that they see clearly by day because the day light runs into these dark shady eyes and moves and enlightens the spirits But at night they see ill and not so exactly as others because they want the outward light to move the humours and spirits to sharpen their sight Grey and blew colour'd eyes whence and how they see but where the humour of a mans eye is transparent and clear but the spirit is small slender and weak they have Owls eyes or grey and blew colour'd that is temper'd with blew and white of which colour are lanthorns that you may see through Lanthorns are a light grey for with these are made plates for lanthorns and of this colour are the eyes of Owls and many other creatures They that have such eyes see weakly and confusedly by day because the day light and brightnesse of the Sun dissolves and dissipates the visual spirits that are not very strong but in the night because the organs of sight are enlightned with a natural and imbred light the spirits being collected and heaped together they see clearly what is in their way These kind of eyes sparkle What eyes twinkle in the night and shine in the dark and like glittering Stars they send forth their beams so that besides men many living creatures not so much by their craft in hunting as by the faculty of sight they are endued with find no inconvenience by the darknesse of the night whereas the bright day hurts them and blinds them as we see in Owls Creatures that see clear in the night night-Crows Bats Cats Rats Mice Dormice who see worse in the day by reason of the too great light but the darknesse of the night sharpneth their eyes for you see that if you hold candles or Torches before them they can hardly see wherefore Sea-men when they Sail at night desire not that the Moon should shine too clear but a dark kind of sky that is not covered with too thick clouds For so they can see farther and the rayes are lesse dissipated by a light object and do not vanish away so soon Sea-colourd eyes Sea-colourd eyes are tempered with white and green it is a moyster colour than the rest but not so clear and smooth and neat Wherefore by reason of the grosse moysture of it and the small spirits they that are so affected see not very clearly especially in a bright Ayre which offends them chiefly But if the humour and spirit be of a moderate temper Eyes and sight moderately disposed the colour is between white and black very clear and thereby is the sight performed most exactly The colours of the eyes vary according to age The colour and sight of the eye by what reason it is varied and by reason of the thicknesse thinnesse plenty paucity of the humours and spirits which thing is also manifest in the leaves of plants which when they first shoot forth are yellow then as they grow elder they wax green and again as the plant grows old they become yellow or Sea-colour So when children are first born their eyes are grey and blew Sea-green green Owl-eyes but as age comes on they grow black but in old age they grow white as their hairs do or degenerate into Owl-like eyes Also Dioscorides hath from the opinion of other men L. 1. c. written that by medicaments the colours of the eyes may be altered For the shells of small nuts burnt to ashes will make the pupills of young childrens eyes black that are grey and blew being powred in and anointed on the forehead with Oyl Also the wind the constitution of the Ayre the climate diseases affections and passions of the mind immoderate venery hunger immoderate sleep watching and surfetting change both the colours of the eyes and the qualities of the humours and spirits Counsels in restoring the eyes Wherefore a moderate diet and course of life must be kept least the organ of sight than which God hath given us nothing better in our bodies should receive any damage Emptinesse and fullnesse to be observed in recreating the eyes And if the eyes begin to grow dark for want of humours or by drinesse or want of spirits with grief of mind weeping watching wearinesse old age immoderate venery or be extenuated and wasted with immoderate study we must use such things as are restorative for our bodies and foster our eyes What things restore eyes that are decay'd as new rere Egs sweet wine Raysins sweet Almonds Pistaches Chestnuts either rosted or boyled soft Turneps the vertue whereof by reason of the plenty of their windinesse riseth to the head and wonderfully refresheth the visive spirits that are wasted also the brains of birds that fly much do the like as of Sparrows Linnets Spinks They do unadvisedly who without any choice or making any difference apply to their eyes Rue Celandine Rue sometimes hurts the eyes the galls of Vultures Kites Hawks that are of a burning and biting faculty and they waste and devour the spirits and humours that make the sight they are indeed fitly applied when the eyes are dark and misty from superfluity of humours When Rue and Celandine are good for the eyes Radish and Rapes good for the eyes and when the pin and web take away the sight and deform the eyes for they dissolve the congealed and collected humours that by their thicknesse hinder the spirits to be brought thither so all things that are abstergent and extenuating are good in this case as are common Radish that procures a good appetite Fennel-seed leaves and roots Eyebright French-Lavander and all things that cleanse the brain of thick vapours Wherefore let Schollers that must study by the help of their eyes avoid Garlick Leeks Onions and all strong â—â—â—elling things and that send forth such sâ—â—â—king vapours and are hurtfull for them Garlick and all strong things are hurtfull to the eyes For these spoil the eyes memory and damnify all the senses But such as use hard labour and exercise none of these things can hurt them But outwardly we must look on such things that refresh the sight Green things delight the eyes and are delightfull to behold as are all green things whereof there are innumerable kinds and differences in the fields woods Gardens Groves to be found but of stones Emrods are by their green colours good for the eyes the full greennesse of the Emrod and with which the eyes can never be satisfied as also the Prasius the Topaz the Jaspâ—r the Saphir Eranos commonly called a Tarquesse and the Lazul-stone Whereby the visive spirits are collected and do not vanish so they sharpen the sight of the eyes But that some by looking on the eyes do collect the inclination of the mind and thoughts The eyes are tokens of the mind I am not against it For they are the Indexes and do shew forth the inward affections thoughts conceptions though the tongue be
as we see the flowing and ebbing of the Ocean to break forth and dilate it self all abroad which although it be not plainly perceived in Summer daies and is less presented to the eyes yet thou dost perceive it either by smell or dost apprehend the hidden poyson in thy inmost bowells And as these very things work destruction to the body and bring in deadly poyson so sweet smells and fragrant hearbs do stir up the spirits and do cherish and recreate the heart it self the fountain of life Which even any one of a dull Judgment can perceive when he seeth the strength weakened by swounding and fast a sleep by the defect of the mind to be restored and stirred up by sweet smells But these mean things being let alone afterwards by the assistance of the most high God I will relate more secret things For which if I shall seem to any one to have wholly searched out the secrets of nature and the uses under weak and very unconstant reasons and a very small proportion of judgment and with no trimmed sentences to have furnished nature with no store I would desire him to be perswaded that I rather afford and demonstrate matter of writing to the learned then take it up before hand But I have attempted and undertaken to handle those things not with so great hope and confidence of accomplishing it as desire and will to try it and also that I might the better deserve of my Advocate and that I might more oblige my Citizens by this service But after Plato Persius doth stir up to attempt things of this kind and doth desire that this should be paid to our Countrey and Citizens as a due benevolence For so he doth prick us up to the consideration of things to the study of vertue to searth out those things which are profitable to men O wretched men ye ought to learn and show The cause of things and what we are to known Or to what end we 're made on earth to live What order or what bounds doth nature give To gentle-sliding Rivers and what measure Of silver or what 's lawfull to wish for pleasure What good doth money afford how much we owe Unto our Country and what we should bestow On neighbours what direction God doth give To thee how thou in humane things dost live Therefore I will try what I can perform or wherein I can go forward if I do not proceed in every thing exactly I may beg pardon for my fault and so much the more justly because the argument of the appointed Work is so great and doth stretch it self forth so unmeasurably so that it requires infinite labour and no mean Witt to accomplish every thing exactly The chief City of Laconia in Peloponnesus and adorn that * Sparta for its honour and amplitude Which if Horace in a homely and very easie argument Doth pardon faults which want of care doth cause Or are neglected by humane Nature's Laws By how much the more is it convenient to wink at and keep silent most things in so great difficulties and not to cut every thing as 't is said to the quick For it can scarcely be expressed how great wearinesse is to be born patiently by Physitians what labours are to be undergone what troubles complaints and bewailing speeches are to be endured at home and abroad when they follow their own affairs and diligently employ their