moisture of another nature or a moist element By this water saith he the earth is sustained as a great ship which presseth upon the water that bears it up because the most weighty part of the world cannot be upheld by the Air which is subtle and light Thus is Aristotle to be explain'd who saith Thales held that the Earth being capable of swimming resteth as wood or the like now of such things none suim upon Air but upon Water Upon this ground it was that he held Water as Laertius saith to be the cause of Earthquakes Thus Seneca He holds that the Globe of the Earth is upheld by water and carried as a bark and floateth by the mobility thereof at such time as it is said to quake One of his reasons alledged by Seneca is this because in all extraordinary motions thereof some new Fountains commonly issued which if they incline to one side and shew their keel asidelong gather water which if it chance the burden they bear be overweighty raiseth it selfe higher towards the right or left side From the testimony of Homer by which Thales according to Plutaâ—ch and Iustine Martyr defended this Tenet that water is the principle of all things it is manifest it was deliver'd though imperfectly by other Grecians before Thales Plutarch else where producing this Authority of Hesiod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of all things Chaos was the first addeth the greater part of antient Philosophers called water Chaos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from dissusion The Scholiast of Apollonius upon these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Earth of slime was made affirms citing Zeno that the Chaos whereof all things were made according to Hesiod was water which setling became slime the slime condens'd into solid Earth to which adde this testimony of Orpheus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of Water slime was made This opinion they borrow'd from the Phoenicians with whom the Grecians had a very antient correspondence Linus came from thence Orpheus had his learning from thence as Thales is conceived to have done likewise which appears clearly in Numenius an antient Philosopher who cites the very words of Moses for this opinion The spirit of God moved on the face of the waters There is an eminent place in Eusebius to prove this the divinity of the Phoenicians asserts the principle of this world to be a dark spirituall air or the spirit of dark air and Chaos troubled and involv'd in darknesse that this was infinite and a long time had no bound but say they the spirit being moved with the love of his own principles there was made a mixtion which nexure was called love this was the beginning of the production of all things but the spirit it self had no generation and from this connexion of the spirit was begotten 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which some call slime others corruption of watery mistion and of this was made the seed of all creatures and the generation of all things Nor were the Indians ignorant of this as Megasthenes delivers their opinion They are of the same mind in many things with the Grecians as that the world had beginning and shall have end that God its Maker and Governour goes quite through it that all things had different beginnings but that of which the world was made was water The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Principle because with Philosophers it includes the efficient cause and consequently understood singly excludes the rest that being the most noble hath given occasion to some to mistake Thales as is by acknowledging no other principle he consequently accounted Water to be God but that Thales understands by Principle only the material Cause we may easily gather from Plutarch who condemneth Thales for confounding a Principle with an Element and for holding them to be both one Wheras saith he there is great difference Elements are coÌ„pounded Principles are neither compounded nor are any compleat substance truly water air earth fire we term elements but principles we call other natures in this respect that there is nothing precedent â—to them wherof they are engendred For otherwise if they were not the first they would not be Principles but that rather should be so termed whereof they were made Now certaine things there are precedent whereof Earth and water are compounded viz. The first informe matter and the forme it selfe and privation Thales therefore erres affirming Water to be both Element and principle of all things Thus we see by Plutarch that the objection can onely be as to the name not to reason of the name for the distinction of principle and element being not used in that time Thales by principle meant nothing of the efficient cause which is most certaine from Aristotle Thales saith he affirmes water to be the principle wherefore he held the earth to be above the water perhaps hee conceived so because he saw that the nutriment of all things is humid that heat it selfe consists thereof and that every creature lives thereby He held that of which things are made to be the principls of all things for these reasons he was of this opinion as also because the seeds of all things are of a humid nature and water is the principle of things humid Sect. 2. Of God TErtullian saith that Thales to Croesus enquiring concerning the Deity gave no certaine accompt but desired severall times of deliberating to no effect He seemes to reflect upon the same or a like story to that which is reported of Simonides and Hieron But what the opinion of Thales was concerning God may bee gather'd from two Apothegmes cited by Laertius repeated with this glosse by Clemens Alexandrinus And what are not those the sayings of Thales that are derived from hence That God is glorifi'd for ever and ever and he openly confesseth that he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee who knoweth Hearts For Thales being demanded what God was that saith he which hath neither beginning nor end Another asking of a man might doe ill and conceale it from God How saith he when a man that thinkes it cannot Men ought to think sayes Cicero in his name that the Gods see all things He acknowledged God the first of beings and Author of the world asserting according to Laertius that the most antient of all things is God â—or he is not begotten that the fairest is the world for it is his work This is confirmed by Cicero Thales the Mileâ—ian saith he who first enquired into these things said that water was the principle of things but that God was that mind which formed all things of water If Gods may be without sence and mind why did he joyn the mind to waterâ— why water to the mind if the mind can subsist without a body Thus Cicero who understands Thales to intend the materiall principle to be co-eternall with the efficient which Thales himselfe seems not to mean when
it shines the fewer flames beget lightnings the greater thunder a great part the rest was altered from its naturall kind by his excessive heat That the first creatures were bred in humidity and enclosed within sharp thorny barks but as they grew older they became dryer and at last the bark being broken round about them they lived some little time after it ANAXIMENES CHAP. I. His life ANaximenes was a Milesian Son of Euristratus friend Disciple and sucessour to Anaximander According to Eusebius he flourish'd in the second hear of the 56. Olympiad Suidas saith he liv'd in the 55. Olympiad at the taking of Sardys when Cyrus overthrew Croesus So that the acompt of Apollodorus who affirms he was born in the 63. Olympiad is corrupt He heard also as some affirm Parmenides He used the Jonick Dialect plain and incomposed Pliny calls him the inventour of Gnomonicks but perhaps it is a mistake for Anaximander Of his auditors were Anaxagoras and Diogenes Apolloniates These two Epistles of his are preserved by Laertius Anaximenes to Pytâ—agoras THales having lived happily even to old age ended his daies unfortunately One night going out of his house as he used with his maid to contemplate the starrs gazing and not taking heed to the place â—elighted upon a precipice and fell down This was the fate of the Milesion Astronomer But let us who were his Auditors preserve the memory of the person and our sons and auditors after us Let us still retain his sayings and begin all our discourses with Thales Anaximenes to Pythagoras YOu are more advised then we who leaving Samos for Crotona live there in quiet the Aeacides prove inâ—urious to others and the Milesians want not Tyrants of their own choosing The King of Media is likewise terrible to us but would not be so should we pay him tribute The Ionians are resolved to war with the Medes for the gâ—neral liberty if they sight we have no hope of safety How then can Anaximene â—erplexed with fear of death and slavery apply his mind to celestial speculations But you are coveted by the Crotonians and all Italians Auditors come to you as far as from Sicily CHAP. II. His opinions Sect. 1. That the Air is the principle of all things HE held that the Air is the principle of the Universe of which all things are ingendred and into which they resolve Our soules by which we live are air so spirit and air contain in being all the world for spirit and air are two names signifying one thing That the air is God begotten immense infinite ever in motion but that those things which arise out of it are finite First is begotten earth water fire then of these all things That the air is God understands of the faculties penetrating through the Elements or bodies Sect. 2. Of the Heavens THat the outward superâ—icies of Heaven is earthly That the starrs are of a fiery substance invisible earthly bodies intermixt with them that they are inherent as nailes in Chrystall That they are forced back by the thick resisting air and move not above or under but about the earth the sun is â—lat as a plate of sâ—ery substance That the signes of summe and winter come not by the moon but by the sun onely That the sun is eclipsed when the mouth out of which issueth his beat is closed That the Moon is likewise of a fiery nature That the Moon is eclipsed when the mouth out of which issueth her heat is closed Sect. 3. Of Meteors That the clouds are made by condensation of air rain by condensation of the clouds out of which it is squeezed snow of rain congeal'd in falling and hail of the same contracted by a cold wind Concerning Thunder lightning c. to the assertion of Anaximander he added the comparison of the Sea which being broken with Oares shineth That the rainbow is made by reflection of the Sunns beams upon a thick cloud which not able to pierce it are refracted upon it That Earthquâ—kes proceed from the rarity and drynesse of the Earth one being caus'd by excessive heat the other by excecessive cold Further explained by Aristotle thus He held that the Earth as well when it is moist as when it is dry breaketh and by these great pieces thereof which use to fall upon it is shaken Hence it is that Earthquakes happen either in droughts or great raines by droughts it is broken and by great showers excessively moistned parts likewise in sunder He called the contraction and condensation of matter cold the laxation and rarity thereof heat whence a man breaths out of his mouth both hot and cold his breath comprest by his lips and condens'd is cold but breathed forth with an open mouth is hot by reason of the rarity ANAXAGORAS CHAP. I. Anaxagoras Country time and study of Philosophy ANaxagoras was of Clazomenae son of Hegesibulus or Eubulus born in the 70th Olympiad according to Apollodorus in the first yeare thereof Eminent for his noble birth and wealthy fortunes but more for his magnanimous contempt of them Hee left his lands and patrimony saith Cicero to learn and obtain the divine delight of Philosophy and converted himselfe from civill affairs to the knowledge of things Sutdas affirms he left his grounds to sheep and Camells to be eaten up and therefore Apollonius Tyaneas said he read Philosophy to beasts rather then to men Plato derides him for quitting his estate Laertius reports he assign'd it to his friends whereupon being by them accused of improvidence why answered he do not you take care of it To one who reproved him as taking no care of his Country wrong me not said he my greatest care is my Country pointing to the Heavens To another asking for what end he was born he answered to contempla â—e the Sun Moon and Heavens In fine he withdrew himself to contemplation of naturall Philosophy not regarding civill affairs In this study Anaximenes was his Master from whom he received his learning In the twentieth year of his age the first of the 75. Olympiad Colliades being Archon whom Laertius corruptly calls Callias at the time of Xerxes expedition into Greece he went to Athens to study Philosophy where he continued thirty yeares and was honored with the title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Mind ad being the first that added that principle to matter so Amon. Where â—wells fam'd Anaxagoras the mind For he that agent first to matter joyn'd Which things confused orderly design'd CHAP. II. Of his opinions Sect. 1. Of the first principles and beginning of things HE held that the materiall principle of all things is one and many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 parâ—s inâ—inite similar and contrary continuous to the touch sustaining themselves not contain'd by any other His grounds these First because according to
OF GEOMETRY ENTER HERE meant not only of the measure and proportion of lines but also of the inward Affections CHAP. VI. How he instituted a Sect. HAving thus setled himself in the Academy he began out of the Collection he had made from others and his own invention to institute a Sect called from the place where he taught Academick He mixed the Heraclitian discourses with the Socratick and Pythagorick following in sensibles Heraclitus in Intelligibles Pythagoras in Politicks Socrates Whereas Philosophy saith St. Augustine concerns either action or contemplation thence assuming two names Contemplative and Active the Active consisting in practise of morall Actions the contemplative in penetration of abstruse Physicall causes and the nature of the Divinity Socrates excelled in the Active Pythagoras in the Contemplative But Plato join'd them into one perfecâ— kind which he subdivided into three severall parts Morall consisting chiefly in Action Naturall in Contemplation Rationall in Distinction of true and false which though usefull in both the other yet belongeth more particularly to Contemplation So that this Trichotomy contradicts not the other Dichotomy which includeth all within Action and Contemplation And as of old in a Tragedy the Chorus acted alone then Thespis making some intermissions of the Chorus introduc'd one Actour Aeschylus a second Sophocles a Third in like manner Philosophy was at first but of one kind Physick then Socrates added Ethick thirdly Plato inventing Dialectick made it perfect Of these three parts as they were held by Plato and the rest of the old Academy we cannot have a generall better accompt then this of Cicero Sect. 1. Ethick The first concerning well living they sought in Nature affirming that she ought to be obeyed and that in nothing else but Nature was to be had that chief good whereto all things should be referr'd that the ultimate being of desirable things and end of all good in the mind body and life were acquir'd by Nature Those of the body they placed in the whole and in the parts Health Strength Beauty in the whole in the parts sound Sence and a certain Excellâ—nce of particular parts as in the feet swiftnesse strength in the hands clearnesse in the voice in the Tongue plainnesse of expression Of the mind were those which are proper to comprehend the power of wit which they divided into Nature and Manners To Nature they ascribed quickness of apprehension and memory both proper to the mind and wit To manners belonged study and a kind of wisdom formed partly by continuall exercise partly by reason in which consisted Philosophy it self wherein that is begun and not perfected is called progression to vertue what is perfected Virtue perfection of Nature of all things in the mind the most excellent Thus of Minâ—s The Adjuncts of life that was the third they asserted such things as conduced to the practise of Vertue Sect. 2. Physick Of Nature for that was next they so treated as to divide it into two things One the efficient the other giving it self to this that thereof might be made somthing In that they conceived to be a power in this a certain matter to be effected in both matter could not cohere unlesse contained by some power nor the power without some matter for there is nothing which is not enforced to be some where that which consists of both they called Body and Qualitie Of Qualities some are primary others arising from these the primary are uniform and simple hose which arise from these are various and as it were multiform Air Fire Water and Earth are Primary of these arise formes of living Creatures and of those things which are made of the Earth These principles are called Elements of which Air and Fire have a faculty to move and effect the other parts Water and Earth to suffer To all these there is subjected a certain matter without form destitute of quality out of which all things are expressed and formed It is capable of admitting all and of changing all manner of waies in the whole and in every part This resolves nothing to nothing but into its own parts which are divisible into infinite there being in naâ—ure no least which cannot be divided Those which are moved are all moved by intervalls which intervalls likewise may be divided infinitely and that power which we call quality being moved and agitated every way they conceive the whole matter to be throughly changed and by that means those things which they call qualitative to be produced of which in all coherent nature continued with all its parts was effected the World beyond which there is not any part of matter or body The parts of the World are all things therein kept together by a Sensitive nature wherein is likewise perfect reason It is also sempiternall for there is nothing more strong whereby it may be dissolved This power they call the Soul of the World God a certain providence over all things subâ—ected to him regarding in the first place heavenly things next on the Earth those thing which appertain to man The same they somtimes call Necessity because nothing can be otherwise then is by him ordained a fatall immutable continuation of eternall order somtimes Fortune as producing many things not foreseen or expected by us by reason of the obscurity and our ignorance of the Causes Sect. 3. Dialectick Of the third part of Philosophy consisting in reason and dissertation they treated thus Though Iudgment arise from the Sense yet the Iudgment of truth is not in the Senses The mind they affirmed to be Iudge of things conceiving her only sit to be credited because she alone seeth that which is simple and uniform and certain This they called Idea All sense they conceived to be obtuse and slow and no way able to perceive those things which seem subject to sense which are so little as that they cannot fall under sense so moveable and various that nothing is one constant nor the same because all things are in continuall alteration and fluxion All this part of things they called Opimative Science they affirmed to be no where but in the Reasons and Notions of mind whence they approved definitions of things and applyed them to all whereon they discoursed They approved likewise explications of words by Etymologies They used Arguments and marks for things to prove and conclude what they meant to explain In this consisted all the discipline of Dialectick that is of Speech concluded by Reason This accompt in generall Cicero gives of the old Academy Plutarch Laertius Apuleius and others have made collections more particular we shall make choice of that of Alcinous as most full and perfect which by reason of the length is referred as an Appendix to Plato's life CHAP. VII His Inventions HE added much to learning and language by many inventions as well of things as of words To omit Dialectick of which we treated last Phavorinus attributes to his invention discoursing by
