aureo Glossarium Strigae Lastrygones And they of the countrey of Auergne in France do call them Fascignaires that is Witches or Inchaunters of inchanting or bewitching men with their looks And the Italians cal them Fatechiare or Streghe of the Latine name Strix which is a bird reported to suck the blood of little childrē lying in the cradle of which the Lamiae are also very greedy and desirous the reason wherof is yeelded both by Suydas and the Philosopher Fauorin born at Arles in Prouince The which they groūd vpon a certaine olde stale fable which is this That Iupiter falling in loue with a beautifull Nimph named Lamia did beget on her a child which Iuno of a ielosie caused to be strangled whereupon the said Lamia of pure despight did neuer cease from that time forwards to work mischief to other folks childrē Howsoeuer it be so is the report that Sorcerers do likewise vse to strāgle little infants And because they haunt and frequent the graues and Sepulchers of the dead and vse to bee abroade in the night time as doe the Strigae It is not without reason that they are called Lamiae and Struiae and birdes that flye and frequent the graues The which was not vnknown vnto Lacian and Apuleius who in their Metamorphoses haue fained that a Witch or Sorcerer by meanes of a certaine Oyntment did change himselfe into a Bird and so flew vnto one of whome he was enamoured But as touching that Bird which of the Latines is named Strix and of the Greekes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In French it may be called Frezaie Of the Scritch-Owle Lib. 11. cap. 39 Natur. Histor that is in English a Scritch-Owle Howbeit that Pliny knew not what bird it was rightly and neuerthelesse he placed it amongst the Iniuries of the Auncients And by certaine Greeke Verses which Festus alledgeth one may soone see that it was held a Bird full of vnluckinesse and misfortune the summe of which verses is thus Driue hence O powrefull Gods this hatefull Scritch-Owle That thus by night doth fright vs in our bed Dislodge O Gods this most vnluckie Fowle Send him to sea on shipboord to be lodged Next after the Lamiae we may reckon in the number of women Diuels Of the Harpies the Harpies which the Greekes called the Dogges of Pluto and the executioners of his vengeance of whome Virgill writeth that they spake vnto Aeneas Lib. 3. Eneid and foreprophecied what should betide and happen vnto him after his arriuall into Italie The Sphinx also was a woman as touching her head and for the rest of her body like vnto a bird Of the Monster or Diuell called Sphinx hauing her wings of so variable and changeable colours that as Plutarch writeth turning them towards the beames of the Sunne they had the colour of Gold and casting them towardes the clouds they were of an azure and like vnto the skie or the Raine-bowe Those that haue read the fabulous History of the Thebans doe knowe what notable mischiefe was wrought vnto them by this mōster which either was a Diuel or possessed with a Diuell till such time as Oedipus had resolued and expounded his Riddle But I will not speake any further hereof for that the fable is sufficiently knowne to most men I will now come to intreat of the Nymphes of the auncients Of Spirits called the Nymphs in English the Fayries which are those whome wee at this day doe call Fées and the Italians Fate in English the Fayries And that these Nymphs were of the nature and number of diuels It appeareth by this that in former times they which were possessed with Diuels were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Rauished and taken by the Nymphes whose maner was to runne vp and downe as furious and mad persons distracted and did foretell to men things to come Now there were Three sortes of Nymphes One sort was of the Aire as that Sibylla Three sorts of Nymphes of the Avre the Earth the Water which Plutarch affirmeth to wanderround about the Globe or Circle of the Moone there to chaūt what things shuld afterwards ensue Others were of the Earth as the Oreades Dryades Amadryades Carmenta Fatua Marica Egeria other such like Nymphs De sera numivindict And the last were of the Water as the Naiades the Sirens the Nereides which we may deriue of the Hebrew word Nahar which signifieth a sloud Of Nahar a Riuer is deriued Nar a riuer in Italy and another Nar in Dalmatia and lik◠wise Nereus is the father of Riuers or a Riuer for that these Nereides are no other then the Riuers Daughters of Nereus or of the Ocean father of the Sea and of Tethis who is called Tit that is the Earth within the cauernes and pores whereof beeing first engendred of the salt seede of the Ocean they doe for a time abide and remaine till such time as beeing sweetened they doe issue out by their fountaines and springs and as good and obedient daughters doe goe to yeelde tribute to their father and their mother that engendred them and with whome they doe perpetually remaine and continue beeing still new bred or engendred with a newe birth or generation still continuing And seeing we are now gotten into this Allegory of the Nereides Of the Muses and the Sirens and the Allego ricall meaning of them both It seemeth good vnto me to touch also that of the Nymphes vnder whome I will purposely confound or ioyne in one both the Muses and the Sirens For like as wee haue saide there bee three sortes of Nymphes Of the Ayre of the Water and of the Earth Three sorts of Muses so Varro maketh Three sortes of Muses One that taketh their originall of the mouing and stirring of the Water Another that is made by the agitation of the Ayre and engendreth soundes And the third which consisteth onely in the Voyce and is earthly Three sorts of Sirens The like may wee affirme of the Sirens because Parthenope which hath a feminine face and countenance noteth the Voyce which being of the Earth is as the most graue and weightie And Lygia beeing full of sweete and pleasant Harmony designeth the soundes of the Ayre And Leucosia tearmed the White Goddesse designeth the motion of the Water whereof is engendred the white froath or foame of the Sea So that wee see that by the Allegorie both of the Muses Nymphes and Syrens is nothing signified or comprehended but the whole Arte of Musicke which consisteth in three thinges Harmonie Rythme or Number Musicke consisteth in three thinges Harmony Rythme or Number the Voyce and the Voyce which the Greekes call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Harmonie is of the Ayre The Number is of the Sea which passeth not beyond the boundes that GOD hath set and limitted it and goeth continually to and fro in his course of ebbing and flowing according to the encrease and decrease of the Moone
can the heate bee separated from the Sunne but that hee must then loose his light Neither can the colde bee seuered from the Riuers but that the qualitie and nature of the water must bee chaunged which cannot possibly bee because naturally water is cold And these three Accidents are inseparably knit to those three substances no lesse then blacknesse is to the Rauen and whitenesse to the Swan Moreouer it is a farre greater foolery to say that of voyces articulated and knit together the voices themselues should bee bred and engendred in the aire For that is not onely against the nature of the Ayre but against all order established in the world Neither is it to any purpose to alledge for an instance the voice of an Eccho the which being carried in the Ayre doth spread it selfe and scattereth as a sparke from the fire here and there not onely towardes the partie that made and dispersed the sound The Eccho whereof it commeth but to some other places likewise For the voyce of the Eccho is engendred of the voyce of the partie and not of the aire and is dispersed as themselues coÌ„fesse by the speech of the man from whome it tooke it original and first beginning Neither will I easily grant vnto theÌ„ that the voyce of the Eccho doth disperse it selfe on all sides without loosing it selfe or being extinguished For it is a thing very notorious and sufficiently proued that if the Eccho be dispersed into another place then that froÌ„ whence it first receiued her voyce shee is no more discerned or vnderstoode as the voyce of a man but onely as a confused vncertain sound which raÌ„ging throgh the vallies caÌ„not be discerned but only for a resouÌ„ding noise not otherwise Now as coÌ„cerning those Images Answere to their 2. argument or similitudes which the Epicures alledge to be created in the thought or conceit saying that the mind of man doth referre vnto the eyes whatsoeuer it dreameth or thinketh on that by means of the abouÌ„dance or coÌ„course of the Atomes I do make them the same answere which Cicero yeelded theÌ„ That if the mind the eies do so sym bolize agree together in operations that whatsoeuer the mind shall imagine conceiue the eye may preseÌ„tly see It must needes then followe that some thinges shall present themselues to our eyes and sight which neuer were in beeing nor euer can bee For I may dreame or thinke of a Scylla a Chimera a Hippocentaure such like coÌ„ceited fictioÌ„s which neuer were nor can be And I may faine vnto me selfe in my minde strange Monsters and Antiques such as Painters doe many times make which neither are things nor can possibly be To be short If this argument of the Epicures were true it must needes be that all things whatsoeuer the mâ—nde presenteth should be of a certaintie and they should fall so subiect to our sight as wee might plainely and sensibly see them the which is the greatest folly that can possibly be imagined Neither can they defend themselues with the continuall concourse of their Atomes which they say doe vncessantly bring certaine Images into the minde and into the eyes of men For be it that we shold coÌ„fesse that their Atomes do slide into the minde of man how can they conclude thereof that they descend into the sight nay how can they descend but that euen by their owne reasons their ignorance and sottishnesse may be discouered For if their Atomes doe enter into the