assistance to their Citizens when all their study and industry doth consist in action their no lesse troublesome then gainful practice doth suffer no liberty no time to take breathe so that when they meditate on those things that were dispatched in borrowed hours that is in convenient service they are scarce at leisure to write them much lesse to make them perfect Which when it daily happeneth true and these kind of occupations do continually environ me at home and abroad all things scarcely and very hardly could be perfected according to my mind but when the consideration of Nature did onely delight me neither a more acceptable Argument could be thought upon it seemed good to me to write of its Miracles more at large and make all the Works of Nature more known Wherefore after I had dedicated these four Books of the Miracles of Nature to ERICUS King of Swedland the most invincible token of this New Year I do purpose to adde Two of the same Argument in short whereby the most Serene King having brought to an end and quieted the War which he undertook by Sea and Land against some conspiring Enemies by most excellent vertue and the greatnesse and courage of an high and invincible Mind might be refreshed more abundantly by the Contemplation of Nature and Things Having required this of William Simonds a Printer of Antwerp that he would bring these honourable and notable examples into the favour of the King's Court and of the desirous Reader which when he promised to accomplish and very truly performed by the industry of Christopher Plantin I think to finish the rest suddenly if it be so that no hindrance happen and our Heavenly Father grant constant and durable health For I hope it will be so that some new thing will come forth at the next Franckford Mart whereby at length the studious Reader may delight himself For Newes and Delight is the encouragement and allurement of Reading and Learning especially where the thing is declared very evidently and with convenient words and serious things are mixt with merry and profitable with sweet and pleasant which very thing I have studied to perform according to my power by that moderation of practice that I may no where digresse from comelinesse no where passe beyond the limits of honesty An Index of all the Chapters contained in this BOOK The Contents of the Chapters contained in the First Book Chap. 1. OF Nature Gods Instrument Page 1 Chap. 2. Man's Worth and Excellen Page 6 Chap. 3. It is most natural to procreate one like himself and men ought to use it reverently as a divine gift and Ordinance of God Page 8 Chap. 4. Of the likeness of Parents and Children whence it is that outward accidents are communicated to the Children and the Mothers Imagination is the cause of the production of many Forms Page 10 Chap. 5. Of the strange longing of Women with child and their insatiable desire of things And if they cannot get them they are in danger of life Page 16 Chap. 6. That a Woman doth afford seed and is a Companion in the whole Generation Page 18 Chap. 7. Whence growes the Sex and Kind that is whether of the two Man or Woman is the cause of a male or female Child Page 20 Chap. 8. Of Prodigious and Monstrous Births and by the way what is the meaning of the Proverb Those that are born in the fourth Moon Page 22 Chap. 9. By what means he that will may get a Boy or a Girle and by the by whence Hermaphrodites are bred and people
into the Nature and manners of men and with which by the marks and signs of the body we may judge of the motion and propension of the mind is not to be disliked Moreover I shall prove by Testimony of Scripture what is most convenient to be observed hereby Page 130 Chap. 27. Whether it be more wholesome to sleep with open mouth or with the mouth and lips shut close Page 132 Chap. 28. That the curses of Parents and the ill wishes that they wish against their Children and ban them withall do sometimes take effect and fall out so and their good wishes whereby they desire all good to happen to them are a means to make them prosper and to obtain what their Parents desired might happen to them Page 133 Chap. 29. How comes it that according to the common Proverb scarce any man returns better from his long travels or from a long disease and to lead a better life afterwards Page 134 Chap. 30. Stones or Jewels dug forth of the Earth or taken out of the Sea or out of the bodies of living Creatures what vertue they have and by what means they perform their operations Page 138 Chap. 31. Of the events of dreams and how far they ought to be observed and believed Page 140 Chap. 32. Of the Climacterick or graduall year namely the 7. and 9. in which years the bodies of men suffer manifest changes and of old Men especially 63. is the most dangerous Likewise of the reason of Criticall dayes that is of the judgments of diseases whereby Physitians undoubtedly foreshew whether the sick will live or dy Page 142 Chap. 33. How a Looking-glasse represents objects and what good the polished smoothnesse of a Looking-glasse can do to Students and such tire their eyes in reading and how it may restore a dull sight Page 144 Chap. 34. What force and vertue Aqua-vitae hath or the spirit of Wine distill'd and who may safely drink it by the way some admirable effects of this made-wine are set down Page 146 Chap. 35. The prodigious force of Quicksilver and the nature of it the Dutchmen call it so from its quick motion Page 148 Chap. 36. How when we want Salt may flesh and other meats be preserved from corruption By the way Of the wonderful force of Salt and Vineger Page 150 Chap. 27. Pale Women are more lascivious than such as are of a ruddy complexion and lean Women than fat and do more lust after men Page 152 Chap. 38. Whether a man should drink greedily and plentifully or by little and little and sparingly at severall times when he is thirsty or is sat at Table Page 153 Chap. 39. All such things as hastily come to maturity or rise to their full length do the sooner fail and cannot last long as we see it in children and some kind of plants Page 155 Chap. 40. Sometimes our meats are hurt and contract a venemous quality by the siting of some venemous creatures upon them Likewise in mens bodies from filth abounding in them some things are bred as Frogs Toads Mice Rats Bats and an example of this is set down Page 156 Chap. 41. The force and Nature of the Sun and Moon in causing and raising tempests And next to that what change may be made in the Bodies Minds and Spirits of men by the outward Ayre By the way whence proceeds the ebbing and flowing of the Sea that is interchangeably twice in the space of a naturall day Page 158 Chap. 42. Of the force and nature of Lettice and whom it is good or ill for Page 163 Chap. 43. Of Patience commonly call'd or the great Dock Page 164 Chap. 44. Of the operation of Mans spittle Page 164 Chap. 45. Of the use of Milk Beestings Cream The dutch call the first Beest the latter Room also what will keep these from cloddering in the Stomach Page 166 Chap. 46. Why Gouty people are Lascivious and Prone to venery and as many as lye on their backs and on hard beds Page 166 Chap. 47. Whether the Small-Pox and Measils may be cured with red Wine or with Milk that women use to administer when such Pushes shew themselves Page 168 Chap. 48. Wine is spoil'd by Thunder and Lightning and so is Ale and Beer and how this may be hindred and the force of them restored Page 168 Chap. 49. Predictions of Tempests by the touch of Sea-water and what Winter Thunders fore-shew Page 170 Chap. 50. Children are delighted with beautifull things and cannot away with the sight of old wrinkled women and therefore they are not to be put to lye with old women in their beds and much lesse to lye at their feet in the bed Page 171 Chap. 51. How it comes to passe that children women with child Priests and such as lead a solitary and sedentary life are of all people first infected with popular diseases and with the Plague Page 171 Chap. 52 Divers documents of Nature and a fit conjunction of several matters which because I purposed to handle them with a convenient brevity I have bound them up together in one bundle Page 172 The Contents of the Chapters contained in the Third Book Chap. 1. HOw children are forced to endure the reproaches and disgraces of their Parents and the faults and wicked actions of their Progenitors are so far imputed unto these that by reason of them they lose their reputation or substance and goods of fortune or sustain some dammages in their bodies or minds Page 180 Chap. 2. Wherefore when men grow well after a disease do their genitall parts swell and they naturally desire copulation and of this matter here is a safe admonition and wholesome counsel set down Page 184 Chap. 3. Of the effect of the Ayr and gentle blasts and of the names of the winds with their forces and natures to cause diseases and to stir the humours which being agitated sometimes move the mind and molest it Page 187 Chap. 4. Of the Marriners Compasse which Plautus calls Versoria by observation whereof Marriners sail to Sea and by what vertue and for what reason it alwaies points to the North. Page 198 Chap. 5. What it is makes Dogs mad and at what time of the year chiefly and what are the best remedies to cure them Page 201 Chap. 6. Of the Nature and force of Gold and what effect it hath if it be at any time used for the health and defence of Mans Body Page 205 Chap. 7. Of the Meazels of Hogs and other diseases of this Creature that are next kin to the Leprosie and are commonly called Orighans or contagions from the unwholesome and sickly habit of the body And how this disease may be cured in Men. Page 207 Chap. 8. Wherefore do the Low-Dutch when they have had a tumbling and unquiet night that likes them not say they have had Saint John Baptist's night Page 211 Chap. 9. Of a singular new way how to make Salt and of the Nature Effects Force Use and
