A brief natural history intermixed with variety of philosophical discourses and refutations of such vulgar errours as our modern authors have hitherto omitted / by Eugenius Philalethes. Vaughan, Thomas, 1622-1666. 1669 Approx. 158 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 68 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2003-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A64764 Wing V145 ESTC R1446 12075804 ocm 12075804 53586 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A64764) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 53586) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 587:2) A brief natural history intermixed with variety of philosophical discourses and refutations of such vulgar errours as our modern authors have hitherto omitted / by Eugenius Philalethes. Vaughan, Thomas, 1622-1666. [14], 120 p. Printed for Matthew Smelt ..., London : 1669. Attributed to Vaughan by Wing and Halkett and Laing. Reproduction of original in Huntington Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Philosophy. 2000-00 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2001-07 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2001-07 TCP Staff (Michigan) Sampled and proofread 2001-10 TCP Staff (Michigan) Text and markup reviewed and edited 2001-11 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A BRIEF Natural History Intermixed with variety OF Philosophical Discourses ; AND REFUTATIONS Of such VULGAR ERROURS As our Modern Authors have hitherto omitted . By Eugenius Philalethes . LONDON Printed for Matthew Smelt next door to the Castle near Moor-gate . 1669. THE EPISTLE TO THE READER . I Presume I shall no sooner appear upon the Stage I am prepared for , but I must without evasion expect to be assaulted by that furious and inconsiderate Monster called Censour ; whose lashes I will receive with the same slight concern , the Lacedemonians did the cruelty of their Correctors , sporting themselves whilst their backs were torn with the unmerciful Whip . Of that efficacy is Resolution , that it presents pain but meer Opinion , and values a scoffing Lucian , or a satyrical Memphus , no more then a harmless Hellespont did the vain threats of a proud Xerxes . Seneca saith well , better aliud agere quam nihil , for Idleness is the Devils opportunity : the Considerations of which ( with my assent to the Judgment of Thucidides , who sayes , To know a thing and not to express it , is all one as thongh he knew it not ) made me to expose my self to publick view . My Subject is good and great , called by the Name of Nature ; here I present her , expressing mans Ingratitude , who is fit to strip her of those Robes of Priviledge that God himself hath endowed her with , not : considering that what she acts , is by the vertue of his Power ; and that She is one of those Mirrours that represents him to us , which a Philosophick Passion adores as the supream Efficient . But indeed , how can She expect our Veneration , till we have divested our selves of that prejudice ignorance possesses us with , which must be done by a serious reflex upon her Effects , as this little Volumn will acquaint you , if you read it with an impartial and unbyased Reason ; for I have , as all others of the same Inclination must do , used Philosophy as the Tellescope by which we must make our Observations , as you will , when you see , find my curiosity descending to little Insects , and that with wonder at their production out of Corruption ; from thence I view her care in beautifying this little Globe we live in , with Robes sutable to every Season ; and when I ascend the lower Region , and mark the Clouds ranging themselves in such bodies as though they intended another Deluge , it occasions wonder ; so likewise the coldness of the middle Region with the heat of the upper , and the Element of Fire , must be Miracles to ignorance . And if we observe the Moon , with the Motion attending that of the Seas flux and reflux , it would make us judge , that there is some secret contract made ab Origine betwixt her and the watery Element . Mercury and Venus I have spoken of in their places : the next that presents us with cause of Admiration , is the glorious Sun , the Luminary of the Universe , called by some , and not improperly , the Anima Mundi , for we find her approach gives life to Vegitives , sense to Animals , and almost a new Nature to Rationals . As for Mars , Jupiter , and Saturn , the Eighth Sphere , and Christalline Heaven , & the Empyreum , I have treated on , if not like a knowing Secretary of Nature , yet a submiss Admirer of her . And whereas I make a refutation of Errours , as an addition to my Title , some perhaps will say , I am like the Tinker , that for stopping of one hole make two , or for my refuting of one Errour , I have made two ; it may be I have in the Opinion of some : But whether I have or no , who shall be judge ? for what appears an Errour to one , is to another a very evident truth : sometimes a Week or a Day , nay an hour puts a change upon an Opinion of many years standing . But let my Errours be as great and as many as I pretend to correct , Reason shall convince me , and command my Acknowledgment ; for it 's our Errours that presents us human . I have writ this to give Satisfaction to others if I can ; but if not , howsoever I have secured it to my self ; And let the Reader judge of it as it pleases him . I have writ that which delights me ; And if envie cause a misapplication of my intention , it matters not , the contempt of it will make me bold to say , I value it and thee after the rate as thou dost it and me . The assertions here laid down are plain and perspicuous , convincing and satisfactory to the intelligent . But I know that common prejudice which is usually taken of any thing ( though never so true ) which is contrary to any mans belief , it does beget such Passion and animosity , &c. and makes such a breach as is hardly to be repaired . And since our own Opinion may make it disputable what reason we have to pretend of convince another by , I shall only offer this for common satisfaction , that things demonstrable are the most evident marks of Truth ; and that they are so clearly manifested in this little Book , deserves nothing but sobriety and moderation , and a well weighing of the matter herein contained . Reader , I am loth to leave thee , but that I would not keep thee from the Book it self , which I hope will be to thy ample satisfaction , &c. Vale. Eugenius Philalethes . A Brief Natural History Intermixed With variety of Philosophical Discourses , &c. GOD by his presential Essence gives unto all things an Essence ; so that if he should withdraw himself from them , as out of Nothing they were first made , so into Nothing they would be again resolved . In the preservation then of the Creature , we are not to consider so much the impotency and weakness thereof , as the goodness , wisdom , and power of the Creator , in whom , and by whom , and for whom , they live , move , and have their being . The spirit of the Lord filleth the world , saith the Author of the Wisdom of Solomon ; and the secret working of the Spirit , which thus pierceth through all things , as Virgil AEneid 6 , hath excellently exprest , Principio coelum ac terras camposque Liquentes , Lucentemque globum Lunae , Titaniaq , astra , Spiritus intus alit , totamque infusa per artus , Mens agitat molem & magno se corpore miscet . The Heavens , the Earth , and all the Liquid Main , The Moons bright Globe and Stats Titanian ; A Spirit within maintains , and their whole Mass A Mind , which through each part infus'd doth pass , Fashions and works and wholly doth transpierce All this great body of the Universe . The Spirit the Platonists call the Soul of the World ; by it , it is in some sort quickned and formalized , as the body of Man is by its reasonable Soul. There is no question then , but that this Soul of the World , ( if we may so speak with reverence ) being in truth no other then the immortal spirit of the Creator , is able for to make the Body of the World Immortal ; and to preserve it from Dissolution ; as he doth the Angels , and the spirits of men , were it not , that he hath determined to dissolve it by the same supernatural and extraordinary Power , by which at the first he gave it existence . For my own part I constantly believe that it had a beginning , and shall have an ending ; and judg him not worthy of the name of a Christian ; who is not of the same mind : yet so as I believe both to be matter of faith ; Through Faith we understand that the Worlds were framed by the Word of God , Heb. 11. 3. And through the same Faith we understand likewise , that they shall be again unframed by the same Word . Reason may grope at this truth in the dark ; howbeit , it can never clearly apprehend it , till it be enlightned by the bright beams of Faith. Though I deny not but that it is probable , though not demonstrative , and convincing Arguments may be drawn from the discourse of Reason to prove either the one or the other . I remember the Philosophers propose a question , Uirum Mundus filo generall concursu Dei perpet●● durare possit ? and for the most part they conclude it affirmatively , even such as professed the Christian Religion , and for the proof of this assertion , they bring in effect this reason . The Heavens , say they , are of a nature which is not capable of it self of corruption ; the loss of the Elements is recovered by compensation , of mixt bodies without Life by accretion , of living bodies by succession , the fall of the one being the rise of the other : as Rome triumphed in the ruines of Alba , and the depression of one Scale is the elevation of another ; according to that of Solomon , One generation passeth away , and another generation cometh , but the Earth abideth for ever , Eccles. 1. 4. Again , all Subcoelestial Bodies ( as is evident ) consist of Matter and Form ; now the first Matter having nothing contrary unto it , cannot by the force of Nature be destroyed ; and being Created immediately by God , it cannot be abolished by any inferiour Agent . And as for the Forms of Natural Bodies , no sooner doth any one abandon the Matter it informed , but another instantly steps into the place thereof ; no sooner hath one acted his part and is retired , but another presently comes forth upon the Stage , though it may be in a different shape , and to act a different part ; so that no proportion of Matter is , or at any time can be altogether void and empty ; but like Vertumnes or Proteus it turns it self into a thousand Shapes , and is alwayes supplied and furnished with one Form or other , by a power Divine above Nature : but to proceed , such and so great is the Wisdom , the Bounty , and the Omnipotence which God hath expressed in the Frame of the Heavens , that the Psalmist might justly say , The Heavens declare the glory of God , Psal. 19. 1. The Sun , and the Moon , and the Stars serving as so many Silver and Golden Characters , embroidered upon azure for the daily Preaching and Publishing thereof to the World. And surely if he have made the floor of this great house so beautiful , and garnished it with such wonderful variety of Beasts , of Trees , of Herbs , of Flowers , we need wonder the less at the Magnificence of the Roof , which is the highest part of the World , and the nearest to the Mansion House of Saints and Angels . Now as the excellency of these bodies appear in their Situation , their Matter , their Magnitude , and their Spherical and Circular Figure ; so specially in their great use and efficacy ; not only that they are for Signes and Seasons and for Days and Years ; but in that by their Motion , their Light , their warmth , and Influence , they guide and govern , nay cherish and maintain , breed and beget these Inferiour Bodies , even of Man himself , for whose sake the Heavens were made . It is truly said of the Prince of Philosophers , Sol & homo generunt hominem , the Sun and Man beget Man. Man concurring in the generation of Man as an immediate , and the Sun as a remote cause . And in another place he doubts not to affirm of this inferiour World in general . Necessa est Mundum inferiorem super in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ibus continuari , ut ●●●●is inde Virtus ●●rivetur . It is requisite , that these inferiour parts of the World should be co-joyned to the Motions of the higher Bodies , that so all their Virtue and vigour might be from thence derived . There is no question but the Heavens have a marvellous great stroak upon the Air , the Water , the Earth , the Plants , the Mettals , the Beasts , and upon Man himself , at least wise in regard of his body and natural faculties . To let pass the quailing and withering of all things by their recess , and their reviving and resurrection , ( as it were ) by the reaccess of the Sun. I am of opinion , that the sap of the trees so precisely follows the motion of the Sun , that it never rests , but is in a continual agitation , as the Sun it self ; which no sooner arrives at the Tropick , but he instantly returns , and even at the very instant ( as I conceive ) and I think it may be demonstrated by experimental Conclusions ) the sap which by degrees descended with the declination of the Sun , begins to remove at the approach thereof , by the same steps that it descended : And as the approach of the Sun is scarce sensible at his first return , but afterwards the day increases more in one week , than before in two ; in like manner also fares it with the Sap , in Plants , which at the first ascends up insensibly and slowly , but within a while much more swiftly and apparently . It is certain that the Tulip , Marigold , and Sun-flower open with the rising , and shut with the setting of the Sun ; so that though the Sun appear not , a man may more infallibly know when it is high noon by their full spreading , then by the Index of a Clock or Watch. The Hop in its growing windeth it self about the Pole , always following the course of the Sun from East to West , and can by no means be drawn to the contrary , choosing rather to break then yield . It is observed , by those that Sayl between the Tropicks , that there is a constant set Wind , blowing from the East to the West , Saylers call it the Breeze , which rises and falls with the Sun , and is always highest at noon ; and is commonly so strong , partly by its own blowing , and partly by over-ruling the Currant , that they who sayl to Peru , cannot well return the same way they came forth : And generally Marriners do observe , that caeteris paribus , they sayl with more speed from the East to the West , then back again from the West to the East , in the same compass of time . All which should argue a wheeling about of the Air , and Waters by the diurnal Motion of the Heavens , and especial by the motion of the Sun. Whereunto may be added , that high-Sea springs of the year , are always nearer about the two AEquinoctials and Solstices ; and the Cock as a trusty Watchman , both at midnight and break of day , gives notice of the Suns approach . These be the strange and secret effects of the Sun , upon the inferiour Bodies ; whence by the Gentiles he was held the visible God of the World : and termed the Eye thereof , which alone saw all things in the World , and by which the World saw all things in it self . Omnia qui videt , & per quem videt omnia Mundus . And most notably it is described by the Psalmist , in them hath he set a Tabernacle for the Sun , which is as a Bridegroom coming out of his Chamber , and rejoyceth as a strong man to run a race , his going forth is from the beginning of the Heaven , and his Circuite to the end of it , and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof , Psal. 19 4 , 5 , 6. Now as the effects of the Sun , the head-spring of Light and warmth , are upon these inferiour Bodies more active , so those of the Moon ( as being Ultima caelo , Citima terris , nearer the Earth , and holding a greater resemblance therewith ) are no less Manifest . And therefore the Husbandman in sowing and setting , grafting , and planting , lopping of Trees , and felling of Timber , and the like , upon good reason observes the waxing and waining of the Moon , which Learned Zanchius in his Operibus Dei , well allows of ; commending Hesiod for his rules therein Quod ex Lunae decrementis & incrementis totius agricolationis signa notet , quis improbet ? who can mislike it that Hesiod sets down the signs , in the whole course of Husbandry , from the waxing and waining of the Moon : the Tides and ebbs of the Sea follow the course of it , so exactly , as the Sea-men will tell you the age of the Moon only by the sight of the Tide as certainly , as if he saw it in the water . It is the observation of Aristotle and Pliny out of him , That Oysters , Mussels , Cockles , Lobsters , Crabbs , &c. and generally all Shell-fish grow fuller in the increase of the Moon , but emptier in the decrease thereof . Such a strong predominancy it hath upon the Brain of Man , that Lunaticks borrow their very name from it ; as also doth the Stone Selenites ; whose property , as St. Augustine and Georgius Agricola records it , is to increase and decrease in Light with the Moon , carrying always the resemblance thereof with it self . Neither can it reasonably be imagined , that other Planets , and Stars , and parts of Heaven , are without their forcible operations upon these lower Bodies , specially considering that the very Plants and Herbs of the Earth , which we tread upon , have their several vertues , as well single by themselves , as in composition with other ingredients . The Physitian in opening of a Vein , hath ever an eye to the Sign then reigning . The Canicular Star , especially in those hotter Climates , was by the Ancients always held a dangerous Enemy to the practise of Physick , and all kind of Evacuations . Nay , Galen himself , the Oracle of that profession , adviseth practitioners in that Art , in all their cures , to have a special regard to the reigning Constellations and Conjunctions of the Planets . But the most admirable m●stery of Nature , in my Mind , is the turning of Iron touched with the Load-stone towards the North Pole ; ( of which I shall have occasion to discourse more largely hereafter in another Tract , ) neither were it hard to add much more to that which hath been said , to shew the dependance of these Elementary Bodies upon the Heavenly : Almighty God having ordained , that the higher should serve as intermediate Agents , or secondary Causes ; but so , as in the Wheels of a Clock ; though the failing of the Superiour , cannot but cause a failing in the Inferiour , yet the failing of the Inferiour , may well argue somewhat for it self , though it cannot cause a failing in the Superiour , we have great Reason then , as I conceive , to begin with the examination of the State of Coelestial Bodies , in as much as upon them the condition of the subcoelestial depends . Wherein five things will offer themselves to our consideration , their Substances , their Motion , their Light , their Warmth and their Influence . That the Heavens are endued with some kind of Matter , though some Philosophers in their jangling humours , have made a doubt of it , yet I think no sober and wise Christian will deny it : But whether the Matter of it be the same with that of these inferiour Bodies , adhuc sub Judice lis est , it hath been and still is a great question among Divines . The Ancient Fathers and Doctors of the Primitive Church for the most part following Plato , hold that it agrees with the nature of the Elementary Bodies , yet so as it is compounded of the finest flower , and choicest delicacy of the Elements : But the Schoolmen on the one side , that follow Aristotle , adhere to his Quintessence , and by no means will be beaten from it , since , say they , If the Elements and the Heavens should agree in the same Matter , it should consequently follow , that there should be a mutual Traffique and , Commerce , a reciprocal Action and Passion between them , which would soon draw on a change , and by degrees a ruine upon those glorious Bodies . Now though this point will never ( I think ) be fully and finally determined , till we come to be inhabitants of that place , whereof we dispute ; ( for hardly do we guess aright at things that are upon Earth . And with labour do we find the things that a●e at hand ; but the things that are in Heaven , who hath searched out ? Wis● . 