minde it must needs be then by that meanes that they bee Inuisible and that they doe flie vp and downe verie closely and subtilly as the verie word doth also import Now if they flie inuisibly in the minde how can they of themselues so readily make any thing visible and apt to bee seene Certainly to make their Atomes visible and corporall there must be of necessitie before hand a great concurrence and huge heape of them drawne together which cannot be suddenly done but will require a great time Now in the meane while that these inuisible Atomes shall bee a gathering and getting together into the minde they will bee flitting and flying away some other where as soone as the minde which neuer retayneth one thing very long hath put them out of remembrance So that by this meanes they haue not any leasure to forme themselues visible to the eyes of the bodie but they returne backe againe euen as they came at first inuisible Now let vs proceed and passe on to those Images which say the Epicures are reuer berated from the Aire Answere to the 3. argument of the Epicures being cleere and transparent in her supersicies I doe agree with them that the Catoptike that is to say the Speculatiue being one of the kinds of the Arte Optike doth holde that the refractioÌ„ which is made of forms be it either in a mirrour in the Ayre or in the water commeth either of the densitie and thicknesse of the mirrour polished and made bright the which keepeth sight that it doth not disperse and scatter it selfe whereas otherwise if the mirrour were transparent or had any pores whereby one might see through it the sight would disperse and scatter it selfe abroad Or else it commeth of the thicknesse of the Ayre next adioyning or of the humid and moist concretion of the Water which staieth and limiteth the beames of the eye-sight And that is the reason why one may aswell see his visage in the water as in a mirrour or looking Glasse and so also in the water of the Sea when it is not troubled not tossed with the windes but resteth calme and quiet which Virgill testifieth in these Verses In Bucolicis Of late vpon the shore I stoode my selfe beholding In waters of the Sea no stormy windes then stirring But what will they inferre of this which euery man will confesse to be true and infallible So it is say they that the Ayre being cleere in her Superficies like as doth the mirrour or looking Glasse so will it yeeld of it selfe some forme or figure Let this also be granted them And what of that For sooth they conclude that therefore in the Ayre The Schoolemen call this a Fallacie A dictosecundum quid ad id quod est sim pliciter dictum a man may see figures and Images But who seeth not that this conclusion is ridiculous and Sophisticall For it doth not answere to the termes of their proposition but simply carrieth away the Subiect without speaking of that which is thereunto attributed and which is the knot of the whole question But I would knowe of the Epicures how they can proue vnto vs that by their Atomes the Ayre may naturally engender formes and Images of themselues which should be visible and which should be mouing and liuing as the Specters are I do assure me self that they haue not any arguments so good but they may as easily bee dissolued auoided as was the
glister as if it had had many windowes Lib. 36. cap. 22. natural histor and as if the cleerenes of the light had beene inclosed and shut vp within the walls thereof notwithstanding that the day light never pierced into it A certaine Author writeth In vita Horatii that the Poet Horace was so lascivious and luxurious that he caused this stone of Talc to be placed in his chamber to the intent it might represent vnto him his strumpets in the very action of dishonesty But this was not a thing peculiar vnto Horace alone but it was common vnto him with many Emperours that did the like And in truth this Poet was worthie to be the friend and favorite of Mecenas who was not onely defamed to be wanton and effeminat in his speech in his habite and in his going but was a man of most corrupt manners and extreamly addicted to lust and licensiousnes in such sort that by the excessive ryot of his youth he became in his later yeares to be full of maladies and diseases in so much as be could not sleepe nor take his rest scarce a moment of an houre Howe the sight is deceived by many particular obiects But to returne to our purpose it is well knowne that ordinarily the spectacles or sight-glasses do make letters to seeme more great then they are indeede And those things which a man beholdeth within the water doe seeme also farre bigger then they be by nature And let any letters be never so small and little yet are they verie easie to be read through a viall filled with water Apples also if they swimme within a glasse do seeme much fairer then they are The starres likewise are farre greater to the sight if a man behold them through a clowde And the like is to be seene of the Sunne also If a man cast a ring into a cup or bole though the ring be in the bottome yet will it appeare as if it were in the superficies and top of the water The sea seemeth to be of an Azure colour and notwithstanding it hath not any color certaine In a bright and cleere ayre by an artificiall fire are to be seen many colours and many figures which are false by reason of the varietie of the matter of the fire And sometimes a man would even sweare that those that are sitting at a table together should be without heades or should seeme to be dead men or shoulde have the heades of some other creatures And the chamber where men are supping together will sometimes seeme to be full of serpents and there will seeme a Vine to spread and seatter abroade her boughes and braunches though indeed it be a meere illusion There be some men who in this our age have stuffed their Bookes with such devises as amongest others Cardan and Baptista de la Porta a Neapolitane De subtilitat Imagin natura Tho. Aquin. 1. parte q. 11.4 art 4. And there is not so much as Saint Thomas of Aquine but hath written of an hearb the which being sâ—t on sire will make the rafters or beames of the chamber seeme to be Serpents What should I say more The cloudes sometimes will seeme to be Monsters Lions Bulls Woolves painted and figured albeit in truth the same be nothing but a moyst humour mounted in the ayre and drawne vp from the earth not having any figure or colour but such as the ayre is able to give vnto it The which is subiect to a thousand impressions and changes Of the vncertainty of the other senses of the difference and discord of theÌ„ together Now after that wee have so largely discoursed of the sight if we should come to the other senses by what meanes can we better argue their vncertainty according to the opinion of the Sceptiques than to shew the difference that they have together which is in such manner that they doe not in any forte accord and agree neither have they any Sympathy any colligence or any proportion one to another And first of all if we will compare the senses of Smelling Of the differense and discord betwixt the other senses and that of the sight the Touching and the Taste with that of the Sight what better example can we have than the Apple the which in sight will be pale and yet in taste wil be sweete in handling will be light and in smel will be of a good and pleasant odour Heereby then it is manifest that the senses are not of any good accorde together amongest themselves And besides what can better demonstrate this than the colours whereof wee have earst spoken the which as they are vnknowne to the sight so doe they ingender a great discord amongst the senses If a man should say that every thing which is white in colour dooth proceede of a hote qualitie the contrary will appeere evidently by the Snow and by the Yce And if a man would say it were long of a colde qualitie The Ashes the Lime and the Plaister doe sufficiently shew that hee were deceived The like may a man affirme of other colours aswell blacke as those that participate both of white and blacke And how often is it seene that the Physitians are deceived in iudging of the temperature of their Simples by the sight onelie and not by the other senses I have seene a Practitioner in Physicke at Paris who did bragge in the open Parliament in the hearing of my selfe and an infinite number of people that can testifie the same likewise That by the simple sight alone he would knowe all the qualities and temperatures of hearbes that any should shew vnto him yea though they were come from America and such as the vertues of them were scarce yet knowne of Physitians But this Paracelsian was reiected and confuted with his Paracelsus and his ignorance was sufficiently discovered by such as had commission to question with him But what is the cause That being in a hote Bath wee doe thinke that our vrine is colde Is it not bicause our Touching or Feeling is vncertaine and doth not well accord and agree with the other senses In the winter by reason that we are colde all other externall things doe seeme vnto vs to be hote by the same reason that we alleadged before of the Bath Of the differense and discord of the senses of hearing and the sight And to come from the difference of the Feeling to that which the Hearing hath with the Sight Is it not most certaine that the Eye seeth sooner than the Hearing can vnderstand or discerne a thing The experience of this may be seene in the lightning the brightnesse and shining whereof is seene sooner than we can heare the thunder And sometimes the Hearing will iudge that it hath heard two blowes given at the striking of a thing which it hath seene to strike no more than once And heereof a man may have the experience by that which wee see daily to happen
