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
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
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
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-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
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
Moon which manifestly exercises its empire over all Humid Bodies the flux and reflux following the Lunar Periods and Motions not onely every six months to wit during the two Aequinoxes when their Tides are very high but also every month in the Conjunction and Opposition of the Moon and also every six hours of the day almost all Seas have their flux and reflux except some which make the same in more or less time and are longer in their reflux than their flux or on the contrary according to the declivity and various winding of the Lands the greatness or smallness of Creeks the Streights of the Seas narrowness of banks and other differences of situation The Second said That the Sea being a simple body can have but one natural Motion viz. that of its own weight which makes it flow into places lower than its source which it can never surmount Amongst the other three Motions proceeding from without that from East to West is discern'd by the time spent in Voyages at Sea which is much longer from West to East than from East to West because in the first they move contrary to the Motion of the Sea and in the second with it Now the cause hereof is the impression of the First Mover upon all the Orbes and Inferior Bodies which follow the rapidity of its daily Motion from East to West upon the Poles of the World That from North to South is likewise seen in most Seas and chiefly in the Euxine which being fill'd by the Palus Maeotis and the Tanais discharges it self by the Aegaean into the Mediterranean Sea which were it not for the high sluces of Africa would continue the same Motion Southwards Which sometimes hindred Darius and Sesostris from digging that space of Land which is between the Red-Sea and the Mediterranean for fear lest this latter should overflow those Southern Countries The Cause of this Motion is the multitude of Waters towards that Pole whose coldness not raising so great a quantity of Vapors and Rains as towards the South the Waters come to be greater there and so are forc'd to fall towards the lower places Or rather since there is the same cold under the Antarctick Pole and consequently the same quantity of Waters and Rains this descent of the Waters Southwards must be attributed to the Elevation of the Earth in the North or to the narrow mouths or gulphs of those Seas which make the waters descend out of them more easily than they enter into them As to the flux and reflux which is a Compounded but regular Motion it cannot proceed from Vapors or from inconstant and irregular Winds but from the Motion Light and particular Influence of the Moon which attracting the Sea in the same manner that the Load-stone doth the Iron is the Cause of its accumulation or swelling and increase which makes the flux And then her Virtue abating by her elongation the Waters by their proper weight resume their level and so make the reflux And because all Seas are continuous the Moon when under our Horizon ceases not to cause the same Motions in our Seas as when she is above it the Waters necessarily following the motion of those which are next them which would be alike in all did not some variation arise from the different situations of Lands which is the cause that the flux and reflux of the Ocean is more sensible then the Mediterranean and in this the Adriatick then the Tuscan by reason that Sicily and the point of Italy makes the Sea enter impetuously into the Gulph of Venice wherein is observ'd another particular motion call'd Circulation whereby the Mediterranean flowing by its proper motion from East to West and meeting immediately at the entrance of that Gulph the Coast of Macedonia discharges it self impetuously thereinto and continues its motion to the bottom of the Gulph whence being repercuss'd it returns by the opposite Coast of Calabria to the other point of the Gulph by which it enters into the Tuscan Sea Hence to go from Venice to Otranto they take the Coast of Galabria and to return back that of Macedonia The Third said Nothing so strongly argues the mobility of the Earth as the motions of the Sea and Rivers for what else were it but a miracle if water contain'd in an immoveable vessel should agitate and move it self That of Rivers proceeds not from their weight which makes them fall into a place nearer their Centre seeing that in a declivity requisite to the course of a River for 200 leagues there must then be a depression more sensible then the altitude of the highest Mountains of the Earth nor could the Sea remit the waters to their Springs as the holy Scripture saith it doth if those Springs were higher then it But supposing the motion of the Earth 't is easie to render a reason of that of the Water As for Rivers almost all which run westward the Earth having its Diurnal Motion from West to East according to the Hypothesis of Copernicus may cause this their contrary motion by subtracting it self from the fluidity of the waters liquid bodies not exactly following the motion of solid as the water in a Tub rises in the side opposite to that towards which you sway the Vessel By the same reason also the Sea shall have its course from East to West which is therefore very sensible between the two Tropicks where the rapidity of the Earths motion is greater then under the Poles Hence upon this account Navigation is very easie Westward the Currents very violent the Tides great towards the Coast of America as is observ'd chiefly in Magellan's Streight where the refluxes of the Northern and Eastern Sea are advanc'd above 70 leagues and the Mar del Sur scarce goes to 25 and that weakly but about the Poles the Sea hath no other motion but that which is caus'd by Winds and Tempests As for the flux and reflux of the Sea according to the same supposition of its motion compounded of the annual in the Ecliptick where others make the Sun circulate and the Diurnal upon its own Axis and proper Centre there arises a certain irregular motion sometimes slower and sometimes swifter which is the cause of that flux and reflux for as in a Boat mov'd at first swiftly and then caus'd to move somwhat slower the water contain'd therein swells in its extremities till by continuation of that motion it recover its level and the Boat being again driven with the same velocity the water swells again upon the change of the motion the same comes to pass upon the unequal motion of the Earth mixt of the annual and diurnal But because the Moon being annex'd to the Earth exactly follows its motions therefore most Philosophers have taken the Moon for the cause of the flux and reflux although she be only the sign of it The Fourth said That according to this Hypothesis 't is easie to render a reason of two things very remarkable in
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
whereby their violence redoubled makes the Earth rise in some places and so forms Mountains which therefore are more frequent on the Sea-coasts then elsewhere and seldom further from the same then a hundred and fifty Leagues Now that the Sea is higher then the Earth the Scripture notes and those that travel upon the Sea observe the truth of Genesis which saith that the waters were gathered together on a heap For being remote from a Port at such distance as would otherwise suffer the same to be seen the rising of the interposed waters intercepts the view thereof The Fifth said 'T is easie to conceive how waters running underground make breaches and abysses such as that at Rome into which Q. Curtius cast himself and also in many other places even in our time wherein a Town of the Grisons was totally involved in the ruines of a neighbouring Mountain whose foundations the torrents had undermined And what is found in digging up the ruines of Buildings paved streets and other footsteps of mens habitations so deep that the cause thereof cannot be attributed to a bare raising of the ground in building by some humane artifice shews that these changes happen'd by the depression and sinking of the ground whereon such Towns stood and by the overturning of neighbouring Mountains which in this case turn Plains into Valleys and Valleys into Plains or else into Mountains as also these Mountains into Levels all these changes which to us seem prodigious