his friends being fallen into some adversitie to take a good heart and fight against fortune who when he demanded of him againe how he should combat with her made answere Marie after a Philosophicall maner even so let us also mainteine battel and be revenged of adversitie by following the rule of Philosophie being armed with patience as becommeth wise men For after what sort doe we defend our selves against raine or how be we revenged of the North winde marie we seeke for fire we go into a stouph we make provision of clothes and we get an house over our heads neither doe we sit us downe in the raine untill we be thorowly wet to the skinne and then weepe our fill and even so have you also in those things which are presently about you good meanes yea and better than any other to revive refresh and warme this part of your life which seemeth to be frozen and benummed with colde as having no need at all of any other helps and succours so long as you will use the foresaid meanes according as reason doth prescribe direct For true it is that the ventoses or cupping-glasses that Physicians use drawing out of mans body the worst most corrupt blood do disburden preserve all the rest But they that are given to heavinesse sorrow who love also evermore to whine and complaine by gathering together multiplying continually in their cogitations the worst matters incident unto them and eftsoones consuming themselves with the dolorous accidents of their fortune cause those meanes to be unprofitable unto them which otherwise are wholesome and expedient and even at such a time especially when they should do most good As for those two tunnes my good friend which Homer saith to bee set in heaven full of mens destinies the one replenished with good and the other with bad it is not Iupiter who sitteth to disperse and distribute them abroad sending unto some milde and pleasant fortunes intermingled alwaies with goodnesse but unto others continual streames as a man would say of meere misfortunes without any temperature of any goodnesse at all but even among our owne selves as many as be wise and are of any sound understanding draw out of their happy fortunes whatsoever crosse and adverse matter is mingled therewith and by this meanes make their life the pleasanter and as a man would say more portable whereas contrariwise many men doe let their fortunes runne as it were through a colander or streiner wherein the woorst sticke and remaine in the way behind whiles the better do passe and runne out and therefore it behooveth that although webe fallen into any thing that is in truth naught and grievous unto us we set a cheereful countenance on the matter and make the best supplie and recompence that we can by those good things that otherwise we have and doe remaine with us besides lenifying and polishing the strange and adverse accident which hapneth without by that which is milde and familiar within But as touching those occurrents that simply of their owne nature be not ill and wherein whatsoever doth trouble and offend us ariseth altogether and wholly upon a vaine conceit and foolish imagination of our owne we ought to doe as our maner is with little children that bee afraid of maskes and disguised visours for like as we hold the same close and neere unto them handle and turne them in our hands before them every way and so by that meanes acquaint them therewith untill they make no reckoning at all of them even so by approching neere by touching and perusing the said calamities with our understanding and discourse of reason wee are to consider and discover the false apparence the vanitie and feigned tragaedie that they pretend like to which is that present accident which now is befallen unto you to wit the banishment out of that place which according to the vulgar errour of men you suppose to be your native countrie For to say a truth there is no such distinct native soile that nature hath ordeined no more than either house land smiths forge or chirurgians shop is by nature as Ariston was wont to say but every one of these and such like according as any man doth occupie or use them are his or to speake more properly are named and called his for man according to the saying of Plato is not an earthly plant having the roote fixed fast within the ground and unmooveable but celestiall and turning upward to heaven whose body from the head as from a roote that doth strengthen the same abideth streight and upright And heereupon it is that Hercules in a certeine tragaedie said thus What tell you me of Argive or Thebain I do not vaunt of any place certain No burroughtowne nor city coms amis Through out all Greece but it my countrie is And yet Socrates said better than so who gave it out That he was neither Athenian nor Grecian but a citizen of the world as if a man should say for example sake that he were either a Rhodian or a Corinthian for he would not exclude himselfe within the precincts and limits of the promontories Sunium or Taenarus nor yet the Ceraunian mountaines But seest thou this starrie firmament So high above and infinitely vast In bosome moist of water element The earth beneath how it encloseth fast These are the bounds of a native countrie within the pourprise and compasse whereof whosoever is ought not to thinke himselfe either banished pilgrime stranger or forrener namely whereas he shall meete with the same fire the same water the same aire the same magistrates the same governors and presidents to wit the sunne the moone and the morning starre the same lawes throughout under one and the selfe-same order and conduct the solstice and tropicke of summer in the north the solstice and tropicke of winter in the south the aequinoxes both of spring and fall the starres Pleiades and Arcturus the seasons of seednesse the times of planting one King and the same prince of all even God who hath in his hand the beginning the mids and the end of the whole and universall world who by his influence goeth according to nature directly through and round about all things attended upon with righteousnesse and justice to take vengeance and punishment of those who transgresse any point of divine law which all we likewise that are men doe exercise and use by the guidance and direction of nature against all others as our citizens and subjects Now say that thou doest not dwel and live in Sardeis what matter is that surely it is just nothing No more doe all the Athenians inhabite in the burroughs or tribe Colyttus nor the Corinthians in the street Cranium ne yet the Lacedaemonians in the vilage Pytane are those Athenians then to be counted strangers and not inhabitants of the citie who have remooved out of Melite into Diomea considering that even there they doe solemnize yet the moneth
otherwise yet to the framing and composition of so great an empire and puissance it is very like they had made truce and were at accord that by one joint-consent also they wrought both together and finished the goodliest piece of work that ever was in the world Neither think I that I am deceived in this conjecture of mine but am perswaded that like as according to the saying of Plato the whole world was not made at first of fire and earth as the two principall and necessarie elements to the end that it might be visible and palpable considering that as the earth gave massinesse poise and firmitude so fire conferred thereunto colour forme and motion Besides the other two natures and elements which are betweene these two extremes to wit aire and water by softning melting tempering and quenching as it were the great dissociation and dissimilitude of the said extremes have drawen together incorporate and united by the meanes of them the first matter even so time and God together intending such a stately piece of worke as Rome tooke Vertue and Fortune and those they tempered and coupled in one as yoke-fellowes to the end that of the thing which is proper both to the one and the other they might found build and reare a sacred temple indeed an edifice beneficiall and profitable unto all a strong castle seated upon a firme ground-worke and an eternall element which might serve in stead of a maine pillar to susteine the decaying state of the world readie to reele and sinke downward and finally as a sure ankerhold against turbulent tempests and wandering waves of the surging seas as Democritus was woont to say For like as some of the naturall philosophers hold That the world at the first was not the world and that the bodies would not joine and mingle themselves together for to give unto nature a common forme composed of them all but when the said bodies such as yet were small and scattered heere and there slid away made meanes to escape and flie for feare they should be caught and interlaced with others such also as were more strong firme and compact even then strove mainly one against another and kept a foule coile and stirre together in such manner as there arose a violent tempest a dangerous ghust and troublesome agitation filling all with ruine error and shipwracke untill such time as the earth arose to greatnesse by the tumultuarie concourse of those bodies that grew together whereby she herselfe began first to gather a firme consistence and afterwards yeelded in her-selfe and all about her a 〈◊〉 seat and resting place for all other Semblably when the greatest empires and potentacies among men were driven and caried to and fro according to their fortunes and ranne one against another by reason that there was not one of that grandence and puissance as might command all the rest and yet they all desired that sovereignty there was a woonderfull confusion a generall destruction a strange hurliburly a tumultuary wandering and an universall mutation and change throughout the world untill such time as Rome grew to some strength and bignesse partly by laying and uniting to her-selfe the neighbour nations and cities neere about her and in part by conquering the seignories realmes and dominions of princes sarre of and strangers be yond sea by which meanes the greatest and principall things in the world began to rest and be setled as it were a firme foundation and sure seat by reason that a generall peace was brought into the world and the maine empire thereof reduced to one round circle so firme as it could not be checked or impeached for that indeed all vertues were seated in those who were the founders and builders of this mightie State and besides Fortune also was ready with her favour to second and accompany them as it shall more plainly appeere and be shewed in this discourse ensuing And now me thinks I see from this project as it were from some high rocke and watch tower Vertue and Fortune marching toward the pleading of their cause and to the judgment and decision of the foresaid question propounded but vertue in her part and maner of going seemeth to be milde gentle in the carriage also of her eie staied and composed the earnest care likewise and desire she hath to mainteine and defend her honor in this contention maketh her colour a little to rise in her face albeit she be farre behinde Fortune who commeth apace and maketh all the haste she can now there conduct her and attend upon her round about in manner of a guard a goodly traine and troupe Of worthies brave who martiall captaines were In bloudy warres and bloudy armours beare All wounded in the fore-part of their bodies dropping with bloud and swet mingled together leaning upon the truncheons of the launces pikes halfe broken which they hud won from their enemies But would you have us to demand and aske who they might be They say that they be the Fabricii the Camilli the Lucii surnamed Cincinnati the Fabii Maximi the Claudii Marcelli and the two Scipioes I see also C. Marius all angry and chasing at Fortune Mucius Scaevola likewise is amongst them who sheweth the stump of his burnt hand crying aloud withall And will you ascribe this hand also to Fortune And Marcus Horatius Cocles that valliant knight who fought so bravely upon the bridge covered all over with the shot of Tuskan darts and shewing his lame thigh seemeth to speake from out of the deep whirle-pit of the river into which he leapt these words And was it by chance Fortuue that my legge became broken I lame upon it Loe what a company came with vertue to the triall of this controversie and matter in question All warriours stout in complet armour dight Expert in feates of armes and prest to fight But on the other side the gate and going of Fortune seemes quicke and fast her spirit great and courage proud her hopes high and haughtie she over-goeth vertue and approcheth nere at hand already not mounting and lifting up her selfe now with her light and flight wings nor standing a tiptoe upon a round ball or boule commeth she wavering and doubtfull and then goeth her way afterwards in discontentment and displeasure but like as the Spartiates describe Venus saying That after she had passed the river Eurotas she layd by her mirrors and looking glasses cast aside her daintie jewels and other wanton ornaments and threw away that tissue and lovely girdle of hers and taking speare and shield in hand sheweth her selfe thus prepared and set out unto Lycurgus euen so Fortune having abandoned the Persians and Assyrians flew quicklie over Macedonia and soone shooke off Alexander the great then travailed she a while through Aegipt and Siria carying after her kingdomes as she went and so having ruined and ouerthrowen the Carthaginians state which with much variety and change she had oftentimes upheld she approched in the end
transitorie besides and soone at an end like unto the odor of a perfume and sweet ointment or the smell of rost in a kitchin a day after whereas discourses philosophicall and disputations of learning when they be remembred afterwards yeeld alwaies new pleasure and fresh delight unto those that were at them yea and cause them who were absent and left out in hearing the relation thereof to have no lesse part of learning and erudition than they who were present for thus we see that even at this day students and prosessours of learning have the fruition and enjoy the benefit of Socrates his banquets no lesse than they themselves who were personally present and had their reall part of them at the time and verily if corporall matter as dainty dishes and exquisit fare had so greatly affected and delighted their minds with pleasure Plato and Xenophon should have put downe in writing and left unto us the memoriall not of the discourses there held nor of the talke which then passed but rather of the furniture of the table have made a note of the delicate viands pastrie works comfitures and junkets served up in Callias or Agathus houses whereas now of all such matters there is no mention at all as if they were of no account nor worth the naming notwithstanding very like it is there was no want of provision no spare of cost nor defect of diligence in that behalfe but on the otherside penned they have most exactly and with great diligence the discourses of good letters and philosophy which then and there passed merrily and those they have commended unto posterities to give us example that we ought not onely to devise and reason together when we are at the boord but also to call to minde afterwards what good talke had passed and to keepe the same in memorie THE FIRST QUESTION What is the reason that those who be fasting are more thirsty than hungry NOw send I unto you Sossius Senecio this sixth booke of banquet discourses whereof the first question is Why those who be long fasting are more thirstie than hungry for it may seeme contrary unto all reason that thirst rather than hunger should ensue much fasting for that the want of dry food would seeme by course of nature to require a supplie of nutriment by the like Then began I in this manner to argue before the companie there in place That of all things within us and whereof we consist our naturall heat either alone or principally had need of nouriture and maintenance for thus verily wee doe observe in outward elements that neither aire water nor earth desire nutriment neither doe they consume whatsoever is neere unto them but it is fire onely that requireth the one and doth the other which is the reason that all yoong folke doe eat more than elder persons for that they be hotter yea and old men and women can endure to fast better because their naturall heat is already decaied and feeble in them like as it is in those living creatures which have but little bloud for small need have they of nouriture for default of naturall heat Moreover thus much we may observe in everie one of our selves that our bodily exercises our loud outcries and such like matters as by motion doe augment heat make us to take more pleasure in our meat and to have a better appetite to eat now the principall most familiar and naturall food of heat in mine opinion is moisture as we may see by daily experience that burning flames of fire increase by powring oile thereto of all things in the world ashes are the driest because the whole humiditie is burnt up and consumed but the terrestriall substance destitute of all liquor remaineth alone semblably the natures of fire is to separate and divide bodies by taking away the moisture which held them sodered and bound together when as therefore wee fast long our naturall heat draweth forcibly unto it first all the humours out of the reliques of our nourishment which done the inslammation thereof passeth farther and setteth upon the very radical humour within our flesh searching every corner for moisture to feed and nourish it there being caused therefore a woonderfull drinesse our bodie like as in earth or clay that is parched with heat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by consequence commeth to stand more in need of drinke than of meat untill such time as we have taken a good draught by meanes whereof our heat being well refreshed and 〈◊〉 worketh and procureth appetite to solide and dry nourishment THE SECOND QUESTION Whether it be want of food that causeth hunger and thirst or rather the transformation and change of the conduits and passages within our bodies THis discourse being thus ended Philo the physician went about to impugne and overthrow the first position mainteining that thirst proceeded not from default of any nourishment but was to be imputed unto the change of the forme in certaine passages of the body and for demonstration heereof hee alledged of the one side this experience That they who be a thirst in the night if they sleepe upon it lose their thirstinesse although they drinke never a drop on the other side that they who have the ague if their fit decline or be off them or in case the feaver be cleane past and gone presently they are eased of their drought likewise there be many who after they have beene bathed yea and beleeve me others when they have vomited are ridde of thirstinesse and yet they get moisture neither by the one nor the other but they are the pores and petie conduits of the body that suffer mutation because they be altered and transformed into another state and disposition and this appeereth more evidently in hunger for many sicke folke there be who at one time have need of nourishment and yet want appetite to their meat some there are againe who let them eat and fill themselves never so much have never the lesse appetite to meat nay their greedie hunger encreaseth the more semblablie you shall have many of those who lothed their meat to recover their stomacke and appetite quickly by tasting a few olives or capres condite with salt pickle whereby it appeareth plainly that hunger is not occasioned by default of nourishment but through the said alteration or passion of the pores and conduits of the body for surely such meats as those although they diminish the want of nourishment by addition of more food yet neverthelesse cause hunger and even so the poinant acrimonie of these salt viands contenting the taste and pleasant to the mouth by knitting binding and strengthening the stomacke or contrariwise by relaxing or opening the same do procure unto it and breed therein a certeine gnawing and a disposition to the liking of their meat which we call appetite The reason of these arguments seemed unto me very wittily devised and framed pretily for to carrie a good shew of probabilitie howbeit to be contrary unto the
difference betweene a Principle and an Element but Thales Milesius thinketh they be both one howbeit there is a great difference betweene the one and the other for elements be compounded whereas we holde that the first Principles neither be compounded nor are any complet substance and verily earth water aire and fire we tearme Elements but Principles we call other Natures in this respect that there is nothing precedent or before them wherof they are ingendred for otherwise if they were not the first they should in no wise be Principles but that rather were to be so called wherof they be ingendred Now certeine things there are precedent whereof earth and water c. be composed to wit the first matter without all forme and shape as also the first forme it selfe which we call Entelechia and thirdly Privation Thales therefore is in an error when he saith that water was both the Element and Principle or first beginning of all things CHAP. III. Of principles or first beginnings what they be THALES the Milesian affirmed that Water was the first principle of the whole world and this man seemeth to have beene the first author of philosophie and of him tooke the Ionique fect of Philosophers their name for many families there were successively of Philosophers who having studied Philosophie in Aegypt went to Miletum when hee was farre stept in yeeres where he mainteined this position That all things were made of Water so all things were to be resolved againe into Water The reasons of this conjecture of his were these first because naturall seed is the principle and beginning of all living creatures and that is of a moist substance therefore probable it is that all other things likewise have humiditie for their principle secondly for that all sorts of plants be nourished by moisture which if they want they wither and fade away thirdly considering that the fire or the sunne it selfe and the starres is nourished and mainteined by vapours proceeding from the waters the whole world also by consequence consisteth of the same which is the reason that Homer supposing all things to be engendred of water saith thus The ocean sea from whence 〈◊〉 thing 〈◊〉 is and hath beginning But ANAXIMANDER the Milesian holdeth that Infinitie is the principle of al for every thing proceedeth from it resolveth into it againe therefore there be engendred infinit worlds and those vanish againe into that whereof they bee engendred and why is there this Infinitie Because quoth he there should never faile any generation but still have 〈◊〉 howbeit even he also erreth heerein for that he declareth not what is this Infinitie whereof he speaketh whether it be aire water or any other body he faileth likewise in this that he putteth downe a subject matter but overthroweth the efficient cause for this Infinity whereof he talketh is nothing else but matter and matter cannot atteine to perfection nor come into act unlesse there be some mooving and efficient cause ANAXIMENES the Milesian mainteineth that aire is the principle of the world for that all things come of it and returne unto it Like as quoth he our soule which is aire keepeth us alive even so spirit and aire mainteine the Being of the whole world for spirit and aire be two words signifying both one thing But this Philosopher is out of the way as well as the rest in that hee thinketh that living creatures be composed of a simple spirit or uniforme aire and impossible it is that there should be but one principle of all things to wit matter but there ought withall to be supposed an efficient cause for it is not enough to be provided of silver or gold for to make a vessell or piece of plate if there come not unto it the efficient cause to wit the gold-smith semblably we are to say of brasse wood and all other sorts of matter ANAXAGORAS the Clazomenian is perswaded and so teacheth That the principles of the world and all that therein is are small like parcels which hee tearmeth Homaeomeries for hee thought it altogether absurd and impossible that any thing should bee made of that which is not or bee dissolved into that which hath no being for howsoever we take our nourishment simple and uniforme as for example eat bread of corne and drinke water yet with this nutriment are nourished haires veines arteries sinewes bones and other parts of the bodie which being so Confesse wee must quoth hee likewise that in this food which wee receive are all things which have their Being and that all things doe grow and encrease of that which hath Being so that in this nourishment be those parcels which breed bloud sinewes bones and other parts of our body which may bee comprehended by discourse of reason for we are not to reduce all unto the outward sense to shew and proove that bread and water effect these things but it may suffice that in them these parts are conceived by reason Inasmuch therefore as in nourishment there be parcels semblable unto that which they breed in that regard he called them Homaeomeries affirming them to be the principles of all things and even so he would have these semblable parcels to be the matter of all things and for efficient cause he setteth downe a Minde or understanding that ordereth and disposeth al. And thus beginneth he to goe to worke and reasoneth in this wise All things at first were consumed and hudled together pell mell but that Minde or understanding doth sever dispose and set them in order in this one thing yet he hath done wel and is to be commended that unto the matter he hath adjoined a workman ARCHELAUS an Athenian the sonne of Apollodorus affirmeth that the principle of all things was the infinit aire together with the condensation and rarefaction thereof of which the one is fire and the other water and these Philosophers following by continuall succession one upon another after Thales made that sect which is called 〈◊〉 But from another head PYTHAGORAS the sonne of Mnesarchus a Samian borne the first author of the name of Philosophie held that the principle of all things were Numbers and their symmetries that is to say the proportions that they have in their correspondency one unto another which hee calleth otherwise Harmonies those elements that be composed of them both are tearmed by him 〈◊〉 furthermore hee reckoneth among Principles Unitie and Twaine indefioit of which the one tendeth and hasteneth to an efficient and specificall cause to wit a Minde and the same is God the other unto a passive and materiall cause namely the visible world Moreover he thought that the Denarie or Ten was the absolute nature and perfection of numbers for that all men as well Greeks as Barbarians count untill ten and when they be thither come they returne backe againe unto unitie over and besides hee said That all the power of ten consisted within fower and in a quaternarie the reason is this
that if a man begin at one and reckon on still numbring upright unto foure hee shall make up ten surpasse he once the quaternarie he is gone beyond the denarie as for example one and two make three three thereto arise to sixe put thereto foure and you have ten insomuch as number collected by unities resteth in ten but the force and puissance thereof 〈◊〉 in foure The Pythagoreans therefore were wont to sweare by the quaternarie or number of foure which they held to be the 〈◊〉 oath that they could take as appeereth by this Distichon I sweare by this quaternity That 〈◊〉 our soules fountaine Which of natures eternity Doth seed and root containe And our soule as he saith doth consist of the quaternary number for there is in it understanding science opinion and sence from whence proceedeth all manner of art and knowledge and whereupon we our selves are called reasonable as for understanding it is that unity for that it conceiveth and knoweth not but by unitie as for example There being many men they are not every one in particular subject to our senses but incomprehensible and infinit mary in our understanding we conceive and apprehend this one man alone unto whom none is like and so in our cogitation we consider one man onely but if they bee considered particularly apart they are infinit for all these genders and kindes are in unitie and therefore when the question is asked of a particular man what he is we yeeld a generall definition and say He is a reasonable creature apt to discourse by reason and so likewise of this or that horse wee must answer That hee is a living creature having a propertie to neigh. Thus you see how understanding is unity whereby we understand these things but the binary or number of two is by good right an indefinit science for all demonstration and proofe of any science yea and moreover all manner of syllogisme or argumentation doth collect a conclusion which was doubtfull of certeine premised propositions confessed as true whereby it sheweth easily another thing whereof the comprehension is science and so it appeereth that science by a likelihood is the binarie number but opinion by good reason may be said the ternary number by comprehension for that opinion is of many and the ternarie number implieth a pluralitie or multitude as we may see by the poet when he saith Thrice happy men Those Greeks were then And for this cause Pythagoras made no reckoning of three whose sect bare the name of Italique for that he not able to endure the tyrannicall dominion of Polycrates departed from Samos his native country and went to keepe his schoole in Italy HERACLYTUS and HIPPASUS the Metapontine were of opinion that Fire was the principle and beginning of all for of fire say they all things are made and in fire they shal have an end and when it is extrinct and quenched the universall world is in this manner engendred and framed for first and formost the grosest part thereof being condensate and thrust together into it selfe becommeth earth and afterwards when the same earth is resolved by fire it turneth to be water which when it doth evaporate is converted into aire againe the whole world and all the bodies therein conteined shall be one day consumed by fire in that generall conflagration and burning of all whereby hee concludeth that fire is the beginning of all things as that whereof all was made and the end likewise for that all things are resolved into it EPICURUS the Athenian sonne of Neocles following the philosophie of Democritus saith That the principles of all things be certeine Atomes that is to say little bodies indivisible and by reason onely perceptible the same solide and admitting no vacuitie not engendred immortall eternall incorruptible such as neither can be broken nor receive any forme of the parts ne yet be otherwise altered These quoth he being perceptible comprehended by reason moove notwithstanding in emptinesse and by emptinesse as the same voidnesse is infinite so the said bodies also be in number infinit howbeit these three qualities are incident unto them figure bignesse and waight for DIMOCRITUS allowed them but twaine to wit bignesse and figure but Epicurus added unto them a third namely poise or ponderositie For these bodies quoth he must of necessitie moove by the permission of the weight otherwise they could not possibly stirre the figures also of their bodies hee said were comprehensible and not infinit and these were neither hooked nor three-forked ne yet round in manner of a ring for such formes are apt to breake as for the Atomes themselves they be impassible and infrangible having certeine figures no otherwise perceptible but by reason and such a body is called Atomus not in this regard that it is the least of all but for that it cannot be divided as being impassible and admitting no vacuitie and therefore he that nameth an Atome saith as much as infrangible impassible and without vacuitie now that there is such an indivisible body called Atomus it is apparent for that there be elements eternall bodies void and an unitie EMPEDOCLES an Agrigentine the sonne of Meton saith There be foure elements fire aire water and earth also two principall faculties or powers namely 〈◊〉 and discord or amitie and enmitie of which the one hath puissance to unite the other to dissolve and these be his words Foure seeds and rootes of all things that you see Now listen first and hearken what they be Lord Jupiter with hisignipotence And lady Junoes vit all influence Rich Pluto and dame Nestis weeping ay Who with her teares our seed-sourse weets alway By Jupiter hee meaneth fierie heat and ardent skie by Juno giving life the aire by Pluto the earth by Nestis and this humane fountaine of naturall seed water SOCRATES the sonne of Sophroniscus and PLATO the sonne of Ariston both Athenians for the opinions of them both concerning the world and all things therein be the same have set downe three principles God Matter and Idea that is to say Forme God is an universall spirit or Minde Matter is the first and principall subject of generation and corruption Idea an incorporall substance resting in the thoughts and cogitations of God which God is the generall soule and intelligence of the world ARISTOTELES of Stagira the sonne of Nichomachus hath put downe for Principles these three to wit a certaine forme called Eutelectus Matter and Privation for elements foure and for a fifth Quintessence the heavenly bodie which is immutable ZENO the sonne of Mnaseas a Citican borne holdeth for two principles God and Mtater whereof the one is an active and efficient cause and the other passive and besides foure elements CHAP. IIII. How the the world was framed THis world then became composed formed in a round figure bending and coping after this manner those Atomes or indivisible bodies having an accidentarie and inconsiderate motion stirring continually and
or that which occupieth a place PLATO saith that a Body is neither heavie nor light of it selfe naturally so long as it abideth in the owne proper place but being once in a strange place it hath first an inclination and upon it a motion and impulsion either to weight or lightnesse ARISTOTLE is of opinion that earth simply is most ponderous and fire lightest that aire and water be of a middle or doubtfull nature betweene both sometime heavie and otherwhiles light The STOICKS hold that of the foure elements two be light namely Fire and Aire other two be heavie to wit Water and Earth for light is that which of the owne nature and not by any compulsion or instigation removeth from the proper middle where it is heavy also is that which naturally tendeth to the said middle but the middle it selfe is in no wise heavie EPICURUS saith that Bodies are not comprehensible that the first Bodies be simple but all the compositions of them have their weight and ponderositie also that the ATOMES doe move some plumbe right downe others at one side and some againe mount aloft and that by impulsion and concussion CHAP. XIII Of the smallest Bodies EMPHDOCLES is of opinion that before the foure elements there were certeine small parcels or fragments as one would say elements before elements and those were of semblable parts and the same all round HERACLITUS cometh in with I know not what petie scrapings or shavings exceeding small and the same not divisible into parts CHAP. XIIII Of Figures A Figure is the superficies circumscription and accomplished lineament of a bodie The PYTHAGOREANS affirme that the bodies of the foure elements be of a sphaericke or round figure onely the highest of them to wit fire is pyramidall or sharpe pointed above CHAP. XV. Of Colours A Colour is the visible qualitie of a bodie The PYTHAGOREANS called Colour the outward superficies of the bodie EMPEDOCLES defined it to be that which is fit and agreeable to the waies and passages of the sight PLATO saith it is a flame sent from bodies having certeine parcels proportionable to the eie-sight ZENO the Stoicke holdeth that Colours be the first figurations of any matter The followers of PYTHAGORAS affirme these to be the kinds of Colours White Blacke Red and Yellow and that the diversity of Colours ariseth from a certeine mixture of elements but in living creatures the same proceedeth from the varietie of their places and sundry aires CHAP. XVI Concerning the Section of Bodies THe sectaries of THALES and PYTHAGORAS are of opinion that bodies bee passible and divisible infinitely DEMOCRITUS and EPICURUS hold that this section staieth either at the Atomes indivisible or at those small bodies which have no parts neither doth this division say they passe infinitely ARISTOTLE saith that divided they be in infinitum potentially but actually not CHAP. XVII Of Mixture and Temperature THe auncient philosophers affirme that this mixture of Elements is by way of alteration but ANAXAGORAS and DEMOCRITUS say it is done by apposition EMPEDOCLES composeth the Elements of smaller masses which he supposeth to be the least bodies and as a man would say the Elements of Elements PLATO would have the three bodies for hee deigneth not them either to bee called or to be Elements to be convertible one into the other to wit water aire and fire but as for the earth it cannot be turned into any one of them CHAP. XVIII Of Voidnesse or Vacuttie THe naturall philosophers of THALES his schoole all untill you come to Plato have generally disavowed and reprooved this Vacuitie As for Empedocles thus he writeth In all the world so spacious Nought is void or superfluous LEUCIPPUS DEMOCRITUS DEMETRIUS METRODORUS and EPICURUS hold that the Atomes be infinit in multitude and Voidnesse infinit in magnitude The STOICKS affirme that within the world there is no Voidnesse but without there is infinitie ARISTOTLE is of opinion that without the world there is no such Voidnesse as that the heaven by the meanes thereof may draw breath for that it is of the nature of fire CHAP. XIX Of Place PLATO saith that Place is that which is susceptible of formes one after another which is by way of Metaphor or translation to expresse the first matter as a nurse receiving and embracing all ARISTOTLE taketh Place to be the extreame superficies of the continent conjunct and contiguous to the content CHAP. XX. Of Roome or Space THe STOICKS and EPICURUS doe holde that there is a difference betweene Voidnesse Place and Roome for Voidnesse say they is the solitude or vacuitie of a body Place that which is fully occupied and taken up with a body but Roome or Space that which is occupied but in part as we may see in a rundlet or barrell of wine CHAP. XXI Of Time PYTHAGORAS saith that Time is the sphaere of that utmost heaven that compriseth all PLATO thinketh it to be the mooveable image of the eternitie or the intervall of the worlds motion but ERATOSTHENES affirmeth it to be the course of the sunne CHAP. XXII Of the Essence of Time PLATO saith that the Essence of Time is the mooving of heaven but many of the STOICKS hold it to be the mooving it selfe and most of them affirme that Time had no beginning of generation PLATO is of opinion that engendred it is according to our conceit and capacitie CHAP. XXIII Of Motion PYTHAGORAS and PLATO affirme that Motion is a certeine difference and alteration in matter ARISTOTLE giveth out that it is the actuall operation of that which is mooveable DEMOCRITUS saith that there is but one kinde of Motion to wit that which tendeth obliquely EPICURUS maintaineth twaine the one direct and plumbe the other side-long EROPHILUS is of opinion that there is one Motion perceptible in reason and another object to sense naturall HERACLITUS excluded all station rest and repose out of the world For this quoth hee belongeth unto the dead but perpetuall Motion agreeth to eternall substances and perishable Motion to substances corruptible CHAP. XXIIII Of Generation and Corruption PARMENIDES MELISSUS and ZENO rejected wholy all Generation and Corrpution for they thought the universall world to be unmooveable but EMPEDOCLES and EPICURUS and all those who held the world to be made of a masse and heape of small bodies hudled together bring in and admit certeine concretions and dissipations but in no wise Generations and Corruptions to speake properly saying that these come not according to qualitie by way of alteration but according to quantity by collection and heaping together PYTHAGORAS and as many as suppose matter to bee passible hold that there is properly indeed Generation and Corruption for they say that this is done by the alteration mutation and resolution of the elements CHAP. XXV Of Necessitie THALES saith that Necessitie is most potent and forcible for it is that which ruleth the whole world PYTHAGORAS held that the world was possessed and comapssed with Necessitie PARMENIDES
likewise corruptible and wil perish but so it is that it hath no need of nouriture and so by consequence it is eternall PLATO is of opinion that the world yeeldeth unto it selfe nouriture of that which perisheth by way of mutation PHILOLAUS affirmeth that there is a two-folde corruption one while by fire falling from heaven and another while by water of the moone powred 〈◊〉 by the 〈◊〉 and turning about of the aire the exhalations whereof become the food of the world CHAP. VI. At which element began God the fabricke of the world THe Naturalists doe holde that the creation of the world began at earth as the very center thereof for that the beginning of a sphaere or ball is the center PYTHAGORAS saith that it began at fire and the fifth element EMPEDOCLES saith that the first thing separate apart was the skie or fifth essence called Aether the second Fire after which the Earth of which being thrust close and pressed together by the violence of revolution sprang Water from which Aire did evaporate also that heaven was made of that Skie or Quintessence the sunne of Fire and of the other elements were constipate and felted as it were terrestriall bodies and such as be neere the earth PLATO is of opinion that this visible world was formed to the molde and pattern of the intellectuall that of the visible world the soule was first made and after it that which is corpulent that of the fire and earth first that which standeth of water and aire second PYTHAGORAS affirmed that of the five solid bodies which are also called Mathematicall the Cube that is to say asquare bodie with sixe faces went to the making of the earth of the pointed Pyramis was made fire of Octoedra or solide bodie with eight bases the earth of Icosiedra with twentie sides the water of Dodecaedra with twelve faces the supreame sphaere of the universall world and himselfe herein also doth Pythagorize CHAP. VII Of the order of the worlds fabricke PARMENIDES imagineth certeine coronets as it were enterlaced one within another some of a rare substance others of a thicke and the same mixed of light and darknesse betweene also that the bodie which conteined them all together was as firme and solid as a wall LEUCIPPUS and DEMOCRIRUS enwrapped the world round about with a tunicle or membrane EPICURUS held that the extremitie of some worlds were rare of others thicke and that of them some were moveable others immoveable PLATO setteth downe Fire first secondly the Skie then Aire afterwards Water and last of all Earth but otherwhiles he conjoineth the Skie unto Fire ARISTOTLE rangeth in the first place the impassible Aire which is a certeine fifth bodie and after it the Elements passible to wit Fire Aire Water and Earth the last of all which unto the celestial bodies he attributeth a circular motion and of the others situate beneath them unto the lighter kinde the ascent or rising upward unto the weightier descent or setling downward EMPEDOCLES is of opinion that the places of the elements are not alwaies steadie and certeine but that they all interchange mutually one with another CHAP. VIII What is the cause that the world bendeth or copeth forward DIOGENES and ANAXAGORAS affirme that after the world was made and that living creatures were produced out of the earth the world bowed I wot not how of it selfe and of the owne accord to the Southerne or Meridionall part thereof haply by the divine providence so ordering all that some parts of the world should be habitable others inhabitable according to excessive colde extreame heat and a meane temperature of both EMPEDOCLES saith that by reason that the aire gave place to the violence of the Sunne the two Beares or Poles bended and inclined as for those parts which were northerly they were elevated and mounted aloft but the southerne coasts were depressed and debased as much and so accordingly the whole world CHAP. IX Whether without the world there be any vacuitie THe schoole of Pythagoras holden that there is a voidnesse without the world to which and out of which the world doth draw breath but the STOICKS affirme that into it the infinite world by way of conflagration is resolved POSIDONIUS admitteth no other infinitie than as much as is sufficient for the dissolution thereof In the first booke of vacuitie ARISTOTLE saith there is voidnesse PLATO affirmeth that there is no emptinesse at all either without or within the world CHAP. X. What be the right sides and which be the left in regard of the world PYTHAGORAS PLATO and ARISTOTLE do take the East for the right part and the West for the left EMPEDOCLES saith that the right side bendeth toward the summers Tropick and the left toward the Tropick of winter CHAP. XI Of Heaven and what is the substance thereof ANAXIMENES affirmeth the exterior circumference of Heaven to be earthy EMPEDOCLES saith that Heaven is solid being made of aire condensate by fire after the manner of chrystall and that it conteineth the fierie and airie nature in the one and the other hemisphaere ARISTOTLE holdeth that Heaven is composed of the fifth body above fire or else of the mixture of heat and cold CHAP. XII Of the division of Heaven and namely into how many Circles it is divided THALES and PYTHAGORAS with his followers doe say that the sphaere of the whole Heaven is parted into five circles which they call certeine Zones cinctures or girdles of which circles one is called the Arctick and is alwaies to bee seene of us a second the summer Tropick a third Aequinoctiall the fourth winter Tropick and the fifth the Antartick circle which is evermore unseene as atouching the oblique or crooked circle called the Zodiacke which lieth under the other three middle circles above named it toucheth them all three as it passeth and every of them are cut in right angles by the Meridian which goeth from pole to pole PYTHAGORAS was the first men say that observed the obliquity of the Zodiack which invention neverthelesse Oenopides the Chian ascribeth to himselfe as if he were the authour of it CHAP. XIII What is the substance of the Starres and how they were made and composed THALES affirmeth them to be terrestriall and nathlesse fierie and ardent EMPEDOCLES holdeth them to be enflamed by that fire which the skie conteining within it selfe did violently strike and send foorth at the first excretion ANAXAGORAS saith that the sky which environeth is indeed of the owne essence of a fiery nature but by the violent revolution of it selfe snatcheth up stones from the earth and setting them on 〈◊〉 they become Starres DIOGENES thinketh that Starres be of the substance of a pumish stone as be being the breathing holes of the world and againe the same philosopher saith that they bee certeine blinde-stones not apparent howbeit falling often to the earth are there quenched as it hapneth in a place called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to
industrie hath devised and found out as an appendant and accessarie Neither can it be said what time of the world it was when as man had no water nor ever read we in any records that one of the gods or demi-gods was the inventer therof for it was at the very instant with them nay what and we say that it gave them their being But the use of fire was but yesterday or the other day to speake of found out by Prometheus so that the time was when as men lived without fire but void of water our life never was Now that this is no devised poeticall fiction this daily and present life of ours doth plainly testifie for there be at this day in the world divers nations that are mainteined without fire without house without hearth or chimney 〈◊〉 abroad in the open wide aire And Diogenes the Cynicke seldome or never had any use of fire insomuch as having upon a time swallowed downe a polype fish raw Loe quoth he my masters how for your sake we put our selves in jeopardie howbeit without water there was never any man thought that either we might live honestly and civilly or that our nature would possibly endure it But what need is there that I should particularize thus and go so neere as to search farre into the nature of man considering that whereas there be so many or rather so infinit kinds of living creatures mankinde onely in a maner knoweth the use of fire whereas all the rest have their nourishment and food without the benefit of fire Those that brouse feed flie and creepe get their living by eating herbes roots fruits and flesh all without fire but without water there is not one that can live neither going or creeping on the land nor swimming in the sea not yet flying in the aire True it is I must needs say that Aristotle writeth how some beasts there be even of those that devoure flesh which never drunke but in very trueth nourished they be by some moisture Well then that is more profitable without which no maner of life can consist or endure Proceed we farther passe from those living creatures which use to feed upon plants fruits even unto the same that are by us them used for food Some of them there be which have no heat at all others so little as it can not be perceived Contrariwise moisture is that which causeth all kind of seeds to chit to bud to grow and in the end to bring forth fruit for what need I to alledge for this purpose either wine and oile or other liquors which we draw presse out or milke forth out of beasts paps which we do see dayly before our eies considering that even our wheat which seemeth to be a drie nutriment is engendred by the transmutation putrefaction and diffusion of moisture Furthermore that is to be held more profitable which bringeth with it no hurt nor dammage but we all know that fire if it breake forth get head and be at libertie is the most pernicious thing in the world wheras the nature of water of it selfe doth never any harme Againe of two things that is held to be more commodious which is the simpler and without preparation can yeeld the profit which it hath but fire requireth alwaies some succour and matter which is the reason that the rich have more of it than the poore and princes than private persons whereas water is so kind and courteous that it giveth it selfe indifferently to all sorts of people it hath no need at all of tooles or instruments to prepare it for use compleat and perfect it is in it selfe without borowing ought abroad of others Over and besides that which being multiplied as it were and augmented loseth the utilitie and profit that it had is by consequence lesse profitable and such is fire resembling herein a ravenous wild beast which devoureth and consumeth all that it commeth neere in so much as it were by the industrie and artificiall meanes of him who knoweth how to use it with moderation rather than of the owne nature that it doth any good at all whereas water is never to be feared Againe of two things that which can do good being both alone and also in the company of the other is the more profitable of the twaine but so it is that fire willingly admitteth not the fellowship of water nor by the participation thereof is any way commodious whereas water is together with fire profitable as we may see by the fountaines of hot water how they be medicinable and verie sensibly is their helpe perceived Never shall a man meet with any fire moist but water as well hot as colde is ever more profitable to man Moreover water being one of the foure elements hath produced as one may say a fift to wit the sea and the same well neere as profitable as any one of the rest for many other causes besides but principally in regard of commerce and trafficke For whereas before time mans life was savage and they did not communicate one with another this element hath conjoined and made it perfect bringing societie and working amitie among men by mutuall succours and reciprocall retributions from one to the other Heraclitus saith in one place if there were no sunne there had beene no night and even as well may it be said Were it not for the sea man had beene the most savage creature the most penurious and needie yea and the least respected in all the world whereas now this element of the sea hath brought the vine out of the Indians as farre as Greece and from Greece hath transported it unto the farthest provinces likewise from out of Phaenicia the use of letters for preservation of the memorie of things it hath brought wine it hath conveighed fruits into these parts and hath beene the cause that the greatest portion of the world was not buried in ignorance How then can it bee otherwise that water should not be more profitable since it furnisheth us with another element But on the contrarie side peradventure a man may begin hereupon to make instance oppositely in this manner saying that God as a master-workeman having the foure elements before him for to frame the fabricke of this world withall which being repugnant and refusing one another earth and water were put beneath as the matter to be formed and fashioned receiving order and disposition yea and a vegetative power to engender and breed such as is imparted unto it by the other two aire and fire which are they that give forme and fashion unto them 〈◊〉 and excite the other twaine to generation which otherwise had lien dead without any motion But of these two fire is the chiefe and hath dominion which a man may evidently know by this induction For the earth if it be not enchafed by some hot substance is barren bringeth forth no fruit but when as fire spreadeth it selfe upon it it infuseth into it a
animate They say also that the Sun is become animate by reason of the moisture turned into an intellectuall and spirituall fire See how they imagin the Sun to be engendred and produced by refrigeration Xenophanes when one came upon a time and tolde him that he had seene Eeles to live in hot scalding water Why doe we not seethe them then quoth he in colde water If therefore they will cause heat by refrigeration and lightnesse by astriction and condensation it foloweth on the other side againe by good consequence that by keeping a certaine proportion and correspondensie in absurdity they make heat by colde thickning by dissolving and waighty things by rarefaction As for the very substance and generation of common conception and sense doe they not determine it even against common sense it selfe For conception is a certaine phantasie or apprehension and this apprehension is an impression in the soule The nature of the soule is an exhalation which by reason of the rarity thereof can hardly receive an impression and say that it did receive any yet impossible it were to keepe and retaine it For the nutriment and generation of it consisting of moist things holdeth a continuall course of succession and consumption The commerce also and mixture of respiration with the aire engendreth continually some new exhalation turning and changing by the flux of aire comming in and going forth reciprocally For a man may imagin rather that a river of runing water keepeth the formes figures images imprinted therein than a spirit caried in vapours humors to be mingled with another spirit or breath from without continually as if it were idle and strange unto it But so much forget they or misunderstand themselves that having defined cōmon conceptions to be certaine intelligences laid up apart memories to be firme permanent habituall impressions having fixed sciences likewise every way fast and sure yet within a while after they set under al this a foundation and base of a certaine slippery substance easie to be dissipated caried continually and ever going and comming to and fro Moreover this notion and conception of an element and principle all men have imprinted in their minde that it is pure simple not mingled nor compofed for that which is mixed cannot be an element nor a principle but rather that whereof it is mixed and composed Howbeit these men devising God the principle of all things to be a spirituall bodie and a minde or intelligence seated in matter make him neither pure nor simple nor uncompound but affirme that he is composed of another and by another As for matter being of it selfe without reason and void of all quality it carieth with it simplicity and the very naturall propertie of a principle and God if it be true that he is not without body and matter doth participate of matter as of a principle For if reason and matter be all one and the same they have not done well to define matter for to be reasonlesse but if they be things different then doth God consist of both twaine and not of a simple essence but compounded as having taken to his intellectuall substance a bodily nature out of matter Furthermore considering they call these fower primitive bodies to wit earth water aire and fire the first elements I can not see how they should make some of them simple and others mixed or compound for they hold that the earth and water cannot containe either themselves or any other and that it is the participation of spirit and fellowship of fire whereupon dependeth the preservation of their unity as for the aire and fire by their owne power they fortifie themselves which being medled with the other two give them their force vigor and firmitude of substance How is it then that either earth is an element or the water seeing neither of them both is simple first or sufficient to keepe and preserve it selfe but having need of another without to containe them alwaies in their being and to save them for they have not left so much as any thought that they be a substance But surely this reason of theirs as touching the earth that it consisteth of it selfe containeth much confusion and great uncertainty for if the earth be of it selfe how commeth it to passe that it hath need of the aire to binde and conteine it for so it is no more earth of it selfe nor water but the aire hath by thickning hardning matter made thereof the earth and contrariwise by dissolving and mollifying it hath created the water and therefore we may inferre thus much that neither of these is an element seeing that some other thing hath given them their essence and generation Over and besides they affirme that substance and matter are subject to qualities and so in maner doe yeeld their limit and definition and then on the other side they make the said qualities to be bodies wherein there is a great confusion for if qualities have a certeine proper substance whereby they are termed and be really bodies indeed they require no other substance for that they have one of their owne but if they have this onely under them which is common and which they call essence or matter certeine it is that they doe but participate of the bodie for bodies they are not For that which is in the nature of the subject and doeth receive must of necessitie differ from those things which it receiveth and whereof it is the subject But these men see by the halfe for they terme the matter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say without qualities but they will not name the qualities 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say void of matter And yet how is it possible to make a body without quality but wee must imagine a quality without a bodie for that reason which coupleth a body with all maner of qualities permitteth not the thought to comprehend any body without some qualitie Either therefore he that fighteth against a bodilesse qualitie seemeth to resist likewise a matter void of qualitie or if he separate the one from the other hee parteth and divideth them both asunder And as for that reason which some of them seeme to pretend as touching a substance which they name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not because it is void of all qualitie but because it is capable forsooth of every qualitie it is contrary to common notion and nothing so much For no man taketh or imagineth that to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say unqualified which is participant of al qualities and uncapable of none nor impassible that which is apt to receive and suffer every passion nor immoovable which is moovable every way And as for this doubt it is not solved that howsoever we alwaies understand matter with some quality yet we conceive withall that matter and qualitie be different one from the other AGAINST COLOTES THE EPICUREAN The Summarie WE have in many places before but
should so passe over the Stoicks opinion 〈◊〉 and without opposing any thing against it Why then reply somwhat upon this man quoth I who holdeth that the Moon is a whole mixtion of the aire and of some milde fire and then afterwards saith that like as in a calme there happeneth other whiles a little horror or winde that rumbleth and bloweth upon the sea even so the aire thereby becommeth blacke and thereupon is made a certaine resemblance and forme of a visage Courteously done of you Lucius quoth I thus to clad and cover with faire words and good termes so absurd and false an opinion But so did not our friend but spake the plaine troth and said that the Stoicks disfigured the Moones face making it blacke and blew and filling it with darke spots and clouds and withall invocating her by the name of Minerva and Diana and in the meane while making her a lumpe as it were of paste consisting of darke aire and a fire of charcole that cannot burne out nor yeeld light of it selfe but having a body hard to be judged and knowen ever smoaking and alwaies burning like to those lightnings which by the Poets are called lightlesse and smoakie But that a fire of coales such as they would have that of the Moone to be continueth not long nor can so much as subsist if it meere not with some solid matter which may holde it in and withall feed and nourish it I suppose that they know better who in meriment say that Vulcane is lame and doth halt than these Philosophers doe for that indeed fire cannot goe forward without wood or fewell no more than a lame criple without his staffe or crouches If then the Moone be fire how commeth it to have so much aire in it For this region aloft which mooveth round doth not consist of aire but of some other more noble substance which is able to subtilize and set on fire every thing beside But in case it be afterwards engendred in it how is it that it perishith not by being changed and transmuted by the fire into a celestiall substance but mainteineth it selfe and continueth together as it were cohabiting with the fire so long like unto a spike or naile set fast continually in the same parts and fitted thereto For being rare as it is and diffused meet it were that it should not so abide and continue but be dissipated and resolved and to grow compact and thicke it is impossible so long as it is mixed with fire having no earth nor water which are the two onely elements whereby the aire will gather to a consistence and thicknesse Moreover the swiftnesse and violence of motion is wont to enflame the aire that is within stones yea and in lead as cold as it is much more then that which is in fire being whirled about and turned with so great celeritie and impetiositie for in this regard they are offended with Empedocles for that he made the Moone congealed aire in maner of haile and included within a sphaere of fire and yet themselves say that the Moone being a sphaere or globe of fire doeth enclose and conteine the aire dispersed to and fro and that the same hath neither ruptures nor concavities ne yet any profundities which they admit who will have the Moone to be of earth but forsooth superficially onely and as it were setled upon the imbossed and swelling backe thereof which is against all reason if it be to endure and cannot possibly be in case we give credit to that which we doe see in full Moones for divided it ought not to be and separarate apart being blacke and darke but either being hidden to be altogether darkened or else to be illuminate when the Moone is overspred by the Sunne For heere beneath with us the aire that is in deepe pits and low caves of the earth where the Sunne beames never come remaineth darke and shadie without any light at all but that which is spred about the earth is cleere and of a lightsome colour for by reason of the raritie thereof it is very easie to be transmuted into every qualitie and facultie but principally by the light which if it never so little touch it as they say and lay hold of it you shall see it incontinently changed and light throughout This very reason therefore seemeth greatly to helpe and mainteine the opinion of them who drive the aire into I wot not what deepe vallies and pits within the Moone as also to confute you who mingle and compound I know not how her sphaere of fire and aire for impossible it is that there should remaine any shadow or obscuritie in the superficies thereof when the Sunne with his brightnesse doeth cleere and illuminate whatsoever part of the Moone we are able to discerne and cut with our eie-sight And as I spake these words even before I had made an end of my speech See quoth Pharnaces the ordinary cast of the Academie how it is practised upon us in that they busie themselves evermore and spend time in all their discourses to speake against others but never allow the discussing and reprooving of that which they deliver themselves but if any happen to conferre and dispute with them they must plead in their owne defence alwaies and not be allowed to reply or come upon them with any accusations for mine owne part you shall not draw me this day to render a reason of such matters as you charge upon the Stoicks nor to speake in their behalfe before I have called you to an account for thus turning the world upside downe as you doe Heereat Lucius laughing And very well content am I good sir quoth he so to do provided alwaies that you accuse us not of impietie like as Aristarchus thought that the Greeks ought to have called Cleanthes the Samean into questiō judicially to condemne him for his impietie and Atheisme as one that shooke the very foundations of the world to overthrow all in that the man endevoting to save and maintaine those things which appeare unto us above supposed the heaven to stand still as immooveable and that it was the earth that mooved round by the oblique circle of the Zodiacke and turned about the owne axeltree As for us we speake of our selves and in our owne behalfe But they my good friend Pharnaces who suppose that the Moone is earth why doe they turne the world upside downe more than you who place the earth heere hanging in the aire being farre greater then the Moone as the Mathematicians take their measure in the accidents of the ecclipses and by the passages of trajections of the Moone through the shadow of the earth collecting thereby the magnitude thereof and what space it taketh up for surely the shadow of the earth is lesse than it selfe by reason that it is cast by a greater light Now that the said shadow is streight and pointed upward toward the end Homer himselfe was not ignorant but