9. 16. Yet for the present , I should state it thus , that they agree in the same Original Matter ; and surely Moses , methinks , seems to favour this opinion , making but one Matter , ( as far as I can gather from the Text ) out of which all bodily substances were Created . Unus irat toto vultus in Orbe . Ovid. 1. Metam . So as the Heavens , though they be not compounded of the Elements , yet are they made of the same Matter that the Elements are compounded of ; They are not subject to the qualities of heat , cold , or drought , or moisture , nor yet to weight , or lightness , which arise from those qualities , but have a Form given them , which differeth from the Forms of all corruptible Bodies , so as it suffereth nor , nor can it suffer from any of them being so excellent and perfect in it self , as it wholly satiateth the appetite of the Matter , that is informeth . The Coelestial Bodies then , meeting with so noble a Form to actuate them , are not , nor cannot , in the course of Nature , be lyable to any Generation or Corruption , in regard of their Substance ; to any augmentation or diminution , in regard of their quantity ; no nor any obstructive alteration , in respect of their qualities . I am not ignorant that the controversies touching the Form , what it should be , is no less then touching the Matter ; some holding it to be a living and a quickning Spirit , nay a sensitive and rational Soul ; which opinion is stiffly maintained by many great and learned Clerks , both Jews and Gentiles , and Christians , supposing it unreasonable that the Heavens which impart life to other Bodies , should themselves be destitute of Life : But this Errour is notably discovered and confuted by Claudius Espenatus , a famous Doctor of Sorbone , in a Treatise which he purposely composed on that point de Caelorum animatione : In as much as what is denied those bodies in Life , in Sense , in Reason , is abundantly supplied in their constant and unchangeable duration , arising from that inviolable knot & indissoluble Marriage , betwixt the Matter and the Form , which can never suffer any Divorce , but from that hand which first joyned them . And howbeit it cannot be denyed , that not only the reasonable Soul of Man , but the sensitive of the least Gnat that flies in the Air , and the vegetative of the basest Plant that springs out of the Earth , are ( in that they are indued with Life ) more Divine , and nearer approaching the Fountain of Life , then the Formes of the Heavenly Bodies ; yet as the Apostle speaketh of Faith , Hope , and Charity , concludes Charity to be the greatest , ( though by Faith we do apprehend and apply the merits of Christ ) because it is more universal in operation , and lassing in duration ; so though the Formes of the Creatures endued with Life do in that regard , come a step nearer to the Deity , then the Formes of the Heavenly Bodies , which are without Life , yet if we regard their purity , their beauty , their efficacy , their indeficiency in moving , their universallity and independency in working , there is no question , but that the Heavens may in that respect be preferred , even before Man himself , for whose sake they were made ; Man being indeed Immortal , in regard of his Soul , but the Heavens in regard of their Bodies , as being made of an incorruptible stuff . Which cannot well stand with their opinion , who held them to be compos'd of Fire , or the Waters , which in the first of Genesis are said to be above the Firmament , and in the hundred forty eight Psalm , Above the Heavens , are above the Heavens we now treat of , for the tempering and qualifying of their heat , as did St. Ambrose , and St. Augustine hold , and many others , venerable for their Antiquity , Learning , and Piety . Touching the former of which Opinions , we shall have fitter opportunity to discourse , when we come to Treat of the warmth caused by the Heavens . But touching the Second , it seems to have been grounded upon a mistake of the Word Firmament , which by the Ancients was commonly appropriated to the eighth Sphere , in which are feated the fixed Starrs ; whereas the Original Hebrew ( which properly signifies Extention , or Expansion ) In the first of Genesis , is not only applied to the Spheres in which the Sun and Moon are planted , but to the lowest Region of the Air , in which the Birds flie ; and so do I with Pareus and Pererius , take it to be understood in this controversie . This Region of the Air being , as St. Augustine somewhere speaks , Terminus intransgressibilis , a firme and irremoveable wall of seperation betwixt the waters that are bred in the bowels of the Earth , and those of the Clouds . And for the Word Heaven , which is used in the hundred fortyeighth Psalm , it is likewise applied to the middle Region of the Air , by the Prophet Jere●y , Jer. 10. 13. Which may serve for a Gloss upon the Text alleaged out of the Psalm , When he uttereth his voice , there is a noise of the waters in the Heavens , and he causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the Earth . Now , the Schoolmen finding that the placing of the waters above the Starry Heavens , was both unnatural and unuseful , and yet not being well acquainted with the propriety of the Hebrew Word , to salve the matter , tell us of a Christaline or glassie Heaven , above the eight Sphere , which say they , is undoubtedly the waters above the firmament , mentioned by Moses ; which exposition of theirs , doth cross the course of Moses his Historical Narration , his purpose being as it seems , only to write the History of things which were visible and sensible , as appeareth in part by his omitting the Creation of Angels ; whereas the Christaline Heaven they speak of , is not only invisible and insensible ; but was not at all discovered to be , till the days of Hipparchus or Ptolomy . And as for the fresh lustre and brightness wherewith , as is commonly thought , the Heavens shall be renewed at the last day , as a garment by the turning is changed , and by changing refreshed , it may be well by the making them more resplendent then now they are , or ever at any time were since their first Creation , not by the scowring of contracted rust , but adding a new gloss and augmentation of glory . And whereas some Authors have not doubted to make the spots and shadows appearing in the face of the Moon to be unredoubted arguments of that contracted rust ; if those spots had not been original and native , of equal date with the Moon her self , but had been contracted by the continuance of time , as wrinkles are in the most beautiful faces , they had said somewhat , but that they were above fifteen hundred years agoe , appeareth by Plutarch's discourse de Maculis in facie Lunae ; and that they have any whit since increased , it cannot be sufficiently proved . Perchance by the help of the late invented perspective-glass , they have been more clearly and distinctly discerned then in former ages , but that proves no more that they were not there before , then that the Sydera Medcaeo , lately discovered by the vertue of the same Instruments , were not before in being , which the discoverers themselves knew well enough they could not with any colour of reason affirm . Howbeit it cannot be denyed , but that new Stars have at times appeared in the Firmament ; as some think , that was at our Saviours Birth ; in as much as it appointed out the very House in which he was born , by standing over it , and was not ( for ought we find ) observed by the Mathematicians of those times ; I would rather think it to be a blazing Light created in the Region of the Air , carrying the resemblance of a Star , seated in the Firmament . As for that which appeared in Cassiopaea in the year One thousand five hundred and seventy two , ( the very year of the great Massacre in France ) I think it cannot well be gainsaid to have been a true Star , it being observed by the most skillful and famous Astronomers of that time , to hold the same Aspect in all places in Christendom , to run the same course , to keep the same proportion , distance , and situation , every-where , and in every point , with the fixed Stars , for the space of two whole years . But this I take not to have been the effect of Nature , but the Supernatural and miraculous work of Almighty God , the first Author and free disposer of Nature . And the like may be said of all such Comets which have at any time evidently appeared , ( if any such evidence can be given ) to be above the Globe of the Moon . St. Augustine in his de Civitate Dei , reports of Varro's book entituled de Gente Populi Romani ; and he out of Castor , touching the Planet Venus , which to add the greater weight and credit to the relation , being somewhat strange and rare , I will set it down in the very words of Varro , as I find them quoted by St. Augustine , in coelo mirabile extitit portentum , n●m in Stella Veneris nobilissima , quam Plautus vesperuginem , Homerus . Hisperon appellat , pulcherimam dicent : Castor scribit tantum portentum ex●●tisse , ut mutaret color●● , magnitudinam & figuram , eursum , quod factum ita neque antea , neque postea ●i● , hoc factum Ogyge Rege , dicebant Adrastus , Cyzicenus , & Dyon Neapolites . Mathematici Nobiles , saith he , appeared a marveilous great wonder , the most noted Star cal'd Venus , which Plautus calls Vesperugo , and Homer Vesperus the fair , as Castor hath left upon Record , changed both colour , and bigness , figure and motion , which accident was never seen before , nor since that time ; the renouned Mathematicians Adrastus and Dion averring that this fell out during the Reign of King Ogyges ; which wonder , neither Varro nor Augustine ascribe to the changeable matter of the Heavens , but to the unchangeable will of the Creator . And therefore the one calls it as we see mirabile portentum , and the other makes this Comment upon it , that it happened , quia ille voluit qui summo regit imperio ac potestate quod condidit , because he would have it so , who governs all things that he hath made , with a Soveraign independing Power . So that two special reasons may be rendred for these extraordinary unusual Apparitions in Heaven ; the one that they may declare to the World that they have a Creatour and Commander , who can alter and destroy their Natures , restrain or suspend their operations at his pleasure , which should keep men from worshiping them as Gods , since they cannot keep themselves from alteration . The other to portend and foreshew his Judgments , as did that new Star in Caessopaeia , a most unnatural inundation of Blood in France ; And this change in Venus , such a Deluge in Achaia , as it overflowed , and so wasted the whole Country , that for the space of Two hundred years after , it was not Inhabited . It will next fall to our task to Discover of the Eclipses , of which Virgil , in his Georg. Lib. 2. Calls , Defectus Solis varios Lunaeque Labores . Defects and travels of the Sun and Moon . As also the manner of the Ancient Romans while such Eclipses lasted ; who as Tacitus in his Annals saith , Lib. 7. Did use to lift up burning Torches towards Heaven , and withal to beat pans of Brass and Basons , as we do in following of a swarm of Bees . So B●etius , Lib. 4. Met. Comm●v●t Gentes publicus Error , Lassantque cr●bris p●lsibus ara . A Common Error through the world doth pass , And many a stroke they lay on pans of Brass . And Manilius speaking of the appearance of the Moons Eclipse by degrees , in diverse parts of the Earth , in his Lib. 1. Seraque in extremis quatiunt●● gentibus ara . The utmost Coasts do beat their Brass pans Last . And Juvenal the Satyrist wittily describing a tatling Gosship in his Lib. 2. Sat. 6. Una l●boranti poterit succurr●re Lunae . She only were enough to help The Labours of the Moon . They thought thereby they did the Moon great ease , and helped her in her Labour ; as Plutarch in his Life of AEmilius observeth : That AEmilius himself a wise man , as the same Author there Witnesseth , did congratulate the Moons delivery from an Ecclipse with a solemn Sacrifice , as soon as she shined out bright again ; which action of his , that prudent Philosopher and sage Historian , doth not only relate , but approve and commendeth it as a sign of godliness and devotion ; yea this Heathenish and Sottish custom of relieving the Moon in this case by noise and out-cries , the Christians it seems borrowed from the Gentiles , as St Ambrose expresses in his Ser. 83. And Maximus Turriuensis hath a Homile to the same purpose . Whereas Aristotle in his eighth Book of his Metaphysicks , makes it plainly to appear , That the Moon suffereth nothing by her Ecclipse ; where also he evidenceth by reason , that it is caused by the shadow of the Earth , interposed betwixt the Sun and the Moon : as in exchange or revenge thereof ( as Pliny speaketh ) the Ecclipse of the Sun is caused by the Interposition of the Moon , betwixt the Earth and it . The Moon so depriving the Earth ; and again , the Earth , the Moon of the beams of the Sun : which is the true cause , that in the course of Nature , the Moon is never Ecclipsed but when she is Full , the Sun and She being then in opposition ; nor the Sun , but when it is New Moon ; those two Planets being then in Conjunction : I say , in the course of Nature ; fo● the Ecclipse at our Saviours Passion , was undoubtedly Supernatural : Quam solis obscurationem ●●● ex ●●nico syder●●● cursu accidisse satis oftenditur , quod tune er at Pascha Jude●●● , nam pl●nae Luna solemniter , agitur , saith St. Augustin Lib. 3. Civit . Dei , cap. 15. It is evident , that that Ecclipse of the Sun happened not by an ordinary and orderly course of the Starrs , it being then the Passover of the Jews , which was solemnized at the Full Moon ; And this was it , that gave occasion , as is commonly believed , to that memorable exclamation of Dennys the Areopagite , being then in Egypt , Aut Diu● Natur● patitur , aut Machina M●●●di dissolvetur ; Either the God of Nature suffers , or the Frame of the World will be dissolved . And hereupon too , as it is thought by some , was erected the Altar at Athens , Ignot● De● , T● the unknown God , Act. 17. 