LIBRARY
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
SANTA BARBARA
PRESENTED BY
ANN GUEST
THE WORKS
SIR THOMAS BROWNE
EDITED BY
SIMON WILKIN, F.L.S.
VOLUME I.
CONTAINING FOUR BOOKS OF
VULGAR ERRORS,
LONDON : GEOEGE BELL AND SONS, YOEK STREET
COVENT GARDEN.
1890.
LONDON;
PBINIBD Br WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS. LIMITEH
STASIFUUD STaGET AND OUAItlNd UKOSS.
?R
A\
1888
LIBRARY
UMVERSITV Oi' tlALIFORNlA'
BAiN 1 A BAilJJARA
CONTENTS TO VOL. I.
Preface. page
Dr. Johnson's Life of Sir Thomas Browne ix
Supplementary Memoir by the Editor xxxvii
Mrs. Lyttleton's Communication to Bishop Kennet . . Ixviii
PSEUDODOXIA EPIDEMICA, Books I. to IV.
Editor's Preface Ixxi
(The Author) to the Reader 1
The First Book ; containing the general part.
Chap. 1. Of the first cause of common errors ; the common
infirmity of human nature 7
Chap. 2. A further illustration of the same 12
Chap. 3. Of the second cause of common errors ; the erroneous
disposition of the people 16
Chap. 4. Of the more immediate causes of common errors, both
in the wiser and common sort ; and first, of misappre-
hension and fallacy, or false deduction 26
Chap. 5. Of other more immediate causes of error : viz. credulity
and supinity 33
Chap. 6. Of another more immediate cause of error : viz.
obstinate adherence unto antiquity 39
Chap. 7. Of another of the more immediate causes of error : viz.
adherence unto authority 51
Chap. 8. Of authors who have most promoted popular conceit . 59
Chap. 9. Of others indirectly effecting the same "ti
Chap. 10. Of the last and great promoter of false opinions, the
endeavours of Satan 75
Chap. 11. A farther illustration of the same 86
The Second Book ; beginning the particular part. Of popular and
received tenets concerning mineral and vegetable bodies.
''^hap. 1, That crj-stal is nothing else but ice "trongly congealed , 94
Chap. 2. Concerning the loadstone ; of things po.iicularly spoken
thereof, evidently or probably tnie ... 112
CONTEKTS.
PAGE
Chap. 3. Concerning the loadstone ; a rejection of sundry common
opinions and relations thereof ; natural, medical, his-
torical, magical 133
Chap. 4. Of bodies electrical 157
Chap. 5. Compendiously of sundry other common tenets concern-
ing minerals and terreous bodies, which, examined,
prove either false or dubious. That a diamond is
softened or broken by the blood of a goat ; that glass
is poison, and that it is malleable ; of the cordial
quaUty of gold ; that a pot full of ashes will contain
as much water as it would withoul; them ; of white
powder that kills without report ; that coral is soft
under water, but hardeneth in the air ; that porcelain
lies under the earth an hundred years in preparation ;
that a carbuncle gives a light in the dark ; of the eagle
stone; of foiry stones ; with some others . . . .166
Chap. 6. Of sundry tenets concerning vegetables or plants, which,
examined, prove either false or dubious. Of man-
drakes ; that cinnamon, ginger, cloves, mace, are but
the parts or fruits of the same tree ; that miseltoe is
bred upon trees, from seeds which birds let fall thereon ;
of the rose of Jericho, that flowereth every year upon
Christmas Eve ; of Glastonbury thorn ; that Sferra
Cavallo hath a power to break or loosen iron ; that
bays preserve from the mischief of lightning and
thunder ; that bitter almonds are preservatives against
ebriety 192
Chap. 7. Of some insects and the properties of several plants.
Of the death-watch ; the presages drawn from oak-
apple insects ; whether all plants have seeds ; whether
the sap of trees runs to the ground in winter ; of the
effects of camphor ; with many others 210
The Thibd Book ; the partkidar part continued. Of popular and
received tenets concerning animals.
Chap. 1. That an elephant hath no joints, &c 220
Chap. 2. That the horse hath no gall 232
Chap. 3. That a pigeon hath no gall 235
Chap. 4. That a beaver, to escape the hunter, bites off his testicles
or stones 240
Chap. 5. That a badger hatli the legs of one side shorter than
of the other 245
Chap. 6. That a bear brings forth her cubs informous or unshaped 247
Chap. 7. Of the basilisk 250
Chap. 8. That a wolf first seeing a man begets a dumbness in him 261
Chap. 9. Of the long life of the deer 262
Chap. 10. Th.at a kingfisher, hanged by the bill, showeth where the
wind lay 270
Chap. 11. Of griffins 273
CONTENTS.
PAGB
Chill :2. Ofthe phcenix 276
Chaj 13. Of frogs, toads, aid toad-stone 284
Chap, 14. That a salainaiid<:r lives in the fire 291
Chap. 15. Of the araphisbana 294
Chap. 16. That young vipt rs force their way through the bowels of
their dam 297
Chap. 17. That hares are both male and female 305
Chap. 18. That moles are blind 312
Chap. 19. That lampreys lave many eyes 316
Chap. 20. That snails have no eyes 318
Chap. 21. That the chamrleon lives only upon air 321
Chap. 22. That the ostrici digesteth iron 334
Chap. 23. Of the unicorn's horn 337
Chap. 24. That all animals of the land are in their kind in the sea 344
Chap. 25. Concerning the common course of our diet, in making
choice of some animals and abstaining from eating
others 346
Chap. 26. Of the spermaceti whale 353
Chap. 27. Compendiously, of the musical note of swans before their
death ; that the fle.sh of peacocks corrupteth not ;
that they are ashamed r>f th=Jr legs : that storks will
only live in republicks and fi-ee states ; of the noise of
a bittern by putting the bill iu a reed ; that whelps are
blind nine <lays ; of the antipathy between a toad
and a spider, a lion and a cock ; that an earwig hath
BO wings; of worms ; that flies make that humming
noise by their mouths or wings ; of the tainct or small
red spider ; of the glow-worm ; of the providence of
pismires in biting off the ends of com 357
Chap. 28. That the chicken is made out of the yolk of the egg ; that
snakes sting ; of the tarantula ; the lamb of Tartary ;
the swiftness of tigers ; with sundry queries . . .373
The FoOBTH Book ; the particular part continued. Of many popu-
lar and received tenets concerning man.
Chap. 1. That only man hath an erect figure 379
Chap. 2. That the heart is on the left side 383
Chap. 3. That pleurisies are only on the left side 385
Chap. 4. Of the ring finger 386
Chap. 5. Of the right and left hand 391
Chap. 6. On swimming and floating 402
Chap. 7. That men weigh heavier dead than alive, and before
meat than after 405
Chap. 8. That there are several passages for meat and drink . . 408
Chap. 9. On saluting upon sneezing 410
Chap. 10. That .Jews stink 413
Chap. 11. Of pigmies 421
Chap. 12. Ofthe great climacterical year, that is, sixty-three . . 4j:.i
Chap. 13. Of the canicular or dog-days 446
YOL. I. a
PREFACE
Prefixed to tlie Edition published in 1836.
Neakly twelve years have elapsed since the present edition
was undertaken ; and it affords me no small gratilication to have
at length accomplished, however imperfectly, a task which has
been attended by a degree of labour proportioned to the diffi-
culty of the work, and the competency of the workman. The
delay, though not my own, and incurred in the hope of securing
a corresponding advantage to my readers, cannot, I fear, be
justified : — and, when I consider how often plans have been
defeated, assurances forfeited, and character thus sacrificed, by
a spirit of procrastination, I cannot but rejoice that my own
intentions have survived that which threatened their frustration,
and that I have been permitted, though late, to redeem my
pledge by the publication of these volumes.
Eespecting the "VYoeks of Sir Thomas Browne, I need say the
less here, because explanatory prefaces accompany the principal
of them. Religio Medici, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, and the
volume containing Eydriotaphia and the Garden of Cyrus, were
published by himself ; after his decease, and in consonance no
doubt with his understood intentions, appeared the Miscellany
Tracts, Letter to a Friend, Posthumous Works, and Christian
Morals. The last of these, we are informed by his daughter,'
was " a continuation of his Eeligio Medici, drawn up in his
elder years," and seems to have been left in readiness for the
press. Of his lesser pieces he had probably intended to make a
complete collection, and either to pubhsh, or leave them for pub-
lication in a revised form ; for he has informed us himself that
he had " some miscellaneous tracts which might be pubUshed."
The collection which was brought out by Abp. Tenison does not
appear to me to have been so complete or so revised and arranged,
as the author would have left it.
It will be expected that I should say a few words respecting
' See last page of Supplementary Memoir, and Archdeacon Jeffeiy's
Preface to the Christian Morals.
a2
VI PREFACE.
the Life and Coeeespondence. The only original and authentic
biofi;raphical materials which exist respecting Browne are, first,
his own brief notice sent to Aubrey for the use of Anthony
AVood ; secondly, the " Minutes," drawn up at the request of his
-sxidow, by the Rev. John "WTiitefoot, M.A. ;' thirdly, some ad-
ditional information given by Mrs. Lyttleton to Bp. Kennet.
The first life which appeared accompanied the Posthumous
Works, in 1712, and included the Minutes. In 1736 a second
was prefixed to the 13th edition of Beligio Medici : and in 1756
Dr. Johnson wrote his biography for the 2nd edition of the
Christian Morals. I am not aware of any other distinct Life of
Browne ; but he is noticed more or less copiously in the prin-
cipal biographical coUoctions foreign as weU as English : especi-
ally the Bioqraphia Britannica, Aikin, Chalmers, Biographic
Universelle, Bayle, Jocher, Niceron,^ &c. I have reprinted Dr.
* He was but five years younger than Sir Thomas, and for thirty
years his intimate friend. Bp. HalL, in 1652, instituted him to tbe
rectory of Heigham, Norwich, which he resigned in 1C82 to his son,
the minister of St. Peter's Mancroft, whose portrait is in the vestrj' of
that church. The Blographia Britannica mentions a letter from Mr.
VVhitefoot to Lady Browne, respecting his proposed life, but I have
aot been able to trace it. He died in 1699, aged 89, and was buried
in St. Gregory's, Norwich. The greater part of the Minutes was
included by Dr. Johnson, in his life ; and the remaining paragraphs will
be found in this edition, at the foot of pp. xxvi. xxvii. xxix. He pro-
Ijttbly intended to write a much fuller life, and it was to this design
tliat Abp. Tenison alluded in his preface to the Miscellany Tracts.
^ The article in the Biographia by Kippis is far more copious than
any other. It contains references to, and translations of, many criti-
cisms on Browne, and an original letter by him.
Dr. Aikin, in a letter to the Rev. R. Barbauld, in 1775 (inserted in
Miss Aikin's memoir of the doctor), says, " I have lately been writing
the hfe of a very extraordinary man, Sir Thom9,s Browne, &c." Miss
Aikin, in reply to an inquiry what had become of this Life, says, " It
was not printed in the Biographical Memoirs of Medicine, the only
work of my father's on medical biography, because that work comes no
lower than Harvey : but he inserted it, I apprehend, in an abridged
form, in the General Biography."
I forgot to notice, in my Preface to the Pseudodoxia, thatM. du Petit
Thouars (who wrote the article in Biographie Universelle) ascribes the
Frencii translation of that work to the Abb^ Souchay.
I must not omit to remark that some of his biographers have
attributed to Browne works which he did not write. " In the Life
prefixed to Beligio Medici, 1736, it is asserted that he wrote a treatise,
entitled Be Lucis Causa et Origine, in a letter to Isaac Vossiiis, with
whom he had a dispute upon that subject (printed at Amsterdam in
1663, and criticising Vossius's work. Be Natura et Proprietale Lucis),
wherein he strongly maintains Descartes s hypothesis. He also wro;e
PREFACE. Vll
Johnson's Life, adding here and there a note, corrective or ex-
planatory ; — but reserving such additional information, as I have
been able to collect from preceding biographies and other sources,
for a separate and Sujrplementary Memoir. Here I have col-
lected all the information in my power respecting the family of
Sir Thomas, his literary and scientific pursuits and habits, his cor-
respondents, his works, and the various criticisms they met with
both abroad and at home. Respecting the MSS. which he left, I
have drawn up (by the help of a catalogue in the Bodleian
Library) rather a full notice, partly in order to prove that I have
left nothing unpublished, and partly to point out, that the far
greater part of the collection is still preserved, in about 1<XJ
volumes, extending from No. 1824 to 1924 in the Sloanian MSS.
of the British Museum. My account of the family of Sir
Thomas is considerably fuller than those hitherto given : — and
if in this memoir I have been reluctantly compelled to leave
many points of interest in obscurity, I must console myself with
Dr. Johnson's reflection " that in all sublunary things, there is
something to be wished which we must wish in vain."
But no part of the work has cost me more perplexity and labour
than the selection and arrangement of the Coeeespondence.
The family letters, extending through a period of twenty years,
were almost all without date of the year, though bearing that
of month and day : and they were bound up without any kind
of order. To supply the omission was no easy affair. Some of
an Apology for the Cartesian PJtilosophy, in opposition to a di\'ine,
named Vogelsang." It may be conjectured that the writer had inad-
vertently applied to Sir T. B. tlie following account given by M. Bayle,
of a very different person. " Jean de Bruyn, Professeur a Utrecht eu
Physique et en Mathematique, ni^ k Gorcum, 1620, mort k Leyde,
1675 ; ^crivit k Isaac Vossius une lettre de 68 pages in 4to. De Imcis
Causii et Origine ; qui fut impriniee k Amsterdam, 1668. II a fait
aussi une Apologie de la Phllosophie Cartesienne, centre un TheJolo-
gien nomm^ Vogelsang."
Joclter, in his Allgemeines Gelehrten Lexicon, erroneously attributes to
him two other works, viz. Tlte History of the Life and Reign of the famous
Princesse Elizabeth, — which is Camden's tomus alter et idem ; or, the
History of the Life and Reign of the famotts Princesse Eiizaheth, hy Thos.
Brown,!). D. Lond. 1629, 4to., a,nd Jani Philadelptfd Considfatio desultoria
de optima ChristianorumSecta, et Vitiis Pontifcioriim. Prodromus Reli-
gionis Medici, small Svo. Patav. 1688. Jocher asserts that Janus Phi-
ladelphus was an assumed name : — it might be so ; and, though Sir
Thomas died 1682, the book might have appeared posthumously, like
several other of his works, — but in the course of it, the author refers to
Avis aux RR. PP. Jesuites, du 2me Mai, Van 1685 : — this is conclu-
sive against our author's claims, who died three years before.
Vm PREFACE.
the letters indeed contained incidents wliicli determined the
year, and ia a fe^ the day of the week -vras mentioned, but in
the ^eat majority I was compelled to judge by the connection of
their subjects with those which I had akeady dated. It was in
short a process of approximation, which, after all, has left many
very doubtfully, and several, I fear, wi'oncfly arranged. Some
of little interest I rejected, from utter inability to place them ; —
and, could I have foreseen the bulk of the volume, the rejections
would have been more unspariug.
A copious Index closes the whole.
The portrait at the head of this work has been engraved from
White's, in the folio of 16S6, compared with a copy taken, by
Dr. Bandinell's kind pemiission, from the original picture in the
schools at Oxford, — a decidedly better picture than that presented
by Dr. Howman to the vestiy of St. Peter's, Norwich, — and, I
believe, than that which is in the College of Physicians.
!N'othing now remaius but to express my sense of obligation to
the kindness of numerous friends who have rendered me advice,
assistance, and encouragement. To enumerate them, were it
possible to do so without omission after such a lapse of years —
might have rather the appearance of parade than of gi-atitude :
while a solitary omission would expose me to the mortifymg and
undeserved imputation of ingratitude. I shall therefore name
but one, — to whom indeed both the first and the last place may
be fairly said to belong : — and throtigh whose introduction the
far greater number of my other hterary obligations have been
incurred. I mean my kind friend Thomas Amyot, Esq., who
from the very commencement of my undertaking to its comple-
tion, has rendered me, in every possible way, and with an
unsparins: munificence of time, labour, and patience, his own
various aid. and has ever been prompt to obtain for me, among
his extensive acquaintance, the help of others. To him, and to
every other individual from whom I have received the smallest
particle of assistance, I beg to oiFer my most cordial thanks.
And here I close my labours ; — content to bespeak for them
the favourable reception of the public in the quaint language of
one of old : — " If I have done well, it was that which I desired ;
and if slenderly and meanly, it was that which I could attain
unto."
s.w.
4S'ormvh, Jan. 2Sth, 1836.
DR. JOHNSON'S LIFE
SIR THOMAS BUOWNE.
Though the writer of the following Essays* seems to have
had the fortune common among men of letters, of raising Httle
curiosity after his private life, and has, therefore, few memorials
preserved of his felicities or misfortunes ; yet, because an edition
of a posthiunous work appears imperfect and neglected, without
some account of the author, it was thought necessary to attempt
the gratification of that curiosity, which naturally inquires by what
pecuharities of nature or fortune eminent men have been dis-
tinguished, how uncommon attainments have been gained, and
what influence learning has had on its possessors, or virtue on its
teachers.
Sir Thomas Browne was bom at London, in the parish of St.
Michael in Cheapside,^ on the 19th of October, 1605.* His
* Life of Sir Thomas Brovme, prefixed to the Antiquities of Norwich.
' the following Essays.'\ It will be recollected that this life was
written in 1756, not for an entire edition of Browne's works, but for a
second impression of his Christian Morals, originally published by
Archdeacon Jeffery in 1716, and reprinted by Payne in 1756.
'' St. Michael in Cheapside.] St. Michael's Cheap, as it was formerly
called, or St. Michael-le-Quem, probably a corruption of the translation
of St. Michael ad Bladum, or " at the Com :" the church having been
originally erected, about the reign of Edward III., on the site of a com
market. The church was taken down and rebuilt in 1430, in the eighth
of Henry VI. In the great fire of London it was destroyed, and not
subsequently rebuUt, the parish being united to that of St. Vedast, va.
Foster-lane. The registers have all perished.
X DE. JOHNSON S LIFE OF
father •= was a merchant ** of an ancient family at Upton in
Cheshire. Of the name or family of his mother, I find no
account.^
Of his childhood or youth, there is little known ; except that
he lost his father very early ; that he was, according to the
common fate of orphans,* defrauded by one of his guardians ;
and that he was placed for his education at the school of Win-
chester.'
His mother, having taten three thousand pounds, f as the
third part of her husband's property, left her son, by conse-
quence, six thousand ;B a large fortune for a man destined to
learning, at that time when commerce had not yet filled the
nation with nominal riches. But it happened to him as to many
others, to be made poorer by opulence ; for his mother soon
married Sir Thomas Dutton, probably by the inducement of her
fortune ; and he was left to the rapacity of his guardian, deprived
now of both his parents, and therefore helpless and unpro-
tected.
He was removed in the beginning of the year 1623 from Win-
chester to Oxford ;!{; and entered a gentleman-commoner of
Broadgate Hall, which was soon afterwards endowed, and took
the name of Pembroke College, from the Earl of Pembroke,
then Chancellor of the University. He was admitted to the
degree of bachelor of arts, January *■ 31, 1626-7, being, as Wood
remarks, the first man of eminence graduated from the new
college, to which the zeal or gratitude of those that love it
most, can wish httle better, than that it may long proceed as it
began.
Having afterwards taken his degree of master of arts," he
* Whitefoofs CJiaracter of Sir Thomas Broicne, in a marginal note,
t Life, tkc. X Wood's A thence Oxonienses.
■^ His father.] Whom Blomfield erroneously names John.
■^ a merchant.] Mrs. Lyttelton (as we are infonned by Bishop Ken-
net) says that her father was "a tradesman, a mercer ; but a gentleman
of good family in Cheshire." — Europ. Mag. xl. p. 89.
' no account.] From a pedigree in the College of Arms (which I
have printed), it appears that his mother was Ann, the daughter of
Paul Garraway, of Lewes, in Sussex. He mentions his grandfather in
a letter.
' the school, ct-c] Wykeham's school, near Winchester. — Postk. Life.
B left her son, Ac] This would be correct, had he been an only child ;
'put he had a brother and two sisters.
'' January.] Jime 30, 162G ; half a year earlier, says Wood. —Fasti,
1. 426, ed. Bliss.
' master of arts.] June 11, 1629. — Wood's Fasti.
SIE THOMAS BKOW>'E. XI
turned his studies to pbysick, and practised it for some time in
Oxfordshire;* but soon afterwards, either induced by curiosity,
or invited by promises, he quitted his settlement, and accom-
panied his fa"ther-in-la\v,t who had some employment in Ireland,
in a visitation of the forts and castles, which the state of Ireland
then made necessary.
He that has once prevailed on himself to break his connexions
of acquaintance, and begin a wandering life, very easily continues
it. Ireland had, at that time, very little to offer to the observa-
tion of a man of letters : he therefore passed into France and
Italy jij; made some stay at Montpellier and Padua, which were
then the celebrated schools of physick ; and returning home
through Holland, procured himself to be created doctor of
physick at Leyden.''
When he began his travels, or when he concluded them, there
is no certain account ; ' nor do there remain any observations
made by him in his passage through those countries which he
visited. To consider, therefore, what pleasure or instruction
might have been received from the remarks of a man so curious and
diligent, wovdd be voluntarily to indulge a painful reflection, and
load the imagination with awish, which, while it is formed, is known
to be vain. It is, however, to be lamented, that those who are
most capable of improving mankind, very frequently neglect to
communicate their knowledge ; either because it is more pleasing
to gather ideas than to impart them, or because to minds naturally
great, few things appear of so much importance as to deserve the
notice of the pubUck.
About the year 1634,§ he is supposed to have returned to
London ; and the next year to have written his celebrated treatise,
called Religio Medici,'^ " the religion of a physician," || which he
* Wood's Athence Oxonienses, vol. i. col. 713.
t Life, <t-c. + Ihid. § Biographla Britannica.
II Letter to Sir Kenelm Dighy.
^ at LeydenJ] About 1633, probably.
• When he hegan, &C.'] It was between 1630 and 1633.
" Religio Medici.^ Dr. Kippis deems himself to have proved, in his
note B, p. 628, that Religio Medici was written in 1635. His argument
is drawn from a comparison of the date of Browne's Letter to Lighy
(March 3, 1642), with a passage in his Epistle to the Reader, stating
that it was written " about seven years ago." But this is inconclusive ;
because the true date of the letter being 1642-3, the result would be
1636 ; which is contradicted by another passage in Religio Medici, in
which Browne says he was not thirty years old, whereas in 1636 he was
older. I think it, however, very possible that the true reading of the
passage is, " a6ore seven years," which would justify Dr. Johnson's date.
See the point spoken of in the Preface to Religio Medici, and in the
Supplementary Memoir.
Xll DE. JOHNSON 8 LIFE OF
declares himself never to have intended for the press, having
composed it only for his own exercise and entertainment. It,
indeed contains many passages, which, relating merely to his
own person, can be of no great importance to the publick : but
when it was written, it happened to him as to others, he was too
much pleased with his performance, not to think that it might
please others as much ; he, therefore, communicated it to his
friends, and receiving, I suppose, that exuberant applause with
which every man repays the grant of perusing a manuscript, he
was not very diligent to obstruct his own praise by recalling his
{)apers, but suffered them to wander from hand to hand, tUl at
ast, without his own consent, they were in 1642 given to a
printer.
This has, perhaps, sometimes befallen others ; and this, I am
willing to believe did really happen to Dr. Browne : but there is
surely some reason to doubt the truth of the complaint so fre-
quently made of surreptitious editions. A song, or an epigram,
may be easily printed without the author's knowledge ; because
it may be learned when it is repeated, or may be vrritten out
with very little trouble : but a long treatise, however elegant, is
not often copied by mere zeal or curiosity, but may be worn out
in passing from hand to hand, before it is multiplied by a
transcript." It is easy to convey an imperfect book, by a dis-
tant hand, to the press, and plead the circulation of a false
copy as an excuse for pubUshing the true, or to correct what is
found faulty or offensive, and charge the errors on the tran-
scriber's depravations.
This is a stratagem, by which an author panting for fame, and
yet afraid of seeming to challenge it, may at once gratify his
vanity, and preserve the appearance of modesty ; may enter the
lists, and secure a retreat : and this, candour might suffer to pass
undetected as an innocent fraud, but that indeed no fraud is
innocent ; for the confidence which makes the happiness of
society, is in some degree diminished by every man, whose
practice is at variance with his words.
The Religio Medici was no sooner published than it excited
the attention of the publick, by the novelty of paradoxes, the
dignity of sentiment, the quick succession of images, the multi-
tude of abstruse allusions, the subtlety of disquisition, and the
strength of language.
What is much read will be much criticised. The Earl of
Dorset recommended this book to the perusal of Sir Keuelm
Digby, who returned his judgment upon it, not in a letter, but a
" a trcmscript.'] See remarks on this point in the Preface to R(li<jio
Mallei.
SIE THOMAS BliOWNE. Xlll
book ; in which, though mingled with some positions fabulous
and uncertain, there are acute remarks, just censures, and pro-
found speculations, yet its principal claim to admiration is, that
it was written in twenty-four hours,* of which part was spent in
procuring Browne's book, and part in reading it.
Of these animadversions, when they were yet not all printed,
either officiousness or malice informed Dr. Browne ; who wrote
to Sir Kenelm with much softness and ceremony, declaring the
unworthiness of his work to engage such notice, the intended
privacy of the composition, and the corruptions of the impression ;
and received an answer equally gentle and respectful, containing
high commendations of the piece, pompous professions of reve-
rence, meek acknowledgments of inabihty, and anxious apologies
fur the hastiness of his remarks.
The reciprocal civility of authors is one of the most risible
scenes in tlie farce of life. Who would not have thought, that
these two luminaries of their age had ceased to endeavour to
grow bright by the obscuration of each other ; yet the animad-
versions thus weak, thus precipitate, upon a book thus injured
in the transcription, quickly passed the press ; and Religio Me-
dici was more accurately published, with an admonition prefixed
" to those who have or shall peruse the observations upon a
former corrupt copy ;" in which there is a severe censure, not
upon Digby, who was to be used with ceremony, but upon the
Observator who had usurped his name ; nor was this invective
written by Dr. Browne, ° who was supposed to be satisfied with
his opponent's apology ; but by some officious friend zealous for
his honour, without his consent.
Browne has, indeed, in his own preface, endeavoured to secure
himself from rigorous examination, by alleging, that " many
things are delivered rhetorically, many expressions merely tropi-
cal, and therefore many things to be taken in a soft and flexible
sense, and not to be called unto the rigid test of reason." The
first glance upon his book will indeed discover examples of this
liberty of thought and expression : " I could be content (says heP)
to be nothing almost to eternity, if I might enjoy my Saviour at
the last." He has httle acquaintance with the acuteness of
Bro\vne, who suspects him of a serious opinion, that any thing
can be " almost eternal," or that any time beginning and ending
is not infinitely less than infinite duration.
* Dighy's Letter to Brovme.
° nor was this invective, tf-c] Yet the style of this admonition would
justify our ascribing it to Browne, quite as much as that of the adver-
tisement relating to Nature's Cabinet Unlocked, which Dr. Johnson
considers to have been his.
P i^says he.)\ Beligio Medici.
XIV BE. JOHNSON S LIFE OP
In this book, he speaks much, and, in the opinion of Digby,
too much of himself ; but with such generality and conciseness
as affords very little light to his biographer : he declares, that,
besides the dialects of different provinces, he understood six
languages ; that he was no stranger to astronomy ; and that he
had seen several countries : but what most awakens curiosity, is
his solemn assertion, that " his life has been a miracle of thirty
years ; which to relate, were not history but a piece of poetry,
and would sound like a fable."
There is, undoubtedly, a sense, in which all life is miraculous ;
as it is an union of powers of which we can image no connexion,
a succession of motions of which the first cause must be super-
natural : but life, thus explained, whatever it may have of miracle,
will have nothing of fable ; and, therefore, the author imdoubtedly
had regard to something, by which he imagined himself dis-
tinguished from the rest of mankind.
Of these wonders, however, the view that can be now taken of
his hfe offers no appearance. The course of his education was
like that of others, such as put him little in the way of extra-
ordinary casualties. A scholastick and academical life is very
uniform ; and has, indeed, more safety than pleasure. A traveller
has greater opportunities of adventure ; but Browne traversed
no unknown seas, or Arabian deserts : and, surely, a man may
visit France and Italy, reside at MontpeUier and Padua, and at
last take his degree at Leyden, without any thing miraciilous.
What it was, that would, if it was related, sound so poetical and
fabulous, we are left to guess ; I believe, without hope of
guessing rightly. The wonders probably were transacted in his
own mind : self-love, co-operating with an imagination vigorous
and fertUe as that of Browne, wiU find or make objects of
astonishment in every man's life ; and, perhaps, there is no
human being, however hid in the crowd from the observation of
his fellow-mortals, who, if he has leisure and disposition to recol-
lect his own thoughts and actions, will not conclude his Hfe in
some sort a miracle, and imagine himself distinguished from all
the rest of his species by many discriminations of nature or of
fortune.
The success of this performance was such, as might naturally
encourage the autlior to new undertakings. A gentleman of
Cambridge,* whose name was Merryweather, turned it not
inelegantly into Latin ; and from his version it was again trans-
lated into Italian,'' German, Dutch, and French ; and at Stras-
* Life, <i:c.
1 Tfalian.] This translation I have never met with, nor have I ever
BecD it more distinctly mentioned than in this notice.
SIK THOMAS BEOWXE. XV
burg, the Latin translation was published with large notes, by
Lt-nuus Nicolaus Moltfarius/ Of the English annotations,
which in all the editions from 1644 accompany the book, the
author is unknown.'
Of Merryweather, to whose zeal Browne was so much in-
debted for the sudden extension of his renown, I know nothing,
but that he pubhshed a small treatise for the instruction of
voung persons in the attainment of ^ Latin stile.' He printed
his translation in Holland with some difficulty.* The first
{)rinter to whom he offered it, carried it to Sahnasius, "who
aid it by (says he) in state for three months," and then dis-
couraged its pubhcation : it was afterwards rejected by two
other printers, and at last was received by Hackius.
The peculiarities of this book raised the author, as is usual,
many admirers and many enemies ; but we know not of more
than one professed answer," written under the title of Medicus
Medicatus,f by Alexander Hoss, which was imiversally neglected
by the world.
At the time when this book was published. Dr. Browne
resided at Norwich, where he had settled in 1636, by the per-
suasion of Dr. Lushington,J his tutor, who was then rector
of Burnham Westgate" in the neighbourhood. It is recorded
by Wood, that his practice was very extensive, and that many
patients resorted to him. In 1637§ he was incorporated doctor
of physick in Oxford.
He married in 1641 1| Mrs. Mileham, of a good family in
Is^orfolk ;'' "a lady (says TMiitefoot) of such symmetrical pro-
portion to her worthy husband, both in the graces of her body
* Men-yweatker's Letter — Correspondence.
t Life, <i:c. t Wood.
§ Wood. II Whitefoot.
' Lefiiuus Nicolaus Moltfarius.] The true name is Levinus Nicolaus
Moltkenias. He signs his preface in initials thus, L. N. M. E. M.
which are thus explained by a French critic : — " Ces lettres initialea
deaignent Lei-inus Nicolaus Molflius, dont on a encore Conclave A kx-
andri VII., et alia Historica conjunctim edita Slesvici, 1656, 8vo." —
Niceron, Mem. p. Servir a I' Hist, des Hommes Celcbres, xxiii. 356.
^ the author, d-c] Was Mr. Thomas Keck, of the Temple. — Preface
to Relirjio Medici.
' Latin stile.] See Supplementary Memoir.
" answer.'] In 1645. — See Preface to Religio Medici and Supple-
mentari/ Memoir.
" Burnham Westrjate.] See Supplementary Memoir.
1 Mrs. Mileham, <tc ] Daughter of Edward Mileham, Esq., of Bun
ingham, in Norfolk. — See Pedigree, dx.
XVI DR. JOHNSON S LIFE OF
and mind, that tliey seemed to come together by a kind of
natural magnetism."
This marriage could not but draw the raillery of contem-
porary wits* upon a man, who had just been wishing in his
new book, " that we might procreate, like trees, without con-
junction ;" and had lately dcclared,t that " the whole world
was made for man, but only the twelfth part of man for woman ;"
and, that "man is the whole world, but woman only the rib or
crooked part of man."
Whether the lady had been yet informed of these con-
temptuous positions, or whether she was pleased with the
conquest of so formidable a rebel, and considered it as a double
triumph, to attract so much merit, and overcome so powerful
prejudices ; or whether, Uke most others, she married upon
mingled motives, between convenience and inclination : she had,
however, no reason to repent : for she lived happily with him
one and forty years ; and bore him ten^ children, of whom one
son and three daughters outlived their parents ; she survived
him two years, and passed her widowhood in plenty, if not in
opulence.
Browne having now entered the world as an author, and
experienced the delights of praise and molestations of censure,
probably found his dread of the publick eye diminished ; and,
therefore, was not long before he trusted his name to the criticks
a second time : for in 1646 J he printed Enquiries into Vulgar
and Common Errors ; a work, which as it arose not from fancy
and invention, but from observation and books, and contained
not a single discourse of one continued tenor, of which the
latter part rose from the former, but an enumeration of many
unconnected particulars, must have been the collection of years,
and the effect of a design early formed and long pursued, to
which his remarks had been continually referred, and which
arose gradually to its present bulk by the daily aggregation of
new particles of knowledge. It is, indeed, to be wished, that
he had longer delayed the publication, and added what the
remaining part of his life might have furnished : the thirty -six
years which he spent afterwards in study and experience, would
doubtless have made large additions to an " Enquiry into
Vulgar Errors." He published in 1672 the sixth edition, with
some improvements ; but I think rather with explications of
what he had already written, than any new heads of disquisition.
But with the work, such as the author, whether hindered from
* Howell's Letters, book i. 60, and Relujto BihUopolcB.
t Relifjio Medici. J Life, die.
* (ew.] Eleven. — See Pedigree.
SIR THOMAS BEOWlinC. XVll
continuing it by eagerness of praise, or ■weariness of labour,
thought fit to give, we must be content ; and remember, that in
all sublunary things, there is something to be wished, which we
must wish in vain.
