and dry bodies are more gross and earthy those of pure water more subtle and as to the final aqueons vapours serve to irrigate unctuous to impinguate the earth The Third said 'T is not credible that heat is the efficient cause of vapours since they abound more in Winter then Summer and in less hot Climats then in such where heat predominates which have none at all as Egypt and other places where it never rains If you say that there are no vapours there because the Suns heat dssipates as fast as it raises them you imply heat contrary to vapours since it dissolves them and suffers them not to gather into one body The Fourth said Copiousness of vapours in cold Seasons and Regions makes not against their production by heat since the heat which mounts them upwards is not that of the Suns rays but from within the earth which every one acknowledges so much hotter during Winter in its centre as its surface is colder where the matter of vapours coming to be repercuss'd by the coldness of the air is thereby condens'd and receives its form On the contrary in Summer the earth being cold within exhales nothing and if ought issue forth it is not compacted but dissipated by the heat of the outward air The Fifth said That the thorough inquisition of the cause of vapours raises no fewer clouds and obscurities in the wits of men then their true cause produces in the air For if we attribute them to the Sun whose heat penetrating the earth or outwardly calefying it attracts the thinner parts of the earth and water this is contradicted by experience which shews us more Rain Storms and violent Winds in the Winter when the Suns heat is weakest then in the Shmmer when his rays are more perpendicular and as such ought to penetrate deeper into the earth and from its centre or surface attract greater plenty of vapours the contrary whereof falls out It follows therefore that the Sun hath no such attractive faculty Nor is the coldness and dryness of the earth any way proper for the production of such humid substances as Vapours and Exhalations the latter whereof being more subtle and consequently more moveable as appears by Earth-quakes Winds and Tempests which are made with greater violence then Rain Showers or Dew cannot be engendred of earth much grosser then water which is held the material cause of vapour otherwise an exhalation being earthy should be more gross then a vapour extracted out of water which it is not It remains then that the cause of vapours is the internal heat of the earth which being encreas'd from without by the cold of the ambient air or exhaling all its pores open'd by the heat of the Sun produces the diversity of Meteors And this internal heat of the earth appears in Winter by the reaking of Springs and the warmth of Caves and subterraneous places yea the Sea it self said to supply the principle matter to these vapours is affirm'd hotter at the bottom whither therefore the Fishes retire and indeed it is so in its substance as appears by its salt bitterness and motion whence 't is call'd by the Latines Aestus And as in the bodies of Animals vapours issuing by the pores open'd by heat cause sweat and when those passages are stopt by the coldness of the outward air their subtler parts are resolv'd into flatuosities and the more gross and humid are carried up to the Brain by whose coldness being condens'd they fall down upon other parts and produce defluxions so in the world which like us consists of solid parts earth and stones of fluid the waters and of rapid which are the most subtle and tenuious parts of the Mass when these last happen to be associated with others more gross they carry them up on high with themselves where they meet with other natural causes of Cold and Heat which rarefies or condenses and redouble their impetuosity by the occurrence of some obstacle in their way these Spirits being incapable of confinement because 't is proper to them to wander freely through the World Elementary qualities are indeed found joyn'd with these vapours and exhalations but are no more the causes of them then of our animal vital or natural spirits which are likewise imbu'd with the same The Sixth said That the general cause of vapours is Heaven which by its motion light and influences heating and penetrating the Elements subtilises them and extracts their purest parts as appears by the Sea whose saltness proceeds from the Suns having drawn away the lighter and fresher parts and left the grosser and bitter in the surface cold and heat condense and rarefie other and by this Reciprocation the harmonious proportion of the four Elements is continu'd sometimes tempering the Earths excessive dryness by gentle Dews or fruitful Rains and sometimes correcting the too great humidity and impurity of the air by winds and igneous impressions some of which serve also to adorn the World and instruct Men. And as these vapours are for the common good of the Universe in which they maintain Generations and for preservation of the Elements who by this means purge their impurities so they all contribute to the matter of them Fire forms most igneous and luminous impressions Air rarefi'd supplies matter for winds as is seen in the Aeolipila and condens'd is turn'd into rain But especially water and earth the grossest Elements and consequently most subject to the impressions of outward agents continually emit fumes or steams out of their bosom which are always observ'd in the surface of the Terraqueous Globe even in the clearest days of the year and form the diversity of parallaxes These fumes are either dry or moist the dry arise out of the earth and are call'd Exhalations the moist are Vapours and issue from the water yet both are endu'd with an adventitious heat either from subterranean fires or the heat of Heaven or the mixture of fire A Vapour is less hot then an Exhalation because its aqueous humidity abates its heat whereas that of the latter is promoted by its dryness which yet must be a little season'd with humidity the sole aliment and mansion of heat which hath no operation upon bodies totally dry whence ashes remain incorruptible in the midst of flames and evaporate nothing But whatever be the cause of these vapours they are not only more tenuious under that form but also after the re-assumption of their own So Dew is a more potent dissolver and penetrates more then common water which some attribute to the Nitre wherewith the earth abounds Upon the Second Point it was said Valour is a Virtue so high above the pitch of others and so admir'd by all men that 't was it alone that deifi'd the Heroes of Antiquity For Nature having given Man a desire of Self-preservation the Virtue which makes him despise the apprehension of such dangers as may destroy him is undoubtedly the most eminent of all other moral
another Understand this Equalness only of Qualities not of Elements for were there as much Fire as Water as much Air as Earth the more active fire would consume the rest and reduce into ashes all living things whose dissolution shews us that they consist more of Earth and Water then of the other Elements The other call'd Temperament according to Justice is found in every sort of compound-substances amongst which there is one that serves for the rule or standard to all individuals compris'd under it and possesses in perfection the temper require requisite to the functions of its nature Thus amongst Animals the Lyon is hot the Swine moist the Salamander cold the Bee dry but Man is temperate and amongst his parts the Bones Cartilages and Ligaments are cold and dry the Blood Spirits Muscles Heart and Liver are hot and moist the Brain Phlegm and Fat are cold and moist each of them being temper'd according to Justice The Skin alone especially that in the Palm of a well-temper'd mans hand being moderate in all the Qualities and seeming a texture of the Flesh and Nerves is equally cold and hot soft and hard and consequently the prime Organ of Touch and the judge of all other Temperaments The unequal Temperament which nevertheless lyes within the latitude of Health is either simple or compound The former wherein one of the four Qualities prevails over its contrary while the other two remain in a mediocrity is of four sorts Hot Cold Dry and Moist The second wherein two excell is likewise of four sorts according to the four combinations which the qualities admit viz. Hot and Moist Hot and Dry Cold and Moist Cold and Dry for Hot and Cold Dry and Moist cannot subsist in one and the same subject And though the heat incessantly consuming the moisture and the cold collecting plenty of humid excrements hinder the hot and moist and cold and dry tempers from subsisting long in the same state yet they may continue therein for some time though they become chang'd by succession of ages Now of the nine sorts of Tempers to wit the four simple four compound and one perfectly temperate this last seems to me the most laudable and perfect a body thus temper'd being neither fat nor lean hot nor cold dry nor moist but of a square and indifferently fleshy constitution not inclining to one extream more then another being in an exquisite mediocrity and consequently more laudable then any of those which approach nearer the always vicious extreams The Second said If there be such an exquisite Temperament as reason seems to demonstrate then since there is no passing from one extream to another but by the middle when a Child changes the heat and moisture of his infancy into the cold and dryness of old-age that middle equal Temper must pass away as swift as lightning and it's duration will be almost insensible Wherefore though it be the most perfect and desirable yet since 't is only the standard and rule of all others I am for Hot and Moist as most sutable to life which consists in those two qualities as Death and its forerunner Old-age are cold and dry This is the Temperament of Child-hood allotted to us by Nature at the beginning of our life and therefore the most perfect answering to the Spring the most temperate of Seasons and to Blood the most temperate humour whence 't is call'd Sanguine as the cold and dry is Melancholick the hot and dry Bilious the cold and moist Phlegmatick Which is not to be understood of the excrementitious but of the natural humours contain'd in the mass of Blood which follow the principles of our Generation Moreover 't is proper not only for the functions of life whereof health is the foundation and joy the most sweet support which the Blood produces as Melancholy doth sadness Phlegm slothfulness Bile fury and anger but also for those of the Mind which depending upon the pureness of the Animal Spirits as these do upon that of the Vital and Natural which are more benigne in the Sanguine their conceptions must be likewise more clear and refin'd The Third said If Heat and Moisture are sutable to the actions of the Vegetative Soul Generation Accretion and Nutrition they are no less prejudicial to those of the Rational the seat whereof is therefore remote from the two Organs of Concoction the Ventricle and the Liver lest the fumes of the Food coming to be mix'd with the Animal Spirits might offuscate and cloud the phantasms and ideas wherewith those Spirits are charged and consequently hinder the operations of the Understanding which depend upon those phantasms so long as it is linked to the Body For all Souls being alike their operations differ only according to the diverse temper of the Brain which causes that of the Animal Spirits which must be subtle and luminous but not so far as to be igneous like those of the cholerick and frantick whose motions are precipitate and impetuous but in the just proportion observ'd in the Melancholick temper which being cold and dry that is to say less hot and moist is most proper for Prudence and Wisdom which require a setled compos'd Spirit like that of old men who owe not their Wisdom so much to the experience of many years as to the coldness and dryness of their Brains which makes men grave and sedate All brave men have been of this temper which gives patience and constancy without which nothing grand and considerable can ever be perform'd And as the hot and moist temper is most subject to corruption so by the reason of contraries the cold and moist must be least obnoxious to diseases as amongst Trees and Animals the dryest and hardest are least offended by external injuries upon which account the Melancholy is not only most desirable but also because it most contents the mind of him that possesses it who being at his ease makes more reflection upon the benefit he injoys unless otherwise diverted by contemplation The Fourth said That that is the most laudable temper which is most adapted to the functions both of body and mind between which there is so great a disproportion that what agrees well with the one seems prejudicial to the other The Sanguine is the most excellent for the operations of life and good habit of Body but incommodious for those of the Mind partly through the softness and mildness of that humour which cannot suffer strong attention and partly through its excessive humidity which filling the Imagination with vapours cannot supply fit matter to the Animal Spirits whose temper must be dry for producing Wisdom whereunto Melancholy is by some judg'd conducible but were it so 't is too contrary to the health and good constitution of the body to be desirable The phlegmatick temper is proper neither for the health of the Body nor the goodness of Wit But the Bilious is for both being less repleat then the Sanguine and less attenuated and dry'd then
Mixts are compounded The Sun indeed is the Efficient Cause of all productions here below but being a celestial and incorruptible body cannot enter into the composition of any thing as a Material Cause Much less can our common Fire which devours every thing and continually destroyes its Subject But it must be that Elementary Fire which is every where potentially and actually in its own Sphere which is above that of the Air and below that of the Moon Moreover being the lightest or least heavy of all the Elements the Harmony of the Universe which consists chiefly in their situation requires that it be in the highest place towards which therefore all other Fires which are of the same Nature ascend in a point with the same violence that a stone descends towards its Centre those remaining here below being detain'd by some Matter whereof they have need by reason of the contraries environing them from which that Sublunary Fire being exempt hath nothing to do with Matter or nourishment and by reason of its great rarity and tenuity can neither burn nor heat any more then it can be perceiv'd by us The Second said That subtlety one of the principal conditions requisite to the conversion of Matter into Fire is so far from hindring that it encreases the violence and activity of Fire making it penetrate even the solidest bodies whence that pretended Fire not being mixt with extraneous things to allay its heat as that of Aqua Vitae is temper'd by its Phlegm or aqueous humidity but being all Fire in its own Sphere and natural place which heightens the Virtue and qualities of all Agents must there also heat shine burn and produce all its Actions which depend not upon density or rarity or such other accidents of Matter purely passive but upon its whole Form which constituting it what it is must also make it produce Effects sutable to its Nature Wherefore as Water condens'd into Ice or Crystal is no longer Water because it hath ceas'd to refrigerate and moisten so the Fire pretended to be above the Air invisible and insensible by reason of its rarity is not Fire but subtile Air. They who say its natural inclination to heat and burn is restrain'd by the Influences of the Heavens particularly of the cold Starrs as Saturn and the Moon speak with as little ground since the circular motion of the Heavens whereby this Fire is turn'd about should rather increase than diminish its heat And besides Fire being a necessary Agent its action can no more be hindred by such Influences than the descent of a stone downwards Whereunto add that the beams of all Stars have heat and were any cold yet those of Saturn are too remote and those of the Moon too weak in comparison of this Fire the extent whereof is about 90000. Leagues for the distance between the Earth and the Moon is almost as much namely 56. Semidiameters of the Earth from which substracting between 25. and 30. Leagues which they allot to the three Regions of the Air the rest must be occupy'd by the Fire which they make to extend from the Concave surface of the Moon to the convex surface of the Air which it would consume in less than a moment considering the great disproportion between them Moreover were there such a Fire it could not be own'd an Element because its levity would keep it from descending and entring into the Composition of mixts and were it not leight yet it would be hindred from descending by the extream coldness of the Middle Region of the Air accounted by some a barrier to the violence of that Chymerical Fire which ought rather to be reckon'd amongst their Entia Rationis than the Natural Elements whereunto Corporeity and Palpability are requisite For these Reasons I conceive with Pythagoras that the Sun is the true Elementary Fire plac'd for that purpose in the middle of the World whose Light and Heat enter into the Composition not onely of all living things but also of Stones and Metals all other Heat besides that of the Sun being destructive and consequently no-wise fit for Generation The Third said He confounds Heaven with Earth and destroyes the Nature of the Sun who takes it for an Element that is to say a thing alterable and corruptible by its contraries which it must have if it be an Element The Heat of his beams proves it not the Elementary Fire seeing commonly the nearer we are to Fire the more we feel the Heat of it but the Supream and Middle Regions of the Air are colder than ours Besides were our common fire deriv'd from the Sun it would not languish as it doth when the Sun shines upon it nor would the heat of dunghils and caves be greater in Winter than in Summer Wherefore I rather embrace the common Opinion which holds That the heaviest Element is in the lowest place and the leightest in the highest whose Action is hindred by the proportion requisite to the quantity of each Element The Fourth said That the qualities of Fire viz. Heat Dryness and Light concurring in the Sun in a supream degree argue it the Elementary Fire for Light being the Cause of Heat the Sun which is the prime Luminous Body must also be the prime Hot that is to say Fire For as the pretended one above the Air was never yet discover'd so 't is repugnant to the Order of the Universe for the leightest of Elements to be shut up in the Centre of the Earth where some place it We have but two wayes to know things Sense and Reason the latter of which is founded either upon Causes or Effects Now we know nothing of the Sun or any other Celestial Bodies otherwise then by its Effects and sensible qualities which being united in Spherical Burning-glasses as they are in the body of the Sun notifie to us by their Effects the Nature of their Cause The Fifth said That Fire being to the World what the Soul is to the Body as Life is in all the parts of the Body so also is Fire equally diffused throughout the whole World In the Air it makes Comets and other Igneous Meteors In the Earth it concocts Metals and appears plentifully in Volcanoes whose Fires would not continue alwayes if they were violently detained in those Concavities yea 't is in the Waters too whose saltness and production of Monsters cannot be without Heat Yet being the most active of all Elements it is therefore distributed in much less quantity than the rest Nature having observed the same proportion both in the greater and lesser World Man's Body in which there is less of Fire than of the other Elements Otherwise had the Fire been equal to the rest it would consume all living things to ashes Nevertheless as the fixed Heat of Animals requires reparation by the Influent Heat from the Heart the Soul 's principal seat in like manner the Elementary Fire dispersed in all part of this great body of the World needs the
Day 's Heat which tempering the Cold occasion'd by the Sun's absence renders the same less perceptible during the thickness of the Nocturnal Air less subtile than that of the Day when the Light coming to dissipate those Clouds subtilizes the Air by its insinuating beams whence the Cold thereof more easily insinuates into our Pores by the help of that weak Light which is not strong enough to heat the Air. Just as Vinegar though hot and biting of its own Nature yet mix'd with much water cooles the part whereunto 't is apply'd more than water alone doth The Second said That possibly the comparison of the Heat of our beds out of which we arise in the Morning with the cold of the outward Air makes us guilty of a mistake unless you had rather refer this Effect to the Oblique Aspect where-with the other Celestial Bodies of our Hemisphere are regarded by the Sun at his rising For at mid-night when he is directly under the Horizon the little bulk of the Earth hinders not but he directly darts his Rayes upon those Stars which are above us the Pyramid of the Earth's shadow not passing beyond the Moon so that then the vast and incredible magnitude of all those Celestial Bodies perpendicularly reflects upon us the Heat and Light of the Sun which thus reflected may calefie the Air as the Sun doth in the same posture but not at all at Sun-rise in their Oblique Aspects Whence though the Sun be nearer us in Winter yet he warms us less If it be excepted that the Evening when the same Oblique Aspects return is not so cold as the Night 't is answer'd that this difference proceeds from the Heat of the foregoing Day remaining in the Earth Water and Air which conserve the same till by the absence of the Sun the supervening Night wholly dissipate them The Third said That the Matutinal coolness proceeded from the approaching Suns driving the Clouds before him which agitation raiseth a wind as there is always one at day-break whereby the same coolness is effected in the Air that a Fan causeth to a Lady For all things here below having their motion from East to West 't is reasonable that the Air be so mov'd too and acquire the consequent of its agitation namely coldness That all things come from the East sundry instances manifest Mankind was from thence diffus'd into the other Quarters of the World Rivers run generally Eastward And the greater speed of Navigation from East to West than contrarily argnes the Sea to have the same motion as is chiefly observ'd under the Equinoctial the greatness of which Circle renders that motion more manifest This rule the Winds keep when not diverted to a contrary course by Exhalations And as for the Heavens experience shews us that their ordinary and best-known course is from East to West So that 't is no wonder if they hurry the neighbouring Air with them and by a Mathematical contact and natural consecution all the other Elements I speak not of Sciences Arts Policy and other things which the more curious may find to have been deriv'd from the East It suffices that the Sun taking this road drives the Air befor him the wind proceeding from which motion causeth the coolness we feel chiefly at day-break when the vapours between us and the Sun being by his heat violently driven as the water of the Aeolipila is turn'd into wind and driven forth by the subjacent fire the coolness is more unacceptable in that it succeeds and multiplies instead of diminishing that of the night as the diurnal heat in likelihood ought to do The Fourth said He attributed the increase of cold at day-break to the ordinary action of all natural Agents which is strongest when they arrive at the period or utmost point of their declination So a Candle just upon extinguishing casts forth a smarter flame the violence of a Disease is greatest at its crisis when 't is towards ending a Stone moves swiftest as it approacheth its Centre And to compare the Year to the Day the cold is commonly greater and more insupportable in February the last Moneth of Winter than in the beginning thereof though in reason it might seem rather to be so at the end of December when the Sun is further from us and that the custom of the two first months cold should render this last more tolerable as on the contrary the heat is greater also in the dog-days and afterwards than at the Summer Solstice when the Sun is elevated highest above our heads So also in Summer 't is hotter two hours after noon than at noon it self not so much through any disposition already received in the Air and Earth as by reason of that Rule That Natural Actions are stronger at the end than the beginning whereas violent actions as the motion of a Stone upwards is swifter in the beginning than the end The Fifth referr'd this effect to the Antiperistasis of heat and cold For as fire seems more scorching upon the approach of a great frost so by a contrary reason cold must become more vehement at the approach of the Sun's heat Moreover the like combat is observ'd between the thickness of the darkness of the night and the rarity of the day when the Sun 's light rendring the illuminated Air more subtle what was gross in the dark Air cannot be expell'd in an instant without some conflict and motion of the part condens'd by darkness with the rarefi'd by light from which agitation ariseth a wind commonly at day-break which is probably the cause of the cold at that time Now of that tenebrous part condens'd is made the Dew and Frost in our Climate and the Manna in Southern Countries as the cold which we feel redoubled in Winter in the space between a neighbouring fire but out of its Sphere of Activity and the rest of the Air is a familiar example of this Antiperistasis of heat and cold redoubled upon the approach one of the other For as 't is much colder then elsewhere between that fire which is too distant to warm us and the Air left in its natural frigidity so at day-break our Air being too far off from the Sun to be heated by it augments its coldness upon his approach The Sixth said Air hath no natural quality but supream humidity whereby 't is supple movable and pliant heat and cold being impress'd upon it by outward agents Otherwise being the general medium and mediator of motions local natural vital and animal for the Spirits are of an aerious nature and the Factor of all Agents by whose intervention they communicate their influences it would act against the qualities impress'd upon it sometimes hot and sometimes cold and destroy them by its own Which indeed its humidity doth but to the profit of animated bodies dryness being their enemy Hence cold and dry Saturn hath under him hot and moist Jupiter who tempers his hurtfulness and sutes him to living things Now the Sun
having at the declining of the day rais'd many aqueous and consequently supreamly cold and the heat whereby they were rais'd abandoning them upon his absence the natural cold of those vapours becomes predominant and returns them by degrees into their first state Which refrigerating the Air makes the night the colder the further the vapours are from their extraneous heat that is to say the nearer day approacheth CONFERENCE CLIV. Whence the whiteness of Snow proceeds THe first attributed the cause thereof to the desiccation of water for experience shews in all sublunary Bodies that dryness whitens as Sea-water becomes white when dry'd to Salt the stalks of Corn Pulse and the leaves of all other Plants wax white as they wither and dry The same happens to the Bones of Animals and grey Hairs on no other cause but siccity since the extremity expos'd to the Air is white but not the root Hence water by its transparence already partaking much of light but which its rarity reflects not to our view is no sooner desiccated into Ice Hail or Snow but it acquires this pure whiteness which humidity again destroys So the high ways white with dust grow black upon rain a wet cloth appears darker then a dry and that some things become black by drying as Coal is because there was heat enough to draw the humidity which was at its Centre to the Circumference but not enough wholly to dry it up as appears in that the same heat continu'd reduces the coal to white ashes which would be as perfectly white as Snow did not the Tincture imprinted thereon by the Salts withstand it for if you urge them further by fire you will make them of a perfect whiteness as appears in Chalks which are made not only of grey and black stones but even of Metals as Ceruse is made of Lead The Second said Whiteness is not a real Colour since it appears in all bodies depriv'd of preceding Colours of all which 't is indifferently susceptible But 't is otherwise with real Colours a subject imbu'd with one of which is not apt to receive all others but some only as Nature hath fram'd the Organs of Sense naked of all sensible objects to the end they might be susceptible of the same Wooll dy'd into a sadder colour cannot receive a lighter and black Wooll admits none at all but white being natural to every subject that hath no colour is capable of receiving all So when you wash off the blew or dirty colour of a Band it becomes white Whereby it appears that Whiteness hath the same reference to Colours that Unity hath to Numbers whereof 't is the beginning but is none it self And as 't is the Emblem of Innocence and Purity so also it proceeds from them The Air which is the purest of our Elements for Fire is only in Mixts and water refin'd into vapours which follows the Air in purity hapning to acquire visibility by condensation into Snow cannot represent the same under any other out-side but Whiteness Now that Whiteness is an effect of purity is manifest by the Stars which are represented to us only under the species of Whiteness and cannot be painted but with white in their light which de-albating what it irradiates and leaving the same elsewhere black shews that 't is as the purest so also the whitest thing in the world Likewise Metals are whiter according to their purity Lead is worse then Tin and this then Silver only upon account of their impurity the sole perfect mixture of the yellow incombustible Sulphur of Gold not permitting it to be alter'd and spoil'd of its yellow colour which nearest approacheth whiteness Wherefore Snow being a most pure Body compounded only of two colour-less elements namely Air and Water 't was necessary either that it should have no colour or if any whereby to become visible the principle and origin of all Colours namely White in the perfection with which Nature makes all her Works The Third said That the same difference which appears between the Stars and their Orbs is found between Water and Snow arising only from Density and Rarity As the Star appears white and the rest of the Heaven darker by reason of its rarity so likewise Water seems obscure upon account of its rarity and Snow white upon that of its density The Fourth said If that reason were good then Ice should be whiter then Snow because 't is more solid and yet the contrary appears Besides Snow is so far from being more dense and solid then Water that on the contrary there is less Air in Water then in Ice which is more close and compact then Snow the swimming of Ice upon the Water arguing some aerious parts included in it at the time of its congelation which is not and cannot be made without air Wherefore Snow differs from Water only by its figure or accidental form which reduceth it into flocks congealed by cold in a cloud not as it is resolv'd into Rain for then 't would prove Hail but whilst yet a vapour in the region of the Air. So then in this figure alone is the reason of the whiteness of Snow to be sought which is not found in water partly by reason of its transparence and partly because its smooth surface gives no hold to the visual ray Which is the reason why Water is pictur'd with a blew and darkish colour Thus burnish'd Silver as that of Looking-glasses seems dark if compar'd to rough Silver which doth not dissipate our visual Spirits as that former doth Hence Ice is much whiter then water as being less smooth The Fifth said That 't is proper to cold to whiten as 't is to heat to blacken Thus Southern People are either black or tawney Northern white and the Hair of both grows white with old age by reason of the coldness thereof All the cold parts of our Body are white as the Brain Bones Cartilages Membranes Fat and Skin Linen and Wax are whitened by the coldness of the night For the same reason not only Snow but Hail Frost Ice Rime and all other cold Meteors are of the same colour The Sixth said That though the whiteness of Snow was disputed by Anaxagoras and Armenia produces red by mixture of the exhalations of Vermillion with the ordinary vapors which the Sun raises from the water yet this whiteness is as manifest as the causes are hid no less then those of light which is the colour of Celestial Bodies as colours are the light of Terrestrial However this whiteness seems to proceed from a mixture of Air and Water as appears in froth whose consistence is like that of Snow the whiteness whereof possibly is increas'd by the Spirits wherewith Snow abounds which are luminous Bodies whereof the fertility caus'd by Snow is an Argument to which Spirits which Frost hath not may be ascrib'd what Galen affirms namely that Fish cover'd with Snow become more delicious for to the Moon it can with no more reason be
attribute Crisis to the Moon viz. her moving by quaternaries and septenaries her notablest changes hapning every seventh day is too general For though she rules over Moistures or Humidities and a Crisis is only in Humoral Diseases yet she cannot introduce any change in the above-mentioned Critical Days rather then in others because then she must have this power either from her self or from some other and the several Aspects of the Sun Not from her self for then no change would happen in the Moon her self nor consequently in us by her means since things which are of themselves in some subject continue always the same Not from the Sun for then these alterations in Diseases should happen onely at certain postures of the Moon and not in all Now suppose Alexander fall sick to day and Aristotle to morrow yet neither of them shall have a Crisis but on the seventh day Besides the opposition of the Moon being less at the seventh then at the thirteenth day the Crisis should be rather on the latter then on the former And the same effect of the Septenary in the Conception Life Nutrition and Actions of Animals which is not observ'd hitherto the stomach digesting not better on the seventh day and the seed not being stronger that day in the matrix then on any other and the eighth day wherein the Moon is further from the first then she was on the seventh should cause the Crisis and not the seventh In brief the septenaries of diseases rarely agree with the Septenaries of the Quarters of the Moon whose motions being unequal according to the different elevation of her Epicicle would render Crisis uncertain Wherefore Galen not finding his reckoning hit with the Lunar Motion feign'd a Medicinal Moneth consisting of six and twenty days and some hours but he hath had no followers therein Fracastorius went a better way attributing the cause of Crises to the motion of Melancholly which is on the fourth day but as the bilious humor moving alone on the third day without melancholly doth nothing so melancholly alone produceth not any Crisis on the fourth day The fifth hath also the motion of Bile alone and consequently is without effect The sixth is quiet in reference to these humors being the day of neithers motion but on the seventh these two Biles concurring together make a great critical agitation But if the matter be not then sufficiently fermented and concocted the Crisis will not come till the fourteenth when the same motion of those two humors is again repeated The Third said That this opinion of Fracastorius makes Crises fall upon dayes not critical as the tenth thirteenth sixteenth ninteenth and two and twentieth contrary to all antiquity and daily experience and is founded in an errour namely that one humor cannot putrifie in the body whilst the rest remain pure seeing Quotidian Fevers are caus'd by Phlegm alone Tertians by Choler alone and Quartans by Melancholly alone and that no other reason can be given of the regular motion of Crisis but that of the motion of the Heavens CONFERENCE CLXIX What Bodily Exercise is the most healthful WHat motion is to the Aire and Water yea and to Fire too which it maintains that is it to our Bodies Ease makes them heavy and of the nature of the Earth which of all the Elements alone delights therein For the Body consisting of the Elements it necessarily without motion falls into the corruption which Rest introduces into them and the excrements remaining after nutrition either recoile back into the masse of Blood or else resting in that part of the body which is satiated with them overcharge the same and cause that plenitude which is so much suspected by Hippocrates On the contrary Motion awakens the natural heat drives out the excrements collected by ease strengthens the Members and renders all the Faculties more vigorous provided onely that it be us'd after evacuation of the grosser Excrements and before meat because then rest is necessary otherwise the food in the Stomach will be subverted and the motion of the outward parts will too soon attract from the inward the food undigested whence many diseases arise And this right use of Exercise is so necessary to health that the Athenians purposely dedicated a place for exercises call'd Gymnasiun to Apollo the God of Physick for which word the Art which treats of exercises is call'd Gymnastica and the Sorceries of Medea may be better understood of Exercises which make young and strengthen bodies formerly soft and effeminate than of Herbs wherewith she stuffed the bodies of old men whom she had jugulated an Art without which Plato and Aristotle thought a Commonwealth could not be good and to which chiefly is to be attributed the difference found between our modern Souldiers and the Roman Legionaries yea between the good habitude of their bodies and the weakness of ours who have so intermitted their exercises that onely the names of many are left Now since motion which to deserve the name of exercise must alter the respiration of the Animal is violent to it and of violent things we cannot take too little I conceive that such exercise as holds the mean between rest and extream motions is the best As Riding or going on Horseback which giving us motion diminishes the labour thereof and stirs all the parts of the body which happens not when only one part of the same body is exercis'd and the rest remain unmov'd The Second said That Exercise which is a voluntary motion and agitation of the Body with respiration increas'd whereby 't is distinguisht from the labour of Artisans and Labourers and from Actions accompany'd with no striving as playing on Instruments was transferr'd to the use of Physick by one Herodicus according to Plato in the third Book of his Republick and 't is taken two wayes either for that which is made by the proper motion of the Body or for such motion as is external to it as Swinging the Petaurum of the Latins Navigation going in a Coach or Litter As for those made by the Body alone they are of three sorts Athletical Military and Ludicrous or Pass-times The Athletick though the ancientest yet to me seem the most unprofitable serving onely to harden the surface of the body and the extream parts as the Armes and Legs such were Wrastling which is still in use among our Britains and at Constantinople before the Grand Seignior's Gate amongst some Tartars whom they call Pluyanders Acrochirism which consisted onely in keeping the fingers interlac'd one within the other Fifty-cuffs call'd anciently Pugilatus and imitated at this day by the Gondoliers at Venice Cae'stus wherein the hands were arm'd with plates of Copper and Pancratia which was compounded of Wrastling and Pugilate Of this sort were also Running commended by Seneca in his fifteenth Epistle for the Chief of Exercises and by Plato in the eighth Book of his Republick Leaping on high and in length either on both Feet or on