and apparantly enioy this priuiledge to see God face to face he heard how God said vnto him That his seruant Moses might see him with out any impediment but that other Prophets should see him onely by vision The Hebrew Text is Bammarâ Elau ethuadaa That is to say I will manifest my selfe to them in vision Definition of a Fantasie what it is It resteth now that we speake of the Fantasie which is no other thing but an Imagination and impression of the Soule of such formes and shapes as are knowne or of such as shall bee imagined without any sight had of them Or which shall bee receiued and vnderstoode of others to bee such by reasons and arguments This definition giueth S. Augustine writing to Nebridius And first as touching the imagination of things knowne Episto 72 It is most plaine and euident that whensoeuer we dreame of them presently there commeth into our thought the Phantosme and Image of them As if we dreame of our friend Immediatly he presenteth himselfe to our mindes and imagination in the same stature face habite person and a thousand other such particularities which are notable in him So if we dreame of our Countrey It seemeth vnto vs that we see the very wayes before vs whereby we trauell our houses our lands and our friends which Apollonius the Rhodian very well expresseth in these verses As when it chanceth In Argonaut◠a thing to men oft chauncing That one in forraine soyle farre off goes wandring Yet findes no place so farre though farthest off But when he listes can see the same and through The high wayes of his Countrey sometimes erreth Sometimes his house his goods his lands beholdeth Now here now there his curious thoughts oft turning He leades them through a thousand places running This sort of Fantasie Cattius a famous Epicure of his time of whome Horace maketh mention in one of his Satyres doth call a Specter But Cicero writing to Cassius iesteth at him that not without cause The difference betweene a Specter and a Fantasie A vision or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a sensible apprehension 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a motion of the heauenly spirits as sayth S. Ba. vpō Esay For there is a very great difference between the one the other for that the one is a simple imagination of the spirit or minde and the other is a sensible vision The one is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a thinking or imagination as Homer calleth it The other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is plainely and manifestly seene and the same Poet in another place calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now as touching things not knowne nor seene but imagined in the minde they are for the most part spirituall and without corporall substance or they are conceiued and vnderstoode by humane reason and gathered by demonstrations as to beleeue that there is a God which gouerneth the world and hath a care and ouersight of mankinde Now these Fantasies which may bee named also Intellectuall are comprised as the Stoicks say partly by similitude as Socrates by his Image and partly by the proportion or Analogy of one thing to another and that is either by way of encrease or diminution by increase as Cyclops and Titius Giants by diminution as a Pigmey and a Dwarfe and partly by translation as wee say the eyes of the breast and by composition as an Hippocentaure a Tragelaphe and others such like monsters composed of two seuerall kindes of creatures and by the contrary of a thing as death by life And generally those things which are incorporall and vniuersall are comprehended by the meanes of such things as are corporall according to the saying of the Ciuilians For by the ground say they which oweth seruitude and yeeldeth benefit a man may comprehend the seruice and benefite belonging thereunto which are things meerely incorporall Now of al these kindes of Imagination which we haue so amply and at large described It may be gathered that there are two sortes of Imagination Two kindes of Imagination namely one Intellectuall and without corporall substance The other sensible and corporall Intellectuall Incorporall Sensible and Corporall Imagination Intellectuall what it is The Intellectuall is the Fantasie of which is bred and engendred in vs a memory or remembrance as the Peripatetickes speake and the discourse of the reasonable soule I meane that discourse which is proper only vnto man by the which he ballanceth and weigheth the things present by those which are past foreseeth by things past those which are to come after For albeit the vnreasonable creatures doe sometimes seeme to haue a kinde of discourse or dreaming in them as is to be seene in Horses and Dogges yet this dreaming or discourse in them is no other then meerely bestial and brutish which doth not accomodate nor apply it selfe but onely to things present by an vnreasonable appetite desire vnto those things which they loue and by eschewing and abhorring to their vtmost powers that which may be fearefull or contrary vnto them And therefore Epictetus speaking of those fantasies Theocritus which are sodainly carryed by the outward senses into the inward powers of the soule and doe carry feare and terrour with them as namely Thunders Earthquakes fearefull sights terrours and other such like things He said very well that they are common to vs with the brute beastes which are guided onely by their brutish senses But that the resolution which hee calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is proper and peculiar vnto man And for as much as it happeneth that such fantasies are out of the power will Terrours bred in the mind by the sense common to men with with brute beastes and election of the soule It followeth that they proceed of the senses which being no longer held vnder the rule and gouernment of the reason they doe more sauour of the brutall then the reasonable part of the soule And if peraduenture it shall be obiected that often times euen wise men themselues are not exempted from these feares and apprehensions To this I answere that it is not possible but the bodie of man should tremble and start at those things as beeing framed and compounded of Spirits apprehensiue subtill and sensible but it is soone quieted and as it were brought in temper againe by the soule which doth reassure and restore courage vnto it As when one casteth a stone into the water he shal see the water for a while to bubble vp and bee troubled but soone after it returneth to it former estate Imagination sensitiue twofold and whence it commeth The definition of a Specter opened and confirmed in the seuerall parts thereof Now touching that Imagination which is sensitiue either it is false and commeth either of the imaginatiue power corrupted or of the senses hurt and altred or else it is true and then it is that which we call a Specter which we defined to be
or endamaged but to the coÌ„trary rather it receiueth much more profite and commoditie Euen so God hath placed and left here below in this world Diuels and wicked Spirits to be as tormenters and executioners to wicked men that so his iustice might shine the more glorious to the comfort of the godly and of his elect that liue in the loue and feare of him But to come againe vnto the Epicures It is most certaine that they were no other then the followers of nature and that onely so farre as thinges did fall vnder their outward senses Of the Arguments of the Epicures mad against Specters and Apparitions And if one should alledge vnto them that any Specters Images and Visions had presented theÌ„ elues they would refer the same for the most part to the coÌ„course perpetual fluxe of their Atomes or to some other like reasoÌ„s the which we holde it not amisse to discouer and discipher at large as wee haue drawne them out of Ciccro Lib. de natur Dcorum Lib. 4. or of Lucrece All Images say they which doe externally present themselues vnto our senses either they are visible or inuisible If they be Inuisible The 1. Argument either they are created in the Ayre or in our owne mindes and conceites As touching those made in the Ayre It is not any straunge thing or abhorring from reason that in the same should be engendred certaine voyces like as wee see it is naturall that colde commeth from the Riuers ebbing and flowing from the Sea and heate from the Sunne And it may bee that some voyce being spred abroad within the vallies doth not only rebound back againe to the place from whence it came but doth dilate and scatter it selfe here and there throughout the Ayre as do the sparks that mount vp from the fire So that for one voyce there are many engendred which ruÌ„ning through the empty Ayre do enter within the eares of those that knew nothing of the naturall voyce and doe put them into a misconceit and fond opinion that they haue heard either some of the Fayries or Satyres or Nymphes playing and sporting amiddest the woods As concerning those Their 2. Argument that are bred in the minde They say Atomes signis fie motes in the Sunne or things so small as cannot bee deuided that for the innumerable course of Atomes all whatsoeuer wee doe dreame or thinke of commeth incontinently into the spirit or minde and sometimes passeth by visions and Images into the bodily eyes But if the Images be visible either they are â—euerberated and beaten back from the Chrystall and transparent Ayre exceeding cleere in her superficies or they come of the Spoyles and Scales of naturall thinges Their 3. Argument Touching the Ayre That it may of it selfe cast some kinde of Image hauing power to appeare they proue it in this sort Al Aire that is Chrystalline or transparent hath a kind of refraction as appeareth by the mirrour whereof looking Glasses are made and polished and by the water and by a thicke and darkened Ayre And this do the Catoptickes themselues teach in their principles Catoptikes are professors of the Optikes or Arte Speculatiue Now by the comparison and similitude of the mirror and the water all Ayre which hath a refraction doth of it selfe yeeld some certaine forme And therefore it is not any thing strange if in an Ayre a man may see certaine formes and Images And they do bring also this comparison Euen as the Tapistrie hangings in a Theater or a large wide hall do cast abroad round