being no more so to Nature whose agents are proportional to their effect then when we cover an Ant-hill with a clod of Earth But 't is not likely that subterranean waters whose violence is broken by their windings can raise Mountains or so much as ordinarily Hills much less can they raise higher the cavities of Rocks which are the ordinary Basis of such Mountains since our Vaults are ruined by the sole defect of one cliff or stone which joyns and knits the rest together the sand Hills which the winds heap up in Lybia as the waves do the banks in the Sea pertaining as little to the Question as they deserve the name of Mountains Wherefore 't is probable that Mountains are as old as the Earth which was formed uneven by Gods command that so its declivities might serve for assembling the waters together for to say that the situation of the Sea is higher then the Earth is not only contrary to the experience of Dreiners who find the declivity of the Land by no more certain way then by the inclination of the waters but also to the belief and manner of speech of all the world who use the term of going downwards when people pass along with the stream of Rivers which run all into the Sea whose surface must therefore necessarily be lower then that of the earth Whereas it is said that all waters come from the Sea this is meant of vapors exhaled from it and converted into Rain and Springs from whence arise Rivulets Brooks and at length Rivers which terminate again in the Sea The Sixth said In pursuance of Copernicus's opinion which makes the earth turn about the Sun that the several concussions it receives from that motion may possibly elevate one place and debase another CONFERENCE CXC Whence proceed good and bad Gestures Gracefulness and ill Aspects THe Soul being the principle of all the actions we need go no further to find the cause of Gestures and Postures 'T is true that as this Soul is but a general cause being according to the opinion of most Divines alike in all men it must like melted Metal borrow its form from the Mould whereinto it is infused so the Soul follows the model of the Body and as she formed it so in some sort be modified by it exercising her functions variously according to the diversity of its Organs Whereunto also the humors and their mixture or temperament contributes very much Hence a man of small stature and cholerick hath quick and hasty motions the tall and phlegmatick more heavy and slow the Sanguine and middle-sized between both Nevertheless the principal reason is drawn from the conformation of the parts whence the Lame halts he who hath the Muscles and Ligaments of the hinder part of the Neck too short holds his Head too upright He who hath a great Mouth and a large Breast is a great talker and so of all the other parts from the diversity whereof even that of Languages is said to have come These Gestures are either universal as we see some gesticulate with the whole body or particular one contracting his Forehead another shrugging his Shoulders beating of measures with his Foot like a good Horse rubbing his Hands as if they were scabby or to be washed not being able to speak to any one without touching him pulling his Button or pushing him upon the Arm or Breast Where also is but too observable the troublesome way of some who never end their discourse but by an Interrogatory whether you hear them or at least by an hem which they continue till you answer them yea others interlard their speech with some word so impertinent that it takes away the grace from all the rest all Gestures words and vicious accents to which may be opposed others not affected or repeated too often because 't is chiefly their frequent repetition which renders them tedious and as blamable as the saying over and over the same word as on the contrary their seldomness serves for an excuse to those who have no other Above all it must be endeavoured that the Gestures suit or at least be not wholly opposite to that discourse which they accompany as that ignorant Comedian did who pronouncing these words O Heaven O Earth look'd downward at the first and cast up his Eyes at the last Whence one and the same Gesture may be good or bad in respect of the subject whereunto it is applied and according to its seldomness or frequency As for ill looks they are always disagreeable disfiguring the proportion of the countenance and proceeding also from the first conformation of the parts For as the Arm is bowed only at the Shoulder Cubit and Wrist and the Leg at the Knee and Ancle though the Soul which makes the flection be alike in all other parts but the articulation is only in those parts so the motion is carried alike to all the Muscles but only those disposed by their conformation to receive the figure of such grimaces are susceptible thereof They likewise sometimes happen upon Convulsion of the parts which cause the strange bendings we observe therein though never without a precedent disposition which may be called their antecedent cause The Second said That we ought to ascribe to the Imagination all the Motions and Gestures of the Body which are agreeable or displeasing according as they suit with that of the beholder Hence Fools and Children whose judgment is irregular are pleased with seeing such gesticulations and the grimacies of Jack-puddings
Sun and that its beak and variety of plumes is wholly different from other Animals Most affirm that it lives five hundred years others that it attains to one thousand four hundred sixty one and that the first were seen under Sesostris and Amasis Kings of Aegypt next under Ptolomy who reign'd the third of the Macedonians It came then into the City of Heliopolis accompany'd with a great number of other Birds who seem'd as well as Men amaz'd at the new spectacle But because saith he there were but two thousand five hundred years from Ptolomy to Tiberius under whom this appear'd this made some doubt it was not the true Phoenix and came not from Arabia whence it ought not to come till its life were near an end to build its neast in Egypt wherein he leavs a genital virtue whereby his Successor is produc'd who as soon as come to full vigor prepares to pay the funeral duty to its parent which it doth not lightly but after it hath try'd by carrying an equal weight of Myrrh whether it be able to carry that of its parent's bones However saith he 't is a certain thing that this Bird is seen sometimes in Aegypt And indeed its existence is prov'd by the Authority of Orus Apollo in his Hieroglyphicks Manilius Pliny Ovid Athenaeus Albertus Magnus yea by the publick voice which uses this word to signifie a rare thing and singular in its Species Which were not much indeed if Lactantius Tertullian and many other Fathers had not often employ'd it to convince the Pagans who question'd the Resurrection Moreover Aelian in his History of Animals presupposing this too well known to be particularly describ'd only blames the broking Misers of his time who prefer their affairs before the wonder of this Bird which is so well skill'd in calculation that it fails not to repair to its fatal neast at the prefixt time In short we may doubt of some circumstances but not of the truth of its existence its renovation is prov'd possible from the re-animation of a drown'd fly by the Sun and since hard to give a satisfactory account of common generations we may therefore forbear to reject this which though extraordinary may yet be maintain'd by Chymists who lay the foundation of generation in Salt the sole permanent principle and not volatile as the two other are The Third said That the Fathers in using Comparisons from this Bird had regard to the common belief as God accommodates himself to the Language of Men attributing Passions to himself though he hath none And for the Authors that speak of it 't is always upon the credit of others Even Herodotus and Pliny the first whereof if you will believe him saw almost every thing however strange and unheard of and the second affirms almost every thing so far as to say that certain Birds lay their Eggs in a Hare's skin which they afterwards hang upon a Tree and that others carry theirs upon a stick lay'd over the shoulders of two besides infinite other things no less incredible and ridiculous yet speak but doubtfully of this Bird. So that we have great reason to do the like yea to esteem it a Fiction CONFERENCE CCVI. Of Sensitive Plants SEnse and Motion are in some sort observ'd in all Plants which incline towards the Sun and Light and attract their aliment