colours CONFERENCE CLXXXIV Of the Cold of the middle Region of the Air. THe common Opinion attributes the coldness of the middle Region to the Antiperistasis of the heat of the upper and lower Regions which streightning the cold on either side leave it no other place but the middle whither the vapors rais'd by the Sun-beams ascending and no higher by reason of their weight and the thinness of the air there it comes to pass that the neighbourhood of these vapors returning to their natural cold encreases that of the middle Region But many inconveniences invalidate this Opinion First if this Element were hot and moist as is suppos'd it would shew some effects thereof but 't is quite contrary For he were a fool that should go into the Air to warm himself and the Air hath so little humidity that it dries all Bodies Secondly many Mountains surpassing the middle Region of the Air and retaining figures describ'd in the ashes of a Sacrifice for a whole year which shew that in all that time no Wind or Rain was rais'd there to deface them it would follow that such Mountains reflecting the Sun-beams by their solidity should cause heat in the middle Region of the Air and yet they are commonly cover'd with Snow Lastly this Antiperistasis being only in Summer not in Winter when the cold of the lower Region symbolises with that of the middle this reason should then cease and yet 't is in Winter-time that cold Meteors manifest themselves Wherefore we must recur to some other cause which Cardan takes to be the natural coldness of the Air not regarding the combination of the four first qualities For if cold be natural to the Air it will be easie to conclude that it must be coldest in the middle which is less alter'd by the contrary quality of heat being most distant from the Element of Fire if there be any and from the heat which necessarily follows the motion of the heavenly Sphears The Second said That Cold being no positive Quality but a bare negation it follows that Bodies destitute of Heat are necessarily cold Now the Air cannot have heat or any other quality because 't is to serve for a medium not only to all sublunary Bodies but also to the heavenly influences whose nature would be perverted and alter'd by the qualities of the Air as a colour'd medium imparts its colours to objects It happens therefore that vapours cool not but are cooled by the Air so that they become colder in the middle Region then whilst they were in their natural seats Yea they are so far from rendring the Air cold that they abate its sharpness which is never greater then in clear weather cloudy and misty weather being always more warm and accompany'd with less piercing cold For being rais'd rather by the subterraneous heat then by that of the Sun they warm our air which reaches not above a league from the Earth then being gradually deserted by the heat which carry'd them up they meet in those higher spaces which are void of all heat and begin immediately to condense and congeal them What people talk of the higher Region of the Air is very doubtful because the Element of Fire being but an Opinion cannot counter-balance the report of Acosta who affirms that divers Spaniards were kill'd by the cold in their passage upon the Mountains of Peru which he judges the highest of the World and within the upper region The Third said That if we were to be try'd by experience alone the Earth which in Winter is hot at the Centre and in Summer on its Surface would not be judg'd cold and dry as it is no more then the Water always cold and moist since the Sun's heat warms it and the saltness of the Sea renders it heating and drying But accidental qualities must be carefully distinguish'd from essential because these latter are hard to be discern'd when any impediment interposes As the sight cannot judge of the straitness of the stick in the water but by having recourse to reason which teaches us that all light Elements are also hot Now the lightness of the air is indisputable and its heat is prov'd by its subtlety whereby it penetrates bodies unpassable by light it self Yet this heat is easily turn'd into cold because the air being a tenuious body and not compact retains its qualities no longer then they are maintain'd therein by their ordinary causes So that 't is no wonder if not being hot in the highest degree as Fire is but in a remiss and inferior degree it easily becomes susceptible of a more powerful contrary quality For the Sun-beams which some hold to be the true Element of Fire heat not unless they be united by reflection and this reflection being limited cannot reach beyond our first Region the higher Regions must necessarily remain cold unless upon further inquiry it be thought that the motion of the air carry'd about with the Sphear of the Moon and the Element of Fire plac'd under the same are capable to heat it The Fourth said That if we may judge of those higher Regions of the Air by those of the Earth and Water which we frequent each of these Elements hath three sensible differences its Surface Middle and Centre Those that frequent Mines tell us that the heat which succeeds the exterior cold of our earth penetrates not above a quarter of a league in depth about the end of which space cold begins to be felt again and encreases more and more towards the Centre In like manner 't is probable that the Water follows the qualities as well as the declivity of the Earth That it is hot at the bottom whither therefore the Fish retire in Winter proceeds from the nearness of that middle Region of the Earth So that it being proper to these Elements to have different qualities in their middle from those of their extremities the same may be true also of the Air possibly because a perfect identity of temperature would not have been convenient for the generation of Mixts to which end all the Elements were destinated And it being the property of cold to close and re-unite the looseness and dissipation of the Air it was therefore highly necessary to be predominant in the middle Region thereof CONFERENCE CLXXXV Of the Generation of Males and Females DIstinction of Sex is not essential but consists only in the parts serving to Generation Nevertheless Aristotle makes Male and Female differ as Perfect and Imperfect and saith That Nature's intention is always to make a Male and that only upon the default of some requisite condition she produces a Female whom therefore he calls a Mistake of Nature or a Monster Galen likewise acknowledging no other difference styles Man a Woman turn'd outwards because Woman hath the same Organs with Man only wants heat and strength to put them forth Now indeed this heat and strength is manifestly greater in Males then Females even from the first conception for the
The Third said That there are four colours answering to the Elements viz. Black to Earth White to Water Yellow to Air and Red to Fire For discovering the Causes of whose diversities the ancient Philosophers prepar'd a Matter which by the degrees of fire they pass'd through all the colours of Nature and perceiv'd sometimes in their vessel what they call'd the Peacock's tail representing all colours in one single Matter whence they concluded the variety of colours to proceed from that of External Fire moving the Matter less in one part than in another Thus Antimony which is at first Black is rais'd into White Yellow Red and mixt Flowers according as they are sublim'd more or less But you can draw no consequence from hence to the Colours of Plants since redness which in works of Art argues perfect Digestion and Fire predominant doth not so in Simples CONFERENCE CLXXXVIII Whether we are more perspicacious in the Affairs of others or our own and why IT may seem superfluous to make this a Question since by the enumeration of all sorts of Affairs it appears that we are Moles yea perfectly blind in the Judgement we make of our selves and more clear-sighted than the Lynx in those we make of others Which also the Gospel testifies by the comparison of a mote which we espy in the Eye of a Neighbour not seeing the beam which is in our own for according to the direction of the Lawyers who are to be believed in point of affairs in the first place in reference to persons every one understands himself much less either in Mind or Body than he doth another most esteeming themselves more capable and worthy of praise for Witt than they are and as the Eye sees not it self but every other visible thing so he that hath any perfection or imperfection cannot consider the same in its true Latitude but easily adds something to the first or diminishes from the second whilst the various bent of our Passions always exalts and depresses the balance and keeps it from that aequilibrium which is necessary to a right Judgement Hence Physicians although they ought to know themselves better than they can be known by others yet when sick permit themselves to be treated by their Companions and never succeed so well in the Cure of themselves or their domesticks as they do abroad elsewhere In the second place we are less quick-sighted in things that concern our selves than in those of others whence commonly the greatest Lawyers leave the affairs of their own Houses more imbroiled than others Which was the cause that the Wife of Pacius the famous Lawyer of our time sent to him to ask his Advice concerning his own affairs under fancied names making him pay a Solicitor with his own Money In the third place Actions are in a very evill hand when they are to be managed or defended by their Authors either Modesty on the one hand extenuating them or Thrasonical pride dilating them and adding thereunto more than is fit Lastly the Laws shew sufficiently what hath been the opinion of Legislators upon this matter when they forbid Advocates and Procurators to plead and practise in their own Cause and when they injoyn Judges to forbear not only their own but also from all those wherein their kinred or alliances may have any interest Thus much for the first Head of the Question The Reason which is the second ariseth hence That the Eye as well as all other Organs of External and Internal Senses such as the Judgement is must be serene and not prepossessed by any tincture or Prejudice Now to require this serenity and indifferency in our own affairs is to demand an impossibility The Cause whereof may come from the pureness and subtilty of the Humane Spirit above that of other Animals compared to the Elements of Earth and Water which contracting themselves round about their own Centre move not but in quest of their food others more ayerious rise a little higher but yet have a bounded Region such are the spirits of Women whose Knowledg and Curiosity is limited to the affairs of their houswifrie or at most to those of their neighbourhood But the Mind of Man resembling Fire which hath no other bound but Heaven penetrates even to the Centre of the Earth carries its point every where and is like flame in a perpetual agitation oftentimes resembling our natural heat in Summer which abandons the Internal parts to carry it self to the extremities The Second said There is as great diversity of Judgements and Witts as there is of Eyes amongst Men. As there are some blind other Eyes from which the Objects must be set at distance to become visible some also to which they must be approached and lastly others which require a moderate distance between the Visible Object and the Organ Iin like manner there are some Judgements absolutely blind others which judge not things too near but require to have them removed or set at a middle distance there are others also which judge them better near hand than a far off and this truly is the custom of the best Judgements and of such as least suffer themselves to be prepossess'd Indeed what is more absurd than for us to remove far from Objects in order to judging of them after the manner of old men and of those that are short-sighted and if the saying of Aristotle be true The Species of the thing to be known must be not only introduced into but also made like the Mind Is the divesting our selves of it away to know it well By this reckoning we shall never see clear in any affair not in our own because 't is ours nor in those others in regard of the Envy Men bear to the prosperity of their Neighbours which makes them think that their Vines are more fruitful and their afflictions less severe If some Physicians resign themselves to the cure of others of the same profession 't is because they believe them as able as themselves or perhaps because their own Judgement is disturbed by the disease otherwise since the particular Knowledge of every one's Temper is the condition most requisite to a good Physician for curing his Patient and every one knowing his own better than another can in along time none can be a better Physician of another than of himself and if domestick cures be effected with less notice yet they are not less sure and remarkable to him that would consider them That Lawyers are not admitted to plead in their own Case is rather from their too much than too little Knowledge the Court foreseeing that they would be too prolix and hot in the prosecution thereof besides the greater temptation to dishonesty in disguising their own actions Nor is exception against Judges in the case of their kinred allowed because they see not clear enough into the affair in question but because interest which is inseparably fixed in humane minds might lead them to relieve their Relations to
which is in Caves and places under ground where it continues in its own nature is not frozen Nor yet that which lies expos'd to the influence of a cold air especially when it may easily insinuate it self into it Whence it comes that to cause water to freeze in a short time it must be warm'd before it be expos'd to the Air which finding its pores open by the heat so much the more speedily insinuates it self into it For as to what is maintain'd by some Physicians to wit that the Air is hot and moist seems to have been advanc'd by them rather to make a correspondence of the four possible combinations of qualities to so many Elements than for any convictive reason since the Air is never hot if it be not warm'd by some other heat then it hath in it self such as is that of Fire or the Sun-beams and these too must be reflected by the Earth On the contrary when it continues in its own nature as it does in the night-time during the absence of the Sun it is actually cold nay even in the greatest heats of Summer it keeps its coolness provided there be no application made to a hot body as may be seen in our Ladie 's Fanns who forcing away the Air from their hot faces are refresh'd by its coolness which then cannot proceed from any other principle than the proper nature of Air inasmuch as motion would be more likely to imprint heat on them then cold And this is further confirm'd by the Air we breathe the reciprocation whereof cools our Lungs whereas it should warm them if it were hot as the Peripateticks would have it It happens therefore that the Air for that reason call'd by some Philosophers primum frigidum the first cold insinuating it self into the Water produces therein the effect which Aristotle attributes to it to wit that of congregating all things as well of the same as of several kinds And whereas our common water what simplicity soever there may be in it consists of all the Elements especially Earth and Air the Air joyning it self to what it meets withal of its own Nature does in the first place render that cold and being by that means united to the other parts viz. to the Earth unperceivably intermixt with the Water and to the Water it self contracts and compresses them so as that they take up less space then they did before as may be seen in a Bottle fill'd with water and frozen up which though it had been full is nevertheless found to contain air in its upper part And yet this compression cannot be so well made but that there remain several particles of Air enclos'd in the Spaces of the Ice which were it not for that air would be vacuous and this by reason the surface as was said before freezing up first it from thenceforward hinders from making their way out those parts of air which either were got in before or caus'd by the avoiding of vacuity when the Center and other parts of the Water are forc'd by the Cold to take up less place then they did before We conclude therefore and say that though the Ice be dense and hard by reason of that compression of all its parts yet is lighter than Water because there is air enclos'd within it which cannot return to its sphere as that does which gets into the Water which by reason of its liquidity makes way for it So that it is no more to be wondred at why Ice is lighter than Water then that cork being harder is lighter than the same water Otherwise had the Ice no Air inclos'd within it as it happens to that engendred in Mines which in process of time comes to be Crystall it would fall to the bottom of the water as the other does The same thing may be instanc'd in porous wood which swims upon the water whereas Ebony by reason of its solidity and want of pores will sink The Second said That whether the Air be granted to be light or not or that it pass only for a body less weighty than the water as this latter is less heavy than the earth certain it is that the intermixt Air not that comprehended within the concavities but that diffus'd through the least parts of the Ice is that which makes it lighter inasmuch as it augments its sinnuosities as may be observ'd in a bottle fill'd with water which breaks when the water is congeal'd in regard that being converted into Ice the bottle cannot contain it So that as Snow is lighter than Hail so this latter is lighter than Ice and this last is lighter than water in regard it contains less matter in an equal space Accordingly it is the Air that freezes the water yet dos it not follow thence that it should be the primum frigidum as the Iron which is red hot burnes more vehemently than the elementary fire yet is not that red hot Iron the primum calidum that distinction proceeding from the difference of matter which as it must be the more compact in order to a greater burning so the cold for its better insinuation into all the parts of the water requires the conveyance of the Air. As to the lightness of Ice it seems to be the more strange upon this consideration that Physicians explicate lightness by heat as they do heaviness by cold But the fiery vapors which are in the water as may be said of that which hath been warm'd contribute very much to that lightness it being not incompatible that these contrary qualities should be lodg'd in the same Subject considering the inequality of the one in respect of the other and it is not to be thought a thing more strange that there should be potentially hot Exhalations in the water than that the Nile should abound in Nitre which is of an igneous nature Now from what matter soever the cold proceeds 't is evident by its action that it is not a privation of heat as some Philosophers would have maintain'd since that which is not as privation cannot have any effect But those who have referr'd freezing as well as thawing to the Constellations seem to have come near the mark in as much as those making certain impressions in the Air which serves for a mean to unite the Influences of the celestial bodies to the inferior diversly affect them one while contracting another dilating them according to the diversity of matter there being some not susceptible of congelation as the Spirit of Wine and Quintessences either upon the account of their heat or simplicity The Third said That if the first qualities of cold and heat were the Causes of freezing and thawing they would always happen accordingly the former when it is most cold and the other when the cold diminishes Now many times we find the contrary there being some dayes without any frost on which thaws we are more sensible of cold and sometimes we perceive it yet without any perceivable remission of the
of Rome lest the corruption might be communicated to the neighbouring Houses but provided it should be done without the walls The Second said That though the general way of burying the dead now is to enterre them yet methinks that of burning them and preserving their ashes is more noble and honourable in regard the Fire excells the Earth in purity as far as it transcends it in its vicinity to Heaven the qualities whereof it communicates to the bodies it consumes purifying and preserving them from all putrefaction and making them so clear and transparent that according to the common opinion of Theology in the general conflagration the World and all bodies comprehended within it will be vitrify'd by means of the fire It is therefore more honourable to have our bodies consum'd by that Element then to have them devour'd by Worms and Putrefaction whereof fire being an enemy and the Embleme of Immortality there can be no better expedient to secure our deceas'd Friends from oblivion then that of burning their bodies whereof we have either the bones or ashes left which may be preserv'd whole Ages there being yet to be seen the Urns of the ancient Romans full of such precious deposita as those who put their Friends into the ground can never see Add to this that it is a rational thing to make a distinction between Man Beast which they do not who burying both treat them after the same manner whereas if Man's body were burnt and that of the Beast left to rot in the ground it would serve for a certain acknowledgment of the disproportion there is between them and that as the latter is of a mean and despicable condition it is accordingly dispos'd into the Earth which is under the other Elements and as it were the Common-shore of the World whereas the former being design'd for Immortatality Fire which is the most sensible Hieroglyphick thereof is more proper for it then the earth wherein if we were not carry'd away rather by opinion than reason and that Tyrant of three Letters in the Latin Tongue as a learned Author calls Custom did not corrupt our judgment it were more rational to bury the bodies of Malefactors then to burn them as is commonly done The Third said That if we may judge of the goodness of a thing by its Antiquity the way of interring the dead will carry it as having been from the beginning of the World Holy Scripture tell us that Abraham bought a Field for the burial of himself and his and that a dead body having been dispos'd into the Sepulchre where the bones of Elizeus were was rais'd to Life In other Histories we find that most Nations practis'd it especially the Romans till the time of Sylla who was the first whose Body was burnt at Rome which disposal of himself he order'd out of a fear he might be treated as Marius had been whose bones he caus'd to be taken out of the ground and cast into the River From that time they began to burn the Bodies of the Dead which continu'd till the Reign of the Antoninus's when the Custom of burying them came in again and hath since been us'd by all Nations whose universal consent gives a great presumption that this manner is to be preferr'd before any other Add to this that our Saviour would have his precious body so dispos'd and the Holy Church which is divinely inspir'd seems to mind us of the same thing when upon Ash-wednesday she tell us that we are dust and that into dust we shall return The Fourth said That there were five ways of disposing the dead One is to put them into the ground another to cast them into the water the third to leave them in the open air the fourth to burn them and the last to suffer them to be devour'd by Beasts This last is too inhumane to find any Abettors but among Barbarians Men are more careful to prevent the corruption of Water and Air without which they cannot live then to suffer carrions and dead carkasses which would cause infections and insupportable stinks so that the contest is only between Fire and Earth For my part I give the precedence to the former whose action is more expeditious than that of the other Elements which require a long time to consume dead bodies whereas Fire does it in an instant Whereto I may add this that there cannot be any other more likely expedient whereby men may secure themselves from those contagious infections which many times occasion diseases especially when they are attended by Malignancy Nay however it is to be wish'd whether dead bodies be buried or burnt that it should be done out of the City and that the Law of the Decemviri to wit Hominem mortuum in urbe ne sepelito neve vrito were still punctually observ'd FINIS Of Sleep and how long it ought to be Which is the strongest thing in the World Of the Gowt Which Condition is most expedient for the acquisition of Wisedom Riches or Honour Of Glass Of Fucusses or Cosmeticks Of Tobacco Whether the Invention of Guns hath done more hurt than good Of Blood-letting Which is the most excellent of the Souls three Faculties Imagination Memory or Judgment Of Dew Whether it is expedient for Women to be Learned Whether it be good to use Chymical Remedies Whether the reading of Romances be profitable Of Talismans Whether a Country-life or a City-life is to be preferr'd Of Volcano's Which Age is most desirable Of Mineral Waters Whether it be better to Give than to Receive Of Antidotes Which is most communicative Good or Evil Why Animals cry when they feel Pain Whether it be expedient to have Enemies Of the Rain-bow Whether the Reading of Books is a fitter way for Learning than Vocal Instruction Of the Milky-way Which is most powerful Gold or Iron Of the cause of Vapours Which is less culpable Rashness or Cowardice
the Gauls of his time weak in war because they were rich For what is commonly said That Gold is the sinew of War is true as to the power of levying and maintaining of men but not as to the performing of great exploits and enterprises Mercenary Souldiers and Venal Souls being ordinarily base and of ill qualities if they do any thing 't is forc'd and of little duration nor do they continue longer then the Gold lasts Iron on the contrary is maintain'd by it self and its own power Every one fears to offend such as have only Iron by their side as those by whom nothing is to be gotten but much may be lost For to use Gold for repelling enemies and diverting them elsewhere constant experience manifests it a very dangerous remedy since besides the ignominy of becoming as it were tributaries they are never driven so far but they soon return more irritated with the thirst of this Gold then they were before with the honour of Victory In fine since men yield sooner to violence then to gentleness Iron which constrains and forces is much more powerful then Gold which perswades but chiefly in War where the bravest and most generous exploits are perform'd by open force and not by surprises and treacheries he not being properly overcome who was willing to be so and suffer'd him self to be corrupted but a Victory gotten by pure Valour ordinarily takes from the enemies the desire of returning The Second said That Victory being the end of War it matters not by what means that end is obtain'd the easiest and least bloody of which are stratagems and surprizes which besides being the effects of Wit and Prudence seem more proper to man then down-right force wherein beasts surpass us and which is oftimes accompani'd with injustice Wherefore Gold whereby all secret intelligences are contriv'd seems to have the advantage of Iron as slights in War are more efficacious then open force As also it makes less noise and hath more fruit whereas Iron oftentimes equally subdues and weakens both parties And Victory the thing aimed at by War cannot be call'd such unless it be intire Iron indeed subdues bodies not hearts but Gold wins both together The Third said That Gold and Iron may be consider'd either simply as Metals or else as Instruments of civil life In the former consideration Gold being of a more perfect nature hath also more power then Iron the most imperfect and terrene of all besides its ductility makes it more capable of extension then any other which is an evidence of its perfection If they be consider'd as means and instruments destinated to the use of life which is the noblest end whereunto they can be imploy'd Gold will still have the advantage over Iron since if we credit the Chymists potable Gold is profitably employ'd for health and the prorogation of life and the same Metal is also the bond of humane society which cannot subsist without commerce nor this without money for which Gold is the most proper as containing in small bulk the value of all other Metals of lower alloy Hence we see the people commonly raise the price of it beyond what the Prince sets upon it and 't is as much desir'd by all the world as Iron is abhorr'd all Professions and Trades aiming at the enjoyment of gold which seems to be the ultimate end of all humane actions in this life whatever disguises men assume under the pretexts of honour and vertue whose lustre is also set off by that of Gold employ'd for this purpose to crown the heads of Monarchs and to render divine worship more magnificent The Fourth said That as Iron makes Hammers and Anvils which serve to give Gold what form we please so 't is every where the master of gold and consequently more powerful in Peace and War affording Grates Locks and Keys for securing Gold in the former and Swords for defending it in the latter For Gold serves only to make the possessor envi'd and inflame the desires of such as want it 'T was with Iron that the Romans became masters of the Gold of other Nations and the Portugals conquer'd that of Peru and the Swisses overcame the Duke of Burgundy the History observing that all their wealth was not worth the Gold wherewith the Burgundians had enrich'd their horses bridles The Fifth said That the end being not only more noble but also more powerful then the means Iron which is commonly employ'd for the getting of Gold must be also inferior to it And 't is universally acknowledg'd that Gold is the sinew of War it levies and keeps men together it makes the Cannon move and all its train 'T is with Gold that we corrupt Spies without whose informations all Iron and strength would be oftentimes unprofitable Wherefore since Iron borrows its power from Gold by the Philosophical Maxim it hath less power then it CONFERENCE CXV I. Of the cause of Vapours II. Which is less culpable Rashness or Cowardice THe First said The material cause of Vapours is aqueous humidity the efficient external heat the formal rarefaction the final is various according to nature's different intentions but commonly the elevation of an aqueous body which remaining in its first consistence would weigh more then air and consequently could not be carried to those higher places where 't is needful for the generation of Mixts which cannot be done without transmutation of the Elements into the places yea and natures also one of another So Roses in an Alembick would evaporate nothing if they were depriv'd of all humidity as appears in their dry'd Cakes nor what humidity may be in them without heat which humidity is rarifi'd and carri'd upwards before it descends being again condens'd into the water which resided in the Cake before its separation by heat which consequently is the most evident cause of Vapours The Second said There are some vapours that are hot and dry as appears not only by the smoak exhaling from boiling Pitch and other unctuous bodies but also by the vapours that issue out of the earth which would never be inflam'd some in the surface of the earth others in the middle of the air and others beyond the highest region and even in the heavens if they were only of the nature of water which quencheth instead of conceiving fire as on the other side Rain Hail Snow Dew and other aqueous and incombustible Meteors argue that all Vapours of which they must be produc'd are not hot and dry Whence I conclude that as the matter of vapours is various so their other causes are all different especially the efficient For the degree of heat that evaporates water will not make Oyl exhale as we see a great glass will be sooner evaporated then a spoonful of the latter and the Chymists make use of a small fire or even of the Sun to distill their waters but augment their fire to extract Oyls Moreover as to the material causes the vapours of hot
distill'd Waters difficultly by reason of their simplicity Vinegar though cold never by reason of the tenuity of its parts But the surface of waters being full of earthy and gross parts which could not accompany the Vapours or Exhalations drawn up by the Sun's heat is therefore first frozen even that of running waters though not so easily by reason of their motion makes a divulsion of their parts as neither Oyle very easily by reason of its aërious and unctuous humidity the Sea and Hot Spirits which yet Experience shews are sometimes frozen by Vehement Cold the Poet in his description of the sharpness of Winter in his Georgicks saying that they cleav'd Wine with hatchets and the Northern Navigations of the Hollanders relating that they were detain'd three moneths under the seventy fourth Degree where their Ships were frozen in the main sea The Second said That Heat and Cold are the immediate Causes of Freezing and Thawing but 't is hard to know Whence that Heat and Cold comes Now because Cold is onely the Privation of Heat as Darkness is of Light we shall sufficiently understand the Causes of Cold and of Freezing if we know those of Heat which causes Thawing The truth is the Sun whose approach and remoteness makes the diversities of Seasons according to the different mutations which he causes in the qualities of the Air contribute thereunto but the Earth helps too he cannot do it alone for we see that the Snow on the Mountains which approach nearest Heaven is last melted But the Sun's Rays piercing into the bosome of the Earth draw out that Fire which is inclos'd in its entralls and because the Sun removes but a very little from the Aequinoctial Line therefore that part of the Earth which answers to that of Heaven where the Sun continually resides is alwayes Hot and by a contrary Reason that under the Poles is alwayes extreamly cold And even Country-people observe winds to be the Cause of these Effects for those that blow from the North quarter bring with them an extream cold Air which is the cause of Freezing and those from the South bring on us an Air extreamly heated by the continuall action of the Sun and so are the cause of Thawing The Third said That Winds being continual because their matter never fails it happens that the strongest gets the better of the weakest and they chase one another whence Virgil calls them Wrestlers When the South Winds blow which are more frequent and more gross then the Northern or Eastern by reason of the Sun's strength in the South which opens the Pores of the Earth more the copious Exhalations which issue out of it are hotter than those which come out of the Pores of the Northern Earth which are closed up by Cold whence the Winds blowing from thence are colder and thinner just as our breath is cold when we contract our Mouthes and hot when we dilate them In like manner the Exhalations issuing out of the Earth's Pores are hotter or colder according as the passages out of which they proceed are more or less dilated and consequently cause Freezing or Thawing The Fourth said That the Sun or other Stars are onely remote Causes of Freezing and Thawing namely by their Heat which serves to raise the Vapors which are the next causes thereof according as they partake more or less of that external Heat or as the Chymists say as they are full either of certain nitrous and dissolving Spirits which cause Thawing or of coagulating ones which cause Freezing such as those are harden Plants into Stones which so presently congeal drops of water in Caves and Water-droppings and form the Crystals of the Rock Moreover just before it freezes Sinks and other stinking places smell more strong by reason that the Spirits and Vapors of the Earth are complicated with those stinks as they issue forth The Fifth said That the Cause of Thawing is to be attributed to the Heat of the Earth which exhaling warm Vapors fiâ—st heats the bottome of the Water for which reason Fish retire thither then they mollifie and moisten the surface of the Water or the Earth hardned by Cold. Moreover that Heat which is found in the deepest Mines where the Labourers work naked and most ordinarily in the Water without enduring any Cold the veins of Sulphur Bitumen Vitriol and Arsenick which are found in the entralls of the Earth the Hot Springs and the Volcanoes in its surface sufficiently argue That if there be not a Central Fire as the Pythagoreans held yet there is a great Heat there like that of Living Bodies which concocts Metals and makes Plants grow Hence the changes of Air are first discover'd in Mines by the Vapors arising from beneath which hinder Respiration and make the Lamps burn dim or go quite out Whereby 't is evident that they are exhaled by the Heat of the earth and not attracted by that of the Sun and Stars which penetrate but a very little way into the earth Now as our bodies are inwardly hotter in Winter so this heat of the earth being concentred in it self as appears by Springs which smoke in that season and by the heat of subterraneous places raises greater plenty of warm Vapors which in Winte render the Weather moist and rainy but when rain or the coldness of the air stops those pores then those Exhalations being shut up the Air remains cold and it freezes which frost is again dissolv'd by their eruption For the natural heat of the Earth being constring'd and render'd stronger by the ambient Cold drives out hotter and more copious exhalations which consist either of the rain-rain-water wherewith it is moistned or of other humidities and which arriving at the surface of the Earth which is frozen soften it and fill the air with clouds which always accompany a Thaw as Serenity do's a Frost The Sixth said That as Hail is nothing but Rain congeal'd so Frost is nothing but Dew condens'd by the vehemence of Cold and in the Water 't is call'd Ice which coldness condensing the Water which is a diaphanous body and consequently hath an internal and radical light is the cause of its whiteness which is the beginning of light as the Stars are the condens'd parts of their Orbs. Unless you had rather ascribe that whiteness to the Air included in the Ice which also makes the same swim upon the water An Evidence that Cold alone is not the cause of Freezing for Cold alone render bodies more ponderous by condensing their parts whence Ice should be heavier then Water but there is requir'd besides some hot and dry exhalation which insinuating into the Water gives it levity The Seventh said That such bodies as are frozen are so far from receiving augmentation of parts that they lose the thinnest of their own hence a bottle so close stopped that the air cannot get in to supply the place of the thinner parts which transspire and perish upon freezing breaks in pieces for avoiding