about their naturall colour where they finde an Ayre opposed against them and the more that the beames of the Sunne do beate or shine vpon them the more bright and shining luster they carry with them seeme to haue cast off and left their colour in the same place which is directly in opposition against them So is it most certaine that the Ayre may of it selfe cast abroad certaine formes and figures the which looke by how much the more they be made cleere by the light which doth bring and tye them to our obiect so much the more comprehensible shall they bee vnto our sight In briefe concerning the spoyles and scales cast from naturall things of which in their opinion Their 4. Argument Images should be engendred They do make this ArgumeÌ„t The Caterpillers say they do leaue their spoiles in the hedges or bushes like vnto theÌ„selues so do the SerpeÌ„ts among the thornes or stones and the little creatures at the time of their birth do leaue behinde them their after burthen which is a little thinne and slender skin which they bring with them from their dammes belly Why therfore may there not be left or cast from the bo dies of natural things certaine thinne subtill forms or Images proceeding from them aswel as a little skin and the after burthen doth remaine of the superfluitie of little creatures But all these Arguments may verie easily be dissolued Answere to their 1. argument The voyce defined what it is And first as touching the voyces which they say may simply be created of the Ayre I will not deny that For it is most certaine that the voyce is a certaine beating and concussion of the Ayre which falleth vnder the sense of hearing as is affirmed by the Grammarians And the matter of the voyce as sayth Galen is the breath Lib. de Voce and respiration of the Lungs but the forme thereof is the Ayre without the which neither can it be vnderstood nor can it bee called a voyce Besides I will not deny but that the sounds are raysed within the emptie Ayre bee it either by the windes or by some other externall cause But to say that the voyces and the sounds are naturall and adherent to the Aire as the Tide to the Sea and coldnes to the Riuers and heat to the Sun It would theÌ„ follow that without any externall cause at all both the voyce and the senses should bee created in the Aire should perpetually adhere vnto the Ayre as the Tide doth to the Sea and cold to the waters and heat vnto the Sun But so it is that the winds are not alwaies in the Ayre and the sounds and voyces are externall thinges comming into the Ayre by the meanes of some other subiect the which is nothing so neither in the Sea nor in the Riuers nor in the Sunne because that in the Seas the Tide and cold in the waters and heate in the Sun are vnseparably and continually And there is great difference betweene Accidents that are Separable and those that are Inseparable For the separable Accident as the Voyces and the Soundes in the Ayre may bee abstracted and drawne from the substance of the Ayre and yet the Ayre shall neither perish nor be the sooner altered thereby But ebbing and flowing cannot bee taken from the Sea but the nature thereof must needs bee chaunged Nor
dreams and fancies of the Epicures may be soone answered and easily dissolued Wee will now therefore consider what the Peripatetickes both ancient and moderne do alledge to impugne all Apparitions against nature CAP. IIII. Of the Opinions and Arguments of the Peripatetikes by which they would impugne the Apparitions of Spirites THe first of the Peripatetikes that I wil haue to deale withall The opinion and argumeÌ„ts of Al. Aphrodiseus that denyed the esseÌ„ce of Spirits shall be Alexander Aphrodiseus who contrary to the opinion of all others euen of his own Sect that went before him doth altogether and absolutely deny the essence and being of Spirites therein contradicting euen Aristotle himselfe the Prince of that Sect to whome also hee endeuoured to ascribe that errour of his by interpreting him after his owne fancy in those places where he writeth of Diuels and Spirites as amongst others in that of the Metaphisikes where he sayth That the Earth Li. 4. Metaphi the Fire and the Water are Substances as also all those bodies that come and are engendred of them as the Diuels and all liuing creatures and their parties This place of Aristotle is the most cleere and manifest that may be And yet neuerthelesse Alexander Aphrodiseus expounding it saith That either Aristotle did followe the common opinion of the vulgar sort who falsly and erroneously maintained the beeing of Spirits and Diuels or did vnderstand here by Diuels the Diuine bodies and the Starres But both the one and the other Interpretation is of no value For first Aristotle speaking of the first principles Answer to the argument of A. Aphiodiseus and of the beeing of each kinde of Substance did entend to verifie and affirme the whole by demonstrations and reasons euen from nature it selfe And it is not credible that hee would strengthen and confirme some of them by true and infallible Axiomes of nature as The Fire the Water the Earth other liuing creatures and that other some of them he should grouÌ„d maintaine vpon the common opinion as namely The being of Diuels and Spirites Howbeit he was deceiued in saying that they were engendred of the Elementes But this is no place to reprehend him for that opinion Againe who tolde Aphrodiseus that Aristotle by Diuels should vnderstand the Starres or the diuine bodies Is not this to belye the Authour who me hee interpreteth in making him to say that which he neuer meant For if Aristotle did vnderstand the Starres by the word Diuels then must it needes follow by his speech that the Starres should be engendred of the Elements But the Starres in the Firmament aboue cannot bee engendred of the Elementes beneath either therefore must Aristotle bee deceiued or which is more likely he meant not the starres as Aphrodiseus would make vs beleeue but by the worde Demones he vnderstoode simplie and plainely the Diuels But come wee to Auerrois Of the opinion of Auerrois the Peripatetike touching Spirits who being as notorious an Atheist as any of them yet was a little more scrupulous in the expounding of Aristotle then was Aphrodiseus For though hee beleeued no more then the former that there were any Spirits yet when hee came to explane that place of Aristotle hee thought it his best part to be altogether silent because he would not bewray his ignorance by saying nothing that should bee repugnant to the Doctrine of his Author whome hee interpreted And yet for all that how did he interpret or rather peruert the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is in the Text of Aristotle That which all the Auncients took interpreted for spirits he turned termed Idols whereas it is to be seene in Homer that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth Spirits and a Specter But the truth is he was nor ignorant of Aristotle his meaning which ought to haue made him ashamed and did indeede secretly reproue him as one that was a bad obseruer of his owne Religion for by profession hee was a Mahumetist and the Mahometistes doe confesse and beleeue that there are both Diuels and Spirites The same Auerrois to rid himselse altogether from all arguments that might be made against him touching the Apparition of spirits forasmuch as he knewe well that fewe doubted of their essence and beeing and that many testimonies of men worthy of credite did acknowledge no lesse he would not directly deny them knowing full wel that he should fall into a most grosse errour in Philosophie which doth alwayes presume that after the question 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That a thing is It necessarily followeth to bee enquired 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What it is and in vaine should any one demaund what a Specter is if it bee not first presupposed that there are Specters Hee confessed therefore that Specters doe appeare but hee denyed that they were a Substance and saide Auerrois did confesse the Apparition of Spirits but denyed them to be Substances That a Specter was onely a Phantosme imagined in the minde and thence carried to the outwarde Senses by the great contemplation of men that were Melancholike and giuen to Speculation whose vnderstanding hee affirmed to bee sounde and entire but onely the operation thereof was wounded and offended for a season But it shall not bee amisse to set downe somewhat at large that which hee saith touching this matter The ArgumeÌ„t of Auerrois to proue that Specters are not a Substancer but an imagined phantâ—â—me When the minde sayeth hee which is alwayes attending on the Imagination doth receiue in imagining any formes of diuels or dead men either in sound or in qualitie in odour or in touching And that this Imagination is transferred vnto the Sense correspondent to his proper action as the odours doe referre themselues to the particular Instrument of smelling and that which is heard to the Eares and the Specters to the Eyes then shall any man thinke that he seeth heareth or smelleth something without that any obiect doth truly present it self to the sight to the hearing or smelling And as touching the sense of seeing although it be so that the vision be no other thing then a perceiuing of some shape which is made within the liuely chrystall of the eyes which wee call the Ball or Apple of the eye Certainely whether it bee so that some obiect doth present it selfe to the sight or not but is onely imagined yet it appeareth that the partie doth perfectly and assuredly see something And so likewise euen in wakening it happeneth that some see Diuels and dead men and sometimes they suppose that they heare the voyce of them whoÌ„ they once knew and that they smell certaine sents and perfumes yea more then that that many times they doe feele and touch such things as appeareth by those which are troubled with the Inoubae and Succubae or the Nightmare How beit these imagined formes are more seldome and rarely seene then they are either heard smelt or touched because that in
