in this manner First Loves it in it self with a Love of Friendship and then afterwards judging it amiable applies it to it self and desires it So that there is a two-fold convenience or agreableness in every thing that is lov'd even with the Love of Concupiscence First the convenience of the Good with its proper subject And Secondly the convenience of the same Good with the thing or person whereunto it is desired The first convenience excites the Love of Friendship The second that of Concupiscence Wherefore it is more natural to Love without Interest then for it Besides Love follows Knowledge and we know things simply and in themselves sooner then such as are compounded and refer'd to another Lastly the Love of Friendship is the end of the motions of our Hearts which acquiesce and stop there The Love of Concupiscence is for the means which are posterior in the intention of Nature and as servants employ'd for the End The Third said That Love being one of the most noble acts of the Will or rather of the Soul which is created after the Image of God it hath some lineaments of that Divine Love Now God loves all things for his own sake In like manner we see all reasonable Creatures have an instinct and sympathy to such as are convenient to themselves and an abhorrence or antipathy to their contraries Moreover the Nature of Good which is the Object of Love shews that Love always precisely regards him that loves there being no Absolute Good but all is with convenience or relation without which it would not move us to affect it For no Love can be assign'd how perfect soever in which the person that loves hath not some interest Q. Curtius deliver'd Rome from an infection of the Pestilence by plunging himself into a great Vorago in the Earth but it was with a desire of glory and to be talk'd of A Father loves his Children but it is that he may perpetuate himself in them We love Virtue for the sweetness and delectation which it brings with it yea even Martyrs offer themselves couragiously to death that they may live eternally with him for whose sake they suffer And if seeing two Men play at Tennis both of them alike unknown unto me I yet wish that one may win rather then the other this proceeds from some convenience or agreeableness between us two though the reason of it be not then manifest to me The Fourth said That Disinterested Love which is the true intirely terminates in the thing lov'd purely and simply for the natural and supernatural goodness which is in it But that which reflects upon the person who loves for his Honour Profit or Pleasure is false and vicious Now although since the depravation of our Nature by sin the former sort of Love be very difficult yet is it not impossible For since there is a Relative Love there must also be an Absolute which serves for a contrary to the other It is much more hard to love an Enemy a thing commanded by God then to love another with a Disinteressed Love And though it be true that Pleasure is so essential to Love that it is inseparable from it whence one may infer that such Pleasure is an interest yet provided he who loves doth it not with reflection to his Pleasure or for the Pleasure which he takes in loving his Love is pure and simple and void of all interest So though he who loves goes out of himself to be united to the thing lov'd which is the property of Love and becomes a part of the whole which results from that union and consequently interessed for the preservation of the same Nevertheless provided he do not reflect upon himself as he is a part of that whole his love is always without interest The fifth said That as Reflex Knowledge is more excellent and perfect then direct So reflected Love which is produc'd by knowledge of the merits and perfections of the thing lov'd is more noble and judicious then that which is without any reflection and interest Gods Love towards Men ought to serve them for a rule Therefore Plato saith that when God design'd to create the World he transform'd himself into Love which is so much interessed that he hath made all things for his own Glory The Sixth said That true Love is like Virtue contented with it self and he that loves any thing for his particular interest doth not properly love that thing but himself to whom he judgeth it sutable In which respect Saint Bernard calls such kind of Love mercenary and illegitimate because true and pure Love is contented simply with loving and though it deserves reward yet that is not its motive but the sole consideration of the excellence and goodness of the thing lov'd Nor is this true Love so rare as is imagin'd there being examples of it found in all conditions of Men. Cleomenes King of Lacedaemon disguis'd himself on purpose to be slain as accordingly he was thereby to expiate to the Fate which was destinated to the loss either of the Chiestain or his Army Gracchus dy'd that his Wife Cornelia might live The Wife of Paetus slew her self for company to sweeten death to her Husband Histories are full of Fathers and Mothers that have prefer'd their own death before that of their Children At the Hour of Inventions One offering to speak of Amulets Philtres and other means to procure Love and mentioning the Hippomanes or flesh which is found in the fore-head of a young Colt whereof Virgil speaks he was interrupted by this intimation That the two most effectual means for causing Love were the graces of the Body and the Mind and to love those by whom we would be lov'd And these two points were propounded First Whether Melancholy persons are the most ingenious Secondly Which is most necessary in a State Reward or Punishment CONFERENCE XIII I. Whether Melancholy Persons are the most ingenious or prudent II. Which is most necessary in a State Reward or Punishment I. Whether Melancholy Men are the most ingenious THe First said That according to Galen Humane Actions to speak naturally depend on the complexion or composition of the Humours Which Opinion hath so far prevail'd that in common Speech the words Nature Temper and Humour signifie not onely the Inclination but the Aptitude and Disposition of persons to any thing So we say Alexander the Great was of an Ambitious and Martial Nature Mark Anthony of an Amorous Temper Cato of a severe Humour Of the Humours Melancholy whereof we are to speak is divided into the Natural wherewith the Spleen is nourish'd and that which is Preternatural called Atrabilis or black choler The one is like to a Lee or Sediment the other to the same Lee burnt and is caus'd by the adustion of all the Humours whereof the worst is that which is made of choler Again it is either innate or acquir'd by abuse of the six things which we call Non-natural