by an inset faculty propagates and maintains it self there is nothing in so great an Universe that is barren or idle nothing was made rashly or by chance or in vain Every Plant hath its imbred vertue there is given to every living creature it s own disposition and natural inclination In a word whatsoever is contain'd within the compasse of the world and of the Heavens is indued with an imbred force for its peculiar operations and all things are disposed in their places and times and by an admirable viciscitude they all perform their offices and courses Wherefore when God the Efficient and Moderator of so great a gift had view'd all things that he had made in six dayes they seemed to him exceeding good That is Gen. 1. so wrought as art could require as the order and series of things could demand that all things might serve for use and tend to that end they were ordained Whereof Aristotle seems to speak wisely in these very words De part Ani. l. 1. c. 5. There is nothing in Nature so small or contemptible that may not make men in some things to wonder at it And what men report that Hieraclitus Tarentinus said when he turned aside into a Bakers house Enter here are the Gods also the same must we suppose of Natures works For in the smallest works of Nature the Diety shines forth and all things are good and beautifull For this is an adjunct to the works of Nature that nothing is done rashly or by chance but for a certain end And as when we talk of Houses magnificently built we speak not of the Lime or of Bricks or Wood and the other materials but of the form and shape and structure of the Edifices and for what purpose they were built An Example from Buildings so he that searcheth into the works of Nature he discourseth not of the matter but of the form and of the whole substance and finally the use and profit So the body was made for the Soul but the limbs for the offices they are to perform conveniently and to fulfill their functions For what use End Man was Created But Man was brought upon the stage of this world for Gods cause who ought to take pleasure in him and acknowledge his bounty may repose himself in God trust in him and rest upon him In therefore so great multitude and variety of Things existing we must not onely admire the force of Nature and Efficience but his Majesty and Immensity from whom all things are produced and do proceed and by whose bounty the works of Nature subsist and are kept from corruption Which consideration doth somewhat raise our minds otherwise too much fastned to the ground and brings us to know and acknowledge God Natures force must be referred to God Rom. 1. Tusc 1. For though God be invisible yet by the things created as St. Paul testifieth and from the world so wonderfully created and so wisely governed he may be both perceived and understood And as Cicero saith By the memory of things subtilty of Invention and quicknesse of motion and by the exceeding beauty of Vertue we know the force of the Mind though we cannot see it with our eyes so we perceive God and that eternal Mind clearly by the works he hath made How God is known to Man and effectually do we apprehend his force and influence for his vertue is diffused through all things Act. 17. and gives heat spirit and life to all things St. Paul preached learnedly at Athens of this matter from the sentences of Aratus which Lucan expressed elegantly lib. 9. We all are held in God and though no noise Be heard we do his will he needs no voice God is in Sea and Land and Ayr and Sky What would we more all is the Diety What ere we see or where so ere we go We must see God whether we will or no. Who then would not love him whose forces he manifestly perceives with whose benefits he is abundantly replenished If we do most justly honour and admire Emperours and Princes and we esteem them highly and present them with great presents A similitude from the works of Emperours because they do govern those Kingdomes they got without blood in great equity because they have Magistrates unblameable who in executing their offices and publike charges take great care and pains whereby they may hold all men in their duties and all things may be kept peaceably and the Commonwealth not rent by any Civil broils or seditions how much more ought we to admire and adore God who without any care or businesse or pains Governs so vast and large an Empire of the World by his will Of the world To this belongs that of Apuleius a man that was far from our Religion but he drew it from the Hebrew Fountains A Simile from many offices That which the Pilot and Steer-man is in a Galley a Coach-man in his Coach the Choragus in acting Comedies the Precentor in Dances the master of Games at all Games a Consul amongst Citizens a Captain in an Army a Companion in undertaking or repelling dangers that is God in the world but that it seems to be a toilsome thing and full of innumerable cares to be the chief in any office but the care of his Empire is neither troublesome nor burdensome unto God All Natur 's works must be referred to God Yet I would not have Physitians my adversaries or that Philosophers should be offended that in asserting the dignity of Nature I refer her to the Fountain and her first original for by this means all things are reduced to their first being and to the Archetype of all Nature And though the word Nature be of large extent and every man at his pleasure may invent secundary definitions yet they are all reduced to one So by the Physitians Nature is the imbred and inset quality in things Nature is the mixture and temper of the four Elements Nature is the force and propension of every ones mind Nature with Philosophers is the beginning of motion and rest Nature is that which gives the form to every thing with its specificall difference The proper definition of Nature Nature is the force and efficient cause and the conserving imbred cause of the whole World and the parts thereof Nature to speak more neerly is the order and serious of Gods works which obeys his power his words and commands and borrows forces from him The principall cause and original of all these descriptions and as many as learned men may invent proceeds from that eternall mind as from a most plentifull Fountain It behoves all men to know this and much concerns them to observe and to fasten it well in their minds that so the chief Work-master may be better known to us all and his majesty and immensity may be seen by us For the sight of things and contemplation of nature will draw brutish
it Which if you do not hinder them and call them back they will by degrees go to bed again But when they do these things if you speak to them in a known voice or call them by their christian names You must not call night walkers by their proper names they will fall being frighted thus their spirits being dissipated and their natural force discussed whereby they perform these things Wherefore you must let them go as they will and to retire again at pleasure But they that are troubled with the night-mare The night mare and are toiled in their sleep which happens when smoky fuliginous grosse vapours offend the heart and brain they must be pulled and called by their proper names for they are presently wakened if you speak but low and they come to themselves the fumes being discussed and the blood sinking down which is diffused through the conduits of the veins But for the most part this disease comes at beginning of the spring upon those that have alwaies a crudity on their stomachs Ill to ly upon the back and that lie often on their backs Whence it comes that they ly with open eyes and mouths which is great inconvenience to their health For suddenly as if some great weight came upon them they feel that streightnesse that they cannot cry out but mourn and lament but so soon as one calls them by their names they will presently turn on their side and shake of those hags they thought oppressed them But our night walkers are clean contrary to these for they with their eyes shut walk in the dark and make a great noyse every where and sometimes they are silent and go upward and downward and clamber up to the tops of houses without any help which I believe is done by them by their swelling and frothing blood and by their hot fiery spirit which being carried into the seat of the mind drives on the force and faculties of the soul whereby she perfects her functions and the instrumental parts to these actions and moves them to these effects Hot spirits cause of motion in sleep Whence it comes that the body by the force of the animal spirit which contains the strength of the nervs and muscles that is the office of feeling and moving in the brain and maintains it is carried upwards and by the force thereof in sleep is provoked to such actions Such condition'd men are of fine and loose woven bodies and of little stature but full of active spirits and hot minds whence it is that if they lay hold of any thing with the outmost joynts of their hands or feet they will ballance and stay themselves and stick fast to the planks For it falls out with these bodies as it is with those boys A simile from vessels of boys the sea that are cast into the mouth of the Sea in the Low-countries whereby Marrieners know how to ride safely and sail to their Ports avoiding fords and rocks they cannot see For these though they be covered with plates of Iron and bound with chains and fastned to a mighty great stone yet they flote and swim in the Sea nor do they fall to the bottom unlesse they come asunder because they are filled with winds and blasts bellows being joyn'd to them for that purpose So they because they are swoln with wind and are full of aereal spirit are carried