that hee knewe naught but onely this that he knew nothing hee shewed That hee had the science and knowledge of that whereof he was ignorant Before him Heraclitus had said Opinion of Heraclitus That the truth was hidden in the bottome of a pit from whence it never returned back againe but there remained buried and over-whelmed out of the knowledge of men And if we have any knowledge at all it is not but in a shadow and by some other meane then by our senses or by our imaginative faculty both which are easie to be seduced and deceived After Heraclitus and Socrates came the first Academye instituted by Plato Opinion of Plato and Xenocrates and by Xenocrates his disciple which held that the senses erred but that by the intelligence the truth might be discovered like as when we set sayle to the seas in passing along the coast wee suppose that the land the Isle and the haven do moove and retyre away from vs and we thinke that an Oare is broken when we see it in the water howbeit that we doe in very deede soone conceive and vnderstand the contrary to wit that it is we our selves that moove and depart away from the port and the shore and that the Oare is sound and whole But the other Academye went much farther Opinion of some other Philosophers of the second Academye and maintained That the intellectuall part was also deceived for if we had the same sound and entire we should not be deceived and abused as wee commonly are Besides it denied that we had any certain science or knowledge of any thing and affirmed that both the sences and the opinion as also the imagination were all of them things false and deceitfull and peradventure they were therevnto mooved by reason of that contrarietie which it saw the Philosophers held amongst themselves vpon the difference of the Opinion the Sense The contrarietie of opinions amōgst the Philosophers touching the difference of imagination the opinion the sense and intelligence the Imagination and the Intelligence For Plato doth confound the Imagination and Opinion together And Aristotle did not alwaies ioyne the Imagination with Opinion because said he The Imagination is as an Impression and as it were the tracke and foote-step of the Sense and not a determinate sentence or resolution of the Opinion and of the Sense For if you plunge or dippe an oare into the water it seemes to be broken and this doth the Sense of the Sight shew vnto vs And after commeth the Imagination the which by the Opinion that resisteth the errour of the Sight is made to vanish and passe away againe as soone So that we may see that Aristotle esteemed the Opinion and Intelligence to bee but one thing which notwithstanding is altogether false and vntrue And in my conceit the Epicures seeme to give a very good resolution vpon this point in that they confound in one the Opinion and the Imagination affirme that both the one and the other may be true or false But that our Persevering Opinion which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not deceived as when one approacheth neere vnto a Tower and beholdeth it as it is indeede And surely Saint Bernard according to the saying of the Epicures sheweth that the Opinion taken simply in it selfe may be false and maketh it greatly to differ from the Intellect where hee writteth in this manner Multi suam opinionem Intellectum putaverunt erraverunt Et quidem opinio potest putari intellectus Intellectus opinio non potest Lib. 5. de Consideracione vnde hoe accidit Profecto quia haec falli potest ille non potest Aut si falli potuit intellectus non fuit sed opinio verus nempe intellectus certam habet non modo veritatem sed notitiam veritatis That is to say many have deemed that their Opinion was an Intellect and they were deceived And in trueth the Opinion may well be called the Intellect or Vnderstanding but the Intellect cannot be termed an Opinion Whereof commeth this truely the cause is for that the Opinion may be deceived but the Intelligence cannot or if it can be deceived it was not an Intelligence but an Opinion For the true Intellect hath in itselfe not onely a certaine truth but also a knowledge of the truth And a little after he defineth the Intellect and the Opinion saying Intellectus est rei cuinsque invisibilis certa manifesta notitia Opinio est quasi pro vero habere aliquid quod falsum esse nescias That is the Intellect Opinion defined what it is or Vnderstanding is a certaine manifest knoledge of a thing that is Invisible But the Opinion is when a man holdeth that for true which he knoweth not to be false This definition of Opinion is agreeable to that which the Civillians make saying Aanrsius in § responsa prudentum Theophil ibid Iust de Iur nat Gent civili apud Iustinia That the Opinion is a kinde of tymorous and doubtfull answer as I thinke that this thing ought to be done and I thinke that it ought not to be done Now these Differences and Contrarieties of the Philosophers being full of exceeding great curiosity and subtilty of Arguments and Reasons have bin the cause that not onely the Academiques were deceived but after them also Pirrhon the Elean Philosopher who hath congested into one The opinion of Phirrhon the Philosopher and others viz. that all things and particularly senses are vncertaine and deceived and made as it were an heape of idle Dreames and Fooleries from all the Philosophers his predecessors For with Heraclitus and Democritus he held that the truth was hidden from men and that he knew nothing of those things which he sawe and that indeede he sawe many things which in truth were not Of the which opinion also were Xenophanes Zenon Eleutes and Parmenides Of whom the former held this herefie That no man knew any thing perfectly And the second sayde That all things were indeede nothing or none at all And the last sayde That all those things which seemed to be seene were meerely false So in like case Pirrhon whatsoever argument or discourse were vrged or made vnto him his answer alwayes was That he doubted of it and by such ambiguous and vncertaine answers hee helde in suspence all those that argued and disputed with him For this cause hee was called the Aporrhetique or Sceptique Phirrhon called the Aporretique or Sceptick and why because that to every thing which was propounded vnto him he never gave other aunswer then this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is I doubt of that And there is in the Greeke Epigrammes a very pleasant Epitaph composed by Iulian the apostata touching Pirrhon Lib. 3. Epigr. the which in our language may not vnfitly be thus translated Ap. O Pirrhon art thou dead P. Nay Siste I doubt of that Ap. What after
man therefore to say that the sight is deceived The Pirrhonians doe further alleadge that our sight is deceived when we thinke that an oare is broken in the water when in ryding we suppose that the hills and mountaines do move when a shrub or the trunke and stub of a tree broken and dissevered from the boughs and branches doth seeme to vs a farre off to be some man or some other quicke creature and when a Tower of a square forme doâ—h seeme to be round and that the highest mountaines a farre off from vs do seeme to be no other then clowdes and neere at hand to bee rough and craggie places with steepe downe-falls Reasons out of the Art Perspective to prove the sight to be deceived Besides if we should come to the very reasons of the Art Perspective the great towers and high steeples the stately high and prowde Castles pallaces and houses are seene better a farre off then neere at hand And this happeneth say the Optiques by reason that all high buildings and colosses being a farre off do oppose themselves equally against all the parts of the eye in a right line but being neere at hand they doe not oppose themselves to all parts but to some onely In briefe it is most certaine according to the same Art Prospective that the things which are seene by the greater Angle of the eie appeare much the greater because that by the same we doe cast and send forth our light more lively and those which were beheld by the lesser Angle are lesser and by the equall are equall by the high are high and by the lowest are low and humble Moreover if bodies of one and the same greatnesse and the selfe same magnitudes be plâ—ced by spaces and distances interposed those which shall be neerest vnto vs will be seene to our seeming according to the very truth of them and those which shall be faâ—ther off will bee discerned not according to the truth but in a true semblance And Plato sayth that the Painters and Carvers doe observe this that making a plaine â—nd broad picture or cutting a statue or image in bosse or compassewise if the sâ—me be for to sâ—rve neere at hand they will make it according to the very true proportion of the members thereof and will give it his draughts his lineaments his back-draughts his colors so proper and naturall as may best represent it to the very truth and life of it And if the same be to be set aloft vpon the top of some Temple farre from the sight of men as was the Minerva of Phidias vpon the Acropolis of Athens then will they make it very great not regarding so much the making of it perfect as to accommodate it to the eyes of men who will iudge therof not according to the truth but according to their sight which being vncertaine and doubtfull doth not iudge of things being farre from it but onely in a semblance of the truth And Plato addeth that such a picture and carved image may be said a Phantosme for that it appeareth to the eies perfect and accomplished according to the Art of painting and notwithstanding it is not Wherefore even by his authoritie it may be inferred that the sight most commonly may be deceived and hath not any certainty and assurance Reasons to proove that the sight is deceived by mis-taking things seene waking as well as sleeping Besides we doe see many things waking which wee know not if wee have seene sleeping or waking But the reason heereof commeth