us On the contrary Prodigality ruines and perverts the Laws of Nature leading a Man to the destruction of his relatives and the undoing of himself like Saturn and Time it devours its own issue and consumes it self to the damage of the Common-wealth whose interest it is that every Man use well what belongs to him Therefore all Laws have enacted penalties against Prodigals depriving them of the administration of their own Estates and the most Sacred Edicts of our Kings aim at the correcting of the Luxury of Prodigality But never were any Laws Punishments or inflictions ordained against Covetousness because Prodigality causeth the down-fall and destruction of the most Illustrious Houses which cannot be attributed to Covetousness for this seemes rather to have built them The Second said That according to Aristotle amongst all the virtuous none wins more Love then the Liberal because there is alwayes something to be gotten by him as amongst all the vicious none is more hated and shun'd by all the world then the covetous who doth not onely not give any thing but draws to himself the most he can from every one and from the publick in which he accounts himself so little concern'd that he considers it no farther then how he may make his profit of it He is so loath to part with his treasures when he dyes that he would gladly be his own Heir as Hermocrates appointed himself by his Testament or else he would swallow down his Crowns as that other Miser did whom Athenaeus mentions But the Prodigal free from that self-interest which causes so great troubles in the world gives all to the publick and keeps nothing for himself Whence according to Aristotle the Prodigal is not so remote from Virtue as the Covetous it being easier to make the former Liberal then the latter The Third said These two Vices are equally oppos'd to Liberality and consequently one as distant from it as the other For as the Covetous is Vicious in that he receives too much and gives nothing so is the Prodigal in that he gives too much and receives nothing at all or receives onely to give But Covetousness hath this priviledge that it finds a Virtue from which it is very little distant namely Frugality or Parsimony to which Prodigality is diametrically oppos'd Nor is it of little advantage to it that it is ordinarily found in Old Men whom we account wiser then others for having learn't by the experience of many years that all friends have fail'd them in time of need and that their surest refuge hath been their own Purse they do not willingly part with what they have taken pains to gather together which is another reason in favour of Covetousness For Virtue and Difficulty seem in a manner reciprocal But Prodigality is very easie and usual to foolish Youth which thinking never to find the bottome of the barrel draws forth incessantly and gives so freely that being over-taken with necessity it is constraind to have recourse to Covetousness which sets it upon its leggs again Nor ever was there a Father that counsel'd his Son to be prodigal but rather to be thrifty and close-handed And yet the Gospel and Experience shew that Fathers give and advise what is most expedient to their Children The Fourth said As Rashness is much less blameable then Cowardice so is Prodigality then Avarice For the Prodigal holding it ignominious to receive and glorious alwayes to give likes rather to deprive and devest himself of his goods then to deny any one whatsoever On the other side the Covetous doth nothing but receive on all hands and never gives any thing but with hope to receive more Now it is much more noble to give then to receive for Giving supposes Having The Prodigal knowing well that goods and riches are given by God onely to serve for necessary instruments to the living more commodiously and that they are not riches if they be not made use of employes them and accommodates himself and others therewith but the Covetous doth not so much as make use of them for himself and so destroyes their end The Fifth said If the Question did not oblige us to compare these two Vices together I should follow Demosthenes's sentence which he gave in the quarrel of two Thieves that accus'd one another which was that the one should be banish'd Athens and the other should run after him I should no less drive out of a well-policy'd State the Covetous and the Prodigal The first is Aesop's Dogg who keeps the Ox from eating the hay whereof himself tasts not like the Bears who hinder Men from approaching Mines of Gold and yet make no use thereof The other is like those Fruit-trees which grow in Precipices of which onely Crows and Birds of prey eat the Fruit vicious persons alone ordinarily get benefit by them But yet this latter Vice seemes to me more pernicious then the other For whether you consider them in particular The Covetous raises an Estate which many times serves to educate and support better Men then himself But Prodigality is the certain ruine of their Fortunes who are addicted to it and carries them further to all other Vices to which Necessity serves more truly