we approach or go farther from the Poles we see the same more or less elevated 4. Because the Sun is seen daily to rise and set sooner in one place then in another Lastly it is prov'd by the conveniency of habitation For as of all Isoperimeter Figures the Circle is most capacious so the Sphere containeth more then any other Body and therefore if the Earth were not round every part of it would not have its Antipodes So that I wonder at the opinion of Lactantius and Saint Augustine who denyed them For as for that story that in the year 745. by the relation of Aventinus Virgilius a German Bishop was deprived of his Bishoprick and condemned as an Heretick by Pope Zachary it was not onely for maintaining this truth which experience hath since confirm'd but because he drew conclusions from it prejudicial to Religion Now whereas it may be doubted whether as there are uneven parts in the Earth some higher then other so there be not also Seas some of whose waters too are more elevated then the rest I affirm that since all the Seas except the Caspian have communication amongst themselves they are all level and no higher one then another And had they no such communication yet the Water being of its Nature fluid and heavy flowing into the lowest place would equal its surface with the rest and so make a perfect Sphere Whence it follows that they were mistaken who disswaded Sesostris King of Aegypt from joyning the Red Sea with the Mediterranean for fear lest the former which they judg'd the higher should come to drown Greece and part of Asia For want of which demonstration several Learned Men have been mistaken and no less then the Angelical Doctor The Second said That the Earth is very dry not for that it dispelleth moisture as Fire doth but for that it receiveth and imbibeth it into it self But it cannot be cold of its own Nature if it were it could produce nothing It is cold onely by the Air as 't is sometimes moist by the Water and hot by the Fire which insinuateth into its cavities It is also very heavy since it holdeth the lowest place in the world and hath its motion from the circumference to the Centre which is the progression that Aristotle attributeth to heavy Bodies Whence for being the lowest stage it is called the Foot-stool of God But this heaviness seemeth to me not to proceed from humidity as was urged For though the Water and Earth joyn'd together seem to weigh more then Earth alone 't is not that they weigh more indeed but this Earth which was imagined to be alone is fill'd with a quantity of Air and the Water coming to succeed in its place it appeareth more heavy For Earth and Water joyn'd together weigh more then Earth and Air so joyn'd in like quantity because Water is heavier then Air. And to justifie that Earth is heavier then Water a bucket fill'd with sand weighes more then an other fill'd with Water For that sand is Water congealed is as hard to prove as that Earth is Water The Third said That Earth composeth a Mixt Body by a double action viz. from its coldness and of its driness As for the former it secondeth the Water compacting by its coldness the parts which are to be mix'd and which moisture hath united For the Second it giveth hardness and consistence imbibing and sucking up the superfluous moisture after the due union of the parts made thereby It cannot but be cold for as good Polititians willingly reconcile two great Families at Enmity by their mutual alliances so all the strength of the mixture consisting onely in the union of Dry and Moist and its destruction coming from their disunion and the Dry and Moist being wholly Enemies and contraries in the highest degree Nature reconciles them together and brings them into union by the mediation of Water For this being ally'd to Air by the moisture which it hath in a remiss degree and Earth being ally'd to Water by the coldness which it hath in a less degree it becometh ally'd to the Air and its humidity Since according to the maxime Things which agree in the same third agree among themselves Thus you see coldness is necessary to the Earth to cause a lasting composition amongst them Earth hath also this advantage by its siccity that as the same is less active then heat and yieldeth thereunto in vigour of action so heat yieldeth to it in resistance For the dryness inducing hardness resisteth division more powerfully and consequently better preserveth the mixt Body in being resisting the Agents which are contrary to it Whereto its gravity serveth not a little it rendring the Earth less managable by the agitations of the agents its Enemies So that gravity by this means assisteth the hardness and consistence of the dryness like two Kinsmen uniting together to keep off the affronts of their Enemies The Fourth said That the gravity of the Earth and of every other Body yea that of Gold too the heaviest of all mixt Bodies dependeth onely upon its Figure since not onely a Vessel convex on the side toward the Water sinketh not but also a single leaf of Gold swimeth upon it Which is seen likewise in Tera Lemnia or Sigillata which sinketh not in the Water so that there is no probility in that decuple proportion of the Elements according to which Earth ought to weigh ten times more then Water and Water onely ten times more then Air and supposing one were in the Region of Fire and there weigh'd the Air as we do here the Water he would find it likewise ten times heavier then the Fire This is more certain that the proportion of the weight of Earth to that of Sea-water is as 93. to 90 that of Sea-water to fresh as 92. to 74. But that which makes more for those who hold Water more heavy then Earth is that the proportion of Earth to Salt is found to be as 92. to 106. In fine It was remark'd that though the Earth is consider'd by Astronomers but as a point in respect of the vast extent of the Coelestial Orbs yet no Man encompas'd it round before the year 1420. when Jean de Betancourt a Norman Gentleman by the discovery of the Canaries trac'd out the way to the Spaniards who attributed the honour thereof to themselves though they began not till above fourscore years after Moreover it is 15000. leagues in circumference of which there is not much less Land uncover'd then there is cover'd by the Water But if you compare their greatness together there is far less Earth then Water For 't is held that there is no Sea that hath a league in depth there is little without bottom many to which the Anchors reach yea several places not capable of great vessels for want of Water On the other side There are Mountains upon which you still ascend upwards for many dayes journey others inaccessible even to the sight
into Water but this moist Air is full of damp vapours which are nothing but Water rarifi'd and which meeting with those cold and solid Bodies are condens'd and return'd to their first Nature Wherefore the Air is so far from being the cause of so many Springs and Rivers which water the Earth that on the contrary all the Air in the world provided it be not mixt with Water cannot make so much as one drop It is more probable that in the beginning of the world when God divided the Elements and the Waters from the Waters which cover'd the whole surface of the Earth he gather'd the grossest and most unprofitable water into one mass which he called Sea and dispersed through the rest of the Earth the fresh Water more clear and pure to serve for the necessities of the Earth Plants and living Creatures Moreover the Scripture makes mention of four great Rivers issuing out of the terrestrial Paradise and a Fountain in the middle of it which water'd the whole surface of the Earth from the Creation In not being possible that Air resolv'd into Water could make so great a quantity of waters in so little time The Fifth added That those Waters would soon be dry'd up without a new production for which Nature hath provided by Rain which falling upon the Earth is gather'd together in Subterraneous Cavernes which are as so many Reservers for Springs according to Seneca's opinion This is prov'd 1. Because in places where it rains not as in the Desarts of Arabia and Aethiopia there is scarce any Springs on the other side they are very frequent in Europe which aboundeth with rain 2. Waters are very low in Summer when it rains but little and in Winter so high that they overflow their banks because the season is pluvious 3. Hence it is that most Rivers and Springs break forth at the foot of Mountains as being but the rain water descended thither from their tops The Sixth said That it is true that Rivers are increased by Rain but yet have not their original from it For were it so then in great droughts our Rivers would be dry'd up as well as the Brooks As for Springs they are not so much as increas'd by Rain for we see by experience that it goes no deeper into the earth then seven or eight feet On the contrary the deeper you dig the more Springs you meet with Nor is the Air in my judgement the cause thereof there being no probability that there is under the earth cavernes so spacious and full of Air sufficient to make so great a quantity of Water since there needs ten times as much Air as Water to produce it Neither can the Sea be the cause of Springs since according to the Maxime of Hydraulick Water cannot ascend higher the place of its original but if Springs were from the Sea then they could not be higher then the level thereof and we should see none upon the tops of Mountains Now that the Sea lies lower then Springs and Rivers is apparent because they descend all thitherwards The Seventh said That Waters coming from the Sea and gliding in the bowels of the Earth meet with Subterranean Fires which are there in great quantity whereby they are heated and resolv'd into Vapours These Vapours compos'd of Water and Fire mounting upwards meet some Rocks or other solid Bodies against which they stick and are return'd into Water the Fire which was in them escaping through the Pores of those Bodies the Water trickles forth by the clefts and crevisses of the Rocks or other sloping places The Eighth said That as Art can draw forth Water by Destillation Expression and other wayes taught by Chymistrie so by stronger reason Nature cannot want wayes to do the same and possibly in divers sorts according to the various disposition of places and of the matter which she employes to that use II. Whether there is any Ambition commendable Upon the Second Subject it was said That there is some correspondence between the two Questions for as Water serves for a Medium of Union in natural Composition so Ambition serves to familiarise pains and dangers in great enterprizes For it makes Children strive to get credit in little exercises and Men think nothing so high but may be soar'd to by the wings of Ambitior Juvenal indeed gives Wings to necessity when he saith A Hungry Greek will fly up to Heaven if they command him and Virgil saith Fear adds Wings to the heels of the terrifi'd but those of Ambition are much more frequent in our Language 'T is true Ambition may many times beat and stretch forth its Wings but can no more exalt it self into the Air then the Estrich Sometimes it soars too high as Icarus did and so near the light that it is burnt therein like Flyes For the ambitious usually mounts up with might and main but thinks not how he shall come down again This Passion is so envious that it makes those possess'd therewith hate all like themselves and justle them to put them behind Yea it is so eager that it meets few obstacles which yield not to its exorbitant pertinacy insomuch that it causeth Men to do contrary to do what they pretend and shamefully to obey some that they may get the command over others The importunateness of Ambition is proof against all check or denyal and the ambitious is like the Clot-burr which once fastned upon the clothes is not easily shaken off When he is once near the Court neither affronts nor other rubs can readily repell him thence And because his Essence consists in appearance he many times wears his Lands upon his back and if he cannot at once pride himself in his Table his Clothes and his Train yet he will rather shew the body of a Spaniard then the belly of a Swiss At his coming abroad he oftentimes picks his teeth while his gutts grumble he feeds upon aiery viands When he ha's been so lucky as to snap some office before he ha's warm'd the place his desires are gaping after another He looks upon the first but as a step to a second and thinks himself still to low if he be not upon the highest round of the ladder where he needs a good Brain lest he lose his judgement and where it is as hard to stand as 't is impossible to ascend and shameful to descend Others observing That Honour is like a shadow which flyes from its pursuers and follows those that flie it have indeed no less Ambition then the former for I know no condition how private soever that is free from it but they artificially conceal it like those who carry a dark Lanthorn in the night they have no less fire then others but they hide it better They are like Thieves that shooe their Horses the wrong way that they may seem by their steps to come from the place whither they are going or else like those who hunt the Hyena This Beast loves the voice
and imperfect and so is a second in Musick Three is the first Male and the first degree of perfection hence a Third is agreeable to the Ear. The Fourth is so likewise because it makes up the Ten. Add 1 2 3 and 4 and you have the grand Number of Ten the Father of all others Also a Fifth pleases the Ear wonderfully because it is an Abridgement of the grand Number and the marriage of the Male and the first Female The other Numbers are useless except the Eighth because Musitians call it Identity or Unity which is a Divine Number or rather no Number nor is the Eighth as delightful as it is accounted by Musitians amongst their Concords The Fourth said That the Reason why some Notes are agreeable and other unpleasing in Musick is because the former move the Faculty of the Soul after a manner sutable to it and the latter do not as we see an Example of it in Ballads and Dances where when the Violin or Minstrel hath sounded a braul which goes well to the cadence not onely the Members of the Dancers comply therewith and follow the same readily but also the Souls seemes to dance with the Bodies so great Sympathy have they with that Harmony But if on the contrary the power of the Soul be otherwise agitated at the same time that Harmony how regular soever will displease us Witness the displeasure taken at cheerful aires by those who are in Mourning to whom doleful notes better agree which on the other side are disagreeable to such as are merrily dispos'd Add hereunto the humour of the Phancy which hath an aversion to some sounds as well as to some smells For as for Discords janglings and other troublesome sounds no other cause of their general inacceptableness ought to be sought then that disproportion and deformity which is sound in things Natural and Artificial the former being more intollerable then the latter because the Eye is not struck with the visible species as the Ear is with sound and can turn away from the Object which displeaseth it which the Ear cannot and is clos'd with much more difficulty CONFERENCE XVIII I. Of the Original of Winds II. Why none are contented with their Condition I. Of the Original of Winds THere is more resemblance then one would imagine between these two poynts The Wind of the Air and that of Ambition to which the discontent of Men with their condition is commonly ascribed As for the First Some have held that all Wind even that which blows upon the Sea comes from the Earth and that the first conjecture which was entertain'd of the Region of the West Indies was taken from the Wind perceiv'd to come from that quarter But the History of Christopher Columbus attributing the discovery to Chance thereof cannot consist with that opinion There is no Meteor whose effects have more of Miracle which is defin'd An Effect whereof no Natural Cause is seen For even the Lightning is seen by the brightness of the fire which accompanies it But the effects of this aim at the highest things which it overthrows and you neither see the Agent nor understand it Yet the Sagacity of Humane Wit is admirable Sins have serv'd to clear Cases of Conscience Arsenick Sublimate and other poysons are converted by Physick into Cauteries and other profitable remedies The Civil Law hath by occasion of evil manners receiv'd addition of good Laws The Winds which drown Ships are so managed by the Art of Navigation which divides them first into four principal North East South West and then into eight by the addition of four half points and hath at length subdivided them into 32. that by their help Men sail upon the main Sea and provide forreign remedies for Physick Sugar and spices for Kitchins and employments for many other professions The Second said That though many causes may agitate the Air yet all of them are not sufficient to raise a Wind but the Air must be agitated by some Fume which is raised either from the Earth and is called an Exhalation or from the Water and is called a Vapour either of which partakes of the Nature of the Element from whence it proceeds A Vapour is moist an Exhalation dry An extrinsecal Heat which predominates in them gives them all their motions and makes them mount on high And because it is the property of Heat alwayes to move and act therefore these Fumes are so long in action as the Heat lasts They arise in company together and are carry'd upwards but are presently separated For the moisture of the Vapour quencheth the Heat which animated it so that the sole absence of the Sun or the occurse of the least Cold depriving the Vapour of the little Heat which was left in it and made it still ascend upwards it becomes more condens'd and falls down in Rain But an Exhalation hath a greater degree of Heat which is render'd more active by the driness and tenacity of the matter Therefore it ascends till it meets with the Air of the Middle Region which is thick and congeal'd by which being hinder'd â—o pass further it seeks a passage on one side or the other Many times when it strives to rise higher it becomes engag'd among Clouds which inclose it on all sides Being thus inclos'd and straitned it becomes united together and thereupon being inflam'd breaks the Clouds and causes Thunder or if it â—ind less resistance towards the Earth it descends with violence to the place from whence it arose and makes Whirl-winds But if such Exhalation have not time enough to mount as far as the Middle Region as it happens most frequently but as soon as it is drawn up be hinder'd and inclos'd by the Vapour turn'd into thick and cold Air in the Lower Region of the Air then Winds are produc'd in this manner This Exhalation being unable to mount upwards because the whole Region is full of thick Air which resists it it must go either on one side or other wherefore it tends that way where it meets least resistance And whereas there are certain seasons wherein the Air is sometimes less thick towards the South others wherein it is so towards the North and the other quarters of Heaven thence it is that the Winds blow there most usually Moreover the reason why the Wind hath a kind of whistling is because the Exhalation clasheth with violence against that thick Air. Hence also it is that Winds are more ordinary in the Night and about Evening because in those times the Vapour looseth its Heat through the Suns absence and so being become a thick Air better incloseth the Exhalation and resisteth the same with more force But as the Air which issueth out of our Lungs is hot yet if it be sent forth with some little violence it becometh cold So though the Exhalation which causeth Wind be never without Heat yet we never feel the Wind hot Not that the Air loseth its Heat by motion
which hath sometimes conferr'd the Scepter in elective Kingdoms And our Saviour amidst all the infirmities of our nature caus'd to shine in himself the most perfect beauty that ever was in the rest of mankind Now several beautiful things gratifie variously White is esteem'd amongst Northern Nations because there issues out of white bodies a certain brightness or light agreeable to the eyes of those people But the same colour loseth that pre-eminence proportionably to a nearer approach toward the South CONFERENCE XXVII I. Whether the World grows old II. Of Jealousie I. Whether the World grows old WEre we in those Commonwealths where the voice of the people is admitted this Question would be very easie to resolve there being no body but proclaims that the world is declining and thinks that we are now in the very dregs of Time 'T is the ordinary discourse of old men But possibly herein they resemble the old woman who when she was grown blind said the Sky was overcast or those who sailing from the shore think that the earth retreats back while 't is themselves that are in motion These good people no longer finding the same gust and pleasure in the delights of the world that they found in their youth lay the fault upon the world instead of imputing the same to themselves Indeed their accusation is too old to be receivable having been from all time which made Horace say that to represent an old man right he must be introduc'd praising the time past Yet we may give their reasons the hearing They affirm that every thing which hath had a beginning and must have an end grows old That since all the parts of the world are variously corrupted the same ought to be believ'd of the whole That as for the Heavens all the observations of Ptolomy are found at this day false unless they be rectifi'd by the addition of certain motions of Trepidation which cause all the rest to vary In the Air the inconstancy of it and the irregularity of the Seasons makes us not know when we are sure of any the Spring sometimes appearing in Winter as at present and Winter in Autumn In the Sea you see it dismembers Provinces gains and loses whole Countries by its inundations and recessions And as for the Earth it is very probably shown that in time it must naturally return to its first state in which it was all cover'd with water and consequently void of men and most part of animals and plants which make the three noblest parts of the Universe For they who endeavour the raising of low grounds know that the same is accomplish'd by giving entrance to the slime which the water brings thither and which gathers together at the bottom whence it comes to pass that Valleys through which torrents and brooks of rain-rain-water pass grow hollower daily the impetuousness of the water sweeping the surface of the earth into rivers and thence into the Sea Wherefore though the world should not end by Conflagration as it must do since all the rain-rain-waters those of rivers and brooks go into the Sea and carry thither with them the upper parts of the Earth which is that that makes the waters so troubled and muddy it is necessary that this earth in time fill up the cavities of the Sea and reduce it to exact roundness and then the water having no longer any channel must as necessarily cover the whole surface of the earth excepting perhaps some points of rocks which will decay and fall down in time as about fifteen years ago a mountain in Suizzerland by its fall crush'd under its ruines the Town of Pleurs which by that means made good the importance of its name And although this may not come to pass till after divers thousands of years if the world should last so long yet it is not the less feasible since it is a doing at the present though by little and little The second said That since the end of the world is to be supernatural it shall not proceed from old age that though the earth were all cover'd over with waters yet the world would not perish for all that since the Elements would subsist yea the same earth and the winds by succession of time would come to imbibe and dry up those waters and so again discover the face of the earth That if one of the Elements be diminish'd another increases if the water evaporate the air is augmented if the air be condens'd it addes to the water and so the world cannot fail by all the alterations and changes which happen in simple and mixt bodies For its order consists in the alternative succession of various dispositions and not in one sole disposition like a circle which being finite in its parts is infinite in its whole Moreover if the world perish it must be either by the annihilation of its whole or of its parts or else by their transmutation into some matter which cannot be part of the world Not the first for there needs no less a miracle to annihilate then to create and therefore nothing is annihilated Not the second for mixt bodies cannot be chang'd but either into other mixt bodies or into the Elements now these are transmuted one into another wherefore in either case they are still parts of the world The most active of the Elements Fire without the miracle of the last conflagration if you consider it in the Sphere which some have assign'd to it it cannot burn the rest for should it act in its own Sphere which it doth not it would at length be extinguish'd for want of air into which consequently part of it would be converted or if you place it in the subterranean parts the vapours and the exhalations which it would raise from the Sea and the Earth being resolv'd into water and air would always preserve the being of those Elements Moreover the world would not serve at the day of judgement as Philo the Jew saith for a Holocaust to its author if it were then found defective in any of its parts The third said If you take the world for all the inferiour bodies contain'd under the concave of the Moon it is certain that it changeth For the Heavens are not alter'd according to their substance though they be according to their places But it is impossible that the Elements acting so powerfully one against another by their contrary qualities be not at length weakned and their activities refracted and impair'd and particularly the earth wherein those subterranean fires do the same thing that natural heat doth in animals when by the consumption of their radical humidity it makes them grow dry and old External Agents as the Air and the Celestial Bodies which in time undermine Palaces of Marble Brass and other bodies contribute greatly to this alteration of the earth which is the mark and but of actions of the superiour bodies by whom it suffers incessantly This declination is observ'd in Plants which had
