luxations Wounds and the Pains of Women after Child-birth in Virgins after their Evacuation and in Bodies infected with the French Disease But 't is a Grief of the Parts indu'd with sense which are about the Joynts accompanied sometimes with swelling and caus'd by the fluxion of a sharp and serous humour transmitted out of the Veins and Arteries into those Parts whose motion it hinders and because the Feet are most remote from the source of heat therefore Nature commonly drives thither the matter of this Malady whereunto they are more dispos'd then other Parts as well by reason of their composition of Nerves Tendons Veins Arteries Membranes and Ligaments spermatick and cold parts as of their continual motion which gives occasion to the fluxion Hence the Gowt begins usually at the Feet especially at the great Toe whose motion is greatest which hinders not but that it begins too in the Hand Knee and Hip and sometimes in the Sides and if the matter abound sometimes it seizes upon the Joynts with such violence as would make Nature succumbe were the fits continual and not periodical as they are giving to some an interval of a year to others of six months or less according as there needs time for collecting the humour in those parts The cause of this vehement pain is the acrimony of the corrosive and mordicant humour which makes a solution of the parts whose coldness renders this evil almost incurable and makes it last fourty days the pain not being appeasable saving when the cause which produces it is resolv'd whereunto the coldness of its subject is not proper The Second said That in the Gowt as in all sorts of Fluxions four things are to be consider'd the Matter which flows the Place whence it comes the Way by which it passes and the Parts upon which it falls As for the first the Gowt hath some Matter not being as some hold a simple Intemperies which could not subsist so long nor cause such pungent pains much less a tumour as it happens sometimes in the part afflicted which cannot proceed but from the affluence of Matter This Matter some affirm to be Wind or Flatuosity with as little reason for then it might easily be resolv'd and would cause only a pain of distension Most hold that 't is the four Humours arguing from the diversity of Symptomes of this Disease and the various manner of curing some being eas'd by hot Aliments and Medicaments others by cold And lastly from the different colour of the tumours appearing sometimes red white or of some other colour by reason of the blood phlegm or other humours which produc'd them But though a very acute pain may in this malady as it doth in all others attract the humours which abound in the body and so cause a tumour yet this humour which makes the inflation cannot be the cause of the Gowt since at the beginning and before the parts are inflated the pains are very great but cease
Chymical Remedies are prepar'd with a moderate heat as that of a Dunghill Ashes Balneum Mariae which cannot give them such Empyreuma And should they all have it yet being but an extraneous and adventitious heat 't is easily separated from them either of it self in time or speedily by ablutions wherewith even Precipitate Mercury is render'd very gentle and Antimony void of all malignity What is objected of the violence wherewith Mineral and Metallick Medicines act by reason of their disproportion to our Nature is as little considerable since Hippocrates and the ancient Physitians us'd Euphorbium Hellebore Scammony Turbith Colocynthis and such other most violent Remedies which are still in use and Galen employ'd Steel Sandarach burnt Brass and the like Medicines taken from Minerals wholly crude and without preparation which was unknown in his time Rondeletius uses crude Mercury in his Pills against the Venereous Disease whereof this Mineral is the true Panacaea Cardan and Matthiolus crude Antimony Gesner Vitriol Fallopius Crocus Martis against the Jaundies almost all Physitians Sulphur against the Diseases of the Lungs and such Patients as cannot be cur'd by ordinary Remedies they send to Mineral Waters And since not only Garlick Onyons and Mustard which we use in our Diet but also the Juices of Lemmons Citrons Berberries and Cantharides although corrosive are still in use why should we not use Chymical Medicines in small quantity purg'd from their corrosion and taken with convenient Waters and Vehicles The Fifth said There is in all natural things a certain fix'd Spirit the sole principle of their Virtues and Operations which being separated from them they remain only Carcasses without Souls As is seen in Earth render'd barren by extraction of its nitrous Salt in Wine dead or sowre and in the insipid phlegm of the same Wine separated from its Spirit by Chymical distillation which separates the good from the bad the pure from the impure the subtil from the gross the form from its more crass matter in a word the Spirit from its Body which being impregnated with the virtue of the whole Mixt reduc'd into a very narrow Volume is very active and proper not only to serve for Aliment to an Animal which is nourish'd with this Spirit the rest being unprofitable and as such converted into Excrements but also principally for the curing of Diseases by repairing and strengthning the fix'd Spirits which are the true feats of Diseases as well as of Health a Disease being nothing but the laesion of the Functions whereof the Spirits are the Principles whereas ordinary Physitians instead of separating the virtues of each Mixt to oppose the same as Specifical Remedies to all Diseases as the Chymists do stifle and destroy them by the confus'd mixture of abundance of Simples and Drugs whereof their Medicaments are compounded which by this means acquire a new temperament and particular virtue resulting from the ingredients whose qualities and properties are abated or rather extinguish'd in like manner as of the Elements united together is made a Compound wholly different from its principles Wherefore we may justly retort against such Remedies what they charge upon those of Chymistry namely That they are taken from dead Ingredients corrupted and depriv'd by the Fire of their Radical Humidity wherein consisted their prime purgative virtue which is not so easily dissipated since when a Nurse takes a Purge the strength of the Physick is convey'd by her Milk to the Child and we feed she-Goats and Pullen with Purgatives to render the Milk of the one and the Flesh of the other such However since there are so many incurable Diseases whose causes are sufficiently known but to which no Specifical Remedies are found Chymistry which opens the means thereunto by the solution of all Bodies ought to be cherish'd and not condemn'd as it is by the ignorant or malicious who must at least acknowledg it one of the members of Physick as belonging to Pharmacy which consists in the choice and preparation of Medicaments and is part of the Therapeutical Division But we say rather That the three parts of Medicine or its three ancient Sects are the three parts of the World Europe Asia and Africa and Chymistry is that new World lately discover'd not less rare and admirable