for a cause then reasonably for an excuse or whether you consider them in general 't is the most ordinary overthrow of States And possibly he that should seek the true cause of publick Inconveniences would sooner find it in Luxury and Prodigality then in any thing else Therefore Solons's Law declar'd Prodigals infamous and gave power to their Creditors to dis-member them and cut them in pieces Our Ordinances in imitation of the Roman Law which ranks them under the predicament of Mad-men forbids and deprives them of the administration of their own goods as not knowing how to use them The Sixth said Avarice is like those Gulfes that swallow up Ships and never disgorge them again and Prodigality like a Rock that causes shipwracks the ruines whereof are cast upon the coasts of Barbarians and therefore both of them ought to be banish'd and I have no Vote for either Yet Prodigality seemes to me more fair and Covetousness more severe CONFERENCE XXIII I. Of Physiognomy II. Of Artificial Memory I. Of Physiognomy THeophrastus accusing Nature for not having made a window to the Heart perhaps meant to the Soul For though the Heart were seen naked yet would not the intentions be visible they reside in another apartment The Countenance and amongst its other parts the Eye seemes to be the most faithfull messenger thereof It doth not onely intimate sickness and health it shews also hatred and love anger and fear joy and sadness In short 't is the true mirror of the Body and the Soul unless when the Visage puts on the mask of Hypocrisie against which we read indeed some experiences as when Vlysses discover'd the dissimulation of Achilles disguis'd in the dress of a Damsel by the gracefullness wherewith he saw him wield
Fifth said 'T is more fit to admire these secret motions which depend only on the good pleasure of Nature who alone knows wherein consists the proportion correspondence which makes bodies symbolize one with another then to seek the true cause of them unprofitably And Aristotle himself confesses that he knew not whereunto to refer the Antipathy which is between the Wolf and the Sheep so strange that even after their deaths the strings of Instruments made of their guts never agree together as the feathers of the Eagle consume those of other Birds Likewise the subtile Scaliger after much time unprofitably spent acknowledges that he understands it not They who go about to give reasons of it are not less ignorant but more vain then others The Sixth said Words are frequently abus'd as for example when 't is attributed to Antipathy that the Dog runs after the Hare whereas 't is for the pleasure that he takes in his smelling which is an effect of Sympathy But they who refer almost every thing to Occult Proprieties are like the Country-man who not seeing the springs of a Watch thinks it moves by an occult vertue or who being ask'd why it thunders answers simply because it pleases God Wherefore instead of imitating the ignorant vulgar who are contented to admire an Eclipse without seeking the cause the difficulty ought to inflame our desire as we use more care and diligence to discover a hidden treasure nothing seeming impossible to the Sagacious wits of these times The Seventh said That according to Plato the reason of Sympathies and Antipathies is taken from the correspondence and congruity or from the disproportion which inferior bodies have with the superiour which according as they are more or less in terrestrial bodies and according to the various manner of their being so the same have more or less sympathy For as inferior things take their source from above so they have one to the other here below the same correspondence which is common to them with the celestial bodies according to the Axiom that things which agree in one third agree also among themselves Thus amongst stones those which are call'd Helites and Selenites Sun-stone and Moon-stone are luminous because they partake of the rayes of those Luminaries and the Helioselene imitates by its figure the Conjunction of the Sun and Moon Amongst Plants the Lote or Nettle-tree the Mari-gold and the Heliotrope or Sun-flower follow the motion of the Sun Amongst Solar Animals the Cock and the Lyon are the most noble and the Cock more then the Lyon he alwayes gives applauses to the Sun when he perceives him approaching our Horizon or Zenith Whereupon the Lyon fears and respects him because things which are inferior to others in one and the same degree yield to them though they surpass them in strength and bigness as the arms which fury hath put into the hands of a mutinous multitude fall out of them at the presence of some man of respect and authority though they be a thousand against one II. Whether Love descending be stronger then ascending Upon the second Point it was said Although this be a common saying and it seems that Love ought rather to descend then ascend yea that Fathers are oblig'd to love their children even with the hatred of themselves yet I conceive that the love of children towards their fathers surpasses that of fathers towards their children inasmuch as the latter proceeds from the love which the fathers bear to themselves being desirous to have support and assistance from those whom they bring into the world and in them to perpetuate their names honours estates and part of themselves But the love of children to Fathers is pure and dis-interested as may be observ'd in many who having no hope of a patrimony love and honour their parents with most respectful kindness Moreover the supream authority and absolute power of life and death which the Romans and our ancient Gaules frequently us'd against their children shows their little affection For not to speak of those Nations who sacrific'd theirs to false gods nor of Manlius Mithridates Philip II. King of Spain and infinite others who put them to death Fathers anciently held