contributed not at all to the crime as 't is to ascribe the glory of a virtuous action to him who not onely did nothing towards it but with-stood it as much as he could The Lawyers hold that a Contract made in secret and without calling all the parties who have interest in it cannot prejudice them so neither can what Wives do without privity of their Husbands be any thing to their prejudice Besides if the dishonour were real it would be so every where and to all Men but there are whole Nations who account not themselves dishonour'd by the business The Abyssines take it not ill that their High Priest lyes with their Wives on the marriage-night to purifie them The people of the East Indies permit the injoyment of their Wives to those who give them an Elephant being proud of having a Wife valu'd at so high a price The Romans though the most honourable of their time were so little sollicitous what their Wives did in their absence that returning out of the Country they alwayes us'd to send some body to advertise them of their arrival so afraid they were to surprize them And indeed Pompey Caesar Augustus Lucullus Cato and many other great personages were not the less esteem'd for having the Bulls feather given them by their Wives The Fourth said Horns are not alwayes imaginary since Histories assures us that they have really gor'd some persons as M. Benutius Cippus Praetor of Rome the Ignominy likewise of them is real and to say otherwise is to go against the common opinion For since Honour is in him who honours not in him who is honour'd the reason of contraries being alike dishonour shall consequently come from him who dishonours Now 't is certain most agree in this that Cuckolds are derided though they know nothing of it For as true honour may be given to one who deserves it not so may he be really dishonour'd who deserves nothing less A good man publickly punish'd is truly dishonour'd though he be innocent for 't is requisite that the Sovereign Courts take away the infamy which he has incurr'd A Virgin unwillingly deflower'd is yet dishonour'd by it and the vicious deportments and ignominious deaths of men derive shame to their relations Much more therefore shall the shame attending the disgraceful lightness of a wife reflect upon her husband for being two in one flesh that which touches one touches the other also the innocence of the husbands who are also usually styl'd good remaining intire So that one may be dishonour'd and yet be vertuous as also a Cuckold and an honest man together 5. The Fifth said That he counted it strange that Horns were the sign of infamy and ignominy in Marriage considering that otherwise they were always badges of grandeur and power When one dreams that Horns are upon his forehead 't is always a presage of dignity Thus at the birth of Cl. Albinus a Cow of his Father's having brought forth a Calfe with two red Horns the Augurs foretold the Empire to him which accordingly came to pass And to honour those horns which had been the omen of his grandeur he caus'd them to be hung up in Apollo's Temple The Majesty of Jupiter Hammon Bacchus and Pan is represented by horns Plenty also is signifi'd by a horn fill'd with all sort of fruits The Sixth said Though every one's honesty and vertue depend on himself and not on the actions of another yet the point of his honour and esteem is drawn from divers circumstance and conditions of things neerly pertaining to him which the tyranny of common or rather phantastick opinion have establish'd as marks either to raise or blemish the lustre of his reputation Hence we value those most who are descended of an illustrious Family though they have no other mark of it but the name Because to speak after the common rate our happiness or infelicity and the compleat degree of our reputation are the effects or consequents of what we call ours Now our Kindred are not only ours but are accounted to be our own blood and our other selves and wives are not only so much to their husbands or part of them but they are the half of whatever they are But if a part resent alteration by the affection of a part 't is impossible but the one half must be infected with the ignominious impudicity wherewith the other is contaminated 'T is true all crimes ought to be personal but because men have mistakingly plac'd their happiness in external things instead of establishing it in vertue which they ought to have in themselves 't is not to be wonder'd if having made the principal of the accessory they bear the punishment of so doing Besides for chastisement of this folly their felicity is never perfect because they constitute it in that which is without their own power Let it not be said that since women derive all their lustre and splendor from their husbands they cannot either increase or diminish the same for the Moon receives all its light from the Sun nevertheless when she is ill dispos'd or looks with a bad aspect or is in conjunction with him in the Nodes and especially when she is apply'd to some infortunate Planet she covers his face with darkness and clouds at least to our view though indeed he loses nothing of his clearness or light A comparison the more sutable to a woman of bad life in that the one and the other shine and rejoyce most at distance from him of whom they receive their light and in that they do not approach neer him but to make horns and lastly in that they are never so sad as when they are with him In brief a Cuckold cannot avoid blame either of defect of judgement in having made so bad a choice or of indiscretion weakness and want of authority in not being able to regulate the deportment of his inferior or else of little wit in not discovering her artifices to remedy the same And should he always avoid them yet he will still have the name of unhappy and in the Age we now live in unhappiness or misery draw shame and contempt along with them CONFERENCE XXIX I. Whence the saltness of the Sea proceeds II. Which is the best Food Flesh or Fish I. Whence the Saltness of the Sea proceeds ALthough the water and other Elements were in the beginning created in their natural purity and without mixture of any forreign quality such as saltness is to the water which covering the whole surface of the earth would have made the same as barren as the Sea shores yet it seems that in the separation of things every one going its several way God assign'd its peculiar qualities not only for its own preservation but for the general benefit Thus the water being retir'd into the Ocean receiv'd saltness lest that great humid body coming to be heated by the Sun might putrifie its flux and reflx and its motion much slower then that
of rivers not being sufficient alone to hinder it if the salt did not preserve it from corruption as it doth all other things and to the end that its waters being salt and by that means more terrene and thick might bear not onely Whales and other Fishes of enormous bignes but also the great Ships necessary for the commerce of distant Climates and the mutual transportation of commodities wherewith each Country abounds whereby the life of men is render'd far more delightful For experience teaches that an egge will swim in a Vessel of water sufficiently salted but sink in fresh And the Chirurgions have no surer way then this to know whether the Lixivium or Lee wherewith they make their potential Cauteries be strong enough Now the Ocean imparts its saltness to all Seas which have communication with it Whence the Caspian Sea is fresh because 't is separated from it And 't is no more strange that saltness is natural to the Sea then that many other bodies amongst Plants and Minerals have a measure of it The earth is almost every where salt as appears by Salt-peter Vitriol Alum and other kinds of Salt which are drawn out of pits little deeper then the surface and crust of the earth which is incessantly wash'd and temper'd with water And amongst Plants Sage Fearn and many other taste of salt which being augmented turns into the bitterness and acrimony which is found in Wormwood Spurge and many other Herbs all which yea every other body partake thereof more or less as Chymical operations manifest The Second said Being we are not to recur to supernatural causes unless natural fail us methinks 't is more fit to refer the Sea's saltness to some natural cause then to the first creation or to the will of the Creator I conceive therefore that the cause of this Saltness is the Sun who burning the surface of the earth leaves as 't were hot and dry ashes upon it which by rain are carried into the rivers and thence into the Sea Besides the Sun elevating continually from the Sea by its heat the freshest parts of it as being the lightest and neerest the nature of air the more terrestrial and salt remain in the bottom or else the sea-Sea-waters gliding through the bowels of the earth to maintain springs leave thicker parts as those dry and acid ashes behind which by their mixture produce this saltness and bitterness in the Sea Nor is it to be wonder'd that the heavenly bodies draw so great a quantity of waters out of the Sea for though the Vessel be very large yet is the heat of the Sun able to heat it since it reaches so deep as to concoct Metals in the entrails of the earth And if it were not thus all the rivers disgorging themselves into the sea it would long ago have overflown the earth But to know how nature makes the saltness of the Sea let us see by what artifice Salt is made in our Pits 'T is made by the same activity of the Sun which draws up the sweet parts of the water and condenseth the salt Whereby it appears that it is but a further progress of the first action of the same Sun who dispos'd the Sea-water to become the matter of such Salt The Third said A thing may become salt two ways either by separation of the sweetest and subtilest parts and leaving only the earthy which come neer the nature of salt or else by mixture of some other body either actually or potentially salt The Sea acquires saltness by both these ways For first it hath two sorts of water the one subtile and light the other thick and terrestrial after the Sun hath drawn up in vapour the more subtile of these waters and by its continual heat concocted the thick and terrene remainder which having not been able to ascend by reason of its ponderosity remains on the upper part of the water and gives it that saltness which is again remov'd when the sea-water being strain'd and filtr'd through the earth or by other ways formerly mention'd in this Company in discourse concerning the original of waters comes forth in springs and rivers which no longer retain the nature of their source because they bring not along with them the earthy part in which the saltness consists Now that the salt part is more gross then the fresh appeares in that the former becomes thick and the latter not Thus the freshest things become salt by the fire whose heat separates the subtile parts from the thick As for the second way as the waters carry with them the qualities of places through which they pass whence they are mineral or metallick and as in a Lixivium fresh water passing through ashes becomes salt so the sea-waters acquire and increase their saltness by mixture of salt bodies such as are the Hills of salt as Cardan holds which are produc'd anew like Sulphur and Bitumen in burning Mountains Now this saltness is caus'd either by rains full of mineral spirits which abound in acrimony or by the cinereous parts of the earth scorch'd by the Sun or lastly as things pass'd through the fire taste always of an Empyreuma or turning-to so the subterranean fires likely to be as well in the bottom as in the middle and borders of the Sea as they are ordinarily impart bitterness and saltness to it For as for those who say 't is nothing else but the sweat of the earth they speak saith Aristotle more like Poets then Philosophers And this metaphor is more proper to explain the thing then shew its true cause The Fourth said That all secrets consisting in the salt if we believe the Chymists 't is not to be wonder'd if it be difficult to find the cause of it it being the property of secrets to be hid And to practise the Rule which injoyns to credit every expert person in his own Art I shall for this time be contented with this reason drawn from their Art They hold the Salt to be the balsam of nature the connecter of the body with the spirit for they alot spirits to all bodies so that every body lasts more or less according to the salt which it hath and the salt in like manner remains longer or shorter according as it is fix'd or volatile This being premis'd I should think that this great compounded body the World needing a great quantity of Salt answerable to its vast bulk Nature could not find any other sufficient receptacle for it but the Ocean II. Whether is the better Flesh or Fish Upon the second Point it was said The word Best is taken at the table and amongst food with reference to the Taste in Physick for most healthful or wholsome In Divinity for most conducible to salvation and proper to the soul In Policy for most commodious to the publick For as the word good is a Transcendent passing through all the Categories of substances and accidents its comparatives also do the like Leaving to Divines the
considerations which pertain to them in this matters in which they are much puzzled to apply a Rule to so many different Climates Seasons and Persons we may here make comparison of Flesh and Fish in the other three Cases In regard of the state of Physick and the Table All which have this common That it cannot be pronounc'd as to one of them which of the two is best Flesh or Fish because 't is requisite to have regard to places and persons To begin with Policy 'T is true a time must be left to fowls to lay their egges hatch and bring up their young to other animals to suckle theirs otherwise the earth and the air would soon be depopulated which time is usually the spring But being this season and all others follow the course of the Sun in the Zodiack which renders it various according to the diversity of Climates we cannot find a time equally and universally proper for that release of Animals Besides there are Countries as England and Holland so abounding with fish and persons addicted to fishing that nature offering them fish of her own accord and their land not producing enough of other food for its inhabitants the meaner people could not live of their industry unless they were oblig'd by political Rule to live a certain time with Fish and abstain from Flesh. As on the contrary there 's such a defect of fish in the middle parts of Spain that they keep fast with the least nutritive parts of Animals Feet and Entrails Wherefore a general political rule cannot be establish'd but as in most other things of the world we must make use of a leaden Rule and conform it to the stone Secondly for Physick the Case is much the same For by reason of the variety of Tempers fish will not only be wholsome but also appointed by the Physitians to some persons as to the Cholerick whose stomacks need refreshment True it is there are found more to whom Fish do's hurt then otherwise But this proceeds from satiety and too great repletion which would not be so frequent if we liv'd in the ancient Frugality For we see they who eat no supper receive less hurt from fish then others do But 't is always true that fish cannot be absolutely pronounc'd wholesome or unwholsome As for the goodness of Taste that is yet more controverted as depending on the several phancies of men The Second said That to judge this Question well the same conditions are to be observ'd as in Juridical Sentences in which alliances or friendships are allowable causes of exception and credit is not given to those whose converse and particular inclination to one of the Parties renders their judgements suspected No doubt he who had been fed with Stock-fish from his youth and lov'd it so much that being arriv'd to the Pontifical Dignity even then made his most delicious fare of it would have concluded for fish On the contrary most others whose stomacks agree not so well with fish will give the advantage to flesh 'T is true If it be here as 't is in petty Courts where he who cries loudest carries the Cause then fish to whom nature has deny'd the use of voice must lose it unless we maturely weigh their reasons 1. The value and delicacy of Meats is usually rated according to their rarity and the scarcity of getting them and therefore Heliogabalus never ate flesh but on the main Sea nor fish but when he was very distant from it Now Nature has separated fish from the habitation of men and divided the one from the other as much as the water is from the Earth 2. There 's no kind of taste upon land which is not found in the water nor any terrestrial animal but hath its like in the Sea But we cannot say the same of Fishes that there are terrestrial animals which have all their several tastes and this proceeds from the almost infinite number of Fishes good to eat whereas the Kinds of land-animals serviceable for man's food are very few To that we may answer such as ask whether there be more delicacy in Flesh or Fish as those who should ask whether Table is more delicious that of a Citizen cover'd only with his ordinary fare or that of Lucullus abounding besides with all imaginable rarities You have some fishes who have nothing of fish but the name having the consistence colour smell and taste of flesh and the Hashes and Bisques made of them differ not from others But you have no flesh which hath the taste of fish 3. Animals more subject to infirmities and diseases ought less to delight our taste and make us more afraid of them Now land-animals are more sickly then fish whose healthiness occasion'd the Proverb As sound as a Fish 4. Our taste is chiefly delighted in variety Now there is not only incomparably more sorts of Fishes then of other Animals but each of them is prepar'd after many more fashions then Flesh there being some Fish which is dress'd five several ways whereas when you have roasted a Partrich or made a hash Capilotade or the Cook is at the end of his skill 5. That which cloyes most is less delicate as we see the most delicious things are those which whet instead of satiating the Appetite presently Now Fish fills less then Flesh. 6. 'T is a more friable food and easier to be grownd by the teeth then the flesh of land-animals and consequently more delicate 3. The Third said There 's no flesh how delicate soever which comes neer the odour and savour of the little Pulpe the fish Spaga taken in Sicily the Tunny and Atolle of Phrygia of those little fishes call'd Cappes found in the stones in Marca d' Ancona and infinite others so esteem'd by the ancients that they reckon'd amongst their greatest Delights Ponds and Conservatories of Fish which they nourish'd even with the bodies of their Slaves to the end they might be more tender and delicate as 't is reported of Lucullus and Pollio who caus'd theirs to be devour'd by Lampreys Nor is fish less nutritive then flesh seeing there are whole Nations as the Ichthyophagi which have no other bread but fish of which dry'd in the Sun and reduc'd into powder they make a bread as nourishing as ours By which means Fish serves both for bread and for meat which Flesh cannot be made to do The Fourth said That the more affinity food hath with our nature the more agreeable it is to us it being the property of aliment to be like the thing nourish'd Now 't is certain there 's more resemblance between our bodies and those of land-animals then those of fish considering that the former breathe the same air with us and are nourish'd with the same things Besides aliment the more concocted and digested is also the more delicate raw flesh is not so delicate as dress'd nor boil'd as roast upon which the Fire acts more and the parts of animals neerest the heart
not be made in the Eye but in the Air. CONFERENCE XLVIII I. Whether every thing that nourishes an Animal ought to have life II. Of Courage I. Whether every thing that nourishes an Animal ought to have Life EVery thing in the world is effected by an order and disposition of causes and means subalternate one to another God makes himself known to Men by the marvellous effects of Nature The immaterial and incorruptible Heavens communicate their virtues and influences here below first through the Element of Fire which is most subtile and then through the Air which is most pure in the upper Region more gross in the middle and in the lower infected by the vapours and exhalations of the Water and Earth and all compounds in the production whereof Nature observes such order as that she begins alwayes with the more simple and never passes from one extremity to another without a medium Thus the Plant springeth out of the ground like an herb becomes a shrub and then a tree The Embryo lives onely a vegetable life at first then arrives to motion and lastly is indu'd with reason Even in civil life too speedy advancements are taken ill whereas he who grows great by degrees do's not so much offend the Minds of others and provokes less jealousie Hence also the deaths and especially the violent astonish us more then the births of Men because they come into the world and grow up by little and little but are cut off in a moment So likewise the burning of Cities and overthrow of States cause the more admiration because sudden vicissitudes seem less conformable to the order of Nature then their progressive erections That which is observ'd in the composition and generation of bodies holds also in their nutrition for both of them proceed from the same Faculty and are almost the same thing For to nourish is to be chang'd into the substance of that which is nourish'd Nature makes no change from one term to another by a violent motion and progress but by little and little of a matter capable of being converted into the substance of the living thing as onely that is which hath life it being as impossible to make a living thing of that which never was such and consequently whose matter hath no disposition to become such as 't is to make a thing be which cannot be The Second said setting aside Cardan's opinion who extends life even to Stones as there are three orders of living things so there are three that have need of nutrition Plants Animals and Men. Plants are nourish'd with the juice of the earth Animals for the most part with Plants and Men better with the Flesh of Animals then with any other thing by reason of the resemblance of their natures The first order is not here spoken of because Plants must needs be nourish'd with that which hath not had life unless we will say that the universal spirit informing the earth gives it vertue to produce and nourish them The two latter are only in question and I think it no more inconvenient that what hath not had life may serve for aliment and be converted into the substance of a living creature then that the earth and water simple elements in respect of a Plant are assimilated by it and made partakers of vegetable life For as fire makes green wood combustible by exsiccating its humidity so an Animal may render such matter fit for its nourishment which was not so before Not only the Oestrich is nourish'd with Iron which it digests Pigeons and Pullen with gravel the stones of which are found in their crops smooth and round but also men may be nourish'd with bread made of earth And the Spaniards are much addicted to the use of an earth call'd Soccolante which they mingle with water and sugar its terrene consistence refuting their opinion who hold it to be the juice of a Plant. Yea some in Sieges have supported their lives with inanimate things as with bread of Slate as 't is reported of that of Sancerre And moreover 't is manifest that some sick people are nourish'd with water alone for many days together The Third said Nutrition is made by the help of heat which alters and divides the aliments and reduces them to a most simple substance capable of being converted into every similary part the property of heat being to separate heterogeneous things and conjoyn those of the same nature Hence things least compounded are more easily assimilated And as among Medicaments so among aliments the more simple are the best and make fewest excrements The air doth not only refresh the natural heat but serves for food and aliment to the spirits our best and noblest parts with which air alone as the common opinion holds the Camelion is nourish'd as the Grashopper with dew which is nothing but concreted air and the Jews were fed fourty years with Manna which is a kind of dew for the Scripture saith it vanish'd with the heat of the Sun yea the Manna which is found at this day in Calabria other places is capable of nourishing an animal and yet it never had life but fall's from heaven upon the stones from which it is collected The same may be said of hony which is a kind of dew too falling upon the leaves flowers of Plants and serving for food to Bees who only gather it without other preparation And a sort of Flyes call'd Pyraustae live with nothing but fire as many Fishes do of plain water Moles and Worms of simple earth Antimony and divers other Minerals purg'd from their malignant qualities serve for aliment and they who are expert in Chymistry make a kind of bread of them The Magistery of Pearls and Coral many precious Stones and Gold it self by the consent of all antiquity wonderfully repair our radical moisture by their fix'd spirits whence they are call'd Cordials The Fourth said If man were homogeneous and all of a piece he would be not only immortal according to Hippocrates but need no food which is necessary only for reparation of what substance is consum'd now nothing would be destroy'd in man were it not for the heterogeneous pieces of which he is made up Wherefore since we are nourish'd with the same things whereof we are compos'd and we are not compos'd of one pure and simple element but of four it follows that whatever nourishes us must be mix'd of those four Elements and therefore the more compounded it is as animate things are the more proper it is to nourish Otherwise were the aliment pure it could not be assimilated And although it could be assimilated yet it could not nourish the whole body but only either the terrestrial parts if it were earth or the humours if it were water or the spirits if it were fire or air The Fifth said The life of man cost Nature dear if it must be maintain'd at the expence of so many other animals lives If you say that being