than the others provided it be as carefully cultivated and rescu'd out of the hands of Barbarians Upon the Second Point it was said That Truth is not the most powerful thing in the World since oftentimes Fables and Romances have more attractives and no fewer followers than Histories as the Poets meant to signifie by the Fable of Pigmalion who fell in Love with a Statue For Romances which are nothing else but the Images of a phantastick Beauty are nevertheless lov'd and idolatris'd by abundance of Persons not only for the Eloquence whose fairest lines are seen in those fabulous Books but for the Gracefulness and Gallantry of the actions of their Personages which may serve for a perfect model of Virtue which having never been found compleat in all points in any Illustrious Man whose Life is always blemish'd with some spot History cannot give us a perfect example to imitate unless it be assisted by Romances without which Narrations purely Historical describing a naked fact are but excarnated Sceletons and like the first lines of a Picture grosly trac'd with a Crayon and consequently disagreeable if artifice give them not colour and shadows Thus Xenophon and in our times Don Guevara aiming to draw the Model of a perfect Prince one in the Person of Cyrus the other of Marcus Aurelius have heap'd together so many contrarieties to Truth that they have made rather Romances of them than Histories Thus Achilles's exploits appear far otherwise in Homer than in Dictys Cretensis those of Charlemain in Eginard and Ariosto than in the Annals 'T is to Romances that they owe half their Glory and if their Example hath given any excitation to the Readers Spirits 't is what the Romances aim'd at not the Histories The Romancer is the Master and Contriver of his Subject the Historian is the Slave of it And as by refraction of the visual rays variously reflected in a triangular Glass is form'd an Iris of colours which although not real yet cease not to please so by the variety of those accidents variously interwoven with the mixtures of Truth and Fiction is form'd so agreeable a Medley that it delights more in its Inventions than the Body of an uniform History from which Romances borrowing the most memorable accidents may be term'd the Essence and Abridgment of the same re-uniting all the Beauty Pleasure and Profit which they afford For these Books serve not only for delight but profit the one never being without the other since Fair which is the object of Delight and Good of Profit are reciprocal and inseparable And the pleasure we take in any thing is an infallible mark of its goodness and utility which is so much the greater in
any excellence in Giving it proceeds only from having Receiv'd before Moreover the three points which make a thing esteem'd in the World Profit Pleasure and Honour are all on the Receiver's side For he must have renounc'd all the interests of Self-love that can believe there is more Profit and Pleasure in Giving than in Receiving And as for Honour although it seem more openly to favour the party of those that Give nevertheless since Giving and Receiving are Correlatives the reason of either must be alike and there cannot be Honour and Virtue in the one but there must be so in the other nor on the contrary Blame and Ignominy in the Receiver but it reflects back upon the Giver And as he who loves is less excellent than he who is lov'd because he hath some perfection in himself which renders him lovely which is ordinarily wanting in him who loves so between the Giver and the Receiver the latter being as 't were the Person lov'd may be said more noble than he who Gives who is the Lover for there is no less Liberality in the one Person to be willingly oblig'd then in the other to oblige him and besides Virtue being a habit of the Will he who Receives with Gratitude and desires to Repay with Usury may be said as virtuous and as liberal in the act of his good-will as if he gave effectively But this Virtue commonly appropriated to the Giver is oftentimes rather Ostentation and Vanity than true Virtue For either the Man gives such things as himself needs and then 't is rather Folly than Virtue or such as are superfluous in which case 't is no Virtue for a Man to deprive himself of a useless thing Yea sometimes t is more ignominious and dishonest to Give than to Receive for every thing restrain'd by the Laws is not only unjust but vicious and dishonest Now the most part of Donations is restrain'd not only by that rule of Givers who say That the Title De Donationibus is the Title of Fools because to Give is to Lose but the Emperours had an express Officer call'd Comes Sacrarum Largitionum who was to retrench the superfluity of their Gifts and put in execution that Formula of our Chambers of Accompts Trop donné soit repeté Too large a Grant is to be recall'd Yea the Donations of private Persons were retrench'd by the same Laws even those between Husband and Wife Legacies by the Law Falcidia Feoffments by the Trebellian Liberties by the Caninian Law But there can be no shame in receiving since not only Kings but God himself Receives from Men and the Grandeur of the Messiah is not describ'd by the Prophet saving by the Presents he was to receive of the Kings of Arabia and Saba Gifts being a testimony of their excellence to whom they are conferr'd Whence the Lawyers hold That a Testamentary Legacy is a mark of Honour to the Legatee as also they call the Fee which Advocates receive Honorarium And the Wise-man commands us to Reward the Physitian by the word of Honouring him In fine The praeeminence of Receiving above Giving sufficiently appears in that our Lord invites us to Give only by the promise and hope of Receiving an hundred fold The Second said Although to Give and to Receive be so difficult that Seneca justly complains That we know not how to do either yet the former is far more excellent according to S. Paul's testimony who in the 20th of the Acts exhorts the Christians to remember the Word of our Lord That it is more blessed to Give than to Receive For since according to the Maxim A man cannot give what he hath not nor receive what he hath already Giving is a sign of Plenty and Perfection as Receiving is of Want and Imperfection Whence 't is nobler to be lov'd than to love because Love is the desire of a Good which we want and is found in the Person lov'd Moreover since an Action is the more excellent by how much 't is more virtuous and honest Giving which is more virtuous because more difficult than receiving as being contrary to our natural inclination of Getting is also more excellent Wherefore Philophers reckon not amongst Virtues the habit of Receiving as being wholly mercenary but account Liberality and Magnificence a Royal and Divine Virtue For if to Receive were an act of virtue as Aristotle holds who places Liberality as well in Receiving as in Giving it had not been a Virtue in Curius to refuse the Treasures of the Samnites But the action of Giving hath been honour'd not only with the Name but the Tokens and Ornaments of Virtue Praise and Honour as Ignominy oftentimes adheres to those that Receive Now an Action is the more virtuous the