them of worse condition then their slaves For a slave once sold never return'd more into the Seller's power whereas a son sold and set at liberty return'd thrice into the power of his Father As also at this day in Moscovia Russia and particularly in Cyprus Rhodes and Candia where 't is an ordinary thing for fathers to sell their sons to marry their daughter which made Augustus say having heard that Herod had kill'd his own son that it was better to be the Swine then son of a Jew But Patricide was unknown to ancient Legislators and Lycurgus never ordain'd any punishment against such criminals not imagining that such a crime could come into the mind of a lawful child whom the Persians conceiv'd to declare himself a bastard by such an action For that foolish custom which reign'd some time at Rome of precipitating men of sixty years old from the bridge into Tyber is no sign of the cruelty of children towards their fathers since they imagin'd that they did an act of piety and religion therein by delivering them from the miseries of this life The Second said None can know how great a love a father bears his children but he that hath been a Father Paternal tenderness is so vehement that all the passions and affections of the soul give place to it Prudence and Philosophy may preach to us restraint and moderation but a father's love admitting no rule caus'd a King of Sparta to run with a stick between his legs a Grand Cosmo to whip a top and the wisest of all the Grecians to play at Cob-nut to make pastime to their children experiences sufficient to gain the cause to paternal love though it were not back'd by these reasons 1. That love being the issue of knowledge the more there is of knowledge the more there is of love Therefore fathers having more knowledge then their children have also more love 2. As man desires nothing so much as immortality so he loves that thing especially which procures the same to him and hating death more then any thing in the world extreamly loves what seems to keep him from dying as his children do in whom he seems to revive Whence also the Pelican feeds its young at the expence of its own blood On the contrary Man being the most ambitious of all creatures hates nothing so much as to see himself subjected to another Wherefore children that the benefits which they receive from their fathers may oblige them to gratitude and subjections they perform the same indeed but with much less love then their fathers 3. God ha's given no commandment to fathers to love their children knowing that they lov'd them but too much but he hath to children to love and honour their fathers as having need to be invited
said That as health is a Symmetrie and fit proportion of all the humours while they continue in society one with another so a Fever is a discomposure thereof when some one comes to infringe the obedience which it owes to the laws of the Compositum and to usurp a Tyranny over the rest In which case they do as States who apprehend their own ruine by the too great increase of a potent neighbour they unite against it and go to assail it all together Upon this shock the natural heat retires to the Heart which is the centre of the Body as if it call'd its Councel hence proceeds the cold fit of the Fever during which the extreme parts destitute of their ordinary heat fall into trembling shivering and chattering as it comes to pass upon the Earth when the Sun is very remote from it But Nature at length getting the mastery is not contented to return the Blood to the parts who were depriv'd thereof in the same condition that they lent it to her she drives it into them with a new heat acquir'd by the vicinity of the Heart which is the source thereof and augmented by the reciprocation of its motion But as no violent thing is of long continuance this heated Blood causing its sharpest serosities to pass through the skin by sweat becomes asswaged and as water remov'd from off the fire ceases to boyle it no longer extends the Veins nor stimulates the Arteries whether this Crisis perfectly terminates the disease as in Continual Fevers or the Fit onely as in Intermitting which leaving a leven of the Fever how little soever in the humours and an empyreuma or combustion in the parts the best Aliments yea the most laudable humours if any such remain in the Body are as easily turn'd into the matter of the Fever as the best Wine is spoyl'd when it is pour'd upon a corrupted lee in a musty vessel And 't is not so much to be wonder'd that this corruption is made regularly in the time of half a day in Quotidians of one day in Tertians and of two in Quartans as that the Periods of Fevers are sometimes irregular as is seen in Erratical Fevers considering that all generations and corruptions are reciprocal and have their limited time Thus 't is a less wonder that Women are ordinarily deliver'd of Children likely to live in the ninth and seventh moneths then if they were deliver'd so in all the other moneths indifferently which hath place in all other motions of Nature who doth every thing according to number weight and measure II. Of Friendship Upon the Second Point the First said Friendship is a powerfull and streight Union which conjoynes the lover and the loved party together making one whole of these two parts like that bond which in Nature unites the Matter and the Form the Accident and the Substance The cause of it is Goodness which being proportionate to the Body produceth a natural Amity to the Passions an Animal Amity to the Understanding a Rational one to the Laws a Political or Civil to Religion a Divine one This Goodness consisting in a Proportion and Symmetry is not different from Beauty and therefore we apprehend Beauty in good things and goodness and convenience in such as are handsome and gracefull The Second said besides goodness which is the cause of Friendship and towards which our