not of the vncertaintie of the sight but it proceedeth of this that as soone as one hath seene a thing he sodainly and immediately falleth asleep or else being drawne away with some other more greâ—t and serious thought he dreames nor thinks any more of that which was first of all presented before his eies And I remember that I have read in a certain Booke of Belon the Phisition this historie which he recounteth to have happened vnto himselfe How that being in Corsa on a time he arose sodainely out of his bedde early in the morning and hearing a certain noyse of women weeping he put his head out at the windowe and sawe certâ—yne women that ranne throughout the Towne with their haire hanging and scattered about their shoulders with their naked breasts laid open crying and lamenting most bittâ—â—ly And returning vnto his bed hee soone fell into a sleepe againe Afterwardes when it was full day and being risâ—n vp and ready apparelled he recounted vnto his hoste that which hee thought hee hadde seene not in trueth but as hee was perswaded in his sleepe But the host assured hm of the contrary that he had truly and indeede seene and not in a dreame those women in the same sorte as he had related it And for my owne part I can witnesse thus much that not once but often I have seene those things which I could not assure my self whether I did imagine them in dreaming or had seene them with mine eyes Which also I thinke to be naturall to the most parte of those men who have their spirites and minde withdrawen eyther by earnest study or by the weighty affaires which they have in hand in such sorte that things of little reckoning and matters of small consequence which they have seene shall be esteemed as dreames or foolish fancies conceived in their sleepe Furthermore when a man riseth earely by day breake and goeth abroade hee shall sometimes be deceived in his sight And this may happen not onely to one person alone Lib. vlt. Regum cap. 3. but even to a whole army In the Bookes of the Kings wee may reade That the Moabites after the death of Achab their Prince did revolte and withdrawe themselves from the subiection of Ioram his sonne king of Israel who being advertised of their Rebellion prayed Iehosaphat King of Iuda to give him his ayde and succoâ—rs against them The which Iehosaphat did and ioyning thriâ— forces together they went against this rebellious people with a purpose to reduce them to their obeisance Whereof the Moabites having intelligence they slept not but emolâ—ing and mustering vp all such as were fitte to beare armes they put themselves in a preparation to goe against their enemies rather than they would suffer them in their presence to spoyle and harrie all their Territories Wherefore taking the field earely in the morning and approaching neere these waters which God had miraculously caused newly to spring vp at the prayer of Elizeus and seeing them to shewe red by reason of the rising of the Sunne which vsually rising redde by her reverberation did give them that colour they beganne to say amongst themselves Loe the kings our enemies have foughten together within themselves and have made a great slaughter each of other as these waters doe testifie Wherevpon running forward pell mell without all order to the intent they might have the sacking and pillage of the baggage and
as namely when one striketh or beateth with a rammer or beetle any great stroke vppon the water side or neere vnto some river For one blow that shall be seene to be given a man shall heare twoo yea sometimes three strokes afarre off Which commeth of nothing else than of the resounding of the Eccho which maketh the sound of the rammer or beetle to resounde vpon the river the same being carried through the ayre and redoubling it selfe to the eares of him that shall heare it In Colliget li. 1. That the sense of hearing be it never so sound will be deceived And Averrois citeth also another example of Laundresses who washing their linnen at the rivers side doe make their strokes to be heard redoubled two or three times howbeit that the sight dooth perceive the stroke sooner than the hearing can discerne or vnderstand it More than so is not the hearing notably deceived be it never so sound and whole Is it not an ordinary thing That in hollow places a man may heare a small gentle sound issuing foorth of some hole or chinke which wee would take to be a kinde of Musicke though indeede it be nothing else but a softe whistling winde that bloweth And in those bankes of rivers which are indifferently or but meanely crooked is to be perceived the like sound and harmony as the naturall Philosophers do affirme And it is a thing most assured that a man may falsly heare a certaine noyse and shaking of the walles the windows and the roofes of houses which notwithstanding is but a signe of some storme or tempest at hand as of haile or of thunder Our hearing will be deceived also when we thinke that wee heare thunder and notwithstanding it is but some Coach or Charriot that passeth by the streetes Now after that the Sceptiques have sufficiently to their thinking prooved that the senses are false and easie to be deceived The reason of the Sceptikes that the intellect and the imagination are deceived they come afterwards to inferre that the Intellect and the Imaginative power can comprehend nothing in certainty For if it be so that all things which may be saide to have essence doe never enter into the Intellect or into the imagination but by the senses which are their Organ and that the senses are faultie Then it must needes followe with good reason that the Intellect and the Imagination doe faile and are deceived so that in trueth all things are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is They have not any certainety or true essence of themselves but they doe referre themselves to the senses which doe deceive and delude themselves After this the Sceptiques doe come also to the signes of things the which they maintaine to be neither sensible nor intelligible and by consequence that they are none at all as not being able to appeare either sensibly or in the vnderstanding And thus doe they take away the causes and the definitions of things and generally all kinde of learning and discipline as that famous learned man Frances Picus de Mirandola hath notably and at large discovered In lib. Exam. doctr Gentil who doth as lively and learnedly confute the Sceptiques as before him Iohn Picus his vncle had confuted the Iudiciall Astrologers An answer to all the former Inductions examples alleaged by the Sceptiques But I will now content my selfe in a worde to answer to the followers of Pirrhon letting them to know that all their Inductions which they bring in and alleadge and all their Arguments heaped vp with such a multitude of examples are not of any strength or validitie to prove the vncertainty of the senses and especially of the sight The which that grand workemaister hath placed in the head to the intent the same might discover all things afarre off as a Pharos or Lanterne set aloft vpon a Tower Besides the Eye is of a round and Sphericall figure to the intent as the Mathematitians affirme it may be capable to receive by the sight the quantitie and magnitude of things For if the ball or apple of the eie by which the fight is turned were not round it coulde not cause it to discerne or to perceive any thing but that which should be equall vnto it which appeareth in this That the sight dooth perfect it selfe by right lines which doe concurre as it were in a heape to the centre of the eye and doe there make their impression perpendicularly So that the Eye is certaine without being deceived as touching the beholding of the quantities of things next vnto it The sight is certaine in be holding the quantities of things though it may be somtimes deceived in qualities and if it be sometimes deceived in the qualities of things yet dooth it not thereof followe that the Intellect or Vnderstanding facultie in man which receiveth them should therefore be deceived For albeit the sense do see a cloth or garment to be greene by reason of some greene meadowe that dooth scatter or display it verdure vpon it yet so is it that the Intellect and Vnderstanding of a man in it selfe will alwaies take the garment to be according as it is indeede and will never be deceived And as concerning the senses of Feeling Smelling Tasting and Hearing A man may say also to the Sceptiques That they are not altered nor chaunged by maladies or sickenesse or that by any other accident they are not easie to be seduced and namely and especially the Touching the which being dispersed and as it were spread abroade throughout all the members is esteemed to be more certaine than the sight But as concerning the senses depraved and corrupted we shall entreate hâ—â—reafter And therefore wee will first of all procâ— de in holding on our purpose as concerning the senses how they being sound and entire may neverthelesse be deceived we will discourse of such things as being either natural or â—rtificiall yet for their strangenesse are esteemed prodigious and approching neere to the nature of Spâ—cters and both the Sight and the Hâ—aring at the first view doth receive them as things supernaturall by reason that they are ignorant of the causes of them And first of all wee will speake of such things as are Naturall CHAP. VII That many things being meerely Naturall are taken by the Sight or Hearing being deceived for Specters and things prodigious IT is a thing most certaine and assured and it hath oftentimes happened Of naturall earthly things that seeme prodigious Phantosmes and Specters by which the sight is deceived That many naturall things because they be alittle beyond naturall reason doe put vs in so great a feare and terrour as if we had seene before vs some Spirits or Phantosmes And especially if feare or superstition be added therevnto and that withall they happen in the darkenesse of the night It is then a most cleere case that they doe worke and produce woonderfull effects in the senses and in the