at distance particularly the Vine which seems to act with choice twining about the next Tree that may support it not once as might be by chance but twice or thrice But with much more reason may we attribute Sense to the Helitropium and Marygold as also to Tulips which shut up themselves at night and open again in the day Pliny attributes a yet more admirable property to the Lotus saying that it sinks and hides it self totally at night in the River Euphrates near which it grows so that 't is not to be reach'd by one's hand then rises out of the water again at Sun-rise and that in places where it grows remote from water in the Evening it wraps up its Flower and Fruit in its leavs and discovers them afresh next Morning The Tree call'd Arbor Tristis seems also to have much Sense its leavs resemble those of the Sloe-Tree its Flowers open at night and in the day are all languid though of so good a smell that the Inhabitants of Malaca and Goa in the East-Indies distill an odoriferous water from them and make use of their red stalks to colour meats as the Europaeans do of Saffron So likewise do those Trees of the Islands Hebrides the wood whereof being rotted in the Sea is turn'd into Birds like our Ducks and that mention'd by Ruellius l. 12. ch 38. of his History of Plants which bears Cockles of which Birds are produc'd and those said by Munster in his Cosmography to grow in Vomonia near Scotland towards the North whose Fruit falling into the water is turn'd into a Bird call'd a Tree-Bird Guadaguigna an Italian Author affirms the like of the leavs of another Tree Add to these those which Cardan saith grow on the bank of a River in Ireland of whose leavs those that fall into the water become Fishes and those that fall upon the land Birds as also those which Pigafetta saith he saw in the Island of Cimbubon near Borneo in Oriental Asia which falling to the Earth walk'd upon four sharp and short feet whereof he kept one eight dayes which mov'd when it was touch'd and liv'd in his judgement of Air alone Of this sort are likewise all Sea Vegetables such as the Sea-Star Sea-Nettle Oysters which have a very dull Sense are immoveable and oftentimes fastned to the Rocks and from the midst of whose shells sometimes springs a shrub call'd Sea-Oak which grows also upon stones and potsheards having no root but a thick purple leaf as Pliny and Theophrastus witness But all this is nothing in comparison of what Scaliger saith of the Scythian Lamb nam'd Borrametz They affirm that in Zalvolha a part of Tartary the Inhabitants sow a grain like Melon-seed saving that 't is not quite so long from which issues a Plant about five spans high having the feet hoofs ears and whole head of a Lamb saving the Horns which are represented by one tuft of Hair and being cover'd with a hairy thin skin its flesh is very sweet and like that of Crevishes and which is more strange it bleeds when it is wounded and is much desir'd by Wolves but not by other Animals that live on flesh It adheres to the Earth by the Navil and cannot live unless grass be sown about it which withering or being purposely destroy'd the Plant dyes Which Plant-Animal Sigismond Liber a Pole saith is also call'd Smarcandeos by the Musulmans who wear the skin of it upon their breasts and shaven heads for warmth And there are seen at this day in the King of France's Garden in the Fauxbourg of S. Victor at Paris three sorts of Plants to which cannot be deny'd
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
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
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
And as they are most healthful who use these least so the most flourishing States have fewest Lawyers Wrangling which is the daughter of Law being the most apparent cause of the diminution of the strength of Christendom where for some Ages it hath reign'd either by diverting the greatest number of its Ministers from the exercise of War the principal means of amplifying a State or by unprofitably taking up the people in Sutes And therefore the Spaniards found no safer course to preserve the new World to themselves then by debarring all Lawyers entrance into it The Fifth said That this made for the Physitians For the Spaniards sent many of them to the new World to discover the simples there and bring them into Europe Moreover as 't is more necessary to live and to live in health then to live in society or riches which are the things Law takes care of so much doth Law yield to Physick in this point which Gods Word who commands to honour the Physitian saith was created for necessity Which as plainly decides the Question as that Resolution was worthy of the Fool of Fracesco Sforza Duke of Milan which he gave in the like Dispute of preference between the Physitians and Advocates That at Executions the Thief marches before the Hang-man Moreover Kings who are above Laws subject themselves to those of Physitians whom Julius Caesar honour'd with the right of Incorporation into the City Whereunto add the certainty of this Art which is the true note of the excellence of a Discipline being founded upon natural Agents whose effects are infallible whereas Law hath no other foundation but the will and phansie of Men which changes with Times Places and Persons CONFERENCE CXVIII Of Sea-sickness NAture hath furnish'd Things with two ways of preserving the Being she hath given them namely to seek their good and flee their evil Both which Animals do by attracting what is proper to their nature by right fibers and rejecting what is otherwise by transverse fibers of which the Expulsive Faculty makes use So when the Stomack is surcharg'd with too great a quantity of matter or goaded by its acrimony the expulsive Faculty of this part being irritated by what is contrary to it casts it forth by yexing belching and vomiting Yexing is a deprav'd motion of the upper Orifice of the Stomach which dilates and opens it self to expell some thing adhering to its Tunicles or orbicular Muscles which being commonly a sharp and pungent vapour we see this Hickcock is remov'd by a cup of cold water or else by holding the breath for the coldness of the water represses the acrimony of the vapour'd and the restrain'd Spirits by heat cause it to resolve and evaporate Vomiting is also a deprav'd motion of the Stomack which contracts it self at the bottom to drive out some troublesome matter which if it adhere too fast or Nature be not strong enough causeth Nauseousness or a vain desire to vomit Belching is caus'd when the said matter is flatuous and meets no obstacle These motions are either through the proper vice of the Stomack or through sympathy with some other part The former proceeds sometimes from a cold and moist intemperies Whence man the moistest of all Animals is alone subject to Vomiting except Dogs and Cats but he only has the Hickcock and Children as being very humid vomit frequently Sometimes 't is from a faulty conformation of the Stomack as when 't is too straight or from some troublesome matter either internal or external The internal is a pungent humour and sometimes Worms In short every thing that any way irritates the Expulsive and weakens the Retentive Faculty So oyly fat and sweet things floating upon the Stomack provoke to vomit by relaxing the fibres which serve for retention External causes are all such as either irritate or relax the Stomack as stinking Smells and the sole imagination of displeasing things violent winds exercise especially such wherein the Body is mov'd by somthing else and contributes not it self to the motion as going in a Coach or a Ship for here the Body rests and also the parts are relax'd only the Spirits agitated by this motion act more strongly upon the humours and these are here more easily evacuated by reason of the relaxation of the fibres then in other exercises wherein the Body stirs it self as riding-post or a troat in which the Nerves are bent and consequently all the parts more vigorous and hence vomiting is not so easie 'T is also the equality of the motion which makes persons unus'd to go in a Coach vomit sooner when the Coach goes in a smooth and even field then upon rough ways The same hapning upon the Sea 't is no wonder if people be so apt to vomit there The Second said That neither the agitation of the Air nor the motion of the Body can be the sole cause of Vomiting and other Sea-maladies since the like and more violent at Land as Swings Charets and Posts produce not the same effects For we consider the agitation of the Stomack