and the same denomination like as we doe the sea also for all the parts of the earth are called earth and of the sea likewise but no part of the world is world for that it is composed of divers and different hatures For as touching that inconvenience which some especially feare who spend all matter within one world lest forsooth if there remained any thing without it should trouble the composition and frame thereof by the jurres and resistances that it would make furely there is no such cause why they should feare for when there be many worlds and ech of them particularly having one definit and determinate measure and limit of their substance and matter no part thereof will be without order and good disposition nothing will remaine superfluous as an excrement without to hinder or impeach for that the reason which belongeth to ech world being able to rule and governe the matter that is allotted thereto will not suffer any thing to goe out of course and order and wandring to and fro for to hit and run upon another world nor likewise that from another ought should come for to rush upon it because in nature there is nothing in quantity infinit inordinate nor in motion without reason order But say there should happly be some deflux or effluence that pasleth from one world to another the same is a brotherly sweet and amiable communication and such as very well agreeth to all much like unto the lights of starres and the influences of their temperatures which are the cause that they themselves doe joy in beholding one another with a kinde and favourable aspect yea and yeeld unto the gods which in every starre be many and those good meanes to intertaine and embrace one another most friendly For in all this verily there is nothing impossible nothing fabulous nor contrary unto reason unlesse paradventure some there be who will suspect and feare the reason and sentence of Aristotle as consonant unto nature For if as he saith every body hath a proper and naturall place of the owne by reason thereof necessarily it must be that the earth from all parts should tend toward the midst and the water afterwards upon it serving by meanes of their weight and ponderosity in stead of a foundation to other elements of a lighter substance And therefore quoth he if there were many worlds it would fall out oftentimes that the earth should be found situate above aire and fire and as often under them likewise the aire and fire sometime under otherwhiles in their naturall places and againe in others contrary to their nature Which being impossible as he thinketh it must follow of necessity that there be neither two nor more worlds but one alone to wit this which we visibly 〈◊〉 composed of all sorts of substance and disposed according to nature as is meet and convenient for diversity of bodies But in all this there is more apparent probability than verity indeed For the better proofe heereof consider I pray you my good friend Demetrius that when he saith among simple bodies some bend directly to the midst that is to say downward others from the midst that is to say upward and a third sort move round about the midst and circularly in what respect taketh he the midst Certaine it is not in regard of voidnesse for there is no such thing in nature even by his owne opinion againe according unto those that admit it middle can it have none no more than first or last For these be ends and extremities and that which is infinite must consequently be also without an end But suppose that some one of them should enforce us to admit a middle in that voidnesse impossible it is to conceive and imagine the difference in motions of bodies toward it because there is not in that voidnesse any puissance attractive of bodies nor yet within the same bodies any deliberation or inclination and affection to tend from all sides to this middle But no lesse impossible is it to apprehend that of bodies having no soule any should moove of themselves to an incorporall place and having no difference of situation than it is that the same should draw them or give them any motion or inclination to it It remaineth then that this middle ought to be understood not locally but corporally that is to say not in regard of place but of body For seeing this world is an union or masse compounded of many bodies different and unlike conjoigned together it must needs be that their diversities engender motions discrepant and 〈◊〉 one from the other which appeereth by this that every of these bodies changing substance change their place also withall For the subtilization and rarefaction distributeth round about the matter which ariseth from the midst and ascendeth on high contrariwise condensation and constipation depresseth and driveth it downeward to the middle But of this point we need not discourse any more in this place For what cause soever a man shall suppose to produce such passions and mutations the same shall containe in it a severall world for that each of them hath an earth and sea of the owne each one hath her owne proper middle as also passions and alterations of bodies together with a nature and power which preserveth and 〈◊〉 every one in their place and being For that which is without whether it have nothing at all or else an infinite voidnesse middle can it affoord none as we have said before but there being many worldes each of them hath a proper middle apart in such sort as in every one there shall be motions proper unto bodies some falling downe to the midst others mounting aloft from the midst others mooving round about the midst according as they themselves doe distinguish motions And he who would have that there being many middles weighty bodies from all parts should tend unto one alone may very well be compared unto him who would have the blood of many men to run from all parts into one vaine likewise that all their braines should be contained within one and the same membraine or pannicle supposing it a great inconvenience and absurdity if of naturall bodies all that are solide be not in one and the same place and the rare also in another Absurd is he that thus saith and no lesse foolish were the other who thinketh much and is offended if the whole should have all parts in their order range and situation naturall For it were a very grosse absurdity for a man to say there were a world which had the Moone in it so situate as if a man should carry his braine in his heeles and his heart in the temples of his head but there were no absurdity nor inconvenience if in setting downe many distinct worldes and those separate one from another a man should distinguish with all and separate their parts For in every of them the earth the sea and the skie shall be so placed and
paused and held my peace Then Philippus making no long stay As for me I will not greatly strive nor stand upon it quoth he whether the trueth be so or otherwise but in case we force God out of the superintendance of one onely world how is it that we make him to be Creatour of five worlds neither more nor lesse and what the peculiar and speciall reason is of this number to a plurality of worlds rather than of any other I would more willingly know than the occasion or cause why this Mot EI is so consecrated in this Temple For it is neither a triangular nor a quadrat nor a perfect ne yet a cubique number neither seemeth it to represent any other elegancie unto those who love and esteeme such speculations as these And as for the argument inferred from the number of elements which Plato himselfe obscurely and under covert tearmes touched it is very hard to comprehend neither doeth it carie and shew any probabilitie whereby he should be induced to conclude and draw in a consequence that like it is considering in matter there be engendered five sorts of regular bodies having equall angels equall sides and environed with equall superficies there should semblably of these five bodies be five worlds made and formed from the very first beginning And yet quoth I it should seeme that Theodorus the Solian expounding the Mathematicks of Plato handleth this matter not amisse nor misinterpreteth the place and thus goeth he to worke The Pyramis Octaedron Dodecaedron and Icosaedron which Plato setteth downe for the first bodies are right beautifull all both for their proportions and also for their equalities neither is there left for nature any other to devise and forme better than they or indeed answerable and like unto them Howbeit they have not all either the same constitution nor the like originall for the least verily and smallest of the five is the Pyramis the greatest and that which consisteth of most parts is Dodecaedron and of the other two behind the Icosaedron is bigger by two fold and more than Octaedron if you compare their number of triangles And therfore impossible it is that they should be all made at once of one and the same matter for the small and subtile and such as in composition are more simple than the rest were more pliable no doubt and obedient unto the hand of workemen who mooved and formed the matter and therefore by all consequence sooner made and brought into subsistence than those which had more parts and a greater masse of bodies of which and namely of such as had more laborious making and a busier composition is Dodecaedron Whereupon it followeth necessarily that the Pyramis onely was the first body and not any of the other as being by nature created and produced afterwards But the remedie and meanes to salve and avoid this absurditie also is to separate and devide the matter into five worlds for here the Pyramis came foorth first there the Octaedron and elsewhere the Icosaedron and in every of these worlds out of that which came first into esse the rest drew their originall by the concretion of parts which causeth them all to change into all according as Plato doth insinuate discoursing by examples in maner throughout all but it shall suffice us briefly to learne thus much For aire is engendred by the extinction of fire and the same againe being subtilized and rarefied produceth fire Now in the seeds of these two a man may know their passions and the transmutations of all The seminary or beginning of fire is the Pyramis composed of foure twenty first triangles but the seminary of the aire is Octaedron consisting of triangles of the same kind in number fortie eight And thus the one element of aire standeth upon two of fire composed and conjoined together and againe one body or element of the aire is devided and parted into twaine of fire which becomming to be thickned and constipate more still in it selfe turneth into the forme of water in such sort as throughout that which commeth first into light giveth alwaies a ready and easie generation unto all the rest by way of change and transmutation and so that never remaineth solitary and alone which is first but as one masse and constitution hath the primitive antecedent motion in another of originall beginning so in all there is kept one name and denomination Now surely quoth Ammonius it is stoutly done of Theodorus and he hath quit himselfe very well in fetching about this matter so industriously But I would much marvell if these presuppositions of his making do not overthrow and refute one another for he would have that these five worlds were not composed all at once together but that the smallest and most subtile which required least workmanship in the making came foorth first then as a thing consequent and not repugnant at all he supposeth that the matter doth not thrust foorth alwaies into essence that which is most subtile and simple but that otherwhiles the thickest the most grosse and heaviest parts shew first in generation But over and besides all this after a supposall made that there be five primitive bodies or elements and consequently thereupon five worlds he applieth not his proofe and probabilitie but unto foure onely For as touching the cube he subtracteth and remooveth it quite away as they doe who play at nine holes and who trundle little round stones for that such a square quadrate body every way is naturally unfit either to turne into them or to yeeld them any meanes to turne into it for that the triangles of which they be composed are not of the same kind for all the rest do in a common consist of a demi-triangle as the base but the proper subject whereof this cube particularly standeth is the triangle Isoscetes which admitteth no inclination unto a demi-triangle nor possibly can be concorporate or united to it Now if it be so that of those five bodies there be consequently five worlds that in ech one of those world 's the beginning of their generation and constitution is that body which is first produced and brought to light it would come to passe that where the cube commeth foorth first for the generation of the rest none of the other bodies can possibly be there forasmuch as the nature of it is not to turne or change into any one of them For I let passe heere to alledge that the element or principle whereof Dodecaedron is composed is not that triangle which is called Scalenon with three unequall sides but some other as they say how ever Plato hath made his Pyramis Octaedron and Icosaedron of it And therefore quoth Ammonius smiling thereat either you must dissolve these objections or else alledge some new matter as touching the question now presently in hand Then answered I For mine owne part alledge I am not able at this time any thing that carieth more probability but
was WE had a certeine guest who lived delicatly and loved to drinke cold water for to please and content whose appetite our servants drew up a bucket of water out of the pit or wel and so let it hang within the same so that it touched not the top of the water all the night long wherewith he was served the morrow after at his supper and he found it to be much colder than that which was newly drawen now this stranger being a professed scholar and indifferently well learned told us that he had found this in Aristotle among other points grounded upon good reason which he delivered unto us in this wise All water quoth he which is first hear becommeth afterwards more colde than it was before like to that which is provided and prepared for kings first they set it on the fire untill it boile againe which done they burie the pan or vessell wherein it is within snow and by this device it proves exceeding colde no otherwise than our bodies after that we have bene in the stouph or baines be cooled much more by that meanes for relaxation occasioned by heat maketh the bodie more rare and causeth the pores to open and so by consequence it receiveth more aire from without which environeth the bodie and bringeth a more sudden and violent change when as therefore water is first chafed as it were and set in an heat by agitation and stirring within the bucket whiles it was in drawing it groweth to be the colder by the aire which environeth the said vessell round about This stranger and guest of ours we commended for his confident resolution and perfect memory but as touching the reason that he alledged we made some doubt for if the aire in which the vessell hangeth be colde how doth it inchafe the water and if it be hot how cooleth it afterwards for beside all reason it is that a thing should be affected or suffer contrarily from one and the same cause unlesse some difference come betweene And when the other held his peace a good space and stood musing what to say againe Why quoth I there is no doubt to be made of the aire for our very senses teach us that colde it is and especially that which is in the bottome of pits and therefore impossible it is that water should be heat by the cold aire but the trueth is this rather although this cold aire can not alter all the water of the spring in the bottome of the well yet if a man draw the same in a little quantitie it will do the deed and be so much predominant as to coole it exceedingly THE FIFTH QUESTION What is the reason that little stones and small plates or pellets of lead being cast into water make it colder YOu remember I am sure doe you not said I what Aristotle hath written as touching pibble stones and flints which if they be cast into water cause the same to be much colder and more astringent And you remember quoth he aswell that the philosopher in his Problemes hath onely said it is so but let us assay to finde out the cause for it seemeth very difficult to be conceived and imagined You say true indeed quoth I and a marvell it were if we could hit upon it howbeit marke and consider what I will say unto it First to begin withall doe you not thinke that water is sooner made colde by the aire without if the same may come to enter into it also that the aire is of more force and efficacie when it beateth against hard slints pibbles or wherstones for they will not suffer it to passe thorow as vessels either of brasse or earth but by their compact soliditie resisting and standing out against it they put it by from themselves and turne it upon the water whereby the coldnesse may be the stronger and the water thorowout be fully affected therewith and this is the reason that in Winter time running rivers be much colder than the sea for that the cold aire hath greater power upon them as being driven backe againe from the bottome of the water whereas in the sea it is dissolved and passeth away by reason of the great depth thereof encountring there nothing at all upon which it may strike and bear but it seemeth there is another reason that waters the thinner and cleerer they be suffer the more from the colde aire for sooner they be changed and overcome so weake and feeble they are now hard wherstones and little pibbles doe subtiliat and make the water more thin in drawing to the bottome where they be all the grosse and terrestriall substance that trouble it in such sort as the water by that meanes being more sine and consequently weaker sooner is vanquished and surmounted by the refrigeration of the aire To come now unto lead cold of nature it is and if it be soaked in vineger and wrought with it maketh ceruse of all deadly poisons the coldest As for the stones a fore said by reason of their soliditie they have an inward coldnesse conceived deeply within them for as every stone is a piece of earth gathered together and congealed as it were by exceeding colde so the more compact and massie that it is the harder is it congealed and consequently so much the colder no marvell therefore it is if both plummets of lead and these little hard pibbles aforesaid by repercussion from themselves inforce the colduesse of water THE SIXTH QUESTION What is the reason that men use to keepe snowe within chafse light straw and clothes VPon these words that stranger and guest of ours after hee had paused a while Lovers quoth he above all things are desirous to talke with their paramours or if they can not so doe yet at leastwise they will be talking of them and even so it fareth at this time betweene me and snowe for because there is none heere in place nor to be had I will speake of it and namely I would gladly know the reason why it is wont to be kept in such things as be very hot for we use to cover and swaddle it as it were with straw and chaffe yea and to lap it within soft clothes unshorne rugges and shaggie frize and so preserve it a long time in the owne kinde without running to water A woonderfull matter that the hottest things should preserve those which are extreame colde And so will I say too quoth I if that were true but it is farre otherwise and we greatly deceive our selves in taking that by and by to be hot it selfe which doth heat another and namely considering that we our selves use to say that one and the selfe same garment in Winter keeps us warme and in Summer cooleth us like as that nourse in the tragedy which gave sucke unto Niobes children With mantles course and little blanquets worne She warm's and cool's her pretie babes new borne The Almaigns verily put on garments onely for to defend their bodies against
of the gods and that on the day wherein we solemnize the nativitie of Plato that we make him partaker also of our conference and take occasion thereby to consider upon what intention and in what sense hehath said that God continually practiseth Geometrie at leastwise if we may presuppose and set down that he it was who was the author of this sentence Then said I Written it is not in any place of al his books howbeit held to be a saying of his and it savoreth much of his stile and maner of phrase Whereupon Tyndares immediately taking the words out of his mouth Thinke you quoth he ô Diogenianus that this sentence covertly and in mysticall tearmes signifieth any darke subtiltie and not the very same which Plato himselfe hath both said and written in praising and magnifying Geometrie as being the thing which plucketh those away who are fastened unto sensible objects and averteth them to the consideration of such natures as be intelligible and eternall the contemplation whereof is the very end of philosophie even as the view and beholding of secret sacred things is the end of religious mysteries for the naile of pleasure and paine which fasteneth the soule unto the bodie among other mischiefes that it doth unto man worketh him this displeasure as it should seeme above all that it causeth sensible things to be more evident unto him than intellectuall and forceth his understanding to judge by passion more than by reason for being accustomed by the sense and feeling of extreame paine or exceeding pleasure of the body to be intentive unto that wandring uncerteine and mutable nature of the bodie as seeming a thing subsistent blinded hee is and loseth altogether the knowledge of that which is essentiall indeed and hath a true being forgoing that light and instrument of the soule which is better than ten thousand bodily eies and by which organe alone he might see the deitie and divine nature for so it is that all other sciences which we name mathematicall as in so many mirrors not twining and warping but plaine smooth and even there appeere the very tracts prints and images of the truth of things intelligible but Geometrie especially which Philo calleth the mother citie and mistresse commaunding all the rest doth divert and gently withdraw by little and little the minde purified clensed from the cogitation of sensuall things and this is the reason that Plato himselfe reprooved Eudoxus Architas and Menaechmus who went about to reduce the duplication of the cube or solide square into mechanicall instruments and artificall engines as if it had not beene possible if a man would set unto it by demonstration of reason to finde out and comprehend two middle lines proportionall for he objected unto them That this was as much as to destroy and overthrow the best thing in Geometrie when by this meanes they would have her turne backe againe unto sensible things and keepe her from mounting up aloft and embracing those eternall and incorporall images upon which God being continually intentive is therefore alwaies God After Tyndares Florus a familiar friend of his and one who made semblant alwaies by way of sport and gave it out in word that he was timorous of him Well done of you quoth hee in that you would not have this speech to be your owne but a common saying of every man and you would seeme to argue and proove that Plato sheweth how Geometrie is not necessary for the gods but for men for God hath no need of any mathematicall science as an engine or instrument to turne him from things ingendred and to bring about and direct his intelligence and understanding unto those that be of an eternall essence For why In him with him and about him they be al but take heed rather see whether Plato hath not covertly under these dark words lisped and signified somewhat that is pertinent and proper unto you which you have not marked and observed in that hee joineth Lycurgus with Socrates no lesse than Pythagoras as Dicaearchus was of opinion for Lycurgus as you know very well chased out of Lacedaemon arithmeticall proportion as a popular thing turbulent and apt to make commotions but hee brought in the Geometricall as befitting the civill and modest government of some few wise sages and a lawfull roialtie and regall dominion for the former giveth equally unto all according to number but the other unto every one by reason and with regard of desert and woorthinesse this proportion I say maketh no confusion of all together but in it there is an apparent discretion and distinction betweene the good and the bad dealing alwaies unto every one their owne not by the balance or lot but according to the difference of vice and vertue God therefore useth this proportion and applieth it unto things and the same it is my good friend Tyndares which is called Dice and Nemesis teaching us there by that we ought to make of justice equalitie and not of equallity justice for the equalitie which the common sort seeketh after and is indeed the greatest injustice that may be God taketh out of the world and as much as possibly may be observeth that which is fit and meet for every one according to desert and worthinesse going heerein Geometrically to worke by reason and law defining and distributing accordingly When we had praised this exposition and interpretation of his Tyndares said That he envied such commendation exhorting Autobulus to set against Florus to confute him and correct that which he had delivered That he refused to do howbeit he opposed and brought forth a certeine opinion and conceit of his owne Thus it is quoth he Geometrie is not a speculative skill of mens manners and behaviour nor yet occupied about any subject matter whatsoever but the symptomes accidents and passions of those extremities or termes which accomplish bodies neither hath God by any other meanes framed and made the world but onely by determining or making finit that matter which was infinit in it selfe not in regard of quantititie greatnesse and multitude but for that being as it was inconstant wandering disorderly and unperfect our auncients were wont to call it infinit that is to say undetermined and unfinished for the forme and figure is the terme or end of every thing that is formed and shapen the want whereof made it of it selfe to be shapelesse and disfigured but after that numbers and proportions come to be imprinted upon the rude and formelesse matter then being tied and bound as it were first with lines and after lines with superficies and profundities it brought foorth the first kinds and differences of bodies as the foundation and ground-worke for the generation of aire earth water and fire for impossible it had beene and absurd that of matter so wandring so errant and disorderly there should arise equalities of sides and similitudes of angles in those solide square bodies which were called Octaedra and Eicosaedra that is
together close and be united leaving an emptie place in those vessels wherein they were conteined and from which they be retired The voice therefore comming among and lighting upon many of these bodies thus scattered and dispersed thicke everie where either is drowned altogether at once or disgregated and broken as it were in pieces or else meeteth with many impeachments to withstand and stay it but where there is a space void and wherein there is not a bodie it having a free and full course and the same not interrupted but plaine and continued commeth so much the sooner unto the eare and together with that swiftnesse reteineth still the articulate expresse and distinct sound of every word in speech for you see how emptie vessels if a man knocke upon them answere better to every stroake and carrie the sound and noise a great way off yea and many times they yeeld a sound that goeth round about and continueth a good while redoubling the noise whereas let a vessell be filled either with solid bodies or els with some liquor it is altogether deafe and dumbe if I may so say and yeeldeth no sound againe for that it hath no place nor way to passe thorow Now among solid bodies gold and stone because they be full and massie have a very small and feeble sound that will be heard any way and that little which they doe render is soone gone contrariwise brasse is verie vocall resonant and as one would say a blab of the tongue for that it hath much emptinesse in it and the substance or masse thereof is light and thinne not compact of many bodies hudled together and thrust one upon another but hath foison and plentie of that substance mingled together which is soft yeelding and not resisting the touch or the stroake which affoordeth easinesse unto other motions and so enterteining the voice gently and willingly sendeth it untill it meet somthing in the way which stoppeth the mouth for then it staieth and ceaseth to pierce any further because of the stoppage that it findeth And this is it quoth he in mine opinion that causeth the night to be more resonant and the day lesse for that the heat in day time which dissolveth the aire causeth the intervalles betweene the atomes or motes abovesaid to be the smaller this onely I would request that no man here doe oppose himselfe to contradict the premisses and first suppositions of mine Now when as Ammonius willed me to say somewhat and replie against him As touching your formost supposals friend Boethus quoth I about the great emptinesse let them stand since you will have it so but whereas you have set downe that the said emptinesse maketh much for the motion and easie passage of the voice I like not well of that supposition for surely this qualitie not to be touched smitten or made to suffer is rather proper unto silence and still taciturnitie whereas the voice is the striking and beating upon a sounding bodie and a sounding bodie is that which accordeth and correspondeth to it selfe moveable light uniforme simple and pliable like as is our aire for water earth and fire be of themselves dumbe speechlesse but they sound speake all of them when any spirit or aire is gotten in then I say they make a noise as for brasse there is no voidnesse within it but for that mixed it is with an united and equall spirit therefore it answereth againe to claps and knocks and therewithall resoundeth and if wee may conjecture by that which our eie seeth and judgeth yron seemeth to be spongeous and as it were worme-eaten within full of holes and hollowed in maner of hony-combs howbeit a mettall it is of all other that hath the woorst voice and is most mute there was no need therfore to trouble the night so much in restreining compressing and driving in the aire thereof so close of the one side and leaving so many places and spaces void on the other side as if the aire impeached the voice and corrupted the substance thereof considering it selfe is the very substance forme and puissance of it over and besides it should follow thereupon that unequall nights namely those that be foggie and mistie or exceeding colde were more resonant than those that be faire and cleere for that in such nights those atomes are clunged close together and looke where they come they leave a place void of bodies moreover that which is easie and evident to be seene the colde Winter night ought by this reckoning to be more vocall and fuller of noise than the hot Summers night whereof neither the one nor the other is true and therefore letting this reason such as it is goe by I will produce Anaxagoras who saith That the sunne causeth the aire to move and stirre after a certeine trembling motion as if it did beat and pant as it may appeare by those little motes and shavings as it were in maner of dust which flutter and flie up and downe thorow those holes whereas the sunne-shine passeth such as some Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which saith he chirming as it were and making a humming in the day time cause by their noise any other voice or sound not so easie to be heard but in the night season as their motion ceaseth so consequently their noise also is gone After I had thus said Ammonius began in this wise We may be deemed haply ridiculous quoth he to thinke that we can refute Democritus or to go about for to correct Anaxagoras howbeit we must of necessitie take from these little bodies of Anaxagoras his devising this chirming noise before said which is neither like to be so nor any waies necessarie sufficient it wil be to admit the trembling motion and stirring of them dancing as they doe in the same light and by that meanes disgregating and breaking the voice many times and scatter it to and fro for the aire as hath bene said already being the very body and substance of the voice if it be quiet and setled giveth a direct united and continned way unto the small parcels and movings of the voice to passe along a great way for calme weather and the tranquillitie of the aire is resonant whereas contrariwise tempestuous weather is dumbe and mute according to which Simonides hath thus written For then no blasts of winde arose on hie Shaking tree-leaves that men need once to feare Lest they might breake sweet songs and melodie Stopping the sound from passage to their eare For often times the agitation of the aire permitteth not the full expresse and articulate forme of the voice to reach unto the sense of hearing howbeit somewhat it carrieth alwaies thorow from it if the same be multiplied much and forced aloud as for the night in it selfe in hath nothing to stirre and trouble the aire whereas the day hath one great cause thereof to wit the sun as Anaxagoras himselfe hath said Then Thrasyllus the sonne of Ammontus taking his
counted nine after that the monethly purgations stay upon the first conception and so it is thought that infants be of seven moneth whichs are not for that he knew how after conceptiō many women have had their menstruall flux POLYBUS DIOCLES and the EMPIRICKS know that the eight moneths childe also is vitall howbeit in some sort feeble for that many for feeblenesse have died so borne in generall and for the most part ordinarily none are willing to reare and feed the children borne at the seven moneth and yet many have beene so borne and growen to mans estate ARISTOTLE and HIPPOCRATES report that if in seven moneths the matrix be growen full then the infant 〈◊〉 to get foorth and such commonly live and doe well enough but if it incline to birth and be not sufficiently nourished for that the navill is weake then in regard of hard travell both the mother is in danger and her fruit becommeth to mislike and thriveth not but in case it continue nine moneths within the matrix then it commeth foorth accomplished and perfect POLYBUS affirmeth it to be requisite and necessarie for the vitalitie of infants that there should be 182 daies and a halfe which is the time of six moneths compleat in which space the sunne commeth from one Solstice or Tropicke to another but such children are said to be of seven moneths when it falleth out that the odde daies left in this moneth are taken to the seventh moneth But he is of opinion that those of eight moneths live not namely when as the infant hastneth indeed out of the wombe and beareth downward but for the most part the navell is thereby put to stresse and reatched so cannot feed as that should which is the cause of food to the infant The MATHEMATICIANS beare us in hand and say that eight moneths be dissociable of all generations but seven are sociable Now the dissociable signes are such as meet with such starres and constellations which be lords of the house for if upon any of them falleth the lot of mans life and course of living it signifieth that such shall be unfortunate and short lived These dissociable signes be reckonned eight in number namely Aries with 〈◊〉 is insociable Taurus with Scorpius is sociable Gemini with Capricorn Cancer with Aquarius Leo with Pisces and Virgo with Aries And for this cause infants of seven moneths and ten moneths be livelike but those of eight moneths for the insociable dissidence of the world perish and come to naught CHAP. XIX Of the generation of animall creatures after what maner they be engendred and whether they be corruptible THey who hold that the world was created are of opinion that living creatures also had their creation or beginning and shall likewise perish and come to an end The EPICUREANS according unto whom Animals had no creation doe suppose that by mutation of one into another they were first made for they are the substantiall parts of the world like as ANAXAGORAS and EURIPIDES affirme in these tearmes Nothing dieth but in changing as they doe one for another they shew sundry formes ANAXIMANDER is of opinion that the first Animals were bred in moisture and enclosed within pricky and sharpe pointed barks but as age grew on they became more drie and in the end when the said barke burst and clave in sunder round about them a small while after they survived EMPEDOCLES thinketh that the first generations as well of living creatures as of plants were not wholy compleat and perfect in all parts but disjoined by reason that their parts did not cohaere and unite together that the second generations when the parts begun to combine and close together seemed like to images that the third generations were of parts growing and arising mutually one out of another and the fourth were no more of semblable as of earth and water but one of another and in some the nourishment was incrassate and made thicke as for others the beautie of women provoked and pricked in them a lust of spermatike motion Moreover that the kinds of all living creatures were distinct and divided by certeine temperatures for such as were more familiarly enclined to water went into water others into the aire for to draw and deliver their breath to and fro according as they held more of the nature of fire such as were of a more heavie temperature were bestowed upon the earth but those who were of an equall temperature uttered voice with their whole breasts CHAP. XX. How many sorts of living creatures there be whether they be all sensitive and endued with reason THere is a treatise of ARISTOTLE extant wherein he putteth downe fower kinds of Animals to wit Terrestriall Aquaticall Volatile and Celestiall for you must thinke that he calleth heavens starres and the world Animals even as well as those that participate of earth yea and God he defineth to be a reasonable Animall and immortall DEMOCRITUS and EPICURUS doe say that heavenly Animals are reasonable 〈◊〉 holdeth that all Animals are endued with active reason but want the passive understanding which is called the interpreter or truchment of the minde PYTHAGORAS and PLATO do affirme that the soules even of those very Animals which are called unreasonable brute beasts are endued with reason howbeit they are not operative with that reason neither can they 〈◊〉 it by reason of the distempered composition of their bodies and because they have not speech to declare and expound themselves as for example apes and dogs which utter a babling voice but not an expresse language and distinct speech DIOGENES supposeth that they have an intelligence but partly for the grosse thicknesse of their temperature and in part for the abundance of moisture they have neither discourse of reason nor sense but fare like unto those who be furious for the principall part of the soule to wit Reason is defectuous and empeached CHAP. XXI Within what time are living creatures formed in the mothers wombe EMPEDOCLES saith that men begin to take forme after the thirtie sixt day and are finished and knit in their parts within 50. daies wanting one ASCLEPIADES saith that the members of males because they be more hot are jointed and receive shape in the space of 26. daies and many of them sooner but are finished and complet in all limbes within 50. daies but females require two moneths ere they be fashioned and fower before they come to their perfection for that they want naturall heat As for the parts of unreasonable creatures they come to their accomplishment sooner or later according to the temperature of the elements CHAP. XXII Of how many elements is composedech of the generall parts which are in us EMPEDOCLES thinketh that flesh is engendred of an equall mixture and temperature of the fower elements the sinewes of earth and fire mingled together in a duple proportion the nailes and cleies in living creatures come of the nerves refrigerat and made colde in
those places where the aire toucheth them the bones of water and earth within and of these fower medled and contempered together sweat and teares proceed CHAP. XXIII When and how doth man begin to come to his perfection HERACLITUS and the STOICKS suppose that men doe enter into their perfection about the second septimane of their age at what time as their naturall seed doth moove and runne for even the very trees begin then to grow unto their perfection namely when as they begin to engender their 〈◊〉 for before then unperfect they are namely so long as they be unripe and fruitlesse and therefore a man likewise about that time is perfect and at this septenarie of yeeres he beginneth to conceive and understand what is good and evill yea and to learne the same Some thinke that a man is consummate at the end of the third septimane of yeeres what time as he maketh use of his full strength CHAP. XXIIII In what manner Sleepe is occasioned or death ALCMEON is of this mind that Sleepe is caused by the returne of blood into the confluent veines and Waking is the diffusion and spreading of the said blood abroad but Death the utter departure thereof EMPEDOCLES holdeth that Sleepe is occasioned by a moderate cooling of the naturall heat of blood within us and Death by an extreme coldnesse of the said blood DIOGENES is of opinion that if blood being diffused and spred throughout fill the veines and withall drive backe the aire setled 〈◊〉 into the breast and the interior belly under it then ensueth Sleepe and the breast with the precordiall parts are 〈◊〉 thereby but if that aereous substance in the 〈◊〉 exspire altogether and exhale forth presently 〈◊〉 Death PLATO and the 〈◊〉 affirme that the 〈◊〉 of Sleep is the 〈◊〉 of the spirit sensitive not by way of 〈◊〉 and to the earth 〈◊〉 by elevation aloft namely when it is carried to the 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 between the 〈◊〉 the very 〈◊〉 of reason but when there is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the 〈◊〉 sensitive 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 Death doth ensue CHAP. XXV Whether of the twaine it is that 〈◊〉 or dieth the Soule or the Bodie ARISTOTLE vorely 〈◊〉 that Sleepe is common to Bodie and Soule both and the cause thereof is a certaine humiditie which doth steeme and arise in manner of a vapour out of the stomack and the food therein up into the region of the head and the naturall heat about the heart cooled thereby But death he deemeth to be an entire and totall refrigeration and the same of the Bodie onely and in no wise of the Soule for it is immortall ANAXAGORAS saith that Sleepe belongeth to corporall action as being a passion of the Bodie and not of the Soule also that there is 〈◊〉 wife a certaine death of the Bodie to wit the separation of it and the Bodie 〈◊〉 LEUCIPPUS is of opinion that Sleepe pertaineth to the Bodie onely by concretion of that which was of subtile parts but the excessive excretion of the animall heat is Death which both saith he be passions of the Bodie and not of the Soule EMPEDOCLES saith that Death is a separation of those elements whereof mans Bodie is compounded according to which position Death is common to Soule and Bodie and Sleep a certaine dissipation of that which is of the nature of fire CHAP. XXVI How Plants come to grow and whether they be animate PLATO and EMPEDOCLES hold that Plants have life yea and be animall creatures which appeareth say they by this that they wag to and fro and stretch forth their boughs like armes also that when they be violently strained and bent they yeeld but if they be let loose they returne againe yea in their growth are able to overcome waight laid upon them ARISTOTLE granteth that they be living creatures but not animall for that animal creatures have motions and appetites are sensitive and endued with reason The STOICKS and the EPIGUREANS hold that they have no soule or life at all for of animallcreatures some have the appetitive concupsicible soule others the reasonable but Plants grow after a sort casually of their owne accord and not by the meanes of any soule EMPEDOCLES saith that Trees sprang and grew out of the ground before animall creatures to wit ere the Sunne desplaied his beames and before that day and night were distinct Also that according to the proportion of temperature one came to be named Male another Female that they 〈◊〉 up and grow by the power of heat within the earth in such sort as they be parts of the earth like as unborne fruits in the wombe be parts of the matrice As for the fruits of trees they are the superfluous excrements of water and fire but such as have defect of that humiditie when it is dried up by the heat of the Summer lose their leaves whereas they that have plentie thereof keepe their leaves on still as for example the Laurell Olive and Date tree Now as touching the difference of their juices and sapors it proceedeth from the diversitie of that which nourisheth them as appeareth in Vines for the difference of Vine trees maketh not the goodnesse of Vines for to be drunke but the nutriment that the territorie and soile doth affoord CHAP. XXVII Of 〈◊〉 and Growth EMPEDOCLES is of opinion that animall creatures are nourished by the substance of that which is proper and familiar unto them that they grow by the presence of naturall heat that they diminish 〈◊〉 and perish through the default both of the one and the other And as for men now a daies living in comparison of their auncestos they be but babes new borne CHAP. XXVIII How 〈◊〉 creatures came to have appetite and pleasure EMPEDOCLES supposeth that Lust and Appetites are incident to animall creatures through the defect of those elements which went unto the framing of ech one that pleasures arise from humiditie as for the motions of perils and such like as also troubles and hinderances c. **** CHAP. XXIX After what sort a Fever is engendred and whether it is an accessary to another malady ERASISTRATUS defineth a Fever thus A Fever quoth he is the motion of bloud which is entred into the veines or vessels proper unto the spirits to wit the arteries and that against the will of the patient for like as the sea when nothing troubleth it lieth still and quiet but if a boisterous and violent winde be up and bloweth upon it contrary unto nature it surgeth and riseth up into billowes even from the very bottom so in the body of man when the bloud is mooved it invadeth the vitall and spirituall vessels and being set on fire it enchafeth the whole body And according to the same physicians opinion a Fever is an accessary or consequent comming upon another disease But DIOCLES affirmeth that Symptones apparent without foorth doe shew that which lieth hidden within Now we see that an Ague followeth upon those accidents
that outwardly appeere as for example wounds inflammations impostumes biles and botches in the share and other emunctories CHAP. XXX Of Health Sicknesse and old age ALCMAEON is of opinion that the equall dispensing and distribution of the faculties in the body to wit of moisture heat drinesse cold bitter sweet and the rest is that which holdeth maintaineth Health contrariwise the monarchie that is to say the predominant soveraignty of any of them causeth sicknesse for the predomination and principality of any one bringeth the corruption of all the other and is the very cause of maladies the efficient in regard of excessive heat or cold and the materiall in respect of superabundance or defect of humors like as in some there is want of bloud or brain whereas Health is a proportionable temperature of all these qualities DIOCLES supposeth that most diseases grow by the inequality of the elements and of the habit and constitution of the body ERASISTRATUS saith that sicknesse proceedeth from the excesse of feeding from crudities indigestions and corruption of meat whereas good order and suffisance is Health The STOICKS accord heereunto and hold that Old age commeth for want of naturall heat for they who are most furnished therewith live longest and be old a great time ASCLEPIADES reporteth that the Aethiopians age quickly namely when they be thirtie yeeres old by reason that their bodies bee over-heat and even burnt againe with the sunne whereas in England and all 〈◊〉 folke in their age continue 120. yeeres for that those parts be cold and in that people the naturall heat by that meanes is united and kept in their bodies for the bodies of the Aethiopians are more open and rare in that they be relaxed and resolved by the sunnes heat Contrariwise their bodies who live toward the North pole bee more compact knit and fast and therefore such are long lived ROMANE QVESTIONS THAT IS TO SAY AN ENQUIRIE INTO THE CAUSES OF MANIE FASHIONS AND CUSTOMES OF ROME A Treatise fit for them who are conversant in the reading of Romane histories and antiquities giving a light to many places otherwise obscure and hard to be understood 1 What is the reason that new wedded wives are bidden to touch fire and water 1 IS it because that among the elements and principles whereof are composed naturall bodies the one of these twaine to wit fire is the male and water the female of which that infuseth the beginning of motion and this affoordeth the propertie of the subject and matter 2 Or rather for that as the fire purgeth and water washeth so a wise ought to continue pure chaste and cleane all her life 3 Or is it in this regard that as fire without humidity yeeldeth no nourishment but is dry and moisture without heat is idle fruitlesse and barren even so the male is feeble and the female likewise when they be apart and severed a sunder but the conjunction of two maried folke yeeldeth unto both their cohabitation and perfection of living together 4 Or last of all because man and wife ought not to forsake and abandon one another but to take part of all fortunes though they had no other good in the world common betweene them but fire and water onely 2 How is it that they use to light at weddings five torches and neither more nor lesse which they call Wax-lights 1 WHether is it as Varro saith because the Praetours or generals of armies use three and the Aediles two therefore it is not meet that they should have more than the Praetours and Aediles together considering that new maried folke goe unto the Aediles to light their fire 2 Or because having use of many numbers the odde number seemed unto them as in all other respects better and more perfect than the even so it was fitter and more agreeable for marriage for the even number implieth a kinde of discord and division in respect of the equall parts in it meet for siding quarrell and contention whereas the odde number cannot be divided so just equally but there will remaine somwhat still in common for to be parted Now among al odde numbers it seemeth that Cinque is most nuptial best beseeming mariage for that 〈◊〉 is the first odde number Deuz the first even of which twaine five is compounded as of the male and the female 3 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 because light is a signe of being and of life and a woman may beare at the most five children at one burden and so they used to cary five tapers or waxe candels 4 Or lastly for that they thought that those who were maried had need of five gods and goddesses namely Jupiter genial Juno genial Venus Suade and above all Diana whom last named women in their labour and travell of childe-birth are wont to call upon for helpe 3 What is the cause that there being many Temples of Diana in Rome into that onely which standeth in the 〈◊〉 street men enter not 1 IS it not because of a tale which is told in this maner In old time a certeine woman being come thither for to adore and worship this goddesse chaunced there to bee abused and suffer violence in her honor and he who forced her was torne in pieces by hounds upon which accident ever after a certeine superstitious feare possessed mens heads that they would not presume to goe into the said temple 4 Wherefore is it that in other temples of Diana men are woont ordinarily to set up and fasten Harts hornes onely in that which is upon mount Aventine the hornes of oxen and other beefes are to be seene MAy it not be that this is respective to the remembrance of an ancient occurrent that sometime befell For reported it is that long since in the Sabines countrey one Antion Coratius had a cow which grew to be exceeding faire and woonderfull bigge withall above any other and a certeine wizard or soothfaier came unto him and said How predestined it was that the citie which sacrificed that cow unto Diana in the mount Aventine should become most puissant and rule all Italy This Coratius therefore came to Rome of a deliberate purpose to sacrifice the said cow accordingly but a certaine houshold servant that he had gave notice secretly unto king Servius Tullius of this prediction delivered by the abovesaid soothfaier whereupon Servius acquainted the priest of Diana Cornelius with the matter and therefore when Antion Coratius presented himselfe for to performe his sacrifice Cornelius advertised him first to goe downe into the river there to wash for that the custome and maner of those that sacrificed was so to doe now whiles Antion was gone to wash himselfe in the river Servius steps into his place prevented his returne sacrificed the cow unto the goddesse and nailed up the hornes when he had so done within her temple Juba thus relateth this historie and Varro likewise saving that Varro expressely fetteth not downe the name of Antion neither doth he write
apart and by it selfe unlesse some aire or fire be tempered with it whereas every sense findeth benefit of fire as of a vivificant power and quickening vertue and principally our sight above the rest which is the quickest of all the senses in the bodie as being the very flame of fire a thing that conformeth us in our faith and beliefe of the gods and as Plato saith by the meanes of our sight we are able to conforme our soule to the motions of celestiall bodies OF THE PRIMITIVE OR FIRST COLD The Summarie WE have heere another declaration of Plutarch wherein he examineth and discusseth after the maner of the Academicke philosophers without deciding or determining any thing a naturall question as touching Primitive colde And in the very first entrie thereof refuteth those who are of opinion that this first colde is the privation of heat shewing on the contrary side that it is meere opposite unto heat as one substance to another and not as privation unto habitude Then proceedeth he to dispute of the essence nature and fountaine of this colde for the cleering of which point he examineth at large three opinions the first of the Stoicks who attribute the primitive colde unto aire the second of Empedocles and Chrysippus who ascribe the cause thereof unto water Unto all their reasons and arguments he maketh answer and inclineth to a third opinion namely that earth is that primitive colde Which position he confirmeth by divers arguments yet resolveth he not but leaveth it to the discretion of Phavorinus unto whom he writeth for to conferre all the reasons of the one part and the other without resting in any particular opinion supposing that to suspend and hold his judgement in matters obscure and uncertaine is the wiser part of a philosopher than to yeeld and grant his consent either to one part or the other Wherein we may see that in regard of naturall philosophie our authour was of the Academicks sect but as touching the morall part we have seene before and specially in divers treatises of the former 〈◊〉 that he followeth of all the ancient philosophers those who were least impure and corrupt such I meane as in all their discourses had no other light to direct them but Nature OF THE PRIMITIVE OR first colde IS there then Ô Phavorinus a certaine primitive power and substance of cold like as fire is of heat by the presence and participation whereof ech one of the other things is said to be cold or rather are we to hold and say that cold is the privation of heat like as darknes of light and station of mooving and namely considering that cold is stationarie and heat motive and the cooling of things which were hot is not done by the entrance of any cold power but by the departure of heat for as soone as it is once gone that which remaineth is altogether cooled and the verie vapour and steim which seething waters doe yeeld passeth away together with the heat which is the reason that refrigeration diminisheth the quantitie therof in as much as it chaseth that heat which was without the entrance of any other thing into the place Or rather may not this opinion be suspected first and formost for that it overthroweth and taketh away many powers and puissances as if they were not qualities and habitudes really subsisting but onely the privations and extinctions of qualities and habitudes as for example heavinesse of lightnesse hardnesse of softnesse blacke of white bitter of sweete and so of other semblable things according as ech one is in puissance contrarie unto an other and not as privation is opposite unto habit Moreover for as much as everie privation is idle and wholy without action as blindnesse deafnesse silence and death for that these bee the departures of formes and the abolitions of substances and not certaine natures nor reall substances apart by themselves We see that cold after it be entred and imprinted as it were within the bodie breedeth no fewer nor lesse accidents alterations than doth heat considering that many things become stiffe and congealed by cold many things I say are staied retained and thickened by the meanes thereof which consistence and stabilitie unapt to stirre and hard to bee moved is not therefore idle but it is weightie and firme having a force and power to arrest and to hold in And therefore privation is a defect and departure of a contrarie power whereas many things be cooled although they have plentie of heat within and some things there be which cold doth constraine and constipate so much the more as it findeth them hotter like as we may observe in iron red hot when by quenching it becommeth the harder And the stoicke philosophers doe hold that the naturall spirits enclosed within the bodies of yoong infants lying in the wombe by the cold of the ambient aire environing them about is hardened as it were and refined and so changing the nature becommeth a soule But this is a nice point and verie disputable yet considering that we see cold to be the efficient cause of many other effects there is no reason to thinke that it is a privation Furthermore privation is not capable of more or lesse for so of twaine that see not at all the one is not more blind than the other and of two who cannot speake one is not more dombe than another neither of twaine who live not is one more dead than the other but among cold things we may well admit more lesse overmuch and not overmuch and generally intensions and remissions like as in those things that are hot and therefore ech matter according as it suffreth more or lesse by contrarie 〈◊〉 produceth of it selfe some substances cold and hot more or lesse than others for mixture and composition there can be none of habitude with privation neither is there any power which receiveth or admitteth the contrary unto it to bring a privation nor ever maketh it her companion but yeeldeth and giveth place unto it But contrariwise cold continueth very well as it is mixed with heat unto a certeine degree like as blacke with white colours base notes with small and shrill sweet savours with tart austere and by this association mixture accord of colours sounds drogues savours and tasts there are produced many compositions exceeding pleasant and delectable for the opposition which is betweene habitude and privation is alwaies a oddes and enmity without any meanes of reconciliation considering that the essence and 〈◊〉 of the one is the destruction of the other whereas that fight which is occasioned by contrary powers if it meet with fit time and season serveth oftentimes in good stead unto arts and to nature much more as well in other productions and procreations as in changes and alterations of the aire for in the orderly governance and rule whereof God who dispenseth and disposeth them is called Harmonicall and Musicall not in regard that he maketh a
other such particular artificers whom it suffiseth to know and understand the last and conjunct causes For so it be that a physician doe comprehend the neerest and next cause of his patients malady for example of an ague that it is a shooting or falling of the bloud out of the veines into the arteries and the husbandman conceive that the cause of blasting or Maying his corne is an hot gleame of the sunne after a shower of raine and the plaier upon the 〈◊〉 comprise the reason of the base sound is the bending downward of his instrument or the bringing of them one neere unto another it is sufficient for any of these to proceed to their proper worke and operation But a naturall philosopher who searcheth into the trueth of things onely for meere knowledge and speculation maketh not the knowledge of these last causes the end but rather taketh from them his beginning and ariseth from them to the primitive and highest causes And therefore well did Plato and Democritus who searching into the causes of heat and of heavinesse 〈◊〉 not the course of their inquisition when they came to fire and earth but referring and reducing things sensible unto intelligible principles proceeded forward and never staied untill they came unto the least parcels as it were to the smallest seeds and principles thereof Howbeit better it were first to handle and discusse these sensible things wherein Empedocles Straton and the Stoicks do repose the essences of all powers the Stoicks attributing the primitive colde unto aire but Empedocles and Straton unto water and another peradventure would suppose the earth rather to be the substantiall subject of cold But first let us examine the opinions of these before named Considering then that fire is both hot and shining it must needs be that the nature of that which is contrarie unto it should be colde and darke for obscuritie is opposite unto brightnesse like as cold to heat and like as darknesse and obscuritie doth confound and trouble the sight even so doth colde the sense of feeling whereas heat doth dilate the sense of him that toucheth it like as cleerenesse the sight of him that seeth it and therefore we must needs say that the thing which is principally darke and mistie is likewise colde in nature But that the aire above all things els is dimme and darke the very poets were not ignorant for the aire they call darkenesse as appeareth by these verses of Homer For why the aire stood thicke the ships about And no moone shine from heaven shewed throughout And in another place The aire anon he soone dispatch't and mist did drive away With that the sunne shone out full bright and battell did display And hereupon it is that men call the aire wanting light 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as one would say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say void of light and the grosse aire which is gathered thicke together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of privation of all light Aire also is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say a mist and looke what things soever hinder our sight that we cannot see thorow be differences all of the aire and that part of it which can not be seene and hath no colour is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to wit invisible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as much to say as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for want of colour Like as therefore the aire remaineth darke when the light is taken from it even so when the heat is gone that which remaineth is nothing but colde aire And therefore such aire by reason of coldnesse is named Tartarus which Hesiodus seemeth to insinuate by these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say the airie Tartarus and to tremble and quake for cold he expresseth by this verbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These are the reasons 〈◊〉 in this behalfe But forasmuch as corruption is the change of anything into the contrary let us consider whether it be truely said The death of fire is the birth of aire For fire dieth aswell as living creatures either quenched by force or by languishing and going out of it selfe As for the violent quenching and extinction thereof it sheweth evidently that it turneth into aire for smoake is a kinde of aire and according as Pindarus writeth The vapour of the aire thicke Is 〈◊〉 against the smoake to kicke And not onely that but we may see also that when a flame beginneth to die for want of nourishment as in lamps and burning lights the very top and head thereof doth vanish and resolve into a darke and obscure aire and this may sufficiently be perceived by the vapour which after we are bathed or sit in a stouph flieth and steimeth up along our bodies as also by that smoake which ariseth by throwing cold water upon namely that heat when it is extinguished is converted into aire as being naturally opposite unto fire whereupon it followeth necessarily that the aire was first darke and cold But that which is more the most violent and forcible impression in bodies by cold is congealation which is a passion of water action of the aire for water of it selfe is given to spread and flow as being neither solide nor compact and fast by nature but hard it becommeth thicke also and stiffe when it is thrust close to by the aire and cold together comming betweene and therefore thus we say commonly If after South the North-winde straight do blow We shall be sure anon to have some snow For the South winde prepareth the matter which is moisture and the aire of the North winde comming upon it doth frize and congeale the same which appeareth manifestly in snow for no sooner hath it evaporated and exhaled a little the thinne and colde aire in it but immediatly it resolveth and runneth to water And Aristotle writeth that plates and plummets of lead doe melt and resolve with the cold and rigor of Winter so soone as water only commeth unto them and be frozen upon them And the aire as it should seeme by pressing such bodies together with colde breaketh and knappeth them asunder Moreover the water that is drawen out of a well or spring is sooner frozen and turned to ice than any other for that the aire hath more power over a little water than a great deale And if a man draw up a small quantitie of water in a bucket out of a pit or well and let the same downe againe into the well yet so as the vessell touch not the water but hang in the aire and so continue there but a while that water will be much colder than that which is in the bottome of the well whereby it appeareth manifestly that the primitive cause of cold is not in water but in aire And that so it is the great rivers will testifie which never are frozen to the bottome