more 't is honour'd and commended and since many who Receive are asham'd of it and unwilling to have witnesses of this action whereas all that Give derive glory for so doing there can be no virtue in Receiving because we are not asham'd of Virtue but only of Vice CONFERENCE CXI I. Of Antidotes II. Which is most communicative Good or Evil. AS every thing hath its Contrary so to Poisons there are Counter-poysons call'd Antidotes Alexipharmaca or Alexiteria of a middle nature between Medicaments and Poisons with which they must have some similitude that they may joyn with and encounter them in the Body Such is Vipers Flesh which enters into the composition of Treacle against that Animal's bitings in which Antidote divers other Poisons are blended which nevertheless being corrected one by another they remain not only innocent but serve to elude Poisons which attaque men by trechery seeeming Friends to them that they may destroy them more certainly than the good Wife mention'd by Ausonius did who having given her Husband Sublimate enough to kill him and fearing 't would fail of its effect caus'd him to swallow down Quick-silver which comming to be joyn'd to the Sublimate quell'd the strength of it and by this means sav'd the Man Diseases arising from manifest qualities require contrary Remedies as Plenitude evacuation a hot Distemper cold Correctives But when the imperceptible puncture or biting of a Scorpion makes the whole Body swell or excites such other symptoms then Remedies acting by first and second qualities being found unprofitable we must have recourse to Specificks which act by an inexplicable Property of Substance of which rank are our Antidotes The Second said That Poisons and Antidotes Medicaments and Aliments are not call'd so absolutely but as compar'd to the Natural Heat For when subdu'd and turn'd into the Animals Substance they are call'd Aliments when Nature is alter'd by them Medicaments when destroy'd Poisons when preserv'd from their malignity Antidotes Hence according to the diversity of this heat one same thing is food to one and poison to others As Hemlock is eaten by Goats and Quails Henbane and Mandrakes by Swine Cantharides by Swallows Flies and Spiders by Poultry and Birds although the
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
undeserving person causes Compassion Indignation proceeds from the happening of Good to one that merits it not Now among all these Passions Ambition which aims at a general superiority seems to me the first and since it hath serv'd to excuse Parricides and Violators of the publick faith whom it hath caus'd to say that for the sake of command nothing is unjust it may very well be excus'd every where else besides that it hath been the instigator to the most glorious Actions the source whereof is that laudable Ambition which every one hath to out-vie his companion The second said If the Passions are Diseases of the Soul as the Stoicks held and the Question seems to presuppose I conceive none more agreeable and excusable than Love whose sweet violence insinuating into the severest brests finds nothing capable to resist it Hence those that are taken with it wish nothing less than a cure which cannot proceed but from oblivion of the thing belov'd wherein they live more than in themselves the soul being more where it loves than in the body wherein it lives Moreover this Passion is the most natural and common of all and consequently the most excusable being found not only in all men but also in all Animals who feel the assaults of Love which makes them naturally tend towards Good And as Love is the most common so it is likewise the source and principle of all the Passions for we neither hate nor fear any thing we have neither joy sadness desire fear nor anger but because we love something the true course to become exempt from these Passions being To love Nothing The third said That the most violent Passions being the most excusable because the hardest to subdue those of the Irascible Appetite particularly Anger being more vehement than those of the Concupiscible Appetite are also the most worthy of excuse The former possess the noblest part of Man the Heart which is the source of Anger the latter the Liver which is the seat of Love whose weakness the Poets have sufficiently demonstrated by representing it to us under the form of a Child which hath no power over us but what we suffer it to take But Anger which is proper to the Generous as Love is to the weak and effeminate makes it self master of the Soul and by its sudden and impetuous motions obscuring the light of reason makes us the more excusable in that we are no longer masters of our own actions And as Madness excuses the Frantick from blame and punishment so Anger which is a short Madness as the Poet saith deserves the same excuse its violence being so much above that of all other Passions that it is the most quick and passes like Lightning for when it takes root in the soul it loses its name and degenerates into Hatred The Fourth said That he was for Joy because all the other Passions acknowledg its power such that they are contented to be its servants Love and Desire are only in order to some hoped Joy Hatred and Flight only to remove all objects that may trouble it Despair then only seizes us when we can no longer hope for Joy Hope is for it alone Fear is only of what is contrary to it Boldness to break through all Obstacles opposing our contentment and Anger serves to express the displeasure we resent for its delay or interruption If a man injure us in his anger or in his sadness yea or in his despair we will not excuse him but be we never so displeas'd we not only excuse the joy of others but take pleasure in it And whereas Contraries are known by their Contraries since nothing displeases us so much as Sadness nothing pleases us so much as Joy whose violence is manifested by some that have dy'd of it as none ever did of Anger In fine we cannot better prove and approve the power and empire of any one than by becoming his subjects as we all are of Joy to which the greatest part not only give part of their time but also quit the most important affairs to seek it in places destinated to the god of Laughter whose Festivals are now more frequen then in in the days of Apuleius And what makes us in youth bear and endure all the pains of study Apprentices of each Trade the hardships which they undergo Soldiers the danger of Death but a pre-conceived hope of Joy which he that possesses becomes so master'd by it that he forgets all his past evils The Mariner no longer remembers the perils of the sea nor the sick person his pains In short every one suffers himself to be possess'd and govern'd by this Passion which is therefore the most excusable The fifth said That Grief brings greater Evil than Joy doth Good because Evil wholly destroys the Nature of a thing which Good only renders more complete whence it follows that the former is much more just and excusable than the latter which gives only Well-being but Evil destroys Being it self to the preservation whereof all Creatures being naturally enclin'd more carefully eschew such things as may