then he if by himself it must be either to better or to worse both which are absurd From all these it followeth that God is incorporeal which may likewise be proved thus If God were a body he should consist of matter and form for every body consisteth of matter and its form joynes to that matter which is made like unto the Idaea's aâ—d in an ineffable manner participant of them But that should consist of matter and form is absurd for then he could not bee either simple or a Principle therefore he is incorporeall Again if he be a body he consisteth of matter and consequently is either fire or air or earth or water or somthing made out of these but none of these is principle by it selfe besides he must then bee later then matter as consisting of it which being absurd it is necessary that God be incorporeall Moreover if he were a body it would follow that he must be generable corruptible mutable which to affirm of God were intollerable CHAP. XI Of Qualities THat Qualities are incorporeall may be proved thus every body is a Subject quality is not a Subject but an accident therefore quality is not a body Again no body is in a subject every quality is in a Subject therefore quality is not a body Again quality is contrary to quality but no body as no body is contrary to a body therefore qualities are not bodies To omit that it is most agreeable to reason that as matter is void of quality so quality should be void of matter aud if quality be void of matter it must likewise be void of corporeity for if qualities were bodies two or three bodies might be together in the same place which is absurd Qualities being incorporeal the maker of them must be incorporeall also moreover there can be no efficients but in corporeals for bodies naturally suffer and are in mutation not continuing alwaies in manner nor persevering in the same state For whensoever they seem to effect any thing we shall find that they suffer it long before Whence as there is something which wholly suffereth so must there bee somthing which wholly acteth but such only is incorporeall Thus much concerning principles as far they relate to Theology we proceed next to Physicall contemplations CHAP XII Of the Causes Generation Elements and Order of the World FOrasmuch as of sensible and singular things there must of necessity be some examplars viz. Idea's of which are Sciences and Definitions for besides all particular men we conceive a man in our mind and besides all particular horses a horse and likewise besides all living creatures a living creature immortall and unbegotten as from one seale are made many prints and of one man there may be many Pictures of all which the Idaea it self is cause that they are such as it self is it is necessary that this Universe the fairest Fabrick of Gods making be so made by God that in the making thereof he look'd upon an Idaea as its exemplar whilst by a wonderfull providence and most excellent design God applyed himselfe to the building of this frame because he was good God therefore made it of all matter which being before the generation of Heaven disorderly scattered he from a deformed confusion reduced to beautifull order and adorned every way the parts thereof with sit numbers and figures untill at last he so distinguish'd them as now they are Fire and Earth to Air and Water of which there were then only the footsteps and a certain aptitude to admit the power of Elements and so without any reason or order they justled matter and were justled again by matter Thus God framed the World of four entire Elements of whole Fire and Earth Water and Air omitting no power or part of any of them For he saith it must be corporeall and generated and subject to touch and sight but without Fire and Earth nothing can be touched or seen Wherefore justly he framed it of Fire and Earth and because it was requisite there should be some chain to unite these there is a Divine chain which according to the proportion of reason maketh one of it self and those things which are united to it and the World could not be plain for then one medium would have served but sphaericall therefore there was need of two mediums to the constitution thereof Betwixt Fire and Earth by the prescription of this reason is interposed Air and Water that as Fire is to Air so is Air to Water and as Air is to Water so is Water to Earth and again as Earth is to Water so is Water to Air and as Water is to Air so is Air to Fire There being nothing remaining beyond the World God made the World one conformable to this Idaea which is one He likewise made it such as that is uncapable of sicknesse or age For besides that nothing can befall it whereby it may be corrupted it is so sufficient to it self that it hath not need of any exteriour thing He bestowed upon it a Sphaericall figure as being the fairest the most capacious and aptest to motion and because it needeth not hearing or sight or the rest of the senses he gave it not any Organs of sense He denied all kinds of motion to be competible to it except the circular which is proper to the mind and to Wisdom CHAP XIII Of the convenience of figures with the Elements and World THe world thus consisteth of two parts a Soul and a Body this visible and corruptible that neither subject to sight nor touch The power and constitution of each is different the body consisteth of Fire Earth Water and Aire which foure the maker of the Universe there being untill then nothing more confused then the Elements formed in a Pyramid a Cube an Octaedron and an Icosaedron but chiefly in a Dodecaedron Matter as far as it put on the figure of a Pyramid became Fire and mounted upward For that figure is the most apt to cut and to divide as consisting of fewest triangles and therefore is the rarest of all figures As far as it is an Octaedron it took the qualitie of Aire VVhere it took that of an Icosaedron it became Water The figure of a Cube Earth as being the most solid and staple of all the Elements The figure of a Dodecaedron he used in the fabrick of the Universe Superficies come nigher the nature of Principles then all these for they are before solids Of its nature the two Parents as it were are two Triangles most fair and rectangular one a Scalenum the other an Isosceles a Scalenum is a triangle having one right angle the other of two thirds the last of one third A Scalenum therefore is the element of a Pyramid and an Octaedron and an Icosaedron A Pyramid consisteth of foure triangles having all sides equall to one another each whereof is divided as we said into six scalenous triangles The Octaedors consist of eight like sides whereof each is
he erreth also for then there would be somthing that should be alwaies and yet could not be alwaies Heaven is void of labour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for it hath no contrary to retard its motion Heaven hath the threefold difference of position upwards and downwards backwards right and left for these are proper to all animate things which have the principle of motion within themselves The right side of Heaven is the East for from thence begins its motion the left side the West and consequently the Artick pole is lowermost the Antartick uppermost forwards our Hemisphear backwards the other Heaven naturally moveth circularly but this circular motion is not uniform throughout all Heaven for there are other Orbs which move contrary to the primum mobile that there may be a vicissitude in sublunary things and generation and corruption Heaven is Sphaericall for to the first body the first figure is most proper If it were quadrangular triangular or the like the angles would somtimes leave a space without a body and occupate another space without a body The motion of Heaven is circular as being the measure of all others therefore most compendious and swiftest The motion of the primum mobile is aequable and uniform for it hath neither beginning middle nor end the primum mobile and first mover being eternall both and subject to no variation Starres are of the same body with that wherein they are carried but more thick and compact they produce warmth and light in inferiour things through frication of the Air by their motion for swift motion fires wood and melts lead yet the spheares themselves are not heated but the Air only and that chiefly by the sphear of the Sun which by his accession towards us increaseth the heat his beams falling more directly and with double force upon us The Starres being infixed in the Heavens are moved not by themselves with a proper motion as fishes in the water and Birds in the Air but according to the motion of their Orbes Otherwise those in the eight Sphear would not be alwaies aequidistant from one another neither would the stars have alwaies the same side turned towards us as we see the Moon hath The primum mobile is carried about with the swiftest motion the seven Orbes of Planets under it as they are nearer to it are carried so much the more swiftly about by the motion thereof and as they are further distant more slowly Whence by how much the nigher they are to the primum mobile so much the slower is their proper motion because it is contrary to that of the primum mobile as being from East to West The Starres are round for that figure is most unapt for self-motion wee see the Moon is round by her orbicular sections therefore the other Starres are so likewise for the reason is the same in all The Centre of Heaven is the Earth round seated immoveable in the midst which together with the Sea makes up one Globe CHAP. VII Of Elements THe Element of Bodies is a simple Body into which other Bodies are divided in which it is either actually or potentially as in flesh wood and the like there is fire and earth potentially for into these they are segregated but actually they are not for then should the flesh and wood bee segregated Whereas every naturall Body hath a proper motion motions are partly simple partly mixt the mixt proper to mixt bodies the simple to simple it is manifest that there are simple bodies for there are simple motions the circular proper to Heaven the right to the Elements The Elements are not eternall for they are dissolved with reciprocall mutations and perish and are mutually generated of one another The motive qualities of the Elements are gravity and levity Heavy is that which is apt to be carried downwards to the Centre or midst of Heaven light is that which is apt to be carried upwards towards the extremities of Heaven These are either simple or comparative Simply heavy is that which is below all as the Earth Simply light is that which is above as all the fire Comparatively heavy and light are those in which are both these above some below others as Air and Water From these have mixt things gravity and levity the heavy are carried downwards to a definite medium the light upwards to a definite extream for nothing tends to infinite Whence it followeth that two Elements are extreamly contrary simply heavy and simply light Fire and Earth which tend to contrary places Betwixt these are two means participating of the nature of each extream Air and Water Those Elements which are highest and lightest are most perfect and have the nature of forms in respect of the inferiour because these are contained by those to be contained is the property of matter to contain of form Hence it followeth that there are four kinds of particular second matter differing by the accidentall differeâ—ces of heat cold humidity siccity levity and gravity simple and comparative though there be but one common matter of them all for they are made mutually of one another The mean Elements are heavy in their proper places for Earth being taken away Water tending downwards succeeds in its room Air descends into the place of Water but not contrariwise for Water ascends not into its place of Air unlesse by force In the extream it is otherwise for the Air being taken away the fire will not descend into its place nor the Earth ascend into the place of Water or Air for Fire is not heavy nor Earth light in their naturall place because they are extream Elements Figure conduceth to the swiftnesse or slownesse of motion either upwards or downwards but is not simply and in it self the cause of motion so an acute figure cuts the medium swiftly a broad obtuse figure slowly Hence a thin plate of Lead or Iron will swim on water because it comprehends much of the subjected body which it cannot easily divide or penetrate CHAP. VIII Of generation Corruption Alteration Augmentation and Diminution THere is a perpetuall succession of generation as well simple as accidentall which proceeds from two causes Efficient the first mover and the Heavens alwaies moving and allwaies moved and Materiall the first matter of which being non-ens actually ens potentially all things generable and corruptible consist This is incorruptible in its self susceptible of all forms whereby the corruption of one natural substance becometh the generation of another whatsoever matter remaineth upon the corruption being assumed towards the generation of another Generation and Corruption are twofold simple of a substance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of an accident generation of the lesse noble substance is called generation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in respect of the more noble as that of Earth in respect of fire Corruption alwaies succeedeth generation because the terme to which of corruption viz. non-ens is the
terme from which of generation and the terme to which of generation viz. ens in act is the terme from which of corruption The matter of that which is generated and that which is corrupted is the same for as much as they are or may be made reciprocally of one another as Air of Water water of Air but differenly disposed Alteration and generation are different mutations in alteration the subject remaineth entire the affections only are changed as of sick sound in generation the whole is changed not any sensible subject remaining Alteration is a mutation according to quality augmentation and diminution according to quantity locall motion according to place Augmentation and diminution differ from other mutations first in the object generation and corruption concernes substances alteration quality lation place augmentation and diminution quantity Again in the manner that which is generated or corrupted or altered not necessarily changeth place but that which augments or diminisheth in some manner changeth place for it is bigger or lesser Augmentation is an addition to praeexistent quantity diminution a detraction Whatsoever is augmented or decreased is augmented or decreased according to every part thereof by reception of something throughout all parts decretion on the contrary The animate body encreaseth but not the aliment for the living creature remaineth the aliment is converted into the substance of the living creature Hereupon that which is augmented is like unto that which is altered for both of these remain All parts of a living creature are augmented the similar first as bones and flesh then the dissimilar as consisting of the others Augmentation is made by accession of something according to form not according to matter for by it the whole is augmented and made more such Accession of parts according to matter is not augmentation for by materialls only destitute of that form which the parts to be augmented have the whole living creatures cannot encrease Aliment therefore whereby the living creature is augmented must be the same potentially which the things augmented is in act At first it is contrary and dissimilar being in power the part of a living creature in act something else at last it becommeth assimilate to the living creature taking the form of a part by aggeneration through the digestive power of the animate body which changeth the aliment into its own substance For this reason augmentation presupposeth nutrition Nutrition is when the aliment as substance is converted into the substance of the living creature Augmentation when the same aliment as quantitative is added to the quantity of the living creature Hence a living creature as long as it is sound is alwaies nourished but not alwaies augmented As that which is added is potentially quantitative flesh so it can augment flesh as it is potentially flesh only so it nourisheth which when it can only do as when so much wine is poured into water that it turnes all into water then there is a diminution of the quantity but the form remaineth CHAP. IX Of Action and Passion COntact is of severall kinds Mathematicall by contiguity Physicall when the extreams of severall bodies meet and mutually act and suffer virtuall by power and metaphoricall The mutuall action and passion of Physicall contact is betwixt things partly unlike as to their form partly like as to their genus for they are contraries matter each endeavouring to reduce the patient to his own likenesse as fire wood Every Physicall agent in acting suffers from the patient for both the agent and patient are active endued with formes elementary susceptible of contraries But as the first mover is immovable so is the first agent impassible Every things acts as it is such actually suffers as it is such potentially The conditions of action and passion are five 1. What the agent is in act the patient is in power 2. The patient is such according to each part 3. That which is more disposed suffers more and so on the contrary 4. Every patient is continuous and not actually divided 5. The agent must necessarily touch the patient either immediatly or mediately CHAP. X. Of Mixtion and Temperament MIxtion is not generation for the matter is not mixt with the forme nor alteration for the quality is not mixed with the subject nor augmentation for aliment the matter of augmentation is not mixed with but converted into the animate body Conjunction of small bodies is not true mixtion but coacervation for those bodies remain actually the same according to their forms not composing one third according to every part Things which have not the same matter are not mixt because they cannot be active and passive recâ—procally Those things which are properly said to be mixed must have one common matter they must mutually act upon and suffer one from another they must be easily divisible yet so as that one be not excessive in respect of the other for then it is not mixtion but mutation into the more predominant as a drop of wine into a great quantity of water The principles and differences of Elements sensible tactile bodies are tactile qualities in as much as by such qualities sensible bodies as such are constituted and differ Of tactile qualities there are seven orders hot cold moist dry heavy light hard soft viscous arid rugged smooth thick thin From the two first orders are derived the differences of Elements for by heat and cold humidity and siccity they act and suffer and are mutually changed by alterative passions Of these first qualities two are active heat and cold two passive humidity and siccity Heat is that which congregates homogeneous things cold that which congregates heterogeneous things humid that which is not easily contained in its own bounds dry the contrary As there are four Elements there must be four conjunctions of the primary qualities from each of which the Elements are severally collected The first conjunction is of hot and dry whence proceedeth fire the second of hot and moist whence Air the third of moist and cold whence Water the fourth of cold and dry whence Earth In each of these one quality is praedominant Earth is more dry then cold water more cold then moist Air more moist then hot Fire more hot then dry All these Elements may be mutually transmutated into one another the Symbolicall which agree in one primary quality are more easily transmutated into one another then the asymbolical because it is lesse difficult to change one then many This transmutation is not a generation but a kind of alteration whence it is manifest one Element cannot be the principle of another Mixtion whereby the Elements concur to the composition of a mixt body is made by coacervation as Empedâ—cles held but after such a manner that their contrary qualities remain in the mixt not potentially only nor simply actually in their height but in a mean kind of way their extremities being reduced to some temper From this contemperation
come mixt bodies differing according to the various proportion of the temperament and as they are compounded of the Elements so they resolve into the same All these mixt bodies consist of all the Elements of Earth for every things participates of the nature of that thing wherein it is produced of water because every mixt thing must be concrete and terminated which properties Water best affordeth to Earth of Air and Fire because every perfect mixt body is made by temperament of contraries such is Air to Earth Fire to Water Again the nature of all mixt bodies as well animate as inanimate as to mixture is the same but that the animate consist of all the Element is manifest in that they are nourished by them The causes and common principles of mixt bodies are three materiall fomall efficient The Materiall is the power to be and not to be by which elementary things are generated and corrupted The formall is the reason of the essence of every thing the universall efficient is the circular motion of Heaven not onely as being eternall continuall and before generation but chiefly because it bringeth nigh to us and carrieth far from us that which hath the generative power of all things that is the Sun and the other Stars which by their accession and recession are the causes of generation and corruption All these are so disposed according to the order of Nature that because no naturall being can be permanent in the same individuall state they may be at lest preserved by a continuall succession of many individuum's of the same species Whence the naturall cause of generation is onely conservation of the species CHAP. XI Of imperfect mixt bodies MIxt bodies are twofold imperfect and perfect Meteors are imperfect mixt bodies produced according to Nature but after a lesse orderly and constant manner The generall matter thereof are the Elements the efficient the celestiall bodies which act upon inferiours by a kind of coherence Heaven is highest next Heaven the Element of fire next fire air under air water and earth Clouds are not generated in the sphear of fire nor in the region of the air partly by reason of the heat which is there partly because of the motion of the Heavens which carrieth along with it the element of fire and the upper region of the air by which motion heat is produced in inferiour bodies for the air being carried along by the Heaven is heated by that motion and by the proximity of the Sunne and of the Element of fire Flames that appear in the upper part of the air are made thus The Sun by his warmth extracteth a kind of breath out of the Earth which if hot and dry is called exhalation and if hot and moist vapour Exhalation ascends higher as being higher and being got into the upper region of the air is there enkindled by the motion of the air and proximity of the fire Hence come those they call fire-brands goates falling-starres and the like Hence are also Phasmes such as are called gulses chasmes bloody colours and the like the exhalation being variously colour'd by reflection of the light but chiefly seeming purple which colour ariseth from the mixture of fire and white The efficient cause of Comets are the Sun and stars the materiall an exhalation hot dry condensed and combustible so as it burnes not much nor is soon extinguished It is called a Comet or airy starre when it is a like on every side a pogoneia or bearded starre when it hath a long train That it consists of fire is manifest because at the same time there is commonly great winde and drought It appears seldome and then single and beyond the Tropicks because starres especially the Sun dissipate the matter whereof it consists The Galaxie is not the light of many starrs together as Anaxagoras held but an exhalation hot and dry kindled by the motion of many great starrs which are in that part where the Galaxie appeareth We come next to those meteors which are in the middle and lower region of the air When the Sun and other Starres draw up vapours out of waterish places into the middle region of the air they are there kept so long untill they are condensed by the cold of that place into drops of water which if they come down very small are called misling if greater rain This thick vapour which is seen suspended in the aire and changeth from air to water is a Cloud Mist is the superfluity of a cloud condensed into water Vapour attracted by a small heat not much above the earth and descending more condensed by the nocturnall cold becometh either dew or frost Frost when it congealeth before it resolves into water Dew when it turnes into water so as the warmth cannot dry it up nor the cold freez it Snow is a congealed cloud rain dew frost and snow differ almost only in bignesse and smalnesse Haile though it be of the same nature as ice yet is seldome produced in winter as being caused by Antiperistasis As the air above the earth condensed becommeth vapour and vapour by cold becommeth water so doth it also in the caverns and receptacles of the earth by a continuall mutation first it turnes into little drops then those little into greater Hence comes all springs and heads of rivers abundantly flowing out at one part of the earth Hence great Rivers and Fountains commonly flow from great hills which have greatest caverns The parts of the earth are in continuall mutation sometimes humid sometimes dry sometimes fertile sometimes desert by new eruptions or defections of rivers or accesse or recesse of the sea according to certain periods of time Thus have the parts of the earth their youth and age as well as plants and living creatures by the heat and conversion of the Sun Time and the World are eternall but Nilus and Tanais were not alwaies for those places whence they first issued were once dry grounds The proper place of water is the concave superficies of the aire This place the Sea compassing the earth possesseth for the swift and more rare water is drawn upwards by the heat of the Sun the salt more thick and terrene setleth downwards For this reason all waters tend to the sea as to their proper place yet hereby the Sea is not enlarged for the sun draweth out of it by reason of its expansion as great a quantity of water as it receiveth from rivers The sea is as the world eternall the saltnesse thereof proceedeth from admixtion of some terrene adust exhalation From the top of the Sea is drawn up a fresh vapour from the bottom heated by the Sun an exhalation which passeth through the Sea and commeth up with the vapour but falling back into the Sea bringeth that saltnesse with it as water passed often through ashes Winds are produced by the Sun and Starrs of a hot dry