will is as necessarily carry'd as the Intellect is towards Truth and all the Senses towards their proper objects Resemblance and Friendship it self are the causes of Friendship The first is founded upon the Love which we bear to our selves For as we love our selves above any thing else in this world so we love those who resemble us and symbolize with our humours and inclinations Hence it is that one of the most common courses to please is to conform our selves to those by whom we desire to be affected we never contradict their Judgement we have no other Will but theirs we frame our selves to their gestures and actions without excepting those which are imperfect Then Friendship the second means of acquiring Love is no less effectual it being almost impossible not to love them who love us Whence the Ancients feign'd Love to be the most ancient of all the gods intimating that Love hath no other Principle or Origine but Love it self And they who assign'd him a Companion which they styl'd Anteros signifi'd thereby that Friendship cannot last unless it be mutual The Third said That Friendship must be distinguish'd from Love For Love is a Passion of the Concupiscible Appetite arising from the imagination of a sensible good and is found even in brute beasts But friendship is one of the most excellent vertues or rather the fruit of accomplish'd and perfect vertue 't is indeed very rare because it hath place only amongst excellent persons who are very few uniting and making them conspire together in the exercises of vertue But being once establish'd it is very durable inasmuch as its cause and foundation Vertue always remains and may be exercis'd Therefore Seneca pronounces that the friendship which knows an end was never true Some friendships there are indeed the most whose foundation is Profit and Pleasure but they are always imperfect Whence it is that old men and young men are ordinarily accounted incapable of true friendship the former because they scarce regard any thing besides Profit and the latter because their minds are more set upon what is pleasant and agreeable then upon what is honest or vertuous Nor is it ever found amongst wicked persons For 1. a perfect friend must love another as much as himself And although the affection we bear to our selves be not true friendship because this must always have reference to another yet it is the most certain yea the measure of perfect friendship and God hath appointed it as the rule of our love to our Neighbour Now how can he be a perfect friend who doth not love himself How can he agree with another who accords not with himself and how will he do good to another who doth none to himself for a vicious man is his own chiefest enemy whilst he pursues the false and imaginary good in stead of the true vice instead of vertue the shadow for the body and many times he becomes his own murderer by intemperance and other vices He hath always a civil war within himself his Reason is never at peace with his Appetite what one desires the other rejects Consequently he hath never any inward joy but he is greatly displeas'd with being alone and for that reason always seeks the company of those like himself to divert his sad thoughts The Fourth said There is nothing comparable to Friendship which is the salt and seasoning of humane life the presever of societies and the most agreeable and sweetest consolation that persons of vertue and honour can have by help of which a man finds another self to whom he may entrust his most secret
Hope which is by the testimony of Aristotle a species of Love contemnes and surmounts all difficulties which hinder its attaining to its Good Here one objecting That Anger which arises from Hatred and inward Grief hath more violent effects then Hope and the other Passions It was answer'd that Anger consists of a mixture of Love and Hatred therefore Homer sayes that to be angry is a thing more sweet then Honey For Anger tends to Revenge and ceaseth when we are reveng'd for the wrong we apprehend done to us Now Revenge seemes a Good and delectable thing to the person that seeks it and therefore all the great Ebullitions and Commotions observ'd in Anger ought to be referr'd to the Love and Desire of Revenge Besides the Motions which attend Hatred are Motions of Flight as those which accompany Love are Motions of Pursuit and Anger being rather a Pursuit and seeking of Revenge then a Flight from any evil it is more reasonably to be rank'd under Love then under Hatred Again we see amorous persons are more easily put into heat then even those which are drawn up in battalia and ready to kill one another In fine if Hatred and all the Passions attending it have any force and violence Love is the prime cause thereof we hate no thing but because we love some thing and that more or less proportionably as we love Wherefore the Philosophers who would introduce an Apathy and banish all the Passions should have done well rather to extinguish Love For he who loves no thing hates no thing and when we have lost any thing our sadness and resentment is proportionable to the Love we had for it He that loves no thing fears no thing and if it be possible that he do's not love his own life he do's not fear death It is not therefore to be inquir'd which excites the greatest Commotions Love or Hatred since even those which Hatred excites proceed from Love The Third said That the Acts or Motions of the Appetite are called Passions because they make the Body suffer and cause an alteration in the Heart and Pulse Such as aim at Pleasure enervate the Motion of Contraction because they dilate the Spirits and augment that of Dilatation Whereas on the contrary those which belong to Sadness diminish the Motion of Dilatation because they further that of Contraction We may consider the Passions either materially or formally the former consideration denotes the Impression