Selected quad for the lemma: water_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
water_n	body_n	element_n	fire_n	5,053	5	7.0553	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49177	Academical discourses upon several choice and pleasant subjects / written by the learned and famous Loredano ; Englished by J.B.	Loredano, Giovanni Francesco, 1607-1661.; L'Estrange, Roger, Sir, 1616-1704.; J. B.	1664 (1664)	Wing L3064; ESTC R30956	41,882	130

said nothing and he indeed hath said nothing who hath spoken ill XIX Which is most potent to beget affection Either a fair Face Weeping Or a fair one Singing The Plea for Weeping THat fair God who for his being the most beneficial to the world might above all others excuse the Idolatry of blind Gentilisme becoming inamoured of a young Maiden descended from the Throne of the Gods to try whether that divinity which had been able to obtaine the adoration of the Universe could gain an amorous affection in the heart of a Virgin He pursued implored tempted but she conspiring with nature was transmuted into a Laurel either to tryumph over his power or to shew that the resolutions of women many times do not participiate of the instability of the female Sex Miserable Apollo truly thou mightest rather have thought to have found even amongst the Rocks a heart that should have been molified at thy requests then amongst hearts a stone that would not relent for all thy prayers How much he was astonished every one may guess A certain Poet writes that imediately that God was seen to weep who otherwhile was ever wont to sing And who knows Perhaps he would t●y since his Cruell Daphne already as woman did not accept his singing whether as a Tree she would Love his tears which he poured on her from those two weeping Fountaines of his Eyes This Fable Illusterous Academs gives an occasion to doubt whether singing or weeping are the most potent instruments in a fair face to captivate a heart and from hence arises matter of contention betwixt these two The fair 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the fair singer Nor would the decision of their discord be so facile to end had they not equally agred to refer it to your sentence in whom they are confident to find together both the judgment of Paris and the integrity of Aristides The tears va●nt to be the more powerful as having even Apollo's decision already in their favour since after he saw his dearest converted into a Tree he laid aside his Musick and makes tryal of his tears as if he thought them even so potent as to move the very trees therewith Consider Sirs that thee tears are the ofspring of the Eyes the pretty sisters of the sight taught and instructed in those Schooles of animated brightness where they profess no other Doctrine but to inamour Let singing therefore yeild its pretences which proceeding from the Mouth is as much inferiour to weeping both in power and efficacy as the tears are superior in the sublimity of their birth and nobleness of their Progenitours Nature has consigned our tears to no others Custody but the heart nor would she have their pomp and glory appear in any other place but in the Eyes as if she esteem'd them worthy to have those Kings of the Members for their Guardians and the fairest part of the body to be the Throne of their Majesty The Eyes were created to be the Miracles of beauty and the tears to be the Miracles of the Eyes and who is not astonished to behold them powering forth such floods of water from their Sphears or Element of Fire These in our sorrows serve us for funeral pomps and mournings and in our joyes they solemnize our excessive Contentment● Dearest tears which in all occasions deserve to be the Ornaments of the Face Perhaps 't was for this reason that a Phylosopher fell so in Love with tears that he spent all his time constantly in weeping you will never find any man Sirs so in Love with singing as to judge it worthy of his continual and vertuous employment Consider therefore the efficaey of tears which even makes Philosophers enamoured with them They that call them by the simple name of Pearls do not fully express their dignity and worth Those are generated by the influence of the Sun but at a far distance from the Sun and these by the influence of two Suns and within the very Spheare of those Suns themselves Those are nourished in the water and these in the mid'st of flames Those are made fit by art to adorne the purity of a whiter neck and these are reserved by nature to enrich the beauties of a Rosie cheek Then let us call them pretious and if they be soft they may inform us thus much that if one of those being dissolved by Cleopatra had power to force Mark Anthony to confess his heart was overcome one of these liquified even by the hands of Nature her self with greater power shall constraine us to acknowledg that our affections are vanquished Love the great God of War does still invent new and various Stratagems to conquer and subdue our hearts and Souls Sometimes he attempts to overthrow us only with the sounds of precions metals sometimes erects his bridg upon the base of our most instable hopes sometimes assaults us with the sweetness of an inchanting voice and othertimes endeavours the Scalado upon the Cords of a well-tuned Instrument But in fine all these potent and flattering stratagems are nothing if compared to a fair weeping face Many times there are such who being stored with principles and resolutions of chastity will repel all those assaults and tryals though seconded and assisted with many tempting caresses and other provoking Artifices but when he beseiges us with a sea of tears ther 's no humanity can resist him none but such as glory in their Inhumanity and we may well believe he will expugne that obdure soul of its strongest fortress when he comes rowling and shouring in with such torrents of over-flowing tears Smith's do use to besprinkle their Coales with water which being after blown upon do burn with the greater ardour And Love being a smith's son does often use his Fathers policy For when he is resolved to inflame a heart most he first lets fall a soft showre of tears to moysten it and after with deep sighs blows it into a most consuming flame Even the Sun to make his Beams become more hot and scorching does seem to unite them together and dart them through a Cloud which is no other than rarified water which being condens'd desolves and drops in tears from Heaven again There is nothing which communicates more vigour and nourishment to plants than heat conjoyned with moisture If then it be true what some have said that Love is a plant 〈◊〉 may truly believe that nothing else is a●le to advance its growth so much as the Sun-shines of two fair Eyes mixed with the soft showres of their dist●lling tears The Globes of those 〈◊〉 Suns being invironed with floods of tears can be esteemed no other than artificial 〈◊〉 which burne under the water and are the more ardent by reason of the Antiperistasis Excuse me Sirs if this conceit seem strange to you that I should say tears are the Milk of the Eyes and why must that be esteemed so unlikely that those Eyes should flow with milk which do so often bring forth Love And