manner The Univâ—rse being set on fire the midle part thereof first setled downwards then the next parts by little and little were quenched Thus the Universe being wet the extream fire the midle part opposing it sprang upward and began the costitution of the World and the revolution of this constitution shall never end For as the parts of every thing are at certain times produced of Seed so the parts of the Universe amongst which are living Creatures and Plants are produced in their seasons and as some reasons of the parts are mixed together in the seed which being composed are again dissolved so of one are all things made and again of one is all compounded by an equall and perpâ—tuall revolution The World is One of the same corporeall substance and of a Sphaericall figure for this is of all figures most apt for motion Thus Zeno Chrysippus Pâ—ssidonius and others The World is feared in an infinite incorporeall vacuity which is beyond it circumfused about it into which the world shall be dissolved by conflagration The World is finite the vacuity infinite yet Pâ—ssidonius saith it is no more then will suffice for the resolution of the World when it shall pâ—rish By this argument they consute the motion of Atomes downward introduced by Epicure for in that which is infinite there are no locall differences of high or low The world is not heavy because the whole fabrick thereof consisteth of heavy and light Elements and being placed in the midst whither such bodies tend it keepeth its place In the World there is no vacuity but it is compleatly one for that necessitates a conspiration and harmony betwixt Celestialls and Terrestrialls The World only is self-sufficient because it alone hath all in it self whereof it standeth in no need Of it self it is nourished and augmented whereas the parts are transmuted and converted into one another The World is a perfect body the parts of the World are not perfect because they are respective to the whole and not of themselves The Universe is by Nature apt to move it self in all parts to contain preserve and not break dissolve and burn it self the Universe sending and moving the same point and the parts thereof having the same motion from the Nature of the body Like it is that this first motion is naturally proper to all Bodies namely to encline towards the midst of the World considering the World moveth so in regard of it self and the parts likewise in that they are parts of the whole The World is a living Creature rationall animate and intellectuall so Chrysippus Apollodorus and Pâ—ssidonius and hath an animate sensible essence For a living Creature is more excellent then that which is not a living Creature but nothing is more excellent then the World therefore the World is a living Creature That it is animate is manifest from our Soul which is a piece therof taken out of it but Boethius denies that the world is a living Creature The mind or Providence passeth through every part thereof as the Soul doth in us but in some parts more in others lesse through some permeating as a habit as in the bones and Nerves through some as a mind as through the principall Hegemonick part In like manner the whole World is an animate rationall Creature the Hegemonicall part thereof is the Aether as Antipater the Tyrian in his eighth Book of the World But Chrysippus in his first of Providence and Pâ—ssidonius of the Gods affirm that Heaven is the Hegemonick of the World Cleanthes the Sunne But Chrysippus in the same Book differing from what he said before affirmeth it to be the purest part of the Aether which they call the first God sensibly because it passeth through all in the air and through all living Creatures and Plants but through the Earth as a habit The World according to the greater part of Stâ—iâ—ks is corrupâ—ible for it is generated in the same manner as things comprehensible by sense Again if the parts thereof be corruptible the whole is also corruptible but the parts of the World are corruptible for they are dayly changed into one another therefore the whole it selfe is corruptible And again if any thing admit any change into the worse it is corruptible but the World doth for it admitteth exâ—iccation and inundation therefore c. The World shall perish by fire caused by the power of fire which is in all things which after a long time consuming all the moisture shall resolve all things into it self The Moon Stars and Sun saith Cleanthes shall perish but God shall assimilate all things to himself and resolve all into himself This opinion of the generall conflagration of the World was held by the first and most antient of this Sect Zeno Cleanthes and Chrysippus This fire is the Seed of the World after the conflagration it diffuseth it self even into the Vacuity that was beyond the World Afterwards by order of the same reason which made the World it shall withdraw and contract itself towards the generation of a new World yet not be quite extinguished but so as that some portion thereof remain for as much as it is the cause of motion But Boethius Pâ—ssidonius and Panaetius deny this conflagration of the World conceiving rather that the VVorld is eternall to whom likewise Diogenes the Babylonian assents CHAP. VI. Of Elements GOd having converted as we said all matter into moisture and prepared it for the generation of future things in the next place produced the foure Elements Fire VVater Air and Earth Of these discourseth Zeno in his Book of the Universe and Chrysippus in his first of Physicks and Archedemus of Elements Element is that of which generated things are first made and into which they are resolved The foure Elements are matter or substance endued with quality Fire is hot water moist Aire cold Earth dry yet not so but that in Aire tâ—ere is part of the same quality for in the highest it is fire which is called Aether in which is generated the first sphear of Planets next Air then Water the basis of all Earth being placed in the midst of all c Of the four Elements two are light Fire and Air the other two Earth and water heavy which properly tend to the centre but the centre it self is no way heavy CHAP. VII Of Fire THE first Element is that of Fire which as all bodies tend to the middle enclineth as much as the lightnesse of its Nature permits to the centre of the world by a circular motion round about it There are according to Zeno two kinds of fire one artificiall requisite to the use of life which converteth nutriment into it self the other inartificiall so Cicero renders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which all things grow and are preserved for whatsoever is nourished and groweth compriseth within it self the
power of heat This fire is diffused through all the parts of the World and they are all sustained by it That it is in the Earth appeareth by Seeds and Roots which spring up and grow by the temperament of this heat That it is in Water appeareth forasmuch as Water is susceptible of greater cold as by freezing It is consequently in air also that being a vapour extracted from Water and supply'd by motion of the heat which is in the Water But primarily and originally it is in the Element of fire a Nature absolutely hot which dispenseth salutary vitall heat to all other things This is Nature saith Zeno and the Soul Of fire consist the Sun Moon and Starrs CHAP. VIII Of the Starres IN the aether are generated the Starrs of the noblest and purest part thereof without admixtion of any other Nature wholly hot and pellucid animate creatures indued with sense and Intellect Possidonius defineth a Star a divine body consisting of sethericall fire splendid and fiery never resting but alwaies moving circularly That the Starrs are wholly fiery Cleanthes proveth by the testimony of two senses touch and sight For the Lustre of the Sun is brighter then of any fire seeing that it shines so far and wide to so vast a world and such is its touch that it not onely warmeth but oftentimes burneth neither of which it would do if it were not fiery Now saith he the Sun being fiery is either like that fire which is requisite to the use of life or unto that which is contained in the bodies of living creatures but this our fire which the use of life requireth is a consumer of all things disturbeth and dispatcheth all things On the contrary the other is corporeall vitall and salutary it conserveth all things it nourisheth enâ—reaseth sustaineth and affecteth with sense therefore saith he there 's no question to which of these fires the Sun is like for he causeth all things to flourish and sprout up according to their severall kinds Wherefore the fire of the Sun being like those fires which are in the bodies of living creatures the Sun must be a living creature also and so must be likewise the rest of the Starres in the celestiall fire which is called Aether or Heaven For seeing that of living creatures one kinde is generated in the earth other kinds in the water others in the aire it were absurd to think that in that part which is most apt for generation of living creatures no living creature is generated The Starrs possesse the Aether which being most rare and in perpetuall agitation and vigour it is necessary the living creature that is generated in it be endued with most acute sense quickest mobility The starrs therefore have sense and intelligence whence it followeth that they are to be reputed Gods For we say that they who live in the purest aire are much more acute and understanding then those who live in a thick climate The diet likewise is thought to conduce not a little to the sharpening of the understanding Whence it is probable the starrs are endued with most excellent understanding forasmuch as they dwell in the aetheriall part of the world and are nourished with exhalations from the Sea and Earth extenuated by a long distance The sense and intellect of the Starrs is chiefly manifest from their order and constancy for nothing can be moved by proportion and number without providence in which nothing is temerarious nothing various nothing casuall But the order of Starrs and constancy throughout all eternity cometh neither from Nature for that is void of Reason nor from Fortune which affecteth variety and disalloweth constancy Again all things are moved either naturally or violently or voluntarily Those which move naturally are carried either by their weight downward or by their lightnesse upwards neither of which is proper to the Starres for their motion is circular Neither can it be said that they are moved violently against their own nature for what power can be greater it remaineth therefore that their motion be voluntary No fire can subsist without some aliment the starres therefore are nourished by the vapours of the earth Of Starrs according to Câ—rysippus there are two sorts both which are by nature divine animate and providentiall the fixed and the Erratick The multitude of the fixed is incomprehensible the Erratick are lower then the fixed The fixed are all ranked in one superficies as is manifest to the sight the erratick in severall The sphear of fixed starrs includeth that of the erratick The highest of the erratick and next to the fixed starres is the sphear of Saâ—urn next that of Iupiter after which that of Mars then that of Mercury then that of Venus then that of the Sun and lastly that of the Moon which being neerest the air seemeth therefore aeriall and hath greatest influence upon terrestriall bodies Saturn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 finisheth his course in almost thirty years Iupiter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in twelve Mars 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in twenty foure Months wanting six daies Mercury 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a year Venus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lowest of the five Planets in a year The Sun and the Moon are properly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Starrs but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 differ for every 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but not the contrary The rising of a star Chrysippus defineth its advancement above the earth and the setting thereof its occultation under the earth The same starrs at the same time rise to some and set to others The apparition of a star 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is its rising together with the Sun and the setting thereof is its setting with the Sun for setting is taken two waies in opposition to rising and in opposition to apparition As the apparition of the Dogâ— star is its rising together with the Sun and its setting is its occultation under the earth together with the Sun The same is said of the Pleiades CHAP. IX Of the Sun NExt Venus the lowest Planet is the Sun the chiefe of all that consist of this aetheriall fire The Sun is defined by Cleanthes and Chrysippus an intellectuall Taper gather'd and kindled from the vapours of the Sea Possidonius defineth the Sun a most pure fire greater then the earth of a sphaericall figure as Cleanthes also affirmes answerable to that of the world That the Sun is fiery is manifest in that it hath all the operations of fire and forasmuch as he is fire it followeth that hee must be nourished The Sun is nourished by exhalations from the great Ocean According to the expansion of this subjected aliment saith Cleanthes in his motion from Tropick to Tropick He moveth in a spirall line from the Aequinoctiall towards the North and towards the South Zeno saith he hath two
key-hole I shewed them how desperately ill I was and bespoke them to come on the morrow to the funerall of Pherecydes There was another of this name of the same Island an Astrologer there are more mentioned by Suidas FINIS THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY The Second Part. Containing the Ionick Philosophers LONDON Printed for Humphrey Moseley and are to be sold at his Shop at the Princes Armes in St. Pauls Church-yard and by Thomas Dring at the George in Fleetstreet neere Cliffords Inne 1655. ANAXIMANDER CHAP. I. Of his life PHilosophy had a twofold beginning one from Anaximander another from Pythagoras Anaximander was Disciple to Thales whence that Philosophy was called Ionick Thales being an Jonian for he was of Miletus Pythagoras was Disciple to Pherecydes that king of Philosophy called from the place where he taught Italick Thales was succeeded by Anaximander Anaximander by Anaximenes Anaximenes by Anaxagoras Anaxagoras by Arceolans in whom as Plutarch Laertius and others affirm it ended Socrates the scholer of Archelans introducing Morality Anaximander a Milesian â—ountryman companion and Kinsman of Thales was his Disciple also and successor in the propagation of his Doctrine son of Praxiades corruptly called by some Praxidamus born the third year of the 42 Olympiad He flourished most in the time of Polycrates Tyrant of Samos He demonstrated the compendium of Geometry being next Homer the first Master of that science hee first set forth a Geographick table of which Laertius is to be understood who affirms he designed the circumference of the Sea and land In the 50. Olympiad he found out the obliquity of the Zodiack that is saith Pliny he opened the gates of things He invented the Gnomon set up the first in an open place at Lacedaemon He found out the Aequinoctiall Solstices and Horologies He framed Horoscopes to denote the Tropicks and Aequinoxes whence Salmasius conceives the use of his diall was onely to delineate the Tropick and Aequinoctiall points that they did not serve to distinguish the hours or twelve parts of the day he proveth because the very name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that sence or the division of the day into twelve equall parts was not known a long time after He advised the Lacedaemonians to quit their City and houses and to lie armed in the open field foretelling an Earthquake which threw down the whole City and tore away piece of the Mountain Taygetus As he sung the boyes used to deride him whereupon hee said we must learn to sing better for the boyes Of his Auditors are remembred Anaximenes and Parmenides Of his writings these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of Nature This treatise perhaps Laertius meanes who saith he digested his opinions into Commentaries which Book fell into the hands of Apollodorus the Athenian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of the Sphear with other things He was according to Apollodorus 64 years old the second yeare of the 58. Olympiad and died soon after CHAP. 2. Of his Opinions Sect. 1. That Infinity is the principle of all things THales saith Cicero who held that all things consist of water could not perswade his Countryman and Companion Anaximander thereto for he asserted That infinity is that whereof all things were made or according to Plutarch Laertius and Iustine Martyr that it is the principle and element of things for these two he confounded as was observ'd of his Master Thales but not declared what this infinity is whether Air Water Earth or any other body for which condemned by Plutarch That it is one infinite in magnitude not number whence Aristotle reprehends him for imagining contrarieties can proceed from the same principle That it is for that reason infinite that it may not fail That the parts thereof are changed the whole is immutable Symplicius saith moveable That out of it all things proceed and resolve into it That there are infinite worlds generated which corrupt into that whereof they were generated Sect. 2. Of the Heavens HIs opinion according to Cicero was that the Gods are native having a beginning rising and setting by long intervalls and that there are innumerable worlds This Plutarch and Stobaeus apply to the Heavens and Stars But how can we addes Cicero understand a God that is not eternall That Heaven consists of cold and heat mixed That the starrs are globous instances consisting of air full of fire respiring flames at some certain part moved by the circles and sphears wherein they inhere which assertion Aristotle borrowed from hence That the Sun is seated highest the moon next then the sixed starres and Planets That the circle of the Sun is 28. times Theodoret saith 27. greater then the earth having a hollow circle about it like a Chariot wheel full of fire in one part whereof there is a mouth at which the fire is seen as out of the hole of a â—lute which is the Sun equall in bignesse with the Earth That the cause of the Sunn's Eclipse is the stopping that hole in the midst out of which the fire issues That the circle of the Moon is 29. times greater then the Earth like a Chariot wheel having a hollow or be in the midst full of fire like the Sun and oblique breathing fire out at one part as out of a tunnel That the Eclipse of the Moon happens according to her conversions when the mouth out of which the â—ire issueth is stopped That the Mooon hath a light of her own but very thin that she shineth in the light she borroweth from the Sun which two assertions are so far from being inconsistent that it is the common opinion â— both are true Sect. 3. Of Meteors THat wind is a fluxion of the air when the most subtle and liquid parts thereof are either stirr'd or resolved by the Sun That Thunders lightnings presters and whirlewinds are caused by the wind enclosed in a thick cloud which by reason of its lightnesse breaketh forth violently the rupture of the cloud maketh a crack and the divulsion by reason of the blacknesse causeth a slashing light Seneca more expressely He ascribed all to wind Thunder saith he is the sound of a breaking cloud why unequall because the breakings are unequall Why doth it thunder in a clear day Because even then the wind breaks through the thick and dry air Why sometimes doth it thunder and not lighten Because the thinner and weaker spirit is able to make a flame but not a sound What is lightning The agitation of the air severing it self and rushing down disclosing a faint fire What is Thunder The motion of a piercing thick spirit All things are so ordered that some influence descend from the Aether upon inferiour things so fire sounds forced upon cold clouds When it breaks them