23. Though others think , that this Eclipse was confined , in the borders of Judaea ; howsoever it cannot be denyed , but that it was certainly besides and above the compass of Nature . Neither ought it to seem strange , That the Sun in the Firmament of Heaven should appear to suffer , when the Sun of Righteousness indeed Suffered upon the Earth . But for other Ecclipses , though the causes be not commonly known , yet the ignorance of them was it which caused so much Superstition in former Ages , and left that impression in mens minds , as even at this day , wise men can hardly be perswaded , but that those Planets suffer in their Ecclipses , which in the Sun is most childish and ridiculous to imagine ; since in it self , it is not so much as deprived of any Light , nor in truth can be , it being the Fountain of Light , from which all other Starrs borrow their Light , but pay nothing back again to it , by way of retribution . Which was well expressed by Pericles , as Plutarch in his Life reports it , for there happening an Ecclipse of the Sun , at the very instant when his Navy was ready to Lanch forth , and himself was imbarked ; his followers began much to be appald at it , but especially the Master of his own Gally , which Pericles perceiving ; takes his Cloak , and therewith hood winks the Masters eyes , and then demands of him , what danger was in that , he answering none , Neither said Pericles is there in this Ecclipse ; there being no difference betwixt that Vail and my Cloak , with which the Sun is covered , but only in bigness . And the truth is that the Sun then suffered no more by the intervening of the Moon , then from Pericles Cloak , or daily doth from the Clouds in the Air , which hinder the sight of it ; or by the interposing of the Planet Mercury , which hath sometimes appeared as a spot in it . But whether these Ecclipses either cause or presage any change in these inferiour Bodies , I shall have fitter occasion to examine hereafter ; and so I pass from the Consideration of the substance , to the Motion of the Heavenly Bodies . Motion is so universal and innate a property ; and so proper an affection to all Natural Bodies , that the great Philosopher knew not better how to define Nature , then by making ●● the Engineere and Principle of Motion ; and therefore as other Objects , are only discernable by the sense , as colours , and sounds by hearing , Motion is discernable by both , nay and by feeling too , which is a third sense really distinguished from them both . That there is in the Heavenly Bodies , no motion of Generation or Corruption , and of Augmentation or Diminution , or Alteration , I have already shewed . There are also , by reason of the incredible swiftness of the first Mover , and some other such Reasons ; dare deny , ( as Copernicus doth ) that there is in them any Lation , or Local motion , herein flatly opposing in my judgment both Scripture , Reason , and Sense ; But take it as granted , without any dispute , that a Local motion there is ; which is the measure of Time , as Time again is the measure of Motion ; the Line of Motion , and the Thred of Time , being both spun out together : some doubt there is touching the Mover of these Heavenly Bodies , what or how it should be ; some ascribing it to their Matter , some to their Form , and some to their Figure , and many to the Angels , or Intelligences ; as they call them , which they suppose to be set over them . For mine own part ; I should think that all these , and every one of them , might not unjustly challenge a part in that Motion : the Matter as being neither light nor heavy ; the Form as well agreeing with such a Matter ; the Figure as being Spherical or Circular ; the Intelligence as an assistant : in the Matter is a disposition ; for where light Bodies naturally move upward , and heavy downward , that which is neither light nor heavy , is rather disposed to a Circular motion , which is neither upward nor downward . In the Figure is an inclination to that motion , as in a Wheel to be carried round , from the Form an inchoation or onset : and Lastly , from the intelligence , a continuance or perpetuation thereof , as that great Divine Hooker in his Ecclesiastical policy , 5. 69. Expresseth , ( saith he , ) Gods own Eternity is the bound which leadeth Angels in the course of their perpetuity , the perpetuity the hand that draweth out Coelestial Motion ; that as the Elementary substances are governed by the Heavenly , so might the Heavenly by the Angelical . As the Corruptible by the Incorruptible , so the Material by the Immaterial , and all Finites by an Infinite . It is the joynt consent of the Platonicks , Peripateticks , Stoicks and all noted Sects of Philosophers , who acknowledg the Divine Power , with whom agree the greatest part of our Christian Doctors ; That the Heavens are moved by Angles , neither is there in truth any sufficient means beside it , to discover the being of such Creatures by the discourse of Reason . The most signal Motions of the Heavens ( beside their Re●rogations Treoidations , Librations , and I know not what hard Words , which the Astronomers have devised to reconcile the diversity of their observations ; ) are the Diurnal Motion of the fixed Starrs and Planets , and all the Coelestial Spheres , from East to the West , in the compass of 〈◊〉 four and twenty hours , and the 〈◊〉 Motion of them all , from the West to 〈◊〉 These Motions , whether they perform themselves , without the help of Orbes , as Fishes in the Water , or Birds in the Air ; or fastned to their Spheres , as a Gemme in a Ring , or a Nail or knot in a Cart Wheele , I cannot easily determine : howbeit I confess , we cannot well imagin how one and the same body should be carryed with opposite Motions , but by the help of somewhat in which it is carryed . As the Marriner may be carryed by the Motion of his Ship , from the East to the West , and yet himself may walk from the West to the East in the same Ship : or a Flie may be carried from the North to the South upon a Cart-Wheel , and yet may go from the South to the North upon the same Wheele ; but howsoever it be , it is evident , that their Motions are even and regular , without the least jarr or discord , variation or uncertainty , languishing or defect that may be ; which were it not so , there could be no certain demonstrations made upon the Globe or Material Sphere : which notwithstanding , by the Testimony of Claudian , are most infallible , as appears by those his elegant Verses upon Archimedes admirable invention thereof . Jupiter ●● paervo cum cerneret aethera vitr● , Risit , 〈◊〉 superos talia dicta dedit : Huc 〈…〉 alis progressa potentia curae ? Jam 〈◊〉 fragili luditur Orbe labor Jura Poli , ●erumque fidem ●igesque ; Deorum Ecce Syracusus transtulit arte Senex . Inclusus variis famulatur spiritus astris Percurrit propri●m mentitus signiser annum Et simulati● novo Cynthia mense redit . Jamque suum volvens audax industria Mundum Gaudet & Humana sydera mense regit . When Jove within a little glass survaid The Heavens , he smil'd , and to the Gods thus said ; Can strength of Mortal Witt proceed thus far ? Loe in a fraile Orbe my works matched are . Hither the Syracusians art Translates Heavens form , the course of things , and human fates . Th' included Spirit serving the Star decked signes , The living Work in constant Motion windes . Th' adulterate Z●diak runs a Natural year And Cynthias forg'd horns monthly new light bear , Viewing her own world ; now bold industry Triumphes and rules with human power the skie . The Gentiles saith Julian ( As Cyril in his third Book against him , reports it ) Violentes nihil eorum quae circa caelum minus vel augere n●que ullam sustinere de ●rdinatum affectionem , sed congruam illius motionem ac bene optatam ordinem ; definitas queque leges Lunae , definites ortus & occasus solis , statutis semper temporibus , merito Deu● & D●i solium suspicabantur . Seeing no part of Heaven to be diminished and decreased , to suffer no irregular affection , but the Motion thereof , to be as duly and as orderly performed as could be de●ired , the waxing and waining of the Moon , the rising and setting of the Sun to be setled and constant at fixed and certain times ; they deservedly admired it as God , or as the Throne of God. The order and Regulation of which Motions we shall easily perceive by taking a particular view of them . I will touch only those of the Planets . The proper Motion of Saturn was by the Ancients observed , and is now likewise found by our Modern Astronomers , to be accomplished within the space of thirty years , that of Jupiter in twelve , that of Mars in two , that of the Sun in Three hundred sixty and five dayes and almost six hours : neither do we find that they have quickned or any way slackned these their courses , but that in the same space of time they always run the same races they have passed . These then are the bounds and limits to which these glorious Bodies are perpetually tyed , in regard of their Motion ; these be the unchangeable Laws , like those of the Medes and P●rsian● , whereof the Psalmist speaks , He hath given them a Law which shall not be broken , Psal. 148. 6. Which Seneca in his Book De divina providentia , well expresses in other words , AEterna legis imperio pr●●●dunt , they move by the appointment of an eternal Law , that is , a Law both invariable and inviolable . That which Tully hath delivered of one of them , is undoubtedly true of all : Suturni stella in su● cursu multa miracula efficiens , tum ante ●dende , tum r●tardando , tum vespertin●s temporibus delitesend● , tum matutinis rursum se aperi●nd● , nihil tamen immutat sempiternis saeculerum aetatibus , quam ●adim eiisdem t●mporibus efficiat , Lib. 2. de nat . Deor. The Planet Saturn doth make strange and wonderful passages in his Motion , going before , and sometimes coming after , withdrawing himself in the Evening , and sometimes again shewing himself in the Morning , and changeth himself nothing in the continual duration of ages ; but still at the same season worketh the same effects . And in truth , were it not so , both in the Planet and in all other Starrs , it is altogether impossible that they should supply that use which Almighty God in their Creation ordained them unto , that is , To serve for Signs and Seasons , for dayes and for years to the Worlds end , Gen. 1. 14. And much more impossible it were , that the year , the month , the day , the hour , the minute of the oppositions , the Conjunctions and Ecclipses of the Planets , should be as exactly calculated and foretold One hundred years before they fell out , as at what hour the Sun will rise to morrow morning . To which perpetual aequability and constant uniformity in the Coelestial Motions , the Divine Pl●io accords , Nec errant , nec praeter antiquu● ordinem revolvuntur , Neither do they run at randum , nor are they rolled beyond their ancient order . Aristotle in his Book De Mundo , breaketh out in this passionate admiration thereof , Quod nunquam poterit aequart caelesti ordin● , & volubilitati , cum sydera convertantur exal●issi●a norma de alioin aliud seculum . What can ever be compared to the order of the Heavens , and to the Motion of the Starrs in their several Revolutions , which move most exactly by a rule or square , by line and level from one Generation to another . There were among the Ancients not a few , nor they unlearned , who by a strong fancie conceived to themselves an excellent melody made up by the motion of the Coelestial Spheers ; it was broached by Pythagoras , entertained by Plato , and stifly maintain'd by Macrobrius , and some other Christians , as Bede , Boetius , and Ans●lm Bishop of Canterbury : But Ariste●le puts it off with a jest in his Lib. 2. de Caelo Cap. 9. as being L●pide & Musice dictum , factis autem impossibile , a pleasant and Musical conceit , but in Effect impossible ; in as much as those bodies in their Motion make noise at all . Howsoever it may well be that this conceit of theirs was grounded upon a certain truth , which is the Harmonical and Proportionable Motion of those Bodies in their just order , and s●● courses , as if they were ever dancing the rounds and the Measures . In which regard the Psalmist tells us , That the Sun knoweth his going down , he appointeth the Moon for seasons , Psal. 104. 19. Which words of his may not be taken in●● proper , but in a figurative sence ; the Prophet therefore implying , that the Sun observeth his pr●●cribed Motion so precisely to a point , that in the least j●t● he never erreth from it : And therefore he is said to do the same upon knowledg and understanding , Non quod animatus fit aut ratione ●ut atur , saith Basil upon the place , S●d quod juxt●● terminum divinitus , prescriptum ingrediens , semper e●●dem curs●s ●●rvat , ac mensuras suas custodit . Not that the Sun hath any Sou●● or use of understanding ; but because he keepeth his courses and measures exactly according to Gods prescription . But the Motion of the Heavens puts me in mind of passing from it to the Light thereof . As the Waters were first spread over the face of the Earth : So was the Light dispersed through the Firmament : and as the Waters were gathered into one heape , so was the Light knit up , and united into one body : as the gathering of the Waters was called the Sea , so that of the Light was called the Sun. As the Rivers come from the Sea , so is all the Light of the Stars derived from the Sun ; and lastly , as the Sea is no whit lessened , though it furnish the Earth with abundance of fresh Rivers : So though the Sun have since the Creation , both furnished , and garnished the World with Light , neither is the store of it thereby deminished , nor the beauty of it any way stained . What the Light is , whether of a corporeal or incorporeal Nature , it is not easie to determine . Philosophers dispute it , but cannot well resolve it . Such is our ignorance , that even that by which we see all things , we cannot discern what it self is . But whatsoever it be , we are sure that of all visible Creatures , it was the first that was made , and comes nearest the name of a Spirit , in as much as it moveth in an instant from the East to the West , and piercing through all transparent Bodies , and still remains in it self unmixed and undivided ; it chaseth away sad and melancholy thoughts , which the Darkness both begets and maintains ; it lifts up our minds in meditation to him that is the true Light , that Lightneth every man that cometh into the World , himself dwelling in Light in accessible , and cloathing himself with Light as with a Garment . And if we may behold in any one Creature any spark of that Eternal Fire , or any farr-off dawning of Gods brightness , the same in the beauty and vertue of this Light may be best discerned● Quid pulch●rrimus Luce , saith Hugo de sanctoVictore , quae cum in se colorem non habeat , omnium ●am●n rerum colores ips● quodammodo colorat . What is more beautiful then Light , which having no colour in it self , yet sets a lustre upon all Colours ? And St. Ambrose , Unde Vex D●i in Scriptura debuit inchoare nisi a Lumine ? unde Mundi ornatus ●●si a Luce exordium sumer● ? frustra enim esset si non videretur . From whence should the voice of God in holy Scripture begin , but likewise from the same Light ; for in vain it were , were it not seen , as Bartas excellently Expresseth . O Father of the Light , of wisedom Fountain , Out of the Bulk of that confused Mountain , What should , what could issue before the Light , Without which , Beauty were no beauty hight . St. Augustine in divers places of his works is of opinion , That by the first Created Light , we understood the Angels , and herein is he followed by Beda Eucherius , and Rupertus , and divers others ; which opinion of his , though it be questionless unsound , in as much as we are taught , That the Light f●r●ng out of Darkness , 2 Cor. 4. 6. Which of the Angels can in no sort be verified , yet it shews the lightsome nature of Angels ; so likewise the Angelical nature of Light still flourishing in youth , and is no more subject to decay then the Angels are . They who maintain , that the Soul of Man is derived ex traduce , hold withall that the Father in begetting the sons Soul looses none of his own , it being tanquam Lumen de Lumine , as one Light from another : nay , more then so , it is the very resemblance that the Nicene Fathers thought not unmeet to express the unexpressible Generation of the second Person in the Trinity from the First ; who is therefore termed by the Apostle The brightness of his Glory , Heb. 1 . 3. As then the Father of the Communicating of his Substance to his Son , looses none of his own ; so the Sun by Communicating of his Light to the World , looses no part nor degree thereof . Some things there are of that nature , as they may be both given and kept , as Knowledg and Vertue , and Happiness , and Light , which in Holy Scripture is Figuratively taken for them all . Whether the same Individual Light , be still resident in the body of the Sun , which was planted in it at the first Creation ; or whether it continue empty and spend it self , and so l●ke a River be repared with fresh supplies , for my part , I cannot certainly affirm , though I must confess , I do rather incline to the former : But this I believe , as the body of the Sun is no whit lessened in extention , so neither is the Light thereof in intention : Men being now no more able to fix their eyes upon it , when it shines forth in its full strength , then they were at the first Creation of it . Now we have spoken of the Light , we shall next discourse of the warmth and influence thereof , which springs from it , which now succede in their order . The Light of Heaven , of which we have spoken , is not more comfortable and useful , then is the warmth thereof ; with a Masculine vertue it quickens all kind of Seeds , it makes them Vegitate , blossom and fructifie , and brings their Fruit to Perfection , for the use of Man and Beast , and the perpetuating of their own kindness ; nay , it wonderfully refresheth and chears up the Spirits of Men , Beasts , Birds , and creeping things ; and not only imparts the life of Vegitation , but of Sense and Motion , to many thousand Creatures , and like a tender Parent fosters and cherisheth it being imparted . Some there are that live without the light of Heaven , searching into and working upon those Bodies which the Light cannot pierce , but none without the warmth , it being in nature the universal instrument thereof , which made the Psalmist say , That there is nothing hid from the heat of the Sun. Few things are hid from the Light , but from the Heat thereof nothing . I am not ignorant that St. Augustine , St. Basil , St. Ambrose , and many Divines , held that there were Waters , properly so termed , above the Starry Firmament ; who held withal , that the Sun and Starrs cause heat as being of a fiery Nature ; those waters being set there , in their Opinion , for the cooling of that heat , which Opinion of theirs seems to be favoured by Syracides in the forty third of Ecclesiasticus , where he thus speaks of the Sun , At noon it parcheth the Country , and who can abide the burning heat thereof . A man blowing a Furnace is in works of heat : but the Sun bu neth the Mountains three times more , breathing out fiery vapours . Neither were there wanting some among the Ancient Philosophers , who maintained the same Opinion , as Plato and Pliny , and generally the whole Sect of Stoicks , who held that the Sun and the Starrs were fed with watery vapours , which they drew up for their nourishment , and that when the vapours should cease and fail , the whole world should be in danger of combustion ; and many things are alledged by Baelbo in Cicero's Second Book of the Nature of the Gods , in favour of this Opinion of the Stoick . But that the Sun and Starrs are not in truth fiery and hot , appears by the ground already laid touching the matter of the Heavens , that it is of a nature incorruptible , which cannot be if it were fiery , in as much as thereby it would become lyable to alteration and corruption by an opposite and professed enemy : besides , all fiery bodies by a natural inclination mount upwards , so that if the Starrs were the cause of heat , as being hot in themselves , it would consequently follow , that their circular Motion should not be natural but violent : Whereunto I may adde , the noted Starrs being so many in number , namely , One thousand twenty and two , besides the Planets , and in Magnitude so great , that every one of those , which appear fixed in the Firmament , are said to be much bigger then the whole Globe of the Water and Earth ; and the Sun again so much to exceed both that Glob● , and the biggest of them , as it may justly be stiled by the Son of Syrac , Instrumentum admirabile , A wonderful instrument , Ecclesiast . 