the campaigne War is the fair where wares are had best cheap and in sack'd Cities commodities are taken without weighing and Stuffs are not measur'd but with the Pike instead of the Ell if any complain there needs no more but to imitate Brennus's treating with the Romans besiedg'd in the Capitol cast the sword into the balance it will carry it Wherefore being Master of all Arts it is more necessary then they For he that is strongest finds sufficient of every thing The Seventh said As amongst the Arts some have others subservient to them as the Ephippians to the Military Art Chyrurgery Pharmacy the Gymnastick and all that relate to Health to Medicine or Physick Carpentry Masonry and others employ'd about building to Architecture and these Master Arts are call'd Architectonical So there is one above all these which is Policy the Eye and Soul of the State which governs all Arts gives them their rewards and punishes their defects sets what price it pleases upon things affords convenient place for the merit of every one sends Armies into the field and calls them back according to the necessity of affairs hath care of Piety and Justice establishes Magistracy appoints quarters to Souldiers and gives free exercise to all other Arts. All which considerations and accounts argue it the most necessary of all CONFERENCE LXXIII I. Of the Earthquake II. Of Envy I. Of the Earthquake IRregular motions are as strange as regular are agreeable especially those of bodies destinated to rest as the Earth is being the immoveable centre about which the whole fabrick of the world is turn'd For though the whole Heaven cannot rest any more then the whole Earth move yet the parts of them may the Scripture informing us that Joshuah made the Sun stand still that he might have time to pursue the Amorites and every Age having experiences of Earthquakes To which Aristotle ascribes the appearing of a new Island in the Pontick Sea call'd Heraclia and of another call'd Sacrea Many Geographers affirm that the Islands of Rhodes and Delos were produc'd by the like cause and that Sicily sometimes joyn'd to Italy was separated from it by an Earthquake whence the place of separation is still call'd by the Greek word Rhegium which signifies separation and fracture Pliny affirms that the Island of Cyprus was by this means divided from Syria and Euboea from Boeotia Histories tell of some Mountains that have clash'd together contrary to the Proverb which saith that they never meet of Towns transported to some distance from their first situation as hapned by an Earthquake in Syria in the ninth year of Constantinus Copronomus of others swallowed up as sometimes the greatest part of the City of Sparta upon which at the same time fell a part of Mount Taygetus which completed its ruine twenty thousand inhabitants of which City were also overwhelm'd by an other Earthquake by the relation of Diodorus about the 78. Olympiade Josephus reports that thirty thousand Jews were swallow'd up by another And Justin that when Tigranes King of Armenia became Master of Syria there hapned so dreadful an Earthquake that a hundred and thirty thousand Syrians perish'd by it Four hundred years agoe twelve thousand houses were shaken down at Lisbon Italy was much endamag'd in the year 1116 by one which lasted forty dayes principally Tuscany Puglia the Territory of Venice and Campagnia where twelve Cities perish'd and that of Pompey was swallow'd up in Winter which season neverthelesse is accounted free from it Four years agoe the City of Naples was horribly shaken especially the borders of Mount Visuvius The common opinion refers these effects to a dry Exhalation which makes the same concussion in the belly of the Earth as in that of a cloud shattering many times both the one and the other when it cannot otherwise get free from its confinement how hard or dense soever the bodies be that inclose it The Second said That the causes of Earthquakes are either Divine or Astrological or Physical The first have no other foundation but the Will of God who thereby oftentimes manifests to Men his justice and power and sometimes contrary to the course of ordinary and natural causes Such was that at the death of our Saviour in the 18th year of Tiberius which was universal and wherewith twelve Cities of Asia perish'd and that mention'd by Sigonius hapning in the year 343. under Constantine the Arrian Emperor whereby the City of Neocaesaria was wholly swallow'd up except the Catholick Church and its Bishop The Astrological causes are if we may credit the professors of this Art the malignant influences of Jupiter and Mars in the Houses of Taurus Virgo and Capricorn But as the first are too general so these are very uncertain being built for the most part upon false principles as also those which suppose the Earth a great Animal whose tremors are made in the same manner as those which befall other Animals Wherefore holding to the most perceptible causes I conceive with Democritus that torrents of rain coming to fill the concavities of the Earth by their impetuousnesse drive out the other waters and that upon their motion and swaying from one side to another the Earth also reels this way and by and by the other or rather that these Torrents drive out the winds impetuously as Air issues out of a bottle when it is filling which wind repells and agitates the Earth till it find some issue whence also come the sounds and lowings which accompany Earthquakes As is seen in Hydraulick instruments which by arificial mixing Air and Water when they are impell'd into pipes fit to receive the same excite sounds like those emitted by the wind-pipe of Animals agitated with the wind of their lungs and moistned with the salivous liquor or natural water The Third said That he could not be of their mind who because water is found by digging to a good depth in the Earth therefore interpret that place literally where 't is said That God hath founded the Earth upon the Water upon which it floats and that according to their agitation the Earth is like a Ship which fluctuates in a tempestuous Sea and lyes even and still in a calm since if this were so then the whole Earth should tremble at the same time which is contrary to experience The opinion of Anaximenes is more probable that as part of the Earth upon a droughth after a wet season cleaves and crackles so the same happens to Regions and whole Countries The Fourth said That if this opinion were true then they would begin increase diminish and cease by degrees nor would they last long Yet 't is observ'd some have continu'd forty days yea six moneths as that of Constantinople under Theodosius the younger and miraculously ceas'd upon the first singing of those words by all the people Sanctus Sanctus c. Aristotle also makes mention of some that lasted two years the cause whereof depends either upon the quality or
known by the Senses unless by its Second Qualities which arising from the mixture of the First it follows that the Elements which have no other cannot be the object of our Senses For the First Qualities would not be perceptible by our Senses if they lodg'd in a Simple Element As it appears by the flame of Aqua Vitae which burnes not by reason of the thinness of its Matter By Ashes which while it is making is more Light then heavy By the Aire which dryes instead of moistning and yet is call'd the First Humid Body And by Water which following the qualities of the Neighbouring Bodies shews that it cannot be term'd of it self either hot or cold II. Of Perpetual Motion At the Second Hour it was said That the Perpetual Motion to which this Hour was design'd is not meant of Motion to Substance which is Generation and Corruption by reason of which Compounded Bodies are in Perpetual Motion For in Corruptible Things every Moment is a degree of Corruption Nor is it meant of Motion to Quantity which is Augmentation and Diminution nor of that which is made to Quality which is Alteration but of Local Motion And again the Inquiry is not about the possibility of Local Motion in Animals nor about running-water or Fire to whom it is natural as appears in Mills which are upon Rivers and Turn-spits or Engines which the Smoke causeth to turn about Wherefore his Invention who exactly fastned a Girdle to his skin which rising and falling as he took his breath serv'd for a perpetual spring to a Watch that hung at it which by that means needed not winding up was not the Perpetual Motion which we mean No more was that which proceeded from the wings of a little Wind-mill plac'd at the mouth of a Cave which the Vapour continually issuing forth caus'd alwayes to move But it must be in a subject naturally unmoveable made by Art to continue its Motion And this is prov'd possible I. Because as Hermes saith That which is below is as that which is above Now we see above the Perpetual Motion of the Heavenly Bodies by example of which it is certain that this Motion must be Circular In the Second place Nature hath not given us a desire of Things impossible Now an infinite number of good wits shew by their search the desire which they have of it Thirdly it is held that Archimedes had it whence it was feign'd that Jupiter was jealous of him In the Fourth place it seems that if a very uniform Circle could be put exactly upon a Pivot or Spindle and were set in Motion it would never stop any more then the Heavens because it doth not poise or gravitate upon its Centre so long as it is turning as it appears by a Stone which poiseth not in the Circle made on high in turning it round and so nothing resisting the external Agent the Motion must last as long as the impression lasteth and the impression must last alwayes because nothing resists it but on the contrary the Agitation continues it Thus of all the Models of Engines contriv'd to move perpetually we see not one that makes so much as one turn Whereas a plain wheel makes above a thousand though it be not exactly plac'd upon its Centre and the Poles be not two simple points as they ought to be if that Art could come to perfection in which Case the effect of Perpetual Motion would follow The Second said That he held it for impossible for that it is repugnant not onely as to the Efficient Cause which being limited and finite cannot produce an infinite Effect but also as to the very form of that Motion which must be either Direct Circular or Mixt. If it be Direct it will be made from one term to another in the one of which its Motion ending it cannot be perpetual And because the most certain Principle of this Direct Motion cometh from Gravity which tendeth from high downwards when it shall be arriv'd there nothing will be able to mount it up again Gravity having found its Centre and place or if the Motion be violent the impression being ended it cannot re-produce it self of its own accord in the Engine otherwise it would be animated and therefore it will cease from Motion If the Motion be Circular as in this effect it would be the most proper in imitation of that of the Heavens this moving Circle shall be in all parts either of equal or different weight If it be equal throughout it shall not turn at all of it self one part having no advantage over another If it be unequal and there be put for example four pound to raise up three it will happen that when the greatest weight hath gotten the lowest place the lighter parts will not be able to raise up the heavier and so the Motion will have an End Now if the Direct and Circular Motion are incapable of this perpetuity the mixt or compounded of both shall be so too So that it seemeth impossible by reason of the gravity of the matter not to mention its corruptibility to compose a Machine or Engine that moves alwayes And were there any ground to think of it some have conceiv'd it might be done with the Load-stone which hath a Virtue of attracting to it self on one side and driving away on the other and so by continuing this little Motion which would be of no great benefit it might render the same perpetual But you ordinarily see that they who make these inquiries onely find rest in their Engines and Motion in their brains whereas they hop'd the contrary The Third said That it appears by that which they call the Roman Balance that the same weight hang'd neer the Centre weighes less then when it is more distant from it Consequently that disposing the weights which shall be round a wheel so as to be neer the Centre about one half thereof and distant from it the other half you shall have a Perpetual Motion which ought not to be accounted the less such though the Matter should last but a year yea but a day it sufficing for a night to that name that it lasts as long as its Matter as 't is seen in the Vice of Archimedes termed without End though it be made but of wood not by reason of its lasting but because the Vice being apply'd upon an indented wheel instead of entring into a screw there is no raising or letting it down as is practis'd in those of Presses He prov'd it further For that it is seen that by the help of that Vice without End by the instrument term'd Polyspaston and others of the like Nature a Child may easily lift up a weight of 10000 pounds Yea even to Infinity could the strength of the Cordage and the Instruments bear it For it follows that if a less weight can lift up a greater this greater will lift up a less which will be the Perpetual Motion which we inquire
it self and causes them to act and move in the Matter rightly dispos'd As for the Second Like as they argue that the world is finite round and corruptible because its parts are so So also it may be said that the world hath a Spirit which enlivens it since all its principal parts have a particular one for their Conservation Action and Motion the parts being of the same Nature with the whole This Universal Spirit is prov'd by the impotency of the Matter which of it self having no activity or principle of Life and Motion needeth some other to animate and quicken it Now particular Forms cannot do that for then they would be principles of that Virtue that is to say principles of themselves which is impossible Wherefore there must be some Superiour Form which is the Universal Spirit the principle of Action and Motion the Uniter of the Matter and the Form the Life of all Nature and the Universal Soul of the World Whence it may confidently be affirm'd that the World is animated but with what Soul or Spirit is the difficulty For if we prove by Local Motion or by that of Generation that a Plant or Animal are animated why may we not say the same of all the World since its more noble and principal parts afford evidence thereof As for the Heaven and the Stars they are in continual Motion which the more â—ober Opinion at this day confesseth to produce from their Internal Form rather then from the Intelligences which some would have fastned to the Spheres as a Potter to his wheel The Sun besides his own Motion which some call in controversie gives Life to all things by his heat and influences The Air Water and Earth afford also instances of this Life in the production and nourishing of Plants and Animals Thus the principal parts being animated this sufficeth for the Denomination of the whole seeing even in Man there are found some parts not animated as the Hair and the Nails As for the Last Point which is to know what this Universal Soul is there are many Opinions The Rabbins and Cabalists say that it is the RVAH ELOHIM that is the Spirit of God which moved upon Waters Trismegistus saith that it is a Corporeal Spirit or a Spiritual Body and elsewhere calleth it the Blessed GreenWood or the Green Lyon which causeth all things to grow Plato affirmeth it to be the Ideas The Peripateticks a certain Quintessence above the Four Elements Heraclitus and after him the Chymists that it is a certain Aethereal Fire For my part I conceive that if by this Spirit they mean a thing which gives Life and Spirit and Motion to all which is found every where and on which all depends there is no doubt but 't is the Spirit of God or rather God himself in whom and through whom we live and move But if we will seek another in created Nature we must not seek it elsewhere then in that corporeal creature which hath most resemblance with the Deity The Sun who more lively represents the same then any other by his Light Heat Figure and Power And therefore the Sun is that Spirit of the World which causeth to move and act here below all that hath Life and Motion The Second said That that Soul is a certain common Form diffus'd through all things which are moved by it as the wind of the Bellows maketh the Organs to play applying them to that whereunto they are proper and according to their natural condition So this Spirit with the Matter of Fire maketh Fire with that of Air maketh Air and so of the rest Some give it the name of Love for that it serves as a link or tye between all Bodies into which it insinuates it self with incredible Subtility which Opinion will not be rejected by the Poets and the Amorous who attribute so great power to it The Third said That the Soul being the First Act of an Organical Body and the word Life being taken onely for Vegetation Sensation and Ratiocination the world cannot be animated since the Heavens the Elements and the greatest part of Mixed Bodies want such a Soul and such Life That the Stoicks never attributed a Soul to this world but onely a Body which by reason of its Subtility is called Spirit and for that it is expanded through all the parts of the world is termed Vniversal which is the cause of all Motions and is the same thing with what the Ancients call'd Nature which they defined the Principle of Motion The reason of the Stoicks for this Universal Spirit is drawn from the Rarefaction and Condensation of Bodies For if Rarefaction be made by the insinuation of an other subtile Body and Condensation by its pressing out it follows that since all the Elements and mixt Bodies are rarifi'd and condens'd there is some Body more subtile then those Elements and mixts which insinuating it self into the parts rarifies them and makes them take up greater space and going forth is the Cause that they close together and take up less Now Rarefaction is alwayes made by the entrance of a more subtile Body and Condensation by its going out This is seen in a very thick Vessel of Iron or Brass which being fill'd with hot Water or heated Air and being well stop'd if you set it into the cold it will condense what is contain'd therein which by that means must fill less space then before Now either there must be a Vacuum in the Vessel which Nature abhorreth or some subtile Body must enter into it which comes out of the Air or the Water which fills that space Which Body also must be more subtile then the Elements which cannot penetrate through the thickness of the Vessel There is also seen an Instance of this in the Sun-beams which penetrate the most solid Bodies if they be never so little diaphanous which yet are impenetrable by any Element how subtile soever And because a great part of the Hour design'd for Inventions was found to have slip'd away during the Reciprocation of other reasons brought for and against this opinion some curiosities were onely mention'd and the examination of them referr'd to the next Conference In which it was determin'd first to treat of the Air and then to debate that Question Whether it is expedient in a State to have Slaves CONFERENCE VII I. Of the Air. II. Whether it be best for a State to have Slaves I. Of the Air. THe First said That he thought fit to step aside a little out of the ordinary way not so much to impugne the Maximes of the School as to clear them and that for this end he propros'd That the Air is not distinguish'd from the Water because they are chang'd one into the other For what else are those Vapours which are drawn up from the Water by the power of the Sun and those which arise in an Alembic or from boyling Water if we do not call them Air Now those Vapours are
nothing but Water rarifi'd and subtiliz'd by heat as also when they are reduc'd into Water by condensation this Water is nothing but Air condens'd And so Air and Water differ not but by Rarefaction and Condensation which are but Accident and consequently cannot make different species of Element Both the one and the other may be seen in the Aeolipila of Vitruvius out of which the heat of Fire causeth the Water which is therein to issue in the form of Air and an impetuous wind which is the very Image of that which Nature ordinarily doth I conceive also that the Air is neither hot nor moist nor light as Philosophers commonly hold For as to the First the Air is much more cold then hot and for one torrid Zone there are two cold Besides Heat is but Accidental to it being caus'd by the incidence and reflections of the rayes of the Sun So that this cause failing in the night when the Sun shines not or in Winter when its rayes are very oblique and their reflection weak or in the Middle Region whether the Reflection reacheth not the Air becometh cold and consequently in its natural quality since there is no External Cause that produceth that coldness As for the Second The Air dryeth more then it moistneth and if it moistneth it is when it is cold and condensed and consequently mix'd with many particles of Water and when it dryeth it is by its own heat For the Definition which Aristotle giveth of Humid and Moist is onely proper to every thing which is fluid and not stable and in this respect agrees to the Air which is fluid and gives way to all sorts of Bodies As for the Last which is its levity the harmony of the world by which all things conspire to union and so to one common Centre seemeth to contradict it For if the Air hath its Motion from the Centre the parts of the world might be disunited For the Air would escape away there being no restraint upon it by any External Surface Moreover if we judge the Air light because we see it mount above water we must also say that Wax and Oyle are light since we observe the same in them But that which they do is not mounting above the Water but being repell'd by the Water And so the principal of Motion being External the same is violent and not natural Whereas when the Air descends into the Well it descends thither naturally there being no External Cause of that descent For Vacuum not existing in Nature cannot produce this Effect Since according to the received Maxime Of a Thing which is not there can be no Actions Besides it would be it self-cause of its own destruction and do contrary to its own intention preserving Nature by this Action whereas it is an Enemy to it and seeketh the ruine thereof Lastly Since many Particles of Air being condens'd and press'd together give ponderosity to a thing as is seen in a Baloon or foot-ball it must needs be ponderous it self for many light Bodies joyn'd together are more light The Second said That the difference between Water and Air is as clear as either of those Elements For that the Vapours which arise from the Water by means of the Suns heat and the wind which issueth out of the abovesaid Vessel full of Water and placed upon the Fire cannot be call'd Air saving abusively But they are mixts actually compos'd of Water and Fire For the rayes of the Sun entring into the Water raise it into Vapour And the Fire infinuating it self by the Pores of the Vessel into the Water which it containeth causeth the same to come forth in the form of wind which is compos'd of Fire and Water Of Fire because the property of Fire being to mount on high it lifts up that subtiliz'd Water with it self Of Water because this Vapour hath some coldness and humidity whence meeting with a solid Body it is resolv'd into Water because the Fire alone passeth through the Pores of that Body Besides Water being moist and Air on the contrary dry as the precedent opinion importeth they cannot be the same thing And since all Alteration is made between two different things Water and Air transmuting one into another as it hath been said cannot be the same Lastly as there are two Elements whereof one is absolutely light as the Fire the other absolutely heavy as the Earth So there are two which are such but in comparison with the rest The Water compar'd with the Earth is light because it floateth above it The Air in comparison of the Water is light too because it is above it So that when it descendeth lower then the Water into the Caverns of the Earth 't is Nature that obligeth it to renounce its proper and particular interest for preserving the general one which is destroy'd by the Vacuum not that the Vacuum is the Cause thereof for it hath no existence And the Air wherewith the Baloon is fill'd rendreth the same more heavy because it is impure and mixt with gross Vapours Which it would not do were it pure and Elementary such as is that of which we are speaking which is not to be found in our Region The Common Opinion hath also more probability which holdeth that the Air is hot and moist Hot because it is rare and light which are effects of heat Moist because it is difficultly contain'd within its own bounds and easily within those of another Thence it is that the more Bodies partake of Air the more they have of those qualities As we see in Oyl which is hot being easily set on flame And Moist in that it greatly humecteth and easily expandeth it self on all sides But if the Air seemes sometimes to be cold 't is by accident by reason of the cold vapours wherewith it is fill'd at that time The Third said That he conceiv'd that contrarily the Air is cold and dry 1. Because it freezeth the Earth and Water in Winter and therefore is colder in either of them 2. Because it refresheth the Lungs and by its coolness tempereth the extreme heat of the Heart and of the other parts which it could not do if it were hot 3. Inasmuch as hot things expos'd to the Air are cooled which they would not be but at least preserve their heat being in a place of the same Nature 4. The more it is agitated the more it refresheth as we see by Fans because then the unessential things being seperated from it it is more close and united quite contrary to the other Elements which grow hot by being agitated 5. In the night time the more pure and serene and void of mixtures the Air is the colder it is 6. Thence it is that flame burnes less then boyling water or hot Iron because in flame there is a great deal of Air which being colder then Water and Iron represseth more the strength of the Fire Lastly since according to Aristotle Air doth not putrifie what is