the common rule of naturall Philosophers of nothing proceeds nothing it is not possible any thing can be made of that which is not or that which hath a being can be resolved into that which hath none Secondly because contraries are made mutually of each other therefore they were in each other before for if it be necessary that whatsoever is made be made of that which is or is not but that it should be made of that which is not impossible wherein all agree that ever discoursed upon nature it followes necessarily that they be made of things that are and are within these very things though by reason of their smallnesse not discernable by us Hence is it that they say every thing is mixt with every thing because they see any thing made of any thing but things seem different and are called diverse in respect to one another by reason that the multitude of infinites which are within aboundeth in the mistion for the whole is neither quite white nor black flesh nor bone but every thing seemeth to be of the nature of that whereof it hath most of simple nourishment as bread water and the like are bred the hair veines arteries nerves bones and other parts of the body all things are therefore in this food as nerves bones and the like discernable by reason though not by sense Of these Atomes the whole world consisteth as gold of grains these homogeneall parts are the matter of all things his opinion is thus exprest by Lucretius Next Anaxagoras we must pursue And his Homoiomeria review A term that 's no where mention'd but among The Greeks too copious for our naâ—row tongue Yet may the sense be in more words arraid The principle of all things entrailes made Of smallest entrails bone of smallest bone Blood of small sanguine drops reduc'd to one Gold of small graines earth of small sands compacted Small drops to water sparks to fire contracted The like in every thing suppos'd yet he Nature asserted from all vacuum free And held that each corporeall being might Be subdivided into infinite That God is an infinite selfe-moving mind that this divine infinite mind not inclosed in any body is the efficient cause of all things out of the infinite matter consisting of similar parts every thing being made according to its species by the divine minde who when all things were at first confusedly mingled together came and reduced them to order Sect 2. Of the Heavens That the higher parts of the world are full office the power that is there he called aether and that properly saith Aristotle for the body which is continually in quick motion is conceived to be divine by nature for that reason called aether none of those that are here below being of that kind That the ambient aether being of a fiery nature by the swiftnesse of its motion snatcheth up stones from the earth which being set on fire become starres all carried from East to West That the Startes are impelled by the condensation of the aire about the Poles which the Sun makes more strong by compressing That the starres are earthly and that after the first secretion of the Elements the fire separating it selfe drew some parts of the earth to its own nature and made them like fire Whereupon he farther affirmed The Sun is a burning plate or stone many times bigger then Peloponnesus whose conversionn is made by the repulse of the Northern aire which he by compressing makes more strong the Moon is a dark body enlightned by the Sun habitable having plaines hills and waters that the inequality in her face proceeds from a mixture cold and earthly for there is darknesse mixt with her fiery nature whence she is called a star of false light Plato saith that the Moon was occasion of dishonour to him because he assumed the originall of this opinion of her borrowing light to himselfe whereas it was much moreantient That the milky way is the shadow of the earth upon that part of heaven when the Sun being underneath enlightens not all Or as Aristotle that the Milkie way is the light of some starres for the Sun being under the earth looks not upon some starres the light of those on whom he looks is not seen being swallowed up in his the proper light of those which are hindred by the earth from the Suns illumination is the Galaxy Laertius saith he held the Galaxy to be the reflection of the light of the Sun Sect. 3. Of Meteors THat Comets are the coâ—apparition of wandring starres which approach so near each other as that they seem to touch one another Or as Laertius the concourse of Planets emitting flames That falling starres are shot down from the aether as sparkles and therefore soon extinguished That Thunder is the collision of Clouds lightning their mutuall attrition Or as Plutarch the cold falling upon the hot or the aetheriall upon the aeriall the noise which it makes is Thunder of the blacknesse of the cloud is caused lightning of the greatnesse of the light Thunderbolts of the more corporeall fire whirle-winds of the more cloudy Presters That lightning distills from the aether and that from that great heat of Heaven many things fall down which the clouds preserve a long time enclosed That the Rain-bow is a refraction of the Suns light upon a thick dark cloud opposite to him as a looking glasse by the same reason faith he appeared chiefly in Pontus two or more Suns That Earth quakes are caused by the aire or aether which being of its own nature apt to ascend when it gets into the veines and cavernes of the earth finding difficulty in the getting out causeth that shaking for the upper parts of the earth contract themselves by the benefit of rain Nature having made the whole body thereof alike laxe and spungy the parts as in a Ball superiour and inferiour the superiour that which is inhabited by us the inferiour the other This wind getting into the inferiour parts breaks the condensed aire with the same force as we see clouds broken when upon the collision of them and motion of the agitated aire sire breaks forth this aire falls upon that which is next seeking to get out and tears in pieces whatsoever it meets untill through those narrow passages it either finds a way to Heaven or forceth one which Laerâ—ius obscurely expresseth the repulsion of the air upon the earth THat Snow is not white but black nor did it seem white to him because he knew the water whereof it is congealed to be black Sect 4. Of the Earth THat the begining of motion proceeding from the mind the heavie bodies obtained the lowest place as the earth the light the highest as the fire those betwixt both the middle as the aire and water thus the sea subsists upon the superficies of the earth which is flat the
divided into six Scalenums The Icosaeders of twenty in the same manner but the element of a Cube is an Isosceles triangle for foure such triangles concurring make a square and six squares a Cube God made use of a Dodecaedron in the construction of the Universe whence there are twelve figures of living creatures in the Zodiack whereof each is divided into thirty parts Likewise in a Dodecaedron which consisteth of twelve Pentagones if each be divided into five triangles there are in every one six triangles so that in the whole Dodecaedron there will be 360 triangles as many as there are dâ—grees in the Zodiack When matter was put into those figures by God first it was moved rudely without order untill at last he reduced it to order each being conjoyned to one another and composed in due proportion Neither are these distinct in place but are in perpetuall motion which they give likewise into matter For being straitned by the compasse of the world and agitated by mutuall justlings they are driven the rare alwaies into the region of the solid whence nothing is left vacuous nothing void of body The inequality which remaineth amongst them causeth convulsion for matter is agitated amongst them and they reciprocally by matter CHAP. XIV Of the Soul of the World the Sphears and Stars FRom Bodies hee alloweth that we collect the powers of the Soul for seeing that we discern all things by the Soul hee justly placed the principles of all things therein that whatsoever should occur we might contemplate it by that which is of kin and neighbour unto it and attribute an essence thereunto consonant to the functions Then therefore he called one substance intelligible and indivisible he placed another divisible amongst bodies to signifie that the knowledge as well of the one as of the other may be had by Intellect And knowing that in things intelligible and sensible there is identity and diversity he fitly composed the Soul out of all these For either the like is known by the like as the Pythagoreans hold or as Heraclitus the Naturalist unlike alwaies by unlike That he would that the World should be generate we must not so understand as if there shall be any time wherein the world is not but in as much as it alwaies perisheth in generation and declareth that there is some more excellent and principall cause of its essence The soul of the world which was from all eternity was not made by God but only adorned by him in which respect he is sometimes said to have made it for that he exciteth it and converteth the mind thereof as out of a profound sleep unto himself that beholding his intelligibles and affecting his notions it should from thence receive Species and form whence it is manifest that the World was endued by God both with a Soul and mind For intending it to be the best he must have made it animate and intelligent since an animate thing is more excellent then an inanimate and an intelligent then an unintelligent perhaps the mind also could not subsist without a Soul This Soul being diffused from the Centre of the world to the extreams compreâ—endeth the whole body of the World so as it is extended throughout the Universe and in that manner joyneth and conserveth the whole The externall preside over the internall for they are not divided but these are divided into seven Circles from the first distributed according to duple and triple Intervalls That which is comprehended by the indivisible sphear is correspondent to it that which is divided to the other For the motion of Heaven which comprehendeth all things being not uncertain is one and ordinate but that of the things within it is changeable varied by rising and setting whence called Planetary The outermost sphear moveth to the right hand from East to West the innermost contrariwise to the left hand from West to East meeting the World God framed also the Stars and constellations some fixed for the Ornament of Heaven and might very many in number The Erratick are seaven serving for number and time and the illumination of all things for time is an intervall of the motion of the World as an image of eternity which is the measure of the state of the eternall World The Planets are not of equall power the Sun is the leader of all who illuminateth and sheweth all things to the eye Next the Moon which in respect of her power hath the second place The rest of the Planets each according to their severall proportions The Moon maketh the measure of a Month in that space compleating its circle and overtaking the Sun The Sun measureth the Year for running through the circle of the Zodiack he compleateth the seasons of the year Of the other starrs each hath its proper revolution with which all men are not acquainted but only the Learned By all those revolutions the absolute number of time is compleated when coming all to the same point they are in such order as if we should imagine a right line to be drawn from the sphear of fixed stars to the Earth the Centers of them all would be seen in that line There being seven Orbes in the Planetary sphear the maker of the World framed in them seven conspicuous bodies of matter for the most part fiery and inserted them into the sphears belonging to the other Erratick Circle The Moon he placed in that Circle which is next the Earth the Sun in the second the Morning-star and the sacred Star of Mercury in that Orbe which is equall in swiftnesse with the Sun The rest higher each in his proper sphear That of Saturn the slowest of all he placed in that Orbe which is next to the sixed stars Second to this is that which they call the sphear of Iupiter next that of Mars the eighth which is the Supream power includeth all These are all living intelligent Creatures and Gods endued with a sphericall figure CAAP. XV. Of Daemons and Elements THere are other Daemons also which we may call Intelligent Gods in each of the Elements partly visible partly invisible in the aether fire air and water that there be not any part of the World void of Soul or of an animate creature more excellent then humane nature Below these are all earthly sublunary things God is maker of the World of all Gods and Daemons This Universe by his Divine Wil shall not be dissolved Over the rest his Sons preside who by his command and example order whatsoever they do By these loâ—s nocturnall visions dreams Oracles and whatsoever men referre to divination is artificially wrought The Earth is fixed in the midst of all round about the Axletree which passeth through the midst of the World It is the observer of night and day the most antient of all Gods in Heaven Next the Soul of the World it affordeth us most nutriture about it the Heavens move and it self is a kind of Starre It remaineth in its
proper place which by reason of its even weight is the Centre the aether extâ—riour is divided into the sphear of fixed Starrs and that of Planets Next to these is the Air in the midst the Earth with its humidity CHAP. XVI Of the younger Gods makers of men AFter that all these were framed there remained three kinds of living Creatures which were to be mortall Volatile Aquatile and Terrestriall the generation whereof he committed to his Son left if he himself had begotten them they should have been immortall as well as the rest They borrowing some little parts from first matter for a certain time formed mortall living Creatures and because of Mankind as being next to the Gods both the Father of all things and his Sons likewise have a particular care the Maker of all things sent down himself their Soules into the earth equall in number to the Starrs having imposed each one his proper Star as a vehiculum like a Law-giver he pronounced decrees unto them that he himself might be inculpable which was that there should arise mortall affections from the body first senses next pleasure then grief and fear and anger which those soules that should overcome and not suffer themselves to be transported by them should justly be accounted Victors and at the last return to their proper Star though they which should be transported by injustice should in the second generation undergoe the lives of women wherein if they ceased not from their wickednesse they should at last transmigrate into the Nature of brute Beasts the end of these Labours shall then be when they have overcome the innate affections of the body and then return to their proper habit CHAP. XVII Of the Body and parts of man and Powers of the Soul THe Gods first formed man of Earth Fire Air and Water borrowing some parts from matter to be restored in their due time which they so connected to one another by secret ties as that of all these they framed one body The most excellent part of the soul that was sent down from Heaven they placed in the Head for which as a manured Field they prepared the Brain About the face they disposed Organs proper for sense Marrow they made of smooth straight triangles of which the Elements were formed that it should be the Origine of prolifick seed Benes they formed of Marrow and Earth the Earth moistned and often dipt in Water and Fire Flesh is compounded of salt and sharpe as of a kind of ferment Marrow they enclosed with bones bones with sinewes instead of chaines that by these inflexions the knitting of the joints might be plyant Over these as a cover is extended the Skin partly white partly black for beauty and use Of these likewise consist the internall bowells and the belly and the intestines every where rolled about it And from the mouth above the aspera arteria and the oesophagus of which one commeth down to the stomack the other to the Lungs Meat is digested in the belly by spirit and heat and thence distributed to the whole body according to their severall constitutions The two veines passing along the spine of the Back meet and crosse at the head where they spread into many parts Thus when the Gods had made man and given him a soul as the Mistresse of his body they placed the principall part of that soul to which Reason appertaineth in the head Whence is derived marrow and sinewes and by the different affection of this the minde likewise is altered Moreover they gave him senses as the attendants of Reason and the power of judging and contemplating with Reason Those parts of the soul which are moved by meaner affections they seated in lower places the irascible part in the heart the concupiscible about the belly and the parts next to the Navell of which hereafter CHAP. XVIII Of sight AFter that the Gods had placed the eyes conduits of light in the face they included in them a fiery light which being smooth and in some manner thick they conceived of kin to diurnall light This breaketh forth every where at the Eyes but chiefly through the Eye-balls as being there most pure and clear This agreeing with the externall light as like with like affordeth the sense of sight whence in the night when the light vanisheth and is obscured this ray of ours no longer mingleth with the immediate air but on the contrary withdrawing it self inwards smooths and diffuses the motions that are in us and so bringeth on sleep whereby the eyelids are shut If it bring much rest the sleep is little disturb'd with dreams but if there remain any motions behind we are troubled with many illusions In this manner phantasies whether true or false arise Of the same Nature are images which we see in glasses or other smooth pellucid bodies which exist only by reflection For as the glasse is concave or convex or oblong the object is differently represented to the beholder The light being reflected to other parts those which are dispersed in convex meet in the concave for in some the right and left sides seem quite inverted in others alike in others those which are upwards seem downwards and on the contrary those which are downwards upwards CHAP. XIX Of the rest of the Senses HEaring is given for the perception of voice it ariseth from a motion made about the head and setteth in the liver Voice is that which passeth through the ears brain and bloud to the Soul A sharp voice is that which is moved swiftly deep which slowly great which much small which little Next followeth the sense proper to the Nostrills perceptible of odour Odour is an affection which passeth from the veines of the Nostrills to the parts of the Navell The Species thereof have no name except the two that are most common pleasant and unpleasant commonly called sweet and stinking All Odour is more thick then Air more thin then Water for Odour is properly said to be of those things which have not yet received perfect mutation but consist of a communion of Air and Water as smoke and mists For by the resolution of these into one another the sense of smelling is made Tast was made by the Gods to be the judge of different savours Hence are veines extended to the Heart by whcih several â—avours are examined These Veins by dilating or contracting themselves severally according to the Sapors presented to them discern their differences The differences of Sapours are seven sweet sharp sowre picqueant salt acid bitter the Nature of sweet Sapour is contrary to all the rest for by its power it sootheth and pleaseth the moisture of the tongue whereas of the rest some disturb and â—dispell it as acute Sapors some heat and fly upwards as the hot others being abstersive dissolve it as the bitter others are by degrees purgative and abstersive as the salt Of these some contract the passages they which do it more roughly are called acid they
God Hence Platonists argue the World is eternall its soul being such and not capable of being without a body that also must be from eternity as likewise the motion of the Heavens because the Soul cannot be without moving Sect. VII THe antient Ethnick Theologians who cast Poeticall vails over the face of their mysteries expresse these three natures by other names Coelum they call God himself he produc'd the first Mind Saturn Saturn the Soul of the World Iupiter Coelum imples Priority and excellence as in the Firmament the first Heaven Saturn signifies Intellectuall nature wholly imploy'd in contemplation Iupiter active life consisting in moving and governing all subordinate to it The properties of the two latter agree with their Planets Saturn makes Men Contemplative Iupiter Imperious The Speculative busied about things above them the Practick beneath them Sect. VIII WHich three names are promiscuously used upon these grounds In God we understand first his Excellence which as Cause he hath above all his effects for this he is called Coelus Secondly the production of those effects which denotes conversion towards inferiours in this respect he is sometimes called Iupiter but with an addition Optimus Maximus The first Angelick nature hath more names as more diversity Every creature consists of Power and Act the first Plato in Philebo calls Infinite the second Finite all imperfections in the Mind are by reason of the first all perfections from the latter Her operations are threefold About Superiours the contemplation of God about the knowledge of herself about inferiours the production and care of this sensible World these three proceed from Act. By Power she descends to make inferiour things but in either respect is firm within her self In the two first because contemplative she is called Saturn in the third Iupiter a name principally applyed to her power as that part from whence is derived the act of Production of things For the same reason is the soul of the World as she contemplates her self or superiours termed Saturn as she is imployed in ordering worldly things Iupiter and since the government of the World belongs properly to her the contemplation to the Mind therefore is the one absolutely called Iupiter the other Saturn Sect. IX THis World therefore as all other creatures consisteth of a Soul and Body the Body is all that we behold compounded of the four Elements These have their casuall being in the Heavens which consist not of them as sublunary things for then it would follow that these inferiour parts were made before the Celestiall the Elements in themselves being simple by concourse causing such things as are compounded of them Their formal being from the Moon down to the Earth Their participate and imperfect under the Earth evident in the Fire Air and Water experience daily finds there evinc'd by naturall Philosophers to which the antient Theologians aenigmatically allude by their four infernall Rivers Acheron Cocytus Styx and Phlegeton We may divide the body of the World into three parts Celestiall Mundane Infernall The ground why the Poets â—eign the Kingdom of Saturn to be shar'd betwixt his three Sons Iupiter Neptune and Pluto implying only the three-fold variation of this corporeall World which as long as it remains under Saturn that is in its Ideal Intellectual being is one and undivided and so more firm and potent but falling into the hands of his Sons that is chang'd to this material Being and by them divided into three parts according to the triple existence of bodies is more infirm and lesse potent degenerating from a spiritual to a corporeal estate The first part the heavenly they attribute to Iupiter the last and lowest to Pluto the middle to Neptune And because in this principality is all generation and corruption the Theologians express it by the Ocean ebbing or flowing continually by Neptune understanding the Power or deity that presides over Generation Yet we must not imagine these to be different souls distinctly informing these three parts the World her self being one can have but one Soul which as it animates the subterraneall parts is called Pluto the sublunary Neptune the celestiall Iupiter Thus Plato in Philebo averrs by Jove is understood a regall soul meaning the principall part of the World which governs the other This opinion though only my owâ—â— I suppose is more true then the expositions of the Grecians Sect. X. NExt that of the World Platonists assign many other rational souls The eight principall are those of the heavenly Spheres which according to their opinion exceeded not that number consisting of the seven Planets and the starry Orb. These are the nine Muses of the Poets Calliope the universall soul of the World is first the other eight are distributed to their severall Spheres Sect. XI PLato asserts That the Author of the World made the mundane and all other rationall souls in one Cup and of the same Elements the universall soul being most perfect ours least whose parts we may observe by this division Man the chain that ties the World together is placed in the midst and as all mediums participate of their extreams his parts correspond with the whole World thence called Microcosmus In the World is first Corporeall Nature eternall in the Heavens corruptible in the Elements and their compounds as Stones Mettals c. Then Plants The third degree is of Beasts The fourth rationall souls The fifth Angelicall minds Above these is God their origine In man are likewise two bodies one eternall the Platonists Vehiculum coeleste immediately inform'd by the rational soul The other corruptible subject to sight consisting of the Elements Then the vegetative faculty by which generated and nourished The third part is Sensitive and motive The fourth Rational by the Latine Peripateticks believ'd the last and most noble part of the Soul yet above that is the Intellectuall and Angelick the most excellent part whereof we call the Souls Union immediately joyning it to God in a manner resembling him as in the other Angels Beasts and Plants About thâ—se Platonists differ Proâ—lus and Porphyrius only allow the rationall part to be Immortall Zenocrates and Speusippus the sensitive also Numenius and Plotinus the whole Soul Sect. XII IDeas have their casuall being in God their formall in the first Minde their participated in the rationall Soul In God they are not but produced by him in the Angelick nature through this communicated to the Soul by whom illuminated when she reflects on her intellectuall parts she receives the true formes of things Ideas Thus differ the Souls of Men from the Celestiall these in their bodily functions recede not from the Intellectuall at once contemplating and governing Bodies ascend to them they descend not Those employ'd in corporeall office are depriv'd of contemplation borrowing science from sence to this wholly enclin'd full of errors Their only means of release from this bondage is the amatory life which by sensible beauties exciting in the soul a remembrance