as the cause of vomiting that of the Feet and Legs being but accidental and experience testifies that 't is not the lifting up but the falling down of the Ship that causes the rising of the Stomack Wherefore I should rather pitch upon the salt-air of the Sea abounding with sharp and mordicant Vapours which being attracted by respiration trouble the Stomack especially its superior orifice the seat of the sensitive Appetite by reason of the Nerves of the sixth Conjugation thus the door being open the matter contain'd in the Stomack which is also infected with the malignity of these vapours is voided by the ordinary ways as happens sometimes to such who only come near the Sea Indeed the bitterness and saltness of the humour in the Mouth which is the forerunner of Vomiting together with the quivering of the nether Lip proceeding from the continuity of the inward membrane of the Stomack with that of the Gullet and Mouth manifests the vapours which excite it to be salt and nitrous Whence also plain water drunk with a little salt causes Vomit Now if this malady happens sooner in a Tempest 't is because those nitrous spirits are more stirr'd in the tossing of the Sea than in a Calm as they say 't is more frequent in the Torrid Zone because there is a greater attraction of the said Spirits by the heat of the Climate which on the other is an enemy to the Stomack extreamly weakning it as cold much helps its functions Such as go into deep Mines are seis'd with the like disturbance to this of the Sea by respiration of the nitrous Spirits which issue out of the entrails of the Earth and are the cause of its fecundity The Third said That Cato who repented of three things 1. Of having told a Secret to his Wife 2. Of having spent a day without doing somthing And 3. of having gone by Sea when he might have gone by
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
in words gestures and actions pass for Wisdom call the French light because they are more nimble and active then themselves and being really what others are onely in appearance affect not that false mask of Wisdom whereof they possess the solidity and Body whilst these content themselves with enjoying its shadow and ghost For 't is not the change of habits or modes that argues that of the Mind but in great Matters as Religion and State in maintaining whereof the French may be affirm'd more constant than any Nation 'T is not an Age yet since France bad reason to glory as well as in Saint Jerom's time of never having produc'd Monsters but of planting the Faith well amongst all its Neighbors whose rigorous Inquisition is less a testimony of the Constancy than of the lightness or baseness of their Spirits since they are kept in their Religion by fear of the Wheel and the Gallows Then as for the State the French Monarchy is the ancientest in the world and hath been always maintain'd amidst the ruines and downfalls of other States by the exact observation of its fundamental Laws which is an eminent Argument of the Constancy of the French the Nations who have most charg'd them with this Vice shewing themselves the most inconstant whilst this puissant body of France remains always like it self which it could not do if the members which compose it were light and inconstant the greatest Vice where-with they can asperse us For since according to Seneca Wisdom is always to will and not-will the same things Inconstance and Irresolution in willing sometimes one thing sometimes another is a certain testimony of Folly Imprudence and weakness of Mind which coming to change intimates either that it took not its measures aright nor apprehended the fit means of attaining to the proposed end or that it had not Courage and Resolution enough to go through with its designes And not onely he who hath an inconstant and flitting Spirit is incapable of Wisdom which requires a settled Mind not mutable like that of the Fool who as the Scripture saith changes like the Moon but also of all sort of Virtue which consisting in a mediocrity is not attainable but by Prudence which prescribes its Bounds and Rules and by Stability and Constance which arms the Mind against all difficulties occurring in the way of Virtue in which as well as in the Sciences and Arts the French having more share than any other Nation 't is injurious to accuse them of Inconstancy The Third said 'T is not more vanity to believe one's self perfect in all things than temerity in going about upon blind passion for his Country to exempt it from a Vice whereof all strangers who know us better than we do our selves are universally agreed Let us confess therefore that we are inconstant since in comparison of the Vices of other Neighbouring Nations this will not onely appear light but make it doubtful whether it be a Vice since 't is grounded upon Nature which is in perpetual change whereby she appears more beautiful and agreeable than in identity and rest which is not found even in the prime Bodies and universal Causes which as well as others are in a continual mobility and change which is no-wise contrary to Wisdom which requires that we accommodate our selves to the circumstances of places persons and times which alter incessantly and that we consequently alter our Conclusions according thereunto besides that change of Opinion is a testimony of a free and ingenuous Spirit as that of the French is and it may be attributed to the power of example in a people environ'd with sundry Nations extreamly different and consisting of Spirits which are imbu'd with the qualities of them all For this Country lying under the forty third degree and the forty eighth the mixture of these people which partake a little of the Southern and a little of the Northern Neighbours sometimes conforms to the modes of one sometimes to those of the other And as in the change of Colours the difference is not seen but in the two extreamities those of the middle appearing changeable and diversifi'd so France situated between the Germans Italians and Spaniards mixing and tempering in it self the qualities of those Nations which are in its extreamities appears to them changeable and uncertain The Fourth said Though the French are not more inconstant than others yet their boyling and impetuous humor and the quickness of all their Actions having made them be esteemed such by all their Neighbors I shall rather refer the Cause thereof to their abundance of Spirits which are the sole Motors and Principles of all Actions produc'd by the purity of their Air and the variety of their Aliments than to the Aspects of Heaven or such other Causes since Nations under the same parallel with France as Podolia Hungary Tartary and many others should be subject to the same Vice which was sometimes imputed to the Grecians the most fickle and inconstant of all people without referring the Cause to the Winds as Cardan held that such as are most expos'd thereunto to have volatile Spirits otherwise the French and other Nations subject to Winds should quit their levity when they came into Climates less windy CONFERENCE CXLVII Of the sundry Motions of the Sea and Rivers NOthing ravishes us more than the Motion of Inanimate Bodies Automata or Bodies moving by Artifice having in the beginning made Idolaters who were undeceived when they came to know the Springs of them But above all the Motions of the Sea seem the more marvellous in that they are very different and contrary And they are of two sorts One Internal and common to all heavy Bodies whereby the Water descends downwards the agitated Sea becomes calm by returning to its level and Rivers follow the declivity of the Lands through which they pass The other violent which is either irregular render'd so by the irregularity of the Winds or regular which again is of two sorts namely that of reciprocation in the flux and reflux of the Sea and that which depends upon the several parts of the World being either from East to West or from North to South 'T is true Water being naturally fluid and moveable and not to be contain'd within its own bounds it were more strange if this great Body were immoveable than to see it move as it was necessary it should for Navigation and to avoid corruption The wonder onely is to see in one sole Body so great a diversity of Motions whereof onely the first is natural to it the others arise from some extrinsick Causes amongst which none acting more sensibly upon the Elements than the Celestial Bodies 't is to the diversity of their Motions that those of the Sea must be imputed but particularly that of its flux and reflux which being regular and always alike in one and the same Sea cannot proceed but from as regular a Cause such as the Heaven is and chiefly the