hurt them then they pursue those that may procure joy and contentment Moreover the accents of the Voice which testifie Grief or Sadness are much more violent than those of Joy which being nothing else but a bare complacency receiv'd in the enjoyment of Good consists rather in rest then in motion whereof Grief partakes more largely by the endeavours which it causeth the soul to put forth for removing of what torments it The sixth said That the Passions being Appurtenances of our Nature and part of our Selves are all excusable in themselves because natural and inevitable but especially those whereto we are particularly most inclin'd by Temper so Love and Joy are most excusable in the sanguine Choler and Despair in the Bilious Hatred and Sadness in the Melancholick Hope and Boldness in Youth and Bashfulness is excusable in a Child but culpable in an old man Yet Hope which accompanies Man not only while breath lasts but extends even beyond death seems by that duration to plead that as it is the least separable so it is the most excusable CONFERENCE CXXXIV Which is the most laudable Temperament TEmperament is the Harmony and Proportion of the four first Qualities resulting from the mixture of the Elements whereof all sublunary Bodies are compounded which being destinated to several ends requir'd therefore different Tempers and Qualifications Now although the diversity herein be almost infinite yet it may be reduc'd to three Supream Heads For either the four Qualities are so mix'd that they remain in an equal proportion or one of them excels the rest or else two together have the advantage The first makes the Temperament equal the two latter make it unequal The equal Temperament is two-fold one call'd Temperament by Weight ad Pondus as they speak when the qualities are so perfectly proportionate that could they be weigh'd in a balance not one would preponderate above
Lover's breast it self oftentimes remaining immovable And as he acts in a more noble way that moves without being mov'd because he resembles the end which is the noblest of all the Causes so he that loves resembles Matter which Desires all Forms expecting its perfection from them and consequently is inferior to the person that is lov'd as from whom he expects his felicity Even in Mutual Love he that begins is less perfect as confessing by that address some inviting accomplishments in the other who finds not any obligation to love him again but the consideration of gratitude For inferring the advantage of those that love from the nobleness of their subject as in Gods love to his Creatures and that of Parents to their Children I answer that 't is rather an effect of passion then of true love The Fourth said That Love is according to the variety of its Object Good three-fold considering either Profit or Pleasure or Vertue In the two former 't is better to be lov'd then to love but they are of no long duration those friends being wont to break as soon as they cease to find their market or the contentments which they receive from those to whom they pretended kindness In honest friendship which alone deserves that name being founded only upon vertue which makes it durable though 't is not possible to love without being lov'd because vertuous persons being alike mutually love and agree well together yet since this Amity before it can become such must be cemented by frequentation without which they cannot understand nor consequently love one another because love arises from knowledg it may be demanded whether the active love of him that loves first be better then the passive of the other who is lov'd Which Question I determine for the former because he contributes most to the ensuing friendship by laying the foundations of it For friendship as well as other things is preserv'd by the same means that produce it namely by loving And as the Agent is nobler then the Patient as concurring more considerably to the perfection of the work so he that loves being the Agent is more perfect then the Person lov'd who is the Patient Also to love is to wish and do good to be lov'd is to receive it But 't is more honorable and vertuous to give then to receive which is a shameful action and therefore he that receives never desires witnesses Hence as he that do's a benefit loves more then he that receives it as the Artificer loves his work more then his work loves him and a Creditor desires his Debtor's safety more then on the contrary in like manner he that loves is more excellent then he that is lov'd Love being not so much a testimony of indigence as abundance because 't is a desire of communicating and the more goodness a Being hath the more it is communicative and diffusive CONFERENCE CXLIX Of Hair OF the different parts of Man's Body some are absolutely necessary others only for convenience or ornament as the Hair wherewith wise Nature hath adorn'd the Head his noblest part whose nudity would have been indecorous whence people are asham'd of baldness which is also threatned by God as a curse to the Daughters of Sion The good man Elisha had sufficient patience to endure Jezabel's persecutions for a long time but not to support the affront of the little Children of Bethel who call'd him bald-pate and upon his curse forty two of them were torn in pieces by two Bears which came out of the neighbouring Woods God by that means avenging the injury done to the noblest part of this Prophet namely the Head upon which 't is also the custom to place Crowns and because 't is the Mansion of the Rational Soul our Lord forbids swearing by it The Superincumbent Hair receives by that vicinity some particular and mysterious dignity which hath made it so esteem'd that not onely the Ancients offer'd it in sacrifice to their Deities especially when they were toss'd by Tempests of Sea and burnt it upon the death of Friends but also the Nazarens who were the Religious or Monasticks among the Jews were particularly prohibited by God to cut it wherein likewise Sampson's strength Absolom's Beauty and according to the Poets Nisus's happiness consisted But above all there is a certain Majesty in the Beard which is reserv'd onely to Man as best suting with the gravity of his manners A large Beard was ever counted the character of Wisdom and as such chosen by Philosophers as a badge of their profession Hence Diogenes to one that ask'd him Why he wore so long a Beard answerd To the end that beholding it I may remember that I am a Man not a Woman For though Wisdom and Folly be found in all Ages and there be as many old fools as young hair-brains yet the Beard is a sign of Experience which principally renders Men wise Natural Reason seems also to prove that those that have Beards are wiser and less impetuous than those that have not yet put them forth inasmuch as the fumes and fuliginosities which are the matter of Hair being still inclos'd in the latter make them more inconsiderate and rash Yea were it onely for shew I should conclude in favor of great Beards which at least have this good that they make Men appear wise though they be not so And as Lycurgus said of long Hair that it adds handsomness to them that are handsome and covers the