still continue burning and especially Mongibel the which occasioned and wrought infinite domages to the lands neece adioyning vnto it For the report is that the fire of Mongibel did range and spread it selfe so farre that the greatest part of Calabria was filled with the dust of the ashes and cinders thereof and two Villages Mâ—ntpilere and Liâ—olosi were quite burned and consumed And not these mountaines alone are onely subiect â—ofire and continuall burning Of the cause that the mountaines doe burne but Olans the Great writeth that in Iseland there is a mountaine which burneth continually the fire flame whereof doth never faile no more then that of Mongibel in the time of Plinie who writeth that the flame thereof did never cease The cause of these fiers Lib. 2. not hist doth Aristotle well set downe and that in few words in his bookes of Meteors For as there be many places of the earth Lib. 2. Meteor that have store of matter combustible there needeth no more but a trembling and shaking of the earth which being stirred vp by an ayre that hath entred in by some chinks and empty poares of the earth striving to issue forth doth in an instant and at once moove and shake the mountaine and so by the stirring and agitation thereof doth set it on a fire the which doth subtilly evaporate it selfe and taketh it nourishment of the ayre so mooved and stirred And like as after great store of windes it often happeneth that a trembling or quaking of the earth doth succeede so after a long trembling and mooving of the earth it must needs happen that these mountains must of necessity fall on burning Now if it be so that the mountaines for the reasons before alleadged may cast and vomite vp flames of fire why should there be any difficultie but that those other fierie flames appearing in the night should by the same meane be evaporated out of the earth Certaine it is that Aristotle writeth how in some places the earth in the concavities thereof Lib. de Mendo. is no lesse replenished with fiers and with windes then it is with water And therefore as there are springs of water hidden in the earth which may even suddainly and at once spring vp and cast forth water in aboundance out of the earth so it is not to be doubted but that the fiers which have beene long hidden in the caverns and hollow places vnder the ground may sometimes issue forthe and having found a cleere and free passage may leape vp and downe and walke at some times through the region of the ayre neither more not lesse then doth the fire of Mongibel of Vesuvius and of Iseland Which easting vp throgh the ayre great globes of fire flaming And mounting to the heavens do sâ—oâ—â— most clooâ—â—ly blazing Lib. Aeneid That I may speake as doth the Poet Vergil Lib. 3. Aeâ—eid who being profoundly seene and exercised both in Philosophie and in all kinde of learning was not ignorant that these fiers were of such a nature as being cast out of the caverns of the earth The diffrence betvveene the fiers appearing in the night those of mountayns continually burning they be carried for a time through the ayre and yet some of them more forcibly and violently then the other For those fiers which are stirred vp within the mountaines as they have more spirits that do animate and give life vnto them if I may so speake so doe they issue forth more suddainely and wanderlesse in the ayre then do those night-flames that do strike vp gently from the earth How men are deceived and led to drowne themselves by night-flames appearing vnto them But will some say we see that these night-fiers do oftentimes deceive men and will leade them to some riveâ— pond or other water where they doe cause them sometimes to be drowned To this I answer that they which follow such night-fiers appearing vnto them either they do it voluntarie or by constraint If by constraint then without doubt they are no night-fiers which they do so follow after but they are some divells or ill spirits metamorphosed into the formes of fiers But if they doe willingly and voluntarilie follow them they cannot excuse themselves of follie and of ignorance for it is the nature of such fiers continually to seeke after water being their contrarie element And this is evident by those flames of Mongibel which do draw themselves rather towards the sea then any other place as testifieth Pindarus in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say That the flame of Mongibel â—d 1. Olimp. is carried roling and tumbling even into the maine and deepe sea And in that this Poet affirmeth that the flame roleth and so is carried to the sea This may leade vs as it were by the hand to know the nature of those night-fiers which as they that have seene them do say are round and doe go roling continually till they come neere some river or pond in the which they do suddaintly disappeare and vanish away Of Night-fires seene frequenting about gallovvs and the cause thereof But before I leave this discourse of these night-fiers I will speake of that which the dommon opinion holdeth touching them and that is how that sometimes they do appeare vnmoveable neere vnto gallowes and such like places of execution If this be true as we must needes give credite therevnto seeing so many persons do with one consent report it we may yeeld yet a farther naturall cause of such Night-flames and that is that they are bred and concreated of the fat and drie exhalation of the bodies there hanged which comming to evaporate and strike vp into the ayre doth grow to be enflamed by the same reason as the vapors exhalations dried from the earth and being in the middle region of the ayre do change themselves into fire and so doe cause the thunder Of flames of fire issuing out of trees and other things beating one against another But to continue on our purpose touching naturall fiers do we not see and that without mervailing that the tops of trees blustring or beating one against another do strike out flames of fire and that not without feare vnto such as travell by night Certaine it is that Thucidides doth esteeme this to be naturall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Lucretius speaketh thereof as of a thing which happeneth vsually and is done by the same reason as two stones stricken together each against other do cause fire and as two tables of Laurell or any other hard wood being rubbed together for a long time one against the other will likewise strike out sparckles of fire Homer writeth that Mercurie was the first that taught this vsage of making fire to come forth by the striking together of two staves or stickes of Laurell wood In himnâ— Mercurii And truely it is not vnlike that
done by the Arte Hydraulique Next to the Antomatiques doe come those which are called Hydrauliques which are workes that doe make any engine or instrument eyther of musike or of any other sorte to play and moove by the meanes and helpe of the water At Tivoly which is the auntient Tibur of the Romans and is now a place of pleasance belonging to the Cardinall of Ferrara It is well knowne vnto many men that there be certaine Organs which do go and play alone of themselves onely by meanes of the water not without the great admiration of such as be ignorant in the Arte Mydraulique We reade in Suetonius In Nerone c. 41. that Nero caused certaine Hydraulique instruments which were of a new invention and never before had beene seene at Rome to be shewed publikely vnto the Romanes And yet Nero lived in a time wherein there were great store of excellent wittes and good Spirites And before him also there were others as notable and skilfull in such ingenious inventions as namely that man which lived in the time of Tiberius Caesar and was so excellently ingenious that he offered vnto the saide Emperour to make any glasse so malleable as it should endure and abide the hammer which is a kinde of cunning to vs altogâ—ther vnknowne and is farre more difficult than those works that are doone by Hydraulique instruments Servius who lived in the time of Vulentiman and Theodosius was not ignorant of these instruments wrought by the Arte Hydraulique For in expounding one place of Virgil hee saieth that the Organs were blowen and had winde put into them by meanes of them And hee rendreth the reason thereof which as hee saith is that by the mooving of the water there riseth a winde which entring by the hollowe pipes of the Organs dooth disperse it selfe within them and there remaineth no more but the fingers of the Organist to make them sound But that which maketh me most to woonder is That those Organs of Tyvoly have not neede of any fingering by the cunning and industry of any man but they doe found alone of themselves and have within them something I knowe not what of the Arte Antomatique For a man needes doe nothing but onely set downe certaine numbers vpon their keyes and they will sodainely sound any song that a man would have them And such also is that Antomatique horologe or clocke which the Rochelers did present vnto the French king Henry the third of that name The which being mounted vp and set vpon a frame did the like as that Hydraulique of Tywoly Clandian who was neere about one and the same time with Servius in a certaine learned Poeme which he dedicated to Manlius speaking of these Hydrauliques saieth very well That by opening the Sluces of water the Organs are made to blowe But heerewithall saieth hee there needed both hands an engin of wood which with the helpe of the feete at each stroake might lift vp the waters as we see is vsuall in Pumpes that drawe vp water But that you may the better perceive the meaning of Clandian I will set downe his two last verses touching this matter the same being corrected by mee otherwise than they were heeretofore Intonat erranti digito pedibusque trabali Vecte laborantes in Carmina concitat vndas Those learned Authors which heretofore corrected this Poet after the manner of the auntient reading did let still remaine the word penitùs insteede whereof I doe