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
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
tuft of Hair upon the Forehead 'T is cover'd with very soft Hair employ'd by the Natives to make Caps of It s Flesh resembles that of Crevices and being wounded sends forth blood being also of a very sweet taste It adheres to the earth by its root which sends forth a Stem or Stalk which is inserted into its Navil To all which wonders they adde That it lives as long as there is any green Grass about it and dyes when the same is wither'd either by time or purposely And to make the comparison full they say that of all devouring Animals Wolves alone desire to feed of it We finde also some example of this double Life in the Wood of Scotland which being humected in water is turn'd into Ducks as also in the Leaves of another Tree like that of the Mulberry which Anthony Pigafet reports to have two little feet on which they run away as soon as one touches them and live onely of Aire Such likewise are the Mandrakes of upper Hungary which grow in the axact shapes of Men and Women The Baraas mention'd by Josephus which shines in the night and whose flight cannot be stopt but by the menstrual blood of a woman The Balsam-Tree which Pliny affirms to tremble at the approach of the Iron that is to make incision in it and that other Tree which Scaliger saith grows about eight foot high in the Province Pudiferam and upon the approach of a man or other Animal contracts its boughs and extends the same again upon their departure whence it took the name of Arbor Pudica which constriction and dilatation is also attributed to the Spunge In all which effects we observe powers and faculties near of kin to those of Animals The same uniformity of nature between Plants and Animals is prov'd also in that both the one and the other live and dye have their nutrition augmentation and generation If Animals have their time of being salacious Plants have theirs of being in Sap. They have dictinction of Sex as appears particularly in the Cypress Hemp and the Palm which beareth not fruit unless planted near the Male or at least some branch thereof be fastned to it They seem too to have some kinde of respiration for besides that they love the free Aire towards which they encline when planted near a high Wall or under great Trees their Root which is their mouth hath some discernment of taste eschewing hurtful soils and spreading freely into good ground and not imbibing all sorts of liquors indifferently but onely such as are convenient for them Hence their parts have names common to those of Animals as the Marrow Flesh Veins Skin In a word they seem to want onely local-motion which yet besides the foregoing examples is found in the Herba Viva of Acosta which folds up it leaves and flowers when it is toucht as likewise Tulips do in the evening and open the same again in the morning Marigolds follow the Sun and thence have gotten the Latin name Solsequia but more manifestly the Sun-flower and the white Carline Thistle call'd the Almanack of Peasants who therefore hang it at their doors because it folds up its flowers when a Tempest is at hand 'T is notorious that the Bon-Chretien Pear-Tree and the Mulberry-Tree languish in places not frequented by men and on the contrary testifie by their vigour and fertility that they delight in their conversation Hereunto might be added the experience of Wood-Cleavers who finde that a wedge enters further at the first blow then for many following as if the substance of the Tree clos'd it self upon the first feeling it hath of its enemy But the bending of Hazle-rods towards Mines of Gold and Silver seems to denote something more in them then in Animals themselves In brief the motion of creeping Herbs may be call'd progressive amongst others that of the Gourd and Cucumber which follow the neighbouring water and shape their fruit in length to reach it CONFERENCE CLXV Of Trubbs or Truffs and Mushroms AS there is some middle nature between a Plant and an Animal partaking of both so there is also between a plain Mixt Body and a Plant to wit those Exuberances which grow sometimes on Trees as Agarick sometimes only out of the Earth as Mushroms and other such fungous Productions which are driven forth by the inward heat of the earth helpt by that of the Sun The matter of them is a slime or unctuous or viscous moisture fit to receive a sutable Form which is various according to the strength of Nature and the Disposition of the places through which it is driven as the Water of our Artificial Fountains puts on the shape of the pipe through which it passes And as for Trubbs 't is Cardan's Opinion That melted Snow sinking into the surface of the Earth and finding fit matter there produceth this Plant. Which the plenty of Spirits found in Snow makes me willing to assent to because they may serve for Seed to its Production The second said That he lik'd the common Opinion that Trubbs proceed from Thunder whose agitation of the Air and so of the Earth awakens the hidden Seed of this Plant as well of many others that grow of themselves or else perhaps the Rain that follows Thunder being full of Celestial Vertue proper for this Production is the Seed thereof For the Providence of Nature sometimes supplies by an Universal Efficient the Defect of particular Causes destinated to the production of other Plants which in most Trees and Herbs is the Seed which this wants as also all the ordinary parts of other Plants because 't is of the Nature of those Animals who have not their parts distinct one from another having neither stalk nor leaves nor flower nor root unless you will call it all root because it hath more appearance of than of any other part of a Plant which perhaps is the cause of its excellent taste which is neither sweet as most roots are nor sowr as most leaves are nor of any other kind of tast observ'd in the other parts of Plants but mix'd of all tasts together being very pleasant after coction hath matur'd what was terrestrial and aqueous in it As for Mushroms both their Nature and Cause is different but all proceed from an excrement which the Earth casts forth of it self and which was bred therein by the perpetual transcolation of the Humidities of the earth whence they are more or less hurtfull according to the greater or less malignity of such Humours but always of bad juice sutable to its Source and Material Cause The Third said 'T is the Rain of Autumn that makes the Mushrom the too great cold of Winter and that which yet remains in the Spring not permitting that Excrement to come forth but shutting it up as 't is the property of Cold and the heat and drought of Summer consuming the Matter that produces them as fast as it comes out of the Earth But in Autumn
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
which is very hard to prove because we know not how far they may reach And should we accuse of Magick every thing when we understand not the Causes almost all Natural Philosophy would be turn'd into superstition Again a Man that promises more than he can perform drinking but the twentieth part of what he boasts of and who can make but one sort of colour issue out of his mouth though he exposes several others to the Spectator's Eyes cannot pass for a great Sorcerer or refin'd Magician As for the easiness and violence where-with he casts water out of his Stomack at pleasure it cannot be either from Artifice or Custom alone which cannot put free and voluntary motions into parts wherein there is none nor procure new Organs necessary to this action and no Man being able to accustom himself to move his Ears at his pleasure unless the same be naturally dispos'd thereunto as Manfrede's Stomack is Now natural dispositions are only of two sorts some depend upon the Temperament which is incapable of this effect others belong to the Stomack as it is an Organical part namely a particular Conformation which may be easily conjectur'd from the example of ruminating Animals who when they list bring up their food out of their Stomack into their mouth An action not impossible to Men since Nature oftentimes by error gives one Species such a Conformation in some parts as is of right peculiar to another and accordingly the faculty of ruminating is found in divers Men. Aquapendens saw two to whom this action was more voluntary than that