upward A simile from Snails with horns and with a slow pace like snails that want their eyes they try their way their horns thrust forth and creep upon all high places and walk in the night But they do this without danger or hurt to their bodies and fall not because they do it leasurely and without fear or respect unto danger which will sometimes drive men that are awake from earnest businesse dangerous attemps For they go about these things no otherwise than men that are drunk or mad who inconsiderately and with great rashnesse and boldnesse fear not to adventure upon any danger which if the next day or when they come to themselves they think upon and what danger they were in they will really professe they have forgot all and be much frighted at the relation they hear from others And if the humours be not so not in such kind of bodies and the spirits are not so much stirred and troubled they will onely cry out and leap a little but they will stay in their beds for the spirits are not so violent as to raise the body Lib. de Comit. morb For whosoever as Hippocrates saith hath a hot brain as cholerick and not flegmatick persons have these will cry and brawl in the night especially if they do unquietly perform their dayes labour and have care of their businesse having much to do As are some busie-bodies unquiet boasting people that thrust themselves into all businesses and run here and there and use strange gestures and you may know them by their eyes countenance gate cloathing and whole habit of their bodies all which they compose divers wayes and change them taking upon them another person as of a Player Fencer or Mountebank that runs up and down and calls the people together to see idle sports Men quiet in the day are clamorous in the night Hence it comes that they rise in their sleep and make a great noise and clapping of their hands by reason of phantasms that are represented to their sense and that agree with their wills and diurnal actions So all of us when we do any thing seriously in the day-time the species and representations of such things will trouble our minds in the night and make is cry out and tosse up and down Which Lucretius sets down in verse thus We see that many in their sleep will walk Will do what they did waking Lawyers talk And plead their causes strongly and Lawes write And Generals wage war and fiercely fight Saylers will strive with winds and every man Useth the same profession that he can Or what he hath long used or that kind That is most pleasing to his troubled mind For what hath tryed us and employed us all the day when the day is at an end flies to the brain and causeth distempers in the night or at least holds the mind with Employments that the sleep is not sweet but interrupted by dreams CHAP. VI. Of those that are drown'd mens bodies will flote on their backs and womens will flote on their faces and if their lungs be taken forth they will not swim IT is found by experience in the Low-Countries L. 7. c. 17. which Pliny also testifies that mens bodies when they are drown'd lye on their backs with their faces upwards toward Heaven but women lye with their faces groveling downwards and flote with their faces toward the ground In which Nature is thought to take care of their chastity that their secrets may not be seen but be decently concealed But I think it
covered with blood which affect when it passeth to the child that membrane becomes of divers colours and fashions Whence comes beauty or foulnesse This also makes children to have chins and cheeks red as a rose Which then useth to happen when the great bellied women blush or are angry their blood being raised by natural heat and carried aloft For such as are frighted or suddenly put into fear they are the cause of a pale colour and frame the child with an austere and sad countenance CHAP. IX Why in Holland they say that such as have unconstant and weak brains have been conversant amongst beans IF at any time the Low-Countrey people will set forth a man of an unconstant brain The Proverb to wander amongst beans and unsetled mind who in his manners gestures words and deeds and all his actions is like a mad-man they will say he hath been amongst the beans and it is their common Proverb the beans flourish he wandreth amongst beans and this is applied to weak brain'd men that want judgment and reason For we see in the spring-months when bean-stalks begin to flowre that some men will grow mad and speak many ridiculous and absurd things and sometimes they grow so mad that they must be bound in chains For at the begining of the spring the humours begin to overflow and to choke the brain with grosse fumes and vapours which when bean flowrs do exasperate if they smell to them the mind begins to rave and to be troubled with furies For though bean flowrs smell sweet and pleasant Why bean flowers hurt the brain yet they offend the head and will at great distance send forth an offensive smell especially to those that have weak brains and are filled with a cholerick and melancholiqve humour Whereupon some of these are disquieted and wander then they grow clamorous and full of words and others again are pensive and alwaies musing Their head stands stiff Pers sat 3. their eyes sixt on the ground They mumble silently and eat the sound Their lips thrust forth their words they do confound And as some things dissipate fumes and discusse what is hurtfull to the brain and raise the fainting soul and spirits that are sleepy as Vinegar Rose-water wherein Cloves are steeped new bread wet in well sented wine for these breath forth a thin and pleasant ayre so other things cause pain and make the head heavy as Garlick Onions Leeks Elder Worm-wood Rue Southern wood What things cause the headacâ—â—e and many spices that send forth strong heavy fumes and offend the brain violently affecting the Nostrils Which Hippocrates shewd in this Aphorism The smell of spices draws the secrets of women L. 5. Aph. 28. and it is good for many other things but that it offends the head and makes it heavy For all things very odoriferous hurt the head and draw the heat and moysture to the upper parts even the very smels that evaporate from cold plants especially in those that are lean and decayed in their flesh For they cannot endure the smells of their meats and of boil'd flesh and when they faint and swound they will suffer nothing to be put to their nostrils that is of a sharp and piercing nature so that they seem to be suffocated by a grosse thick vapour as those that sit down in a dinining room that is filled with smoak whose breath is stopped and intercepted An example from smoaky houses unlesse the dores be set open and fresh Aire be let in the windows that the house may be Ayr'd and the wind may passe in and our Those that dwell near lakes are of another temper than these tender bodies and such as are made to empty Jakes and make clean sinks For these men reject all sweet smels as offensive unto them So Strabo writes that amongst the Sabaeans L. 6. those that are offended with sweet odours are refreshed with bitumen and the smell of Goats hair on their beards when it is burnt Aridiculous thing of a Countryman A certain Country-man at Antwerp was an example of this who when he came into a shop of sweet smells be began to faint but one presently clapt some fresh smoking warm hors-dung to his nose and fetched him again CHAP. X. Every strong filthy smell is not hurtfull to man For some of these will discusse contagions and resist corrupt diseases By the way whence came the Proverb that horns are burnt there MAny things are of a most filthy smell which yet do no ways hurt the body nor cause any corruption in it and they will resist some diseases and discusse the faulty troublesome Ayre and vapours as Castoreum Galbanum Sagapenum the dregs of Masterwort called Asafaetida Bean Trifoly Brimstone Gunpowder the fumes of burnt horns and skins Ill smells sometimes usefull For these are of a strong filthy sent but they cause no contagion but they represse and strike back the filthy sents and pestilent vapours which lakes and standing waters and the hearb Camarina and stinking earth send forth Also by the smell of these they raise young maids that are in a swound when they are troubled with the strangling of the mother when being fit for marriage they are forced to stay for Husbands But filthy smels that rise from dead carcases and muddy waters cause corrupt diseases and infect the Ayre by reason of heat and moisture but not the vapours of those that tend to drinesse Hence our Country people cast snips of leather horns and wet bones into the fire Ill smells sometime resist the Plague and with those sents they Ayre their houses to dispell the contagion of diseases and keep themselves and their cottages free from pestilent Ayres Hence came the Proverb that Horns are burnt there A Proverb that horns are burnt Whereby they signifie that places infected with contagious diseases must be avoided Such a kind of remedy in former times was used about Tourney when the Plague cruelly raged all the Town over A history that is true done about Tournay For the Souldiers of the Garrison in the Fort fill'd their Guns with Gunpowder without bullets and shot against the Town and they shot them off with a lighted match about the evening and morning whence it hapned that by the great noise and strong smell the contagion of the Ayre was removed Fire dispells contagions of the Ayre and the City delivered from the Plague For this is as powerfull to dispell contagions of the Ayre as Hippocrates remedy by making bon-fires and burning many fagots in the streets could be CHAP. XI The excellency of the finger of the Left hand that is next the little finger which is last of all troubled with the Gout and when that comes to be affected with it death is not far off By the way wherefore it deserves to wear a Gold Ring better than the rest PHysitians grant that all parts of the body that are affected