which they make upon the Body the latter the relation to their Object So Anger consider'd materially is defin'd An Ebullition and Fervour of the Blood about the Heart and formally A Desire of Revenge This being premiz'd I affirm That Hatred is much more powerful then Love if we consider them materially not as alone but as leaders of a party viz. Love with all the train of Passions that follow the same towards Good and Hatred with all its adherents in reference to Evil. For either of them taken apart and by it self make very little impression and alteration in the Heart Love is a bare acknowledgement of and complacency in good and goeth no further as Love Hatred is nothing else but a bare rejection disavowing and aversion of Evil. In verification of which conception of the Nature of those Passions it is evident that the Effects ascrib'd to Love as Extasie Languishing are the Effects not of Love but of Hope weary and fainting through its own duration Now these Passions being thus taken Love causeth less alteration upon the Body then Hatred For its highest pitch is Delight which is materially an expansion of the Spirits of the Heart towards the parts of the whole Body wherein appeareth rather a cessation from Action then any violence But Hatred which terminates in Anger makes a furious havock It dauseth the Blood to boyle about the Heart and calls to its aid the same Passions that are subservient to Love as Hope and Boldness conceiving it a Good to be reveng'd on the present Evil. The Case is the same also if they be consider'd according to their formality For the Object of Love is a Good not absolute but according to some consideration seeing the good of an Animal is its preservation to which that kind which is called Delectable Good or the Good of Delight is ordain'd as a means to the end But the Object of Hatred is the Evil which destroyes an Absolute and Essential being of an Animal For which reason it moves more powerfully then Good The Fourth said That for the better judging of the Question we must suppose that these two Passions are two Agents which tend each to their different End For the end of Love is a good Being That of Hatred which repels what destroyes our Being is the preservation of Being simply Now Being is much more perfect naturally then better being though morally it is not so perfect and the preservation of Being is of the same dignity with Being On the other side it is true that Love is the cause of Hatred and that we hate nothing but because we love Yet it doth not follow that Hatred is not more powerful then Love seeing many times the Daughter is more strong and fair then the Mother Now if they are brutish Passions they must be measur'd by the standard of Brutes But we see a Dog leave his Meat to follow a Beast against which he hath a natural animosity And Antipathies are more powerful then Sympathies for the former kill and the latter never give life Nevertheless sometimes Love prevailes over Hatred For a Man that loves the Daughter passionately and hates the Father as much will not cease to do good to the Father for the Daughters sake The shortness of the dayes and the enlargements upon this Subject having in this and some of the former Conferences left no room for Inventions every one was entrealed to prepare himself for the future and these two Points were chosen for the next day seven-night CONFERENCE XVII I. Of the several fashions of wearing Mourning and why Black is us'd to that purpose rather than any other colour II. Why people are pleas'd with Musick I. Of the severall fashions of wearing Mourning and why Black is us'd to that purpose rather then any other colour THe First said That the greatest part of Man-kind excepting some Barbarians lamented the death of their friends and express'd their sadness by external Mourning which is nothing but the change of Habit. Now they are observ'd to be of six sorts The Violet is for Princes The weeds of Virgins are white in reference to purity Sky-colour is in use with the people of Syria Cappadocia and Armenia to denote the place which they wish to the dead namely Heaven The Yellow or Feuille-morte among those of Aegypt to shew say they that as Herbs being faded become yellow so Death is the end of Humane Hope The Grey is worne by the Aethiopians because it denotes the colour of the Earth which receives
Sion and how agreeable is this Church to its Spouse to those that behold it in this estate and to it self On the contrary in Schism and Heresie when every one abounds in his own sence and will not depend upon any other how unpleasing is this division even to those that foment it In the State when a just Monarch well counsell'd holds the Sovereignty the Church the Nobility and the third Estate the other parts nothing is impossible to him either within or without He may do every thing that he will because he will do nothing but what is just On the contrary represent to your self the horrible Tragedies of a Faction revolted against its Prince or of a furious Triumvirate and you will see the difference between harmony and discord whereof the difference and power is so notable as to all our actions that he shall speak truth who shall establish it for the cause of all that is either pleasing to us or disagreeable So the same materials of two buildings differently set together will render one beautiful the other deformed Of two countenances compos'd of the same parts the proportion of the one will invite love while there is nothing but hatred and aversion for the other Yea this Harmony extends its jurisdiction even to things incorporeal An injust action displeases though it do not concern us and the most peaceable man in the world can hardly forbear to interess himself when he sees a great scoundrel outrage some poor little child The disproportion which appears in the attire of another offends us as when we see a Porter's