43. 1. Which being so , were they of fire , they would doubtless long ere this have turned the World into ashes , there being so infinite a disproportion betwixt their flame , and the little quantity of matter supposed to be prepared for their Fewel . That therefore they should be fed with vapours , Aristotle deservedly laughs at it , as a childish and ridiculous device , in as much as the vapours ascend no higher then the middle Region of the Air , and then distill again upon the Water and the Earth from whence they were drawn up ; and those vapours being uncertain , the flames likewise feeding upon them must needs be uncertain , and daily vary from themselves both in quantity and figure , according to the proportion of their Fewel . The absurdity then of this Opinion being so foule and gross , it remains that the Sun and Starrs infuse a warmth into these Subcoelestial Bodies , as not being hot in themselves , but only , as being ordained by God to bread heat in matter capable thereof , as they impart life to some Creatures , and yet , themselves remain void of life , like the brain which imparts sense to every Member of the Body , and yet is it self utterly void of sense . But here again , some there are which attribute this effect to the Motion , others to the Light of these glorious Bodies : And true indeed it is , that Motion causes Heat , by the attenuation and rarefaction of the Air ; But by this reason should the Moon , which is nearer the Earth , warm more than the Sun which is many thousand miles farther distant ? and the higher Regions of the Air , should be always hotter than the lower , which notwithstanding if we compare the second with the lowest , is undoubtedly false . Moreover the Motion of the Coelestial Bodies being uniform , so should the heat in reason derived from them likewise be ; and the Motion ceasing , the Heat should likewise ; and yet I shall never believe , that when the Sun stood still at the Prayer of Joshua , it then ceased to warm these Inferiour Bodies . And we find by experience , that the Sun works more powerfully upon a Body , which stands still then when it moves , and the reason seems to be the same in the rest or Motion of a Body warming or warmed , that receiveth or imparteth heat . The Motion being thus excluded from being the cause of this Effect , the Light must of necessity step in , and challenge it to its self ; the Light then it is which is the cause undoubtedly of Coelestial heat , in part by a direct beam , but more vehemently by a reflexed : for which very reason it is that the middle Region of the Air is always colder then the lowest , and the lowest hotter in the Summer then in the Winter , and at Noon then in the Morning and Evening , the beams being then more Perpendicular , and consequently in their reflection more narrowly united , by which reflexion and union , they grow sometimes to that fervency of heat , that fire springs out from them as we see in Burning-glasses ; And by this artificial device it was that Archimedes , as Galen reports it in his third Book De temperamentis , Cap. 1. Set on fire the Emperours Ships : and Proclus a famous Mathematician , practised the like at Constantinople , as witnesseth Zonarus in the life of Anastatius the Emperour . And very reasonable methinks it is , That Light , the most Divine Affection of the Coelestial Bodies , should be the cause of warmth ; the most noble active and excellent quality of the Subcoelestial . These two like Hippocrates Twins , Simul oriuntur & moriuntur , they are born and dye together , they increase and decrease both together ; the greater the Light is , the greater the Heat ; and therefore the Sun as much exceeds the other Starrs in Heat , as it doth in Light. The Suns continual Declination , or nearer approach to the Earth , is rather an idle Dream than a sound position , grounded rather upon the difference amongst Astronomers , arising from the difficulty of their observations , then upon any certain or infallible conclusion . Ptolomy , who lived about the year of Christ one hundred and forty , makes the distance of the Sun to be from the Earth , One thousand two hundred and ten Semidiameters of the Earth . Albategnius , about the year Eight hundred and eighty , makes it One thousand one hundred and forty six . Copernicus , about the year One thousand five hundred and twenty , makes it One thousand five hundred and seventy nine . Tycobrahe , about the year One thousand six hundred makes it One thousand one hundred eighty two . Now I would demand whether the Sun were more remote in Ptolomies time , and nearer in the time of Albategnius , and then again , more remote in the latter ages of Copernicus and Tychobrahe ? which if it were so , then one of these two must needs follow , that either these observations were not grounded upon so certain Principles as they pretend , or that the declination of the Sun is uncertain or variable , not constant and perpetual , as is pretended . But what would Bodwin say , if he l●ved , to hear Lansbergius and Kepler , and other famous Astronomers of the latter times , teaching that the Sun is now remote above Two thousand and eight hundred , nay three thousand Semidiameters from the Earth ; affirming , that Copernicus and Tycobrahe neglected to allow for refractions , which ( as the Opticks will demonstrate ) do much alter the case . I will close up this point with the censure of Scaliger in his Exercit. 99. upon the Patrons of this fancy , Quae vero nonnulli prodere ausi sunt , solis corpus longè proprius nos esse , quam quantum ab Antiquis scriptum sit , it a ut in ipsa deferentis corpulentia ●●cum mutasse videatur , vel ipsa scripta spongiis , vel ipsi Authores scuticis sunt castigandi . In as much as some have dared to broach , that the body of the Sun is nearer the Earth then by the Ancients was observed to be , so that it might seem to have changed place in the very bulk of the Sphear ; either the Authors of this Opinion deserve themselves to be chastened with stripes , or surely their Writings to be razed with Sponges . So that ( as I conceive ) it may fitly and safely be inferred , first , that either there is no such removal at all of the Sun , ( as is supposed ) or if there be , as we who are situate more Northerly , feel perhaps the effects of the defects of the warmth thereof , in the unkindly ripening of our fruits , or the like ; so , likewise by the rule of Proportion , must it needs follow , that they who lye in the same distance from the South Pole , as we from the North , should enjoy the benefit of the nearer approach thereof ; and they who dwell in the ho●test Climates interjacent , of the abating of the immoderate fervency of their heat : From hence I again infer , that supposing a mutability in the Suns greatest Declination , look what dammage we suffer by his further removal from us in the Summer , is at least in part recompenced by his nearer approach in Winter , and by his Periodical Revolutions fully restored . And so I pass from the Consideration of the warmth , to those hidden and secret qualities of the Heavens , which to Astronomers and Philosophers are known by the name of Influences . Howbeit Aristotle thorow all those Works of his which are come to our hands , to my remembrance , hath not once vouchsafed so much as to take notice of such qualities , which we call Influences ; and though amongst the Ancients Averroes and Avicenne , and amongst some of the latter times Picus Mirandula , and Georgius Agricola , seek to disprove them : yet both Scripture , and Reason , and the weighty Authority of many good Schollars , as well Christians as Ethnicks , have fully resolved me that such there are . They are by Philosophers distinguished into two Ranks ; the First is , that Influence which is derived from the Empyreal Immoveable Heaven , the Pallas and Mansion House of Glorifyed Saints and Angels , which is gathered from the diversity of Effects , as well in regard of Plants , as of Beasts , and other Commodities under the same Climate , within the same Tract and Latitude , equally distant from both the Poles , which we cannot well originally refer to the inbred nature of the soile , since the Author of Nature hath so ordained , that the temper of the Inferiour Bodies should ordinarily depend upon the Superiour ; nor yet the Aspect of the moveable Spheres and Starrs , since every part of the same Climate , successively , but equally enjoyes the same Aspect : It remains then , that these Effects be finally reduced to some Superiour immoveable cause ; which can be none other then that Empyreal Heaven ; neither can it produce these effects by means of the Light alone , which is uniformly dispersed through the whole , but by some secret quality which is diversified according to the divers parts thereof ; and without this , we should not only find wanting that connexion and unity of order , in the parts of the World , which make it so comly , but withal should be forced to make one of the worthiest peeces of it void of Action , the chief end of every Created thing . Neither can this Action mis-beseem the worthiness of so glorious a piece , since both the Creatour is still busied in the works of Providence , and the Inhabitants in the works of Ministration . The other kind is that which is derived from the Starrs , the Aspect of several Constellations , the Opposition and Conjunction of the Planets , and the like . These we have warranted by the mouth of God himself , in Job 38. 31. according to our last and most exact Translation ; Canst thou bind the sweet Influences of the Pleiades , or loose the bands of Orion ? canst thou bring forth Mazoreth in his season ? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his Sons ? know'st thou the Ordinances of Heaven ? canst thou set the dominion thereof in the Earth ? where by the Ordinances of Heaven , it may be thought is meant , the course and order of these hidden qualities , which without Divine and Supernatural Revelation , can never perfectly be known to any mortal Creature . Besides as Sr. Walter Raleigh hath well and truly observed , it cannot be doubted , but the Starrs are Instruments of far greater use , then to give an obscure Light , and for men only to gaze at after Sun set : it being manifest that the diversity of Seasons , the Winters and Summers , more hot or cold , more dry or wet , are not so uncertained by the Sun and Moon alone , who alwayes keep one and the same Course , but that the Starrs have also their working therein , as also in producing of several kinds of Mettals and Minerals in the bowels of the Earth , where neither Light nor Heat can pierce . For as Heat pierces where Light cannot , so the Influence pierces where the Heat cannot . Moreover , if we cannot deny , but that God hath given Vertues to Springs and Fountains , to the cold Earth , to Plants , to Stones , and Minerals , nay to the excremental parts of the basest living Creatures ; why should we rob the beautiful Stars of their working Powers ? for seeing they are many in number , and of eminent beauty and Magnitude , we may not think , in the Treasury of his Wisdom who is Infinite , there can be wanting ; even for every Star , a peculiar Vertue and Operation : As every Herb , Plant , Fruit , and Flower , adorning the face of the Earth , hath the like . As then these were not Created to beautifie the Earth alone , or to cover and shaddow her dusty face ; but otherwise , for the use of Man and Beast , to feed them and cure them : so were not those incomparably glorious Bodies set in the Firmament , to none other end then to adorn it , but for Instruments and Organs of his Divine Providence , and Power , so far as it hath pleased his just Will for to determine ; which Bartas admirably expresseth , I 'le ne'r believe , that the Arch-Architect . With all these Fires the Heavenly Arches deckt Only for shew , and with these glistering Shields T' amaze poor Shepheards watching in the Fields . I 'le ne'r believe , that the least Power that pranks Our Golden Borders , or the common Banks , And the lest Stone that in her warming lap , Our kind nurse Earth covetously doth wrap , Hath some peculiar Vertue of its own , And that the Glorious Starrs of Heaven have none , But shine in vaine , and have no charge precise , But to be walking in Heavens Galleries , And through that Pallace up and down to Clamber , As golden Guls about a Princes Chamber . But how far it hath pleased God in his Divine Wisdom to determine of these Influences , it is hard , I confess , to be determined by any human Knowledg . For if in the peculiar vertues of Herbs and Plants , which our selves sow and set , and which grow under our feet , and we daily apply to our several uses , we are notwithstanding in effect ignorant , much more in the Powers and workings of the Coelestial Bodies . For ( as to this purpose we said before ) Hardly do we guess at the things that are on the Earth , and with labour do we find the things that are before us : but the things which are in Heaven who hath searched out ? Wisd. 9. 16. It cannot well be denyed , but that they are not Signes only , but at least wise concurrent Causes of immoderate cold or heat , drought , or moisture , lightning , thunder , raging winds , Inundations , Earthquakes , and consequently of Famine and Pestilence ; yet such cross accidents may and often do fall out , in the matter upon which they work , that the Prognostication of these casual Events , by the most skillful Astronomers , is very uncertain : And for the common Alminacks , a man by observation shall easily find , that the contrary to their Predictions is commonly truest . Now for the things which rest in the liberty of Mans Will , the Starrs have doubtless no power over them , except it be led by the sensitive appetite , and that again stirred up by the constitution and complexion of the body , as too often it is , specially when the humours of the Body are strong to assault , and the Vertues of the Mind weak to resist . If they have dominion over Beasts , what shall we judge of Men , who differ little from Beasts ? I cannot tell , but sure I am , that though the Starrs incline a Man to this or that course of life , they do but incline , inforce they cannot : Education and Reason , and most of all Religion , may alter and over-master that Inclination , as they may produce a clean contrary Effect . It was to this purpose , a good and Memorable speech of Cardinal Poole , who being certified by one of his acquaintance , who professed the knowledg of these secret favours of the Starrs , that he should be raised and advanced to a great Calling in the World ; made answer , that whatsoever was portended by the figure of his birth , for natural Generation , was cancelled and altered by the grace of his second Birth , or Regeneration in the Blood of his Redeemer . Again , we may not forget that Almighty God created the Starrs , as he did the rest of the Universal , whose secret Influences may be called his reserved and unwritten Laws , which by his Prerogative Royal he may put in execution , or dispence with at his pleasure . For were the strength of the Starrs such as God hath quitted unto them , all Dominion over his Creatures , that Petition in the Lords Prayer , Lead us not into Temptation , but deliver us from Evil , had been none other but a vain expence of words and time . Nay , be he Paga● or Christian that so believeth , the only true God of the one , and the imaginary God of the other , would thereby be despoyled of all worship , reverence , and respect . As therefore I do not consent with them who would make those glorious Creatures of God vertuless ; so I think that we derogate from his Eternal and Absolute Power , to ascribe to them the Dominion over our Immortal Souls , which they have over our Bodily Substances , and perishable Natures . For the Souls of Men loving and fearing God , receive Influence from that Divine Light it self , whereof the Suns Clarity and that of the Starrs is by Plato called but a shadow , Lumen est Umbra Dei , & Deus est Lumen Luminis , Light is the shadow of Gods brightness , who is the Light of Lights . There have been great talks touching the Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter , and many ominous conjectures are cast abroad upon it , which if perhaps they prove true , I should rather ascribe it to our sins , then to the Stars ; they were not created to govern , but to serve Man , if he serve and be governed by his Creatour : so that we need not to search the Cause so far off in the book of Heaven , we may find it written nearer home in our own Bosomes : And for the Stars , I may say , as our Saviour Christ doth the Sabboth , the Stars were made for Men , and not Men for the Stars ; and if God be on our side , and we on his , Jupiter , and Saturn shall never hurt us . But whatsoever the force of the States be , upon the persons of private Men , or the Stars of Wealpublicks , I should rather advise a modest ignorance therein , then a curious inquisition hereinto , following the witty and pithy counsel of Phaverirus the Philosopher in Gellius , Lib. 4. Sect. 1. where he thus speaks , Aut adversa ev●●tura dicuot , aut ; prospera : fidicunt prospera , & fallunt , iniser fies frustra expecta , d● , & si adversa dicunt & m●ntiuntur , ●iser fies frustra timend● : si vera respondent , eaque sunt non prospera , j●m inde ex ●nim● miser fies antequam è fat● fias ; si faelicia promitiunt eaque eventura sunt , ●●m plane du● gorum in●●moda , & expectatio