because the aire is not able to pierce and enter so low but as much as it can take holde of with the colde either in touching or approching neere unto it so much it frizeth and congealeth And this is the reason that Barbarians when they are to passe great rivers frozen over with ice send out foxes before the for if the ice be not thicke but superficiall the foxes hearing the noise of the water running underneath returne backe againe Some also that are disposed to fish do thaw and open the ice with casting hot water upon it and so let downe their lines at the hole for then will the fishes come to the bait and bite Thus it appeareth that the bottome of the river is not frozen although the upper face thereof stand all over with an ice and that so strong that the water thereby drawen and driven in so hard is able to crush and breake the boats and vessels within it according as they make credible relation unto us who now doe winter upon the river Donow with the emperour And yet without all these farre-fet examples the very experiments that we finde in our owne bodies doe testifie no lesse for after much bathing or sweating alwaies we are more colde and chill for that our bodies being then open and resolved we receive at the pores cold together with aire in more abundance The same befalleth unto water it selfe which both sooner cooleth and groweth also colder after it hath beene once made hot for then more subject it is to the injurie of the aire considering also that even they who fling and cast up scalding water into the aire do it for no other purpose but to mingle it with much aire The opinion then of him ô Phavorinus who assigneth the first cause of cold unto aire is founded upon such reasons and probabilities as these As for him who ascribeth it unto water he laieth his ground likewise upon such principles for in this maner writeth Empedocles Beholde the Sunne how bright alwaies and hot he is beside But 〈◊〉 is ever blacke and darke and colde on every side For in opposing cold to heat as blacknesse unto brightnesse he giveth us occasion to collect and inferre that as heat and brightnesse belong to one and the same substance even so cold and blacknesse to another Now that the blacke hew proceedeth not from aire but from water the very experience of our outward senses is able to proove for nothing waxeth blacke in the aire but every thing in the water Do but cast into the water and drench therein a locke of wooll or peece of cloth be it never so white you shal when you take it foorth againe see it looke blackish and so will it continue untill by heat the moisture be fully sucked up and dried or that by the presse or some waights it be squeized out Marke the earth when there falleth a showre of raine how every place whereupon the drops fall seemes blacke and all the rest beside retaineth the same colour that it had before And even water it selfe the deeper that it is the blacker hew it hath because there is morequantity of it but contrariwise what part soever thereof is neere unto aire the same by and by is lightsome and cheerefull to the eie Consider among other liquid substances how oile is most transparent as wherein there is most aire for proofe wherof see how light it is and this is it which causeth it to swim above all other liquors as being carried aloft by the meanes of aire And that which more is it maketh a calme in the sea when it is flung and sprinkled upon the waves not in regard of the slipery smoothnesse whereby the windes do glide over it and will take no hold according as Aristotle saith but for that the waves being beaten with any humor whatsoever will spred themselves and ly even and principally by the meanes of oile which hath this speciall and peculiar property above all other liquors that it maketh clere and giveth meanes to see in the bottome of the waters for that humidity openeth and cleaveth when aire comes in place and not onely yeeldeth a cleere light within the sea to Divers who fish-ebb in the night for spunges and plucke them from the rocks whereto they cleave but also in the deepest holes thereof when they spurt it out of their mouths the aire then is no blacker than the water but lesse colde for triall heerof looke but upon oile which of all liquors having most aire in it is nothing cold at all and if it frize at all it is but gently by reason that the aire incorporate within it will not suffer it to gather and congeale hard marke worke-men also and artisanes how they doe not dippe and keepe their needles buckles and claspes or other such things made of iron in water but in oile for feare left the excessive colde of the water would marre and spoile them quite I stand the more heereupon because I thinke it more meet to debate this disputation by such proofes rather than by the colours considering that snowe haile and ice are exceeding white and cleere and withall most colde contrariwise pitch is hotter than hony and yet you see it is more darke and duskish And heere I cannot chuse but woonder at those who would needs have the aire to be colde because forsooth it is darke as also that they consider not how others take and judge it hot because it is light for tenebrositie and darknesse be not so familiar and neere cousens unto colde as ponderositie and unweldinesse be proper thereto for many things there be altogether void of heat which notwithstanding are bright and cleere but there is no colde thing light and nimble or mounting upward for clouds the more they stand upon the nature of the aire the higher they are caried and flie aloft but no sooner resolve they into a liquid nature and substance but incontinently they fall and loose their lightnesse and agilitie no lesse than their heat when colde is engendred in them contrariwise when heat commeth in place they change their motion againe to the contrary and their substance mounteth upward so soone as it is converted into aire Neither is that supposition true as touching corruption for every thing that perisheth is not transmuted into the contrary but the trueth is all things are killed and die by their contrary for so fire being quenched by fire turneth into aire And to this purpose Aeschylus the poet said truely although tragically when hee called water the punishment of fire for these be his words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The water stay which fire doth stay And Homer in a certaine battell opposed Vulcane to the river and with Neptune matched Apollo not so much by way of fabulous fiction as by physicall and naturall reason and as for 〈◊〉 a wicked woman who meant cleane contrary to that which she said and shewed wrote elegantly in this wise The
crafty queane in right hand water cold And in the left hot fire did closely hold And among the Persians the most effectuall maner of supplication and that which might in no wise be rejected and denied was if the suppliant with fire in his hand entred into a river there menaced to fling it into the water if he might not have his request granted then he obtatined verily his petitiō but afterwards punished he was for that threatning which he used as being wicked wretched unnatural And what proverbe is there readier in every mans mouth than to say when we would signify an unpossible thing This is to mingle fire and water together which testifieth thus much that water is the mortall enimy unto fire warring with it punishing quenching it and not the aire which receiveth entertaineth fire into the substance whereof it is transmuted for if that into which a thing is turned when it perisheth were contrary unto it then fire should be more contrary to aire than water is For aire when it doth gather and thicken is converted into water but when it is made more subtil it resolveth into fire as also in like case water by rarefaction is resolved into aire and by condensation becommeth earth not upon any enmity or contrariety that it hath to these both as I take it but rather by reason of some amity and kindred that is betweene them Wel whether way of these two it is that these philosophers will take they overthrow still their intent and purpose But to say that it is the aire which causeth water to frize and become yce it is without all sense and most absurd for we see that the very aire it selfe is never conglaciate nor frozen nor hardened considering that mists 〈◊〉 and clouds are no congealations but onely gatherings and thickenings of a moist and vapourous aire for the true aire indeed which hath no vapour at all and is altogether drie admitteth no such refrigeration as may alter it to that degree and heigth And certeine mountaines there be which are not subiect either to clouds mists or dewes for that their heads reach up to that region of the aire which is pure and exempt from all humidity wherby it is apparent that these gatherings and thickenings which are seene in the aire beneath proceed from cold and moisture which is mingled therewith ruuneth from elswhere As for the bottoms of great rivers which be never frozen to 〈◊〉 great reason there is of it for that the upper part being glazed over with ice 〈◊〉 not the exhalation which ariseth from beneath to passe thorow but keepeth it enclosed striketh it downward wherby is engendred a certaine heat in the water that runneth in the bottome And heereof we may see a faire demonstration in this that when the yce is broken the water riseth up and there mounteth withall a great quantity of vapours and exhalations which is the reason also that the bellies and other concavities within the bodies of living creatures are alwaies hotter in winter for that they hold and containe the heat which the coldnesse of the circumstant aire driveth inward As for the drawing flinging up of water into the aire it taketh not onely the heat away from waters but also their cold and therefore they that desire to have their snow or the liquor expressed out of it exceeding cold moove it as little as they can for this stirring chaseth away the colde both of the one and the other But that it is the inward power of the water and not of the aire that doth it a man may thus discourse and begin againe First and formost it is not probable that the aire being so neere as it is to the elementarie fire touching also as it doth that ardent revolution and being touched of it againe hath a contrary nature and power unto it neither is it possible that it should be so considering that their two extremities are contignate yea and continuate one to the other neither soundeth it and is conformable to reason that nature hath fastened with one tenon as they say and placed so neere together the killer and that which is killed the consumer and that which is consumed as if the were not the mediatresse betweene them of peace unitie and accord but rather the workmistresse of warre debate and discord For surely her order and custome is not to joine front to front substances that be altogether contrarie and open enemies one to the other but to place betweene them such as participate with the one and the other which are so seated disposed and interlaced in the middle as that they tend not to the destruction but to the association of two contraries Such a situation and region hath the aire in the world being spred under the fire and before the water for to accommodate and frame it selfe both to the one and the other and to conjoine and linke them both together being of it selfe neither hot nor colde but is as it were a medley and temperature of them both not I say a pernicious mixture but a gracious which gently enterteineth and receiveth these contrarie extremities Furthermore the aire is alwaies equall and yet the Winter is not evermore colde a little but some parts of the world be cold and exceeding moist others colde and as dry and that not casually and by fortune but for that one and the same substance is susceptable both of heat and colde For the greater part of 〈◊〉 is hot and dry altogether without water And those who have travelled through Scithia Thracia and Pontus doe report that there be exceeding great lakes therein and that those kingdoms be watered with many mighty deepe rivers also that the countries in the midst betweene and those parts which adjoyne upon those huges meres and fens be extreeme colde by reason of the vapours that arise from them As for Posidonius when he saith that the cause of that moisture is this that the fenny and morish aire is ever fresh and moist he hath not solved the question which was probable but made it more doubtfull and without probability for the aire seemed not alwaies so much colder as it is more fresh in case cold be not engendred of moisture and therefore Homer said much better The winde from river if that it hold Is 〈◊〉 bleake and blowes full cold as if he pointed with his very finger to the source and fountaine of colde Moreover our sense doth oftentimes beguile and deceive us as namely when wee touch wooll or clothes that be colde for we thinke that they be moist and wet for that there is one substance common to both these qualities and both these natures be neighbours and familiar Also in those climates of the world where the winter is extreme hard and rough the colde many times cracketh and breaketh vessels of brasse and of earth not any I meane that is voide and emptie but all full by reason
that the water by the coldnesse thereof doth violence unto them howsoever Theophrastus thinketh that it is the aire that bursteth such vessels using colde as it were a spike or great naile to doe the feat But take heed that this be not rather a prety elegant speech of his than sounding to trueth for if aire were the cause then should vessels full of pitch or milke sooner burst than other More likely it is therefore that water is colde of it selfe and 〈◊〉 for contrary it is to the heat of fire in regard of that coldnesse like as to the drinesse thereof in respect of humidity To be briefe the property of fire ingenerall is to dissipate divide and segregate but contrariwise of water to joine conglutinate unite and binde knitting and closing together by the vertue of moisture And this makes me thinke that Empedocles upon this occasion ever and anon calleth fire a pernicious debate but water a fast amity for sewell and food of fire is that which turneth into fire and every thing turneth which is most proper and familiar as for that which is contrary the same is hardly to be turned as water which of it selfe it is impossible to burne causing both greene or wet herbs as also 〈◊〉 or drenched wood hardly to take fire and so in the end with much a doe they kindle and catch fire although the same be not light and cleere but darke dimme and weake because the viridity or greenenesse by the meanes of colde fighteth against the heat as his naturall enemie Peising now and weighing these reasons conferre them with the others But for that Chrysippus esteeming the aire to be the primitive colde in that it is dimme and darke hath made mention of those onely who say that water is more distant and farther remote from the elementary fire than the aire and being desirous to say somewhat against them By the same reason quoth he may a man aswel 〈◊〉 that the earth is the said primitive cold for that it is farthest from the elementary fire rejecting this argument and reason as false and altogether absurd Me thinks that I can well shew that the earth it selfe wanteth no probable 〈◊〉 laying my foundation even upon that which Chrysippus hath taken for the aire And what is that namely because it is principally and above all things els obscure dark for if he taking two contrarieties of powers thinketh of necessitie the one must follow upon the other 〈◊〉 there be infinit oppositions and repugnances betweene the earth and the aire for the earth is not opposit unto the aire as heavy unto light nor as that which bendeth downward unto that which tendeth upward onely nor as massie unto rare or slow and stedfast unto quicke and mooveable but as most heavy unto most light most massie unto most rare and finally as immooveable in it selfe unto that which mooveth of it selfe or as that which holdeth still the center in the mids unto that which turneth continually round Were it not then very absurd to say that upon so many and those so great oppositions this also of heat and cold did not likewise jointly follow Yes verily but fire is cleere and bright and earth darke nay rather it is the darkest of all things in the world and most without light for aire is that which doth participate of the first light brightnesse which soonest of all other burneth being also once full thereof it distributeth that light every where exhibiting it selfe as the very body of light for as one of the Dithyrambick poets said No sooner doth the sunne appeere In our horizon faire and cleere But with his light the pallace great Of 〈◊〉 and windes is all repleat And then anon it descendeth lower and imparteth one portion thereof to the lakes and to the sea the very bottomes of the rivers doe rejoice and laugh for joy so farre foorth as the aire 〈◊〉 and entreth into them the earth onely of all other bodies is evermore destitute of light and not 〈◊〉 with the radiant beames of sunne and moone well may it be warmed a little and present it selfe to be fomented with the heat of the sunne which entreth a little way into it but surely the solidity of it will not admit the resplendent light thereof onely it is superficially illuminated by the sunne for all the bowels and inward parts of it be called Orphne Chaos and Ades that is to say darkenesse confusion and hell it selfe and as for Erebus it is nothing else to say a truth but terrestriall obscurity and mirke darknesse within the earth The poets seigne the night to be the daughter of the earth and the mathematicians by reason and demonstration proove that it is no other thing than the shadow of the earth opposed against the sunne for the aire as it is full of darknesse from the earth so it is replenished with light from the sunne and looke how much of the aire is not lightned nor illuminate to wit all the shadow that the earth casteth so long is the night more or lesse and therefore both man and beast make much use of the aire without their houses although it be night season and as for beasts many of them goe to reliefe and pasturage in the night because the aire hath yet some reliques and traces left of light and a certeine influence of brightnesse dispersed heere and there but he that is enclosed within house and covered with the roufe thereof is as it were blinde and full of darknesse as one environed round about within the earth and verily the hides and hornes of beasts so long as they bee hole and sound transmit no light through them let them be cut sawed pared and scraped they become transparent because aire is admitted into them And I thinke truely that the poets eftsoones heereupon call the earth blacke meaning thereby darke and without light so that the most important and principall opposition between cleere and darke is found rather in the earth than in the aire But this is impertinent to our question in hand for we have shewed already that there be many cleere things which are knowen to be cold and as many browne and darke which be hot But there be other qualities and pussances more proper unto colde namely ponderositie steadinesse soliditie immutability of which the aire hath not so much as one but the earth in part hath them all more than the water Furthermore it may be saide that colde is that which most sensibly is hard as making things stiffe and hard for Theophrastus writeth that those 〈◊〉 which be frozen with extreme rigour of colde if they be let fal upon the ground breake and knap in pieces no lesse than glasses or earthen vessels and your selfe have heard at Delphi of those who passed over the hill Pernassus to succour and relieve the women called 〈◊〉 who were surprized with a sharpe pinching winde and drifts of snow that their cloakes and mantels through
extremity of colde were as starke and stiffe as pieces of wood insomuch as they brake and rent into 〈◊〉 so soone as they went about to stretch them out To say yet more excessive colde causeth the sinewes to be so stiffe as hardly they will bend the tongue likewise so 〈◊〉 that it will not stirre or utter any voice congealing the moist soft and 〈◊〉 parts of the body which being 〈◊〉 by daily experience they proceed to gather this consequence Every power and facultie which getteth the maistrie is woont to turne and convert into it selfe that over which it is predominant whatsoever is overcome by heat becommeth fire that which is conquered by spirit or winde changeth into aire what falleth into water if it get not foorth againe dissolveth and in the end runneth to water Then must it needs follow that such things as are exceeding colde degenerate into that primitive colde whereof we speake now excessive colde is first and the greatest alteration that can be devised by colde is when a thing is congealed made an ice which congelation altereth the nature of the thing so much that in the end it becommeth as hard as a stone namely when the cold is so predominant as well all the moisture of it is congealed as the heat that it had driven out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is that the earth toward her center and in the bottom thereof is frozen altogether and in maner nothing else but ice for that the excessive colde which never will yeeld and 〈◊〉 there dwelleth and 〈◊〉 continually as being thrust and driven into that corner farthest off from the elementary fire As touching those rocks cragges and cliffes which we see to appeere out of the earth Empedocles is of opinion that they were there set driven up susteined supported by the violence of a certeine boiling and swelling fire within the bowels of the earth but it should seeme rather that those things out of which all the heat is evaporate and slowen away be congealed and conglaciat so hard by the meanes of colde and this is the cause that such cragges be named in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as one would say congealed toward the head and toppe whereof a man shall see in them many places blacke againe namely whereas the heat flew out when the time was so as to see to one would imagine that they had heeretofore beene burnt for the nature of colde is to congeale all things but some more others lesle but above all those in which it is naturally at the first inhaerent for like as the property of fire is to alleviate it cannot otherwise be but the hotter that a thing is the more light also it is and so the nature of moisture is to soften insomuch as the moister any thing is the softer also it is found to be semblably given it is to colde to astringe and congeale it followeth therefore of necessity that whatsoever is most astrict and congealed as is the earth is likewise the coldest and looke what is colde in the highest degree the same must be principally and naturally that colde whereof we are in question And thereupon we must conclude that the earth is 〈◊〉 by nature colde and also that primitive colde a thing apparent and evident to our very sense for dirt and clay is colder than water and when a man would quickly suffocate and put out a fire he throweth earth upon it Blacke-smithes also and such as forge iron when they see it redde hot and at the point to melt they strew upon it small powder or grit of marble or other stones that have fallen from them when they were squared and wrought for to keepe it from resolving too much and to coole the excessive heat the very dust also that is used to bee throwen upon the bodies of wrestlers doth coole them and represse their sweats Moreover to speake of the commodity that causeth us every 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 and change our lodgings what is the meaning of it winter maketh us to seeke for high lofts and such chambers as be 〈◊〉 from the earth contrariwise summer bringeth us downe to the halles and parlours beneath driving us to seeke retiring roomes and willingly we love to live in vaults within the bosome of the earth doe we not thus thinke you directed by the instinct of nature to seeke out acknowledge that which is naturally the primitive colde and therefore when winter comes we lay for houses and habitations neere the sea side that is to say we flie from the earth as much as we can because of colde and we compasse ourselves with the aire of the sea for that it is hot contrariwise in summer time by reason of immoderate heat we covet mediterranean places farther within the land and farre remooved from the sea not for that the aire of it selfe is colde but because it seemeth to spring and budde as it were out of the primitive colde and to have a tincture as I may so say after the maner of iron from the power which is in the earth and verily among running waters those that arise out of rocks and descend from mountaines are evermore coldest but if 〈◊〉 and pittes such as be deepest yeeld the coldest waters for by reason of their profunditie the aire from without is not mingled with these and the others passe thorough pure and sincere earth without the mixture of aire among As for example such is the water neere the cape of Taenarus which they call Styx destilling by little and little out of the rocke and so gathered unto an head which water is so extreeme colde that there is no vessell in the world will holde it but onely that which is made of an asses hoofe for put it into any other it cleaveth and breaketh it Moreover we heare physicians say that to speake generally all kinds of earth do restraine and coole and they reckon unto us a number of minerals drawen out of entrails of the earth which in the use of physicke yeeld unto them an astringent and binding power for the very element it selfe from whence they come is nothing incisive nor hath the vertue for to stirre and extenuate it is not active and quicke not emollitive nor apt to spread but firme steadfast and permanent as a square cube or die and not to be removed whereupon being massie and ponderous as it is the colde also thereof having a power to condensate constipate and to expresse forth all humors 〈◊〉 by the asperity and inequalitie of the parts shakings horrors and quakings in our bodies and if it prevaile more and be predominant so that the heat be driven out quite and extinct it imprinteth an habitude of congealation and dead stupefaction And hereupon it is that the earth either will not burne at all or els hardly and by little and little whereas the aire manytimes of it selfe sendeth forth flaming fire it shooteth and floweth yea and seemeth as inflamed to lighten and flash
and the humiditie which it hath serveth to feed and nourish the heat thereof For it is not the solide part of wood that burneth but the oleous moisture thereof which if it be once evaporate and spent the solide substance remaineth drie and is nothing els but ashes As for those who labour and endevour to shew by demostration that the same also is changed and consumed for which purpose they sprinckle it estsoones with oile or temper it with greace and so put it into the fire againe prevaile nothing at all for when the fattie and uncteous substance is burnt there remaine still evermore behinde the terrestriall parts And therefore earth being not onely immooveable in respect of situation but also immutable in regard of the very substance the ancient called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say vesta standing as it were sure and stedfast within the habitation of the gods of which steadinesse and congealation the bond and linke is cold as Archilochus the Naturallist said And nothing is there able to relax or mollifie it after it hath once bene baked in the fire or hardened against the Sun As touching those who say that they feele very sensibly the winde and the water colde but the earth not so well surely these do consider this earth here which is next unto us and is no other thing in trueth than a mixture and composition of aire water sunne and heat and me thinks this is all one as if a man should say that the elementarie fire is not the primitive and originall heat but rather scalding water or an iron red hot in the fire for that in trueth there is no touching of these or comming neere unto them as also that of the said pure and celestiall fire they have no sensible experience nor knowledge by feeling no more than they have of the earth which is about the center which we may imagine to be true pure and naturall earth as most remote and farthest separate from all other howbeit wee may have some guesse and token thereof by these rockes heere with us which from their profunditie send forth a vehement colde which is in maner intolerable And they likewise who desire to drinke their water passing colde use to throw pibble stones into it which thereby commeth to be more colde sharpe and piercing by occasion of the great and fresh colde that ariseth from the said stones And therefore we ought thus to thinke that when our ancients those deepe clearks and great scholars I meane thought there could be no mixture of earthly things with heavenly they never looked to places high or low as if they hung in the scales of a ballance but unto the difference and diversitie of their powers attributing the qualities of heat cleerenesse agilitie celeritie and lightnesse unto that immortall and eternall nature but colde darknesse and tarditie they assigned as the unhappie lot and wretched portion of those infernall wights that are dead and perished For the very bodie of a creature all while that it doth breathe and flourish in verdure as the Poets say hath life and heat but so soone as it is destitute of these and left in the onely portion and possession of the earth it presently becommeth stiffe and colde as if heat were in any other body naturally rather than in that which is terrestriall Compare now good sir Phavorinus these arguments with the reasons of other men and if you finde that they neither yeeld in probabilitie nor over-way them much bid all opinions and the stiffe mainteining of them farewell and thinke that to forbeare resolution and to holde off in matters obscure and uncerteine is the part of the wisest philosopher rather than to settle his judgement and assent to one or other NATVRALL QVESTIONS The Summarie THis collection of divers questions taken out of Naturall philosophie and resolved by the authour according to the doctrine of Naturalists being so cleerely distinguished by it selfe requireth no long deduction for that at the very first sight ech question may sufficiently 〈◊〉 understood NATVRALL QVESTIONS 1 What is the cause that sea water nourisheth no trees IS it for the same reason that it nourisheth no land-creatures for that a plant according to the opinions of Plato Anaxagoras and Democritus is a living creature of the land For say that it serves for food to plants growing within the sea as also to fishes and is to them their drinke yet we must not inferre thereupon that it feedeth trees that be without the sea and upon the land for neither can it pierce downe to their rootes it is so grosse nor rise up in the nature of sappe it is so heavy That it is grosse heavy and terrestriall appeereth by many other reasons and by this especially for that it beareth up and susteineth both vessels and swimmers more than any other Or is it principally for this that whereas nothing is more offensive and hurtfull to trees than drinesse the water of the sea is very 〈◊〉 which is the reason that salt withstandeth putrifaction so much as it doth and why the bodies of those who are washed in the sea have incontinently their skin exeeding dry and rugged Or rather may it not be for that oile is naturally an enimy to all plants causing as many of them as are rubbed or anointed therewith to die Now the sea water standeth much upon a kinde of sartinesse and is very uncteous in such sort that it will both kindle and also increase fire and therefore we give warning and forbid to throw sea water into flaming fire Or is it because the water of the sea is bitter and not potable by reason as Aristotle saith of the burnt earth that is mixed with it like as lie which is made by casting fresh water aloft upon ashes for the running and passing through the said ashes marreth that sweet and potable quality of the water as also within our bodies the unnaturall heats of an ague turne 〈◊〉 into cholar As for those plants woods or trees which are said to grow within the red sea if they doe certeinly they beare no fruit but nourished they are by the fresh rivers which bring in with them a deale of mud an argument heereof is this for that such grow not farre within the sea but neere unto the land 2 What might the reason be that trees and seeds are nourished better with raine than any other water that they can be watered withall IS it for that raine as it falleth by the dint that it maketh openeth the ground and causeth litle holes whereby it pierceth to the rootes as Laetus saith Or is this untrue and Laetus was ignorant heereof namely that morish plants and such as grow in pooles as the reed mace canes and rushes will not thrive if they want their kinde raines in due season But true is that which Aristotle saith That the raine water is all fresh and new made whereas that of meeres and lakes is old and
springeth and groweth to be such semblably the matter void of forme and indeterminate having once bene shapen by the soule which was within received such a forme and disposition 4 What is the reason that whereas there be bodies and figures some consisting of right lines and others of circular he hath taken for the foundation and beginning of those which stand of right lines the triangle Isosceles with two equall sides and scalenum with three sides all unequall Of which the triangle with two even legs composed the cube or square bodie which is the element and principle of the earth and the triangle with three unequall legs made the pyramidall body as also octaedron with eight faces and cosaedron with twenty faces whereof the first is the element and seed of fire the second of aire and the third of water and yet he hath over passed quite all bodies and figures circular notwithstanding that he made mention of the sphaericall figure or round body when he said that every one of those figures above named is apt to divide a globe or sphaericall body into equall parts IS it as some doe imagine and suppose because he attributed the Dodecaedron that is to say the body with twelve faces unto the globe or round sphaere in saying that God made use of this forme and figure in the framing of the world for in regard of the multitude of elements and bluntnesse of angles it is farthest off from direct and right lines whereby it is flexible and by stretching foorth round in maner of a ball made of twelve pieces of leather it approcheth neerest unto roundnesse and in that regard is of greatest capacitie for it conteined twenty angles solid and every one of them is comprized and environed within three flatte obtuse or blunt angles considering that every of them is composed of one right and fift part moreover compact it is and composed of twelve pentagones that is to say bodies with five angles having their angles and sides equall of which every one of thirty principall triangles with three unequall legges by reason whereof it seemeth that he followed the degrees of the Zodiacke and the daies of the yeere together in that division of their parts so equal and just in number Or may not this be the reason that by nature the right goeth before the round or rather to speake more truely that a circular line seemeth to be some vicious passion or faulty qualitie of the right for we use ordinarily to say that the right line doth bow or bend and a circle is drawen and described by the center and the distance from it to the circumference which is the verie place of the right line by which it is measured out for the circumference is on every side equally distant from the center Moreover the Conus which is a round pyramys and the Cylindre which is as it were a round columne or pillar of equall compasse are both made of figures with direct lines the one to wit the Conus by a triangle whereof one side remaineth firme and the other with the base goeth round about it the Cylindre when the same befalleth to a parallell Moreover that which is lesse commeth neerest unto the beginning and resembleth it most but the least and simplest of all lines is the right for of the round line that part which is within doth crooke and curbe hollow the other without doth bumpe and bunch Over and besides numbers are before figures for unity is before a pricke seeing that a pricke is in position and situation an unity but an unity is triangular for that every number triangular eight times repeated or multiplied by addition of an unity becommeth quadrangular and the same also befalleth to unity and therefore a triangle is before a circle which being so the right line goeth before the circular Moreover an element is never divided into that which is composed of it but contrariwise every thing else is divided and resolved into the owne elements whereof it doth consist If then the triangle is not resolved into any thing circular but contrariwise two diametres crossing one another part a circle just into fower parts then we must needs inferre the figure consisting of right lines went before those which are circular now that the right line goeth first and the circular doth succeed and follow after Plato himselfe hath shewed by demonstration namely when hee saith that the earth is composed of many cubes or square solid bodies whereof every one is enclosed and conteined with right lined superfices in such maner disposed as yet the whole body and masse of the earth seemeth round like a globe so that we need not to make any proper element thereof round if it be so that bodies with right lines conjoined and set in some sort one to another bringeth forth this forme Over and besides the direct line be it little or be it great keepeth alwaies the same rectitude whereas contrariwise we see the circumferences of circles if they be small are more coping bending and contracted in their outward curvature conrrariwise if they be great they are more extent lax and spred insomuch as they that stand by the outward circumference of circles lying upon a flat superfices touch the same underneath partly by a pricke if they be smal and in part by a line if they be large so as a man may very well conjecture that many right lines joined one to another taile to taile by piece-meale produce the circumference of a circle But consider whether there be none of these our circular or sphaericall figures exquisitely and exactly perfect but in regard of the extentions and circumtentions of right lines or by reason of the exilitie and smalnesse of the parts there can be perceived no difference and thereupon there sheweth a circular and round figure And therefore it is that there is not a bodie heere that by by nature doth moove circularly but all according to the right line so that the round and sphericall figure is not the element of a sensible body but of the soule and understanding unto which he attributeth likewise the circular motion as belonging unto them naturally 5 In what sense and meaning delivered he this speech in his booke entituled Phaedrus that the nature of a wing where by that which is heavy and ponderous is caried up aloft of all other things that belong unto a body hath a certeine communion and participation with God IS it because he discourseth there of love and love is occupied about the beauty of the body and this beauty for the resemblance that it hath to divinity doth moove the minde and excite the reminiscence thereof Or rather are we to take it simply without curious searching farther into any mystery thereof namely that the soule being within the body hath many faculties powers whereof that which is the discourse of reason and understanding doth participate with the deitie which hee not unproperly and impertinently tearmeth a
out of water having earth under it there ex haleth aire which aire comming to be subtilized the fire is produced and environeth it round about as for the stars they are set on fire out of these together with the sunne what is more contrary than to be set on fire and to be cooled what more opposite to subtilization and rarefaction than inspissation and condensation the one maketh water and earth of fire and aire the other turneth that which is moist and terrestriall into fire and aire And yet in one place he maketh kindling of fire and in another refrigeration to bee the cause of quickning and giving soule unto a thing for when the said firing and inflammation comes generall throughout then it liveth and is become an annimall creature but after it commeth to be quenched and thickned it turneth into water and earth and so into a corporall substance In the first booke of Providence he writeth thus For the world being throughout on fire presently it is with all the soule and governour of it selfe but when it is turned into moisture and the soule left within it and is after a sort converted into a soule and body so as it seemeth compounded of them both then the case is altered In which text he affirmeth plainly that the very inanimat parts of the world by exustion and inflammation turne and change into the soule thereof and contrariwise by extinction the soule is relaxed and moistned againe and so returneth into a corporall nature Heereupon I inferre that he is very absurd one while to make of senselesse things animat and living by way of refrigeration and another while to transmure the most part of the soule of the world into insensible and inanimat things But over and above all this the discourse which he maketh as touching the generation of the soule conteineth a proofe demonstration contrary to his owne opinion for he saith That the soule is engendred after that the infant is gone out of the mothers wombe for that the spirit then is transformed by refrigeration even as the temper is gotten of steele Now to prove that the soule is engendred and that after the birth of the infant hee bringeth this for a principall argument Because children become like unto their parents in behaviour and naturall inclination wherein the contrariety that he delivereth is so evident as that a man may see it by the very eie for it is not possible that the soule which is engendred after birth should be framed to the maners and disposition of the parents before nativity or else we must say and fall out it will that the soule before it was in esse was already like unto a soule which is all one as that it was by similitude and resemblance and yet was not because as yet it had not a reall substance Now if any one doe say that it ariseth from the temperature and complexion of the bodies that this similitude is imprinted in them howbeit when the soules are once engendred they become changed he shall overthrow the argument and proofe whereby it is shewed that the soule was engendred for heereupon it would follow that the soule although it were ingenerable when it entreth from without into the body is changed by the temperature of the like Chrysippus sometime saith that the aire is light that it mounteth upward on high and otherwhiles for it againe that it is neither heavy nor light To prove this see what he saith in his second booke of Motion namely that fire having in it no ponderosity at all ascendeth aloft semblably the aire and as the water is more conformable to the earth so the aire doth rather resemble the fire But in his booke entituled Naturall arts he bendeth to the contrary opinion to wit that the aire hath neither ponderosity nor lightnesse of it selfe He affirmeth that the aire by nature is darke and for that cause by consequence it is also the primitive cold and that tenebrosity or darknesse is directly opposite unto light and cleerenesse and the coldnesse thereof to the heat of fire Mooving this discourse in the first booke of his Naturall questions contrary to all this in his treatise of Habitudes he saith That these habitudes be nothing else but aires For that bodies quoth he be 〈◊〉 by them and the cause why every body conteined by any habitude is such as it is is the continent aire which in iron is called hardnesse in stone spissitude or thicknesse in silver whitenesse in which words there is great contrariety and as much false absurditie for if this aire remaine the same still as it is in the owne nature how commeth blacke in that which is not white to be called whitenesse softnesse in that which is not hard to be named hardnesse or rare in that which is not solide and massie to be called solidity But in case it be said that by mixture therein it is altered and so becommeth semblable how then can it be an habitude a faculty power or cause of these effects whereby it selfe is brought under and subdued for that were to suffer rather than to doe and this alteration is not of a nature conteining but of a languishing impotencie whereby it loseth all the properties and qualities of the owne and yet in every place they hold that matter of it selfe idle and without motion is subject and exposed to the receit of qualities which qualities are spirits and those powers of the aire which into what parts soever of the matter they get and insinuate themselves doe give a forme and imprint a figure into them But how can they mainteine this supposing as they do the aire to be such as they say it is for if it be an habitude and power it will conforme and shape unto it selfe every body so as it will make the same both blacke and soft but if by being mixed and contempered with them it take formes contrary unto those which it hath by nature it followeth then that it is the matter of matter and neither the habitude cause nor power thereof Chrysippus hath written often times that without the world there is an infinit voidnesse and that this infinitie hath neither beginning middle nor end And this is the principall reason whereby they resute that motion downward of the 〈◊〉 by themselves which Epicurus hath brought in for in that which is infinit there are no locall differences whereby a man may understand or specifie either high or low But in the fourth booke of Things possible he supposeth a certeine middle space and meane place betweene wherein he saith the world is founded The very text where he affirmeth this runneth in these words And therefore we must say of the world that it is corruptible and although it be very hard to proove it yet me thinks rather it should be so than otherwise Neverthelesse this maketh much to the inducing of us to beleeve that it hath a certeine incorruptibility if I may
a singular good grace his pregnant wit and quicke conceit ministreth unto him matter to contradict and to propose doubts howbeit the same is not bitter and odious in his propositions nor leavened with any overthwart frowardnesse and perverse stubburnesse in his answers in such sort as a man having beene but a little acquainted with him would soone say of him Certes a lewd man and a bad He never for his father had For you know well I suppose Diogenianus the best man one of them in the world BASILOCLES I know him not my selfe Philinus howbeit many there be who report as much of this yong man But upon what occasion or cause began your discourse and disputation PHILINUS Those who were our guides conversant and exercised in the reading of histories rehearsed and read from one end to the other all those compositions which they had written without any regard of that which we requested them namely to epitomize and abridge those narrations and most part of the Epigrams As for the stranger he tooke much pleasure to see and view those faire statues so many in number and so artificially wrought But he admired most of all the fresh brightnesse of the brasse being such as shewed no filth nor rust that it had gathered but caried the glosse and resplendent hew of azur so as he seemed to be ravished and astonied when he beheld the statues of the amirals and captaines at sea for at them he began as representing naturally in their tincture and colour as they stood sea men and sailers in the very maine deepe sea Whereupon Had the ancient workmen quoth he a certaine mixture by themselves and a temper of their brasse that might give such a tincture to their works for as touching the Corinthian brasse which is so much renowmed it is thought generally and so given out that it was by meere adventure and chaunce that it tooke this goodly colour and not by any art by occasion that the fire caught an house wherein there was laid up some little gold and silver but a great quantitie of brasse which mettals being melted together so confused one with another the whole masse thereof was stil called brasse because there was more thereof in it than of the other mettals Then Theon We have heard quoth he another reason more subtile than this namely that when a certeine brasse founder or coppersmith in Corinth had met with a casket or coffer wherein was good store of golde fearing lest hee should be discovered and this treasure found in his hands he clipped it by little and little melted and mixed it gently with his brasse which tooke thereupon such an excellent and woonderfull temperature that he solde the pieces of worke thereof made passing deere in regard of their dainty colour and lovely beauty which every man set much by and esteemed But both this and the other is but a lying tale for by all likelihood this Corinthian brasse was a certeine mixture and temperature of mettals so prepared by art like as at this day artisans by tempring gold and silver together make thereof a certeine singular and exquisite pale yellow by it selfe howbeit in mine eie the same is but a wanne and sickly colour and a corrupt hue without any beautie in the world What other cause then might there be quoth Diogenianus as you thinke that this brasse heere hath such a tincture To whom Theon made this answere Considering quoth he that of these primative elements and most naturall bodies that are and ever shall be to wit fire aire water and earth there is not one which approcheth or toucheth these brasse works but aire onely it must of necessitie be that it is the aire which doeth the deed and by reason of this aire lying alwaies close upon them and never parting therefro commeth this difference that they have from all others Or rather this is a thing notoriously knowen of old even before Theognis was borne as said the comicall Poet. But would you know by what speciall propertie and vertue the aire should by touching set such a colour upon brasse Yes very faine answered Diogenianus Certes so would I to my sonne quoth Theon let us therefore search into the thing both together in common and first of all if you please what is the cause that oile filleth it full of rust more than all other liquor whatsoever for surely it cannot be truely said that oile of it selfe setteth the said rust upon it considering it is pure and neat not polluted with any filth when it commeth to it No verily quoth the yoong man and there seemeth to be some other cause else beside the oile for the rust meeting with oile which is subtile pure and transparent appeareth most evidently whereas in all other liquors it maketh no shew nor is seene at all Well said my sonne quoth Theon and like a Philosopher but consider if you thinke so good of that reason which Aristotle alledgeth Mary that I will quoth he againe Why then I will tell it you quoth Theon Aristotle saith that the rust of brasse lighting upon other liquors pierceth insensibly and is dispersed through them being of a rare substance and unequall parts not abiding close together but by reason of the compact and fast soliditie of oile the said rust is kept in and abideth thrust and united together Now then if we also of our selves were able to presuppose such a thing we should not altogether want some meanes to charme as it were and allay somewhat this doubt of ours And when we had allowed very well of his speech and requested him to say on and prosecute the same he said That the aire in the citie of Delphos was thicke fast strong and vehement withall by reason of the reflexion and repercussion of the mountaines round about it and besides mordicative as witnesseth the speedie concoction of meat that it causeth Now this aire by reason of the subtilty and incisive qualitie thereof piercing into the brasse and cutting it forceth out of it a deale of rust and skaleth as it were much terrestrial substance from it the which it restreineth afterwards and keepeth in for that the densitie and thicknesse of the aire giveth it no issue thus this rust being staied remaining still gathering also a substance by occasion of the quantity thereof putteth foorth this floure as it were of colour and there within the superficies contracteth a resplendent and shining hew This reason of his we approoved very well but the stranger said that one of those suppositions alone was sufficient to make good the reason For that subtility quoth he seemeth to be somewhat contrary unto the spissitude and thicknesse supposed in the aire and therefore it is not necessarie to make any supposall thereof for brasse of it selfe as it waxeth old in tract of time exhaleth and putteth foorth this rust which the thicknesse of the aire comming upon keepeth in and doeth so incrassate as that through the
situate in their naturall seats as it is meet and appertaineth and each of those worlds shall have superior inferiour circular and a centre in the midst not in regard of another world nor of that which is without but in it selfe and in respect of it selfe And as for the supposition which some make of a stone without the world it cannot be imagined how possibly it should either rest or moove for how can it hang still seeing it is ponderous and waighty or moove toward the midst of the world as other heavy bodies considering it is neither part of it nor counted in the substance thereof As concerning that earth which is contained in another world and fast bound we need not to make doubt and question how it should not fall downe hither by reason of the wieght not be plucked away from the whole seeing as we doe that it hath a naturall strength to containe every part thereof For if we shall take high and low not within and in respect of the world but without forth we shall be driven unto the same difficulties and distresses which Epicurus is fallen into who maketh his little Atomes or indivisible bodies to move and tend toward those places which are under foot as if either his voidnesse had feet or the infinity which he speaketh of permit a man to imagine either high or low And therefore some cause there is to marvell at Chrysippus or rather to enquire and demand what fansie hath come into his head and mooved him to say that this world is seated and placed directly in the midst and that the substance thereof from all 〈◊〉 having taken up and occupied the place of the midst yet neverthelesse it is so compact and tied together that it endureth alwaies and is as one would say immortalized for so much hath he written in his fourth booke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Of possible things dreaming to no purpose of a middle place in that vast 〈◊〉 and yet more absurdly attributing unto that middle which is not nor hath any subsistence the cause of the worlds continuance and stabilitie especially having written thus much many times in other places that the substance is governed and mainteined partly by the motions tending to the mids and partly by others from the mids of it As for other oppositions besides that the Stoicks make who is there that feareth them as namely when they demand How it is possible to mainteine one fatall necessity and one divine providence and how it can otherwise be but that there should be many DIES and ZENES that is to say Joves and Jupiters if we grant that there be many worlds For to begin withall if it be an inconvenience to allow many such Joves and Jupiters their opinions verily be farre more absurd for they devise an infinit sort of Sunnes Moones Apolloes Dianaes and Neptunes in innumerable conversions revolutions of worlds Moreover what necessitie is there to enforce us to avow many Jupiters if there be many worlds and not rather in every of them a severall god as a sovereigne governor and ruler of the whole furnished with all understanding and reason as he whom we surname the Lord and Father of all things Or what should hinder but that all worlds might be subject to the providence destiny of Jupiter and he reciprocally have an eie to oversee all to direct digest and conduct all in ministring unto them the principles beginnings seeds and reasons of all things that are done and made For it being so that we do see even here many times a bodie composed of many other distinct bodies as for example the assembly or congregation of a city an armie and a daunce in every one of which bodies there is life prudence and intelligence as Chrysippus thinketh impossible it is not likewise that in this universall nature there should be ten fifty yea and a hundred worlds using all one and the same reason and correspondent to one beginning But contrariwise this order and disposition is best beseeming the gods For we ought not to make the gods like unto the kings of a swarme of bees which go not forth but keepe within the hive nor to holde them enclosed and imprisoned as it were rather and shut up fast within Matter as these men do who would have the gods to be certeine habitudes or dispositions of the aire and supposing them to be powers of waters and of fire infused and mixed within make them to arise and be engendred together with the world and so afterwards to be burnt likewise with it not allowing them to be loose and at libertie like as coatch-men and pilots are but in maner of statues or images are set fast unto their bases with nailes and sodered with lead even so they enclose the gods within bodily matter and pin them hard thereto so as being jointed as it were sure unto it they participate therewith all changes and alterations even to finall corruption and dissolution Yet is this opinion fare more grave religious and magnificent in my conceit to holde that the gods be of themselves free and without all command of any other power And like as they firy light Castor and Pollux succour those who are tossed in a tempest and by their comming and presence Allay the surging waves of sea below And still the blustring winds aloft that blow and not sailing themselves nor partaking the same perils with the mariners but onely appearing in the aire above save those that were in danger even so the gods for their pleasure goe from one world to another to visit them and together with nature rule and governe every one of them For Jupiter verily in Homer cast not his eies far from the city of Troy either into Thracia or the Nomades and vagrant Scythians along the river Ister or Daunbie but the true Jupiter indeed hath many faire passages goodly changes beseeming his majesty out of one world into another neither looking into the infinit voidnesse without nor beholding himselfe and nothing els as some have thought but considering the deeds of men and of gods the motions also and revolutions of the starres in their sphaeres For surely the deity is not offended with variety nor hateth mutations but taketh much pleasure therein as a man may guesse by the circuitions conversions and changes which appeare in the heaven I conclude therefore that the infinitie of worlds is a very senselesse and false conceit such as in no wise will beare and admit any god but emploieth fortune and chance in the managing of all things but contrariwise the administration and providence of a certeine quantity and determinate number of worlds seemeth unto me neither in majestie and worthinesse inferior nor in travell more laborious than that which is emploied and restreined to the direction of one alone which is transformed renewed and metamorphozed as it were an infinit sort of times After I had delivered this speech I
morning 1318.40 Rue growing neere unto a fig tree is not so strong sented 723.30 Rue why called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greeke 684.1 Rubbings or frictions which be good for students 619.30 Rulers ought not to dispend above their living and abilitie 378.1 Rulers ought to live warily and without note 350.50 how they may helpe and advaunce their friends 361.20 how they ought to cary themselves toward their companions in governement 370.20.30 Rulers ought not to be over-precise 472.40 Rulers must banish from themselves avarice 374.40 they ought to bee voide of ambition 374.50 Ruma 632.40 Rumina a goddesse at Rome 870.10 Rusticus his gravity 142.143 Rust of brasse how caused 1187.30 Rutilius a prowde usurer reproved he is by Musonius 286.10 ib. S SAbbats feast of the Jewes 712.20 Sabbat whereof it commeth 712.20 Sabine maidens ravished 861.20 Sabinus the husband of Empona 1157.20 Saboi ib. Sacadas an ancient Poet and musician 1251.20 Sacred fish 976.10 Sacrificing of children 268.1.10 Sacrificing of men and women 268.1 Sacrifice how to be observed at the Oracle at Delphi 1347.10.1349.1.10 Sacriledge strangely detected by the offender himselfe 201.40 Saffron chaplets what use they have 684.20 Sages in olde time accounted seven were in trueth but five 1354.10 Sailers and sea men love to discourse of the sea 662.50 Salaminia a ship 364.30 Salmatica beseeged by Anniball 489.50 Salt highly commended 709.10 provoketh appetite to meate and drinke 709.30 about Salt and Cumin a proverbe 727.40 Salt-fish washed in sea water is the fresher and sweeter 658.30 of Savours onely the Saltish is not found in fruits 1005.10 Salts called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 728.10 Salt why so highly honored 727.40 it provoketh wanton lust 728.1 why called divine 728.10 Salt why given to beasts 1004.20 Salt procureth appetite to food ib. it maintaineth health ib. 30. it abateth corpulency ib. it mooveth to generation ib. the SAME 1031. Sambicus a miserable man 902.30 Sanctus a god at Rome 861.1 Saosis Queene of Byblos in Aegypt 1293.40 Sapience what it is 68.1.804.30 Sapphoes fits in love 1147.50 Sapphoes verses 759.1.1148.1 Sarapis who he was 1298.20 Serapis or Sarapis the same that Pluto 1298.40 Sarapis from whence it is derived 1299 1 Sardanapalus his epitaph 310.1.1269.1 Sardanapalus an effeminate person advanced by fortune 1264.30 the epigram over his statue 1276.20 Sardians port sale 868.40.50 to Saturne the Romans sacrificed bare headed 854.20 Saturne kept in prison by Jupiter 1180.20 Saturne counted a terrestriall or subterranean god 854.30 Saturne the father of verity 854.30 Saturnes reigne ib. 40 the Island of Saturne 1181.1 Saturnalia solemnized in December 862.20 Saturnes temple the treasury at Rome 865.20 the arches for records 865. 20. in his raigne there was justice and peace ib. why portraied with a sickle in his hand ib. Saturne supposed to cut the privy members of Coelum or Ouranos 〈◊〉 Saturne a stranger in Italy 865.50 in Saturnes temple embassadors are regestred 865.50 Saturne kept prisoner asleepe by Briareus 1332.20 Sauces provoking appetite are to be avoided 614.10 Scalenon 1020.30 Scamander 901.1 Scammonie a violent purgative 623.50 Scaurus his uprightnesse shewed to Domitius his enimy 243.40 Scaurus 〈◊〉 trecherie even toward his enimy 243.40 Scedasus his lamentable historie and of his daughters 946. 10 his daughters defloured 946.20 murdered ib. 20. his death and his daughters murder revenged 947.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what it is 785.20 a Scelet presented at Aegyptian feasts 328.30.1294.10 Schema in dancing 800.1 a Scholasticall life 1058.1 Scilurus and his 80 sonnes 103.40 Scilurus perswadeth his children to unity 405.30 Scolia certaine songs 645. 10. sung at feasts 1257.1 Scipio not well thought of for leaving out Mummius at a feast 370.30 why blamed otherwise 297.20 blamed for loving his bed to well ib. 351.1 Scipio the elder his apophthegmes 529.50 a great student ib. accused judicially before the people 530.40 his maner of plea. ib. Scipio the yonger his apophthegmes 433. 50. his commendation 434.10 Scipio used the advise of Laelius 400.50 not blamed in praising himselfe 303.40 Scipio Nasica his saying of the 〈◊〉 state 239.20 Sea what it is 832. 1. how it commeth to be salt or brackish ib. Sea commodious to mans life 778.50 Sea aire most agrecable to us 709.40 Sea accounted a fifth element 990. 40. what commodities it affoordeth to man-kind 990.50 sea-Sea-water nourisheth no trees 1003.1.10 Sea-water hotter by agitation contrary to other waters 1006.20 naturally hot ib. 30. lesse brackish in winter than in summer ib. why it is put into vessels with wine ib. Sea sickenesse how it commeth 1007.10 Sea why the Aegyptians doe detest 1300.20 Sea-gods faigned to be the fathers of many children 728.50 Sea Salt Sea-fish and Sailers odious to the Aegyptians 778. 40 Seaven the sacred number and the commendation thereof 1361.1 Secrecie of K. Antigonus and Metellus 197.30 Secrecie of K. Eumenes and his stratageme wrought thereby 197.40 Secrets revealed the cause of much ruine 195.40 Section of bodies 814.30 Seditions how to be prevented and appeased 386.40 Sedition dangerous at Delphi 381.10 Sedition at Syracusa 381.10 Sedition at Sardis ib. 20 Seed falling upon oxe hornes why they proove hard and untoward 746.40 Seed what it is 671.20 Seed naturall to be spared 619.1 why called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1100. 50. what it is 841.40 whether it be a body 841.50 of Seednesse three seasons 323.1 Seeing in the night how it commeth 658.10 Seleucus Callinicus how he served a blab of his tongue Sella Curulis 877.20 Selfe-praise 301.20 in what cases allowed 302. 50. See more in praise Semiramis of base degree became a Queene 1136.40 her brave acts 1276.20 her 〈◊〉 ambition 1136.50 her sepulcher and epitaph 〈◊〉 P. Sempronis why he drowned his wife 855.10 Senate of Rome why so called 391.30 Senses inserted in our bodies by harmonie 1256.20 Sense what it is 835.50 Senses how many 835.50 Sense common 837.10 Sentences over the temple porch at Delphi 103.20 Septerian what feast 891.1 Septimontium what festivall solemnity 873.20 Sepulcher of children 895.60 Sepulcher of envy 496.50 Sermons how to be heard with profit 56.30 Servius Tullius a favourite of fortune 635. 40. strangely borne 636. 1. how he came to the crowne 636.10 Seth what it signifieth 1307.40 1304.20 Sextilis what moneth at Rome 856.10 Sextilis is August 863.30 Sextius a great student in philosophy 249.1 Shadowes at a feast 682.30 who they be 753.50 how they began ib. whether it be good manners to goe as a Shadow to a feast 754.20 what shadowes a guest invited may bring with him 755.50 Shame good and bad 164.30 Shame breedeth fortitude 42.40.50 Sheepe woolfe-bittē why they yeeld sweetest flesh 677.40 whether their wooll breed lice 677.40 Sibylla the prophetesse 1190.1.716.30 Sicknesse how to be prevented 618 30.40 how immediately occasioned 849.40 Sight how it is caused 837.10 Signes 12 in the Zodiaque they be dissociable 846.20 Sideritis the Load-stone 1312.1 Silenus caught by K. Midas instructeth him of life and death 525.50 Sileni