life and will not easily let it go because that she finds the greatest force of spirits to be in it which being exhausted the whole body pines away and the works of nature are performed worse than they were But when some nutriment is given Meat to be offered before blood letting it will run forth more readily For the spirits are quickned by eating and much cheered by drinking and moderate exercise and the blood runs all over the body and makes it more ruddy and well colour'd But it is a question whether it be fit to sleep presently after bloud-letting Whether we may sleep after a vein opened I unlesse one be used to it or be weary with heat and long travell do not think it fit or good for ones health in the spring and summer to sleep at noon nor do I think it good for to sleep presently after opening a vein especially if ones belly be full or his body fat After blood-letting be temperate For some of these are of opinion that after blood-letting they should restore their strength by cramming themselves with meat and drink Who become sleepy and drowsy and fall asleep with no small losse to their health and danger For their brains are so filled with thick vapours and the veins do so swell thereby oft-times that the orifice opens and the blood runs forth again to the great inconvenience of their health I remember that this fell out upon one of our Magistrates who in the Ides of May An example of one that died by sleeping when prayers unto God and abstaining from â—abour are commanded for three dayes he had a vein opened at that time and as the custome is at dinner he eat green garlick and drank wine plentifully about noon his head being fill'd with fumes he first slept then died Wherefore he that would do best for his health the day a vein is opened should live on a sparing diet and abstain from sleep so long as he can but if it come upon him against his will and he cannot hold open his eyes yet let him keep from sleeping so long till the force and motion of the bloud be setled which is done after one hour and half Then he may quietly repose himself and taking care not to hurt that part of his body that was cut let him lye half down and lean his head on a pillow if he cannot sleep upright in a chair But if he sleep above two hours he must be pulled that he may awake lest the spirits should grow dull and the body should be oppressed by a general dark vapour whereby the party falls to vomiting and loathing and can hardly shake off his yawning CHAP. XXVI Physiognomy that is the reason how to look into the Nature and manners of men and with which by the marks and signs of the body we may judge of the motion and propension of the mind is not to be disliked Moreover I shall prove by Testimony of Scripture what is most convenient to be observed hereby The countenance and eyes are the Tables of the mind SOme Arts are held unlawfull and not fit to be used because they are near of kin to false Imposture and because they have some curious and neat observations But Physiognomy which by the face eyes countenance lineaments and the whole habit discovers the propension of the mind and body is in no part of it to be referred to unlawfull arts for the most excellent men were very studious in it and carefull to adorn it But since there is no part of the body though never so small base and ignoble that offords not some argument of the imbred nature and to what the mind is inclined yet the chief marks and tokens appeare in the face and countenance and which is the most certain discoverer of the mind in the volubility and aspect of the eyes For in them do shine hate anger Indignation fear hope joy modesty arrogance jealousy covetousnesse aemulation and all internall affections of the mind in the outward habit of the body So when God saw Cain sad and his countenance cast down he said unto him Gen. 4. Why art thou sad and why is thy countenance fallen Also Joseph when he saw his fellow Prisoners sad he asked them why is your face more sad than ordinary Gen. 40. for he observed that there was some ill apprehension in their minds and the certain notes of it were seen in their Countenance To which appertains that of Isaias Cap. 3. A place of Esaias explained The shew of their Countenance doth witnesse against them Whereby he shews â—â—at wicked men may be caught by their looks For their countenance shews what malice they are fill'd with what they meditate what they desire to undertake and whither their wicked intentions are bent There are many things to prove this that we may read in David and Solomon's lives Psal 34. whereby they do condemn the wickednesse of some men and expresse it by their forehead eyebrows eyes rolling up and down biting of their lips their nostrils wrinkled their cheeks swoln their proud gate unseemly behaviour their nodding and fierce countenance Whence saith the Wise man Prov. 6. A wicked and ungodly man goeth with a proud lock he winketh with his eyes speaketh with his feet teacheth with his fingers frowardnesse is in his heart he deviseth mischief and continually soweth discord But in those that are of a pleasing and mild spirit all things appear well in their countenances Their standing going lying down their countenance eyes hands motion serve all to expresse an honest and comely mind as also in the face wisdome honour honesty and other vertues appear But though all things do not exactly answer the praedictions of this art and many things fall out contrary to the marks that are outwardly on the body and that either by reason of education or the Industry of Parents or else by the grace of God yet for the most part they are true and the event is certain For in such as are marked with some visible note Art finds out the truth Notes of the body shew the condition of the Mind For where there is an errour about some principal part there the mind partakes of some inconvenience and cannot perfectly perform her offices So they that are deformed with a bunch-back so it be a natural Infirmity and not accidental nor come by any fall or blow are commonly wicked and malitious because the depravation is communicated to the heart that is the fountain and beginning of life Next to these are squint blind blear-ey'd people and such as have rolling eyes and such as cast their eyes aside because Nature failed about the brains But deaf mute stuttering stammering people and such as cannot speak plain by reason of the weaknesse of the nerves and muscles are not free from vice yet they do not deserve to be much blamed for it For the lesse noble and generous
and we may endeavour to amend them So Plautus speaks wisely in Epidicus Men have not Glasses for to see their faces But rather for to see their minds graces And when their Heart they behold To think what they did of old Also this is the profit the use of a Glasse may make unto us that it may sharpen our eyes that are grown dull by continuall poring and help to recover and refresh our weary sight For the visuall Spirits are gathered together and are recreated by new Spirits that result from the brain What good a Glasse may do the eyes But many doubt how it is that a Glasse should represent the image of that stands over against it For some think the images are in the Glasse that is the figures of our bodies sent forth from our bodies others think the images are not in the glasse but that we see them in the reflected sight that is beat back again upon it selfe Wherefore Glasses shew many things by reflected beams For reflexion is from thick bodies Why a Glasse resents the form of what is over against it therefore Glasses are foild on the backside that the light may not penetrate directly through them But the opposite body appeares because that part of the radius that moves the eye is directed to the opposite body wherefore the whole radius is received as stretched out unto that part and thence it follows that the thing is received by the eye But they represent the Images with that part that is against one and not with that which is turn'd from us because the species which passeth from a solid body to the superficies of the Glasse through the Aire is pure and simple wherefore the images shine in the Glasse when as light radii are regenerated from it for they being beat back come home to the eye in which it sees it selfe and every one doth behold his image clearly For we do not see through the Glasse nor is the image formed in the Glasse but in the eye but the Glasse helps by striking back the sight And this is the reason why when we rise in the night we behold the light at first looking on it as if the rays went from us and looked towards themselves and reflecting upon themselves Hence you may collect why the right parts of the body are made the left in the Glasse A simile from Seals and the left the right For it falls out as it doth with Tables of Wax or Clay upon which if you stamp the print of your Seal in the taking off the parts stand contrary A simile from the Printers letters The same we see in Printing-Presses and in places that are cast with rawe pictures without distinction of colours or painting for there the right parts alwaies answer to the left of the mole But how it should be that the Sun should appear double being seen in a Glasse under the water which also is wont to be seen in the Clouds as a signe of some future ill as some ignorant people judge many have not observed some think that the dogg-Starr or some other Starr neere it is seen when as the Suns brightnesse so darkneth all the stars that they cannot be seen in the day A double Sun seen in a glasse under water But the Suns Image appears double first by reason of the water and then by reason of the Glasse For that clown in Virgill testifies besides our own experience that water may serve instead of a glasse and makes all things shew larger I am not so deformed I lately saw my face When that the Sea was calm Eclog. 