te spe suspensum fatigabit , & futurum gaudii fructum sp●s tibi defler●v●rit . Either they portend or bad or good luck , if good , and they deceive , thou wilt become miserable by a vain expectation ; if bad , and they lye , thou wilt be miserable by a vain fear ; if they tell thee true , but unfortunate Events , thou wilt be miserable in mind before thou art by destiny ; if they promise fortunate success , which shall indeed come to pass , these two inconveniences will follow thereupon , both expectation by hope will hold thee in suspence , and hope will d●fl●ure and devoure the fruit of thy content . His conclusion is , which is also mine for this point and this discourse touching the Heavenly Bodies ; Nullo ig tur pacto utendum est isti●smodi ●●minibus resfuturas praesagientibus : We ought in no case to have recourse to these kind of Men , which undertake the foretelling of careful Events . And so I pass from the consideration of the Coelestial Bodies , to the Subcoelestial , which by Gods ordinance depend upon them , and are made subordinate to them ; touching which and the Coelestial Bodies both together , comparing each with the other , the Divine Bartas thus sweetly and truly sings ; Things that consist of th' Elements uniting , Are ever tost with an intestine fighting , Whence spring in time their Life and their deceasing , Their diverse change , their waxing and decreasing . So that , of all that is , or may be seen With Mortal Eyes , under Nights horned Queen , Nothing retaineth the same form and face , Hardly the half of half an hours space . But the Heavens feel not Fates impartiall rigour , Years adde not to their Stature nor their Vigour : Use weares them not , but their green ever age , Is all in all still like their pupillage . Sublunary Bodies are such as God and Nature hath planted under the Moon . Now the state of these Inferiour being governed by the Superiour : as in the Wheels of a Clock or Watch , if the first be out of order , so are the second and third , and the rest that are moved by it ; for it is more then probable that the first partake with them in the same condition ; which dependance is very well expressed by Boethius , where having spoken of the constant regularity of the Heavenly Bodies , de Consol. Lib. 4. Met. 6. He thus goes on . Haec concordiae temperat aquis , &c. Thus Englished , The Concord tempers equally Contrary Elements , That moist things yield unto the dry , And heat with cold conse●ts ; Here Fire to highest place doth flie , And Earth doth downward bend , And Flowery Spring perpetually Sweet odours forth doth s●n● . Hot Summer Harvest gives , and store Of Fruit Autumnus yields , And shoures which down from Heaven do poure , Each Winter drown'd the Fields : What ever in the World doth breath , This temper forth hath brought , And nourished : the same by Death Again it brings to nought . Among the Subcoelestial things following Natures Method , I will first begin with the consideration of the Elements , the most simple and Universal of them all , as being the Ingredients of all mixed Bodies , either in the whole or in part , and into which the mixed are finally resolved again , and are again by turnes remade of them , the common matter of them all still abiding the same : of which ●Barts , Here 's nothing constant , nothing still doth stay , For Birth and Death have still successive sway : Here one thing springs not till another dye , Only the Maker lives Immortally . The Almighty stable , Body of this all , ( Of changeful chances common Arcenal , All like it self , all in it self , contain'd Which by times flight hath neither lost nor gain'd ) Changeless in Essence , changeable in face , Much more then Proteus or the subtil race Of roving Polypes , who ( to rob the more ) Transform them hourly on the waving Shore : Much like the French , ( or like our selves their Apes ) Who with strange habits do disguise their shapes . Who loving novels full of affectation , Receive the manners of each other Nation . By consent of Antiquity the Elements are in Number four , The Fire , the Air , the Water , and the Earth , of which the same Poet thus expresses himself : Four Bodies Primitive the World still contains ; Of which , two downwards bend , the Earth and Watery planes . As many weight do want , and nothing forcing , higher They mount , th' Air , and purer streams of Fire , Which though they distant be , yet all things from them take Their Birth , and into them their last returns do make . Three of them shew themselves manifestly in Milk , the Butter being the Aerial part thereof , the Why the Watery , and the Cheese the Earthy : but all four in the burning of green Wood , The Flame being Fire , the smoak the Air , the Liquid destilling at the ends the Water , and the Ashes the Earth . Philosophy likewise by reason teaches and proves the same , from their Motion upwards and downwards , from their second qualities of lightness and heaviness , and from their first qualities , either Active as heat and cold , or Passive as dry and moist . For as their Motion proceeds from the second qualities , so do their second from their first from the Heavenly Bodies , next to which , as being the Noblest of them all , as well in purity as activity , is seated the Element of the Fire ( though many of the Ancients , and some later Writers , as namely Cardane , ( amongst the rest ) seemed to make a doubt of it , Lib. 1. Subtil . And Manilius in his first Book of Astronomy . Ignis ad aetb●reas volucer se sustulis auras Summaque complexus Stellantis culmina Coeli , Flammarum vallo Naturae Maenia fecit . The Fire est soones up towards Heaven did flye , And compassing the Starry World , advanced A wall of Flames to safeguard Nature by . Next the Fire , is seated the Air , divided into Three Regions , next the Air the Water , and next the Water the Earth ; so Bartas , Who so ( sometime ) hath seen rich ingots tride , Where forc't by Fire their Treasure they divide : ( How fair and softly Gold to Gold doth pass , Silver seeks Silver , Brass conforts with Brass , And the whole lump , of parts unequal , severs It self apart , in white , red , yellow Rivers ) May understand how , when the mouth Divine Open'd to each his proper place t' assign ) Fire flew to Fire , Water to Water slid , Air clung to Air , and Earth with Earth abid , The Vail both of the Tabernakle and Temple , were made of Blew , and Purple , and Scarlet , or Crimson , and fine twisted Linnen : by which four as Josephus notech , were represented the four , Elements ; Lib. Antiquit. 15. Cap. 14. His words are these : Vel●●●●ec erat Babiloni●●s variegatum , ex Hyaecintho , & bysso , ce●ecqu● & purpura , mirabiliter elaboratum , non indignam contemplatione materiae commistionem habent , s●d velut ●mnium imagine●● praeferens , Cocco enim videbatur ignem imitari , & Bysso terram , & Hyacintho aerem , ac Mare purpura , partim quidem coloribus , bysso autem & purpura Origi●e , bysso quid●●● quia de terra , Mare autem purpura gign●t . The Vaile was Babilonis● Work , most artificially imbrodered with Blew , and fine Linnen , and Scarlet , and Purple , having in it a mixture of things not unworthy of our Consideration , but carrying a kind of resemblance of the Universe , for by the Scarlet , seemed the Fire to be represented ; by the Linnen the Earth , by the Blew the Air , and by the Purple the Sea ; partly by reason the Colours of Scarlet and Blew , partly by reason of the Original of Linnen and Purple , the one coming from the Earth , the other from the Sea. And St. Hierom in his Epistle to Fab●●la , Epist. 128. hath the very same conceit , borrowed , as it seems , from Josephus , or from Philo , who hath much to the like purpose , in his Third Book of the life of Moses : or it may be from Wis●● 18. 14. In the long Robe was the whole World : As not only the Vulgar Latin , and Arias Montanus , but out of them and the Greek Original , our last English Translation reads it . The Fire is dry and hot , the Air hot and moist , the Water moist and cold , the Earth cold and dry & thus are they linked , and thus do they embrace one another with their Simbolizing qualities , the Earth being linked to the Water by coldness , the Water to the Air by moistness , the Air to the Fire by warmth , the Fire to the Earth by drought : which are all the combinations of the qualities that can possibly be ; hot and cold , as also dry and moist , in the highest Degrees , being altogether incompatible in the same subject : and though the Earth and the Fire are most opposite in distance , to substance , and in activity , yet they agree in one quality , the two middle being therein directly contrary to the two extreams , Air to Earth , and Water to Fire . These four then , as they were from the beginning , so still they remain the Radical and Fundamental Principles of all Subcoelestial Bodies ; distinguished by their several and Ancient Situations , Properties , Actions , and Effects ; and howsoever after their old wont they fight and combate together , being single , yet in composition they still accord marvellous well , as Boethius Lib. 3. Met. 9. Tu numeris Elementa liga● , us frig●ra f●ammis , Arid● conveniunt Liquidis , ne puri●r ignis Ev●let , aut mersas deducant pondera terra● . To Numbers thou the Elements dost tie That cold with heat may symbolize , and dry With moist , lest purer Fire should soare to high , And Earth through too much weight too low should lie . The Creator of them hath bound them , as it were , to their behaviour , and made them in every mixed body to stoop and obey one Praedominant , whose sway and conduct they willingly follow . The Air being Praedominant in some , as in Oyl , which alwayes swimmes on the top of all other Liquors ; and the Earth in others , which always gather as near the Center as possibly they can . And as in these , they vary not a jo● from their nature and wonted properties ; so neither do they in their other conditions . It is still true of them , that Ni● graevitant nec l●vitant in suis l●eis , there is no sense of their weight or lightness in their proper places , as appears by this , that a Man lying in the bottom of the deepest Ocean , he feels no burthen from the weight thereof ; the Fire shall serve to warm us , the Air to maintain our breathing , the Water to cleanse and refresh us , the Earth to feed and support us , and which of them is most necessary for our use is hard to determine : Likewise they still hold the same proportion one towards another , as they have done : For howbeit the Peripeteticks , pretending herein the Authority of their Mr. Aristotle , tell us , that'as they rise above one another in Situation , so they exceed one another propertione decupla , by a ten-fold proportion ; yet is this doubtless a foul Errour , or at least-wise a gross mistake , whether we regard their entire bodies , or their parts ? if their entire bodies , it is certain , that the Earth exceeds both the Water and the Air by many degrees : the depth of the Waters not exceeding two or three miles , and for the most part not above halfe a mile , as Marriners find by their Line and Plummer , whereas the Diameter of the Earth , as Mathematicians demonstrate , exceeds Seven thousand miles . And for the Air , taking the height of it from the part of the ordinary Comets , it contains by estimation about fifty two miles , as Nonius , Vitellio , and Alb●●en shew by Geometrical proofs . Whence it plainly appears , that there cannot be that proportion betwixt the entire Bodies of the Elements which is pretended , nor at any time was since the Creation . And for their parts , 't is as clear by experience , that out of a few drops of Water , may be made so much Air as shall exceed them a thousand times at least . There is in the Elements a noble compensation of their fourfold qualities , dispencing themselves by even turnes and just measures . For as the Circle of the Year is distinguished by four quarters , one succeeding another , the time running about by equal distances : In like manner the Four Elements of the VVorld by a reciprocal vicissitude exceed one another : and which a man would think to be incredible , while they seem to dye , as Philo writes , they become Immortal , running the same race , and instantly traveling up and down by the same path . From the Earth the way riseth upward , , it dissolving into VVater , the VVater vapours forth into the Air , the Air is rarified into Fire , and again they descend downward the same way , the Fire by quenching being turned into Air , the Air thickned itto VVater , and the Water into Earth . Hitherto Philo , wherein after his usual manner he Platonizes , the same being in effect to be found in Plato's Timaeus , as also in Aristotles Book De Mundo , if it be his , in Damascen , and Gregory Nyssen . And most elegantly in the wittiest of Poets , Ovid Met. 15. — Resolutaque tellus In liquidas rarescit aqu●s tenuatur in auras , Aeraque humor habit dempto qucque pondere rursus In superos aer tenuissimus emicat ignes . Inde retro redeunt : idemqne retexitur ord● Ignis enim densum spissatus in Aera transit Hinc in aquas tellus glomerata cogitur unda . The Earth resolved is turned into streames , Water to Air , the purer Air to Flames : From whence they back return , the fiery flakes Are turned to Air , the Air thickned takes The Liquid form of Water , that Earth makes . The Four Elements herein resembling an Instrument of Musick with four strings , which may be tuned diverse wayes , and yet the harmony still remains sweet : and so are they compared in the Book of Wisdom , Cap. 19. v. 17. The Elements agreed amongst themselves in this change , as when one tune is changed upon an Instrumont of Musick , and the Melody still remaineth . Utque novis facilis signatur cera figuri● N●● manet ut fucrat , nec formam servat candem , Sed tame● ipsa cadem est . They are the Verses of Ovid in the 15 Met. touching which several Prints stamped upon one and the same lump of Wax Bartas curiously dilates in one of his weeks . Our next subject will be to discourse of Comets and Blazing Starrs , he uncertainty of the Predictions of them . Some took the Comet to have been a Star Ordained and Created from the first b●ginning of the World , but appearing only by times and by turnes : of this mind was Sen●cae ; Cardan likewise in latter times harp's much , if not upon the same , yet the like string . But Aristotle ( in his Natur. Quest. Lib. 7. Cap. 21. 23. ( whose weighty reasons and deep judgment I much reverence ) conceiveth the Matter of the Comet , to be a very hot and dry exhalation , which being lifted up , by the force and vertue of the Sun , into the highest Region of the Air is there inflamed , partly by the Elements of Fire , upon which it bordereth , and partly by the motions of the Heavens which hurleth it about ; so that there is in the same manner of an Earth-quake , the Wind , the Lightning , and a Comet , if it be imprisoned in the bowels of the Earth , it causeth an Earthquake , if it ascend to the Middle Region of the Air , and be from thence beaten back ; Wind if it enter that Region ' and be there environed with a thick Cloud ; Lightning ; if it pass that Region a Comet , or some other fiery Meteor , in case the matter be not sufficiently capable thereof . The common Opinion hath been , that Comets either as Signes or Causes , or both , have always Prognosticated some dreadful mishaps to the World , as out-ragious Winds , extraordinary Drought , Dea●th , Pestilence , Warrs , the death of Princes and the like . Nunquam futilibus excanduit ignibus aether . Nere did the Heavens with idle blazes Flame . So Manelius hath it . But the Lord Privy Seal , Earl of Northampton , in his Defensative against the Poyson of supposed Prophesies , hath so strongly incountered this Opinion , that for my own part● must profess , he hath perswaded me , that there is no certainty of those Predictions , in as much as Comets do not always fore run such events , neither do these events always follow upon the appearing of Comets . Some instances he produceth of Comets , which brought with them such abundance of all things , and abated their prises to so low an Ebbe , as stories have recorded it for Monuments , and Miracles to posterity : and the like , saith he , could I say of others , Anno Dom. 1555. 1556. 1557. 