Rome 880.40 Valerius Torquatus 908.30 exiled 910.30 Valeria her vertuous act 491.50 Valeria Tusculanaria enamoured of her owne father 912.50 Valerius killeth himselfe 913.1 Veleria Luperca destined to be sacrificed 916. 20. she had a gift to cure the sicke ib. Vallies within the Moone three 1183.30 Valiant men may be slaine by cowards 973.50 Variety accordeth to Nature 652.40 Ventoses and cupping glasses the reason of their attraction 1022.10 Venus image why placed hard by Mercurie 316.10 Venus Belestie 1137.1 Venus what attribute she hath 1140.10 Venus why called Harma 1155.30 Venus and Love how they differ 1140.10 Venus image among the Elians upon a tortoise shell 321.1 Temple of Venus the murdresse 1154 Of Venus the end 337.30 Sophocles joied that by age he was bereaved of the sports of Venus 390.1 Venus how to be used 621.10 Venus of Dexicreon 904.1 Venus altogether to be abandoned 691.40 Venus sports in day time not to be used 692.50 at what time to be used 690.30 Venus why she is said to be borne of the sea 728.50 Venus the goddesse on whether hand wounded by Diomedes 789.50 Venus Epitalaria 635.30 Venus Epitimbia 857.40 Venus her image with a Tortoise 1317.20 Venus to be used with tēperance 619.1 Venus how she came to the Spartans 629.40 Venus enervate without Love 1144.10 Veneralia a solemne feast 866.20 Vord-de-gris of what effect it is 698.1 Verses taunted by Cicero 439.40 Verses cited to good purpose 787 Verses unfitly and unseasonably cited 787.40.50 Vertue morall differing from contemplative 64.30 Vertue and exercise of vertue how they differ 1213.10 Vertue no more than one 64.1 Vertue by what meanes accomplished 3.1 Vertue excelleth other gifts 7.10 Vertues commendable in yong men 12.20 Vertue vice of what power they be 79.20 Temple of Vertue at Rome when built 634.50 Vertue may be learned 81. 10. 20. c. progresse from vice to Vertue 246.40.50 proceeding in vertue by degrees 247.30 Vertue what it is 65.20.67.50 Vertue standeth upon two grounds 15.1 Vertues temples at Rome 630.40 Vertue taken diversly among poets 32.1 Vertue and Fortune at debate 628.10 compared together 629.20 she advanceth forward to plead against Fortune ib. Vespasian his crueltie to Ladie Empona 1158.10 Vessels more slow in Winter upon rivers than upon the sea 1006.10 Vestall Nunnes three for incontinent life convict and punished 678.30 Vestall virgins committing fornication why buried quicke at Rome 882.1 Vestall Nunnes at Rome of three sorts 398.30 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greeke whereof it is derived 1301.1 variety of Viands better than simple feeding 700.30 Viands of sea or land which be better 707.50 Viands simple more holsome than of divers sorts 700.20 Viands rare and dainty 613.40 Vice what it is 67.50 Vice sufficient for infortunity 298.40 Vice according to the Stoicks profitable for the world 1088.1089 Victours at games of prize how honoured at Lacedaemon 674.30 Vinegre most contrary to fire 690.10 Violet garlands of what use 684.20 Visible subjects 1018.50 Vlysses highly commended for his silence 197.1.10 he vaunteth of his owne deeds 309.20 he inhabited Italie 892.30 Vlysses excused 36.1 noted for drowsinesse 36.10 he schooleth Telemachus and teacheth him patience 41.20 able to rule his passions 66.50 drenched in the sea 659.20 Vnderstanding in man better than the soule simply 1182.20 Vnderstanding and knowledge compared with other parts 7.1 Vnitie the beginning of numbers 858.50 Vnity of the Pythagoreans 806.40 Vnitie named Apollo 1317.20 Vnitie is the principle of all order 1340.1341 Vocall Musicke 760.50 Voices in the night more sounding and audible than in the day the reason thereof 769.20 Voice what it is 838.40.1248.50 why called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 838.40 how it filleth whole Theaters 839.10 whether it be a body or no. 839.20 what Voice most pleasant 302.1 a strong Voice commendable in a States-man 355.40 Voice exercised good for students health 619.20 Voidnesse or vacuity rejected 814.50 Voidnesse or emptinesse in the world whether there be any 820.10 Voluptuous life 9.40 Vomits usuall hurt the body 624.1 Vomits for students 623.20 how to be procured 623.50 Vpbraiding of good turnes ordinary in flatterers 103.1.10 Vrania 798.50 Vrchin honored by Zoroastres and the Magi. 711.10 Vrchin of the land craftily beguileth the fox 965.20 provident for his yoong ones ib. 30 the Vrchins hole ib. Vrchin of the sea how crafty he is 973.40 Vse of what effect it is 3.40 against taking money upon Vsurie 283.1.10 c. Vsurers to be avoided 284.20 Vulcane but one 796.20 Vulcane the prince and authour of all arts 992.10 Vulcanes Temple why founded without the city of Rome 867.1 the chamber or counseil house of Romulus and Tatius ib. 10 Vulcane hath divers acceptions in Poets 30.10 Vulcane lame 1162.10 W WAking out of sleepe how occasioned 847.50 Wals of cities set out by the plough 860.1 Wals of Rome held to be sacred but not their city gates 859.50 Walking after supper 623.1 Wanton words as well as filthie deeds to be avoided 36.30 Warre knoweth no stint 423.20 gentle civill Warre and friendly betweene the Megarians 893.30 Warre the father and protectour of the world 1306.50 Water and fire compared together 989.20 Water argued to be more profitable than fire ib. 40 Water once heat becommeth colder afterwards 734.20 996.50 Water is the primitive cold or element of cold 997.1 Waters which be most unholsome 1014.10 Waters why blacke in the bottome and white above 1015.30 Water how it runneth 1022.50 Water-gals resembling rainbowes or sundry sunnes 829.20 Water what kinde of drink 621.20 Water of the sea unctuous 659.1 Water how made more cold 734.20 Water fresh compared with sea water for skouring 658.40 Water of lakes and pooles in summer not potable 774.20 Water the principle of all things 805.40 the reasons prooving the same ib. Water how made 880.40 Wealth alone not commendable 46 40 Wedlocke what conjunction it is 321.30 mainteined against Paederasti 1155 Wedded folke forbidden at Rome to give or receive any thing interchangeably 321.40 Wedlocke precepts 315.316 new wedded wives bidden to touch fire and water 850.20 at Weddings why five torches or wax-lights are lighted 850.40 at Wedding suppers many guests and why 706.40 〈◊〉 why honoured among the Aegyptians 1316.30 a Welcome home 776.30 the Wesand pipe 744.1 Westwinde swiftest 1014.20 Whales cast away for want of the guide a fish 975.40 Wheat loveth cley ground 1008.20 three moneth Wheat ib. Wheat hote 741.40 White clothes purest and least costly 859.40 in White they mourned at Argos 859.50 Widowes might be wedded upon a feastivall day 885.10 a Wife ought not to bee awed by her husband 317.10 she ought to be most 〈◊〉 by her husband 317.10 a Wife ought to keepe the house 800.40 of a little Wife an apophthegme 178.30 the new Wife decketh with woole the doore of her husbands house 861.10 a Wife must frame her selfe to her husband 317.50 Wives in Aegypt weare no shooes 320.50 how a Wife ought to carie herselfe toward her husband 320.50 Winde egges 52.50 Windes
that is to say the notable sayings and answers of Lacedaemonian Dames 479 34 The vertuous deeds of Women 482 35 A Consolatorie oration sent nnto APOLLONIUS upon the death of his sonne 509 36 A Consolatorie letter or discourse sent unto his owne Wife as touching the death of her and his daughter 533 37 How it commeth that the divine Justice differreth otherwhiles the punishment of wicked persons 538 38 That Brute beasts have discourse of reason in maner of a Dialogue named Gryllus 561 39 Whether it be lawfull to eate flesh or no the former oration or treatise 571 Of eating flesh the second Declamation 576 40 That a man cannot live pleasantly according to the doctrine of EPICURUS 580 41 Whether this common Mot be well said LIVE HIDDEN or So LIVE as no man may know thou livest 605 42 Rules and precepts of health in maner of a Dialogue 609 43 Of the Romans fortune 627 44 The Symposiacks or table Questions The first booke 641 Of Symposiacks the second booke 661 Of Symposiacks the third booke 680 Of Symposiacks the fourth booke 698 Of Symposiacks the fift booke 713 Of Symposiacks the sixt booke 729 Of Symposiacks the seventh booke 742 Of Symposiacks the eight booke 764 Of Symposiacks the ninth booke 785 45 The opinions of Philosophers 802 Of Philosophers opinions the first booke 804 Of Philosophers opinions the second booke 817 Of Philosophers opinions the third booke 826 Of Philosophers opinions the fourth booke 833 Of Philosophers opinions the fift booke 841 46 Romane Questions 850 47 Demaunds or questions as touching Greeke affaires 888 48 The Parallels or a briefe Collation of Romane narrations with the semblable reported of the Greeks 906 49 The Lives of the ten Oratours 918 50 Narrations of Love 944 51 Whether creatures be more wise they of the land or those of the water 949 52 Whether the Athenians were more renowmed for Martiall Armes or good Letters 981 53 Whether of the twaine is more profitable Fire or Water 989 54 Of the Primitive or first Cold. 992 55 Naturall Questions 1002 56 Platonique Questions 1016 57 A commentary of the Creation of the soule which PLATO desoribeth in his booke Timaeus 1030 58 Of fatall Necessitie 1048 59 A Compendious Review or Discourse That the Stoicks deliver more strange opinions than doe the Poëts 1055 60 The Contradictions of Stoicke Philosophers 1057 61 Of Common Conceptions against the Stoicks 1081 62 Against COLOTES the Epicurean 1109 63 Of Love 1130 64 Of the Face appearing within the Roundle of the Moone 1159 65 Why the prophetesse PYTHIA giveth no answer now from the Oracle in verse or Meeter 1185 66 Of the Daemon or familiar spirit of SOCRATES 1202 67 Of the Malice of HERODOTUS 1227 68 Of Musicke 1248 69 Of the Fortune or vertue of king ALEXANDER the first Oration 1263 Of the Fortune or vertue of K. ALEXANDER the second Oration 1272 70 Of Is is and OSIRIS 1286 71 Of the Oracles that have Ceased to give answere 1320 72 What signifieth this word EI engraven over the Dore of APOLLOES Temple in the City of DELPHI 1351 OF THE NOVRITVRE AND EDVCATION OF CHILDREN The Summarie THe very title of this Treatise discovereth sufficiently the intention of the authour and whosoever he was that reduced these Morals and mixt works of his into one entire volume was well advised and had great reason to range this present Discourse in the first and formost place For unlesse our minds be framed unto vertue from our infancie impossible it is that we should performe any woorthy act so long as we live Now albeit Plutarch as a meere Pagane hath both in this booke and also in others ensuing where he treateth of vertues and vices left out the chiefe and principall thing to wit The Law of God and his Trueth wherein he was altogether ignorant yet neverthelesse these excellent precepts by him deliuered like raies which proceed from the light of nature remaining still in the spirit and soule of man aswell to leaue sinners inexcusable as to shew how happie they be who are guided by the heauenly light of holy Scripture are able to commence action against those who make profession in word how they embrace the true and souereigne Good but in deed and effect do annihilate as much as lieth in them the power and efficacie thereof Moreover in this Treatise he proveth first of all That the generation of infants ought in no wise to be defamed with the blot either of adulterie or drunkennesse Then he entreth into a discourse of their education and after he hath shewed that Nature Reason Vsage ought to concurre in their instruction he teacheth how by whom they should be nurtured brought up and taught where he reproveth sharply the slouth ignorance and avarice of some fathers And the better to declare the extelleneie of these benefits namely goodinstruction knowledge and vertue which the studie of philosophie doth promise and teach he compareth the same with all the greatest goods of the world and so consequently setteth downe what vices especially they are to shun and avoid who would be capable of sincere and true literature But before he proceedeth further he describeth and limiteth how farforth children well borne and of good parentage should be urged and forced by compulsion disciphering briefly the praises of morall philosophie and concluding withall That the man is blessed who is both helpfull to his neighbour as it becommeth and also good unto himselfe All these points aboverehearsed when he hath enriched and embelished with similitudes examples apophihegmes and such like ornaments he propoundeth diuers rules pertinent to the Institution of yoong children which done he passeth from tender child-hood to youthfull age shewing what gouernment there ought to be of yoong men farre from whom he banisheth and chaseth flatterers especially and for a finall conclusion discourseth of the kinde behauior of fathers and the good example that they are to giue unto their children THE EDVCATION OF CHILDREN FOrasmuch as we are to consider what may be sayd as touching the education of children free borne and descended from gentle blood how and by what discipline they may become honest and vertuous we shall perhaps treat hereof the better if we begin at their very generation and nativitie First and formost therefore I would advise those who desire to be the fathers of such children as may live another day in honour and reputation among men not to match themselves and meddle with light women common courtisans I meane or private concubines For a reproch this is that followeth a man all the dayes of his life and a shamefull staine which by no meanes can be fetched out if haply he be not come of a good father or good mother neither is there any one thing that presenteth it selfe more readily unto his adversaries and sooner is in their mouth when they are disposed to checke taunt and revile than to twit him with such parentage In which
the Trebles SYLLA It is neither so nor so ô Fundanus but of all loves do as I desire you for my sake FUNDANUS Since it is so Sylla among many good advertisements of Musonius which come to my minde this is one That whosoever would live safe and in health ought all their life time to looke to themselves and be as it were in continuall Physicke For I am not of this minde neither doe I thinke it convenient that like as Elleborus after it hath done the deed within a sicke mans bodie and wrought a cure is cast up againe together with the maladie so reason also should be sent out after the passion which it hath cured but it ought to remaine still in the mind for to keepe and preserve the judgement For why reason is not to be compared with medicines and purgative drugs but rather to holesome and nourishing meates engendring mildly in the minds of them unto whom it is made familiar a good complexion and fast habit together with some perfect health whereas admonitions and corrections applied or ministred unto passions when they swell and rage and bee in the height of their heat and inflammation hardly and with much adoe worke any effect at all and if they doe it is with much paine Neither differ they in operation from those strong odors which well may raise out of a fit those who are fallen and be subject to the Epilepsy or falling sicknes but they cure not the disease nor secure the patient for falling againe True it is that all other passions of the minde if they be taken in hand at the very point and instant when they are in their highest furie do yeeld in some sort and they admit reason comming from without into the minde for to helpe and succour but anger not onely as Melanthius saith Commits lewd parts and reason doth displace Out of her seat and proper resting place but also turneth her cleane out of house home shutteth and locketh her out of doores for altogether nay it fareth for all the world like to those who set the house on fire over their owne heads and turne themselves and it together it filleth all within full of trouble smoke and confused noises in such sort that it hath neither eie to see nor eare to listen unto those that would might assist and give aide and therefore sooner will a ship abandoned of her master in the mids of the sea and there hulling dangerously in a storme and tempest receive a pilot from some other ship without than a man tossed with the waves of furie and anger admit the reason and remonstrance of a stranger unlesse his owne reason at home were before hand well prepared But like as they who looke for no other but to have their citie besieged gather together and lay up safe their owne store and provision and all things that might serve their turne not knowing nor expecting any aide or reliefe abroad during the siege even so ought we to have our remedies ready and provided long before and the same gathered out of all parts of Philosophie and conveied into the minde for to withstand the rage of choler as being assured of this that when neede and necessitie requireth to use them wee shall not easily admit the same and suffer them to have entrance into us For surely at such a time of extremitie the soule heareth not a word that is said unto it without for the trouble and confusion within unlesse her owne reason be assistant ready both to receive and understand quickly every commandement and precept and also to prompt the same accordingly unto her And say that she doth heare looke what is said unto her after a milde calme and gentle maner that she despiseth againe if any be more instant and do urge her somewhat roughly with those she is displeased and the woorse for their admonitions for wrath being of the owne nature proud audacious unruly and hardly suffering it selfe to be handled or stirred by another much like unto a tyrant attended with a strong guard about his person ought to have something of the owne which is domesticall familiar and as it were in bred together with it for to overthrow and dissolve the same Nowe the continuall custome of anger and the ordinary or often falling into a chafe breedeth in the minde an ill habit called wrathfulnesse which in the end groweth to this passe that it maketh a man cholericke and hasty apt to be mooved at every thing and besides it engendreth a bitter humor of revenge and a testinesse implacable or hardly to be appeased namely when the mind is exulcerate once taking offence at every small occasion quarreling and complaining for toies and trifles much like unto a thin or a fine edge that entreth with the least force that the graver putteth it to But the judgement of reason opposing it selfe streightwaies against such motions and sits of choler and readie to suppresse keepe them downe is not onely a remedit for the present mischiefe but also for the time to come doeth strengthen and fortifie the mind causing it to be more firme and strong to resist such passions when they arise And now to give some instance of my selfe The same hapned unto me after I had twice or thrice made head against choler as befell sometimes to the Thebanes who having ones repelled and put to flight the Lacedaemonians warriors thought in those daies invincible were never in any one battell afterward defeated by them For from that time forward I tooke heart and courage as seeing full well that conquered it might be with the discourse of reason I perceived moreover that anger would not onely be quenched with cold water powred and cast upon it as Aristotle hath reported unto us but also that it would go out and be extinguished were it never so light a fire before by presenting neere unto it some object of feare nay I assure you by a sudden joy comming upon it unlooked for in many a man according as Homer saith choler hath melted dissolved evaporated away And therefore this resolution I made that anger was a passion not incurable if men were willing to be cured for surely the occasions and beginnings thereof are not alwaies great and forcible but we see that a jest a scoffe some sport some laughter a winke of the eie or nod of the head and such small matters hath set many in a pelting chafe even as Lady Helena saying no more but thus unto her niece or brothers daughter at their first meeting Electra virgin long time since I you saw c. drave her in such a fit of choler that therewith she was provoked to breake off her speech with this answer Wise now at last though all too late you are I may well say Who whilom left your husbands house and ran with shame away Likewise Calisthenes mightily offended Alexander with one word who when a great bole of wine went round
uses to make the best of them the one finding good in barren and fruitlesse plants the other in wilde and savage beasts The water of the sea is not potable but brackish and hurtful unto us howbeit fishes are nourished therewith and it serveth mans turne also to transport passengers as in a waggon into all parts and to carrie whatsoever a man will When the Satyre would have kissed and embraced fire the first time that ever he saw it Prometheus admonished him and said Thou wilt bewaile thy goats-beard soone If thou it touch t' will burne anon but it yeeldeth light and heat and is an instrument serving all arts to as many as know how to use it well semblably let us consider and see whether an enemy being otherwise harmefull and intractable or at least-wise hard to be handled may not in some sort yeeld as it were a handle to take hold by for to touch use him so as he may serve our turne and minister unto us some cōmodity For many things there are besides which be odious troublesome comberous hurtfull and contrarie unto those that have them or come neere unto them and yet you see that the verie maladies of the bodie give good occasion unto some for to live at rest and repose I meane sequestred from affairs abroad the travailes presented unto others by fortune have so exercised them that they are become thereby strong and hardy and to say more yet banishment and losse of goods hath beene the occasion unto divers yea and a singular means to give themselves to their quiet studie to philosophie like as Diogenes and Crates did in times past Zeno himselfe when newes came unto him that his ship wherein he did venture and trafficke was split and cast away Thou hast done well by me fortune quoth he to drive me againe to my scholars weed For like as those living creatures which are of a most sound and healthfull constitution have besides strong stomacks are able to concoct digest the serpents scorpions which they devoure nay some of them there be which are nourished of stones scales and shels converting the same into their nutriment by the strength and vehement heat of their spirits whereas such as be delicate tender soft and crasie are ready to cast and vomit if they taste a little bread onely or doe but sip of wine even so foolish folke doe marre and corrupt even friendship and amitie but those that are wise can skill how to use enmities to their commoditie and make them serve their turnes First and formost therefore in my conceit that which in enmitie is most hurtfull may turne to be most profitable unto such as be warie and can take good heed and what is that you will say Thine enimie as thou knowest well enough watcheth continually spying and prying into all thine actions he goeth about viewing thy whole life to see where he may finde any vantage to take hold of thee and where thou liest open that he may assaile and surprise thee his sight is so quicke that it pierceth not onely through an oke as Lynceus did or stones and shels but also it goeth quite through thy friend thy domesticall servants yea and every familiar of thine with whom thou daily doest converse for to discover as much as possibly he can what thou doest or goest about he soundeth and searcheth by undermining and secret waies what thy desseignes purposes be As for our friends it chaunceth many times that they fall extreme sicke yea and die thereupon before we know of it whiles we defer and put off from day to day to go and visit them or make small reckoning of them but as touching our enimies we are so observant that we curiously enquire hearken even after their very dreames the diseases the debts the hard usage of men to their owne wives and the untoward life betweene them are many times more unknowen unto those whom they touch and concerne than unto their enimie but aboue all he sticketh close unto thy faults inquisitive he is after them and those he traceth especially and like as the gaies or vultures flie unto the stinking sent of dead carions and putrified carcases but they have no smell or sent at all of bodies sound and whole even so those parts of our life which are diseased naught and ill affected be they that move an enemie to these leape they in great haste who are our ill willers these they seize upon and are ready to worry and plucke in peeces and this it is that profiteth us most in that it compelleth us to live orderly to looke unto our steps that we tread not awry that we neither do or say ought inconsiderately or rashly but alwaies keepe our life unblameable as if we observed a most strict and exquisite diet and verily this heedfull caution repressing the violent passions of our minde in this sort and keeping reason at home within dores engendreth a certeine studious desire an intention and will to live uprightly and without touch for like as those cities by ordinary warres with their neighbour cities and by continuall expeditions and voiages learning to be wise take a love at length unto good lawes and sound government of state even so they that by occasion of enmity be forced to live soberly to save themselves from the impuration of idlenesse and negligence yea and to do everie thing with discretion and to a good and profitable end through use and custome shall be brought by little and little ere they be aware unto a certeine setled habit that they cannot lightly trip and do amisse having their manners framed in passing good order with the least helping hand of reason and knowledge beside for they who have evermore readily before their eies this sentence This were alone for Priamus and his sonnes likewise all Oh how would they rejoice at heart in case this should befall certes would quickly be diverted turned and withdrawne from such things whereat their enimies are wont to joy and laugh a good see we not many times stage plaiers chanters musicians and such artificers in open threaters who serve for the celebration of any solemnitie unto Bacchus or other gods to play their parts carelessely to come unprovided and to carie themselves I know not how negligently nothing forward to shew their cunning and doe their best when they are by themselves alone and no other of their owne profession in place but if it chance that there be emulation and contention betweene them and other concurrents who shall do best then you shall see them not onely to come better prepared themselves but also with their instruments in very good order then shall you perceive how they will bestir themselves in trying their strings in tuning their instruments more exactly in fitting every thing about their flutes and pipes and assaying them Hee then who knoweth that he hath an enimie ready and provided to be the concurrent in
have not libertie IOCASTA A spight it is no doubt and that of servile kind For men to be debard to speake their mind POLYNICES Besides they must endure the foolishnesse And ignorance of rulers more or lesse But herein I cannot allow of his sentence and opinion as well and truely delivered For first and formost not to speake what a man thinketh is not the point of a slavish and base person but rather he is to be counted a wise and prudent man who can hold his tongue at those times and in such occasions as require taciturnitie and silence which the same Poet hath taught us in another place more wisely when he saith Silence is good when that it doth availe Likewise to speake in time and not to faile And as for the folly and ignorance of great and mightie persons we must abide no lesse when we tarrie at home than in exile nay it falleth out many times that men at home feare much more the calumniations and violence of those who injustly are in high places of authoritie within cities than if they were abroad and out of their owne countries Againe this also is most false and absurd that the said Poet depriveth banished persons of their libertie and franke speech Certes this were a woonderfull matter that Theodorus wanted his freedome of tongue considering that when King Lysimachus said unto him And hath thy countrey chased and cast thee out being so great a person among them Yea quoth he againe for that it was no more able to beare me than Semele to beare Bacchus neither was he daunted and afraid notwithstanding that the King shewed unto him Telesphorus enclosed within an iron cage whose eies he had caused before to be pulled out of his head his nose and eares to be cropt and his tongue to be cut adding withal these words See how I handle those that displease and abuse my person And what shall we say of Diogenes Wanted he thinke you his libertie of speech who being come into the campe of King Philip at what time time as he made an expedition against the Grecians invaded their countrey and was ready to give them battell was apprehended and brought before the king as a spie and charged therewith I am indeed quoth he come hither to spie your infariable avarice ambition and folly who are about now to hazard in one houre as it were with the cast of a die not onely your crowne and dignitie but also your life and person semblably what thinke you of Annthall the Carthaginian was he tongue-tied before Antiochus banished though himselfe were and the other a mightie monarch For when he advised Antiochus to take the opportunitie presented unto him and to give battell unto the Romans his enemies and the king having sacrificed unto the gods answered againe that the entrails of the beast killed for sacrifice would not permit but forbad him so to do Why then quoth he by way of reproofe and rebuke you will doe that belike which a peece of dead flesh biddeth you and not that which a man of wisedome and understanding counselleth you unto But neither Geometricians nor those that use linearie demonstrations if haply they be banished are deprived of their libertie but that they may discourse speake frankly of their art and science of such things as they have learned and knowen how then should good honest and honorable persons be debarred of that freedome in case they be exiled But in trueth it is cowardise and basenes of minde which alwaies stoppeth the voice tieth the tongue stifleth the wind-pipe and causeth men to be speechlesse But proceed we to that which followed afterwards in Eurpides IOCASTA But thus we say those that are banished With hopes alwaies of better dates be fed POLYNICES Good eies they have a farre off they doe see Staying for things that most uncertaine be Certainely these words implie rather a blame and reprehension of folly than of exile For they be not those who have learned and doe know how to apply themselves unto things present and to use their estate such as it is but such as continually depend upon the expectance of future fortunes and covet evermore that which is absent and wanting who are tossed to and fro with hope as in a little punt or bote floting upon the water yea although they were never in their life time without the wals of the citie wherein they were borne moreover whereas we reade in the same Euripides IOCASTA Thy fathers friends and allies have not they Beene kind and helpfull to thee as they may POLYNICES Looke to thy selfe from troubles God thee blesse Friends helpe is naught if one be in distresse IOCASTA Thy noble blood from whence thou art descended Hath it not thee advanc'd and much amended POLYNICES I hold it ill to be in want and need For parentage and birth doth not men feed These speeches of Polynices are not onely untrue but also bewray his unthankfulnesse when he seemeth thus to blame his want of honor and due regard for his nobility and to complaine that hee was destitute of friends by occasion of his exile considering that in respect of his noble birth banished though he were yet so highly honoured he was that he was thought woorthie to be matched in marriage with a kings daughter and as for friends allies and confederates hee was able to gather a puissant armie of them by whose aide and power he returned into his owne countrey by force of armes as himselfe testifieth a little after in these words Many a lord and captaine brave here stands With me in field both from Mycenae bright And cities more of Greece whose helping hands Though loth I must needes use in claime of right Much like also be the speeches of his mother lamenting in this wise No nuptiall torch at all I lighted have To thee as doth a wedding feast besceme No mariage song was sung nor thee to lave Was water brought from faire Ismenus streame whom it had become and behooved rather to rejoice and be glad in heart when she heard that her sonne was so highly advaunced and married into so roiall an house but in taking griefe and sorrow her-selfe that there was no wedding torch lighted that the river Ismenus affoorded no water to bathe in at his wedding as if new maried bridegroomes could not be furnished either with fire or water in the city Argos she attributeth unto exile the inconveniences which more truly proceed from vanitie and follie But some man will say unto me That to be banished is a note of ignominie and reproch true it is indeed but among fooles onely who thinke likewise that it is a shame to be poore to be bald to be small of stature yea and to be a stranger forsooth a tenant in-mate or alien inhabitant For certes such as will not suffer themselves to be caried away with these vaine perswasions nor do subscribe thereto esteeme have in admiration good and
Philosophie But I pray you my very good friend quoth I unto him forbeare this vehement and accusatorie humour of yours and be not angry if haply you see that some because they be borne of leud and wicked parents are punished or else doe not rejoice so much nor be ready to praise in case you see nobilitie also of birth to be so highly honored for if we stand upon this point and dare avow that recompence of vertue ought by right and reason to continue in the line and posteritie we are by good consequence to make this account that punishment likewise should not stay and cease together with misdeeds committed but reciprocally fall upon those that are descended of misdoers and malefactors for he who willingly seeth the progenie of Cimon honoured at Athens and contrariwise is offended and displeased in his heart to see the race of Lachares or Ariston banished driven out of the citie he I say seemeth to be too soft tender and passing effeminate or rather to speake more properly over-contentious and quarrelsome even against the gods complaining and murmuring of the one side if the children childrens children of an impious wicked person do prosper in the world and contrariwise is no lesse given to blame and find fault if he doe see the posterity of wicked and ungracious men to be held under plagued or altogether destroied from the face of the earth accusing the gods if the children of a naughtie man be afflicted even as much as if they had honest persons to their parents But as for these reasons alledged make you this reckoning that they be bulwarks and rampars for you opposed against such bitter sharpe accusers as these be But now taking in hand again the end as it were of a clew of thread or a bottom of yearne to direct us as in a darke place and where there be many cranks turnings and windings to and fro I meane the matter of gods secret judgements let us conduct and guide our selves gently and warily according to that which is most likely probable considering that even of those things which we daily manage and doe our selves we are not able to set downe an undoubted certaintie as for example who can yeeld a sound reason wherefore we cause and bid the children of those parents who died either of the phthisick and consumption of the lungs or of the dropsie to sit with their feet drenched in water until the dead corps be fully burned in the funeral fire For an opiniō there is that by this meanes the said maladies shall not passe unto them as hereditarie nor take hold of their bodies as also what the cause should be that if a goat hold in her mouth the herbe called Eryngites that is to say Sea-holly the whole flocke will stand still untill such time as the goat-herd come and take the said herbe out of her mouth Other hidden properties there be which by secret influences and passages from one to another worke strange effects and incredible as well speedily as in longer tract of time and in very truth we woonder more at the intermission and stay of time betweene than we doe of the distance of place and yet there is greater occasion to marvell thereat as namely that a pestilent maladie which began in Aethiopia should raigne in the citie of Athens and fill every street and corner thereof in such sort as Pericles died and Thucydides was sicke thereof than that when the Phocaeans and Sybarits had committed some hainous sins the punishment therefore should fall upon their children go through their posteritie For surely these powers and hidden properties have certaine relations and correspondences from the last to the first the cause whereof although it be unknowen to us yet it ceaseth not secretly to bring foorth her proper effects But there seemeth to be verie apparent reason of justice that publicke vengeance from above should fall upon cities many a yeere after for that a citie is one entire thing and a continued body as it were like unto a living creature which goeth not beside or out of it selfe for any mutations of ages nor in tract and continuance of time changing first into one and then into another by succession but is alwaies uniforme and like it selfe receiving evermore and taking upon it all the thanke for well doing or the blame for misdeeds of whatsoever it doth or hath done in common so long as the societie that linketh holdeth it together maintaineth her unitie for to make many yea innumerable cities of one by dividing it according to space of time were as much as to go about to make of one man many because he is now become old who before was a yong youth in times past also a very stripling or springall or else to speake more properly this resembleth the devises of Epicharmus wherupon was invented that maner of Sophisters arguing which they cal the Croissant argument for thus they reason He that long since borrowed or tooke up mony now oweth it not because he is no more himselfe but become another he that yesterday was invited to a feast cōmeth this day as an unbidden guest cōsidering that he is now another man And verily divers ages make greater difference in ech one of us than they do commonly in cities and States for he that had seene the citie of Athens thirtie yeeres agoe and came to visit it at this day would know it to be altogether the very same that then it was insomuch as the maners customes motions games pastimes serious affaires favours of the people their pleasures displeasures and anger at this present resemble wholly those in ancient time whereas if a man be any long time out of sight hardly his very familiar friend shall be able to know him his countenance will be so much changed and as touching his maners and behaviour which alter and change so soone upon every occasion by reason of all sorts of labour travell accidents and lawes there is such varietie and so great alteration that even he who is ordinarily acquainted and conversant with him would marvell to see the strangenesse and noveltie thereof and yet the man is held and reputed still the same from his nativitie unto his dying day and in like case a citie remaineth alwaies one and the selfe same in which respect we deeme it great reason that it should participate aswell the blame and reproch of ancestours as enjoy their glorie and puissance unlesse we make no care to cast all things in the river of Heraclitus into which by report no one thing entreth twise for that it hath a propertie to alter all things and change their nature Now if it be so that a citie is an united and continued thing in it selfe we are to thinke no lesse of a race and progenie which dependeth upon one and the same stocke producing and bringing foorth a certeine power and communication of qualities and the same doth
there is I say that bitter almonds should have power to withstand the strength of meere wine considering they drie the body within and will not permit the veines to bee full upon the tention and commotion whereof they say drunkennesse doth proceed and for evident proofe of this there may be a good argument gathered from that which befalleth foxes who having eaten bitter almonds is they drinke not presently upon them die therewith by reason that all their humors suddenly are spent and consumed THE SEVENTH QUESTION What is the cause that old folke take greater delight in pure and strong wine than others THere arose a question about old persons what the reason might be that they loved better to drink wine without water or at the leastwise delaied but a little Some alledged the habit of their bodies being cold and hard to be set into an heat in regard whereof the strength of wine was meet and agreeable to their temperature a reason very common and ready at hand but surely neither sufficient for to bee the cause of such an effect nor yet simply true for the same hapueth to their other sences as being hard to be mooved and affected yea and nothing easie to be stirred for to apprehend the qualities thereto belonging unlesse the same be passing strong and vehement whereof the true cause indeed is this that their temperature being weake dull and feeble loveth to be put in minde by knocking upon and this is the cause that for their taste they delight in such sapours as be biting their smelling likewise standeth even so to odors that be strong for affected it is with more pleasure in such as be not tempered nor delaied as for the sense of touching they feele no great paine of ulcers and sores and if it happen that they be wounded their hurt and harme is not so great the same befalleth to their hearing for their eares be in manner deafe and heereupon it is that musicians as they grow in yeeres and waxe aged straine and raise their voice in singing so much the higher and lowder as if they stirred up the organs of hearing by the vehement force of the sound for looke what is steele to the edge and temper of iron for cutting the same is spirit to the bodie for sense and feeling and when it beginnes once to slacke faile and decay the sense likewise and the instruments thereof become dull heavie and earthly having need of some such quicke thing to pricke it in good earnest as strong wine is THE EIGHTH QUESTION How it comes to passe that olde folke reade better afarre off than neere at hand AGainst those reasons which wee devised and alledged upon the subject matter and point in hand it seemed that there might be opposed the eie-sight for that elder persons for to reade any thing the better remoove the letters farther from their eies and in trueth can not well reade neere at hand which the poet Aeschylus seemeth covertly to implie and shew unto us in these verses Know him thou canst not if neere he stand to thee A good olde scribe thou maist much sooner be And Sophocles more plainly testifieth as much when he writeth of old folke in this wise The voice to them arrives not readily And hardly thorow their eares the way can finde Their eies do see farre off confusedly But neere at hand they all be very blinde If then it be so that the senses of aged persons and the instruments serving thereto are not willingly obeisant to their proper objects unlesse the same be strong and vehement what should the cause be that in reading they can not endure the reverberation of the light from letters if they be neere but setting the booke farther off from their eies they do by that meanes enfeeble as it were that light for that it is spread and dissipate in the aire like as the strength of wine when it is tempered with water To this probleme some answered thus That they remoove books and letters farre from their eie-sight not because they would make the saide light more milde or lesse radiant but contrariwise for that they are desirous to catch and gather more splendor and to fill the meane intervall which is betweene the eie and the letter with lightsome and shining aire Others accorded with those who holde that the eies do send out of them certeine raies for by reason that aswell from the one eie as the other a pyramidal beame doth issue the point whereof is in the sight of the eie and the basis doth comprehend the object that is seene probable it is that both these pyramides goe forward apart one from the other a good space and distance but after they be a great way off and come to encounter one another and be confounded together they make but one entire light and this is the reason that albeit the eies are twaine yet every thing that we see appeareth one and not two for that in trueth the meeting and shining together of those two pyramides in common do make of two sights but one This being presupposed and set downe olde men approching neere to letters comprehend the same more feebly in regard that the pyramidall beames of their eies are not yet joined and met together but ech of them reach to the objects apart but if they be farther off so that the said pyramides may be intermingled they see more perfectly much like to them who with both hands can claspe and hold that which they are not able to do with one alone Then my brother Lamprias opposed himselfe against all this and as one who had not read the booke of Hieronymus but even upon the pregnancy and quickenesse of his wit seemed to render another reason namely That we see by the meanes of certeine images arising from the objects or visible things which at the first be big and for that cause trouble the sight of old folke when they regard them neere and hard-by being indeed but hard and slow of motion but when the said images be advanced and spread farther into the aire and have gained some good distance the grosse and terrestriall parts of them breake and fall downe but the more subtill portions reach as farre as to the eies without any paine or offence unto them and do insinuate and accommodate themselves equally and smoothly into their concavities so that the eies being lesse troubled apprehend and receive them better And even so it is with the odours of flowers which are very sweet to smell unto a good way off whereas if a man come over-neere unto them they yeeld nothing so kinde and pleasant a sent the reason is because that together with the savour there goeth from the flower much earthly matter grosse and thicke which corrupteth and marreth the fragrant sweetnesse of the odour if it be smelled to very neere but in case the same be a prety way off that terrestriall vaparation is dispersed round about and so falleth
away but the pure and hot part thereof continueth behinde and pierceth forward still by reason of the subtiltie that it hath untill it be presented unto the nostrils But we receiving and admitting the principle of Plato affirme hold That there passeth from the eies an illuminate spirit which intermingleth it selfe with the cleerenesse and light that is about the bodies of visible objects by which meanes there ariseth an united composition from them twaine according in every point one with another but concorporate they be by measure and proportion for neither the one nor the orher ought to perish as being surmounted by his fellow but of twaine contempered together in just proportion there is made one puissance and meane facultie betweene Seeing then that the thing which passeth thorow the eie-sight of those persons who be farre stept in yeeres be it some fluxion lightsome spirit or bright beame call it what you will is in them weake and feeble there can not be a mixture and composition of it with the shining aire abroad but rather an extinction and suffocation unlesse they remove the letters a pretie way off from their eies and by that meanes temper and resolve the exceeding brightnesse of the light so as the same hit not upon their sight so long as it is too radiant and resplendant but measured and proportioned to the feeblenesse of their eies This also is the cause of that which befalleth to those living creatures which see best in the darke and feed themselves by night for their eie sight being naturally weake is offuscate and darkened by the great light of the day for that such weak raies proceeding from so tender a source or fountaine will not well sort agree with so strong and forcible light but their eies do send forth beames sufficient and proportionable to be mingled with a light more dim and duskish like as the light of a starre in the night season appeareth best and thus being incorporate with it it is cooperative to the performance of sense THE NINTH QUESTION What is the cause that clothes be better washed in fresh water than that of the sea THeon the grammarian upon a time when wee were feasted by Metrius Florus demaunded of Themistocles the philosopher how it came to passe that Chrysippus having made mention in many places of strange positions and paradoxes which seemed to goe against all reason as for example That salt fish or powdred flesh if it bee watered or washed in sea water becommeth more sweet also fleeces of wooll are lesse pliable if they bee plucked forcibly than if they be gently handled toosed and drawen in sunder Item that they who have fasted long chew their meat and eat more slowly at first than after they have eaten a little rendreth no reason of the one nor the other Unto whom Themistocles answered That Chrysippus proposed them by the way onely and as it were for example sake to advertise and admonish us for that we are ever ready to beleeve even without all reason any thing that carieth with it some small likelihood and probability and contrariwise to discredit that which at the first sight seemeth unlikely But what reason I pray you quoth he my good friend have you to search enquire into these matters For if you be so contemplative and inquisitive in finding out the causes of naturall things you need not to goe farre from that which belongeth to your profession but tel me why Homer bringeth in Nausicaa washing her clothes in the river not in the sea which was so neere unto her notwithstanding that salt sea water being hotter more transparent abstersive than fresh water of the river seemeth by all apparance better for to wash withall As touching this probleme quoth Theon long since hath Aristotle resolved it referring all to the terrestrity of the sea for that in sea water there is mingled much earthlie substance which causeth it to be so salt by reason whereof it beareth them up better who swim therein also it carieth a greater and heavier burden than fresh water the which yeeldeth and giveth way as it is more subtile lighter and feebler as being more simple and pure in which regard it pierceth sooner and by this penetrative facultie it scoureth and clenseth awaie all staines and spottes better than sea water and thinke you not that this reason of Aristotle carieth great apparence of truth Yes verily quoth I there is apparence and probabilitie indeed thereof but no truth at all for this I see ordinarily that the maner is to incrassate fresh water with ashes or gravel stones or if there be none to be had even with very dust as if the roughnesse of terrestriall substaunce were more meet and apt to clense all filthinesse which simple and cleere water cannot doe so well by reason of the thinne subtiltie thereof and because it is very weake and therefore it is not well and truely said that the thicknesse of the sea water hindreth his effect But the true cause is for that it is penetrant and piercing for this acrimonie doth unbinde and open the small pores and so draweth foorth the ordure outwardly whereas contrariwise that which is grosse and thicke is never good and meet for to wash withall but rather it maketh spots steines now is the sea fattie and oileous which may be a principal cause why it is not good to wash withall and that sea water is uncteous Aristotle himselfe beareth witnesse for even salt it selfe hath a certeine fattinesse and unctuosity in it by reason whereof it causeth those lampes to burne more cleere wherein it is put yea and sea water if it be sprinkled or dropped upon the flame will likewise be of a light fire and burne withall neither is there any water that burneth so much as that of the sea and in this regard I am of opinion that it is of all other water hottest howbeit there may bee another reason yeelded for considering that the end and consummation of washing is to drie those things wee hold most neat and cleane which are driest and therefore the moisture that doth wash must goe away together with the ordure like as the root of Ellebore is sent out of the body with the melancholike humour as for the humiditie which is sweet and fresh by reason of the lightnesse thereof the sunne draweth it up very quickly whereas the saltnesse of sea water sticketh fast to the small pores by reason of the asperitie thereof is hard to be dried Then Theon This that you say quoth he is nothing but very false for Aristotle in the same booke affirmeth that those who wash in the sea are sooner dry than they that wash in fresh water if they stand in the sunne He saith so indeed quoth I but I thought that you would sooner beleeve Homer who holdeth the contrarie For Ulysses after he had suffred shipwracke mette with ladie Nausicaa All terrible and fearefull to be seene For
drunkennesse nor as an enemie to wine who directly calleth wine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and surnameth himselfe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thereupon but in mine opinion like as they who love wine if they cannot meet with the liquor of the grape use a counterfet wine or barley broth called beere ale or els a certeine drinke made of apples named cydres or els date-wines even so he that gladly would in winter season weare a chaplet of vine branches seeing it altogether naked and bare of leaves is glad of the Ivie that resembleth it for the body or wood thereof is likewise writhed and crooked and never groweth upright but shutteth out heere and there to and fro at a venture the soft fattie leaves also after the same maner grow dispersed about the branches without all order besides all this the very berries of the Ivie growing thick clustered together like unto greene grapes when they begin to turne doe represent the native forme of the vine and yet albeit the same yeeldeth some helpe and remedie against drunkennesse we say it is by occasion of heat in opening the pores and small passages in the body for to let out the fumes of wine and suffer them to evaporate and breathe forth or rather by her heat helpeth to concoct and digest it that for your sake good Tryphon Bacchus may still continue a physician At these words Tryphon staied a while and made no answere as thinking with himselfe and studying how to reply upon him But Eraton calling earnestly upon every one of us that were of the yoonger sort spurned us forward to aide and assist Tryphon our advocate and the patton of our flower-chaplets or els to plucke them from our heads and weare them no longer And Ammonius assured us for his part that if any one of us would take upon him to answere he would not recharge againe nor come upon him with a rejoinder Then Tryphon himselfe moved us to say somewhat to the question WHereupon I began to speake and said That it belonged not to me but rather unto Tryphon for to proove that Ivie was colde considering that he used it much in physicke to coole and binde as being an astringent medicine but as touching that which ere-while was alledged namely that the Ivie berie doth inebriat if it be steeped in wine it is no found to be true and the accident which it worketh in those who drinke it in that maner can not well be called drunkennesse but rather an alienation of the mind and trouble of the spirit like to that effect which henbane worketh many other plants which mightily disquiet the braine and transport our senses and understanding As for the tortuositie of the bodie and branches it maketh nothing to the purpose and point in hand for the works and effects against nature can not 〈◊〉 from faculties and powers naturall and pieces of wood do twine and bend crooked because fire being neere unto them draweth and drieth up forcibly all the native and kindly humour where as the inward and naturall heat would rather ferment enterteine and augment it But consider better upon the matter and marke rather whether this writhed-bunching forme of the Ivie wood as it groweth and the basenesse bearing still downward and tending to the ground be not an argument rather of weaknesse and bewray the coldnesse of the bodie being glad as it were to make many rests and staies like unto a pilgrim or wayfaring traveller who for wearinesse and faintnesse sitteth him downe and reposeth himselfe many times in his way and ever and anon riseth againe and beginneth to set forward in regard of which feeblenesse the Ivie hath alwaies need of some prop or other to stay it selfe by to take hold of to claspe about and to cling unto being not able of her owne power to rise for want of naturall heat whose nature is to mount aloft As touching Snow that it thaweth and passeth away so soone the cause is the moisture and softnesse of the Ivie leafe for so wee see that water dispatcheth and dissolveth presently the laxitie and spongeous raritie thereof being as it is nothing els but a gathering and heaping of a number of small bubbles couched thrust together and hereof it commeth that in over-moist places sobbed and soaked with water snow melteth assoone as in places exposed to the sun Now for that it hath leaves alwaies upon it and the same as Empedocles saith firme and fast this proceedeth not of heat no more than the fall and shedding of leaves every yeere is occasioned by colde And this appeareth by the myrtle tree and the herbe Adiantum that is to say Maidenhaire which being not hot plants but colde are alwaies leaved and greene withall and therefore some are of opinion that the holding of the leaves is to be ascribed to an equality of temperature but Empedocles over and besides attributeth it to a certeine proportion of the pores thorow which the sap and nourishment doth passe and pierce qually into the leaves in such fort as it runneth sufficiently for to mainteine them which is not so in those trees which lose their leaves by reason of the laxitie or largenesse of the said pores and holes above and the straightnesse of them beneath whereby as these doe not send any nourishment at all so the other can hold and reteine none but that little which they received they let goe all at once like as we may observe in certeine canals or trenches devised for to water gardens and orchards if they be not proportionable and equall for where they be well watred and have continuall nourishment and the same in competent proportion there the trees hold their owne and remaine firme alwaies greene and never die But the Ivie tree planted in Babylon would never grow and refused there to live Certes it was well done of her and she shewed great generositie that being as she was a devoted vassaile to the god of Boeotia and living as it were at his table she would not goe out of her owne countrey to dwell among those Barbarians shee followed not the steps of king Alexander who entred alliance and made his abode with those strange and forren nations but avoided their acquaintance all that ever she could and withstood that transmigration from her native place but the cause thereof was not heat but colde rather because shee could not endure the temperature of the aire so contrary to her owne for that which is semblable and familiar never killeth any thing but receiveth nourisheth and beareth it like as drie ground the herbe thyme how hot soever the soile be Now for the province about Babylon they say the aire in all that tract is so soultrie hot so stuffing so grosse and apt to stifle and stop the breath that many inhabitants of the wealthier sort cause certeine bits or bagges of leather to be filled with water upon which as upon featherbeds they lie to sleepe and coole their