whereby we void our excrements when they importunately solicite us observing expresly that they were not constrain'd to it but by the pleasure which they took in it And the same Author likewise records that opening the Body of one that ruminated he found one Membrane of his Stomack more fibrous and strong than ordinary And the same is probably so in that of this Maltese since this voluntary motion can proceed only from such a Conformation In like manner these persons that have been able to move their Ears have been observ'd to have the Muscles behind them more fleshy than other Men. And our Conjecture is further confirm'd by the Instance of the Bladder whose Excretion is perform'd by the Pyramidal Muscles which oftentimes are deficient and in that case their office is supply'd by the carnous Membrane of the Bladder which is valid and performs the motions of a Muscle according to the opinion of the greatest Anatomists of this Age. So that what is so ordinary in the Bladder is not to be admir'd in the Stomack Besides that Custom may have much increas'd the strength and dexterity of this faculty and although it have not otherwise conduc'd in the least to the effect but only as founded upon a natural Disposition That all ruminating have not been able to do the like is because they neglected to increase the natural Disposition by use and practise and as to the diversity of colour and smells there is nothing therein but artifice and fallacy The Third said That what is here thought most admirable the drinking of a great quantity of Water is seen every day at Pougues and Forges where you shall have one Person drink sixty glasses and those that have seen the Stomach that hangs up in the Anatomical Theater of Leyden and is capable of seven quarts will not think it strange that this Maltese drinks much less As for the diversity of Liquors which he brings up discern'd by their several colours smells and the inflammability of the Aqua vitae I attribute it to the perfection of the reasonable soul which as well as all other forms imprints Dispositions in the matter this being universal that besides the Properties common to the whole Species there is a particular one in every Individual which distinguishes the same from others and comes from the last Character of the form That of the Maltese is to turn common Water into Wine Orenge-flower-water Rose-water and Aqua vitae For the diversity of matter and its dispositions signifies nothing as to the mutations introduc'd therein by the Forms though one may say that in common Water especially that of the Well all the Elements and the three Principles of Chymistry are found having its Salt from the Earth its Sulphur from the Bitumen and Naphtha wherewith the Caverns of the Earth and especially Wells abound and as for Mercury 't is nothing but water it self No wonder then if since every thing may be made of every thing by the Maxim of the most ancient Philosophers our Maltese fetches what he pleases out of his Stomack The Fourth wonder'd if this Maxim were true That every thing is made of every thing in the Maltese's Belly even without any distinction or preparation of the matter why this Water-drinker fetcht so great a circuit to get money since 't would be a shorter way for him to make it and even Gold it self by the same reason or at least he would make sale of his sweet Waters and not suffer the Perfumers to be at such charge in fetching them from far If he make it his excuse that he would not get vent for such an abundance why if there be no cheat in the thing hath he not taken occasion of the dearness of Wine in France this year to sell the Wine he makes in Paris But Experience renders it manifest that the Wine he promises is nothing but water and consequently he is less able to make Aqua vitae into which water cannot be turn'd but by first taking the nature of Wine and indeed there needs more wine to yield the quantity of Aqua vitae he pretends to bring up then he drinks water before he ejects it Besides Chymistry manifests that Aqua vitae is not made but only separated Nor can this change be a Property in the Malteses Stomack because all Properties are specifical and belong to all the Individuals of the same Species there being nothing peculiar in any man but a certain degree of indivisible temperament call'd Idio-syncrasie And if his temper be so hot as to turn common water in an instant into Aqua vitae 't is impossible to be cold enough to make Rose-water at the same time if it have any transmuting vertue it ought to turn all into one sort of Liquor because the same Agent never makes but the same Effect unless the Subject be diversifi'd by diversity of matter whereas here 't is all water from the same Spring Neither could this Drinker drink Well-water without intoxication because being turn'd into Aqua vitae the vapors thereof would mount up into his brain and so to prescribe him water in a Feaver would be no more refreshment to him then if one gave him Aqua vitae The fifth said That the diversity of colours and odors of the Liquor he ejects proceeds from the tincture of some mass of Essence extracted from the same materials which those
well employ'd Physicians but can add many more Nor is any thing said against Bezoar but what may be objected against all other Antidotes as Sealed Earth Unicorn's Horn and all Cordial Remedies whose Virtue may as well be question'd as that of Bezoar CONFERENCE CCVIII Whence proceeds the sudden Death of Men and Animals upon descending into certain Pits ON the sixteenth of June last an Inhabitant of the Town of Tilliers two Leagues from Virruel perceiv'd a goodly Pigeon which he took to be one of his own fall down into a Well hard by his House whereupon he call'd his Son and to draw it out they let down a basket with a rope to the bottom of the Well into which the Pigeon presently entred but as oft as they lifted it up from the water it fell back again thereunto After their design had fail'd the Son tyes a cudgel to the rope and being let down by his Father endeavors to take the Pigeon The Father ask'd him Whether he had her He answer'd thrice No and after some sighs falls having lost both Speech and Life The Father troubl'd at so strange an accident resolves to go down himself and accordingly without any help descends into the Well where he remain'd as his Son The Neighborhood advertised of this dysaster repair'd thither and amongst others one who had not long before cast the Well He ascribing all to the weakness of those who were dead presently betakes himself to go down but he was scarce come within two foot of the water but he fell down dead without making any complaint A strong and vigorous young Man upon the belief that the company conceiv'd that those persons were not dead but only needed help undertakes to go down likewise he did so but suddenly fell backwards with a little Convulsive Motion which made him cast up his head Hereupon notwithstanding the disswasions of the Curate of the place who began to suspect some mortiferous causes of this effect a fifth descended after he had caus'd the rope to be fastned to his middle he was no sooner in the middle of the Well but he was pull'd up again upon the Gestures which he made with a livid Countenance and other signes fore-runners of Death which he escap'd by being presently succoured with Wine and Aqua Vitae Being recover'd he affirm'd that he had perceiv'd no hurt but only a certain faintness upon him This last attempt cool'd all assistance so that there was no more talk of going down but only of getting the Bodies up which was done and 't was observ'd that none of them had any signes of Life saving the Son in whom were seen some small tokens which presently vanish'd The wonderment of all this was greatly increas'd when a Gentleman of the Country curious of seeing what was reported let down a Dog who continu'd there a quarter of an hour and was pull'd up again safe and sound This Well twenty five foot deep and of water but two is inclos'd with a very ancient Wall at the foot of a good high Hill whereon stands the Castle of Tilliers And which help'd not to diminish the wonder it had been cleansed by two men who found no hurt nor any thing extraordinary in it saving an odour stronger than elsewhere the water being as clear as that of the Spring and without any sediment Now if it was mineral and malignant vapors that suffocated those that descended the same might have done the like upon those that first gave them vent The Second said That this Effect cannot be attributed