This book, like his former, was received with great applause,
was answered by Alexander Eoss, and translated into Dutch
and German, and not many years ago into French. It might
now be proper, had not the favour with which it was at first
received filled the kingdom with copies, to reprint it with notes
partly supplemental and partly emendatory, to subjoin those
oiscoveries which the industry of the last age has made, and
correct those mistakes which the author has committed, not by
idleness or negligence, but for want of Boyle's and Newton's
philosophy.*
He appears, indeed, to have been willing to pay labour for
truth.'' Having heard a flying rumour of sympathetick needles,
by which, suspended over a circular alphabet, distant friends or
lovers might correspond, he procured two such alphabets to be
made, touched his needles with the same magnet, and placed
them upon proper spindles : the result was, that when he moved
one of his needles, the other, instead of taking by sympathy
the same direction, " stood like the pillars of Hercules."
That it continued motionless, will be easily believed ; and most
men would have been content to believe it, without the labour
of so hopeless an experiment. Browne might himself have
obtained the same conviction by a method less operose, if he had
thrust his needles through corks, and then set them afloat in two
basons of water.
Notwithstanding his zeal to detect old errors, he seems not
very easy to admit new positions ; for he never mentions the
motion of the earth but with contempt and ridicule, though
the opinion, which admits it, was then growing popular, and
' This took, <frc.] See Preface to Pseudodoxia Epidemica, for a detailed
account of the replies to it, as well as of the various editions and trans-
lations of the work itself. If the present edition be deemed but imper-
fectly to answer the doctor's description of what it ought to be, 1 can
only offer the plea, that arrangements (on whose efiBciency I was justi-
fied in relying) have been, in a great measure, frustrated, by the non-
fulfilment of engagements, on which those arrangements depended. By
this disappointment (which I submitted to repeated delays, in the vain
hope of avoiding), I have been deprived of some important scientific
illustrations, precisely of the character described in the paragraph
before us.
•> truthJ] His willingness to take pains to disprove e\CL the most
absurd febles, is well evinced in his chapter Ow tlte Thi<ee Kings oj
Collein.
XVm DR. JOUKSO>' S LIFE OF
was, surely, plausible, even before it was confirmed by later
observations.
The reputation of Browne encouraged some low writer to
publish, under his name, a book called •' Nature's Cabinet
Unlocked;"* translated, according to Wood, from the physicks
of Magrrus ; of which Browne took care to clear himself, by
modestly advertising, that " if any man had been benefited by
it, he was not so ambitious as to challenge the honour thereof,
as having no hand in that work."t
In 1658 the discovery of some ancient urns in Norfolk gave
him occasion to write Hydriotaphia, Urnburial, or a Discourse of
Sepulchral Urns, in which he treats with his usual learning on
the funeral rites of the ancient nations ; exhibits their various
treatment of the dead ; and examines the substances found in
his Norfolcian urns. There is, perhaps, none of his works
which better exemplifies his reading or memory. It is scarcely
to be imagined, how many particulars he has amassed together,
ill a treatise which seems to have been occasionally written ;
and for which, therefore, no materials could have been pre-
viously collected. It is, indeed, like other treatises of antiquity,
rather for curiosity than use ; for it is of small importance to
know which nation buried their dead in the ground, which
threw them into the sea, or which gave them to birds and
beasts ; when the practice of cremation began, or when it was
disused ; whether the bones of diiferent persons were mingled
in the same urn ; what oblations were thrown into the pyre ;
or how the ashes of the body were distinguished from those of
other substances. Of the uselessness of all these enquiries,
Browne seems not to have been ignorant ; and, therefore, con-
cludes them with an observation which can never be too fre-
quently recollected.
" All or most apprehensions rested in opinions of some future
being, which ignorantly or coldly believed, begat those per-
verted conceptions, ceremonies, sayings, which Christians pity
or laugh at. Happy are they, which live not in that disad-
vantage of time, when men could say little for futurity, but
from reason ; whereby the noblest minds fell often upon double
ful deaths, and melancholy dissolutions : with these hopes
Socrates warmed his doubtful spirits, against the cold potion ;
and Cato, before he durst give the fatal stroke, spent part of the
night in reading the Immortality of Plato, thereby confirming
his wavering hand unto the animosity of that attempt.
" It is the heaviest stone that melancholy can thi'ow at man,
* Wood, and Life of Sir Tliomas Brovme.
t At the end of the (Jardcn of Cyrvs.
SIE THOMAS BEOWTfE. XIX
to tell liim he is at the end of his nature ; or that there is no
further state to come, unto which this seems progressional, and
otherwise made in vain : without this accomplishment, the
natural expectation and desire of such a state, were but a fallacy
in nature ; unsatisfied considerators would quarrel the justice
of their constitution, and rest content that Adam had fallen
lower, whereby, by knowing no other original, and deeper igno-
rance of themselves, they might have enjoyed the happiness of
inferior creatures, who in tranquillity possess their constitu-
tions, as having not the apprehension to deplore their own
natures ; and being framed below the circumference of these
hopes or cognition of better things, the wisdom of God hath
necessitated their contentment. But the superior ingredient
and obscured part of ovu'selves, whereto all present felicities
afford no resting contentment, will be able at last to tell us we
are more than our present selves ; and evacuate such hopes in
the fruition of their own accomplishments."
To his treatise on Urnburial was added the Garden of Cyrus,
or the Quincunxial Lozenge, or Network Plantation of the
Ancients, Artificially, Naturally, Mystically Considered. ''
This discourse he begins with the Sacred Garden, in which the
first man was placed ; and deduces the practice of horticidture
from the earliest accounts of antiquity to the time of the Per-
sian Cyrus, the first man whom we actually know to liave
planted a Quincunx ; which, however, our author is inclined to
believe of longer date, and not only discovers it in the descrip-
tion of the hanging gardens of Babylon, but seems willing to
believe, and to persuade his reader, that it was practised by the
feeders on vegetables before the flood.
Some of the most pleasing performances have been produced
by learning and genius exercised upon subjects of little im-
portance. It seems to have been, in all ages, the pride of
wit, to show how it.could exalt the low, and amplify the little.
To speak not inadequately of things really and naturally great,
is a task not only difficult but disagi'eeable ; because the writer
is degraded in his own eyes by standing in comparison with his
subject, to which he can hope to add nothing from his imagina-
tion : but it is a perpetual triumph of fancy to expand a scanty
theme, to raise glittering ideas from obscure properties, and to
produce to the world an object of wonder to which nature had
contributed little. To this ambition, perhaps, we owe the
' Mystically Considered.'] He withstood the Copernican hypcthesi.s —
on precisely the same ground on which some modern naturalists are
disposed to regard, with apprehension and distrust, the Cuvierian Sj^stem
of Geology — as opposing the statements of Scripture.
VOL. I. 5
XX DR. JOHKSON S LIFE OF
Frogs of Homer, the Gnat and the Bees of Tirgil, the But-
terfly of Spenser, the Shadow of Wowerus, and the Quincunx
of Browac.
In the prosecution of this sport of fancy, he considers every
production of art and nature, in which he could find any decus-
sation or approaches to the form of a Quincunx ; and as a man
once resolved upon ideal discoveries, seldom searches long in
vain, he finds hjs favourite figure in almost every thing, whe-
ther natural or invented, ancient or modern, rude or artificial,
sacred and civU; so that a reader, not watchful against the
power of his infusions, would imagine that decussation was the
great business of the world, and that nature and art had no
other purpose than to exemplify and imitate a Quincunx.
To show the excellence of this figure, he enumerates aU its
properties ; and finds in it almost every thing of use or plea-
sure : and to show how readily he supphes what he cannot find,
one instance may be sufficient ; " though therein (says he) we
meet not with right angles, yet every rhombus containing four
angles equal unto two right, it virtually contains two right in
every one."
The fanciful sports of great minds are never without some
advantage to knowledge. Browne has interspersed many curious
observations on the form of plants, and the laws of vegetation ;
and appears to have been a very accurate observer of the modes
of germination, and to have watched with great nicety the evo-
lution of the parts of plants from their seminal principles.
He is then naturally led to treat of the number five ; and
finds, that by this number many things are circumscribed ;
that there are five kinds of vegetable productions, five sections
of a cone, five orders of architecture, and five acts of a play.
And observing that five was the ancient conjugal or wedding
number, he proceeds to a speculation which I shall give in his
own words ; " the ancient numerists made out the conjugal
number by two and three, the first parity and imparity, the
active and passive digits, the material and formal principles in
generative societies."
These are all the tracts which he published : but many papers
were found in his closet, " some of them (says Whitefoot), de-
signed for the press, were often transcribed and corrected by his
own hand, after the fashion of great and curious writers."
Of these, two collections have been publislied ; one by Dr.
Tenison, the other in 1722 by a nameless editor."^ Wliether the
one ov the other selected those pieces which the author would
have preferred, cannot now be known : but they have both the
•* editor.] John Hajse, Richmond Herald. — See Preface to Jteperto-
SIB THOMAS BROWNE. XAl
merit of giving to mankind what was too valuable jO be sup-
pressed ; and what might, without their interposition, have,
perhaps, perished among other innumerable labours of learned
men, or have been burnt in a scarcity of fuel like the papers of
Pereskius.
The first of these posthumous treatises contains "observations
upon several plants mentioned in Scripture." These remarks,
though they do not immediately either rectify the faith, or refine
the morals of the reader, yet are by no means to be censured as
superfluous niceties or useless speculations ; for they often show
some propriety of description, or elegance of allusion, utterly
undiscoverable to readers not skilled in oriental botany; and are
often of more important use, as they remove some difficulty
from narratives, or some obscurity from precepts.
The next is " of garlands, or coronary and garland plants ;" a
subject merely of learned curiosity, without any other end than
the plcEisure of reflecting on ancient customs, or on the industry
with which studious men have endeavoured to recover them.'
The next is a letter, " on the fishes eaten by our Saviour with
his disciples, after his resurrection from the dead ;" which con-
tains no determinate resolution of the question, what they were,
for indeed it cannot be determined. All the information that
diligence or learning could supply, consists in an enumeration of
the fishes produced in the waters of Judea.
Then follow " answers to certain queries about fishes, birds,
and insects ;" and " a letter of hawks and falconry, ancient and
modem :" in the first of which he gives the proper interpretation
of some ancient names of animals, commonly mistaken ; and in
the other has some curious observations on the art of hawking,
which he considers as a practice unknown to the ancients. I
believe all our sports of the field are of Gothick original ; the
ancients neither hunted by the scent, nor seem much to have
practised horsemanship as an exercise; and though, in their
works, there is mention of " aucupium" and "piscatio," they
seem no more to have been considered as diversions, than agri-
culture or any other manual labour.
In two more letters he speaks of " the cymbals of the
Hebrews," but without any satisfactory determination ; and of
"ropalick or gradual verses," that is, of verses beginning w'lth a
word of one syllable, and proceeding by words of which each
has a syllable more than the former ; as,
" Deus, wternw stationis conciliator." — AusONius.
' recover themJ] To which Browne's attention was turned by the
enquiries of Evelyn, who applied to him for assistance in his projected
work on horticulture, and to whom this essay was enclosed, in a letter,
— See Correspondence.
b 2
XIU DR. JOHNSOK S LIFE OF
and, after his manner, pursuing the hint, he mentions many
other restrained methods of versifying, to which industrious
ignorance has sometimes voluntarily subjected itself.
His next attempt is " on languages, and particularly the Saxon
tongue." He discourses with great learning, and generally with
great justness, of the derivation and changes of languages ; but,
like other men of multifarious learning, he receives some notions
without examination. Thus he observes, according to the popu-
lar opinion, that the Spaniards have retained so much Latin, as
to be able to compose sentences that shaU be at once grammati-
cally Latin and Castihan : this wiU appear very unlikely to a
man that considers the Spanish terminations ; and Howell, who
was eminently skilful in the three provincial languages, declares,
that after many essays he never could effect it.
The principal design of this letter, is to show the affinity
between the modern English and the ancient Saxon; and he
observes, very rightly, that "though we have borrowed many
substantives, adjectives, and some verbs, from the French ; yet
the great body of numerals, auxiliary verbs, articles, pronoims,
adverbs, conjunctions, and prepositions, which are the distin-
guishing and lasting parts of a language, remain with us from
the Saxon."
To prove this position more evidently, he has drawn up a
short discourse of six paragraphs, in Saxon and English; of
which every word is the same in both languages, excepting the
terminations and orthography. The words are, indeed, Saxon,
but the phraseology is Euglisli ; and, I think, would not have
been understood by Bede or iElfric, notwithstanding the confi-
dence of our author. He has, however, sufficiently proved his
position, that the English resembles its parental language, more
than any modern European dialect.
There remain five tracts of this collection yet unmentioned ;
one " of artificial hills, mounts, or burrows, in England ;" in
reply to an interrogatory letter of E. D. whom the writers of
Biographia Britannica suppose to be, if rightly printed, W. D.
or Sir William Dugdale, one of Browne's correspondents.
These are declared by Browne, in concurrence, I think, with aU
other antiquarians, to be for the most part funeral monuments.
He proves, that both the Danes and Saxons buried their men of
eminence under piles of earth, " which admitting (says he) nei-
ther ornament, epitaph, nor inscription, may, if earthquakes
spare them, outlast other monuments : obelisks have their term,
and pyramids will tmnble ; but these mountainous monuments
may stand, and are like to have the same period with the earth."
In the next, he answers two geographical questions ; one con-
cerning Troas mentioned in the Acts and Epistles of St Paul,
SIR THOMAS BEOWNE. XXIU
which he determines to be the city buUt near the ancient Hium ;
and the other concerning the Dead Sea, of which he gives the
same account with other writers.
Another letter treats " of the answers of the oracle of ApoUo
at Delphos, to Croesus king of Lydia." In this tract nothing
deserves notice, more than that Browne considers the oracles as
evidently and indubitably supernatural, and founds all his dis-
quisition upon that postulate/ He wonders why the physiolo-
gists of old, having such means of instruction, did not enquire
into the secrets of nature : but judiciously concludes, that such
questions would probably have been vain ; " for, in matters cog-
noscible, and formed for our disquisition, our industry must be
our oracle, and reason our ApoUo."
The pieces that remain are, "A prophecy concerning the
future state of several nations ;" in which Browne plainly dis-
covers his expectation to be the same with that entertained
lately with more confidence by Dr. Berkeley, " that America will
be the seat of the fifth empire :" and " Museum clausum, sive
Bibhotheca abscondita ;" in which the author amuses himself
with imagining the existence of books and curiosities, either
never in being, or irrecoverably lost.
These pieces I have recounted as they are ranged in Tenison'a
collection, because the editor has given no account of the time at
which any of them were written. Some of them are of Uttle
value, more than as they gratify the mind with the picture of a
great scholar, turning his learning into amusement ; or show
upon how great a variety of enquiries the same mind has been
successfully employed.
The other collection of his posthumous pieces, pubUshed in
octavo, Lond. 1722,^ contains " E-epertorium ; or some accoimt
of the tombs and monuments in the cathedral of Norwich ;"
where, as Tenison observes, there is not matter proportionate to
the skill of the antiquary.
The other pieces are, " Answers to Sir William Dugdale'a
enquiries about the fens ; a letter concerning Iceland ; another
relating to urns newly discovered ; Some short strictures on dif-
ferent subjects ;" and " A letter to a friend on the death of his
intimate friend," pubhshed singly by the author's son in 1690.
There is inserted, in the Biographia Britannica, " A letter
' postulmte.] His perfect conviction of the Satanic influence exerted
n oracles is' strongly expressed in a passage of his Religio Medici,
respecting the ground of his belief of their cessation at the coming of
Jesus Christ ; — viz. the confession of the devil himself in his oracle to
Augustus.
K 1722.] This date was taken from a copy which had a reprint title.
The book was published in 1712.
XXIV DE. JOHNSON S LIFE OF
containing instructions for the study of pliysick ;" wWcli, with
the Essays here offered to the publick, completes the works of
Dr. Browne.
To the life of this learned man, there remains little to be
added, but that in 1665 he was chosen honorary fellow of the
college of physicians,'' as a man, "Virtute et Uteris ornatissimus,
— eminently embellished with literature and virtue :" and, in
1671, received, at Norwich, the honour of knighthood from
Charles II., a prince, who with many frailties and vices, had yet
skill to discover excellence, and virtue to reward it, with such
honorary distinctions at least as cost him nothing, yet, conferred
by a king so judicious and so much beloved, had the power of
giving merit new lustre and greater popularity.
Thus he lived in high reputation; till in his seventy-sixth year
he was seized with a colick, which, after having tortured him
about a week, put an end to his life, at Norwich, on his birth-
day, October 19, 1 682.* Some of his last words were expres-
sions of submission to the will of God, and fearlessness of
death.
He lies buried in the church of St. Peter Mancroft,' in Nor-
wich, with this inscription on a mural monument, placed on the
south pillar of the altar :
M.S.
HIO SITUS EST
THOMAS BROWNE, M.D.
ET MILES.
A" 1605. LONDONI NATUS
OENEROSA PAMILIA APUD UPTON IN AGRO CESTRIENSI ORIUNDUS.
SCHOLA PRIMUM WINTONIENSI, POSTEA
IN COLL. PEMBR.
APUD OXONIENSES BONIS UTERIS
HAUD LEVITER IMBUTUS.
IN URBE HAC NORDOVICENSI MEDICINAM
ARTE EGREGIA, ET FOELICI SUCCESSU IROFESSDS,
SCRIPTIS, QUIBUS TITULI, RELIGIO MEDICI
ET PSEUDODOXIA EPIDEMICA ALIISQUE
PER ORBEM NOTISSIMUS
VIB PIENTISSIMUS, INTEGERRIMCS, DOCTISSIMUS J
OBIIT OCTOBR. 19, 1682.
PIE POSUIT MCESTISSIMA CONJUX
D°- DOROTH. BR.
* Life, <kc.— Whitefoot.
^ in 1665, <tc.] Rather in 1664. — See Supplementary Memoir.
' He lies hwried, etc.] "Within the railes at the east end of tie
chancel." — Wood, 4 to. Le Neve says the cathedral. — See above.
SIR THOMAS BEOWNE. XIV
NEAR THE FOOT OF THIS PILLAR LIES
SIR THOMAS BROWNE, KNIGHT,
AND DOCTOR IN PHYSICK,
AUTHOR OF RELIGIO irEDICI, AND OTHER LEARNED BOOKS,
WHO PRACTIC'D PHYSICK IN THIS CITY 46 YEARS,
AND DIED OCTOBER 19, 1682, IN THE 77 YEAR OF HIS AGE.
IN MEMORY OF WHOM
DAME DOROTHY BROWNE,
WHO HAD BEEN HIS AFFECTIONATE WIFE 41 YEARS,
CAUSED THIS MONUMENT TO BE ERECTED.
Besides his lady, who died in 1685, he left a son and three
daughters. Of the daughters nothing very remarkable is
known ; but his son, Edward Browne, requires a particular
mention.
He was born about the year 1642 ; and after having passed
through the classes of the school at Norwich, became bachelor
of physick at Cambridge ; and afterwards removing to Merton
College in Oxford, was admitted there to the same degree, and
afterwards made a doctor. In 1668 he visited part of Ger-
many, and in the year following made a wider excursion into
Austria, Hungary, and Thessaly ; where the Turkish Sultan
then kept his court at Larissa. He afterwards passed through
Italy. His skill in natural history made him particularly atten-
tive to mines and metallurgy. Upon his return he pubhshed an
accoimt of the countries through which he had passed ; which I
have heard commended by a learned traveller, who has visited
many places after him, as written with scrupulous and exact
veracity, such as is scarcely to be found in any other book of the
Bame kind. But whatever it may contribute to the instruction
of a naturalist, I cannot recommend it as likely to give much
pleasure to common readers : for whether it be, that the world
18 very uniform, and therefore he who is resolved to adhere to
truth, will have few novelties to relate ; or that Dr. Browne
was, by the train of his studies, led to enquire most after those
things, by which the greatest part of mankind is Uttle affected ;
a great part of his book seems to contain very unimportant
accoimts of his passage from one place where he saw little, to
another where he saw no more.
Upon his return, he practised physick in London ; was made
physician first to Charles II., and afterwards in 1682 to St. Bar-
tholomew's hospital. About the same time he joined his name
to those of many other eminent men, in " A translation of Plu-
tarch's lives." He was first censor, then elect, and treasurer of
the college of physicians ; of which in 1705 he was chosen
XXi-l DR. JOHNSON S LIFE 07
president, and held his office, till in 1708 he died in a degree of
estimation suitable to a man so variously accomplished, that
King Charles had honoured him with this panegyrick, that " He
was as learned as any of the college, and as well bred as any of
the court."
Of every great and eminent character, part breaks forth into
public view, and part lies hid in domestic privacy. Those quali-
ties which have been exerted in any known and lasting perform-
ances, may, at any distance of time, be traced and estimated ;
but silent excellencies are soon forgotten ; and those minute
peculiarities which discriminate every man from all others, if
they are not recorded by those whom personal knowledge ena-
bled to observe them, are irrecoverably lost. This mutUation of
character must have happened, among many others, to Sir
Thomas Browne, had it not been delineated by his friend, Mr.
Whitefoot, who " esteemed it an especial favour of Provi-
dence, to have had a particular acquaintance with him for two-
thirds of his life." Part of his observations I shall, therefore,
copy.'
' copy.'] Mr. Whitefoot's being the earliest existing biographical
sketch of our author, and the work of a contemporary, and an intimate
friend, I had felt strongly disposed to print it entire, rather than give
Dr. Johnson's extracts. But as he has omitted only the commencement,
and two or three paragraphs in the midst, I have thought it better to
present Dr. Johnson's Biography just as it stood, supplying his omis-
sions in notes. Here follow the introductory paragraphs, thus headed : —
" Some Minutes for the Life of Sir Thomas Bro7vne, hy John Whitefoot,
M.A. late Rector of Heigham, in Norfolk.
"Had my province been only to preach a funeral sermon for this
excellent person, I might, perhaps, have been allowed, upon such a
singular occasion, to have chosen my text out of a book, which though
it be not approved to be canonical, yet is notpenuitted only, but ordered
to be read publicly in our church, and for the eminent wisdom of tlie
contents, well deserving that honour, I mean that of Syracides, or
Jesus, the son of Syrach, commonly called Ecclesiasticus, which, in the
thirty-eighth chapter, and the first verse, hath these words : ' Honour
a physician with the honour due unto him ; for the uses which you may
have of him, for the Lord hath created him ; for of the most High
Cometh healing, and he shall receive honour of the king ?' (as ours did
that of knighthood from the present king, when he was in this city.)
' The skill of the physician shall lift up his head, and in the sight of
great men shall be in admiration.* So was this worthy person by the
greatest men of this nation that ever came into this country, by whom
also he was frequently and personally visited.
" But a further account of his extraordinary merits, whereby he
obtained so great a degree of honour from all that knew him, remains to
be given in the history of his life. And had that been written by him-
SIK THOMAS BROW>'E. XSVll
" For a character of his person, his complexion and liair waa
answerable to his name, his stature was moderate, and habit of
body neither fat nor lean but svcdpKog.
" In his habit of clothing, he had an aversion to all finery, and
afiected plainness, both in the fashion and ornaments. He ever
wore a cloke, or boots, when few others did. He kept himself
always very warm, and thought it most safe so to do, though he
never loaded himself with such a multitude of garments, as
Suetonius reports of Augustus, enough to clothe a good family,
" The horizon of his understanding was much larger than the
hemisphere of the world ; all that was visible in the heavens he
comprehended so well, that few that are under them knew so
much. He could tell the number of the visible stars in his
horizon, and call them all by their names that had any ; and of the
sel^ as hath been done by many eminent persons, both antient and
modem, Hebrews, Greeks, Latins, and others,* it would not only have
gratified, but obliged, the world beyond what is possible to be done by
any other hand, much more by that, into which (upon divers particular
obligations) that task is fallen : ' For what man knows the things of a
man, save the Spirit of a Man, which is in him.'f And though that
must needs know more of any man, than can be known by others, yet
may it be, and generally is (being blinded with that original sin of self-
love), very defective in the habit and practice of that original precept,
that is said to have come down from heaven, yvwOi aiaurui, 'Know
thyself.' Two things there are in nature, which are the greatest impe-
diments of sight ; viz. nearness and distance of the object, but of the
two, distance is the greater ; in ordinary cases every man is too near
himself, others are too far distant from him, to observe his imperfections ;
some are greater strangers to themselves than they are to their neigh-
bours ; tills worthy person had as complete an intelligence of himself aa
any other man, and much more perfect than most others have, being a
singular observer of everything that belonged to himself, from the time
that he became capable of such observation, whereof he hath given
several remarkable instances in his Religio Medici, of which I shall have
occasion to speak more hereafter.
" I ever esteemed it a special favour of Divine Providence to have
had a more particular acquaintance with this excellent person, for two-
thirds of his life, than any other man that is now left alive ; but that
which renders me a willing debtor to his name and family, is the special
obhgations of favour that I had from him above most men.
"Two and thirty years, or thereabouts, of his life was spent before I
had any knowledge of him, whereof I can give no other account than I
received from his relations : by whom I am informed, that he was born
in the year 1605, in the city of London."
(Tfi^n follows the text, top. xxix.)
* Moses, Josephus, Antoninus, Cardan, Junius, Bishop Hall, &c.
t 1 Cor. ii. 11.
XXVUl DE. JOHNSON S LIFE OF
earth, he had such a minute and exact geographical knowledge,
as if he had been by Divine Providence ordained surveyor-
general of the whole terrestrial orb, and its products, minerals,
plants, and animals. He was so curious a botanist, that besides
the specifical distinctions, he made nice and elaborate observa-
tions, equally useful as entertaining.
" His memory, though not so eminent as that of Seneca or
Scaliger, was capacious and tenacious, insomuch as he remem-
bered all that was remarkable in any book that he had read ;
and not only knew all persons again that he had ever seen at
any distance of time, but remembered the circumstances of their
bodies, and their particular discourses and speeches
" In the Latin poets he remembered everything that was
acute and pungent ; he had read most of the historians, antient
and modern, wherein his observations were singular, not taken
notice of by common readers ; he was excellent company when
he was at leisure, and expressed more light than heat in the
temper of his brain.
" He had no despotical power over his affections and passions
(that was a privilege of original perfection, forfeited by the
neglect of the use of it), but as large a political power over them
as any stoick or man of his time, whereof he gave so great expe-
riment, that he hath very rarely been known to have been over-
come with any of them. The strongest that were found in him,
both of the irascible and concupiscible, were under the controul
of his reason. Of admiration, which is one of them, being the
only product, either of ignorance, or uncommon knowledge, he
had more, and less, than other men, upon the same account
of his knowing more than others ; so that though he met
with many rarities, he admired them not so much as others do.
*' He was never seen to be transported with mirth, or dejected
with sadness ; always cheerful, but rarely merry, at any sensible
rate, seldom heard to break a jest ; and when he did, he would
be apt to blush at the levity of it : his gravity was natural with-
out affectation.
" His modesty was visible in a natural habitual blush, which
was increased upon the least occasion, and oft discovered without
any observable cause.
" They that knew no more of him than by the briskness of
his writings, found themselves deceived in their expectation
when they came in his company, noting the gravity and sobriety
of his aspect and conversation ; so free from loquacity, or mucn
talkativeness, that he was something diiBcult to be engaged in
any discourse ; though when he was so, it was always singular
and never trite or vulgar. Parsimonious in nothing but his
time, whereof he made as much improvement, with as little loss
SIE THOMiS BliOWNE. ttit
as any man in it, when he had any to spare from his drud^ng
practice, he was scarce patient of any diversion from his study ;
80 impatient of sloth and idleness, that he would say, he could
not do nothing."
" Sir Thomas understood most of the European languages,
viz. all that are in Hutter's bible, which he made use of. The
Latin and Greek he understood critically ; the oriential lan-
guages, which never were vernacular in this part of the world,
he thought the use of them would not answer the time and pains
of learning them ; yet had so great a veneration for the matrix
of them, viz. the Hebrew, consecrated to the Oracles of God,
that he was not content to be totally ignorant of it ; though
very little of his science is to be found in any books of that
primitive language. And though much is said to be written ia
the derivative idioms of that tongue, especially the Arabick, yet
he was satisfied with the translations, wherein he found nothing
admirable.
" In his religion he continued in the same mind which he had
declared in his first book, written when he was but thirty years
old, his Eeligio Medici, wherein he fully assented to that of the
church of England, preferring it before any in the world, as did
the learned Grotius. He attended the pubUck service very con-
" do nothing.'] Here Dr. Johnson has omitted the following pas-
"In his papers left behind him, which were many, nothing was found
that was vulgar, but all savouring of much ingenuity and curiosity ;
some of them designed for the press, were often transcribed and
corrected by his own hand, after the fashion of great and curious wits.
"He had ten children by his surviving only wife,* a lady of such a
symmetrical proportion to her worthy husband, both in the graces of
her body and mind, that they seemed to come together by a kind
of natural magnetism.
" Four of his children sm-vived, a son and three daughters, all
of them remarkably partakers of his ingenuity and virtues ; who were
left behind to propagate that iv(pvia, that excelled in his person.
Though health, grace, and happiness, are no hereditary portions, yet
good nature generally is.
"His surviving son+ was his eldest child, a person of eminent
reputation in the city of London ; and hath seen the best part
of Europe — France, Italy, Lower and High Germany, Croatia, and
Greece, as far as Larissa — has been in four of the greatest princes'
courts that border upon the Mediterranean, viz. that of the Emperor,
that of France, the Pope, and the Grand Signior,"
* Whose maiden name was Mileham, a gentlewoman of a very
considerable family in the county of Norfolk.
t Dr. Edward Browne, late President of the College of Physicians.
XXX DB. JOHNSON S LIFE OP
stantly, when lie was not witlilield by his practice. Never
missed the sacrament in his parish, if he were in town. Read the
best Enghsh sermons he could hear of, with liberal applause ; and
delighted not in controversies. In his last sickness, wherein he
continued about a week's time, enduring great pain of the
cholick, besides a continual fever, with as much patience as hath
been seen in any man, without any pretence of stoical apathy,
animosity, or vanity, of not being concerned thereat, or suffering
no impeachment of happiness. Nihil agis dolor.
" His patience was founded upon the Christian philosophy,
and a sound faith of God's providence, and a meek and humble
submission thereunto, which he expressed in few words. I
visited him near his end, when he had not strength to hear or
speak much ; the last words which I heard from him were,
besides some expressions of dearness, that he did freely submit
to the will of God, being without fear. He had oft triumphed
over the king of terrors in others, and given many repulses in
the defence of patients ; but when his own turn came, he sub-
mitted with a meek, rational, and religious courage.
" He might have made good the old saying of dat Galenus
opes, had he lived in a place that could have afforded it. But
his indulgence and liberality to his children, especially in their
travels, two of his sons in divers countries, and two of his daugh-
ters in France, spent him more than a Uttle. He was liberal in
his house entertainments, and in his charity ; he left a comfort-
able, but no great estate, both to his lady and children, gained
by his own industry, having spent the greatest part of his patri-
mony* in his travels.
" Such was his sagacity and knowledge of all history, antient
and modern, and his observations thereupon so singular, that it
hath been said by them that knew him best, that if his profes-
sion, and place of abode, would have suited his ability, he would
have made an extraordinary man for the privy council, not much
inferior to the famous Padre Paulo, the late oracle of the Vene-
tian state.
" Though he were no prophet or son of a prophet, yet, in that
faculty which comes nearest it, he excelled, i. e. the stochastick,"
* He was likewise very much defrauded by one of his guardians.
^ stochastich.'] On the predictive power expressed by this term,
I meet with the following passage in 1)' Israeli's Curiosities of Literature,
2nd seri&s, vol. ii. 425 : — " This faculty seems to be described by a
remarkable expression employed by Thucydides in his character of
Themistocles, of which the following is given as a close translation.
' By a species of sagacity peculiarly his own, for which he was in no
dej^ee indebted either to early education or after study, he was 8v:per-
SIR THOMAS BEOWNE. XX51
wherein he was seldom mistaken, as to future events, as well
publick as private; but not apt to discover any presages or
superstition." °
It is observable, that he who in his earlier years had read all
the books against religion, was in the latter part of his life averse
from controversies. To play with important truths, to disturb the
repose of established tenets, to subtilize objections and elude
proof, is too often the sport of youthful vanity, of which maturer
experience commonly repents. There is a time, when every
wise man is weary of raising difficulties only to task himself with
the solution, and desires to enjoy truth without the labour or
hazard of contest. There is, perhaps, no better method of
encountering these troublesome irruptions of scepticism, with
which inquisitive minds are frequently harassed, than that which
Browne declares himself to have taken : "If there arise any
doubts in my way, I do forget them ; or at least defer them, till
my better settled judgment and more manly reason be able to
resolve them: for I perceive, every man's reason is his best
Oedipus, and w'lil, upon a reasonable truce, find a way to loose
those bonds, wherewith the subtilties of error have enchained
our more flexible and tender judgments."
The foregoing character may be confirmed and enlarged, by
many passages in the Religio Medici ; in which it appears, from
WTiitefoot's testimony, that the author, though no very sparing
panegyrist of himself, has not exceeded the truth, with respect
to his attainments or visible qualities.
There are, indeed, some interior and secret virtues, which a
man may sometimes have without the kno\^lo(lge of others ; and
may sometimes assume to himself, without sufficient reasons for
his opinion. It is charged upon Browne by Dr. Watts, as an
eminently happy in forming a prompt judgment in matters that
admitted but little time for deliberation ; at the same time that he far
surpassed all in his deductions of tut future from the past ; or was the
best guesser of the future from th^' jiast.'* Should this faculty of
moral and political prediction be ever considered as a science, we can
even furnish it with a denomiuMtion ; for the writer of the life of Sir
Thomas Browne, prefixed to his works, in claiming the honour of it for
that philosopher, calls it 'the Stochastic,' a term derived from the
Greek and from archeiy, meaning, ' to shoot at a mark.' This eminent
genius, it seems, often 'hit the white.' Our biographer declares, that
' though he were no prophet, yet in that faculty, &c.' "
° sufjtrstition.] End of WJdtefoot's Minutes.