a certain person having been cur'd by a fast of that duration it cannot be said that all dye of that wherewith some are cur'd II. Of the Echo Upon the Second Point it was said The Echo is a reflected multiply'd and reciprocal sound or a repercussion of sound made by hollow rocks or edisices by the windings of which it comes to be redoubled as the visible species is reflected in the Mirror It is made when the sound diffus'd in the Air is driven into some hollow smooth and solid Body which hinders it from dissipating or passing further but sends it back to the place from whence it came as the wall makes the ball rebound towards him that struck the same against it According as the sound is violent and the space little or great it returns sooner or slower and makes an Echo more or less articulate It may be hence gather'd whether Sound is produc'd by the Air or some other Body since fish have the use of their Ears in the Water and the voice passeth from one end of a Pike to the other without resounding in the Air. And which is more strange strike as softly as you please with your singer upon the end of a Mast lay'd along he that layes his Ear to the other end shall hear it better then your self and a third that doth the like at the middle shall hear nothing at all In the Church de la Dorade at Tholouze he that whispers at one end of the wall is heard at the other by reason of its smoothness On the contrary it is reported that in Scotland there is a stone call'd the Deaf-stone because they which are on one side of it hear not the noise no not of Trumpets sounding on the other the stone sucking up the sound as a sponge doth Water The Second said That the Image which we see of our selves in a Looking-glass being as it were alive and yet dumb is less admirable then the Echo which we hear not and yet hear complain sing and talk with us without Body and without understanding This Echo is not onely a resilition or reflexion of the sound or voice or rather the voice it self so reflected and sent back by the opposition of some solid Body which makes it return whence it came and stops its course and flux For then it would follow that as often as we speak we should hear Echoes seeing we never speak but there is made some resilition of our voice by means of the opposition of solid Bodies near us and encompassing us on every side And yet we seldom hear any thing but our bare voice or some confus'd murmur as it happens in new houses in Churches under a vault before a wall and other such places in which we ought to hear a very articulate Echo since the voice is reflected better there then elsewhere I think therefore then the Echo is made in the same manner as the reflection of the Sun 's light or of the rayes of any other fire whatsoever by hollow mirrors which unite that light and those rayes and so produce another fire For as fire cannot be produc'd by plain or convex mirrors which reflect but one ray in one and the same place and all sorts of concave or hollow mirrors cannot be proper for it because it is necessary that the cavity be dispos'd and made in such manner that it may be able to reflect a sufficient quantity of rayes in one and the same place which being conjoyn'd and united together excite again and re-kindle that fire from which they issu'd which seem'd vanish'd by reason of the dissipation of its heat and rayes So the Echo which is nothing but the same voice reanimated and reproduc'd by the concourse and reunion of several of its rayes dissipated and afterwards reflected into one and the same place where they are united and recollected together and so become audible a second time cannot be produc'd by bare walls and vaults which do not reflect and recollect a sufficient quantity of those rayes into one and the same place but onely resemble many of them near one another whence ariseth a murmuring or inarticulate Echo Now as Art imitates Nature and sometimes surpasses her so we find there are Burning Mirrors which re-unite the rayes of fire and in like manner there may be made Artificial Echoes without comparison more perfect then those wherewith chance and the natural situation of places have hitherto acquainted us Whereunto beside what I have already mention'd the Hyperbole the Parabole and chiefly the Oval greatly conduce with some other means which are treated of in the Cataptricks The Third said The Echo the Daughter of Solitude and Secretary of weak Minds who without distrusting her loquacity fruitlesly acquaint her with their secret thoughts teaches us not to declare our secrets to any person since even stones and rocks cannot conceal them but she especially affords entertainment to Lovers possibly because she ownes the same Father with Love namely Chance For as no Love is more ardent then that which arises from the unlook'd for glances of two Eyes from the collision of which issues a spark little in the beginning but which blown up by the violence of desires grows at length into a great flame so though Art studies to imitate the natural Echo and the pretty conceits of that Nymph yet it never equals her graces which she borrows onely from the casual occurrence of certain sinuosities of Rocks and Caverns in which she resides the rest of her inveiglements remain unknown to Men The Cause why Antiquity made her a Goddess All which we can truly say of her is to define her a reflection of the voice made by an angle equal to that of incidence Which is prov'd because the Echoes in narrow turnings are heard very near him that sings 2. Nature always works by the shortest way which is the streight therefore Reflection is made by the same 3. When the voice is receiv'd in a streight line it formes no distinct Echo because it is united with the same direct line whereby it was carry'd which by that means it dissipateth and scattereth The same happens in a convex line But if the Body which receives it be concave it will recollect it from the perpendicular of the speakers mouth towards that Body and 't is by the concourse of the voice reflected in that line that the Echo is form'd 4. The Body which receives the voice must be sonorous which none is except it be hollow From which four propositions I conceive the way may be deriv'd to imitate the Echo and tame that wood-Nymph in some manner The Fourth said Vitruvius was not ignorant of this Artifice having very dextrously imitated the Nature of the Echo by the convenient situation of some earthen vessels partly empty and observing a proportion of plenitude to vacuity almost like that which some Musicians make use of to represent their six voices And that which hath been made
that evil is the cause that we are never contented therewith I add further If it were possible to heap all the goods of the world into one condition and all kind of evils were banish'd from the same yet could it not fill the Appetite of our Soul which being capable of an infinite Good if she receive any thing below infinite she is not fill'd nor contented therewith Nevertheless this dissatisfaction doth not proceed from the infirmity and ignorance of the Humane Soul but rather from her great perfection and knowledge whereby she judging all the goods of the world less then her self the goods intermingled with miseries serve her for so many admonitions that she ought not to stay there but aspire to other goods more pure and solid Besides these I have two natural reasons thereof First Every Good being of it self desirable every one in particular may desire all the goods which all Men together possess Yet it is not possible for him to obtain them wherefore every one may desire more then he can possess Whence there must alwayes be frustrated desires and discontents Secondly The Desires of Men cannot be contented but by giving them the enjoyment of what they desire Now they cannot be dealt withall butas a bad Physitian doth with his Patients in whom for one disease that he cures he causeth three more dangerous For satisfie one Desire and you raise many others The poor hungry person asketh onely Bread give it him and then he is thirsty and when he is provided for the present he is sollicitous for the future If he hath money he is troubled both how to keep it and how to spend it Which caus'd Solomon after he had deny'd his Soul nothing that it desir'd to pronounce That All is vanity and vexation of Spirit The Third conceiv'd That the Cause of this Dissatisfaction is for that the conditions of others seem more suitable to us and for that our Election dependeth on the Imagination which incessantly proposeth new Objects to the Soul which she beholding afar off esteemes highly afterwards considering them nearer sees as the Fable saith that what she accounted a treasure is but a bottle of Hay The Fourth said That because every thing which we possess gives us some ground of disgust and we do not yet perceive the inconvenience of the thing we desire therefore we are weary of the present and hope to find less in the future Whence we despise the one and desire the other The Fifth added That Man being compos'd of two parts Body and Soul which love change it is necessary that he love it too Choose the best posture and the best food you will it will weary you in a little time Let the most Eloquent Orator entertain you with the most excellent Subject suppose God himself you will count his Sermon too long if it exceed two hours or perhaps less Is it a wonder then if the Whole be of the same Nature with the Parts The Sixth attributed the Cause of this Discontent to the comparison which every one makes of his own State with that of others For as a Man of middle stature seemes low near a Gyant so a Man of moderate fortune comparing his own with the greater of another becomes discontented therewith Wherefore as long as there are different conditions they of the lowest will always endeavour to rise to the greatest and for the taking away of this Displeasure Lycurgus's Law must be introduc'd who made all the people of Sparta of equal condition If it be reply'd that nevertheless they of the highest condition will be contented I answer that our Mind being infinite will rather fancy to it self Epicurus's plurality of worlds as Alexander did then be contented with the possession of a single one and so 't will be sufficient to discontent us not that there is but that there may be some more contented then our selves The Seventh said That the Cause hereof is the desire of attaining perfection which in Bodies is Light whence they are alwayes chang'd till they become transparent as Glass and in Spirits their satisfaction which is impossible For Man having two principles of his Actions which alone are capable of being contented namely the Vnderstanding and the Will he cannot satiate either of them One truth known makes him desire another The sign of a moderate Mind is to be contented with it self whereas that of a great Mind is to have alwayes an insatiable appetite of knowing Whence proceedeth this It is for that it knows that God created every thing in the world for it and that it cannot make use thereof unless it have an exact and particular knowledge of the virtues and properties of all things It knows also that it self was created for God and the knowledge of the Creatures is nothing but a means to guide it to that of God So that if it take those means which lead it to the end for the end it self it deceives it self and finds not the contentment which it seeks and will never find the same till it be united to its First Principle which is God who alone can content the Vnderstanding His Will is also hard to be satifi'd The more goods it hath the more it desires It can love nothing but what is perfect It finds nothing absolutely perfect but goodness it self For the Light and knowledge wherewith the Understanding supplieth it discover to it so many imperfections and impurities in the particular goods it possesseth that it distasts and despises them as unworthy to have entertainment in it Wherefore it is not to be wonder'd if Man can never be contented in this world since he cannot attain his utmost End in it either for Body or Soul CONFERENCE XIX I. Of the Flowing and Ebbing of the Sea II. Of the Point of Honour I. Of the Flux of the Sea THe First said That if there be any other cause of this Flux then the heaping together of the Waters from the beginning under the Aequinoctial by Gods Command whence they descend again by their natural gravity and are again driven thither by the obedience which they owe to that Command which is so evident that they who sail under the Aequator perceive them selves lifted up so high by the currents that are usually there that they are many times terrifi'd thereat there is none more probable then the Moon which hath dominon overall moist Bodies and augments or diminishes this Flux according as she is in the increase or the wane The Second said That the Moon indeed makes the Flux and Reflux of the Sea greater or less yea she governes and rules it because being at the Full she causeth a Rarefaction of its Waters But this doth not argue that she is the Efficient Cause of the said Flux The Sea rises at the shore when the Moon riseth in the Heaven and retires again when the Moon is going down their motions are indeed correspondent one to the other yet I know not how
that of the Moon is cause of that of the Sea For if it were then when the Moon is longest above our Horizon as in long dayes the ebbing and flowing would be greatest but it is equal and regular as well when the Moon is below the Horizon as above it And why also doth not she move the other Seas and all sorts of Waters as well as the Ocean The Third said That there are two sorts of Water in the Sea one terrene thick and viscous which contains the Salt the other thin sweet and vaporous such as that which Aristotle saith enters through the Pores of a vessel of wax exactly stop'd and plung'd to the bottome of the Sea This thin Water being heated is rarifi'd and turn'd into vapours which consequently require more room then before They seek for it but being restrain'd and inclos'd in the thick and viscous Water can find no issue and therefore make the Water of the Sea to swell and rise till that Exhalation be disengag'd from those thick Waters and then the Sea returnes to its natural state by falling flat and becoming level This is abundantly confirm'd by the Tydes which are alwayes greater in March and August then at other seasons because at that time more abundance of vapours is drawn up But why have not Lakes also an Ebbing and Flowing Because their Water being more thin le ts pass those vapours which the Sun hath stirr'd and so not being hinder'd from going away as those of the Sea are they do not make the Water rise and swell So Heat having subtiliz'd and converted into vapours the most tenuious parts of the Milk upon the Fire the thicker parts of the same coming to enclose them are the cause that it swells and rises up But when it is remov'd from the fire or its vapours have gotten passage by agitation it takes up no more roome then it did at first But it is not so with Water plac'd upon the Fire the rarity of its Body giving free issue to the vapours which the Heat excites in it The Jewish Sea is bituminous and therefore no more inflated then pitch possibly because the parts thereof being Homogeneous cannot be subtiliz'd apart For as for the Mediterranean Seas having no Flux and Reflux I conceive it is hindred by another motion from North to South because the Septentrional parts being higher then the Austral all Waters by their natural gravity tend that way The Fourth said I acknowledge with Aristotle that 't is partly the Sun that causes the Flux and Reflux of the Sea because 't is he that raises most of the Exhalations and Winds which beating upon the Sea make it swell and so cause the Flux and soon after failing the Sea falls again which is the Reflux Nevertheless because this cause is not sufficient and cannot be apply'd to all kinds of Flux and Reflux which we see differ almost in all Seas I add another thereunto Subterranean Fires which sending forth continually abundance of Exhalations or subtile Spirits and these Spirits seeking issue drive the Water of the Sea which they meet till it overflows and thus it continues till being deliver'd from those Spirits it falls back into its channel till it be agitated anew by other Exhalations which successively follow one another and that more or less according to the greater or lesser quantity of those Spirits The Tydes which happen every two hours are an evidence of great quantity those which happen every four hours of less and those which happen every six of least of all So there is made in our Bodies a Flux and Reflux of Spirits by the motion of Reciprocation call'd the Pulse consisting of a Diastole and a Systole or Dilatation and Contraction caus'd by the Vital Faculty of the Heart the Fountain of Heat Moreover as the Pulse is ordinarily perceiv'd better in the Arms and other extreme parts then in the rest of the Body So the Flux and Reflux is more evident at the shores then in the main Sea Therefore Aristotle proposing the Question why if some solid Body as an Anchor be cast into the Sea when it swells it instantly becomes calm answers That the solid Body cast into the Sea makes a separation in the surface thereof and thereby gives passage to the Spirits which were the cause of that Commotion Now if it be demanded Why such motion is not so manifest in the Mediterranean Sea and some others as in the Ocean it is answer'd that the reasons thereof are 1. Because Nature having given sluces to the Mediterranean higher then to the Ocean it hath not room wherein to extend it self so commodiously 2. Because the Subterranean Fires being united and continually vented forth by the Out-lets which they have in Aetna Vesuvius and other Mountains within or near that Sea there remains less then is needful to make a rising of the Waters The Fifth said I conceive there is as little cause and reason to be sought of the Flux and Reflux of the Sea as of all other motions proceeding from Forms informing or assisting the Bodies which they move As it would be impertinent to ask what is the cause of the motion of a Horse seeing the most ignorant confess that it is from his Soul which is his Form So there is more likelihood of truth in attributing the motion of the Sea to its Form then to any other thing Yet because they who assign a Soul to the World and all its parts cannot make out such a proportion therein as is requisite to the parts of an Animal I think more fit to affirm that the Sea hath a Form and Intelligence assisting to it which was assign'd to it by God from the beginning to move it in the same manner as the Intelligences according to Aristotle are assistant to the Coelestial Orbes and continue their motion II. Of the Point of Honour It was said upon the Second Point That since Contraries give light to one another we may better understand what Honour is by considering the Nature of Dishonour For where ever there is Blame there is also Honour opposite to it Now there is no Man that sees a vile action as amongst Souldiers Murder or Cowardice Collusion or Perfidiousness in Justice but he blames the same and judges the Author thereof worthy of Dishonour On the conrary a brave Exploit and a Courageous Action is esteemed by Enemies themselves The incorruptible Integrity of a Judge is oftentimes commended by him that â—oses his Suit and the Courageous Fidelity of an Advocate in well defending his Client receives Praise even from the Adversary so odious is Vice and so commendable is Virtue Wherefore every one abhorring Blame and Dishonour doth so vehemently hate the memory and reproach of any thing that may bring it upon him that many imitate what the Fable telleth of Jupiter who going to shake off the ordure which the Beetle had laid upon the skirt of his garment by that means shook out the Eggs
the latter hath not As we see paltry Pedlars that have all their shop in a pack hanging about their necks make ten times more noise then the best whole-sale Trades-men whose store-houses are fill'd with all sort of wares And amongst all Nations they who lie most are most offended with the Lie They who drink most are most offended with the name of Drunkard Wherefore since according to Aristotle 't is the truth and not the number or quality of the honourers which constitutes the true Honour which they arrogate most in whom the substance is least found it follows that what we call the Point of Honour is nothing but the appearance or shadow thereof The Fourth said The Point of Honour is nothing but a Desire we have to make our selves esteem'd such as we are Wherefore when a quality which belongs not to us is taken from us we are far from being so much concern'd as if it pertain'd to us So a Gentleman who makes profession of Valour will be offended if he be called Poltron but a Capuchin will not knowing well that that Virtue is not necessary to Christian Perfection The Fifth said That Honour according to the common opinion being the testimony which Men give us of our virtuous actions the Point of Honour is that conceit which our Mind proposes and formes to it self of that opinion Whence it follows that the Point of Honour thus taken being an Abstract which our Mind draws from things and not the things themselves there is nothing of reality in it but it is a pure Imagination which alters according to the diversity of times places and persons Such a thing was anciently honest i. e. laudable and becomming which is not so at present Whereof the Modes and Customs of the times past compar'd with those at this day are a sufficient evidence It was honourable at Rome to burn dead Bodies and shameful to all others saving to the single family of the Cornelii to bury them At this day to inter them is honourable but to burn them the most infamous of punishments It was in Lacedaemon an honourable thing to steal dextrously and now the reward of the craftiest Cut-purse is a Halter One thing is honest i. e. seemly in one age as for Children to blush which is dishonest i. e. unseemly in another as for old Men to do so Yea one Man will sometimes construe a thing within the Point of Honour which another will not And we sometimes conceive our selves interessed in one and the same thing and sometimes not Moreover though the Point of Honour should not admit all these mutations yet depending upon the imagination of another there can be nothing of reality in it And therefore the true Point of Honour consists not in the opinion which others have of us but in the exercise of honest and virtuous actions whether acknowledg'd for such or not yea though they be despis'd or punish'd it is sufficient to render such actions honourable that the Conscience alone judge of their goodness CONFERENCE XX. I. Of the Original of Fountains II. Whether there be a commendable Ambition I. Of the Original of Fountains THe First said That Springs and Rivers come from the Sea otherwise it would receive a great augmentation by the daily addition of their streams if it should not suffer an equal diminution by their derivation from it Therefore the Wise-man saith All Rivers go into the Sea and the Sea is not increased thereby and afterwards they return to the place from whence they came that they may go forth again Yea it would be a perpetual Miracle if after about six thousand years since the Creation of the World the Sea were not grown bigger by all the great Rivers it receives seeing the Danubius alone were it stop'd but during one year would be sufficient to drown all Europe But how can the Water of its own nature heavy and unactive especially that of the Sea be carried up to the highest Mountains As we see the L' Isere and the Durance and other Rivers descend from the tops of the Alps upon which there are Lakes and Springs in great number as in Mont-Cenis Saint Bernard and Saint Godart This proceeds from the gravity of the Earth which alwayes inclining towards its own centre bears upon the Sea and so pressing upon the Water causeth it to rise up into the veins and passages of the Earth a resemblance whereof is seen in Pumps by which passages it is strain'd and depriv'd of its saltness Which quality is easily separable from Sea-water for upon the shores of Africa there are pits of fresh Water which cannot come from elsewhere And if Water mingled with Wine be separated from the same by a cup made of Ivy wood why not the saltness of the Water too Thence also it is that Springs retain the qualities of the places through which they pass having put off those which they deriv'd from their Original The Second said That the Waters are carried upwards by the virtue of the Coelestial Bodies which attract the same without any violence it being in a manner natural to Inferior Bodies to obey the Superior and follow the motion which they impress upon them Unless we had rather ascribe this effect to God who having for the common good of all the world caus'd the Water in the beginning to ascend to the highest places it hath alwayes follow'd that same motion by natural consecution and the fear of that Vacuity And of this we have a small instance in the experiment of Syphons The Third said He conceiv'd with Aristotle that Springs are generated in cavities and large spaces of the Middle Region of the Earth which Nature who abhorreth Vacuity fills with Air insinuated thereinto by the pores and chinks and condensed afterwards by the coldness of the Earth Which coldness is so much the greater as that Region is remote from all external agents which might alter it This condensed Air is resolv'd into drops of Water and these drops soon after descending by their own weight into one and the same place glide along till they meet with others like themselves and so give beginning to a Spring For as of many Springs uniting their streams a great River is made so of many drops of Water is made a Spring Hence it comes to pass that we ordinarily find Springs in Mountains and high places as being most hollow and full of Air which becomes condens'd and resolv'd into Water so much the more easily as the Mountains are nearer the Middle Region of the Air apt by its vapourous quality to be turn'd into Water as well in those Gavities as in the Clouds or else because they are most expos'd to the coldest Winds and usually cover'd with Snow The Fourth said That there is no transformation of Elements and therefore Air cannot be turn'd into Water For whereas we see drops of Water fall from the surface of Marble or Glass 't is not that the Air is turn'd
or which are most stirr'd as in Sheep the breast and shoulder are the most savoury Now Fish have much less heat then terrestrial animals as appears in that 't is scarce perceivable and consequently are less concoct and savoury but fuller of excrementitious and superfluous humidity which renders them more flat and insipid then the flesh of animals call'd Meat by way of excelience Whence also all hunted flesh or Venison are more delicate then domestick food because wild animals dissipate by the continual motion wherewith they are chafed the superfluous humours which domestick acquire by rest But experience alone and the Church's command are reasons sufficiently strong to establish this truth For experience the mistress of things always causing the most to seek the best shews us that more people eat flesh then fish And the Church doth not forbid us flesh and injoyn fish but to mortifie us The fifth said That the Flesh of Animals is the rule of the goodness of Fish which is the better the nearer it comes to Flesh whence arose the Proverb Young Flesh and old Fish because in time it acquires the consistence of Flesh. Now that which serves for a rule must needs excell the thing to be judged of by it Nor doth the variety of sauces wherewith Fish is prepar'd make more to its advantage then the goodness of the heaft doth to prove that a knife is very sharp CONFERENCE XXX I. Of the Terrestrial Paradise II. Of Embalmings and Mummies I. Of the Terrestrial Paradise THe existence of the Terrestrial Paradise cannot without impiety be doubted since the Scripture assures us that it was in the Eastern parts towards Eden which place Cain inhabited afterwards and is design'd by Ezechiel cap. 27. neer Coran in Mesopotamia But though 't is not easie to know its true place yet I am of their mind who hold that it was in the Mountain Paliedo in Armenia the four Rivers mention'd to water Paradise issuing out of that Mountain to wit Lareze and Araxes Tigris and Euphrates Lareze running towards the West falls into Palus Maeotis or the Mar del Zabac Araxes going towards the East discharges it self into the Caspian Sea or Mar de Sala Tigris and Euphrates run into the Mar de Messedin or Persian Gulph And so Lareze and Araxes will be the Pison and Gihon mentioned in Scripture not the Nile and Ganges as some have thought for the head of Nile being distant from that of Ganges 70 degrees which make 1800 Leagues how can they come from the same place Nor is it to be wonder'd if those Rivers have chang'd their names it being ordinary not only to Rivers but to Seas Cities and Provinces Thus the River Tanais is now call'd Don Ister is nam'd Danubius Eridanus Padus or the Poe Pactolus Tagus and almost all others The second said 'T is with this delicious place as with Illustrious Persons whose Country being unknown every one challenges for theirs Thus after Homer's death seven Cities fell into debate about his birth every one pretending to the glory of it And thus the place of terrestrial Paradise being unknown to men many have assign'd it to their own Country but especially the Orientals have right to appropriate the same to themselves having a title for it Some have conceiv'd That before the Deluge it took up the most fertile Regions of the East namely Syria Damascus Arabia Aegypt and the adjacent Provinces but the Waters having by their inundation disfigured the whole surface of the earth and chang'd the course of the four Rivers there remains not any trace or foot-step of it Many believe that it was in Palestine and that the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was planted upon Mount Calvary where our Lord was Crucified to the end the sin of our first Father might be expiated in the same place where it was committed For they who place it under the Equinoctial Line may find some reason for it as to the Heaven but not as to the Earth But they who assign it to the concave of the Moon had need establish new Principles to keep themselves from being ridiculous They best excuse our ignorance who say That 't is indeed in some place upon the Earth but Seas or Rocks or intemperateness of Climate hinder access to it Whereunto others add That when God punish'd the sin of man with the Flood his Justice left the place where the first was committed still cover'd with waters The third said What is commonly alledg'd That the way to Paradise is not easie though meant of the Coelestial may also be applied to the Terrestrial for it is amongst us and yet the way which leads to it cannot be found The diversity of opinions touching its true place hath given ground to some Fathers to take this History in a mystical sence and say That this Paradise was the Universal Church That the four Rivers which watered it and all the Earth were the four Evangdlists their Gospels which at first were written for the benefit of the faithful having resounded through all the corners of the Earth That the Trees laden with good Fruits are the good Works of the many holy Personages the Tree of Life our Lord Christ the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil our Free-will Adam our Soul Eve our Senses the Serpent Temptation the banishment of Adam out of Paradise the loss of Grace the Cherubim wielding his flaming Sword the Divine Anger and Vengeance and the leaves of the Fig-tree the vain excuses of our first Parents But some Geographers having taken notice of a place not far from Babylon where the Rivers Euphrates and Tigris joyn together and afterwards are divided again and change their names one of the Arms which descends into the Persian Sea being call'd Phasis which is Pison the other which is Gihon passing through Arabia Deserta and Aethiopia which is neer it have conceiv'd that the Terrestrial Paradise was at the place of the Conjunction of those four Rivers between the Caspian Persian and Mediterranean Seas towards Mesopotamia and Arabia And consequently it seems best to take this History according to the Letter there being a place still which agrees with the truth of that description Nevertheless the Objection That the small portion of Land which appears between those Rivers would not have suffic'd to lodg and feed Adam and his Posterity as would have been necessary in case he had not finn'd makes me rather incline to their opinion who think that the Terrestrial Paradise was all the habitable Earth such as it was before sin the four Rivers the four Seasons of the Year or the four Cardinal Winds or the four Elements which is manifested in that the Scripture doth not set down that Adam went to Travel into any other Land after he was driven out of Paradise 'T was enough for him that this Earth was no longer a Paradise to him but produc'd nothing but thorns and thistles instead of the fruits and flowers which it