to vapors barely venomous and of the nature of ordinary Poysons which corrupt our humours sometimes after Applications as the Plague and other Epidemical Diseases do but this steam is so opposite to Life that it destroyes the same in an instant which we cannot imagine to proceed from any other cause but a mineral which is far more active The escape of those that cleans'd the Well may be attributed to the mud which smeared the sides of the Well and so kept the vapor in till growing stronger by that restraint it made way for its self through that remaning crust and produc'd the above-mention'd dismal effects emitting its Poyson in a strait line according to the rectitude of the Well which weakned the Pigeon in such sort that it was unable to rise again as 't is reported that Birds fall down as they fly over the Mare Mortuum or Lake of Sodom in Judea The Third said 'T is not probable that any such slimy crust hindred this Effect at first since the Dog let down afterwards found no hurt unless you think a new crust arose in that little time which pass'd between the death of the Men and the descent of the Dog This Effect therefore may probably be attributed to the Archaeus or Central Fire that Motor of Nature which dries all the vapors of the Elements from the Centre to the Circumference subliming the principals of minerals in order to make its Productions and as the several mixtures of these elevated vapors are in some places wholsome to wit in Bathes and mineral waters so there are others destructive of our Nature But because such elevation is not continual but only at certain times according to the motion of that grand Motor and particularly of the Sun hence Arsenical vapors have produc'd such Effects at one time and stifled those that descended into a Well filled with them which they have not done to those that clean'd it nor to the Dog in as much as those vapors were not rais'd at this time And perhaps these mineral vapors are not always sublim'd in such a degree as to be mortiferous otherwise it would follow that none could ever labor in mines with safety by reason of deadly fumes The Fourth said That such expellations could not extinguish the Fire of Life in so short a time without some fore-running signes But 't is more probable that this Effect proceeds from some venomous Animal infecting the Air which being confin'd in a place incapable of evaporation and suckt by those that descend down the Well they can no more save themselves from Death than in a pestilent Air. Nor are they Fables which History records of certain Grottoes in which Basilisks and Serpents residing infected not only the place but also the whole Country as Philostratus relates in the Life of Apollonins how a Dragon carry'd the Plague into all places where-ever he went Now as to the particulars of the Story what is difficult in them I thus resolve Those that cleans'd the Well open'd the passage to the Basilisk who by degrees creeping forth out of his hole into the Well there darted forth his mortal rays upon what-ever was presented to his Eyes which done he retir'd into his hole again so that the Dog let down into the Well after the Basilisk's retirement could not be hurt For that the spirits issuing out of the Eyes of this mortiferous creature are harmless to dogs and
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
a Fore-teller of the Sun's approach That the Fish called a Remora stops Ships under sail That the eye of a Dog prepar'd after a certain way keeps others from coming near the person that hath it That the powder of Crab-shells prepar'd draws out Arrows and Bullets shot into the Body That there is a certain Stone got out of the Snake which cures such as are subject to the Dropsie That Serpents are not found within the shade of Ash-trees That the Marygold follows the motion of the Sun That the precious Stone called a Topaze put into seething water immediately stayes the seething of it That the Emerald the Saphire the Turqueis Stone and Coral change their colours upon the happening of certain accidents to those who have them about them That there are certain Herbs which chase away spirits as well as Musick does and that the dispositions of a black and adust choler invite and entertain them Now from all these instances it may be deduc'd that as it is a great presumption to think to give reasons of all things so does it argue a certain weakness of mind to doubt of all that hath been alledged so great are the abysses and inexhaustible treasures of Nature whose operations transcend humane belief in thousands of other things as well as in the Question now under dispute CONFERENCE CCXXIV. Of Stage-Plays and whether they be advantageous to a State or not HUmane Life is travers'd by such a vicissitude of distractions and disturbances that not only the Civil but also the Ecclesiastical Magistrates have unanimously concluded it necessary that men should have some divertisements whereby their minds and bodies not able to undergo continual labour might receive some relaxation for want whereof they would be crush'd under the burthen of their affairs Now among those relaxations there is not any brings greater delight with it then what is perform'd on the Theatre that is Plays which represent unto us things past heighten'd with all the circumstances they are capable of which cannot be done by History as being a thing dead and not animated by Voice Gestures and Habits But if we add thereto that this innocent divertisement is attended by those advantages which may be deduc'd from excellent Sentences and Instructions we must conclude him who finds fault with it to be of a more than Timonian humour and a profess'd enemy to civil Society The proof hereof is deriv'd from the Use of it the true Touch-stone whereby good and profitable things are to be distinguish'd from such as are hurtful and unprofitable For there have been an infinite number of things taught by Men which have been smother'd as soon as brought forth and there are others also which the Inventors of them have out-liv'd but when an Invention finds a kind entertainment through many Ages it is the best argument that may be of its goodness And such is that of Comedy which how weak or ridiculous soever it might be at the beginning at which time Thespis got himself drawn through the Streets in a Chariot as he recited his Poems presently met with those who made it their business to cultivate and heighten it to that pitch of perfection whereto it is now come which is such that it is no wonder the greatest minds should yield to the charms of it For as those things that are sensible are more apt to move and make impressions on the spirits of men then such as are purely intelligible so Plays exposing to our eyes all things with a greater circumspection decorum and order then is observable in the actions of men commonly disturbed by unexpected emergencies and the unconstancy of their passions accordingly raise in us a greater aversion for crimes and greater inclinations to vertue Nay these cause more apprehensive emotions in our souls than they are apt to receive from any other representations whatsoever not excepting even the precepts of Philosophy it self which are weak enough when they are destitute of their examples imprinting in us such Characters as can hardly be blotted out in regard they force their passage into our Minds through several of our senses and as History prevails more by its Examples than the reason of its Precepts so Playes have the advantage of History in this regard that in the former things act upon us with greater efficacy This Influences it hath on us in captivating our Senses and Understanding is the more remarkable in that the greatest Witts are incapable of other reflections while they behold what is represented on the Stage Besides if the great business of the world be truly consider'd it is but a Stage-Play wherein every one acts a part he who would avoid Plays and not see the vanity of humane actions must find out some way to get out of the world Nor are all persons in a capacity to learn how they should demean themselves by Books and Precepts but all are susceptible of some instruction by Playes since that in these there are such sensible Lessons that the most ignorant may find in them certain encouragements to Vertue which on the Stage appears to them in her lustre and attended by those honourable rewards which the Poets bestow on Heroick Actions And as Geographical Maps cannot so well acquaint those who study them with the dispositions