wife better cloth'd then a Counsellours of which the reason seems to me that our soul being a harmony is not pleas'd but with what resembles it self The Fourth said Effects the surest evidences of their causes so apparently speak the power of Harmony that Orpheus by the relation of the Poets recover'd his Euridice out of Hell by it Timotheus made Alexander leave his feast and betake himself to his Arms but changing his tune return'd him again to the Table Orators made use of it to regulate their gestures and voices and at this day not only the harmonious sound of Organs serves to enflame our zeal but that of Bells is successfully employ'd to drive away the Daemons of the air when they raise tempests in it CONFERENCE LVIII I. Of the Sight II. Of Painting I. Of the Sight AN ignorant Philosopher was he who pull'd out his eyes that he might the better Philosophize since on the contrary 't is by the sight that we have cognition of all the goodly objects of the world the ornament and agreeable variety of which seem purposely made to gratifie this Sense whose excellence and priviledge appears in that 't is free from the condition requisite to all the other Senses viz. that their objects be at a moderate distance for it discerns as far as the Stars of the Firmament knows more things then they there being nothing but has some light and colour which are its objects and that most exactly distinguishing even their least differences yea it hath this of divinity that it acteth in an instant being no more confin'd to time then place and much more certain then any of the other Senses And as if it alone were left in the free enjoyment of its own rights there 's none besides it that hath the power to exercise or not exercise its function as it lists the muscles of the eye-lids serving to open or close the curtain when it pleaseth whereas all the rest are constrain'd to do their offices when their objects are present Moreover man's noblest faculty the Understanding is call'd the Eye of the Soul because it performs the same office to it that the Eye doth to the Body which guides and governs And therefore in the dark which hinders the use of this sense the most daring are not without some fear which cannot proceed from the black colour as some hold but from our being destitute of our guide and conductor which serves for a sentinel to us to discover such things as are hurtful for in the same darkness we are pretty confident in case we be in the company of persons that can conduct us and supply the use of our own eyes The Second said Were it not for custom which renders all things common there would be nothing so admir'd as the Eye which as small as it is gives reception to all corporeal things of what magnitude soever yea every one is represented there in its own natural proportion though the species of an Elephant be no bigger in mine Eye then that of a Flye and nevertheless the Senses judge of their objects by the species streaming from them And the convex fabrick of the eye representing a mirror seems to argue that we do not behold objects in their true magnitude but very much smaller then they are For we see things so as they are receiv'd in the eye But they are receiv'd there as the visible species are in Looking-glasses which if plain represent the same in their true magnitude if spherical as the eye is render them much smaller And nevertheless we see things in their just proportion Whence 't is to be concluded that our Sight which is the most certain of all the Senses is in a perpetuall yea a general errour which consequently is no longer an errour since to erre is to deviate from rule which is a general law Moreover this too is wonderful in the Sight that all the other Organs make several reports to the Senses one accounts that hot which another judges cold or tepid one taste seems fresh to one which another thinks too salt they are of one opinion in odours and sounds and these are of another though their Organs be rightly dispos'd But that which appears black to one seems so likewise to every body else And if the Sight happen to be deceiv'd as when we judge the Moon greater in the Horizon by reason of the vapours of the earth then when she is in the Meridian or when a straight stick seems crooked in the water the same eye which is deceiv'd finds its own errour by comparison of other objects Hence ariseth the doctrine of the Parallaxes and the rules of Opticks Catoptricks and Dioptricks which are practis'd by the sight So that as he doth not perfectly delire who knows that he is in a delirium so the sense cannot be said altogether faculty when it discerns its fault Which the other senses do not The Third said The excellence of the Sight will be better understood by considering its contrary Blindness and the misery of the Blind their life being an image of death whilst they pass it in perpetual darkness Therefore the Civilians exclude them from publick Offices because say they they cannot perceive nor consequently esteem the badges and ensigns of their Magistracy Moreover the Egyptians thought nothing fitter to represent their Deity then the figure of the Eye which