to withstand the appetite and to represse the same when it doth exceed is not so hard and difficult a matter but to stirre up to provoke corrobrate the same when it is lost decaied before due time or to give an edge unto it being dull and faint is a mastrie indeed and a piece of worke my friend I may say unto you not so easily done whereby it appeares that the nouriture of divers viands is better than the simple food and that which by reason is alwaies of one sort doth soone satisfie and give one enough by how much more easie it is to stay nature when she is too speedie and hastie than to set her forward being weary and drawing behinde and whereas some haply there bee who say that repletion and fulnesse is more to be feared and avoided than inanition and emptinesse that is not true but rather the contrary in deed if repletion and surfet grow to corruption or to some maladie it is hurtfull but emptinesse if it bring and breed none other harme els is of it selfe adverse and contrary to nature Let these reasons therefore be opposed as it were dissonant and sounding of a contrary string against those which you Philinus have phylosophically discoursed as for others of you heere that for saving money and to spare cost sticke to salt and cumin you are ignorant for want of experience that varietie is more pleasant and the more delectable that a thing is the more agreeable it is to the appetite provided alwaies that you shunne excesse and gourmandise for surely it cleaveth quickly to the body which is desirous of it going as one would say before and ready to meet it halfe-way for to receive it having the eie-sight to prepare the way whereas contrariwise that which is lothsome or not pleasing to the appetite floteth and wandereth up and downe in the bodie and findeth no enterteinment in such sort as either nature rejecteth it quite or if she receive it the same goes against her heart she doth it for pure need and want of other sustenance now when I speake of diversitie variety of viands note thus much and remember that I meane not these curious works of pa stry these exquisit sawces tarts and cakes which go under the name of Aburtacae Canduli Carycae which are but superfluous toies and vanities for otherwise Plato himselfe alloweth varietie of meats at the table to these generous and noble-gentlemen his citizens whom he describeth in his common-wealth when hee setteth before them bulbs scalions olives salade herbes cheese and al manner of deinties that woorth would affoord and over above al these he would not defraud nor cut feasts short of their junckets banquetting dishes at the end of al. THE SEGOND QUESTION What is the reason of this opinion so generally received that Mushromes be engendred of thunder and that those who lie asleepe are not thought to be smitten with lightning AT a certeine supper where we were in the city Elis Agemachus set before us Mushromes of an exceeding bignesse whereat when the companie seemed to woonder one who was there present smiled and said Certes these may beseeme well the great thunders that we have lately had within this few daies by which words he seemed pleasantly to scoffe at this vulgar opinion That Mushromes should breed of thunder Now some were there who said That thunder caused the earth to chinke and open using the meanes of the aire as it were a wedge to cleave it and withall that they who seeke for Mushromes by those crevices guesse where they are to be found whereupon arose this common opinion That they were engendred of thunder and not shewed thereby as if a man should imagine that a showre of raine breedeth snailes and not rather cause them to creepe foorth and be seene abroad But Agemachus seemed then in good earnest to confirme the said received opinion by experience praying the company not to conclude by by that a thing was incredible because it was strange and wonderfull For quoth hee there be many other effects of thunder lightning and other meteores or celestial impressions right admirable whereof it were very hard if not altogether impossible to comprehend the causes and the reasons For this ridiculous round root called the Bulb which maketh us so good sport and is growen into a by-word little though it be escapeth not by that meanes from thunder but because it hath a propertie cleane contrary unto it like as the figge tree also and the skin of the seale or sea-calfe and of the beast Hyena with whose skinnes mariners and sailers are wont to clothe the ends of their crosse-saile yards whereupon they hang their sailes gardeners also and good husbandmen call those showres that fall with thunder 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say good to water their grounds and so they thinke them to be In summe it were great simplicity and meere folly to woonder heereat considering that we doe see before our eies things more admirable than this and indeed of all other most incredible namely out of moist clouds fire to flash and from the same soft as they be so great cracks and horrible claps of thunder Well I am quoth he in these matters somewhat talkative and full of words because I would sollicit and move you to be more willing to search into the cause for that I meane not to deale hardly otherwise with you and seeme to presse you every one to lay downe your part toward the paiment for these my great Mushromes Why quoth I Agemachus himselfe seemeth in some sort to have pointed with his very finger to the reason hereof for I assure you at this present I can not thinke of any one more probable than this namely that together with thunder there falleth downe many times a certeine genitall water apt to ingender and the cause thereof is heat mingled among for that pure light piercing substance of the fire being now converted into lightning is gone and passed away but the more weightie grosse and flatilent part remaining behinde enwrapped within the cloud altereth and taketh quite the coldnesse away and drinketh up the moisture making it more flateous and windie in such sort as by this meanes especially these raines gently and mildly enter pierce into plants trees and herbs upon which they fall causing them within a while to thrive in bignesse and infusing within them a particular temperature and a peculiar difference of juice As we may observe otherwise that the dew maketh the grasse to be better seasoned as it were and fitter to content the appetite of sheepe and other cattell yea and those clouds upon which that reflexion is made which we call the rain-bow fill those trees and wood upon which they fall with a passing sweet and pleasant odor wherof the priests of our countrey be not ignorant but acnowledge as much calling the same Irisiseepta as if the rain-bow
reason to induce us thereunto for men are wont to attribute a kinde of divinty unto things which are passing common and the commoditie whereof reacheth farre as for example to water light the seasons of the yeere as for the earth her above the rest they repute not onely divine but also to be a goddesse there is none of all these things rehearsed that salt giveth place unto one jot in regard of use and profit being as it is a fortification to our meats within the bodie and that which commendeth them unto our appetite but yet consider moreover if this be not a divine propertie that it hath namely to preserve and keepe dead bodies free from putrifaction a long while and by that meanes to resist death in some sort for that it suffereth not a mortall bodie wholly to perish and come to nothing but like as the soule being the most divine part of us is that which mainteineth all the rest alive and suffereth not the masse and substance of the bodie to be dissolved and suffer colliquation even so the nature of salt taking hold of dead bodies and imitating heerein the action of the soule preserveth the same holding and staying them that they runne not headlong to corruption giving unto all the parts an amitie accord agreement one with the other and therefore it was elegantly said by some of the Stoicks That the flesh of an hogge was even from the beginning no better than a dead carion but that life being diffused within it as if salt were strewed throughout kept it sweet and so preserved it for to last long Moreover you see that wee esteeme lightning or the fire that commeth by thunder celestiall and divine for that those bodies which have beene smitten therewith are observed by us to continue a great while unputrified and without corruption What marvell is it then if our auncients have esteemed salt divine having the same vertue and nature that this divine and celestiall fire hath Heere I staied my speech and kept silence With that Philinus followed on and pursued the same argument And what thinke you quoth he is not that to be held divine which is generative and hath power to ingender considering that God is thought to be the originall authour creatour and father of all things I avowed no lesse and said it was so And it is quoth he an opinion generally received that salt availeth not a little in the matter of generation as you your selfe touched ere-while speaking of Aegyptian priests they also who keepe and nourish dogs for the race when they see them dull to performe that act and to doe their kinde do excite and awaken their lust and vertue generative that lieth as it were asleepe by giving them aswell as other hot meats salt flesh and fish both that have lien in bring pickle also those ships vessels at sea which ordinarily are fraight with salt breed commonly an infinit number of mice and rats for that as some hold the females or does of that kinde by licking of salt onely will conceive and be bagged without the company of the males or bucks but more probable it is that saltnesse doth procure a certeine itching in the naturall parts of living creatures and by that means provokeht males females both to couple together and peradventure this may be the reason that the beauty of a woman which is not dull and unlovely but full of favor attractive and able to move concupiscence men use to name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say saltish or well seasoned And I suppose that the poets have fained Venus to have beene engendred of the sea not without some reason and that this tale that she should come of salt was devised for the nonce to signifie and make knowen under those covert tearmes that there is in salt a generative power certes this is an ordinarie and generall thing among those poets to make all the sea-gods fathers of many children and very full of issue To conclude you shall not finde any land creature finde any land-creature or flying fowle for fruitfulnesse comparable to any kinde of fishes bred in the sea which no doubt this verse of Empedocles had respect unto Leading a troupe which senselesse were and rude Even of sea-fish a breeding multitude THE SIXTH BOOKE OF SYMPOSIAQUES OR BANQUET-QUESTIONS The Summarie 1 WHat is the reason that men fasting be more at hirst than hungrie 2 Whether it be want of food that causeth hunger and thirst or the transformation and change of the pores and conduit of the bodie be the cause thereof 3 How commeth it that they who be hungrie if they drinke are eased of their hunger but contrariwise those who are thir stie if they eat be more thirstic 4 What is the reason that pit-water when it is drawen if it be left all night within the same aire of the pit becommeth more cold 5 What is the cause that little stones and plates or pellets of lead if they be cast into water cause it to be the colder 6 Why snowe is preserved by covering it with straw chaffe or garments 7 Whether wine is to run throw a strainer 8 What is the cause of extraordinarie hunger or appetites to meat 9 Why the poet Homer when he spcaketh of other liquors useth proper epithits onely oile he calleth moist 10 What is the cause that the flesh of beasts flaine for sacrifiece if they be hanged upon a fig-tree quickly become tender THE SIXTH BOOKE OF Symposiaques or banquet-questions The Proeme PLato being minded to draw Timotheus the sonne of Canon ô Sossius Senecio from sumptuous feasts and superfluous banquets which great captaines commonly make invited him one day to a supper in the Academie which was philosophicall indeed and frugall where the table was not furnished with those viands which might distemper the bodie with feaverous heats and inflamations as Iōn the poet was wont to say but such a supper I say upon which ordinarily there follow kinde and quiet sleeps such fansies also and imaginations as ingender few dreames and those short and in one word where the sleeps do testifie a great calmnesse and tranquillitie of the bodie The morrow after Timotheus perceiving the difference betweene these suppers and the other said That they who supped with Plato over-night found the pleasure and comfort therof the next day and to say a trueth a great helpe and ready meanes to a pleasant and blessed life is the good temperature of the body not drenched in wine nor loaden with viands but light nimble and ready without any feare or distrust to performe all actions and functions of the day-time But there was another commodity no lesse than this which they had who supped with Plato namely the discussing and handling of good and learned questions which were held at the table in supper time for the remembrance of the pleasures in eating and drinking is illiberall and unbeseeming men of worth
we dayly burne namely that the airie substance therein flieth up in smoake that which is terrestriall turneth into ashes and there is nothing but that which is moist or liquid that flameth out burneth light and is consumed cleane for why fire hath no other sustenance to feed upon and therefore water wine and other liquors stand much upon a feculent muddie earthly matter which is the cause that if a man do cast them upon a fire or flame by their asperitie they disgregate and by their weight choke quench it but oile for that most properly and sincerely it is moist and by reason also that it is so subtile soone receiveth alteration and being over come by the fire is quickly inflamed but the greatest argument to prove the moisture of oile is this that a little thereof will spread and go a great way for neither honie nor water nor any other liquid thing whatsoever in so small a quantitie can be dilated and drawen so far as oile but for the most part they are spent and gone by occasion of their siccity and verily oile being so pliable and ready to be drawen every way soft also and glib is apt to run all over the body when it is anointed it floweth and spreadeth a great way by meanes of the humiditie of all parts which are so moveable in such sort as it continueth a long time and hardly will be rid away it sticketh and cleaveth so fast for a garment if it be dipped and drenched all over in water will soone be drie againe but the spots and staines with oile require no small adoe to be scoured out and cleansed for that it taketh so deepe an impression and all because it is so fine subtile and exceeding moist and Aristotle himselfe saith that even wine also being delaied with water if it be gotten into a cloth is hardly fetched out for that now it is more subtile than before and pierceth farther within the pores thereof THE TENTH QUESTION What is the cause that the flesh of beasts killed for sacrifice if it be hung upon a fig-tree becommeth more tender within a while ARiston had a cooke commended highly by those who used to sup with his master for singular skill in his art and namely for that among all other viands which he handled and dressed passing well hee served up a cocke unto the table before us newly killed and sacrificed unto Hercules the flesh whereof did eat as short and tender as if he had hung by the heeles a day or two before and when Ariston said that it was an easie matter so to doe and that there needed no more but presently when his throat was cut to hang him upon a fig-tree we tooke occasion thereby to search into the cause of this effect Certes that there passeth from the figge-tree a sharpe aire and strong spirit our verie eiesight will testifie as also the common speech that goeth of a bull who if he be tied to a fig-tree how wilde savage and fell soever he was before will soone be meeke and quiet abide to be handled and in one word lay downe his furious rage as if it were cleane daunred But the principall cause heereof was attributed to the acrimonie and sharpe qualitie of the wood for the tree is more succulent than any other insomuch as the verie figge it selfe the wood also and the leafe be all full of juice also whiles it burneth in the fire there ariseth from it a bitter biting smoake very hurtfull to the eies and when it is burnt there is made of the ashes a strong leie very detersive and scouring which bee all signes of heat and moreover whereas the milkie juice of the sig-tree will cause milke to turne and cruddle some say it is not by the inequality of the figures of milke which are comprehended and glewed as it were therewith namely when the united and round parts thereof are cast up to the superficies but for that the foresaid juice by meanes of heat doth resolve the waterie substance of the liquor which is not apt to gather consistence and be thickned moreover this is another figne thereof that notwithstanding the juice be in some sort sweet yet it is good for nothing and maketh the woorst and most unpleasant drinke in the world for it is not the inequalitie therof that causeth the smooth parts to gather a crud but the heat which maketh the cold and cruddie partes to coagilate A good proofe of this we have from salt which serveth to this purpose because it is hot but it impeacheth this interlacing and glutinous binding pretended for that by nature it doth rather dissolve and unbinde To come againe therefore unto the question in hand the fig-tree sendeth from it a sharpe piercing and incisive spirit and this is it that doth make tender and as it were concoct the flesh of the saide foule and as great an effect should one see if he had put him in a heape of wheat or such corne or covered him all over with salt nitre and all by reason of heat and that this is true that wheat is hot may be gathered by the vessels full of wine which are hidden within a heape of wheat for a man shall soone finde that the wine will be all gone THE SVENTH BOOKE OF SYMPOSIAQUES OR BANQUET-DISCOURSES The Summarie 1 AGainst those who reproove Plato for saying that our drinke passeth thorough the lungs 2 What is that which Plato calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and why those seedes which fall upon beeses hornes become hard in concoction 3 Why the middle part in wine the highest in oile and the bottome of hony is best 4 Wherefore the Romans in old time observed this custome never in any case to take away the table cleane nor to suffer a lampe or candle to goe out 5 That we ought to take great heed of those pleasures which naughtie musicke yeeldeth and how we should beware of it 6 Of those guests who are called shadowes and whether a man may goe to a feast unbidden if hee be brought thither by those who were invited when and unto whom 7 Whither it he lawfull and honest to admit she-minstrels at a feast or banquet 8 What matters especially it is good to heare discoursed upon at the table 9 That to sit in counsell or consult at a table was in old time the custome of Greeks as well as of Persians 10 Whether they did well that so consulted at their meat THE SEVENTH BOOKE OF Symposiaques or banquet-discourses The Proeme THe Romans have commonly in their mouthes ô Sossius Senecio the speech of a pleasant conceited man and a curteous whosoever he was who when he had supped alone at any time was wont thus to say Eaten I have this day but not supped shewing thereby that meales would never be without mirth and good companie to season the same and to give a pleasant taste unto the viands Euenus verily used to say That fire was
in one word that even the gods themselves doe shew by deeds and effects without voice or speech unto wise men what their will and pleasure is Then Lucius mildely and simply answered That the true cause indeed might peradventure lie hidden still and not be divulged howbeit there is nothing to hinder or let us but that we may render one reason or other which carieth with it some likelihood probability so Theon the grammarian began first to discourse upō that point saying it was very difficult to shew prove that Pythagoras was a Tuskan born but for certeine knowen it was that he had made his abode a long time in Aegypt conversed with the sages of that countrey where he approoved embraced and highly extolled manie of their religious ceremonies and namely that as touching beanes for Herodotus writeth that the Aegyptians neither sowe nor eat beanes no nor can abide so much as to looke upon them and as for fishes we are assured that their priests even at this day absteine from them and living as they doe chaste and unmaried they refuse salt likewise neither will they endure to eat it as a meat by it selfe nor any other viands wherein any sea salt commeth whereof divers men alledge divers sundry reasons but there is one true cause indeed that is the enmitie which they beare unto the sea as being a savage element a meere alien estranged frō us or to speak more truely a mortall enimie to mans nature for the gods are not nourished therewith as the Stoicks were of opinion that the staries were fed from thence but contrariwise that in it was lost the father and saviour of that countrey of Aegypt which they call the deflux or running out of Osiris and in lamenting his generation on the right hand and corruption on the left covertly they give us to understand the end and perdition of Nilus in the sea In which consideration they are of opinion that lawfull it is not once to drinke of the water as being not potable neither doe they thinke that any thing which it breedeth bringeth foorth or nourisheth is cleane and meet for man considering that the same hath not breath and respiration common with us nor food and pasture agreeable unto ours for that the very aire which nourisheth and mainteineth all other living creatures is pernicious and deadly unto them as if they were engendred first and lived afterward in this world against the course of nature and for no use at all and marvell we must not if for the hatred they beare unto the sea they hold the creatures therein as strangers and neither meet nor worthy to be intermingled with their bloud or vitall spirits seeing they will not deigne so much as to salute any pilots or mariners whensoever they meet with them because they get their living upon the sea Sylla commending this discourse added moreover as touching the Pythagoreans that when they sacrificed unto the gods they wuld especially tast of the primices or parcels of flesh which they hadkilled but never was there any fish that they sacrificed or offred unto the gods Now when they had finished their speech I came in with mine opinion As for those Aegyptians quoth I many men there be as well learned as ignorant who contradict them plead in the behalfe and defence of the sea recounting the manifold commodities thereof whereby our life is more plentifull pleasant and happie as touching the surcease as it were of the Pythagoreans and their forbearing to lay hand upon fishes because they are such strangers unto us it is a very absurd and ridiculous device or to say more truely it is a cruell and inhumane part and savoring much of a barbarous Cyclops seeing that to other living creatures they render a reward and recompence for their kinred cousenage and acquaintance by killing eating and consuming them as they doe and verily reported it is of Pythagoras that upon a time hee bought of the fishers a draught of fish and when he had so done commaunded that they should be all let out of the net into the sea againe surely this was not the act of a man who either hated or despised fishes as his enemies or strangers considering that finding them prisoners as he did he paid for their raunsome and redeemed their liberty as if they had bene his kinsfolke good friends and therefore the humanitie equitie and mildnesse of these men induceth us to thinke and imagine cleane contrary that it was rather for some exercise of justice or to keepe themselves in ure and custome thereof that they spared and pardoned those sea-creatures for that al others give men cause in some sort to hurt them whereas poore fishes offend us in no maner and say their nature and will were so disposed yet cannot they execute the same moreover conjecture we may and collect by the reports records and sacrifices of our auncients that they thought it an horrible abominable thing not onely to eat but also to kill any beast that doth no hurt or damage unto us but seeng in processe of time how much pestered they were with a number of beasts that grew upon them and overspred the face of the earth and withall being as it is said commaunded by the oracle of Apollo at Delphos to succour the fruits of the earth which were ready to perish they began then to kill them for sacrifice unto the gods yet in so doing they seemed to tremble and feare as troubled in minde calling this their action 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say to doe or perpetrate as if they did and committed some great deed in killing a creature having life and even still at this day they observe a ceremony with all religious precisenesse not to massacre any beast before it hath given a nod with the head after the libations and effusions of wine upon it in signe and token of consent so strict they were and wary to commit no unjust act Certes to say nothing of other beasts if all men had forborne to kill and eat no more but pullen and conies within short time they should not have beene able to have dwelt within their townes or cities nor enjoied any fruits of the earth therefore although necessitie at the first had brought in the use of eating flesh a very hard matter it were now in regard of pleasure to put down abolish the same whereas the whole kind of sea-creatures using neither the same aire and water with us nor comming neere unto our fruits but being as a man would saie comprised within another world having distinct bounds and limits of their owne which they cannot passe but immediatly it costeth them their life for punishment of their trespasse giveth unto our belly none occasion or pretence at all more or lesse to runne upon them so that the whole hunting catching and running after fish is a 〈◊〉 worke of gourmandise
is tossed within a round compasse for neither the setled constitution of a disease is without some cause bringing into the world irregularly and against all law of nature a generation and power from that which hath no being at all nor an easie matter is it for a man to finde out a new cause unlesse withall he do set downe a new aire strange water and such meats as our forefathers never tasted of imagining that they are run hither to us now and never before out of I wot not what other worlds or imaginarie inter-worlds and spaces betweene for sicke wee fall by meanes of the same things whereof we live and no peculiar and proper seeds there be of diseases but the naughtinesse and corruption of such things whereby wee live in regard of us and our owne faults and errours besides about them are they which trouble and offend nature these troubles have perpetually the same differences though the same many times take new names for these names are according to the ordinance and custome of men but the maladies themselves are the affections of nature and so those diseases of themselves finite being varied diversified by these names infinite have deceived and beguiled us and as there is not lightly and upon a sudden committed in the Grammaticall parts of speech or in the Syntaxis and construction thereof any new barbarisme solaecisme or incongruitie even so the temperatures of mens bodies have their falles errours and transgressions which be certeine and determinate considering that in some sort even those things which are against nature be comprised and included in nature and this is it that the wittie inventers and devisers of fables would signifie in saying That when the giants made warre against the gods there were ingendred certeine strange and monstrous creatures every way at what time as the moone was turned cleane contrary and arose not as she was wont and verily their meaning was that nature produced new maladies like unto monsters but withall imagine and devise a cause of such change and alteration that is neither probable nor yet incredible but pronouncing and affirming that the augmentation more or lesse of some diseases causeth that newnesse and diversitie in them which is not well done of them my good friend Philo for this intention and augmentation may well adde thereto frequencie and greatnesse but surely it transporteth not the subject thing out of the first and primitive kinde and thus I suppose the leprosie or Elepantiasis to be nothing els but the vehemencie of these scurvie and scabbie infections as also the Hydrophobie or vaine feare of water no other but an augmentation of the passions of stomacke or melancholie and verily a woonder it were that we should not know how Homer was not ignorant hereof for this is certeine that he called a dogge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of this raging accident whereto he is subject and hereupon men also when they are in a rage be said likewise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When Diogenianus had thus discoursed Philo himselfe both seemed somewhat to answere and refute his reasons and also requested me to speake in the behalfe of the ancient physicians who were thus challenged and condemned for their ignorance or negligence in these principall matters in case it were true that these maladies were not of a later breed and more moderne than their age First therefore it seemed unto me that Diogenianus put not this well downe for a good supposall that tensions and relaxations according to more or lesse make no differences nor remove the subject matters out of their kinde for by this meanes we should likewise say that vineger differed not from wine that is souring nor bitternesse from styplicitie or sourenesse nor 〈◊〉 from wheat ne yet garden mints from the wilde mint but evident it is that these do degenerate yea and become altered in their very qualities partly by relaxations as the things doe languish and lose their heart and in part by tension as they be reenforced and take vigor for otherwise we must be forced to say that the flame differeth not from a white or cleere winde nor a light from a flame nor frost from dew nor haile from raine but that all these be but the inforcements onely and tensions of the same things and so constantly we shall be driven to affirme that blindnesse and dimme sight differ not and inordinate passion of vomiting called Cholera is nothing different from a keckish stomacke and a desire to cast but onely according to augmentation and diminution more or lesse and all this is nothing to the purpose for if they admit and say that this very tension and augmentation in vehemencie came but now of late as if this noveltie were occasioned by the quantitie and not the qualitie yet the absurditie of the paradox remaineth neverthelesse moreover seeing that Sophocles speaking of those things which because they had not bene in times past men would not beleeve to be at this present said very well in this wise All kind of things both good and bad Once at the first their being had This also seemeth very probable and to stand with great reason that maladies ran not forth all at once as if the barriers had bene set open for the race and they let out together but some came alwaies successively behinde at the taile of others and each one tooke the first begining at a certaine time And a man may well conjecture and guesse quoth I that such as arose of want and indigence as also those that came of heat and colde were the first that assailed our bodies but repletions gluttonies and delicate pleasures came afterwards together with sloth and idlenesse which by reason of abundance of victuals caused great store of superfluities and excrements from whence proceeded sundry sorts of maladies the complication whereof and intermixture one with another bringeth evermore some new thing or other for every naturall thing is orderly and limited because that nature is nothing els but order it selfe or at leastwise the worke of order whereas disoreder like to the same that Pindarus speaketh of is infinit and can not be comprised within any certeine number so that whatsoever is unnaturall the same immediatly is unlimited and infinit for the trueth we can not deliver but one way marie to lie a man may finde an infinit number of meanes by occasion of innumerable occurrents also accords musicall and harmonies stand upon their certeine proportions but the errours that men commit in playing upon the harpe or other instrument in song and in dauncing who is able to comprehend although Phrynichus the tragedian poet said of himselfe thus In daunce I finde as many sorts And formes of gestures and disports As waves in sea and billowes strong Arise by tempest all night long And Chrysippus writeth that the divers complications often prositions which they call Axioms and no more surmount the number of ten hundred thousand but Hipparchus reprooved this
and taught that the affirmative doth conteine of connexed propositions one hundred thousand and besides one thousand fortie and nine but the negative of the same propositions comprehendeth three hundred and ten thousand with a surplusage of nine hundred fiftie and two and Xenocrates hath set downe that the number of syllables which the letters in the alphabet being coupled and combined together do affoord amount to the number of one hundred millions and two hundred thousand over why should it therefore bee thought strange and wonderfull that our body having in it so many faculties and gathering still daily by that which it eateth and drinketh so many different qualities considering withall that it useth motions and mutations which keepe not one time nor the same order alwaies the complications and mixtures of so many things together bring evermore new and unusuall kinds of maladies such as Thucydides wrot was the pestilence at Athens conjecturing that this was no ordinarie and usuall maladie by this especially for that the beasts of prey which otherwise did eat of flesh would not touch a dead bodie those also who fell sicke about the red sea as Agathircides maketh report were afflicted with strange symptomes and accidents which no man had ever read or seene and among others that there crawled from them certeine vermin like small serpents which did eat the calves of their legs and the brawnes of their armes and looke whensoever a man thought to touch them in they would againe and winding about the muskles of the flesh ingendered inflammations and impostumes with intolerable paine This pestilent disease no man ever knew before neither was it ever seene since by others but by them alone like as many other such accidents for there was a man who having beene a long time tormented with the disurie or difficultie of his urine delivered in the end by his yard a barley straw knotted as it was with joints and we know a friend and guest of ours a yoong man who together with a great quantitie of naturall seed cast foorth a little hairie worme or vermin with many feet and therewith it ranne very swiftly Aristotle writeth also that the nourse of one Timon of Cilicia retired her selfe for two moneths space every yeere and lurked in a certeine cave all the while without drinke or meat or giving any other apparence of life but onely that shee tooke her breath certes recorded it is in the Melonian books that it is a certeine signe of the liver diseased when the sicke partie is verie busie in spying seeking and chasing the mice and rats about the house a thing that now a daies is not seene let us not marvell therefore if a thing be now engendred that never was seene before and the same afterward cease as if it had never beene for the cause lieth in the nature of the bodie which sometime taketh one temperature and one while another but if Diogemanus bring in a new aire and a strange water let him alone seeing he is so disposed and yet we know well that the followers of Democritus both say and write that by the worlds which perish without this and by the straunge bodies which from that infinitie of worlds runne into this there arise many times the beginnings of plageu and pestilence yea and of other extraordinarie accidents we will passe over likewise the particular corruptions which happen in divers countries either by earthquakes excessive droughts extreme heats and unusuall raines with which it cannot be chosen but that both winds and rivers which arise out of the earth must needs be likewise infected diseased and altered but howsoever those causes wee let goe by yet omit we must not what great alterations and changes be in our bodies occasioned by our meats and viands and other diet and usage of our selves for many things which before time were not wont to hee tasted or eaten are become now most pleasant dainties as for example the drinke made of honie and wine as also the delicate dish of a farrowing swines shape or wombe as for the braine of a beast it is said that in old time they were wont to reject and cast it from them yea and so much to detest and abhorre it that they would not abide to heare one to name it and for the cucumber the melon or pompion the pomeeitron and pepper I know many old folke at this day that cannot away with their taste credible it is therefore that our bodies receive a woonderfull change and strange alteration by such things in their temperature acquiring by little and little a divers qualitie and superfluitie of excrements farre different from those before semblably wee are to beleeve that the change of order in our viands maketh much heereto for the services at the boord which in times past were called the cold tables to wit of oisters sea-urchings greene sallads of raw lettuce such other herbs be as it were the light forerunners of the feast as transferred now by Plato from the rereward to the forefront and have the first place whereas besore in old time they came in last a great matter there is also in those beavers or fore-drinkings called Propomata for our ancients would not drinke so much as water before they did eat and now a daies when as men are otherwise fasting have eat nothing they will be in maner drunke after they have well drenched their bodies they begin to fall unto their meats and whiles they be yet boiling they put into the stomacke those things that bee attenuant incisive and sharpe for to provoke and stirre up the appetite and still fill themselves up full with other viands but none of all this hath more power to make mutation in our bodies nor to breed new maladies than the varietie of sundry fashions of bathing of flesh for first formost it is made soft liquid and fluid as iron is by the fire and afterwards it receiveth the temper and tincture of hard sleele by cold water so that me thinks if any one of those who lived a little before us should see the dore of our stouphes and baines open he might say thus Heere into runneth Acheron And fire-like burning Phlegethon Whereas in our forefathers daies they used their bathes and hot-houses so milde so kinde and temperate that king Alexander the Great being in a fever lay and slept within them yea the Gaules wives bringing thither their pots of pottage and other viands did eat even there with their children who bathed together with them but it seemeth in these daies that those who are within the stouphes and baines be like unto those that are raging madde and barke as dogs they puffe and blow like fed swine they lay about them and tosse every way the aire that they draw in as it were mingled with fire water suffereth no piece nor corner of the body in quiet and rest it shaketh tosseth and remooveth out of place the least indivisible parcell
speake of necessity either was not before the creation of the world at what time as those first bodies lay still unmoveable or stirred confusedly or else if he were before he either slept or watched or did neither the one nor the other but as the former of these we may not admit for that God is eternall so the latter we cannot 〈◊〉 for if God slept from all eternity and time out of minde he was no better than dead for what is eternal sleep other than death but surely God is not subject to death for the immortallity of God and this vicinity to death are much distant asunder and cannot stand both together but if wee say that God was awake all that while either he was defectuous in his blessed state of felicity or els he enjoyed the same complet but in the first condition God is not happy for whatsoever wanteth ought of felitity cannot be happy and verily in the second state he is not better for if he were defective in nothing before to what purpose busied he himselfe in such vaine enterprises moreover if there be a God and that by his prudent care mens affaires be governed how commeth it to passe that wicked men prosper in the world and finde fortune their 〈◊〉 mother but the good and honest suffer the contrary and feele her to be a curst stepdame for king Agamemnon as the poet faith Aprince right good and gracious A knight with all most 〈◊〉 was by an adulterer and adulteresse surprised and murdered trecherously and Hercules one of his race and kinred after he had ridde and purged the life of man from so many monsters that troubled his reposewas poisoned by Deianeira and so by indirect meanes lost his life THALES saith that God is the soule of the world ANAXIMANDER is of opinion that the starres be celestiall gods DEMOCRITUS is perswaded that God is a minde of a fierie nature and the soule of the world PYTHAGORAS affirmeth that of the two first principles Unitie was God and the soveraigne good which is the very nature of one and is Understanding it selfe but the indefinite binarie is the divell and evill about which is the multitude materiall and the visible world SOCRATES and PLATO doe hold that he is one and of a simple nature begotten and borne of himselfe alone truly good All which tearmes and attributes tend unto a Minde so that this minde is God a forme separate apart that is to say neither mingled with any matter nor entangled and joined with any thing passible whatsoever ARISTOTLE supposeth that this supreme God is an abstract forme setled upon the round sphaere of the universall world which is an heavenly and celestiall body and therefore tearmed by him the fifth body or quinta essentia which celestial body being divided into many sphaeres coherent by nature but separate and distinct by reason and understanding hee thinketh each of these sphaeres to be a kinde of animall composed of body and soule of which twaine the bodie is celestiall mooving circularly and the soule reason unmooveable in it selfe but the cause in effect of motion The Stoicks teach after a more generall manner and define God to be a working and artificiall fire proceeding methodically and in order to the generation of the world which comprehendeth in itselfe all the spermaticall proportions and reasons of seed according to which every thing by fatall destinie is produced and commeth foorth also to be a spirit piercing and spreading through the whole world howbeit changing his denomination throughout the whole matter as it passeth by transition from the one to the other Semblably that the world is God the starres likewise and the earth yea and the supreme minde above in heaven Finally Epicurus conceiveth thus of the gods that they all have the forme of man and yet be perceptable onely by reason and cogitation in regard of the subtile parts and fine nature of their imaginative figures he also affirmeth that those other foure natures in generall be incorruptible to wit the atomes vacuitie infinitie and resemblances which also be called semblable parcels and elements CHAP. VIII Of Daemons and demy-gods otherwise named Heroes TO this treatise of the gods meet it is to adjoine a discourse as touching the nature of Daemones and Heroes THALES PYTHAGORAS PLATO and the STOICKS hold that these Daemons be spirituall substances and the Heroes soule separate from their bodies of which sort there be good and bad the good Heroes are the good soules and the bad Heroes the bad soules but EPICURUS admitteth none of all this CHAP. IX Of Matter MAtter is the first and principall subject exposed to generation corruption and other mutations The Sectaries of THALES and PYTHAGORAS together with the Stoicks doe say that this Matter is variable mutable alterable and fluxible all wholly thorow the universall world The disciples and followers of DEMOCRITUS are of opinion that the first principles be impassible to wit the small indivisible bodie Atomos Voidnesse and Incorporall ARISTOTLE and PLATO doe holde that Matter is corporall without forme shape figure and qualitie in the owne nature and propertie but when it hath received formes once it becommeth as it were a nurse a molde pattern and a mother They who set downe for this Matter water earth fire or aire do not say that now it is without forme but that it is a very bodie but such as affirme that these Atomes and indivisible bodies be the said Matter make it altogether formelesse CHAP. X. Of Idea IDea is a bodilesse substance which of it selfe hath no subsistence but giveth figure and forme unto shapelesse matters and becommeth the very cause that bringeth them into shew and evidence SOCRATES and PLATO suppose that these Ideae bee substances separate and distinct from Matter howbeit subsisting in the thoughts and imaginations of God that is to say of Minde and Understanding ARISTOTLE admitteth verily these formes and Ideae howbeit not separate from matter as being the patterns of all that which God hath made The STOICKS such as were the scholars of Zeno have delivered that our thoughts and conceits were the Ideae CHAP. XI Of Causes A Cause is that whereupon dependeth or followeth an effect or by which any thing hapneth PLATO hath set downe three kinds of Causes and those are distinguished by these tearmes By which Of which and For which but he taketh the most principall to be that By which that is to say the efficient cause which is the minde or understanding PYTHAGORAS and ARISTOTLE do hold that the principall Causes be incorporall and as for other Causes either by participation or by accident they are of a corporal substance and so the world is a bodie But the STOICKS are of opinion that all Causes are corporall inasmuch as they be spirits CHAP. XII Of Bodies A Bodie is measurable and hath three dimensions length bredth and depth or thicknesse Or thus A Bodie is a masse that resisteth touching naturally of it selfe
and upon which he is caried is eight and twentie times bigger than the whole earth ANAXAGORAS said it was by many degrees greater than all Peloponnesus HERACLITUS held that it was a mans foot broad EPICURUS againe affirmed that all abovesaid might be or that it was as bigge as it appeared to be at leastwise a little under or over CHAP. XXII Of the Sunnes forme ANAXIMENES imagined that the Sunne was flat and broad like unto a thinne plate of mettall HERACLITUS supposed it to be made like unto a boat somewhat curbed downeward and turning up The STOICKS suppose it to be round like unto the whole world and other starres EPICURUS saith that all this may be well enough CHAP. XXIII Of the Solsticies or Tropiques of the Sunne ANAXIMENES thinketh that the Starres are beaten backe by the thicke aire and the same making resistance ANAXAGORAS saith that they are occasioned by the repulse of the aire about the Beares or Poles which the Sunne himselfe by thrusting and making thicke causeth to be more powerfull EMPEDOCLES ascribeth the reason thereof to the sphaere that conteineth and impeacheth him from passing farther as also to the two Tropique circles DIOGENES imagineth that the Sun is extinct by the cold falling opposit upon the heat The STOICKS affirme that the Sunne passeth thorow the tract and space of his food and pasture lying under him which is the Ocean sea or the earth upon the vapours and exhalation whereof he feedeth PLATO PYTHAGORAS and ARISTOTLE holde that this is occasioned by the obliquitie of the Zodiacke circle thorow which the Sunne passeth biase as also by reason of the Tropicke circles which environ and guard him about and all this the very sphaere it selfe doth evidently shew CHAP. XXIIII Of the Sunnes eclipse THALES was the first who observed the Sunnes eclipse and said that it was occasioned by the Moone which is of a terrestriall nature when as in her race she commeth to be just and plumbe under him which may be plainly seene as in a mirrour by setting a bason of water underneath ANAXIMANDER said that the Sun became eclipsed when the mouth or tunnill at which the heat of his fire commeth forth is closed up HERACLITUS is of opinion that this hapneth when the bodie of the Sun which is made like a boat is turned upside downe so as the hollow part thereof is upward and the keele downward to our sight XENOPHANES affirmeth that this commeth by extinction of one Sun the rising of another againe in the East he addeth moreover and reporteth that there is an eclipse of the Sun during one whole moneth as also one entire and universall eclipse in such maner as the day scemeth to be night Others ascribe the cause thereof to the thickenesse of clouds which suddenly and after an hidden maner overcast the rundle and plate of the Sunne ARISTARCHUS reckoneth the Sunne among the fixed Starres saying that it is the earth which rolleth and turneth round about the Sunnes circle and according to the inclinations thereof the Sunnes lightsome bodie commeth to be darkened by her shade XENOPHANES holdeth that there be many Sunnes and Moones according to the divers Climats Tracts Sections and Zones of the earth and at a certeine revolution of time the rundle of the Sunne falleth upon some Climate or Section of the earth which is not of us inhabited and so marching as it were in some void place he suffereth eclipse he also affirmeth that the Sun goeth indeed infinitly forward stil but by reason of his huge distance and retract from us seemeth to turne round about CHAP. XXV Of the Moones substance ANNAXIMANDER saith that the Moone is a circle xix times bigger than the earth and like as that of the Sunne full of fire that she suffereth eclipse when her wheele turneth for that he saith that circle resembleth the wheele of a chariot the movature or felly whereof is hollow and full of fire howbeit there is an hole or tunnell out of which the fire doth exhale XENOPHANES saith that the Moone is a thicke compact and felted cloud The STOICKS hold that she is mixed of fire and aire PLATO affirmeth that she standeth more of a fierie substance ANAXAGORAS and DEMOCRITUS do hold that the Moone is a solid and firme bodie all fiery containing in it champian grounds mountaines and vallies HERACLITUS is of opinion that it is earth overspred with mists PYTHAGORAS also thinketh that the bodie of the Moone is of the nature of fire CHAP. XXVI Of the Moones 〈◊〉 THe STOICKS pronounce flatly that the Moone is bigger than the Earth like as the Sunne also PARMENIDES affirmeth it to be equall in brightnesse to the Sunne and that of him she hath her light CHAP. XXVII Of the Moones forme THe STOICKS say the Moone is round as a globe like as the Sunne EMPEDOCLES would have it to resemble abason or platter HERACLITUS compareth it to a boat and others to a round cylinder that she is shaped seven manner of waies at her first birth as it were she appeereth horned or tipped then divided or quartered afterwards growing somewhat together and soone after full from which time by little and little she waneth by degrees first bending somewhat close then quartered and after that tipped and horned untill at the change she appeereth not at all and they say this varietie of her configurations is occasioned by the earth shadowing her light more or lesle according as the convexitie of the earth commeth betweene CHAP. XXVIII Of the Moones illuminations ANAXIMANDER saith that she hath a light of her owne but the same very rare and thinne ANTIPHON affirmeth that she shineth with her owne light and whereas she is otherwhiles hidden it proceedeth from the opposition of the sunne namely when a greater fire commeth to darken a lesse a thing incident to other starres THALES and his followers hold that the Moone is lightned by the sunne HERACLITUS supposeth that the case of the sunne and Moone is all one for that both of them being formed like a boat and receiving moist exhalations they seeme in our sight illuminate the sunne brighter of the twaine for that he 〈◊〉 in a more cleere and pure aire and the Moone in that which is more troubled which is the reason that she seemeth more darke and muddy CHAP. XXIX Of the Moones Ecclipse ANAXIMENES saith that the Moone is Ecclipsed when the mouth or venting hole whereout issueth her fire is stopped BEROSUS is of opinion that it is when that face and side of hers which is not lightned turneth toward us HERACLITUS would have it to be when the convexitie or swelling part of the boat 〈◊〉 she doth represent regardeth us directly Some of the PYTHAGOREANS doe holde the ecclipse of the Moone to be partly a reverberation of light and in part an obstruction the one in regard of the earth the other of the Antipodes who tread opposite unto us But the moderne writers are of opinion that it is
it is conceived inclosed within a thicke cloud then by reason of the subtiltie and lightnesse thereof it breaketh forth with violence and the rupture of the cloud maketh a cracke and the divulsion or cleaving by reason of the blacknesse of the cloud causeth a shining light METRODORUS saith when a wind chanceth to be enclosed within a cloud gathered thick and close together the said wind by bursting of the cloud maketh a noise and by the stroke and breach it shineth but by the quicke motion catching heat of the Sunne it shooteth forth lightning but if the said lightning be weake it turneth into a Prester or burning blase ANAXAGORAS is of opinion that when ardent heat falleth upon cold that is to say when a portion of celestial fire lighteth upon the airie substance by the cracking noise therof is caused thunder by the colour against the blacknesse of the cloud a flashing beame by the plentie and greatnesse of the light that which we call lightning and in case the fire be more grosse and corpulent there ariseth of it a whirlwind but if the same be of a cloudie nature it engendreth a burning blast called Prester The STOICKS hold thunder to be a combat and smiting together of clouds that a flashing beame is a fire or inflammation proceeding from their attrition that lighning is a more violent flashing and Prester lesse forcible ARISTOTLE supposeth that all these meteores come likewise of a dry exhalation which being gotten enclosed within a moist cloud seeketh meanes and striveth forcibly to get foorth now by attrition and breaking together it causeth the clap of thunder by inflammation of the drie substance a flashing beame but Presters Typhons that is to say burning blasts and whirlwindes according as the store of matter is more or lesse which the one and the other draweth to it but if the same be hotter you shall see Prester if thicker looke for Typhon CHAP. IIII. Of Clouds Raine Snowe and Haile ANAXIMENES saith that clouds are engendred when the aire is most thicke which if they coagulate still more and more there is expressed from them a shewer of raine but in case this matter as it falleth doe congeale it turneth to be 〈◊〉 but say it meet with a colde moist wind and be surprized therewith it prooveth haile METRODORUS supposeth that clouds be composed of a waterish evaporation Epicurus of meere vapours also that as well the drops of raine as haile-stones become round by the long way of their descent CHAP. V. Of the Rainbow AMong those meteors or impressions engendred in the aire some there be which have a true substance indeed as raine and haile others againe have no more but a bare apparence without any reall subsistence much like as when we are within a ship we imagine that the continent and firme land doth moove and among those which are in apparence onely we must range the Rainbow PLATO saith that men derive the genealogie of it from Thaumas as one would say from wonder because they marvelled much to see it according as Homer sheweth in this verse Like as when mightie Jupiter the purple rainbow bends Thereby to mort all men from heaven a wondrous token sends Which either tempests terrible or wofull warre pretends And hereupon it is that some have made thereof a fabulous device and given out that she having a bulles head drinketh up the rivers But how is this Rainbow ingendred and how commeth it so to appeare Certes we see by lines either direct and streight or crooked or els rebated and broken which though they be obscure and appeare not evidently yet are perceived by cogitation and discourse of reason as being bodilesse Now by rightlines we beholde things some in the aire and others thorow transparent stones and hornes for that all these consist of very subtile parts by crooked and curbed lines wee looke within the water for our eie-sight doth bend and turne againe perforce by reason that the matter of the water is more thicke which is the cause that we see the mariners oare in the sea a farre off as it were crooked The third maner of seeing is by refraction and so we beholde objects in mirrours and of this sort is the Rainbow for we must consider and understand that a moist vapour being lifted up aloft is converted into a cloud and then within a while by little and little into small dew-drops whenas therfore the Sun descendeth Westward it can not chuse but every Rainbow must needs appere opposit unto it in the contrary part of the sky and whē our sight falleth upon those drops it is rebated and beaten backe and by that meanes there is presented unto it a Rainbow now those drops are not of the forme and figure of a bow but represent a colour onely and verily the first and principall hew that this bow hath is a light and bright red the second a deepe vermillion or purple the third blue and greene let us consider then whether the said red colour appeare not because the brightnesse of the Sunne beating upon the cloud and the sincere light thereof reflected driven back maketh a ruddy or light red hew but the second part more obscure and rebating the said splendor through those 〈◊〉 drops causeth a purple tincture which is as it were an abatement of red and then as it becommeth more muddie still darkning that which distinguisheth the sight it turneth into a greene and this is a thing which may be proved by experience for if a man take water directly against the Sunne beames in his mouth and spit the same forward in such sort as the drops receive a repercussion against the said raies of the Sunne he shall finde that it will make as it were a Rainbow The like befalleth unto them that are bleere-eied when they looke upon a lampe or burning light ANAXIMENES supposeth that the Rainbow is occasioned by the Sunshining full against a grosse thicke and blacke cloud in such sort as his beames be not able to pierce and strike thorow by reason that they turne againe upon it and become condensate ANAXAGORAS holdeth the Rainbow to be the refraction or repercussion of the Sunnes round light against a thicke cloud which ought alwaies to be opposit full against him in maner of a mirrour by which reason in nature it is said that there appeare two Sunnes in the countrey of 〈◊〉 METRODORUS saith when the Sunne shineth thorow clouds the cloud seemeth blue but the light looketh red CHAP. VI. Of Water-galles or streaks like rods somewhat resembling Rainbowes THese rods and opposit apparitions of Sunnes which are seene otherwhiles in the skie happen through the temperature of a subject matter and illumination namely when clouds are seene not in their naturall and proper colour but by another caused by a divers irradiation and in all these the like passions fall out both naturally and also are purchased by accident CHAP. VII Of Winds ANAXIMANDER is of
opinion that the Winde is a fluxion of the aire when as the most subtile and liquid parts thereof be either stirred or melted and resolved by the Sunne The STOICKS affirme that every blast is a fluxion of the aire and that according to the mutation of regions they change their names as for example that which bloweth from the darknesse of the night and Sunne setting is named Zephyrus from the East and Sunne rising Apeliotes from the North Boreas and from the South Libs METRODORUS supposeth that a waterish vapour being inchafed by the heat of the Sun produceth and raiseth these winds and as for those that be anniversary named Etesia they blow when the aire about the North pole is thickened and congealed with cold and so accompanie the Sunne and flow as it were with him as he retireth from the Summer Tropicke after the 〈◊〉 Solstice CHAP. VIII Of Winter and Summer EMPEDOCLES and the STOICKS do hold that Winter commeth when the aire is predominant in thickenesse and is forced upward but Summer when the fire is in that wise predominant and is driven downward Thus having discoursed of the impressions aloft in the aire we will treat also by the way of those which are seene upon and about the earth CHAP. IX Of the Earth the substance and magnitude thereof THALES with his followers affirme there is but one Earth 〈◊〉 the Pythagorean mainteineth twaine one heere and another opposit against it which the Antipodes inhabit The STOICKS say there is one Earth and the same finite XENOPHANES holdeth that beneath it is founded upon an infinit depth and that compact it is of aire and fire METRODORUS is of opinion that Earth is the very sediment and ground of the water like as 〈◊〉 Sunne is the residence of the aire CHAP. X. The forme of the Earth THALES the STOICKS and their schoole affirme the Earth to be round in maner of a globe or ball ANAXIMANDER resembleth the Earth unto a columne or pillar of stone such as are seene upon the superficies thereof ANAXIMENES compareth it to a flat table LEUCIPPUS unto a drum or tabour DEMOCRITUS saith that it is in forme broad in maner of a platter hollow in the mids CHAP. XI The 〈◊〉 of the Earth THe disciples of THALES maintaine that the Earth is seated in midst of the world XENOPHANES affirmeth that it was first founded and rooted as it were to an infinite depth PHILOLAUS the Pythagorean saith that fire is the middle as being the hearth of the world in the second place he raungeth the Earth of the Antipodes and in the third this wherein wee inhabit which lieth opposite unto that counter earth and turneth about it which is the reason quoth he that those who dwell there are not seene by the inhabitants heere PARMENIDES was the 〈◊〉 Philosopher who set out and limited the habitable parts of the Earth to wit those which are under the two Zones unto the Tropicks or Solsticiall circles CHAP. XII Of the bending of the earth PYTHAGORAS is of opinion that the earth enclineth toward the Meridionall parts by reason of the 〈◊〉 which is in those South coasts for that the Septentrionall tracts are congealed and frozen with cold whereas the opposite regions be inflamed and burnt DEMOCRITUS yeeldeth this reason because of the ambient aire is weaker toward the South quoth hee the Earth as it groweth and encreaseth doth bend to that side for the North parts be 〈◊〉 whereas contrariwise the Southeren parts are temperate in which regard it weigheth more that way whereas indeed it is more plentifull in bearing fruits and those growing to greater augmentation CHAP. XIII The motion of the Earth SOme hold the Earth to be unmoveable and quite but PHILOLAUS the Pythagorean saith that it moveth round about the fire in the oblique circle according as the Sunne and Moone do HERACLIDES of Pontus and Ecphantus the Pythagorean would indeed have the Earth to move howbeit not from place to place but rather after a turning manner like unto a wheele upon the axell tree from West to East round about her owne center DEMOCRITUS saith that the Earth at first wandred to and fro by reason as well of smalnesse as lightnesse but waxing in time thicke and heavie it came to rest unmoveable CHAP. XIIII The division of the Earth and how many Zones it hath PYTHAGORAS saith that the earth is divided into five Zones proportionably to the sphaere of the universall heaven to wit the Artick circle the Tropick of Summer the Tropick of Winter the Aequinoctiall and the Antartick Of which the middlemost doth determine and set out the verie mids and heart of the earth and for that cause it is named Torrida Zona that is to say the burnt climat but that region is habitable as being temperate which lieth in the mids betweene the summer and the winter Tropick CHAP. XV. Of Earthquakes THALES and DEMOCRITUS attribute the cause of Earthquakes unto water The STOICKS thus define and say Earthquake is the moisture within the earth subtiliated and resolved into the aire and so breaking out perforce ANAXIMENES is of opinion that raritie and drinesse of the earth together be the causes of Earthquake wherof the one is engendred by excessive drougth the other by gluts of raine ANAXAGORAS holdeth that when the aire is gotten within the earth and meeteth with the superficies thereof which it findeth tough and thicke so as it cannot get forth it shaketh it in manner of trembling ARITSTOTLE alledgeth the Antiperistasis of the circumstant cold which environeth it about on everie side both above and beneath for heat endevoreth and maketh hast to mount aloft as being by nature light A drie exhalation therefore finding it selfe enclosed within and staied striveth to make way through the cliffs and thicks of the Earth in which busines it cannot chuse but by turning to and fro up and downe disquiet and shake the earth METRODORUS is of mind that no bodie being in the owne proper and naturall place can stirre or moove unlesse some one do actually thrust or pull it The earth therefore quoth he being situate in the owne place naturally mooveth not howsoever some placesthereof may remove into others PARMENIDES and DEMOCRITUS reason in this wise for that the earth on everie side is of equall distance and confineth still in one counterpoise as having no cause wherefore it should incline more to the one side than to the other therefore well it may shake onely but not stirre or remoove for all that ANAXIMENES saith that the Earth is caried up and downe in the aire for that it is broad and flat Others say that it floteth upon the water like as planks or boords and that for this cause it mooveth PLATO affirmeth that of all motions there be six sorts of circumstances above beneath on the right hand on the left before and behind Also that the earth cannot possibly moove according to any of these differences for that on everie