* OtKtig, yap Si;i'£(T£(, kuI ovrt irpofiaQwv ig nvTTjv oliCev, ovr
iTTifiaOuJi', Twv T( TTapaxpfjfia Si i\axi(TTTig fSovXfjg KpaTiffrog yviomoVf
KOI Twv fiiWovTwv eTriTrXtlffT'ov to ytv)](Toixki'0V dpiffTog fiKracrrjjc.—
Thdcydides, lib. I.
XXXll DR. JOHNSON S LIFE OF
mstance of arrogant temerity, that, after a long detail of hia
attainments, he declares himself to have escaped "the fiist and
father-sin of pride." A perusal of the Eeligio Medici will not
much contribute to produce a belief of the author's exemption
from this father-sin : pride is a vice, which pride itself inclines
every man to find in others, and to overlook in himself.
As easily may we be mistaken in estimating our own courage,
as our own humility ; and, therefore, when Browne shows
himself persuaded, that " he could lose an arm without a tear,
or with a few groans be quartered to pieces," I am not sure that
he felt in himself any uncommon powers of endurance ; or,
indeed, anything more than a sudden effervescence of imagina-
tion, which, uncertain and involuntary as it is, he mistook for
settled resolution.
" That there were not many extant, that in a noble way feared
the face of death less than himself," he might likewise beheve
at a very easy expense, while death was yet at a distance ; but
the time will come to every human being, when it must be
known how well he can bear to die ; and it has appeared, that
our author's fortitude did not desert him in the great hour of
trial.
It was observed by some of the remarkers on the Religio
Medici, that " the author was yet alive, and might grow worse
as weU as better : " it is, therefore, happy, that this suspicion
can be obviated by a testimony given to the continuance of his
virtue, at a time when death had set him free from danger of
change, and his panegyrist from temptation to flattery.
But it is not on the praises of others, but on his own writings,
that he is to depend for the esteem of posterity ; of which he
will not easily be deprived, while learning shall have any
reverence among men : for there is no science, in which he does
not discover some skill ; and scarce any kind of knowledge,
profane or sacred, abstruse or elegant, which he does not appear
to have cultivated with success.
His exuberance of knowledge, and plenitude of ideas, some-
tjnes obstruct the tendency of his reasoning, and the clearness
of his decisions : on whatever subject he employed his mind,
there started up immediately so many images before him, that
he lost one by grasping another. His memory supplied him
with so many illustrations, parallel or dependent notions, that
he was always starting into collateral considerations : but the
spirit and vigour of his pursuit always gives delight ; and the
reader foUows him, without reluctance, thro' his mazes, in them-
selves flowery ani pleasing, and ending at the point originally
in yiew.
To have great excellencies, and great faults, " macfnce virtules
SIR THOMAS BEOWNE. XXXIU
mc minora vitia, is the poesy," says our author, " of the best
natures." This poesy may be properly applied to the style of
Browne: It is vigorous, but rugged ; it is learned, but pedantick;
it is deep, but obscure ; it strikes, but does not please ; it
commands but does not allure : his tropes are harsh, and his
combinations uncouth. He fell into an age, in which our
language began to lose the stability which it obtained in the
time of Elizabeth ; and was considered by every writer as a subject
on which he might try his plastic skill, by moulding it according
to his own fancy. Milton, in consequence of this encroaching
licence, began to introduce the Latin idiom : and Browne, though
he gave less disturbance to our structures and phraseology, yet
poured in a multitude of exotick words ; many, indeed, useful
and significant, which, if rejected, must be suppUed by circum-
locution, such as ' commensality' for the state of many Uving at
the same table ; but many superfluous, as ' a paralogical ' for an
unreasonable doubt ; and some so obsciu"e, that they conceal his
meaning rather than explain it, as ' arthritical analogies ' for
parts that serve some animals in the place of joints.
His style is, indeed, a tissue of many languages ; a mixture of
heterogeneous words, brought together from distant regions,
with terms originally appropriated to one art, and drawn by
violence into the service of another. He must, however, be
confessed to have augmented our phUosopliical diction ; and in
defence of his uncommon words and expressions, we must consider,
that he had vmcommon sentiments, and was not content to
express in many words that idea for which any language could
supply a single term.
But his innovations are sometimes pleasing, and his temerities
happy : he has many " verba ardentia," forcible expressions,
which he would never have found, but by venturing to the utmost
verge of propriety ; and flights which would never have been
reached, but by one who had very Httle fear of the shame of
falling.
There remains yet an objection against the writings of Browne,
more formidable than the animadversions of criticism. There
are passages, from which some have taken occasion to rank him
among deists, and others among atheists. It would be difficult
to guess how any such conclusion should be formed, had not
experience shown that there are two sorts of men willing to
enlarge the catalogue of infidels.
It has been long observed, that an atheist has no just reason
for endeavouring conversions ; and yet none harass those minds
which they can infiuence, with more importunity of solicitation
to adopt their opinions. In proportion as they doubt the truth
of their own doctrines, they are desirous to gain the attestation
xxxiv DE. johkson's life of
of another understanding ; and industriously labour to win a
proselyte, and eagerly catch at the slightest pretence to dignify
their sect with a celebrated name.*
The others become friends to infidelity only by unskilful
hostility : men of rigid orthodoxy, cautious conversation, and
rehgious asperity. Among these, it is too frequently the practice,
to make in their heat concessions to Atheism, or Deism, which
their most confident advocates had never dared to claim or to
hope. A sally of levity, an idle paradox, an indecent jest, an
imseasonable objection, are sufficient, in the opinion of these
men, to efface a name from the lists of Christianity, to exclude
a soul from everlasting Ufe. Such men are so watchful to
censure, that they have seldom much care to look for favourable
interpretations of ambiguities, to set the general tenor of life
against single failures, or to know how soon any slip of inad-
vertency has been expiated by sorrow and retractation ; but let
fly their fulminations, without mercy or pnidence, against slight
offences or casual temerities, against crimes never committed, or
immediately repented.
The infidel knows well what he is doing. He is endeavouring
to supply, by authority, the deficiency of his arguments ; and
to make his cause less invidious, by showing numbers on his
side : he wUl, therefore, not change his conduct, till he reforms
his principles. But the zealot should recollect, that he is
labouriag, by this frequency of excommunication, against his
own cause ; and voluntarily adding strength to the enemies of
truth. It must always be the condition of a great part of
mankind, to reject and embrace tenets upon the authority of
those whom they thiak wiser than themselves ; and, therefore,
the addition of every name to infidelity, in some degree invali-
dates that argument upon which the rehgion of multitudes is
necessarily founded.
Men may differ from each other in many religious opinions,
and yet all may retain the essentials of Christianity ; men may
sometimes eagerly dispute, and yet not differ much from one
another : the rigorous persecutors of error, should, therefore,
enhghten their zeal with knowledge, and temper their orthodoxy
with charity ; that charity, without which orthodoxy is vain ;
charity that " thinketh no evU," but " hopeth all things," and
" endureth all things,"
"Whether Browne has been numbered among the contenuiers
* Therefore no hereticks desire to spread
Their wild opinions like these epicures.
For s ? their stagg'ring thonglits are computed.
And other men'd assent their doubts assure.
Davies.
8IE THOMAS BROWXE. IXXV
of religion, by tlie fury of its friends, or the artifice of its
enemies, it is no difficult task to replace him am»ng the most
zealous professors of Christianity. He may, perhaps, in the
ardour of his imagination, have hazarded an expression, which a
mind intent upon faults may interpret into heresy, if considered
apart from the rest of his discourse ; but a phrase is not to be
opposed to volumes : there is scarcely a writer to be found,
whose profession was not divinity, that has so frequently testified
his belief of the sacred writings, has appealed to them with such
unlimited submission, or mentioned them with such unvaried
reverence.
It is, indeed, somewhat wonderful, that he should be placed
without the pale of Chi'istianity, who declares, that "he assumes
the honourable style of a Christian," not because it is "the
rehgion of his country," but because " having in his riper years
and confirmed judgment seen and examined all, he finds himself
obliged, by the principles of grace, and the law of his own
reason, to embrace no other name but this :" who, to specify his
persuasion yet more, tells us, that "he is of the reformed religion;
of the same beUef our Saviour taught, the apostles disseminated,
the fathers authorised," and " the martyrs confirmed : " who,
though " paradoxical in philosophy, loves in divinity to keep the
beaten road ;" and pleases himself, that " he has no taint of
heresy, schism, or error:" to whom "where the Scripture is
silent, the church is a text; where that speaks, 'tis but a
comment ;" and who uses not " the dictates of his own reason,
but where there is a joint silence of both :" who "blesses himself
that he lived not in the days of miracles, when faith had been
thrust upon him ; but enjoys that greater blessing, pronounced
to all that beheve and saw not." He cannot surely be charged
with a defect of faith, who " believes that our Saviour was dead,
and buried, and rose again, and desires to see him in his glory :"
and who affirms, that " this is not much to believe ;" that " as
we have reason, we owe this faith unto history;" and that "they
only had the advantage of a bold and noble faith, who lived
before his coming ; and, upon obscure prophecies and mystical
types, could raise a beUef." !Nor can contempt of the positive
and ritual parts of religion be imputed to him, who doubts,
whether a good man would refuse a poisoned eucharist ; and
"who would violate his own arm, rather than a church." p
The opinions of every man must be learned from himself:
P rather than, etc.] To the foregoing arguments in vindication of
Browije's attachment to Christianity, may well be added liis own
resolutions for the guidance of his conduct, and the regulation of hia
heart.
VvJL. I.
xxxvi DE. Johnson's life of sib t. beowne.
concerning his practice, it is safest to trust the evidence of others.
Where these testimonies concur, no higher degree of historical
certainty can be obtained ; and they apparently concur to prove,
that Browne was a zealous adherent to the faith of Christ,
that he lived in obedience to his laws, and died in confidence of
his mercy.
I should be glad to know the authority of the following assertion
attributed to Dr. Johnson: — "I remember the remark of Sir Thomas
Browne , — ' Do the Devils lie ? ' No ; for then hell could not subsist."
— Jroker's Joh7ison, vol. iv. p. 152.
SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIR.
ScABCELT a trace remains of the earlier events of Browne's life ;
nor are we possessed of any memorials whatever, from his own
pen, respecting those travels and various adventures which pre-
ceded his residence at Norwich. An interesting piece of avito-
biography must, therefore, have perished ; for it is impossible to
suppose that he travelled without observing, or that he observed
without recording. And, although (as Johnson has remarked)
" he traversed no imknown seas or Arabian deserts," Browne
was not the man to have visited even " France and Italy, or
resided at Montpellier and Padua," without having stored his
note-books with much that would have amply repaid the perusal.
Besides which, his family connections were sufficient to have
provided him with introductions to foreigners of character and
eminence, of which he would eagerly have availed himself. To
all these we should have been introduced, and everything worth
remembering in his intercourse with them would have been
preserved. It has, indeed, been conjectured, that " he was an
absent and solitary man ; "" but I can by no means adopt this
" I refer to a series of papers in the Athenoeum, No. 93, 1829, entitled
The Humourhts, the first of which is devoted to Sir Thomas Browne ;
from which I subjoin the following passage : — "We have endeavoured
to rescue Sir Thomas Browne from the imputation of being merely a
' curiou-i thinker,' while we have ever admitted that the philosopher and
the homourist are strangely blended in his character. Of his domestic
manners and relations little is known. But we may conjecture, frtjm
various passages in his works, tliat the same melancholy enthusiasm and
eternal speculation which appear in them, tinged, also, with sad and
solemn colours, his daily habits. In all likelihood, he was an absent and
solitary man, extracting the food of serious contemplation from all
objects indifferently, and busied in perpetual abstractions. Ceremonious
in observing times and seasons, as reverencing the inner mysteries
of custom. Attached to old manners, as apprehending hidden wisdom
in their properties, and as connecting him with remembrance and specu-
lations on the past ; curious, probably, in casting the fashion of uncertain
fvil, and, therefore, little inclined to innovation. He was at o»ce fcii:
SXXVUl SUPPLEMENTAET MEMOIE.
opinion : on the contrary, I am persuaded, that his social deport-
ment must have been distinguished by the kindliest courtesy ;
and, though " free from loquacity," he was too ardent in the
pursuit of knowledge, not to have improved to the utmost every
opportunity of increasing his stores, by conversation with those
who were capable of enriching them. I am satisfied, in short,
that had his earlier journals been preserved, they would have
exhibited him to us as a traveller, in just as striking a point of
view, as that in which "his diligence and curiosity," his origin-
ality of thought and fervour of feeling, and the creative richness
of his fancy, have placed him under other characters.
Nor do we find either journals, or correspondence (except a
very few letters on scientific or literary subjects), to guide us
thi'ough the first twenty years of his residence at Norwich. To
account for this almost total absence of autobiographical memo-
randa, I have sometimes felt inclined to suspect, that Browne
might have occasionally indulged himself in the expression of
opinions relating to the political aspect of affairs in his own
country, which his subsequent position, especially when the civil
war actually broke out led him to think it most prudent to sup-
press. For though a royalist, he was utterly averse to all that
was arbitrary, especially in matters of religion ; and, therefore,
might have seen much to disapprove in the measures of the
court, as well as in the subsequent outrages of the popular party,
which he was very likely, both in his private memoranda and
in his confidential correspondence, to have denounced in terms
which would have rendered him obnoxious to both parties, if " the
liberty of those times had committed them to the press." But
let this pass as an idle speculation : it is just as useless to regret
the want of these materials, as it is to conjecture whether they
ever existed, or what has become of them. We have them not ;
and must, therefore, proceed to do our best without them.
It appears, that when Browne left the university, he took up
his first residence somewhere (we are not informed where) in
Oxfordshire, and practised physiek probably for about two
years, from the end of 1629 or beginuiug of 1630. He then
Eiger de Coverley, directing the psalmody of the village church, and tha
n~.3lancholy humourist of Milton, —
' Whose lamp at midnight hour
Is seen in some high lonely tower,
^Vhere he may oft outwatch the bear
With thrice great Hennes, or unsphere
The spirit of Plato, to imfold
What worlds, or what vast regions hold
The immortal mind that hath forsook
Her mansion in this fleshly nook, &c.' "
SUPPLEMEKTART MEMOIR. XXXIT
commenced liis travels, by visiting Ireland with his father-in-
law, Sir Thomas Button. Mr. Le Neve, in his pedigree of the
Browne family, has (erroneously) called this gentleman Sir
Ralph Button. The epithet bestowed on him by Mrs. Lyttleton''
does not agree with tlie account which Dr. Birch has given"
of a Sir Thomas Button, whom he elsewhere affirms to he the
individual here spoken of ; " the same Sir Thomas Button who
killed Sir Hatton Cheke in a duel."*^ In aUusion to which, very
possibly, it was that Browne composed the following lines, pre-
served in MS. Sloan. 1869 :—
Diseases are the arms whereby
We naturally do fall and die.
What furie is't to take a death part.
And rather than by nature, die by art.
'' "A worthy person." — See her account of her father, in Preface to
the Life.
<= In his Life of Prince Henry, 8vo. Lond. 1760, p. 199, 200 ; where
he gives a letter from Sir Edward Cecil, commander of " the English
forces employed in the war about the succession to the deceased Duke of
Cleves, written on the 29th of July, 1610, from the camp before Juliers,
to Prince Henry, relating to the progress of the siege ; in which letter
is the following passage : — ' I am only unhappy in one thing, that the
mutinous and unworthy carriage of Sir Thomas Dutton, whom your high-
ness was pleased to favour beyond his merit, hath from time to time
disturbed the course of the service ; having even, at his first arrival
here, braved me at the head of the troops, daring to teU me, to my face,
that it seemed his majesty had given me a commission to abuse men,
when there was nothing in question but the doing of the duty of a
captain, which he ought not to dispute amongst us, seeing it was the
first time that even he or his company came into the field amongst us ;
and ever since, in all meetings, he hath disputed my commission and
authority so far, and with so much scorn, that, though hitherto, in
respect to your highness, I have contained myself : yet seeing that now
again, in a public assembly, he hath contemptibly spoken of my com-
mission, and, upon base advantage, hurt Sir Hatton Cheke, his colonel,
who took upon him the defence of it, I most humbly beseech your high-
ness will be rather pleased to allow of that which justice here shall allot
him ; presuming that your highness'a princely judgment will find it
expedient that I be discharged of such a bad member, which, in the heat
of his majesty's service, dare contest with me, and be content, upon any
terms, to murder his commander. ' " Dr. Birch adds, in a note, that Sir
Hatton Cheke was, soon after the surrender of Juliers, killed in a duel,
on Calais sands, by Sir Thomas Dutton. The Biographia Bntannica
Bays, "that he enjoyed an honourable post in the government of Ireland :"
what this post was he does not say, nor can I.
■^ In a copy of Christian Morals, presented by Dr. Johns.'^n to Birch,
is this memorandum, in the handwriting of the latter.
si SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIR.
Men, for me, again shall chime
To Jared's or Mathuselah's time.
That thread of life the Fates do twine
Their gentle hands shall clip, not mine.
let me never know the cruel
And heedless villany of duel ;
Or if I must that fate sustain,
Let me be Abel, and not Cain.
From tlie same biographer I learn that Sir Thomas died May
16th, 1634 ; so that Browne's mother was probably left a widow
the second time.
His continental travels in France, Italy, and Holland, imme-
diately followed his Irish tour, and the whole may be supposed
to have occupied about two years, terminating in his return to
England, after having obtained his degree of M.D. in the
university of Leyden, in 1633. He then settled, there is reason
to believe, as a physician, at Shipden HaU, near Halifax.
In such a spot, and especially at the commencement of his
professional career, he must have had considerable leisure ;
which it is very natural to suppose he would endeavour to im-
prove, by reviewing and preparing some memento of the events
of his past life. We may regard Religio Medici, as the result of
such retrospect ; for though not pretending to the character of a
narrative, it makes frequent allusion to incidents ai^d conversa-
tions which had occurred in the course of his travels, and
exhibits to us the impressions made on him by the imposing
ceremonies of the Romish Church, which he had witnessed
abroad. It was not, however, Browne's object to draw up a
narrative ; but to compose " a treatise upon the spirit and form
of his religious belief, and it may claim (as one of his reviewers
has well said"") a high rank among the fairest monuments of
English mind." It has always appeared to me, that it was
Browne's great aim, in the conduct of his understanding, and in
the regulation of his feelings, to assign just limits to the respec-
tive jurisdictions of faith and reason ; asserting, on the one hand,
his right to the free exercise of his understanding on those
subjects of which it is the legitimate province of reason to judge ;
but, on the other hand, submitting both intellect and feeling
wherever the decisions of revelation have commanded the exer-
cise of faitli. This was his rule ; and if he fell into false philo-
sophy, it was less through the fallacy of his reason than the
erroneous and overstrained application of his rule. For example
he too hastily deemed the language of scripture opposed to the
tenets of Copernicus ; and, therefore, rejected instead of examin-
e Athenwum, 1829, No. 93.
gUPPLEMENTAET MEMOIE. xlj
mg them. He found witches and enchantments mentioned in
the Bible, as well as various forms of spiritual existence and
agency ; all these he therefore placed at once among the articles
of his faith, scarcely allowing his reason either to investigate
the meaning of terms, or even to enquire whether that which
was permitted in those days might not, like miracles, long ago
have ceased to exist. To advocate the principle just stated, and
thus (as Browne quaintlj^ says) endeavour to " compose those
feuds and angry dissensions between affection, faith, passion,"
was his object in his first and most celebrated work ; in which
we admire no less " the universal charity of his spirit, the
catholic humanity of his feelings, and his strong assurance of
hopeful faith," than that force of genius and fervour of
imagination, those glowing sentences, and noble flights of fancy,
with which it abounds.
It is not improbable, however, that the leisure, so favourable
to the accomplishment of this work, was more ample than suited
his professional aspirations ; and inclined him to seek for a
wider sphere of action. This was soon supplied by liis migration,
after a residence of about three years, to Norwich ; whither, as
Anthony a Wood informeth his readers, he " was induced in
1637 to remove, by the persuasions of Dr. Thomas Lushington,
formerly his tutor, then rector of Burnham Westgate, in Norfolk.
Whitefoot does not mention Dr. Lushington, but attributes his
removal to the joint solicitations of Sir Nicholas Bacon, of
GUlingham, Sir [or rather Dr.] Justinian Lewyn,' and Sir
Charles Le Gros, of Crostwick.s Both these accounts, I have
no doubt, are correct ; and the question immediately arises, why
did these men take so lively an interest in the affairs of Browne ?
His acquaintance with Dr. Lushington is explained by Wood ;
it was a college connexion ; — and I believe that of the others to
have been the same. They were all probably at coUege toge-
ther, and I suspect Dr. Lushington to have been tutor to more
than one of the party : Mr. Bacon held him in such high regard
and admiration, that he pubUshed a work of his on Logick in
1650, when he was living in obscurity, and subsisting on his pen,
having been deprived of his spiritualities. From the anxiety
thus evinced by both tutor and friends to place Browne within
' I find Justinian Lewyn, LL.D., mentioned as commissary in the
archdeaconries of Norfolk and Norwich in 1633 and 1660 ; but no Sir
J. L.^See Blomfield, ii. 474.
s This was the father of Thomas Le Gros, Esq., to whom Hydrio-
taphia was dedicated. The grandfather, Sir Thomas, was knighted by
James, in 1603. The Biograjjhia Britannica says, on what authority
] know not, that the grandson was afterwards knighted. The writer,
prot>ably, confounded the two.
xlii SUPPLEME2TTAIIT MEMOIR.
their reacli, we are entitled to infer that his university career
was distinofuished by that attractive amenity of disposition
which conduced not less than his rare intellectual qualijications
to secure him the attachment and admiration of all who knew
him.
It was possibly in compliance with the suggestions of these
friends, that Browne, in a few months after he settled at Norwich,
was incorporated Doctor of Physick at Oxford, July 10, 1637.
" When settled at Norwich," says WTiitefoot, " he was miich
resorted to for his admirable skill in physick :" and we may
presume, that the zealous recommendations of his powerful
friends were not wanting to bring him into notice. In short,
the advantages of connexion with which he started in this county
were very considerable ; and he was well calculated to improve
them to the utmost. He very soon contracted an alliance with
a family of some antiquity and well connected in the county,
by marrying, in 1641, Dorothy, the fourth daughter of Edward
Mileham, Esq., of Burlingham St. Peter, and grand-daughter (as
I suppose) of John Hobart, Esq. By this marriage Dr. Browne's
connexions were greatly extended, his father's family being
numerous. I have not been able to trace his collateral alliances,
but he asserts a relationship to several families of note in the
county : — for example, those of Hobart, Townsend, Astley, &c.
and it is highly probable that his marriage was the connecting
hnk.
The unexpected publication of Beligio Medici in the following
year, his avowal of it, aiid his consequent correspondence with
Digby, contributed no little to his fame and success. From that
time he took that distinguished rank among the literary men of
his day, which he ever after maintained. Respecting the occasion
and circumstances of this his first appearance before the public, I
shall say nothing here, having already spoken of it in my preface
to the Beligio Medici. No sooner was the book printed, than
the public commenced operations upon it. Merryweathcr'' placed
it more fully before the continental critics, by his excellent
*■ This gentleman was of Magdalen College, Cambridge, and became
B.D. before 16.52, in which year is dated "Some short IHrections for a
Student in the University ;" a MS. in the Bodleian, by him. Johnson
attributes to him the authorship of "a small treatise for the instruction ot
young persons in the attainment of a Latin stile." Mr. Crossley pointed
out to me some years ago the following article in the catalogue of Mr.
Ford, a Manchester bookseller, for 1811 : — "No. 11,701 : Directions for
the Latin Towjue, by the Author of Reiigio Medici (Sir Thomas Broiine),
VERY SCARCE, and not in his collected Works; 4«. 6rf. Z*indon, 16S1."
In all probability this was the work spoken of, writttu not by the
author, but by the translator of J{el. Med.
STJPPLEMENTAET MEMOIE. Xliii
version into Latin, printed at Ley den in 1644, and immediately
reprinted at Paris. In the foUowiug year came forth. Eoss'a
Medicus Medicatus, of which Johnson drily remarks, that it
was " universally neglected by the world." Editions with copious
annotations soon appeared, — by Moltke in Latin in 1652, and
Keck in English two years later ; and these were followed at short
intervals by translations into several of the modern languages of
Europe. No less various were the opinions expressed. By one
of the translators Browne was announced in the preface as a
Catholic ; by another, as a Protestant : while the Holy See
settled the question by consigning him to i\\e Index Ejcpurgatorius.
From Samuel Duncon, a member of the Society of Friends,
resident at Norwich, he received a most obliging communication,
in which the writer seems to have been led, by some passages in
Rel. Med., to entertain hopes of winning Browne over to his own
opinions. It would, indeed, seem singular, that in the narrow
compass of this little volume, Browne should have so expressed
himself as to be claimed for a bi'other by such antipodes to each
other as Roman Cathohcs and Quakers : — did we not consider, that
in some of their vital characteristicks, these extremes in practice
may be said to have almost met in point of principle. It is not
difficult to find passages in which the author has indulged
himself in expressions so imaginative, if not hyperbolical, as to
lead easily to conclusions the very reverse of his real sentiments.
Dr. Jortin' has happily selected an instance in this remarkable
passage : — " Methinks there be not impossibilities enough in
religion for an active faith. I can answer all the objections of
Satan and my rebellious reason, with that odd resolution I learned
of TertuUian, Certum est, quia impossihile est. I am thankful
that I lived not in the days of miracles, &c." '' To this Abp.
Tillotson had alluded when he said,' " I know not what some
men may find in themselves ; but I must freely acknowledge,
that I could never yet attain to that bold and hardy degree of
faith, as to believe any thing for this reason — because it ivas
im2)ossihle. So that I am very far from being of his mind, that
wanted not only mot^e difficulties, but even impossibilities, in the
Christian reHgion, to exercise his faith upon." " But by impos'
sibilities," replies Jortin, " Sir Thomas Browne, as well as
TertuUian, meant seeming, not real, impossibilities : and what
he says should be looked upon as a verbum ardens, a rhetorical
flourish, and a trial of skill with Tertullian ; in which, however,
he had little chance to come off superior. Both of them were
lively and ingenious ; but the African had a warmer complexion
' In his Remarks on Tillotson. — Tracts, v. i. p. 373.
'' Rel. Med. ' Sermon 140th, v( I iii.
xliv STJPPLEMEIfTART MEMOIR.
than tlie Briton. Tillotson, however, judging that the Papists
would make an ill use of this, and such passages as this, in
Protestant writers, was willing to pass a gentle animadversion
upon it. Sir Kenelm Digby, a Roman Catholic, who criticisea
several things in the Iteligio Medici, yet gives his loud approba-
tion to these pious salhes. ' I am extremely pleased with him,
when he saith, there are not impossibilities enough in religion
for an active faith, &c.' Extremely pleased, without question ;
and full of hopes, that this young author might at last unreason
himself into implicit belief, and go over to the church which
would feed his hungry faith with a sufficient quantity of impossi-
bilities ! — Tendimus in Latium ! " In the Biographia Brit.
there is a short critique on the work from a MS. entitled
A Century of Short Characters of Books and Authors : but it
does not seem to me to deserve insertion.
In the mean time, so industriously was Browne employed in
completing and arranging his materials (the accumulation, no
doubt, of many years), that in 1646 he published the first edition
of his great work, Pseudodoxia Epidemica ; which speedily
attracted the notice of those who had attacked his former book.
Ross again took the field in his Arcana Microcosmi, ^'c. and
with him a new adversary, Robinson, who published a pedantic
book with a suitable title : — Endoxa, or a Calm Ventilation, Sfc.
Against these the following remark seems to have been levelled
by Richard Whitlock," who enumerates, " among writers, first
some that write to eat ; — inke must earn ale, and three-penny ordi-
narys ; write they must, against things or men, sparing neither
Bacons, Harveys, Digbys, Brownes, or any the like — of Improve-
ment College, &c." It is to be supposed, too, that a number of
private communications were made to our author on his two
books, the far greater part of which were complimentary ; and
few have reached us. Some I have omitted, especially five
Latin letters from Isaac Grruter (who translated some of Lord
Bacon's works), respecting a projected (but never accomplished)
Latin translation of Pseudodoxia.
On the continent our author received great attention : so early
as 1645 did the foreign critics notice Beligio Medici. Many
broadly accused him of atheism, and more asserted his piety.
The curious reader wiU find particulars of the controversy in
Niceron, Bayle, Kippis, &c." Dr. Aikin, in speaking of these
"■ In his Zootomia, or Ohsen'ations on the Present Manners of the
Ew/lish, r2mo. Lond. 1654, p. 232.
" Niceron, Nouvelles de la Itepuhlique de Lettres. Avril, 1684. Acta
£ruditorum, Sup. vol. i. Leips. 1692. Bayle, (Euvren Diverse^, 3 vola.
fol. vol. i. p. 'Z5. Binrfr. Brit. p. 629, note G. Wagner, Examen
E^cmhticus Athcisnu Speculativi, 4to. Tubing. 1677, c. v. p. 11. Budf
SUPPLEMENTAET MEMOIR. xlv
critics, says: — " The German divines treated [the Beligio Medici"]
with severe censure ; and more theologico represented the author
as an infidel, and even an Atheist, though abnost every page
displays the fervour of his piety, and the docihty of his
belief."
Respecting Pseudodoocia, " the judicious Morhof speaks with
all possible marks of approbation and esteem: — ' No modern
author,' says he, ' has treated this subject more accurately or
copiously. In his first book he learnedly enquires into the
general causes of error ; and in his succeeding books he not only
discourses of the mistakes wliich are crept into natural philosophy,
but such also as have corrupted history, theology, mechanic arts
and physick.' Reimman says," 'As he excelled in theoretical and
practical divinity, so he shone no less in philosophy, wherein he
emulated Hercules; and undertaking by his Pseud. Ej). to clear
the sciences from error, he fell nothing short of the other's labour,
in cleansing the Augean stable.'" Niceron remarks, that "it
is an excellent work and contains abundance of curious things."
Amidst the attacks of his enemies, and commendations of his
admirers, the reputation of Browne became so established and
extended, that he was appUed to on all hands for professional,
literary, and scientific advice and assistance, and as he delighted
to oblige and assist others, his leisure, it may be readily
imagined, became very soon too fully occupied to leave him much
opportunity for further authorship.
Among the earliest of these correspondents was Dr. Henry
Power, who afterwards attained considerable eminence as a
physician at Halifax. I apprehend that the long letter of pro-
fessional recommendation, inserted from Biogr. Britan. and
which is there said to have been first published by Dr. Massey,
was addressed to Dr. Power. He seems for many years to have
kept up his intercourse vrith Browne, who probably communi-
cated much curious information ; though, unfortunately, we are
not enabled to refer to his letters for proof. Some MSS. of
Power's remain in the British Museum, and he is known by
several works, especially by one on experimental philosophy.
It was probably in 1650, or soon after, that Browne was
enabled to open a communication with Iceland, through the
medium of one to whom he had rendered valuable professional
assistance. He addressed some enquiries to Theoaore Jonas,
dens, Theses Theolorjic(t de Atheismo et Superstitione, p. 136. Reimman,
Hist. Univers. Athdsmi, p. 448. Reimman, Bibliothecce Theologica
Catalogns, 2 torn. 12mo. Hildesice, 1731, p. 1052. Morhof, Polyhistor,
cwa J. A. Fabricii, 3 torn. 4to. Lubecw, 1747, torn. iii. lib. v. § 10
Elice Fredericl Heisteri Apologia pro Medicis : Arnstel. 1736, 8vo.
° Hist. Univ. Atheismi, p. 448.
Xlvi SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIE.
minister of Hitterdale, in Iceland, respecting the natural history
and geography, &c. of that island, and the diseases to which its
inhabitants were liable. Several very agreeable letters were
sent in reply by his reverend friend, who has therein placed
himself in a most amiable point of view. From these materials
Browne drew up, for the Iloyal Society, a few years after, his
sketch of that singular and then almost unknown spot.
Another of Browne's correspondents, and one of his personal
friends in the county, was Sir Hamon L'Estrange, of Hunstan-
ton, a man of real love for natural history, and most zealous in
its pursuit. From him Browne received, in Jan. 1653, a letter,
enclosing a most substantial proof of the estimation in which his
works were held — a MS. of eighty-five pages of Observations on
the Pseuclodoxia : some of them highly interesting. This MS.
is preserved in No. 1830 of the MS. Sloan. I have given some
extracts. About the same time he appears to have rendered
some assistance to a botanist of considerable note (or as Wood
calls him), a noted herbalist of his day — Mr. William How,
commonly called Dr. How; who, after having served as a captain
in King Charles the First's cavalry, took up his residence in
London, first in Lawrence Lane, then in Milk Street, as a
physician, though he does not seem to have qualified by taking
a degree. How was distinguished among the earlier English
botanists for his love of the science, and for his published contri-
butions to it. Some local catalogues, enumerating the plants of
certain districts in England, had already been published by
Dr. Johnson, the learned editor of Gerard's Herbal ; but How
was the first who brought out a general list of the plants of
Great Britain, as distinguished from those of foreign countries :
imder the title of Phi/tologia Britannica, natales exhibens indi-
genarum stirpmm sjjonte emer gentium, 12mo. Loudon, 1650. In
1655 he edited a portion, which had fallen into his hands, of
Lobel's MSS. for his projected large work, entitled, "Illustra-
tiones Plantarum :" of which Parkinson had used another portion
in his Thcafrum, Botanicum. From a letter, which he ad-
dressed to Dr. Browne in that year, it would appear, that he
contemplated, and had made considerable preparation for, another
botanical work ; but his death, which took place a year after-
wards, prevented its completion. The said letter must be
admitted abundantly to justify the character given of this writer
by Dr. Richard Pulteney :■' it is, indeed, written "in a flowery
and bombast stile," and in terms so affectedly figurative, that it
seems not at all clear, whether he is speaking of a botanical work
P In his Sketches of the Progress of Botany in Englxnd, 2 vols. 8vo,
London, 1790, vol. i. p. 173.
StrPPLEMENTA-BT MEMOIE. xlvii
which he was writing, or of a botanical garden which he waa
engaged in superintending. Perhaps it was a catalogue rai-
sonne either of his own garden or of some other in which he was
concerned.