same manner were the Crown and the Iris produc'd for they were form'd by a reflection and refraction of the Solar rayes and consequently at the intersection of the Iris and the Crown there was a double reflection and refraction Whence at the the said intersection appear'd two false Suns sufficiently bright by the new reflection of which upon the same circumference of the Iris were formed two other Suns of less brightness The Third said That this plurality of Suns ought to be attributed to a reflection of the species of the true Sun receiv'd in some Stars so oppos'd to him that they send back his light and species and the concurse of those reflected rayes causes those masses of light to appear in the centres of concave bodies that reflect them which cannot be Clouds because they are neither smooth nor opake nor void of colour the three accidents necessary for reflection Moreover the Clouds cannot receive his species upon their uppermost surface for then they could not reflect it nor upon their lowermost or interior surface for this cannot receive it unless it be reflected from the Water and then we should not see those Suns in the Air but in the Water Nor lastly upon one side because then the Spectator must not be upon the Earth but in a line perpendicular to the diametre of the side of the Cloud according to the doctrine of the Catoptricks The Fourth said That the Clouds being polite or smooth when they are turn'd into Water and their profundity serving instead of opacity as we see in deep Waters which our sight is unable to penetrate they remit the species presented to them And the same may happen in the Air when it is condens'd Whence as Aristotle reports many have seen their own Images in the Air and some affirm that they have seen whole Cities so particularly Avignon The Fifth said That the Viscosity into which the aqueousness of those Clouds had degenerated when those four Parhelij appear'd at Rome was the cause not onely of their appearance but also of their subsistence at mid-day To the which also more concocted and condens'd must those three Suns ascrib'd which were observ'd in Spain Anno 753. for the space of three years and the three others that appear'd over the City of Theodosia on the twenty ninth of October 1596. from Sun-rise to Sun-set The Sixt said That all these difficulties inclin'd him to attribute Parhelij to one or more Clouds round and resplendent like the Sun For what unlikelihood is there that an unctuous exhalation may be elevated in the Air in a round figure which being inflam'd on all sides equally may represent by its light that of the Sun seeing Nature is much more ingenious then Art which represents him at pleasure by artificial fires and we behold even from the surface of the Earth up to the Orbes of the Planets igneous bodies of all figures and colours and those of very long continuance II. Whether any Love be without self interest Upon the Second Point the First said That 't is not without a mystery that Plato in his Convivium makes two Cupids one the Son of Venus Coelestial the other the Son of the common or Terrestrial Venus intimating thereby that there are two sorts of Love one vile and abject which is that of Concupiscence whereby a Man loves that which is agreeable to him for his own interest the other divine and perfect wherewith we love a thing for it self which kind is very rare And therefore Hesiod makes it to be born of the Chaos and the Earth to intimate that it is difficult to meet any that is pure and without any interest The Ancients have also made two Loves one of Plenty Abundance by which the Perfect loves the Imperfect to communicate thereunto what it wanteth the other of Indigence which the Defective hath towards the Perfect that it may be made perfect by it The former is that of God towards his Creatures the latter that of Creatures towards God And as for that which is found between Creatures it is more or less excellent according as it partaketh of the one or the other But to speak generally it is more noble to be lov'd then to love as it is more excellent to be sought to then to seek to another to give then to receive The Second said That there are two sorts of Love the one of Friendship the other of Desire The former causeth us to love things because they are worthy of it the latter because they are convenient for us The first is not onely possible but more natural then the second For the Love of Friendship is direct that of Concupiscence is onely by reflection Now that which is direct is in the date of Nature before the reflected the stroke is before the rebound the voice before the Echo and the Ray before the reverberation For Reflection is a re-plication or re-doubling of a thing That the Love of Desire is such I manifest It is with our Knowledge as with our Love A Man knows himself less easily then he doth others because he knows all things else by a direct action and himself by reflection He sees every thing directly but he cannot see himself saving in a Looking-glass And for that nothing enters into him but passeth through the Senses it is requisite that that which is in him come forth to re-enter again by the Senses and pass into the Mind For all Knowledge is by Assimilation as that I may see the pupil of my Eye must have the Image of the thing which I would see and so become like to it Now all resemblance is between things that are distinct So that if the Mind of Man is to know any thing of it self that thing must be abstracted and sever'd from him that it may be made like to him and consequently cannot enter into his Knowledge but by reflection in which the species loseth of its virtue as we see in the Echo which is never so natural as the voice which it imitates nor the Object in the Looking-glass as the first Object The case is the same in Love For by it we love things before we desire them Which is evident both in respect to the Object and also to the Act of Love Its Object Good includeth two things First its Nature of Good which is an Entity consider'd in it as conducing to the perfection of the thing wherein it is And Secondly its communicability or relation to other things capable of receiving its diffusion The former is the foundation and efficient emanative cause of the other which is onely a Propriety and consequently less natural because posterior and subservient to the former Moreover Love taken as an act of the Will hath the same effect according to which it is defin'd an adequateness conformity and correspondence of our heart to the thing and an approbation and complacency in the goodness which is in the Object which our Mind judging good