afforded before God had curs'd it and so inseparably connected man's labour with those fruits that now a days to express a hundred acres of Land we commonly say A hundred acres of Labour And as a place ceases to be the Court when the King is no longer in it so the Divine Benediction withdrawn from the Earth it ceas'd to be Paradise Yea Adam having ceas'd to be King of it and by his sin lost the Dominion which he had over all even the fiercest Creatures the Earth became no longer a Paradise to him But if I be requir'd to assign a particular place to this Paradise leaving the description of places which I never saw to the belief of Geographers I find none more fit for it then France Its Climate is temperate especially towards the East and South It hath four Rivers which bring into it Gold and all the other Commodities attributed unto Paradise by the first Historian It so abounds with all sorts of flowers that it hath taken three Lillies for its Arms And with fruits that it hath for it self and its Neighbours yea above any other it produces every Tree fair to look upon and good for food to use the Scripture-words One interpos'd That he should think 't was Normandie so fruitful of goodly Apples were it not that no Vines grow there whose fruit is so pleasant to behold The fourth said As there is no great certainty in the consequences drawn from Allegories so neither are Allegories very successfully drawn from Histories and substituted in their places I know not what History is if that of our first Father be not nor where to stop if people will subtilize upon the first circumstance of his Creation and what he did afterwards But if we find difficulty in according the Geographical Tables of the present time with the truth of that why do not we likewise make Allegories of the Creation and all its sequels which are so many Miracles If we see no Angel that guards the access to it no more did Balaam see that which stood in his way though visible to his Asse And being the space of the Garden of Eden is not determinately set down nothing hinders but that it might be of very vast extent and this takes away the scruple of those who object the distance which is between all those great Rivers Besides being Enoch and Elias were since Adam's fall transported into this Paradise where they must be till the coming of Antichrist 't is a certain Argument of its real subsistence II. Of Embalmings and Mummies Upon the second point it was said That the Ancients were much more careful then we not only to preserve the Images of their Fore-fathers but also to keep their Bodies which they variously embalmed The Grecians wash'd them in Wine mingled with warm Water and then put them them into oyl of Olives Honey or Wax The Aethyopians first salted them and then put them into Vessels of Glass In the Canary Islands they season them in the Sea and afterwards dry them in the Sun The Scythians place them upon Mountains cover'd with snow or in the coolest Caves Indeed every one knows there is a Cave at Tholouze which hath a particular virtue to preserve carkasses from corruption and in which is seen at this day the entire body of the fair Saint Baume and many others dead above 200 years ago The Indians cover'd them with ashes The Aegyptians conceiving that bodies corrupted rose not again and that the Soul was sensible of the Bodies corruption did not yield to any people in curiosity of preserving them they fill'd with Myrrhe Cinamon and other Spices or with Oyl of Cedar then they salted them with Nitre whose aerimony consumes all the superfluous humidities which cause putrifaction 'T is from these bodies that we have that excellent Mummie whose admirable effects I ascribe to sympathy But concerning what is affirm'd that being transported by Sea they cause tempests and strange agitations in the Ship 't is an effect which is to be attributed to a more occult cause The Second said Man is so admirable an Edifice that even his Ruines have their use His Fat is one of the most excellent Anodynes His Skull serves against the Epilepsic This liquor which is drawn from his Tomb hath several vertues and the reasons of the great and admirable effects imputed to it as the healing of inwards Ulcers and Contusions of Blood arriving to such as have fallen from on high seem to me imputable to three Causes a Spiritual a Celestial and an Elementary The first ariseth hence that so perfect a Form as the reasonable Soul having inform'd part of this Compositum which by the mixture of some Ingredients as Myrrhe and Aloes hath been preserv'd from corruption the same thing arrives to it which the Chymists say doth to their white Gold when they have extracted its Sulphur and Tincture For being re-joyn'd to other Gold it easily resumes the same form and is sooner and more inseparably combin'd with it then any other thing as having been of the same species So when you put Mummie into a body of the same species it takes part with the nature whence it proceeded and siding with it incounters the disease and its symptomes like Succour coming to relieve a besieged City with provisions and ammunition The Celestial cause is drawn from the Heavens for that the light and influence of superiour bodies act upon all the sublunary but by the consent of all none is so susceptible of their actions as man and if his soul be not subject thereunto yet his body is undoubtedly to each part of which each part of Heaven not only answers as some hold but the whole to all Whence is seen the diversity of disposition inclinations and manners such and so great that 't is a palpable mistake to attribute the same to the meer mixture of the Elements Now Mummie having receiv'd not only while it was animated but afterwards all the influences whereof the humane body is susceptible it becomes as it were the abstract of all the Celestial powers and better then Talismanical figures communicates the same to him that uses it The last reason drawn from the mixture of the Elements and their qualities might suffice alone without the preceding For Man being the abridgement of the world ought also to contain all the faculties of it and his Mummie being inanimate but having liv'd the life of a plant an animal and a man it contains all these natures eminently The Third said That Man affecting nothing so much as immortality because he fears nothing more then death and being unable to secure himself from it do's all that he can to perpetuate himself in some fashion since he cannot wholly The desire of supporting his Individual person and defending it from all inconveniences which may abridge his life makes him count nothing difficult In Propagation he seeks the eternity of his species And though he is assur'd by Reason of
Angels the names they compose of the 19 20 and 21. Verses of the 14. Chapter of Exodus in each of which there being 72 letters they form the name of the first Angel out of the three first letters of each Verse the name of the second out of the three second letters of the same Verses and so the rest adding at the end of every word the names of God Jah or El the former whereof denotes God as he exists and the latter signifies Mighty or Strong God The Cabala which treats of words and names is nothing else but the practice of Grammar Arithmetick and Geometry They divide it into three kinds The first whereof is called Notarickon when of several first or last letters of some word is fram'd a single one as in our Acrosticks The second Gématrie when the letters of one name answer to the letters of another by Arithmetical proportion the Hebrews as well as the Greeks making use of their letters to number withall Whence some Moderns have affirm'd that Christianity will last seven thousand years because the letters of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and of the same value in number with those of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The third is call'd Themurath which is a transposition of letters like that of our Anagrams the most common way of which is to change the last letter of the Alphabet into the first and on the contrary to which kind are referr'd the words and verses which are read backwards such as this opus l I. Deus elati mutatum Itale suedi l supo Thus they prove by the first word of Geneses which is Bereschit that the world was created in Autumn because in this word is found that of Bethisri which signifies Autumn And that the Law ought be kept in the heart because the first letter of the Law is Beth and the last Lamed which two letters being put together and read after their mode which is backwards make Leb which signifies the heart The Third said If the word Cabala be taken for a tradition that is to say the manner in which the Jews made their sacrifices and prayers according to the instruction which they had from Father to Son concerning the same it deserves to be esteem'd for its antiquity although it be abolish'd And the more in regard of the Hieroglyphical and mysterious names of God and Angels which it contains and whereof whosoever should have a perfect and intire knowledge would find nothing impossible 'T was by this means say they that Moses divided the waters of the Red Sea and did so many other miracles because he had written at the end of his Rod the name of Jehovah For if it be true that black Magick can do wonders by the help of malignant spirits why not the Cabala with more reason by means of the names of God and the Angels of light with whom the Cabalists render themselves friends and familias Our Lord seems to confirm the same when he commands his Apostles to make use of his name for casting Devils out of the possessed and to heal diseases as they did and the Church hath done after them to this day The victory of Judas Maccabaeus against the enemies of his Religion hapning by means of a sign of four letters that of Antiochus over the Galatae by a Pentagone that of Constantine the great by the sign of the Cross and the Thau wherewith the Scripture arms the foreheads of the faithful demonstrate that figures are not wholly inefficacious The Critical days of Diseases and the practice of Physitians who administer their Pills in odd number which the Pythagoreans call the masculine number shew likewise that all kind of vertue cannot be deny'd to number and consequently that the Cabala is not to be blam'd for making account of numbers names and figures the knowledge whereof would undoubtedly be most excellent did it not surpass the reach of humane capacity which cannot comprehend the connexion which there is between the name and the thing which it denotes the number and the thing numbred and figure and the thing figured For since the external figure of a man or other animal gives me to know his substance which I see not and the species of this figure entring into my senses suffices to make me conceive the thing without its stirring out of its place why shall not the names and particularly those impos'd on things by our first Parent in the Hebrew language have as necessary a signification and connexion with things as the other accidents which are the objects of our senses And why shall we not believe the same of the letters which represent those names in the same language The Fourth said That the Cabala was either Allegorical or Literal The former was more conjectural but if there be any vertue in characters which signifie nothing with more reason the words syllables and letters which are the visible names of things shall not be without This gave ground to the Cabalists to consider in letters not only their number and Arithmeticall value but also their order proportion harmony magnitudes and Geometrical figures observing whether they be straight crooked or tortuous closed or not thus in one passage where the Messiah is spoken of some have concluded from a Mem which is found closed in the middle of a word contrary to custom that this Messiah should come out of the closed womb of a Virgin contrary to the course of the ordinary birth of men Thus Rabbi Haccadosch in the first letters of these three Hebrew words of Genesis 49. v. 10. Jebo Scilo Velo found those wherewith the Hebrews write the name of our Saviour namely JSV. The Fifth said That we ought to govern our selves in the reading of the Cabalists as Bees do who gather only the good and leave the bad which is more plentiful and above all avoid the loss of time which is employ'd in turning over the tedious volumns of the Thalmudists which are either so unpleasant or their sence so much unknown to us through the envy which they bore to their successors that we may with more reason tear their Books in pieces then a Father did the Satyrs of Perseus saying that since he would not be understood by the surface and out-side like other Writers he would look within whether he were more intelligible II. Whether Truth is always to be spoken Upon the second Point it was said Truth and Justice being reciprocal and the former according to Aristotle a moral Duty it much imports the interest of Government that it be observ'd and kept inviolably not only in contracts and publick actions but also in private discourses and 't is a kind of sacriledge to go about to hide it Moreover 't is one of the greatest affronts that can be put upon a man of honour to give him the lye For as 't is the property of an ingenuous man to avow the Truth freely and not to dissemble so Lying is the sign and
in imitation of that which the Heavens excite here below The Third said The Philosophers stone is a Powder of Projection a very little of which being cast upon imperfect Metals as all are except Gold purifies and cures them of their Leprosie and impurity in such a manner that having first taken away their feculency and then multiply'd their degrees they acquire a more perfect nature Metals not differing among themselves but in degrees of perfection It is of two sorts the white which serves to make Silver and the red which being more concocted is proper to make Gold Now to attain it you need onely have the perfect knowledge of three things to wit the Agent the Matter and the Proportion requisite to the end the Agent may educe the form out of the bosome of that Matter duly prepar'd by the application of actives to passives The first two are easie to be known For the Agent is nothing else but Heat either of the Sun or of our common fire or of a dunghill which they call a Horse's belly or of Balneum Mariae hot water or else that of an Animal The patients are Salt Sulphur or Mercury Gold Silver Antimony Vitriol or some little of such other things the experience whereof easily shews what is to be expected from them But the Application of the Agent to the Patient the determination of the degrees of Heat and the utmost preparation and disposition of the Matter cannot be known but by great labour and long experience Which being difficult thence we see more delusions and impostures in this Art then truths Nevertheless Histories bear witness that Hermes Trismegistus Glauber Raimond Lully Arnauld Flamel Trevisanus and some others had knowledge of it But because for those few that are said to have it almost infinite others have been ruin'd by it therefore the search of it seemes more curious then profitable The Fourth said That as Mathematicians have by their search after the Quadrature of a circle arriv'd to the knowledge of many things which were before unknown to them so though the Chymists have not discover'd the Philosophers stone yet they have found out admirable secrets in the three families of Vegetables Animals and Minerals But it not the less possible although none should ever attain it not onely for this general reason that Nature gives us no desire in vain but particularly because all Metals are of the same species being made of one and the same Matter Sulphur and Mercury and concocted by one and the same celestial heat not differing but in concoction alone as the grains of the same raisin do which ripen at several times This is evident by the extraction of Gold and Silver out of all Metals even out of Lead and Iron the most imperfect of them So that the Art ought not to be judg'd inferior in this matter to all others which it perfectionates Moreover the Greek Etymology of Metals shews that they are transmutable one into another The Fifth said That as in the production of Corn by Nature the seed and the fat of the Earth are its matter and its efficient is partly internal included in the grain and partly external viz. the heat of the Sun and the place in the bosome of the Earth so in the production of Gold by Art its matter is Gold it self and its Quick-silver and the efficient cause is partly in the Gold partly in the external heat the place is the furnace containing the Egg of Glass wherein the matter is inclos'd dissolve'd and grows black call'd the Crowes head waxes white and then is hardned into a red mass the hardness whereof gives it the name of a stone which being reduc'd into powder and kept three dayes in a vessel hermetically seal'd upon a strong fire acquires a purple colour and one dram of it converts two hundred of Quicksilver into pure Gold yea the whole Sea were it of like substance The Sixth said That Art indeed may imitate but cannot surpass Nature But it should if we could change other metals into Gold which is impossible to Nature it self even in the Mines in how long time soever those of Iron Lead Tin or Copper never becoming Mines of Gold or Silver Therefore much less can the Alchymist do it in his furnaces no more then he can produce some thing more excellent then Gold as this Philosophical stone would be Gold being the most perfect compound of all mixt bodies and for that reason incorruptible And indeed how should these Artists accomplish such a work when they are not agreed upon the next matter of it nor upon the efcien tcause time place and manner of working there being as many opinions as there are different Authors Moreover 't is untrue that all Metals are of one species and differ onely in degree of concoction for Iron is more concocted then Silver as also more hard and less fusible and their difference was necessary in reference to humane uses Now perfect species which are under the same next genius as Metals are can never be transmuted one into another no more then a Horse into a Lyon Yea could this Philosophical stone act upon Metals yet it would not produce Gold or Silver but other stones like it self or onely imprint upon them its own qualities according to the ordinary effects of all natural Agents And if it were true that the powder of Gold produc'd other Gold being cast upon Metals as a grain of wheat brings forth many others being cast into the Earth it would be requisite to observe the same order and progress in the multiplication of Gold which Men do in that of grains of Wheat Yet the Chymists do not so but will have their multiplication to be made in an instant The Seventh said That since Art draws so many natural effects out of fitting matter as Worms Serpents Frogs Mice Toads and Bees although the subject of these Metamorphoses be much more difficult to be dispos'd and made susceptible of a sensitive soul then insensible metal is to receive a Form divisible like its matter he saw no absurdity in it but that at least by the extraordinary instruction of good or bad spirits some knowledge of this operation may be deriv'd to men considering that we see other species naturally trans-form'd one into another as Egyptain Nitre into stone a Jasper into an Emerald the herb Basil into wild Thyme Wheat into Darnel a Caterpiller into a Butter-fly yea if we will believe the Scotch they have a Tree whose fruit falling into the water is turn'd into a Bird. II. Of a Mont de Pieté or Bank for lending to the Poor Upon the second Point it was said That Charity toward our Neighbour being the most certain sign of Piety towards God and Hills having been chosen almost by all Nations to sacrifice upon as neerest to Heaven upon these accounts the name of Mont de Pieté hath been given to all institutions made for relief of the poor whereof lending
would mingle it self with the substance of the Heavens which by this means would be no longer pure and free from corruption nor consequently eternal yea it might happen that such Meteors as should be form'd in the Heavens would disorder the motions of the Planets which we behold so regular And besides 't is not possible that the Stars of the Firmament should not have come nearer one another in these 6000. years and the Planets have been so exact in their wandrings unless the Heavens were solid The Third said That because the weakness of our reasoning cannot conceive how the creatures obey the Creator otherwise then by such wayes as Artificers use who fasten nails in wheels to make their motion regular therefore Men phancy the like in Heaven As if it had not been as easiy to God to have appointed a Law to the Stars to move regulary in a liquid space as fishes do in the water yea in a Vacuum if there were any in Nature as to have riveted and fix'd them to some solid body For 't is true we cannot make a durable Sphere but of solid matter But if Children make aiery spheres or balls with water and soap could not God who is an infinitely more excellent work-man make some of a more subtile matter Moreover The supposition of liquid Heavens serves better to interpret these openings of Heaven mention'd in the Scripture then if they be suppos'd solid The melted brass to which Job compares the Heavens proves the contrary to what is usually inferr'd from it for immediately after this comparison made by one of Job's friends God reproves him and taxes his discourse of ignorance Whereas it is said that Heaven is God's throne which is stable and which God hath established in the Heavens and also that it is called a Firmament the same construction is to be made of these expressions as of that in the beginning of Genesis where the Sun and the Moon are styl'd the two great Lights of Heaven not because they are so in reality but because they appear so But that which to me seemes most conclusive for the liquidity of the Heavens is That Comets have been oftentimes observ'd above some Planets which could not be were the Heavens solid Besides that all the Elements are terminated by themselves and need no vessel to be contain'd in The Fourth said If the matter of the Heavens were as firm as glass or crystal or onely as water our sight could no more perceive the Stars then it doth things in the bottome of a deep water how clear soever it be for the visual rayes or species of things cannot penetrate so thick a medium But although the Stars are exceedingly remote from us yet our eyes discern their different magnitudes colours and motions and distinguish such as twinckle from others Besides those who should behold the same Star from different places would perceive it of different magnitudes as it happens to those who look upon the same body through water or glass in regard of the diversity of the medium which is thicker in one place then in another Nor is it harder to conceive how the Stars hang in the Air then to imagine the same of the Terr-aqueous Globe The Fifth said Liquid is defin'd that which is hardly contain'd within its own bounds and easily in those of another which is the true definition of Liquid and not of Humid since Quick-silver Lead and all metals melted are difficultly contain'd in their own bounds and easily in those of another yet are not humid the Heaven must be solid and not liquid for it is contain'd within its own bounds yea according to the Scripture it upholds the Supercelestial Waters The Sixth said The great diversity found in the motions of the Celestial Bodies and especially in the Planets makes very much for the Fluidity of the Heavens For Astronomers observing that the Planets not onely go from East to West by their diurnal motion common to all the celestial bodies but have a particular one of their own after a sort contrary to the former which makes them stray from their situation whereunto they return onely at a certain time therefore they will have them to be turn'd about by a Heaven term'd by them Primum Mobile but add that each of the Planets hath a sphere of its own which is the cause of its second motion Moreover observing the Planets to be sometimes nearer and sometimes further off from the Earth therefore they assign'd them another sphere call'd an Excentrick But what needs this multiplication of spheres when as it may reasonably be affirm'd that God hath appointed to every Star the course which it is to observe as he hath assign'd to every thing its action what ever variety be found in Planetary bodies there being more in other Bodies If it be said That the wonder lies in their Regularity I answer There is nothing here below but ha's and keeps a rule Whence Monsters are so much wonder'd at Nor is there less wonder in the natural instincts of things and all their various operations which they alwayes inviolably observe then in Uniformity which hath much more ease in it as it is a more facile thing for a stone to move alwayes downwards then for an Animal to move according to all the diversities of place and exercise so many several actions The Seventh said The matter of the Heavens if they have any is according to Empedocles a most pure and subtile Air and that of the Stars is Light Wherefore they cannot be either solid or liquid Moreover the Centre of the World is most compact and it grows more and more subtile still towards the Circumference which therefore must be immaterial as Light is Now the Stars are onely the thicker parts of their Orbes like the knots in a Tree which density renders them visible to us multiplying and fortifying the degrees of Light by this union as on the contrary the rarity of the intermediate space between the Stars doth not terminate or bound our sight either because the species which it sends forth are not strong enough to act upon the Eye and cause perception which is the reason why we see not the Elementary Fire though we see the same Fire when it comes to be united and condensed into an igneous meteor or into our culinary flames The Heavens therefore may be more or less dense but not solid in that sence as we attribute solidity to Crystal Diamonds or other hard bodies which resist the touch But indeed we may call them so if we take the word solid for that which is fill'd with it self and not with any other intermix'd thing all whose parts are of the same nature according to which signification not onely the Water but the Air yea the Light it self if it be material may be said to be solid II. Whether is it easier to get or to keep Upon the Second Point it was said That the difficulty of acquiring and preserving is