from falling but from the bare privation of the heat of the Sun who as by his presence he actually causes heat in the Air so by his absence he causes coldness in the same which penetrating our Bodies calefi'd by the diurnal heat easily therein condenses the vapors which are not yet setled or laid and squeesing them out of the Brain and all the parts just as we do water out of a wet spunge they fall upon the weakest parts where they cause a fluxion and pain The Fourth said That the Air being of it self very temperate can never do any mischief unless it be mix'd with some extraneous substances as Vapors and Exhalations which continually infect the first Region wherein we reside And because those subtle parts of Earth and Water exhal'd into it are imperceptible 't is not strange if they produce such sudden and unexpected effects as we see the Serene doth which is caus'd by vapors rais'd after Sun-set by the force of the heat remaining upon the surface of the Earth like those arising from heated water after it is taken off the fire So that the Serene is that vapour whilst it mounts upwards not when it falls downwards for it cannot descend till it be render'd heavier by condensation into Water Clouds or Mists which make the Air nubilous and not serene as in this effect it uses to be But at their first elevation they are more volatile rare subtle and invisible The Fifth said That the chief cause of this hurtful accident is the change of one contrary into another without medium which is always incommodious to Nature who for that reason conjoyns all extreams by some mediums which serve for dispositions to pass from the one to the other without difficulty And as the alteration of the body from cold to hot is painful witness those who hold their cold hands to the fire after handling of Ice in like sort that from hot to cold is very incommodious whence the hotter the preceding day hath been the more dangerous is the serene because the pores of the Body being open'd and all the humors disorder'd and mov'd by the diurnal heat the cold insinuates into and works upon the same with more liberty just as heated water is soonest frozen by reason its parts are more open'd by the heat and consequently more capable of receiving the impressions of Agents Which is also the reason why the first cold hurts us rather then the greatest frosts namely because it finds the body more open then ensuing hard weather doth So though in Winter the air be colder yet because 't is almost continually the same it makes less impression in the evening upon our bodies already accustomed to its rigor and though the air is colder at midnight then at Sun-set yet the serene is only at the beginning of the night when our bodies more sensibly receive alteration from the same Wherefore 't is only the sudden change of the air which makes the serene whereof our bodies are the more sensible according to the openness of the pores and of the futures of the head and the softness of the flesh which renders the body obnoxious to external causes as hardness which secures it from them makes it subject to internal causes through want of transpiration Hence Peasants Souldiers and all such as are hardned by labour and are of a firm and constant constitution feel no inconvenience from the Serene although they breathe an air more subtle and consequently more capable of being impregnated in the evening with qualities noxious to the body CONFERENCE CXLVI Whether the French are Light and Inconstant and why THere is no more perfect Mirror of Inconstancy then Man as appears by the pleasure his body takes in the change of Pasture his mind in that of Objects and both in that of Condition Hence men look not upon present honours but as so many steps whereby to ascend to new the possession of present goods bringing no other satisfaction then that of their Stomack that is till a second Appetite be excited by new Meats Whereunto the nimbleness of their volatile Spirits the fluidity and mobility of their humours which constitute the temperament too notoriously furnish the efficient and material cause to inquire elsewhere for them for which reason the melancholick are less subject to this defect this earthy humour being less susceptible of change whence they prove more wise But amongst all Nations there is none to whom the vice of Levity is more imputed then to the French Caesar who had long convers'd with them frequently objects the same to them and experience sufficiently shews by what is pass'd that they are very far from the constancy of other Nations as not only their Statutes and Edicts which they cannot long observe but all their Modes and Customs and their desire of novelty abundantly testifie The causes whereof are either from the Climate or the Soil For 't is observ'd that where the Heaven is always in the same posture as toward the Poles or where the Sun heats almost in the same degree as near the Equator which makes the days and nights equal the Manners and Inclinations of the People are also equal on the contrary those that by the several remotions and approaches of the Sun have different constitutions of Air receive sutable impressions from the same which are afterwards manifested in their actions And because what is below is the same with what is on high the Earth consequently partakes of the same alterations which the Heaven produces in the Air and retains them longer Thus our Soul being heated and cooled moistned and dry'd in one and the same day suffering contrary changes in a very little time 't is no wonder if the Aliments it affords make the parts humors and spirits like it self that is to say flitting inconstant and mutable which parts being communicated from Father to Son can no more be chang'd by us even by Travels and Alteration of Soil than the Moor can change his skin which the temper of his native climate hath in like manner given him Add hereunto that the French Courtesie receiving all strangers more civilly than any Nation of the World is also more easily lead by their perswasions and examples And whereas the roughness and rusticity of many other people thinks shame and scorn to change as implying preceding Ignorance the sincerity and frankness of the French is such that he easily alters his Mind and way as soon as another seems better to him than his own other Nations what-ever Pride they take in being always constant and equal to themselves and especially more patient than we in our Adversities surpassing us onely in this particular that they better know how to dissemble their discontents The Second said Lightness of Minds is like that of Bodies respective onely not absolute And as Air is term'd Light in respect of Water and Earth so dull people those of the North and such others as would have gravity alone
which is so far from being rich enough of its self that it borrows from the Greek and Latine to express the most common things and consequently is not sufficient to teach all the Sciences The Second said The French Tongue is deriv'd from the Greek Latine and Gothick which are Languages much more copious then it and therefore they that will recur to originals will find those Tongues more adapted for teaching the Sciences then the French and yet not any single one of them sufficient for it since the Romans to become and deserve the name of Learned were oblig'd to learn Greek Moreover since Books are the chief instruments for attaining the Sciences the ancient Latine and Greek ones which yet were not sufficient for it are much more numerous than the French and by consequence the French Tongue is not capable to teach every Science and had it more Translations then it hath yet these are but small Rivulets deriv'd from that grand Source of Sciences which is found in the original Languages The Third said If we regard the order of times and particularly that of the Creation when all things were in their perfection and purity 't is most likely that that Language which took birth with Adam and all the Sciences is more fit to teach them then the much more Novel French and since there must be a proportion between Instruments and the Matters upon which they act and this proportion is not found between the French Tongue lately invented and the Sciences which are as ancient as the World who can think it sufficient to teach them and the Cabalists hold that the Language fit to teach the Sciences perfectly must have words adapted to signifie the Vertues and Properties of things which ours hath not The Fourth said That all the Language of Adam who gave names suitable to the nature of every thing being lost except the the name of God for that reason so much esteemed by the Jews The Cabalists in imitation of that Tongue invented one whereof I shall give you a taste It hath five Vowels E A V I O which answer to the Elements and the Heaven E to Earth A to the Water V to the Air I to the Fire and O to Heaven E produceth in pronunciation c d f g l m n p r s t z forasmuch as these Consonants cannot be produc'd without it A produceth h and k v produceth q I produceth nothing because pure and single Fire doth not O likewise produceth nothing because the Heaven only moves and excites Generations whereas E produceth abundance of Letters resembling the Earth which produceth every thing in its bosom being the Centre of Heaven and the Matrix of the Elements Now to form words according to the Elementary Qualities they will have the Vowels which compose such a word answer to the Elements which compose such a mixt body And to specifie degrees because the Vowels whereby they are denoted meeting together would spoil the pronunciation therefore they make foure orders of the sixteen Consonants viz. b c d f denote the four degrees of Fire g l m n those of Air p r s t those of Water x z ss st those of Earth Upon this foundation they build the composition of all their Words which they compose of Vowels according to the Elements predominant in things and of Consonants according to their degree But who sees not the absurdity of this invention which by this means would extend only to corporeal mixts whereof the quality and very degree is known Concerning which Naturalists are so far from being agreed that many attribute most natural effects to other causes as to Occult Properties so call'd in opposition to the Elementary 'T is best therefore not to rove from the common tract which teaches us the Sciences by real Languages amongst which those call'd Dead ones to wit the Hebrew Greek and Latine and others now disus'd suffice not for teaching the Sciences because they are not pronounc'd well and the learned agree not about the importance of many Letters and Syllables Besides the most eloquent express not themselves so naturally in those antick obsolete Tongues as in their own And all confess that in order to obtain the perfection of a Science too much plainness cannot be us'd either on the Teacher's part in establishing their Rules and Precepts or on the Learner's in propounding their difficulties for resolution CONFERENCE CLXXXVII Of diversity of Colours in one and the same subject THe diversity of Colours is commonly deduc'd from the mixtion and proportion of the Elements but more truly from the several degrees of Sulphur which produces them as Salt doth Sapors the most certain indications what degree the quality of a Plant is of For if Colours had relation to the Elements then all red things should be hot and white things cold which is not true in Poppy and Roses on the one side nor Orange-flowers and Jasmin on the other So also green things should be always moist because this colour proceeds from an indigested humidity mixt with a part of putrifi'd earth as appears in standing waters and yet the greenness of Lawrel and Mint hinders them not from being hot and dry nor that of Ranunculus from burning But Colours are either natural or artificial which latter as we find it in Stuffs and Silks is neither the cause nor the effect of their temperament But natural colour such as that in the parts of living Animals is an effect of their Life and alterable after their death Wherefore I conclude that colour and its varieties proceeds from the different degrees of Sulphur in the subject but that one and the same subject is of several colours the causes may be First for that some of its parts are more compact others more loose and so differently receive the impression of the Sulphur and the Internal Fire Secondly the Sun shining more upon one part than another draws the internal colour from the Centre to the Circumference as Apples are colour'd on the side next the Sun Thirdly the same difference which is found between the Root Trunk Leavs Flower Fruit and other parts of Plants and Animals is also found in each portion of those parts as the lower part of the Rose is green the middle part whitish and the top red and the Tulip variegated is compounded of as many several particles which variety of places and matrices serves to determine the colour which Sulphur paints thereon being guided by the pencil of Nature The Second said That this diversity of colours proceeds only from the divers aspect of light which varies the colours of certain Bodies to our Eye as in the Rain-bow the Camelion and the necks of Pigeons in things expos'd to the Sun which seem far brighter than before To which you must add the distance and station of the beholders so water seems black or blew afar off but near hand colourless Turpentine Crystal and the whites of Eggs in several situations do the like
the prejudice of a third Which yet hath not place in all there being found good Judges who would condemn their own Child if he had a bad Cause But to attribute to self-love the defect of clear-sightedness is to speak too Poetically since the Prince of Poets believes it not possible to deceive a Lover and the knowledge we have of others affairs hath no other foundation but that which we have of our own just as self-love is given us for a rule of that of our Neighbour The Third said That which happens most frequently being the rule and the rest the exception and the greatest part of Men resembling that Lamia who being blind at home put on her Eyes when she went abroad it must be agreed that we are less clear-sighted in our own than in others affairs Which is the meaning of the Proverb of the wallet in the forepart of which the bearer puts other Mens matters casting his own into the part behind upon his back Moreover to see clear is to see without clouds or mists such as are those of the Passions Fear Hope Avarice Revenge Ambition Anger and all the rest which suffer not the Species to be calmly represented to the Intellect which receives the same as untowardly as stirred water or a Looking-glass sullied with incessant clouds or vapors receive an Image objected to them 't is true the Passions have some effect upon it in affairs without but as themselves so their trouble is less and he is the best Judge who gives them no admittance at all which cannot be in our own affairs where consequently we are no less clear than in those of others CONFERENCE CLXXXIX Of the Original of Mountains GOD having created the world in perfection it was requisite there should be Plains Mountains and Vallies upon the Earth without which agreeable variety there would be no proportion in its parts wherein nevertheless consists its principal ornament which hath given it the name of world no other beginning of Mountains seems assignable but that of the world Nor is there any possibility in attributing another Cause to those great Mountains which separate not only Provinces and States but the parts of the world all the Causes that can be assigned thereof being unequal to such an Effect Which the discovery of the inequalities of the Celestial Bodies observed in our dayes by Galileo's Tubes in some sort confirmed for by them Mountains are discerned in some Planets especially an eminent one in the Orbe of Mars which Mountain cannot reasonably be attributed to any cause but his primary construction The same may likewise be said of the Mountains of the Earth which besides having necessarily its slopenesses and declivities which are followed by Rivers and Torrents there is no more difficulty to conceive a Mountain then an elevated place in the Earth so that to say that from the beginning there was no place higher in one part of the earth then in another is to gain-say Scripture which saith that there were four Rivers in Eden each whereof had its current which could not be unless the place of their rise were higher then that whereunto they tended The Second said That the proportion from which the ornament of the World results is sufficiently manifested in the correspondence of the four Elements with the Heavens and of the Heavens with themselves yea in all compounds which result from those Elements moved by heat and the Celestial influences without fancying a craggy Earth from the beginning to the prejudice of the perfection which is found in the Spherical Figure which God hath also pourtray'd in all his works which observe the same exactly or come as near it as their use will permit as is seen particularly in the fabrick of Man's Body his master-piece whereof all the original parts have somewhat of the Spherical or Cylindrical Figure which is the production of a Circle And if the other Elements of Fire Air and Water are absolutely round and cannot be otherwise conceived though their consistence be fluid and as such more easily mutable in figure 't is much more likely that the earth had that exactly round figure at the beginning otherwise the Waters could not have covered it as they did since not being diminished from the beginning of the World till this time they are not at this day capable of covering it 'T is certain then that God gave the Earth that Spherical form it being to serve for the bulk and Centre to all the other Elements by means of which roundness the Water covered it equally but when it was time to render the Earth habitable to Animals and for that end to discover a part of it it was to be rendered more hollow in some places and more elevated in others since there is no Mountain without a Valley nor on the contrary Afterwards it came to pass that the Rain washed away whatsoever was fat and unctuous in those higher places and carrying it into Brooks and Rivers and thence into the Sea this Sea by the impetuosity of his waves makes great abyffes in some places and banks of sand in others but the great and notable change happened in the universal Deluge when the many Gulfs below and Windows on high as the Scripture speaks overflowed the whole Earth for forty days and forty nights together the Earth being thus become a Sea was in a manner new shaped by the torrents of the waters and the violence of the same waves which made Abysses in some places and Mountains in others according as the Earth happened to be more or less compact and apt for resistance Which is yet easier to be conceived of Rocks which being unapt to be mollified by either that universal rovage of waters or torrents superven'd in four thousand years since they remain intire and appear at this day as supercilious as ever over the more depressed parts round about The Third said That some Mountains were produced at the Creation others since partly by Rains and Torrents partly by Winds and Earth-quakes which have also sometimes levell'd Hills and reduced them into Valleys so that you cannot assign one certain or general cause of all For there is no more reason to believe that the ravages of waters have produced Mountains then that they have levell'd and filled Valleys with their soil as 't is ordinarily seen that the fattest portion of Mountainous places is washed away by Rain into Valleys and fertilizes the same And the smallness of the Earth compared to the rest of the world permits not its inequalities to make any notable disproportion in it or hinder it from being called Round as appears in Eclipses caused by the shadow of the Earth which she sends as regularly towards Heaven as if she were perfectly round The Fourth said That the waters of the Sea from which according to the Scripture all waters issue and return thither impetuously entring into the caverns of the Earth go winding along there till they find resistance
Liquors represent which Masses he holds between his teeth incorporated with some gum which fastens them there so that as the Water he drinks passes impetuously between his teeth it derives colours and odors from the same Which is the reason why the water he first casts forth is most colour'd whereas if the Dye proceeded from his Stomack it would be deeper at last of all as having acquir'd more digestion by a longer infusion The Sixth said That Histories are full of several particular Constitutions of the Natural Parts witness the example of the Maid mention'd by Cardan who drinking but two pints of water a day piss'd twenty and that of the Emperor Maximinus who commonly eat forty pound weight of meat with proportionable drink and sweat so abundantly that he fill'd 'T is said That Theagenes the Thasian eat a Calf for his dinner and Milo the famous Wrastler of Croton devour'd a 100. pound of Flesh a Hogshead of Wine and Bread proportionable Such was that Parasite who one day at the Table of the Emperor Aurelius eat a Boar a Sheep a Pig and an hundred Loaves and drunk half a tun of Wine All which stories render less strange the quantity of this Maltese's Drink whose colour possibly afterwards he disguises with powders hid in his Handkerchief which he handles so often or by the help of a double Glass of which his Vessels are made or by some other trick whereto he ha's inur'd himself for many years The Seventh said That mineral waters are usually drunk with more ease in great quantity by half than common water can be because their tenuity makes them pass immediately into the habit of the Body And if you consider that this fellow drinks only out of small vessels and those not always full as also with what nimbleness he dispatches his work you will much abate the opinion that he drinks so much as is generally believed Besides though his pail be of a middle size yet 't is never quite full and he spends much water in washing his mouth and his glasses and some too is left behind Nor is it absurd to think that before his shewing himself to drink he swallows a bolus of Brazil or of Alkanet or Fearn Root or of red Sanders or Indian Wood or some such other thing in powder after which drinking two or three glasses of water he interposes some interval that the same may be the better tinctur'd in his Stomack which time being pass'd he drinks about two quarts of water which soon after he brings up red appearing so both in the Air and in the glasses Which colour being weak for want of time to be well imbib'd by the water is wholly lost when the same is powr'd into a vessel wherein there is a little Verjuice Vinegar juice of Citron Spirit of Vitriol or other such acid liquor which is proper to consume the said color And 't is observable that the last water he vomits is continually paler than the first the tincture being diminisht by the quantity of water Add hereunto that 't is likely his glasses are smear'd with some essences which seem transparent to the Spectators for though he makes shew of washing them he only passes the brims dextrously over the water and lets none of it enter into them As for the violence wherewith he spouts forth the water it must be confess'd that the fellow hath a great natural propensity to vomiting which by frequent repetition is become habitual to him Custom being capable to produce such effects that I have seen a Beggar about fifty years old by being exercis'd thereunto piss as high as a pike CONFERENCE CCII. Why dead Bodies bleed in the presence of their Murderers HOnest Antiquity was so desirous of knowing the Truth that when natural and ordinary proofs fail'd they had recourse to supernatural and extraordinary Such was the Jews water of Jealousie which made the otherwise undiscoverable Adulterer burst in sunder the innocent Vestal's Sieve in which being accus'd of Incest she carry'd water without shedding Such also were the Oaths made upon Saint Anthonie's arm of so great reverence that 't was believ'd the perjur'd would burn a year with the fire of that Saint and in our time the excommunication of Saint Geneviesue which those that incurr are commonly reckon'd not to out-live a year In like sort the zeal of Men against that horrid crime of Murder hath made them cherish a perswasion that a Carkase will bleed before its Murderers though most slain Bodies bleed when they are stirr'd that so the Conscience of the Actors being disturb'd they might either by word or gesture be brought to make discovery of themselves For indeed the Blood which was congeal'd in the Veins presently after death becomes liquid again after two or three dayes when it is in its tendency to corruption which Liquefaction and the Inquisition after the Murderer hapning commonly at the same time 't is no wonder if the Body bleed in the Murderer's presence since it doth so frequently when he is absent Yet because this false perswasion from the co-incidence of times ceases not sometimes to have its effect and to discover Truth therefore Legislators have thought fit to authorize it and to use it as an Argument at least to frighten the Murderer though indeed 't is no conclusive one to condemn him The Second said That 't is not credible that Courts of Justice who often admit this proof to good purpose could so continue in ignorance of Natural Causes as not to discern the effusion of Blood ensuing upon its putrefaction in the Veins from that which happens upon confrontation of a Murderer 'T is better therefore to seek further for the cause than to question the effect which some attribute to some secret Antipathy of the murder'd person's blood to that of his Murderer or else to their mutual emission of spirits which still seeking the destruction of each other's person those of the Murderer being the strongest because still living cause a commotion in the Blood of the dead which thereupon breaks forth at the out-let of the wound Campanella attributes it to the sense where-with all things are indu'd and which still remains in these dead Bodies so that having a sense of their Murderers and perceiving them near hand they suffer two very different motions Trembling and Anger which cause such a commotion in the Blood that it flows forth at the wound For the spirits which during life had such perceptions as were necessary for their receiving and obeying the Soul's commands retain somewhat thereof after death and are capable of discerning their friends and their enemies The Third said If this opinion concerning the emanation of spirits whether by Sympathy or Antipathy be true it will follow That one who hath done a Murder with gun-shot cannot be discover'd by this sign and that one slain in his Wife's arms and in a crowd of his friends that endeavor'd to defend his life will bleed rather in
Xenophanes on the two latter joyntly Hippon on Fire and Water Parmenides on Fire and Earth Empedocles and most of the other Naturalists on those four Elements together which yet as some affirmed could not execute the function of Principles without the assistance of other Superiours such as Hesiod maintains to be Chaos and Love Antiphanes Silence and Voice the Chaldaeans Light and Darkness the Mathematicians Numbers and among others the Tetrad which the Pythagoreans affirm to be the source of all things the Peripateticks Matter Form and Privation Anaxagoras the Similar Parts and Democritus his Atoms so called by reason of their smalness which renders them invisible and incapable of being distinguish'd and divided into other lesser Particles though they have quantity and are of so great a bulk as to be thereby distinguish'd from a Mathematical Point which hath not any as being defin'd to be what hath not any part and what is so imperceptible and small that it can hardly fall under our External Senses but is only perceivable by reason The same thing may also be said of the other qualities of these Atoms which Epicurus who receiv'd them from Democritus as he had the knowledge of them from Leucippus and he again from one Moschus Phoenician who liv'd before the Trojan Warr made it not so much his business to lay them down for the first Causes and general Principles of Natural Things as to take away the four common Elements since he does not deny but that these are constitutive parts of the world and whatever is comprehended therein But his main work is to maintain that they not the first seeds and immediate Principles thereof as consisting themselves of Atoms or little Bodies so subtile and small that they cannot be broken or made less and being the most simple and next pieces whereof mixt bodies are made up and whereto they are afterwards reducible by dissolution there is some reason to give them the denomination of the first material and sensible principles of natural bodies The Second said That if these Atoms be allow'd to be the principles of natural bodies these last will be absolutely unknown to us as being made up of infinite principles which being incapable of falling under our knowledge it will be impossible for us to come to that of the mixt bodies which are to consist of them Whence it will follow that though the Atoms should be such as the Philosophers would perswade us they are yet would not our Understanding which cannot comprehend any thing but what is finite be ever the more satisfy'd since it would not be able to conceive them nor consequently the things which should be produc'd of them Nor is it to be imagin'd that those things would differ among themselves since that according to their sentiment those little chimerical bodies are not any way distinguish'd but all of the like nature and of the same substance The Third said That though there be not any essential difference in the Atoms yet is it certain That they make remarkable diversity in the production of things by the properties and different qualities that are in each of them whereof there are two kinds Common and Proper The proper are Largeness of Bulk Figure Motion and Resistance the common are Concourse Connexion Situation and Order which are generally competible to all Atoms as the four others are proper and particular to them Their bulk is not to be consider'd as if they had any considerable quantity there being no Atom how great soever it may be but is infinitely less then the least body in the World being for that reason so imperceptible that it is impossible for the sight to distinguish it Yet does not that hinder but that they are bodies and consequently have quantity which is a property inseparable from bodies as Mites Hand-worms and such other little Animals which by their extreme litleness elude our sight do nevertheless consist of diverse parts miraculously discoverable by Magnifying-glasses nay to the observance of Veins Arteries Nerves and such like obscure parts answerable to those which reason obliges us to admit though our senses cannot attain thereto It being the property of figure to follow quantity which it determinates and qualifies it is necessary that if the atoms are different as to bulk they should be the same also as to figure which being observable when bodies are broken into great pieces and those appearing with superficies angles and points diversly figur'd they must still retain some figure even after they are pounded in a mortar into small parcels and particles though our senses by reason of their weakness are not able to comprehend it To the same weakness it is to be attributed that we are not able to discern the diversity of figures in grains of corn and other seeds which seem to be in a manner alike though they are not such no more than the leaves of Trees and Plants Nay even in Drops of water and Eggs though in appearance there is a likeness so great that it is come into a Proverb yet is there so remarkable a diversity when it is strictly observ'd that there were heretofore in the Island of Delos certain people so expert that among several Eggs they would tell which had been laid by such or such a Hen. The hair of our heads a thing to some would seem incredible have particular figures whereby they are distinguish'd one from another The figures of Atoms are of that rank as are also those of the Moats which are seen playing and dancing up and down in the beams of the Sun when darted in at a narrow passage for though they seem to be all round yet examin'd with that instrument which magnifies the species of things we find in them an infinite number of other figures In like manner is it requisite that the Atoms should have the same difference of figures that they may the more fitly concur to the mixture and generation of Bodies To that end the maintainers of this opinion affirm that some are round some oval some oblong some pointed some forked some concave some convex some smooth and even some rough and rugged and of other such like figures as well regular as irregular in order to the diversity of their motions Of these there are three kinds assigned according to the first the Atom moves downwards by its own weight according to the second it moves upwards and according to the third it moves indirectly and from one side to another These two last are violent motions but the first is natural to the Atom to which Epicurus attributes a perpetual motion which causing it to move incessantly towards the lowest place it still makes that way of its own nature till such time as in its progress it hath met with other Atoms which coming to strike against it if they are the stronger they force it upwards or of one side according to the part of it which had receiv'd the shock and so clinging one
one time than at another but only seem to be such to our Senses which though they should be destitute of all qualities are then endu'd therewith so that the same well-Well-water which seems to be hot in Winter by reason of the coldness that is in the Touching seems cold in Summer by reason of the heat of the same Organ which judges of it comparatively For the contrary is seen in that Well-water in Summer being transported into a hot place is there nevertheless cold and the fumes and hot vapors which exhale from Springs and Wells in Winter do sufficiently demonstrate that during the said season the water is endu'd with a true and real heat too sensible to be accounted imaginary But this Antiperistasis is further more solidly confirm'd by Experience whereby we see that fire burns more violently and is more sparkling in great Frosts or in the shade than in hot weather or when it lyes expos'd to the beams of the Sun In like manner a little Water cast upon a great Fire makes it more violent than it was before and the Ventricles of our Bodies according to the Opinion of Hippocrates in his Aphorisms are hotter in Winter than in any other season of the year whence it comes that we are apt to feed more plentifully and Digestion is then better perform'd Nay if we but go down into our Cellars we shall find that the heat is more sensible there in Winter but in Summer when all things are scorch'd and burnt up on the surface of the Earth all Subterraneous Places are so much the colder the deeper they are and the nearer they approach to the Centre towards which Cold which is one of the natural qualities of the Earth gathers together and reunites it self thereto that so it may be secur'd from the heat whereby it is encompass'd of all sides And as it is to this that the generation of Metals in the entrails of the Earth is principally attributed so most of the Meteors which are fram'd in the two Regions of the Air owe theirs to this same Cold which coming to encompass and as it were to enclose the hot and dry Exhalation which makes the Winds Lightning Thunder and Thunder-bolts as also that which makes the Comets in the Middle Region of the Air these unctuous and easily-enflam'd vapors being encompass'd of all sides by the extream coldness of that Air which encloses them they in order to their Conservation re-unite and take fire after the same manner as the Rayes of the Sun darted against some Opake Body or reflected by Burning-glasses set on fire the most solid Bodies on which they are repercuss'd as it is related of Archimedes who by such an Artifice consum'd the Ships of Marcellus who besieg'd the City of Saragossa in Sicily Which instance serves as well to prove Antiperistasis as the manner whereby it is wrought to wit by the repercussion of the intentional Species of the Subject caus'd by its contrary Thus then it comes that the Water of Springs and Wells is cold in the Summer in regard the Species of the cold forc'd by the Water towards the heated Air which is all about it are darted back again by that opposite heat to the place whence they came whereupon being thrust closer together they there re-inforce and augment the Cold which happens not so in Winter when the Species of the coldness of the Water meeting with no Obstruction in the Air endu'd with the like quality insinuate themselves into it without any resistance and so not being reflected nor forc'd back towards the Water it is not then so cold as in Summer The Second said That the intentional Species being not design'd to act but only to make a discovery of the beings from which they flow as may be seen in those of all sensible Objects which these Species represent to the Organs that are to judge of them cannot contribute any thing to the vigor of the action observable in the Antiperistasis which he conceiv'd should rather be attributed to the simple form of the Subject which having an absolute sovereignty over the qualities employ'd thereby in order to Action renders them more or less active according to the need it stands in of them And as seething Water taken off the Fire becomes cold of it self without any other assistance than that of its proper substantial form which hath the property of re-instating it self in that degree of Cold which is naturally due unto it so ought it with greater reason to have an equal right of preserving that same quality when it is assaulted by its contrary Heat without having any recourse to those Emissions of Species which though we should grant the Tactile qualities what is much in dispute yet would not be able to cause an Antiperistasis inasmuch as being inseparable from them if the intentional Species of the coldness of Well-water were directed towards the warm'd Air it should take along with it the coldness and consequently it should be so far from acquiring any new degree of coldness thereby that it would lose much of that which it had before For since it is the Nature of these Intentional Species to be otherwise incapable by reason of their immateriality of producing any Corporeal and Material Effect such as is the augmentation of the degrees of any active quality as Heat and Cold are there being not any contrariety between the Species thereof no more than there is between those of â—ll other Bodies whereof they are the Images there is not any reason that obliges the Intentional Species of the Cold to retreat and close together when they come to meet with those of Heat or Heat it self no more than there is that the Species of this latter quality should make the other more vigorous by their reflection The Third said That it must be acknowledg'd that the Species of Cold and Heat and the other first Qualities were not contrary among themselves as being in their own Nature inalterable and incorruptible as the other Intentional Species are which come near the Condition of Spirits Yet does it not follow thence that these Species cannot be reflected inasmuch as the Visible Species Light and Voice which also have no contraries are not for that the less re-percuss'd by Mirrours and other solid Bodies or those hollow places which make Echoes The Fourth said That it is not sufficient in order to the giving of a reason of that effect to attribute it to the substantial form of every Agent but it is to be referr'd to a superiour cause such as is the Soul of the world whose function it being to preserve every thing in its intireness and to be assistant thereto when it comes into any danger as it happens when it is assaulted by its contrary then bent upon its destruction there lies a certain engagement on this first cause to relieve it in so great an extremity by supplying it with new forces to help it out of that oppression Thence
which consists in Mediocrity either extreme whereof is the Territory of Vice CONFERENCE CIII I. Of Glass II. Of Fucusses or Cosmeticks AS there is in all sublunary Bodies a vital and celestial Spirit without which neither Food nor Physick hath any virtue and which is the principle of all actions and motions of mix'd Bodies so all those Bodies have in them an incorruptible Matter partaking of a celestial Nature which the Chymists call Virgin-Earth and is the Matter whereof Glass is form'd being found in all sorts of Bodies capable of calcination and vitrification but chiefly in Nitre Saltpetre Sand Shels certain Stones Wood and Plants from which they draw Glass different in beauty according to the Matter whence it is extracted by means of a most violent fire which resolving the compound consumes all its parts except that vitreous matter which is proof against its violence We owe its Invention by Pliny's testimony to certain Merchants of Nitre who having landed in Phoenicia of Syria bordering upon Judaea near a Lake call'd Cendevia which is at the foot of Mount Carmel whence flows the River Belus or Pagida of small extent and making their Kitchin upon the Sand of this River us'd some clods of their Nitre as a Trevet for their Kettle and the heat of the fire melting the Sand and Nitre into Glass they took notice of it and publish'd the Invention Afterward Moulds were found out wherein to cast it into all sorts of figures Pipes or Tubes to run it in others to blow it and give it all sorts of Colours which almost miraculously arise from the very substance of the Glass without other mixture only by the wind and blast manag'd according to the rules of Art as also Mills to calcine and pulverise Gravel Stones or Sand amongst which that of Vilturne in Italy and of Estampes in France is most excellent for this use for which likewise they imploy the Ashes of a Plant call'd Salicot Salt-wort or Glass-wort which grows in Provence and Languedoc nam'd likewise Soude because heretofore it serv'd only to glase earthen Pots The Second said As there are but two things that can open Bodies in order to their separation namely Water and Fire which is verifi'd by the proofs made by Refiners of Gold and Silver so there are but two things to separate to wit the Volatil and the Fix'd Fire commonly separates the Volatil such as sulphureous and aqueous things are and Water separates the Fix'd as the Salt from the earthy parts Of Fix'd things some are so in part as the same Salt others intirely or altogether as Earth which is either slimy clayie or sandie which last species is made of the two former as is seen in Rivers where the Water having wash'd away the fat part nothing remains but the Sand By which means Nature renders Valleys and low Places more fruitful and men by her example have oftentimes rais'd meliorated and render'd low and marshy places formerly unprofitable fit for culture by stirring the Earth during the Rain and Floods which by this means carries away all the fat and unctuous parts from the higher places into the lower rendring the Mountains and Hills sandy and consequently unfruitful and barren For as Sand is incorruptible being neither putrifi'd by Water nor consum'd by Fire so neither can it generate any thing nor be turn'd into any other nature like other species of the Earth which serve for nutriment of Plants and some Insects and for the production of Animals On the contrary it preserves things buried in it as appears by Mummies kept in it for two or three thousand years and Fruits which are kept no way better than in Sand. Now as Sand is the Matter of Glass for any Sand melted in the Fire vitrifies so Glass suits with the nature of its Principle being like it incorruptible and eternal yea being it self one of the Principles of Nature according to modern Chymists who reckon four namely Mercury resembling Water Sulphur or Oyl corresponding to Air Salt to Fire and Glass to Earth which Glass is found clean and pure in the centre of all mix'd Bodies there being nothing but may be reduc'd into ashes and no ashes but of which Glass may be made which they call a shining and not burning Fire having affinity with that of Heaven as the Fire kindled in Sulphur and any oylie Matter is both burning and shining and that which is in Lime and Salts is burning and not shining such as is seen in Potential Cauteries but not as others have said in Coals which have some although a weak light Glass wants but one thing and that is the removing its brittleness or fragility were it not for which it would be the most precious thing in the World Of the possibility hereof a certain Artist having shewn a tryal to Tiberius hath rais'd a desire in others to make like attempts which have hitherto been unsuccessful Moreover the Transparence of Glass caus'd by the simplicity and tenuity of its parts is incompetible with the consistence which renders things ductile and malleable which is a tenacious viscosity and oleaginous humidity from whence opacity proceeds as appears by Horns and colour'd Glass which is less transparent then other by reason of the unctuosity of the Sulphur employ'd to give it that extraneous colour The Third said That Archimedes in his Fabrick of a Glass-Sphere was as judicious in reference to the matter he chose as the form since the Matter of the Heavens being incorruptible and diaphanous they cannot be represented better than by Glass which hath both those qualities Moreover all the perfectest Bodies of Nature are of a vitreous substance as amongst others the first of all the Heavens call'd the Crystalline 'T is held That the glorified Bodies are luminous and transparent and according to some of a vitreous Nature which is the utmost perfection of every Body and shall be also communicated to the Earth at the last Judgment to be executed by Fire which brings Mettals to their highest degree of excellence for by the help of Lead Gold it self is turn'd into Glass so pure and perfect that in the Apocalyps Paradise is pav'd with such Glass of Gold and in Ezechiel God's Throne is made of it the word Hamal being a fit Etymologie for our Esmah or Enamel which is nothing but Glass And the affinity or correspondence of Mettals with Glass is so great that like them it is extracted out of Sand elaborated in a Furnace receiving the alliances of Nitre Copper and the Load-stone which they mingle in its Mine to get an attractive quality of Glass as well as of Iron With purifi'd Glass call'd Sal Alcali they counterfeit the Diamond Emerald Turcoise Ruby and other precious Stones The Eye it self the noblest part of Man symbolises with Glass by that crystalline humour wherein the point of the visual ray terminates But as all things in the World like Fortune which governs them whom the Poet describes of