1558. After all which years nothing chanced that should drive a man to seek out any cause above the common reach : and therefore I do allow of the diligence of Gemma-Frisius , in taking notice of as many good , as bad effects , which have succeeded after Comets . Moreover he tells us , that Peucer , a great Mathematician of Germany , Prognosticated upon the last Comet , before the writing of his Defensative , that Mens bodies should be parched and burned up with heat : But how fell it out ? Forsooth , saith he , we had not a more unkindly Summer for many years , in respect of extraordinary cold : never less inclination to War ; No Prince deceased in that time , and the Plague in Lombardy , as God would have it , ceased at the rising of the Comet . Besides all this he reports , of his own experience , as an Eye witness , that when divers persons , upon greater scrupulosity then cause , went about to disswade Queen Elizabeth , lying then at Richmond , from looking on the Comet which then appeared , with a courage answerable to the greatness of her State , she caused the Window to be set open , and cast out this Word , Jacta est alea , the Dice are thrown ; thereby shewing , that her st●dfast hope and confidence , was too firmly planted in the good pleasure and Providence of God , as not to be blasted or affrighted with those beams , which either had a ground in Nature whereupon to rise , or at least-wise no warrant in Scripture to portend the misfortune of Princes . Neither have I heard of any Comet that appeared before her Death ( as at her entrance there did ) nor that of Prince Henry , nor of Henry the Great of France ; the one being a most peerless Queen , the other a most incomparable Prince , and the third for Prudence and Valour , a matchless King : Therefore as Seneca truly notes Natural is magis nova quam magna mirari , It is natural unto us to be inquis●ived and curious rather about things new and strange , than those which are in their own nature truly great ; yet even amongst the Ancients , Charlemaine professed , that he feared not the signe of the Blazing-Star , but the Great and Potent Creator thereof . And Vespasian , as Dion reports , when the apparition of a Comet was thought to portend his Death , replied merrily : No , said he , this bushy Star notes not me , but the Parthian King : Ipse enim Cometus est , ego vero calvus sum ; for he wares bushy Locks , but I am bald . Lastly , some Comets have been the Messengers of joyful and happy tidings , as at the Birth of our Saviour , and another at the Death of Nero , Cometes summè bonis apparuit , qui praenuntius suit Mortis Magn●illius ●yranni , & pestilintissimi hominis , saita Tactius : There appeared a favourable and auspicious Comet , as an Herauld to Proclaim the Death of that Great Tyrant and most Pestilent Man. Though as to some judgments we are sensible ( they by the Effects have been predictive ) though the Astronomers have not found them out . Now that which hath been said of Comets may also be applied to other Fiery and Watery Meteors , as Streamings , Swords , flying Dragons , fighting Armies , Gapings , two or three Sunns and Moons , and the like appearing in the Air , many times to the great terrour and astonishment of the beholders : of all which and many more of that kind , he that desires to read more of , I refer him to Vicomercatus , Garzaus , Pontanus , & Lycostehenes de prodigiis & portentis ab orbe condito , asque ad annum 1557 And to other latter writers of Monstrous and Prodigious accidents . But the strangest Apparition in the Air that ever I heard or read of , was that which I find reported by Mr. Fox . in his Acts and Monuments , whilst the Spanish Match with Queen Mary was in the heat of treating , and neer upon the concluding , There appeared in London on the fifteenth of February 1554 , a Rainbow reversed , the Bow turning downwards , and the two ends standing upwards , a Prodigious and Supernatural Sign indeed of those miserable and bloudy times which quickly followed after . As touching unseasonable Weather , for excessive Heat and cold , or immoderate Drought and Rain . Thunder and Lightning Frost and Snow , Hail and Winds , yea and Contagious Sicknesses , and Pestilential and Epidemical Diseases , these arise from the infection of the Air , by noisome Mists and Vapours , to which we may adde Earthquakes , burning in the bowels of the Earth , and the like Earthquakes arise also from the distempers of the Air , but in another manner . They first gave occasion to the composing of that Letany , and therein to the Petition against suadain Death , which by Publick Authority is used through the Christian Churches at this day . By the force of Earthquake contrary to the Proverb , Mountains have met the City of An●ioch , where the Disciples were first called Christians , with a great part of Asia bordering upon it , was in Trajans time swallowed with an Earthquake , as Dien writes , who reports very merveilous things thereof . By the same means at one time were Twelve famous Cities of Asia over-turned in the Reign of Tiberius . And at another time as many Towns of Campaniae under Constantine . And of late times we have not been without such wonderful examples of the dreadfulness of this accident , above the Pestilence or any other Miseries incident to Mankind . Seneca excellently discourses of them , in the Sixth Book of his Natural Question , Hostem mure expellaem , saith he , and so he goes on ; to avoid prolixity I shall here give you only the English , A Wall will repel an Enemy , Rampires raised to a great height by the difficulty of their access will keep out powerful Armies , An Haven shelters us from a Tempest , and the covering of our Houses from the violence of Storms and lasting Rains ; the Fire doth not follow us , if we Fly from it : against Thunder and the Threats of Heaven , vaults under ground , and deep Caves are Remedies ; those Blastings and Flashes from above , do not pierce the Earth , but are blunted by a little piece of it opposed against them ; In the time of Pestilence a Man may change Dwellings , there is no mischief but may be shunned , the Lightning never struck a whole Nation , a Pestilential Air hath emptied Cities , not over-turned them : but this mischief is large in spreading , unavoidably greedy of Destruction , generally dangerous . For it doth not only depopulate Houses and Families , and Towns , but layes waste and makes desolate whole Regions and Countries : sometimes covering them with their own Ruines , and sometimes overwhelming them , and burying them in deep Gulfs , leaving , nothing whereby it may appear so much as to posterity , that that which is not , sometimes was , but the Earth is levelled over most famous Cities , without any mark of their former existence ; so far Seneca . As these quakings of the Earth are very terrible , so are the burnings of the Bowels thereof no less dreadful ; the one being as it were the cold , and the other the hot fits thereof . The Mountain AEtna in Sicile hath flamed in time past so abundantly , that by reason of the thick smoak and vapours arising therefrom , the Inhabitants thereabout sometimes could not see one another ( if we may give credit to Sandies relation Lib. 4. ) I raged so much that Africa was thereof an astonished Witness . But Virgils admirable description of it may serve for all . — Horificis tonat AEtna ruinis Interdumque atram perumpit ad aethera Nubem , Turbine fumantem piceo , & candente favilla , Attollitque globos Flammarum & Syd●ra Lambit ; Interdum scopulos , avulsaque viscera Montis Erigit eructans ●●quefactaque saxa sub auras Cum gemitu glomerat , fundoque exaestuat i●●o . AEtna here thunders with a horrid noise , Sometimes black clouds evaporated to the skies , Fuming with pitchy curles , and sparkling Fires , Tosseth up , Globes of Flames to Starrs aspires , Now belching Rocks , the Mountains entrailes torne , And groaning hurles out liquid Stones there born Thorow the Air in showres . But rightly did Ovid in the 15● Met. Devine of this Mountain and the burnings therein , Nec quae sulphuriis ardet fornacibus AEtna Ignea semper erit , neque enim fuit ignea semper . AEtna which flames of Sulphur now doth raise , Shall not still burn , nor hath it burnt always . The like may be said of Vesuvius in the Kingdom of Naples , it flamed with the greatest horrour in the first , or as some say in the third year of the Emperour Titus , where besides Beasts , Fishes , and Foul , it devoured two adjoyning Cities , Herculanum and Pompeios , with the People in the Theatre : Pliny the Natural Historian , then Admiral of the Roman Navy , desirous to discover the reason , was suffocated , as his Nephew expressed in an Epistle of his to Cornelius Tacitus ; the like , as to his too strict enquiry of the increase and decrease of the Sea , being reported of Aristotle . Having thus imployed my Reason as Divinly as I could , in presenting my Reader with an explanation of a few Leaves of the great Volume of Nature : I shall now ( with his favour ) think it convenient before I proceed to treat of the Powers of the Mind in the Arts , &c. To refute such other Vulgar Errours in their several Classes ( though less considerable ) as hithe●●o I have not met withal . 1. It is a common received Opinion in Philosophy that the principal faculties of the Soul , the Understanding , the Imagination and Memory are distinguished by three several Cells or Ventricles in the Brain , the imagination ( as is conceived ) being confined to the fore-part , the Memory to the hinder part , and the Judgment and Understanding to the middle part thereof ; which Opinion Laurentius confutes , in his Hist. Anat. Lib. 10. 9. 2. and Fe●●elius derides , making them all to be dispersed through all the receptacles of the brain , in as much as sometimes when the whole Brain is disaffected , the operation but of one of these Faculties is hurt , and sometimes again , when but one Ventricle is hurt the operation of all the three Faculties is hindred . Neither ought it to seem more strange , that the same Ventricle in the brain should be capable of all these three Function , then that the same Bone or Sinew and every part or Particle thereof should have in it ( in regard of the nourishment it receives , and the excrement it drives forth ) an attractive , a retentive , an assimilative , and an expulsive Vertue . 2. That in Nature there is an East and a West , which as to me it seems cannot be , since that which to us is East , is West to our Antipedes , and that which is East to them , is West tous . 3. That a man hath a Natural speech of his own , as he is a man , ( some think Hebrew ) which Language he could speak by Nature if he were not taught some other : but this is a Dream , and hath as Herodotus Lib. 6. been twice confuted by a double experiment . The first was by Psammeticus a King of AEgypt , who desiring to understand which was Mans most Ancient and Natural Language , caused two Children to be seq●estred from all focie●y of Men , and to be nourished by two she Goats , forbidding all speech unto them : which the Children continuing for a long time Dumb , at last uttered Bec , Bec : The King being informed , that in the Phrigian Language Bec signified Bread , imagined the Children called then for Bread ; and from thence collected that because they spake that Language which no man had taught them , therefore the Phrigian Language was the Natural speech of Man. A weak proof and silly conceit . For the Childrens Beck ( as is probably collected ) was only that Language which they learned of their Goat-Nurses , when they came to suck their Tetts , who receiving from them some ease by their sucking , saluted them with Bec , the best Language they had , from whom the Children learned it ; and so much as they heard , so much j●st they uttered , and no more : and if they had not heard it , they could never have pronounced it , as we may evidently see in men that are born Deaf ; and by another experiment tryed upon other Infants , ( which is our second instance ) Purchas mentions it in his Pilgrims , Lib. 1. Cap. 8. tryed by Melabdim Elchebar , whom they call the great Mogore or Magul . He likewise upon the forenamed Errour , That a Man hath a certain proper Language by Nature , caused thirty Children to be brought up in dumb silence , to find out the Experiment , whether all of them would speak one and the same Language , having inwardly a purpose to frame his Religion according to that Nation , whose Language should be spoken , as being that Religion which is purely Natural to Man. But the Children proved all Dumb , though they were so many of them , and therefore they could not speak , because they were not taught : whereby it appeareth , that the speaking of any Language is not in Man by Nature ; the first Man had it by Divine Infusion , but all his Posterity only by Imitation . 4. In Philosophy it is commonly received , that the Heart is the seat and shop of the Principal Faculties of the Soul : Nay , Divine Scripture applying it self to the ordinary Opinion therein , in many places Attributes Wisdom and Understanding to the Heart : Whereas the noble pair of Physitians Hipocrates and Galen have made it evident by experimental proofs , that those Divine Powers of reasoning and discourse are seated in the brain , in as much as they are never hindred by the Distemper of the Heart , but of the Brain , nor recovered , being lost , by Medicaments applyed to the Heart , but to the Brain . 5. That the Radical Moisture , and primogenial heat naturally ingrafted in us wastes always by degrees from the time of our Conception , as Oyl in a Lamp , or Wax in a Taper : whereas till we come to the age of Consistence , we still grow in bulk , in strength , and stature : which for my own part I cannot conceive how it should be , if from our Infancy , our Natural heat and moisture still decreased . 6. That one hand by Nature is more useful and properly made for Action then the other : whereas we find no difference betwixt the two Eyes , the two Ears , the two Nostrills ; and if Men were left to themselves , as many I think , if not more , would use the left hand , as now by education and custom do the right : And in truth I am of Opinion that God and Nature have given us two hands , that we should use both indifferently , that if need required , the one might supply the loss or defect of the other . Such would Plato have the Citizens of his Commonwealth to be , and such I do take those seven hundred Benjamite , to have been mentioned in the 20 th . of Judges ; and if either hand should in Nature be preferred before the other , methinks in reason it should be that next the Heart , the Fountain of Life and Activity . Secondly in History , which is Ecclesiastical , Civil , or Natural . To begin with that of Ecclesiastical . 1. It is commonly received , that Simon Peter encountred with Simon Magus , and that the Magician undertaking to fly up into the Air , the Apostle so wrought by Prayer and Fasting , that he came tumbling down and brake his Neck : But of this story saith St. Augustine , in his Epist. 86. Consulano , est quidem & baec Opinio plurimorum , qua nvis eam perhibeant esse faelsam plerique Romani : Many are of this Opinion , yet most of the Roman Writers would have it but a Tale. And in another place he calls it Greciam fabulam , an invention of the Grecians , who were so fruitful in these kind of Febles , that Pliny himself could say of them , Hist. Nat. Lib. 8. 22. Mirum est qu● procedat Graeca credulitas , nullum tam impudens mendaeium est ut teste careat ; it is a wonder to see whether the credulity of the Greeks carry them , there being no lye for shameful , but it findes at ●atron among●st them : ●ay , Juvenel the very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 took notice of their immoderate liberty this way , Juven . Sat. 10. Et ●●●●●●a . Graeci● mendax . Au●● in Historia . What dares not Lying Greece insert in Histories . 2. That St. George was a Holy Martyr , and that he Conquered the Dragon ; Whereas Dr. Reynolds de Eccl. Rom. Idol Lib. 10. Cap. 50. Proves him to be both a wicked man and an Arrian , by the Testimony of Epiphanius , Athanatius and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Baronius himself in plain terms affirms . Apparet totam illam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 commentum Arrion It appears that the whole story of George 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a forgery of the Arrians ; yet was he received ( as we know ) as a Canonized ●●●● through Christendom , and to be the Pastor both of our Nation , and of the most honourable Order of Knighthood in the World. 3. That the Wise-men that came out of the East to Worship our Saviour , were Kings , and from hence ( their bodies being Translated to Cullen ) they are at this day commonly called the three Kings of Cullen , and the day Consecrated to their Memory , is by the French termed Le jour de Trois Rois , The day of the Three Kings . Yet Mantuan a Monk , fears not to declare his Opinion to the contrary , and gives his reason for it . Nec Reges ut opiner trant , ntque enim tacuissent Historiae Sacrae Authores ; Genus illud honoris est Inter Mortales qu● non sublimius ullum , Adde qu●d Herodus , ut magnificentia Regum Postulat , hospitib●● tantis regale dedisset Hospitiu●● , secumqu● Lares duxisset in amplos . Had they been Kings , not holy History Would have concealed their so great Majesty , Higher on which on Earth none can be named ; Herods Magnificance would sure have framed Some entertainment fitting their Estates , And harbour'd them within his Royal Gates . 4. That the Sybills clearly foretold touching the Name of the forerunner , the Birth and Death of Christ , the coming of Antichrist , the overthrow of R●●● , and the consummation of the World , which notwithstanding , ( as Cansabon hath learnedly observed ) seems to be contrary to the Word of God , that so profound Mysteries should be revealed to the Gentiles , so long before the Incarnation of Christ ; especially since they write more plainly and particularly of those matters then the Prophets of God themselves amongst the Je●s ; and the greatest Cla●ks amongst the Gentiles Plato , Aristotle , Th●●p● astus , and others curious searchers into all kind of Learning , never so much as once mention either their Names or then Writings , nor any of their Mysteries . While the Church of Christ was yet in her Infancy , many such kind of Books were forged , thereby to make the Doctrine of the Gospel more passible among the Gentiles ; and no marvel then that these of the Sybills passed for current amongst them . 1. In History Civil or National , it is commonly received , that there were four , and but four Monarchies succeeding one the other ; the African , the Persian , the Grecian , and the Roman ; yet John Bodwin , a man of singular Learning , especially in matter of History , dares : thus to begin the seventh Chapter of his Method . Inveteratus error de qua●●● Imperiis , ac magnorum virorum opinione pervulgatus , tam altc radices egit , ut vix evelli posse videatur , That inveterate errour of Four Empires made famous through the Opinion of great Men , hath taken such deep roots , as it seems it can hardly be pluckt up ; and thorow a great part of that Chapter labours he the confutation of those that maintain that Opinion . 