Sixth said 'T is true Speech is peculiar to man but 't is a token of the impotence and weakness of our mind which cannot know other's thoughts in their purity as Angels and blessed Spirits do who understand one another without external Speech But the soul of man is so subjected to the Senses that it cannot apprehend spiritual things unless they be represented to it as corporeal Besides Speech belongs not so to man alone but that brutes especially those who have soft large and loose tongues as Birds can imitate it but Writing they cannot Moreover a thing is more excellent by how much nobler the cause is on which it depends But to speak well depends on the Organs rightly dispos'd to write well on the understanding alone For the Air the Lungs the Tongue the Teeth and the Lips make the Speech but the mind alone begets the thoughts which writing consigns to the sight the noblest of the Senses Eloquence is diminish'd by Diseases old Age or the least indisposition of the Organs but the style which depends on the Mind alone which never grows old becomes more vigorous as the body waxes weaker At length it was said That the present Question making up the Century of those propounded since the resolution of printing it seem'd fit to make them the first Volume of Conferences and because this Number the Season the Example of others the affairs which many have in the Country and the necessity for minds as well as bodies to take some relaxation require a Vacation for this Company it is therefore adjourn'd till Monday before the Feast of St. Martin The End of the First Part. PHILOSOPHICAL CONFERENCES PART II. Monday November 6. 〈…〉 FOr Introduction to the Ensuing Conferencs it seems requisite that an Account be given of two things I. Of what pass'd during the Vacation II. Of some difficulties touching these Exercises As for the first The Vacation was spent in the proposal and examination of divers Secrets and Curiosities of some Arts and Sciences a few whereof shall be summarily mention'd in the order as they were propos'd and most of which were found true by the person◠appointed by the Company to examine and make experiments of the same The First was a way to describe a Circle of what greatness soever without knowing the Centre of it but supposing the Centre were inaccessible II. A way to make the Vernish of China black and yellow gilded III. To make a plain Looking-glass representing the objects upon its surface and not inwards as they usually appear IV. To make a Spherical Mirror representing the Figures in their true proportion and not corrupted as they are in the vulgar ones V. To make one or more very conspicuous figures appear in the Air by the help of a Concave Glasse VI. To cool Wine speedily in Summer and to freeze water for that purpose VII To decypher all common and decypherable Cyphers VIII To give the Invention of almost a number of Cyphers which cannot be decypher'd as among others to write with a single point for each Letter with two Books in which no extraordinary mark is to be seen IX To write with a Cypher which may be read in two different Languages X. To comprise under a manifest sense an other hidden signification as ample as the first XI To write upon a body which will never perish not even by Fire at which alone it is to be read and to answer thereunto by the same way making the Letters disappear and return again at pleasure XII A way of writing or impression which represents all the properties of every thing with as few Letters as the ordinary way of writing XIII A way to give intelligence in six hours at a hundred leagues distance without Bells Canons or the like means XIV A way to give intelligence in an instant of what is done at fifty leagues distance and more and that of a sudden accident XV. A way whereby a person being in his Closet may make his Mind understood in a hundred places of the house and receive answers by the same way without noise and without notice taken thereof by those that shall be in his company XVI To shew and teach the true Proportions of Mans Body in one Lecture as exactly as Albert Durer hath done XVII To describe all Plat-forms and designe all the orders of Columnes exactly according to their true proportion XVIII A way to engrave very easily with Aqua Fortis without knowing how to hatch XIX To cast Account without pen or counters by a way which cannot be forgotten XX. To learn the method of Writing in one hour by retaining onely three letters XXI To keep Flowers yea a whole Garden fresh throughout the year XXII To learn all the tricks and subtleties of Juglers and consequently to cease admiring them XXIII To make two solid bodies actually cold which being together shall become so hot of themselves immediately as not to be touch'd and to keep their heat for several moneths and possibly for some years XXIV To shew in a portable Instrument in small or greater proportion all objects that shall be presented XXV To teach a Mother-language of which all other Languages are Dialects and may be learn'd by it Which the Proposer affirmes so easie that he will teach the whole Grammar of it in six hours but six moneths are requisite to learn the signification of all its words XXVI To teach all persons to argue without errour in all kind of Modes and Figures in a quarter of an hour XXVII To shew a secret by help whereof any man may pronounce any strange Language as naturally as his own be it Astatick African or American and he an European or on the contrary which is a way to remedy the bad Accents and pronuntiations both in strangers and natives whereby they are so manifestly distinguish'd XXVIII To make a Girder or Joint broken in two or three places to serve without pins XXIX To pierce a door immediately with a Candle not lighted XXX To make a Pistol of a foot and half in length carry three hundred paces XXXI To make a good quantity of fresh water speedily in the main Sea XXXII To measure the depth of the Sea where the plummet cannot reach or where it is unperceiveable XXXIII To shew all the feats and subtleties that are perform'd with Cards as to make the Card you think of come at what number is requir'd to tell 15. persons who have two Cards a piece what Cards every one hath c. XXXIV To draw two lines which being extended infinitely shall always come nearer but never meet XXXV To make a light without Oyle Wax Tallow Gum or Fat at small charge which shall less offend the sight in a whole nights reading then the light of an ordinary Candle doth in a quarter of an hour XXXVI To make Glasses through which the Sun doth not penetrate though his light do XXXVII To make old defac'd Characters legible XXXVIII To continue
Mathematicians and many other Professors of Arts acknowledg'd nevertheless very useful to humane society If some of them have been lascivious others impious others slanderous these are the vices of the Poets not of Poetry And as the more delicate any Wine is the more hurtful its excess is to the body so Poetry is so much the more excellent by how much its abuse is noxious Plato who advis'd the banishing of it out of his imaginary Commonwealth calling it a sweet poyson deserv'd more then it to be really interdicted there not being in all the Poets such fables impieties and impurities as that of his Convivium his Phaedrus and some other pieces In the mean time he is forc'd to admire them to call them the sons and interpreters of the gods yea divine and the fathers of wisdom For their raptures cannot be call'd folly unless in that sence that Aristotle saith To Philo sophize well a man must be besides himself But their wisdom being extream and their motions unknown to the vulgar therefore they call that fury which they ought to call the highest point and pitch of Wisdom term'd Enthusiasm or Divine Inspiration because it surpasses the reach of man And indeed every one acknowledges in Poetry some character of Divinity and therefore 't is receiv'd by all the world and serves for a guide and introducer to great personages who otherwise would not give audience but like that well in Verse which they would blame in Prose Which oblig'd Sylla to reward the good that they might be encourag'd to continue their divine works and the bad Poets on condition that they made no more And 't is of these as of some Rithmers of our time that they speak who blame Poetry in whose reproaches the true Poets are no more concern'd then Physitians in the infamy of Mountebanks The Fables of the ancient Poets are full of mysteries and serve for ornament to the Sciences and to Divinity it self as the gold of the Egyptians did to the Sanctuary But if they have in all ages complain'd of not advancing their fortune this doth not argue any demerit of theirs but rather the want either of judgement or gratitude in others CONFERENCE LVI I. Of the Smelling II. Of Eloquence I. Of the Smelling THis Sense which is the perception of Odours intromitted by the Nose through the spungy bone into the Mammillary processes which are appendices of the Brain rather then Nerves shews by the structure of its Organ that it is more particular to the Brain then any other For the Nerves which carry the Spirits for the performance of the other Senses are communicated elsewhere too some of them to all the rest of the Body Only these two nervous appendices of the Brain have nothing to do with any other part It makes use of odours as a perfume sometimes to redress its native coldness as when it is pleas'd with Pomanders Musk L'eau d'ange a sort of delicate compound water Orange flower-water and other Aromatical things sometimes to cool its spirits overheated by continual action as by the Violet the Rose or Jasmin but always for their refreshment For the Spirits being of an aerial nature nothing recreates them so much as what resembles them to wit the Air especially when it is tinctur'd with some friendly quality Hence arise those different phancies upon occasion of smells One swoons at the smell of Musk and the Rose which others love so much Another loves the scent of Rue and Worm-wood so abominated by others that some women have miscarri'd by it And indeed of all the wonders resulting from the consideration of odours there is none greater then the relation they have to the womb which is known to move it self to and approach towards and fly away at the motion of good or bad smells which work upon this part by means of the animal spirits call'd for this reason Impellers by the Greeks which the odours powerfully move and they all the other parts but especially the womb which hath a particular sympathy with the Brain the Conservatory of the Spirits or else because the contraction of the Nerves which is caus'd when an odour displeas'd drives the Spirits downwards who by their impetuosity hurry along with them the more fluid and moveable parts as the Matrix is when a pituitous humour has slackned its ligaments as on the contrary the spirits being dilated to receive the steam of an odour grateful to the Brain with a full torrent they attract it upwards by the same reason The Second said Because Faculties cannot be understood but by the correspondenc they have to their objects therefore to understand the Nature of the Sense of Smelling 't is first requisite to understand the Nature of Odour and by what Medium it is carry'd to its Organ Odour is a patible Quality arising from the temperament of siccity predominant above humidity for though many drugs waters essences and liquors in which humidity is necessarily found and siccity seldome are very odoriferous yet they borrow their smell from the dry exhalation mingled with their humid Body from which if the same be separated the humour remains inodorous Neverthelesse this exhalation is not the Odour but the subject and vehicle of it otherwise an Odour should be a Substance and not an Accident as it is 'T is convey'd to its Organ sometimes by species call'd Intentional when it is remote from the same or the Medium is so dispos'd that it cannot alter its Substance thus the species of the Odour of a Worm hanging upon the hook so exquisitely penetrates the water that the fish though very remote instantly repairs to it and many Animals scent powder at two or three leagues distance But when the Odour is present to the Organ of Smelling it hath no need of species with which the Senses have nothing to do but so far as they serve to supply the absence of their Objects The Nose receives Odours by its two passages and for this reason it hath somewhat a long shape a substance partly boney for firmnesse sake lest closing together the passage should be stop'd but cartilaginous in the lower part for the more easie dilatation in breathing smelling and purging the Brain the three prime uses of the Nose The true seat of Smelling are two small sponges made of the anterior part of the Brain passing through the Cuneal Bone near the cavity of the Eyes call'd the Mammillary Processes or Productions spirituous and vaporous the better to receive Odours and nervous to distinguish them lying upon the Cribrous or spongy bone which is full of small bones lest the Brain might be hurt by smells if they were carry'd directly and impetuously to it which danger is avoided by their being disunited and allay'd by this transcolation and these two Caruncles like the nibbles of Womens breasts have alone among all the parts of the Nose a proper figure a certain sign for distinguishing the Organs of the Senses For the Brain
a simple alteration which requireth not the time necessary to local motion whereby Hearing is perform'd and by this means distinguish'd from vision in which at the same time the medium and the Organ are both alter'd whereas in Hearing the Organ is not alter'd till after the medium Hence it is that the wind helps greatly to the carrying of sounds which would not be if they were only intentional species for visible things are seen as well in a contrary wind as in a calm air and that sounds seem weaker a far off then neer hand The Sixth said Among the objects of the Senses sounds and odours have alone had the honour to be dedicated to the Deity Melodie and Incense having always been employ'd in Divine Service either because the humane soul is most delighted therewith or for that either of them being somewise spiritual and corporeal God requires that we offer him both the body and the spirit whereas Daemons abhor nothing more then Harmony and Perfumes as ill suting to their irregular and infected nature And sounds have so great affinity with the soul that according to their cadence and their tones they excite compassion cruelty joy sadness courage fear lasciviousness and chastity whence it was said that Aegysthus could never debauch Clytemnestra till he had kill'd her Musitian Because all our actions and inclinations depending upon our spirits they are modefi'd and made like to the sounds which they receive by the ear So that if the sounds be tremulous grave sharp quick or flow the spirits become so too and consequently the Muscles which are instruments of voluntary motion having no action but by means of the spirits they impress upon them and make them follow such cadence as they like Hence it is that hearing others sing we fall a singing too without thinking of it with those that whisper we whisper too with those that speak loud we speak so also that the air of the Musitian stirs our members to conform to it and that our spirits are displeas'd with bad cadences as if the outward air had an absolute dominion over our spirits II. Of Harmony Upon the second Point it was said That Harmony is taken for any proportion and agreement but chiefly for that of sounds in which it is more perceptible and that even by the ignorant It s invention is ascrib'd to Tubal the first Smith upon his observation of the various sounds that the strokes of his Hammer made upon his Anvil which Pythagoras also made use of to find out the proportion of his musical numbers Of which having elsewhere spoken I shall only add here that Harmony presupposes many sounds for one alone makes but a Monotone and two an unpleasing reciprocation but six notes are requisite to perfect Musick industriously compriz'd in the Hymn VT queant LAxis REsonare fibris MIra gestorum c. This harmony is either vocal or instrumental the former whereof having graces and variations inimitable by instruments far surpasses the latter but their mixture is most agreeable The Second said Nature seems to have made a show of her goodliest effects to our Senses and conceal'd their causes from our knowledge Musical harmony aims at the instruction of men that of man's body is the admirable artifice of the Formative faculty which Galen calls divine but the harmony of the world puts our curiosity most to a non-plus 'T is the cause why water notwithstanding its fluidity gathers it self into a heap to leave dry land for the habitation of animals and that the earth which should settle about its centre by its equal gravity yet rises up in mountains The air is alter'd by all sort of qualities that it may give a good one to the earth The fire descends from its sphere to be captivated in Furnaces for our use and is imprison'd in cavities of the earth to promote the generation of Metals The Heavens move for the benefit of inferiour bodies in a place where they might enjoy eternal rest 'T is through this harmony that the water becomes thick at the bottom and contracts alliance with the earth while its surface resolves into vapours the rudiments of air whose highest region likewise approaches the nature of fire and this has somewhat of Aethereal and the constitution of the Heavens on which it borders and conjoyns with this inferiour world The cause of this chain and connexion is an universal vertue comprehended in the extent of each being besides the proper motive vertue destinated to content its appetite The necessity of this vertue is a certain evidence of its existence for since every thing conspires for the general good of the world and withstands the division of its parts Nature must have allotted them a power which may guide them to that end now this power is not extrinsecal since it resides in the subject it self Nor is it the motive vertue for this and that have two different objects and ends namely the publick and the particular good which are not always contain'd one in the other Besides 't would be a manifest contradiction to say that by one and the same vertue things expose themselves to the loss of their proper qualities for the publick good and keep them when only their particular is concern'd Wherefore there is one general law which having authority to force all things to contract amities not sorting to their inclination is above that vertue which leads things directly to their own good which is the cause of the excellent harmony observ'd in the whole world The Third said Indeed Harmony is every where between the Creator and his Creatures both spiritual and corporeal in the Hierarchies of bless'd Spirits one with another in the assistance of the motive Intelligences with their orbs between the great and the little world in the latter of which the Scripture sets forth to us a perpetual musick of the blessed in the the Empireal Heaven Plato a harmony proceeding from the motion of the Celestial bodies Daily experience makes us hear in the air a consort of winds the Sea beats a measure by its ebbing and flowing the Birds of the air perform the Cantus the Beasts the Base the Fishes the Tacet Man the Tenor who again in the structure of his body and soul is a perfect harmony In the body the temperature of the humours is so harmonical that their disproportion drives away the soul which Galen upon this account calls harmony In the soul so long as Reason holds the sovereignty and constrains the murmuring Appetite to hold its base there results from it a harmony delectable to God and Men. On the contrary if you would apprehend its discord do but imagine the disorderly uproar excited by choler and the other passions get the mastery over Reason Yea mans whole life is either a perpetual harmony or discord In Religion when one Head is acknowledg'd and every one submits thereunto for Conscience sake and keeps his station how beautiful are those Tabernacles of
or elsewhere Whereby it appears that there is no Rule but has its exception since Nature which gives the same to all things oftentimes dispenses with her self The Third said The Soul is the act of an Organnical Body endu'd with Life and the principle of vegetation sense and motion according to Aristotle an Intellective or continual motion according to Plato a Number moving it And consequently Life is nothing but motion and a thing may be said to be alive when it is able to move it self by any kind of motion whether of generation or corruption accretion or diminution local motion or alteration For the most evident sign of Life is self-motion Whence we call such Living Waters which flow and those dead which stand still although improperly because this motion is extrinsical to them namely from their source and the declivity of the earth The Pythagoreans therefore believ'd the Heaven animated because it is mov'd according to all the differences of place and that this Animal is nourish'd with the Air which it draws out of the spaces which we call Imaginary Now as powers are known so they are distinguish'd by their actions So that the perfecter the motion is which denotes Life the perfecter the Life is Therefore as Oysters and other imperfect Animals endu'd with sense enjoy a nobler life then plants which onely vegetate so they are inferior to other perfect Animals which besides sense have progressive motion and these again the slower and more impedite their motion is the more they yield in dignity to others as the Snail to the Dog and Hare In brief these are lesse noble then Man whose Soul is mov'd after a more admirable manner and who hath the faculty of Understanding the most perfect of all which being found in God in a far higher degree beause it constitutes his whole essence being and Understanding being in him one and the same thing he hath the most perfect life of all Which is the cause why our Lord saith that he is the Life Moreover as the First Matter which is the lowest of all things that are if it may be said to be hath need iof all so the sublimest of all things God hath need of nothing but includes in himself all perfections the chiefest of which is Life which all Creatures enjoy onely by participation from him The Fourth said Life is a continual action of Heat upon humidity the periods whereof are distinguish'd by the several effects of this heat to wit the alterations of temper and diversity of ages For 't is Physically as well as Morally true which Job saith that our life is a warfare upon the earth since a thing is not accounted living unless so far as it acts Death being the privation of actions and there is no action but between contrary qualities of which heat and moisture are the foundation of life as cold and siccity are the concomitants of death old age which leads us thither being also cold and dry Hence they are the longest liv'd who have most heat as Males then Females terrestrial animals then Fish those which have blood then those which have not As also those that abound with this humidity live long provided it have the qualities requisite namely be fat aerious and not aqueous or excrementitious because otherwise it easily cools and congeals and by that means incongruous to life The Fifth said That heat being the most noble and active of all qualities executes all the functions of life when it meets with organs and dispositions sutable thereunto This heat must be in act and not only in power such as that of Lime and Pepper is And though it be not so sensible in plants yet it ceases not to be actually in them so long as they are alive and to digest and assimilate the aliments which it draws for them out of the earth ready prepar'd whence they have no excrements as animals have With whom nevertheless they have so great resemblance that Plato in his Timaeus saith that Plants are tanquam animala and Pythagoras conceiv'd them to be inform'd with the souls of some men who having liv'd in the world without exercising other actions then those of the vegetative life addicting themselves to nothing but to feed and generate are condemn'd to pass into the bodies of Plants as the souls of those who have lead a brutish life are relegated into those of Swine Tygres Lyons and other brutes whose manners they had imitated Empedocles and Anaxagoras as Aristotle reports attributed to Plants a perception of pain and pleasure Moreover they have not only their maladies old age and death as animals have but some too have differences of sex and local motion as 't is observ'd of certain Palmes which bend towards one another and of divers other Plants which recoil from those that are contrary to them and grow best neer others The Sixth said Life is nothing but the union of the soul with the body which requires a fitting temperature and conformation from whence afterwards proceed all actions and motions both internal and external Wherefore life is not an action of an action which is absurd but hath its own actions Nor is it the action of the soul for then the body could not be said to live But 't is the act of the soul in the body which being finite and terminated as heat its principal instrument is this is the cause that all living bodies have the terms or bounds of their quantity both as to greatness and smallness but bodies inanimate have not so because they acquire their quantity only by the approximation and apposition of their matter and not by receiving the same inwardly and because they have no organs which require a certain conformation and magnitude which they never exceed II. Of Fasting Upon the second Point it was said That there are many sorts of corporal Fasts not to speak of the spiritual which is abstinence from sin There is one of necessity and the most intolerable of all which made the ancient Poets declaim against Poverty saying that it was to be cast into the sea against the rocks and which made so few Cynicks in respect of so many other Sects of Philosophers Against which evil there is no other remedy but to make that voluntary which cannot be avoided There are fasts of thrift for the Covetous and others of Policy observ'd in many States to good purpose lest the Country be desolated of Cattle and would be should men eat egges and flesh in the beginning of the Spring when Fowls hatch and Beasts engender at which time the flesh of animals is unwholsome because they begin then to enter into heat There is a fast of Health ordain'd by Physitians to such as are full-bodied and abound with ill humours this is the best lik'd of all nothing being undertaken so willingly as for health whereunto moderate fasting greatly conduces as well to preserve it according to the Proverb that Gormandise hath slain more