corrupted humours without the good and laudable is more proper thereunto than Phlebotomie which on the contrary sometimes evacuates the good juice and not the vicious when the same is impacted and adherent to some part remote from the open'd Vein In fine Blood-letting is as little profitable when the impurity is in the habit of the Body Whence 't is too hard to draw the humours into the Veins but it is more expedient to resolve and make them transpire by sweats exercise abstinence and other labours The Fourth said That Blood-letting is profitable in every vitiosity of the Blood which either is corrupted in substance and quality or offends in quantity or causeth a fluxion upon some Part or presses and loads it or else is too much inflam'd Nevertheless with this precaution that regard is to be had to the Disease the strength temper age sex habitation custom and particular nature of the Patient But generally every great hot and acute Disease requires Phlebotomie which on the contrary is an enemy to cold Diseases and all crudities because it refrigerates by the loss of heat and spirits flowing out with the Blood Also diminution of strength caus'd by any evacuation or resolution prohibits bleeding but not that where the strength is oppress'd by abundance of humours which must be presently eliminated Children who need Blood for their growth as breeding Women do for the nourishment of their Child old men who want heat and Spirits those who have small Veins or rare and softish flesh ought not to be let blood but with great precautions Nor is Phlebotomie to be administred in great cold or great heat nor after great watchings and labours And although the quantity of Blood depends upon the strength and the Disease yet 't is safest to take rather less but by no means to imitate the Ancients who let Blood till the swooning of the Patient in Inflammations violent Pains and very burning Fevers which they sometimes cur'd by this course but commonly caus'd a cold Intemperies to the whole Body during the remainder of life Upon the Second Point it was said That God having in the Universe imprinted an Image of his own Majesty to the end to make himself known to men hath also contracted the same in each part thereof wherein we observe some shadow of the distinction of the Divine Essence into Three Persons And 't is with this Ternary Number that he hath as 't were stamp'd for his own Coin the noblest parts of the World which the Pythagoreans have also for that reason divided into three namely The Intellectual which are the Heavens the place of Intelligences the Elementary and the Animal each of which is again divided into three parts The Intellectual or Celestial into the Heaven of Planets the Firmament and the Empyreal The Elementary into the Air Water and Earth And the Animal into Vegetable Sensitive and Rational which is Man who comprehends in himself eminently all those parts of the World the Elementary being in the Liver the Animal in the Heart the Intellectual in the Brain wherein as in its principal Sphere the Rational Soul establishes a particular World every ones Head being a Globe which is divided again into three parts which are the Imagination Memory and Judgment Amongst which the Imagination the principle of the others motion and action represents the animal World Memory serving for a subject matter to receive the impressions of the species consign'd to it is the Elementary and Judgment the Intellectual The three parts of each of which Worlds are again correspondent to the same Faculties The Imagination upon account of the continual circumvolution of the Species is the Heaven of Planets The Memory in reference to the fixation of the same Species is their Firmament And the Judgment the highest of these Powers is the Empyraeal To the three parts of the Elementary The Imagination for its mobility and subtilty is like the Air Memory for its soft humidity fitting it to receive all sorts of Figures may be compar'd to the Water and Judgment the base and foundation of the rest for the solidity of its consistence and siccity symbolizeth with the Earth Lastly to the three parts of the Animal World the Memory receiving increase or diminution by humidity the principle of vegetation resembles the Vegetable the Imagination by its heat and activity the Animal and the Judgment the Rational And though these three Faculties be united in the substance of the Soul nevertheless they are different not only in their temperaments actions and ages but also in their seats as that of Memory is the hinder part of the Brain which people scratch to call any thing to mind that of Imagination is the forepart whence they lift up their heads when they would vehemently imagine any thing and that of Judgment is the middle part which is the cause why in a deep study people hold down the head But to make choice of each in particular their operations must be consider'd Some make very much noise and little action as Advocates and Proctors of a Court who make much a do to put a business in order to lay it open and digest it although without deciding any thing and such is the Imagination which unites and compounds the Species represents them to the Judgment carries them to the register of the Memory or extracts them out by Reminiscence Others make little bustle and much action as Judges and so doth the Judgment The last have neither stir nor action as the Registers who only transcribe what is dictated to them and so doth the Memory a passive Power The Sciences themselves which fall under the Jurisdiction of the Mind are also subject to each of these Faculties Memory hath under it the Tongues Grammar Positive Theologie History Humanity Law Geography Anatomy Herbary and almost all the Theory of Physick The Imagination hath Eloquence Poetry Musick Architecture Geodaesie Fortifications most partâ— of the Mathematiques and all the Arts whose works depend only on the force of the Imagination The Judgment hath Philosophy Scholastical Divinity the Practice of Physick and Law and all the Sciences which depend on soundness of reasoning Nevertheless because it seems that the Judgment cannot judg to its own advantage without injustice being both Judg and Party 't is best to arbitrate in this sort and say That the excellence and necessity of things being considered or so far as they are for our profit or that of others for our own profit 't is best to have a good Judgment and less of Memory or Imagination For the Imagination serves more for Invention and this to ruine its Author when it is destitute of Judgment Memory to make a man admir'd and Judgment for conduct and government The Second said Since the Imagination gives the rise to all the motions of the Soul by the Species which it supplies to it wherewith it forms the Passions in the Inferior Appetites Desires in the Reasonable Appetite
namely the Will and Notions in the Understanding which cannot know any thing but by the phantasms or species forg'd in the Imagination it must be the most excellent of all the Faculties of the Soul Moreover the Temper which constitutes it being the most laudable and the Age wherein it prevails being the most perfect its Actions must also be the most sublime since being not performable but by help of corporeal Organs the more perfect these are the more will the Minds actions be so too Now the Qualities of the Imagination have much more conformity to the Soul according to the Opinion of some Ancients of an igneous nature and according to others an Entelechie and continual motion which either causes or depends on heat the most active quality of all wherewith the Brain being impregnate renders the Spirit more lively quick in retorts and in all that they call Pointe d' Esprit or acumen and inspiring Enthusiasms to Poets On the contrary the Judicious who want this Imaginative Virtue are cold heavy and as tedious in conversation as the other are agreeable and welcome Yea the Judgment it self ows all its advantage to it For if it were equitable it would regulate it self only by the species which the Imagination represents to it and if it be corrupted and without having regard to the pieces offer'd to its view will follow its own sentiments it runs the hazard of committing a thousand extravagances and impertinences Yea all the Judicious Sciences are ambiguous and their followers divided a sure note of their weakness as well as of that of Judgment which guids them since Abstracted Truth its Object being unknown it must leave the same in perpetual darkness unless it borrow light from the Imagination Moreover the Sciences Arts and Disciplines of this Faculty are all pleasant and as delightful and certain as those of Memory are labile the Faculty only of Children and Liars Yea the maladies of the Imagination are in such veneration that Hippocrates calls them Divine as having miraculous effects The Third said That there is no intire and perfect Good in this World is verifi'd also in the Goods of the Mind which are not often possess'd by one single man but every one hath his share therein For goodness of Wit consisting in the excellence of his three Faculties Imagination Memory and Judgment the first of which forms the species the second preserves and the last judges of and frames its Notions from them 't is a very rare thing to find a man possessing these three advantages in an excellent degree besides that they are incompatible in one and the same subject inasmuch as they depend upon the contrary temperaments The Memory on a hot and moist such as that of Children which nevertheless must not be like water which easily receives but retains not all sorts of Figures but it must be aerial and have some consistence and viscosity to retain the imprinted species The Imagination requires a hot and dry temper for fabricating and composing abundance of species like that of cholerick and young men who are inventive and industrious The Judgment demands a constitution of Brain cold and dry like that of melancholy and old men to hinder the sudden eruptions or sallies of the Mind which therefore reasons better when the Body is at rest than when it is in motion which produces heat as much an enemy to the operation of the Reasonable Soul as profitable to those of the Sensitive or Vegetative whose actions are perform'd by the Spirits and Heat But the Imagination cannot know any thing without Memory which furnishes it with species nor this remember without help of the Imagination nor the Judgment conceive and judg without the help of both Nevertheless as amongst Qualities there is always one predominant so amongst these three Faculties one commonly excels the rest and the Judgment is the more excellent inasmuch as 't is peculiar to Man whereas the Imagination and Memory are common to him with Beasts So that the Judgment is our proper good and is better worth cultivating than the Memory to which they who wholly addict themselves are like bad Farmers who improve others Commodities and let their own perish On the contrary they who only form their Judgment acquire the true Treasures of Wisedom and may be said rich of their own Stock But great Memories are commonly like Aesop's Crow adorn'd with borrow'd Plumes and indeed raise admiration in the weak minds of the Vulgar but not in those who are accustomed to solid Truths the Principle whereof is the Judgment CONFERENCE CVI. I. Of Dew II. Whether it be expedient for Women to be Learned IF Pindar deem'd Water so good that he thought nothing better to begin his Odes with Dew which is celestial Water deserves to be esteem'd since it surpasses that as much as Heaven whence it comes is elevated above the Earth For Heaven is the source of Dew whence it distills hither below impregnated with all aethereal qualities and properties incommunicable to any other thing whether it come by a transcolation of super-celestial Waters which the Hebrews call Maim in the Dual Number to signifie the Waters on high and those below or whether there be a Quintessence and Resolution of the Heavens whence it proceeds like those Waters which Chymists distil from Bodies put into their Alembicks indu'd with their odour and other qualities and sometimes augmented in virtues Whence some Divines endeavour to derive the reason why Manna which is nothing else but Dew condens'd for fourty years together wanting one Moneth and allotted by God for sustenance of his people had all sorts of Tastes for say they Heaven whence it fell contains eminently as the efficient equivocal cause all the forms of things to whose generation it concurs here below and therefore God employ'd this Dew to represent the several kinds of each Aliment And Honey whose sweetness is so familiar to our Nature yea so priz'd by the Scripture that God promises his people nothing so frequently to raise their longing after the Land which he had promis'd them what else is it but this same Dew condens'd and gather'd by the Bees who rubbing their thighs upon the flowers and leaves of Plants on which this Liquor falls load themselves therewith and lodg it in their hives Wherefore Naturalists seem too gross in teaching Dew to be only a Vapour rais'd from the Earth by the heat which the Sun leaves in the Air at his setting and for want of other sufficient heat unable to advance it self higher than the tops of herbs for its tenuity and effects manifest the contrary its tenuity much exceeding that of Water witness their experiment who make an egg-shell fill'd with Dew ascend alone to the top of a Pike plac'd a little bowing in the Sun which it will not do if fill'd with common Water how rarefi'd soever Its effects also are to penetrate much more powerfully than ordinary Water which is the reason why
it very speedily whitens whatever is expos'd to it as Linnen and Wax for the effecting of which Rain requires thrice as long time But its penetrativeness appears yet further in that it dissolves even Gold it self for which reason some have thought fit to wash several times in it such Medicaments as they would have penetrate as well as others are wont to do in Vinegar The Second said If it suffic'd to speak of Dew in a Poetical way I should call it the sweat of Heaven ther spittle of the Stars the dropping of the celestial Waters or the crystalline humour which flows from the eyes or the fair Aurora or else that 't is a Pearl-Garland wherewith the Earth decks her self in the morning to appear more beautiful in the eyes of the Sun and the whole Universe to which if the Vapours serve for food the Dew is its Nectar and Ambrosia But to speak more soberly I conceive it a thin and subtle Vapour rais'd by a moderate Heat till either meeting some Body it adheres thereunto or being attracted neer the Middle Region of the Air 't is condens'd by cold and falls down again upon the Earth Nevertheless this Vapour proceeds not only from a humour purely Aqueous but somewhat partaking of the Spirits of Nitre Sugar or a sweet Salt since the thinnest part of it being evaporated the rest remains condens'd upon leafs and stones or becomes Honey and Manna and whoso shall lightly pass his tongue over the leafs of Nut-tree and other compact and close Plants shall taste a sweetness upon them in temperate Climates or Seasons which is nothing else but an extract of this same Dew Moreover the fertility which it causes in the Earth its purgative and detersive virtue sufficiently manifest this Truth For Dew could not fertilise the Earth if it were bare Water destitute of all sort of Spirits and particularly those of Nitre which is the most excellent Manure that can be used to improve Land for the Earth from which it is extracted remains barren till it have been anew impregnated with those Spirits by the influx of Dew to which they expose it for some time that it may again become capable of producing something This purgative virtue whereof not only Manna partakes being a gentle purger of serosities but also pure Dew which sometimes causes a mortal Diarrhoea or Lax in Cattle purging them excessively when it is not well concocted and digested by the heat of the Sun which consumes its superfluous phlegm and that detersive Faculty whereby Dew cleanses all impurities of the Body which it whitens perfectly cannot proceed but from that nitrous Salt which as all other Salts is penetrative and detersive Nor can that ascending of the Egg-shell proceed from any other cause but the virtue of certain leight and volatil Spirits which being actuated and fortifi'd by the heat of the Sun-beams are set on motion and flying upwards carry the inclosing shell with them which an aqueous humour cannot do because though the heat of the Sun could so subtilise attenuate and rarefie it as to render it an aery Nature which is the highest point of rarity it can attain yet it would not sooner attract the same than the rest of the air much less would it raise up the Egg-shell but it would transpire by little and little through the pores of the shell or be expanded in it so far as it had space and at last either break it or be resolv'd into fume Heat imprinting no motion in Water but only rarifying and heating it by degrees which is not sufficient to raise up the Vessel which contains it since the same being full of heated air would remain upon the ground The Third said That all natural things being in a perpetual flux and reflux to which this Elementary Globe supplies Aliments to make them return to their Principle Dew may be term'd the beginning and end of all things the Pearl or Diamond which terminates the circular revolution of all Nature since being drawn upwards by the Sun from the mass of Water and Earth subtilis'd into vapour and arriv'd to the utmost point of its rarefaction it becomes condens'd again and returns to the Earth to which it serves as sperm to render it fruitful and to be transform'd upon it into all things whose qualities it assumes because being nothing but a Quitessence extracted from all this Body it must have all the virtues thereof eminently in it self Moreover anciently the ordinary Benedicton of Fathers to their Children was that of the Dew of Heaven as being the sperm of Nature the First Matter of all its Goods and the perfection of all its substance recocted and digested in the second Region of the Air For the same vapour which forms Dew in the Morning being that which causes the Serein in the Evening yet the difference of them is so great that the latter is as noxious as the former is profitable because the first vapours which issue out of the bosome of the Earth being not yet depurated from their crude and malignant qualities cause Rheums and Catarrhs but those of the Morning being resolv'd of Air condens'd by the coldness of the Night have nothing but the sweetness and benignity of that Element or else the pores of the Body being open'd by the diurnal heat more easily receive the malignant impressions of extraneous humidity than after having been clos'd by the coldness of the night The Fourth said Although Vapour be an imperfect Mixt yet 't is as well as other perfect Bodies compos'd of different parts some whereof are gross others tenuious The gross parts of Vapour being render'd volatile by the extraneous heat wherewith they are impregnated are elevated a far as the Middle Region of the Air whose coldness condenses them into a cloud which is ordinarily dissolv'd into Rain sometimes into snow or hail into the former when the cloud before resolution is render'd friable by the violence of the cold which expressing the humidity closes the parts of the cloud and so it falls in flocks and into the latter when the same cloud being already melted into rain the drops are congeal'd either by the external cold or else by the extream heat of the Air which by Antiperistasis augmenting the coldness of the rain makes it close and harden which his the reason why it hails as well during the sultry heats of Summer as the rigours of Winter And amongst the gross parts of the Vapour such as could not be alter'd or chang'd into a cloud descend towards our Region and there form black clouds and mists or foggs But the more tenuious parts of this Vapour produce Dew in which two things are to be considered I. The Matter II. The Efficient Cause The Matter is that tenuious Vapour so subtil as not to be capable of heat and too weak to abate it The Remote Efficient Cause is a moderate Heat for were it excessive it would either consume or carry away the Vapour whence
if comes to pass that there is no Dew made but during the Spring and Autumn which are temperate Seasons but never in Winter or Summer the former congealing those Vapours and the latter dissolving and consuming them The Proximate Efficient Cause is the coldness of the Night which must also be moderate otherwise it congeals them not into Dew but white-Frost as it turns the Waters into Ice by the extream cold of the Air which moreover must be calm and serene because if beaten and agitated by Winds the Vapour cannot be condens'd for the same reason which hinders running Waters from freezing as standing do whence also Dew is more frequent in low places than high Now as Dew is form'd of Vapour alone so if together with that tenuious Vapour some terrene but very fine parts be carried up especially towards the morning there is produc'd a very sweet juice of which Honey is made and when those terrene parts prevail above the humid parts of the Dew there is made a less liquid juice call'd Manna whereof the best is found in Calabria that of Brianson and some other places being through want of heat less digested than is requisite or mingled with too many impurities by the excess of that which attracted them too violently from the Earth But the sweetness of this Honey and Manna proceeds from a most perfect mixture of siccity with humidity in a degree which is unknown to us Upon the Second Point it was said That God having subjected the Woman to the Dominion of the Man endu'd with strength to keep himself in possession of that Empire as Absolute Power is sometimes accompani'd with Tyranny so he hath not only reserv'd to himself alone the Authority of making Laws whereunto Women not being call'd have always had the worst but hath also appropriated the best things to himself without admitting them to partake therein For Men not content to have reduc'd them by those Laws into perpetual Wardship which is a real Servitude to have so ill provided for them in Successions and to have made themselves Masters of their Estates under the Title of Husbands further unjustly deprive them of the greatest of all Goods to wit that of the Mind whose fairest Ornament is Knowledge the chief Good both of this World and the next and the noblest Action of the Souls most excellent Faculty the Understanding which is common to Women as well as to Men over whom too they seem to have the advantage of Wit not only for the softness of their Flesh which is an evidence of goodness of Wit but because of the Curiosity which is the Parent of Philosophy defin'd for this reason The Love and Desire of Wisedom And this vivacity is conspicuous in their loquacity and their artifices intrigues and dissimulations their Wits being like those good Soils which for want of better culture run out into weeds and briars Their Memory caus'd by the moist constitution of their Brain and their sedentary and solitary life is further favourable to Study Moreover not to speak of those of the present Times we have the examples of S. Bridgid who excell'd in Mystical Theologie Cleopatra Sister of Arsinous in Physick Pulcheria in Politicks Hupetia and Athenais wife to Theodosius in Philosophy Sappho and two Corynnae in Poetry Cornelia the Mother of the Gracchi and Tullia doubly Cicero's Daughter in Eloquence Now if it be true that Politicks and Oeconomicks are founded upon the same Principles and there needs as much Knowledg to preserve as to acquire then since Women are in a Family what Men are in a State and are destinated to keep what Men get why should not they have the knowledg of the same Maxims as Men have by Study and Theory inasmuch as the reservedness and modesty of their Sex allows them not to have the experience thereof by frequentation of the World Hence our ancient Gauls left to them the Administration of the Laws and other exercises of Peace reserving to themselves only those of War And as for other Sciences since their Encyclopaedy is a World which hath yet many unknown or less frequented Parts if Women joyn'd together with Men in the discovery of them who doubts but a feminine Curiosity would serve to exacuate the point of Mens Wits distracted by extraneous Affairs and make marveilous progresses and find out sundry rare Secrets hitherto unknown The Second said That Women are of themselves prone enough to take the ascendant over Men without need of giving them that of Learning which puffing up the mind would render them more proud and insupportable than before the good opinion they would have of themselves being inconsistent with the Obedience to which they are bound We read That our first Father Adam was indu'd with Knowledg but not Eve on the contrary her sole desire to become knowing by eating the forbidden Fruit ruin'd the whole World The active life of Huswifry to which they are born the tenderness of their Bodies impatient of the labours and sweat wherewith Science is acquir'd the humidity of their Brain which is an enemy to Science and the weakness of their capricious Spirit are sufficiently strong Reasons to prohibit that Sex the Sciences which require solidity of Judgment always found wanting in the Writings of Women accounted the most Learned Because Judgment is an act of the Intellect reflecting upon its Notions which reflection depends upon a dry Temper contrary to that of a Womans Brain whose Animal Spirits being obscur'd by the clouds of humidity she hits well sometimes at the first assay but not in second thoughts which are always weaker than the first a most sure mark of their weakness On the contrary the second thoughts of Men prevail over the first Whence it is that they are heady in their desires and violent in their first Passions wherein ordinarily they have neither measure nor mediocrity Therefore a Woman always either hates or loves she never knows a mean The Third said Since the more imperfect a thing is the more need it hath of being perfectionated were the Minds of Women weak and imperfect as is pretended it would follow that they have more need of the Sciences to cover their defects Had our first Mother been indu'd with Knowledg she would not so easily have suffer'd her self to be deluded by the fair promises of the Devil who rightly judging that Adam with all his Knowledg would have discover'd his subtilties was aware of medling with him but set upon the poor ideot and ignorant Woman 'T is therefore an injustice to require Women to be more perfect and wise than Men and withal to interdict them the means of becoming so For how shall they be virtuous if they know not what Virtue is which being a Habit of the Will a Faculty of it self blind till illuminated by the advisoes of the Intellect which are acquir'd by the Sciences 't is impossible for them to attain it Those who doubt lest the knowledg of
entrails of the Earth and descended into the Abysses of the Waters to get out their most hidden treasures yea he hath pervaded with his sight the vast expanses of Heaven there to consider the Stars But he hath not yet been able to familiarise the Fire to himself which like a Salvage-beast devours every thing it meets Now although it be found almost in all places yet Sicily nourishes it more than any having amongst others the Mont Gibel or Aetna those of Hiera Lipara and many others in the Volcanian Islands which are adjacent to it and of Stromboli twenty Leagues distant from these Such also are those of Modena and Vesuvius in Italy which smoak to this day the three burning Mountains of Hecla Sainte Croix and Helga in Ise-land which cast forth Flames only at their feet their tops being all cover'd with Snow and whose Fire is augmented by casting Water in which serves it for Fewel Such were also that which by the report of Tacitus in the fifteenth of his Annals burnt the Territory of the Vbii under Claundius Nevo and could never be extinguish'd with Water but with Stones Cloth Linnen and other dry things that mention'd by Titus Livius which in three days reduc'd into ashes three Acres of the Territory of Calena at this day Carignola in Campania that which burnt for sixteen years together a great part of Scotland and not long since the Island of St. George which is one of the Asores and divers other fat Lands near the Sea which continually supplies unctuous matter to these Conflagrations whence the most remarkable of them are seen in Islands and other maritim places The Second said That the Pythagoreans who place Fire in the entrails of the Earth as its Centre would not be so much at a loss here as those who with Aristotle hold That it is there in a violent state and contrary to its Nature which requires the highest part of the World For since nothing violent can be of long duration How is it that Fire the most active of all the Elements hath not hitherto been able to free it self out of its Prison and get out of this state of confinement 'T is better therefore to say That Fire being the principal Agent of Nature necessary to all sorts of Generations which are made in all places is likewise found every where especially in the Earth where it is most sensible and is preserv'd longest in regard of the solidity of its Matter For Fire cannot subsist without Matter which serves it for Food and Aliment Whence the Poets describ'd Vulcan the God of Fire lame intimating its need of fewel and sustenance to support it none of which being found under the Orb of the Moon above the higher Region of the Air 't is reasonable to judg that there is no other Elementary Fire on high but that of the Sun who by his heat light and other qualities concurs more perfectly to the generation of all Mixts than that invisible and imaginary Fire 'T is therefore necessary that Fire have Matter to feed upon otherwise it dies and vanishes not only in an Enemy-country and among its Contraries who endeavour to destroy it but also in its own sphere or centre wherever it be since it must needs act there otherwise it would be weaker in its Centre than out of it But it cannot act upon it self for then it should destroy it self But nothing acts upon it self and therefore it must act upon some subject besides it self Wherefore the Matter of all Fire is any oylie fat and aerious Body whence Ashes wholly despoil'd of that unctuous humidity are incombustible That of Subterranean Fires is of two sort Sulphur and Bitumen both which are observ'd plentiful in burning places The Live or Fossile Sulphur which serves for Matter to these Fires is a terrestrial fat or oyl mingled with the slime of the Earth For the other sort of Sulphur found on the surface of Stones is nothing but the purer part of the former which being sublim'd by heat is stop'd and condens'd by those solid Bodies into a Matter call'd Flowers of Sulphur by which example Chymistry makes the like Flowers The Bitumen is also a fat juice which is either liquid like Oyl call'd by some Petroleum and the Naphtha of the Babylonians so inflammable that it attracts Fire at a distance and retains it in the Water which serves it for nourishment as is seen in that Bituminous Fountain which burns four Leagues from Grenoble in Dauphine and many other which cast forth both Flames add Waters at the same Out-let There is some too of the consistence of soft Wax as that slimy Bitumen floating upon the Lake of Sodome Some other hard like the Pit-coal call'd Tourbe whereof our Marshes are full which is the most general Matter of Subterranean Fires to whose violence the Nitre found there may also contribute for as Bituminous Earth makes these Fires durable which otherwise could not subsist so long with Sulphur alone which presently is evaporated and spent So the Nitre and Saltpeter wherewith the Earth is every where impregnated and which hath been before shewn to be the cause of its fertility is the cause of their impetuosity and violence which the situation of places may also promote The Third said That the Earth as well as the Air hath three Regions in its profundity the first temper'd and alter'd either apparently or really according to the various disposition of the ambient Air The second or middle extreamly cold The third always hot and burning And as the Matter of Thunder is a Sulphureous Nitrous and Bituminous Exhalation of the Earth drawn up by the Sun to the middle Region of the Air where 't is inflam'd by Antiperistasis of the ambient cold because being in the next disposition to Inflammation the least concurrent circumstance presently reduces that Power into Act So the inclosed and difficultly evaporable heat of the Earth finding the same easily-inflammable Matter there namely the Exhalations which issue from that third Subterranean Region upon the opening of Mines which testifie by their smell thickness and other qualities how much they partake of Minerals these hot and dry Exhalations ascending to the second Region of the Earth there meet with cold Spaces which being for the most part hollow or cavernous and stor'd with Sulphur Bitumen and other fat Earths become inflam'd by the Antiperistasis of cold and the proximity of those Materials And because the Earth which feeds these Fires consists of two parts the one arid and the other unctuous this unctuosity approaching nearer the Fire coming to be consum'd the Fire must needs be extinguish'd till the heat excited by the conflagration of many years having attracted all the unctuosity of the neighbouring Earth and this having by degrees impregnated that dry Earth which the Chymists call Caput mortuum it becomes again inflammable and continues fir'd till the same be desiccated again and so forward in a circle nothing hindring but
that as Plumeor Stone-allume is an eternally incombustible Wiek provided it be supply'd with new Oyl when the former is spent this Earth may do the like Unless we had rather that wise Nature dispenses combustible matter in the bellies of Mountains after the manner of Vitruvius's his Lamps which need filling but once a year and those Water-Receptacles for Birds which are supply'd with fresh as fast as the former Water is spent Or else that Nature excepting the extraordinary eruptions which seldome happen to these flammivomous Mountains and then only when the Fire cannot get issue but by violence makes what the curious often aspire to an inextinguishable Fire or perpetual Light by resolving again into oyly and combustible matter that which was evaporated by Inflammation as Water elevated in vapour by heat falls down again in the same form The Architect Nature finding Cavities great enough in those vast Mountains to facilitate what Art finds impossible by reason of the smalness of Vessels which extinguish Fire when it hath not Air or suffer its Matter to exhale when it hath although S. Austin and Lodovicus Vives make mention the former of a Lamp in the Temple of Venus which could not be extinguish'd or consum'd though neither Oyl nor Wiek were put to it and the latter of another burning Lamp found in a Sepulchre where it had been fifteen hundred years but upon admission of Air forthwith went out Although without recurring to this subtilty that of Fire and its activity is sufficient to attract or fetch in its sulphureous food which being only an excrement of the Earth and like the soot of our Chimneys is found every where but especially in Mines which are repair'd in less time than is believ'd and whose various qualities make the variety of these Subterraneous Fires of their duration continuity and interval which some have compar'd to Intermitting Fevers excited in our Bodies by an extraneous heat which holds the same place in us as Fire doth in the Earth Upon the Second Point it was said That Age is the measure of the Natural Mutations to which Man is subject by the Principles of his Being and which differ according to every ones Nature some being Puberes having a Beard and gray Hairs and such other tokens sooner than others according to the diversity of their first conformation whence arises that of their Division Aristotle following Hippocrates divides them into Youth Middle-age and Old-age that is to say the Beginning Middle and end Or according to Galen into Infancy Man-hood and Old-age According to most into Adolescence Youth Age of Consistence and Old-age Adolescence comprehends Infancy which reaches to the seventh year the Age of Puerility to the fourteenth Puberty to the eighteenth and that call'd by the general name Adolescence to the twenty fifth Youth which is the flower of Age reaches from twenty five to thirty five Man-hood and Consistence from thirty five to fourty eight when Old-age begins which is either green middle or decrepit These four Ages are the four Wheels of our Life whose Mutations they mark out The first next the primordia's of generation is hot and moist symbolising with Blood the second hot and dry with Choler the third cold and dry with Melancholy the fourth cold and moist with Phlegm which being contrary to the primogenial humidity leads to death Now if it be true as 't is said That Life is a Punishment and a Summary of Miseries Old-age as neerest the haven and end of Infelicities is the most desirable Moreover being more perfect by experience and alone fit to judg of the goodness of Ages which it hath run through we must refer our selves to the goodness of its judgment as well in this as in all other Points The Second said Since to live is to act the most perfect and agreeable of all Ages of Life is that in which we best exercise the functions of Body and Mind namely Youth which alone seems fit to dispute the Prize with Old-age not only in regard of the health and vigour of the Body wherein it surpasses that declining feeble Age but also of the actions of the Mind which is much more lively in young inventive and industrious Persons than in the aged whose Spirit wears and grows worse with the Body which hath given place to that most true Proverb That Old-men are twice Children For 't is to give Wisedom a shameful Extraction and to make it the issue of Infirmity to call that ripe which is rotten and to believe that good counsels proceed only from defect of natural heat since according to his judgment who hath best decypher'd Wisdom this Old-age traces more wrincles in our Minds than Faces and there are few Souls which by growing old become not sowr and rancid and acquire not many vices and ill habits of which Covetousness alone inseparable from Old-age and an Argument of weakness of Mind in heaping up with so much solicitude what must soon be parted with is not much less prejudicial to the State than all the disorders of Youth But if the Chief Good consists in the Sciences the Cause of Young-men is infallible for acuteness of Wit strength of Phancy and goodness of Memory which wholly abandons Old-men and ability to undergo pains and watchings must contribute to their acquisition And if it consist in the secret delight we take in exercising virtuous Actions Young-men who according to Chancellour Bacon excel in Morality will carry it above Old it being certain That the best actions of our Lives are perform'd between twenty and thirty or thereabouts which was the Age at which Adam was created in Paradise as our Saviour accomplish'd the Mystery of our Redemption at the Age of thirty three years which shall be likewise the Age at which the Blessed shall rise to Glory in which every one shall enjoy such a perfect Youth as we ascribe to Angels and put off Old-age which not much differing from Death may like it be term'd the Wages of Sin since had our first Parent persisted in Innocence we should have possess'd a perpetual Youth Moreover 't is at this Age that the greatest Men have appear'd Few Old Conquerours have been seen if any he hath this of Alexander That he aspires to the Conquest of another World not having long to live in this Wherefore instead of pretending any advantage over other Ages Old-men ought to be contented that we use them not as those of Cea and the Massagetes did who drown'd them or the Romans who cast them from a Bridg into Tyber thinking it a pious act to free them from life whose length displeas'd the Patriarchs the Scripture saying That they died full of or satiated with days The Third said That the Innocence of Children should make us desire their Age considering that our Lord requires us to be like them that we may enter into his Kingdom Moreover Nature unable to perpetuate Infancy hath found no sweeter Anodyne for the miseries