deformities of them that are not whom also it renders terrible to their Enemies so large Beards serve for Ornament to those that are already wise and make them considerable that are not so overmuch The Second said Hair is the Symbol of Thought deriv'd from the same Brain and as various in conceit and fashion Nations having chang'd modes for Hair and Clothes accordingly as they have fancy'd more becommingness and sutableness in one fashion than in another Four hundred years together there was no Barber at Rome the first being carry'd thither from Sicily by Ticinius Menas Anno V. C. 454 and after that time 't was accounted with them a note of barbarity and extream desolation to let their Hair and Beards grow as Augustus did after the defeat of Varus The French have been as mutable in this matter as in any other Their Kings of the two first Races wearing long bushes of Hair in token of liberty And since Francis the First who shav'd his Hair upon occasion of a wound in his Head and let his Beard grow to hide the deformity of scarrs remaining in his Face after other wounds short Hair and long Beards began to be in request and continued so till our Age wherein Periwigs are more the mode than ever which being to be grounded upon convenience or seemliness I see nothing that can justifie the great bush but Caprichio and Example For Hair being a superfluous Excrement its exorbitant greatness cannot but be incommodious and prejudicial to Health
would make choice of an indifferent Friend and do not esteem a zealous one above a luke-warm one so hated both by God and Men that the Scripture saith God will spew the luke-warm out of his month they being in truth no better than Hypocrites Moreover Charity the sublimest Vertue and which must survive Faith and Hope perfect Fruition admitting only Love ought to be so extream that it can never be too much since we are oblig'd to endanger our selves for others and to love God more than our selves and our neighbours as much as our selves whom we always love too much Let us see now whether Justice loves Extremities best concerning which matter we find it said that the highest Justice is the highest Injustice Then for Chastity Is it fit for a Woman think you to lend one port of her honor to a Friend and to keep the other In brief Do we not see that a too circumspect Captain deserves not the Name of valiant but quits it for that of prudent And in the practice of Prudence he who balances too long and takes not a speedy Resolution to pursue the same yet more courageously is abandon'd by all the World Moreover the Laws of the Athenians punish'd those that would swim between two waters taking no side in a publick Sedition as judging it better to fail in the choice of the one or the other of such parties than to take none at all If you have to do with a Priest about a Case of Conscience is any thing more insupportable than to find an unresolv'd Mind The same may be said of an Ambiguous Lawyer and Physitian who send back their Clients and Patients more dissatisfi'd than they came He that seeks Employment under Grandees must not boast of Mediocrity in his abilities to serve Diligence will not admit division much less fidelity nothing pleases but what is extream Which possibly hath brought Hyperboles into such credit at Court and made nothing more usual in commendations than the word Extreamly The Third said That since a Defect and an Excess is incident to all Humane Actions Reason requires that we assign the middle place to Virtue which is defin'd by Aristotle An Elective Habit consisting in a Rational Mediocrity And if any be found that seem to be only in Excess as Humidity in an extream Abasing of of our selves Magnanimity in Courage rais'd above the greatest things yet their several circumstances especially those of their End serve to qualifie and determine them This Chastity which seems uncapable in excess since a Virgin cannot be too chaste yet was vicious in the Vestals because they had an Evil End in Paganism as it is virtuous in our Nunns The Fourth said That Virtue being high and sublime this argues that it consists in extremity as also do all the Theological Virtues Charity as is above declar'd Faith the least doubtings wherein are criminal and Hope which never wavers So likewise do the Cardinal Virtues amongst which the inflexible Justice of Cato and Aristides far surpasseth in dignity the accommodements and wayes of Accord of Arbitrators which alwayes need a supream Authority to be authoriz'd and executed Hence a severe Judge of these times having remitted a little of his ordinary severity to comply with the Humors of the Age was said To have become a Man as if he had been Divine before As for Temperance Chastity which is a Species thereof is more laudable and better merits the name of Vertue in a Virgin then in a Wife and the abstinence of S. Nicholas who is said to have fasted from the Nurse's Breast or that of S. Simon Stylites was much more vertuous than ordinary Fastings In brief Prudence though it teach us to keep the middle every where yet is despis'd when accounted indifferent Moreover by the Reason of Contraries Vertue must consist in extremities because Vice does so and if Vertue should consist in the middle which partakes of the nature of the extreams it should be composed of two extream Vices which is absurd So the Earth the vilest part of the World is in the midst and Heaven the noblest at the extremities which are the circumferences Otherwise we might with some probability render the same reason that a Satyre of these times did why there are so few vertuous persons now-a-days Because saith he Envious Antiquity plac'd Vertue in the middle which is a point and a point is impossible to be found The Fifth said That we must distinguish Moral vertues from Theological The former consist in mediocrity but not the later and are therefore call'd supernatural as not only attaining but surpassing the bounds of Nature yet every moderate moral action is not vertuous nor every extream vicious For some are always Vice how little sover you take of them as Adultery Homicide and Theft others always Vertue in whatever extremity they be found as Temperance and Fortitude And because Action wherein Vertue consists is of particular things this is best verifi'd by examples Thus Liberality is a mean between Avarice and Prodigality the Avarous being excessive in receiving and defective in giving the Prodigal on the contrary excessive in giving and defective in receiving Magnificence hath the same respest to great expences that Liberality hath to less The regular desire of moderate Honors hath for its extreams Contempt of Honor and Ambition Magnificence hath the like in reference to great honors Mansuetude or Clemency is between Choler which is offended with every thing and Stupidity which is offended with nothing Veracity between Boasting and Dissimulation Facetiousness between Bouffonry and Rusticity Amity between Flattery Morosity and Pratling Modesty between Fear and Impudence Indignation to see the wicked abuse Fortune between Envy which is troubled at the prosperity both of good and bad and Malevolence which rejoyces at