cloud by the inclos'd exhalation whence rain commonly follows it Fulgur is the exhalation inflam'd which impetuously breaks out at the sides of the cloud wherein it is oftentimes turn'd into a stone of the shape of a wedge the celestial heat then working the same effect in the cavities of the cloud that our common fire doth in crucibles in which equal portions of Sulphur Tartara and Antimony inflam'd turn into a very hard stone of the colour of the Thunder-bolt call'd Regulus Antimonii The Second said As fire is sometimes produc'd in the Air without noise and noise without fire so a great fire is made there with little noise as when what they call a Falling Star passes through a moist cloud in which it makes a hissing like that of hot Iron in cold water whence Winds proceed and sometimes a great noise with little fire as when an Exhalation inflam'd hollows and breaks the cloud which encloses it or else impressing a violent and rapid motion upon it makes it clash impetuously against other clouds For impetuousness supplies for hardnesse as is seen in Air which whistles when beaten by Winds there being some things which tension renders hard as Wind included in a foot-ball And what is reported of the Cataracts of Nile whose waters make so vehement a noise that it renders the people there abouts deaf is a sufficient evidence that two fluid bodies clashing violently together make as great a sound as two solid bodies mov'd with lesse violence The Third said That what is done below being the figure of what is done on high the one may be clearly explicated by the other Wherefore as Exhalation with vapor makes metals in the entrails of the Earth so in the Air it makes Thunder whither they ascend together the vapor being blended with the Exhalation or severally this latter being set on fire in the cold and vaporous cloud or being no longer containable there through its great rarity encounter'd by the coldness of the cloud and the Air it seeks some out-let which not finding 't is necessitated to hollow the bollow the belly of the cloud which obstructed it This rarity proceeds from its heat and drynesse which are commonly turn'd into fire by the sole motion of the Exhalation or by the rayes of the Sun or of some other Stars reflected by the smooth surface of an opposite cloud in the same manner as Burning-glasses set on fire such things as are plac'd at some convenient distance Which should be thought no more strange then mock-suns and mock-moons which are made in the same manner but in a flat or plain cloud not parabolical such as the figure of Burning-glasses must be Moreover fire may be excited by the Antiperistasis of the vehement cold in the middle Region of the Air which causes the degrees of heat to unite as those of other qualities strengthen one another in an enemy country and become flame Hence Thunders are more frequent in Southern then in Northern Countries in hot seasons then in Winter wherein the cold closing the pores of the Earth hinders the free issue of the Exhalations and the middle Region of the Air is found less cold But the most sensible example of Thunder is that of our Guns the powder being so suddenly inflam'd that it cannot reside in the barrel where it takes up a thousand times more room then it did whilst it remain'd in its terrene nature according to the decuple proportion of the Elements violently breaks forth and carries with it what ever resists it breaking the Gun unless the mouth be open though much stronger then a cloud whose spissitude nevertheless supplies for its rarity The Fourth said That the Nature of Thunder and Thunderbolts is so occult that all antiquity call'd them the weapons of Jupiter which he discharg'd upon the wicked as is testifi'd by their fables of the Giants Salmoneus Phaeton and some others Nor is there any so hardned in wickedness but trembles at the cracking of Thunder and Thunder-bolts which Socrates in Xenophon calls the Invisible Ministers of God And one Emperor acknowledg'd himself no God by going to hide himself in a cave while it thunder'd because Thunder-bolts are conceiv'd not to enter the Earth above five foot deep Others have thought that there is something supernatural in it and that Daemons have commonly a hand in it because its effects being unlike those of corporeal Agents seem to be produc'd by spirits who are able to move what ever there is in Nature and this the more easily being not ty'd to the conditions of the matter but mov'd in an instant and penetrating all bodies whatever For Thunder hath kill'd many who had no appearance of hurt upon them the Hair of some hath been taken off without other inconvenience it hath consum'd the Tongues of some or turn'd them downwards it hath melted the money in the purse and the sword in the scabbard without other mischief it sowres Wine in the vessel spoils Eggs under a Hen and makes Sheep abortive Moreover the Scripture tells us that God hath many times us'd Thunder either to punish or terrifie men as he did in Aegypt by the rod of Moses who calls Thunder-bolts God's swords as David doth his Arrows and the Thunder his voice The Law was given to the Israelites with Thunders and Lightnings and Saint John in his Revelation saith that Thunders and Lightnings proceed from Gods Throne Indeed nothing more visibly notifies his presence power and justice yet alwayes accompany'd with Clemency for he threatens by Lightning and speaks by Thunder before he strikes by the Thunder-bolt and the rumbling of this Thunder menaces a whole Region though commonly it carries the blow but upon one person or oftentimes none at all The Fifth said Fear which not onely sometimes made the Romans worship Famine and the Fever but makes it self an Idol in the Minds of the Ignorant has perswaded men that there is something Divine in Thunder because they dread the dismal effects of it and know not the cause although it be as natural as that of all other Meteors Hence some have had recourse to impertinent and superstitious remedies as to pronounce certain barbarous words to carry certain figures or characters about them and according to Wierus to lay a Thunder-stone call'd by the Greeks Ceraunium between two Eggs upon a Table in the house which you would preserve or hang an Egg lay'd on Ascension-day to the roof of the House and such other absurd and prophane means The Northern people were much more ridiculous who as Olaus reports shot Arrows up to Heaven when it Thunder'd thereby as they said to help their Gods who were assail'd by others The Thracians fell a howling against Heaven struck their shields with their swords and rung all their bells which latter is practis'd at this day to the end the vehement agitation of the Air may divert the Thunder-bolt from the steeples upon which as upon all other high places especially
is sometimes to be let by Hippocrates's example that is to refrigerate in order to cure trembling Which if it come from the debility of the Brain and Nerves they must be strengthned if from defect or dissipation of vital spirits they must be restor'd by good diet if from plenitude obstruction or compression of the nerves the humour and peccant cause must be evacuated But above all the rest the tremulation of old people is hardest to cure in regard of the weakness and paucity of spirits as also those that are hereditary and happen to the parts of the left side because trembling denotes a deficiency of heat and spirits which yet ought to be more vigorous in the left side then the right as being neerer the heart the source of life II. Of Navigation and Longitudes Upon the second Point That the invention of Navigation as of all other Arts is due to Chance For men beholding great beams swim in the water first ventur'd to get upon them then hollow'd them and joyn'd a prow rudder and sides representing the head tail and fins of Fishes as their back doth the keel of the Ship and this according to the different natures of seas and divers uses of Trade and War both being equally necessary to render a State potent and formidable As Solomon sometimes by this means did sending his Ships to Ophir which some imagine Peru and Tarsis to fetch Gold Sweet-wood and other rarities As likewise did the Tyrians Phaenicians Cretans Athenians and in our days almost all Nations Without the Art of Navigation we should want Spices and most Drugs which grow beyond the seas and a great part of the world would have been unknown had it not been for the long Voyages of Columbus Vesputius Magellan and Drake who sail'd round the world The Second said 'T was not without reason that Cato repented of three things of having told a secret to his Wife of having spent a day without doing any thing and of having gone upon the sea and that Anacharsis said people in Ships are but a few inches distant from death and therefore neither to be reckon'd among the living nor the dead in regard of the infidelity of that Element Hence Seneca saith there is nothing to which men may not be brought since they have been perswaded to Navigation and Horace detests the first inventor of Ships Nor is it less rashness to invade this Element destinated to Fish then the Air which is appointed for Birds alone Our fore-fathers had good reason to make their wills when they went to sea But since the use of the Compass it hath as much surpass'd the observation of Stars and Shores the sole guides of antiquity in certainty as the Compass would be surpass'd by the invention of Longitudes which would teach how to hold a course perfectly certain The Third said That to seek Terrestrial Longitudes is nothing else but to seek the difference of Meridians that is the difference between the Meridian of an unknown and a known place or to speak plainer the Spherical Angle made by the Meridian of an unknown place with that of a known place To attain which knowledge men have hitherto made use of four ways which are all found unprofitable The first is by an Instrument call'd a Contepas or measure of Itinerary distance which would be infallible if it were exact For whoso hath the true distance between a known and an unknown place hath infallibly the angle comprehended by the Meridians of the two places For let B be a known place and C an unknown place let the distance between the place B and the place C be the arch B C if the said arch B C be known the difference of the Meridians shall also be known For let A be the Pole of the World and draw the arches A B A C which are the Meridians of the places B and C. Now since the place B is known the height of the Pole at the said place shall be also known and consequently its complement the arch A B. And although the place C be unknown yet 't is easie by the ordinary methods to take the height of the Pole and so its complement which is the arch A C will be likewise known Now the arch B C is also known since 't is the distance of the places and supposed known Therefore in the Triangle B A C three sides being known the Spherical angle B A C contained by the said two Meridians shall be also known Which was to be demonstrated But being we have no way to understand the distance of B C exactly therefore neither have we the angle B A C exactly The second way were also infallible if it were practicable and 't is perform'd by a most exquisite and exact Watch. For setting forth from a known place with the said Watch and having gone as far as you please supposing the Watch to go equally if you would know the difference between the Meridian of the place where you are and that whence you departed you need only observe the hour at the unknown place and compare it with the hour noted by your Watch which if it be the same then you are undoubtedly under the same Meridian But if your Watch says one a clock and at the unknown place it be two this signifies that 't is one a clock at the place whence you set forth and so you are in a Meridian differing fifteen degrees from that of the place whence you came and so in other cases The third way depends upon the Needle excited by the Load-stone for if you suppose a certain pole to which it is directed and a regular declination there will undoubtedly be form'd a Triangle of three known sides and you will have the difference of any two Meridians infallibly But because the variation of its declination is so great and uncertain that 't is not possible to assign a certain pole to it this invention is found as faulty as the rest The fourth way is by the Moon Which might be as well by the Sun or any other Planet But because the Moon in like time makes more sensible differences of change of place therefore it may better afford the knowledge of longitudes Supposing then that we have Tables of the Moon which do not fail a minute and that 't is possible to observe the place of the Moon 's Centre within a minute where ever you be you will undoubtedly have the longitude by comparing the time that is the hour and the minute at which the Moon is found in that same place of Heaven in the Meridian for which the Tables are constructed with the time when you find her at the said place in the unknown Meridian and then by making the Aequation of the two times But because the Moon 's motion is swift and that of the primum mobile swifter 't is found that if you miss but two minutes of the Moon 's place you will erre a degree in terrestrial
and use specially by the hearing whnce people deaf by nature are also dumb yea 't is very peculiare to man Wherefore Speech is improperly figuratively artificially or else miraculously ascrib'd to other things as when The Heavens are said to declare the glory of God one deep to call on another c. When Balaams Ass spoke 't was by Miracle But when Magus's dog spoke to Saint Peter 't was by operation of the Devil as also what is reported of the two Pigeons the Oke at Achilles's Horse the keel of Argo and that Elm of the Gymnosophists mention'd by Philostratus to have saluted Apollonius at his arrival as the River Causus bid Pythagoras good-morrow But Speech properly belongs onely to man other creatures are incapable of it both because they want Reason which is the principle of it and organs which are a tongue a palate teeth and lipps all rightly proportionated for the articulation of voice for man's tongue alone is soft large moveable and loose to which qualities those of Pies and Parrots come nearest The Third said A natural thing is either born with us as sense and motion or comes afterwards of it self as laughter or whereof we are naturally capable and inclin'd to as Arts and Sciences In the first and second signification speech is not natural to man who could not speak without learning whence the two children caus'd by Psammetichus King of Egypt to be nurs'd in a Desart by two dumb Nurses pronounc'd no other word but Bec which they had heard of the Goats But in the last signification 't is peculiar to man who is so inclin'd to it that were children let alone from their Cradle they would in time make some language by signs or words 'T is to be understood too that 't is articulate speech such as may be written that is peculiar to man not inarticulate which though a natural sign of the affections within yet cannot properly be called speech because found also in beasts whose jargon Apollonius and some others are said to have understood for hearing the chattering of a Swallow to her companions he told those that were present that this bird advertis'd the others of a sack of Wheat fallen off an Asse's back neer the City which upon trial was found to be true CONFERENCE LXXIX I. What the Soul is II. Of the apparition of Spirits I. What the Soul is THe difference of inanimate living and dead bodies manifestly evince the existence of a soul. But its essence is so unknown that Philosophers doubt in what degree of Category to put it For 't is of that kind of things which are not known by themselves but only by their effects as local motion and substance which is not perceptible but by its accidents So the outward shape of animated bodies acquaints us with their inward form For the soul shapes all the external parts after the same manner as Plants and Animals of the same species have commonly their leaves and members of the same external figure whereas you scarce find two stones or other inanimate bodies of the same shape The Second said That the soul according to Aristotle is the first act of a natural body organiz'd having life in power or potentially Meaning by act perfection which he expresses by the word Entellechie which signifies to be in its end and form which two are the same in natural things 'T is call'd Form upon account of its beauty and divine from heaven its original and 't is the first of all other second acts which are produc'd by it such as all vital actions are For as in the most imperfect of beings Matter there is a First or remote power as in water to become fire another second or next as in the same water to become air by rarefaction so in the nature of Forms the noblest created Beings there is a First act the source of all vital actions and a Second comprehending the faculties and functions Now this Soul is not a pure act as God and Angels are but an act of the Body on whom it depends either in its being and preservation or else only in operation Hence Sensitive and Vegetable Souls cease to be upon the change of the dispositions which produc'd and supported them The reasonable Soul too in some manner depends upon the Bodies disposition as to its operation not as to its being and preservation being immaterial and immortal 'T is call'd an act of a natural Body to distinguish it from Machines or Engines which move artificial and inanimate Bodies organical because Organs are requisite to its action It must also have life in power that is be able to exercise the vital functions For want of which a carcase though organiz'd yet cannot be said to be animated no more then Egges and Seed for want of Organs although they have life in power The Third said He was of Pythagoras's opinion who call'd it a number there being nothing in the world wherewith it hath more correspondence and proportion 'T is one in its essence it makes the binary which is the first number by its conjunction with the body and division of its Faculties into the Intellect and Will the ternary by its three species of soul Vegetative Sensitive Rational the quaternary by the four qualities constituting the temper requisite to its introduction into the body of which four numbers put together is form'd the number ten whence all others proceed as from simple Apprehension Enuntiation Argumentation and Method which are the four operations of the reasonable soul whence all its notions proceed The Fourth said 'T is not enough to say with the Philosopher that the soul is an act or perfection or that by whose means we live it must be shewn what this act is whether Substance or Accident Pythagoras by calling the soul a number moving it self reduces it under Quantity According to Galen who acknowledges no other Soul but the Temper 't is a Quality as also according to Clearchus who defines it harmony Of those who believ'd the soul a substance some have call'd it the purest part of some Element as Heraclitus of fire Anaximenes of air and Thales of water none of earth in regard of its gross matter Critelaus said 't was a Quintessence Democritus a substance compos'd of round Atoms and therefore easily movable Now the soul is a substance not an accident because it composes a substance making with the body a total by it self Nor is it Quantity because Quantity is not active much less a self-moving number because number is an Entity of Reason and nothing is mov'd of it self but of some other Nor is it any of the four qualities which being indifferent of themselves must be determin'd by some form much less a temper which is found in all mixts of which some are inanimate nor a harmony for this is compos'd of contrarieties but the soul is simple and consequently not susceptible of contraries 'T is therefore an incorporeal substance otherwise were
and jet burnt whence the Ancients being about to buy a slave made him snuff up smoak of brimstone to try whether he were not subject to this disease so many Antepileptical remedies cure it but that which proceeds by sympathie from the stomack or other parts more easily then that which is idiopathical and radicated in the brain As the shavings of man's skull not buried drunk with water of Teile-tre and Paeony so contrary to this evil that it cures the same by being hung about the neck II. Whether there be any Art of Divination Upon the Second Point 't was said That Man who alone understands the nature and difference of Time is more solicitous about the future then about the present which is but a moment or the past which concerns him only historically Hence arises his ardent desire of presaging to satisfie which he makes use of every thing in the world Which is an infallible argument of the vanity of this Art of Divination because effects cannot be fore-told by all sorts of causes but onely by those wherewith they have connexion and wherein they are potentially contain'd as leaves and fruits are in the seeds and 't is receiv'd a Maxime that when an effect may be produc'd by sundry causes none of them is the true cause since we cannot from such an effect proceed to the knowledge of its cause Now Divination is not taken here as Hippocrates speaks of it in his Prognosticks when he saith that nothing is makes Physitians more resemble Gods then the foretelling of what will befall and hath already befallen their Patients For there he speaks of the predictions of Physick but here to divine is to affirm an event whereof we see not any cause or probable sign For if by seeing a Rain-bow I prognosticate rain or that a tree will bear fruit when it is well blossom'd or that a sick person that rests ill the night before the seventh day will have a Crisis this is not Divination But if not knowing a prisoner nor his affairs I fore-tell that he will be set at liberty or not that an unknown person will be married and how many Children he will have or such other things which have no necessary nor yet contingent causes known to me this is properly to Divine Whereby it appears that there is no Art of Divination Art being a body of precepts tending to some profitable end whereas were Divination certain it would cause nothing but either despair or negligence and precepts being of things hapning necessarily or most commonly that whose cause we know not cannot be known by precepts And therefore all your Soothsayers Augurs Sorcerers Fortune-tellers and the like are but so many Impostors The Second said That Divination which is a prediction of future things remote from our knowledge is of three sorts Either from God as Prophecy from Devils as Conjuring or from causes purely natural which is Prognostication or Conjecture Prophecy is a divine inspiration whereby one fore-sees and declares remote things infallibly 'T was exercis'd at first by the Priests of the Law with the Vrim and Thummim which were twelve precious stones in the high Priests Ephod and afterwards by the Prophets instructed in dreams or visions whence they were call'd seers Diabolical Divination depends upon some compact either tacite or express with the Devil who being able to declare such things as have appear'd by some outward act as the authors of robberies things lost or such futurities as depend on natural and necessary causes but not such as proceed from causes purely free or contingent the Soothsayers his servants can know no more concerning the same then their Master This Divination is of two sorts The first is call'd Daemonomancy when the Devils themselves give answers out of Caves or Images sometimes by beasts men or most frequently by women rendring oracles by their mouths stomacks or bellies but for the most part ambiguous and doubtful for fear of being mistaken The other is call'd Mangania or Goetia the most detestable species of which is Necromancy which draws answers from the mouths of the dead Others more remarkable are 1. Hydromancy or Divination by water into which they pour drops of oyle or cast three little stones observing the sections of the circles which they describe 2. Lecanomancy by a basin of water at the bottom of which the answers are heard after casting thereinto some plates of Gold and Silver and precious stones engraven with certain characters 3. Gastromancy by glass bottles full of water in which a big-belly'd woman or an innocent child beholds images 4. Catoptromancy by Looking-glasses 5. Crystallomancy by crystal cylinders 6. Dactylomancy by enchanted Rings like that of Gyges 7. Onychomancy by anointing the nail of a child with oyle or tallow and holding it towards the Sun they see in it what they demand 8. Aeromancy by conjurations of the Air. 9. Coscinomancy by a sieve and sizzars All which species of Divination presume either an express or tacite compact with the Devil But there were three without compact 1. Aruspices who drew conjectures from the entrails and motions of beasts sacrificed from the figures made by melted wax cast into water call'd Ceromantie or Daphnomancy from the crackling of burning Lawrel Omphalomancy when by the knots and adhering to the navil and secundines the Mid-wives fore-tell how many Children the new deliver'd woman shall have afterwards Amniomancy foretelling the Childs fortune from the red or livid colour of the coat Amnios Parthenomancy to discover Virginity by measuring the neck or drinking powder'd Agat which she that is no Virgin vomits up again 2. Augures or Auspices who divin'd from birds beasts prodigies and accidents as Pliny reports of the Servilii that they had a piece of brass money which they fed with Gold and Silver and it increas'd when any good was to befall their Family and diminish'd upon some approaching evil 3. Unlawful Lots are Cleromancy which comprehends Homer and Virgil's Lots Alectriomancy by a Cock eating corns of wheat lay'd upon the Letters of the Alphabet Oniomancy by names Arithmancy by numbers Lastly Natural Divination which is Conjecture either taken from the Stars as Judiciary Astrology the Air and its several dispositions the Sea and Trees as when a Plague is fore-told by the flourishing of Roses or Violets in Autumn Animals also supply some presages as Mice running away from an house presignifie its downfall or burning and Sparrows delinquishing a Country denote the Pestilence and infection of the Air. The Third said That the Soul being immortal is also capable of knowing things after the manner of eternity which being a total and simultaneous possession of endless life knows all things at once things future and past as present which knowledge is like that of a man who beholds a whole Army at the same time from the top of a Mountain and that of time in which things are seen successively is like that of him who through a hole sees every