same be poison to Men some of whom do receive no hurt by poisons as 't is reported of Mithridates whose body was so prepar'd by his Antidote compos'd of Rue Nuts and Figs that he could not kill himself by poison of the Wench presented to Alexander who was fed with Napellus or Monks-hood of the old Woman in Sextus Empiricus who swallow'd 30 drachms of Hemlock without harm of Athenagoras the Argian who was not hurt by Scorpions wherewith the Aethiopians dwelling neer the River Hydaspes are fed as well as with Snakes which Avicenna saith another man kill'd by being bitten with them possibly having his body full of a humour like fasting spittle which Galen saith kills Serpents and other Insects These Poisons and Antidotes are either Natural or Artificial those more frequent in Southern then in Northern Countries are communicated by Potions Powders Juices Vapours Touches and other detestable means The Natural differ either in Matter or in Quantity or in Quality or in Operation The Matter of Poysons which is found almost every where is either within us as the Seed and the Blood which by corruption oftentimes acquire a venomous quality such as also is that of the matter of the Epilepsie and Suffocation of the Womb Or else without us in the Air Water and Earth Fire alone being contrary to Poyson and putrefaction which easily happens to the Air and Water through their great humidity But the Earth by its excrements and impurities supplies most Matter to Poysons which are drawn either from Minerals from Plants or from Animals Arsenic Orpiment Vitriol Plastre Lime Sublimate Borax Verdegrease Quicksilver Cinabar Ceruse and Red-lead are of the first order To the second belong Aconite or Woolf-bane Chamalea or Widow-wayle Yew Spurge-lawrel Thapsia or scorching Fennel Tithymals Hellebores Vomiting Nut Opium Nightshade and many other Plants some of which have only venomous Flowers as certain white Violets others only their Fruits as the Apples of Mandrake or only the juice as Lettice and Poppies or the Seeds as Henbane and Spurge or the Roots as Aconite and Hellebore To the third belong Lepus Marinus the Salamander the Flie call'd Buprestis the Scorpion Viper Asp Adder Toad Tarantula Shrew-mouse and divers others which are venomous either in all their parts as Cantharides and Spiders or only in some as Vipers in the Tail and Head the Hart and Fork-fish in the extremities of their Tails the Wivern in one of its Claws Or in their Excrements as the Gall of the Leopard the Urine of a Mouse the Foam of a Mad-dog the Sweat of an enraged Horse and the Blood of a Bull. As for the Quantity although all Poysons act in a little volume yet some require less Matter as Opium acts in less quantity than Hemlock this than the juice of Leeks and this than the juice of Lettice According to Quality some are hot and either inflame as Euphorbium or corrode as the Lepus Marinus which particularly invades the Lungs the Asp the Liver Nightshade and Henbane the Brain Cantharides the Bladder Others are cold fixing the Spirits and natural heat or hindring their free motion as Opium and the Salt of Lead Others are dry as Lime Vitriol and Arsenic which consume the Radical Humidity For Humidity being a quality purely passive and of it self incapable of causing pain there are no Poysons simply humid They differ also in their manner of acting the cold kill by consopiting or stifling the Heat Hellebore by vehement attraction of the Humours Some corrode the Substance others alter resolve or putrifie it And because all Poisons chiefly attaque the natural Heat and the Heart as the Swoonings Palpitations and Weaknesses accompanying them witness The Antidotes must be Cardiacal or friends to the Heart strengthening it and joyning forces with it to expel or subdue the malignity of the Poyson The Third said Physick opposes Poyson either by Preservatives before 't is taken or Remedies afterwards Preservation depends on the administration of the six Not-natural things as the avoiding of Air and Places infected perfuming them by burning of Wild-Thyme Mountain-Majoran Southernwood Kings Spear or Cedar annointing the Body with Rose-oyl which is an Enemy to Serpents and venomous Creatures and eating in Vessels of Porcellane and the like which discover Poisons Simple Preservatives are either appli'd outwardly as the Topaz Emerald and other Amulets worn next the skin or inwardly as Bezoar-stone Bole-Armenick Lemnian or Seal'd Earth Vincetoxicum Turnep Dittany Garlick Rue Citron Pomegranate c. Of Compounds the most famous is Theriaca or Treacle made of above a hundred Ingredients When Poyson is already introduc'd into the Body whether by biting stinging breathing foam or by the sight as that of the Basilisk or by the touch as that of the Torpedo or by the mouth regard must be had to three things 1. To strengthen the Natural Heat that it yield not but may resist the Poyson and to corroborate the Entrails for fear they receive any malignant impression 2. To destroy the force of the Poyson 3. To evacuate it speedily either by attraction as by Sucking or Cupping or by Incision and Ustion if the Poyson was receiv'd extrinsecally but if 't was taken by the mouth it must be evacuated by Sweat Urine Siege and Vomit which is the speediest and safest provided it be provok'd by familiar Medicaments as Butter Oyl Milk or the like unctuous things These Antidotes are either general resisting all sorts of Poysons strengthning the Heart and Spirits or else peculiar to some certain Poyson General are Blessed Thistle Angelica Valerian Dittany Scabious Devils-bit Pimpernel Tormentil Rue Scordium Wood-sorrel Wormwood Plantane Marigold Fluellin Gentian Juniper-berries Bezoar Treacle Armenian and Lemnian Earths the Horns of Hart and Rhinoceros and Ivory Of Particular Mummy is good against Tithymals the Weesel and Man's Ordure against envenom'd Wounds the Root of Dog-rose against the biting of a Mad-dog the Flower of Water-Lilly against Hellebore Cucumbers against Pharao's Figs Wormwood Garlick and Mustard against Toad-stools Long Birth-wort against Aconites Vipers Flesh and all Precious Stones against Menstrual Blood Baulm and Endive against Spiders S. Katherine's Flower and Dancing against the Tarantula Sea-Crab against Night-shade Citron-pill against Vomiting Nut Origanum or Wild-Majoran against Mezaereon the Seeds of Winter-Cherry against Cantharides and the Salamander's foam a roasted Fox and Oisters against the Sea-Hare Pigeons-dung and Parsley-seed against Mercury Treacle against the Viper Oyl of Scorpions and Wasps against their Stingings by sympathy drawing out the venomous Spirits and rejoyning them to their first Body Of all which effects 't is more expedient to admire than unprofitably search the Cause which hath been hitherto unknown to the greatest Wits and depends upon that of Sympathies and Antipathies The Fourth said There are two sorts of Mistions in Nature one of Qualities the other of Substantial Forms In the first the Qualities being rebated by their mutual encounter an agreeable harmony or temper results in which
that they oblige us to stand upon our guard to order our demeanour well and so to frame our Lives that they may have no hold against us For as Friendship is the Parent of Confidence and Liberty this of Negligence So Enmity begets Diffidence and this Circumspection with a great desire of Virtue and shame of Vice whose turpitude makes us blush more in the presence of an Enemy than of a Friend who being our other Self complies with our humours and inclinations And as Natural Agents are more vigorous in presence of their Contraries whence Fire scorches more in Winter than in Summer so the presence of Enemies redoubles our strength and courage their neighbour-hood obliges us to have always our Arms in our hands and keep good Guard which made Cato declaim against those who raz'd the Cities of Carthage and Numantia both Enemies to Rome The Second said That if a Man be vicious 't is more expedient that he have Enemies than Friends these too easily adhering to his debauches but those withdrawing him from them either by reproaches or by the example of a contrary life If he be virtuous his Enemies make his Virtue shine forth whilst it serves him for a defence and apology against all their accusations and calumnies and he finds it his interest to continue his virtuous Practises that he may still refute them whereas the flatteries and compliances of his Friends insensibly corrupt him Besides seeing a virtuous Man cannot be said absolutely perfect but only to have fewer defects than another his dissembling or flattering Friends sometimes know them not but an Enemy takes notice of them and blazing them abroad gives him warning to correct them Yea it seems a sign of a virtuous Man to have Enemies For besides that Virtue hath been always envy'd and hated and the higher a Man is in merit and dignity above others he hath the more Enemies resemblance of Manners begets Friendship and disparity Enmity and more without comparison are vicious than virtuous But the vicious being unable to love any but those like themselves hate all who follow not their example as the virtuous do not and so have the greatest part of the World against them The Third said That Enmities can produce no good since either Vice or Malice or Ignorance is the cause it not being possible but either he that is hated must be vicious or else they that hate him malicious or ignorant For as Friendship is founded upon and cannot subsist without Virtue so neither can Enmity without the Vice and Malice of him that hates or his that is hated or both together And as the Effects of Amity are Union Concord Security and Peace so those of Enmity are Division Discord Diffidence Suspicion Treachery Hatred and other such Effects noxious not only to a private Person who cannot draw any benefit from what tends only to his ruine as all Hatred doth but also prejudicial to the Publick which is totally destroy'd by Enmity which breaks the bonds of Civil Society On the other side If all were Friends one man would be a God to another as that Ancient said and all men concurring together by mutual help to the accomplishment of one anothers designs there would be no more difficulty in Affairs because no opposition and the World would be nothing but a harmony of favourable Successes Contrarily 't is Enmity makes one man a Woolf to another a Stone of offence and the Daemon of his bad fortune For the benefit of understanding our own Vices by our Enemies reproaches is not to be compar'd to that which we receive from the good counsels of Friends who are better qualifi'd for redressing our imperfections because converse affords the means to know them whereas the rude censures and affronts of an Enemy being never taken in good part cannot any wise contribute to the correction of our Manners A wise and virtuous Man who voluntarily endeavours to practise Virtue in all occurrences finds ways enough to do it without waiting to be constrain'd thereunto by the injuries and censures of Enemies But the vitious will draw nothing from them but fewel to his rancour and revenge without being instructed concerning his faults by the mouth of those whom he utterly disbelieves However we must draw as much profit as we can from our Enemies and 't is the only comfort can be had against Hatred to make use of it as an Antidote against its own Poyson But then as 't would be more expedient to have no Griefs or Poysons than to be at the trouble of finding Anodynes and Counter-poysons so we may be allow'd to derive some remedy from Enmities against their Mischiefs and make as much profit of Vice as 't is possible but 't would be expedient to have neither Enemies nor Vices The Fourth said That Nature subsists only by Contrariety That of the First Qualities is the cause of all the Generations of Mixts in the great World Man's Life lasts only so long as the Natural Heat acts upon the Radical Moisture when their combate is ended he must necessarily die His Understanding hath no better means to obtain Truth than by contrariety of Opinions whereof Identity is as disagreeable to the Mind as 't is to Nature But his Will hath no more powerful Means to attain to Virtue than Resistance which sharpens the Courage and enkindles Resoltion Therefore God has given Man a domestick Enemy the Sensitive Appetite that it being continually at war with the Will might serve to exercise it and render its Victories more glorious the Will as well as the Understanding growing rusty when they want exercising which whets and strengthens them both Hence S. Paul was not heard when he pray'd thrice to be delivered from the importunity of his Enemy God judging it not expedient for his good and having also permitted Heresies in the Church which the same Apostle saith are necessary to the end to prove the Faith of its Members CONFERENCE CXIII I. Of the Iris or Rain-bow II. Whether the Reading of Books is a fitter way for Learning than Vocal Instructions 'T Was not without reason that the Poets feign'd Iris to be the Daughter of Thaumas or Thaumasia that is to say of Admiration thereby intimating our not knowing its cause For Wonder is the Off-spring of Ignorance Amongst many other things Three we find to admire in it its Matter Form and Colours It s Matter is not a moist Cloud as most imagine for besides that then we should see Rain-bows more frequently than we do a Cloud cannot reflect the Sun-beams with that variety or medley which we observe therein For there would be but one colour if the Cloud were diaphanous and otherwise it will be black and dark 'T is not therefore in a Cloud that the Rain-bow is form'd but in the falling drops of Rain as we see some Fountains form one in the Air by the ejaculation of the Water struck with the Sun-beams as also by the spurting of Water out
of the mouth opposite to the Sun For an Iris is not visible unless we be plac'd between the dropping Cloud and the Sun If the Cloud be between our eye and the Sun it will receive the Rays only on that side which is next the Sun and not on that side which is towards us Nor will any Iris appear in case the Sun be between the Eye and the Cloud For according to the common opinion it cannot be seen higher than three miles but in this opposition of the Sun the Iris will be remote from us above 18 degrees which make above 1100 miles allowing 60 miles to a degree according to Ptolomie Hence the Rain-bow which appears before Noon is always towards the West as that which appears about or after Noon is always towards the North or the East at which times we are between the Rain-bow and the Sun Hence such as are in the fifth Climate can never see one in the South Now the surfaces of these drops of Water which fall confusedly and disorderly being irregular and struck obliquely by the Sun-beams they make a refraction of his Light like that which is made by Diamonds cut into Faucets but more permanent because the drops of Water fall so swiftly and successively that they seem continuous A Rain-bow then is nothing else but the Light of the Sun receiv'd in this falling Rain and remitted to our eye by an Angle of refraction different from that of its incidence for if it were equal the Image of the Sun would appear therein too as we see it doth in Parhelia's Indeed we may say That the Rain-bow is an imperfect and begun Parhelion the Light of the one being reflected regularly and that of the other in confusion and disorderly And That its Arch and circular Figure proceeds from the obliquity of the Sun-beams Or else That he being a Spherical Body casts his Rays circularly Or lastly from the Spherical or Parabolical form of the Cloud Which is also true in the Iris which is form'd in the night by the Moon-beams receiv'd in a Cloud dissolving into Rain saving that her Rays being not so strong and luminous as those of the Sun illuminate only the surface of the Water and therein paint a faint whitish colour and not such an enamel of colours as is seen by day in the Solar Iris which colours are nothing else but an imperfect Light which cannot be directly reflected to the eye by reason of the inequality of the Angles and therefore at least forms these Colours of which the three principal are Yellow or Citrinous which is the highest Blue or Green which is the middlemost and Red which is the lowest Amongst which there are found divers others which partake of their extremities the diversity whereof proceeds from the divers reception of the Rays in the Parts of the Cloud differing in opacity which not being great in the outmost part the Sun-beams paint there a Yellowish colour but greater in the middle a Blew or Watchet and greatest in the inmost or lowest part a Red as Experience shews us in the like subjects wherein Light diversly modifi'd represents very neer the same variety of Colours which although not real as those which arise from the various mixture of the four Elementary Qualities yet are not absolutely imaginary as those are which are seen by weak eyes about the flame of a Candle but are true Colours inasmuch as they strike the Sight which a sensitive and corporeal Power and are alike perceiv'd by all nevertheless they are less material than Elementary Colours and are neerer akin to Light not differing from the same saving inasmuch as it is here received diversly in the eye according to the rarity or density situation figure and other qualities of the Object and Medium The Second said The Rain-bow the fairest not only of all Meteors but of all Nature's Works being according to the Cabbalists the Throne of God who in the Apocalypse is represented Crown'd therewith doth not less dazle the Mind than ravish the Eye it being observ'd That the clearer things are to the Sense the obscurer they are to the Understanding and so on the contrary For it cannot proceed from the different rarity and density of the Cloud which being never alike but infinitely various should rather represent a thousand different Figures and Colours whereas the Rain-bow hath always a circular Figure and the same Colours And as there may be found more Clouds in several places equally rare or dense and equally distant from the Sun who enlightens Bodies equally distant after the same manner so there should be more Rain-bows at the same time in several places which is contrary to experience For we never see two uniform Rain-bows at once the other Bow sometimes included in the first being not directly form'd by the Sun-beams but by reflection of the Rays of the first Bow upon a neighbouring Cloud whence the Colours of such secondary-Bow are not so lively as those of the first but are revers'd the yellow being lowest the Green always middlemost and the Red uppermost For so by the reason of Catoptricks we see that the Species reflected have a different situation from the Body which produces them things on the right hand appearing on the left and contrarily and the shadows of Bodies which pass along the street entring by a small hole into a dark Chamber revers'd The Third said Experience teaches us That when Light passes out of a thinner Medium into a thicker as out of Air into Water if it fall obliquely upon that thicker Medium it is broken or refracted But if it pass quite through such denser Medium so that 't is broken as well at its going out as at its entrance especially if the refraction in these two places be great enough then this Light is turn'd into Colours This Natural Effect is a Principle of the Opticks and is observ'd not only in the Rain-bow but also in triangular Crystals and Glasses fill'd with clear Water and expos'd to the Sun provided the Glass be of a conical Figure revers'd that is narrower at the bottome and wider towards the top This being premis'd the Production of the Rain-bow seems to be thus When a Cloud already wholly turn'd into Water and actually falling down in drops of Rain which reach from the top of the Cloud to the Earth is shin'd upon by the opposite Sun and the Spectator is plac'd between the Sun and the Rain then the Sun-beams passing through those drops are reflected as by a Mirror back again by those which are more remote and passing by the sides of those which are nearest because from one and the same part but one perpendicular Ray can fall upon a round Figure as that of drops of Water is all the other Rays being oblique they must of necessity be twice broken First as they are reflected by the remoter drops and pass out of the Air comprehended between those remoter into the other drops nearer
us And secondly as they issue out of these nearer drops into the Air which is between them and us And thus from this different fraction caus'd by the various rarity and density of the Air and Water the diversity of Colours in the Rain-bow ariseth For Water being not altogether diaphanous but somewhat of a middle nature between perfectly Transparent and Opake reflects part of the Rays which fall upon its surface and lets the other part pass through as 't is observ'd in Rivers and Ponds upon which we see the Suns Image by reflection but Divers and Fish behold it by refraction So 't is with drops of Water those neerest us reflect part of the Sun-beams towards the Sun himself without forming an Iris because these reflected Rays meet not other drops to refract them but when part of those Rays which pass'd through the small intervals of the first drops are reflected by the other remoter from us then these reflected Rays lighting by the way upon the first drops between which they had pass'd they are broken thereby both at their going in and coming out where they represent the Iris which consequently is form'd by Reflection and Refraction reflection by all the drops which receive Light remitting the same towards the Sun and refraction of the same Light so reflected when by the way as it returns it meets those other drops of Water which refract it twice and give it the diversity of Colours which ariseth from the divers reception of the Light into those parts of Water more or less dense and rare But now to give account of the circular Figure of this Meteor which is not only in appearance circular as square Towers seem round at a distance but is so really 't is requisite to take a certain position of the Sun and by one example 't will be easie to judg of others Let us suppose then that the Sun is at the Horizon and consequently that all the Rays he sends directly upon the drops of Rain as well the highest as the lowest are parallel between themselves and to the Horizon for the elevation of a Cloud how great soever being inconsiderable in respect of the Sun's distance from the Earth hinders not but that all his Rays are always parallel between themselves which being reflected as hath been said the reflection of them will be also parallel to the Horizon or very neer so for here we consider only that which is made by the middle of the drop which is the strongest by reason of its round figure and this reflection being receiv'd by the superior part of some other drop which it finds in its way and there twice broken to wit at its going in and coming forth the two Refractions joyn'd together distort the Ray about 45 degrees that is to say the Ray thus twice broken will make with the lines parallel to the Horizon an Angle of 45. degrees a 〈…〉 from on high downwards and falling upon the Earth And because all the drops make such a Refraction as we have mention'd therefore all such Persons as shall be between the Sun and the drops of Rain shall see the Iris of the same heighth namely of 45 degrees although from several stations some in the lower drops namely such Persons as are neerest the Cloud others to wit such as are more remote in the higher drops because they all see it by Rays parallel between themselves and consequently by equal Angles Now the drops make refraction not only by their superior parts but also by their sides and lower parts whence those on either side of the Spectator distant by an Angle of 45 degrees will make him see their refraction and consequently the Iris on either side under equal Angles which being made on all sides about a right line drawn from the Sun to the Spectators eye which may be call'd the Axis of the Iris it necessarily follows That the Iris must appear perfectly round about this Axis So that the drops elevated above this Axis 45 degrees will make the upper part of the Iris by the refraction of their superior parts Those on either side distant likewise 45 degrees will make the sides of the Iris by refraction of their parts which are at the remoter sides and so of all the drops which shall be about the Axis under equal Angles of 45 degrees As for other drops neerer or further from the Axis and the Spectator they will represent an Iris to others who are not in the same Axis but neerer or remoter from the Cloud and situate in such place that those drops appear distant from the Axis by Angles of 45 degrees So that as many Spectators as there are between the Sun and the Cloud and not in the same Axis so many Axes must be imagin'd about which there are different Arches and Rainbows Now in this Horizontal Position the Bow appears a perfect Semi-circle whose Center is in the Horizon at the Point where the Axis terminates But when the Sun is in another Position as elevated some degrees yet fewer than 45 then the Axis of the Iris coming from the Sun through the Spectator's eye penetrates the Earth and so the Center which is always at the end of the Axis is below the Horizon and the portion of the Iris which we behold is less than a Semi-circle greater than which it never appears as Aristotle hath well observ'd For since the Bow is always less than a Semi-circle whilst the Sun is elevated above the Horizon it must be a Semi-circle when he is in the Horizon and none at all when he is below the Horizon because he doth not then illuminate the Cloud Hence 't is seldome produc'd in Winter because when it rains in that Season the whole Heaven is cloudy and covers the Sun-beams as neither in the Summer and Spring at noon when the Sun is higher than 45 degrees but only at Morning and Evening The Fourth said That if Aristotle's definition of the Rainbow be true who defines it An Arch consisting of divers colours which the reflection of the Sun-beams represents upon a hollow Cloud ready to dissolve into Rain we need not seek much for Material Formal and Efficient Causes for he assigns no Final of it but the Scripture doth namely to be a moral sign of the Covenant between God and Men. Of the first there is no doubt unless amongst blind men to whom only God can make a demonstration of it but the rest are very obscure To judg of which we must observe That the Angle of Reflection is equal to that of Incidence so that a right perpendicular Line erected at the common point of Incidence and Reflection will equally bisect the Angle comprehended by the Ray of Incidence and that of Reflection which is not true unless when the Ray of Incidence is terminated by a very smooth and opake Body as that of a Mirror Whence 't is infer'd That a Cloud not having such evenness or smoothness will not reflect
Land had no doubt experienc'd the michiefs of that unfaithful Element the cruellest whereof is the Scurvy a Disease complicated with several others and whose chief symptoms are the ulceration and swelling of the Gums and Legs with pains over all the Body caus'd by the impurity and malignity of the Air. But the most frequent is vomiting caus'd by the sole agitation and violence of the Air. For our aerious Spirits not only receive the qualities of the air we breathe but also follow its temper and motion as is seen by the Head-ach seising those that are beaten by winds in the Country and by the seeming turning of their heads who attentively behold the circumgyration of a Wheel or some other Body So the Air at Sea being much agitated puts in motion the Spirits which are of the same nature and these being stirr'd set the humours on work which incommoding the parts are by them driven out by vomits and other ejections according to every one's temper and propensity For the cholerick and broad-breasted vomit more easily and successfully then the phlegmatick and narrow-breasted whose Organs of respiration are not sufficiently free Whereunto also the season of the year contributes for Summer provokes vomit more then Winter when the humours being more heavy rather tend downwards But especially Custom is considerable herein which renders those that go frequently to Sea not obnoxious to its inconveniences The Fourth said That the Earth consists of three substances one Unctuous which is the inflammable moisture call'd by the Chymists Sulphur another Cinereouâ— which they call the Faeces or Caput mortuum the third humid and incombustible which they divide into Mercury and Salt this latter again into Salt-nitre and Vitriol of which the Sea being full the same is communicated to the first Region of the Air contiguous to the Waters and insinuating it self into our Bodies by inspiration produces the same effects therein that it doth taken in substance four Grains of which is a sufficient Vomit Whereto also helps the gentle agitation of the waves which makes it penetrate the examples of others vomiting and especially the fear commonly incident to such as were never upon the Sea before who are most obnoxious to this trouble For that Passion so constringes the whole Body especially the inward parts that it weakens and relaxes the Nerves especially the Fibres which keep the parts in a just tenor and so the oblique Fibres and orbicular Muscles which serve to retain them being languid suffer the juices and humours to pass out The same fear which causes relaxation of the Sphincter Ani Vesicae relaxing the Muscles which serve to open and close the upper Orifice of the Ventricle Hence fear is commonly accompani'd with the pain of this part whose sense being very exquisite is the cause that the Vulgar call it The pain of the Heart which also for the same reason happens to such as look down upon low places CONFERENCE CXIX Of Love by Inclination or Sympathy 'T Is not only amongst the Poets that Love is blind the obscurity of this causes evidencing him no less so amongst the Philosophers who assign two sorts of it one of Knowledge which tends to a good known the other of Inclination whereby we love without knowing why Indeed there is no love without ground and some sort of knowledge but yet when the cause obliging us to love is manifest it makes the former kind of love when obscure the latter whereof we have many examples in nature not only in the Symbolical qualities of the Elements Electrical and Magnetical attractions of Stones particular alliances of Metals and all the amities of Plants and Trees as of the female Palm which is said to lean towards the male and those which are found amongst Animals but especially in the particular inclinations of some Persons to others unknown and void of all recommendations to qualifie them for the same and the emotions some have felt both in Soul and Body at the first sight of their unknown Parents as also of a contrary effect when a dead body bleeds upon the presence of its Murderer which is a testimony of an antipathetical hatred contrary to the abovesaid Love which we find in our selves almost upon all occurrences as when two equally strangers play at Tennis we wish that one may win and the other lose For the first motions of Love as well as of all other Passions are not in our power and afford not the Mind time to deliberate and make reflexion upon them Hence oftentimes Anger Sadness Panick fright and such other Passions seise upon us without cause and Love doth the like frequently without any apparent reason Yea we may say there is no Love of Knowledg but what took its first rise from that of Inclination which presently makes us enamor'd of the proportions of a Face which displeases another that understands the same as well as we but without being any way affected therewith because he finds not in it that correspondence and sympathetical resemblance that produces a Love of Inclination which may also arise without any knowledge as in that blind man who lov'd a Lass whom he had never seen as also in Petrarch who made so many Verses upon his Lawra whom he could never behold The cause whereof I should attribute to the power of the Imagination which fancies somthing of loveliness where there is none or else to the sole action of the Will which not able to remain neuter between love and hatred since its action is to will and to will is to love when it meets no cause of hatred in an object loves it and hates it when it finds nothing amiable therein For if you assign the reason of this love to the transpiration of Spirits issuing out of the lov'd person's body their substance is too volatile to act so far off and their issuing being never alike because the pores of the skin are more stopt at one time then at another this love would be remarkably alter'd every moment Besides we many times love by an inclination an absent person for his merit and many have been enamour'd of Beauties at the first sight of their Pictures but love was never produc'd between two blind persons notwithstanding any emission of sympathetical Spirits Moreover 't is the Species and not the Spirits that are receiv'd by our Senses and so none should ever love those they had not seen but by a Prospective-glass The Second said That it imports not much to the causing of love whether the object be really or only imaginarily good and indeed our minds seem to interess themselves more in the pursute and preservation of the latter then the former which maintains it self by its proper worth Wherefore if Love of Inclination presuppose goodness in the object the same must be apprehended either by the Imagination or by some other Faculty to which it must therefore be approximated either immediately by it self or by it self So the
conformation The Fifth said That not only the desire of eating and drinking which is pacifi'd by enjoyment but any vehement passion even a sudden fright against which there is no remedy sometimes leads the variable Fancy of Women to interrupt the work of the Formative Vertue otherwise always very regular As a certain Woman having seen a Criminal broken upon the Wheel brought forth a child that all the bones were broken Hereunto also contribute the excess or defect of the Matter its evil quality and the deprav'd conformation of the Womb. But to attribute the communication requir'd for this effect between the Imaginative and Formative Faculties to the Umbilical Vessels cannot hold there being but one Vein two Arteries and the Vrachus without any nerves by which alone the animal spirits are transmitted from the Brain Nor can those Species without dissipation and confusion separate themselves from the mass of Blood and pass by the circuit of the Mother's Veins into the Umbilical Vein of the Foetus wherefore 't is more rational to ascribe this effect to the correspondence of the Faculties whereof the Superior indeed move the Inferior but by a simple and pure irradiation without transmitting any thing to them There needing no other communication then that of a Lutinist's finger or a Dancing-master's foot with their Imagination which yet follow one the other although it transmits not to the ends of their hands and feet the notes and cadences which they represent Thus for the imprinting of a Mark the Formative Faculty being mov'd by the Imagination hath no need to receive any Species as the Cognoscitive Faculties have of which number the Formative is not Nor is it more strange that the Foetus indu'd with a particular soul yet feels the effects of its Mothers Imagination than that Fruits receive the changes and alterations of the Trees to which they adhere CONFERENCE CXXII Of the Original of Forms A Form is that which gives either Being or Motion When it gives only Motion 't is call'd an Assistent Form as that which moves the Heavens When Being an Informant Form styl'd also an Act Perfection Essence Vertue Beauty For what ever is excellent in a Subject proceeds from the Form which determining the Indifferency of the matter of it self imperfect makes it to be one that is to say not divided in it self and divided from every thing else Created Forms are either spiritual or material and both these again either substantial or accidental Spiritual accidental Forms are Vertue Science and all Habits of the Soul Substantial spiritual forms are Intelligences and Rational souls Material accidental forms are either simple as Heat and Whiteness or compounded as Beauty and Health Under Material substantial Forms are comprehended Vegetative and sensitive Souls which are the Forms of Plants and Brutes and the Subject now in hand although I will not grant them to be Substances but only Accidents All agree that there are Forms because there are Actions which presuppose Powers These Powers are properties flowing from some active principle which sets them on work which the Matter because purely passive cannot do and therefore it must be the Form But the doubt is whether this Form be substantial or accidental as whether it be only a certain degree of Heat which makes Plants and Animals be nourisht grow generate and move or else some Substance and Form more excellent that employs Heat as its Instrument for producing those Actions And this is most probable For otherwise A Substance compounded of Matter and Form should contrary to the Maxim be made of that which is not Substance if Forms were only accidental They are introduc'd into a capable Subject by an Univocal Agent which by generation communicates a soul of the same Nature with its own which is material and consequently divisible yet so divisible as that it is not diminished in the traduction no more than the Species of a Looking-glass which produces it self wholly and entirely in all bodies capable of it or then the flame of a candle wherewith a thousand others may be lighted without any diminution of its substance The second said That Forms are primogenial Principles no more generable than the Matter which they always accompany and according to whose dispositions they only change appearance For 't is not credible that Forms the principal pieces of the world without which it would be depriv'd of that from which it bears its name to wit Ornament and Beauty are subject to continual corruption otherwise the world and the natures therein contain'd would have been chang'd in so long a time and yet they remain still the same Besides if Forms perish they must either be annihilated but nothing is so in nature or else resolv'd into that whereof they are compos'd since they are suppos'd material and nevertheless we see no remainder of them 'T is therefore always the same form but diversly dress'd and said to be generated when it changes from an imperfect to a perfect state and to be corrupted when it returns into a worse condition then what is had before both according to the several dispositions of its Subject The third said That all natural Forms are nothing but Accidents since they are in matter as in a subject from which they are inseparable and not as parts for they are parts of the whole but not of the Matter The Forms of the Elements are the first Qualities And as all Mixts are compounded of the four Elements so they derive their form as well as their matter from them which follows the nature of the Element predominant in the Compound Thus Driness is the Form of a stone which hath more of earth than of any other Element Oyl is humid because aerial all Living Creatures are Hot by reason of Heat the noblest and most active quality which attaining to the proportion requisite for performing the offices of life is call'd a Soul and according as it is more or less refin'd and meets with different subjects 't is called a Vegetative Soul in Plants and a Sensitive soul in Brutes I say further that these Forms are nothing but Modes and Fashions of Being For as Water turn'd into Air and this into Fire by rarefaction or into Water by condensation are still the same not differing but according as their parts are more or less close so as well Forms purely natural as other living Forms are nothing but Modes and Fashions of Being of the Elements their Qualities and the several Mixtures from which those Forms result The fourth said according to Anaxagoras's opinion That all things are in all and consequently Forms in the Matter out of whose bosom they are educ'd by Agents conjoyning things of the same Nature and separating others As Art which imitates Nature makes not Wine but only presses out that vegetal juice which was before in the Grape and out of Marble forms a Statue only by paring off what was superfluous so out of the Earth Nature forms Plants