Browne's learning and science, however, soon added to his
acquaintance two of the most distinguished men of his day —
Evelyn and Sir Wm. Dugdale. In 1657, through the interven-
tion of Mr. (afterwards Sir) Eobert Paston, created Earl of
Yarmouth in 1673, a correspondence commenced between
Browne and Evelyn. The latter being much interested with
his favourite pursuit of gardening, and just then busily occupied
in preparing for the press a work to be entitled Elysium Britan-
nicum, sought the assistance of our author, as a man well known
for his extensive acquaintance with natural history ; and we
have sufficient evidence that Browne's contributions were con-
siderable : — The tract, Of Garlands, Sfc, and probably the
Observations on Grafting, were written for the use of Evelyn.
It is, however, very much to be regretted, that so little of their
correspondence has descended to us ; for we must suppose that
it was kept up for many years. Evelyn's Silva contains an
extract from a communication received in 1664, which I shall
insert here, though somewhat out of the order of date.
" But whilst I am on this period, see what a Tilia that most
learned and obliging person Sir Thomas Browne, of Norwich,
describes to me in a letter just now received.
" An extraordinaiy large and stately Tilia, Linden, or Lime-
tree, there groweth at Depeham in Norfolk, ten mUes from
Norwich, whose measure is this : — The compass, in the least part
of the trunk or body, about two yards from the ground, is at
least eight yards and a half; about the root, near the earth,
sixteen yards ; about half a yard above that, near twelve yards
in circuit; the height, to the uppermost boughs, about thirty
yards. This surmounts the famous Tilia of Zurich, in Swit-
zerland ; and uncertain it is, wla-liur in any Tilicetum, or Lime-
walk, abroad, it be considerably exceeded : yet was the first
motive I had to view it, not so much the largeness of the tree,
as the general opinion that no man could ever name it ; but I
found it to be a Tilia fcemina ; and (if the distinction of Bau-
hinus be admitted, from the greater and lesser leaf) a Tilia platy-
phyllos or latifolia ; some leaves being three inches broad ;
but, to distinguish it from others in the country, I called it
Tilia colosscea Depehamensis."'^
■i Hunter'' s Evelyn, vol. ii. p. 196. This celebrated Linden tree stood
upon the property of Mr. Amias ; it was cut down nearly a centui^
ago.
xlviii STJPPLEMENTAET MEMOIE.
I think it very probable, that Browne derived frorc his distin-
guished correspondent some hints which availed him in his
Garden of Cyrus, which he published in the year 1658, with
Hydriotaphia. In this latter work he announced his discovery
of the singular substance, called by the French chemists adipo-
cire, and which M. Du Petit Thouars, the writer of the article
Brotone, in the Biographie Universelle, thus mentions : — On y
trouve, entre autres, la premiere observation sur la substance sin-
guliere provenant de la decomposition des cadavres, retrouvee
depuis, par Fourcroy, dans le cimetiere des Innocents, a
Paris, et connue maintenant sous le nom d'adipocire." — See
vol. vi. 62.
Towards the close of the same year, 1658, Sir WiUiam Dug-
dale applied to Dr. Browne for critical as well as historical and
scientific contributions to his work, On Embanhing and Drain-
ing, then in progress. And several of their letters are preserved.
Sir William has acknowledged his obligations to his learned and
zealous friend, in the following passage, at p. 175 of his work : —
" Touching which kind of urne buriall see further in that excel-
lent discourse of the learned Dr. Thomas Browne, of Norwich
(printed at London in An. 1658), from whom I acknowledge to
have received much direction for my better guidance in this pre-
sent work." And to show that this was not a mere compliment, it
will be sufficient to compare Browne's critical remarks, m reply to
Sir WiUiam Dugdale's enquiries respecting the meaning of the
term paludibiis emuniendis, used by Tacitus in speaking of the
labour to which the Britons were compelled by their Soman con-
querors, with Dugdale's remarks thereon, at p. 17 of his work.
But it is time to take up the thread of his domestic history.
As years passed on, there arose other claims, which not even his
professional avocations, added to the pursuits of Uterature, the
wide and increasing range of his acquaintance, and the conduct
of a correspondence whose limits were daily extending, could
enable him to evade or resist. His family was large, and rapidly
coming into life ; and they must have more and more engrossed
his thoughts and his care. We have, it must be lamented, but
scanty means of judging what was his system of management
and education ; though it is probable, that if he erred, it was
not in the exercise of too great austerity. His ambition was,
their accomplishment ; and there is sufficient evidence that he
spared neither expense nor trouble, neither admonition, exam-
ple, nor encouragement, to attain it. One remarkable feature in
his plan is, however, very evident, that he did not keep them at
home ; but endeavoured to form them to habits of independence,
and to give them, in a wide sense, a knowledge of the -world, by
sending them abroad. Some of his daughters visited France,
BUPPLEMENTART MEMOIR. xlix
though, in all probability, they were accompanied by himself.
We have a single and imperfect allusion to a visit which he paid
to Holland, on which occasion, I suspect that one or more of
his daughters accompanied him, going probably or returning
through France. But he certainly must be considered to have
put his system in practice at rather an early age, and in a most
perilous manner, when he sent his second son, Thomas, to France
in 1660, at the age of fourteen, and sent him thither alone. We
are not told that he had any particular plan of education in view
for the boy in so doing, nor have we the intimation of any special
motive which led to it. He exhorted him, in his letters, to learn
all he could, to take notice of every thing remarkable, " to cast
ofi' pudor rusticus," to put on a " commendable boldness," and
to " have a good handsome garb of his body." It is, moreover,
to be especially observed, how earnestly he enjoins him to
"hold firm to the Protestant religion, and be diligent m going to
church :" " be constant," he adds, " not negligent in your daily
private prayers, and habituate your heart in your tender days
unto the fear and reverence of God." Excellent as is the advice,
it must be apprehended that he did not place his boy in circum-
stances the most favourable to its adoption, when he sent him,
80 young, and unattended, amidst such scenes as he would be
sure to meet with. Probably he contemplated, if he had not
resolved on, the profession into which his son afterwards entered,
and deemed it essential to his excelling therein, that he should
early learn to " shift for himself." If so, the event justified
the plan, for it seems that his boy did not fail to acquire that
laudable boldness and freedom of carriage which his father was
anxious to see in him, and which he told him, " he that learneth
not in France travelleth in vain." He was a spirited and talented
yoimg man, and wovdd, in all probability, have risen to eminence,
had he lived. He was remarkable, withal, for kindness and frank-
ness of disposition. His " Tour in Derbyshire,"^ for there is inter-
nal evidence that he wrote that journal), sufficiently shows that he
had acquired some taste for adventure, and was ready enough to
play his part. The greater part of the following year he passed
at college, and at the close of 1664, entered the navy.
With his eldest son, whom he destined for his own profession,
Browne somewhat modified his plan, though it was substantially
similar. He sent him abroad, but not at so early an age ; choos-
ing, probably, to keep his education in his own hands, or, at
least, within reach of his own control. With this view, after
passing through the Free School at Norwich, Edward was sent
to Cambridge, where he entered at Trinity College, Oct. 27, 1657,
and took the degree of bachelor in physic in the middle of 1663.
' With his brother Edward, towards the close of the year 1662.
1 SUPPLEMENTAET MEMOIE.
In the autumn of 1663 he returned to Norwich, and probably
commenced his professional studies with his father, who seema
to have infused into him some portion of his own spirit, if we
may judge from the diligence with which Edward devoted him-
self to the study of his profession, and to the collateral pursuits
of comparative anatomy and natural history. He spent the win-
ter of 1663-4 in Norwich; and his journal, describing the amuse-
ments of the city at that period, is interesting. Mr. Henry
Howard, afterwards sixth Duke of Norfolk (grandson of the
celebrated Thomas, Earl of Arundel, who made those splendid
collections which have immortalized him), then resided there ;
and his munificence and urbanity are evinced by the frequency
of the parties given at the Duke's palace, as well as by the free-
dom of access which young Browne obtained to them. But the
public spirit of Mr. Howard vied with the splendour of his en-
tertainments. He purchased, and devoted to the amusement of
the public, the gardens in King Street, which were long after-
wards (and, as I am assured by Dr. Sutton, of Norwich, even
within his recollection) designated " My Lord's Gardens."
In the spring of 1664, Mr. Edward Browne commenced his
foreign travels, first spending a short time among his relations
and friends in London. And here he seems to have formed his
first acquaintance with the family of Dr. Terne, whose daughter
he afterwards married. He took up his residence, while in Lon-
don, at the house of his relation, Mr. Barker, in Clerken^ell,
where his sister Ann was then living. Here he met " Madam
Fairfax," probably the mother of Mr. Henry Fairfax,* whom his
sister Ann afterwards married, and who was the grandson of
Thomas, Lord Viscount Fairfax. He also mentions his "dear
sister Cottrell " as being of the party ; and says that he after-
wards " waited upon Madam Cottrell home to her house in St.
James his Park, &c." Hence I concluded, perhaps too hastily,
that Sir Charles Cottrell married a daughter of Sir Thomas
Browne. More probably it was a son of Sir Charles's ; but I
cannot give the slightest authority for the conjecture beyond tJie
present passage. From London he proceeded to Paris, and
' Henry Fairfax, Esq., of Burlington, in the county of York, second
son of Thomas, Lord Viscount Fairfax, of Emely, in Ireland, married
Frances, the only daughter of Henry Barker, of Hurst, Esq. ; and died
in 1656, leaving his widow (this Madam Fairfax, as I suppose), who was
buried at Hurst, March 25, 1668-9. They had three children, Henry
(who married Ann Browne), John (mentioned by Dr. Edward Browne),
and Frances. Thus is the relationship of the Fairfax and Barker families
made out ; but how Mr. Barker became the cousin of Edward Browne,
before his sister's marriage to Mr. Fairfax, does not appear.
SUPPLEMEKTAEY MEMOIR. li
thence to Italy, visiting Genoa, Eome, Naples, Bolo.2:na, Venice,
and Padua, returning to Paris througli Aries, Montpellier,
Thoulouse, and Rochelle. He travelled in company with. Sir
William Trumbull (afterwards Secretary of State), Sir Samuel
Tuke, Sir Christopher Wren, and other distinguished characters.
At Paris he incidentally became acquainted with Guy Patin, one
of his father's earliest criticks, who received him with great
urbanity, and spoke in the most courteous terms of his father.
A portion of this tour has been printed at the end of the folio
edition of his Travels} The whole is preserved in his journal,
MS. Sloan. 1906, and is printed partly from the just-mentioned
iournal, and partly from his letters in MS. Sloan. 1868. The
last letter of the series is dated Paris, Sep. 3l), 1665 ; soon after
which I suppose him to have returned to Norwich. I find him
incorporated of Merton College, Oxford, June 16, 1666 ; and in
the following year, July 4, 1667, he took his doctor's degree.
In the same year he was admitted a Fellow of the Royal
Society ; — whether from the influence of his father's name, or
from his own recently formed acquaintance with Dr. Wren, Mr.
Ray and other distinguished fellows, we are not told. It is,
however, highly probable, that his admission into that learned
body had some connexion with his determination to renew his
travels, and even induced him ultimately to extend them (in
opposition to his father's decidedly expressed wish) to countries
peculiarly rich in those natural productions to which the society's
attention was then directed. In August, 1668, he commenced
those travels which have contributed so much, and on the whole
80 justly, to his reputation. For though he did not inherit his
father's high intellectuality, he was, like him, ardent in pursuit
of knowledge, and strongly attached to the studies to which he
made his travels principally subservient : and his literary attain-
ments, as might be supposed, were considerable. But above all,
he was an accurate observer and a veracious narrator of what he
met with. He was, in short, a conscientious traveller, not sup-
plying from imagination what was wanting in the reality. His
pen was under the guidance of his senses ; not carried away by
his fancy. Hence, notwithstanding the somewhat contemptuous
terms in which his travels are mentioned by Dr. Johnson, who
neither understood nor cared for the subjects on which Browne
wrote, he acquired by his work, and has retained to the present
day, a character for which travellers are not proverbial : — viz.
' It is singular, that in Biog. Brit, though this journey is meEtioned,
it is expressly asaerted that Dr. Edward Browne was never abroad tiU
1668.
VCL. 1. J
•lii SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIR,
that whatever he has related, may be received with implicit con-
fidence.
Having embarked at Yarmouth on the 14th August he Unded
at Rotterdam ; and thence proceeded through Delft, tlie Hague,
Leyden, and Haarlem, to Amsterdam ; through Utrecht, Bois-
leduc, Breda, and Dort, to Flushing, and up the Scheldt by
Antwerp, Brussels, and Maestricht to Aix-la-Chapelle, which he
reached on the 7th Oct. Fron " Aken," he went direct through
Juliers to the Rhine ; along which river he travelled from
Cologne to Bingeu, Mayence, and Frankfort ; and thence, pass-
ing through Darmstadt, Heidelberg, Nurnberg, E-atisbon, and
Lintz, he reached Vienna on the 20th November. There he
passed the winter of 16G8-9 ; visiting and examining every object
within and around it, worthy liis notice ; and making excursions
in several directions.
The Imperial Museum and Library were his great attractions ;
and his acquaintance with Peter Lambecius, the librarian, gave
him special facilities. Through his influence he was allowed the
privilege of withdrawing books to his lodgings. He speaks of
the Emperor Leopold, as a man of considerable literary attain-
ments, and a patron of learning and learned men. Lambecius
was in the habit of suggesting books for his Imperial master's
reading, and it happened on one occasion, that he put Religio
Medici into the Emperor's hands, wherewith, says Browne," " the
Emperor M-as exceedingly pleased, and spake very much of it
unto Lambecius, insomuch that Lambecius asked me whether I
knew the author, he being of my own name, and whether he
were living. And when he understood my near relation to him,
he became more kind and courteous than ever, and desired me
to send him that book in the original English, which he would
put into the Emperor's library, and presented me with a neat
little Latin book, called Princeps in Compendio, written by the
Emperor's father, Ferdinandus the Third." Dr. Browne also re-
ceived from Lambecius a curious catalogue of some hundreds of
alchymical manuscripts, for the Royal Society, with the remark-
ably liberal permission to have any of them copied in Vienna,
or even brought into England for transcription. He was so for-
tunate as to obtain also introductions to individuals of high rank,
from several of whom he received great kindness. He es])ocially
mentions Counts Lesly and Souches, the latter of whom afforded
him essential assistance during his travels, in the capacity of
governor of the fortress of Leopoldstadt.
While at Vienna, ho received a communication from Dr.
Oldenburg, the secretary of the Royal Society, requesting such
" Travels, folio, p. 141.
STTPPLEMENTAEY MEMOIB. liii
information as lie might be able to obtain for them in the course
of his proposed Hungarian excursion. For his guidance a paper
was enclosed, which we find printed at large in tJue Philosophical
Transactions," under the following title : — " Directions and in-
quiries as they were sometime since recommended by the pub-
lisher to the care of the ingenious and learned Dr. Edward
Browne (son to that deservedly famous physician Dr. Thomas
Browne, and Fellow of the Royal Society), travelling in Ger-
many, Hungary, Turkey, &c." To these queries. Dr. Browne
gave very copious answers, which were also printed at large in
the Transactions.
Very early in the spring of 1669 Browne made an excursion
through Baden and Manuersdorf, across the Newsidler Sea to
Eaab and Komora, and thence, after visiting the marble quarry
at Dotis, he went by Leopoldstadt to the gold, silver, and copper
mines of Cremnitz, Schemnitz, Newsol, &c. and returned to
Vienna in the middle of April. His next excursion was through
Styria, Carinthia, &c. to see the Zirchnitzer lake and quicksilver
mines at Idria, whence, after again visiting Vienna and Padua,
he returned to the Imperial capital at the close of July. His
last excursion was to visit the Ottoman court, which was then
held at Larissa in Thessaly. This occupied from the 1st of Sep-
tember to the end of October, when he regained Vienna, to take
a final leave of it. Early in November he started on his journey
homeward, through Prague and Dresden, at which latter city he
took particular notice of the Elector of Saxony's collections,
both in natural history, mechanics, and works of art. He then
visited the silver and sulphur mines of Freiburg, and after pass-
ing through Leipsig and Magdeburg, he embarked at Hamburg,
and reached England at the close of the year 1669.
Nor was this safe return of his son from long and distant
travels the only circumstance which enlivened Dr. Browne's
fireside this Christmas. His family circle had at the same time
to welcome a further addition to its numbers, in the marriage of
his daughter Anne, to Henry Fairfax, Esq.'' and their arrival at
Norwich. The visit seems either to have been protracted, or
repeated ; — for I find in St. Peter's, Norwich, the registers of
the birth and burial of their first child. Barker Fairfax, on the
30th of August and 5th of September, 1670. Their subsequent
residences were at Shiplake, near Henley, in Oxfordshire, and
lastly at Hurst,'' a scat on the borders of Wiltshire and Berkshire,
inherited from the Barkers.
" Phil. Trans. No. Ivili. p. 1159.
^ The grandson of Thomas Lord Viscount Fairfax.
■^ Hurst — a parish comprising the liberties of "SVliistley-IIurst (hund.
Chariton), Newland and Winnersk (hund. Sonning), co. Berks j and
d 2
iiv SrPPLEMENTART MEMOIE.
Dr. Edward Browne soon proceeded to London, where, after
some hesitations, he determined to fix his permanent residence.
On the 30th of April, 1672, he married Henrietta Susan, the
daughter of Dr. Christopher Terne, a physician of eminence, and
lecturer at Chirurgeon's Hall in 1662-3,^ who lived in Lime-
street. There Dr. E. Browne resided till the decease of his
father-in-law, Dec. 31st, 1673 : soon after which time he removed
to Salisbury Court, Fleet Street, where he remained during the
rest of his father's hfe.
Having thus pursued the history of Dr. Browne's family,
uninterruptedly, to the death of his younger son and marriage of
his elder son and daughter, comprising nearly fourteen years,
from 1660 to 1673, I must now return to collect and arrange the
scattered passages of his own life during the same period. In
introducing the earliest and most remarkable of these, I cannot
help observing, that the striking influence which has sometimes
been exerted on the institutions, the history, or the character of
an entire age, by the genius of one man, or the importance of a
single event, may occasionally be paralleled by the effect which
a solitary action or incident has produced upon the character or
estimation of an individual. Such an incident occurred in the
history of Sir Thomas Browne in the year 1664 ; and it is not a
little singular that his principal biographers, Whitefoot, Jolin-
son, and Kippis, have all passed over, in silence, a circumstance
M hich has unquestionably given rise to more reflections on his
character, both for discernment aiui feeling, than any other cir-
cumstance in his life. I refer to the part which he took in the
trial of Amy Duny and Rose Cullender, at Bury St. Edmund's,
on the 10th March, before Sir Matthew Hale, then Lord Chief
Baron of the Exchequer. I shall introduce it in the words of
Dr. Aikin : — " Fancy and feeling," says he in his biography of
Browne, " were, in his mind, predominant over judgment, and
his tendency to superstition and enthusiasm is plainly evinced
by other instances. He was fully possessed with the belief of
the existence of invisible beings, hokUng an intermediate rank
between the human and angelic natures ; favoured the notion of
guardian angels ; was persuaded of the reality of apparitions,
and of diabolical illusions ; and affirms, from his own knowledge,
the certainty of witchcraft. This last article of his belief was not
so harmless as his other fanciful opinions ; for Dr. Hutchinson,
in his sensible Essay on Witchcraft, animadverting upon a trial
that of Broad Hintnn (Hund. Amesbury), co. Wilts. An hospital waa
founded here by William Barker, Esq. (who died in 1685), for eight
poor, to whom he gave 3s. 6d. weekly.
^ See Pepy 's Mtmoirs, p. 204.
STJPPLEMENTAET MEMOIR. Iv
of two supposed criminals before Lord Chief Justice Hale, at
St. Edmuad's Bury, in 1664, mentions that ' Sir Thomas Browne
of Norwich, the famous physician of his time, was in court, and
was desired by my Lord Chief Baron, to give his judgment in
the case : and he declared, that he was clearly of opinion that
the fits tvere natural, but heightened by the Devil's co-operating
with the malice of the witches, at whose instance he did the
villanies.' And he added, that ' in Denmark there had lately
been a great discovery of witches, who used the very same way
of afflicting persons, by conveying pins into them.' This declara-
tion, from a man of such authority, was thought to have had
no small influence in occasioning the condemnation of the
wretched victims, whose execution was one of the latest instances
of the kind, by which the English annals are disgraced." — Aikin's
Biographical Dictionary.
The reflection conveyed in the remarks of Dr. Aikin has been
echoed and re-echoed ; and this solitary incident has gone far in
the estimation of many, who in other respects have held Browne
in the highest admiration, to detract from his character as an
acute and philosophical investigator of deep-rooted and long-
established errors, and to place him rather among those who,
while they can detect and will condemn the false philosophy and
extravagant notions of others, are yet led, by mere caprice or
prejudice, obstinately to defend opinions just as absurd, and
perhaps far more pernicious.
But let us be cautious and slow to pronounce judgment on
such a man. In the first place, it must surely be admitted that
he had nothing whatever to do with the justice or injustice of
the law which made witchcraft a capital offence. Hutchinson,
therefore, has committed a flagrant injustice in attempting to
make him accountable for the blood of these women. — Can I
with a safe conscience acquit a man whom I beUeve to be proved
guilty, solely because I deem the law unjust which makes his
ofience capital ? — Can my conscientious verdict make me a party
to the injustice of that law ? — Most certainly not. So must not
Browne be condemned for giving his opinion, on the sole ground
" that it was a case of blood." It must be shown, either that
he was wrong in believing that witchcraft had ever existed ; or,
if this cannot in the very teeth of scriptuee, be shown, then,
secondly, it must be proved that he was wrong in his opinion that
cases of witchcraft still existed; or, thirdly, that he erroneously
deemed the present to be a genuine instance of it. On the first
of these questions, be it remembered, his biographer (Dr. Aikin)
stood on very diflerent ground from that occupied either by
Browne or by the great man before whom he was examined,
These believed, firmly and literally, the witchcraft and sorcery,
Ivi SrPPLEMEjS'TART MEMOIB.
and incantatious, as well as the demoniacal possessions related in
the Bible. And, from their regarding alleged cases of witchcraft
in their days as being liable to investigation, and open to evidence,
it is clear that they knew of no proof satisfactory to their minds,
that what existed in the days of the Bible, had at any subsequent
period totally and universally ceased. We know that Browne
had previously considered this question. More than 20 years
before, he had published his conviction thereon in these terms :
— " for my part, I have always believed, and do now know, that
there are witches," and in one of his common-place books there
occurs a passage on possession and witchcraft, beginning with a
similar assertion, — " we are no way doubtful that there are
witches, &c." He believed, in short, on the highest of all testi-
mony, that witchcraft had existed : and — in the absence of either
argument or evidence satisfactory to him that it had at some
defined period altogether ceased — he also believed that it still
existed. These sentiments he declared openly, and has been the
victim of his opinions, as every man must expect to be, who does
not flinch from their avowal. But they were opinions, as I have
elsewhere remarked, which he held in great and jjood company ;
— in common with Bacon, Bishop Hall, Baxter, Hale," Lavater,
&c. &c.
Dr. Browne was admitted Socius Honorarius of the College
of Physicians, cum multis aliis, in the December of 16(54; —
Init for some reason, which appeareth not, he did not receive
his diploma tiU July 6, 1665.
In the year 1 666 Browne presented to the Eoyal Society some
fossil bones found at Winterton, on the coast of Norfolk ; —
then a much greater rarity than they have since been, and
perhaps the more valued, as they were less understood.
" " The judge in giving his direction to the jury, told them, that he
would not repeat the evidence unto them, least by so doing, he should
wrong the evidence on one side or on the other. Only this he acquainted
them that they had two things to inquire after. First, whether or no
these children were bewitched ? Secondly, whether the prisoners at the
bar were guilty of it ? — -
" That there were such creatures as witches he made no doubt at all ;
first, the Scriptures had affirmed so much. Secondly, the wisdom of all
nations had provided laws against such persons, which is an argument
of their confidence of such a crime. And such hath been the judgment
of this kingdom, as appears by that act of parliament which hath pro-
vided punishments proportionable to the quality of the offence. And
desired them strictly to observe their evidence ; and desired the great
God of heaven to direct their hearts in this weighty tiling they had in
liand ; for to condemn the innocent, and to let the guilty go free, were
both an abomination to the Lord."— Trya^ of Witches, p. 102.
SrPPLEMEXTAKT MEMOIE. ivii
Hooke mentions the fact in his Posthumous Works, and 1
record it, though unimportant, in order to show Browne's early
connexion with the Eoyal Society, as a correspondent, though
(probably from local considerations) he never became a fellow.
The next correspondence of interest in w hich Browne engaged
was in 1()G8, with Dr. Christopher Merrett, librarian to the
College of Physicians ; who had brought out, in 1666 and 1667,
two editions (or rather re-impressions) of his Phiax Rerum
Naturalium Britannicarutn : and was contemplating a third.
In an auspicious moment he sought the assistance of Browne,
who had been most industriously employed in collecting mate-
rials for an account of the Natural History of Norfolk, at the
request of some friend. But that friend having died, the work
remained unfinished ; and the collectanea were placed at the dis-
posal of Dr. Merrett. But, unhappily, Browne's liberal readiness
to render his knowledge serviceable to others, here failed of its
object. Either superseded by the more learned labours of Eay
and Willoughby, or laid aside on account of the perplexities in
which its author became involved with the College of Phj'si-
cians, the Pinax never attained an enlarged edition. He pre-
ferred to contribute to the labours of those whom he considered
better naturalist than himself; and in his third attempt thus to
render his observations useful he had somewhat better success.
He placed his materials, including a number of coloured draw-
ings, at the disposal of Eay, the father of systematic natural
history in Great Britain, who has acknowledged the assistance
he derived from him in his editions of Willoughby's Omit ho-
logy and Ichthyology, especially the former. But Browne, it
seems, found it more easy to lend than to recover such mate-
rials ; for he complains, several years afterwards, that these
drawings, of whose safe return he was assured, both by Eav
and by their mutual friend, Sir Philip Skippon, had not been
sent back to him.
On the 28th of September, 1671, Charles II., who had been
carousing with his profligate court, at Newmarket, made an excur-
sion to Norwich, attended by the Queen, the Dukes of York,
Monmouth, and Buckingham, and others of his nobility.
It would appear from Blomfield's account, that the king was
not content to leave the city without knighting some one, and
therefore, on Mr. Mayor's declining the honour, it was con-
ferred upon Browne. After relating other particulars of
the king's progress, — his visit to Mr. Howard, his attendance
on divine service at the cathedral, his review of the trained
bands, his feasting in the New Hall, at an expense of £900 to
the city, and his visits to Blickling, Oxnead, and Eainham, the
historian informs us that " when his majesty was at the New
Iviii SUPPLEMENTAET MEMOIK.
Hall, he was earnest to have knighted the mayor, who as
earnestly begged to be excused ; but at the same time, con-
ferred the honour on that deserving physician. Dr. Thomas
Browne, &c." The fact however probably was, that though the
literary celebrity of Browne must have been well known, his
loyalty was the crowning excellence in the eyes of Charles.
In perilous times. Dr. Browne had steadily adhered to the
royal cause. He was one of the 432 principal citizens who, in
1643, refused to subscribe towards a fund for regaining the
town of Newcastle. Charles was not hkely to have been igno-
rant of this, and he had the good feeling to express his sense of
it, by a distinction, which was no doubt valuable as well as
gratifying to Sir Thomas Browne. It is remarkable that he has
never recorded it, and only once made a slight allusion to it, in
his Repertorium ; where, among royal visits to Norwich, he
mentions that of Charles II., adding, " of which I had parti-
cular reason to take notice." But though he never boasted of
his distinction, I strongly suspect that he has left a costly
memorial of it. In the drawing room of the house in which
he lived, there is, over the mantel-piece, and occupying the
entire space to the ceiling, a most elaborate and richly orna-
mented carving of the royal arms of Charles the Second : —
who will undertake to disprove my assertion, that this was
placed there by Sir Thomas, to express his loyalty, and to com-
memorate his knighthood?''
In Matthew Stevenson's Poems, 12mo. 1673, there is a long
poem on this progress of Charles II. into Norfolk, in which the
honour conferred on Browne is thus noticed.
" There the King knighted the so famous Browne,
Whose worth and learning to the world are known," &c,
'• In support of this position, I ought perhaps to point out the
house in which I suppose Browne to have resided. Blomfield asserts
that he lived where Dr. Howman then lived ; and that he succeeded
Aid. Anguish in that house. I have ascertained, by reference to
title-deeds, that the last house at the southern extremity of the
Gentleman's Walk, Hajanarket, in the parish of St. Peter Man-
croft, Norwich (which has for very many years been occupied as a china
and glass warehouse, and whicli tradition has always asserted to have
been Sir Thomas Browne's residence), belonged in Blomfield's time, to
Dr. Howman. Still further I find that "Sep. 22, 1650, Katherine, the
wife of Mr. Alex. Awjidsh, was buried in St. Peter's ; and that, July 26,
16.54, Mr. Alex. Anguish wcis there buried, from St. Julian's Parish.
The earliest register of a birth in Browne's family in St. Peter's, occurs
in Nov. 1650. I conclude, therefore, that the Alderman left the parish
on the decease of his wafe, and that Browne took immediate possession
of his house. — Of Browne's previous residence, I regret to siiy 1 find
not tlie smallest tr.^ce.
srPPLEMEXTART MEMOIR. lix
Early in October, Evelyn went down to the Earl of Arling-
ton's (then Lord Chamberlain) at Euston, in compaay with
Sir Thomas Clifford, to join the royal party. Lord Henry
Howard arrived soon after and prevailed on Mr. Evelyn to
accompany him to Norwich, promising to convey him back after
a day or two. — "This," says he, "as I could not refuse I was
not iiard to be persuaded to, having a desire to see that famous
scholar and physitian, Dr. T. Bro\\ne, author of the ' Meligio
Medici,' and ' YuJ(jar Errors,' &c., now lately knighted. Thi-
ther then went my lord and I alone, in his flying chariot with six
horses ; and by the way, discoursing with me of severall of his
concernes, he acquainted me of his going to marry his eldest
sonn to one of the king's natural daughters by the Dutchesse
of Cleaveland, by which he reckon'd he should come into mighty
favour.
" Nest morning I went to see Sir Tho. Brown (with whom
I had some time corresponded by letter, tho' I had never seen
him before). His whole house and garden being a paradise and
cabinet of rarities, and that of the best collections, especially
medails, books, plants, and natural things. Amongst other
curiosities. Sir Thomas had a collection of the eggs of all the
foule and birds he could procure, that country (especialy the
promontary of Norfolck) being frequented, as he said, by
severall kinds, which seldome or never go farther into the land,
as cranes, storkes, eagles, and variety of water-foule. He led
me to see all the remarkable places of tliis ancient citty, being
one of the largest, and certainly, after London, one of the
noblest of England, for its venerable cathedrall, number of
stately churches, cleanesse of the streetes, and buildings of
flints, so exquisitely headed and squared, as I was much asto-
nished at ; but he told me they had lost the art of squaring the
flints, in which they once so much excell'd, and of which the
churches, best houses, and walls, are built. The castle is an
antique extent of ground, which now they call Marsfield, and
would have been a fitting area to have placed the ducal palace on.
The suburbs are large, the prospects sweete, with other ame-
nities, not omitting the flower gardens, in which all the inha-
bitant'i excel. The fabric of stuffs brings a vast trade to this
populous towne."
In the succeeding year, 1672, the name of Sir Thomas occurs
as helving given his testimony, in the following terms, to the
extraordinary precocity of Wotton, afterwards the friend of
Bentley : —
*' I do hereby declare and certify, that I heard Wm. Wotton,
son to Mr. Henry Wotton, of Wrentham, of the age of six
years, read a stanza in Spencer very distinctly, and pronounce
IX SUPPLEMENTAUT MEMOIE.
it properly. As also some verses in the 1st Eclogue of Virgil,
which I purposely chose out, and also construe the same truly.
Also some verses in Homer, and the Carmiiia Aurea of Pytha-
goras, which he read well and construed. As he did also the
1st verse of the 4th ch. of Genesis in Hebrew, which I pur-
posely chose out.
"July 20, 1672. " Tho. Browne."
In the same year, in compliance with the request of Anthony
Wood, the Oxford historian. Sir Thomas communicated, through
Lis friend John Aubrey, some information respecting Dr. Lush-
ington, his former tutor, and several other persons, together
with those few biographical particulars respecting himself,
which have formed the basis of all subsequent notices of him.
These letters were detected in the Ashmolean Museum, by
Mr. Black, with some others : one from Sir Thomas to Lilly,
the astrologer, and two to Ashmole, in reference principally to
Dr. John Dee and his son. Dr. Arthur Dee, who resided for
many years on terms of the kindest friendship with Browne at
Norwich, and there died. Sir Thomas, in these letters, bears
testimony most unequivocally to the sincerity of Dr. Arthur
Dee's belief in the power of alchymy to transmute the baser
metals into gold and silver ; which he assured Sir Thomas he
had "ocvdarly, undeceivably, and frequently" beheld. He was
even on the point of going to the continent in pursuit of such
riches, had not the death of the artist, with whom he was about
to hazard his property, most opportunely prevented him.
Sir Thomas had also another zealous alchymist among his
correspondents, in the person of one of his earliest friends. Sir
Robert Paston, with whom he corresponded from 1663 to 1672,
principally on experiments which Sir Robert was making in
alchymy. Blomfield speaks of this gentleman as " a person of
good learning, who, travelling into foreign countrys, collected
many considerable rarities and curiosities, and being an accom-
plished fine gentleman, entertained King Charles II., his queen,
and the Duke of York at Oxnead, with the nobility that attended
them."
But though Sir Thomas was willing enough to afford all the
assistance in his power to those who sought it, in pursuit of
astrology and alchymy (as on every other subject within his
range), it does not foUow, nor do his writings justify our sup-
posing, that he placed any reliance on the one, or entertained
any hopes from the other, of those pseudo-sciences ; which,
indeed, ought rather to be regarded as the cradles of astro-
nomy and chemistry. Sir Isaac Newton is said to have been at
one time on the hunt after the philosopher's stone : and he himself
owned that it was his pursuit of the idle and vain study of
astrology, which led him into the love of astronomy. Lord
SUPPLEMEKTART MEMOIE. 1x1
Bacon speculated on the making of gold ; but this, it is con-
tended, arose from his lofty conceptions of the yet untried
resources of experimental science.