return to his first habit The Fifth said Nature being taken for every thing compounded of matter and form and Art for Humane Wit which applies them to its own use this must be so much more excellent then that as it gives perfection to the same by introduction of an artificial form besides its natural Marble of no price in the mine yet turn'd into the statue of an old woman becomes highly valuable The Dragon in the Tapistry is as agreeable to behold as the natural one would be terrible And even of things profitable a dish of fruits well drawn is more esteem'd then a hundred natural And who prizes not a Table Cabinet or other moveables more then so much wood a glasse then the ashes it is made of 'T were to accuse all Antiquity of error and unprofitably inventing and increasing Arts to prefer the rudenesse and simplicity of Nature before them which teaching us from the birth to defend our selves by arts against all defects of the body therefore tacitely yields them the preheminence The sixth said That the meaness and imperfection of the matter sets off the excellence of the workman when his work borrows all its noblenesse from its form which he gives it and not from its matter Hence God the most perfect of all Agents needed no matter wherewith to make all his works Nothing being a sufficient material object of his Omnipotence Nature a subordinate and lesse perfect Agent then God makes all her works of the First Matter which is not a pure nothing nor yet a perfect Entity but on Entity in power and as Aristotle saith almost nothing But Art can make nothing but by the help of natural and perfect bodies compos'd of matter and form which it onely divides or conjoyns as when the Architect builds a House he joynes many stones pieces of wood and other perfect bodies together and the Statuary pares off the gross pieces of Marble till he brings forth the resemblance of what he would represent Wherefore as much as God is above Nature so much is Nature above Art II. Whether Wine is most to be temper'd in Winter or in Summer Upon the Second Poynt 't was said They who impute most diseases to the use of Wine because the Eastern people who use it not are free or less troubled with maladies will conclude as he did who marri'd a very little Woman as the least Evil that Wine most qualifid is best in case it cannot be wholly let alone But the Question will still remain in which season Winter or Summer it is most to be mix'd Now there being less heat and more humidity in the body during Winter by reason of the outward cold and closing of the pores it seems that Wine should be taken unmixt in this season For being heat consists in a proportion of the qualities that which exceds must be corrected by its contrary and the weak strengthened as they that would walk upright on a rope must turn their counterpoize to the side opposite to that whereunto they incline The Second said That in Summer the Wine should be more temper'd because then the natural heat is least as Caves are cold in Summer and hot in Winter Whence Hippocrates said that the bowels are hotter in Winter and Spring whence people have then better stomacks the capacities being enlarged by the dilatation of heat and sleep likewise longer through the abundance of vapours rising from the blood which is made in greater quantity when the natural is strong then when it is weak Moreover bodies are more healthy in cold weather then in hot which causing great dissipation of heat and spirits the losse cannot be better repair'd then by unmixt Wine whose actual coldness being overcome by our Nature its potential heat is reduc'd into act and fortifies ours adding also its volatile spirits to our spirits as old regiments are recruited by new levies The Third said That the best food being assimilated and least excrementitious as Wine is in all seasons it ought not to be mix'd either in Summer or Winter aqueous Wine making many serous excrements which cause obstructions whereas pure Wine is good in Winter to assist the natural heat assaulted by the outward cold and to digest the crudities commonly generated during this season and in Summer to support the languishing spirits by supplying new matter But if the necessity of a hot distemper require mixture of water I would have it pour'd into the wine two hours before it be drunk that so fermentation may in some measure turn the water into the nature of the wine and the encounter of these two enemies may be rather in a strange Country then in ours The Fourth said 'T was not without mystery that the Poets feign'd Bacchus new come forth out of Jupiter's thigh with an inflam'd countenance to have been deliver'd to the Nymphs to wash him and that the seven Pleiades whose rising denounces rain had the principal charge of him and that the Mythologists represent this God of Wine follow'd by a company of mischievous demons call'd Cabals the chief of which they name Acrat which signifies pure wine hereby intimating the disorders it causes when its fumes are not abated with water Moreover when Amplychion King of Athens had first put water into his wine and every one by his example a Temple was built in the City to Bacchus erect or standing intimating that as mere wine causes reeling so temper'd makes one walk upright The truth is unmix'd wine is always dangerous filling the brain with hot and pungent vapours which water allays and gives a temper to sutable to our natural heat which is mild and gentle whereas these spirits are of themselves igneous as the burning of Aqua-vitae testifies But 't is less hurtful to drink pure wine in Winter then in Summer when the natural heat being igneous and encreas'd by the outward would turn into a distemper by the adventitious heat of wine which on the contrary in Winter counter-checks the outward coldness of the air The Fifth said If we believe the Poet Orpheus who advises to drink unmix'd wine twenty days before the rising of the Dog-star and as many after then wine must not be temper'd in Summer a custom practis'd still in Italy where in the heats of Summers they drink the strongest and most delicious wines without water Moreover people eating less in this hot season should therefore drink the more pure wine as more nourishing Besides that the aqueous crudities of fruits eaten in Summer is corrected by the heat of wine The Sixth said That regard is herein to be had to every one's constitution phlegmatick old men and such as have cold stomacks may drink wine without water as also those that have Fames Canina but the cholerick and young must temper it if they do not wholly abstain yet always having regard to custom and the nature of wines amongst which if we believe the Germans their wine cannot endure water no more then the water
of Art which we learn'd from them for the most part but they have also virtues as Chastity Simplicity Prudence Piety On the contrary God as the Philosopher teaches exercises neither virtues nor any external actions but contemplation is his sole employment and consequently the most divine of all though it were not calm agreeable permanent sufficient proper to man and independent of others which are the tokens of beatitude and the chief good The Third said since 't is true which Plato saith that while we are in this world we do nothing but behold by the favour of a glimmering light the phantasms and shadows of things which custom makes us to take for truths and bodies they who amuse themselves in contemplation in this life cannot be said contented unless after the manner of Tantalus who could not drink in the midst of the water because they cannot satisfie that general inclination of nature who suffers nothing idle in all her precincts to reduce powers into act and dead notions into living actions If they receive any pleasure in the knowledge of some truths 't is much less then that which is afforded by action and the exercise of the moral virtues of the active life the more excellent in that they are profitable to many since the most excellent good is the most communicable Moreover all men have given the pre-eminence to civil Prudence and active life by proposing rewards and honours thereunto but they have punish'd the ingratitude and pride of speculative persons abandoning them to contempt poverty and all incommodities of life And since the Vice which is opposite to active life is worse then ignorance which is oppos'd to the contemplative by the reason of contraries action must be better then contemplation and the rather because virtuous action without contemplation is always laudable and many times meritorious for its simplicity on the contrary contemplation without virtuous acts is more criminal and pernicious In fine if it be true that he who withdraws himself from active life to intend contemplation is either a god or a beast as Aristotle saith 't is more likely that he is the latter since man can hardly become like to God The Fourth said That to separate active life from contemplative is to cut off the stream from the fountain the fruit from the tree and the effect from its cause as likewise contemplation without the vertues of the active life is impossible rest and tranquillity which are not found in vice being necessary to contemplate and know Wherefore as the active life is most necessary during this life so the contemplative is more noble and divine if this present life be consider'd as the end and not as the means and way to attain to the other life in which actions not contemplations shall be put to account Contemplation is the Sun Action the Moon of this little World receiving its directions from contemplation as the Moon of the great World borrows its light from the Sun the former presides in the day of contemplative life the second which is neerer to us as the Moon is presides in the darkness of our passions Both of them represented in Pallas the Goddess of Wisdom and War being joyn'd together make the double-fronted Janus or Hermaphrodite of Plato square of all sides compos'd of Contemplation which is the Male and Action which is the Female CONFERENCE XCIII I. Of the spots in the Moon and the Sun II. Whether 't is best to use severity or gentleness towards our dependents I. Of the spots in the Moon and the Sun THere is nothing perfect in the world spots being observ'd in the brightest bodies of Nature And not to speak of those in the Sun which seem to proceed from the same cause with those observ'd in our flame according as 't is condens'd or rarifi'd we may well give account of those in the Moon by saying with the Pythagoreans and some later excellent Mathematicians that the Moon is an earthly habitable Globe as the eminences and inequalities observ'd therein by the Telescope the great communications of the Moon with our earth depriving one another of the Sun by the opacity rotundity and solidty of both and the cold and moist qualities which it transmits hither like those of this terr-aqueous Globe since the same apparences and illumination of the Earth would be seen from the Heaven of the Moon if a man were carri'd thither And because solid massie bodies as wood and stone reflect light most strongly therefore the brightest parts of the Moon answer the terrestrial dense parts and the dark the water which being rarer and liker the air is also more transparent and consequently less apt to stop and reflect light This we experience in the prospect of high Mountains very remote or the points of Rocks in the open Sea which reflect a light and have a colour like that of the Moon when the Sun is still above the Horizon with her whereas the Sea and great Lakes being less capable of remitting this light seem dark and like clouds So that were this Globe of Ocean and Earth seen from far it would appear illuminated and spotted like the Moon For the opinion of Plurality of Worlds which can be no way dangerous of it self but only in the consequences the weakness of humane wit would draw from it much less is it contrary to the faith as some imagine is rather an argument of Gods Omnipotence and more abundant communication of his goodness in the production of more creatures whereas his immense goodness seems to be restrain'd in the creation of but one world and of but one kind Nor is it impossible but that as we see about some Planets namely Jupiter and Saturn some other Stars which move in Epicycles and in respect of their stations and those Planets seem like Moons to them and are of the same substance so that which shines to us here below may be of the same substance with our earth and plac'd as a bound to this elementary Globe The Second said That the spots of the Sun and Moon cannot be explicated without some Optical presuppositions And first 't is to be known that Vision is perform'd three ways directly by reflection and by refraction Direct Vision which is the most ordinary is when an object sends its species to the eye by a direct way that is when all the points of one and the same object make themselves seen by so many right lines Reflective Vision is when the species of an object falling upon the surface of an opake body is remitted back to the sight as 't is in our Looking-glasses Vision by refraction is when the species of an object having pass'd through a medium diaphanous to a certain degree enters obliquely into another medium more or less diaphanous for then 't is broken and continues not its way directly but with this diversity that coming from a thicker medium into a thinner as from water into air the species in breaking
crowned Or. Holland Or a Lyon gules Bavaria fuselé argent and azure of twenty one pieces placed bendwise Ireland gules a Harp Or. CONFERENCE XCVIII I. Of the causes of Contagion II. Of the ways of occult Writing I. Of the causes of Contagion DIseases being accidents must be divided as other accidents by their first subjects which are the solid parts the humours and the spirits and by their several causes some of which are manifest others unknown the malignity of the causes which produce them and the manner whereby they act being inexplicable Which diversity of causes depends upon those of mixtions which are of two sorts one of the qualities of the elements which makes the difference of temperaments the other of the elementary forms which being contrary only upon the account of their qualities when these put off their contrariety by alteration the forms easily become united and as amongst qualities so amongst forms one becomes predominant the actions whereof are said to proceed from an occult property because the form which produces them is unknown to us So Arsenick and Hemlock besides the power which the first hath to heat and the second to refrigerate have a particular virtue of assaulting the heart and killing speedily by a property hitherto unknown Such also are contagious and venomous diseases some whereof are caus'd by the inspir'd air as the Pestilence because air being absolutely necessary to the support of our natural heat if when it is infected with malignant and mortal vapours it be attracted by the mouth or the pores of the skin it corrupts the mass of the spirits as a crum of bread or other extraneous bodies makes milk or wine become sowre Others infect by bodily contact as the Itch the Pox the Measles and the Leprosie A third sort proceed from a venomous matter either communicated outwardly as by poyson and the biting of venomous beasts or generated in the body as it may happen to the blood black choler and the other humours being extravasated The Second said That diseases proceed either from the corruption and vitiosity of particular bodies some of which are dispos'd to the Pleurisie others to the Flux others to the Colick call'd therefore sporadical or dispers'd and promiscuous diseases or else from some common vitiosity as of the air aliments waters winds or other such common cause whereby many come to be seiz'd upon by the same disease at the same time so after Famines bad nourishment gives a great disposition to the Pestilence These maladies are fix'd to a certain Country seldom extending beyond it as the Leprosie to the Jews the Kings Evil to the Spaniards Burstenness to Narbon the Colick to Poitou the Phthisick to the Portugals the Pox to the Indians call'd by them Apua and brought by the Spaniards into Europe and such other diseases familiar to some particular Country and call'd Endemial Or else they are Epidemical and not ty'd to a certain region but produc'd by other external causes as pestilential and contagious diseases which again are either extraordinary as the Sweating-sickness of England the Coqueluche which was a sort of destillation or ordinary which manifest themselves by purple spots carbuncles and buboes But as the causes of the Small-pox and Measles are chiefly born within us being produc'd of the maternal blood attracted in the womb and cast forth by nature when become more strong so though the seeds of contagious diseases may come from without yet they are commonly within our selves The Third said That Contagion is the communication of a disease from one body to another the most violent so communicable is the Pestilence which is defin'd a most acute contagious venomous and mortal Fever accompani'd with purple spots Buboes and Carbuncles 'T is properly a species of a Fever being a venomous and contra-natural heat kindled in the heart manifesting it self by a high frequent and unequal pulse except when nature yields at first to the violence and malignity of the disease and then the pulse is slow small and languishing but always unequal and irregular Oftentimes it kills the first or second day scarce passes to the seventh if it be simple and legitimate but when 't is accompani'd with putrefaction it reaches sometimes to the fourteenth It s malignity appears in its not yielding to ordinary remedies which operate by their first qualities but only to medicaments which act by occult properties an argument that the cause of these diseases is so too Now four things are here to be consider'd 1. That which is communicated 2. The body which communicates the same 3. That to which it is communicated 4. The medium through which the same is done A thing communicated against nature is either the disease or the cause of the disease or the symptom Here 't is the cause of the disease which is either corporeal or incorporeal The incorporeal in my opinion are the malignant influences of the Stars as of Mars and Saturn and during Comets and Eclipses For since their benigne influences preserve motion and life in all things of the world by the reason of contraries the malignity of the same aspects may be the cause of the diseases and irregularities which we behold in it The corporeal cause must be moveable an humour a vapour or a spirit which malignant evaporations kill oftentimes without any sign of putrefaction or if there be any it proceeds not from the corruption of the humours but from the oppression and suffocation of the natural heat by those malignant vapours and then the humours being destitute of the natural heat and of that of the spirits which preserv'd them turn into poyson There must be some proportion between the body which communicates this vapour and that which receives it but the same is unknown to us and this proportion is the cause that some Contagions seise only upon some animals as Horses Dogs and Cattle others upon Men alone Children Women old Men Women with Child and their burthens others seize only upon certain parts as the Itch is communicated only to the skin the Phthisick to the Lungs the Ophthalmia to the eyes and not to the other parts The medium of this communication is the air which being rare and spongy is very susceptible of such qualities which it easily transmits by its mobility And these qualities happen to it either extrinsecally as from faetid and venomous vapours and fumes exhal'd from carrion marshes impurities and openings of the ground by Earth-quakes which are frequently follow'd by the Pestilence or else they arise in the Air it self in which vapours may acquire a pestilential malignity of which a hot and moist intemperature is very susceptible The Fourth said That the Pestilence is found indifferently in all seasons climates sexes ages and persons which argues that its proximate cause is not the corruption of the humors and intemperature of the first qualities Otherwise the Pestilence should be as other diseases whereof some are hot others cold and be cur'd
In a word where ever there is Sea there is Land but not on the contrary So that taking the sixt part of the compass of the Terrestrial Globe for its Semidiametre according to the ordinary proportion of the circle to its ray the Earth will be found several times greater then the Water the Springs that are found in opening it being not considerable in comparison of the rest of its bulk II. What it is that makes a Man wise He that spake first upon the second point said that he wonder'd not that Wisedom was taken for a Subject to be treated of in so good company since 't is the point which all desire most not onely in themselves but also in others with whom they are to converse But it behoveth to distinguish the same according to its several acceptions For anciently Wisedom was taken for the knowledge of things Divine and Humane before Pythagoras call'd it Philosophy At present it is confounded with Prudence and is either infused or acquired The former which springeth from the knowledge and fear of God joyn'd with a good life is obtain'd by begging it of God and rendring one's self worthy to receive it Such was that of Solomon which brought to him all other goods The latter of which we now speak is obtain'd by Precepts Experience or both Whereunto Travel is conceiv'd greatly to conduce according to the testimony of Homer who calls his wise Vlysses a Visitor of Cities and according to the opinion of the ancient French Gentry who would not have had a good opinion of their Children unless they had seen Italy and other forreign Countries It is also divided according to Sex Conditions and Age. For there is difference in the Wisedom of a Woman of a Child of a Man grown and of an Old Man and so there is in that of a Father of a Family of his Domestick of a Captain of a Souldier of a Magistrate of a Citizen of a Master of a Varlet and of infinite others who may become wise by several yea sometimes by contrary means For Example a wise Souldier ought to expose himself to all dangers and events of War quite the contrary to a wise Captain who ought to preserve himself the most he can A Prince a Magistrate a Master a Father are wise if they command as is fitting Whereas a Subject a Burgess a Servant and a Child are esteemed such in obeying them Besides Precepts and Experience Example serves much to the acquiring of Wisedom whether the same be drawn from the reading of Books or from converse and conference with wise persons or sometimes too from the sight of undecent things As of old the Lacedemonians taught their Children Sobriety by shewing their Helots drunk The Example of Animals is not useless thereunto and therefore Solomon sends the sluggard to the Pismire and Lycurgus taught the same Lacedemonians that Education alone made the difference between Men by shewing them two Dogs of the same litter run one after a Hare the other to his Meat Fables likewise have many times their use But true it is that Nature layeth the great Foundations Whence Cold and Dry Tempers such as the Melancholly have a natural restraint which participateth much of Wisedom Whereas the Sanguine by reason of their jollity and the Cholerick in regard of their hastiness have greater difficulty to attain the same as Socrates confessed of himself The Second said That the true Moral Wisedom of a Man consider'd alone consisteth in taming his Passions and subjecting them to the Command of Reason which alone serveth for a Rule and Square to all the Actions of Life whereas the common sort leave themselves to be govern'd by the Laws And the ancient Philosophy had no other aim but that Apathy That of a Master of a Family consisteth in the management of the same That of a Polititian in the Administration of the State punishing the evil-doers and recompencing the good establishing wholesome Laws and maintaining Trade The Third said That He alone deserves to wear the name of Wise who seeketh and embraceth the means whereby to be in favour with him who is the Chief Wisedom Those means are two First That his Understanding be duely inform'd of what he ought to know and what he ought to be ignorant of Secondly That his Will be dispos'd to what he ought either to love or hate As for the first he must be ignorant of Humane Sciences since they shake and undermine the foundations of true Wisedom their Principles being for the most part opposite to the Articles of our Faith For of the ancient Philosophers the Pythagoreans are full of Magical superstitions The Platonists hold a Matter coeternal to God Democritus and all the Epicureans have thought the same of their Atomes not to mention their Voluptuous End The Stoicks have made their Sage equal and sometimes superiour to God whom they subjected to their celebrated Destiny or Fate The Pyrrhonians have doubted of every thing and consequently of the truth of Religion The Cynicks publickly made Virtue of Vice The Peripateticks are as much to be fear'd as the former with their Eternity of the World which destroyeth all Religion and gave occasion to Saint Ambrose to say in his Offices That the Lycaeum was much more dangerous then the gardens of Epicurus Moreover the Principles of the Sciences do not accord with those of Faith And Saint Thomas said with good right that Humane Reason greatly diminisheth it And that happens oft times to those who busie themselves about those goodly principles which the Poets relate fabulously of Bellerophon who attempting to fly up to Heaven Jupiter angry at him sent onely a Fly which overturned the winged Horse-man So those vain-glorious wits puff'd up with some Humane Knowledge venturing to hoise themselves into Heaven and penetrate into the secret Cabinets of the Divine Providence it gives them up to a thousand dubious Controversies which precipitate them into the darkness of Confusion and Errour Moreover Solomon the pattern of Wisedom saith that after having lead his Mind through all Nature he perceiv'd that all was nothing but vanity and vexation of spirit And Saint Paul saith that Knowledge puffeth up and swelleth with Pride that this Humane Wisedom is nought but Folly before God by which he admonisheth us to beware of being deceived and that if any one will be wise let him profess Ignorance and become a fool since the Folly and Ignorance of the world is the true Wisedom and Knowledge in the sight of God who loveth the poor of spirit that is the simple ideots and ignorant As for what our Understanding ought to know for becoming wise 't is To know that Chief Wisedom and the Christian Doctrine by the example of the same Saint Paul who would not know any thing besides Jesus and him crucisi'd For the Second means which regardeth the Will of Man it will be disposed to that which is to be lov'd or hated when it hath submitted it self