2. That Brute a Trojan by Nation , and a great Grand-child to AEneas , arrived in this Island , and gave it the Name of Great Brittain from himself , here Reigned , and left the Government thereof divided amongst his three Sons , England to L●●gri●●● , Scotland to Albanak , and Wales to Camber : Yet Camden our great Antiquary , Brit. de primis Incolis , beating ( as he professeth ) his Brains and bending the force of his Wits to maintain that Opinion , he found no warrantable ground for it . Nay by forcible Arguments ( produced as in the person of others disputing against himself ) he strongly proves it , ( in my judgment ) altogether unwarrantable and unsound . Boccace , Vives , Adricam●● , Junius , Polidorus , Vignier , Genebrard , Molinaeus , Bodine , and other latter Writers of great account , are all of opinion , that there was no such man as this supposed Brute ; And amongst our own Ancient Chronicles , John of Wat●●sted , Abbot of St. Alban , holdeth the whole Narration of Brute rather to have been Poetical then Historical , as you shall find in his Granarto 1440. which methinks is agreeable to reason , since Caesar , Taci●us , Gildas , Ninius , Bede , William , of Malmesbury , and as many others as have written any thing touching our Country before the year 1160. make no mention at all of him . The first that ever broached it was G●ffery of Monmouth about Four hundred years ago , during the Reign of Henry the Second , who publishing the British , story in Latin , pretended to have it taken out of Ancient Monuments written in the British Tongue : but this Book as soon as it peeped forth into the Light , was , sharply censured both by Giraldus-Cambrensis , and William of ●●●●● who lived at the same time ; the forme●●●●●● in no better then Eabulosam Historiam , ●●●●●●●●●y , and the latter Ridicula Figm●●● ridiculous Fictions , and it now stands branded with a black cole amongst the Books prohibited by the Church of Rome . 3. That the Saxons called the remainder of the Brittains , Welch , as being strangers to them : Whereas that Word signifies not as strangers either in the high or low Dutch , as Verstigan , a man skilful in those Languages , hath observed ; and that the Sexons gave them the name of Welch , after themselves came into Brittain , is altogether unlikely : For that , inhabiting so neer them as they did , to wit , but over against them on the other side of the Sea , they could not want a more particular and proper Name for them , then to call them Strangers . It seems then to be more likely , that the Romans being Originally descended from the Gaules , the Saxons according to their manner of speech , by turning the G. into the W. and instead of Galtish called them Wallish , and by a breviation Wal●h or Welch , as the French at this day call the Prince of Wales , Prince de Galles . 4. That the Pigmies are a Nation of People not above two or three foot high , and that they solemnly set themselves in battail array to fight against the Cranes , their greatest Enemies : of these notwithstanding Caesa●ion in his Book De. Gigantibus , Cap. U●●●●● , saith , Fabules● illa omnia sunt quae de illis , vel Poetae , vel alii Scriptures tradiderunt : All those things are Fabulous , which touching them either the Poets or other Writers have delivered . And with him further accordeth Carda● , De ror●● vari●tate Cap. 4. Apparet ergo Pigmiorum Historiam esse fabulosam , quod & Strabo sentit , & nostra aeras , ●●●●●●●● firmè ●●is mirabitia innotuerint , declarae . It appeares then that the History of the Pigmies is but a Ficton , as both Straba thought , and our age , which have now discovered all the wonders of the World , fully declares , Gellius also , and Redogis refer those Pigmies , if any such these be , to a kind of Apes . 1. In Natural History , ( to pass by that Vulgar Errour of the Ph●●●ix , so learnedly refuted by one of our late Writers , ) I shall here first gain say than gross . Opinion , that the Wholps of Bears are at first littering without all form or fashion , and nothing but a little congealed Blood , or lump of Flesh , which afterwards the Dam ●●●apeth by licking ; yet is the Truth most evidently otherwise , as by the Ey witness of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and others it hath been proved . And herein , as in many other fabulous Narrations of this Nature , ( in which experience checks report ) may we justly put that of Lucretius , — Qui nobis c●rtius ipsis Se●●●●us esse ●o●● qu● 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What can more certain ●●●●● sence ; Discerning truth from false pretence . 2. That Swan●●● a little before thein Death sing most sweetly , of which notwithstanding Pl●● Hist. 10. 23● thus speak ●● ●●●● mor●e narratur flebilis caentus , falso ut arbitror al 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perimentis . Swans are said to sing sweetly before their Death , but falsly , as I take it , being ●●● so to think by some experiments . And Sealigi● , Exercitat . 2 ● . To the like pure , pose , ●● Cygnt 〈…〉 Graecia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad Lucian● tribounal , apud quem aliquid ●●●●●● status ●●●●● . Touching the sweet singing of the Swan , which with Greece the Mother of Lies you dare to Publish ; I cite you to Luciant Tribunal there to set abroach some new stuff . And AElian , Lib. 10. 14. Cantandt studiosos esse 〈…〉 in every man's mouth , but for my self I never heard them sing , and perchance no man else . by daily and manifest experience are found to be untrue . 4. That the 〈◊〉 being hunted and in danger to be taken , biteth off his Stones , knowing that for them his Life only is sought , and so often ●●● hence some have derived his 〈…〉 from gelding himself : and ●pon this supposition the AEgyptians in their Hieroglyphicks , when they will signifie a man that 〈◊〉 himself , they picture a 〈◊〉 bitinh off his own Stones , though 〈…〉 it to a contrary purpose 〈…〉 by that example to give away 〈…〉 rather than our lives , and by our Wealth to redeem our danger 〈…〉 this relation touching the 〈…〉 been by sence and experience , and the testimony of Dioscerid●● , Lib. 3. Cap. 13. is manifested . First , because their stones are very small , and so placed in their bodies as are a Beres , and therefore impossible for the Bever himself , to touch or come by them ; and Secondly , they cleave so fast unto their back , that they cannot be taken away , but the Beast must of necessity lose his Life ; and consequently most ridiculous is their Narration , who likewise affirm , that when he is hunted , having formerly bitten off his stones , he standeth upright , and sheweth the Hunters that he hath none for them , and therefore his Death cannot profit them , by means whereof they are averted and seek for another . 5. That the Hare is one year a Male , and another a Female : whereas Reud●●●tius affirms , that they are not stones which are commonly taken to be so in the Female , but certain little bladders filled with matter , such as are upon the belly of a Bever , wherein also the Vulgar is deceived , mistaking ( as I should before have taken notice ) those for stones as they do these ; Now the use of these parts both in Bevers and Hares is this , that against Rain both the one and the other Six suck out a certain humour , and anoing their bodies all over therewith , which serves them for a kind of a defence against Rain . 6. That a Salamander lives in the Fire , yet both Galen and Dioscorides resute this Opinion . And Mathi●lus in his commentaries upon Dioscorides , a very famous Physitian , affirms of them , that by casting of many Salamanders into the Fire for tryal , he found it false . The same experiment is likewise avouched by Jouber●●● . 7. That a Wolfe , if he see a man first suddenly strikes him dumb , whence comes the Proverb , Lupus est in fabula , and that of the Poet , Lupi Marim viders prior●● . The Wolves saw Maeris first . Yet Philip Gomerarius professeth , fabul●s●● esse quod vulga ●riditur 〈…〉 , subito 〈…〉 & voc●m amittere . That it is fabulous which is commonly believed , that a Man being first seen of a Wolfe is thereupon astonished and looseth his voice . And that himself hath found it by experience to be a vain Opinion ; which Scaliger likewise affirms upon the fame ground . Utinam tet f●●●icastigantur mend●●●um afferter● isti , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lupis vi●i sumus si●e jactura vocis : I wish those Patrons of Lies were chastised with so many blows , as at sundry times I have been seen of Wolfes without any loosing of my voice . 8. That men are sometimes transformed into Wolves , and again from Wolves into men : touching the falsehood whereof Pliny himself is thus confident , Nat. Hist. Lib. 8. Cap. 22. Homines in Lopos ve●it rur su●ov●●resti●●ti sib● , falsum esse ●●●fidenter existimare deb●mus , aut credere omnia quae fabulosa tot secuis comperimus : That menare changed into Wolves , and again restored to themselves , that is to the shape of men , we ought assuredly to believe false , or give credit to whatsoever we have found fabulous , through the course of so many ages . Now that which hath given occasion to this opinion might be as I suppose either an illusion of Satan in regard of the beholders , or a strong melancholy imagination in the patients , or the education of men amongst Wolves from their very infancy . For that the Devil can at his pleasure transsubstantiare or transform one substance into another , I hold it no sound Divinity . 9. That the Mandrakes represent the parts and shape of a Man : Yet the same Mathiolus in his Commentary upon Dioscoride●y affirms , ●● them , Radices parro M●ndragarae humanam assig●● representare , ut vulgo oreditur , ●●●●●● That the Roots of the Mandrake represent the shape of a Man , as it is commonly believed is fabuolous , calling them cheating knaves and ●● salvers that carry them about to be sold , there with to deceive barren Women . 10. That the Pelican turneth her beak● against her brest , and therewith pierceth it ●●ll the blood gush out , wherewith she nourisheth her young : whereas a Pelican hath a beak bread and flat , much like the slice of , Apothecaries and Chirurgions , wherewith they spread their Plaisters , no way fit to pierce , as Laurentius , Gubertus , Counsellor and Physitian to Henry the Fourth of France , in his book of popular Errors hath observed . 11. That Vipers in their Birth kill their Mother of whom they are bred ; Sealiger out of his own experience assures the contrary : Viper as , saith he , ab impatientibus morae faetibus Numerosimis , atque idcirco crump●ntibus rumpi atque interire falsum est seimus , qui in Vincentu G●merini Lign●●thec● videmus enatas viperillas par●●te salva : That Vipers are re●● and slain by that number of their young ones , impatient of ●● lay , and striving to get forth , we know to be false , who in a wooden box belonging to Vineontius Camerinus have seen the young ones newly brought forth , together with the old one , safe and sound . True it is that the Viper bringing sometimes twenty or more , and being but delivered of one a day , the hindermost impatient of so long delay sometimes gnaws through the tunicle or shell of the Egge in which they are inclosed , and cometh forth with part of it upon them , which Aristotle affirming , thereupon it seems hath grown the mistake , that they gnaw through the belly of their Dam , which is undoubtedly false . The derivation then of the Word Vipera being Quasi vi parism , is but a trick of wit , grounded upon an Erroneous suspicion : It being rather ( as I conceive ) from vinum parient● , there being no other kind of Se●pent that bringeth forth her young hatched out of an Egge , but only the Viper . For the Readers ampler and fuller satisfaction in such curiosities , I referr him to Doctor Browns Learned discourse of the Errors of the Vulgar . For though I might give many more instances both in Philosophy and History , to shew that it is a thing neither new nor unjustifiable by the practice of Wisemen , to examine and impugne received Opinions , if they be found Erroneous ; Nevertheless for the present , Let it suffice ( that amongst many others throughout this Treatise ) I have also removed these few stumbling blocks out of the way . I shall next make good my promise according to the brevity of my former Method , to treat of the decay of the Powers of the minde in the Arts and Sciences , their helps and hindrances in matter of Learning , ballanced ; as also that there is both in Wits and Arts , as in all things besides , a kind of a circular progress , as well in regard of places as tunes , that they have their rise and fall , increase and decrease , and so through the Divine assistance I shall set a period to this discourse . Since it is a received conclusion of the choiceest , both Divines and Philosophers , that the reasonable Soul of Man is not converted into him by his Parents , but infused immediately by the Creatour , and with all that the Souls of all men , at their first Creation and Infusion , are equal and perfect alike , endued with the fame Essence and abilities , it must needs be , that the inequality and disparity of actions , which they produce , arise from the diverle temper of the matter which they informe , and by which , as by an instrument they work . Now the matter being tempered by the disposition of the bodies of our Parents , the influences of the Heavens , the quality of the Elements , Diet , Exercise , and the like , it remains , that as there is a variety and Vicissitude or these in regard of goodness , so is there likewise in the temper of the matter , whereof we consist , and the actions which by it our Souls produce : yea , where both the Agents and the instruments are alike , yet by the diversity of education and Industry , their works are many times infinitely diversified . The principal faculties of the Soul are Imagination , Judgment , and Memory . One of the most famous for Memory amongst the Ancients , was Seneca the Father , who reports of himself Proaemic , Lib. 1. Controver . That he could repeat a thousand names , or two hundred verses , brought to his Master by his School fellows backwards or forwards . But that which Muretus Lib. 3. Variar . Lection . reports of a young Man of Corsica , a Student in the Civil Law , whom himself saw , at Paedua , far exceeds it : he could , saith he recite Thirty thousand Names in the same order as they were delivered , without any stop or staggering , as readily as if he had read them out of a Book : his conclusion is Huic ego nec ex antiquitate quidam , quem opponam haebeo , nisi forte Cyrum , quem Plinius , Quintilianus , & alii Latini Scriptores tradiderunt tenuisse omnium militum nomixa : I find none among the Ancients , whom I may set against him , unless Cyrus perchance , whom Pliny , Quintillian , and other Latin Writers , report to have remembred the names of all his Souldiers , which yet Muretus himself doubts was mistaken of them . Zenophon , of whom only or principally they could learn it , affirming only that he remembred the names of his principal Captains , or chief Commanders . And AEneus Sylvius , in his History of the Council of Basil ( at which himself was present ) tells us of Lodovicus Pontanus of Spoleta , a Lawyer likewise by Profession , ( who dyed of the Pestilence at the Council , at Thirty years of age ) that he could recite not the Titles only , but the intire Bodies of the Laws , being for vastness and fastness of Memory , Nemini Antiquorum inferior , as he speaks , nothing inferiour to any of the Ancients . Famianus Straeda , in his first Book of Academical Prolusions , relates of Francis Suar●z , who had , saith he , so strong a Memory , that he had St. Augustine ( the most copious and various of the Fathers ) ready by heart , alledging every where ( as occasion presented it self ) fully and faithfully , his Sentences , and which is stranger , his very words ; nay , if he demanded any thing touching any passage in any of his Volumes ( which of them will make a great shew towards the filling of a Library ) Statim quo lequo , quaque pagina disseruerit ea super re expedite docentem ac digito commonstrantem saepè videmus : I my self have often seen him instantly shewing and pointing with his Finger , to the place and Page in which he disputed of that Matter ; this is , I confess , the Testimony of one Jesuit touching another , but of Dr. Rainolds , it is most certain , that he excelled this way , to the astonishment of all that were inwardly acquainted with him , not only for St. Augustines works , but also all Classick Authors : so that as in this respect it might truly be said of him , which hath been applyed to some others , that he was a living Library , or a third University : for it hath been very credibly reported of him , that upon occasion of some writings which passed to and fro , betwixt him and Dr. Gentilis , then a professour in our Civil Laws , he publickly professed , that he thought Dr. Reynolds had read , and did remember more of those Laws then himself , though it were his Profession , in which he admirably excelled . And for the excellency of the other faculties of the Mind , together with that of the Memory , it is a wonderful Testimony that Vines ( a Man of eminent parts ) in his Commentaries on the second Book , and 17. Cap. de Civit. Dei , gives Budaeus ; Que viro , ( saith he ) Gaellia accutiore ingenio , acriore judicio , exactiore diligentia , majore cruditione nu●tum nunquam produxit , haec vera etate nos Italia quidem ; then which man , France never brought forth a sharper wit , or pierceing judgment , of more exact diligence , or greater Learning , nor in this age Italie it self : And then going on tells us , that there was nothing written in Greek or Latin , which he had not turned over , read and exmined ; Greek and Latin were , both alike to him , yet was he in both most excellent , speaking either of them as readily , and perchance with more ease then the French , his Mother Tongue ; he would read out a Greek Book in Latin , and out of the Latin Book into Greek . Those things which we see so exquisitely written by him , flowed from him ex tempore ; he writ more skilfully both in Greek and Latin , then ( as he affirms ) the most skilfull in those Languages understand . Nothing in those Tongues being so abstruce and difficult , which he had not ransacked , entred upon , looked into , and brought as it were another Cerberus from Darkness to Light. Infinite are the significations of Words , the Figures , and proprieties of speech , which unknown to former Ages , by the only help of Budaeus , studious men are now acquainted with . And these so great and admirable things , he without the direction of any Teacher , learned meerly by his own industry ; Faelix & faecundum ingenium , quod in se uno invenit & doctorem & discipulum , & docendi viam rationemque , & ●ujus decimam partem , alii sub magnis Magestris vix discunt , ipse id totum a se Magistrum ed●ctus est : An happy and fruitful Wit , which in himself alone found both a Master and a Scholler , and a method of