side it lieth lowest of all things in the world and by occasion thereof resteth unmooveable hauing no cause why it should encline more to one part than to another but yet some places of her because of their raritie do jogge and shake EPICURUS keepeth his old tune saying it may well be that the earth being shogged and as it were rocked and beaten by the aire underneath which is grosse and of the nature of water therefore mooveth and quaketh As also it may be quoth he that being holow and full of holes in the parts below it is forced to tremble and shake by the aire that is gotten within the caves and concavities and there enclosed CHAP. XVI Of the Sea how it was made and commeth to be bitter ANAXIMANDER affirmeth that the Sea is a residue remaining of the primitive humidity whereof the Sunne hauing burnt up and consumed a great part the rest behind he altered and turned from the naturall kind by his excessive ardent heat ANAXAGORAS is of opinion that the said first humiditie being diffused and spred abroad in manner of a poole or great meere was burnt by the motion of the sunne about it and when the oileous substance thereof was exhaled and consumed the rest setled below and turned into a brackish and bitter-saltnesse which is the Sea EMPEDOCLES saith that the Sea is the sweat of the earth enchafed by the sunne being bathed and washed all over aloft ANTISTON thinketh it to be the sweat of heat the moisture whereof which was within being by much seething and boiling sent out becommeth salt a thing ordinary in all sweats METRODORUS supposeth the Sea to be that moisture which running thorough the earth reteined some part of the densitie thereof like as that which passeth through ashes The disciples of PLATO imagine that so much of the elementarie water which is congealed of the aire by refrigeration is sweet and fresh but whatsoever did evaporate by burning and inflammation became salt CHAP. XVII Of the Tides to wit the ebbing and flowing of the sea what is the cause thereof ARISTOTLE and HERACLITUS affirme that it is the sunne which doth it as who stirreth raiseth and carieth about with him the most part of the windes which comming to blow upon the Ocean cause the Atlanticke sea to swell and so make the flux or high water but when the same are allaied and cleane downe the sea falleth low and so causeth a reflux and ebbe or low water PYTHEAS of Marseils referreth the cause of Flowing to the full moone and of Ebbing to the moone in the wane PLATO attributeth all to a certeine rising of the waters saying There is such an elevation that through the mouth of a cave carieth the Ebbe and Flow to and fro by the meanes whereof the seas doe rise and flow contrarily TIMAEUS alledgeth the cause hereof to be the rivers which falling from the mountaines in Gaule enter into the Atlantique sea which by their violent corruptions driving before them the water of the sea cause the Flow and by their ceasing and returne backe by times the Ebbe SELEUCUS the Mathematician who affirmed also that the earth mooved saith that the motion thereof is opposit and contrary to that of the moone also that the winde being driven to and fro by these two contrary revolutions bloweth and beateth upon the Atlanticke ocean troubleth the sea also and no marvell according as it is disquieted it selfe CHAP. XVIII Of the round circle called Halo THis Halo is made after this manner betweene the body of the moone or any other starre and our eie-sight there gathereth a grosse and mistie aire by which aire anon our sight commeth to be reflected and diffused and afterwards the same incurreth upon the said starre according to the exterior circumference thereof and thereupon appeereth a circle round about the starre which being there seene is called Halo for that it seemeth that the apparent impression is close unto that upon which our sight so enlarged as is before said doth fall THE FOURTH BOOKE OF Philosophers opinions The Prooeme HAving runne through the generall parts of the world I will now passe unto the particulars CHAP. I. Of the rising and inundation of Nilus THALES thinketh that the anniversarie windes called Etcsiae blowing directly against Aegypt cause the water of Nilus to swell for that the sea being driven by these windes entreth within the mouth of the said river and hindereth it that it cannot discharge it selfe freely into the sea but is repulsed backward EUTHYMENES of Marseils supposeth that this river is filled with the water of the ocean and the great sea lying without the continent which he imagineth to be fresh and sweet ANAXAGORAS saith that this hapneth by the snowe in Aethiopia which melteth in summer and is congealed and frozen in winter DEMOCRITUS is of opinion that it is long of the snowe in the north parts which about the aestival solstice and returne of the sunne being dissolved and dilated breedeth vapors and of them be engendred clouds which being driven by the Etesian windes into Aethiopia and Aegypt toward the south cause great and violent raines wherewith both lakes and the river also Nilus be filled HERODOTUS the Historian writeth that this river hath as much water from his sources and springs in winter as in summer but to us it seemeth lesse in winter because the sunne being then neerer unto Aegypt causeth the said water to evaporate EPHORUS the Historiographer reporteth that all Aegypt doth resolve and runne at it were wholly into swet in summer time whereunto Arabia and Libya doe conferre and contribute also their waters for that the earth there is light and sandy EUDOXUS saith that the priests of Aegypt assigne the cause hereof to the great raines and the Antiperistasis or contrarie occurse of seasons for that when it is Summer with us who inhabit within the Zone toward the Summer Tropicke it is Winter with those who dwell in the opposit Zone under the Winter Tropicke whereupon saith he proceedeth this great inundation of waters breaking downe unto the river Nilus CHAP. II. Of the Soule THALES was the first that defined the Soule to be a nature moving alwaies or having motion of it selfe PYTHAGORAS saith it is a certeine number moving it selfe and this number he taketh for intelligence or understanding PLATO supposeth it to be an intellectuall substance mooving it selfe and that according to harmonicall number ARISTOTLE is of opinion that it is the first Entelechia or primitive act of a naturall and organicall bodie having life potentially DICEARCHUS thinketh it to be the harmonie and concordance of the foure elements ASCLEPIADES the Physician defineth it to be an exercise in common of all the senses together CHAP. III. Whether the Soule be a body and what is the substance of it ALl these Philsosophers before rehearsed suppose that the Soule is incorporall that of the owne nature it mooveth and is a spirituall substance and the action of a
there flow from out of the eies certeine raies resembling fire and nothing blacke or mistie and therefore it is that Darknesse may be seene CHAP. XVI Of Hearing EMPRDOCLES is of opinion that Hearing is performed by the meanes of a spirit or winde gotten within the concavitie of the eare writhed or turned in manner of a vice or screw which they say is fitted and framed of purpose within the eare hanging up aloft and beaten upon in manner of a clocke ALCMAEON affirmeth that we doe Heare by the void place within the eare for he saith that this is it that resoundeth when the said spirit entreth into it because all emptie things do make a sound DIOGENES supposeth that Hearing is caused by the aire within the head when it commeth to be touched stirred and beaten by the voice PLATO and his scholars hold that the aire within the head is sinitten and that it reboundeth and is caried to the principall part of the soule wherein is reason and so is formed the sense of Hearing CHAP. XVII Of Smelling ALCMAEON affirmeth that reason the principall part of the soule is within the braine and that by it we Smell drawing in sents and smels by respirations EMPEDOCLES is of this advice that together with the respiration of the lights odours also are intromitted and let in when as then the said respiration is not performed at libertie and ease but with much adoe by reason of some asperity in the passage we Smell not at all like as we observe in them who are troubled with the pose murre and such like rheumes CHAP. XVIII Of Taste ALCMAEON saith that by the moisture and warmth in the tongue together with the softnesse thereof all smacks and objects of taste are distinguished DIOGENES attributeth the same to the spungeous raritie and softnesse of the tongue and for that the veines of the body reach up to it and are inserted and graffed therein the savors are spread abroad and drawen into the sense and principal part of the soule as it were with a spunge CHAP. XIX Of the Voice PLATO defineth the Voice to be a spirit which by the mouth is brought and directed from the understanding also a knocking performed by the aire passing through the eares the braine and the bloud as farre as to the soule after an unproper maner abusively we attribute Voice to unreasonable creatures yea to such as have no soule or life at al namely to the neighing of horses and to other sounds but to speake properly there is no voice but that which is articulate and called it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greeke for that it declareth that which is in the thought EPICURUS holdeth the Voice to bee a fluxion sent foorth by such as speake and make a noise or otherwise doe sound which fluxion breaketh and crumbleth into many fragments of the same forme and figure as are the things from whence they come as for example round to round and triangles whether they have three equall sides or unequall to the like triangles and these broken parcels entring into the eares make the sense of the Voice which is hearing a thing that may be evidently seene in bottles that leake and runne out as also in fullers that blow upon their clothes DEMOCRITUS saith that the very aire breaketh into small fragments of the same figure that is to say round to round and roll together with the fragments of the Voice for according to the old proverbe One chough 〈◊〉 to another chough loves 〈◊〉 for to pearch And God hath so appointed 〈◊〉 that all their like should search For even upon the shores and sea-sides stones are evermore found together semblable to wit in one place round in another long in like manner when as folke doe winnow or purge come with the vanne those graines alwaies are ranged and sorted together which be of one and the same forme insomuch as beanes goe to one side by themselves rich pease to another a part by their selves but against all this it may be alledged and objected How is it possible that a 〈◊〉 fragments of spirit and winde should fill a 〈◊〉 that receiveth ten thousand men The STOICKS say that the aire doth not consist of small fragments but is continuall throughout and admitteth no voidhesse at all howbeit when it is smitten with spirit or winde it waveth directly in circles infinitly untill it fill up all the aire about much after the manner as we may perceive in a pond or poole when there is a stone throwen into it for like as the water in it mooveth in flat circles so doth the aire in roundles like to bals ANAXAGORAS faith that the Voice is formed by the incursion and beating of the Voice against the solide aire which maketh resistance and returneth the stroke backe againe to the eares which is the manner also of that reduplication of the Voice or resonance called Eccho CHAP. XX. Whether the Voice be incorporall and how commeth the Eccho to be formed PYTHAGORAS PLATO and ARISTOTLE do hold the Voice to be bodilesse for that it is not the aire but a forme in the aire a superficies therof that by a certaine beating which be commeth a Voice Now this is certaine that no superficies hath a bodie True it is indeed that it moveth and removeth with the bodie but of it selfe without all doubt it hath no bodie at all like as in a wand or rod that is bent the superficies thereof suffereth no alteration in respect of it selfe but it is the verie matter and substance that is bowed How be it the Stoicks are of another opinion and say that the Voice is a bodie for whatsoever is operative and worketh ought is a bodie but certaine it is that the Voice is active and doth somewhat for we do heare and perceive when it 〈◊〉 upon our eare and it giveth a print no lesse than a seale upon wax Moreover all that moveth or troubleth us is a bodie but who knoweth not that in Musick as good harmony affectth us so dissonance and discord doth disquiet us and that which more is all that stirreth or moveth is a bodie but the Voice stirreth and hitteth against smooth and polished solid places by which it is broken and sent backe againe in manner as we do see a tennis ball when it is smitten upon a wal insomuch as in the Pyramides of AEgypt one Voice dilivered within them rendereth foure or five resonances or Echoes for it CHAP. XXI How the Soule commeth to be sensitive and what is the principall and predominant part thereof THe STOICKS are of opinion that the supreme and highest part of the Soule is the principall and the guide of the other to wit that which maketh imaginations causeth assents performeth senses and mooveth apperite and this is it which they cal the discourse of reason Now of this principall and soveraigne part there be seven others springing from it and which are spred through the
rest of the bodie like unto the armes or hairie braunches of a poulp fish of which seven the naturall senses make five namely Sight Smelling Hearing Tasting and Feeling Of these the Sight is a spirit passing from the chiefest part unto the eies Hearing a spirit reaching from the understand to the eares Smelling a spirit issuing from reason to the nosethirls Tasting a spirit going from the foresaid principall part unto the tongue and last of all Feeling a spirit stretching and extended from the same predominant part as farre as to the sensible superficies of those objects which are easie to be felt and handled Of the twaine behind the one is called genetall seed and that is likewise wise a spirit transmitted from the principall part unto the genetories or members of generation the other which is the seventh and last of all Zeno calleth Vocall and wee Voice a spirit also which from the principall part passeth to the windpipe to the tongue and other instruments appropriat for the voice And to conclude that mistresse her selfe and ladie of the rest is seated as it were in the midst of her owne world within our round head and there dwelleth CHAP. XXII Of Respiration EMPEDOCLES is of opinion that the first Respiration of the first living creature was occasioned when the humiditie in young ones within the mothers wombe retired and the outward aire came to succeed in place thereof and to enter into the void vessels now open to receive the same but afterwards the naturall heat driving without forth this aerie substance for to evaporate and breath away caused exspiration and likewise when the same returned in again there ensued inspiration which gave new entrance to that aerious substance But as touching the Respiration that now is he thinketh it to be when the blood is carried to the exterior superficies of the bodie and by this fluxion doth drive and chase the aerie substance through the nosethirls and cause exspiration and inspiration when the blood returneth inward and when the aire reentreth withall through the rarities which the blood hath left void and emptie And for to make this better to be understood he bringeth in the example of a Clepsidre or water houre-glasse ASCLEPIADES maketh the lungs in manner of a tunnel supposing that the cause of Respiration is the aire smooth and of subtil parts which is within the breast unto which the aire without being thicke and grosse floweth and runneth but is repelled backe againe for that the brest is not able to receive any more nor yet to be cleane without Now when as there remaineth still behind some little of the subtile aire within the breast for it cannot all be cleane driven out that aire without rechargeth againe with equall force upon that within being able to support and abide the waight thereof and this compareth he to Phisicians ventoses or cupping glasses Moreover as touching voluntarie Respiration he maketh this reason that the smallest holes within the substance of the lungs are drawen together and their pipes closed up For these things obey our will HEROPHILUS leaveth the motive faculties of the bodie unto the nerves arteries and muskles for thus he thinketh and saith that the lungs only have a naturall appetite to dilation and contraction that is to say to draw in and deliver the breath and so by consequence other parts For this is the proper action of the lungs to draw wind from without where with when it is filled there is made another attraction by a second appetition and the breast deriveth the said wind into it which being likewise repleat therewith not able to draw any more it transmitteth backe againe the superfluitie thereof into the lungs whereby it is sent forth by way of exspiration and thus the parts of the bodie reciprocally suffer one of another by way of interchange For when the lungs are occupied in dilatation the breast is busied in contraction and thus they make repletion and evacuation by a mutuall participation one with the other in such sort as we may observe about the lungs foure manner of motions The first whereby it receiveth the aire from without the second by which it transfuseth into the breast that aire which it drew and received from without the third whereby it admitteth againe unto it selfe that which was sent out of the brest and the fourth by which it sendeth quite forth that which so returned into it And of these motions two be dilatations the one occasioned from without the other from the breast and other two contractions the one when the brest draweth wind into it and the other when it doth expell the aire insinuated into it But in the breast parts there be but two onely the one dilatation when it draweth wind from the lungs the other contraction when it rendreth it againe CHAP. XXIII Of the Passion of the body and whether the soule have a fellow-feelling with it of paine and dolour THe STOICKS say that affections are in the passible parts but senses in the principall part of the soule EPICURUS is of opinion that both the affections and also the senses are in the passible places for that reason which is the principall part of the soule he holdeth to be unpassible STRATO contrariwise affirmeth that as well the Passions of the soule as the senses are in the said principall part and not in the affected and grieved places for that in it consisteth patience which we may observe in terrible and dolorous things as also in fearefull and maguanimous persons THE FIFTH BOOKE OF Philosophers opinions CHAP. I. Of Divination PLATO and the STOICKS bring in a fore-deeming and fore-knowledge of things by inspiration or divine instinct according to the divinity of the soule namely when as it is ravished with a fanaticall spirit or revelation by dreames and these admit and allow many kinds of divination XENOPHANES and EPICURUS on the contrary side abolish and annull all Divination whatsoever PYTHAGORAS condemneth that onely which is wrought by sacrifices ARISTOTLE DICEARCHUS receive none but that which commeth by Divine inspiration or by dreames not supposing the soule to be immortall but to have some participation of Divinitie CHAP. II. How Dreames are caused DEMOCRITUS is of of opinion that Dreames come by the representation of images STRATO saith that our understanding is I wot not how naturally and yet by no reason more sensative in sleepe than otherwise and therefore sollicited the rather by the appetit and desire of knowledge HEROPHILUS affirmeth that Dreames divinely inspired come by necessitie but natural Dreames by this meanes that the soule formeth an image and representation of that which is good and commodious unto it and of that which must ensue thereupon as for such as be of a mixt nature of both they fall out casually by an accidentall accesse of images namely when we imagine that we see that which wee desire as it falleth out with those who in their sleepe thinke they have their
they came downe to the citie as a man may conjecture they were knowen by their dustie feet 2 What was she who in the citie of Cumes they named Onobatis WHen there was any woman taken in adultery they brought her in to the publick market-place where they set her upon an eminent stone to the end that she might be seene of all the people and after she had stood there a good while they mounted her upon an asse and so led her round about the city which done they brought her backe againe into the market-place where she must stand as she did before upon the same stone and so from that time forward she led an infamous and reprochfull life called of every one by the name of Onobatis that is to say she that hath ridden upon the asse backe But when they had so done they reputed that stone polluted and detested it as accursed and abominable There was likewise in the same city a certeine office of a gaoler whom they called Phylactes and looke who bare this office had the charge of keeping the prison at all other times onely at a certeine assembly and session of the counsell in the night season he went into the Senat and brought forth the kings leading them by the hands and three held them still during the time that the Senat had made inquisition and decreed whether they had deserved ill and ruled unjustly or no giving thus their suffrages and voices privily in the darke 3 What is she whom they name in the city of Soli Hypeccaustria SO call they the priestresse of Minerva by reason of certeine sacrifices which she celebrateth and other divine ceremonies and services to put by and divert shrewd turnes which otherwise might happen the word signifieth as much as a chaufeure 4 Who be they in the city Gnidos whom they call Amnemones as also who is Aphester among them THere are three score elect men out of the better sort and principall citizens whom they imploid as overseers of mens lives and behaviour who also were consulted first and gave their sentence as touching affaires of greatest importance and Amnemones they were named for that they were not as a man may very well conjecture called to any account nor urged to make answer for any thing that they did unlesse haply they were so named quasi Polymnemones because they remembred many things and had so good a memorie As for Aphester he it was who in their scrutinies demanded their opinions and gathered their voices 5 Who be they whom the Arcadians and Lacedemonians tearme Chrestos THe Lacedemonians having concluded a peace with the Tegeates did set downe expresly the articles of agreement in writing which they caused to be ingraven upon a square columne common to them both the which was erected upon the river 〈◊〉 in which among other covenants this was written That they might 〈◊〉 the Messenians out of their countries howbeit lawfull it should not be to make them Chrestos which Aristotle expoundeth thus and saith That they might kill none of the Tegeates who during the warre had taken part with the Lacedaemonians 6 What is he whom the Opuntians call Crithologos THe greatest part of the Greeks in their most auncient sacrifices use certeine barley which the citizens of their first fruits did contribute that officer therefore who had the rule and charge of these sacrifices and the gathering and bringing in of these first fruits of barley they named Crithologos as one would say the collectour of the barley Moreover two priests they had besides one superintendent over the sacrifices and ceremonies for the gods another for the divels 7 Which be the clouds called Ploïades THose especially which are 〈◊〉 and disposed to raine and withall wandering too and fro and caried heere and there in the aire as Theophrastus in the fourth booke of Meteors or impressions gathered above in the region of the aire hath put it downe word for word in this manner Considering that the clouds Ploïades quoth hee and those which be gathered thicke and are setled unmooveable and besides very white shew a certeine diversitie of matter which is neither converted into water nor resolved into winde 8 Whom doe the Boeotians meane by this word Platychaetas THose whose houses joine one to another or whose lands doe border and confinetogether in the Aeolique language they called so as if they would say being neere neighbours to which purpose one example among many I will alledge out of our law Thesmophylacium c. **** 9 What is he who among the Delphians is called Hosioter and why name they one of the moneths Bysios THey name Hosioter that sacrificer who offreth a sacrifice when he is declared Hosios that is to say holy and five there be who are all their life time accounted Hosioi and those doe and execute many things together with their prophets and joine with them in divers ceremonies of divine service and gods worship inasmuch as they are thought to be descended from Deucalion And for the moneth called Bysis many have thought it to be as much as Physius that is to say the springing or growing moneth for that then the spring beginneth and many plants at that time do arise out of grownd and budde But the truth is not so for the Delphians never use B. instead of Ph. like as the Macedonians do who for Philippus Phalacros and Pheronice say Bilippus Balacros and Beronice indeed they put B. for P. and it as ordinarie with them to say Batein for Patein Bicron for Picron and so Bysius is all one with Pysius that is to say the moneth in which they consult with their god Apollo and demand of him answeres and resolutions of their doubts for this is the custome of the countrey because in this moneth they propounded their demands unto the Oracle of Apollo and they supposed the seventh day of the same to be his birth-day which they surnamed also Polypthous not as many do imagine because they then do bake many cakes which are called Phthois but for that it is a day wherein divers do resort unto the Oracle for to be resolved and many answeres are delivered for it is but of late daies that folke were permitted to consult with the Oracle when they list in everie moneth but before time the religious priestresse of Apollo named Pythia opened not the Oracle nor gave answere but at one time in the yeere according as Callistenes and Alexandrides have recorded in writing 10 What signifieth Phyximelon LIttle plants there be which when they burgeon and shoot out first the beasts love passing well their first buds and sprouts which they put forth but in brouzing and cropping them great injurie they do unto the plants and hinder their grouth when as therefore they are growen up to that height that beasts grasing thereabout can do them no more harme they be called Phyximela that is as much to say as having escaped the danger of cattell as
reckoning which they made of this life yet when himselfe was very old upon occasion that one asked him how he did answered I doe even as an aged man having above 90. yeeres upon my backe may do and who thinketh death to be the greatest misery in the world and how waxed he thus old certes not by filing and sharpening the edge of his sword not by grinding and whetting the point of his speares head not with scouring forbishing his head-piece or morion not with bearing armes in the field not by rowing in the gallies but forsooth with couching knitting and gluing as it were together rhetoricall tropes and figures to wit his antitheta consisting of contraries his Parisa standing upon equall weight and measure of syllables his homooptata precisely observing the like termination and falling even of his clauses polishing smoothing and perusing his periods and sentences not with the rough hammer and pickax but with the file and plainer most exactly No marvell then if the man could not abide the rustling of harneis and clattering of armour no marvell I say if hee feared the shocke and encounter of two armies who was afraid that one vowell should runne upon another and led he should pronounce a clause or number of a sentence which wanted one poore syllable for the very morrow after that Miltiades had wonne that field upon the plaines of Marathon he returned with his victorious armie into the citie of Athens and Pericles having vanquished and subdued the Samians within the space of nine moneths gloried more than Agamemnon did who had much adoe to winne Troie at the tenth yeeres end whereas Isocrates spent the time well neere of three Olympiades in penning one oration which hee called Panegiricus notwithstanding all that long time he never served in the warres nor went in any embassage he built no city nor was sent out as a captaine of a galley and warre-ship and yet that verie time brought foorth infinit warres But during the space that Timotheus delivered the islle Eubaea out of bondage all the while that Chabrias warred at sea about the island Naxos and Iphicrates defeited and hewed in pieces one whole regiment of the Lacedaemonians neere the port of Lechaeum and in which time the people of Athens having enfranchised all cities endued Greece throughout with the same libertie of giving voices in the generall assemblie of the States as they had themselves hee sat at home in his house poring at his booke seeking out proper phrases and choise words for the said oration of his in which space Pericles raised great porches and the goodly temple Hecatompedes and yet the comicall poet Cratinus scoffing even at this Pericles for that he went but slowly about his works speaketh thus as touching his wal halfe done and halfe vndone In words long since our Pericles hath rear'd us up a wall But in effect and very deed he doth nothing at all Consider now I pray you a little the base minde of this great professour of rhetoricke who spent the ninth part of his life in composing of one onely oration but were it meet and reasonable to compare the orations of Demosthenes as he was an oratour with the martiall exploits of Demosthenes being a captaine namely that which he made against the considerate folly of Conon with the trophees which himselfe erected before Pylos or that which hee wrote against Amathusius as concerning slaves with his woorthy service whereby hee brought the Lacedaemonians to be slaves neither in this respect for that he composed one oration for the graunting of free bourgesie to those who were newly come to inhabit Athens therefore he deserved as much honour as Alcibiades did who combined the Mantineans and Elians in one league to be associates with the Athenians against the Lacedaemonians and yet this must needs be confessed that his publicke orations deserved this praise that in his Philippiques he inciteth the Athenians to take armes and commendeth the enterprise of Leptiues WHETHER OF THE TWAINE IS MORE PROFITABLE FIRE OR WATER The Summarie IN this Academicke declamation Plutarch in the first places alledgeth the reasons which attribute more profit unto water Secondly he proposeth those that are in favor of the fire Whereunto bee seemeth the rather to encline although hee resolveth not wherein he followeth his owne maner of philosophizing upon naturall causes namely not to dispute either for or against one thing leaving unto the reader his owne libertie to settle unto that which he shall see to be more probable WHETHER OF THE TWAINE is more profitable Fire or Water THe water is of all things best And golde like fire is in request Thus said the poet Pindarus whereby it appeareth evidently that he gives the second place unto fire And with him accordeth Hesiodus when he saith Chaos was the formost thing In all the world that had being For this is certeine that the most part of ancient philosophers called water by the name of Chaos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say for that it followeth so easily But if we should stand onely upon testimonies about this question the proofe would be caried equally on both sides for that there be in maner as many who thinke fire to be the primitive element and principle of all things and the very seed which as of it selfe it produceth all things so it receiveth likewise all into it selfe in that universall conflagration of the world But leaving the testimonies of men let us consider apart the reasons of the one and the other and see to whether side they will rather draw us First therefore to begin withall may not this be laied for a ground that a thing is to be judged more profitable whereof we have at all times and continually need and that in more quantitie than another as being a toole or necessarie instrument and as it were a friend at all seasons and every houre and such as a man would say presenteth it selfe evermore to doe us service As for fire certeinly it is not alwaies commodious unto us nay contrariwise it otherwhiles doth molest and trouble us and in that regard we withdraw our selves farre from it whereas water serveth our turnes both in Winter and Summer when wee are sicke and when wee are whole by night and by day neither is there any time or season wherein a man standeth in no need of it And this is the reason that they call the dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as one would say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say without juice or wanting moisture and so by consequence deprived of life Moreover without fire a man hath oft continued a long time but without water never And withall that which hath bene from the first beginning and creation of man is more profitable than that which was invented afterwards And there is no question but that nature hath given us the one to wit water for our necessarie use but the other I meane fire either fortune or
certaine power which causeth it to swell as it were and have an appetite to engender For other cause there can 〈◊〉 none rendred why rocks clifts and mountaines be barren and drie but this that they have either no fire at all or else participate 〈◊〉 little the nature thereof in summe so farre off is water from being of it selfe sufficient for the owne preservation or generation of other things that without the aide of fire it is the cause of the owne ruine and destruction For heat it is that keepeth water in good estate and preserveth it in her nature and proper substance like as it doth all things besides and looke where fire is away or wanteth there water doth corrupt and putrifie in such sort as the ruine and destruction of water is the default of heat as we may evidently see in pools marishes and standing waters or wheresoever water is kept within pits and holes without issue for such waters in the end become putrified and stinke againe because they have no motion which having this propertie to 〈◊〉 up the naturall heat which is in everie thing keepeth those waters better which have a current and runne apace in that this motion preserveth that kind heat which they have And hereupon it is that To live in Greeke is expressed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sigfieth to boile How then can it otherwise be that of two things it should not be more profitable which giveth being and essence to the other like as fire doth unto water Furthermore that thing the utter departure whereof is the cause that a creature dieth is the more profitable for this is certaine and manifest that the same without which a thing cannot bee hath given the cause of being unto the same when it was with it For we do see that in dead things there is a moisture neither are they dried up altogether for otherwise moist bodies would not putrifie considering that putrefaction is the turning of that which is drie to be moist or rather the corruption of humours in the flesh and death is nothing else but an utter defect and extinction of heat and therefore dead things be extreme cold insomuch as if a man should set unto them the very edge of rasours they are enough to dull the same through excessive cold And we may see plainely that in the verie bodies of living creatures those parts which participate least of the nature of fire are more senselesse than any other as bones and haire and such as be farthest remooved from the heart and in manner all the difference that is betweene great and small creatures proceedeth from the presence of fire more or lesse for humiditie simply it is not that bringeth forth plants and fruits but warme humiditie is it that doth the deed whereas cold waters be either barren altogether or not verie fruitful and fertill and yet if water were of the owne nature fructuous it must needs follow that it selfe alone and at all times should be able to produce fruit whereas we see it is cleane contrarie namely that it is rather hurtfull to fruits And now to reason from another head and go another way to worke to make use of fire as it is fire need wee have not of water nay it 〈◊〉 rather for it quencheth and 〈◊〉 it out cleane on the other side many 〈◊〉 be who cannot tell what to doe with water without fire for being made hot it is more profitable and otherwise in the owne kinde hurtfull Of two things therefore that which can do good of it selfe without need of the others helpe is better and more profitable Moreover water yeeldeth commodity but after one sort onely to wit by touching as when we feele it or wash and bathe with it whereas fire serveth all the five senses doth them good for it is felt both neere at hand and also seene afarre of so that among other meanes that it hath of profiting no man may account the multiplicity of the uses that it affoordeth for that a man should be at any time without fire it is impossible nay he cannot have his first generation without it and yet there is a difference in this kinde as in all other things The very sea it selfe is made more 〈◊〉 by heat so as it doth heat more by the agitation and current that it hath than any other waters for of it selfe otherwise it differeth not Also for such as have no need of outward fire we may not say that they stand in need of none at all but the reason is because they have plenty and store of naturall heat within them so that in this very point the commodity of fire ought to be esteemed the more And as for water it is never in that good state but some need it hath of helpe without whereas the exellencie of fire is such as it is content with it selfe and requireth not the aid of the other Like as therefore that captaine is to be reputed more excellent who knowes to order and furnish a citie so as it hath no need of forren allies so we are to thinke that among elements that is the woorthier which may often times consist without the succour and aide of another And even as much may be said of living creatures which have least need of others helpe And yet haply it may be replied contrariwise that the thing is more profitable which we use alone by it selfe namely when by discourse of reason we are able to chuse the better For what is more commodious and profitable to men than reason and yet there is none at all in brute beasts And what followeth heereupon Shall we inferre therefore that it is lesse profitable as invented by the providence of a better nature which is god But since we are fallen into this argument What is more profitable to mans life than arts but there is no art which fire devised not or at least wise doth not maintaine And heereupon it is that we make 〈◊〉 the prince and master of all arts Furthermore whereas the time and space of life is very short that is given unto man as short as it is yet sleepe as Ariston saith like unto a false baily or publicane taketh the halfe thereof for it selfe True it is that a man may lie awake and not sleepe all night long but I may aswell say that his waking would serve him in small stead were it not that fire presented unto him the commodities of the day and put a difference betweene the darkenesse of the night and the light of the day If then there be nothing more profitable unto man than life why should we not judge fire to be the best thing in the world since it doth augment and multiply our life Over and besides that of which the five senses participate most is more profitable but evident it is that there is not one of the said senses maketh use of the nature of water
stale Or haply this carieth more shew and probabilitie with it than trueth for certeine it is that the water of fountaines brookes and rivers come as new and fresh as they for as Heraclitus saith It is impossible for a man to enter into one and the same river twice because new water commeth still and runneth away continually and yet these nourish lesse than raine waters Is this therefore the reason because the water from heaven is light subtile aireous and mixed with a kinde of spirit which by that subtilitie entreth soone and is easily caried to the root of plants and heereupon in the fall it raiseth little bubbles because of the aire and spirit enclosed within Or doth raine water nourish more in this regard that it is sooner altered and overcome by that which it nourisheth for this is it that we call concoction properly contrariwise cruditie and indigestion when things are so strong and hard that they will not suffer for such as be thinne simple and unsavory are most easily and soonest altered of which kinde is raine water for being engendred as it is in the aire and the winde it falleth pure and cleane whereas springing waters are like to the earth out of which they issue or the places through which they 〈◊〉 gathering thereby many qualities which cause them unwilling to be digested and more slow to be reduced by concoction into the substance of that which is to be nourished thereby on the other side that raine waters be easie to be changed and transmuted it appeereth by this that more subject they are to corruption and putrefaction than those either of rivers or of pittes and welles and concoction seemeth to be a kinde of putrefaction as Empedocles beareth witnesse saying When in vine-wood the water putrifies It turnes to wine whiles under barke it lies Or rather the truest and readlest reason that can be alledged is the sweetnesse and holsomnesse of raine waters falling as they doe so presently so soone as the winde sends them downe and heereupon it is that beasts desire to drinke thereof before any other yea and the frogges and paddocks expecting a raine for joy sing more shrill and merily ready to receive and enterteine that which will season the dead and dormant waters of standing lakes as being the very seed of all their sweetnesse for Aratus reckoneth this also for one of the signes of a showre toward writing thus When wretched brood The adders food from out of standing lake The tad-pole sires Imeane desires fresh raine and loud doth coake 3 What might be the cause that shepherds and other herdmen give salt unto their sheepe and cattell which they feed IS it as most men doe thinke to the end that they should fall the better to their meat and so consequently feed fatte the sooner because the acrimony of salt provoketh appetite and opening the pores maketh way unto the nourishment for to be digested and distributed more casily throughout the whole body in regard whereof the physician Apollonius the sonne of Herophilus gave counsell and prescribed leane folke and such as thrived not in their flesh not 〈◊〉 sweet wine thicke gruell and frumentie but salt fish out of the pickle anchoves powdred meats and such as were condite in brine the subtile acrimonie whereof might in maner of setting a peruke for want of haire serve to apply nutriment through the pores of the body into those parts that need it Or rather may it not be for health-sake in which regard they use their cattell to little salt thereby to take downe their ranke feeding and restreine their grossenesse and corpulencie for such as grow exceeding fatte are subject to breed diseases but salt consumeth and dispatcheth this fatte and by this meanes also when they be killed they are sooner and with greater expedition flaied because the fatte which knit and bound the skinne fast to the flesh is now become more thinne gentle and pliable through the acrimony of the salt besides the bloud also of such as be ever licking of salt becommeth more liquid and nothing there is within that will gather and grow together in case there be salt mingled therewith It may be moreover that they doe it for to make them more fruitfull and apter for generation for we see that salt bitches which have beene fed with salt meats are more hot apter to goe proud and sooner with whelpe And for this cause those keeles and barges that transport salt breed greater store of mice for that they engender the oftener 4 How commeth it to passe that of raine waters such as fall with thunder and lightning which thereupon be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are better for to water seeds or yong plants than any other MAy it not be because they be full of winde and ventositie by reason of the trouble and confused agitation of the aire And the nature of wind and spirit is to stirre the humiditie and by that meanes doth send it forth and distribute it the better Or is it not rather that heat fighting against colde is the cause of thunder and lightning in the aire which is the reason that seldome there is any thunder in winter but contrariwise very often in the Spring and Autumne for the inconstant and unequall distemperature of the 〈◊〉 which being supposed the heat concocting the humiditie causeth it to be more pleasant and profitable unto the plants of the earth Or why may it not be because it thundreth and lightneth especially and more often in the Spring than in any other season of the yeere for the reason before alledged now the Spring showers and raines are most necessarie for seeds and herbs against the Summer time whereupon those countries wherein there be many good ground showers in the Spring as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bring forth plentie of good fruits 5 How is it that there being eight kind of savours there is no more but onely one of them to wit saltish that can not be found naturally in fruits For as touching the buter savour the olive hath it at first and the grape is soure at the beginning but as these fruits begin to change and grow to their ripenesse the bitternesse of the olive turneth into a 〈◊〉 and unctuous savour and the sharpe verdure of the grape into a smacke of wine semblably the harshnesse in the unripe dates as also the austere and unpleasant sharpnesse in pomgranats changeth into sweetnesse As for pomgranats some there be as also other apples which are 〈◊〉 soure and never have other taste And as for the sharpe and 〈◊〉 savour it is ordinarie in many roots and seeds IS it for that the salt savor is not primitive not engendred originally but is rather the corruption of other primitive savors and in that regard can not serve to nourish any creature living with grasse or graine but it is to some in stead of a sauce because it is a meanes that they should not upon fulnesse either lothe
or distaste that which they feed upon Or because that like as they who boile sea water rid it from that salt brackish and biting qualitie that it hath so in those that are hot by nature the salt savour is dulled and mortified by heat Or rather for that a savour or smacke according as Plato saith is a water or juice passing thorow the stem or stalke of a plant but we see that the sea water rūning as thorow a streiner loseth the saltnesse being the terrestriall and grossest part that is in it And hereupon it is that when as men digge along by the sea side they meet with springs of fresh and potable water And many there be who draw out of the very sea fresh water and good to be drunke namely when it hath 〈◊〉 thorow certeine vessels of wax by reason that the terrestriall and saltish parts thereof be streined out In one word cley or marle also yea and the carrying of sea water in long conduct pipes causeth the same when it is so streined to be potable for that there are kept still in them the terrestriall parts and are not suffered to passe thorow Which being so very probable it is that plants neither receive from without forth any salt savour nor if haply any such qualitie breed in them doe they transfuse the same into their fruits for that the conducts of their pores being very small and streight there can not be transmitted thorow them any grosse or terrestriall substance Or els we must say that saltnesse is in some sort a kinde of bitternesse according as Homer signifieth in these verses Bitter salt-water at mouth he cast againe And all therewith his head did drop amaine And Plato affirmeth that both the one and the other savour is abstersive and liquefactive but the saltish lesse of the twaine as that which is not rough and so it will seeme that bitter differeth from salt in excesse of drinesse for that the salt savour is also a great drier 6 What is the cause that if folke use ordinarily and continually to goe among yong trees or shrubs full of deaw those parts of their bodies which do touch the twigs of the said plants are wont to have a scurfe or mange rise upon their skin IS it as Laet us saith for that the deaw by the subtiltie thereof doth fret and pierce the skin Or rather because like as the blast and mil-deaw is incident to those 〈◊〉 or plants that take wet and be drenched even so when the smoothe and tender superficiall parts of the skinne be fretted scarified and dissolved a little with the deaw there ariseth a certeine humour and filleth the fretted place with a smart and angry scurfe for lighting upon those parts which have but little bloud such as be the smalles of the legs and the feet it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the superficies of them Now that there is in deaw a certeine inordinate qualitie it appeareth by this that it maketh those who are grosse and corpulent to be leaner and more spare of bodie witnesse our women who are given to be fat and would be fine who gather deaw with linnen clothes or els with locks or fleeces of wooll thinking therewith to take downe and spend their fogginesse and make themselves more gant and slender 7 What is the cause that barges and other vessels in Winter time go more slowly upon the rivers than at other seasons but they do not so upon the sea WHat say you to this May it not be for that the aire of rivers being alwaies grosse and heavy in Winter is more inspissate by reason of the circumstant cold and so is an hindrance to the course of ships Or haply this accident is to be imputed to the water of rivers rather than to the aire about them for colde driving in and restraining the water maketh it more heavy and grosse as we may perceive in water houre-glasses for the water runneth out of them more leasurely and slowly in winter then in summer And Theophrastus writeth that in Thracia neere unto the mount called Pangaeon there is a fountaine the water whereof is twice as much heavie in winter than it is in summer waigh it in one the same vessell full That the thicknesse of water maketh a vessell to passe more sluggishly it may appeare by this that the barges of the river carry greater fraights by farre in winter than in summer because the water being thicke is stronger and able to beare more As for the sea water it cannot be made more thicke in winter by reason of the owne heat which is the cause that it congealeth not and if it gather any thickening it seemeth to be very slender and little 8 What is the reason that we observe all other waters if they be mooved and troubled are the colder but the sea the more surging and waving the hotter it is IS it because if there be any heat in other waters the same is a stranger unto it and comming from without and so the motion and agitation thereof doth dissipate and drive the same forth againe but that heat of the sea which is proper and naturall to it the windes doe stirre up and augment That the sea is naturally hot may evidently be proved by this that it is so transparent and shining as also for that it is not ordinarily frozen heavy though it be and terrestriall 9 What should be the cause that in winter the sea water is lesse bitter and brackish in taste FOr so by report writeth Dionysus the great convaier of conduicts who in a treatise of that argument saith that the bitternesse of the sea water is not without some sweetnesse seeing that the sea receiveth so many and so great rivers for admit that the sunne doe draw up that which is fresh and potable out of it because it is light and subtill that is but from the upper part onely and withall it doth more in Summer than in any other season by reason that in Winter his beames are not so strong to strike for that his heat likewise is but saint and feeble and so a good portion of the sweetnesse remaining behinde doth delay that excessive bitternesse and brackishnesse like a medicine that it hath And the same befalleth unto river waters and all other that be potable for even such in Summer time become worse and more offensive to the raste than in Winter by how much the heat of the sunne doth resolve and dissipate the light and sweet parts thereof but in Winter it runneth alwaies new and fresh whereof the sea cannot chuse but have a good part as well because it is evermore in motion as also for that the rivers running into it be great and impart their fresh water unto it 10 What is the reason that men are wont to powre sea water into their wine vessels among the wine And the common report goeth that there were sometime certeine mariners and fisher-men who brought with them
either by experience or some casuall occasion IS it then the smel that mooveth them to seeke these remedies and like as the hony combes by the odor stirre up the bee and the flesh of dead carions the vultures drawing and alluring them a farre of so the craifishes invite unto them swine origan the tortoise and pismires the beare by certaine sents and fluxions which are accommodate and familiar unto them without any sense leading them thereto by discourse of reason and teaching them what is good and profitable Or rather be they the temperatures of the bodies disposed unto sicknesse that bring unto these creatures such appetites engendring divers ceremonies sweetnesses or other strange unusuall qualities as we 〈◊〉 it ordinary in great bellied women who during the time that they go with childe fall to eat grit earth with greedinesse in so much as expert phisitians fore-know by the sundry appetites of their patients whether they shall live or die for so 〈◊〉 the phisitian doth report that in the beginning of the Pneumonie or inflamation of the lungs one patient of his longing for to eate onions escaped that maladie and another whose appetite stood to figgs died for it of the same disease for that the appetites follow the temperatures and the temperatures are proportionate to the diseases It standeth therefore to great reason that beasts likewise such as are not surprised with mortall 〈◊〉 nor sicke to death have that disposition and temperature whereby their appetites doe moove and provoke each one to that which is good and holsome yea and expedient to the cure of their sicknesse 27 What is the cause that must or new wine cotinueth sweet a long time in case the vessell wherein it is kept be colde round about it IS it because the alteration of this sweet savour into the naturall taste of wine is the very concoction of the wine and colde hindereth the said concoction which proceedeth from heat Or contrariwise because the proper joice and naturall savour of the grape is sweet for we say that then the grape beginneth to ripen when it waxeth sweet Now colde not suffring new wine to exhale but keeping the kinde heat thereof within preserveth the said sweetnesse still And this is the very cause that those who make their vintage in a rainy constitution of the weather doe finde that their new wine wil not worke so wel in the vault because that such ebullition proceedeth of heat and the colde doth restraine and refresh the said heat 28 What is the cause that of all savage beasts the beare doth never lightly gnaw the net and toile with her teeth whereas wolves and foxes use ordinarily to eate the same IS it for that her teeth grow farre within her mouth in such sort that she cannot get within the cords of the nets having besides so great and thicke lippes betweene that they hinder her for catching hold with her said fangs Or rather because she having more force in her fore-feet which she useth in stead of hands therewith she doth teare and breake the cords or else having use both of her pawes and also of her month she imploieth those to the bursting of the nets and with her teeth fighteth and maketh her part good against the hunters Besides the tumbling and rolling of her body that she doth practise serveth her in as good stead as any thing else And therefore seeing her selfe in danger to be taken within the 〈◊〉 many times casteth her selfe round upon her head and indevoureth that way to escape rather than either by pawes or fangs to burst the toile 29 What is the reason that we woonder not to see any sources or springs of colde water like as we doe of hot notwithstanding it is evident that as heat is the cause of these so is colde of the other FOr we must not say as some holde opinion that heat indeed is an habitude of it selfe but colde nothing else but the privation of heat for it were in truth more woonderfull how that which hath no subsistance should be the cause of that which hath a beeing But it seemeth that nature would have us to woonder heereat onely for the rare sight heereof and because it is not often seene therefore we should enquire for some secret cause and demand how that may be which is but seldome observed But seest thou this starry firmament So high above and in 〈◊〉 vast In bosom moist of water element The earth beneath how it encloseth fast How many strange and woonderfull sights doth it represent unto us in the night season and what beauty sheweth it unto us in the day time and the common people woonder at the nature of these things ** As also at the rainebowes and the divers tinctures formes and pictures of the clouds appeering by day and how they be adorned with sundry shapes breaking out of them in maner of bubbles 30 What is the cause that when vines or other yoong plants which be ranke of leaves and otherwise fruitlesse are said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 IS it because that goats in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which are exceding fat be lesse apt to engender and hardly for their fatnesse can leape the females For generative seed is the superfluous excrement of that nourishment which is conglutinate to the substantiall parts of the body Now when as any living creature or plant is in very good plight and growen grosse it is an evident signe that the nouriture is imploied and spent altogether in the maintenance of it selfe leaving no excrement at all or the same very small and not good for generation 31 What is the reason that if a vine be sprinkled and drenched with wine especially that which came of the owne grape it drieth and withereth away IS there not the same reason heereof as of the baldnesse in great drinkers when as the wine by meanes of heat causeth the moisture to evaporate which should feed the haire of their head Or is it not rather because the very liquor of wine commeth in some sort of putrefaction according to the verses of Empedocles When in vine-wood the water 〈◊〉 It turnes to wine whiles under barke it lies When as then a vine commeth to be wet with wine outwardly it is as much as if fire were put into it which doth corrupt the naturall temperature of that humour which should nourish it Or rather pure wine being of an astringent nature soketh and 〈◊〉 to the very root where shutting up and enclosing the pores it empeacheth the entrance of that sap by vertue whereof the vine is woont to bud burgen and flourish that it can not runne to the stocke Or may it not be it is cleane contrary to the nature of a vine that the liquor which once went out of it should returne againe into it for a liquor or humour whiles it is within the plant in the nature of a sap may well have power to feed the same but that being
wing because it lifteth up the soule from things base and mortall unto the consideration of heavenly and celestiall matters 6 How is it that Plato in some places saith the Anteperistasis of motion that is to say the circumstant contrariety debarring a body to moove in regard that there is no voidnesse or vaculty in nature is the cause of those effects which we see in physicians ventoses and cupping glasses of swallowing downe our viands of throwing of 〈◊〉 waights of the course and conveiance of waters of the fall of lightenings of the attraction that amber maketh of the drawing of the lodestone and of the accord and consonance of voices For it seemeth against all reason to yeeld one onely cause for so many effects so divers and so different in kinde First as touching the respiration in living creatures by the anteperistasis of the aire he hath elsewhere sufficiently declared but of the other effects which seeme as he saith to be miracles and woonders in nature and are nothing for that they be nought else but bodies reciprocally and by alternative course driving one another out of place round about and mutually succeeding in their roomes he hath left for to be discussed by us how each of them particularly is done FIrst and formost for ventoses and cupping glasses thus it is The aire that is contained within the ventose stricking as it doth into the flesh being inflamed with heat and being now more fine and subtil than the holes of the brasse box or glasse whereof the ventose is made getteth forth not into a void place for that is impossible but into that other aire which is round about the said ventose without forth and driveth the same from it and that forceth other before it and thus as it were from hand to hand whiles the one giveth place and the other driveth continually and so entreth into the vacant place which the first left it commeth at length to fall upon the flesh which the ventose sticketh fast unto and by heating and inchasing it expresseth the humor that is within into the ventose or cupping vessell The swallowing of our victuals is after the same maner for the cavities as well of the mouth as of the stomacke be alwaies full of aire when as then the meat is driven within the passage or gullet of the throat partly by the tongue and partly by the glandulous parts or kernelles called tonsells and the muscles which now are stretched the aire being pressed and strained by the said meat followeth it hard as it giveth place and sticking close it is a meanes to helpe for to drive it downeward Semblably the waighty things that be flung as bigge stones and such like cut the aire and divide it by reason that they were sent out and levelled with a violent force then the aire all about behind according to the nature thereof which is to follow where a place is lest vacant and to fill it up pursueth the masle or waight aforesaid that is lanced or discharged forcibly and setteth forward the motion thereof The shooting and ejaculation of lightening is much what after the maner of these waights throwen in maner aforesaid for being enflamed and set on a light fire it flasheth out of a cloud by the violence of a stroke into the aire which being once open and broken givith place unto it and then closing up together above it driveth it downe forcibly against the owne nature As for amber we must not thinke that it draweth any thing to it of that which is presented before it no more than doth the lode stone neither that any thing comming nere to the one or the other leapeth thereupon But first as touching the said stone it sendeth from it I wot not what strong and flatuous fluxions by which the aire next adjoining giving backe driveth that which is before it and the same turning round and reentring againe into the void place doth 〈◊〉 from it and withall carry with it the yron to the stone And for amber it hath likewise a certeine flagrant and flatulent spirit which when the out-side thereof is rubbed it putteth forth by reason that the pores thereof are by that meanes opened And verily that which issueth out of it worketh in some measure the like effect that the Magnet or lode-stone did and drawen there are unto it such matters neere at hand as be most light and dry by reason that the substance comming thereof is but slender and weake neither is it selfe strong nor hath sufficient waight and force for to chase and drive before it a great deale of aire by means whereof it might overcome greater things as the lode-stone doth But how is it that this aire driveth and sendeth before it neither wood nor stone but yron onely and so bringeth it to the Magnet This is a doubt and dificulty that much troubleth all those who suppose that this meeting and cleaving of two bodies together is either by the attraction of the stone or by the naturall motion of the yron Yron is neither so hollow and spungeous as is wood nor so fast and close as is gold or stone but it hath small holes passages and rough aspecties which in regard of the unequality are well proportionate and fortable to the aire in such wise as it runneth not easily through but hath certaine staies by the way to catch hold of so as it may stand steady and take such sure footing as to be able to force and drive before it the yron untill it have brought it to kisse the lode-stone And thus much for the causes and reasons that may be rendred of these effects As considering the running of water above ground by what maner of compression and coarctation roud about it should be performed it is not so easy either to be perceived or declared But thus much we are to learne that for waters of lakes which stirre not but continue alwaies in one place it is because the aire spred all about and keeping them in on every side mooveth not nor leaveth unto them any vacant place For even so the upper face of the water as well in lakes as in the sea riseth up into waves and billowes according to the agitation of the aire for the water still followeth the motion of the aire and floweth or is troubled with it by reason of the inequalities For the stroke of the aire downeward maketh the hollow dent of the wave but as the same is driven upward it causeth the swelling and surging tumor of the wave untill such time as all the place above containing the water be setled and laied for then the waves also doe cease and the water likewise is still and quiet But now for the course of waters which glide and run continually above the face of the ground the cause thereof is because they alwaies follow hard after the aire that giveth way and yet are chased by those behinde by compression and driving forward and so