Parents living with Plato XEnocrates was of Chalcedon Son of Agatho or Agathenor From the years of his life 82. which in all probability ended when Polemo succeeded in the School the first year of the 116. Olympiad it may be gathered that he was born in the fourth year of the 95. Olympiad He heard Plato from his Childhood He was dull of apprehension whence Plato comparing him with Aristotle said one needs a spur the other a bridle what an ass what an horse have I to yoke together He was severe and had a sad look for which reason Plato oft said to him Xenocrates sacrifice to the Graces which was an usuall phrase to meâ—ancholy people Another time Plato sharply reprehended the roughnesse of his disposition which hee took quietly and unmoved saying to one that instigated him to reply in his own defence No this is an advantage to me He accompanied Plato in his voyage to Sicily where at a drinking Feast with Dionysius being honoured with a wreath of Gold instead of a Garland of flowers which were bestow'd upon the guests upon such occasions when he went away he put it upon the Statue of Mercury where they used to leave their ordinary Garments When Dionysius fell out with Plato and threatned to find one that should cut off his head Xenocrates made answer not before he hath cut off this shewing his own Aelian saith that Xenocrates having taken a journey into his own Country Aristotle with his Disciples came to Plato Sâ—eusippus was at that time sick and therefore could not be with Plato Plato being fourscore years old which falls upon the fourth year of the 107. Olympiad the year before his death his memory through age much decay'd Aristotle fell upon him with subtle sophisticall questions whereupon Plato gave over walking in publick and retired with his friends to his own house At the end of the three months Xenocrates returning from his travel finds Aristotle walking where he had left Plato and seeing that he and his friends when they went out of the School went not to Plato but to some other part of the City hee asked one there present what was become of Plato thinking he had been sick the other answer'd he is not sick but Aristotle hath molested him driven him out of the School so that now he teacheth Philosophy in his own Garden Xenocrates hearing this went immediately to Plato whom he found discoursing to his Disciples persons of great worth and eminence As soon as he had ended his discourse he saluted Xenocrates as he used very kindly and Xenocrates him When the company was dismiss'd Xenocrates without speaking a word of it to Plato getting his friends together after he had chid Speusippus for permitting Aristotle to possesse the School made a head against Aristotle and opposed him with his utmost force untill at last he reinstated him in the School Thus Aelian But this story which he acknowledgeth to have taken up on no better authority then vulgar report disagrees with many circumstances of Aristotle's life supported by far more credible Testimonies CHAP. II. His Profession of Philosophie AFter Speusippus had held the School eight years finding himself not able to continue that charge any longer hee sent to Xenocrates intreating him to take it upon him which Xenocrates did in the second year of the 110. Olympiad Lysimachides being Archon not without emulation and dissension with the Peripatâ—ticks for Aristotle at his return out of Macedonia finding Xenocrates possess'd of the Academy instituted a School in opposition to him in the Lycaeum saying Silent to be now most disgracefull were And see Xenocrates possess the Chair Some affirm that Alexander falling out with Aristotle to vex him sent a present to Xenocrates of 50. Talents where of Xenocrates took but 3000. Atticks and sent back the rest saying that he needed it most that was to maintain so many Or as Stobaeus relates it having entertained the Messenger after his usuall fashion go and tell Alexander saith he that after the rate I live I shall not need 50. Talents in all my life The money being brought back to Alexander he asked if Xenocrates had not any friend adding that as for his own friends the wealth of Darius was too little for them He asserted Unity and Duality to be Gods the first as it were Masculine in the nature of a Father raigning in Heaven whom he called also Iupiter the Odd and the Mâ—â—de The other as it were Female and the Mother commanding all things under Heaven This he called the Minde of the Universe He likewise asserts Heaven to be divine and the fiery starrs to be Olympian Gods the rest sublunary invisible Deities which permeate through the elements of matter whereof that which passeth through the air is called Iuno that which through the water Neptune that which through the earth Ceres This the Stoicks borrowed from him as he the former from Plato He continued Master of the School twenty five years untill the first year of the hundred and sixt Olympiad then his Disciple Polemo succeeded him During that time he lived very retired in the Academyâ— and if at any time he went into the City all the trades men and other people thronged to see him CHAP. III. His Vertues and Apophthegmes AMongst his other Vertues he was very remarkable for his Continence of which there is this instance Phryne a famous Athenian Curtezan having laid a wager with some young men his Disciples that he could not resist her enticements stole privately into his bed The next morning being question'd and â—aught at by his Disciples she said The wager they laid was of a man not of a stone To this end he used to mortifie himselfe by incision and cauterising of his flesh His wisdome and Sanctity was much reverenced by the Athenians for being to give his testimony and to swear as the custome was that he spoke nothing but truth the Judges all rose up and cryed out that he should not swear indulging that to his sincerity which they did not allow to one another Being sent with others to Philip on an Embassy the rest received gifts from him and went to treat in private with him Xenocrates did neither and for that part was not invited by him The Ambassadours returning to Athens said that Xenocrates went along with them to no purpose whereupon the Athenians were ready to impose a mulct upon him but when they understood by him that they were at that time to consider cheifly concerning the Common-wealth Philip having corrupted the rest with gifts and that he would not accept any they bestowed double honours upon him Philip said afterwards that of those who came to him only Xenocrates would not take any gifts Being sent in the time of the Lanâ—ack war which was about the second year of the 104th Olympiad Ambassadour to Antipater about the redemption of
Blood and the like what they are and to what end their matter and reason but especially whence they have their motion next to proceed to dissimilar parts and lastly to speak of those which consist therof as men Plants and the like Hence Patricius conjectures that his Books of the parts of living Creatures did immediately succeed those of the Meteors wherein he treateth as he proposeth of Similar parts unto the tenth Chapter of the second Book and from thence of the dissimilar But to reduce his Books of living Creatures to this method is the lesse certain for as much as many of these besides those which treated particularly of Anatomy have been lost of which perhaps were some which might better have cleared the series for in the Books themselves concerning Animals there is nothing to ground it upon For the same reason it is uncertain where his Books of Plants ought to have been placed which are lost Perhaps they might precede those of Animals for he asserts that Plants have souls contrary to the Stoicks endued with vegetative power that they live even though cut asunder as insects whereby two or more are made of one that the substance they receive by aliment and the ambient air is sufficient for the preservation of their naturall heat As concerning Animals we have Of their Going one Book Of their History ten Books Of their parts four Books Of their Generation five Books So exquisitely hath he treated upon this subject as cannot well be expressed by an abridgement and therefore we shall omit it the rather because little or nothing was done herein by the Academicks or Stoicks a collation with whom is the principall design of this summary CHAP. XIV Of the Soul THe knowledge of the Soul conduceth much to all Truth and especially to Physick for the Soul is as it were the principle of animate things Animate things differ from inanimate chiefly by motion and sense Whence the antient Philosophers defined the Soul by these Democritus the Pythagoreans Anaxagoras by motion Empedocles and Plato by knowledge others by both others by incorporeity or a rare body Thales something that moveth Diogenes air Heraclitus exhalation an immortall substance Hippo water Critias blood The soule doth not move it selfe as Democritus held for whatsoever is moved is moved by another Again if the soul were moved perse it would be in place and it were capable of being moved violently and it would be of the same nature with the body and might return into the body after the separation Neither is the soul moved by it selfe but from its objects for if it were moved essentially it might recede from its essence The soul therefore is not moved perse but by accident only according to the motion of the body The soul is not Harmony a proportionate mixture of contraries for then there must be more souls in the same body according to the different constitution of its parts But though we commonly say the soul grieveth hopeth feareth c. we are not to understand that the soul is moved but only that these are from the soul in the body that is moved some by locall motion of the Organs others by alteration of them To say the soul is angry is no more proper then to say she builds for it is the man that is angry by the soul otherwise the soul were liable to age decay and infirmity as well as the organs of the body Neither is the soul a rare body consisting of elements for then it would understand nothing more then the elements themselves neither is there a soul diffused through all things as Thales held for we see there are many things inanimate Some from the different functions of the soul argue that there are more souls then one in man or that the soul is divisible the supream intellectuall part placed in the head the irascible in the heart concupiscible in the liver But this is false for the Intellect is not confined to any part of the body as not being corporeall nor organicall but immateriall and immortall The soul is the first intelechie of a naturall organicall body having life potentially First Entelechie Entelechie is two-fold the first is the principle of operation as Science the second the Act it selfe Of a Naturall not of an artificiall body as a Tower or Ship Organicall body that is endued with instruments for operation as the eye for seeing the ear for hearing even plants have simple Organs Having life potentially as it were in it selfe for potentially is lesse then actually actually as in him that wakes potentially as in him that is asleep The soul is otherwise defined that by which we first live feel and understand whence appeareth there are three faculties of the soul nutritive sensitive intellective the inferiour comprehended by the superiour potentially as a triangle by a quadrangle CHAP. XV. Of the Nutritive faculty THe first and most common faculty of the Soul is the Nutritive by which life is in all things the acts and operation thereof are to be generated and to take nourishment Nutriment is received either towards Nutrition or augmentation Nutrition is the operation of the Nutritive faculty conducing to the substance it self of the animate being Augmentation is the operation of the Nutritive faculty whereby the animate body encreaseth to perfect Magnitude In nutrition are considered the Soul nourishing the body nourished and the food by which the nourishment is made hereto is required a Naturall heat which is in all living creatures The aliment is both contrary or unlike and like to the body nourished as it is undigested we say nourishment is by the contrary as altered by digestion like is nourished by its like CHAP. XVI Of the Sensitive Faculty THE Sensitive faculty of the Soul is that by which sence is primarily in Animals Sense is a mutation in the Organ caused by some sensible Object It is not sensible of it self nor of its Organ not of any interiour thing To reduce it to act is requisite some externall sensible object for sense cannot move it self being a passive power as that which is combustible cannot burn it self Of sensible Objects there are three kinds proper which is perceived by one sense without errour as colour in respect of sight Common which is not proper to any one but perceived by all Accidentall which as such doth not affect the sense Sense is either Externall or Internall the externall are five Seeing Hearing Smelling Touching Tasting The object of Seeing is Colour and some thing without a name that glisters in the dark as the scales of fish glow-worms and the like Colour is the motive of that which is actually perspicuous nothing therefore is visible without light Perspicuous is that which is visible not by it self but by some other colour or light as Air Water Glasse Light is the act of a perspicuous thing as it is perspicuous It is not fire not
for the Stoiâ—ks take away intellectuall substances affirming all things that are to be comprehended by sense onely differences are not subsistent A solid body according to Apollodorus is divisible three waies into length breadth and depth A superficies is the terme of a body or that which hath onely length and breadth but no depth thus Possidonius A line is the terme of a Superficies or a length without breadth that which hath length only A point is the terme of a line or thâ— least mark A body is divisible into infinite yet it consisteth not of infinite bodies CHAP. III. Of Principles THe place concerning bodies is divided into two degrees into those which produce and those which are produced the first Principles the second Elements â—Principles and Elements differ Principles are ingenerate incorruptible Elements shall perish by conflagration Moreover Principles are bodies and void of form Elements have forme There are two principles of all things the Agent and the Patient The Patient is a substance void of quality called Matter the Agent is the reason which is 〈◊〉 the Matter God Matter is sluggish a thing ready for all things but will cease if none move it The Causâ— that is the Reason â—formeth mâ—tter and moldeth it which way he pleaseth out of which he produceth various woâ—ks There must therefore be something out of which a thing is made and also by which it â—s made This is the Cause that Matter The Cause or active Reason is God In the Agent there is power in the Patient a certain matter or capacity and in both both for matter it selfe could not 〈◊〉 if it were not kept together by a power nor that power without some matter for there is nothing which is not compelled to be somewhere Both 〈◊〉 God and the World the Artist and his work they compâ—ehend within this terme Nature as if nature were God mixed through the World Sometimes they call that naturâ— which containeth the World sometimes that which generateth and produceth things upon the earth The Agent is as we said called the Cause A Cause according to Zeno is that by which there is an effect which is not a Cause 30 or as 〈◊〉 the reason of the effect or as Pâ—ssâ—donius the first Author of a thing A Cause is a body a not Cause a Categorem It is impossible that the cause being assigned the effect should not be present which is to be understood thus The Soule is the â—ause through which we live Prudence the Cause by which we are wise It is impossible that he who hath a Soule should not live or he who hath Prudence should not be wise CHAP. IV. Of Matter THe substance of all qualitative beings is first Matter according to Zeno and â—hrysippuâ— in his first of Physicks Matter is that of which every thing is made it hath two names 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Substance and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matter Substance is of all things in generall Matter of particulars Universall matter is according to Zeno wholly eternall not admitting as Chrysippus saith encâ—â—ase or deâ—rease Particular matter admitteth augmentation and diminution for it remaineth not alwaies the same but is separated and mixed so that according to Chrysippus its parts perish by separation and exist by mutuall mistion But those who call fire aire water and earth Matter assert not a thing void of forme but of a body Matter is a body and finite Possidonius saith that the substance and matter of the Universe is void of quality and form in as much as it hath not a certain figure and quality in it selfe but it is alwaies seen in some figure and quality But the substantiall nature of the Universe differs from matter intentionally only Matter is passible for if it were immutable things could not be generated of it Hence it followeth that it is divisible into infinite yet it selfe as Chrysippus saith it not infinite for nothing that is divisible is infinite but matter is continuous Through this matter Zeno affirmeth that the reason of the World which some call Fate is diffused as feed CHAP. V. Of the World OF this matter was made the World The World hath severall appellations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the â—ll 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Whole 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 World is taken three waies First for God himselfe who is properly qualified with all Essence incorruptible and ingenerate who framed the Universe after a certain period of time who resolved all nature into himselfe and again generated it out of himselfe Secondly for the starry Ornament and thirdly that which consists of both The All 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is one way taken as Apollodorus saith for the World and another way for the System of the World and the vacuity beyond it The World is finito the vâ—â—uity infinite Thus likewise they distinguish betwixt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 includeth also an infinite vacuity in which the world is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies the world without that vacuity which neither is increased nor diminished but its parts are sometimes extended sometimes contracted It began from the earth as its center for the center is the beginning of a Circle The world is that which is properly qualited with the essence of all things or as Chrysippus and ` Possidonius define it a System of Heaven and Earth and of the natures therein contained or a System of God and Men and of all things that were made for them The world was made by God for if saith Chrysippus there be any thing which produceth such things as Man though indued with reason cannot produce that doubtlesse is greater and stronger and wiser then man But a Man cannot make the Celestiall things therefore that which made them transcendeth man in Art Counsell Prudence and Power and what can that be but God The World was made for those animate â—ssences which have the use of Reason these are the Gods and men then whom nothing is better All things of which it consisteth and which it produceth within it selfe are accommodated to the use of Man The World was made in this manner God in the beginning being alone by himself converted all substance which according to Zeno was fire first into air then into Water And as in the Plant the seed is contained so God who is the prolisick reason of the World left such a â—eed in the humidity as might afford easie and apt matter for the generation of those things that were to be produced Zeno addeth that one part tending downward was condensed into Earth another part remained partly water and partly being exhal'd air of a particle of which air flashed out fire Cleanthes describeth it in this