reade pedibus For Clandianus meaning was to say That the Organist played with his fingers vppon the Organs and with his feet moved a flat beame or planke by the meanes whereof as by a Pumpe he lifted and drew vp the waters This correction whether it bee well or ill doone I referre to the iudgement of the learned But in my conceipt that seemeth to be the true and proper sense of the Poet. But touching the Arte Antomatique and Hydraulique Eron hath made two Treatises thereof not yet Imprinted which I have seene in the Library of the most high and worthy Queene and Princesse Katherine de Medicis the Queene mother and they do wel deserve to be brought to light or to be translated either into our common vulgar language or into the Latine tongue Howbeit that some of my friendes have assured me That that learned man Adrian Turnebus hath translated certaine pages thereof before his death of the which his heires made no reckoning bicause they were imperfect and not well reviewed But over and above the Artes of the Mathematiques men of themselves may finde out and invent a thousand subtill devises farre estranged and remooved from the common invention of man Of artificiall Specters Cardan whome we have so often alleadged telleth how it is possible by subtiltie and artificiall skill to make that a man shall walke in the middest of the water vpon the very toppe thereof without sincking to the bottome by meanes of corke tied to the soales of his feete For my parte I thinke well That Cardan would not have delivered this subtilty except he had seene the proofe and triall thereof But if it bee so that this befeisible then I may say that those men whom any shall see to walke vppon the water in that manner will strike no lesse feare and terrour into the Beholders than Lucian and his companions did conceive as himselfe writeth by the sight of those Phellopodes or Corke-footed persons that walked vppon the waves of the sea Libr. 2. verar. narrat vbi nihil vericontin without sinking having their feete of Corke The same Cardan doth furthermore set down teach In lib. de varietat rerum how a man may faine artificially false Specters he giveth many instances experiments therof needles here to expresse But to continue on our purposed Discourse There are some of these Tumblers and Vawters so expert in their Aâ—t Of acts done by Tumblers V vvters and Iuglers that partly by the subtiltie and nimblenes of their hands and partly by the agilitie strength and dexteritie of their body and the quicknes and vivacitie of their spirit they will doe things passing admirable And as touching the fine convaying and nimblenesse of the hands can we give any better example then some Iuglers who in playing their trickes onely by meere industrie and without any Magicke will so charme and blinde the eyes of the beholders that they will make them bâ—leeve even what they list And as for the agilitie of the body I will alledge no other then those Tumblers of Italie whose perilous leaps and vawtings which they call the Forces of Hercules do make the simple and ignorant people to be of an opinion that they doe them by Art Magicke and Enchauntment although it be verìe evident that there is no such matter But on the contrarie rather there is nothing strange nor admirable in those their actions if a man do consider how even from their youth
and abandoned the company of men wandring vp and downe through the fields and desarts And as the darkenes of the night doth yeelde feare and terrour not onely to children but even to them which are of ripe and elder yeares So doth the humour of Melanchoâ—y fright and terrifie men without any occasion and it engendreth a thousand false imagitions in the braine no lesse troubling and obscuring it with foolish visions then the night doth deceive the eyes of men who in the darkenesse thereof doe mistake one thing for another And for this cause men that are melancholicke are called of the Latines Imaginosi that is to say Phantastike The which I have observed in Catullus who speaketh of a certaine foolish and phantastike maiden saith Non est sana puella nec rogate qualis sit solet haec imaginosum I know that some learned Civillians of our time have corrected this word Imaginosum otherwise but I am of the opinion of Ioseph Scaliger who hath not altered the auntient word but hath so left it as of the best correction in his first lesson But to returne vnto Melancholike persons although feare and sadnes doth seldome or never forsake the most part of them so it is notwithstanding Of the divers and sundry sorts of melancholike persons that they are not all of one kinde For some there have beene as Galen saith who have imagined themselves to bee an earthen pot and for that cause have drawne backe and out of the companie of men for feare of being broken Others have been in a feare lest the Mountaine of Atlas which is said to sustaine and beare vp the whole world should fall vpon them and over-whelme them Others againe have imagined themselves to be Cockes and have imitated them in their voyce their crowing and the clapping of their wings some of them desire death and yet flie from it others have slaine and tumbled themselves desperately head-long into some deepe pits or wells as did Peter Teon the Phisitian vpon a melancholike humour because he could not cure Laurence de Medicis as both Paulus Iovius and Sannazar doe testifie Besides some there have beene who have imagined that they have had no head as Hypocrates writeth hee knew such a one to whom for a remedie he applyed and fastned a heavie peece of lead vpon his head because hee should thereby feele that hee had a head Others againe have shunned and abhorred all sorts of liquor as water wine oyle and such like things They which are bitten with a mad dogge do endure such a kind of passion and the Greekes call it Hydrophobie in regard they feare the water And Ruffus the Phisition alleadged by Paulus Egineta writeth Lib. 5. cap. 3. that the cause why they which are bitten with a mad-dogge do feare the water is because they imagine Men bitten with a mad dogge why they shunne the water that they doe see in the water the specter and image of that dogge which hath bitten them And Averrois telleth one thing that is verie strange and admirable if so be it bee true that in the vrine of such a one in the bubbles thereof are to be seene as if there were little dogges so great force and puissance saith he hath the imagination vpon the humors of the body And as touching the specter and image of a dogge which they see who grew mad by being so bitten I remember that a certaine Greeke Poet also maketh mention thereof the which in my younger yeeres I indevoured my selfe to translate Lib. 7. Epigra Graecor and I inserted it in my poeticall workes that are printed the French verses are to this effect A man that is bitten by a dog mad enraged As soone as he feeleth the worme stinging him in the head Men say that he sees within the water formed A beast whose feare pricks him and makes him wholy altred To make short others there bee that imagine themselves to bee Woolves and they will leape out of their beds in the night time and runne out of their houses howling as Woolves and even till the day beginne to appeare they will remaine in the Church-yardes and about the graves and sepulchres of the dead as the same Egineta writeth of them And this affection or maladie the Greeks call Lycantropie Lib. 3. cap. 16. whereof we will speake more largely heereafter The furious Melancholie whence it is engendred And to draw to an end of this Discourse of Melancholie it is to be vnderstoode that sometimes it is engendred in the braine by meanes that the veines are polluted and defiled with a kinde of blacke cholerike blood The furious melancholy whence it is engendred And sometimes it groweth in the braine of it selfe though the blood be not vniversally touched therewithall this is done when by reason of the heate of the braine the blood becommeth more thicke and blacke then is vsuall And sometimes it commeth also of the stomacke Now the perturbation of the intellectuall part comming from the stomacke either it proceedeth of that which the Latines call Abdomen Tract 9. cap. 9. l. br 1. and the Arabians and Abenzoar doe call Mirach or else from some strong and violent heate exhalated from some principall member or from some impostume or inflammation made within that part of the entrailes which lieth neere vnto the stomacke and by the Greekes is named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The which is confirmed also by Galen who writeth that Lib. 3. de locis Affect cap. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Or else it proceedeth of the immoderate heate of the veines called Meseraiques by reason of the obstruction wroght in them by some thicke and grosse blood Now as Abenzoar saith this heate is externall Tract 9. and hindreth and impeacheth the operations of the naturall heate by reason that the naturall heate maketh the concoction and digestion of the meate but that which is externall and accidentall doth burne and convert it into ill Fumes And of those vapours and fumosities dooth ensue a troubling and distraction of the minde diversly according to the diversities of the fumes and windes that doe arise and according to the differences of their kinds each in severall as they are more or lesse either grosse or subtile or hote or warme betweene hote and colde And the same Abenzoar sheweth how hee cured one that was sicke of melancholy through the causes above mentioned who one day would have made or baked a batch of bread within a pit and had caused a quantitie of meale to bee bought and provided to that effect and commaunded his servants to cast it into the pit which they refusing to doe hee bear them with a cudgell and constrained them to doe it and then himselfe went downe into the pit and baked or kneaded his meale and calling vnto him his neerest and most familiar friendes hee prayed them to eate of the bread which he had baked But they fearing that in