2. Wherefore first the brightnesse of the glasse by reflexion shews the Suns form and next the water from the superficies whereof the Sun-beams are beaten back The like reason serves for a Candle Torch or the Moon being over against a Glasse put under the water for it will by reflexion return the object double Also concave Glasses are invented for another use that being held against the Sun by reflexion will burn and make some combustible matter flame setting on fire straw Chaff and other dry fuel So Archimedes fired the enemies galleys with burning glasses Burning-glasses as Histories report for all the Sunbeams are reflected by them without the point of Incidents The memorable act of Archimedes and running all to one point they set all things in the way on fire CHAP. XXXIV What force and vertue Aqua-vitae hath or the spirit of Wine distill'd and who may safely drink it by the way some admirable effects of this made-wine are set down THere was invented in the memory of former ages an art of distilling for the use and preservation of mans health and to drive away sicknesse whereby we distill from hearbs juices and Physicall liquors which though it be certain that they have not so much vertue and force as the Infusion and decoction of the hearbs themselves or the juice pressed forth yet are they not wholly to be rejected as they are by some men Nor must we judge them to be altogether uneffectual and vain for the quality and force of them is not totally lost abolished which may be proved as by many things so by Aquavitae or as some commonly call it spirit of wine A Limbeck or Still or sublimed which sometimes is drawn from the best wines but oft-times from the lees of any small dead sowre wines by a Still in a furnace with a gentle fire For oft-times I made trial of the wonderfull force of it The force of Aqua-vitae For let the frost be never so cold and sharp that liquor will never freeze nor become Ice so that writing Ink and many more things that have some drops of this mingled with them will never be frozen and this come from the exceeding heat and thinnesse that it hath And if you would try whether this quintessence be pure and without mixture How to try Aqua-vitae wet a Table-cloath or linnen Towel with that liquor and put it to the flame if it burn presently and do not touch nor hurt the linnen it is pure and unmixed For linnen wet in this water will flame and not be consumed For the flame will but gently lye upon the finest linnen and not take hold of it but licks up all that is next of kind to it namely that liquor that is like it and of a fiery nature And if you put a little of it into the hollow of your hand and put flame to it with a burning paper the palm will be hot but the hand will not burn How melted lead shall not burn you But if you wash your hands with the juice of Mallows or Mercury you may without any hurt handle scalding lead so you do it with a speedy motion And yet there is nothing in the world that burns more then melted lead or boyling oyle so that if you put a Tin or lead spoon into scalding
negotiations accomplished to serve for necessity and that by it we may provide such things for our selves that the nature of Mortall men subsists by and may want none of them namely cloths Houses whereby we defend our selves from the winds and injuries of the Ayre all things belonging to housholding moderate diet and many such like things whereby we live not lesse conveniently than healthfully Horace recalls men to this tranquillity of mind L. 1. Serm Sat. 1. and moderate use of things for he was an excellent corrector of vice and he warnes us what specially we should take care for who commonly hide the fault of covetousnesse under the cover of necessity What will it profit thee for fear of Dearth Or Thieves to hide great Treasure in the Earth Thou know'st no worth nor use of Money buy Bread herbs and Wine and what may satisfie Nature which craves but for necessity The use of things to be regarded Whereby he shews that all should be referred to necessary uses and convenience of living and if to this we have sufficient to adorn our bodies handsomly and to go decently and cleanly as men ought to do and women likewise may be gracefully decked according to their sex I shall not be against it so it exceed not and our apparell be not too costly and incline too much to Luxury and voluptuousnesse Frugalnes must be regarded in all things but that all things may be bounded by frugality and temperance and serve for honesty and decency For men for the most part are so given that they delight in nothing but sumptuous and magnificent things Nature is content with a little whereas nature can be contented with small matters easily to be had and that cost but little But to let passe these things I shall discourse of the nature of this mettal that is endowed with many and great virtues For Gold is one of the most effectuall things and hath the most present vertue to drive forth the most cruel diseases and to restore health where it is decayed and needs repairing For such as are tainted with the venerious disease from foul copulation and have any contagion in their secrets are manifestly helped by the use of it Also it purgeth the Elephantiasis which is held to be the common Leprosy Gold purgeth the Leprosy or at least it asswageth it It fastneth loose teeth and such as are weak or vitiated by filthy moisture and it corrects all ulcers and pushes in the mouth Also those that have a stinking breath that smells filthily I use to give them counsel that they should commonly carry in their mouths Rings made of the purest and unmixed Gold especially those that have been anointed for the French Pox and have ulcers in their lips and Gums For this purgeth the venome and dries up the sores use of Gold in meat And if you please to boyl with your meats Plates or pieces of leaves of Gold and such as are sick to drink the broth it can hardly be said what refreshment their vital spirits shall receive thereby Wherefore I use to restore and recreate such as are consumed and wasted in their flesh or exhausted and wearied by immoderate venery with such decoctions and the Gold is never the worse for it nor doth it lose any part Gold loseth nothing by boyling or is in the least diminished thereby Sometimes I bid them cast into a round topt vessell which men call an Alembeck set upon a hot fire a Capon chopt in small pieces or calfs flesh and some yelks of Egs pouring thereon three or four sextaries of Cows Milk A Sextarius is 1 pound and 8. ounces mingling therewith some raspings of the most pure Gold called Obrisum or a Gold Chain and the most effectual hearbs as Eringo roots Hartichokes Parsnips Skirrots Carlinum Garden-Thistle and that hearb which shoots forth with a Mossy concretion and from its yellow glittering colour and golden specks that stick upon it is called Sun-dew or Ros-solis also Dates and Raysins taking out the stones and sweet Apples with all these things together at a gentle fire a liquor drawn forth by drops and set in the Sun for three dayes may be kept for many uses for it will restore such as are fallen into a swound and whose spirits faint and it will repair those that are bloudlesse lean A remedy for the disease of the heart consumed but in the pain of the heart and Brititish sweat it is a present remedy and in restoring the forces of the heart it is very effectual and healthfull if a spoonfull or more be given at a time to those that are in that case nor is Gold applyed outwardly with lesse profit and convenience where the heart is endangered by any outward or inward disease growing on Gold cheers the heart For besides the aspect of Golden pieces and rings which oft-times are set with some pretious stone that delights the eyes if the finger of the left hand which is next to the little finger be rubbed with Gold and a little Saffron for diseases of the heart it will recover a man though he be fallen down and his animall and vitall spirits be stopt so that he is speech-lesse and almost dead and no signs of life appear The effects of Gold red hot also red hot Gold plunged into wine to quench will procure great force to the parts and corroborats the natural faculties For if any ill matter cleave to the internal parts it purgeth it away consumes and devoures and it gives vigour to the affected part and fills it with vitall spirit Also this liquor applyed outwardly will kill Tetters Ring-worms Leprosies Scabs Scurf Ozena Polypus and all filthy sores of the Nose Morphew and all freckles that deform the skin and will restrain and correct them especially if you mingle with this liquid painting stuff a little Tartar which is a stony matter that grows together from the wine in the vessels What Tartar is For this will take away all spots though never so fowl and will adorn and beautify red warty Nostrills Chin Cheeks Face forehead in which parts such eruptions are seen to come forth oft-times very ill-favouredly and ugly CHAP. VII Of the Measils of Hogs and other diseases of this creature that are next kin to the Leprosy and are commonly called Orighans or contagions from the unwholesome and sickly habit of the body And how this disease may be cured in men What meats are made of Hogs flesh BEcause Gentlemen also do commonly eat Hogs flesh and there is scarse any Family but Bacon is brought sometimes to the Table and flitches and Gammons that sometimes come from far Countries and other meats that are made of them as puddings Sausages and the like I thought fit to set down something here concerning the nature of this creature Since therefore a Hog delights in mud and filth and to wallow in dirt the first care must be to