The remaining ten years of Sir Thomas's life afford us few
incidents of importance or interest. His leisure seems to have
been very considerably occupied with rendering professional
and literary assistance to his son Edward ; with whom he kept
up a constant correspondence to the very close of his life.
The marriage of Dr. Edward Browne, in 1672, had settled
him in London ; and he naturally availed himself of every
means, whether derived from his own exertions, or from the
celebrity of his father's name, to extend his connexions, which
were already considerable. In the summer of 1673 he went to
Germany with Sir Joseph Williamson and Sir Leoline Jenkins,
the Enghsh plenipotentiaries who were sent over to Cologne to
negotiate a treaty of peace between England, France, and
Holland.
Having terminated his travels (which he never subsequently
resumed), he soon brought out his first account of them
in 4to. under his father's advice, and, four years afterwards,
published a second collection. They were very well received.
In 1675 he was chosen, on the 14th June, Lecturer in Chirurgeon's
Hall, Sir Nathaniel Heme being then Master ; and, on the 29th
July, FeUow of the College of Physicians. From this time we
are constantly meeting with evidence, in the Correspondence, of
the large assistance he received from his father, in the prepara-
tion of his lectures ; which it seems gave very general satisfaction,
and did him great credit.
In the following year Sir Thomas sustained a domestic afflic-
tion in the death of liis daughter Mary, about twenty-four years
of age. It may be supposed that she did not die under her
father's roof, from the fact of her burial not occurring in the
register of the parish in which he resided. My information is
derived from Blomfield, who enumerates, among " the stones
below the rads, in the church of St. Peter's, Norwich, one to the
memory of Mary, daughter of Sir Thomas Browne, Knt., 1676."
In 1678, 1 find an instance of Browne's compliance with a custom
very prevalent with authors in his day, — that of prefixing to
their works recommendatory letters from persons of literary
eminence. Kings Vale Royal of Chester contains such a letter,
signed Thomas Broivne, and supposed to be Sir Thomas's. In the
present year he addressed a brief note of cautious recommen-
dation to Mr. John Browne, a surgeon residing at Norwich, who
had pubUshed a work on Preternatural Tumours. This gentle-
man afterwards became surgeon to the King, to whom he paid
his court, by pubhshing, in 1684, a book entitled, Adenochoirade-
logia, or a Treatise of Glandules, and the Boyal Gift of HeaU
kii SrPPLEMENTAHT MEMOIE.
ing them. In this work he relates a number of marvellous cases
of cure : in one of which Sir Thomas makes rather a prominent
figure."^ He was not living to contradict the story, or even to
disclaim his participation m the Viclgar Error of believing in
Buch royal miracles. We find from his letters that he was in
the habit of giving medical certificates, to such as wished to be
touched, that their cases were genuine. But this would involve
no opinion as to the eificacy of the touch ; — and probably, in the
present instance he only believed in that of the journey.
In the same year he subscribed towards building a new library
in Trinity College, Cambridge, at the instance of the masters
and seniors of that College, who, in their letter'' urged the follow-
ing argument : " We doubt not but that God will bless the rest
of your substance the better for what you shall conferr towards
this ; and we shall pray that he may, &c. &c."
' The following is the story adverted to : — " Being in the society of
many persons of quality I had this remarkable following observation
from an eminent person of this strange cure. A noncomformist's child in
Norfolk, being troubled with scrophulous swellings, the late deceased
Sir Thomas Browne of Norwich being consulted about the same, his
majesty being then at Breda or Bruges, he advised the parents of the
child to have it carried over to the King (his own method being used
ineffectually) : the father seemed very strange at his advice, and utterly
denied it, saying the touch of the King was of no greater eflScacy than
any other man's. The mother of the child, adhering to the doctor's
advice, studied all imaginable means to have it over, and at last pre-
vailed with her husband to let it change the air for three weeks or a
month ; this being granted, the friends of the child that went with it,
unknown to the father, carried it to Breda, where the King touched it,
and she returned home perfectly healed. The child being come to its
father's house, and he finding so great an alteration, enquires how his
daughter arrived at this health, the friends thereof assured him, that if
he would not be angry with them, they would relate the whole truth ;
they having his promise for the same, assured him they had the child to
the King, to be touched, at Breda, whereby they apparently let him see
the great benefit his child received thereby. Hereupon the father
became so amazed, that he threw off his nonconformity, and exprest his
thanks in this method ; ' Farewell to all dissenters, and to all noncon-
formists : if God can put so much virtue into the King's hand as to heal
my child, I'll serve that God and that King so long as I live with all
thankfulness.'" Browne's A dcnochoircdelor/ia, 3rd part, p. 187-9.
Nearly a century later, the avowal (or seeming avowal) of a belief in
this kingly gift cost poor Carte the hi.storian his annual subsidy from the
chamber of London. See Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, vol. ii. p. 495,
where is collected much curious information on the point. So general
wiis the belief in Charles II. 's reign, that no fewer than 92,107 persons
•re asserted by Browne, to have been "touched" from 1660 to 1683.
See Tables at the end of his work.
" Preserved in the Bodleian Library, MS. Rawlinson, 391."
SUPPLEMEXTAET MEMOIE. IXIU
In the same MS. I also find the acknowledgment of £12
eubscribed " towards the building of a new school in the
College near Winton," — where his education commenced.
Kennet" has preserved another instance of his public spirit ; he
contributed £130 to the repairs of Christ Church, Oxford.
It was probably about 1680 that Sir Thomas completed his
Itepertorium, or Account of the Tombs and Monuments in tlie
Cathedral Church of Norwich, by continuing it up to the time.
The basis of the work was a sketch hastily drawn up, 20 years
previously, on the information of " an understanding singing
man, 91 years old;" not imder the impulse of an antiquarian
taste (which he has himself informed us he did not possess), but
in order to preserve some remembrance of the many monumental
antiquities, which blind and barbarous zeal had mutilated or
destroyed. The reckless character of these ravages has been
exhibited in a description made on the spot, and at the moment,
by one who suffered, in his person, property, and health, from
a lawless rabble, — perpetrating, in the sacred name of liberty,
the most outrageous deeds of despotism. Bp. Hall, in his Hard
Measure, has given a most touching account of the brutal treat-
ment which he experienced from the republicans of his day, —
treatment which acquired a deeper degradation and a fouler stain
from the very elevation and purity of his own character : Browne
attended him for many years, and even to \\\^ dying hour ; a
fact which the editor of the volume containing the account to
which I advert,' has noticed in these quaint and simple terms.
* Rennet's Register, p. 345.
' The Shaking of the Olive Tree. Theremaimnf/ Works of that incom-
parable prelate, Joseph Hall, D.D. late Lord Bikliop of Norwich. With
some Specialities of Divine Providence in his Life, noted hy his own hand.
Together with his Hard Measure, written also by himself, 4to. Lond. 1660.
Curll, in publishing the Repertorium, has most appropriately though
inaccurately prefixed the following quotation from this work, which I
shall insert here, verhatim, : — •
"It is no other than tragical to relate the carriage of that furious
sacriledge, whereof our eyes and ears were the sad witnesses under the
authority and presence of Linsev, Tofts the sheriffe, and Greenwood ;
Lord, what work was here, what clattering of glasses, what beating down
of walls, what tearing up of monuments, what pulling down of seates,
what wresting out of irons and brass from the windows and graves, what
defacing of armes, what demolishing of curious stone-work, that had not
any representation in the world, but only of the cost of the founder, and
skill of the mason, what toting and piping upon the destroyed organ
pipes, and what a hideous triumph on the market day before all the
coTintrey, when in a kind of sacrilegious and profane procession, all the
organ pipes, vestments, both copes and surplices, together with the
leaden crosse, which had been newly sawne downe from over the green-
yard pulpit, and the service books and singing books that could be had,
were carried to the fire in the publick market place ; a leud wretch
IxiV SUPPLEMENTARY MBMOIR.
" After his prevailing iufirmities had wasted all the strengths
of" nature, and the arts of his learned and excellent physician, D.
Browne of Norwich (to whom, under God, we and the whole
chui'ch are ingaged for many years preserving his life as a bless-
ing to us), — after his fatherly reception of many persons of
honour, learning, and piety, who came to crave his dying prayers
and benedictions, — he roused up his dying spirits, to a heavenly
confession of his faith, which ere he could finish, his speech was
taken from him, so that we cannot here insert it."
At the close of the same year Sir Thomas's daughter Elizabeth
married Capt. George Lyttleton, the 12th and youngest son of
Sir Thomas Lyttleton, Bart, afterwards major in Prince George
of Denmark's regiment of dragoons ; who died in 1717, at
Windsor, in the 77th year of his age. This was probably thought
a desirable alliance ; but it deprived Sir Thomas of a daughter
who had resided with him far longer than any other of his chil-
dren, and of whom he has expressed himself in terms of very
high commendation. She went to reside in the island of Guern-
sey, where the captain then had some military employment.
Sir Thomas had now the satisfaction of seeing his son Edward
daily adding to his honours, his connexions, and his practice.
In 1678 he had been chosen Censor of the College of Physicians ;
an office which he again filled in 1685 and 1686. In 1680 he
attended the dying illness of the celebrated Earl of Rochester, at
Woodstock Park : as well as that of the Marquis of Dorchester,
a patron and amateur of the medical profession, and a Fellow of
the College of Pliysicians ; who had long been his great friend ;
to whom he had dedicated his first travels in 1672 ; and with
whom he had sufficient influence to prevail on his lordship to
bequeath his Hbrary to the college. We also find among Dr.
Browne's patients, the Duke of Richmond, the Earl of Aylesbury,
Sir Joseph Williamson, &c. In February, 1682, he was engaged
to translate the life of Themistocles, for an edition of Plutarch's
Lives, of which the first volume was published in 1683 ; and for
the second of which, iu the following year, he translated that of
Sertorius. In this occupation, also, he enjoyed the advantage of
his father's assistance ; the sheets being successively transmitted
walking before the train, in his cope trailing in the dirt, with a service
book in his hand imitating in an impious scorne the tune, and usurping
the words of the letany used formerly in the church : neer the publick
crosse, all these monuments of idolatry must be sacrificed to the fire, not
without much ostentation of a zealous joy in discharging ordinance to the
cost of some who jirofessed how much they har. longed to see that day.
Neither was it any newes uj)on this guild-day to have the cathedrall now
open on all sides to be filled with muskatiers, wayting for the majors
returne, drinking and tobacconing as freelyas if it had turne'd alehouse."
TJte Shahitig of the Olive Tree, ikc. p. 03.
SUPPLEMENTAET MEMOIB. IxV
to Noinrich for revision. On the 7tli of September, 1682, lie was
appointed, by the express recommendation of his royal master.
Physician to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, on the death of Sir
John Micklethwayte. He entered upon the duties of this office
with characteristick dihgence, and, as it appears, in his accustomed
reliance upon the aid of his father ; to whom, on the 3rd of Oct.,
he addressed the last letter which has come down to us ; com-
municating some particulars relative to the appointment, and
requesting his advice as to the hospital practice. Ever prompt
as Sir Thomas was to comply with such applications, especially
from his son, it may be doubted whether he was permitted to do
so in the present instance : — for on the 19th of the same mor ';h,
the day on which he completed his 77th year, a severe attack of
cholick terminated the life of this great man, after a few days'
illness. He left considerable property, real as well as personal ;
which he had devised three years before his decease in the
following will : —
Becemh. 2, 1679.
In the name of God, Amen. I, Thomas Brotune, Knight and
Dr. of JPhysick, of the citty of Norwich, do maTce this my last
will and testament. Imprimis, I giue and bequeath vnto my
deare ivife, Dame Dorothie Broione, all my Lands, Leases, and
Tenements, all my bonds, bills, moueahles, money, plate, jeioells,
and all my goods whatsoeuer, thereby to haue a provision for her-
self, and make liberall maintenance and portions for my deare
daughters, Elizabeth Browne and Frances Browne. Excepting
such lands and tenements as were assigned and made ouer vnto
my Sonne Edward Browne upon marriage, and to bee entered upon
a yeare after my decease. Item, I appoynt and make my wife.
Dame Dorothie Browne, my sole executrix, and give her power
to sell all leases, all my goods moueables, mony, plate, Jewells,
hands, and all goods valuable whatsoeuer, for the the prouision
of herself and of my daughters Elizabeth and Frances Browne,
and for the payment of my debts, legacies, and charitable gifts,
wheretoith she is fully acquainted, and will, I douht not, performe
my tvill therein. And if it shall please God that my loife Dame
Dorothie should dye before mee, then I make my daughters,
Elizabeth and Frances Broione, my executrixes, and giue them
the same enjoyment and power in my estate as I haue before giuen
vnto my wife, Dame Dorothie. This is my last will and testa-
ment, which I haue tvritt with my owne hand, and confirmed it
vnth my hand and scale. Thomas Beowne.
JNicho : BicTcerdilce
Anthony Mingay
Aug. Briggs, Junior.
Of the two daughters named in this will, only one (Frances)
remained single at the time of his death. Whether she married
Ixvi SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIR.
afterwards or not I cannot say with certainty. In tlie pedigfree
drawn up by Le Neve — among the daughters of Mr. Fairfax
are enumerated two of the name Frances, both married, the latter
to Mr. Bosville, a Yorkshire gentleman. This I suppose to have
been the daughter of Sir Thomas, and to have been confounded
by Le Neve with his grand-daughter. But I cannot biing any
evidence whatever to support my suggestion, which must, there-
fore, remain mere hypothesis. His widow. Lady Dorothy, sur-
vived him httle more than two years. Her monument is in St.
Peter's church.
It is very remarkable, that although Sir Thomas Browne had
forty children and grand-children (including those who were so
by marriage), yet, in the second generation, within thirty years
after his decease, the male line became extinct ; and of the third
generation, none survived their infancy, excepting in the family
of his eldest daughter, Anne; of whose eight children, none left
any descendents but the third daughter, Frances Fairfax, married
to the Earl of Buchau ; whose daughter, Lady Frances Erskine,
married the celebrated Colonel Gardener, killed at Preston-pans
in 1745 ; — whose grandson was the late Lord Erskine, one of the
most splendid ornaments of the English bar, created Lord Chan-
cellor in 1806 ; and from whom are thus lineally descended
Henry David, the present and 12th Earl of Buchan, and David
Montagu, the present and 2nd Lord Erskine of Kestormel
Castle.
None of Dr. E. Browne's numerous family left any children.
Eight died unmanned, the greater part in their infancy. Of the
remaining three, Susannah, the eldest daughter, died soon after
her marriage to Arthur Moore, Esq., M.P. for Grantham, and
was buried with her two infant daughters at Northfleet. Thomas,
the eldest son, and Anne, the sixth daughter, survived their
father. Thomas resided for many years at Norwich with his
grandfather ; whose correspondence is not a little erJivened by
the very orthographic postscripts of Dame Dorothy, touching
this her most especial favourite and grandson, " litle Tomey ;"
setting forth his excellencies and defects, his demeanors and
misdemeanors, his maladies, and his literary progress. Of the
doings and writings of " litle Tomey " I can find very little to
record. He took his doctor's degree in medicine;, and probably
practised with his father. He was a Fellow of the College of
Physicians, and in 1699 was admitted F.H.S.
In 1698 he married his tK>usin Alethea, fourth and youngest
daughter of his uncle, Henry Fairfax, Esq. ; but she died in
1704, and was buried at Hurst, leaving no children. His own
death occurred in 1710, in a manner much to be deplored, if we
may credit the account given in Le Neve's pedigree of the family.
But that document exhibits so many inaccuracies, that we may»
SUPPLEMENTAET MEMOIE. IxTll
in charity, hope the story is not true. However this may be, he
was in every respect a man so ^eatly inferior both to his father
and grandfather, that tlie first Une of the Horatian apostrophe,
" ^tas parentum, pejor avis, tulit nos nequiorcs," may not
unfitly be applied to him, though we must omit the " mox
daturas, Sfc.;" as his race ended with himself.
Anne, the sixth daughter of Dr. Edward Browne, married
Owen Brigstocke, Esq., of Llechdenny, co. Carmarthen. But
his great grandson, Augustus Brigstocke, Esq., of Blaenpant,
CO. Cardigan, has done me the favour, in reply to my enquiries,
to inform me, that she had no children ; and that his ancestor's
family was the result of his second marriage to Mary, only
daughter and sole heiress of Francis Gwynne, Esq. of Glyn
Abbey, M.P.
The writer of the memoir of Dr. Edward Browne, in the Bio-
graphia Britannica, has collected some further particulars
respecting him, to which the enquirer is referred. In the parish
church of Northfleet are inscriptions to his memory and that of
his son ; followed by an extract from his will, bequeathing his
Northfleet estate equally between the College of Physicians and
Hospital of St. Bartholomew, in the event (which soon happened)
of failure of heirs to his son and daughter. There are also
inscriptions to his three daughters, Susanna, Henrietta, and
Mary.
The library and manuscripts of Sir Thomas passed into the
hands of his son and grandson ; on whose decease his library was
sold by auction.^ But the far greater portion of his MSS.
together with those added by his son, were sold, I suppose, to
Sir Hans Sloane. A catalogue of them is preserved in the
Bodleian Library ; by means of which, with the help of Sir Hans
Sloane's MS. catalojfue of his own immense collections, I have
succeeded in identifying nearly all the articles, in our National
Library at the British Museum.
I shall subjoin, in conclusion, a paper, which was pointed out
to me by John Chambers, Esq. of Norwich, and wjiich seems to
possess some claim to be regarded as a document of authority.
? The following advertisement of the sale is from the Gentleman's
Magazine for 1830, pt. i. p. 515 :— "Sir Thos. Browne, Dec. 26, 1710.
A catalogue of the libraries of the learned Sir Thomas Brown, and his
son Dr. Brown, deceased, consisting of many very valuable and un-
common books in most faculties and languages, with choice manuscripts,
which will befjin to be sold by auction at the Black Boy Coffee-house,
in Ave-Mary Lane, near Ludgate. on Monday, the 8th of January next,
beginning everj* Monday at 4 o'clock till the sale is ended. Catalogues
are delivered at most booksellers in London, at the two Universities,
and at the filace of sale, price 6d." A copy of this catalogue exists in
the British Museum.
VOL. ) e
Ixviii SUPPLEMENTAKT MEMOIE.
TO THE EDITOE OF THE EUROPEAN MAGAZINE.
Sir, — In a copy of the wm-lcs of Sir Thomas Brown, jtrinted in 1686,
vihich formerly hdonged to Dr. White Kennet, Bishop of Peterborough, 1
find the following memorandum, in the hand-wnting of that prelate. It
contains circumstances not generally known, and may afford some infor-
mation to the readers of the European Magazine. I am, dx., C. D.
"Memdum. In the time of my waiting at Windsor, in the latter part
of Nov. 1712, Mrs. Littleton, a daughter of Sir Thomas Brown, of
Norwich, lent me a short account and character of her father, written
by John Whitefoot, a minister well acquainted with him, the same
person who preacht and publisht a funeral sermon for Bishop Hall.
It was contained in one sheet, 4to. beginning thus. 'Had my province
been only to preach a funeral sermon for this excellent person, &c. '
" All the matter of fact contained in the said account were in these
words : —
[/ omit the bishop's epitome, having already printed at large, in John-
son's Life, the whole account of Whitefoot, from which it was abridged.^
" Thus ended the account, and after it was written by Mrs. Littleton.
' This was part of the life of Sir Thomas Brown, by that learned and
good man, Mr. John Whitefoot.' And then foUows, in the same hand
of Mrs. Littleton. ' His father dying left him young ; his mother took
her thirds, which was three thousand pounds, and married Sir Thomas
Dutton. a worthy person, who had great places. The executors took
care of his education at Winchester school and Oxford. He lived some
time in Montpellier and Padua. His father-in-law shewed him all Ire-
land in some visitation of the forts and castles. He was born Oct. 19,
1605. He died Oct. 19, 1682, 77 years of age. His father used to open
his breast when he was asleep, and kiss it in prayers over him, as 'tis
said of Origen's father, that the Holy Ghost would take possession
there. His pictin-e is at the Duke of Devonshire's house in Picca-
dilly, in his mother's lap. His father, mother, brother, and sisters,
in it. A family picture, his father being nearly related to that countess
of Devonshire whose picture is in the first room with her three sons
by her, and very like to Sir Thomas Brown's father, as the servants shew
to persons who go to see the picture, which is so good painting, that my
lord duke values it at four hundred pounds.'
" Memdm. The said Mrs. Littleton reports that the MSS. papers of
her father were in the hands of her late brother Dr. Edward Brown,
who lent them in a box to Dr. Tliomas Tenison, vicar of St. Martin's, in
the reign of King James II., and that she herself, at her brother's request,
went to fetch home the box, and accordingly brought it back, and de-
livered it to her brother, who soon after complained that he misst the
choicest papers, which were a continuation of his Relicio Medici, drawn
up in his elder years, and which his son Dr. Brown had now intended
to publish. She went back to Dr. Tenison, and desired him to look for
those papers, which he could not find, but she hopes they may be stiil
recovered, either as mislaid by the Archbishop of Canterbury, or by her
brother, whose only daughter is married to Mr. Brigst t:k, a member of
the House of Commons. "^^'w;'. Mag. vol. xl. p. 89.
PSEUDODOXIA EPIDEMICA,
ENQUIRIES INTO
VEBT MANY RECEIVED TENETS AND COMMONLY PRESUMED TRUTHS, WHICH
EXAMINED PROVE BUT
VULGAR AND COMMON ERKOES.
NINTH EDITION.
WITH ADDITIOKS FEOM MSS. IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM, AND NOTES BT DEAN WREN,
E. W. BRATLET, JLN. F.L.S., AND OTHERS,
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN
1646.
Ex lihris colligere qvoe iirodiderunt authores longe est
periculosissimum ; rerum ipsarum cognitio vera e rebus
ipsis est. — Jul. Scaligeb,
EDITOR'S PREFACE
TO PSEUDODOXIA EPIDEMICA.
If the conception and plan of the present work is not to be
ascribed to the mental activity of its author alone, — if we are
not to regard it solely as the result of his own native and irre-
pressible thirst for knowledge, and of that unrelenting spirit of
investigation which led him to scrutinize every position before
he admitted it ; if, in short, we are to allow, that Sir Thomas
Browne might have been, in some degree, impelled to this un-
dertaking by the suggestions of another, may we not with great
probability attribute the impulse to the opinions expressed by
Lord Bacon as to the Use of Doubts, and the advantages which
might result from drawing up a Calendar of Doubts, Falsehoods,
and Popular Errors ? In support of this conjecture, I will
insert some of those opinions (from Mr. BasU Montagu's Lec-
tures on Bacon, with whicli I have been favoured by that
gentleman, at the request of my kind friend Mr. Amyot), with
Mr. Montagu's remarks.
" ' The recording and proposing of doubts hath in it a two-fold
use. One, that it munites and fortifies philosophy against error,
when that which is not altogether so clear and evident is not
defined and avouched (lest error should beget error), but a
judgment upon it is suspended and not definitive.' — It will be
seen in a future lecture, that Lord Bacon enumerates a tendency
to hasty assent among the idols of the understanding by which
we are diverted from the truth. In this place, he contents him-
self with incidentally noticing, that a record of doubts has a
tendency to prevent the influence of this idol. — ' The other, that
the entry of doubts, and recording of them, are so many sponges
which continually draw and suck unto them an increase and
improvement of knowledge ; whereby it comes to pass that those
things which, without the suggestion of doubts, had been slightly
and without observation, passed over, are, by occasion of such
dubitations, more seriously and attentively considered.' — Lord
Ixxii editoe's preface
Bacon, in various parts of bis works, admonishes us of our duty
to keep our minds open to improvement, and not to admit as
truths what may be either false, or only a proper subject for
Joubts. He warns us in his doctrine of the idols of the under-
etanding, that, from our love of truth, we are anxious to possess
it, and too ready to imagine ourselves enriched by the possession
of counterfeit, instead of real coin. He says — ' The mind of man
doth wonderfully endeavour and extremely covet, that it may
not be pensile ; but that it may light upon something fixed and
immoveable, on which, as on a firmament, it may support itself
in its swift motions and disqiiisitions. Aristotle endeavours to
prove that, in all motions of bodies, there is some point quiescent,
and very elegantly expounds the fable of Atlas, who stood fixed,
and bare up the heavens from falling, to be meant of the poles
of the world, whereupon the conversion is accomplished. In like
manner, men do earnestly seek to have some Atlas, or axis of
their cogitations within themselves, which may, in some measure,
moderate the fluctuations and wheelings of the imderstanding,
fearing it may be the falling of their heaven. An impatience of
doubt, and an unadvised haste of assertion, without due and
mature supension of the judgment, is an error in the conduct of
the understanding. For the two ways of contemplation are not
unlike the two ways of action, commonly spoken of by the
ancients ; of which the one was a plain and smooth way in the
lieginning, but in the end impassable ; — the other rough and
troublesome in the entrance, but after a while fair and even. So
it is in contemplations : — if a man will begin in certainties, he
shall end in doubts ; but if he be content to begin with doubts,
and have patience a while, he shall end in certainties. * * *
Wherefore I report as deficient a calendar of dubitations, or
problems in nature, and approve the undertaking of such a work
as a profitable pains ; so care be had that, as knowledge daUy
grows up (which certainly will come to pass if men hearken unto
us), such doubts as be clearly discussed, and brought to resolu-
tion, be rased out of the catalogue of problems. It would be
a "very profitable course to adjoin to the calendar of doubts and
non-liquets, a calendar of falsehoods, and of popular errors, now
passing unargued in natural history and opinions, that sciences
be no longer distempered and debased by them.'
" Since Lord Bacon's time, there have been publications on
vulgar errors, or erroneous opinions received as truths by the
community. The first was published in the year 1646, by Sir
Thomas Browne. It is entitled, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, or
Enquiries into very many received Tenets, and commonly received
Truths, by Sir TJiomas Browne, Knt. M.D. (From his preface
it will be found, that before Lord Bacon's time, as I conceive.
TO PSEUDODOXIA. Ixxiil
but certainly before the time of Sir Thomas Browne, there were
other works upoa this subject.) Of this work, Mr. Jeremy
Bentham, in his work on Fallacies, says, ' Vulgar Errors is a
denomination which, from a work on this subject by a physician
of name in the 17th century, has obtained a certain degree of
celebrity. Not the moral (of which the political is a department),
but the physical was the field of the errors, which it was the
object of Sir Thomas Browne to hunt out and brmg to view ;
but of this restriction, no intimation is given by the words of
which the title of his work is composed.' It is rather interesting
to see that antipathy to improvement in the time of Sir Thomas
Browne was, as it is, and to a certain extent ever will be, so rife,
that he thought it expedient to guard against such prejudices by
an amulet to charm priests, physicians, and philosophers." — Mr.
Montagus MSy
By whatever inducements, however, we may suppose Browne
to have been stimulated to the production of the Pseudodoxia
Epidemiea, few will hesitate to admit that he was peculiarly
qualified for the task. It was in his very nature to inquire (as I
have remarked), and he was not content to receive any thing,
without scrutiny, — except in matters of faith. The exception
may be given in his own words. " In philosophy, where truth
seems double-faced, there is no man more paradoxical than my-
self ; but in divinity, I love to keep the road : and, though not
in an implicit, yet an humble faith, follow the great wheel of the
church, by which I move, not reserving any proper poles, or
motion from the epicycle of my own brain."' Again : — " where
the scripture is silent, the church is my text ; where that speaks,
'tis but my comment ; where both are silent,"'' &c. If we add
to these passages the following avowal, — " I am, I confess, natu-
rally inclined to that which misguided zeal terms superstition,"'
— we are furnished with the true key to explain his beUef in
witchcraft, and Satanic influence, as well his partiality for the
Ptolemaic system of the universe. He regarded these all as being
to a certain extent, subjects of revelation ; and therefore"" to be
received implicitly. But every thing not so supported, fell under
the process of his excruciation. His very curious and extensive
reading, — his daily and ardent pursuit of every branch of natural
history, — the labour he was constantly willing (as Dr. Johnson
observes)" to pay for truth, in patient and reiterated experiments
'' " See his prefivce, in which he Bays, ' we cannot expect the frown
of theology herein, &c. &c.' to the end of the paragraph."
' Rd. Med. ^ Rel. Med. ' Rel. Med.
■" See this ground stated by his annotator Dean Wren, who with still
greater vehemence advocated Browne's astronomical behe£
" In his Life of Browne, vol. L
Ixxiv EDITORS PBKPAOE
upon even the most trifling or absurd questions, — togethei ■with
the ready access, which his great celebrity and extended ac-
quaintance procured him, to tlae collections and observations of
the literary and scientific men of hit, day; all these supplied him
with copious materials for the exercise of his inquisitive propen-
sities. Every doubt was brought to the test of experiment and
examination. His Commoii-jjiace Books exhibit abundant evi-
dence that he tn;sted nothing to memory, but noted down, at the
moment they struck him, the exijeriments and inquiries he
deemed necessary to be made, together with results as they
arose. That this process of accumulation began early in life, is
evident from the date of his first edition; while subsequent
alterations, and the constant accessions of new matter,"" (some
even now first printed) may serve to convince us, that thiough-
out life he continued, as the constantly increasing " diversion "
of his business or acquaintance allowed him opportunity, to en-
rich his treasui-y of doubts and speculations.
Ijet us now proceed to enumerate the editions and translations
which have appeared.
The First Edition is in pot folio, with the following title-page.''
Fseudodoxia J^j^idemica : or, inquiries into very many received
Tenets, and cominonly presumed Trutns. By Thorii'is Browne,
Dr. of Physich. Jul. Scaliy. Jix libris colliyere quae prodide-
runt autho.es, longe est periculosisslmum ; rerum ij^sartim cog-
ultio vera e rebus ipsis est. London, Frinted by T. II. for
Edward Dod, and are to he sold in Ivie Lane. I(j46. On the
leaf opposite the title is Boivname's Imprimatur.'*
The Second Edition is the handsomest, as to typography,
which has hitherto appeared. It is in foolscap folio. The title
i?,, Fsfududoxia, ike. (as before); Second Editimi, corrected and
■much enlarged by the author, 2'ogether with some Marginal
(Jbseroations, and a Table alphabeticall at the end. London,
Frinted by A. Miller, for Ldw. Dod and Nath. Ehins, at the
Gunne in Ivie Lane. 1650.
The Third Edition, with some additions, appeared in folio, in
p These alterations and additions are pointed out in the notes to the
present edition. Thoy occur cliiefly in the iind and Hrd editions, and in
the Gth, the last which tlie autiior revised. The 4th and .5th editions
differ little from the 8rd.
'' DoicnaiUKS Imprimatur.'] "March the Hth, 1G45. I have perused
these learned Animudversions upon the Common Tenets and Opinions
t)t Men in former and in thi se present times, entitled Fseudodoxia
Epidemica ; and finding tiiem much transcending vulgar conceipt, and
adorneil with great variety ol matter, and multiplicity of reading, I
approve them as very wortliy to be printed and pnldished.
"JOUiJ DoWNAME."
TO PSEUDODOXIA. IxXV
1658. It is printed on the model of the second, but is very
interior.
The Fourth Edition was printed in the same year, in 4to. with
the Hydriotaphia and Garden of Cyrus — two Discourses which
had just appeared in 8vo. The title is Pseudodoxia, &c. The
Fourth Edition, with Marginal Observatioits, and a Table Alpha-
betical. Whereunto are now added two Discourses : — the one of
Urn Burial, or Sepulchrall Urns, lately found in Norfolk: the
other, of the Garden of Cyrus, or Network Phintations of the
Antients. Both newly written by the same Author. Ax libris,
ifec. London, Printed for Edward Dod, and are to be sould by
Andrew Crook, at the Green Dragon in Paul's Church-yard.
1658. No sooner had Dod brought out this edition, so enriched,
than Ekins, his former partner, printed, in double column, not
only the Tracts appended by Dod, but also Eeligio Medici : —
and thus, in 1659, produced, as altogether new, liis unsold copies
of the 3rd edition, with these enrichments, preceded by this
title-page: — Eeligio Medici: ivhereunto is added a Discourse of
the bepulchrall Urns, lately found in Norfolk. Together with
the Garden of Cyrus ; or the Quincunciall Lozenge, or Network
Plantations of the Ancients, Artificially, Naturally, Mistically
Considered. With sundry Observations. By Thomas Brown,
Doctour of Physick, Printed for the good of the Commonwealth ;
— the whole set forth with anew title-page to the volume, calling
it IJte Last Edition, with the date 1659.
The Fifth Edition, in 4to. by the Assigns of Dod, in 1669, is
nearly a reprint of his Fourth, and contains the two Discourses.
It is remarkable for having a portrait (the first, I believe, which
appeared) of the author ; but so different from all others 1 have
seen, that it is not easy to suppose them to have had a common
original. Mr. Ottley, of the British Museum, has had the
kindness to give me his opinion as to the engraver, that it may
probably have been executed by John Dunstall.
The Sixth Edition, published by Ekins, under the author's
especial superintendence, and with his final revision and im-
provements,' and the last which appeared during his life-time,
came out in 1672, in 4to. with this title: — Pseudodoxia, &c..
The Sixth and last Edition, corrected and enlarged by the
Author, with many Explanations, Additions, and Alterations
throughout. Together with many nfiore Marginal Observa-
tions, and a Table Alphabetical at the end. London, Printed
hy J. R. for Nath. Ekins. 1672. A portrait by Van Hove
* As declared in the Postscript. Of this edition there were larg*
paijer$.
lixvi editor's peefa.ce
accompani'id it ; which, in all probability, had a common ori^
ginal with all the subsequent portraits : — viz. that of Van der
Bane, published with the Miscellany Tracts, in 1683 — that
of White, with the Works, in 1686 — that of Van der Gucht,
with the Posthumoxis Works, in 1712 — that of Trotter, in
Malcolm's Lives of Topographers — together with a Dutch
4to. print, which probably accompanied a Dutch translation of
the Works.