motions one with the World from East to VVest the other contrary through the Signes That the Sun is greater then the Earth appeareth in that it enlightneth not only all the Earth but Heaven also Again the shadow of the Earth being conicall argues the Sun to be greater then the Earth Again it is visible every where by reason of its magnitude The Sun is Eclipsed by interposition of the Moon betwixt us and that part of the Sun which is toward us as Zeno in his book of the Universe For meeting the Sun and coming under him she seemeth to darken his light and afterwards to disclose it again as will appear in a basin of water CHAP. X. of the Moon IN the lowest part of the aether is the Moon The Moon according to Zeno is an intellectuall wise igneous Star consisting of artificiall fire Cleanthes saith she is of a fiery substance and 〈◊〉 a dirty figure Lipsius for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dirty substitutes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is if of the same figure as a nat or cap. But perhaps there needs no alteration for they affirmed as she is nearer to the Earth then the Sun so is she of a more terrene Nature Possidonius and most of the Stoicks affirm she is mixt of fire and air by reason of which diversity of substance she is not subject to corruption To this mixtion of air in her composition they impute likewise those spots which are seen in her face She is greater then the Earth as well as the Sun is and Spnaericall as the Sun yet apeareth in various figures the full-Moon first quarter New-Moon last quarter Chrysippus saith she is a fire collected after the Sun from the exhalation of fresh Waters for which cause she is likewise nourished by them as Possidonius also asserteth Her motion is spiral Zeno saith she hath two motions as the one with the World from East to West the other contrary through the signes The period of her course is called a Mont◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is likewise that part of the Moon which appeareth to us for one halfe of her is alwaies turned towards us The Moon is Eclipsed when she falleth into the shadow of the earth For although every month she is opposite to the Sun yet she is then only eclipsed when she is fullest by reason of the obliquity of her course whereby her latitude is varied towards the north and south When therefore she happens to be neer the Ecliptick and opposite to the Sun she is eclipsed which happens as Possidonius saith in Libra and Scorpio and in Aries and Taurus Thus Laertius but Possidonius seemes to have been ignorant of or not to have considered the motion of the Nodes of the Moon commonly called Caput Cauda draconis whereby the restitution or period of Eclipses is made in ninteen yeeres 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which was the ground of Meton's period and of the Cycle of the Moon in the Julian Calender CHAP. XI Of Aire NExt the sphear of the Moon saith Chrysippus is the element of Aires interposed betwixt the Sea and Heaven sphericall in figure consecrated by the name of Iuno Sister and Wife of Iupiter who is the Aether betwixt these there is a neer conjunction The Aire is divided into three regions the highest the middle and the lowest The highest region is the hottest and dryest and rarest by reason of the vicinity of the eternall fires The lowest and neerest to the earth is thick and caliginous because it receiveth terrene exhalations The middle region is more temperate then the higher and lower as to siccity and rarity but colder then both This wherein the clouds and winds are generated is according to Possidonius forty furlongs above the earth Next to it is the pure and liquid aire of untroubled light From the turbulent part to the Moon is twenty hundred thousand furlongs To the aire is attributed the primitive cold As concerning things in the Aire Winter is the rigour of the aire next above the earth occasion'd by the remotenesse of the Sun and is the coldest of the seasons of the year Spring is the season succeeding Winter preceding Summer and is a good temperature of the air occasion'd by approach of the Sun Summer is that season of the year when the aire above the earth is warmed by the Suns accesse towards the north Autumne that season of the year which followeth Summer and precedeth Winter is made by the return of the Sun from us Winter commeth when the aire is predominant in thicknesse and is forced upward Summer when the fire is predominant and driven downward Winde is a fluxion of the aire having severall names from the variety of places as for example That which bloweth from the darknesse of the night and Sun-setting is called Zephyrus from the East and Sun-rising Apeliotes from the North Boreas from the South Lybs It is occasion'd by the Sun's extenuation of the vapours The Rainbow is a reflection of the Sun's beams from a humid cloude or as Possidonius an apparition of part of the Sun or Moon in a cloud dewy concave and continuous to the phantasy as in a looking-glasse the representation of a Circle Comets are fires subsisting of thick air carried up to the aetheriall place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is an accension of suddain fire swiftly carried through the air appearing length-waies Rain is a conversion of clouds into water when either from the Earth or from the Sea by the power of the Sun the humour is drawn upwards ineffectually Frost is congealed rain Hail is a concrete cloud dispersed by the winde Snow is humidity from a concrete cloud according to Possidonius Lightning is an accension of clouds which are driven by the winds upon one another and broken according to Zeno. Thunder is a noise occasion'd by the collision of clouds Thunderbolt is a strong inflammation rushing upon the earth with great violence when the clouds by impulsion of the winds are broken against one another Some define it a conversion of fiery inflamed aire violently rushing down Typho is a violent Thunder thrust down with a great force of winde or a smoaking winde which rusheth down upon the breaking of the cloud Prester is a cloud inclosed with fire by winde in the concavities of the earth There are many kinds thereof Earthquakes Câ—asma's and the like CHAP. XII Of Water and Earth THat part of the world saith Chrysippus which is the most solid support of nature as bones are in a living creature is called the earth About this the water is evenly diffused The earth hath some uneven parts arising out of the water called Islands or if of large extent Continents from the ignorance of man who knowes not that even those are Islands in respect of
is no bound to those who wealth acquire For they who are possest of most desire As much again and who can all content Even those full blessings which the Gods have lent Man variously to his own harm applies Whom Jove by means as various doth chastice Again OUr City never can subverted be By Jove or any other Deitie For Pallas eye surveyes with pious care The wals which by her hand protected are Yet the inhabitants of this great Town Fondly inclin'd to wealth will throw it down And those unjust great persons who are bent Others to wrong themselves to discontent For their insatiate fancies have not power Tâ—enjoy the sweetnesse of the instant hower But by all wicked means intent on gain From hallowed nor from publick things refrain Riches by theft and cozenage to possesse The sacred bounds of justice they transgresse Who silent sees the present knowes the past And will revenge these injuries at last Causing a cureless rupture in the state And all our liberties shall captivate Rouse war from his long slumber who the flower Of all our youths shall bloodily devour For Cities which injuriously oppose Their friends are soon invaded by their foes These are the common evills of the poor Many transported to a forraign shore To bondage there and fetters shall be sold. Each private house thus shares the publick fate Nor can exclude it with a ban'd-up gate For scaling furiously the higher walls On those whom beds or corners hides it falls My soule Athenians prompts me to relate What miseries upon injustice wait But justice all things orderly designes And in strict fetters the unjust confines What 's soure she sweetens and allaies what cloyes Wrong she repells ill in the grouth destroyes Softens the stubborn the unjust reformes And in the state calmes all seditious stormes Bitter dissention by her raign supprest Who wisely governes all things for the best Another NO man is blessed bad is every one That feeles the warmth of the all-seeing Sâ—n. Another LEt me not die unpitti'd every friend With sighes and tears my latest hower attend CHILO CHILON CHAP. I. Chilon his life CHILON was a Lacedaemonian son of Damagetus corruptly termed in Stobaeus Page 6. He was eminent amongst the Greeks for two predictions The first to Hippocrates to whom being a private person hapned a great prodigie at the Olympick games having prepared an offering and filled a Cauldron with flesh and water it boiled over without fire This portent Chilon accidentally present beholding advised him that he should not take a wise by whom he might have issue that if he had one he should put her away and if a son turn him out of dores Hippocrates not following this advice brought up his son Pisistratus who in the sedition of the Maritimes and countrymen at Athens those led by Megacles these by Lycurgus stirred up a third faction and gained the tyranny He was much renowwed also for his prediction concerning Cythera a Lacedaemonian Island examining the Scituation thereof would to God said he it had never been or since it is it might be swallowed up by the sea and wisely did he foresee Damaratus a Laecedaemonian exile counselled Xerxes to seize upon that Island which advice if he had followed would have ruined all Greece His words according to Herodotus were these You may effect your desires if you send three hundred ships to the Lacedaemonian coast there lies an Island named Cythera of which Chilon a person of greatest wisdome amongst us said it were better for the Lacedaemonians that it were under water then above he it seemes expected from it some such thing as I am now going to declare not that he foresaw your Navy but doubting any in the same kind Let your men issue out of this Island upon the Lacedaemonians to strike them into terror Afterwards in the time of the Peloponesian war Nicias taking the Island placed some Athenians therein who much infested the Lacedaemonians Laertius saith that he was old in the fifty two Olympiad at what time Aesop flourish'd that he was Epâ—orus in the fiftie sixt Casaubon reads the fiftie five but Pamphila continueth Laertius saith in the sixt He was first Ephorus when Euthydemus was Archon as Sosicrates also affirmes and first appointed the Ephori to be joyned with Kings which Satyrus saith was the institution of Lycurgus Hence it is doubtfull whether Chilon was Ephorus in the sixt Olympiad or in the fiftie sixt the latter is more probable in as much as he bore that office when Euthydemus was Archon at Athens which was in the fiftie sixt Olympiad as appeares by the Marmor Arunde lianum where for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is corruptly read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rendred Archonte populo But it is likewise true that the Ephori were first created about the sixt Olympiad when Polydorus and Theopompus were Kings of Lacedaemon a hundred and thirty yeares after â—ycurgus as Plutarch in his life affirmes from which time there were five annuall Ephori chosen in Lacedaemon whereof the first is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because the year had its denomination from him the first of the first election was Elatus Chilon in the fiftie sixt Olympiad was the first of the five of his year which might perhaps give the occasion of the mistake to them who take him to be the first of that institution of whom is * Scaliger How he behav'd himself in this office may be gathered from his speech to his brother displeased that himselfe was not Ephorus at the same time I can bear injuries saith he you cannot He was so just in all his actions that in his old age he professed he never had done any thing contrary to the conscience of an upright man only that of one thing he was doubtfull having given sentence against his friend according to law he advised his friend to appeal from him his Judge so to preserve both his friend and the law Agellius relates it thus When his life drew towards an end ready to be seized by death he spoke thus to his friends about him My words and actions in this long term of years have been almost all such as I need not repent of which perhaps you also know truly even at this time I am certain I never committed any thing the remembrance whereof begets any trouble in me unlesse this one thing only which whether it were done amisse or not I am uncertain I sat with two others as Judge upon the life of my friend the law was such as the person must of necessity be condemned so that either my friend must lose his life or some deceit be used towards the Law revolving many things in my mind for relief of a condition so despeate I conceived that which I put in practise to be of all other the most easie to be born Silently I condemned him and perswaded those others who judged to absolve him
to have invented it wheras as Gassendus observes morall Philosophy was far more antient that being the principle ground of the attribute of wise conferred upon the Seven whose learning lay chiefly that way but Socrates is called the Author thereof because he first reduced it to a science Archelaus asserted That the principles of all things are twofold one incorpore all the mind not maker of the world the other corporeall infinite in number and dissimilar which is the air and its rarefaction and condensation whereof one is fire the other water That the universe is insinite That the causes of generation are two heat and cold That the starrs are burning iron plates That the Sun is the greatest of stars That the Sea is made by percolation of the hollow parts of the Earth That living Creatures are generated of slime câ—warm Earth emitting a milky kind of slime like the chile that this humid matter being dissolved by the fire that of it which settles into a fiery substance is earth that which evaporates is air That the winds getting into the hollow places of the Earth filling all the spaces the air condensed as much as possible the wind that comes next presseth the first forcing and disturbing it by frequent impulsions This wind seeking a room through the narrow places endeavoureth to break prison whereby it happens the wind strugling for passage that the earth is moved Of the definition of the Voice by Plutarch attributed to Anaxagoras Laertius makes Archelaus the Author describing it a percusion of the air That what is just or dishonest is defined by Law not by Nature These five Anaximander Anaximenes Thales Anaxagoras Archelaus by continuall desent succeding one another compleat the Ionick sect FINIS THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY The Third Part. Containing the Socratick Philosophers LONDON Printed for Humphrey Moseley and Thomas Dring and are to be sold at their shops at the Princes Armes in St. Pauls Church-yard and at the George in Fleetstreet neere Cliffords Inne 1655. SOCRATES SOCRATES CHAP. I. Socrates his Country Parents and time of birth SOcrates was by Country an Athenian borne at Alopece a towne according to Suidas and Phavorinus belonging to the Antiochian tribe This was one of those small villages scattered through Attica before Theseâ—s reduc'd the people into the walls of a City which notwithstanding his decree were not deserted but continued and preserved by their Inhabitants His Parents were very meane Sophroniscus an Athenian his Father a statuary or carver of Images in stone Phaenareta his mother a Midwife a woman of a bold generous quick spirit as is implyd by the character Plato gives her though wrested by Athenaeus of which professions of his Parents he is observed to have been so farre from being asham'd that hee often tooke occasion to mention them Apollodorus Laertius and Suidas affirme he was borne in the fourth yeare of the 77. Olympiad which may likewise be collected from the marble at â—rundel Hoâ—se which saith he dyed when Laches was Arcâ—on and reckons 70. yeares of his life which was compleat because Plato sayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and from Dometrius Phalereus who was himselfe archon the fourth yeare of the 117. Olympiad who saith he dyed the first yeare of the 95. Olympiad when he had lived 76 yeares the 70. yeare inclusively upwards is the fourth of the 77 Olympiad when Apsephion or as some call him Aphepsion was Archon of whose name in Diodorus Siculus no more is left then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but hath been incuriously alter'd into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which if * Meursius had observed he had not corrected Laertius without cause nor he and * Allatius follow'd the mistake of Scaliger whom they terme Anonymus in placing Aphepsion in the fourth yeare of the 74. Olympiad The day of Socraâ—es birth was according to Apollodorus the sixt of the month Thargelion memorable saith Laertius for the birth of Diana according to the traditions of the Delians upon which day the Athenians did yearely lustrate the â— City Many other good fortunes happening to the Aâ—henians upon this day are recorded by Aelian The day following viz. the seventh of this month was the birthday of Plaâ—o both which were kept with much solemnity by the Greek Philosophers even to the time of Plotinus as is affirmed by Plutarch who thereupon observes it as the effect rather of Providence then of chance that their birth-daies should be so near and that of the Master precede the Scholer's To accommodate this time with our accompt is neither easie nor certain yet in respect it may give some satisfaction by way of conjecture we shall found it upon these hypotheses taking that order of months which Petavius gives 1. That after the Olympiads the beginning of the Grecian year was alwaies on the first of Hecatombaeon and Olympick games on the 15th 2. That the Neomenia of Hecatombaeon did at least in the times wherein we enquire never precede the solstice being then about the Calends or pridie Calendarum Iulij they supposing them in octavis signorum it did not precede the ninth of Iuly This postulatum though it be doubly question'd by Petavius yet none of his Argumen t s pretend beyond Meton's time 3. That upon that supposition if Scaliger hath rightly order'd the Neomenia in his Olympick period against which Petavius brings no one sufficient Argument and consequently the rest the Olympick period doth certainly exhibiâ—t the Neomenia of Hecatombaeon It is true that Petavius disputes the period of 76 years as having never been used till Calippus his time but we take it here onely proleptically as the Julian year to which we would accomodate it 4. That this being after Solon's time the Civill year was Lunary and consisted of months which were alternately of 29. and 30. daies at Athens though diverse places of Greece especially the more remote from thence did not for a long time after part with their tricenary months These things supposed the sixt of Thargelion will according to the Julian accompt taken proleptically fall upon Tuesday the twentieth of May according to the Gregorian upon Tuesday the thirtieth of May in the year of the Julian period 4247. before the Incarnation 467. years the fourth year of the 77. Olympiad at what time Socrates was born CHAP. II. His first Education PLutarch saith that as soon as he was born Sophroniscus his Father consulting the Oracle was by it advis'd to suffer his Son to do what hee pleas'd never compelling him to doe what he disliked nor diverting him from that whereto he was enclined to give thanks for him by Sacrifice to Iupiter Agoraeus and the Muses to be no further sollicitous for him he had one guide of his life within him better then five hundred masters But his Father not observant of the
or silently desired That God takes care of all creatures is demonstrable from the benefits he gives them of light water and fire seasonable production of fruits of the earth that he hath particular care of man from the nourishment of all plants and creatures for mans service from their subjection to man though they excused him never so much in strength from the variety of mans sense accommodated to the variety of objects for necessity use and pleasure from reason whereby he discoursed through reminiscence from sensible objects from speech whereby he communicates all that he knows gives lawes governs states that God notwithstanding he is invisible hath a being from the instances of his Ministers invisible also as thunder and wind from the soule of man which hath something with the divine nature in governing those that cannot see it This is the effect of his discourse with Eâ—thidâ—mus The Soule is immortall for what is alwaies moveable is immortall but that which moveth another or is moved by an other hath a cessation of motion and life The soule is praeexistent to the body endued with knowledge of eternall Ideas which in her union to the body she loseth as stupisied untill awakened by discourse from sensible objects Thus is all her learning only reminiscence a recovery of her first knowledge The body being compounded is dissolved by death the soule being simple passeth into another life incapable of corruption The soules of men are divine to whom when they go out of the body the way of their return to heaven is open which to the best and most just is the most expedite The soules of the good after death are in a happy estate united to God in a blessed inaccessible place the bad in convenient places suffer condign punishment but to define what those places are is hominis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence being demanded what things were in the other world he answered neither was I ever there nor ever did I speak with any that came from thence Sect. 2. Ethicks HIs moralls consider a man either as a single person or as the father of a family or as a member of the common-wealth In the first respect are his Ethicks wherein such sentences as have been preserved by Xenophon Diogenes Laertius Stobaeus and others are thus collected Of vertue and vice HE exhorted his friends to Endeavour to be the most wise and beneficiall because what wants reason wants respect as the bodies of dead friends and hair nailes and the like which are cut off and cast away To be employed is good and beneficiall to be idle hurtfull and evill they that do good are imployed they that spend their time in vain recreations are idle He that hath most advantage by gifts of nature as well as he that hath least must learn and meditate on those things wherein he would be excellent He only is idle who might be better imployed To do good is the best course of life therein fortune hath share They are best and best pleasing to God who do any thing with any art or calling who followeth none is uselesse to the publick and hated of God He taught every where that a just man and a happy were all one and used to curse him who first by opinion divided honesty and profit which are coherent by Nature as having done an impious act for they are truly wicked who separate profitable and just which depends on law The Stoicks have followed him so far that whatsoever is honest the same they esteem profitable He asked Memnon a Thessalian who thought himselfe very learned and that he had reached as Empedocles saith the top of wisdome what is vertue He answered readily and boldly that there is one vertue of a child another of an old Man one of a Man another of a Woman one of a Magistrate another of a private Person one of a Master another of a Servant Very good replies Socraâ—es I ask for one vertue and you give us a whole swarm truly conceiving that he knew not one vertue who named so many Being demanded by Gorgias If he accounted not the great King of Persia happy I know not answered he how he is furnished with learning and vertue as conceiving that true happinesse consisteth in these two not in the frail gifts of fortune Euripides in his Auge saying of vertue It is best carelessely to part with these he rose up and went away saying It was ridiculous to seek a lost servant or to suffer vertue so to go away He said he wondered at those who carve Images of stone that they take such care to make stones resemble men whilst they neglect and suffer themselves to resemble stones He advised young men to behold themselves every day in a glass that if they were beautifull they might study to deserve it if deformed to supply or hide it by learning He said to begin well is not a small thing but depending on a small moment He said vertue was the beautie vice the deformity of the soul. He said outward beauty was a sign of inward beauty and therefore chose such Auditors In that life of man as in an Image every part ought be beautifull Incense to God praise is due to good men Who are undeservedly accused ought to be defended who excell others in any good quality to be praised A Horse is not known to be good by his furniture but qualities a man by his mind not wealth It is not possible to cover fire with a garment sinne with time Being demanded who live without peâ—turbation hee answered thâ—y who are conscious to themselves of no ill To one who demanded what Nobility is he answered a good temper of soul and body Of affections Love Envy Grief Hope c. THat two brothers God meant should be more helpfull to each other then two hands feet eyes or whatsoever nature hath formed doubtlesse because if they love they may great distance mutually help one another is the scope of his discourse with Chaeracrates That all things are good and fair to those things where with they agree but ill and deformed in respect of those things with which they agree not is the conclusion of his second discourse with Aristippus Envy is a grief not at the adversity of friends nor the prosperity of Enemies but at the prosperity of friends for many are so foolishly enclined as to maligne those in good fortune whom in misfortune they pittied A ship ought not to trust to one Anchor nor life to one hope To ground hopes on an ill opinion is to trust a ship to a slight anchor The beauty of fame is blasted by envy as by a sicknesse Many adorn the tombes of tâ—ose whom living they persecuted with envy Envy is the saw of the soul. Nothing is