teaching ; and the tenth part of that which others can hardly attain unto under famous Teachers , all that learned he of himself , being his own Reader . And yet ( saith he ) hitherto have I spoken nothing of his knowledg in the Laws , which being in a manner ruined , seem by him to have been restored ; nothing of his Philosophy , whereof he hath given us a tryal in his Book de Asse , that no man could compose them , but such a one as was assiduously versed in all the books of the Philosophers ; and then having highly commended him for his piety , his sweet behaviour , and many other rare and singular Vertuos added to his greatness , he farther adds , notwithstanding all this , that he was continually conversant in domestick and state Affairs at home , and Ambassages abroad ; for it might truly be said of him , As Plixius Caecilus speaks of his Unde Secundur , when I consider his State Affairs , and the happy dispatch of so many businesses . I wonder at the multiplicity of his Reading and Writing ; and again , when I consider this , I wonder at that and so leave him wish that happy distick of Buckan●● . Galliae quod Graeca est , quod Graeca barbara nonest , Utraque Budaeo debet utrumque suc . That France is turn'd to Greece , that Greece is not turnd rude , Both o●●e them both to thee , their dear great learned Bud● . And if we look over the Peryneeus , Metamorus , in his Treatise of Universities and learned men of Spain , he spares not to write of Testatus Bishop of Abulum , si ali● quam su● seculo vivere c●ntig●sset , neque Hipponi Augustinum , nique Stvidoni Hieronymuns , nec quempiam ex illis pr●●eribus Ecclesiae antiquis nunc inviacrimus : had he lived any other age save his own , we should not have needed now either to envy Hippo for Augustin , or Stridon for Hiorom , nor any other of those ancient Worthies of the Church : To which Possevin in his Appaeratus adds , that at the age of two and twenty years , he attained to the knowledge of almost all Arts and Sciences . For besides Philosophy and Divinity , the Canon and Civil Laws , History and the Mathematicks , he was skill'd in the Greek and Hebrew Tongues : so as that it was written of him , Hic super est Mundi , qui scibile discutit omne . The Worlds wonder for that he , Knows whatsoever known may be . He was so true a student , and so constant in fitting o● it , that with Didymus of Alexandria , AEnea ●●●uiss● intestina putar●ur , he was thought to have a body of Brass , and so much he wrote and published , that a part of the Epitaph ingraven on his Tomb was ; Pri●ae natalis Luci foliae omniae aedaeptans Nondum sic faeerit paegina trina satis ; The meaning is , that of his published Writings , we shall allow three leaves to every day of his Life from his very Birth , there would be yet some to spare ; and yet withal he wrot so exactly , that Ximenes his Scholler , attempting to contract his Commentaries upon Mathew could not well bring it into l ess then a thousand leaves in Folio , and that in a very small Print ; and others have attempted the like in his other works with like success . But that which Paesquier hath observed out of Monaesteries Lib. 56. 38. Touching a Young Man , who being not above twenty years old , came to Paris in the year 1445 , and shewed himself so admirably excellent in all Arts , Sciences , and Languages , that if a man of an ordinary good wit and sound constitution should live one hundred years , and during that time ( if it were possibly ) study incessantly , without eating , drinking , sleeping , or any other recreation , he could hardly attain to that perfection : insomuch that some were of opinion , that he was Antichrist begotten of the Devil , or somewhat at least above human condition ; which gave occasion to these verses of Castellanus , who lived at the same time , and himself saw this Miracle of Wit. I'ay veu par excellence Vn jeune de Uinge ans Avoir toute Science & les degrees montans Soyse vantant scaevoir dire Cequ ' onques faet escrit Par seule fois le Lire Comme jeune Antichrist . A young Man have I seen At twenty years so skill'd , That every Art he had , and all In all degrees excell'd . What ever yet was writ He vaunted to pronounce Like a young Antichrist , if he Did read the same but once . Not to insit upon Supernaturals ; were there among us that industry , and the union of forces , and contribution of helps , as was in the Ancients , I see no sufficient Reason but the Wits of this present Age might produce as great Effects as theirs did , nay greater , inasmuch as we have the Light of their Writings to guide and assist us : we have books by reason of the Art and Mystery of Printing more familiar , and at a cheaper rate : most men being now unwilling to give Three hundred pounds for three Books , as Plato did for those of Philolaus the Pithagorean . And by this means are we freed from a number of gross Errours , which by the ignorance or negligence of unskilfull Writers crept into the Text : yet on the other side it is as true that we are forced to spend much time in the learning of Languages , especially the Latin , Greek , and Hebrew , which the Ancients spent in the study of things , their learning being commonly written in their own Language . Besides the infinite and bitter controversies amongst Christians in matters of Religion since the Infancie thereof even to these present times , hath doubtless not a little hindered the progress and advancement of other Sciences . Likewise it cannot be denyed , but that the incouragements for the study of Learning were in former times greater . What liberal and bountiful allowance did Alexander afford Aristotle , Eight hundred Talents for the entertainment of Fishers , Faulkners and Hunters to bring him in Beasts , Fowls , Fishes of all kinds , and for the discovery of their several natures and dispositions : Nay , the daily wages of Roscius the Stage-player , as witnesseth Mucrobrius , in his Saturnal Lib. 3. Cap● 14. was a thousand Dexarii which amounteth to Thirty pounds of our Coyn. And AEsop the Tragaedian by the only exercise of the same Trade , if we may credit the same Author , that he left his Son above One hundred and fifty thousand pounds Sterling , whereunto may be added , that the Ancients copying out their Books , for the most part with their own hand , it could not but work in them a deeper impression of the matter therein contained , and being thereby forced to content themselves with fewer Books , of nece●sity they held themselves more closely to them . And it is true what Seneca saith , as well in reading as eating , Varietas delectat , certitudo predest , Variety is delightful , but certainty more useful and profitable . So that upon the matter , reckonings cast up on all sides , and one thing being set against another , as we want some helps which the Ancients had , so we are freed from some hindrances wherewith they were incumbred ; as again it is most certain , that they wanted some of our helps , and were freed from some of our hindrances : if then we come short of their perfections , it is not because Nature is generally defective in us , but because we are wanting to our selves , and do not strive to make use of , and improve those abilities wherewith God and Nature hath endowed us . Male de Natura censet quicu●que un● illa● aut altero partu effatum esse arbitratur , saith Vives ; He thinks unworthily and irreverently of Nature who conceives her to be barren after one or two Births ; No , no , that which the same Authour speaks of places , is likewise undoubtedly true of times , Ubiqu● bona nascuntur ingenia , exc●lantur mod● , alibi fortassis frequ●ntiorae , sed ubique nonnulla . Every where and in all ages good Wits spring up , were they dressed and manured as they ought , though happily more frequently in some places and ages then others . Scythia it self anciently yielded one Anacharsis . And no doubt had they taken the same course as he did , more of the same Metal would have been found there . There is ( it seems ) both in Wits and Arts , as in ' all things besides , a kind of circular progress : they have their Birth , their growth , their flourishing , their falling , and fading , and within a while after their Resurrection , and reflourishing again . The Arts flourished for a long time amongst the Persians , the Caldeans , the AEgypitans , and therefore is Moses is said to be learned in all the wisdom of the AEgyptians , who well knowing their own strength , were bold to object to the Grecians , that they were still Children , as neither having the knowledge of Antiquity , nor the Antiquity of Knowledge : But afterwards the Grecians got the start of them , and grew so excellent in all kind of Knowledge , that the rest of the World in regard of them , were reputed Barbarians , which reputation of wisdom they held even till the Apostles time . I am debter , saith St. Paul , Both to the Graecians and to the Barbarians , both to the wise and to the unwise . Rom. 1. 14. And again , The Jews require a Signe , and the Graecians seek after Wisdom , 1 Cor. 1. 22. By reason whereof they relished not the simplicity of the Gospel , it seeming foolishness unto them : And n the seventeenth of the Acts the Philosophers of Atbens , ( sometimes held the most famous University in the World ) out of the opinion of their own great Learning , scorned St. Paul and his Doctrine , terming him a sower of Words , a very Babler or trifler : yet not long after this , these very Graecians declined much , and themselves ( whether through their own inclination , or the reason of their Bondage under the ●urk , the common Enemy both of Religion and Learning , I cannot determine ) are now become so strangly Barbarous , that their Knowledge is converted into a kind of Ignorance , as is their Liberty into a contented Slavery : yet after the loss both of their Empire and Learning , they still retained some spark of their former Wit and Industry . As Juvenal hath it Sat. 7. Ingenium ●elox ; audacia perdita , ser●●● Pr●mptus , & Isaeo terrent●or , ede quid illum Esse putas quemvis hominem secum attulit ad nos Grammaticus , Rhet●r , Geometres , Picter , Aliptes , Angur , Schaenobates , Medicus , Magnus , ●mnia novis Graeculus ●suriens in Caelum jusseris , ibit . Quick witted , wondrous bold , well spoken , then Isaeus Pluenter , who of all Men Brought with himself , a Soothsayer , a Physitian , Magician , Rhetorician , Geometrician , Grammarian , Painter , Ropewalker , all knows The needy Greek● bid goe to Heaven , he goes . But now they wholly delight in ease , in shades , in dancing , in drinking , and for the most part , no further endeavour either the enriching of their minds or purses then their bellies compel them . The Lamp of Learning being thus neer extinguished in Greece , In Latium spretis Accademia ●igrat Athenis . Athens forsaken by Philosophy She forthwith travell'd into Italy . It began to shine afresh in Italy neer about the time of the Birth of Christ , there being a general peace thorow the World , and the Roman Empire fully setled and Established , Poets , Orators , Philosophers , and Historians , never more Excellent . From whence the Light spread it self over Christendom , and continued bright till the Inundation of the Gothes , Hunns , and Vandals , who ransaked Libraries , and defaced almost all the Monuments of Antiquity , insomuch as that Lamp seemed again to be put out , for the space of almost a Thousand years , and had longer so continued , had not Mensor King of Africa and Spain raised up and spurred on the Arabian Wits to the restauration of good Letters by proposing great rewards and encouragements to them . And afterwards Petarch , a man of singular Wit and rare Natural Endowments , opened such Libraries as were left undemolished , beat off the Dust from the Moth-eaten Books and drew into the Light the best Authors . He was seconded by B●cca●e , and J●h● of Ravenna , And soon after by Aretine , Philephus , Valla , Poggius , Onimbonus , Vergerius , Bl●ndus , and others . And those again were followed by AEneus Sylvius , Angelus Politianus , Hermola●s Barbarus , Marsilius Ficinus , and that Phoe●ix of Learning J. Picus Earl of Mirandula , who as appears in his entrance of his Apogie proposed openly at R●●● Nine hundred questions in all kind of Faculties to be disputed , inviting all strangers thither , from any part of the known World , and offering himself to bear the Charges of their Travel both coming and going , and during all their abode there : so as he deservedly received that Epitaph , which after his Death was bestowed on him . Joannes hic jacet Miraudula , caetera ●●●●nt , Et Tagus , & Ganges , forsan Antipodes . Here lies Mirandula , Tagus the rest doth know , And Ganges , and perhaps the Antipodes also . And rightly might that be verified of him which Lucretius sometimes wrote of Epicurus his Master . Hic genus humanum ingenis superavit , & omnes Praestrinxit stellas exortus us aether●●● S●l . In Wit all men he far hath overgrown , Ecclipsing them like to the rising Sun. This Path being thus beaten out by these Heroical Spirits , they were backed by Rodulphus Agricola , Reucline , Melanct●on , Joachimus Camerarius , Musculus , Beatus Rhenanus , Almains ; the great Erasmus a Netherlander , Lodovicus Vives a Spaniard ; Bembus , Sadoletus , Eugubnius , Italians , Turnebus , Muretus , Ramus , Pithaeus , Budaeus , Amiot , Scaliger , Frenchmen . Sr. Thomas More , and Li●aker , Englishmen ; And it is worth the observing , that about this time the slumbering drowzie Spirit of the Graecians began again to be revived and awakened in Bessaerion , Gemistius , Trapenz●ntius , Gaza , Argyropolus , Gal●ondilus ; and others : nay , these very Northern Nations which before had given the greatest wound to Learning , began now by way of recompence to advance the honour of it by the fame of their Studies , as Olaus Magnus , Holsterus , Tycho Brabe , Frixius , Crumerus , Polonians ; But the number of those Worthies , who like so many sparkling Stars have since thorow Christendom succeeded , and many of them exceeded these in Learning and Knowledge , ● is so infinite , that the very recital of their names were enough to fill whole Volumes : And if we descend to a particular examination of the several Professions , Arts , Sciences , and Manufactures , we shall sure find the Praediction of the Divine Seneca accomplished , Natural . Quest. Lib. 7. Cap. 31. Mult● v●nientis aevi populus ignota n●bis sci●t . The People of future Ages ; shall come to the knowledge of many things unknown to us ; And that of Tacitus , is most true , Annal , Lib. 3. Cap. 12. Nec omnia apud prures meliores● prioria , sed nostra quoque ae●● multa laudis , & artium imitanda posteris tulit : Neither were all things in ancient times better than ours , but our Age hath left ro Posterity many things worthy of Praise and Imitation . I shall conclude with what Ramus writes further , and perhaps warrantably enough in his Preface . Scholast . Mathemat . Majorem doctorum hominum & operum proventum seculo uno vidimus , quam tot is antea 14. Majores nostri viderunt . We have seen within the space of one Age , a more plentious Crop of learned Men and Works , then ourPredecessors saw in fourteen next going before us . But our prejudice is so great , against all things po●ited without the Sphere of our Knowledg ; that all the advantage we can make of it , is , to condemn to the flame both Works and Authors . To acquaint Ignorance with the glory of the Heavens ; the Magnitude , Distance , Motion and Influence of the Stars , is to present our selves guilty of that folly , never to be pardoned , by that Multitude ; amongst which , to appear wise , is a crime , so Capital , that a punishment , less , then what the good Bishop suffered , for holding Antipodes , cannot exp●ate , which was no less than Death it self . Judge then , what courage a man ought to be master of , that will expose his Judgment to Publick Censour . Cesar and Alexander had not more occasion to use it , then that man hath , which shall dare to oppose an Opinion , which hath Generallity and Antiquity for its guard , to tell them , ( that the Eight Sphere is Sixty five millions two hundred eighty five thousand and five hundred of miles from us ; and that the least Star in that Sphere is greater then the Globe we tread on , ) and to maintain it amongst the rabble , is as dangerous , as to be a Daeniel in the Den , with the Lyons ; to speak of the seven Planets , their Natures , with the Effects that attends , their Times , Squares , Conjunctions , and Oppositions to any 〈…〉 Ingenious , is madness it self , the Zodiack with its Duodessi● division of Signes , with their quaternal Triplicities , and the Suns progress through those Signes , with the alterations that it occasions , as to heat and coldness of the weather , the length and shortness of the days and nights , the flourish and decay of all the fruits of the Earth , astonishes Ignorance , but to the Learned , observation hath made the reason of it obvious to understand . The language of the Heavens , how excellent a thing it is , all that have Souls of the first Magnitude can witness . Augustus himself was so great a lover of this Science , that he caused the Sign Capricorn ( it being the Ascendant of his Nativity ) to be Stamped upon his Coin , and advanced the same in his Standard . Tiberius did so dote upon the knowledge of the Heavens , that he learnt the same of Thrasillus at Rodes ; and indeed , the Wonders that hath been told , by those that have understood the speech of the Coelestials , might justly encourage all to the same Study ; for how could Gauricus have admonished Henry the Second , King of France , from Tilting in the one and fortieth year of his age , but that he read the danger of it in the Starrs ; or the Bishop of Vienna assured Don Frederick , that he should be King of Naples , Twenty years before it happened . I could quote many more examples , of the like nature , if I thought it were to any purpose ; but my dread is , that most of the Sons of Men , are so prepossest with an injury against all intelligibleness , but that which tends to the fil●ing of their Coffers , that a truth may expect the same welcome amongst them ; that a true Saviour found amongst the false J●●● FINIS .