In 1686, Abp. Tenison published the folio volume, which
contained the Seventh Edition of Pseudodoxia, Religio Medici,
Hydriotaphia, and the Quincunx, together with the Miscellany
Tracts, which he had himself first edited in 1 683 (but of whicn
many copies have a reprint title with the date 1684), with this
title, in red and black ink.
I know of but three translations of Pseudodoxia: two of
which are those of Grundal and Knorr, in 1668 and 1680 ; the
third is a French translation, in 2 vol. 12mo. of the seventh
edition." I cannot say by whom it was made, unless by Peter
Briot, the translator of E.icault'8 Ottoman Empire, and several
other works into French.
Watt mentions an edition of the Works of Browne in Latin,
in 1682 ; but I have never seen it, nor any other mention of it.
Peti, a mathematician, who wrote on comets, is mentioned as
having translated some part into Latin ; and Isaac Gruter^ cor-
responded with Sir Thomas, respecting a translation which he
was preparing ; but which I believe never appeared.
In 1652 our old enemy, Alexander Ross, again took up arms,
and made an attack at the same time on our author, and on
Lord Bacon, Dr. Harvey, and others, in his Arcana MierocosmiJ
" With this title : — Essai sur les Erreurs Populaire-i, ou Examen de
plasieurs Opinions revues comme vrayes, qui tont fausses ou douteuses.
Traduit de I'Anr/lois de Thorn. Brown, Chevalier et Docteur en Medecine.
Nouvelle edition revue et corrigee. Ex libris, tix. Jul. Scalig. A Paris,
chez Briasson, Rue Saint Jacques, a la Science et d, I'Ange Gardien.
MDccxxxvin. Avec A jyprobationet privilege du Roy. My copy of this
work has also reprint titles, with the date 1753.
* Gruter published several of Lord Bacon's pieces in Latin ; and
Abp. Tenison in his Baconiana (Lond. 1679, sra. 8vo.) has given, at
p. 221, several Latin letters on the subject, from Isaac Gruter to
Dr. Rawley.
5" A rcana Microcosmi : or, 77ie hid Secrets of Man's Body discovered ;
in an Anatomical Duel between Aristotle and Galen concerning ttie Parts
thereof : as also by a discovery of the Strange and marvellous Diseases,
■^Symjitomes, and Accidents of Man's Body. With a Refutation of Doctw
Brown's Vulgar Errors, t/ie Lord Bacon's Natural History, and Doctw
TO PSEUDODOXIA. llXVi.
To assail at once three such men, must be admitted as a proof
that Alexander was not wanting in spirit ; and to say the truth,
there is much amusement to be found in the volume.* He ad-
heres to antiquity, " through thick and thin," as John Gilpin
hath it ; but in his very blunders and wrongheadedness, he often
shows a quaintness and humour which not a little atones for
them.
The next, and I believe the only other attack which appeared
in print, was the Still Gale of John Robinson, '' a pompous and
somewhat coxcombical personage, who calls himself " nis fellow
Harry's Book de Generatione, Comenius, and Others; whereto is annexed
a Letter from Doctor Pr. to the Author, and his Answer thereto, touching
Doctor Ilarvy's Booh de Generatione. By A . R. London.
" Dr. Kippis remarks, that " the Arcana is far from being so mean
a piece as many have represented it. There is in it a great deal of
vanity, and more spleen ; but withal there wants not truth, learning,
And some sawse."
'' He published in 1649 a work entitled Miscellaneous Propositions
itnd Qvbceres, by J. R. Dr. in Physick in Norwich — with this motto :
Fabricanda Fabri Fimus, enclosed in a wreath. London, Printed for
R. Roydo7i, at the Angel in Ivie Lane. That they are truly Miscel-
laneous, will be sufficiently proved by their enumeration : — 1. of a
Church. 2. of Ministers. 3. of Sacraments. 4. of Adam. 5. of
Marriage. 6. of Sympathy. 7. of an Egge. 8. of Swimming or
Floating. 9. of Remedies. 10. of Telesmes. From this work it
appears, that he was an Independent, in his opinions on church govern-
ment, and the ministerial ofl&ce. He held marriage to be a civil, not a
religious institution. He seems to have been a person of some acute-
ness, and his belief in Satanic agency, resembled that of his fellow
citizen Sir Thomas, as appears by his last chapter on " Telesmes, " whose
eflfect in removing Epidemical diseases, "if any," he would ascribe
" unto the Prince of the Air." This work he translated into Latin
and published with two additional pieces, under the following title : —
Endoxa seu Questionum quarundam Miscellanearmn examen probabile, ut
et Lapis ad Altare, sive Exploratio Locorum paucorum difficiliorum S.
ScripturcB, una cum Pseudodoxice Epidemicce Ventilatione tranquilla, per
Johannem Robinsonum, M.D. (here occurs a rude wood-cut of 3 faces,
with this rnotto :) Sunt varice quamvis fades mentcsque alienee, Unus fit
cordis nexus amove boni. Londini, <£'c. 1656. Two years afterwards
the work made its appearance, with slight alterations, in English, under
this title : — Endoxa, or some probable Inquiries into Truth, both Divine and
Humane : together with a Stone to the A Itar, or short Disquisitions on a
few difficult places of Scripture ; as also a Calm Ventilation of Pseudodoxia
Epidemica, by John Robinson, Doctor of Physick, Translated and Aurf
mented by the Author. {Four faces in a heart.)
Though divers heads ; faces averse you see ;
Yet, for truth's sake, they all in heart agree.
London, Printed by J. Streater, for Francis Tylor, 1658.
bsxviii editor's preface
citizen and collegian." There was little in this gale to ruffle a
far more excitable antagonist than Sir Thomas ; and it seems to
have died away unnoticed.
The present Edition is printed from the folio of 1686, and all
the important variations of that edition, from preceding ones,
are pointed out in notes. The fifth book contains some pages
of new matter, from the MSS. in the British Museum.
In speaking of the notes which accompany it, I must first
mention those marked Wr. They were written by Dr. Chris-
topher Wren, Dean of Windsor, and father of the architect
of St. Paul's, on the margins of a copy of the first edition.
This copy, preserved in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, caught
the attention of my very kind friend Dr. Bliss, who enabled me
to obtain a transcript of the entire notes. I hope that in print-
ing nearly the whole of these notes, I shall be allowed to have
really enhanced both the interest and the value of this edition,
by adding the very curious commentary of a learned and dis-
tinguished contemporary. In extent of reading, as well as in
acuteness, the commentator was probably far inferior to
Browne ; but he went beyond him, though at the same time
strongly resembling him, in a certain superstitious tinge of
feeling, and in love of the marvellous ; he was inclined to
believe in astrology ; and was a regarder of dreams ; of which
a very curious instance is recorded in the Tarentalia, as having
been written by him on the margin of Aubrey's Miscellanies,
cap. V. p. 52."= He, moreover, admired Sir Thomas for being
(like himself) a stout adherent to the falling fortunes of the
Ptolemaic system of astronomy.
Browne has enumerated in his preface several works simi-
lar and anterior to his own.'^ Several others may here be
" "Sir C. W. being at his father's home, anno 1651, at Knoyle,
Wilts, dreamt that he saw a fight in a great market-place, which he
knew not, where some were flying, and others pursuing ; and among
those that fled, he saw a kinsman of his, who went into Scotland to the
king's army. They heard in the country that the king was come into
England, but whereabout he was they could not tell. The next night
his kinsman came to his father's at Knoyle, and was the first that
brought the news of the fight at Worcester, fought Sep. 3.
" When Sir C. W. was at Paris, about 1665, he was taken ill and
feverish, made but little water, and had a pain in his reins : he sent for
a physician, who advised him to let blood, thinking he had a pleurisy ;
but bleeding much disagreeing with his constitution, he would defer it
a day longer ; that night he dreamt that he was in a place where jialm-
trees grew (suppose Egypt), and that a woman in a romantick habit
reached him dates. The next day he sent for dates, which cured him of
the pain in his reins."
** Respecting Primrose, De Vulfji Errovibus, I may add that his first
TO PSEUDODOXIA. Lsxix
mentioned ; though many have very probably escaped my
notice.
Espagne John d*. Erreurs Populaires en Points Generanx
qui concernent I'intelligence de la Reliction. To this work there
is no date, nor do I find it in the British Museum, which con-
tains several other of his works. He was a French Protestant
di\'ine of the 17th century.
IIEPIAMMA 'EniAH'MION: or. Vulgar Errors in practice
censured. Also the Art of Oratory, composed for the benefit
of young students, cap. 8vo. Lond. jRoyston, 1659, pp. 112.
The Yulgar Errours inpractice censured are, 1. That of reproach-
ing red-naired men. 2. That of censuring some professions.
3. That of reproaching the feminine sex. 4. The neglect of many
writers to defend the deity of Christ. 5. The vanity of epitaphs.
6. The running from one extreme in religion to another. 7. The
common practice of railing against an adversary.
Kalph BatteD. Vulgar Errors in Divinity Removed, Lond.
8vo. 1683, containing, with title, &c. pp. 152. These relate to,
1. E-eprobation. 2. Kingly government. 3. God's house and
service in it. 4. Man's will. 5. Man's redemption. 6. Praying
by the Spirit.
Two works on popular superstitions, viz. Traits des Supersti-
tions, by M. Thiers, published in 1679, and L'Histoire Critique
des pratiques superstitieuses qui ont seduit les peuples, et embar-
rasse les Savans, by Pierre Le Brun, published in 2 vols, at
Kouay, in 1702 and 1732, — were pubUshed together in 1733 in
one vol. fol. with plates. One of these gives several figures of
mand?^akes.
Fovargue Stephen. A New Catalogue of Vulgar Errors,
8vo. pp. 202, Camb. 1767. A work of slight pretension, and
of slender merit ; introduced by a preface somewhat flippant
and in bad taste. Two of his errors had been already noticed
by Sir Thomas Browne, and many of the rest are by no means
generally received opinions.
Vulgar Errors, Lond. Debrett [8vo. 1784.] A political pam-
phlet against Mr. Pitt, at the time of the coahtion between
Lord North and Mr. Fox. The " Errors" enumerated are six : —
1. That the union between Lord North and Mr. Fox was in-
terested, and without any public spirit to support it. 2. That
Mr. Fox's India bill was a violation of charters. 3. That it was
a confiscation of property. 4. That, in the issue of this con-
test, the people will take part against the House of Commons.
5. That the king must succeed in the struggle by dissolving
edition was in Latin, Amst. 1639 : — it was that which Wittie translated :
subsequent editions appeared, and in 1668 one very much enlarged at
Botterdam ; it was this which De Eostagny translated.
Ixxx editoe's peeface
parliament. 6. That the opposition to the present ministerfl
Las been carried on with violence. These six positions the
author terms " Vulgar Errors," and professes to disprove.
A notice of some Vulgar Errors, as to points of law, will be
found in Barrinqton on the Statutes, 4to. 1775, p. 474.
s.w.
London, June 17, 1835.
In the Sloanian MSS. in the British Museum, No. 1839,
there is a very neatly-written MS. extending to 85 pages, 4to.,
of Observations on Ps. Ep. which is proved to have proceeded
from the pen of Sir Hamon L'Estrange.
The knight commences by thus expressing his admiration of hia
author : — " Boterus, magnifying the latitude of the pope's power,
sayes that he hath una jurisditione che no conosce oriente, ' a command
that knows no east,' and another dedicates a booke to the king of
Spaine, thus, 'To the great king, to whom the sun never sets.'
I cannot but praedicate the vast expanse of the Dr.'s learning, reading,
and knowledge, from the cedar to the hyssope." He then begins his
observations by pointing out, in Browne's chapter on magnetism and
the compass, several remarks which had not been made by previous
writers ; — Borough, Normfin, or Gilbert. He goes on successively to
notice Browne's remarks on electricity, flies in amber, white powder,
and the rose of Jericho. After noticing, in connection with this last
topic, several marvellous stories of omens, apparitions, and miracles,
(among which this one, told to the writer by the old Countess of
Arundel, respecting her father, Lord Dacre of the North, that he had
a pasture on the scite of an old abbey, and that his sheep never failed,
if within that scite, to produce twins:) — he thus proceeds. "And I
see no ban- against mee to think that in the dayes of darkness and
ignorance of popery, some cloysterers might truck with the devil (att a
deare rate) for an ape's trick (as witches do) for the showing, effecting,
and continuance of such pranks and toyes, whereby to acquire a
stupendous reputation of working miracles (of which they were not a
little ambitious,) to drawe affection, respect, and honour, to their
religion and profession, and to celebrate the place with a mark and
character of extraordinary sanctity for the future," p. 6, After touch-
ing upon Deer casting their hoi-ns, he mentions, on the subject of
Griffins, having seen in Sir Rob. Cotton's library a griffin's daw,
p. 7. Discussing the story of the ostrich swallowing iron, he mentions
having seen one eat pellets of chewed paper as large as a walnut.
He gives also, as a parallel, the following sior^' ; — " About 1638, as I
walked London streets, I sawe the picture of a strange fowle hang out
upon a " and my selfe, with one or two more then in
company, went in to see it. It was kept in a chamber, and was a great
• A burnt hole occurs here in MS.
TO l-SEUDODOXlA. IxXXl
fowle, somewhat bigger than the largest turkey-cock, and so legged ami
footed, but shorter and thicker, and of a more erect shape, coulourd
before like the breast of yong cock fesan, and on the back of dunn or
deare coulour. The keeper called it a Dodo, and in the ende of a
chimney in the chamber there lay an heap of large pebble stones,
whereof hee gave it many in our sight, some as bigg as nutmegs, and
the keeper told us shee eate them, conducing unto digestion ; and
though I remember not how far the keeper was questioned herein, yet
I am confident that afterwards he cast them all agayne." He goes on
to mention other instances of birds swallowing stones, &c. for the same
purpose — which he concludes to be the most probable solution of the
alleged fact that the ostrich (or estridge, as he calls it,) swallowing
iron, pp. 8 — -12. Then follows a lengthened notice of the five kinds
of one-homed animals noticed by Browne ; — the Indium, ox and ciss, the
oryx, rhinoceros, and monoceros. His opinion is that three " might
exist ; some one or more of several sorts of monsters in nature,
through some errour or vitiosity in generation or conception, which
might bear one home ; and such a creature once seen might multiply
fast enough in report, and (ex traduce) naturalists readily follow one
another, as wild geese flye." He concludes the unicorn of Job to be
the rhinoceros, after many pages of careful and argumentative exami-
nation of his " shape and strength, and the seate, position, and
portage of his home," pp. 13 — 26. At p. 27, we find the notice
(adverted to in his letter to Browne) of the whale, beginning thus :
" In June, 1626, a whale was cast up upon my shoare or sea liberty,
Bometyme parcel of the possessions of the abbey of Ramsey, &c."
Notices of the dolphin, the toad arid spider, seal, dottrel, basilisk,
twallows in mud, tfcc. occupy from p. 28 to p. 46 : — from the last of
■which I must extract the following very lively incident — " About 16 or
20 years since, upon a hot, bright, and cleare daye, (a little before
noone,) hapning in the midst of March, as I leaned over my garden
wall, and looking steadfastly into my mote, (which is on that syde very
cleare, leane, and hungry water,) I espied sundry small creatures (of a
dark or dusky coulour, longwise shaped, and of forme of beetle or
scarabee) to rise out of the mud from the bottom of the mote to the
topp of the water, and some of them to settle themselves speedily
downe againe into the mud, others to rayse themse.rres above the
water five or six inches, others a foote, others more, and some some
yards, with a slanting or sloaping mount, and a like descent and falling
downe hastened to the bottome ;' and being much pleased with this
speculation, I hastily rann unto mine house, and called out mine eldest
Sonne, (then a man growne and of yeares,) both to participate and bee
a witnesse of this discovery ; wee observed againe as before, and att
last (among sundry essayes of many of these creatures, we perceived
' I must suspect that the Knight was deceived, probably by reflec-
tion, as to " these creatures " (which must be supposed the larvae of
libdlula, or dragon flies,) having mounted out of the water before they
acquired their wings — or having returned into the water after they had
once taken their leave of it.
bxxii editor's peeface to pseudodoxia.
one of them to rise from the bottom to the top of the water, and
found iteelfe so full sunned and perfected as it raysed it selfe above the
water, and after two or three turnes and circinations in the ayre,
it mounted cleane out of sight," p. 40. He proceeds to remark on the
passenger falcon, (p. 42, 43,) toads found in oaks, shell stones, (Pholas,)
p. 44, St. Hierome, p. 46, and last, but not least, Pope Joan, whose
existence he believes, and devotes the remaining forty pages of his
paper to a most learned and ingenious examination of the arguments
for and against the story — and still further to a discussion of the sense
in which those Apocalyptic passages are to be understood — in which
the whore of Babylon is foretold and denounced, concluded by a
courteous expression of personal respect to many who are of that
fciith, pp. 47—85.
TO THE READER.
"Would truth dispense, we could be content, with Plato,
that knowledge were but remembrance ; that intellectual
acquisition were but reminiscential evocation, and new im-
pressions but the coloiu'ishing of old stamps which stood
pale in the soul before.' For (what is worse) knowledge is
made by oblivion, and, to purchase a clear and warrantable
body of truth, we must forget and part with much we know;
— our tender enquiries taking up learning at large, and, to-
gether with true and assured notions, receiWng many, where-
in our reviewing judgments do find no satisfaction. And,
therefore, in this encyclopgedie and round of knowledge,
like the great and exemplary wheels of heaven, we must
observe two circles ; that, while we are daily carried about
and whirled on by the swing and rapt of the one, we may
maintain a natural and proper course in the slow and sober
wheel of the other. And this we shall more readily perform,
if we timely survey our knowledge ; impartially singling out
those encroachments which junior compliance and popular
credulity hath admitted. Whereof at present we hare en-
deavoured a long and serious adviso ; proposing not only a
large and copious list, but from experience and reason" at-
tempting their decisions.
And first we crave exceeding pardon in the audacity of the
attempt ; humbly acknowledging a work of such concern-
ment unto truth, and difiiculty in itself, did well deserve the
conjunction of many heads. And surely more advantageous
had it been unto truth, to have fallen into the endeavours of
' the colom-ish'nr/, tt-c] "The pictures drawn in our minds are laid in
fading colours ; and if not sometimes refreshed, vanish and disappear.''
— Locke.
a TO THE EEADEK.
aome co-operating advancers, that might have performed it
to the life, and added authority thereto ; which the privacy
of our condition, and unequal abilities cannot expect.
Whereby notwithstanding we have not been diverted ; nor
have our solitary attempts been so discouraged, as to despair
the favourable look of learning upon our single and unsup-
ported endeavoui's.
Nor have we let fall our pen upon discouragement of con-
tradiction, unbelief, and difficulty of dissuasion from radi-
cated beliefs, and points of high prescription ; although we
are very sensible how hardly teaching years do learn, what
roots old age contracteth unto errors, and how such as are
but acorns in our younger brows grow oaks in our elder
heads, and become inflexible unto the powerfuUest arm of
reason. Although we have also beheld, what cold requitals
others have found in their several redemptions of truth ; and
how their ingenuous enquiries have been dismissed with cen-
sure, and obloquy of singularities.^
Some consideration we hope from the course of our pro-
fession, which though it leadeth us into many truths that
pass undiscerned by others, yet doth it disturb their com-
munications, and much inteiTupt the office of our pens in
their well-intended transmissions. And therefore surely in
this work attempts will exceed performances ; it being com-
])osed by snatches of time, as medical vacations, and the
fruitless importunity of uroscopy* would permit us.^ And
therefore also, perhaps it hath not found that regular and
constant style, those infiUible experiments, and those as-
sured determinations, which the subject sometime I'cquireth,
and might be expected from others, whose quiet doors and
unmolested hours aftbrd no such distractions. Although
whoever shall indifterently perpend the exceeding difficulty,
which either tlie obscurity of the subject or unavoidable
paradoxology must often put upon the attemptor, he will
easily discern a work of this nature is not to be performed
upon one legg ; and should smell of oyle, if duly and de-
servedl}' handled.
* Inspection of urines.
* Although we have also behdd, tix'.] Nota juatam Doctoris querimo-
uiam. — Wi:
* /''uitless Laportwnity, tfcc] See book i. chap. ?..
TO THE READEE. 3
Our first intentions, considering the common interest of
truth, resolved to propose it unto the Latin republick and
equal judges of Europe, but, owing in the first place this
service unto our country, and therein especially imto its
ingenuous gentry, we have declared ourselves in a language
best conceived. Although I confess the quality of tlie sub-
ject wiU sometime carry us into expressions beyond mere
English apprehensions."* And, indeed, if elegancy still pro-
ceedeth, and English pens maiutaia that stream we have of
late observed to flow from many, we shall, within few years,
be fain to learn Latin to imderstand English, and a work
wiU prove of equal facility in either.* Nor have we ad-
dressed our pen or style unto the people, (whom books do
not redress, and [who] are this way incapable of reduction,)
but unto the knowing and leading part of learning. As
well understanding (at least probably hoping) except they
be watered from higher regions, and fructifying meteors of
knowledge, these weeds must lose their alimental sap, and
wither of themselves. AVhose conserving influence could
our endeavours prevent, we shoidd trust the rest unto the
scythe of time, and hopeful dominion of truth.
AVe hope it wiU not be unconsidered, that we find no
open tract, or constant manuduction in this labyrinth, but
are ofttimes fain to wander in the America and luitravelled
parts of truth.^ For though, not many years past. Dr.
Primrose hath made a learned discourse of Vulgar Errors
in Physick,* yet have we discussed but two or three thereof
■* expressions beyond, tfr.] That our naturall English consistes for the
moste parte of monosyllables, as appeares by the names of all creatures
in our tounge and all our actions, and in all the parts of our bodye,
except such things as wee have borrowed from other nations. Scarce
one word of ten, in our common talke, is of more than one syllable.
In this very shorte note which conteynes sixty words, there bee not
above eleven (and those of Latin derivation) which are not (all of them)
monosyllables. — Wr.
^ ue shall icithin, d-c] To which desirable end, it must be confessed,
Browne has, in this work, used his best endeavours. — Crossley, in London
Mag. vol. iv. p. 436.
^ America, <L-c.^ Little more than 150 years had elapsed since the
discovery of America, of which many parts were still untrardhd and
unknown. — Br.
'' Dr. Primrose hath made, <fcc.] The work here alluded to is the TJe
Vulrji Errorihus in Mtdicind, of which there is a translation into French,
b2
4 TO THE READER.
Scipio Mercurii liath also left an excellent tract in ItaliaUj
concerning Popular Errors ; but, confining himself only unto
those in physick, he hath little conduced unto the gene-
rality of our doctrine.'^ Laurentius Joubertas,^ by the
same title, led our expectation into thoughts of great re-
lief; whereby notwithstanding, we reaped no advantage, it
answering scarce at all the promise of the inscription. Nor
perhaps (if it were yet extant), should we find any further
assistance from that ancient piece of Andreas,*^ pretending
the same title. And, therefore, we are often constrained to
stand alone against the strengtk of opinion, and to meet
the Goliah and giant of authority, with contemptible peb-
bles and feeble arguments, drawn from the scrip and slender
stock of ourselves. Nor have we, indeed, scarce named any
author whose name we do not honour ; and if detraction
could invite us, discretion surely would contain us from any
derogatory intention, where highest pens and friendliest
eloquence must fail in commendation.
And therefore also we cannot but hope the equitable con-
* TTipl Twv \l/evciog TztTTiaTivfiiviov, Athensei, lib. 7.
by Rostagny, and another into English, by Dr. Wittie ; the latter was
published in 8vo. in 1651. Dr. James Primrose, the author, who
wrote several other medical treatises, likewise in Latin, was the son of
Gilbert Primrose, or Pi-imerose, D.D., a Scotch divine, minister of the
French church in London, and chaplain to James I. He practised at
Paris for some time and afterwards settled in Yorkshire. — Br.
^ Sci2no Mercurii, <i:c.~\ Not mentioned in the first edition.
" I)cfjli errori popolaH d' Italia," 1603, by Girolamo Mercurii, who
had assumed the name of Scipio, when travelling through Europe as a
physician, after having thrown aside the religious habit of the Domini-
cans. This work is a verbose but amusing performance, containing
much curious information relative to the opinions and customs of the
period at which it was published, and usefully correcting many errors,
though it inculcates others of equal magnitude. — Br.
^ Laurentius Joubertus, <£t.] The Erreurs poj)ulaires touchant la Me-
decine, of Laurent Joubert, first published at Bourdeaux, in 1579, is
the most distinguished of all the works of that celebrated medical pro-
fessor. It obtained immediate popularity, being reprinted ten times in
six months. The levity of its style, and the nature of some of the
subjects discussed in it, appear to have contributed in a great degree to
its popularity. — Br.
' Andreas.^ Nothing appears to be known of this work of Andreas,
who was himself a physician, besides this reference to it by Athenaeua.
Concerning the author, see Fabricius Elenchus Medicorum Vete)"umi
Biblioth. UriK. vol. xiii. p. 57. — Br.
TO THE READER. J
siderations, and candoiir of reasonable minds. We cannot
expect the frown of theology herein ; nor can they which
behold the present state of things,^ and controversy of points
so long received in divinity, condemn our sober enquiries in
the doubtful appertinences of arts, and receptaries of philo-
sophy. Surely philologers and critical discoursers, who look
beyond the shell and obvious exteriours of things, will not
be angry with our narrower explorations. And we cannot
doubt, our brothers in physick (whose knowledge in natu-
rals will lead them into a nearer apprehension of many
things delivered) will friendly accept, if not countenance,
our endeavours. Nor can we conceive it may be unwelcome
unto those honoured worthies who endeavour the advance-
ment of learning ; as being likely to find a clearer pi'ogres-
sion, when so many rubs are levelled, and many imtruths
taken otf, which passing as principles with common beliefs,
disturb the tranquillity of axioms which otherwise might be
raised. And wise men cannot but know, that arts and
learning want this expurgation ; and if the course of truth
be permitted unto itself, like that of time and uncorrected
computations,^ it cannot escape many errors, which duration
still enlargeth.
Lastly, we are not magisterial in opinions, nor have we
dictator-like^ obtruded our conceptions ; but, in the humility
of inquiries or disquisitions, have only proposed them unto
more ocular discerners. And therefore opinions are free ;
and open it is for any to think or declare the contrary. And
we shall so far encourage contradiction, as to promise no dis-
turbance, or re-oppose any pen, that shall fallaciously or
captiously^ refute us ; that shall only lay hold of our lapses,
single out digressions, corollaries, or ornamental conceptions,
to evidence his own in as indifterent truths. And shall only
take notice of such, whose experimental and judicious know-
ledge shall solemnly look upon it ; not only to destroy of ours
" present state, c&c] Written in 1645.
' time, tfcc] Dean Wren, in a long note on this passage, proposes
methods of correcting the calendar : but as the correction has long ago
been made, the interest of the note appears to me scarcely to equal ita
length ; I have therefore omitted it.
* dictator-like, tfcc] Ut Julius Caesar Scaliger in Uteris dictaturan
arripuit. — Wr.
* fallaciously.'] Elenchically, in first edition.
6 TO THE HEADER.
but to establish of his own ; not to traduce or extenuate, but
to explain and dilucidate, to add and ampliate, according to
the laudable custom of the ancients in their sober promotions
of learning. Unto whom notwithstanding, we shall not con-
tentiously rejoin, or only to justify our own, but to applaud
or confirm his maturer assertions ; and shall confer what is in
us unto his name and honour : ready to be swallowed in any
worthy enlarger ; — as having acquired our end, if any way,
or under any name, we may obtain a work, so much desired,
and yet desiderated,^ of truth.
THOMAS BEOWNE.
THE P0STSCEIPT.7
E.EADEES,
To inform you of the advantages of the present
impression, and disabuse your expectations of any future en-
largements ; — these are to advertise you, that this edition
comes forth with very many explanations, additions, and
alterations throughout, besides that of one entire chapter ;
and now this work is compleat and perfect, expect no fur-
ther additions.
* desired and yet desiderated, d-c] The first edition reads, " desired,
at least desiderated." Dean Wren in the margin asks, "WTiat's the
difference ?" By collectors, everything which they do not possess is
classed among desiderata, whether desirable for its rarity or not :
Browne evidently meant to say, that his work was at least among the
desiderata of literature, if not desired or desirable.
' Postscript.] To the sixth edition : the last published in the
author's life.
PSEUDODOXIA EPIDEiMICA.
THE FIRST BOOK.
CONTAINING THE GENERAL PAET.
CHAPTEE I.
Of tilt first Cause of Common Errors ; the. common infirmity of HumaK
Nature.
The first aud father cause of common error is the common
infirmity of human nature ; of whose deceptible condition,
although, perhaps, there should not need any other eviction
than the frequent errors we shall ourselves commit, even in
the express declarement hereof, yet shall we illustrate the
same from more infallible constitutions, and persons presumed
as far from us in condition as time, that is, our first and in-
generated forefathers. From whom, as we derive our being,
and the several wounds of constitution, so may we in some
manner excuse oiu* infii-mities in the depravity of those parts,
whose traductions were piu'e in them, and their originals but
once removed from God. Who, notwithstanding, (if posterity
may take leave to judge of the fact, as they are assured to
sufier in the punishment,) were grossly deceived in their per-
fection, and so weakly deluded in the clarity of their under-
standing, that it hath left no small obscurity in ours, how
error should gain upon them.
For first, tliey were deceived by Satan ; and that not in an
invisible insinuation, but an open and discoverable apparition,
that is, in the form of a serpent ; whereby, although tliere
were many occasions of suspicion, and such as could not easily
8 CAUSE OF COMMOX ERRORS. [BOOK I.
escape a weaker circumspection, yet did the uii-wary appre-
hension of Eve take no advantage tliereof. It liatli therefore
seemed strange unto some, she should be deluded by a ser-
pent, or subject her reason to a beast, which God had sub-
jected unto hers. It hath empuzzled the enquiries of others
to apprehend, and enforced them unto strange conceptions,
to make out, how without fear or doubt she could discourse
with such a creature, or hear a serpent speak, without suspi-
cion of imposture.^ The wats of others have been so bold as
to accuse her simplicity, in receiving his temptation so coldly ;
and, when such specious effects of the fruit were promised as
to make them like gods, not to desire, at least not to wonder,
he pursued not that benefit himself. And had it been their
own case, would perhaps have replyed, if the taste of this
fruit maketh the eaters like gods why remainest thou a beast ?
If it maketh us but like gods, we are so already. If thereby
our eyes shall be opened hereafter, they are at present quick
enough to discover thy deceit ; and we desire them no opener
to behold our own shame. If to know good and evil be our
advantage, although we have free \\i\\ unto both, we desire
to perform but one. We know 'tis good to obey the com-
mandment of Grod, but e^dl if we transgress it.
They were deceived by one another, and in the greatest
disadvantage of delusion, that is, the stronger by the weaker :
for Eve presented the fruit, and Adam received it from her.
Thus the serpent was cunning enough to begin the deceit in
the weaker : and the weaker of strength sufficient to consimi-
mate the fraud in the stronger. Art and fallacy was used
unto her ; a naked offer proved sufiicient to him ; so his su-
perstruction was his ruin, and the fertility of his sleep an issue
of death unto him. And although the condition of sex, and
posteriority of creation, might somewhat extenuate the error
of the woman, yet was it very strange and inexcusable in the
man : especially, if, as some aflBrm, he was the wisest of all
men since ; or if, as others have conceived, he was not igno-
rant of the fall of the angels, and had thereby example and
punishment to deter him.
They were deceived from themselves, and their own appre-
hensions ; for Eve either mistook or traduced the command-
ment of God. " Of every tree of the garden thou mayest
' how without fear, ttc] See Rdigio Medici, p. 15, note 9.
CHAP. I.] THE IKFIEMITT OF HUMAN NATURE. 9
freely eat, but of the tree of knowledge of good and e'"Il thou
shalt not eat : for in the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt
surely dye." Now Eve upon the question of the serpent,
returned the precept in different terms : " You shall not eat
of it, neither shaU you touch it, lest perhaps you dye." In
which delivery there were no less than two mistakes, or
rather additional mendacities : for the commandment forbad
not the touch of the fruit ; and positively said, ye shall surely
dye, but she extenuating replied, ne forte morimnini, lest
perhaps ye dye. For so in the vulgar translation it runneth,
and so it is expressed in the Thargum or paraphrase of
Jonathan. And therefore although it be said, and that very
truly, that the Devil was a Iyer from the beginning, yet was
the woman herein the first express beginner, and falsified
twice, before the reply of Satan. And therefore also, to
speak strictly, the sin of the fruit was not the first oflence.
They first transgressed the rule of their own reason, and
after, the commandment of God.^
They were deceived through the conduct of their senses,
and by temptations from the object itself; whereby although
their intellectuals had not failed in the theory** of truth, yet
did the inservient and brutal faculties controU the suggestion
of reason : pleasure and profit already overswaying the in-
structions of honesty, and sensuality perturbing the reason-
able commands of virtue. For so it is dehvered in the text ;
that when the woman saw " that the tree was good for
food," and " that it was pleasant unto the eye," and " a tree
to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof
and did eat." Now hereby it appeareth, that Eve, before
the fall, was by the same and beaten way of allurements in-
veigled, whereby her posterity hath been deluded ever since ;
that is, those three delivered by St. John, " the lust of the
flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life:" where in-
deed they seemed as weakly to fail, as their debilitated pos-
terity, ever after. Whereof, notwithstanding, some in their
imperfection have resisted more powerful temptations, and
in many moralities condemned the facihty of their seductions.
* and after, the commandment of God.'\ As indeea ncme can trans-
gress his commandment without first transgressing reason. — Capd Loft.