the harm of both Sufferance between Softness and Insensibility Prudence between Stupidity and Craft In short all Vertues will be found thus and have their extreams although their names are not always easie to express CONFERENCE CLXXI. Whether the Imagination be able to produce and cure Diseases AS Health is a natural Disposition fit for performing the several operations of the Bodie 's Organs and consisting in the due temper of the Similar parts the Symmetry of the Organical and the union of both together so a Disease is a disposition contrary to nature hindering the same Functions by destroying the Temperament of the first Qualities the proportion and laudable conformation of the Organs and the Union of both whence arise three sorts of Diseases viz. Intemperies ill Conformation and Solution of Continuity Now the Question is Whether the Imagination can of it self hinder the ordinary Functions of the Similar parts by destroying the harmony and temper of the four first Qualities which is the principle of their actions as also those of the Organical parts by changing the natural Figure Magnitude Number and Situation of these Parts and the action of both by the dissolution
true Natural Agents to Patients thereby to accustom the Sorcerer to give credit to his words Thus an Italian having sold a familiar Spirit bethought himself to put a great Spider in a box and yet he that bought it found the same use and benefit of it which he desir'd The Third said That without recurring to good or bad Angels whose powerful Effects cannot be question'd but by Miscreants we find something in the ordinary course of natural things that makes for Amulets the Antiquity whereof is testifi'd by that saying of a Roman who being sick and ask'd how he did answer'd his Friend thus You may see how ill I am by this Ticket which I have suffer'd to be put about my Neck intimating that he must needs be very sick to suffer it since he gave no credit to it And yet Confidence is a necessary condition for the making Amulets efficacious For as the belief of sickness oftentimes makes people sick indeed so an Opinion that they shall be cur'd by such an Action Writing or Word is capable to work a Cure in those whose Minds have great power over their Bodies Which Opinion being founded only upon the Word Writing or the applying of an Herb to the Patient's Wrist or other such Conceipt the same cannot be term'd other than an Amulet Besides 't were a great rashness to conclude that there is no Connexion or necessary Consequence between Words and Effects since the same is found by Experience And Words are the signes and images of things and consequently have some proportion between them Whence possibly they that hunt the Hyaena cry continually I do not see her till she be enter'd into the toil which she doth boldly upon Confidence of that Speech and when they cry I do see her she endeavors to fly and get out of the Net but intangles her self further therein And in old time Gardners curs'd Parsley as they sow'd it to make it spring up the sooner Hence also the very naming of filthy things especially when we are eating turns our Stomacks and the mention of heinous Crimes makes us frown And lest this should be attributed to Phansie alone which is prov'd before not to be active but only cognoscitive we find that Serpents are charmed by words and Hesiod hath a Verse to drive away Cantharides and Shepherds affirm that according to the diversity of certain Words breeding Mares bring forth either Males or Females CONFERENCE CLXXIV Whether Fruition diminishes Love THe Ignorance of the Definition of Love seems to have occasion'd this Question For since the Passions are distinguish'd only by the various apprehension of Good and Evil Hope respecting good absent Love that which is present whence 't is seldom without some inward joy and Lovers would not be freed from their Passion though they complain of it to question Whether we love what we possess is to question Whether Love be Love Besides Love being not of things unknown it follows that the more we know the more we love that which is amiable as we do by possessing it for we cannot judge of that which we possess not but by the report of others which is commonly lyable to fallacy according to the several interests of the Reporters Which will appear better by the comparison of one that prefers a Picture before what it represents For what proportion there is between the Picture of a Mistress and the Mistress her self the same is found between such Mistress whilst she permits her Servant no privacy and her self when she is married to him the Actions of the one being but the shadow and Picture of those of the other which are discover'd in their simplicity by fruition We may say therefore that the Passion before Enjoyment is Desire but Possession alone is capable to produce true Love Besides the perfection of each thing compleats it and places it in its highest point instead of destroying it so likewise Enjoyment which is the perfection of Love and the sole Butt it aims at doth not extinguish it As one delightful meal may appease present hunger but with-all it incites us rather to desire another than to disgust it The Second said Did we not converse with things altogether imperfect Possession would encrease Love because it would see new perfections in the thing belov'd But on the contrary common Experience teaches us the imperfection of what before Enjoyment we accounted highly of and so our Love of it comes to be diminish'd Besides difficult things being the fairest and contrarily brave things whose acquisition is easie contemn'd witness the Orders of Knight-hood and other Honors which have been made rare only that they might be the more amiable it follows that we less love what we have in our power than what we have not Humane weakness being soon weary of every thing and naturally carry'd to change But we cannot be weary of things not in our power and consequently we must esteem them more than what we possess the familiarness whereof is apt to breed Contempt of it in us Besides that the Mind is prone to seek what it wants and to esteem the condition of another above its own Thus the Ox would fain gallop like the Horse who on the other side envies his labour at the Plough and every one takes more pleasure in speaking of what he least understands and about the profession of others than about his own Yea Experience shews us that Lovers relinquish both the thing and name of Servants as soon as they are marry'd Whence a late Poet speaking of his Mistress said He knew no way to moderate the excessive Love he had for her but by marrying her The Third said That true Love must be distinguish'd from false this latter decresing by fruition whereas the former is encreas'd by it as also we must distinguish of Subjects that are lov'd Those that deserve not to be so are like coarse Pictures which require to be beheld at a distance and in a certain station because neerness discovers their defects whereas the nearer an excellent and well drawn piece is beheld the more it is esteem'd Besides a difference must be made between what is practis'd and what ought to be practis'd The defects of the person loving are not to be imputed to the thing loved and therefore the Question should not be whether Enjoyment diminishes but whether it ought to diminish Love as indeed it neither ought nor doth in things truly amiable for the more they are known the more they endear themselves As therefore the more the Sun ripens a Grape the sweeter it is and yet one in a Fever thinks it bitter and prefers Verjuice before it which nevertheless makes us not conclude Verjuice the sweeter of the two So the disgust of a Lover is not to be imputed to the thing lov'd but is indeed an argument of his own imperfection The Fourth said If the diminution of Love upon enjoyment were a sign of weakness of judgment Women would not be