which more gently austere The sense of touching was formed by the Gods to discern hot and cold soft and hard light and heavy smooth and rough and to iudge the differences of each of these Yielding bodies we call those which yield to the touch resisting those which yield not this proceedeth from the bases of bodies those which have large bases are firm and solid these which have narrow bases are yielding soft and easily changed Rough is that which is uneven and hard smooth that which is plain and thick As warm and cold qualities are most opposite so they proceed from the most different causes That which cutteth by the acutenesse and roughnesse of its parts begetteth a hot affection that which is more thick in penetration a cold whilst the more rare are expelled and the more dense compelled to penetrate into their room Thence ariseth a concussion and trepidation and an affection which is from hence begotten in bodies rigor CHAP. XX. Of Heavy and Light HEavy and light ought not to be defined by higher or lower place nothing is high or low for Heaven being absolutely round and its convexe extremity even we cannot term any thing higher or lower yet may we call that heavy which is hardly drawn to a place different from its Nature light which easily or heavy is that which consisteth of most parts light of fewest CHAP. XXI Of Respiration WE breath after this manner The externall Air compasseth us round about and passeth in at our mouth nostrills and invisible Pores of the body where being warmed it floweth back again to the externall Air by that part out of which it flowed it again thrusteth the externall Air to the interiour Thus there is an unintermitted succession of inspiration and expiration CHAP. XXII Of the Causes of Diseases OF Diseases Plato alledgeth many causes The first is defect or excesse of the Elements and a change into places which agree not with their Nature The second a preposterous generation of homogeneall parts as when of flesh is made blood or choler or flegme for all these are nothing but colliquation or putrefaction â—legm is a new collâ—quation of flesh sweat and tears are a kind of Serum of flegm Flegm intercepted in the outward parts begetteth Scurse and Leprosie in the inward being mingled with Melancholy it causeth the falling-sicknesse Sharp and salt flegme engender those affections which consist in rigour for all bodies that are inflamed with choler must suffer that A world of various diseases are engendred by choler and flegm As concerning feavours Plato conceiveth that a continuall feavour proceedeth from excesse of fire a quotidian from excesse of air a tertian from excesse of water a quartan from excesse of Earth It remaineth that we here begin to speak of the Soul though not without some danger of repeating the same things CHAP. XXIII Of the three principall powers of the Soul THE Gods the makers of mortall Creatures having received from the first God the Soul of Man immortall added unto it two mortall parts yet left the immortall divine part might be infected with mortall extravagances they seated as Prince of all in the tower as it were of the body the Head in figure resembling the Universe The rest of the body they appointed as a vehiculum to serve this To each mortall part they assigned its proper habitation placing the irascible in the heart the concupiscible in the midst betwixt the Navell and the Diaphragme binding it there as a furious savage Beast They framed the Lungs in respect of the heart soft bloodlesse hollow and spungy that the heart being somthing heated with anger might thereby be refrigerated and asswaged the Liver to excite and allay the concupiscible part having both sweetnesse and bitternesse as likewise for the clearing of divinations which are given by dreams for as much as in it by reason of its smoothnesse shining and brightnesse the power which proceedeth from the mind doth shine forth The Spleen was made for the benefit of the Liver to purge and cleanse it so that those corruptions which by some diseases are contracted about the Liver retire thither CHAP. XXIV Of the distinction of the parts of the Soul THat the Soul and parts thereof according to their proper faculties are threefold every part appointed by reason their severall places is manifest from hence Those things which are separated by Nature are divers passionate and reasonable are separate by nature this being conversant in Intelligibles that in things sad or joyful to omit the passive part which is common likewise to bruit Beasts Now these two being distinct by Nature must likewise be distinguished by place because for the most part they disagree and are repugnant to one another but nothing can be repugnant to it self neither can those things which are contrary to one another consist together in the same In Medea anger seemeth to contest thus with reason I know what I intend is ill But anger over-rules my will In Laius when he ravished Chrysippus concupiscence contested with Reason for so he saith Men to this crime the Gods confine To know the ill that they decline That the rationall power is different from the Passive is evident from this that they ordered by severall means one by discipline the other by habituall practice CHAP. XXV Of the Immortality of the Soul THat the Soul is immortall Plato proveth by these Arguments The Soul to every thing wherein it is conferreth life as being naturally innate in her self but that which conferreth life to others never admitteth death but what is such is immortall The Soul being immortall is likewise incorruptible for it is an incorporeall essence which cannot be changed substantially and is only perceptible by the Intellect not by the eyes and is uniform Hence it must be simple neither can be at any time dissolved or corrupted The body is contrary for it is subject to sight and other senses and as it is compounded so shall it again be dissolved and it is multiform When the Soul adhereth to those things which are preceptible by Intellect it acquieseeth Now to that by whose presence she is disturbed she cannot possibly be like wherefore she is more like to those things which are perceptible by Intellect but what is such is by nature incorruptible and perishable Again the Soul naturally doth preside over the body not the body over the Soul but that which by nature ruleth and commandeth is of kin to Divinity wherefore the Soul being next unto God must be immortall not subject to corruption Again Contraries which have no medium not by themselves but by some accident are so ordered by Nature that they may be mutually made of one another But that which men call life is contrary to that which they call death as therefore Death is a separation of the Soul from the body so islife a conjunction of the Soul with the body praeexistent to the Body But if she be praeexistent and shall
a body for then two bodies would be in the same place To sight and all other senses is requisite a medium and convenient distance The object first affects the medium then the organ The object of hearing is sound Sound is made by collision of two bodies hard smooth and hollow in a medium as air or water swiftly and vehemently before the medium be dissipated Echo is a reflex sound when the air gathered together and forced into a vessell or some place which hindereth its diffusion and progresse reverts as a base against a wall Sound is alwaies reflected though not alwaies perceptibly as light also otherwise all places would be dark which were not directly opposite to the Sun or some lucid body Sound is made by that which moveth the air and continually stirreth it till it arive at the organ wherein there is an insite connaturall animate immovable air which being moved by the externall air yeeldeth the sense of hearing Hence it commeth that we can hear under water for the water cannot get into this air because of the winding narrow passages of the ear If it do get in or the membrance which containeth this air be otherwise broken it causeth deafnesse Voice is the impulsion of air attracted by respiration and forced against the vocall artery by the soul which is in the lungs with some intent of signification Voice therefore is not proper to all animals but to such only as have blood and breath Fishes therefore have not voice The object of smelling is Odor This sense is not so perfect in men as in other creatures whence men perceive not odors unlesse with delight or dislike when they are so strong as to excite one of these This defect proceedeth from the organ of smelling which in us is more obtuse The medium of smelling is air and water for fishes smell Hence all living creatures smell not after the same manner they which breath smell by drawing in the air the rest not so because of the different accommodation of the Organ Those therefore which smell by drawing in the air cannot smell under water Odor consists chiefly in dry as sapor in humid The organ of smelling is dry potentially as the object is actually The object of Tast is sapor Whatsoever is gustable is tactible and humid either actually or at least potentially Dry things are subject to tast as they are potentially humid and melt as salt The tast perceiveth that which is gustable and that which is ingustable as the sight darknesse the hearing silence for every sence perceiveth the presence and absence of its object That which is potable is perceived by the touch as humid by the tast as having sapor The tongue tasts not that which is dry because the organ of tast must be such potentially as the object is actually but without humidity nothing is gustable The kinds of sapors are sweet and bitter to sweet are referred unctious to bitter salt The mean are sharp piccant acid acute gustable is that which moveth the tast and reduceth it to act The objects of Touch are the primary qualities organ is that part which is potentially that which the object is in act for that which is like cannot suffer from its like We feel not things of equall heat cold hardnesse or softnesse The flesh is the medium the first sensory is something more internall Herein touch and tast differ from the other senses whose objects are at greater distance Touch perceiveth things tactile and not tactile All these senses receive sensible species without matter as wax the impression of a seal without the gold The organ or sensory is that in which the sensitive faculty primarily exists a vehement object destroyeth the organ That there are no more externall senses then these five is manifest in that there are no more in perfect animals neither is there any need of a sixt sense to perceive common objects which every sense discernes by accident as motion figure The act of the object and the act of the sense it selfe as Sonation and Audition are really the same differ only intentionally This act is generally in the sensitive not in the object Sensible qualities are finite as being bounded by extreams and their contraries but divisible by accident into infinite according to the division of their continuous subject In sensibles some are potentially sensible as a part joyned to the whole others actually as the whole it selfe or a part separated from the whole But of separate parts some are so little that sense cannot actually perceive them by reason of their want of due magnitude Sounds and odors are successively generated in the medium and by degrees deduced to the organ but light is produced in an instant in the medium not carried through it by locall motion CHAP. XVII Of Common sense EVery externall sense perceiveth the differences of its own object as sight judgeth of black and white but the differences of divers objects cannot be perceived by the same sense there is therefore a common sense which judgeth the actions of externall sense and the differences of all sensible objects The judgment being of a sensible object must be done by sense and by one sense only for if there were more one would object one object apart the other another and consequently could not judge between them For that which judgeth must have knowledge of all that whereof it judgeth which no exteriour sense can afford as being consined to its proper object Common sense judgeth contrary or different sensibles in the same instant for it discerneth togther sweet and black bitter and sweet Hence it is like the center of a circle which in diverse respects is called one and many It is one as all the externall senses are united in it many as it is the fountain and judge of them Sense differs from Intellect for sense is in all living creatures intellect in few Sense erreth not about its proper object but is alwaies true intellect often erreth by false opinions and habits CHAP. XVIII Of Phantasy and Cogitation FRom Sense is derived Phantasy and Cogitation Phantasy differs from sense and intellect though it exist not without a previous knowledge of sense as neither doth cogitation which is in action of the Intellect comprehending science opinion and prudence The act of Phantasy differs from Cogitation for we phansy things false and at our own pleasure but we think only what is true and like unto truth and that not as we please our selves but as the thing seemeth Moreover when we think that things are ill or good we are moved with fear joy hope but when we phansy only without application of judgment we are not moved no more then we are frighted at a picture Phantasy is not properly Sense phantasy acteth in him that sleepeth sense doth not Sense was with us from our birth phantasy not Sense is in all animals phantasy is not
when it is present only excited by the phantasy The object of the Theoretick Intellect is true or false of the practick good or ill The rationall soul in some manner is every thing for that which actually knoweth is in some maner the same with the thing known CHAP. XXIII Of the Motive faculty BEsides the nutritive sensitive and intellective faculties there is also a motive faculty in animate creatures That it is not the same with the nutritive is manifest in as much as it proceeds from imagination and apprehension which plants have not neither have they organs fit for motion which nature would have given them if they had this power That it is not the same with the sensitive appears in that some animals which have sense have not the power as Zoophytes which have not the organs fit for this motion Neither is it the same with the Theoretick Intellect for that judgeth not as to action but progressive motion is the action of an animal flying ill or pursuing good The principles of locall motion in animals are the practick Intellect under which is comprehended phantasy and appetite These two direct and impell the motive faculty to action intellect and phantasy by directing what is to be shunned what to be embraced appetite by shunning or embracing it Appetite is the chief principle thereof for that may move without intellect as in beasts and many times in men who desert their reason to follow their pleasure But intellect never moveth without appetite that is will for appetite is the principle of all motion honest and dishonest intellect only of honest motion In man appetite is two-fold Will which followeth the judgment of reason and sensuall appetite irascible or concupiscible which followeth sense and phantasy In the motion of animals three things are considered First that which moveth and that is two-fold the appetible object which moveth the appetite as a finall cause not as an efficient and the appetite it selfe which being moved by the appetible object moveth the animall Secondly by what it moves which is the heart of the animal by which instrument the appetible object moveth it Thirdly that which is moved the animall it selfe perfect Insects are moved locally as perfect animals are and consequently by the same principles appetite and phantasy but this phantasy is imperfect diffused through the whole body as appeareth by their uncertain motion only towards present occurrent objects That they have appetite is manifest in as much as they are sensible of pain and pleasure Beasts have sensitive phantasie only rationall creatures deliberative which compareth many things conducing to some foreknown end and chooseth the most expedient Yet somtimes the sensitive appetite in man overswayeth the rationall but by the order of nature the will which is the rationall ought as being the superiour to it to oversway the sensitive Thus there are three motions one of the will commanding another of the sensitive appetite resisting and a third of the body obeying But when the sensitive overruleth there are only two motions for the will resists not but is deceived CHAP. XIV Of Life and Death GEneration and dissolution are common to all living Creatures though all are not produced and dissolved in the same manner The generation of a living Creature is the first conjunction of the nutritive Soul with the naturall heat Life is the permanence of that Soul with the said heat Youth is the encrease of the first refrigerative part age the decrease thereof 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the constant and perfect life which is betwixt both As long as an animate Creature liveth it hath naturall heat within it self and as soon as that faileth dieth The principle of this heat is in the heart If it be extinguish'd in any other part the Animal may live but if in the heart it cannot This heat is extinguish'd two waies first by consumption when it faileth of it self secondly by extinction from some contrary as in violent death the cause is the same in both defect of aliment which in the living Creature is its vital moisture as fire wanting refrigeration groweth more violent and soone consumeth the humidity which being gone it self must of necessity go out Refrigeration therefore is necessary to the conservation of the naturall heat Plants are refrigerated by the ambient air and by aliment their naturall heat is extinguish'd by excessive cold and dry'd up by excessive heat Animals which live in the air or in the water are refrigerated by the air or water some by breathing others without Death according to the extinction of naturall heat is two-fold violent or naturall violent when the cause is extrinsecall naturall when the principle thereof is in the animate Creature For that part wheron life dependeth the Lungs is so ordered by nature that its cannot perform its office for ever Death therefore cometh from defect of heat when through want of refrigeration the radicall humidity is consumed and dry'd up Refrigeration faileth naturally when by progresse of time the lungs in Creatâ—res that have breath the gils in fishes grow so hard that they are unapt for motion Old men die easily as having but little naturall heat and without pain because his dissolution comes not from any violent affection The lives of living Creatures as well of the same as of divers species differ in length the longest life most commonly is that of some Plants as the Palm and Cypresse that of Creatures which have blood rather then the bloodlesse that of terrestriall creatures rather then the aquatile that of those which have great bodies as of Elephants rather then those of little The causes of long life are first the quantity and quality of the vitall moisture if it be much and fat not easily dry'd up nor congealed Secondly natural hear which suffereth not that humour to be congealed Thirdly a due proportion betwixt this heat and that moisture Fourthly fewnesse of excrements for excrements are contrary to Nature and somtimes corrupt nature it self somtimes a part Salacious creatures or laborious grow soon old by reason of exiccation For the same reason men are shorter liv'd then women but more active In hot Countries animate creatures are larger and live longer then in cold Those animals which have little or no blood either are not at all produced in the Northern parts or soon dye Both Plants and Animals â—f they take not aliment die for the naturall heat when the aliment faileth consumeth the matter it self wherein it is the vitall moisture Aquatile creatures are shorter liv'd then the terrestriall and the bloodlesse then those that have blood because their humidity is more waterish and consequently more apt to be congealed and corrupted Plants live long as having lesse of waterish moisture which therefore is not so apt to be congealed The largenesse of the upper parts as well in Plants as Animals is a signe of long life because it argues much naturall