•* theory.'] Theorys, in Greeke signifies, search into the nature ol
things. — Wr,
10 CAUSE OF COMMON EEEOES. [bOOK I.
Again, they might, for ought we know, be still deceived in
the unbelief of their mortality, even after they had eat of
the fruit, For, Eve obserriug no immediate execution of the
curse, she delivered the fruit unto Adam ; Avho after the
taste thereof, perceiving himself still to live, might yet re-
main in doubt, whether he had incurred death ; which per-
haps he did not indubitabl}- believe, until he was after
convicted in the visible example of Abel. For he that
would not believe the menace of God at first, it may be
doubted whether, before an ocidar example, he believed the
curse at last. And therefore they are not without all rea-
son, who have disputed the fact of Cain ; that is, although
he purposed to do mischief, whether he intended to kill his
brother ; or designed that, whereof he had not beheld an
example in his own kind. There might be somewhat in it,
that he would not have done, or desired undone, when he
brake foi"th as desperately, as before he had done uncivilly,
my iniquity is greater than can be forgiven me.'*
Some niceties I confess there are which extenuate, but
many more that aggravate this delusion ; which exceeding
the bounds of this discourse, and perhaps our satisfaction,
we shall at present pass over. And therefore whether the
sin of our first parents were the greatest of any since ; whe-
ther the transgression of Eve seducing did not exceed that
of Adam seduced ; or whether the resistibility of his reason
did not equivalence the facility of her seduction, we shall
refer it to the schoolman. Whether there was not in Eve
as great injustice in deceiving her husband, as imprudence
in being deceived herself, especially, if fore-tasting the fruit,
her eyes were opened before his, and she knew the eifect of
it, before he tasted of it, we leave it unto the moralist.
Whether the whole relation be not allegorical, that is, whe-
ther the temptation of the man by the woman be not the
seduction of the rational and higher parts by the inferior
■• " Mt) iniquity," tt-c] The authorized version gives the passage
thus; " my punishment is greater than I can hear." Sir Thomas pre-
fers the marginal reading, which he contrasts with the surly question
of Cain, in the 9th verse; — "Am T my brother's keeper?" — Drs.
Clarke and Robertson give the same meaning to the words of the sen-
tence, but the fonner makes it interrogative : — "Is my sin too great to
he forgiven ? "
CHAP. I.] THE I>'FIKM:iTr OF HUMAX NATURE. 11
and feminine faculties ; or whether the tree in the midst of
the garden, were not that part in the centre of the body, in
which was afterward the appointment of circumcision in
males, we leave it unto the thalmudist.^ AVhether there
were any pohcy in the devil to tempt them before the con-
junction, or whether the issue, before tentation, might in
justice have sutfered with those after, we leave it unto the
lawj^er. Whether Adam foreknew the advent of Christ, or
the reparation of his error by his Saviour ; how the execu-
tion of the curse should have been ordered, if, after Eve had
eaten, Adam had yet refused ; whether, if they had tasted
the tree of life, before that of good and evil, they had yet
suffered the curse of mortality ; or whether the efficacy ot
the one had not overpowered the penalty of the other, we
leave it unto God. For he alone can truly determine these,
and all things else ; who, as he hath proposed the world
unto our disputation, so hath he reserved many things unto
his owTi resolution ; whose determination we cannot hope
from flesh, but must with reverence suspend unto that great
day, whose justice shall either condemn our curiosities, or
resolve oiu- disquisitions.
Lastly, man was not only deceivable in his integrity, but
the angels of light in all tlieir clarity.^ He that said, he
would be like the highest, did err, it' in some way he con-
ceived not himself so already : but in attempting so high an
effect from himself, he misunderstood the nature of God,
and held a false apprehension of his o\vn ; whereby vainly
attempting not only insolencies, but impossibilities, he de-
ceived himself as low as hell. In brief, there is nothing in-
fallible but God, who cannot possibly err. For things are
really true, as they correspond unto His conception •] and
* whether the tree, <£'c.] See the Count de Gahalk, p. 54, Lond. 1714.
This is the theory of Hadrian Beverland's celebrated work, De Peccato
originali, 1679, Svo. It may be observed by the way, as a fact not
generally known, that many curious papers and MSS. of this singular
writer, throwing great light on that period of his life which he passed
in England, may be found in the British Museum. — /. C.
® Man was not only deceivable, etc.] More correctly, " not only was
man deceivable in his integrity, but the angels of light in all their
clarity.
' For things are really true as they correspond, <tc.'] But not arbitra-
rily. — They confcm to nis conception, because they are true ; and he
12 CAUSE OF COMMOK EREOBS. [bOOK J.
have so mucli verity, as. they hold of conformity unto that
intellect, in whose idea they had their first determinations.
And, therefore, being the rule. He cannot be irregular ; nor,
being truth itself, conceivably admit the impossible society
of error.
CHAPTER II.
A further Illustration of the same.
Being thus deluded before the fall, it is no wonder if their
conceptions were deceitful, and could scarce speak without
an error after. For, what is very remarkable (and no man
that I know hath yet observed) in the relations of Scripture
before the flood, there is but one speech delivered by man,
wherein there is not an erroneous conception ;^ and, strictly
examined, most heinously injurious unto truth. The pen of
Moses is brief in the account before the flood, and the
speeches recorded are but six. The first is that of Adam,
when, upon the expostulation of Grod, he replied, " I heard
thy voice in the garden, and, because I was naked, I hid
myself." In which reply there was included a very gross
mistake, and, if with pertinacity maintained, a high and
capital error. For, thinking by this retirement to obscure
himself from God, he infringed the omnisciency and essential
ubiquity of his Maker : who, as he created all things, so is
he beyond and in them all ; not only in power, as under his
subjection, or in his presence, as being in his cognition ; but
in his very essence, as being the soul of their causalities, and
the essential cause of their existencies. Certainly, his pos-
terity at this distance, and after so perpetuated an impair-
ment, camiot but condemn the poverty of his conception,
that thought to obscure himself from his Creator in the
shade of the garden, who had beheld him before in the
darkness of his chaos, and the great obscurity of nothing ;
that thought to fly from God, which could not fly himself ;
seeth all thinijs as they are ; and maketh their physical constitution to
be what it is : and knoweth the moral relations thereunto belonging
according to eternal rectitude, which is hia nature. — Capcl Loft.
* There is but one speech, <<:,] Adverting probably to the speech of
Lamecb at the birth of Noah.
CUAP. II.] THE INFIBMITT OF HUMAN NATUEE. 13
or imagined that one tree sliould conceal his nakedness from
God's eye, as another had revealed it unto his own. Those
tormented spirits that wish the mountains to cover them,
have fallen upon desires of minor absurdity, and chosen
ways of less improbable concealment. Though this be also
as ridiculous unto reason, as fruitless unto their desires ; for
he that laid the foundations of the earth cannot be excluded
the secrecy of the mountains ; nor can there anything escape
the perspicacity of those eyes which were before light, and
in whose optics there is no opacity. This is the consolation
of all good men, unto whom his ubiquity aftbrdeth continual
comfort and security : and this is the infliction of hell, unto
whom it affordeth despair and remediless calamity. For
those restless spirits that fly the face of the Almighty, being
deprived the fruition of his eye, would also avoid the extent
of his hand ; which, being impossible, their sufterings are
desperate, and their aSlictions without evasion ; until they
can get out of Trismegistus his circle, that is, to extend their
wings above the universe, and pitch beyond ubiquity.
The second is that speech of Adam unto Grod, "The wo-
man whom thou gavest me to be with me, she gave me of the
tree, and I did eat." This indeed was an unsatisfactory re-
ply, and therein was involved a very impious error, as im-
plying God the author of sin, and accusing his maker of his
transgression. As if he had said, "If thou hadst not given
me a woman, I had not been deceived ; thou promisedst to
make her a help, but she hath proved destruction unto me :
had I remained alone, I had not sinned ; but thou gavest
me a consort, and so I became seduced." This was a bold
and open accusation of God, making the fountain of good
the contriver of evil ; and the forbidder of the crime, an
abettor of the fact prohibited. Surely his mercy was great,
that did not revenge the impeachment of his justice ; and
his goodness to be admired, that it refuted not his argument
in the pimishment of his excusation,^ and only pursued the
first transgression, without a penalty of this the second.
The third was that of Eve, "The serpent beguiled me, and
I did eat." In which reply there was not only a very feeble
* fds goodness to he admired, <tc.'\ Meaning that God's goodness with-
held him frori proving himself Ji«<, by punishing Adam for his implied
charge (*r inj istice.
14 CAUSE OF COMMON EEBORS, [bOOK I.
excuse, but an erroneous translating lier own offence upon
another ; extenuating her sin from that whicli was an ag-
gravation, that is, to excuse the fact at all, much more upon
the suggestion of a beast, which was before, in the strictest
terms, prohibited by her God. For although we now do
hope the mercies of God will consider our degenerated in-
tef/rities unto some minoration of our offences ; yet, had not
the sincerity of our first parents so colourable expectations,
unto whom the commandment was but single, and their in-
tegrities best able to resist the motions of its transgression.
And therefore so heinous conceptions have risen hereof,
that some have seemed more angry therewith than God
himself: being so exasperated with the offence, as to call in
question their salvation, and to dispute the eternal punish-
ment of their maker.' Assuredly with better reason may
posterity accuse them, than they the serpent, or one an-
other ; and the displeasure of the Pelagians must needs be
irreconcilable, who, peremptorily maintaining they can ful-
fil the whole law, will insatisfactorily^ condemn the non-
observation of one.
The fourth was that speech of Cain, upon the demand of
God, "Where is thy brother?" and he said, "I know not."
In which negation, beside the open impudence, there was
implyed a notable error ; for, returning a lie imto his maker,
and presuming in this manner to pvit off the searcher of
hearts, he denied the omnisciency of God, whereunto there
is nothing concealable. The answer of Satan, in the case
of Job, had more of truth, wisdom, and reverence than this :
"Whence comest thou, Satan?" and he said, "From com-
passing the earth." For, though an enemy of God, and
hater of all truth, his wisdom will hardly permit him to
falsifie with the Almighty. For, well understanding the
omniscience of his nature, he is not so ready to deceive him-
self as to falsifie unto him, whose cognition is no way de-
ludjible. And, therefore, when in the tentation of Christ
he played upon the fallacy, and thought to deceive the
author of truth, the method of this proceeding arose from
' to dispute the eternal pimishment of tlieir maker.'] To dispute his jus-
tice in inflicting for the offence of our first parents, eternal punishment
ou their posterity.
' insatis/actorili/.] i. e. ucappeasahly. — Wr.
CHAP. II.] THE :nfiemIj:t of human nature. 15
the uncertainty of his divinity ; whereof had lie remained
assured, he had continued silent, nor would his discretion
attempt so imsucceedable a temptation. And so again at
the last day, when our offences shall be drawn into accompt,
the subtilty of that inquisitor shall not present unto God a
bundle of calumnies or confutable accusations, but will dis-
creetly offer up imto his oinnisciency a true and undenyable
list of our transgressions.^
The fifth is another reply of Cain, upon the denounce-
ment of his curse: "My iniquity is greater than can be for-
given ;" for so it is expressed in some translations. The
assertion was not only desperate, but the conceit erroneous,
overthrowing that glorious attribute of God, his mercy, and
conceiving the sin of murder \mpardonable. AVhich, how
great soever, is not above the repentance of man, but far
below the mercies of God, and was (as some conceive) expi-
ated in that punishment he suffered 1;emporally for it. There
are but two examples of this error"* in Holy Scripture, and
they both for murder, and both as it were of the same per-
son , for Christ was mystically slain in Abel, and, therefore,
Cain had some influence on his death, as well as Judas ; but
the sin had a different effect on Cain from that it had on
Judas ; and most that since have fallen into it. For they,
like Judas, desire death, and not unfrequently pursue it.
Cain, on the contrary, grew afraid thereof, and obtained a se-
curement from it. Assuredly, if his despair continued, there
was punishment enough in life, and justice sufficient in the
mercy of his protection. For the life of the desperate equalls
the anxieties of death ; who in uncessant inquietudes, but
act the life of the damned, and anticipate the desolations of
hell. 'Tis indeed a sin in man, but a punishment only in
devils ; who offend not God, but afflict themselves, in the
appointed despair of his mercies. And, as to be without
^ And so again at the last day, d-c] Here is an evident allusion to
that singular passage in which Satan is spoken of as the accuser of the
brethren, which accused them before God day and night. But surely it
would be incorrect to conclude from thence, that he will stand up at
the judgment day as the accuser of all men. On the contrary, we are
expressly told that men will then be judged, " according to those things
which were written in the books."
■* this error.} Namely, despair of God's mercy.
16 THE EREONEOTJS DISPOSITIOX [bOOK 1.
liope is the affliction of the damned, so is it the happiness
of the blessed ; "who having all their expectations present,
are not distracted with futurities. So is it also their feli-
city to have no faith ; for enjoying the beatifical vision,
there is nothing unto them inevident : and in the fruition
of the object of faith, they have received the full evacuation
of it.
The last speech was that of Lamech, "I have slain a man
to my wound, and a young man to my hurt : If Cain be
avenged seven fold, truly Lamech seventy and seven fold."
Kow herein there seems to be a very erroneous illation: from
the indulgence of God unto Cain concluding an immunity
unto himself; that is, a regular protection from a single ex-
ample, and an exemption from punishment in a fact that
naturally deserved it. The error of this offender was con-
trary to that of Cain, whom the Eabbins conceive that La-
mech at this time killed. He despaired of God's mercy in
the same fact, where this presumed of it ; he by a decolla-
tion of all hope annihilated his mercy, this by an immode-
rancy thereof destroyed his justice. Though the sin were
less, the error was as great : for, as it is untrue that his
mercy will not forgive offenders, or his benignity co-operate
to their conversions, so is it also of no less falsity to affirm
His justice will not exact account of sinners, or punish such
as continue in their transgressions.
Thus may we perceive how weakly our fiithers did err be-
fore the Hood ; how continually, and upon common dis-
course, they fell upon errors after ; it is therefore no wonder
we have been erroneous ever since. And being now at
greatest distance from the beginning of error, are almost
lost in its dissemination, whose ways are boundless, and
confess no circumscription.
CHAPTER 111.
Of the second Cause of Common Errors ; the erroneous Disposition of the
People.
Having thus declared the fallible nature of man, even
from his first production, we have beheld the general cause
CHAP. III.] OF THE PEOPIE. 17
of error. But as for popular errors, they are more nearly
founded upon an erroneous inclination of the people ; as
being the most deceptable part of mankind, and ready with
open arms to receive the encroachments of error. Which
condition of theirs, although deducible from many grounds,
yet shall we evidence it but from a few, and such as most
nearly and undeniably declare their natures.
How unequal discerners of truth they are, and openly
exposed unto ei'ror, will first appear from their unqualified
intellectuals, unable to umpire the difliculty of its dissen-
tious. For error, to speak largely, is a false judgment of
things, or an assent unto falsity. Now, whether the object
whereunto they deliver up their assent be true or false,
they are incompetent judges.
For the assured truth of things is aerived from the prin-
ples of knowledge, and causes which determine their verities.
Whereof their uncultivated understandings scarce holding
any theory, they are but bad discerners of verity, and in the
numerous track of error, but casually do hit the point and
unity of truth.
Their understanding is so feeble in the discernment of
falsities, and averting the errors of reason, that it submitteth
to the fallacies of sense, and is unable to rectifie the error of
its sensations. Thus the greater part of mankind, having but
one eye of sense and reason, conceive the earth far bigger
than the sun, the fixed stars lesser than the moon, their
figures plain, and their spaces from the earth equidistant.
For thus their sense iuformeth them, and herein their reason
cannot rectifie them ; and, therefore, hopelessly continuing
in mistakes, they live and die in their absurdities ; passing
their dayes in perverted appreliensions and conceptions of
the world, derogatory unto God and the wisdom of the
creation.
Again, being so illiterate in the point of intellect, and their
sense so incorrected, they are further indisposed ever to
attain unto truth ; as commonly proceeding in those wayes,
which have most reference unto sense, and wherein there
lyeth most notable and popular delusion.
For being unable to wield the intellectual arms of reason,
they are fain to betake themselves unto wasters,^ and the
' wasters. \ A kind of cudgel.
VOL. I. C
18 THE EBEONEOTJS DISPOSITION [BOOK I.
blunter weapons of truth : affecting the gross and sensible
ways of doctriue, and such as will not consist with strict and
subtile reason. Thus unto them a piece of rhetorick is a
sufficient argument of logick ; an epilogue* of ^sop, beyond
syllogisms in barbara,^ parables tlian propositions, and pro-
verbs more powerful than demonstrations. And therefore
are they led rather by example than precept ; receiving
persuasions from visible inducements, before intellectual
instructions. And, therefore also they judge of human
actions by the event ; for, being uncapable of operable cir-
cumstances,^ or rightly to judge the prudeutiality of affairs,
they only gaze upon the visible success, and, therefore, con-
demn or cry up tlie whole progression. And so, from this
ground, in the lecture of Holy Scripture, their apprehensions
are commonly confined unto the literal sense of the text,
from whence have ensued the gross and duller sort of here-
sies. For not attaining the deuteroscopy,^ and second
intention of the words, they are fain to omit the super-con-
sequences, coherences, figures, or tropologies : and are not
sometimes persuaded by fire^ beyond their literalities. And,
* Fable.
® syllogisms in harhara.^ Barbara, among logicians, the first mode of
the first figure of syllogism. A syllogism in barhara, is one whereof
all the propositions are universal and affirmative ; the middle term
being the subject of the first proposition, and attribute in the second.
Example : — •
bar — Every wicked man is miserable :
ba — All tyrants are wicked men :
ra — Therefore all tyrants are miserable. — Enc. Brit.
' uncapable of O'pcrable circumstances.^ "Not capable of judging
what is to be done under any given circumstances." This passage is
Dr. Johnson's solitary authority for the word operable, which he ob-
serves is not in use.
** deuteroscopy .'\ i. e. the inward and spiritual meaning, which is
sometimes
Allegorical, and by a continual metaphor or allusion, or similitude
or parable, proposes the greatest depths of divinitye :
Tropological, tending to the reformation of the manners and life of a
C'liristian : as by the forbidding of swine's flesh, expressing God's detes-
tation of all filthiness in the flesh and the spirit: —
Anagogicall ; inducing us by the vilitye, unstabilitye, and vexatious
fruition of earthly things to the love of that future blisse, wherein shall
oee noe defect, noe change, noe dislike for ever. — Wr.
* 6y^re.] He seems to refer to the stake. But, surely, martyrdom
CHAP. Ill] OP THE PEOPLE. 19
therefore also, things iuvisible but unto intellectual discern-
ments, to humour the grossness of their comprehensions,
have been degraded from theii- proper forms, and God him-
self dishonoured into manual expressions.^ And so likewise
being unprovided, or unsufficient for higher speculations,
they will always betake themselves unto sensible represen-
tations, and can hardly be restrained the dulness of idolatry.
A sin or folly not only derogatory unto Grod but men ;
overthrowing their reason, as well as his dinnity. In brief,
a reciprocation, or rather an inversion of the creation,
making God one way, as he made us another ; that is, after
our image,^ as he made us after his own.
Moreover, their understanding, thus weak in itself, and
perverted by sensible delusions, is yet farther impaired by
the dominion of their appetite ; that is, the irrational and
brutal part of the soul, which, lording it over the sovereign
faculty, interrupts the actions of that noble part, and choaks
those tender sparks, which Adam hath left them of reason.
And, therefore, they do not only swarm with errors, but vices
depending thereon. Thus they commonly affect^ no man
any further than he deserts his reason, or complies with their
aberrances. Hence they embrace not virtue for itself, but
its reward ; and the argument from pleasure or utUity is far
more powerful than that from virtuous honesty : which
Mahomet and his contrivers well understood, when he set out
the felicity of his heaven, by the contentments of flesh and
the delight of sense, slightly passing over tlie accomplish-
ment of the sold, and the beatitude of that part wliich earth
and visibilities too weakly aftect. But the wisdom of our
Saviour, and the simplicity of his truth proceeded another
has, in a vast majority of instances, been undergone in defence of
truth, rather than from ignorant adherence to vulgar error.
' 6^01^ himself dishonoured into manual expressions. '\ On the ancient
heresy of the Anthropomorphiies, who ascribed to the Almighty a bodily
shape, see Augustin contra Epist. Manichcei, c. 23 ; — Epipjhanius, torn i.
lib. iii. Hares. 70 ; Theodorct. lib. iv. e. 10. In 1654, this extraordinary
error was advocated by Mr. J. Biddle, in his " Brief e Scripture Cate-
cMsmc," which produced a reply in the following year from the cele-
brated Dr. Owen, his Vindicice Evangelicce, or The Mystery of the Sospci
Vindicated.
• inuige.^ i. e. imagination. — Wr.
' affect.^ In the sense of " being pleased with."
c2
20 THE EEBOKEOUS DISPOSITIOU" [bOOK L
way; defying the popular provisions of happiness from
sensible expectations ; placing his felicity in things removed
from sense, and [in] the intellectual enjoyment of God,
And, therefore, the doctrine of the one was never afraid of
universities, or endeavoured the banishment of learning,
like the other. And though Galen doth sometimes nibble
at Moses, and, beside the apostate Christian,* some hea-
thens have questioned his philosophical part, or treaty"* of
the creation, yet is there surely no reasonable pagan that
will not admire the rational and well-grounded precepts of
Christ ; whose life, as it was comformable unto his doctrine,
so was that unto the highest rules of reason, and must
therefore flourish in the advancement of learning, and the
perfection of parts best able to comprehend it.
Again, their individual imperfections being great, they are,
moreover, enlarged by their aggregation ; and being errone-
ous in their single numbers, once huddled together, they
will be error itself. For being a confusion of knaves and
fools, and a farraginous concurrence of all conditions, tem-
pers, sexes, and ages, it is but natural if their determinations
be monstrous, and many ways inconsistent with truth.
And, therefore, wise men have always applauded their o'mi
judgment, in the contradiction of that of the people ; and
their soberest adversaries have ever afforded them the style
of fools and madmen ; and, to speak impartially, their actions
have made good these epithets. Had Orestes been judge, he
would not have acquitted that Lystrian rabble of madness,t
who, — upon a visible miracle falling into so high a conceit
of Paul and Barnabas, that they termed the one Jupiter, the
• other Mercurius, that they brought oxen and garlands, and
were hardly restrained from sacrificing unto them, — did, not-
withstanding, suddenly after fall upon Paul, and, ha\dng
stoned him, drew him for dead out of the city. It might
have hazarded the sides of Democritus, had he been present
at that tumult of Demetrius ; when the people flocking
together in great numbers, some crying one thing and some
another, and the assembly was confused, and the most part
knew not wherefore they were come together, notwithstand-
■ * Julian. f Non sani esse homiiiis, non sanus juret Creates.
* ireaty.] In the sense of treatise ; but the word is obsolete. — Wr.
CHAP. III.] or THE PEOPIB. 21
ing, all with one voice, for the sj)ace of two hours cried out,
" Great is Diana of the Ephesians." It had overcome the
patience of Job, as it did the meekness of Moses, and would
surely have mastered any but the longanimity and lasting
sufferance of God, had they beheld the mutiny in the wilder-
ness ; when, after ten great miracles in Egypt, and some in
the same place, they melted down their stolen^ ear-rings
into a calf, and monstrously cried out, " These are thy gods,
O Israel, that brought thee out of the land of Egypt." It
much accuseth the impatience of Peter, who could not
endure the staves of the multitude, and is the greatest
example of lenity in our Saviour, when he desired of God
forgiveness unto those, who having one day brought him
into the city in triumph, did presently after act all dishonour
upon him, and nothing could be heard but criicifige in their
courts. Certainly, he that considereth these things in
God's peculiar people, will easily discern how little of truth
there is in the ways of the multitude ; and though some-
times they are flattered with that aphorism, will hardly
believe " The voice of the people to be the voice of God."
Lastly, beiiig thus divided from truth in themselves, they
are yet farther removed by advenient deception. Eor true
it is (and I hope I shall not offend their vulgarities if I say)
they are daily mocked into error by subtiler devisors, and
have been expressly deluded by all professions and ages.
Thus the priests of elder time have put upon them many in-
credible conceits, not only deluding their apprehensions with
ariolation, soothsaying,^ and such oblique idolatries, but
winning their credulities unto the literal and downright
adorement of cats, lizards, and beetles.^ And thus also in
* stolen.'\ Neither stolen nor borrowed, hnt freely giren to the solicita-
tions of the Israelites, to whom " The Lord had given favour in the
Bight of the Egyptians." The LXX and Vulgate, with the Syriac,
Chaldee, Samaritan, Coptic, and Persian all agree in this interpreta-
tion of Exod. iii. 22, and xii. 35, 36. The idea of dishonesty so uni-
versally attached to this transaction, in consequence of our unfortunate
version of the passage, is a vulgar error, which cannot be too generally
corrected.
•^ ariolation, soothsaying.'] Synonymous terms.
'' adorement of cats, lizards, and beetles.'] This, no doubt, is an allu-
sion to the ancient Egyptians, by whom all these animals were wor-
shipped, but whether as incarnations or as mere symbols of certain
22 THE EBEONEOUS DISPOSITION [bOOK I.
some Christian clmrches (wberein is presumed an irreprov-
able truth) if all be trvie that is suspected, or half what is re-
lated, there have not wanted many strange deceptions, and
some thereof are still confessed by the name of pious frauds.*^
divinities, it seems difficult to determine. It would, indeed, appear
probable, that the animals which were at first worshipped in Egypt, as
representative symbols only of the deities to whom they were respectively
sacred, were in the progress of idolatry adored as manifestations upon
earth of those divinities themselves. The Cat, many embalmed bodies
of which animal have been found in the Egyptian sepulchres, appears
to have been sacred either to Isis or to her half-sister Nephthys. In
mentioning the worship of Lizards, the author doubtless alludes to
that of the crocodile, the affinity of which to the lizard was observed
and recorded by the Greek writei's, who, when travelling in Egypt,
bestowed on that animal called tcmsah by the natives, the name of
KfjoKoOiiXoQ, previously applied to a lizard, common in Greece. Strabo,
relating his own observations, states, that " in the city of Arsinoe,
which was formerly called Crocodilopolis, (in Upper Egypt, now
called Medinet-el-Fay-yiim,) the crocodile is worshipped, and a sacred
crocodile is kept in a pond, who is perfectly tame, and familiar with
the priests. He is called Suchus ; they feed him with corn, and meat,
and wine, which are continually brought him by strangers." One of
the Egyptian divinities, apparently that to whom the crocodile was
consecrated, was pictured as having a crocodile's head ; and is denoted,
in the hieroglyphic inscriptions, by a representation of that animal
with the tail turned under it. The Beetle was regarded by the Egyp-
tians as the symbol of a particular personification of Phthah, the father
of the gods ; that insect is used in hieroglyphics for the name of this
deity, whose head in the pictural representations of him, either bears
a beetle, or is itself in the form of a beetle ; and in other instances the
beetle, in hieroglyphics, has clearly a reference to generation or repro-
duction, which is a sense attributed to this symbol by all antiquity,
and from which Dr. Young, in hieroglyphical researches, inferred its re-
lation to Phthah ; an inference since confirmed by the inquiries of
Champollion. The Egyptians emVjalmed and preserved all the animals
they adored ; and in the Royal Egyptian Museum at Berlin are some
mummies of the sacred beetle. In these instances of the worship of
animals, however, it may be questioned whether the priests who con-
ducted it were not themselves the subjects of delusion, in a degree
equal to, or perhaps greater tlian, that of their followers. Possibly,
therefore, they were not wholly deserving of the censure cast upon
them by our author. — £r.
" And thus also, <£r.] It would be easy to justify the charge which
is only insinuated in this sentence, by a host of examples of the monkish
trickery of pretended miracles and relicks. But the task would be
endless ; and surely it is becoming daily less necessary to contradict
what is daily less believed. It happened to the editor, some years
since, to visit the cathedral of Aachen (6W^(cc, Aix-la-Chapelk) where,
CHAP. III.] or THE I'EOPLE. 23
Thus Thcudas,^ an impostor, was able to lead away
four thousand into the wilderness ; and the delusions of
Mahomet almost the fourth part of mankind. Thus all
heresies, how gross soever, have found a welcome with the
people. For thus many of the Jews were wrought into the
belief that Herod was the Messias : ^ and David George, of
Leyden,2 and Arden, were not without a party amongst the
people, who maintained the same opinion of themselves
almost in our days.
Physicians (many at least that make profession thereol")
besides divers less discoverable ways of fraud, have made
them believe there is the book of fate, or the power of
Aaron's breast-plate,^ in urines. And, therefore, hereunto
among a profusion of relicks, was exhibited a fragment of one of the
nails used in the crucifixion : and we were gravely assured by the
priest in attendance, that the other iiart of that nail was in the cathe-
dral of Nostre Dame, at Paris. There, accordingly, we made a point
of inquiring for it, but in vain ; our guide averred that there was no
such bit of nail among the relicks of the place, nor ever had been !
^ Theudas.] Theudas or Theodas was a Jewish impostor and magi-
cian, in the first century of the Christian church, who so well deluded
the people as to collect together above four hundred (not thousand)
men, whom he persuaded to quit the town ; assuring them that he
could dry up the waters of the Jordan by speaking a single word. His
followers, however, were exterminated, and Theudas himself was killed,
and his head brought to Jerusalem, Acts v. ; Eusebius, lib. ii. cap. x. ;
Diet, de Moreri, edit, par Drouet, siih nom. — Br.
' many of the Jeivs, ttc] " Taceo de Judaismi hereticis .... quod
Herodiani Herodem regem suscepere pro Chiisto." Hieoronymus, adv.
Luciferianos, cap. 8 — /. K.
^ David George, of Leyden.'] Or, as some say, of Ghent, was a glazier
or a painter on glass, who began to preach, about the year 1525, that
he was the true Messiah, the third David, and (like the well-known
enthusiast of our own times, Richard Brothers) the nephew of God, not
according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. He appears to have
been an enthusiast of the worst order, uaiting with this profession of
being the Messiah, the teaching of many sentiments inimical alike to
Christianity aiid to morals. However, he gained followers, and sus-
tained the delusion even to his last hour. He died at Basle in 1556,
having declared to his disciples, a short time previous to his death, that
he should rise again on the third day after his decease. In order to ex-
pose the delusion, and confound the believers in his mad professions,
the Senate of Basle had his body disinterred on the third day, and
caused it to be burnt, together with his writings. Diet, de Moreri,
edit, par Drouet, sub nom. and other authorities. — £r.
* powei' of Aaron's breastjdate.] Josephus and others maintain that
24 THE EREONEOTJS DISPOSITION [eOOE I
they have recourse, as unto the oracle of life, the great de-
terminator of virginity, conception, fertility, and the inscru-
table infirmities of the whole body. For, as though there
were a seminality in urine,"* or that, like the seed, it carried
with it the idea of every part, they foolishly conceive, we
visibly behold therein the anatomy of every particle, and
can thereby indigitate tlieir diseases : and, running into any
demands, expect from us a sudden resolution in things,
whereon the Devil of Delphos* would demur : and we know
hath taken respite of some days to answer easier questions.
Saltimbancoes,^ quacksalvers,^ and charlatans, deceive
them in lower degrees. Were vEsop alive, the Piazza and
Pont-Neuf* could not but speak their fallacies.^ Mean-
while there are too many whose cries cannot conceal their
mischiefs : for their impostures are full of cruelty, and worse
than any other ; deluding not only unto pecuniary de-
fraudations, but the irreparable deceit of death.
Astrologers, which pretend to be of Cabala with the stars^
(such I mean as abuse that worthy enquiry) have not been
wanting in their deceptions : who, having won their belief
unto principles, whereof they make great doubt themselves,
have made them believe, tliat arbitrary events below, have
necessary causes above. Whereupon their credulities assent
unto any prognosticks, and daily swallow the predictions of
men ; which, considering the independency of their causes,
* Places in Venice and Paris, where mountebanks play their pranks.
the precious stones of Aaron's breastplate were the Urim and Tlnimmim,
and that they discovered the will of God by their extraordinary lustre,
thereby predicting the issue of events ♦/> those who consulted them.
■* For as though there were ajcminalit,/ in urine.] See Primrose's Vul-
gar Errors, translated by Wittie, p. 64. — /. Or.
' the Devil of Delphos.] Meaning the oracle of Apollo, at Delphos.
® Saitimbancoes.] Mountebanks : saltare in banco.
"^ quacksalvers.] Originally those who made, sold, or applied oint-
ments or oils ; salve-quacks. Applied to travelling quacks or charlatans.
* Wei-e ^Esop alive, the Piazza and Pont Neuf, ct-c] Alluding probably
to ^sop's fable of the "Astrologer and Traveller," and meaning to
intimate that the Piazza and Pont Neuf would have suggested to the
fabulist abundant materials for fresh apologues.
^ 0/ Cabala with the stars.] " Possessed of the key to their secrets."
Cabbala, a Hebrew word signifying ira(i;<io» ; applied originally to the
secret science of the rabbinical doctors, and thence used to designate
any secret science.
CHAJ. III.] 0¥ THE PEOPLE. 25
and contingency in their events, are only in the prescience
of God.
Fortune-tellers, jugglers, geomancers,^ and the like incan-
tatory impostors, though commonly men of inferior rank,
and from whom, without illumination, they can expect no
more than from themselves, do daily and professedly delude
them. Unto whom (what is deplorable in men and Chris-
tians) too many applying themselves, betwixt jest and
earnest, betray the cause of truth, and insensibly make up
the legionary body of error.
Statists and politicians, unto whom ragione di stato is the
first considerable,^ as though it were their business to de-
ceive the people, as a maxim do hold, that truth is to be con-
cealed from them ; unto whom although they reveal the
visib]"" design, yet do they commonly conceal the capital in-
tention. And therefore have they* ever been the instru-
ments of great designs, yet seldom understood the true in-
tention of any ; accomplishing the drifts of wiser heads, as
inanimate and ignorant agents the general design of the
world, who, though in some latitude of sense, and in a
natural cognition [they] perform their proper actions, yet
do they unknowingly concur unto liigher ends, and blindly
advance the great intention of nature. Now how far they
may be kept in ignorance, a great example tliere is in the
people of Eome, who never knew the true and proper name
of their own city. For, beside that common appellation re-
ceived by the citizens, it had a proper and secret name con-
cealed from them ; cujus alterum nomen^ dicere secretis
ceremoniarum nefas habetur, saith Pliny. Lest the name
thereof being discovered unto their enemies, their jpenates and
patronal god might oe called forth by charms and incan-
tations. For, according unto the tradition of magicians, the
tutelary spirits wdl not remove at common appellations, but
at the proper names of things whereunto they are pro-
tectors.
' geomancersJ] A geomancer is a caster of figures ; a cheat, who pre-
tends to foretell futurity by other roeans than the astrologer. — Joh'tis(m.
^ unto whom ragione di stato, tfcc] To whom reasons of state are of
the first consideration.