begin That 's naught Yet more there creeps a yellow skin But you are worse pale do not tutor me I lately buried such a one as thee Thou liv'st go on I will now say no more Swoln with good cheer and belly white this poor Fellow doth purge and vomit what doth smell Like Brimstone and doth make a stink like hell He trembles in his wine and doth let fall Out of his hands the cup and wine and all His teeth do crash ly bare and broth that 's fat Drops from his lips Such men as these are found almost every where now a dayes who when diseases shew themselves in their faces countenance eyes and the whole habit of their bodies yet they will not discover them to skillfull Physitians but they conceal and foster them to the great detriment of their healths which when they have taken deep root and are fast can hardly be rooted out wherefore the wise man gives to every one wholesome counsel Eccles 18. to use remedies against diseases in time for it is better to take Physick at first than at last To which may be applyed that of Persius You see some ask for Hellebour too late Sat. 3. Stop at first When the skin swells men should anticipate Which should be carefully told to them who carelessely regard not to use means when their health begins to decline and neglecting to support it at last fall into desperate diseases Wherefore those that are on the brink of a sickly constitution do not presently recover but have a neutrall body and are neither sick nor well but in the middle between health and sicknesse and therefore they must carefully regard their health for it is easy for them to be worse But what I say of a neutral body besides other things may also be referred to the condition of the Ayre and the sky for sometimes the Ayre is healthfull pestilentiall mean and the sky is sometimes clear sometimes cloudy sometimes tolerable between both which also may be seen in the winds and waves of the Sea and in mens affections and motions of their minds the like may be observed For they are moderate vehement turbulent moved mean remisse quiet So that things are not alwaies at the same passe nor do they run the same course CHAP. VI. Of the reason of seeing and quicknesse of the eyes and why some will see clearly things a great way off and yet are blind close by others will see the smallest things near them exactly but things afar off though they be high mountains they cannot discern easily and why commonly the right eye is duller than the left and sees not so clear By the way concerning the colours of the eyes and many other things which are arguments of the mind also some remedies for a dull eye AMongst the many and great gifts of Nature and most ample endowments The excellency of the mind wherewith Man is adorned by the best and greatest God abundantly there is nothing better and more divine than the mind of man to which since all the senses serve and obey yet principally the ministery of sight and speaking are employed by him when he will explain his mind The beginning of sight is from the brain For in this we principally excell beasts that we have power to expresse the meaning of our minds and bring forth our counsels by words so in the eyes the vertue of seeing is not wholly placed but they are as two windows of the soul that stand open from the seat of the mind unto the eyes by the intending and remitting motion and constancy whereof the motions and cogitations of our minds are discovered The faculty of seeing consists indeed in the eye or that clear transparent chrystalline humour which that it may be moist with a watry humour which men call the white A simile from a Jewel set in Gold so doth it swim and is set within the glassy humour and it doth illustrate the Apple of the eye that is the sight we see with with such a shining brightnesse as a clear and excellent Jewel doth a ring Wherefore sight is attributed to the eyes not as to the principal place but as being the organ or instrument of it for the brain by the visual nerves sends spirits to them whereby the faculty of seeing is performed For when the brain is hurt or ill affected though the eyes be well the sight grows dull The head hurt hurts the sight and the sharpnesse of the eyes is darkned which is proper to drunkards and dotards and those that are in feavers Wherefore by this reason is sight ascribed to the eyes that consist of three humours and four Coats because they are guided by the brain and mind that have the chief power Kingly power in the brain for from them proceed and flow by the optick or visual nerves pure clear thin bright spirits whereby if the dark Ayre hinder not or some depraved constitution of the eyes sight is performed exactly But if they be diminished obscure troubled slender the sight of the eye is made dim and not so sharp but from the temper of the eyes there grow divers manners and reasons of sight For he that hath plenty of spirits and perfectly pure that are clean well-polished as a clear chrystal glasse he can see exactly things that are far remote For when that humour is perfectly wrought there flows from it a thin and sincere vapour or light spirit whereby chiefly sight is performed and things at a great distance may be discerned For when the animal spirit is much Who hath the best sight and plentifull subtile thin and heavenly it carrieth the sight a great way and sees all things clearly nor is it easily wearied with continuall looking or a fixed intending of it The sanguine have strong sights and the moist and hot spirit hath this faculty commonly called the sanguine complexion But where the spirit is but little yet pure and not cloudy he can see things near at hand clearly and distinctly and hath a certain choice but things at a distance or something farther off he sees not so clearly For a little and mean spirit is easily dissolved and vanisheth and cannot carry the sight so far Whence it comes that such as have the organ of sight furnished with a clear but yet small spirit will see the smallest characters without hurting their sight but great mountains farther off or rocks that are capes at Sea they cannot see so well which happens to a hot and dry or cholerick complexion But why some do see things hard by them but meanly Cholerick see clearly and things distant not at all proceeds from want of spirits and grossenesse of them What sight a grosse spirit makes But where the spirits are plentifull and grosse and somewhat thicker than ordinary that man can long endure to look on a thing and not be weary to behold it long and stedfastly that is obvious
to his sight and he can see at the first glance but cannot exactly distinguish things for grossenesse hinders sharp sight which may be observed in a cold or moist complexion which is the flegmatique A moyst and small spirit what sight it makes But he that hath a moist and mean animal spirit to serve the organ or sight he can neither see things near hand exactly nor at all things afar off for a few spirits soon vanish and are dispersed but grosse ones hinder the function of sight since the rays that proceed from the sight of the eyes are not carried to the object nor do they receive the species of things that come to the eye from without A thin and rare spirit binders the sight when spectacles are good But a rare thin slender dark spirit such as is in old decayed people and such as are wasted by sicknesse doth make a weak sight and almost none at all wherefore they do well to help their dull sight with spectacles for by them all things seem bigger and the visual spirits are restored and collected into one they do not vanish and disperse so much but I advise no man to use them too soon for when they want them they will be quite blind For that these are dark and grow blind comes from want of spirits Wherefore spectacles refresh the sight because the rays are reflected and retorted by them Spectacles refresh the sight and the spirits gain strength new ones continually coming thither from the brain But there are besides these things spoken of many more that darken the eyes and either hurt or hinder the sight For if the pupil chance to be moved from its place How many things hinder the sight or be dilated too much contorted contracted or diminished or from some stroke or wound fall or contusion be tumefied or inflamed the faculty of seeing is wonderfully offended Eyes that stick out or sink in are dark also eyes that stick out too far or sink in too deep do bring some inconvenience to our sight for prominent eyes are hurt by the external light so that in the clear Ayre and Sun shine they see not their objects well for the immoderate light hinders them but if the skye be dark and clowdy they see the better hence it is that they see perfectly what is near them but things afar off darkly and obscurely again such whose eyes lye hid and deep within and their balls stick lesse without their eye-lids are contrary to the former For these see things hard by not so distinctly but they see things afar off very well Hid eyes and such as stick forth are contrary to seeing wherefore when we would see things afar off we half shut our eyes and wink almost for so the spirits compacted and heaped together do send forth their rayes very far Hence we use to wink with one eye and put a vail before it which may darken the Ayre and hinder the light whereby we can more forcibly and fixedly look upon the object as men do that shoot in Guns and Crosse-bows for they shutting their left eye From Archers a reason for sight is taken the spirits run more plentifully to the right and make the sight stronger therefore Archers ayme thus and so come to hit the mark they shoot at To which we may apply that Ironical speech in Persius He can direct a verse as fine Sat. 1. As winking with one eye