as they are more constant then Men after the same as we see more Men desert the Love of Women then on the contrary Witness the story of Demophoon after enjoyment of the King of Thrace's Daughter who fell into despair upon his departure as Medea did upon that of Jason and Dido upon that of her Aeneas The cause whereof seems not imputable to feminine Pudor as if having yielded themselves to one man they could not keep their honour unless they keep their affection but the reason is because Men are more perfect then Women and find more causes in them for change Yet I conceive that the augmentation or diminution of Love ariseth not from enjoyment as appears by Friendship which is contracted only after long converse and the eating of many bushels of Salt together as the Proverb speaks so far is a thorough knowledg such as Enjoyment gives us from diminishing it Not to mention the examples of many married couples who if occasion were offer'd would not stick to imitate the noble contention of Gracchus and Cornelia and chuse to dye one for the other The Fifth said That if Fruition diminishes Love it must be the fault either of the Lover or the thing lov'd Not the first for he is always the same person and fruition renders his object more sensible and consequently more amiable to him Nor the latter since the very imperfections of the thing lov'd seem so many perfections to him that loves it Balbinumque suae delectat polypus Agnae Thus also the imperfections of Children diminish not their Parents love but by the help of compassion augment the same Grandfathers commonly love their Childrens Children more tenderly then their own and amongst their own the youngest Which holds not only in this kind of work but in all others bad Painters having no less kindness for their own pieces then Apelles could have for his The Sixth said That the Question may be determin'd by distinguishing the sorts of Love Impetuous Love such as is found in Youth and the Poets describe swells like Torrents by resistance and languishes by liberty Regular and sober Love such as is found in ripe years towards deserving subjects and especially divine things encreases like Rivers by the accession of new Notions as so many new Springs till it end in a boundless Ocean Either sort receives augmentation or diminution according to the diversity of the minds affected therewith the weak as less capable of understanding the inconveniences of this impetuous passion which mastering all the rest deprives them of the use of Reason and renders them unprofitable to other actions of life continue longer before they come to themselves and quit this trouble Hence Women and of them the least judicious are conceiv'd to retain this passion longest even after possession of what they lov'd The contrary happens in the other love wherein the more we enjoy the more we are enflam'd to further pursutes of knowledg CONFERENCE CLXXV Whether 't were better to know all that men now know or all that they ignore NOne doubts but there are still things to be known and consequently Sciences to be attained But if we will stand to the wiseman's sentence That all known Sciences are vanity that is to say Nothing the Question will soon be voided there being no comparison between Nothing and Something Moreover there being no Science without Demonstration and very few or no Demonstrations in any Discipline which themselves are founded upon Principles not demonstrable which nevertheless ought to be known it follows that there is no Science and that we know but one thing with Pythagoras to wit That we know nothing And Pyrrho went further not allowing that men know themselves ignorant but that they must be contented to doubt of it yea and to doubt of their very doubting Accordingly we see that no reason is ever so strong but some other may be found that thwarts it and in all Disciplines the most skillful are the most unresolv'd and furthest from that Scholastick temerity which boasts of knowing every thing and never doubts of any thing like those young Captains that make head upon every occasion whereas your veterans are more sober So likewise the most skillful Physicians are always least hasty in their Judgments and Prescriptions and Lawyers the more practise and experience they have the more contrary presidents they find in the same case If you ascend to Divinity there you will find more ignorance than any where else yea Ignorance is the first degree and one of the conditions requir'd to it which was the reason why S. Paul so much blames Philosophy and our Lord chose the simplest and most ignorant such as poor Fishers not Doctors of the Law nor Scribes and Pharisees who were the most learned of his Country And at this day when matters of Religion seem most refin'd there 's none so rash but acknowledges that one single moment of the Vision of God gives more knowledg then the whole Sorbonne hath and that there is no more comparison between what all the men of the world together know of God and what Beatitude will teach of him then there is between finite and infinite that is none at all Whereby it appears that the knowledg of men is infinitely exceeded by what they ignore I shall instance further in the Mechanick Arts wherein if you compare the things our Artificers are ignorant of with those they know the most excellent amongst them will confess himself very unskilful and ignorant whereof the sole ancient Inventions now lost may serve for a proof For in some Roman Monuments lately discover'd there have been found Lamps which burnt twelve or fifteen hundred years and were not extinguish'd but upon letting in of the Air particularly in the Tomb of Cicero's Daughter at Padua The invention of a perpetual Motion which animated Archimedes Sphear dy'd with him that of malleable Glass with its Inventor who was wretchedly slain by Tiberius that of melting Stones or making artificial ones or at least of transporting and managing them whereby the Romans built those great Piles of Amphitheaters and other Works inimitable by us is not known at this day yea to go no further the goodness of building with most of the materials of the Ancients is perish'd with them So that 't is no wonder that at this day many of their Histories are accounted Fables such as the teaching of an Elephant to Dance upon the Rope which Suetonius affirms was seen in a Spectacle given to the Roman People the care and industry of Men being much diminish'd in this lee of times wherein they desire to obtain every thing without pains For the new Inventions of later Ages as the Compass Guns Printing Telescopes and some others were before Chance produc'd them or at least gave some hints to their Inventors in respect of us in the same Nothing wherein are all other possible things not yet effected So that 't is easie to conceive that there are