contrary maintain'd that all things were done by Chance in the Universe which they said it self was made by the casual occourse of their Atoms these denying the Providence of God those his Power by subjecting and tying him to the immutable Laws of Fatality But without considering things in reference to God to whom every thing is present and certain we may distinguish them into two sorts Some acting necessarily have alwayes their necessary effects others which depend absolutely upon Man's Will which is free and indifferent have accordingly Effects incertain and contingent Thus the accidents of the Sea where the vulgar believes is the chief Empire of Fortune natural deaths the births of poor and rich have regular and necessary Causes On the contrary Goods freely given or acquir'd with little industry or found have contingent Causes which being almost infinite for there is no Cause by it self but may be a Cause by accident by producing another thing than what was intended they cannot fall within the knowledge of Humane Wit which knows onely what is finite and terminate Other Events have Causes mixt of Chance and Necessity as the death of the Poet Aeschylus hapning by a Tortoise which an Eagle let fall upon his bald Head As for the second manner wherein Happiness may be consider'd namely Whether it render us happy in Reality or in Imagination 't is an accusing all Men of folly to say that Felicity is imaginary and phantastical since Nature which hath given no Desire in vain as she should have done if she had caus'd us to desire a thing that exists not makes all Men aspire to the one and fear the other There must be an Absolute Happiness as well as an Absolute Good namely the possession of this Good as that of Existence is which being the foundation of all Goods must be a Real and Absolute Good Virtue and the Honor attending it being likewise true and solid Goods their possession must adferr a semblable Felicity the verity and reality is no more chang'd by not being equally gusted by all than the savour of Meat or the Beauty of Light would be by not being perceiv'd by a sick or a blind person Yea as he that ha's a rough Diamond is not less the possessor or less rich for not knowing the value of it so he that possesses some Good ought not to be accounted less happy though he think not himself so Moreover 't would be as absurd to call a Man happy or unhappy because he thinks himself so as to believe a fool is a King or Rich because he phansies himself to have Empires and Riches The Fifth said That Happiness which is rather an Effect of our Genius as the examples of Socrates and Simonides prove than of our Temperament much less of the Stars and their influences depends not onely upon the possession of some Good or the belief a Man hath that he possesses it but upon both together namely upon the reflexion he makes upon the Good which he really possesses for want of which Children Fools Drunkards and even the Wise themselves whilst they are a sleep cannot be call'd Happy CONFERENCE CXXXVI Of the Original of Precious Stones A Stone which is defin'd a Fossile hard dry and frangible body is either common or precious Both are compounded of the Four Elements chiefly of Water and Earth but diversly proportion'd and elaborated Coarse Stones are made with less preparation their proximate matter being onely much Earth and little Water whereof is made a sort of Clay which being dry'd by Nature is hardned into a Stone Precious Stones have more of Water and less of Earth both very pure and simple whence proceeds their Lustre which attends the simplicity of the Elements and exactly mixt by Heat which concocting the aqueous humidity purifies and sublimes the same to a most perfect degree by help of that Universal Spirit where-with the Earth and whole world is fill'd on which account the Pythagoreans esteemed it a great Animal The Second said Three things are to be consider'd in reference to the original of Stones their matter their efficient cause and the place of their generation Their remote matter is Earth and Water which two Elements alone give bulk and consistence but their next matter concern'd in the Question is a certain lapidifick juice supplying the place of Seed and often observ'd dropping down from rocks which if thick and viscous makes common stones if subtil and pure the precious Now this juice not only is turn'd it self into stone but likewise turns almost all other Bodies as Wood Fruits Fishes the Flesh of Animals and such other things which are petrifi'd in certain Waters and Caves Their remote efficient cause is Heat which severing heterogeneous bodies unites those of the same nature whereof it makes the said homogeneous juice which is condens'd by cold which giving the last form and perfection to the stone is its proximate efficient cause Lastly their place is every where in the middle region of the Air which produces Thunder-bolts in the Sea which affords Coral of a middle nature between Stone and Plant and Pearls in their shells which are their wombs by means of the Dew of Heaven in Animals in Plants and above all in the Earth and its Mines or Matrices which are close spaces exempt from the injuries of Air Water or other external Agents which might hinder their production either by intermixtion of some extraneous body or by suffering the Mineral Spirits serving to the elaboration of the Stones to transpire The Third said Precious Stones produc'd for Ornament as Metals are for Use of life are of three sorts namely either bright and resplendent as the Diamond Ruby Crystal Amethyst or a little obscure as the Turquois Jasper and other middle ones without perfect lustre as the Opal and all Pearls And as the matter of common Stones is Earth the principle of Darkness so that of the precious is an aqueous diaphanous humour congeal'd by the coldness of water or earth or by the vicinity of Ice and Snow which inviron Mountains and Rocks where commonly their Mines are found and amongst others Crystal which is as 't were the first matter of other precious Stones and the first essay of Nature when she designs to inclose her Majesty in the lustre of the most glittering Jewels is nothing else but humidity condens'd by cold Whence a violent heat such as that of Furnaces resolves and melts it Moreover the effects attributed to these Stones as to stop blood allay the fumes of wine and resist hot poysons argue them caus'd only by cold which also gives them weight by condensation of their parts The Fourth said If Crystals and Stones were produc'd only by cold they could not be generated in the Isles of Cyprus the red Sea and other Southern parts but only in the Northern where nevertheless they are most rare there being Mountains where cold hath preserv'd Ice for divers Ages without ever being converted into
Crystal which besides should swim upon the water as well as Ice doth and not be more heavy and transparent which cannot be attributed to their greater density caus'd by a more vehement cold since water inspissated into Ice becomes less transparent and Crystals are not so cold to the touch as Ice But above all their Calcination evidently shews that there is something else in them besides Water for finding out of which we must examine the principles of Bodies nearest akin to them as Alom and Glass which by their splendor and consistence much resemble precious Stones being like them Mineral Juices hardned and mixt by a proportionate quantity of Salts and violent Spirits which joyned together lose their Acrimony to embrace one another more closely These Principles are very viscous capable of great solidity and being of themselves transparent are proper to preserve all the brightness and light which their specifick forms can add to them This resemblance being supposed we are obliged to discover the same Principles of Composition in Jewels since things agreeing generically and having resemblance of qualities agree also as to matters and have nothing to distinguish them but that unknown Form which determines the Species But the truth is little brightness and hardness proceed not from their Form alone which is uncapable of so close connexion but from much dark Earth and a very impure Phlegm which is not found in precious Stones or in the Glass where-with in the Indies they make Emeralds Moreover 't is this body that most resembles those Stones which hath no other Principles but a Spirit mingled amongst much Salt and some little of Earth which are united by the activity of heat and condensed by their natural inclination to inspissation cold contributing but very little thereunto since they acquire their solidity and consistence whilst yet very hot The Artifice of counterfeiting Rubies and Diamonds with the same Principles of Glass greatly confirms this Opinion onely for avoiding brittleness they mix less terrestreity and consume not the moisture which causes Concretion with so much violence The Calcination of Crystals whereby much Salt is extracted from them and the easiness of making Glass there-with in like manner shews what are the Material Principles of these Stones Which Principles being contained or generated in the bosome of the Earth certain Juices are formed of their several mixtures which unite to the first body which happens to impress its Virtues upon them then the purest part of these Salts and Earths is volatilized by the Spirit mixt there-with and circulated by Heat which alwayes perfects it by further Concoction till it have rendered it Homogeneous These Juices commonly stick in superficial parts of the Earth where a moderate heat finishes their Concoction evaporating the too great humidity which hinder'd the induration natural to such substances Divers species are made according to the different impressions of Heaven or the place of their Generation or other dispositions to which I also refer the diversity of their Colours and not as most Chymists do to Sulphur which is never found in these Stones which Colours they ought to attribute rather to Salt their principal matter since by several degrees of Coction or Calcination it acquires almost all the Colours of these Stones being first white then blew and lastly reddish The Fifth said 'T is most probable that in the beginning there were Species of Stones of all sorts dispos'd in places most proper for their Conservation which have continually generated the like determining fit matter by the Emission of a certain Vapor or Spirit impregnated with the Character of their Species during its union with their substance before a perfect induration press'd it forth which Spirit lighting upon and uniting to fit Matter fixes and determines the same to be of the same Species with the Mass from which it issu'd For the common Opinion That these Stones are produc'd of a certain slime compounded of Earth and Water concocted and hardned by the action of Heat is groundless since how temperate soever that Heat were it would at length dissipate all the moisture and leave nothing but the Earth the darkest and most friable of all the Elements besides that Water and Earth having no viscosity are incapable of any continuity and hardness which arises from Salt which indu'd with a Principle of Coagulation perfectly unites the Water with the Earth so as not to be afterwards dissolvable by any Water but such as is mix'd with much Salt Lastly the Cement they make with Lime Water and Sand petrifying in time shews the necessity of the fix'd Salt of Lime which gives the coherence of all in the generation of Stones Wherefore I conclude that as in common and opake Stones there is a little Salt amongst much Earth so in those which are precious there is much Salt amongst a very small quantity of Earth CONFERENCE CXXXVII Of the Generation of Metals MEtal which is a Mineral solid opake heavy malleable ductile and sounding body is compounded either by Nature Art or Chance as Latin Electrum and Corinthian Brass or else it is simple and divided into seven Species according to the number of Planets whereunto each of them is referr'd as precious Stones are to the Fixed Starrs namely Gold Silver Lead Copper Iron Tinn and Quick-silver which others reject from the number of Metals because not malleable as also Tinn because compounded of Lead and Silver Their remote Matter is much Water with little Earth their next according to Aristotle a vaporous exhalation Their general Efficient Cause is Heaven by its Motion and Influencess producing Heat which attenuates and concocts the said Exhalation which is afterwards condens'd by Cold Hence all Metals are melted by violent Fire which evaporates Quick-silver and softens that sort of Iron which is not fusible The place where they are generated is the bosome of the Earth the Metals found in Waters as Gold in Tagus and Pactolus having been carry'd from the Earth by the Waters which washing and purifying them render them more perfect than those of the Mines The Second said Although Metals were generated at the beginning of the world in their Mines whence they were first extracted and wrought by Tubalcain who is the fabulous Vulcan of Paganism yet they cease not to be generated anew by the afflux of sutable Matter which is a metallick Juice form'd of humidity not simply aqueous for then Heat should evaporate instead of concocting it but viscous unctuous and somewhat terrestrial which for a long time holds out against whatever violent Heat as appears by the Fires of Volcanoes which are maintain'd by Bitumen alone and other sulphureous Earths This also is the Opinion of the Chymists when they compound them of Sulphur and Mercury Sulphur holding the place of the Male Seed and Mercury which is more crude and aqueous that of the maternal blood And as the Salt or Earth predominating in Stones is the cause of their friability so Sulphur and
Mercury which is unctuous moisture renders them malleable and capable of extension which is an Argument of their perfection as well as colour sound and fixation or enduring Fire without alteration but not weight for then as Gold the perfectest Metal is the heaviest so Silver should be next to it in weight which is not Quick-silver being much more ponderous next Lead after which follow Silver Copper Tinn Iron and Stones whose weight is very different Whence it appears that Gravity is not an Effect of the condensation of Matter otherwise the Starrs being the denser parts of their Orbs should be heavy as they are not but it proceeds from the Form whereunto also the many wonderful Effects observ'd in Metals must be referr'd as that Gold discovers Poysons attracts Quick-silver and is attracted by the Foot of a Spar-hawk and lov'd by Gryphons as Iron is by Estriches who digest it that Tinn makes all Metals brittle where-with it is mixt Copper sinks not in the water of the Island Demonesus near Carthage and that Quick-silver though humid and alwayes fluid moistens not which some attribute to the equal mixture of siccity and humidity The Third said If ever the Opinion of Anaxagoras who held Omnia in omnibus was well grounded it was chiefly in reference to Metals whose Etymology together with the Chymists operations speak the easie transmutation of one into another imperfect Metals differing onely in certain accidental degrees from Gold and Silver which they may be turn'd into after purifying from their Leprosie and refining by Nature or Art And thus according to the opinion of some Moderns it may be said that supposing the earth a great Magnet it hath also in it self a commencement towards such metallick mutation since the Loadstone is in a manner the principle of Iron the most terrestrial of all Metals whence it is that they attract one another as do Mercury and Gold which is compos'd thereof And thus by the power of heat in the bowels of the Earth Iron the most imperfect and lightest of all Metals is turned into Steel and Copper afterwards into Tin and lastly being more depurated into Silver and Gold And since Art imitates Nature as in the fabricating of Artificial Gold you must first resolve a solid matter then volatilize and again fix and return into a solid substance so the generation of Metals may be conceiv'd to be effected by evaporation of the thinner parts of Earth and Water which being volatilized by the subterranean heat and lighting upon Rocks and hard Stones are there fixed and condensed into Metals differing according to the purity and concoction of their matter and the places it lights upon which are ordinarily Mountains The Fourth said That the different properties of Metals plainly argue the diversity of their Species since Properties presuppose specificating Forms Besides the World would have been very defective if Nature had made only Gold which may be better spared than Iron and Steel and is less hard for uses of Life Nor is it likely that Nature ever intended to reduce all Metals to Gold which then should be more plentiful than Iron and Lead since wise and potent Nature seldom fails of her intentions As for the alledged transmutation of Metals were it possible yet it proves them not all of the same Species change of Species being very ordinary and as easie to be made in Crucibles as in Mines nothing else being necessary thereunto but to open the bodies of the Metals and set at liberty what in some is most active and in others more susceptible of the Forms you would introduce Nature indeed always intends what is most perfect but not to reduce every thing to one most perfect Species as all Metals to Gold but to make a most perfect individual in every Species labouring with no less satisfaction for production of Iron and Flints then of Gold and precious Stones As for the principles of Metals all compound them of Mercury and Sulphur joyning Vitriols thereunto instead of salt to give Body to the said Ingredients but some will have Mercury to be the sole matter and understand by sulphur an internal and central heat in the Mercury concocting its crudity and by Mercury the cruder portion of its self their Salt being only the consistence whereof the Mercury is capable after Coction Others distinguish what is metallick in metals as only Mercury is from the impurities mixt therewith as earths sulphurs and Vitriols and make the perfect metals so homogeneous that 't is impossible to separate any thing from them which is a proof they say of the unity of their matter and conformity with Mercury which always retains its own nature though preparations make it appear in several shapes Moreover they inferr from the great ponderosity of Gold that it is only Mercury otherwise the less heavy bodies pretended to be mixt therewith should diminish its weight and Fusion which seems to reduce all metals into their most natural state makes them perfectly resemble Mercury in which alone the Chymists for that reason seek their Great Work Nevertheless seeing Experience teaches us that Mercurie's sulphurs and vitriols are found in all metals except Gold it must be confess'd that these three bodies are their immediate principles Nor doth it follow that they are not in Gold too though the Chymists have not yet been able to find them but so closely united as to be inseparable Coction having such power upon matters that have affinity as to unite them beyond possibility of separation as appears in Glass of which nothing else can be made but Glass though it be compos'd of different principles and in Mercury it self which is a Mixt but reduc'd to such homogeneity that nothing can be extracted out of it but Mercury Indeed Gold could not be so malleable us it is if it were all Mercury and they that know Mercury and the impossibility of depriving it of the proneness to revive will not easily believe it can without mixture of some other body acquire the form of Gold whose gravity proceeds from its proper Form and not from Mercury which can give it no more weight then it self hath Gold by being more dense not acquiring more gravity any more then Ice doth which swims upon the water CONFERENCE CXXXVIII Whether there be an Elementary Fire other than the Sun AS there are three simple bodies in the world possessing by right of Soveraignty Driness Cold and Moisture so there must be one primely Hot which they call Fire The diversities of Motion the four first Qualities and their possible Combinations the Humours Temperaments Ages and Seasons the Composition and Resolution of all Mixts are powerful inductions for that quaternary number of Elements Amongst which there is none controverted but Fire the variety of fires found in the world rendring it dubious which of them ought to be acknowledg'd the Element that is the natural simple first hot and dry body wherewith together with the other three all
there is such a disproportion in the duration of all States past and present that one hath lasted above 1200. years as the French Monarchy whose flourishing State promises as many more Ages if the World continue so long and another hath chang'd its Form several times in one yeat as Florence Upon which consideration the greatest Politicians have put their States under the Divine Protection and caus'd all their Subjects to venerate some particular Angel or tutelar Saint Thus France acknowledges Saint Michael for its Protector Spain Saint James Venice Saint Mark and even the Ethnicks thought that a City much less a State could not be destroy'd till the Deity presiding over it were remov'd Whence Homer makes the Palladium of Troy carry'd away by Vlysses before the Greeks could become Masters of it The Third said The Supream Cause exercises its Omnipotence in the Rise Conservation and Destruction of States as well as every where else yet hinders not subordinate Causes from producing their certain Effects natural in things natural as in the Life and Death of Men which though one of the most notorious Effects of God's Power and attributed to him by the Scripture and all the World yet ceaseth not to have its infallible and natural demonstrations Inlike manner subordinate Moral Causes produce their Moral and contingent Effects in Moral Things such as that in Question is which Causes depending upon Humane Actions which arise from our Will no-wise necessitated but free cannot be term'd natural and constrain'd unless either by those that subject all things here below to Destiny which subverts the liberty of the Will that is makes it no longer a Will or those who will have not only the manners of the Soul but also the actions always to follow the temperament of the Body which were hard to conceive and yet would not infer a necessity in the alteration of States since the effects of Love and Hatred and other passions which give inclination or aversion are oftentimes prevented by thwarting causes When the Lacedemonians chang'd the popular State of Athens into an Aristocracy of thirty Lords whom they call'd afterwards the thirty Tyrants no other cause can be assign'd thereof but the chance of War which subjected the will of the Athenians to that of the Lacedemonians And the same may be said of all other ancient and modern Revolutions Indeed if the causes in Policy had regular effects or States were subject to natural declinations Prudence which is conversant about contingent things to manage them freely and alter its course according to occasion should signifie nothing 'T is more credible that as in the state of Grace God hath left our actions to the disposal of Free-will that we may work out our Salvation our selves so in the administration of Republicks he hath left most things to chance for imploying men's industry according to their will whose motions being free and contingent are diametrically opposite to the necessity of natural causes The Fourth said That these alterations may be though voluntary yet natural yea necessary too our Will being as inclin'd to apprehended good as our Intellect is to Truth As therefore knowing this truth that 2 and 2 are 4 't is impossible but I must believe it so knowing that such an action will bring me good I shall do it so that the causes of humane actions have somthing of necessity and besides having their foundation in nature may in some sort be term'd natural Moreover since things are preserv'd by their like and destroy'd by their contraries which contraries are under the same genus it follows that all sublunary things having had a natural beginning must also have a like end Desire of self-preservation which is natural gave birth to States but if instead of this desire which renders Servants obedient to their Masters these to the Magistrate and him to the Sovereign Rebellion and Treason deprive their Chiefs of the succour they expect from them and by this means exposes the State in prey to the Enemies it cannot but fall to ruine unless that some other natural cause Perswasion as that of Menenius Agrippa taken from the humane body upon a Secession of the Mechanicks of Rome from the Senate or an exemplary punishment reduce the Subjects to their forsaken duty Whereby it appears that the State resumes its first vigor by as sensible and natural causes as 't is to be perswaded or become wise by others harm Amongst many examples the ruines of Troy and Thebes were caus'd by the rape of Helene whom the injustice of the Trojans deny'd to restore to her Husband and the feud of two Brothers aspiring to the same Royalty then which no causes can be assign'd more natural and more necessarily inferring the loss of a State CONFERENCE CLI Which is more healthful to become warm by the Fire or by Exercise THey who question the necessity of Fire for recalefying our Bodies chill'd by cold the enemy of our natural heat deserve the rude treatment of the ancient Romans to their banish'd persons whom they expell'd no otherwise from their City but by interdicting them the use of Fire and Water knowing that to want either was equally impossible Without Fire our Bodies would be soon depriv'd of life which resides in heat as cold is the effect and sign of death And as Aristotle saith those that deny Vertue would not be otherwise disputed with but by casting them into the fire so would not I otherwise punish those that decry it but by exposing them to freez in mid-winter instead of burning a faggot for them What could little Children and old people do without it For though the natural heat be of another kind then that of our material fire yet this sometimes assists that in such sort that those who digest ill are much comforted by it not to mention weak persons and those that are subject to swoonings Moreover the external cold must be remov'd by an external heat as Fire is which heats only what part and to what degree you please but motion heats all alike As the Sun which some Philosophers take to be the Elemental-fire contributes to the Generation so doth Fire concur to the conservation of Man not by immediate contact but by the heat which it communicates to the Air and the Air to our Body which by approaching or receding from it tempers its excess in discretion and thereby renders it sutable to our natural heat not destroying Bodies but in its highest degree as also the Sun offends those at Noon whom it refreshes at rising and setting The Second said That the violent action of Fire which destroys all sublunary Bodies argues its disproportion with our natural heat which disproportion renders the Stoves and places heated artificially by Fire so noxious and makes such as love the Chimney-corner almost always tender scabby and impatient of the least inclemency of the Air that heat against nature not only destroying the natural but corrupting the humors and exsiccating
referr'd than to the Sun The Seventh said That an univocal and certain cause of whiteness cannot be found in the first or second Qualities Not in Heat or Cold since Snow Sugar and Salt are equally white though the first is cold the second temperate and the third hot Nor in Siccity or Humidity since humid Milk is no less white than dry Chalk and Plaster The density and weight of Silver the rarity and levity of Snow the sweetness of Sugar and the acrimony of Salt in short the examen of all other Second Qualities of white things shews that it depends not on them Nor yet on the third for white Agarick is purgative white Starch and flowr of Beans astringent Lastly what some call Fourth Qualities or Properties of the whole Substance depend as little upon Colours since the same whiteness which is in the Meal that nourishes us is also in the Sublimate that kills us It remains to inquire the reason of Colours and consequently of Whiteness in the proportion between the Sight and the Surface of the colour'd body When therefore it happens that the Visual Ray which issues forth pure and white that is to say colour-less finds no Colour in a Surface if the same be Diaphanous it takes it for a Medium not an Object as is seen in Glass Crystal Air and Water if opake it stops at the said Surface and finding no Colour thereon returns with the Species of the Object to make its report to the Common Sense that it saw nothing and this is what they call Whiteness Hence White so little delights the Sight that it disgregates and wearies it as a false stroke doth that brings nothing Now to apply this to Snow the Visual Ray is indeed stopt by its condens'd Surface but whence should it have Colour since 't is compos'd of Air and Water both colourless The Truth is sutably to its Principles it must necessarily remain without Colour that is White whereby it so disgregates the Visual Rayes that sometimes it blinded a whole Army CONFERENCE CLV Whether Courage be natural or acquir'd COurage being the Contempt of Danger which we naturally fear we cannot be naturally courageous for then two contrary Effects should proceed from the same Cause But the Truth is our Nature is indifferent to every thing whereunto it is lead and fashion'd Thus skittish Horses are made sober by inuring to the noise of Muskets which before they could not endure On the contrary brave Coursers kept in a dark Stable and unemploy'd become resty and jadish Moreover since there is no true Courage without Knowledge of the Danger whence Fools and Drunkards cannot be styl'd courageous this argues that this Virtue hath need of Rules and Precepts as without which our Knowledge cannot but be very imperfect Nor did any thing render the Romans more valiant than the Nations they subdu'd but Military Discipline wherein the Roman Legionary under-went his Apprentisage as other Artificers do in their Trades Which Instruction some of their Descendents despising have shewn thereby what difference there is between themselves and their Ancestours and determin'd this Question to the advantage of Industry At this day our Souldiers are not more strong and courageous than Town-people and the Officers whom alone we see perform all the brave Actions surpass not in Courage ordinary Souldiers saving that these have not been so well instructed as they and reflect not so much upon the shame and loss which they incurr by Cowardize And because that Courage is greatest which makes us contemne the greatest dangers hence that which leads us to the Contempt of Death the most terrible of all things is undoubtedly the greatest But the History of the Milesian Virgins is remarkable who upon the perswasions of a certain Orator were contrary to the natural timidity of their Sex carry'd to so great a Contempt of Death that nothing could restrain them from killing themselves but the example of their Self-murder'd Companions drawn forth-with naked about the streets Whereby it may be judg'd how powerful Perswasion is to encourage us Which Captains and Generals of Armies are not ignorant of who employ all their Rhetorick to impress Audacity in their Souldiers breasts upon an assault or a battel and those that have been in such encounters affirm that nothing conduces more either to inflame the Courage of Brave Men or infuse it into such as have none than an Exhortation well apply'd and suted to the Minds of those that are to be encourag'd sometimes by the Memory of their former Gallant Actions sometimes by those of their Enemies Cowardice sometimes by the greatness of the Danger and the inevitable ruine they incurr in case of turning their backs but commonly by the salvation of their Souls and the good of their Country and always by the fair spur of Honour and Glory Considerations directly opposite to those dictated to us by Nature which tend onely to preservation of the Individuall The Second said If Instruction made Men valiant and courageous than all that receive the same Education learn in the same Academy and fight under the same Captain should be equally courageous Yet there is so notable a difference between them that it cannot be imputed to any but Natural Causes such as are the structure of the parts of the Body the temper of the humors the nimbleness or heaviness of the Spirits and especially the diversity of Souls which inform our Bodies which diversity is apparent even in Infancy before the Corporeal Organs can be suspected to be the Cause thereof One Child is more timorous than another and no sooner begins to go but he beats his Companions who suffer themselves to be beaten by one weaker than themselves the first not quitting his hold for the rod for which another will do more than you would have him The truth is if the Soul be the Architect of her habitation to her must be imputed the Principal Cause of the variety found therein upon that of our Actions visibly depends For as every one readily addicts himself to those employments and exercises of body and mind whereunto he is most fit and which he performs with most ease so he is more easily lead to Actions of Courage whose Organs are best dispos'd for the same And because Children commonly have some-what of the Habit of Body and Temper of their Parents hence Courage seems to come by Descent which possibly renders our Gentry so jealous of the Antiquity of their Families in which they had rather find a Man beheaded for an Action that speaks Courage than a Burgess who had not liv'd in a noble way Moreover to judge well of Courage we must not consider it solely in Man since 't is found so resplendent in Animals incapable of Discipline and Instruction that the certainest Physiognomical Rule whereby to judge of a Valiant Man is taken from the similitude or resemblance he hath with the Lyon Bear or other Beasts of Courage Which shews that the
of good juice conduceth much to render Women fruitful On the contrary the frequent use of food hot and dry gross and of bad juice may render them barren as Leeks and Garlick do and amongst other Plants Mint which was therefore forbidden to be eaten or planted in time of war wherein 't is needful to repair by Fecundity the loss of Men it causeth In like manner want of Exercise by the heaping up of superfluous Humors and too violent and continual Exercises by desiccating the parts oftentimes occasion sterility Amongst the Passions Sadness is the greatest Enemy to Generation whence Hesiod forbids marry'd people to see one another after a Funeral but only at their coming from a Bath or from places of Mirth In fine what ever is capable to impair the goodness of the Temper is contrary to Fruitfulness and Generation which above all other Natural Actions requires an exact harmony of the qualities and a perfect disposition of the noble parts which supply Matter and Spirits fit for this Action And although Men and Women are alike expos'd to External Causes yet Women being less vigorous are sooner wrought upon by them For to Internal Causes which are the most considerable Women are undoubtedly more subject since beside Seed which they supply as well as Man who to deserve the name of fruitful ought only to supply the same in requisite quantity quality and consistence and place it in convenient Recepticles the Woman must also afford Blood and also a place for receiving and preserving both the Seeds and Blood namely her Womb the least disorder whereof is sufficient to marr the whole work of Generation Wherefore since she contributes most to Generation and there are more Causes in her concurring thereunto if it take not Effect she is more in fault than the Man who hath not so many several concurrences in the business The Fourth said That the Causes of sterility being either Natural or Adventitious and equal in the Man and the Woman nothing can be determin'd upon this Question For in either Sex there are both universal and particular deficiences of right Temper and as many Effeminate Men as Viragoes the one not less unfit for Generation than the other as Aristotle saith Castration is practis'd in both and disorderly living is equal as well in Male as Female in these dayes For if Men exceed in drinking Maids and Women are as bad in Gluttony and Lickerishness If there be any difference 't is from the diversity of Climate Women being found more fruitful in hot Countries and less in cold but Men contrarily the intemperies of either Sex being corrected by an opposite constitution of Air. Hence such Women as have been long barren sometimes become fruitful by change of Air Places manner of Life and especially of Age by which the temperament of the Body being sensibly alter'd it acquires the Fruitfulness it wanted by acquiring the Qualities and Conditions necessary to Generation Many likewise upon the same reason become fuitful after the use of Mineral Waters or Baths and being thereby deliver'd from several Diseases to which barren Women are more subject than such as have Children whom Parturition rids of abundance of Excrements peculiar to that Sex and occasioning many disorders in the barren The Fifth said That the observation made by Bodin in his Republick and several other famous Authors that the number of Women much exceeds that of Men seems to void the Question Nature having thereby sufficiently given us to understand That fewer men are as fruitful as more women Which observation is verifi'd not only in the East and other Countries where plurality of Wives hath places but also in France where there is no Province wherein Virgins remain not unmarry'd for want of Husbands Moreover one man may beget abundance of Children in the space of nine moneths during which a woman breeds but one or two and therefore Man seems more fruitful then Woman who beginning to be capable of Generation but two years before Man doth viz. at 12 years old at the soonest ends 23 years sooner then he for men generate at 70 years of age and more but women end at 50. During which time also they are subject to far more infirmities and maladies than men who have not above four or five whereof women are not capable but women have fifty or threescore peculiar to themselves CONFERENCE CLXXVIII Whether Complaisance proceeds from Magnanimity or Poorness of Spirit COmplaisance is a habit opposite to Roughness the first being a Species of Civility the latter of Rusticity Now since we are complaisant either in good or bad things to be so must be commendable or blameable according to the nature of the object But because no body doubts that we ought to be complaisant in vertuous actions and that they are as culpable who connive at vice as they that commit it It remains to consider of Complaisance in indifferent things as 't is in common practise amongst men and as Juvenal represents it in a person that falls a weeping as soon as he sees his friends tears and when he smiles laughs aloud and if you say you are very hot he sweats if cold he runs to his Fur-gown Now the Question is whether such a man hath more of courage or baseness I conceive he shews himself a very pitiful fellow For this deportment differs not from that servile Vice Flattery which is near akin to Lying and easily turns from an indifferent to a vicious action Thus Courtiers varnish vices with the name of such vertues as have most conformity therewith calling Avarice Frugality Lasciviousness Love Obstinacy Constancy and so in other cases till they render themselves ridiculous even to those they praise who how vain soever they may be yet cannot hear their own praises without blushing at them being conscious that they displease all the hearers Indeed when I am complaisant to any one 't is for fear to offend him and fear was never an effect of Magnanimity To which all that can be excepted is that it belongs also to Prudence to fear formidable things But Fortitude and Courage are never employ'd in the practise of this vertue which therefore is very much suspected and oft-times serves for an excuse of cowardice Hence old men whom their cold blood makes less courageous are esteem'd the most prudent and if they be not the most complaisant 't is to be imputed to the sullenness attending that age as jollity doth youth Moreover as Courage leads us to act without fear of danger what we conceive good and just so it teaches us to call things by their proper names as Philip's Souldiers did On the contrary Complaisance teaches people to admire beauty in a deformed woman to commend a bad Poets Verses and desire a copy of them from him to give fair words to such as we will not or cannot do any kindness to in brief to dissemble all things and to disguise our words contrary to the frequent express