that 't is a signe of felicity and grandeur it being the colour which most great Monarchs use for their chief Ornament The Multiplicity of the Roses leaves may seem to point out her avarice whom I shall love as if she would pretend to have many rich gifts and but yet I know she cannot so much covet gifts and rich presents who like the Rose shall have already a Crown of Gold in her own bosome The many Rose leaves which resemble tongues does tell me that a thousand several tongues shall proclaime my happy love Nevertheless I remember that the Rose is the Hieroglyphick of silence and was therefore by the Grecians consecrated unto Harpocrates The prickle joyned to the Rose do menace me with many sharp troubles which may accrue from my affections yet this again secures me that as the Rose does flourish and tryomph amidst those many thorns so I in despight of all opposition and difficulty shall yet attain the fruition of my desires The prickles also may portend danger and mortal wounds But the leaves on the other part do promise a perfect cure being very effectual to stanch the blood and heal the wound Again the Prickles may intimate that I shall be assaulted by many Rivals but Homer tels us that Venus anointed the body of Hector with Oyl of Roses to preserve him from the bytings of madd Dogs The green at the extremities of the Rose leaves are called Nails of Fingers by Dioscorides which seem to declare that if I will enjoy my desires I must steal that happiness but on the contrary I am promised the free gift of it The Rose being the Simbole of kindness freely imparting its ravishing odours to every one The Rose receives its nourishment and perfume from the Rain and morning dews which makes me fear it prophesies that my affection and amours must be fed with the daily aliment of my tears on the other side my hopes are flattered by this consideration that as water does easily make the Rose to spring and bloom so my tears shall soon make me obtaine the sweets of my desires I fear some infelicity in my Love because I know the Rose yeilds poyson to the Spider but then the pretty Bee does comfort me again who from the self same Rose extracts the sweetest Honey From the frail beauty of the Rose which begins to wither and decay as soon as it is born I might raise a doubt of the frailty and inconstancy of my love but that I know they do no truly Love who do not continue to Love even after death as the Rose though dead and dry preserves a pleasing sweetness and was perhaps for this cause by the Ancients strewed upon their kindreds Graves It might be guessed that my Love should not be true and faithful to me alone because the Rose is a flower that is common to all did not I know on the contrary that a Rose if handled or touched by many presently leeses its lustre and native sweetness and that its beauty and glory is its virginity To extract the water from a Rose it must be done either by pressure and stamping or by the violence and heat of the fire from whence it may be conceived that my choicest affections shall not obtain their wished end but by much trouble and labor and yet we know the Rose ever comunicates its odours and fragrancy with freedome and liberality The Rose delights attracts and sweetly courts every one that beholds or approaches it which may inferre that she may have but little honesty whom I shall adore that treasure being unsecure which lies within the reach of every covetous hand as seeming to invite and tempt any fond Passenger but this is my comfort when I consider how it is armed and surrounded with a strong guard of prickles for the defence of its own honor and chastity wherewith it bears off and destroys all those little envious infects which come to soile its beauty and innocent sweetness In fine for all those other many contrarieties yet nevertheless since the Rose if well considered appears to be a little paradise to the Eye honey to the taste and a Cordial to the he●rt I think I may safely conclude that it does really presage future happiness and felicity to Lovers But whilst I have so long discoursed of the Rose I seem to have forgot that I make you feel the prickles and sit on thorns by my too Prolix harangue which yet your noble sweetness with an abundant benignity and favour have vouchsafed to applaude and approve by your silence and attention though uttered with much weakness VI. Wherefore in Cyprus they Portrayd Venus with a Beard MAerobius in his Saturnalius affirms that in Cyprus they portray'd and adored Venus with a Beard Perhaps that men seeing that a Beard on a womans Face is monstrous might learn that if they suffered their Venerea● affections to grow old and beard their sences they would be monstrous and deformed and therefore Ariosto sings In whom fond Love shall carry long the sway I wish for due rewards Those monstrous dolts And wilfull Prisners store of Iron bolts Perhaps to hide the Blushings of their Faces who are ashamed of their own weak submission to the Commands of a woman the Beard being a sign of virility Perhaps they would let us thereby understand that Venus was not a new Deity but Ancient and had been worshipped by the first men that ever were in the world Or else the beard being a token of prudence they meant to signifie that Venus or Venery without the curb of prudence is a Fury not a Deity and therefore they assigned the goddess Venus a beard to distinguish her from Venus the fury But thus Max. Tyr speaks of Venus Praesertim si furiis quibusdam agitata quam proxime ad furorem accedat These were all the observations of my excellent friend the noble S. G. D. a man of exquisite ingenuity and singular erudition to which I should make no addition of my own were it not natural for such great lights to be attended on by shaddows I suppose therefore also that the Cypriots Pictured Venus with a beard to demonstrate the power and virility which is in a beautifull womans face and therefore Socrates calls beauty a Short Tyranny Or else to let us know that the gravest oldest and wisest men were not thereby exempted or freed from amorous affections since Venus did make use even of their beards though sage Philosophers to adorn her own face or else to teach us that such as dayly frequented the Temple or use of Venus did suddenly become old and decrepid The beard begets respect and veneration Barbaepilli says Clement Alexandrinus non sunt vexandi ut qui vultui gravitatem quendum patternum terrorem incutiata And therefore perhaps those of Cyprus to add the greater veneration to their goddess portray'd her with a beard The Beard signifies Sorrow Repentance and Dolor according to Pliny