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
knowing nay many times having an aversion for the others it is impossible that these Philtres should be able to force People's Wills and Inclinations which are always free to love what they know not or if they know it have a horrour and aversion for it Otherwise it would amount to as much as to give them a certain Sovereignty over a free power such as the Will is which it cannot endure as being above all Corporeal Agents such as these Medicaments are Among which as there are some have the vertue of extinguishing the flames of Concupiscence and Carnal Love by correcting the heat of the Blood diminishing the quantity of the Seed and dispersing the Spirits whereby it is raised so on the contrary there are others which as it were awake and excite that Passion by the production they make of abundance of good and spirituous seed and consequently may indeed invite those who use them to that base and unbridled Love but not to a mutual Love such as is particularly directed to him who finding his affection sleighted is forc'd to give these Remedies that he may be belov'd by the person whom he courts The Second said That Love and the Graces if we may credit those Authentick Authors the Poets always kept company with Venus whereby they would signifie to us that the most effectual means which any one can use to insinuate himself into the Love of another was to become himself amiable and agreeable and that those who pretend to do it by other wayes do many times come short of their intentions or if they at last come to be lov'd it is by such a perversion of the party's imagination whom they court that instead of framing a rational and well-regulated Passion they raise therein that fury and rage which the Physicians call Erotomania Thence it comes that to accomplish their desâ—res besides such means as are natural they also make use of all the diabolical Artifices and Inventions that Magick can furnish them withall to compass that piece of Witchcraft To that purpose they make use of Mandrakes wherewith the women prepare a certain Drink for the men administring the female to procure themselves to be lov'd by them and the men cause them to take the male that they may belov'd by the women They assign the same properties to the Herb Calamint affirming that it gains the Heart and raises it into such a heat that it is inclin'd to love him who gives it and the same thing is said of several other odoriferous Herbs which seem to have a stricter connexion with the effect they promise themselves from them than an infinite number of other impious and absurd things whereof they make an extraordinary account As for instance among others the Menstrua of Women the Navel-string of a Child newly born reduc'd to powder and taken in a potion as also the skin of such a one where-with they make their Virgin-parchment on which they write their Characters Eggs dipp'd in the Blood of a Toad a certain bone taken out of the throat of a salt Bitch the feathers of a Scrich-Owle and especially the parings of the Nails together with the Hair of the Head or of any other part of the Body and for want of those some small thread of the person's garment whom they would engage to love which these impious Ministers of Sathan hide under her bolster or if that cannot be done under the threshold of some door through which she is to pass adding thereto according to their common practise certain words and figures forg'd by the old Spirit of Lying Nor are they content with all these palpable fooleries but they must add thereto some enormous sacriledges by their abusing the most sacred Mysteries of Christian Religion profaning not only the Olive-Branches and hallow'd Palms the holy Oyls the Habits and Ornaments of Priests whereof they make use of some parcels as they do also of the scrapings of the hallowed stones of our Altars but also the sacred Host it self on which they grave certain Marks and Characters with Blood and having reduc'd it to powder put it into the meats of such as they would bewitch with those Love-Sorceries There are also others who pretend to do the same things by Images of Wax made like the persons whose Love is desir'd which they melt at a fire made of Cypress or some rotten pieces of wood taken out of Sepulchres imagining that by vertue of the words which they pronounce during that Ceremony the Heart of the person belov'd will be softned and grow more tender the hardness whereof if they cannot overcome by simple melting they prick the waxen figure with the points of needles presuming that the thing which it represents will be sensible of the like treatment There are others yet who content themselves with this Ceremony that is to burn the leavs of Lawrel or the stones of Olives used anciently according to the testimony of the Prophet Baruch by Women to reproach their gallants with their neglect towards them But the famous Sorceress Canidia makes it her boast in Horace that she had wrought this effect with the marrow of the Bones and the Liver of a young Child which she had taken out of his Belly after she had starv'd him to death buried in the ground up to the chin promising her self by means of this powerful Philtre so far to recover the affections of her Gallant Varâ—s who had been debauch'd from her that she would enflame and make him burn more violently than pitch set on fire So certain is it that there is not any crime how heinous soever which this furious Passion will not inspire into those who so earnestly endeavour the satisfaction of it which for that reason the Laws punish with so much severity Nor do they less condemn the superstitious remedies which some others propose for the prevention of them as being such as are no less dangerous than the mischief they would hinder of which kind are these to carry about one the privy parts of a Wolf a Secret recommended by Pliny and Pompanatius to drink of the Urine of a Hee-goat to cast on himself the dust of the place where a Mule had wallowed and such other unlawful and suspitious means CONFERENCE CCXXX Of Atoms IT is a Truth not question'd by any of the Philosophers what Sect soever they were of that there must be certain Principles whereof Natural Bodies consist Their Generation and Corruption confirm it since that according to the former there being not any thing made of nothing and according to the latter it being not imaginable that any thing can be reduc'd to nothing there must be some first Principles from which primarily and of themselves natural things do proceed and whereto they are at last resolv'd But it hath not yet been fully decided to what this prerogative is to be granted Heraclitus would bestow it on Fire Anaximenes on the Air Pherecydes to the Earth Thales on the Water