Children whence amongst the old Spartans and at this day amongst the Aethiopians as Alvarez reports 't is a shame to blow the Nose or spit because it signifies Effeminacy and the Thracians as Pliny records freed themselves from many Diseases by cutting the Nerves behind the Ear whereby all fluxions from the Brain were stopt On the contrary Animals having a dry and less Brain sleep in the open Air without inconvenience The Fourth said That as Man exercises the greatest variety of Actions so he is liable to most Diseases Animals which reason not have no Delirium those that speak not are not subject to be dumb But the truth is Men consider not remote things further than their interest reaches Hence more Diseases are observ'd in the Bee and Silk-worm than in the Elephant Unless we had rather say that there being so great a variety of dispositions and tempers requir'd to the Health of all the parts humors and faculties of a humane body it happens very rarely that they are all as they should be As 't is harder to make good Musick with a Lute or other many string'd Instruments than with one that hath fewer strings and accords as Animals have in respect of Man CONFERENCE CLXXXIII Of the Greenness of Plants COlours being the illuminated surface of Mixt Bodies alter according to their various mixture and because the less a body is distant from its simplicity it partakes the more of light hence as soon as water becomes consistent and solid it puts on Whiteness which is so near akin to Light that the latter cannot be painted but with the former For this reason new-sprung Plants issuing out of the Womb of their Elements retain a White Colour till having thrust their stem out of the Earth the nourishment they attract adding to their composition they assume a new Colour which sutably to the Temper of the Compound whose upper part is heated by the Sun-beans and lower part nourish'd with the juice and vapors of the Earth becomes Green upon the same reason that Blew and Yellow make a Green the Blew proceeding from condens'd Moisture as appears in deep Seas and the Yellow from the Sun-beams Hence a Plant depriv'd of the Sun's aspect looseth its verdure and remaining Colour-less by the privation which is always Harbinger to some ensuing Generation it appears white as we use to make Succhory and Thistles white by burying them or covering them in a Vessel whereinto no Air can enter Greenness therefore is the first mixture of the Sun-beams with corrupted humidity as putrid waters wax green and the first assay of the Vegetative Soul and consequently an evidence of their Life as on the contrary Yellowness shews that the Sun hath dry'd up the humidity wherein the life resided and left only the Colour of Feüille-morte But when this humidity is so unctuous and adherent to the compact and solid body of a Plant that it cannot be exhal'd as Oyle is not evaporated by the Sun than the outward Cold shutting the Pores retains the Greenness longer and brighter whilst other Herbs and Trees are despoil'd of their verdure And therefore 't is no wonder if the leavs of such Plants as the Laurel Holly Box Ivy and many others feel no injury from great Cold and great Heat The Second said That the production of Vegetables proceeding from the resolution of Minerals as appears not only in the order of Generations which proceed from simple to organick bodies but also in the sympathy of the Oak with Copper of the Beech with the Load-stone of the Hazel with Gold and Silver 't is probable that Vitriol the commonest of Minerals and found in most grounds gives Plants their Verdure which many of them also testifie by their acidity For I cannot attribute the Cause to Light which is indifferent to all Colours and hath none in it self the Gold Colour of the Sun not inhereing in him but proceeding from the reflexion of bodies he irradiates But if we are to find some mixture of Yellow and Blew to make this Green I should rather assign the Yellow to the Earth which is most commonly of that Colour as the Air and Heaven are Blew And perhaps too this Greenness is but a sign of imperfect Generation since 't is lost when Plants are mature and we find it again in mouldy Bread which is in a tendency to corruption The Third said That all Bodies must have some Colour or other and a Plant being the first living thing ought to have the most agreeable as being equally temper'd of the two Extreams Black and White for at its first issuing out of the Earth whilst it is yet full of earthy humidity it is of a dark Green which becomes lighter as the Plant shoots higher till at length the more volatile particles are excluded in a Flower which borrows its Colour from the various qualities of the sap then comes out the fruit which keeps its verdure till the Sun have fully concocted its juice The Fourth said That 't is not possible to give the reason of Colours since we see Tulips change theirs almost every year and there are Black White Red and other colour'd grapes equally sweet and good for Wine as also Apples Pears and other fruit Nor is Greenness inseparable from the leavs of Plants for we have not only red Coleworts but also Roots and some leavs of Rapes Purple Violet and of other Colours All that can be said in this matter is That Colour is nothing but a resultance of the External Light from the Surface whose Particles are so or so modifi'd and posited Hence Blew appears Green by Candle-light the necks of Doves seem of divers Colours by diversity of situation and Wool appears whiter when compacted together than whilst it was in flocks whereas Water which hath no Colour shews white when Particles are divided by Air and reduc'd into Snow So also when Humidity is digested by Heat which is inseparable from Light it puts on the first of Colours which is Blew of which Colour thickned Air appears to us and the prodominant earthiness of Plants makes that Blew incline to a darker degree thence ariseth Green which is the general Colour of all Plants The Temperament contributes least to this Colour for we see Sempervivum which is cold of the same Colour with Leeks and the Aloë-Plant which are Hot. Just as Sugar and Salt are both White and yet differ much in Taste and other qualities so are Chalk and Snow Honey and Gall are Yellow the juice of Aloes and that of Liquerice black Yea in Animals too the diversity of their Colour Hair and Plumes is deceitful whence came the Proverb Of every Hair a good Grey-hound And whereas Physicians reckon the Colour of the Hair a sign of the Temper 't is not always true since we see persons of the same Hair totally different in Manners and Humors and others of different Hair perfectly agreeing in temper wherein consequently we must not seek the reason of
such unnatural Mixture make any productions the same is prodigious and amongst Animals is call'd a Monster But being an Error of Nature she returns to her old way as soon as she can and rather ceases to generate than produces second Monsters of those first And this in Mules rather than other Species because the Equine and Asinine Natures are no less contrary than Fire and Water So that if they happen to be conjoyn'd and make one Compositum the Generative Virtues then existent in their seeds make an Animal indeed but in producing the same they extinguish one another as Fire doth Water and so what is generated of them hath no power of Generation The Fifth said That this Sterility being suppos'd although Aristotle relates that in Syria-Mules commonly generate and Theophrastus Varro and others affirm the like of those in Cappadocia and Africa Democritus in Aelian attributes the cause thereof to the ill conformation of their genitals particularly of the womb which is unapt to retain and quicken the seed because through the excessive heat deriv'd from the Horse the passages serving to those parts in either sex are too much dilated besides that the same are very laxe in the Shee-Ass whence Naturalists and Experience tells us that she conceives not unless after covering she be well cudgel'd that so the pain thereof may make her constringe her womb and retain the seed which otherwise would slide out again Now this over great dilatation of the genitals appears by dissection and 't is found by Experience that the Beasts themselves are unwilling to such an unnatural copulation so that in some Countries people are fain to feed Asses with Mare 's milk and cover the Mares sometimes with Cloaths of the colour of an Ass to beguile them into the same Add hereunto that both the Species of which Mules are generated are very subject to Sterility For the Ass is of a cold temper and particularly its seed is so cold that unless it begins to generate at the first casting of its Teeth it remains barren for ever Yea if an Ass couple with a pregnant Mare the coldness of his seed makes her cast her Foal The Horse likewise by Arâ—stotle's report is very little fruitful whence his seed being further refrigerated by that of the Ass they produce an Animal indeed but altogether improlifick CONFERENCE CXCIX Of the Mandrake SInce of the three Conditions of Curing to wit pleasantly speedily and safely this latter pertains chiefly to Plants it were good that a little more curious search were made into the treasures hid in the Plantal Family of Remedies whereof Nature hath provided above three thousand several Species which are many more than are in those of Animals and Minerals And as Nature hath instead of the Instinct bestow'd on other Animals to guide them to their good given Man Reason whereby he may proceed from things known to things unknown so besides the manifest and occult qualities of Plants from whence their uses may be inferr'd she hath markt those which are most useful to us with certain Signs and Characters Amongst these Mandrake is the most famous representing not the Eye as Eye-bright doth nor the Lungs as Lungwort nor the Liver as Liverwort nor the Rupture as Solomon's Seal nor the Hemorrhoids or Orpment nor an Ulcer as spotted as spotted Arsmart but the Figure of an entire Man And as the eminent Virtues of Ancient Heroes being too great to be comprehended by the Wits of these Ages gave occasion to fabulous Romances so the Wits of Botanists that have been capable to write the Virtues of other Simples have not been sufficient to speak of these of Mandrakes leaving the vulgar the liberty to attribute Supernatural Virtues to them Which made some Rabbins say that the Teraphins of Jacob's Father-in-law were the roots of Mandrake which render'd him Answers and for the loss of which he fell into such Passion and Pliny ascribes to the Mandrake the name of Osiris which was that of an Aegyptian Idol Our Histories report that in the year 1420. a certain Cordelier nam'd Frier Richard was so perswasive in his Sermâ—ns that in two dayes the Parisians publickly burnt all the instruments of voluptuousness and debauchery and particularly the Women their Images and Mandrakes which they kept wrapt up in their attires upon a belief that as long as they had Mandrakes they should never fail to become rich which Mandrakes gave them Answers by shaking the head or else by speech And there are not only true but also counterfeit ones such as were made by an Italian Mountebank as Matthiolus relates who carv'd the root of Pyony or of a great Reed in the shape of a Man and sticking Millet or Flax seed in the places where hair should grow bury'd the same for twenty dayes at the end whereof fine small threads appear'd in those places and a skin over all the rest which represented and pass'd for a true Mandrake Belleforest also relates that the Maid of Orleans was calumniated for having acquir'd the valour she testifi'd against the English by the Magical Virtue of a Mandrake And Henry Bouquet a modern Author affirms that Thieves steal the Goods out of Houses and Children from their Mothers Breasts by help of it those that behold them being unable to defend themselves because this Plant stupifies their Hands So likewise Levinus Lemnius tell us that 't is employ'd with great effect in Philtres and Amorous Potions Upon which account Natalis Comes thinks it was an ingredient in that which Circe gave Scylla whereby she became so desperately in Love with Glaucus that being unable to enjoy him she cast her self headlong into the streight of Messina Some think 't is the same Plant that Josephus lib. 7. cap. 25. de bello Judaico calls Baaras from the valley wherein it grows which he saith shines in the night like fire and is pluckt up by a hungry Dog ty'd to the top of the root after the same hath been softned with the Urine of a Woman because upon its plucking up 't is said to send forth a shreek which is mortal to the hearer and so the Dog dyes after his work is done Others conceive that this root cannot be found except a little before the rising of the Pleiades which is about the beginning of September Which is no more incredible than that the seed of Fearn springs but at a certain prefixt time before and after which it appears not 'T is likewise thought particular to Upper Hungary and to be pluckt up only by certain Sorceresses and that in the night whence also they sell the same secretly for fear of being punish'd by Justice as it happen'd Anno 1630. at Hamburg where the Senate caus'd three Women who exercis'd this trade to be whipt Moreover they hold that this Plant call'd Mandrake from a German word which signifies to bear the figure of a Man for Man hath the same sense in that Language as in ours and Dragen is
think 't is from some hideous Phantasms irregularly conceiv'd in the Brain as a Mola or a Monster is in the womb which Phantasms arising from a black humor cause Sadness and Fear a Passion easily communicable because conformable to the Nature of Man who consisting of a material and heavy Body hath more affinity with the Passions that deject him as Fear doth than with those which elevate him as Hope and Ambition do The moral cause of Panick Terror is Ignorance which clouds and darkens the light of the Soul whence the most ignorant as Children and Women are most subject to this Fear and Souldiers who are the more ignorant sort being taken out of the Country and from the dregs of the people become easily surpriz'd with it and by the proneness of Men to imitation upon the least beginning it finds a great accession and familiarity in Humane Nature The Fifth said That the cause of this Terror may be a natural prescience our Souls have of the evil which is to befall us which is more manifest in some than in others as appear'd in Socrates who was advertis'd of what-ever important thing was to befall him by his familiar Spirit or good Angel Now if there be any time wherein those Spirits have liberty to do this 't is when we are near our End our Souls being then half unloos'd from the Body as it comes to pass also at the commencement of a battel through the transport every one suffers when he sees himself ready either to die or overcome CONFERENCE CCI. Of the Water-drinker of Germain's Fair. THis Person is of a middle Stature hath a large Breast as also a Face especially his Fore-head very great Eyes and is said to be sixty years old though he appears to be but about forty He was born in the Town of Nota in the Island of Maltha and is nam'd Blaise Manfrede They that have observ'd him in private Houses and upon the Theatre relate that he makes his experiment not only every day but oftentimes twice in one afternoon Moreover vomiting so freely as he does he is always hungry when he pleases His Practise is very disagreeing from his publish'd Tickets wherein he promises to drink a hundred quarts of water but he never drinks four without returning it up again His manner is thus He causes a pail full of warm water and fifteen or twenty little glasses with very large mouths to be brought to him then he drinks two or three of these glasses full of water having first washt his mouth to shew that there is nothing between his teeth Afterwards for about half a quarter of an hour he talks in Italian which time being pass'd he drinks three or four and twenty more of the said glasses and thereupon spouts forth of his mouth with violence a red water which seems to be wine but hath only the colour of it This water appears red as it comes out of his mouth and yet when it is spouted into two of his glasses it becomes of a deep red in one and of a pale red in the other and changing the situation of his glasses on the left side of his mouth to the right and of those on the right to the left these colours always appear different in the same glass namely the one of a deep red and the other yellow or Citron-color Some of the water is of the color of pall'd wine and the more he vomits the clearer and less colour'd the water is He hath often promis'd to bring up Oyl and Milk but I never saw nor heard that he did it This done he sets his glasses to the number of fifteen or sixteen upon a form or bench to be seen by every one After which he drinks more water in other glasses and brings it up again either clear water or Orenge flower water or Rose-water and lastly Aqua Vitae which are manifest by the smell and by the burning of the Aqua Vitae having been observ'd to keep this order always in the ejection of his liquors that red water comes up first and Aqua Vitae last He performs this Trick with thirty or forty half glasses of water which cannot amount to above four quarts at most then having signifi'd to the people that his Stomack although no Muscle which is the instrument of voluntary motion obeys him he casts the same water up into the Air with its natural colour so impetuously that it imitates the Casts of water in Gardens to the great admiration of the Spectators who for six weâ—ks together were seldom fewer than three hundred daily For my part I find much to admire in this action For though men's Stomacks be of different capacities and some one person can eat and drink as much as four others yet I see not possibly where this fellow should lodge so much water And again he seems rather to powr water into a Tun than to swallow it though the conformation of the Gullet doth not consist with such deglutition Besides vomiting is a violent action and yet most facile in this Drinker And as to the order of this Evacuation 't is certain that all things put into the Stomack are confounded together therein so that Concoction begins by Mixtion and yet this fellow brings up what-ever he pleases as 't were out of several vessels so that he undertakes to eat a Sallad of several sorts of Herbs and Flowers and to bring them up all again in order Moreover what can be more prodigious than this mutation of Colours Smells and Substances And indeed they say he hath sometimes fear'd to be question'd for Sorcery But the greatest wonder is that smartness and violence wherewith he spouts out water from his Stomack not laterally which is the ordinary manner of vomiting but upwards which is a motion contrary to heavie bodies as water is Some speculative person that had read in Saint Augustin that a Man's being turn'd into a Horse by the power of Imagination might refer the cause of all these wonders to that faculty which daily producing new shapes upon the Bodies of Children in their Mothers womb may with less strangeness produce in this Man the above-mention'd alteration of one colour into another And as for his facility of bringing up what-ever he hath swallow'd I can find no better Reason for it than Custom which in him is turn'd into Nature The Second said That Ignorance being the Mother of Admiration we begin less to admire as we proceed to more Knowledg Now if this Maltese were a Magician he would do more marvellous things and of more than one sort whereas all his power is confin'd only to the vomiting up of liquors which he drunk before and the faculty of his Stomack being determin'd to this single kind of action the same must be natural because that is the definition of natural powers Moreover no action ought to be accus'd of Magick till good Reasons have evinc'd it to surpass all the powers of Nature
most occurrences of humane life as we see that in syllables diversly transpos'd and put together all things in the world may be found The Third said That the Ancients are not be thought so credulous as to attribute such authority to the Sibylls if there had not been some young Maids and Women who had effectually fore-told things to them True it is chance may be fortunate in one or two cases as a blind Archer may casually hit the mark but it is very unlikely that one who cannot shoot at all should have the reputation of a good Archer all the world over And yet Authors are full in asserting the authority wherein the answers made by those women were Virgil grounding his discourse on that common perswasion says Vltima Cumaei venit jam carminis aetas And the Satyrist confirms what he had said with another verse to wit Credite me vohis folium recitare Sibyllae And it was ordinary to inscribe on Monuments the names of those who were appointed for the keeping of those books of the Sibylls and took care for the Sacrifices which the Romans offered up to appease the wrath of the Gods according to the counsel which as occasion requir'd they took from their verses Nay there was such a strict prohibition that any should have them in their private Libraries that one of those who were entrusted with the custody of the Sibylline Books named Marcus Atilius was sown up in a bag and cast into the Sea for lending Petronius Sabinus one of those Books to be transcrib'd or as some affirm only their simple Commentary containing the secrets of the Sacrifices which were made according to them Upon the same consideration that it pleas'd God to sanctifie Job though out of the Judaick Church the only one wherein salvation was then to be found I may say there is no inconvenience to imagine that he might as well bestow the Spirit of Prophecy on those Virgins at least commonly accounted such And consequently what is said to the contrary deserving rather to pass for adulterate and supposititious then that there should be any question made of what divers of the holy Fathers have affirmed of them the gift of Prophecy having been communicated also to Balaam and God having miraculously opened the eyes and unloos'd the tongue of his Ass What remains to this day imprinted in the minds of a great number of persons concerning Merluzina and other Fairies contributes somewhat to the proof of what hath been said some illustrious Families deriving their origin thence For as to the inserting of some supposititious verses into the body of their Works it should be no more prejudice to them then it is to those of the most excellent Authors among which the spurious productions of others are sometimes shuffled in And if it be true that Homer's Verses were at first confusedly pronounced by him and that it hath been the employment of others to reduce them into that noble order wherein we read them Why should the same observance of order be censur'd in the disposal of the Sibylline Verses Plato in his Theagines affirms That Socrates acknowledged them to be Prophetesses and in his Phoedon the same Socrates shews by their example That extravagance or distraction of mind does many times bring great advantages to Mankind Aristotle in the first question of the thirtieth Section of his Problems affirms That Women become Sibylls when the brain is over-heated not by sickness but through a natural distemper And elsewhere he describes the subterraneous Palace of a Sibyll whom he affirms according to the common report of her to have liv'd a long time and continu'd a Virgin Plutarch in his Treatise Why the Prophetess Pythia renders not her Answers in verse affirms that by a particular favour of God a Sibyll had spoken things during the space of a thousand years and elsewhere that she foretold the destruction of several Cities that were afterwards swallow'd up the fire of Mount Gibel and divers other things setting down near the time when what she had said should come to pass Pausanias affirms that the Sibyll Herophila had certainly foretold the bringing up of Helen at Sparta and that it should occasion the destruction of Troy Justin having related what account Plato made of persons who foretold things to come who he says deserve the name of Divine though they do not themselves comprehend the great and certain things which they predict says That that is to be understood of the Sibylline Verses the Writers whereof said he had not the same power as the Poets have to wit that of correcting and polishing their works inasmuch as the inspiration ceasing they do not so much as remember what they had said though some have been of opinion that the agitation of Mind wherewith they have prophesy'd seem'd to be the Effect of the evil Spirit producing as a confirmation of this opinion one of the Sibyls who sayes of her self that for her enormous crimes she was condemn'd to the fire Yet allowing these Verses to be ranked among the supposititious there is still a greater probability inclining us to judge otherwise of them when we consider the good instructions given us and the mysteries of our Salvation contain'd therein it being not the function of Devils and evil Spirits to encourage us to piety But however it be this is clearly evinc'd that there have been Sibyls and that they fore-told things to come CONFERENCE CCXV Whether of two Bodies of different weight the one descends faster than the other and why OF Natural Bodies some move from the Centre to the Circumference as Fire others from the Circumference to the Centre as the Earth others are in the mean between both as Air and Water the latter whereof inclines downwards but both of them are principally design'd to fill the Vacuum Whence it comes that the Air descends as much nay faster to the bottom of a Well when it is dry'd up than the Water had done before which consideration hath given occasion to some to attribute a mean or circular Motion to those two Elements as they have done a direct Motion to the two first And whereas these two kinds of Local Motion to wit the direct and the circular are the Principles of the Mechanicks the most profitable parts of the Mathematicks and that among the said Motions that which tends downwards which proceeds from weight is the most ordinary Agent and such as is the most commonly us'd in Machins or Engins where it is the most considerable either for the assistance it gives to fixt and setled instruments or for the obstruction it gives those which are moveable thence comes that famous dispute there is concerning the causes of Motion from above to beneath Which since it must needs proceed from one of these three to wit the weight of the Body descending and lightness of the mean through which the descent is made or from the impulsion of the said mean Or lastly from the
attraction made by the Centre the Question is To which of those three Causes that Motion is to be referr'd If it be attributed to the weight it will follow that the heaviest Body shall descend soonest if to the impulsion the celerity or slowness of the Agent shall accordingly render that Motion swift or slow but if only the attraction made by the Centre be the Cause of it the lesser weight shall descend as fast nay faster than the greater upon the same account as that the same piece of Loadstone more easily draws a small needle than it does a great key Nor can Experience always assist us in this case in regard the different composure and form of heavy Bodies as also the diversity of the means and the variety of the Agents whereby they are thrust forwards will not permit us to make an allowable Comparison between them Thus a ball of Cork which descended as fast in the Air as one of Lead shall not do the like in the water to the bottom whereof the Lead shall fall but not the Cork And again the same Lead being put into the form of a Gondola or other hollow vessel shall swim on the water which it could not before A Cloak folded close together into a bundle shall have a speedy descent in both Air and Water but let a Man fasten the same Cloak under the arm-pit so as that it may spread into a circle it shall so sustain him the Air that he shall fall very gently and receive no hurt by his fall Hence it also comes that many Women have been sav'd when falling into the Water their Clothes were spread all abroad The same thing may also be observ'd in those frames beset with Feathers or cover'd with Paper which Children call Kites and sustain in the Air and suffer to be carryed away with the Wind giving them ever and anon little checks or jerks by drawing the pack-thread to them whereby they are held imitating in that action the beating of the wings in Birds In fine the different manner of giving the first shock to weighty Bodies does accordingly diversifie their Motion towards the Centre For as the impulsion made downwards hastens its bent towards the Centre so when it is forc'd circularly it is retarded Whence it comes that a glass so cast down that it hath certain turns by the way does sometimes fall to the ground without breaking But to speak absolutely all conditions being suppos'd equal it should seem that the more weighty a Body is the sooner it falls to the Centre And this is made good by daily Experiences as may be seen in the weighing of Gold and Silver in the balance which hath a speedier and shorter cast when the piece is much weightier or lighter than it hath when there is but half a grain difference between both the scales The Second said That the Nature of weight or heaviness was to be number'd among the occult things Aristotle defines it to be a Quality inclining Bodies downwards and towards the Centre Others would have it to be an Effect of density which proceeds from the great quantity of Substance and Matter comprehended and contracted in a small room There are yet others who would have it to be an impulsion or fastning of one Body upon another in order to Motion downwards But to come nearer the business it is only the relation or report there is between a Body and its mean and its comparison with another Body According to this account of it the same piece of Gold is said to be light in respect of one weight and heavy in respect of another Wood is heavy in the Air and light in the Water Tin is light in comparison of Gold though very weighty in respect of Wood. Whence it follows that weight hath only a respective being and such as depends on some other thing and not on it self The Cause of it therefore is not to be sought in it self but else-where as must be that of the recoiling of a Tennis-ball which is not in the Ball nor in the arm of him that playes nor yet in the walls of the Tennis-Court but resulting from all these three together And whereas Experience seems to decide the Question propos'd 't is fit we should refer our selves to it Now it is certain that of two Bodies of unequal weight and of the same Figure and Matter equally forc'd or suffer'd to fall the one will as soon come to its Centre as the other as those may see who shall let fall at the same time from the top of a Tower two leaden bullets one of two pounds and the other of a quarter of a pound both which will come to the ground at the same instant the reason whereof is That the stronger impulsion in the bullet of two pounds meets with a stronger resistance of the Air to break through as it falls than that of quarter of a pound Whence we are to make a distinction between the greater impulsion which the weightier Body makes upon another Body and the celerity or slowness of the Motion wherewith it descends a hundred weight being heavier on the shoulders of a Porter than one pound but not coming sooner to the ground than it In like manner a stone descending so much the more swiftly the nearer it comes to its Centre clearly shews that it derives the force of its Motion from the Centre as its principle as we conclude that the strength of a bullet is spent and the Motion of it grows fainter the further it is at a distance from the arm and gun from which it came and which we hold to have been the cause and principle of it The Third said That the weightiest Bodies make the more haste to their Centre the nearer they approach it for their weight is increas'd by their approaching of it gravity in the scent of weighty Bodies increasing by the continuance of Motion quite contrary to violent Motion which admits of remission thereby artifice it seems in this point giving place to Nature so as that the latter never grows weary nay is infallible in all her Motions and that such a propension of weight to the centre is the only certain rule to draw direct lines to that centre and which is yet the more certain the greater the weight is And whereas the Mind of Man judges the better of things when they are oppos'd one to the other behold one of those little Atomes which dance up and down in the beams of the Sun striking in at a window it is a Body sustain'd in the Air only by its smalness and requires a long time to make an impression in that part of the Air which is under it which thing cannot be said of a Musket-bullet It is therefore deducible thence that the heaviest Bodies descend fastest to the Centre The Fourth said That we are not to seek for any other reason for the speedier descent of heavy Bodies than there is in all the other
Meteors where the greatest difficulty is to know whether that effect is produc'd by the expulsive or by the attractive and retentive vertue That we should affirm it proceeds from the expulsive vertue cannot with any probability be done inasmuch as expulsion is to be wrought by somewhat that is more powerful and more subtile Now there is not any likelyhood that Iron should be more powerful and more subtile than Air inasmuch as the Iron is of a more weighty matter passive earthy and hath somewhat of the nature of that Passive Element We may therefore rather affirm that this effect is wrought by the attractive and retentive vertue which opinion is prov'd in regard there is but one humid matter which the central fire forces from the deepest part of the Earth and of the more unctuous and weighty part of this matter Metals are made of the less weighty Minerals and Salts from the subtiler part Vegetables and Animals derive their nourishment of the most subtile are produc'd the Winds Thunder and all the Meteors which participate of Heat and Drought which make several combinations in the Air. Now whereas it is from the most imperfect part of this unctuous matter that Iron is made of an earthy and impure Sulphur it is deducible thence that there is a Sympathy between Iron and the gross vapours of Thunder and Lightning To make which out a little more clearly we find that the places through which Thunder hath pass'd smell of Sulphur nay there is fram'd in the Air that which is commonly called the Thunderbolt which somewhat resembles Steel as it were to shew the correspondence there is between Iron and Thunder So that the Air being impregnate by those noisome terrestrial vapours which are of the same nature with Iron meeting with some piece of it laid on a vessel is joyn'd to the Iron by Sympathy makes a sudden stop there and puts a period to its operation and the Iron by its attractive vertue receives them as by its retentive it retains them and by that means prevents their effect The Third said That though that opinion were probable yet doth it require a more ample discussion and we are to examine how this attractive vertue operates Now there are four Natural Vertues which govern all the operations of Nature and Art the Attractive which is now under consideration acts by heat and a temperate drought the Retentive by drought and cold the Expulsive by moisture and heat the Digestive by heat and a temperate moisture The Iron then which is said to attract these vapours hath indeed those qualities of heat and drought yet can it not be easily conceiv'd that a little piece of that mettal can check the malice and infection of a great quantity of Air spread all over a spacious place besides that it is also necessary that the Iron should send forth out of it self the effects of its qualities that so the attraction might be made the marks whereof are neither seen on the Iron nor the effects of the qualities out of the Subject inasmuch as mettals being quench'd in cold Water are not evaporated but by a violent fire So that it may as well be said that the attraction is wrought by some occult vertue which draws yet so as that neither the attraction nor the manner of it can be observ'd The Fourth said That the operations of Nature are not like those of Art her ways and contrivances are more obscure and the causes of things are occult as for example the Load-stone draws Iron yet so as that there cannot be any thing perceiv'd of any body of air and smoak issuing out of the Loadstone And the magnetical Balsom or Weapon-salve cures a wounded person though at a great distance having only some part of his Cloths yet can there not any thing be observ'd on the Subject which receives the Plaister so secret and silent is Nature in her Operations On the contrary the designs and contrivances of Art may easily be discover'd as those of a Clock or Watch. But the reason of this diversity of operations between Art and Nature is that Art goes to work publickly and before the Senses and Nature does her business within doors and secretly the latter works in the Centre the other in the Circumference one produces the seed of the combination of the Elements whereof she keeps an exact account of the weights and proportions and the other can neither make nor produce any thing as being only in a capacity of making use of the substance and materials of Nature in order to their joyning together after she had prepar'd and purify'd them But on the other side Art hath this advantage that her works are much more perfect inasmuch as she makes use of purify'd essences and the other of accidents and superfluities having not instruments fit for the purifying of her Materials So that there are some who doubt of the reality of the effect now under consideration And therefore ere we proceed any further to the finding out of the causes and reasons thereof it were requisite a strict enquiry should be made whether it be certain that Iron prevents the effects of thunder by preserving Wine and Eggs under a Hen that sits from receiving in any prejudice The Fifth said That what was confirm'd by general experience was not any longer to be question'd and that whoever stood upon the Negative betray'd his own ignorance that for us to think to find solutions for all the possibilities of nature were an attempt somewhat like that of exhausting the Sea That there are certain secrets in Nature of things dreadful to humane Reason incredible according to the principles of Art and of our Knowledge That Nature is the great Circe the grand Sorceress That the Load-stone draws Iron to it That there is a certain Stone called Pantarbe which draws gold to it That dead Arse-smart being laid under a Stone cures the wound on which it shall be rubb'd sooner or later according as the Herb putrifies That the hair or wool of a mangy beast being thrust in for a certain time under the bark of an Aspen-tree cures the beast of vermine That the Menstrua of Women trouble Springs spoyl Looking-glasses and Powdering-tubs And if there be some things that corrupt them it is not to be imagin'd that Nature is so cruel a Step-mother but that there may be others whereby they are preserv'd and so the Remedies may come from the same hand as caus'd the disease That the Hazel-tree discovers hidden Treasures and Mines That Talismans are made against Serpents and Insects nay against some Diseases That there is a mutual friendship between the Olive-tree and the Myrtle whereof it would be as hard a matter to give any reason as it would be to give any of the enmity between the Vine and the Laurel and the inclination which the Male-palm hath towards the Female That the crowing of the Cock frightens Lyons and that that Bird should be so exact