of people together with all the circumstances of places as Travels and Relations may In like manner Philosophy smites not the Senses as those passages do which are represented on the Theatre where such as are in Love the ordinary subject thereof may observe their own Adventures personated and take notice of their vain pursuits and the unhappy events of those which are carried on by unjust wayes In fine if immortality flatters ours labours with promises to transmit our Memory to Ages yet at a great distance from us what greater satisfaction can there be than to hope that our noble actions shall be represented on Theaters before Princes and Magistrates The Second said That Humane Nature being more enclin'd to evil than to good those confus'd representations which are made on the Stage of all sorts of good and bad things are more likely to make impressions of evil in the minds of men than to render them more inclinable to that which is good Whence it is to be inferr'd that the danger and inconveniences of Plays will outweigh their advantages This consideration occasion'd the banishing of them out of several States And whereas the Subjects of them are commonly taken from the Loves of some extravagant persons and the crimes attending them the end thereof must be answerable to the means which are lewd Artifices whereby it is compassed and where-with mens minds are imbu'd and so inclin'd to wicked actions and such as are most likely to promote the execution of their pernicious designs which would not happen were they ignorant of them Nay to go to the original of this kind of entertainments the most ancient of them acted in the time of Romulus was
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
undeserving person causes Compassion Indignation proceeds from the happening of Good to one that merits it not Now among all these Passions Ambition which aims at a general superiority seems to me the first and since it hath serv'd to excuse Parricides and Violators of the publick faith whom it hath caus'd to say that for the sake of command nothing is unjust it may very well be excus'd every where else besides that it hath been the instigator to the most glorious Actions the source whereof is that laudable Ambition which every one hath to out-vie his companion The second said If the Passions are Diseases of the Soul as the Stoicks held and the Question seems to presuppose I conceive none more agreeable and excusable than Love whose sweet violence insinuating into the severest brests finds nothing capable to resist it Hence those that are taken with it wish nothing less than a cure which cannot proceed but from oblivion of the thing belov'd wherein they live more than in themselves the soul being more where it loves than in the body wherein it lives Moreover this Passion is the most natural and common of all and consequently the most excusable being found not only in all men but also in all Animals who feel the assaults of Love which makes them naturally tend towards Good And as Love is the most common so it is likewise the source and principle of all the Passions for we neither hate nor fear any thing we have neither joy sadness desire fear nor anger but because we love something the true course to become exempt from these Passions being To love Nothing The third said That the most violent Passions being the most excusable because the hardest to subdue those of the Irascible Appetite particularly Anger being more vehement than those of the Concupiscible Appetite are also the most worthy of excuse The former possess the noblest part of Man the Heart which is the source of Anger the latter the Liver which is the seat of Love whose weakness the Poets have sufficiently demonstrated by representing it to us under the form of a Child which hath no power over us but what we suffer it to take But Anger which is proper to the Generous as Love is to the weak and effeminate makes it self master of the Soul and by its sudden and impetuous motions obscuring the light of reason makes us the more excusable in that we are no longer masters of our own actions And as Madness excuses the Frantick from blame and punishment so Anger which is a short Madness as the Poet saith deserves the same excuse its violence being so much above that of all other Passions that it is the most quick and passes like Lightning for when it takes root in the soul it loses its name and degenerates into Hatred The Fourth said That he was for Joy because all the other Passions acknowledg its power such that they are contented to be its servants Love and Desire are only in order to some hoped Joy Hatred and Flight only to remove all objects that may trouble it Despair then only seizes us when we can no longer hope for Joy Hope is for it alone Fear is only of what is contrary to it Boldness to break through all Obstacles opposing our contentment and Anger serves to express the displeasure we resent for its delay or interruption If a man injure us in his anger or in his sadness yea or in his despair we will not excuse him but be we never so displeas'd we not only excuse the joy of others but take pleasure in it And whereas Contraries are known by their Contraries since nothing displeases us so much as Sadness nothing pleases us so much as Joy whose violence is manifested by some that have dy'd of it as none ever did of Anger In fine we cannot better prove and approve the power and empire of any one than by becoming his subjects as we all are of Joy to which the greatest part not only give part of their time but also quit the most important affairs to seek it in places destinated to the god of Laughter whose Festivals are now more frequen then in in the days of Apuleius And what makes us in youth bear and endure all the pains of study Apprentices of each Trade the hardships which they undergo Soldiers the danger of Death but a pre-conceived hope of Joy which he that possesses becomes so master'd by it that he forgets all his past evils The Mariner no longer remembers the perils of the sea nor the sick person his pains In short every one suffers himself to be possess'd and govern'd by this Passion which is therefore the most excusable The fifth said That Grief brings greater Evil than Joy doth Good because Evil wholly destroys the Nature of a thing which Good only renders more complete whence it follows that the former is much more just and excusable than the latter which gives only Well-being but Evil destroys Being it self to the preservation whereof all Creatures being naturally enclin'd more carefully eschew such things as may hurt them then they pursue those that may procure joy and contentment Moreover the accents of the Voice which testifie Grief or Sadness are much more violent than those of Joy which being nothing else but a bare complacency receiv'd in the enjoyment of Good consists rather in rest then in motion whereof Grief partakes more largely by the endeavours which it causeth the soul to put forth for removing of what torments it The sixth said That the Passions being Appurtenances of our Nature and part of our Selves are all excusable in themselves because natural and inevitable but especially those whereto we are particularly most inclin'd by Temper so Love and Joy are most excusable in the sanguine Choler and Despair in the Bilious Hatred and Sadness in the Melancholick Hope and Boldness in Youth and Bashfulness is excusable in a Child but culpable in an old man Yet Hope which accompanies Man not only while breath lasts but extends even beyond death seems by that duration to plead that as it is the least separable so it is the most excusable CONFERENCE CXXXIV Which is the most laudable Temperament TEmperament is the Harmony and Proportion of the four first Qualities resulting from the mixture of the Elements whereof all sublunary Bodies are compounded which being destinated to several ends requir'd therefore different Tempers and Qualifications Now although the diversity herein be almost infinite yet it may be reduc'd to three Supream Heads For either the four Qualities are so mix'd that they remain in an equal proportion or one of them excels the rest or else two together have the advantage The first makes the Temperament equal the two latter make it unequal The equal Temperament is two-fold one call'd Temperament by Weight ad Pondus as they speak when the qualities are so perfectly proportionate that could they be weigh'd in a balance not one would preponderate above
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