by that meanes maintaine a continuall streame that never resteth which is the reason also that great rivers when they are full and doe overflow the banks run with a more swift and violent streame and contrariwise when there is but a little water in the chanell they glide more slowly because the aire before doth nothing so much give place for that they are more feeble neither is there so great an antiperistasis to urge and presse them forward and even so the spring waters must of necessity boile and rise upward for that the outward aire entering closely into the void hollow places within the ground sendeth up againe the water forth The paved floore of a darke close house conteining in it a great deale of still aire without any winde from without entring into it if a man doe cast water upon it engendreth presently a winde and colde vapour by reason that the aire is displaced and removed out of his seat by the water which fell and is thereby beaten and receiveth the stroake and dint thereof For this is the nature of them to drive one another and likewise to give place one to the other interchangeably admitting in no wise any emptinesse wherein the one of them should be so setled as that it did not reciprocally feele the change and alteration of the other To come now unto the above named symphonie and consonance himselfe hath declared how it is that that sounds and voices do accord for the small and treble is quicke and swift whereas the bigge and base is heavie and slow And thereupon it is that small and shrill sounds do move the sense of hearing before others but if when these begin to fall and decay the 〈◊〉 and base begin to succeed and receive then the mixture and temperature of them both by a kind of conformitie yeeldeth a delight and pleasure to the eare which they call a symphonie or accord And that here of the aire is the instrument it may evidently appeare by that which we have said already for voice is a stroake or percussion by the aire of that which the eare doth heare for as the aire is smitten by motion so it striketh againe the auditorie organ forcibly if the motion be quicke and gently if the same be slow and that which is stricken forcibly with a violence commeth first into the sense of hearing but afterwards turning about and meeting with that which is more slow it followeth and accompanieth the sense 7 What is the meaning of Timaeus when he saith That the soules are dispersed and sowen as it were upon the ground the moone and all other instruments of time what soever IS it because he was of opinion that the earth did move like unto the sunne moone and other five planets which he calleth the instruments of time because of their conversions and held besides that we ought not to imagine the earth so framed as if it were firme and immoveable fast fixed and perpetually to the axletree or pole that passeth thorow the world but that it turneth round in maner of a wheele like as afterwards Aristarchus and Seleucus have shewed the one supposing it onely the other affirming so much flatly To say nothing of that which Theophrastus wrote namely how Plato toward the latter end of his daies repented that he had assigned unto the earth the center and middle of the world a place 〈◊〉 unfit and unmeet for it Or rather because this is directly repugnant unto many sentences which this philosopher undoubtedly held we ought therefore to change the writing of this place of 〈◊〉 by putting the dative case in stead of the genetive to wit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea and to understand by the instruments of time not the planets or starres but the bodies of living creatures according as Aristotle hath defined the soule to be a continuall act of a bodie Naturall Organicall having life potentially so that the sentence in the foresaid place should be read thus The soules have bene disseminated and 〈◊〉 by time in organicall bodies meet and agreeable for them And yet even this also is contrary unto his owne-opinion for that not in one onely place but in many he hath called the starres instruments of time considering that he affirmeth that the very sunne was made to distinguish and keepe the number of time with other planets The best way is therefore to understand That the earth is the instrument of time not because it moveth as doe the starres but for that so continuing as it doeth alwaies firme and steady in it selfe it giveth meanes unto the starres moving round about it to rise and to fall whereby are limited the day and the night which are the first measures of time and therefore himselfe hath called it the Guardien yea the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in deed and right truely of night and day for the Gnomons in Sun dials not moving with the shadowes but standing still and keeping their place are the instruments and measures of time representing the obstacle of the earth opposite unto the Sun mooving round about it like as Empedocles saith The earth set just twixt Sun beames and our sight Shuts up the day and bringeth in the night And thus much for the enodation of this knot But haply this a man may doubt to be a strange and absurd speech to say that the Sun together with the Moone the planets were made for distinction of times for otherwise by it selfe great is the dignitie of the Sun and Plato himselfe in his books of Common-wealth calleth him the king and lord of all the sensible world like as Good he pronounceth to be the sovereign of the intelligible world And the Sun saith he is the very issue extract from that Good giving unto things visible together with their apparance being also subsistance like as Good giveth unto intelligible things this gift both to have a being and also to be knowen Now that God having such puissance and so great should be the instrument of time and an evident rule and measure of the difference that is of swiftnesse or of slownesse among the eight heavenly sphaeres seemeth not very decent no nor any consonant to reason It remaineth therefore thus much to say those who trouble themselves about these points for very ignorance are deceived supposing that time according to the definition of Aristotle is the measure of motion and the number in regard of prioritie and posteriority or the quantity in motion after the opinion of Speusippus or else the distance of motion and no other thing as the Stoicks describe it desining forsooth one accident but never comming neere unto the substance and power thereof which as it should seeme the poet Pindarus imagined and conceived not amisse when he said In right of age time hath this ods That it surpasseth all the gods Pythagor as also who being asked what time was answered The soule of the heaven for time be it
To beat or To be beaten or otherwise these bare Nownes Socrates or Pythagoras giveth some light such as it is of a thing to be conceived understood but he that should come out with these odde words For or Of and say no more a man can not imagine what he meaneth thereby nor gather any conception either of action or of body for if there be not some other words pronounced with them or about them they resemble naked sounds and vaine noises without any significations at all for that neither by themselves alone nor one with another it is possible that they should betoken any thing Nay admit that we should conjoine mingle and interlace together Conjunctions Articles and Prepositions all in one minding to make one entire bodie of them all we shall seeme rather to creake than speake but so soone as a Verbe is joined to a Nowne that which resulteth thereupon is immediatly a sentence and significant speech And therefore not without good reason some doe thinke that these two to speake properly be the onely parts of speech And peradventure Homer had some such meaning and gave us so much to understand by saying in so many places 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He spake the word and with the same Immediatly out came the name For by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say the word his maner is to signifie a Verbe as namely in this other verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now surely woman much to blame thou art This word to speake it strikes so to my hart As also elsewhere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 good Father guest and friend Farewell And if some word unkind Hath bene let fall I wish it may By winds and stormes be caught away For surely it is neither Conjunction Article nor Preposition that can be said either unkinde or to touch the heart but some Verbe signifying a shamefull deed proceeding from an undecent and dishonest passion And therefore you see how we are woont to praise poets and historiographers or otherwise to blame and dispraise them saying in this wise Such a poet hath used Atticke Nownes and elegant Verbs and contrariwise Such an historiographer hath used triviall and base Nownes and Verbs And no man will say that either Euripides or 〈◊〉 wrote a stile consisting of Articles that were homely and base or otherwise elegant and Atticke How then may some one say serve these parts to no purpose in our speech Yes iwis say I even as much as salt in our meats or water for our bread and gruell Euenus was wont to say that fire also was an excellent kinde of sauce and even so be these parts of speech the seasoning of our language like as fire and salt of our broths and viands without the which we can not well do and yet our speech doth not alwaies of necessitie stand in need of them for so me thinks I may very well affirme of the Romane language that all the world I see in maner useth at this day for the Romans take away all Prepositions except a very few and as for those that be called Articles they admit not so much as one but use their Nownes plaine and as one would say without skirts and borders Whereat we may wonder the lesse considering that Homer who for trimme and beautifull verses surpassed all other poets set to very few Nownes any Articles as eares unto cups and other vessels for to take hold by or as pennaches and crests upon morions and therefore looke in what verses he useth so to doe be sure they were of speciall marke or els suppositions and suspected to be none of his making As for example 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This speech the courage most of all excited then anon Of Ajaz him I meane who was the sonne of Telamon Againe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This did he that by flying thus apace He might escape the whale that was in chace And a few others besides these But in the rest which are innumerable although there be no Article yet the phrase of speech is thereby nothing diminished or hurt either in beautie or perspicuitie And thus we see that neither living creature if it be maimed or dismembred nor instrument nor armour nor any thing in the world whatsoever by the want and defect of any proper part belonging thereto is the more beautifull or active thereby neither more pleasant than it was therefore whereas a speech or sentence when all the Conjunctions be taken quite away is many times more emphaticall yea and carieth a power and efficacie more patheticall and apter to move and affect as this One sound unhurt she catching fast another wounded new Alive she held another dead in sight by heeles she drew Also this place of Demosthenes his oration against Midias For many things may he doe who striketh whereof some the party who suffereth can not declare unto another by jesture his port by regard his eie in his voice when he wrongeth insolently in a bravery when he offereth injurie as an enemie when with the clutched fist when upon the cheeke when upon the eare this mooveth this is that remooveth that transporteth men beside themselves who are not acquainted with outrages who have not beene used to beare such abuses And againe another place afterwards But it is not Midias He from this day is a speaker he maketh orations he raileth exclameth he passeth somewhat by his voice Is there any election Midias the Anagyrrhasian is propounded he is nominated Midias interteineth Plutarch in the name of the city he knoweth all secrets the city is not sufficient to hold him This is the reason that they who write of rhetoricall figures so highly praise Asyndeton whereas those who are so precise so religious and too observant of Grammar that they dare not leave out one Conjunction otherwise than they were accustomed to doe The said rhetoricians thinke blamewoorthy and to be reprooved as making the stile dull enervate without affection tedious and irksome by reason that it runnes alwaies after one sort without change and variety Now whereas logicians have more need than any other professours in learning of Conjunctions copulatives for to knit and connex their propositions or disjunctives to disjoine and distinguish them like as waine-men or carters have need of yokes or geeres or as Ulysses had of osiers in Cyclops his cave to binde his sheepe together This doth not argue nor proove that the Conjunction is a substantiall member or part of speech but a prety instrument and meanes to binde and conjoine according as the very name of it doth import and to keepe and hold together not all words or sentences indifferently but such alone as are not simply spoken unlesse men will say that the coard or girt wherewith a packe or fardell is bound is a part of the said packe or the paste and glue a part of the booke or donatives and largesses a
it such was their deformity and inequality It appeareth plainly that he maketh these bodies in some sort to have a being and subsistence before the creation of the world Contrariwise when he saith that the body is yoonger than the soule and that the world was made and created in as much as the same is visible and palpable as having a body and that all things appeare so as they are when they were once made and created manifest it is and every man may see that he attributeth a kinde of nativity to the nature of the body and vet for all that farre is he off from being contradictory and repugnant to himselfe so notoriously and that in the most maine points For it is not the same body nor of the same sort which he saith was created by God and to have bene before it was for that were directly the case of some mount-banke or jugling enchanter but himselfe sheweth unto us what we are to understand by this generation or creation For before time quoth he all that is in the world was without order measure and proportion but after that the universall world began to be fashioned and brought into some decent forme whereas he found the fire first the water the earth and the 〈◊〉 pell mell in the same places and yet having some shew and token what they were but confusedly hudled every where as a man may well thinke that every thing must needs be so where God is absent in this case as they were then God I say finding them first brought the same into frame and fashion by the meanes of formes and numbers Furthermore having said before that it was the worke not of one onely proportion but of twaine to joine and frame together the fabricke of the world a solid masse as it was and carying a depth and thicknesse with it and declared moreover that God after he had bestowed water and aire betweene fire and earth conjoined withall and framed the heaven together with them Of these things quoth he such as they were and fower in number the body of the world was in engendred agreeable in proportion and entertaining amity by that meanes Insomuch as being once thus united and compact there is nothing that can make disunion or dissolution but he alone who first limited and brought all together teaching us hereby most plainely that God was the father and author not of the body simply nor of the frame fabricke and matter onely of the world but also of that proportion measure beauty and similitude which is in the body thereof semblably thus much we are to thinke of the soule as if one were not created by God nor the soule of the world but a certaine power of motion fantasticall turbulent subject unto opinion stirring and moving of it selfe and alwaies but without any order measure or reason whatsoever The other when God had adorned it with numbers proportions convenient he ordained to be the regent governesse of the world created like as it selfe was also created Now that this is the true sentence meaning of Plato and not by a fantasticall manner of speculation and inquisition as touching the creation or generation as well of the world as of the soule this besides many others may be an argument that of the soule he saith it was created and not created of the world alwaies that it was engendred and created but never eternall and not created To proove this we need not for to cite testimonies out of the booke Timaeus considering that the said booke throughout from the one end to the other treateth of nothing else but of the generation or creation of the world And of other bookes in his Atlanticke Timaeus making his praiers nameth him who beforetime was by his worke and now by his word God And in his Politique his Parmenidian guest saith that the world being framed and made by God became partaker of many good things and in case there be any evill thing in it the same is a remnant mingled within the first habitude and estate wherein it was at first before the constitution thereof all irregular and disorderly And in his bookes of Common-wealth speaking of that number which some call the Mariage Socrates began to discourse and say thus The God quoth he who is created and engendred hath his period and conversation which the perfect number doth comptise In which place what can he call the God created and engendred but the world ***** ******************* The first copulation is of one and two the second of three and foure the third of five and six of which there is not one that maketh a quadrate number either by it selfe or by others the fourth is of seven and eight which being joined to the first make in all the square quadrat number six and thirtie But of those numbers which Plato hath set downe the quaternarie hath a more perfect and absolute generation namely when even numbers are multiplied by even intervals and uneven numbers likewise by odde intervals for first it conteineth unitie as the very common stocke of all numbers as well even as odde and of those under it two and three be the first flat and plaine numbers and after them foure and nine are the first squares then follow eight and seven and twentie the first cubique numbers putting the unitie out of this account By which it appeareth that his will was not that these numbers should be all set one above another directly in a right line but apart one after another alternatively the even of the one side and the odde of the other according to the description above made Thus shall the files or conjugations also be of like with like and make the notable numbers aswel by composition or addition as by multiplication of one with another by composition thus Two and three make five foure nine make thirteene eight and seven and twentie arise to five and thirtie For of these numbers the Pythagoreans call five 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as much to say as a sound supposing that of the spaces and intervals of Tone the fift was the first that spake or sounded thirteene they tearmed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say the Remanent or Defect like as Plato did despairing to divide a Tone in two equall portions and five and thirtie they tearme Harmonie for that it is composed of the first numbers cubique proceeding from even and od of the foure numbers to wit six eight nine and twelve conteining an Arithmeticall and Harmonicall proportion But this will appeare more evidently by this figure here described and represented to the eies Suppose then there be a figure set downe in forme of a tile called Parallelogrammon with right angles A.B.C.D. But forasmuch as the numbers proposed affoord not places for the medieties which are inferred necessary it was to extend the numbers to larger tearmes and bondes reteining still the same proportions in regard whereof we must
the other goeth directly to report the same throughout the whole soule thereof then there be engendred opinions and beliefes that be firme and true but when it is conversant about that which is intelligible and discoursing by reason and the circle likewise of the same turning roundly with facility doth shew the same then of necessity there is bred perfect and accomplisht science and in whatsoever these two things be infused if a man call it otherwise than soule he saith any thing rather than the truth whence commeth it then that the soule had this motion opinative which comprehendeth that which is sensible divers and different from the other intellective that endeth in science Hard it were to set this downe unlesse a man firmly presuppose that in this place and at this present he composeth not the soule simply but the soule of the world with the parts above mentioned of a better substance which is indivisible and of a woorse that he calleth divisible by bodies which is nothing else but an imaginative opinionative motion affected accordant to that which is sensible not engendred but as the other of an eternall subsistance for nature having the 〈◊〉 vertue had also the facultie opinionative but the intellective power is unmoveable impassible founded set upon that substance which abideth alwaies in one sort whereas the other is divisible and wandering in as much as it toucheth a matter that is alwaies floting carried to and fro and dissipable For the matter sensible had before time no order at all but was without all forme bound or limitation whatsoever and the faculty therein had neither expresse opinions articulate and distinct nor her motions all certaine and composed in order but for the most part resembling turbulent and vaine dreames troubling that which was corporall unlesse haply they fell upon any thing that was better For betweene two it was having a nature conformable and accordant to the one ond the other chalenging matter by that which is sensitive and by the judiciall part those things which are intelligible And this declareth he himselfe in these proper termes By my reckoning quoth he let this be the summe of the whole account that these three things had their being three waies before the heaven was to wit essence space and generation As for space or place he calleth matter by that name as it were the seat and otherwhiles a receptacle the essence that which is intelligible and the generation of the world as yet not made can be no other thing but a substance subject to motions and alterations situate betweene that which imprinteth a forme and which is imprinted dispensing and distributing the images from thence hither which is the reason it was called divisible for that of necessitie both the sensitive must be divided and goe with the sensible and also the imaginative with the imaginable For the sensitive motion being proper unto the soule mooveth toward the sensible without but the intelligence understanding was of it selfe stable firme and immovable howbeit being infused once into the soule and become master and lord thereof it rolleth and turneth upon it selfe and accomplisheth a round circular motion about that which is alwaies permanent and touching that principally which is and hath being And therefore hard was the mixtion and association which mingled the divisible with the indivisible that which is every way moovable with that which never mooveth and forcing in one word the other to meet and joine with the same So the other was not motion no more than the same was station but the beginning both of Diversity and also of Identity or The samenesse for the one and the other descend from divers principles to wit the same from unity and the other from binary and were at the first mingled 〈◊〉 here in the soule as tied by numbers proportions and medieties harmonicall and the other being imprinted into the same maketh difference but the same infused into the other causeth order as it appeareth manifestly in the first powers of the soule to wit the faculties of moving and of judging As for motion it sheweth incontinently about the heaven diversity in identity by the revolution of the planets and identity in dive sity by the setled order situation of the fixed starres sor in these the same beareth sway and is more predominant but contrariwise the other in those that be neerer to the earth But judgement hath two principles to wit understanding from the same for judging of things universall and sense from the other to judge of particulars Now reason is mingled of them both being intelligence in things generall and intelligible but opinion onely in matters sensible using for instruments both the fansies and imaginations betweene and also the memories whereof the former make the other in the same but the latter the same in the other For intelligence is the motion of the intelligent about that which is stable and permanent but opinion is the mansion of the sentient about that which moveth As for imagination or fansie being a connexion of opinion to the sense the same placeth it in memorie and contrariwise the other stirreth it in the difference and distinction of that which is past and that which is present touching both identity and diversitie together Now the better to understand the proportion wherewith he made the soule we must take 〈◊〉 patterne and example from the constitution of the bodie of the world for whereas the two extremes to wit pure fire and earth were by nature hard to be tempered one with another orto say more truely impossible to be mixed and incorporate together he placed in the 〈◊〉 betweene aire before fire and water before earth and so contempered first these two meane elements and afterwards by their helpe the other extremes also which he fitted and framed together both with the said meanes and also with themselves one with another And heere againe the same and the other being contrary puissances and extremities fighting one against the other as meere enemies he brought together not immediatly by themselves but by putting betweene other substances to wit the indivisible before the same and the divisible before the other according as in some sort the one had affinitie and congruency with the other afterwards when these were mixed together he contempered likewise the extreames and so warped and wove as one would say the whole forme of the soule making as farre as it was possible of things unlike semblable and of many one But some there bee who give out that 〈◊〉 was not well said of Plato That the nature of the other was hard to bee mixed and tempered considering say they that it is not altogether insusceptible of mutation but a friend to it and rather the nature of the same being firme and hard to be turned and remooved admitteth not easily any mixture but flieth and rejecteth it to the end that it may remaine simple pure and without alteration but
soveraigne lord and omnipotent master of all neither be all things absolutely governed and ruled by his reason and counsell Moreover he mightily opposeth himselfe against Epicurus and those who take from the administration of the world divine providence confuting them principally by the common notions and conceptions inbred in us as touching the gods by which perswaded we are that they be gracious benefactours unto men And for that this is so vulgar and common a thing with them needlesse it is to cite any expresse places to proove the same And yet by his leave all nations doe not beleeve that the gods be bountifull and good unto us For doe but consider what opinion the Jewes and Syrians have of the gods looke into the writings of Poets with how many superstitions they be stuffed There is no man in maner to speake of who imagineth or conceiveth in his minde that god is either mortall and corruptable or hath bene begotten And Antipater of Tarsis to passe others over in silence in his booke of Gods hath written thus much word forword But to the end quoth he that this discourse may be more perspicuous and cleare we will reduce into few words the opinion which we have of God We understand therefore by God a living nature or substance happie incorruptible and a benefactor unto men and afterwards in expounding each of these tearmes and attributes thus he saith And verily all men doe acknowledge the gods to be immortall It must needs be then that by Antipaters saying Chrysippus of all those is none For he doth not thinke any of all the gods to be incorruptiblesave Jupiter onely but supposeth that they were all engendred a like and that one day they shall all likewise perish This generally throughout all his bookes doth he deliver howbeit one expresse passage will I alledge out of his third booke of the gods After a divers sort quoth he for some of them are engendred and mortall others not engendred at all But the proofe and demonstration here of if it should be fetched from the head indeed apperteineth more properly unto the science of Naturall Philosophy For the Sunne and Moone and other gods of like nature were begotten but Jupiter is sempiternall And againe somewhat after The like shall be said of Jupiter and other gods as touching their corruption and generation for some of them do perish but as for his parts they be incorruptible With this I would have you to compare a little of that which Antipater hath written Those quoth he who deprive the gods of beneficence and well doing touch but in some part the prenotion and anticipation in the knowledge of them and by the same reason they also who thinke they participate of generation and corruption If then he be as much deceived and as absurd who thinketh that the gods be mortall and corruptible as he who is of opinion that they beare no bountifull and loving affection toward men Chrysippus is as farre from the trueth as Epicurus for that as the one bereaveth God of immortallity and incorruption so the other taketh from him bounty and liberality Moreover Chrysippus in his third booke of the gods speaking of this point and namely how other gods are nourished saith thus Other gods quoth he use a certaine nourishment whereby they are maintained equally but Jupiter and the world after a nother sort than those who are engendred and be consumed by the fire In which place he holdeth that all other gods be nourished except Jupiter and the world And in the first booke of Providence he saith that Jupiter groweth continually untill such a time as all things be consumed in him For death being the separation of the body and soule seeing that the soule of the world never departeth at all but augmenteth continually untill it have consumed all the matter within it we cannot say that the world dieth Who could speake more contrary to himselfe than he who saith that one and the same god is nourished and not nourished And this we need not to inferre and conclude by necessary consequence considering that himselfe in the same place hath written it plainly The world onely quoth he is said to be of it selfe sufficient because it alone hath all in it selfe whereof it standeth in no need of it selfe it is nourished and augmented whereas other parts are transmuted and converted one into another Not onely then is he contradictorie and rupugnant to himselfe in that he saith other gods be nourished all except the world and Jupiter but also here in much more when he saith that the world groweth by nourishing it selfe whereas contrariwise there had bene more reason to say the world onely is not augmented having for foode the distruction thereof but on the contrary side other gods doe grow and increase in as much as they have their nourishment from without and rather should the world be consumed into them if it be true that the world taketh alwaies from it selfe and other gods from it The second point conteined in that common notion and opinion imprinted in us as touching the gods is that they be blessed happie and perfect And therefore men highly praise Euripides for saying thus If God 〈◊〉 God indeed and really He needs none of this poets vertly His 〈◊〉 in hymnes and verses for to write Such 〈◊〉 wretched are which they endite Howbeit our Chrysippus here in those places by me alledged saith that the world alone is of it selfe sufficient as comprehending within it all that it hath need of What then ariseth upon this proposition that the world is sole-sufficient in it selfe but this that neither the Sun nor the Moone nor any other of the gods whatsoever is sufficient of it selfe and being thus insufficient they cannot be blessed and happie Chrysippus is of opinion that the infant in the mothers wombe is nourished naturally no otherwise than a plant within the earth but when it is borne and by the aire cooled and hardned as it were like 〈◊〉 it mooveth the spirit and becommeth an animall or living creature and therefore it is not without good reason that the soule was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in regard of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say refrigeration But not forgetetting to be contrary unto himselfe he supposeth that the soule is the more subtile rare and fine spirit of nature For how is it possible that a subtile thing should be made of that which is grosse and that a spirit should be rarefied by refrigeration and astriction or condensation Nay that which more is how commeth it about that 〈◊〉 as he doth the soule of an infant to be engendred by the means of refrigeration he should thinke the sun to become animat being as it is of a firy nature engendred of an exhalation transmuted into fire For thus he faith in his third booke of Nature The mutation quoth he of fire is in this maner by the aire it is turned into water and
many such examples of vice in our actions for there is not so much as one sober unto vertue but we all trip and stumble nay we wander as if our braines turned round about living shamefully in misery and so farre foorth are we intoxicate with our owne reason and selfe conceit filled with so great perturbation and folly that wee may be well and fitly likened to those dogs which as Aesope tels the tale seeing 〈◊〉 skinnes floting above the water gaped so greedily for to have them that they would needs drinke up all the sea before them for to be sure of the said skinnes but ere they could come by them they drunke so much as they burst againe and even we hoping by reason to acquire glory and reputation and thereby to attaine unto vertue are spoiled marred and destroied therewith before we can reach thereunto being before hand loden with a mighty deale of meere heady and bitter vice if it be so as these men give it out that even they who have made good progresse and proceeded to the end feele for all that no ease no alteration no remission or breathing time at all from folly and infelicity But marke I pray againe how he who saith that vice was not produced and brought foorth into the world unprofitably depainteth it unto you what maner of thing hee describeth it to be and what an heritage it is for him who hath it For in his treatise of Duties or Offices he saith That the vicious and sinfull person hath no want nor need of anything that nothing is profitable nothing meet and convenient for him How then is vice commodious wherewith neither health it selfe is expedient nor store of money ne yet advancement and promotion And hath a man no need of those things whereof some are precedent preeminent and to be preferred yea and beleeve me very profitable and commodious others according to nature as they themselves terme them And of all these doeth no man finde need unlesse he become wise And so by this reckoning hath the leawd and foolish man no need to become wise neither be men thirsty or hungry before they are made wise So that if they be dry have they no need of water nor if hungry bread Resembling right those gentle guests who nought else did require But under roufe to shrowd their heads and warme themselves at fire And so belike he had no need of covert nor of mantell who said Give Hipponax a cloke his corps to fold For why I shake and shiver hard for cold But will you pronounce a paradox indeed such an one as is extravagant and singular by it selfe Say hardly then That a wise man wanteth nought and hath need of nothing he is rich he is full and fortunate he is of himselfe sufficient blessed happy every way absolute But what a dizzinesse giddinesse of the braine is this to say That he who is indigent of nothing yet hath need of the good things which he hath and that the lewd and vicious person is indigent of many things and yet needeth nothing for this is the very assertion which Chrysippus holdeth That wicked persons have no need and yet are indigent turling shifting and transposing the common notions like unto cockall bones or chesse-men upon the boord For all men deeme thus that to have need goeth before indigence supposing him that standeth in need of things which are not ready at hand nor easie to be gotten is indigent To make this more plaine no man is said to be indigent of hornes or of wings for that he hath no need of them but we say truly and properly that some have need of armour of monie and of apparell when in the penury and want of these things they neither have them nor can come by them to supply their necessity But these Stoicks are so desirous to be thought alwaies for to broch somewhat against common sense and conception that many times they forget themselves and slip out of their owne proper opinions so much affected they are and given to new conceits like as in this place if you please to cast your eie unto Chrysippus and looke somewhat behinde calling to minde what hath heeretofore beene delivered This is one of his positions affirmed even against common sense and vulgar opinion that no evill and foolish man can finde good and profit by any thing and yet many of them by institution and teaching proceed forward and profit many who were slaves become enfranchized besieged are delivered drunken are guided and lead by the hand sicke and diseased are cured of their maladies but for all this forsooth they are never the better whatsoever is done unto them no benefits they receive no benefactours they have no nor neglect those who deserve well of them and so vicious persons are not unthankfull no more than are good and wise men And thus ingratitude is not at all nor hath any being for that the good never intervert nor miscognize the favour and benefit which they have received and the wicked are capable of none at all But see I pray you what shift they make to salve answer all this They say forsooth that grace favour or benefit is ranged in the number of meane things and that to helpe or be helped apperteineth onely to the wise True it is say they that wicked receive also a grace or benefit What is that Those who have part in a benefit have not they also a part of use and commodity and whereto a grace or benefit reacheth doth nothing that is commodious and convenient extend thither And is there ought else that maketh a demerit or pleasure done to be a grace than that the party who doth the pleasure should in some respect be commodious unto the needy receiver LAMPRIAS But let these matters passe and tell us what is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say utility which they prise so highly and whereof they make so great account DIADUMENUS This is a thing I may tell you which they reserve and keepe as a great matter and a singularitie for their Sages onely and yet leave them not so much as the name of it If one wise man say they do but put forth his finger prudently wheresoever it be all the wise men that are in the whole continent and habitable world find this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and utility by it This is the onely gift and worke of the amity that is among them and in this doe determine and end the vertues of wise men namely the entercourse of common profit and utility passing to and fro betweene them As for Aristotle he doted Xenocrates also doted who taught and affirmed that men had helpe from the gods helpe from their parents and helpe by ther teachers and scholemasters but never understood they this wonderfull helpe and commoditie which these wise men receive one from another when they be moved to vertue although they be not together no
nor so much as know one another And verily all men do thinke that to gather to lay up to keepe to dispense and bestow is condrucible and profitable when there is received profit and commodity by such things And a good substantiall housholder buyes himselfe locks and keies he keepeth his cellars his closets and coffers Taking great joy his chamber doore with hand for to unlocke Where lies of golde and silver both his treasure and his stocke But to gather and lay up to keepe with great care diligence and paine those things which are for nothing profitable is neither honourable nor yet seemly and honest If then Ulysses being 〈◊〉 by Circe to make that fast knot had with it tied sure and sealed up as it were not the gifts and presents which Alcinous gave him to wit trefeets pots plate clothes apparell and gold but some trash as sticks stones and other pelfe raked together thinking it a great felicity for him to possesse and keepe charily such riffe-raffe and trumperie who would have praised and commended him for it or imitated this foolish forecast witlesse providence and vaine diligence And yet this is the goodly and beautifull honesty of the Stoicks profession in generall this is their honourable gravity this is their beatitude and nothing els is it but an heaping up a keeping and preserving of things unprofitable and indifferent For such be those which they say are according to nature and much more those outward matters forasmuch as sometime they compare the greatest riches with fringes and chamber-pots of golde yea and I assure you otherwhiles as it falleth out with oile cruets And aftewards like as those who thinke they have most insolently and proudly abused with blasphemous words and polluted the temples the sacred ceremonies and religious services of some gods or divine powers presently change their note and become penitent persons and falling downe prostrate or sitting humbly below upon the ground blesle and magnifie the heavenly power of the Godhead even so they as incurring the vengeance and plague of God for their presumptuous follies arrogant and vaine speeches are found puddering and raking againe in these indifferent things nothing indeed pertinent unto them setting out a throat and crying as loud as they can what a gay matter what a goodly and honourable thing it is to gather and lay up such commodities and especially the communion and fellowship of enjoying and using them also that whosoever want the same and can not come by them have no reason to live any longer but either to lay violent hands on themselves or by long fasting and abstinence from all viands to shorten their lives bidding vertue farewell for ever And these men verily howsoever they repute Theognis to be a man altogether of a base and abject minde for saying thus in verse Aman from povertie to flie O Cyrmis ought himselfe to cast Headlong from rocks most steepe and hie Or into sea as deepe and vast themselves meane while in prose give these exhortations and say that to avoid a grievous maladie and escape exceeding paine a man ought if he had not a sword or dagger neere at hand nor a poisoned cup of hemlocke to cast himselfe into the sea or els fall headlong and breake his necke from some steepe rocke yet affirme they that neither the one nor the other is hurtfull evill or unprofitable nor maketh those miserable who fall into such accidents Whence then shall I begin quoth he what ground-worke and foundation of duety shall I lay or what shall I make the subject and matter of vertue leaving nature and abandoning that which is according to nature And whereat I pray you good sit begin Aristotle and Theophrastus what principles take Xenocrates and Polemon And even Zeno himselfe hath he not followed them in supposing Nature and that which is according to Nature for to be the elements of felicitie But these great clerks verily rested here in these things as eligible expetible good and profitable adjoining moreover unto them vertue which emploieth the same and worketh by ech of them according to their proper use thinking in so doing to accomplish a perfect and entire life and to consummate that concord and agreement which is in trueth sortable and consonant unto Nature For they made no confused mish-mash nor were contrary to themselves as those who leape and mount on high from the ground and immediatly fall downe upon it againe and in naming the same things meet to be chosen and yet not expetible proper and convenient and withall not good unprofitable and yet fit for good uses nothing at all pertinent unto us and yet forsooth the very principles of dueties and offices But looke what was the speech of these noble and famous personages the same also was their life their deeds I say were answerable and conformable to their words Contrariwise the sect of these Stoicks doth according to that craftie woman whom Archilochus describeth to cary water in the one hand and fire in the other for in some of their doctrines and assertions they receive and admit nature in another they reject her or to speake more plainly in their acts and deeds they adhere and cleave unto those things which are according to nature as being eligible and simply good but in their disputations and discourses they refuse and condemne the same as things indifferent and nothing available to vertue for the acquiring of felicitie nay that which woorse is they give her hard and reprochfull tearmes And forasmuch as all men generally are perswaded in their minds that the sovereigne good is a thing joious exoptable happie most honourable and of greatest dignitie 〈◊〉 of it selfe and wanting nothing See now this sovereigne good of theirs and examine it according to this common opinion To put forth ones finger like a sage and wise Philosopher doth this make that joious good or what exoptable thing I pray you is a prudent torture who casteth himselfe downe headlong from an high rocke so he do it with a colour of reason and honesty is he happy and fortunate is that most honourable and of grearest price and dignity which reason many times chuseth to reject for another thing that of it selfe is not good is that all-sufficient in it selfe accomplished and perfect which whosoever do presently injoy if haply they can not obteine with all some one of these indifferent things they will not deigne to live any longer was there ever knowen any discourse or disputation wherein use and ordinary custome suffered more outrage and abuse which stealing and plucking from it the true and naturall conceptions as legitimate children of her owne putteth in the place bastards changelings of a monstrous and savage kinde and constreineth it to love cherish and keepe them in lieu of the other And thus have they done in treating of good things and evill expetible and to be avoided proper and strange which ought to have beene more cleerely and plainly distinguished than
a confused mixture of all qualities together like unto a wind-instrument composed for all kinds of melodious musicke But they confesse that all their rules are lost and their judgement quite gone if they admit any object in some sort pure and syncere and allow not ech one thing to be many See moreover in this place what discourse and disputation Polyaenus held with Epicurus in his banquet as touching the heat of wine For when he demanded in this maner How now Epicurus say you not that wine doth heat one made answere That he affirmed not universally that wine did cause heat and a little after For it seemeth that wine is not universally a heater but rather that such a quantitie of wine may be said to enchafe and set such an one in heat And then adjoining the cause he alledgeth the concurrences compressions and dispersions of the Atomes the commixtions and conjunctions of others when the wine commeth to be mingled with the body and then he addeth this conclusion And therefore generally we are not to say that wine doth heat but so much wine may well heat such a nature and so disposed whereas another nature it cooleth in such and such a quantity For in such a masse there be those natures and complexions of which cold if need were may be composed and being joined with others as occasion serveth may cause a vertue refrigerative And hereupō it is that some are deceived saying that wine uniuersally is hot and others againe affirming it to be universally colde He then who saith that the multitude and most part of men do erre in holding that to be simplie hot which doth heat and that likewise to be cold which doth coole is deceived himselfe if he thinketh not that it followeth by good consequence upon that which hee hath said that one thing is more such than such And afterwards he inferreth this speech that many times wine entring into the body bringeth with it neither a calefactive nor a refrigerative vertue but that when the masse of the body is moved and stirred so as there is a transposition made of the parts then the Atomes which are effective of heat concurre together one while into one place and through their multitude set the body into an heat and inflamation but another while by dispersing and severing themselves asunder inferre coldnesse Moreover he dissembleth not but that he is proceeded thus farre as to say that whereas wee take things to be and doe call them bitter sweet purgative soporiferous and lightsome none of them all have any entier quality or perfect property to produce such effects nor to be active more than passive all while they be in the body but that they be susceptible of sundry temperatures and differences For even Epicurus himselfe in his second booke against Theophrastus in saying that colours are not naturall unto bodies but are engendred according to certeine situations and positions respective to the eie-sight of man saith by this reason that a bodie is no more destitute of colour than coloured And a little before word for word he writeth thus But over and beside all this I know not how a man may say that these bodies which be in the darke have any colour at all and yet oftentimes when the aire a like darke is spred round about some there be who can distinguish the diversity of colours others perceive nothing at all by reason of their feeble dim-sight Againe when we goe into a darke house we see not at our first entrance any colours but after we have beene there a pretie while we perceive them well enough And therefore we are to say that ech body is not rather coloured than not coloured If then colour be a relative and hath being in regard of some other things white also is a relative and blew likewise if these then sweet and bitter semblably so that a man may truely affirme of every quality that it is not more such than not such For to those who are so disposed a thing shall be such and to them that are not so affected not such So that Colotes doeth all to dash and beray both himselfe and his master also with the same mire and dirt wherein he saith those doe sticke who hold that things are not more such than such What then doth this egregious clerke heerein onely shew himselfe according to the old proverbe Aleech professing others for to cure Whiles he himselfe is full of sores impure No verily but much more yet in his second reprehension he chaseth ere he is aware Epicurus together with Democritus out of this life for he giveth out that Democritus said The atomes are unto the senses by a certeine law and ordinance colour by the said law sweet and by the same law bitter Also that he who useth this reason and holdeth this opinion knoweth not himselfe if he be a man nor whether he be dead or alive To contradict these speeches I wot not well how but thus much I say that this is as much inseparable from the sentences and doctrine of Epicurus as figure and weight by their saying from the Atomes for what saith Democritus That there be substances in number infinite which are called Atomes because they cannot be divided howbeit different without qualitie and impassible which doe moove and are caried dispersed to and fro in the infinit voidnesse which when they approch one another or concur and meet together or else be enterlaced enfolded one about another then appeereth of these thus heaped and hudled together one thing water another fire another a plant and another a man That all these be Atomes still termed by him 〈◊〉 and nothing else For there can be no generation of that which is not no more than that which once was can become nothing by reason that these Atomes are so firme and solid that they can neither change nor alter not suffer And therefore neither can there be colour made of those things which have no colour nor nature or soule of such as be without quality and are impassible Whereupon Democritus is to be blamed in that he confesseth not those things that be accident unto principles but supposeth those to be principles whereto these happen For he should not have put downe principles immutable or at leastwise when he had supposed them to be such not to see withall that therewith the generation and breeding of all qualities perisheth And to denie an absurdity when one seeth it is impudence in the highest degree As for Epicurus he saith verily that he supposeth the same principles that Democritus doth but he saith not that colour sweet white and other qualities are by law and ordinance Now if he confesse not that he saith which neverthelesse he said it is no other but an old custome of his that which he is woont to doe For much like it is to this that he will seeme to take away divine providence and yet hee saith that he
insult over him debase and defame him what they can In so much as men of a ruddy colour they deride make of them a laughing stocke And as for the inhabitants of Coptos they use at a certaine feast to throw an asse headlong downe from the pitch of an high rocke because Typhon was ruddy and of a red asses colour The Busiritants and Lycopolites forbeare to sound any trumpets because they resemble the braying of an asse and generally they take an asse to be an uncleane beast and daemonicall for the resemblance in hiew that it hath with him and when they make certaine cakes in their sacrifices of the moneths Payni and Phaophi they worke them in paistry with the print upon them of an asse bound Also in their solemne sacrifice to the Sun they command as many as will be there to worship that god not to we are any brooches or jewels of gold about their bodies nor to give any meat or provander unto an asse what need soever he have thereof It seemeth also that the Pythagoreans themselves were of opinion that Typhon was some fiend or daemonicall power for they say that Typhon was borne in the even number of six and fifty againe that the triangular number or sigure is the puissance of Pluto Bacchus and Mars of the quadrangle is the power of Rhea Venus Ceres Vesta and Juno that of twelve angles belongeth to the might of Jupiter but that of fifty six angles is the force of Typhon as Eudoxus hath left in writing But the Aegyptians supposing that Typhon was of a reddish colour doe kill for sacrifice unto him kine and oxen of the same colour observing withall so precisely that if they have but one haire blacke or white they be not sacrificeable for they thinke such sacrifices not acceptable but contrariwise displeasant unto the gods imagining they be the bodies which have received the soules of leaud and wicked persons transformed into other creatures And therefore after they have cursed the head of such a sacrifice they cut it off and cast it into the river at least waies in old time but now they give it unto strangers But the oxe which they meane to sacrifice indeed the priests called Sphragistae that is to say the sealers come marke it with their seale which as Castor writeth was the image of a man kneeling with his hands drawen backe and bound behinde him and having a sword set to his throat Semblably they use the name of an asse also as hath bene said for his uncivill rudenesse and insolency no lesse than in regard of his colour wherein he resembleth Typhon and therefore the Aegyptians gave unto Ochus a king of the Persians whom they hated above all others as most cursed and abominable the surname of asse whereof Ochus being advertised and saying withall This asse shall devour your oxe caused presently their beefe 〈◊〉 to be killed and sacrificed as Dinon hath left in writing As for those who say that Typhon after he had lost the field fled six daies journy upon an asse backe and having by this meanes escaped beg at two sonnes Hierosolymus and Judaeus evident it is heerein that they would draw the story of the Iewes into this fable And thus much of the allegorirall conjectures which this tale doth affoord But now from another head let us of those who are able to discourse somewhat Philosophically and with reason consider first and formost such as deale most simply in this behalfe And these be they that say like as the Greeks allegorize that Saturne is time Juno the aire and the generation of Vulcan is the transmutation of aire into fire even so they give out that by Osiris the Aegyptians meane Nilus which lieth and keepeth company with Isis that is to say the earth That Typhon is the sea into which Nilus falling loseth himselfe and is dispatched heere and there unlesse it be that portion thereof which the earth receiveth and whereby it is made fertill And upon the river Nilus there is a sacred lamentation even from the daies of Saturne wherein there is lamenting how Nilus springing and growing on the left hand decaieth and is lost on the right For the Aegyptians doe thinke that the east parts where the day appeareth be the forefrunt and face of the world that the North part is the right hand the South part the left This Nilus therfore arising on the left hand and lost in the sea on the right hand is said truely to have his birth and generation in the left side but his death and corruption in the right And this is the reason why the priests of Aegypt have the sea in abomination and terme salt the fome and froth of Typhon And among those things which are interdicted and forbidden this is one that no salt be used at the boord by reason whereof they never salute any pilots or sailers for that they keepe ordinarily in the sea and get their living by it This also is one of the principall causes why they abhorre fishes in such sort as when they would describe hatred they draw or purtray a fish like as in the porch before the temple of Minerva within the city Sai there was purtraied and engraven an infant an old man after them a falcon or some such hauke and close thereto a fish and last of all a river-horse which Hieroglyphicks doe symbolize and signifie thus much in effect O all yea that come into the world and goe out of it God hateth shamelesse injustice For by the hauke they understand God by the fish hatred and by the river-horse impudent violence and vilany because it is said that he killeth his father and after that forceth his owne mother and covereth her And semblably it should seeme that the saying of the Pythagoreans who give out that the sea is a teare of Saturne under covert words doe meane that it is impure and uncleane Thus have I beene willing by the way to alledge thus much although it be without the traine of our fable because they fall within the compasse of a vulgar and common received history But to returne to our matter the priests as many as be of the wiser and more learned sort understand by Osiris not onely the river Nilus and by Typhon the sea but also by the former they signifie in one word and simply all vertue and power that produceth moisture and water taking it to be the materiall cause of generation and the nature generative of seed and by Typhon they represent all desiccative vertue all heat of fire drinesse as the very thing that is fully opposite and adverse to humidity and hereupon it is that they hold Typhon to be red of haire and of skin yellow and by the same reason they willingly would not encounter or meet upon the way men of that hew no nor delight to speake unto such Contrariwise they feigne Osiris to be of a blacke colour because all water causeth the earth
in the body so far inbred in the soule of the universall world in opposition alwaies to the better and to warre against it Now then in the soule reason and understanding which is the guide and mistresse of all the best things is Osiris Also in the earth in the windes in water skie and the starres that which is well ordained staied disposed and digested in good sort by temperate seasons and revolutions the same is called the defluxion of Osiris and the very apparent image of him Contrariwise the passionate violent unreasonable brutish rash and foolish part of the soule is Typhon Semblably in the bodily nature that which is extraordinarily adventitious unholsome diseased as for example the troubled aire and tempestuous indispositions of the weather the obscuration or ecclipse of the Sunne the defect of the Moone and her occulation be as it were the excursions deviations out of course and disparations and all of them be Typhons as the very interpretation of the Aegyptian word signifieth no lesse for Typhon they name Seth which is as much to say as violent and oppressing after a lordly maner It importeth also many times reversion otherwhiles aninsultation or supplantation Moreover some there be who say that one of Typhons familiar friends was named Bebaeon But Manethos affirmeth that Typhon himselfe was called Bebon which word by interpretation is as much as cohibition restreint or impeachment as if the puissance and power of Typhon were to stay and withstand the affaires that are in good way of proceeding and tend as they should doe to a good end And heereupon it is that of tame beasts they dedicate and attribute unto him the most grosse and indocible of all others namely an asse but of wilde beasts the most cruell and savage of all others as the crocodiles and riverhorses As for the asse we have spoken before of him In the city of Mercury named Hermupolis they shew unto us the image of Typhon purtraied under the forme of a river-horse upon whom sitteth an hauke fighting with a serpent By the foresaid horse they represent Typhon and by the hauke the power and authority which Typhon having gotten by force maketh no care oftentimes both to be troubled and also to trouble others by his malice And therefore when they solemnize a sacrifice the seventh day of the moneth Tybi which they call the comming of Isis out of Phoenicia they devise upon their halowed cakes for sacrifice a river-horse as if he were tied and bound In the city of Apollo the maner and custome confirmed by law was that every one must eat of a crocodile and upon a certaine day they have a solemne chase and hunting of them when they kill as many of them as they can and then cast them all before the temple and they say that Typhon being become a crocodile hath escaped from Orus attributing all dangerous wicked beails all hurtfull plants and violent passions unto Typhon as if they were his workes his parts or motions Contrariwise they purtray and depaint unto us Osiris by a septer and an eie upon it meaning by the eie foresight and providence by the septer authority and puissance like as Homer nameth Jupiter who is the prince lord and ruler of all the world Hypatos that is sovereigne and Mestor that is foreseeing giving us to understand by sovereigne his supreme power by foreseeing his prudence and wisdome They represent Osiris also many times by an hauke for that she hath a wonderfull cleere and quicke sight her flight also is as swift and she is wont naturally to sustaine her selfe with very little food And more than that by report when she flieth over dead bodies unburied she casteth mould and earth upon their eies And looke whensoever she flieth downe to the river for to drinke she setteth up her fethers straight upright but when she hath drunke she laieth them plaine and even againe by which it appeareth that safe she is and hath escaped the crocodile For if the crocodile seise upon her and catch her up her pennache abideth stiffe and upright as before But generally throughout wheresoever the image of Osiris is exhibited in the forme of a man they purtray him with the naturall member of generation stiffe and straight prefiguring thereby the generative and nutritive vertue The habiliment also wherewith they clad his images is bright shining like fire For they repute the Sunne to be a body representing the power of goodnesse as being the visible matter of a spirituall and intellectuall substance And therefore their opinion deserveth to be rejected who attribute unto Typhon the sphaere of the Sunne considering that unto him properly appertaineth nothing that is resplendent healthfull and comfortable no disposition no generation or motion which is ordered with measure or digested by reason But if either in the aire or upon the earth there be any unseasonable disposition of windes of weather or water it hapneth when the primitive cause of a disordinate and indeterminate power commeth to extinguish the kinde vapours and exhalations Moreover in the sacred hymnes of Osiris they invocate and call upon him who lieth at repose hidden within the armes of the Sunne Also upon the thirtieth day of the moneth Epiphi they solemnize the feast of the nativity or birth of Orus eies at what time as the Sunne and Moone be in the same direct line as being perswaded that not onely the Moone but the Sunne also is the eie and light of Horus Likewise upon the twenty eight day of the moneth Phaopi they celebrate another feast of the Sunnes basons or staves and that is after the Aequinox in Autumne giving covertly thereby to understand that the Sunne hath need of an appuy or supporter to rest upon and to strengthen him because his heat beginnes then to decay and languish sensibly his light also to diminish and decline obliqucly from us Moreover about the soltice or middle of winter they cary about his temple seven times a cow and this procession is called the seeking of Osiris or the revolution of the Sunne as if the goddesse then desired the waters of winter And so many times they doe it for that the course of the Sunne from the Winter solstice unto the Summer solstice is performed in the seventh moneth It is said moreover that Horus the sonne of Isis was the first who sacrificed unto the Sun the foureteenth day of the moneth according as it is written in a certaine booke as touching the nativity of Horus howsoever every day they offer incense and sweet odors to the Sunne three times First at the Sunne rising Rosin secondly about noone Myrth and thirdly at the Sunne setting a certaine composition named Kiphi The mysticall meaning of which perfumes and odors I will heereafter declare but they are perswaded that in all this they worship and honor the Sunne But what need is there to gather and collect a number of such matters as these seeing there be