knowing nay many times having an aversion for the others it is impossible that these Philtres should be able to force People's Wills and Inclinations which are always free to love what they know not or if they know it have a horrour and aversion for it Otherwise it would amount to as much as to give them a certain Sovereignty over a free power such as the Will is which it cannot endure as being above all Corporeal Agents such as these Medicaments are Among which as there are some have the vertue of extinguishing the flames of Concupiscence and Carnal Love by correcting the heat of the Blood diminishing the quantity of the Seed and dispersing the Spirits whereby it is raised so on the contrary there are others which as it were awake and excite that Passion by the production they make of abundance of good and spirituous seed and consequently may indeed invite those who use them to that base and unbridled Love but not to a mutual Love such as is particularly directed to him who finding his affection sleighted is forc'd to give these Remedies that he may be belov'd by the person whom he courts The Second said That Love and the Graces if we may credit those Authentick Authors the Poets always kept company with Venus whereby they would signifie to us that the most effectual means which any one can use to insinuate himself into the Love of another was to become himself amiable and agreeable and that those who pretend to do it by other wayes do many times come short of their intentions or if they at last come to be lov'd it is by such a perversion of the party's imagination whom they court that instead of framing a rational and well-regulated Passion they raise therein that fury and rage which the Physicians call Erotomania Thence it comes that to accomplish their desâ—res besides such means as are natural they also make use of all the diabolical Artifices and Inventions that Magick can furnish them withall to compass that piece of Witchcraft To that purpose they make use of Mandrakes wherewith the women prepare a certain Drink for the men administring the female to procure themselves to be lov'd by them and the men cause them to take the male that they may belov'd by the women They assign the same properties to the Herb Calamint affirming that it gains the Heart and raises it into such a heat that it is inclin'd to love him who gives it and the same thing is said of several other odoriferous Herbs which seem to have a stricter connexion with the effect they promise themselves from them than an infinite number of other impious and absurd things whereof they make an extraordinary account As for instance among others the Menstrua of Women the Navel-string of a Child newly born reduc'd to powder and taken in a potion as also the skin of such a one where-with they make their Virgin-parchment on which they write their Characters Eggs dipp'd in the Blood of a Toad a certain bone taken out of the throat of a salt Bitch the feathers of a Scrich-Owle and especially the parings of the Nails together with the Hair of the Head or of any other part of the Body and for want of those some small thread of the person's garment whom they would engage to love which these impious Ministers of Sathan hide under her bolster or if that cannot be done under the threshold of some door through which she is to pass adding thereto according to their common practise certain words and figures forg'd by the old Spirit of Lying Nor are they content with all these palpable fooleries but they must add thereto some enormous sacriledges by their abusing the most sacred Mysteries of Christian Religion profaning not only the Olive-Branches and hallow'd Palms the holy Oyls the Habits and Ornaments of Priests whereof they make use of some parcels as they do also of the scrapings of the hallowed stones of our Altars but also the sacred Host it self on which they grave certain Marks and Characters with Blood and having reduc'd it to powder put it into the meats of such as they would bewitch with those Love-Sorceries There are also others who pretend to do the same things by Images of Wax made like the persons whose Love is desir'd which they melt at a fire made of Cypress or some rotten pieces of wood taken out of Sepulchres imagining that by vertue of the words which they pronounce during that Ceremony the Heart of the person belov'd will be softned and grow more tender the hardness whereof if they cannot overcome by simple melting they prick the waxen figure with the points of needles presuming that the thing which it represents will be sensible of the like treatment There are others yet who content themselves with this Ceremony that is to burn the leavs of Lawrel or the stones of Olives used anciently according to the testimony of the Prophet Baruch by Women to reproach their gallants with their neglect towards them But the famous Sorceress Canidia makes it her boast in Horace that she had wrought this effect with the marrow of the Bones and the Liver of a young Child which she had taken out of his Belly after she had starv'd him to death buried in the ground up to the chin promising her self by means of this powerful Philtre so far to recover the affections of her Gallant Varâ—s who had been debauch'd from her that she would enflame and make him burn more violently than pitch set on fire So certain is it that there is not any crime how heinous soever which this furious Passion will not inspire into those who so earnestly endeavour the satisfaction of it which for that reason the Laws punish with so much severity Nor do they less condemn the superstitious remedies which some others propose for the prevention of them as being such as are no less dangerous than the mischief they would hinder of which kind are these to carry about one the privy parts of a Wolf a Secret recommended by Pliny and Pompanatius to drink of the Urine of a Hee-goat to cast on himself the dust of the place where a Mule had wallowed and such other unlawful and suspitious means CONFERENCE CCXXX Of Atoms IT is a Truth not question'd by any of the Philosophers what Sect soever they were of that there must be certain Principles whereof Natural Bodies consist Their Generation and Corruption confirm it since that according to the former there being not any thing made of nothing and according to the latter it being not imaginable that any thing can be reduc'd to nothing there must be some first Principles from which primarily and of themselves natural things do proceed and whereto they are at last resolv'd But it hath not yet been fully decided to what this prerogative is to be granted Heraclitus would bestow it on Fire Anaximenes on the Air Pherecydes to the Earth Thales on the Water
to another they make several mixtures as when they come to separate after their union they are the causes of the corruption of mixt bodies And these bodies have so much the more Resistance which is the last property of these Atoms the more dense and solid these last are as on the contrary when they are less dense and solid by reason of the vacuity there is between their parts the bodies consisting of them have so much the less vigour and force to oppose external injuries The Fourth said That there is not any better instance whereby the nature of Atoms can be explicated then those little Motes which move up and down the air of a Chamber when the Sun-beams come into it at some little hole or cranny For from this very instance which is so sensible it may easily be concluded not only that they are bodies which have a certain bulk and quantity how little and indivisible soever it may be but also that they are in continual motion by means whereof as those little corpuscula or Motes incessantly move and strike one against another and are confusedly intermixt one among another so the Atoms by their perpetual agitation and concourse cause the mixtures and generations of all natural things So that all consider'd it is as ridiculous on the other side to affirm that they are only imaginary principles because they are not seen as to maintain that those little Motes are not in the air because they are not perceiv'd to be there in the absence of the Sun-beams which we must confess renders them visible but with this assurance that they are nevertheless there even when they are not discern'd to be there The Fifth said That it is certain there are abundance of bodies in Nature which are in a manner imperceptible to our senses and yet must be granted to be real bodies and consequently endow'd with length breadth profundity solidity and the other corporeal qualities Such as these are among others the sensible Species which continually issue out of the Objects and are not perceiv'd by the senses but only so far as they are corporeal and material especially the Odours exhaling from certain bodies which after their departure thence in process of time decay and wither Of this we have instance in Apples and other Fruits which grow wrinkled proportionably to their being drain'd of those vaporous Atoms whereof they were at first full which evaporate in a lesser or greater space of time the more closely those little bodies stick one to another or the more weakly they are joyned together Nay the intentional Species how sublimated soever they be by the defaecation made by the agent Intellect are nevertheless bodies as are also the Animal Spirits which are charged therewith and the vital and natural whereby the former are cherish'd In like manner Light the beams of the Sun and of other Stars their Influences their Magnetick Vertues and other such Qualities observable in an infinite number of things between which there is a mutual inclination and correspondence or antipathy cannot be imagin'd to act otherwise then by the emission of certain little bodies which being so small and subtile that they are incapable of further division may with good reason be called the Elements and material Principles of all Bodies since there is not any one but consists of them The Sixth said That the concourse of these Atoms being accidental if we may credit Epicurus we cannot attribute thereto the causes of the generations happening in this World inasmuch as an accidental cause not being able to produce a regular effect such as is that of Nature in Generation it is ridiculous to attribute it rather to these Atoms than to some other cause which is such per se and always regular in its operations such as is Nature her self But what further discovers the absurdity of that opinion is this that it thinks it not enough to refer the diversity of the other effects which are observ'd in all natural bodies to that of the Atoms whereof they consist but pretends also by their means to give an account of that of our Spirits which those Philosophers would represent unto us made of those orbicular atoms and accordingly easily mov'd by reason of that round figure and that those in whom it is most exact are the most ingenious and inventive persons as others are dull and blockish because their Spirits have a lesser portion of those circular Atoms But this speculation may be ranked among pure chimaera's since that the functions of our Understanding being absolutely spiritual and immaterial have no dependence on the different constitutions of those little imaginary bodies nay though there were any correspondence between them and the actions of our minds their round figure would not be so much the cause of our vivacity as might be the pointed or forked as being more likely to penetrate into and comprehend the most difficult things than the circular which would only pass over them without any fixt fastning on them CONFERENCE CCXXXI Whether the King 's Evil may be cur'd by the touching of a Seventh Son and why THough this noisom Disease sometime fastens on several parts of the body yet is there not any more sensible of its malice than the neck which by reason of its being full of glandules is extreamly troubled therewith which happens as well by reason of their thin and spongy constitution as their nearness to the brain from which they receive the phlegmatick and excrementitious humours more conveniently than any of the other parts can be imagin'd to do which are at a greater distance from it And yet these last notwithstanding that distance are extremely troubled therewith nay sometimes to such excess that if we may credit Johannes Langius in the first Book of his Medicinal Epistles a Woman at Florence had the Evil in one of her Thighs which being got out weigh'd sixty pound and a Goldsmith of Amberg had another of the same bigness in a manner neer his Knee And what is much to be observ'd is that though the Evil seems to be only external yet is it commonly preceded by the like swellings which ly hid within and whereof those without are only the marks which observation is confirm'd by the dissections made of those who are troubled with it in whose bodies after their death there are abundance of these Evils whereof the Glandules of the Mesenterium and the Pancreas which is the most considerable of any about Man's Body are full and which are commonly produc'd by Phlegm the coldness and viscosity whereof do indeed contribute to their rebellion but it is very much augmented by the external and common Causes such as are Air Aliment and Waters infected with some malignant qualities which render it Endemious and peculiar to certain Nations as for instance the Inhabitants of the Alps and the Pyrenean Mountains especially the Spaniards who are more infected with this foul disease than any others which is also
it comes that our Cellars are warm in Winter and cool in Summer as are also all other ground-rooms and low places That Water shrinks up and frames it self into little drops when it is spilt on dry ground whereas it spreads abroad and is diffus'd in moist places That Lime is set on fire by the casting of water upon it That the fire burns better in frosty than in hot weather That Wine drinks more cool out of a Glass that had been warm'd That the coldness of Snow causes an extraordinary heat in their hands who handle it and That generally all tactile qualities are rendred more active by the opposition of their contraries by reason of the concourse and the assistance they then receive from that general Cause which concerns it self in their preservation Of this we may give an instance in Politicks affirming that the procedure of the forementioned Cause is much like that of great Potentates who in a war between some petty Princes or neighbouring States if they find one party ready to be absolutely ruin'd supply it with such forces as shall enable it to recover it self so to bring the several interests into an Aequilibrium whereof there is as great a necessity in Nature which is kept up by that proportion wherein all things find their subsistence as their destruction proceeds only from their disproportion and inequality The Fifth said That we are not to look for the reason of Antiperistasis any otherwhere than in the Subjects themselves wherein we find the action whose intenseness and augmentation are to be referr'd not to that of the degrees of the active qualities but to their compression and reinforcement which renders them more sensible in regard they are more material as may be seeen in a red-hot iron the heat whereof burns much more violently then that of a fire of Straw or Aqua-vitae The sixth said That according to the principles which allow all things to participate of a certain degree of sentiment this condensation or compression of the degrees of heat or cold ought to be the effects of a sensitive Agent which having a knowledge of what may be hurtful or beneficial to it withdraws within it self the qualities which preserve it intire when it is press'd upon by others that are more violent and such as the meeting whereof might be prejudicial thereto which it forces from it in order to Action And herein it is that the good of every thing consists inasmuch as every thing hath being only so far as it hath action when it is assisted by friendly qualities and the like and by this means it is that Cold and Heat act more vigorously when they are oppos'd one to the other and that our cavities are hotter in Winter by reason of the compression of the Spirits and the natural Heat which are the more diffus'd in Summer in regard this latter goes to meet with its like as a little fire is put out by a great one and a weaker light obscur'd by a clearer CONFERENCE CCXXXVIII Of the Sympathetical Powder THough this Powder be now as much out of esteem as it was in vogue soon after the first finding of it out for the expeditious curing of wounds yet will it haply be a business of some advantage to examine their Motives who first made and publickly sold it as also those of such as have sometimes made use of it with good success And whereas novelty procures a certain esteem to Remedies as well as to other things so this Sympathetical Powder found so great belief at its first coming abroad among Persons addicted to a military life who were immediately flatter'd with a speedy and easie curing of their most mortal wounds by the means thereof without any trouble of making incisions or dilatations many times more painful then the hurt it self that we have had some persons these last Campagnes though destitute of learning and experience who had the subtlety to raise such a mist before the eyes of the generality with this Powder that they concluded this remedy to be true balm and the only Panacea or All-heal of all wounds But time having discover'd the vanity of it as also the impostures of those by whom it was so highly recommended it hath been clearly found out that there are few people in this age but are either deceiv'd themselves or make it their main business to deceive others For in fine this Powder is as much cry'd down at present as ever it was cry'd up and there is nothing left of it but the insolent name of Sympathetical impos'd upon it by the Authors thereof in imitation of the Unguent of the same name wherewith Goclenius and some other Physicians endeavour'd to make good the Magnetick cure of wounds wherein they only dress'd the arms or other instruments by which they were given and apply'd the convenient remedies thereto But in regard they could not always come at the arms which had done the mischief to keep up their practise and to make the cure yet more easie these upstart Doctors be thought themselves some years since of another expedient to compass their designs that is found out a remedy wherewith they make it their boast that they will cure all sorts of hurts only by applying this powder to some piece of Cloth which had been us'd either to bind up or make clean the wounded part And whereas there are two kinds of wounds one simple which makes a solution of continuity in the soft and fleshy parts of the body such as are the veins the arteries the nerves and the muscles the other compound which happens ih the solid parts especially where bones are broken these Gentlemen have accordingly two different kinds of Sympathetical Powder to wit a simple and a compound The former is made with Roman Vitriol which is our green and transparent Coppress which they beat or pound not over small and disposing it upon papers in such quantities as they think fit lay it in the Sun when he makes his entrance into the first degree of the Sign Leo and leaving it there for the space of three hundred and sixty hours which make just fifteen days answerably to the like number of degrees which that Planet travels over in the space of a year in the Zodiack During this time it is calcin'd into an exquisite whiteness and then they take it in and keep it carefully in some temperate place that is not too moist that is such as may not be likely to melt it for fear it should by that means lose its vertue for which reason also it is taken in during its calcination in the cool of the evening and in the night-time and when the air is inclinable to rain or over-moist But there must be a great care taken that it be not stirr'd with any instrument of iron when this powder is either in the preparation or ready made up these Authors affirming that it takes away its vertue instead whereof they order
the Sea drive the Clouds over the Land where being less agitated they resolve into Rain But to continue my reasoning with the same Poets I shall say that having plac'd Aeolus's Palace in the caverns near the sea they have sufficiently proved why the Sea is more troubled with them than the Land For these Winds visibly issue from deep Caverns frequent on the Coasts of the Sea whose continually agitated waves incessantly stir them up 'T is no wonder then if they display their violences on that side which is freest to them Which is experienc'd in great Lakes adjacent to high Mountains as in that of Comum and de la Garde in Italy whose waves and roarings resemble those of the Sea and also in that of Geneva which is troubled extraordinarily Not but that Winds are generated in other Subterraneous places too none of which is exempt from them as appears in Wells and the mouths of Caves But the openings of such places being commonly strait upwards the Wind that come out of them is not so perceptible as that which issues out laterally from high Caverns upon the Sea-shore and they differ in that the Sea Wind is dryer and less corrupting possibly by reason of the saltness of the water upon which it passes The Second said That the difference in Question proceeds from the vast extent of the Sea which gives the Air once agitated more liberty to continue its motion which on the contrary is straitned and repress'd on Land by the occurse of Mountains Trees Houses and other obstacles By the same reason that the waves of a Pool or little Lake are much less than those of the Ocean besides that one and the same Wind hath much greater effect in a smooth and liquid plain which yields to it than upon a rough solid Body upon which burdens are not mov'd but with more force than there needs upon the water as they experience who endeavour to draw a stranded Ship on the Land which they saw move almost of it self whilst it was upon the water The Mechanical Reason whereof is that the water breaking into infinite points scarce makes any resistance to its Agent but the Earth press'd with the same load resists it in infinite points The Third said He that defin'd Wind to be Agitated Air rather spoke its Effect than Cause which is some middle thing between a Vapor and an Exhalation driven violently according to all the differences of place For an Exhalation which always mounts upwards and the Vapor which refrigerated descends downwards cannot separately be the matter of Wind. Hence as soon as the Vapor of a Cloud is resolv'd into Rain the Wind ceaseth the Exhalations not being sufficient to produce it alone as neither the Vapor is Otherwise Winds should be greatest in hot weather when Exhalations are most plentiful Wherefore the Sea having in its Four Qualities the materials of these two Meteors and being otherwise more capable of emitting them through its liquid substance than the Earth is through its hard and solid surface though both be equally heated as well by the Sun as by Subterraneous Fires Evaporations and Exhalations are sooner and oftner made at Sea than at Land The Fourth said That the thickest Air being oftimes the calmest and the clearest the most windy 't is doubtful whether Vapors and Exhalations produce Winds which besides presupposeth actual heat in the Sea which yet is never felt there but onely on Land It seems therefore that the Element of Air being very symbolical to that of the Air by their agreement and moisture they follow the motions one of the other Hence the Air contiguous to the Sea is agitated by it whence ariseth a Wind which again agitates the Sea it being well known that when there are no Waves there is no Wind. On the contrary when the Wind is to change the billows turn first And ordinarily the Winds change with the Tides The Fifth said There are two sorts of Winds upon the Sea Particular which reign in our Seas blowing indifferently from all Coasts and General which blow continually from the same quarter without giving place to their Contraries Such is the Oriental Wind in the Torrid Zone which was call'd by the Latins Subsolanus and by Mariners at this day South-East For it conducts Ships so constantly over the whole extent of Mer du Nord du Sud that without discontinuing Day or Night it exempts the Sea-men from touching their sails especially when they are near the Aequinoctial Indeed in the East Indies this Rule alters for this Wind holds there but six moneths leaving the other six free to its Antagonist The Cause whereof is ascrib'd to the repercussion of the capes and coasts of those Seas as that first Wind is to the motion of the Primum Mobile which together with the inferior Spheres draws the Air along with it in this place where the circumference of its motion is largest There is another general Wind which blows between the Tropick or twenty fourth Degree on this side the Line and the thirty fifth becoming Occidental with the like constancy that the abovesaid Oriental doth This some attribute to a contrary motion which all things have when those nearest them are hurri'd violently as the stream of water running impetuously in the midst makes that near the shores recoil backwards The Sixth said That as Vapours make Mists and Fogs and Sulphureous Exhalations make igneous Meteors so the Nitrous make Wind which keeps the air from corruption as the Earth is kept from it by Nitre and the Sea by Salt Moreover both the Wind and Nitre dry and are the causes of fecundity as is prov'd on the behalf of Nitre by the Nitrous sand of Nilus whose greater or lesser overflow promises to the Egyptians a year proportionably fruitful which is also said of the Rhosne abounding with Nitre And as for the Wind besides that all flatuous Meats provoke lust 't is said that the Mares of Andalusia conceive by the West-wind alone which also is styl'd the Father of Flowers In Brief if Wind be impetuous the effects of Nitre in Gun-powder and Aurum fulminans manifest that Nitre is no less Now Nitre being mix'd with the Air where it is volatile with the Earth where it is fix'd and with the Sea where it is barely dissolv'd no wonder if it exhale more easily from the Sea then from the Land and consequently if more winds be there Whence the reason may be drawn not only of the Sea-winds but also of the tempests and commotions of that vast Element a Tempest being nothing but the rarefaction of the Sea Nitre and the inflation of the Waters at Full Moon in March and September only the fermentation of the same Nitre in the season proper for generation As for that inflation hapning at the time of the Dog-star when the Etesian winds reign it proceeds from the heat of the Air then inflam'd by the rays of the Sun like the ebullition of Honey
and Syrups impregnated with much Salt as appears by their dissolution and the bitterness they acquire over the Fire The Seventh said That the coldness of Vapors arising from waters giving more body and consistence to winds makes them strike a more sensible blow then when they are destitute thereof whence they are greater in Winter then in Summer and in the Morning then at Noon Thus the same quantity of water will cause more alteration in the body being drunk cold then warm because the impression of the latter is much less upon our bodies And the Providence of the Author of Winds is remarkable too in that they are mischievous at Land but useful at Sea hurtful things being by a secret of his power as much diminish'd as profitable are augmented The Eighth said That not only Wind-mills but also the Wind-wagons invented lately in Holland shew that wind well manag'd is no less profitable at Land then at Sea Therefore I should refer the cause to the porosities overtures and caverns of the Earth into which the wind entring is by that means less at Land whereas the surface of the Sea giving it no such admission 't is left to its freer course upon the same whence when those pores of the Earth are shut up by frost the wind becomes more impetuous then it is in Summer when they are open CONFERENCE CLIX. Whether it be easier to procure obedience by Gentleness then by Terrour THe most plausible vertues are not always the noblest as they depend upon external things which encrease or diminish their value so oftentimes they yield to those obscure and private vertues whose beauty being only internal without borrowing any recommendation from abroad they are therefore the more to be esteem'd Gentleness or Mansuetude is of this nature though it make not so great a noise as Fortitude which is irresistible by the terror it impresses upon the opposers of its designs yet oft-times it accomplishes its enterprises with the more facility in that it makes not use of any extraneous help but only of what this vertue it self affords which insinuating sweetly into their minds whom it would lead by the consideration of their own good more easily procures obedience then fear doth which indeed may constrain them to do what they would not voluntarily assent to but is a violent motion and so harder to be impress'd then that which is voluntary For when once the reason is perswaded of the justice of the things enjoyned there is no more obstacle in the Will which then resigns it self to be lead by that light of the Understanding much less in the inferior Powers which move only by the orders of those upon which they totally depend The Second said Did men leave themselves to the guidance of Reason more then of their Passions it would be easier to procure obedience by Gentleness then by Terror which then would be useless seeing 't is not necessary to oblige such men by denunciation of penalties to their duty who addict themselves to it voluntarily upon the knowledg they have of right Reason But since very few follow this Rule in comparison of those that have none but that of their disorderly Appetites therefore severity is more expedient then mildness for reducing them at any rate whatever to their duty For their obedience though constrain'd is nevertheless exemplary and draws others to do the like and so maintains that mutual correspondence which gives subsistence not only to States but also to all other civil Societies and which consists chiefly in a certain dependance between the parties destinated to obey and to command So that as the latter ought to study to maintain the Authority and Superiority which they have whether by Nature as Fathers over their Children or by Love as Kings and Magistrates over their Subjects and Masters over their Domesticks so when those under them fail of what they are oblig'd to render to them there is no surer nor easier way to bring them to it then Terror which proposing a sensible penalty to them in case of miscarriage is incomparably more powerful to make them obey then sweetness which indeed hath some charms to win more rational spirits but being accompany'ed with softness and indulgence becomes at length odious and contemptible by the disorder and confusion which follow impunity of crimes Moreover 't is certain that as States are maintain'd by the exact observance of Laws so their destruction ordinarily happens only by the relaxation which Superiors suffer of the punishments due to such as transgress them The Third said That the Poets who feign men formerly dispers'd in divers parts of the Earth without Religion Laws or Discipline to have been gather'd together by the melodious consort of musical Instruments with which Orpheus as they relate attracted even Beasts and Rocks seem to conclude rather for Gentleness then Terror this latter causing those that use it to be hated as much as the former doth to be lov'd But setting aside fabulous authorities the most sedulous inquirers into the causes of the foundation of States attribute the same to the charms of their Eloquence of these men who being found fittest to insinuate to them the advantages of living in society reduc'd them thereunto by imposing Laws upon them the dispensing wherewith they reserv'd themselves as well as the conduct of those that voluntarily submitted to their Government which having taken its rise from Gentleness cannot better be preserv'd then by the same if the Philosophers Maxime be true That things are preserv'd by the same principles which serv'd to their establishment And so 't is easier to procure obedience by Gentleness then by Terror CONFERENCE CLX Whether Trading derogate from Gentility 'T Is the part of the slothful and such as live by the sweat of others to blame Industry 'T were tolerable indeed to reject out of the rank of liberal Arts such as have any thing of baseness or sordidness but to do the like by an Employment capable alone to enrich States furnish them with all necessaries and maintain them in Amity and good Intelligence with their Neighbours is too great a piece of Niceness the result whereof is that then the Gentry must either remain poor or else live by robberies and other unlawful courses For notwithstanding the precaution of most places in adjudging almost the whole estate to the eldest sons of Gentlemen which would not be necessary if they were left in a condition of getting as all other sorts of persons are yet the cadets of either Sex cannot have so small a portion but the succession which before was able to support the dignity of the name at length either comes to nothing or so small that the principal Heirs are forc'd either to dye of hunger or to sustain their lives by some exercise the choice whereof is not so freely left to them as to their Predecessors For the benefit alliances bring them is oftentimes not very considerable the Daughters being by the
into the Minds of the vulgar with whom the wisest being oblig'd to comply in matter of Language it comes to pass at last that what was before but a common saying finds a degree of assent among the most considerate Nay what is not any longer to be endur'd they think it not enough to maintain this groundless perswasion but there are some so ridiculous as to derive a new kind of Divination from it which they call Amniomantia whereby they promise to foretel what-ever happiness or unhappiness should befall a Child newly born by the colour of that Membrane whereof they affirm that the redness signifies good success and that the blackness or blewness of it denotes the contrary To which they add another kind of Divination call'd Omphalomantia which teaches them to judge by the knots of the string whereby the Child is fasten'd to the After-burthen how many Children more the Mother shall have who according to their judgement will be Males if those intersections be of a colour inclining to black and Females if they be white which Observations are not only impertinent but also impious and superstitious The Third said That the common perswasion of the happiness attending Children born with these Coifs is well-grounded provided that it be taken in the sense wherein the Physicians who in all probability are more likely to be the Authors of it than those simple Women who receiv'd it from them would have it to be understood to wit that those who thus born cover'd with that fortunate Membrane in regard they are not put to so much trouble nor suffer so great violence in the passage by reason of its being open and easie come forth cloath'd out of their Mothers Wombs without being oblig'd to leave behind them the Membranes wherein they had been enclos'd in the Matrix whereas most other Children are forc'd to quit them at their coming into the World by reason of the Obstructions they meet with in their passage through those narrow streights which consequently is so much the more painful and laborious to them than it is to such as are coifed who are not to be imagin'd ever the more happy as to the remainder of their lives whereof the good or bad conduct are the true Causes of their happiness or unhappiness and not that Coif which can neither produce nor signifie them The Fourth said That those Children who are born thus coifed are not only more happy in their Birth but they are also such in all the actions of their lives as being commonly more peaceable and of a more quiet Constitution than such as leave that Membrane within their former lodgings who are accordingly more turbulent and restless and for that reason have not those insinuations whereby the former are recommended For in these the moderation of their manners and demeanour consequent to that of their humours gaining the hearts of all those with whom they converse raises them into the general esteem of all and so facilitates their accession to Honours and Employments it being certain that there may be some judgment made of the course of Life a Man is likely to take by the deportment of his Child-hood so is it no hard matter to give a ghess at the same by that of the Infant when he makes his first sally out of his Mothers Womb which is one of the most remarkable transactions of his Life Whence it may be inferr'd that that first coming abroad being free from the trouble and agitation whereof all others are sensible and which makes them forget their Vesture which is left behind by the way they ought accordingly to be dispenc'd from the misfortunes incident to others and enjoy a particular happiness The Fifth said That the most restless and most turbulent persons are commonly the most happy in this world whereas those who endeavour to walk according to the strict rules of Modesty and Reservedness do not carry on their business so well as the former do who confidently attempt any thing and imagine themselves the favourites of Fortune And thence it is that she on the other side is so assistant to them that though it be granted the Children born cloth'd are more meek and moderate than those who come into the World after the common rate yet would the clean contrary to what is pretended follow from it For instead of being cherish'd by Fortune it is seldom that she smiles on them but is much more kind to those stirring and tumultuary Spirits who many times obtain greater favours of her than they durst hope for had they demean'd themselves towards her with less earnestness and importunity The Sixth said That if every Man be the Artizan of his own Fortune those who are of the best Constitution and strongest Temper ought to be more happy than others whose irregularity of humors does manifestly cause that of their Actions and Fortunes Now the Children born with Cawls and Coifs about them seem to be less vigorous and of a weaker disposition than those who come into the World without any inasmuch as the latter being more earnest and violent are no sooner sensible of the time of their Deliverance but they courageously break through the Chains whereby they are detain'd the Membranes whereby they are encompass'd which those others having neither the Strength nor Courage to do it gives a great presumption that they will express but little upon other more pressing occasions and consequently they will content themselves with the mediocrity of their Conditions and not aspire to any thing extraordinary CONFERENCE CCXXXVII Of Antiperistasis SO great is the Indulgence of Nature that she thought it not enough to bestow Being and Existence on the things she hath produc'd but she hath also imprinted in them a strong Inclination to preserve it by fortifying them against the assaults of their Contraries the presence whereof sets them on such an edge that they become so much the more active And this is not only confirm'd in Animate Beings such as are Plants and Animals which vigorously oppose what-ever is hurtful to them by so powerful a Vertue that Men have been forc'd to find out a particular name for it to wit Antipathy but also in other Inanimate Bodies which generously stand upon the defensive when they are set upon by External Agents whose contrary qualities coming to engage against them they redouble their Forces and rally all together as it were into a Body the better to receive the Charge This is that which the Philosophers call Antiperistasis which is a vigorous resistance of the Subject caus'd by the contrariety of an Agent which encompasses it of all sides purposely to destroy or corrupt it It will be to no purpose to enter into any Dispute concerning the Existence of that which we call Antiperistasis but we shall lay it down for granted though it be contested by Cardan and some other Philosophers who maintain that Water Air and the other Subterraneous Bodies are not actually colder at