fish its claws Sense is an apprehension by the Sensitive Organ or a comprehension Sense is taken many waies For the faculty habit act phantasie whereby the sensible object is comprehended and the Hegemonick parts of the Soul are called Sense Again the Sensories are intelligent spirits diffused from the Hegemonick to the Organs The senses are Sight Hearing Smell â—ast Touch. Sight is a spirit extended from the Hegemonick part to the Eies Sight is made by contraction of that light which is between the eye and the object into a Cone according to Chrysippus Apollodorus saith that part of the Air which is Conicall is next the sight the Base next the Object so as that which is seen is pointed out to by the Air as by a stick Colour is the first figuration or habit of matter Darknesse is visible for from the sight there issueth a splendor which passeth round about that darknesse Neither is the sight deceived for it truly sees that it is dark Chrysippus saith that we see according to the intention of the mediate air which is struck by the visuall spirit which passeth from the Hegemonick to the apple of the eye and after that blow falleth upon the ear next extending it self in a Conicall figure Again from the eye are emitted fiery raies not black or dusky and therefore darknesse is visible Hearing is a spirit extended from the Hegemonick part to the Ears Hearing is made when the Air betwixt the speaker and hearer is verberated in a circulation and at last by agitation passeth in at the Ears as the circles that are made in a pond by casting in a stone Smelling is a spirit extended from the Hegemonick to the nostrils Tasting is a spirit extended from the Hegemonick to the Tongue Touching is a spirit extended from the Hegemonick part to the superficies so that it perceiveth that which is obliged to it The sixt part of the Soul is the Generative which is a spirit from the Hegemonick to the Parastatae of this part see Laertius from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Pluâ—arch de Philosoph Plac. lib. 5. cap. 4 5 9 11 12 13 15 16 17 23. The seventh and last part of the Soul is that which Zeno calls vocall commonly called the Voice It is a spirit proceeding from the Hegemonick part to the throat tongue and other proper Instruments of speech Voice is Air not composed of little pieces but whole and continuous having no vacuity in it This Air being struck by the wind spreadeth into circles infinitely untill the Air round about it be filled like the Water in a pond by throwing in of a stone only the Water moves spherically the Air circularly Voice is a body for it acteth it striketh upon and leaveth an impression in our Ear as a seal in Wax Again whatsoever moveth and disturbeth some affection is a body Harmony moveth with delight discord disturbeth Again whatsoever is moved is a body but Voice is moved and reverberated from smooth places as a ball against a Wall So in the Aegyptian Pyramids one Voice is redoubled four or five times CHAP. XVII Of God HItherto of the Material principle and that which is produced of it we come now to the other principle the Agent God This question they divide into four parts first that there are Gods secondly what they are thirdly that they order the world fourthly that they take care of humane affairs Cleanthes saith that the notions of God are imprinted in the minds of men from four causes First from Divination for the Gods afford us signes of future things wherein if there be any mistake it is not from their part but from the errour of humane conjecture The second is from the multitude of good things wee receive by the temperature of Heaven the fertility of the Earth and abundance of other benefits The third from the Terrour of Thunder Tempest Rain Snow Hail Devastation Pestilence Earthquakes and somtimes groanings showers of stones and blood Portents Prodigies Comets and the like with which men are affrighted into a belief that there is a heavenly divine power The fourth and greatest cause is the aequability of the motion and revolution of Heaven the Sun Moon and starres their distinctions variety beauty order the very sight whereof declares that they were not made by chance That there are Gods Chrysippus proveth thus If there is something in Nature which the mind reason power and faculties of man could not make that which did make it is better then Man but Celestiall things and all those whose order is sempiternal could not be made by Man there is therefore somthing which made them which is better then Man and what is that but God For if there are no Gods what can there be in Nature better then Man for in him only is reason then which nothing is more excellent But for a man to think that there is nothing in the World better then himself is a foolish arrogance Therefore there is somthing better and consequently there is a God Zeno more concisely thus That which is rationall is better then that which is irrationall but nothing is better then the World therefore the World is rationall In like manner may be proved that the World is wise that it is happy that it is eternall for all these are better then the want of these But there is nothing better then the World whence it followeth that the World is God Again he argues thus No part of an insensible thing hath sense but the parts of the World have sense therefore the World hath sense He proceedeth to urge this more strictly Nothing saith he that is void of minde and reason can of it selfe generate that which is animate and rationall but the world generates animate and rationall creatures therefore the world is animate and rationall Likewise according to his custome he concludeth his argument with a similitude IF out of an Olive-tree should come harmonious Pipes that made Musick you would not doubt but that the science of Musick were in the Olive-tree What if a Plain-tree should bear Musicall instruments you would think there were musick in those Plain-trees Why then should we not judge the world to be animate and wise that produceth out of it selfe animate and wise creatures There is nothing besides the world which wanteth nothing and which is perfect and compleat in all its numbers and parts for as the cover saith Chrysippus was made for the shield's sake and the scabberd for the swords so besides the world all other things were made for the sake of something else Fruites of the earth were made for living creatures living irrationall creatures for the use of man horses for carriage oxen for tillage dogs for hunting and defence but man himselfe was made to contemplate and imitate the world Not that he is at all perfect but only a part of that
which is perfect But the world it selfe forasmuch as it comprehendeth all things neither is there any thing which is not in it is every way perfect What therefore can be wanting to that which is best But there is nothing better then the minde and reason therefore these cannot be wanting to the world Chrysippus addeth this comparison As all things are best in the most perfect and mature creatures as in a Horse better then in a Colt in a Dog better then in a Whelp in a Man better then in a Child So that which is best in all the world must be in that which is perfect and absolute but then the world nothing is more perfect nothing better then vertue therefore the world hath proper vertue The nature of man is not perfect yet in man there is vertue how much more then in the world The world therefore hath vertue therefore it is wise and consequently God Thus the notion and apprehension men have of God is first by conceiving the beauty of those things which are objected to their eyes for no beautifull thing hath been made by chance and adventure but composed and framed by some ingenious and operative art Now that the heaven is beautifull appeareth by the form colour and bignesse thereof by the variety also of starres disposed therein Moreover the world is round in manner of a ball which figure of all others is principall and most perfect for it alone resembleth all the parts for being round it selfe it hath the parts also round As to the second part of the question God is an immortall being rationall perfect or intellectuall in Beatitude voide of all evill provident over the world and things in the world not of human form maker of all and as it were father of all They define God a spirit full of intelligence of a â—ieâ—y nature having no proper form but transforming himselfe into whatsoever he pleaseth and resembling all things We understand by God saith Antipater a living nature or substance happy incorruptible doing good to mankinde Allâ— men acknowledge the Gods immortall They who deprive the Gods of beneficence have an imperfect notion of them as thâ—y likewise who think they are subject to generation and corruption Yet are there some Gods saith Chrysippus generative and mortall as well as there are others ingenerate â—The world starres and earth are Gods but the supream God is the aetheâ—iall minde Iupiter The sun moon and other such like Gods were begotten but Iupiter is eternall Other Gods use a certain nourishment whereby they are maintained equally but Iupiter and the world after another sort then the generated which shall be consumed by fire Iupiter groweth continually untill such time as all things be consumed in him death being the separation of the soul and body for seeing that the soul of the world never departeth at all but augmenteth continnally untill it have consumed all the matter within it selfe we cannot say that the world dieth The substance of God Zeno affirmes to be the whole World and Heaven so also Chrysippus in his 11th of the Gods and Possidonius in his first of the Gods But Antipater in his 7th of the world affirmes his substance to be aâ—riall Boethius in his book of nature saith the substance of God is the sphear of fixed stars Sometimes they call him a nature containing the world sometimes a nature producing all upon earth As concerning the third part of the question they affirm that God is an operative artificiall fire methodically ordering and effecting the generation of the world comprehending in himselfe all prolifick reason by which every thing is produced according to Fate God is a Spirit diffused through the whole world having severall denominations according to the severall parts of the matter through which he spreadeth and the severall effects of his power shewn therein They call him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by whom all things are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the author 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of life Minerva as diffused through the aether Iuno as through the aire Vulcan as through the artificiall fire Neptune as through the water Ceres as through the earth In like manner the resâ— of his names were imposed with respect to some property This place was first discoursed upon by â— Zenoâ— after whom Cleanthes and Chrysippus dilated more largely upon it By this Providence the World and all parts of the World were in the beginning constituted and are in all time ordered This disputation they divided into three parts The first from the same reason that teacheth us there are Gods inferreth that the World is ordered by them seeing that there is nothing higher or more excellent then this administration The second from that reason which teacheth us that all things are subjected to an understanding nature and exquisitely ordered by it inferreth that it is generated of animate principles The third place is derived from admiration of celestiall and terrestriall things Upon these Cicero discourseth at large according to the opinion of the Stoicks As to the fourth part of the question in generall concerning the Gods that they have a particular providentiall care of man-kinde it is manifest in that whatsoever is in this world was made for the use of man and is conducible thereunto and if for the whole fpecies they must consequently have the same care of particulars which they expresse by many portents and all those fignes whereupon the art of Divination depends There was never any great person without some divine inspiration But we must not argue from hence that if the corn or vineyard of any man be hurt by a Tempest or Fortune deprive him of any of the conveniencies of life that he to whom this hath happened may be judged to be hated or neglected of God The Gods take care of great things the little they neglect but to great persons all things have alwaies a happy issue Chrysippus in his fourth Book of Providence saith there is nothing more ignorant nothing more sordid then those persons who think good might have been without ill For Good and Ill being contraries it is necessary that both consist together mutually sustaining one another as it were by opposition For how could we understand Iustice unlesse there were Injuries What is Justice but a privation of Injustice How can Fortitude be understood but by opposition to Fear How Continence but from Intemperance How Prudence if there were not Imprudence Why do not these fooles desire that Truth might be without Falshood Such are good and ill happinesse and misery griefe and pleasure one is ty'd to the other as Plato sayes by their contrary ends Here followeth the question whether that Providence which framed the world and mankinde did make likewise those corporeall infirmities and sicknesses which men suffer Chrysippus affirmeth it was not the intent of Nature to make men obnoxious to
Socrates Streps. HO Socrates Socr. Why dost thou call me mortall Streps. First I would gladly know what thou dost there Socr. I walk i th' aire and gaze upon the Sun Streps. Why in a basket dost thou view the Gods Not from the ground Socr. I could not elevate My thoughts to contemplation of these mysteries Unlesse my Intellect were thus suspended Where my thin thoughts melt into air their likeness Stood I upon the ground I should find nothing Though I sought nere so strictly up and down For the magnetick vertue of the Earth Would draw away the humour of my brain Just as we see in nose-smart Streps. How how 's that Doth the brain draw the humour out of nose-smart Come down sweet Socrates and teach me quickly The knowledge of those things for which I came Socr. What camest thou for Streps. To learn the art of speaking With debts and usury I 'm torn in pieces Tost up and down forc'd to pawn all my goods Socr. On what occasion did you run in debt Streps. By horses eaten into this consumption And I would learn of you your other language Which teacheth men to pay nothing for which By all the Gods I 'l give you what you 'l ask Socr. By all what Gods we do not here allow Those Gods the City worships Streps. How then swear you By copper farthings like the Byzantines Socr. Wouldst thou be skilfull in divine affairs Streps. By Iovr if any such there be I would Socr. You must be then acquainted with the Clouds Our reverend Goddesses Streps. With all my heart Socr. Sit down upon this Couch then Streps. Well Socr. Now take This Garland Streps. Why a garland alasse Socrates D' ee mean like Athamas to sacrifice me Socr. No these are rites that every one performes At his admission Streps. But what shall I gain by 't Socr. Thou shallt be made most voluble in speech A very rattle bolting words as fine As flower Streps. Th' art right by Iove I shall be powderd Socr. silenced old man and listen to our prayer Great King unbounded air whose armes are hurld About the surface of this pendant world Bright Aether reverend Clouds that from your Sphear Thunder and lightning dart rise and appear Streps. Not yet not yet till I have wrapt my selfe Close in my Cloak lest I be wet t was ill That I forgat to bring my Riding hood Socr. Your power great Clouds make to this suppliant known Whether now seated on Olympus Throne Or whether you your sacred revells keep In the wide Gardens of your Sire the deep Or of his flowing Christall seaven-mouth'd Nile In golden Ewers wantonly beguile Or in Mauritian marshes keep your Court Or on the snowy top of Mimas sport Come to our servant vowes propitious be Grace with your presence our solemnitie We humid fleeting Deities The bright unbounded clouds thus rise From our old Sire the grumbling Flood Above the tallest hill or wood To those high watch-towers whence we may The hallowed fruitfull-ground survey Rivers that in soft murmurs glide And the lowd sea 's rebellious tide From thence heavens restlesse eye displaies The splendour of his glorious raies Chasing all dusky mists that we In shapes divine may mortalls see Socr. Thanks reverend Clouds for favouring thus our prayer Did you not hear 'm speak in Thunder to us Streps. Great Clouds I worship too but am so frighted I scarce can hold from answering your Thunder Socr. Jest not profanely in such sacred rites Peace for the swarm of Goddesses come singing Chor. Come virgin Mistresses of showers Let 's visit Pallas pregnant bowers The far renowned Cecropian plain Where shines the Eleusinian Fane Where are the most retir'd aboads Statues and Temples of the Gods Where Altars blaze with Incense where The holy-day lasts all the year Where the brisk Craces every spring And youths with virgins dance and sing Strâ—pe Tell me good Socrates what things are these That speak so sinely are they Ladies Socr. No They 're Clouds the Deities of idle men From these we have our sense discourse and reason Our high Capriccio's and elaborate whimseys Streps. My soul me thought did leap while they were speaking And now most subtly would dispute of smoak Sharply confute opinion with opinion Oh how I long to see them once again Socr. Look yonder towards Parnes look how gently They glide to earth Streâ—s Where show me Socr. See in sholes They creep into the Caverns of the Mountain Streps. What things are these I cannot yet behold'em Socr. There in the entrance look Streps. Yet I scarce see them Socr. Either thou seest them now or thou art blind Streps. I do by Iove great Clouds for you hold allâ— Socr. Didst thou not know these Deities before Streps. Not I I thought them only mists and vapours Socr. Thou knewest not then those who maintain the Sophists Streps. If these be Clouds how comes it that they look Like women for the Clouds have no such shape Srce No what shape have they then Streps. I know not justly They look like flying fleeces but by Iove Nothing at all like women these have noses Socr. Answer to what I ask Streps. Ask me quickly Socr. Didst ere behold a Cloud shap'd like a Centaure A Leopard Bull or Wolfe Streps. I have what then Socr. The Clouds can take what form they list as when They see a hairy fellow curl'd like Clitus They mock his madnesse in a Centaures shape Streps. And when they see one that defrauds or plunders The Common-wealth like Sinon what then do they Socr. They do resemble him turn ravenous wolves This was the reason yesterday when they Beheld Cleonymus they fled like deer And seeing Clisthâ—nes are now turn'd women Streps. Great Queens if you ere design to speak to mortalls Make me acquainted with your rumbling voice Chor. All hail old man who dost on wisdome prey And thou the Priest of subtle trifles say What wouldst thou have with us to none but thee Of all the Meteor Sophists thus stoop we Save â—rodicus to him as grave and wise To thee because thou walkst upright thy eyeâ— Rowling on every side thy look severe And barefoot many miseries dost bear Streps. Good heavens what voice is this how strange stately Socr. These are our Goddesses the rest are toyes Streps Is then Olympian Iove no Deity Socr. What Iove there 's no such thing meer fancy Streps. How Whence then proceeds all rain Socr. Only from these Didst thou ere see a shower without them take The Clouds away and heaven must rain fair weather Streps. By Phoebus thou hast cleer'd it well till now I thought Iove made water through a â—ive But whence comes thunder when I 'me sick that frights me These thunder as they tumble up and down How can that be Socr. When they are full of water By their won weight driven upon one another They roar and break Streps. But who is it that drives them
Is not that Iove Socr. No an aetheriall whirlewind Streps. A whirle-wind hum I knew not that til now But whence comes lightning then that glittering fire Which terrifies and burns us Iupiter Useth to dart this down on perjur'd men Socr. And how thou phlegmatick dull Saturnine If darted on the perjur'd how comes Sinon Theorus and Cleonymus to scapeit No his own Temple or the Sunian Promontory Or sturdy Oakes he strikes did they ere wrong him Did the Oak ere forswear it selfe Streps. I know not That which you say seems reason but what then Is lightning Socr. When the winds are shut up close They swell the clouds like bladders and at last Break out with violence and horrid noises And by contrition kindle one another But thou who searchest amongst us for wisdom How happy wilt thou be above all Graecians If thou conceive well and remember and Canst suffer much and never wilt be tir'd Standing or walking nor have sense of frost Nor care for dyning and refrain from wine From exercises and all other toyes Streps. O for a solid soul restlesse with cares Sparing self-torturing one that can feast Upon a dish of herbes you never could Be better â—itted a meer an vile I. Socr. Dost thou believe no Gods but those we teach The Chaos Clouds and Tongue onely these three Streps. I 'l not so much as speak of any other Much lesse bestow an offering on their Altars Chor. Say boldy then say what is thy request For if thou honour us thou shalt be blest Streps. Great Queens I sue for a small matter that I may out-talk all Greeks a hundred furlongs Chor. To thee alone this gift we will allow None speak such mighty sentences as Thou Streps. I do not care for mighty sentences But subtle ones to cheat my Creditours Chor. It is not much thou askst and shalt obtain it Learn of our Ministers and thou shalt gain it Streps. I shall relying on your promise forc'd By want Coâ—patia and a lucklesse match Now let 'em use me as they list beat starve me Burn freeze or flea me so I scape my debts I care not though men call me impudent Smooth-tongu'd audacious petulant abhominable Forger of words and lie contentious Barretour Old winding bragging testy crafty fox Socr. Said like a man of courage if thou learn Of me thy fame shall spread wide as the Heavens Streps. What shall I do Socr. Thou shalt spend all thy time With me a life the happiest in the world Streps. I long to see that day Socr. Thy dore shall alwaies Be throng'd with Clients that will come to thee For Counsell and discourse of cases worth The wealth of kingdoms to thy hâ—arts desire Chor. Try this old man first see if he be sit Put him toth ' test and sound the depth of 's wit Socr. Come tell me now your disposition That when I know it I may sit my Machines Accordingly Streps. You will not undermine me Socr. No I would know if you have any memory Streps. Yes when another owes me any thing I can remember very well but what I owe my self i 'm ready to forget Socr. Hast thou a naturall faculty in speaking Streps. No I can mar words sooner far then make 'em Socr. How wilt thou learn then Streps. Fear me not I tell you Wel when I make some learned deep discourse Socr. You must be sure to catch't up presently Streps. What must I snap at learning like a dog Socr. This is a very fool an unknown Clown I am afraid old man thou wilt need whipping What if thou shouldst be beaten Streps. Then i 'm beaten Socr. But what wouldst do Streps. I would take witnesse on 't And sue them on an action of Battery Socr. Off with your Cloak Streps. Why how have I offended Socr. No but our orders admit none but naked Streps. I came not hither to steal any thing Socr. Down with your Cloak why dost thou trifle Streps. Now Tell me if I prove apt and diligent Of all your schollars who shall I come nighest Socr. Thou maist perhaps be like our Chaerephon Streps. Alasse alasse what an Anatomy Socr. No no but if thou wilt be any thing Follow me without more delay Streps. I want A Cake for your Cerberus I go me thinks As if 't were into the Trophonian Cave Socr. On on why stayst thou gazing at the dore Chor. Go for thy courage blest whose aged mind To wisdom soars and leaves the young behind Act. 2. Socrates Strepsiades Socr. BY Chaos and this air I breath I never Met any thing so stupid as this fellow So clownish and oblivious easie toyes He learns not half so fast as he forgets'em I 'l call him forth what ho Strepsiades Come out and bring your bed along with you Str. The fleas will hardly let me bring my self So. Quick down with 't there and mark what I say to you Str. I 'm ready So. What have you most mind to learn Measures or Verse or Rhyme Str. By all means measures For I was cheated by a Meal-man lately Two pecks So. That 's not the thing I demand I 'de knowâ—which you conceive the fairest measure The Trimeter or the Tetrameter Str. The fairest measure in my mind 's a Bushell So. 'T is nothing that you say Str. What will you lay That your Tetrameter holds not a Bushell So. Away away how dull thou art and blockish But thou wilt be perhaps more apt at Rime Str. What help can rimes afford me in my meal So. First they wil make thee pleasant in all company Then thou shalt know which suits with Anapaestick And which with Dactyles Str. Dactiles I know that sure So. Why what 's a Dactyle Str. What but this same â—inger â—Thas been a Dactyle ere since I was a child So. Th' art an unprofitable Dunce Str. I care not For learning these devices So. What then wouldst thou Str. That that unjust and cheating Sophistry So. But there are things that must be learnt before You come to that what Creatures are there Masculine Str. Sure I know that or I were mad indeed A Ram a Bull a Goat a Dog a Pigeon So. See how thou err'st that call'st both male and female A Pigeon Str. Right by Neptune how then must I So. Call this a Cock-Pigeon and that a Hen. Str. A Pigeon Cock and Hen ha by this air For this sole document I will replenish Your Cardopus with meal So. Again th' art wrong Thou call'st it Cardopus but 't is haec Cardopus And therefore henceforth call it Cardopa Next it is fit you know which names are Masculine And which are feminine Str. I know well which Are feminine I 'me sure So. Le ts hear Str. Philina Cletagora Demetria and Lystha So. And which are Masculine Str. A world Philoxenus Milesias and Amynias So. Thou art out Str. Are not these Masculine with you So. By no means How if you saw Amynias would you call him Str. Amynia