some who openly maintaine that Osiris is the Sunne and that the Greeks call him Sirtus but the article which the Aegyptians put before to wit O is the cause that so much is not evidently perceived as also that Isis is nothing else but the Moone and of her images those that have hornes upon them signifie no other thing but the Moone croissant but such as are covered and clad in blacke betoken those daies wherein she is hidden or darkened namely when she runneth after the Sunne which is the reason that in love matters they invocate the Moone And Eudoxus himselfe saith that Isis is the president over amatorious folke And verily in all these ceremonies there is some probabilitie and likelihood of trueth But to say that Typhon is the Sunne is so absurd that we ought not so much as give eare to those who affirme so But returne we now to our former matter For Isis is the feminine part of nature apt to receive all generation upon which occasion called she is by Plato the nurse and Pandeches that is to say capable of all yea and the common sort name her Myrionymus which is as much to say as having an infinite number of names for that she receiveth all formes and shapes according as it pleaseth that first reason to convert and turne her Moreover there is imprinted in her naturally a love of the first and principall essence which is nothing else but the soveraigne good and it she desireth seeketh and pursueth after Contrariwise she flieth and repelleth from her any part and portion that proceedeth from ill And howsoever she be the subject matter and meet place apt to receive as well the one as the other yet of it selfe enclined she is alwaies rather to the better and applieth herselfe to engender the same yea and to disseminate and sowe the defluxions and similitudes thereof wherein she taketh pleasure and rejoiceth when she hath conceived and is great therewith ready to be delivered For this is a representation and description of the substance engendred in matter and nothing else but an imitation of that which is And therefore you may see it is not besides the purpose that they imagine and devise the soule of Osiris to be eternall and immortall but as for the body that Typhon many times doth teare mangle and abolish it that it cannot be seene and that Isis goeth up and downe wandring heere and there gathering together the dismembred pieces thereof for that which is good and spirituall by consequence is not any waies subject to change and alteration but that which is sensible and materiall doth yeeld from it selfe certeine images admitting withall and receiving sundry porportions formes and similitudes like as the prints and stamps of seales set upon waxe doe not continue and remaine alwaies but are subject to change alteration disorder and trouble and this same was chased from the superor region and sent downe hither where it fighteth against Horus whom Isis engendred sensible as being the very image of the spirituall and intellectuall world And heereupon it is that Typhon is said to accuse him of bastardie as being nothing pure and sincere like unto his father to wit reason and understanding which of it selfe is simple and not medled with any passion but in the matter adulterate and degenerat by the reason that it is corporall Howbeit in the end the victorie is on Mercuries side for hee is the discourse of reason which testifieth unto us and sheweth that nature hath produced this world materiall metamorphozed to the spirituall forme for the nativity of Apollo engendred betweene Isis Osiris whiles the gods were yet in the belly of Rhea symbolizeth thus much that before the world was evidently brought to light and fully accomplished the matter of reason being found naturally of it selfe rude and unperfect brought foorth the first generation for which cause they say that god being as yet lame was borne and begotten in darkenesse whom they call the elder Horus For the world yet it was not but an image onely and designe of the world and a bare fantasie of that which should be But this Horus heere is determinate definit and perfect who killeth not Typhon right out but taketh from him his force and puissance that he can doe little or nothing And heereupon it is that by report in the citie Coptus the image of Horus holdeth in one hand the generall member of Typhon and they fable besides that Mercurie having berest him of his 〈◊〉 made thereof strings for his harpe and so used them Heereby they teach that reason framing the whole world set it in tune and brought it to accord framing it of those parts which before were at jarre and discord howbeit remooved not nor abolished altogether the pernicious and hurtfull nature but accomplished the vertue thereof And therefore it is that it being feeble and weake wrought also as it were and intermingled or interlaced with those parts and members which be subject to passions and mutations causeth earthquakes and tremblings excessive heates and extreame drinesse with extraordinarie windes in the aire besides thunder lightnings and firie tempests It impoisoneth moreover the waters and windes infecting them with pestilence reaching up and bearing the head aloft as farre as to the Moone obscuring and darkning many times even that which is by nature cleane and shining And thus the Aegyptians do both thinke and say that Typhon sometime strooke the eie of Horus and another while plucked it out of his head and devoured it and then afterwards delivered it againe unto the Sunne By the striking aforesaid they meane aenigmatically the wane or decrease of the Moone monethly by the totall privation of the eie they understand her ecclipse and defect of light which the Sunne doth remedy by relumination of her streight waies as soone as she is gotten past the shade of the earth But the principall and more divine nature is composed and consisteth of three things to wit of an intellectuall nature of matter and a compound of them both which we call the world Now that intellectuall part Plato nameth Idea the patterne also of the father as for matter he termeth it a mother nurse a foundation also and a plot or place for generation and that which is produced of both he is woont to call the issue and thing procreated And a man may very well conjecture that the Aegyptians compared the nature of the whole world especially to this as the fairest triangle of all other And Plato in his books of policy or common wealth seemeth also to have used the same when he composeth and describeth his nuptiall figure which triangle is of this sort that the side which maketh the right angle is of three the basis of foure and the third line called Hypotinusa of five aequivolent in power to the other two that comprehend it so that the line which directly falleth plumbe upon the base must answer proportionably to the male
〈◊〉 that is to say of running even so both we and also the Aegyptians have called this goddesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Isis of intelligence and motion together Semblably Plato saith that in old time when they said Isia they meant Osia that is to say sacred like as Noesis also and Phronesis quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say the stirring and motion of the understanding being caried and going forward and they imposed this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to those who have found out and discovered goodnesse and vertue but contrariwise have by reprochfull names noted such things as impeach hinder and stay the course of natural things binding them so as they can not go forward to wit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indigence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cowardise and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 griefe as if they kept them from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say free progresse and proceeding forward As for Osiris a word it is composed of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say holy and sacred for he is the common reason or Idea of things above in heaven and beneath of which our ancients were woont to call the one sort 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say sacred and the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say holy The reason also which sheweth celestiall things and such as move upward is called Anubis and otherwhiles Hermanubis as if the one name were meet for those above and the other for them beneath whereupon they sacrificed unto the former a white cocke and to the other a yellow or of saffron colour for that they thought those things above pure simple and shining but those beneath mixed of a medley colour Neither are we to marvell that these termes are disguised to the fashion of Greeke words for an infinit number of more there be which have beene transported out of Greece with those men who departed from thence in exile and there remaine untill this day as strangers without their native countrey whereof some there be which cause Poetry to be slandered for calling them into use as if it spake barbarously namely by those who terme such Poeticall and obscure words Glottas But in the books of Herimes or Mercurie so called there is written by report thus much concerning sacred names namely that the power ordeined over the circular motion and revolution of the Sunne the Aegyptians call Horus and the Greeks Apollo that which is over the wind some name Osiris others Sarapis some againe in the Aegyptian language Sothi which signifieth as much as conception or to be with childe and thereupon it is that by a little deflexion of the name in the Greeke tongue that Canicular or Dogge starre is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is thought appropriate unto Isis. Well I wote that we are not to strive as touching names yet would I rather give place unto the Aegyptians about the name Sarapis than Osiris for this is a meere Greeke word whereas the other is a stranger but as well the one as the other signifieth the same power of Divinity And heereto accordeth the Aegyptian language for many times they terme Isis by the name of Minerva which in their tongue signifieth as much as I am come of my selfe And Typhon as we have already said is named Seth Baebon and Smy which words betoken all a violent stay and impeachment a contrariety and a diversion or turning aside another way Moreover they call the loadstone or Sederitis the bone of Horus like as iron the bone of Typhon as Manethos is mine author for as the iron seemeth otherwhiles to follow the said loadstone and suffereth it selfe to be drawen by it and many times for it againe returneth backe and is repelled to the contrary even so the good and comfortable motion of the world endued with reason by perswasive speeches doeth convert draw into it and mollifie that hardnesse of Typhon but otherwhiles againe the same returneth backe into it selfe and is hidden in the depth of penurie and impossibility Over and besides Eudoxus saith that the Aegyptians devise of Jupiter this fiction that both his legs being so growen together in one that he could not goe at all for very shame he kept in a desert wildernesse but Isis by cutting and dividing the same parts of his body brought him to his sound and upright going againe Which fable giveth us covertly thus to understand that the understanding and reason of God in it selfe going invisibly and after an unseene maner proceedeth to generation by the meanes of motion And verily that brasen Timbrel which they sounded and 〈◊〉 at the sacrifices of Isis named Sistrum sheweth evidently that all things ought 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say to bestirre and shake and never cease moving but to be awakened and raised as if otherwise they were drowsie lay asleepe and languished for it is said that they turne backe and repulse Typhon with their Timbrels aforesaid meaning thereby that whereas corruption doth bind and stay nature generation againe unbindeth and seteeth it a worke by the meanes of motion Now the said Sistrum being in the uppert part round the curvature and Absis thereof comprehendeth foure things that are stirred and mooved for that part of the world which is subject to generation and corruption is comprehended under the sphaere of the Moone within which all things move and alter by the meanes of the foure elements Fire Earth Water and Aire upon the Absis or rundle of the Sistrum toward the toppe they engrave the forme of a cat with a mans face but beneath under those things which are shaken one while they engrave the visage of Isis another while of Nephthys signifying by these two faces nativity and death for these be the motions and mutations of the elements By the cat they understand the Moone for the variety of the skin for the operation and worke in the night season and for the fruitfulnesse of this creature for it is said that at first she beareth one kitling at the second time two the third time three then foure afterwards five and so to seven so that in all she brings foorth 28 which are the daies of every Moone And howsoever this may seeme fabulous yet for certeine it is true that the appuls or sights of these cats are full and large when the Moone is at full but contrariwise draw in and become smaller as the Moone is in the wane As for the visage of a man which they attribute unto the cat they represent thereby the witty subtilty and reason about the mutations of the Moone But to knit up all this matter in few words reason would that wee should thinke neither the Sunne nor the water neither earth nor heaven to be Isis or Osiris no more than exceeding drouth extreame heat fire and sea is
spirit of prophesy in those daies used many organs and voices to speake unto the people being a greater multitude than now there be And therefore we should on the other side rather wonder if God would suffer to run in vaine like waste water this propheticall divination or to resound againe like as the desert rockes in the wide fields and mountaines ring with the resonance and ecchoes of heard-mens hollaing and beasts bellowing When Ammonius had thus said and I held my peace Cleombrotus addressing his speech unto me And grant you indeed quoth he thus much that it is the god Apollo who is the authour and overthrower also of these Oracles Not so answered I for I maintaine and hold that God was never the cause of abolishing any Oracle or divination whatsoever but contrariwise like as where he produceth and prepareth many other things for one use and behoofe nature bringeth in the corruption and utter privation of some or to say more truely matter being it selfe privation or subject thereto avoideth many times and dissolveth that which a more excellent cause hath composed even so I suppose there be some other causes which darken and abolish the vertue of divination considering that God bestoweth upon men many faire goodly gifts but nothing perdurable immortall in such sort as the very workes of the gods do die but not themselves according as Sophocles saith And verily the Philosophers and naturalists who are well exercised in the knowledge of nature and the primitive matter ought indeed to search into the substance property and puissance of Oracles but to reserve the originall and principall cause for God as very meet and requisit it is that it should so be For very foolish and childish it is that the god himselfe like unto those spirits speaking within the bellies of possessed folkes such as in old time they called Eugastrimithi and Euryclees and be now termed Pythons entred into the bodies of Prophets spake by their mouthes and used their tongues and voices as organs and instruments of speech for he that thus intermedleth God among the occasions and necessities of men maketh no spare as he ought of his majesty neither carieth he that respect as is meet to the preservation of the dignity and greatnesse of his power and vertue Then Cleombrotus You say very well and truely quoth he but for as much as it is a difficult matter to comprise and define in what maner and how farre forth and to what point we ought to employ this divine providence in my conceit they who are of this minde that simply God is cause of nothing at all in the world and they againe that make him wholly the authour of all things hold not a meane and indifferent course but both of them misse the very point of decent mediocrity Certes as they say passing well who hold that Plato having invented and devised that element or subject upon which grow and be engendred qualities the which one while is called the primitive matter and otherwhile nature delivered Philosophers from many great difficulties even so me thinks they who ordained a certaine kinde by themselves of Daemons betweene god and men have assoiled many more doubts and greater ambiguities by finding out that bond and linke as it were which joineth us and them together in society Were it the opinion that came from the ancient Magi and Zoroasties or rather a Thracian doctrine delivered by Orpheus or els an Aegyptian or Phrygian tradition as we may conjecture by seeing the sacrifices both in the one countrey and the other wherein among other holy and divine ceremonies it seemeth there were certeine dolefull ceremonies of mourning and sorrow intermingled savouring of mortality And verily of the Greeks Homer hath used these two names indifferently terming the Gods Daemons and the Daemons likewise Gods But Hesiodus was the first who purely distinctly hath set downe foure kinds of reasonable natures to wit the Gods then the Daemons and those many in number and all good the Heroes and Men for the Demi-gods are ranged in the number of those Heroicke worthies But others hold that there is a transmutation aswell of bodies as soules and like as we may observe that of earth is ingendred water of water aire and of aire fire whiles the nature of the substance still mounteth on high even so the better soules are changed first from men to Heroes or Demi-gods and afterwards from them to Daemons and of Daemons some few after long time being well refined and purified by vertue came to participate the divination of the gods Yet unto some it befalleth that being not able to holde and conteine they suffer themselves to slide and fall into mortall bodies againe where they lead an obscure and darke life like unto a smoaky vapour As for He siodus he thinketh verily that even the Daemons also after certeine revolutions of time shall die for speaking in the person of one of their Nymphs called Naiades covertly and under aenigmaticall termes he designeth their time in this wise Nine ages of men in their flower doth live The railing Crow foure times the Stags surmount The life of Crowes to Ravens doth nature give A threefold age of Stags by true account One Phoenix lives as long as Ravens nine But you faire Nymphs as the daughters verily Of mighty Jove and of nature divine The Phoenix yeeres ten fold do multiply But they that understand not well what the Poet meaneth by this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make the totall sum of this time to amount unto an exceeding great number of yeeres For in trueth it is but one yeere and no more And so by that reckening the whole ariseth in all to nine thousand seven hundred and twenty yeeres just which is the very life of the Daemons And many Mathematicians there be by whose computation it is lesse But more than so Pindarus would not have it when he saith that the Nymphs age is limited equall to trees whereupon they be named Hamadryades as one would say living and dying with Okes. As he was about to say more Demetrius interrupted his speech and taking the words out of his mouth How is it possible quoth he ô Cleombrotus that you should make good and mainteine that the Poet called the age of man a yeere onely and no more for it is not the space either of his flower and best time nor of his olde age according as some reade it in Hesiodus for as one reads 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is say flourishing so another readeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say aged Now they that would have it to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 put downe for the age of man thirty yeeres according to the opinion of Heraclitus which is the very time that a father hath begotten a sonne able to beget another of his owne but such as follow the reading that hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 attribute unto the age of man an
called unto him and asked what were the words that the woers of Penelope spake when they befield with admiration 〈◊〉 handling his bow And when Demetrius had prompted unto me the verse out of Homer Surely quoth I it comes into my minde to say the very same of this stranger Surely this fellow as I Weene Some prying spie or theefe hath beene not of bowes as he said of Ulysses but of sentences resolutions and discourses of Philosophie he hath beene conversant I say no doubt in all maner of literature and I warrant you no stranger nor Barbarian borne but a Grecian thorowly furnished with all knowledge and doctrine of the Greeks And verily this number of the worlds whereof he talketh bewraieth not an Aegyptian nor an Indian but favoureth of some Dorian out of 〈◊〉 and namely of Petron borne in the city of Himera who wrote a little booke of this argument which I have not read my selfe neither doe I know whether it be now extant but Hippys the Rhegine of whom Phanias the Eressian maketh mention writeth that this was the opinion and doctrine of Petron namely that there were 183 worlds which raught one another in order and traine but what he meant by this Reaching one another in order or traine he declared not neither annexed he any other probable reason thereof Then Demetrius And what likelihood or probability quoth he may there be in such matters considering that Plato himselfe alledging no argument or conjecture that carieth with it any shew of trueth and reason hath by that meanes overthrowen that opinion And yet quoth Heracleon we have heard you Grammarians say that Homer was the first authour of this opinion as if he divided the universall frame of All into five worlds to wit Heaven Water Aire Earth and Olympus of which he leaveth two to be common namely Earth to Allbeneath and Olympus to All above but the three in the 〈◊〉 betweene them hee attributeth unto three gods Semblably it seemeth that Plato allotting unto the principall parts and members of the said universall nature the first formes and most excellent figures of the bodies called them five worlds to wit of the Earth the Water the Aire the Fire and finally of that which comprehendeth the other and that hee called the forme of Dodecaedron that is to say with twelve bases or faces which amply extentendeth it selfe is very capable and mooveable as being a figure proper and meet for the animall motions and revolutions of the soules What need we at this present quoth Demetrius to meddle with Homer wee have had fables enough already if that be good As for Plato hee is farre enough off from naming those five different substances of the world five worlds considering that even in that very place where he disputeth against those who maintein an infinit number of wor'ds he affirmeth there is but one created by God and beloved by him as his onely begotten childe composed of all nature having one entier bodie sufficient in it selfe and standing in need of nothing else Whereupon a man may very well woonder and thinke it strange that having himselfe delivered a trueth he should give occasion to others thereby to take hold of a false opinion and wherein there is no apparence of reason For if he had not stucke hard to this unity of the world in some sort he might have laid the foundation for those who hold them to be infinit but that he should precisely affirme there were five and neither more nor fewer is exceeding absurd and farre from all probabilitie unlesse haply you quoth he casting his eie upon me can say somewhat to this point How now quoth I then are you minded thus to leave your first disputation of Oracles as if it were fully finished and ended and to enter upon another matter of such difficulty Nay qooth Demetrius we will not pasle it over so but this here that presenteth it selfe now and taketh us as it were by the hand we cannot put by for we will not dwell long upon it but onely touch it so and handle it by the way as that we may finde out some probability and then will we presently returne unto our former question proposed in the beginning First and formost therefore I say The reasons which permit us not to allow an infinit number of worlds impeach us not but that we admit more than one For as well in many worlds as in one there may be divination there may be providence and the least intercurrence of fortune but the most part of the greatest and principall things shall have and take their generations changes and mutations ordinarily which cannot possibly be in that infinity of worlds Over and besides more consonant it is to reason and accordeth better with the nature of God to say that the world is not created by him one onely and solitary for being as he is perfectly and absolutely good there is no vertue wanting in him and least of all others that which concerneth justice and amity which as they be of themselves most beautifull so they are best befitting the gods Now such is the nature of God that he hath nothing either unprofitable or in vaine and without use and therefore needs there must be beside and without him other gods and other worlds unto whom and which he may extend those sociall vertues that he hath For neither in regard of himselfe nor of any part in him needeth he to use justice gracious favour and bounty but unto others So that it is not likely that this world floteth and mooveth without a friend without a neighbour and without any societie and communication in a vast and infinit voidnesse especially seeing we behold how nature encloseth environeth and comprehendeth all things in their severall genders and distinck kinds as it were within vessels or the husks and covertures of their seeds For looke throughout the universall nature there is nothing to be found one in number but it hath the notion and reason of the essence and being thereof common to others neither hath any thing such and such a denomination but beside the common notion it is by some particular qualities distinct from others of the same kind Now the world is not called so in common then must it be such in particular and qualified it is in particular and distinguished by certeine differences from other worlds of the same kinde and yet hath a peculiar forme of the owne Moreover considering there is in the whole world neither man alone nor horse nor starre ne yet God or Daemon solitarie what should hinder us to say that nature admitteth not one onely world but hath many Now if any man shall object unto me and say that in nature there is but one earth or one sea I answer that he is much deceived and overseene in not perceiving the evidence that is of similare parts for we divide the earth into parts similare that it is to say of the semblable
peradventure it were better for a man to yeeld reasons of his owne opinion rather than of anothers To begin againe therefore I say that nature being parted and devided at the first in two parts the one sensible mutable subject to generation and corruption and varietie every way the other spirituall and intelligible and continuing evermore in one and the same state it were very strange and absurd my good friends first to say that the spirituall nature receiveth division and hath diversity and difference in it and then to thinke much and grow into heat of cholar and anger if a man allow not the passible and corporall nature wholly united and concorporate in it selfe without dividing or separating it into many parts For more meet it were yet and reasonable that natures parmanent and divine should cohere unto themselves inseparably and avoid as much as is possible all distraction and divulsion and yet this force and power of The Other medling also even with these causeth in spirituall and intellectuall things greater dissociations and dissimilitudes in forme and essentiall reason than are the locall distances in those corporall natures And therefore Plato confuting those who hold this position that all is one affirmeth these five grounds and principles of all to wit Essence or seeing The same The other and after all Motion and Station Admit these five no marvell is it if nature of those five bodily elements hath framed proper figures and representations for every one of them not simple and pure but so as every one of them is most participant of each of those properties and puissances For plaine and evident it is that the cube is most meet and sortable unto station and repose in regard of the stability and stedy firmitude of those broad and flat faces which it hath As for the Pyramis who seeth not and acknowledgeth not incontinently in it the nature of fire ever mooving in those long and slender sides and sharpe angles that it hath Also the nature of Dodecaedron apt to comprehend all other figures may seeme propetly to be the image representing Ens or That which is in respect of all corporall essence Of the other twaine Icosaedron resembleth The Other or Diverse but Octaedron hath a principall reference to the forme of The same And so by this reckoning the one of them produceth foorth Aire capable of all substance in one forme and the other exhibiteth unto us Water which by temperature may turne into all sorts of qualities Now if so be that nature requireth in all things and throughout all an equall and uniforme distribution very probable it is that there be also five worlds and neither more nor fewer than there be moulds or patterns to the end that ech example or patterne may hold the first place and principall puislance in ech world like as they have in the first constitution and composition of bodies And this may stand in some sort for an answer and to satisfie him who mervaileth how we devide that nature which is subject to generation and alteration into so many kinds but yet I beseech you consider and weigh with me more diligently this argument Certeine it is that of those two first and supreme principles I meane Unity and Binary or Duality this latter being the element and originall primative of all difformity disorder and confusion is called Infinity but contrariwise the nature of Unitie determining and limiting the void infinity which hath no proportion nor termination reduceth it into a good forme and maketh it in some sort capable and apt to receive a denomination which alwaies accompanieth sensible things And verily these two generall principles shew themselves first in number or rather indeed to speake generally no multitude is called number untill such time as unitie comming to be imprinted as the forme in matter cutteth off from indeterminate infinity that which is superfluous heere more and there lesse for then ech multitude becommeth and is made number when as it is once determined and limited by unitie but if a man take unitie away then the indesinite and indeterminate Dualitie comming againe in place to confound all maketh it to be without order without grace without number and without measure Now considering it is so that the forme is not the destruction of matter but rather the figure ornament and order thereof it must needs be that both these principles are within number from which proceedeth the chiefe dissimilitude and greatest difference For the indefinite and indeterminate principle to wit Duality is the author and cause of the even number but the better to wit Unitie is the father as one would say of the odde number so as the first even number is two and the first odde number three of which is compounded five by conjunction common to both but in the owne puissance odde For it behooved necessary it was in as much as that which is corporall sensible for composition sake is divided into many parts by the power and force of The Other that is to say of Diversitie that it should be neither the first even number nor yet the first uneven or odde but a third consisting of both to the end that it might be procreate of both principles to wit of that which engendreth the even number and of that which produceth the odde for it could not be that the one should be parted from the other because that both of them have the nature puissance of a principle These two principles then being conjoinct together the better being the mightier is opposed unto the indeterminate infinitie which divideth the corporal nature so the matter being divided the unitie interposing it selfe between impeacheth the universall nature that it was not divided and parted into two equall portions but there was a pluralitie of worlds caused by The Other that is to say by Diversitie and difference of that which is infinit and determinate but this 〈◊〉 was brought into an odde and uneven number by the vertue and puissance of The same and that which is finite because the better principle suffred not nature to extend farther than was expedient For if one had beene pure and simple without mixture the matter should have had no separation at all but in as much as it was mixed with Dualitie which is a divisive nature it hath received indeed and suffred by this meanes separation and division howbeit staied it hath in good time because the odde was the master and superior over the even This was the reason that our auncients in old time were wont to use the verbe Pempasesthai when they would signifie to number or to reckon And I thinke verily that this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say All was derived of Pente that is to say Five not without good reason because that five is compounded of the two first numbers and when other numbers afterwards be multiplied by others they produce divers numbers whereas five if it be multiplied
by an even number and dubled bringeth forth Ten a perfect number but if by the odde it representeth it selfe againe Heere I omit to say that it is composed of the two first quadrate numbers to wit of Unity and Foure and that it is the first number which is equivalent to the two before it in such sort as it compoundeth the fairest triangle of those that have right angle and is the first number that containeth the sesquialter all proportion For haply these reasons be not well sutable nor proper unto the discourse of this present matter but this rather is more convenient to alledge that in this number there is a naturall vertue and facultie of dividing and that nature divideth many things by this number For even in our owne selves she hath placed five exterior senses as also five parts of the soule to wit naturall sensitive concupiscible irascible and reasonable likewise so many fingers in either hand Also the generall seed is at the most distributed into five portions for in no history is it found written that a woman was delivered of more than five children at one birth The Aegyptians also in their fables doe report that the goddesse Rhea brought forth five gods and goddesses signifying heereby under covert words that of one and the same matter five worldes were procreated Come to the universall fabricke and frame of nature the earth is divided into five zones the heaven also in five circles two Arctiques two Tropickes and one Aequinoctiall in the midst Moreover five revolutions there be of the Planets or wandring starres for that the Sunne Venus and Mercurie run together in one race Furthermore the very world it selfe is composed 〈◊〉 respective to five Like as even among us our musicall accord and concent consisteth of the positure of five tetrachords ranged orderly one after another to wit of Hypates Meses Synnemenae Diezeugmenae and Hyperboliaeae likewise The intervals likewise in song which we use be five in number Dresis Semitonion Tonus 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 So as it seemeth that nature taketh more pleasure in making all things according to the number of five than after a Sphaericall or round forme as Aristotle writeth But what is the cause will some one say that Plato hath reduced the number of five worldes to the five primitive figures of regular bodies saying that God in ordaining and describing the whole world used the Quinarie construction and yet afterwards having proposed the doubtfull question of the number of worldes to wit whether we should hold there was but one or rather that there were five in truth he sheweth plainely that his conjecture is grounded upon this very argument If therefore we ought to apply the probability to his minde and opinion then of necessity with the diversity of these figures and bodies there must ensue presently a difference also of motions according as he himselfe teacheth affirming Whatsoever is subtilized or thickned with the alteration of substance changeth withall the place For so if of the aire is ingendred fire namely when the Octaedron is dissolved and parted into Pyramides and contrariwise aire of fire being driven close and thrust together into the force of octaedron it is not possible that it should be in the place where it was afore but flie and runne into another as being forced and driven out of the former and so fight against whatsoever standeth in the way and maketh resistance And yet more fully and evidently declareth he the same by a similitude and example of such things as by fannes or such like instruments whereby corne is clensed shaken out or winowed and tried from the rest saying that even so the elements shaking the matter and likewise shaken by it went alwaies to bring like to like and some tooke up this place others that before the universall world was of them composed as now it is The generall matter therefore being in such estate then as by good likelihood All must needs be where god is away presently the first five qualities or rather the first five bodies having every one of them their proper inclinations and peculiar motions went apart not wholly and altogether nor severed sincerely asunder one from another for that when all was hudled pell-mell confusedly such as were surmounted and vanquished went evermore even against their nature with the mightier and those which conquered And therefore when some were haled one way and others caried another way it hapned that they made as many portions and distinctions in number just as there were divers kindes of those first bodies the one of fire and yet the same not pure but carying the forme of 〈◊〉 another of a celestial nature not sincere heaven indeed but standing much of the skie a third of earth and yet not simply and wholy earth but rather earthly But principally there was a communication of aire and water as we have said heeretofore for that these went their waies filled with many divers kindes For it was not God who separated and disposed the substance but having found it so rashly and confusedly dissipated of it selfe and ech part caried diversly in so great disorder he digested and arranged it by Symmetrie and competent proportion Then after he had set over every one Reason as a guardian and governesse he made as many worldes as there were kindes of those first bodies subsistent And thus let this discourse for Ammontus sake be dedicated as it were to the grace and favour of Plato For mine owne part I wil never stand so precisely upon this number of worlds mary of this minde I am rather that their opinion who hold that there be more worldes than one howbeit not infinit but determinate is not more absurd than either of the other but founded upon as much reason as they seeing as I doe that Matter of the owne nature is spred and diffused into many parts nor resting in one and yet not permitted by reason to runne in in finitum And therefore especially heere if else where putting our selves in minde of the Academie and the precepts thereof let us not be over credulous but as in a slippery place restraine our assent and beleefe onely in this point of infinity of worldes let us stand firme and see we fall not but keepe our selves upright When I had delivered these reasons abovesaid Beleeve me quoth Demetrius Lamprias giveth us a good and wise admonition For The gods for to deceive us men devise Right many meanes not of false Sophistries as Euripides faith but of their deeds works when we presume and dare pronounce of so high and great matters as if we knew them certainely But as the man himselfe said even now we must recall our speech unto the argument which was first proposed For that which heeretofore hath beene said namely that the Oracles are become mute and lie still without any validity because the Daemons which were wont to governe them be retired and gone like as instruments of
also powre forth our praiers unto them for to have their answere from the Oracles and to what purpose I pray you if it be true that our owne soules bring with them a propheticall facultie and vertue of divination and the cause which doth excite and actuate the same be some temperature of the aire or rather of winde What meanes then the sacred institutions and creations of these religious prophetesses ordained for the pronouncing of answeres And what is the reason that they give no answere at all unlesse the host or sacrifice to be killed tremble all over even from the very feet and shake whiles the libaments effusions of halowed liquors be powred upon it For it is not enough to wag the head as other beasts doe which are slaine for sacrifice but this quaking panting and shivering must be throughout all the parts of the body and that with a trembling noise For if this be wanting they say the Oracle giveth no answere neither doe they so much as bring in the religious priestesse Pythia And yet it were probable that they should both doe and thinke thus who attribute the greatest part of this propheticall inspiration either to God or Daemon But according as you say there is no reason or likelihood therof for the exhalation that ariseth out of the ground whether the beast tremble or no will alwaies if it be present cause a ravishment and transportation of the spirit and evermore dispose the soule alike not onely of Pythia but also of any body else that first commeth or is presented And thereupon it followeth that a meere folly it is to employ one silly woman in the Oracle and to put her to it poore soule to be a votary and live a pure maiden all the daies of her life sequestred from the company of man And as for that Coretas whom the Delphians name to have beene the first that chancing to fall into this chinke or crevasse of the ground gave the hansell of the vertue and property of the place in mine opinion he differed nothing at all from other goteheards or shepheards nor excelled them one whit at least wise if this be a truth that is reported of him and not a meere fable and vaine fiction as I suppose it is no better And verily when I consider and discourse in my selfe how many good things this Oracle hath beene cause of unto the Greeks as well in their warres and martiall affaires as in the foundations of cities in the distresses of famine and pestilence me thinkes it were a very indignity and unworthy part to attribute the invention and originall thereof unto meere fortune and chance and not unto God and divine providence But upon this point I would gladly ô Lamprias quoth he have you to dispute and discourse a little how say you Philippus may it please you to have patience the while Most willingly quoth Philippus for my part and so much I may be bold also to promise in the behalfe of all the company for I see well that the question by you proposed hath moved them all And as for my selfe quoth I ô Philippus it hath not onely moved but also abashed and dismaied me for that in this so notable assembly and conference of so many worthy parsonages I may seeme above mine age in bearing my selfe and taking pride in the probability of my wordes to overthrow or to call into question any of those things which truely have beene delivered or religiously beleeved as touching God and divine matters But satisfie you I will and in the defence of my selfe produce for my witnesse and advocate both Plato For this Philosopher reprooved old Anaxagoras in that being to much addicted to naturall causes and entangled with them following also and pursuing alwaies that which necessarily is effected in the passions and affections of naturall bodies he overpassed the finall and efficient causes for which and by which thinges are done and those are indeed the better causes and principles of greater importance whereas himselfe either before or else most of all other Philosophers hath prosecuted them both attributing unto God the beginning of all things wrought by reason and not depriving in the meane while the matter of those causes which are necessary unto the worke done but acknowledging heerein that the adorning and dispose of all this world sensible dependeth not upon one simple cause alone as being pure and uncompound but was engendred and tooke essence when matter was coupled and conjoined with reason That this is so doe but consider first the workes wrought by the hand of Artisans as for example not to goe farther for the matter that same foot heere and basis so much renowmed of the standing cup among other ornaments and oblations of this temple which Herodotus called Hypocreteridion this hath for the materiall cause verily fire iron the mollefying by the meanes of fire and the tincture or dipping in water without which this peece of worke could not possibly have bene wrought But the more principall cause and mistresse indeed which mooved all this and did worke by all these was art and reason applied unto the worke And verily we see that over such peeces whether they be pictures or other representations of things the name of the artificer and workeman is written as for example This picture Polygnotus drew of Troy won long beforne Who father had Aglaophon and was in Thasos borne And verily he it was indeed as you see who painted the destruction of Troy but without colours ground confused and mingled one with another impossible had it beene for him to have exhibited such a picture so faire and beautifull to the eie as it is If then some one come now and will needs medle with the materiall cause searching into the alterations and mutations thereof particularizing of Sinopre mixed with Ochre or Cerusse with blacke doth he impaire or diminish the glory of the painter 〈◊〉 He also who discourseth how iron is hardned and by what meanes mollified and how being made soft and tender in the fire it yeeldeth and obaieth them who by beating and knocking drive it out in length and bredth and afterwards being dipped and plunged into fresh waters still by the actuall coldnesse of the said water for that the fire heats had softened and rarefied it before it is thrust close together and condensate by meanes whereof it getteth that stiffe compact and hard temper of steele which Homer calleth the very force of iron reserveth he for the workeman any thing lesse heereby in the principall cause and operation of his worke I suppose he doth not For some there be who make proofe and triall of Physicke drogues and yet I trow they condemne not thereby the skill of Physicke like as Plato also himselfe when he saith That we doe see because the light of our eie is mixed with the cleerenesse of the Sunne and heare by the percussion and beating of the aire doth not deny that we have the
Diatessaron is Epitritos or Sesquitertiall that is to say the whole and a third part over of Diapente Hemolios or Sesquialterall that is to say the whole and halfe as much more of Diapason duple of Diapason with Diapente together triple of Dis-diapason quadruple And as for that which the Musicians bring in over and above these to wit Diapason and Diatessaron for so they name it they are not worthy to be admitted and received as transcending all meane and measure to gratifie forsooth the unreasonable pleasure of the eare against all proportion and breaking as it were the ordinance of the law To let passe therefore the five positures of the Tetrachords as also the first five tones tropes changes notes or harmonies call them what you will for that they change and alter by setting up or letting downe the strings more or lesse or by streining or easing the voice all the rest are 〈◊〉 as bases and trebles For see you not that there being many or rather infinit intervals yet five there be onely used in song namely Diesis Hemitonium Tonos Trisemitonion and Ditonos Neither is there any space or intervall greater or lesse in voices distinguished by base and treble high and low that can be expressed in song But to passe by many other such things quoth I onely Plato I will alledge who affirmeth that there is indeed but one world mary if there were more in number and not the same one alone it must needs be that there are five in all and not one more But grant that there be no more in trueth than one as Aristotle holdeth yet so it is that the same seemeth to be composed and coagmented in some sort of five other worlds whereof one is that of earth another of water the third of fire the fourth of aire as for the fifth some call it heaven others light and some againe the skie and there be who name it a quint-essence unto which onely it is proper and naturall of all other bodies to turne round not by violent force nor otherwise by chance and aventure Plato therefore observing and knowing well enough that the most beautifull and perfect figures of regular bodies which be in the world within compasse of nature are five in number namely the Pyramis the Cube the Octaedron Icofaedron Dodecaedron hath very fitly appropriated and attributed ech of these noble figures unto one or other of those first bodies Others there be also who apply the faculties of the naturall senses which likewise be in number five unto the said primitive bodies to wit Touching which is firme solid and hard to Earth Tasting which judgeth of the qualities of savors by the meanes of moisture to Water Hearing to the Aire for that the aire being beaten upon is the voice and sound in the eares of the other twaine Smelling hath for the object Sent or odour which being in maner of a perfume is ingendred and elevated by heat and therfore holdeth of the Fire as for the Sight which is cleere and bright by a certeine affinitie and consanguinity which it hath with the heaven and with light hath a temperature and complexion mingled of the one and the other neither is there in any living creature other sense nor in the whole world any other nature and substance simple and uncompound but a marvellous distribution there is and congruity of five to five as it evidently appeareth When I had thus said and made a stop withall after a little pause betweene O what a fault quoth I ô Eustrophus had I like to have committed for I went within a little of passing over Homer altogether as if he had not beene the first that divided the world into five parts allotting three of them which are in the middes unto three gods and the other two which be the extremes namely heaven and earth whereof the one is the limit of things beneath the other the bound of things above in common and not distributed like the others But our speech must remember to returne againe as Euripides saith from whence it hath digressed For they who magnifie the quaternarie or number of foure teach not amisse nor beside the purpose that everie solide body hath taken the beginning and generation by reason of it For it being so that every solide consisteth in length and bredth having withall a depth before length there is to be supposed a positure and situation of a point or pricke answerable to unitie in numbers and longitude without bredth is called a line and the mooving of a line into bredth and the procreation of a superficies thereby consisteth of three afterwards when there is adjoined thereto profundity or depth the augmentation groweth by foure untill it become a perfect solidity So that every man seeth that the quaternary having brought nature to this point as to performe and accomplish a body in giving it a double magnitude or masse with firme soliditie apt to make resistance leaveth it afterwards destitute of the thing which is greatest and principall For that which is without a soule to speake plaine is in maner of an Orphan unperfect and good for nothing so long as it is without a soule to use and guide it but the motion or disposition which putteth in the soule ingenerated by meanes of the number of five is it that bringeth perfection and consummation unto nature Whereby it appeereth that there is an essence more excellent than the foure inasmuch as a living body endued with a soule is of a more noble nature than that which hath none but more than so the beauty and excellent power of this number five proceeding yet farther would not suffer a body animate to be extended into infinite kinds but hath given unto us five divers sorts of animate and living natures in al. For there be Gods Daemons or Angels Demi-gods or Heroës then after these a fourth kind of Men and last of all in the fift place is that of brute Beasts and unreasonable Furthermore if you come and divide the soule according to nature the first and obscurest part or puissance thereof is the vegetative or nutritive faculty the second is the sensitive then the appetitive after it the irascible wherein is engendred anger Now when it is once come unto that power which discourseth by reason and brought nature as it were to perfection there it resteth in the fift as in the very pitch top of all Since then this number hath so many and those so great puissances faculties the very generation thereof is beautiful to be considered I meane not that whereof we have already heeretofore discoursed when we said that composed it was of two and three but that which is made by the conjunction of the first principle with the first square and quadrate number And what is that principle or beginning of all numbers even one or Unitie and that first quadrat is Foure and of these twaine as a man would say of
ceaseth to be it commeth and goeth together in such sort as that which beginneth to breed never reacheth to the perfection of being for that in very deed this generation is never accomplished nor resteth as being come to a ful end and perfection of being but continually changeth and moveth from one to another even as of humane seed first there is gathered within the mothers wombe a fruit or masse without forme then an infant having some forme and shape afterwards being out of the mothers belly it is a sucking babe anon it proves to be alad or boy within a while a stripling or springall then a youth afterwards a man growen consequently an elderly ancient person last of ala croked old man so that the former ages precedent generations be alwais abolished by the subsequent those that follow But we like ridiculous fooles be affraid of one kinde of death when as we have already died so many deaths and doe nothing daily and hourely but die still For not onely as Heraclitus saith the death of fire is the life of aire and the end of aire the beginning of water but much more evidently we may observe the same in our selves The floure of our yeeres dieth and passeth away when old age commeth youth endeth in the floure of lusty and perfect age childhood determineth in youth infancy in childhood Yesterday dieth in this day and this day will be dead by to morow neither continueth any man alwaies one and the same but we are engendred many according as the matter glideth turneth and is driven about one image mould or patterne common to all figures For were it not so but that we continued still the same how is it that we take delight now in these things whereas we joied before in others how is it that we love and hate praise and dispraise contrary things how commeth it to passe that we use divers speeches fal into different discourses are in sundry affections retaine not the same visage one countenance one minde and one thought For there is no likelihood at all that without change a man should entertaine other passions and looke who is changed he continueth not the same and if he be not the same he is not at all but together with changing from the same he changeth also to be simply for that continually he is altered from one to another and by consequence our sense is deceived mistaking that which appeareth for that which is indeed and all for want of knowledge what it is to be But what is it in trueth to be Surely to be eternall that is to say which never had beginning in generation nor shall have end by corruption and in which time never worketh any mutation For a moveable and mutable thing is time appearing as it were in a shadow with the matter which runneth and floweth continually never remaining stable permanent and solid but may be compared unto a leaking vessell conteining in it after a sort generations and corruptions And to it properly belong these tearmes 〈◊〉 and after Hath bene shall be which presently at the very first sight do evidently shew that time hath no being For it were a great folly and manifest absurditie to say that a thing is which as yet commeth not into esse or hath already ceased to be And as for these words Present Instant Now c. by which it seemeth that principally we ground and mainteine the intelligence of Time reason discovereth the same and immediatly overthroweth it for incontinently it is thrust out dispatched into future and past so that it fareth with us in this case as with those who would see a thing very farre distant for of necessitie the visuall beames of his sight doe faile before they can reach thereto Now if the same befall to nature which is measured that unto time which measureth it there is nothing in it permanent nor subsistent but all things therein be either breeding or dying according as they have reference unto time And therefore it may not be allowed to say of that which is It hath beene or it shall be for these termes be certaine inclinations passages departures and chaunges of that which cannot endure nor continue in being Whereupon we are to conclude that God alone is and that not according to any measure of time but respective to eternity immutable and unmooveable not gaged within the compasse of time nor subsert either to inclination or declination any way before whom nothing ever was nor after whom ought shall be nothing future nothing past nothing elder nothing yoonger but being one really by this one Present or Now accomplisheth his eternitie and being alway Neither is there any thing that may truely be said to be but he alone nor of him may it be verified He hath beene or shall be for that he is without beginning and end In this maner therefore we ought in our worship and adoration to salute and invocate him saying EI that is to say Thou art unlesse a man will rather according as some of the ancients used to doe salve him by this title EI EN that is to say Thou art one for god is not many as every one of us who are a confused heape and masse composed or rather thrust together of infinit diversities and differences proceeding from all sorts of alterations but as that which is ought to be one so that which is one ought to be for alternative diversitie being the difference of that which is departeth from it and goeth to the engendring of that which is not And therefore very rightly agreeth unto this god the first of his names as also the second and the third for Apollo he is called as denying and disavowing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say plurality multitude likewise Iëias which is as much to say as One or alone thirdly Phoebus by which name they called in the olde time All that was cleane and pure without mixture and pollution And semblably even at this day the Thessalians if I be not deceived say that their priests upon certeine vacant dayes when they keepe forth of their temples and live apart pivatly to themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now that which is one is also pure and syncere for pollution commeth by occasion that one thing is mingled with another like as Homer speaking in one place of Yvorie having a tincture of red said it was polluted and the word that he useth is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Diers also when they would expresse that their colours be medleies or mixed use the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say to be corrupted and the very mixture they tearme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Corruption It behooveth therefore that the thing which is syncere and incorruptible should be also one and simple without all mixture whatsoever In which regard they who thinke that Apollo and the Sunne be both one god are worthy to
and so maketh an equall distribution and supply thorowout But this transformation and change of the pores from which it is said that hunger and thirst doth proceed what kinde of thing is it I would gladly know For mine owne part none other differences see I but of more and lese and according as they be either stopped or opened when they bee obstructed or stopped receive they cannot either drinke or meat when they be opened and unstopped they make a voide and free place and surely that is nothing els but the want of that which is proper and naturall For the reason my good friend Philo why clothes which are to be died be dipped first in alome water is because that such water hath a piercing scouring and abstersive vertue by meanes whereof when all the superfluous filth in them is consumed and rid away the pores being opened reteine more surely the tincture which is given unto the clothes onely because they receive the same better by reason of the emptinesse occasioned by want THE THIRD QUESTION What is the cause that when men be hungry if they drinke are delivered from their hunger but contrariwise when they be athirst if they eate are more thirsty than before WHen those discourses were thus passed he who invited us to supper began in this wise It seemeth unto me my masters that this reason as touching the voidance and repletion of pores carieth with it a great apparence of truth and namely in the solution of another question besides to wit Why in them who be hungry if they drinke their hunger ceaseth immediately and contrariwise they who are a thirst if they eat are still more thirstie I am of opinion quoth he that those who alledge and urge these pores and their effects doe render the reason and cause of this accident very easilie and with exceeding great probabilitie however in many points they enforce the same not so much as probably for whereas all bodies have pores some of one measure and symmetry others of another those which be larger than the rest receive food solid as well as liquid both together such as bee narrower and more streight admit drinke the avoidance and evacuation of which causeth thirst like as of the other hunger and therefore if they who be a thirst doe eat they finde no succour and benefit thereby because the pores by reason of their streightnesse are not able to receive drie and solid nutriment but continue still indigent and destitute of that which is their due and fit for them whereas they who be hungry in case they drinke finde comfort thereby for that the liquid nouriture entring into those large pores and filling those concavities of theirs doe slake and diminish mightily the force of their hunger As touching the event and effect quoth I true it is as I thinke but I cannot accord and give my consent to the supposition of the cause pretended For if quoth I a man should hold that with these pores and conduits upon which some stand so much so greatly embrace and mainteine so stoutly the flesh is pierced and by meanes thereof full of holes surely he would make it very loose quavering flaggie and so rotten that it would not hang together moreover to say that the same parts of the body doe not receive meat and drinke together but that they doe passe and runne as it were thorough a streiner or canvase bolter some one way and some another me thinks is a very strange position a meere devised fiction for this verie mixture of humiditie tempering and making tender the meats received together with the cooperative helpe of the inward naturall heat and the spirits doth cut subtiliate and mince the foode with all manner of incisions shreddings and divisions no tooles no knives nor instruments in the world so fine and small insomuch as every part and parcell of the said nourishment is familiar meet convenient for ech part member of the bodie not applied fitted as it were to certeine vessels and holes to be filled thereby but united perfectly concorporate to the whole and every part thereof but if this were not so yet the maine point of the question is not assoiled for all that for they who eat unlesse they also drinke to it are so farre off from allaying their thirst that contrariwise they increase the same and to this point there is not yet a word said Consider now said I whether the positions reasons which we set downe are not probable apparent first we suppose that moisture being consumed by drinesse is cleane perished gone that drinesse being tempered susteined by moisture hath certeine diffusions exhalations secondly we hold that neither hunger is a general universal want of dry food nor thirst of moisture but a certeine scantnesse and defect of the one and the other when there is not enough and sufficient for those who altogether doe want the same bee neither hungrie nor thirstie but die presently Let these supposals be laid for grounds it will not be from hencefoorth hard to know the cause of that which is in question for thirst increaseth upon them that eat because meats by their drinesse doe gather together sucke and drinke up the humidity dispersed and which is left but small and feeble in all the bodie causing the same to evaporate away like as we may observe without our bodies how dry earth and dust do quickly snatch dispatch and consume quite the liquor or moisture that is mingled therewith contrariwise drinke necessarily slaketh hunger for by reason that moisture drenching and soking that little meat which it findeth dry and hard raiseth from it certeine vapors and moist exhalations and those it doth elevate and carrie up into all the body applying the same to the parts that stand in need and therefore Erasistratus not unproperly tearmed moisture the wagon of the viands for being mixed and tempered with such things as otherwise of themselves by reason of their drinesse or other evill disposition be idle and heavy it raiseth and lifteth up and heereupon it commeth that many men who have beene exceeding hungry onely by bathing or washing themselves without any drinke at all have woonderfully aswaged and allaied their hunger for the moisture from without entring into the body causeth them to be more succulent and in better plight for that it doth enlarge the parts within so that it doth mitigate the fell mood and appease the crhell rage of hunger To conclude this is the reason that they who are determined to pine themselves to death by utter abstinence from all solid meats live and continue a long time if they receive but water onely even untill the time that all be quite evaporate spent and dried up which might nourish and be united unto the bodie THE FOURTH QUESTION What is the cause that pit or well-water being drawen if it be left all night within the aire of the pit becommeth colder than it