hee 'd draw a line But that some men see two things for one is caused by the distraction of their eyes into divers parts Why some men see double For when the rayes of the eyes do not direct themselves to the same point of the object but are carried divers waies and the spirit that uncertainly receives the species of things fluctuates with inordinate and wandring motion here and there we see two for one Why things seem divided But things seem divided cut in sunder full of chinks and holes when part of the pupil is blinded with some humour standing before it also thick fumes and vapours rising from the stomach to the brain do present various sights and images to our eyes so that sometimes all things seem to run round and turn here and there Some think they see straws fleas gnats flyes Beetles spiders Why we see such absurd things Hobgoblins witches fairies and drunkennesse and gluttony cause these effects as also a melancholique humour which cloud the brain with most grosse vapours But that the right eye is duller than the left every man may prove in himself The right eye duller than the est In our perfect age a grosse and thick spirit occasioneth this and because commonly by lying on our right side nocturnal vapours rise and flow thither but in old age the right eye grows drier and the heat of the Liver devours the humours that serve the sight but the left eye is moyster and in that the spirits are not so easily extenuated nor do the humours grow dry But the heart The heart lives first and dies last the fountain of life begins first to live and dieth last and being taken forth of some living creatures will pant a long time after yet the eyes which are thought to be perfected last first cease to move and shew signs of death The eyes dye first and they dye before the rest because the spirits being taken from them when death comes they must vanish or the spirits are drawn back from the eyes to the brain that is the beginning of motion and sight But as for the causes of divers colours that are seen in the eyes I shall speak something here to it They proceed from the humours that are round about Whence come diversity of colours in the eyes whose quality plenty want thinnesse thicknesse mixture make divers colours and species of the eyes as black blew gray Owl or Goats eyes red yellow tawny pale light-red clay-colour green dark-red fiery flaming bloud-red violet-colour saffron-colour golden-colour white as milk whitish But eyes that are all with black colour whose beauty if the eye-lids be of the same colour make a man seem comely proceed from this Whence come black eyes when the visible spirit is weak and the humour plentifull thick dark and shady so that one cannot see through it by reason of the abounding humour and the profundity of it for no light that comes from our eyes is carried into his eyes that stands over against us but the rayes flye back again and are as it were retorted upon us So in Fountains and cisterns Why the water shews black in wells and deep pits the water seems to be black and serves for a Looking glasse the sight of the eyes being beaten back by the thicknesse of the water and reflected upon it self for it forceth back our sight upon us What sight black eyes have But black eyes are of that nature and condition
applyed when it was his condition and he was tossed with the same tempests and Waves Psalm 51. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit Also that expostulation of his with his own Soul or rather that lamentation Psalm 41. Why art thou disquieted oh my soul and why art thou so troubled within me hope in God because I will yet praise him And again when he had recovered peace of conscience and all sadnesse was dispelled he saith Enter into thy rest oh my Soul because the Lord hath rewarded thee Psalm â— thou hat given me joy and gladnesse of heart So then if we have done all things against equity and an evill will drives a man contrary to right understanding and direction of the mind and rules of reason afâ—erwards the remembrance of wicked deeds will torture the mind of any man What will the confidence of Conscience do Whereas others fenced and supported by a good Conscience they relying upon and depending on the testimony of a secure mind never fear nor fright at it no not when miseries come as the Plague War Famine and want of all things nor are they dejected for persecutions or the rage of Tyrants for though such be the frailty of human nature that there is no man who is not troubled at sudden assaults and is afraid of them an example whereof we have in our Saviour Christ Math. 26. when he was to be offered up yet an honest man and he that depends on Gods protection stands firm and fearlesse against all dangers that are near him and sustains himself by that means in despite of them all So David when he was straightned on every side Psalm 26. opposed a couragious and an undaunted spirit to all dangers For being garded and environed by the power of the Almighty God he speaks with the greater confidence Though an Host should encamp against me my Heart shall not fear though war should rise against me in this will I be confident Likewise Iob. Though he kill me Job 13. yet will I trust in him But wicked ungodly impious naughty men though they be guarded and encompassed with a great retinue and defended with abundance of wealth having great store of Lands and Possessions and want of nothing yet are they racked in their minds and are afraid of all things Prov. 12. and as the Wise man saith Their Soul is pierced with the Conscience of their wicked deeds as with a Sword For when they call to mind the mischief they have done they presently tremble wax pale look about and are afraid of the safest means as if the furies of hell hurried them along For there is in every man an imbred choice of things by nature What is the Law of nature a judgment and distinction of good and bad and the knowledge of God is printed in their Souls which Saint Paul calls the Law or Instinct or conduct of nature Rom. 2. whereby we are carried to what is honest and we abhor what is ill every mans conscience as he saith bearing him witnesse and their thoughts excusing or accusing one another Wherefore great is the force and vertue of conscience in all actions of our lives so that a Man though horrid things be objected against him will maintain his constancy and will allwaies persevere in his counsel and resolution he hath undertaken and will not fear or tremble or dread with any threatnings if he have done nothing amisse But he that is guilty of a crime and his mind is polluted with it thinks the punishment to be alwaies before his eyes and destruction to persue him continually For fear which makes the bloud hide it self and deads the spirits rising from the conscience of sins takes away a mans courage Conscience changeth the form of the body and changeth his countenance and the habit of all his body so that in the midst of all his jollity in dancings and banquettings and in Conjugal embracements he feels the rack and tortures of Conscience whereas integrity of life makes all calm peaceable quiet and no trouble at all which one thing may be a forcible argument that the mind of man came from God and is moved by his power A strong argument of immortality and guided by his spirit and direction and that the Soul lives after death which when some years are past when the Supream Judge shall please to judge the world shall again unite with the body after a wonderful manner In the morning early the force and sting of Conscience is most clear the fumes and fuliginous vapours being discussed Conscience what time of the day it shews it self wherewith the mind from the actions or banquets of the day before as from gluttony drunkennesse revelling and the like was oppressed so that about that time especially the mind recollects what was formerly done and thinks on such things that she approves or dislikes So saith the Prophet Why the Conscience shews it self in the morning Psalm 5. Esay 50.26 Ecclus. 39. Thou wilt hear my voice in the morning Oh Lord in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee and will look For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickednesse the Lord shall listen unto me in the morning in the morning will I attend unto thee The just shall deliver his Soul that he may watch unto God that made him God O my God I watch for thee in the morning So then to those that newly wake Psalm 62. when they have eaten nothing nor drank the affects of the mind and Conscience do most represent themselves and God warneth men early in the morning For what admonishment or wholesome Instruction can be offered to men when they are drunk with Wine or crop-sick with gluttony So I know many men who when the memory of their former ill life troubles them often they presently drown'd themselves with drink that they may forget all the wickednesse they have committed and that the remembrance thereof may not secretly steal upon them yet the next day the mischief became raw and did more cruelly torment their minds For the like hapneth to these men as it doth to men that are diseased A simile from sick men who will not disclose but conceal the Ulcers and sores they have about them whereby they are more bitterly tortured inwardly to which the Prophet David alludes when he saith Psalm 31. The place of the Psalmist explain'd When I kept silence my bones waxed old through wy roaring all the day long The sin and terrour of his Soul and unquietnesse of his mind and pressures of conscience did so drive him to confesse his wickednesse and yet he could not be drawn to confesse his sin and to purge it away by true repentance But the regulating of mans life by institution the habit of his body Who want Conscience and imbred humours are of great consequence