^ have they.] The vulgar liave. — Wr.
* secret name concealed from them, d-c. — This name was Valentias, for
revealing which Soranus was put to deathe. — Wr.
26 MlSAl'PREIIENSTOIf, [bOOK I.
Thus, haxingbeeu deceived by themselves, and continually
deluded by others, they must needs be stufted with errors,
and even overrun with these inferior falsities. Whereunto
whosoever shall resign their reasons, either from the root ot
deceit in themselves, or inability to resist such trivial decep-
tions^ from others, although their condition and fortunes
may place them many spheres above the multitude, yet are
they still within the line of vulgarity, and democratical ene-
mies of truth.
CHAPTEE lY.
Of the more immediate causes of Common Errors, both in the loiser an
common sort ; and first, of MisappreJiension and Fallacy, or fals
Deduction.
The first is a mistake, or a misconception of things, either
in their first apprehension, or secondary relations. So Eve
mistook the commandment, either from the immediate in-
junction of Grod, or from the secondary narration of her
husband. So might the disciples mistake our Saviour, in
his answer unto Peter concerning the death of John, as is
delivered John xxi. " Peter seeing John, saith unto Jesus,
Lord, and what shall this man do ? Jesus saith, If I will
that he tarry till I come, what is that unto thee ? Then
went tliis saying abroad among the brethren, that that dis-
ciple should not die." Thus began the conceit and opinion
of the Centaurs ; that is, in the mistake of the first be-
holders, as is declared by Servius.^ AVhen some young
* deceptions.] The first five editions read ingannations.
^ In the mistake, etc.] A mistake similar to that which is recorded
by Herrera, the Spanish historian of America, to have been committed
by tlie people of New Spain, when they first beheld the Spanish cavalry.
They imagined the horse and his rider to be some monstrous animal of
a terrible fonn, and supposing that their food was the same as that of
men, brought flesh and bread to nourish them. No representation,
however, of horsemen occurs, which might indicate that the artist re-
garded the horse and his rider as one animal, among the various speci-
mens of Mexican picture-wntin;/, which have been published by Pur-
chas, Thevenot, Robertson, Humboldt, and others. — Br.
Ross says, "there is no doubt then but Centaurs, as well as othet
monsters, are produced, partly by the influence of the stars, and partly
by other causes," &c.
CHAP. IV.] OR FALSE DEDUCTION. 27
Thessalians on horseback were beheld afar off, ■while their
horses watered, that is, while their heads were depressed,
they were conceived by the first spectators to be but one
animal; and answerable hereunto have their pictures been
drawn ever since.
And, as simple mistakes commonly beget fallacies, so men
rest not in false apprehensions, without absurd and inconse-
quent deductions; from fallacious foundations, and misappre-
hended mediums, erecting conclusions no way inferrible from
their premises. Now the fallacies whereby men deceive
others, and are deceived themselves, the ancients have di-
vided into verbal and real. Of the verbal, and such as con-
clude from mistakes of the word, although there be no less
than six, yet are there but two thereof worthy our notation,
and unto which the rest may be referred ; that is, the fal-
lacy of equivocation and amphibology, which conclude from
the ambiguity of some one word, or the ambiguous syntaxis
of many put together. From this fallacy arose that calami-
tous error of the Jews, misapprehending the prophecies of
their Messias, and expounding them always unto literal and
temporal expectations. By this way many errors crept in,
and perverted the doctrine of Pythagoras, whilst men re-
ceived his precepts in a different sense from his intention ;
converting metaphors into proprieties,'' and receiving as
literal expressions obscure and involved truths. Thus when
he enjoined his disciples an abstinence from beans, many
conceived they were with severity debarred the use of
that pulse, which, notwithstanding, could not be his mean-
ing ; for as Aristoxenus, who wrote his life, averreth, he
delighted much in that kind of food himself. But herein, as
Plutarch observeth,he had no other intention than to dissuade
men from magistracy, or undertaking the publick offices of
state : for by beans was the magistrate elected in some
parts of Greece ; and after his days, we read, in Thucydides,
of the Council of the Bean in Athens. The same word also
in Greek doth signify a testicle, and hath been thought by
some, an injunction only of continency, as Aulus Gellius
^ converting metap7iors into proprieties.] " Taking an expression or
representation which only by simile applies to a subject, as if it had
properlv (or ot propriety) belonged to it," Proprieties here implies
lita-alities.
28 MISAPPEEHENSIOir, [BOOK I,
hath expounded, and as Empedocles may also be inter-
preted,* that is, testiculis miseri dextras suhducite. And
[this] might be the original intention of Pythagoras, as
having a notable hint liereof in beans,^ I'roni the natural sig-
nature of the venereal organs of both sexes. Again, his in-
junction is, not to harbour swallows in our houses ; whose
advice notwithstanding we do not contemn, who daily admit
and cherish them. Eor herein a caution is only implied,
not to entertain ungrateful and thankless persons, which
like the swallow, are no way commodious unto us, but having
made use of our habitations, and served their own tui'ns,
forsake us. So he commands to deface the print of a caul-
dron in the ashes, after it hath boiled ; which strictly to
observe, were condemnable superstition. But hereby he
covertly adviseth us not to persevere in anger, but after our
choler hath boiled, to retain no impression thereof. In the
like sense are to be received, when he adviseth his disciples
to give the right hand but to few, to put no viands in a
chamber-pot, not to pass over a balance, not to take up fire
with a sword, or piss against the sun. Which ajnigmatical
deliveries comprehend useful verities, but being mistaken
by literal expositors at the first, they have been misunder-
stood by most since, and may be occasion of error to verbal
capacities for ever.
This fallacy is the first delusion Satan put upon Eve, and
Lis whole tentation might be the same continued.^ So when
he said, "Te shall not die," that was, in his equivocation,
"ye shall not incur a present deatli," or a destruction im-
mediately ensuing your transgression; "Your eyes shall be
opened," that is, not to the enlargement of your knowledge,
but discovery of your shame and proper confusion ; " Ye
shall know good and evil," that is, ye shall have knowledge
of good by its privation, but cognizance of evil by sense and
* TTciv OiXKoi Kvafiijjv airb xtipat; ixeaQi.
* as having, etc.] See a curious paper on the ancient superstitions
concerning beans and peas, in the Working Bee, iii. p. 1 1 . — /.
^ the same continued.] The early editions read, "the same clench
continued." Dean Wren remarks that elench is wrongly used here ;
meaning rather the detection of a sophistry than the sophistry itself.
The author seems himself to have seen the error, and omitted tho
word.
CHAP. IT.] OR FALSE DEDUCTIOX. 29
visible experience. And the same fallacy or way of deceit,
so well succeeding in Paradise, he continued in his oracles
through all the world. Which had not men more warily
understood, they might have performed many acts incon-
sistent with his intention. Brutus might have made haste
with Tarquine to have kissed his own mother.' The Athe-
nians might have built them wooden waDs,^ or doubled the
altar at Delphos.^
The circle of this fallacy is very large ; and herein may be
comprised all ironical mistakes, for intended expressions re-
ceiving inverted significations ; all deductions from meta-
phors, parables, allegories, unto real and rigid interpreta-
tions. Whereby have risen, not only popular errors in
philosophy, but vulgar and senseless heresies in divinity, as
will be evident unto any that shall examine their founda-
tions, as they stand related by Epiphanius,"* Austin, or
Prateolus.^
Other ways there are of deceit ; which consist not in false
apprehension of words, that is, verbal expressions, or senten-
tial significations, but fraudulent deductions, or inconsequent
illations, from a false conception of things. Of these extra-
' Brutus might have made haste, <Lc.~\ Alluding to his interpretation
of the Delphian reply to the Tarquinii ; " Young men, whichever of
you shall first kiss your mother, he shall possess the sovereign power
at Rome." Brutus, who was present, fell to the ground, as if acci-
dentally, and touched with his lips his mother, earth.
* The Athenians, <frc.] When the oracle advised them, on the ap-
proach of Xerxes, to take refuge within their wooden wails, which, by
the advice of Themistocles, they understood to mean their fieet.
' or doubled the altar at Delphos.] This refers to the demand of the
Delian oracle, "to double his cubical altar," which gave occasion to a
long series of geometrical inventions. See GiUiea' Anc. Greece, part 2,
vol. ii. p. 130, and the authorities he refers to.
■• Eptphanius, <£r.] Epiphanius, contra octoyinta Hcereses Panariwm ;
Augustinus, De H(eresiha&.
^ Gabriel Prateolus.'j Vernacularly du Preau, was a voluminous
French ecclesiastical writer of the 16th century. He was distinguished
by the ardour oibis zeal for the Eon. an catholic church, in opposition
to those whom she has been pleased to stigmatize by the name of here-
tics. This spirit is manifested in all his works, but that to which
Browne refers is doubtless the following : " De vitis, lectis, et dog-
matibus, omnium haereticorum, qui ab orbe condito, ad nostra usque
tempora, et veterum et recentium monumentis proditi sunt, elenclii.8
ilphabeticus," &c. — Br.
30 MISAPPEBHENSION, [bOOK I.
dictionary^ and real fiillacies, Aristotle and logicians make in
number six, but we observe that men are most commonl}^
deceived by four thereof : those are, jy^titio jjrincipii ; a clicto
secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter ; a non causa pro causa ;
and, Jhllacia consequentis.
The first is, petitio principii. AVhich fallacy is committed
when a question is made a medium, or we assume a medium
as granted, whereof we remain as unsatisfied as of the ques-
tion. Briefly, where that is assumed as a principle to prove
another thing, which is not conceded as true itself/ By
this fallacy was Eve deceived, when she took for granted, the
false assertion of the Devil : " Te shall not surely die ; for
God doth know, that in the day ye shall eat thereof, your
eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods." Which
was but a bare aflirmation of Satan, without any proof or
probable inducement, contrary unto the command of God,
and former belief of herself. And this was the logick of the
Jews when they accused our Saviour unto Pilate ; who
demanding a reasonable impeachment, or the allegation of
some crime worthy of condemnation, they only replied, " If
he had not been worthy of death, we would not have brought
him before thee." Wherein there was neither accusation of
the person nor satisfaction of the judge, who well understood
a bare accusation was no presumption of guilt, and the
clamours of the people no accusation at all. The same
fallacy is sometimes used in the dispute between Job and his
friends, they often taking that for granted which afterwards
he disproveth.
The second is, A dido secundum quid ad dicticm simpliciter,
when from that which is but true in a qualified sense, an in-
conditional and absolute verity is inferred ; transferring the
special consideration of things unto their general acceptions,
or concluding from their strict acception unto that without
all limitation. Tliis fallacy men commit when they argue
from a particidar to a general ; as when we conclude the
vices or qualities of a few, upon a whole nation, or from a
® extradictionanj.] Johnson, citing the present passage, explains the
word, " not relating to words but realities."
' whe7-e that is usuumed as a principle, tfcc] More clearly, "where
that which is not conceded as true itself, is assumed as a principle to
prove- another thing."
CHAP. IT.] OR FALSE DEDUCTIOK. 31
part unto the whole. Thus the Devil argutd with our
Sa\aour ; and by this he would persuade him he might be
secure if he cast liimself from the pinnacle : " For," said he,
" it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning
thee, and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at
any time thou dash thy foot against a stone." But this
illation was fallacious, leaving out part of the text, (Psalm
91,) " He shall keep thee in all thy ways ;" that is, in the
ways of righteousness, and not of rash attempts : so he urged
a part for the whole, and inferred more in the conclusion
than was contained in the premises. By the same fallacy
we proceed, when we conclude from the sign unto the thing
signified. By this encroachment idolatry first crept in, men
converting the symbolical use of idols into their proper wor-
ship, and recei\dng the representation of things as the sub-
stance and thing itself.^ So the statue of Belus, at first
erected in his memory, was in aftertimes adored as a divi-
nity. And so also in the sacrament of the Eucharist, the
bread and wine which were but the signals or visible signs,
were made the things signified, and worshipped as the body
of Christ. And hereby generally men ai-e deceived, that
take things spoken in some latitude without any at all.
Hereby the Jews were deceived concerning the command-
ment of the Sabbath, accusing our Saviour for healing the
sick, and his disciples for plucking the ears of corn upon
that day. And, by this deplorable mistake, they were de-
ceived unto destruction, upon the assault of Pompey the
Great, made upon that day ;^ by whose superstitious
observation they could not defend themselves, or perform any
labour whatever.
The third is, A non causa pro causa, when that is pre-
tended for a cause which is not, or not in that sense which
is inferred. Upon this consequence the law of Mahomet
* By this encroachment, ^-c] The conversion of the "symbolical use"
of such "idols" as consisted of natural oljjects or their representations
" into their proper worship," is beautifully though concisely explained in
Kirby and Spence's Introduction to Entomolo'jy, vol. iv. p. 401-403.— JSr.
^ And hy this deplorable mistake, etc.] The reader will find the par-
ticulars of this event recorded by Josephus, in his Antiquities of the
Jews, book xiv. chap. 4, to which some pertinent illustrations from
other parts of the Jewish history have been added by Whiston. — Br,
32 MISAPPBEHENSION, [bOOK I
forbids tlie use of wine ;^ and his successors abolished uni-
versities. By this, also, many Christians have condemned
literature, misunderstanding the counsel of Saint Paul, who
adviseth no further than to beware of philosophy.^ On this
foundation were built the conclusions of soothsayers in their
augurial and tripudiary divinations, collecting presages from
voice or food of birds, and conjoining events unto causes of
no connection. Hereupon also are grounded the gross mis-
takes in the cure of many diseases, not only from the last
medicine and sympathetical receipts, but amulets, charms,
and all incantatory applications ; deriving eftects not only
from inconcurring causes, but things devoid of all efficiency
whatever.
The fourth is, the fallacy of the consequent ; which, if
strictly taken, may be a fallacious illation in reference unto
antecedency, or consequency ; as, to conclude, from the posi-
tion of the antecedent, to the position of the consequent, or
from the remotion of the consequent, to the remotion of the
antecedent. This is usually committed when in connexed
propositions the terms adhere contingently. This is frequent
in oratory illations ; and thus the Pharisees, because he can-
versed with publicans and sinners, accused the holiness of
Christ. But, if this fallacy be largely taken, it is committed
in any vicious illation, oftending the rules of good conse-
quence ; and so it may be very large, and comprehend all
false illations against the settled laws of logick. But the
most usual inconsequencies are i'rom particulars, from nega-
' Upon this consequence, (fee] Meaning probably that Mahomet for-
bad the ^(se of wine, when his motive was to prevent its abuse only ;
out his experience liad taught him that the only means of effecting this
would be to prohibit it altogether.
^ Philosophy. '\ The apostle bids beware of vaine philosophic : where
the worde (vame) is a sutticieut commentarye to a Christian, that by for-
bidding that which is indeed vaine, he advanceth true philosophye : such
as is that of the hexameron, or six dayes creation : whereon many of
the ancient Christians have left admirable treatises, setting forth in
those workes the incomprehensible wisdom, and majesty and omnipo-
tency of the Creator, and his unpromerited inexhausted goodness unto
us, for whom he ordained the use of them all : that by our acknow-
ledgment, the abundant grace might redound to his glorye ; as itt hath
don in all ages by that divine philosophical treatise of Moses philo-
Bophie, mentioned in the 20th page, line 6, in the passage beginning
"And though Galen," &c. — Wr.
CHAP, v.] CHEDULITS A^D SrPINlTT. 33
tives, and from affirmative conclusions in the second figure,
wherein, indeed, offences are most frequent, and their dis-
coveries not difficult.
CHAPTER V.
Of other more immediate Causes of Error ; — viz. Credulity and Supinity.
A THIRD cause of common errors^ is, the credulity of men,
that is, an easy assent to what is obtruded, or a believing, at
first ear, what is delivered by others. This is a weakness in
the understanding, without examination assenting unto things
which, from their natures and causes, do carry no persuasion ;
whereby men often swallow falsities for truths, dubiosities for
certainties, feasibilities for possibilities, and things impossible
as possibilities themselves. Which, though a weakness of
the intellect, and most discoverable in vidgar heads, yet hath
it sometime fallen upon wiser brains, and great advancers of
truth. Thus many wise Athenians so far forgot their philo-
sophy, and the nature of human production, that they de-
scended unto belief that the original of their nation was from
the earth, and had no other beginning, than from the semi-
nality and womb of their great mother. Thus it is not
without wonder how those learned Arabicks so tamely de-
livered up their belief unto the absurdities of the Alcoran.
How the noble Greber, Avicenna, and Almauzor should rest
satisfied in the nature and causes of earthquakes, delivered
from the doctrine of their prophet ; that is, from the motion
of a great bull, upon whose horns all the earth is poised.''
^ A third cause of common errors.'] The first cause being mistahe, or
misapprehension ; the second fall uiio us, or false inferences.
* How the W)ble Geber, d:c.] Sale's Koran having been in vain exa-
mined for some justification of this passage, I requested my learned
friend, Mr. W. H. Black, to refer to the works of Geber, Almanzor,
and Avicenna, in the library of the British Museum. He did so, with-
out success, as appears from the following extracts from his obliging
reply :—
"I have diligently perused (but in vain) the Shasis of Almanzor^
(1497, folio), and Tarar/ua's Alphabetical Arrangement or Common Place
Book of Avicenna (Burdigal, 4to. 1520), and two editions of Geber, the
latter being, as I think, the same book as you mean
"This little diiodecimo volume contains several curious tracts not
named in the title, all which I have also psiused, and the only uotica
VOL. I. a
34 CEEDULITT AND SUPINITY. [bOOK t.
How their faiths could decline so low as to concede their
generations in heaven to be made by the smell of a citron,
or that the felicity of their paradise should consist in a
jubilee of conjunction, that is, a coition of one act prolonged
unto fifty years.^ Tlius is it almost beyond wonder, how
the belief of reasonable creatures should ever submit unto
idolatry ; and the credulity of those men scarce credible
(without presumption of a second fall) who could believe a
Deity in the work of their own hands. For although in that
ancient and diffused adoration of idols unto the priests and
subtiler heads, the worship, perhaps, might be symbolical,
and as those images some way related unto their deities ;
yet was the idolatry direct and downright in the people ;
whose credulity is illimitable, who may be made believe that
anything is God ; and may be made believe there is no Grod
at all.
And, as credulity is the cause of error, so incredulity often-
times of not enjoying truth : and that not only an obstinate
incredulity, whereby we will not acknowledge assent unto
what is reasonably inferred, but any academical reservation
in matters of easy truth, or rather sceptical infidelity against
the evidence of reason and sense. For these are conceptions
of earthquakes I can any where find, is in " Avicennce Mineralia," p. 248,
in the beginning of the 2nd chapter. "De Causa Montium."
"Monies quoque quandoque fiunt ex causa essentiali, quandoque ex
causa accidentali. Ex essentiali causa, ut ex vehementi motto terrm ele-
vatur terra et fit mens."
■^ IIo^v their faiths, d-c] It will be sufficient merely to remark, that
the ridiculous conceits respecting "generations in heaven" and the
"felicity of Paradise," here attributed to Mohammed, are not to be
found in the Koriln, or in any genuine connnentary upon it. They have
much the air of lialibinical fancies, foisted upon the Mohammedans by
their inventors. At the same time, the real dogmas of the prophet of
Mecca upon both points, afford, perhaps, as good an illustration of the
credulity of the Arabian philosophers as those erroneously ascribed to
him in the text. For "according to the saying of the prophet," if any
of the faithful in Paradise be desirous of issue, it shall be conceived by
their Houri wives, horn, and grown up, within the space of an hour.
And the other extraordinary notion alluded to by Browne (for doubt-
less he was not the originator of it), may have l)een derived from the
declaration of Mohammed, that in order to qualify the blessed for the
full enjoyment of the pleasures and deliglits of Paradise, which they
would otherwise sink under, "God will give to every one the abilities
of an hundred men." Vide Sales Kordii, Prdiiu. Disc. sect, iw.— Br,
CHAP. T.] CREDULITY AND SUPINITT. 35
befalling wise men, as absurd as the apprehensions of fools,
and the credulity of the people, which promiscuously swallow-
any thing. For this is not only derogatory unto the wisdom
of God, who liath proposed the world unto our knowledge,
and thereby the notion of himself, but also detractory unto
the intellect and sense of man, expressedly disposed for that
inquisition. And therefore, lioc tantiim scio, quodiiihil scio,
is not to be received in an absolute sense, but is compara-
tively expressed unto the number of things whereof our
knowledge is ignorant. Nor will it acquit the insatisfaction
of those who quarrel with all things, or dispute of matters
concerning whose verities we have conviction from reason,
or decision from the inerrable and requisite conditions of
sense. And, therefore, if any affirm the earth doth move,
and will not believe with us, it standeth still -^ because he
^ it standeth still.'\ [In] the booke of God, from Moses unto Christ,
there are no lesse than eighty and odd expresse places, affirming in
plaine and overt termes the naturall and perpetuall motion of the sun
and the moon ; and that the stop or stay of that motion was one of the
greatest miracles that ever the whole world beheld : others the rising
and setting of them : others, their diurnal course and vigorous ac-
tivitye upon this lowest world : others, their circulation on this world
or earth not only daylye, but annually, by a declination from the mid-
line on both sides. North and South : others (as expressly) the impos-
sibility of any (other) motion in the earth, than that terrible and pcenal
motion of his shaking itt, that made it : others that it cannot be moved
totally in his place, nor removed universal out of his place. Soe that
were itt nothing else than the veneration and firme beliefe of that
Word of His, which the penmen thereof spake not of themselves, but
by inspiration of the Holy Ghost, they that profess Christianitye
should not dare, much lesse adventure to call the letter thereof in
question concerning things soe plainly, frequently, constantly, de-
livered ; should tremble at that curse which is denounced against those
that adde any thing unto itt, or diminish any tittle of itt : should feare to
raise such a hellish suspition in vulg:ir mindes, as the Romish church,
by undervalewing the majesty and authority thereof, hath done : should
bee affrighted to follow that audacious and pernicious suggestion, which
Satan used, and thereby undid us all in our first parents ; that God
had a double meaning in his commands, in eflfect condemning God of
amphibologye. And all this boldness and overweaning having no other
ground, but a seeming argument of some phsenomena forsooth ; which
notwithstanding, we know the learned Tycho 6 'Atyrpovofiapxon', who
lived (fifty-two) years since Copernicus, hath by admirable and match-
lesse instruments, and many yeares exact observations proved to bee
noe better than a dreame. — Wr:
d2
36 CEEDTTUTT AND SUPINITT. [BOOK t
hath probable^ reasons for it, and I no infallible sense, nor
reason against it,^ I will not quarrel with his assertion. But
if, like Zeno, he shall walk about, and yet deny there is any
motion in nature, surely that man was constituted for An-
ticyra ^ and were a fit companion for those who, having a
"^ 2-)rohalile.'\ Seeminge. — Wr.
* reason against it.'\ — Other than God's perpetual dictate. — Wr.
^ Anticyra.'l Two cities of the same name, the one in Phocis, the
other in Thessaly, famous for producing hellebore, which was esteemed
among the ancients the great remedy for madness.
Hence the proverb mentioned by Horace, Naviget Anticyram, which
was applied to a person deemed insane ; and hence also the allusion in
the text.
A remarkable illustration of Browne's remarks on obstinate and ir-
rational scepticism is afforded by the history of meteorites, or of the
bodies cast d<iwn upon the earth by meteors in the atmosphere. The
fall of metallic and stony bodies from the atmosphere, is recorded by
writers of every age of classical antiquity, many of whom narrated
instances of it that had occured in their own times, or even within their
own knowledge. Evidence of the same kind is abundantly to be found
throughout the middle and dark ages ; and after the reformation, the
fall of meteorites was witnessed and described by several natural phi-
losophers of approved eminence and undoubted credit, during the six-
teenth and seventeenth century, with tlie same attendant phjenomena
as had been described by the historians and writers of all the epochs
we have mentioned. In the eighteenth century similar events took
place, and were attested by irrefragable moral evidence. But the opi-
nion, that nothing was to be believed which could not directly be ac-
counted for, was now very prevalent. The accounts of the fall of
meteoric stones were consequently rejected as impossible, and incom-
patible with the laws of nature ; and specimens of stones and iron that
had been seen to fall by hundreds of people, were preserved in cabinets
of natural history, as ordinary minerals, "which the credulous and su-
perstitious regarded as having fallen from the clouds." Towards the
latter end of the eighteenth century, the attention of several candid
men of science was attracted to the subject by some remarkable cases
which then occurred : but so powerful was the inclination to negative the
question, that accounts of the fall of three similar stones, in as many dis-
tricts of country, attested in the most convincing mannei, could not
obtain credence in the minds of a conunittee of the French Academy
of Sciences, one of whom was the celebrated Lavoisier. At length,
however, all the powers of inductive research were exerted upon the
subject, which was subjected, in 1801, by the late Mr. Edward How-
ard, E.R.S., to a train of exact research : stones stated to have fallen
from meteors in various parts of the world were collected and examined,
and shown to bear a decided resendjlance to each other, whilst they
were altogether dissimilar from every known mineral. In England,
this evidence gradually vanquished incredulity, but many foreign savan*
CHAP, v.] CUEDULITT AND SUPINITT. 37
conceit they are dead, cannot be convicted into the society
of the living.
The fourth is a supinity, or neglect of enquiry, even
of matters whereof we doubt ; rather believing than going
to see, or doubting with ease and gratis than believing with
difficulty or purchase. Whereby, either from a tempera-
mental inactivity, we are unready to put in execution the
suggestions or dictates of reason : or by a content and ac-
quiescence in every species of truth, we embrace the shadow
thereof, or so much as may palliate its just and substantial
acquirements. Had our forefathers sat down in these reso-
lutions, or had their curiosities been sedentary, who pur-
sued the knowledge of things through all the corners of
nature, the face of truth had been obscure unto us, whose
lustre in some part their industries have revealed.
Certainly the sweat of their labours was not salt imto
them, and they took delight in the dust of tlieir endeavours.
For, questionless, in knowledge there is no slender difficulty;
and truth, which wise men say doth lie in a well, is not re-
coverable by exantlation.^ It were some extenuation of the
curse, if in sudore vultiis tui were confinable unto corporal
exercitations, and there still remained a Paradise, or un-
thorny place of knowledge. But now, our understandings
being eclipsed, as well as our tempers infirmed, we must be-
take ourselves to ways of reparation, and depend upon tlie
illumination of our endeavours. For thus we may, in some
measure, repair our primary ruins, and build ourselves men
again. And though the attempts of some have been
precipitous, and their enquiries so audacious as to come
within command of the flaming swords, and lost themselves
in attempts above humanity; yet have the enquiries of most
defected by the way, and tired within the sober circum-
ference of knowledge.
And this is the reason why some have transcribed any-
thing ; and although they cannot but doubt thereof, yet
refused to believe it, and the bulk of the French philosophers were yet
undecided what to think, when the fall of some thousands of stones at
L'Aigle, in Normandy, the testimonies to which were scrutinized with
judicial circumspection and jealousy, compelled the most determined
scepticism to an unwilling assent. — Br.
' by exuntlation.] By being drawn out. See Christian Morals, p. ii. § 5.
38 CHEDULITT AND SUPINITT. [bOOK li
neither make experiment by sense, nor enquiry by reason,
but live in doubts of things, whose satisfaction is in their
own power ; which is, indeed, tlie inexcusable part of our
ignorance, and may, perhaps, fiU up the charge of the last
day .2 Tor, not obeying the dictates of reason, and neglect-
ing the crys of truth, we fail, not only in the trust of our
undertakings, but in the intention of man itself. Which,
although more venial in ordinary constitutions, and such as
are not framed beyond the capacity of beaten notions ; yet
will it inexcusably condemn some men, who, having received
excellent endowments, have yet sat down by the way, and
frustrated the intention of their abilities. I'or certainly, as
some men have sinned in the principles of humanity, and
must answer for not being men ; so others oflend if they be
not more. Magis extra vitia, quam cum virtutihus, would
commend those : these are not excusable vdthout an excel-
lency. For, great constitutions, and such as are constel-
lated unto knowledge, do nothing till they out-do all ; they
come short of themselves, if they go not beyond others ; and
must not sit down under the degree of worthies. God ex-
pects no lustre from the minor stars ; but if the sun should
not illuminate all, it were a sin in nature. Ultimus lono-
rum, will not excuse every man, nor is it sufficient for all
to hold the common level. Men's names should not only
distinguish them. A man should be something, that all
men are not, and individual in somewhat beside his proper
name."^ Thus, while it exceeds not the bounds of reason and
modesty, we cannot condemn singularity. Nos numerus
sumus, is the motto of the multitude, and for that reason
are they fools. For things, as tliey recede from unity, the
more they approach to imperfection and deformity ; for they
hold their perfection in their simplicities, and as they nearest
approach unto God.
Now, as there are many great wits to be condemned,
who have neglected the increment of arts, and the sedulous
pursuit of knowledge ; so are there not a few very much to
be pitied, whose industry being not attended with natural
parts, they have sweat to little purpose, and rolled the stone
in vain. Which chiefly proceedeth from natural incapacity,
' may, perhaps, Jill up the charge, <tc.] Audi et time ! — Wr,
3 A man should he, etc.] A right and able luiin should. -- H'V.
CHAP. VI.] ADHERENCE UNTO ANTIQUITY. 3G
and genial indisposition, at least, to those particulars -wliere-
unto they apply their eudeavovu's. And this is one reason
why, though universities be full of inen, they are oftentimes
empty of learning ; why, as there are some men do much
without learning,'* so others but little with it, and few that
attain to any measure of it. For many heads, that under-
take it, were never sqixared, nor timber' d for it. There are
not only particular men, but whole nations indisposed^ for
learning ; whereunto is required, not only education, but a
pregnant Minerva, and teeming constitution. For the
wisdom of God hath divided the genius of men according to
the different affairs of the world, and varied their inclina-
tions according to the variety of actions to be performed
therein. Which they who consider not, rudely rushing
upon professions and waj's of life unequal to their natures,
dishonour not only themselves and their functions, but
pervert tlie harmony of tlie whole world. For, if the
world went on as God hath ordained it, and were every
one employed in points concordant to their natures, pro-
fessions, arts, and commonwealths, woidd rise up of them-
selves, nor needed we a lanthorn to find a man in Athens.
CHAPTER VI.
Of another more immediate Cause of Error ; viz. ohstinale Adherence
unto A ntiquity.
But the mortallest enemy unto knowledge, and that
which hath done the greatest execution upon truth, hath
been a peremptory adhesion unto authority ; and more es-
pecially, the establishing of our belief upon the dictates of
antiquity. For (as every capacity may observe) most men,
of ages present, so superstitiously do look upon ages past,
that the authorities of the one exceed the reasons of the
other. AVhose persons indeed being far removed from our
times, their works, which seldom with us pass uncontrolled,
* why, as there are sorae men, tto.j These observations are well am-
plified by the author in his Christian Morals, p. ii. § 4. — J. Cr.
* whole nations, dx.] Surely so sweeping an assertion as this wonld
fall under the author's own censure, in Iteligio Medici, p. 93.
40 OBSTINATE ADIIEREKCE [bOOK I.
either by contemporaries, or immediate successors, are now
become out of the distance of envies ; and, the farther re-
moved from present times, are conceived to approach tlie
nearer unto truth itself. Now hereby methinks we mani-
festly delude ourselves, and widely walk out of the track of
truth.
For, first, men hereby impose a thraldom on their times,
which the ingenuity of no age should endure, or indeed the
presumption of any did ever yet enjoin. Thus Hippocrates
about two thousand years ago, conceived it no injustice,
either to examine or refute the doctrines of his predecessors ;
Galen the like, and Aristotle the most of any. Yet did not
any of these conceive themselves infallible, or set down
their dictates as verities irrefragable : but when they either
deliver their own inventions, or reject other men's opinions,
they proceed with judgment and ingenuity ; establishing
their assertions, not only with great solidity, but submitting
them also unto the correction of future discovery.
Secondly, Men that adore times past consider not that
those times were once present, that is, as our own are at
this instant ; and we ourselves unto those to come, as they
unto us at present ; as we rely on them, even so will those
on us, and magnify us hereafter, who at present con-
demn ourselves. Which very absurdity is daily committed
amongst us, even in the esteem and censure of our own
times. And, to speak impartially, old men, from whom we
should expect the greatest example of wisdom, do most
exceed in this point of folly; commending the days of their
youth, which they scarce remember, at least well understood
not, extolling those times their younger years have heard
their fathers condemn, and condemning those times the
grey heads of their posterity shall connnend. And thus is
it the humour of many heads to extol the days of their
forefathers, and declaim against the wickedness of times
present. Which notwithstanding they cannot handsomely
do, without the borrowed help and satires of times past ;
condemning the vices of their own times, by the expressions
of vices in times which they commend, which cannot but
argue the community of vice in both. Horace, therefore,
Juvenal, and Persius, were no prophets, altliough their lines
did seem to indigitate and point at our times. There is a
CHAP. TI.] UNTO ANTIQUITY. 41
certain list of -vices^ committed in all ages, and declaimed
against by all authors, which will last as long as human
nature ; which digested into common places, may serve tor
any theme, and never be out of date until doomsday.
Thirdly, The testimonies of antiquity, and such as pass
oraculously amongst us, were not, if we consider them, always
so exact as to examine the doctrine they delivered. For
some, and those the acutest of them, bave left unto us many
things of falsity ; controllable not only by critical and col-
lective reason, but common and country observation.
Hereof there want not many examples in Aristotle,
through all his book of animals ; we shall instance only in
three of his problems, and all contained under one section.
The first enquireth, why a man doth cougli, but not an ox
or cow ; whereas notwithstanding the contrary is often
observed by husbandmen, and stands confirmed by those who
have expressly treated De re rustica, and liave also delivered
divers remedies for it. A\ by juments, as horses, oxen, and
asses, bave no eructation or belching ; whereas indeed the
contrary is often observed, and also delivered by Columella.
And thirdly, why man alone hath grey hairs ; whereas it can-
not escape the eyes, and ordinary observation of all men, that
horses, dogs, and foxes, wax grey with age in our countrys ■/
and in the colder regions, many other animals without it.
And though favoiu'able constructions may souaewhat extenu-
* ITiet'e is a certain list of vices.^ " Qiialia sunt quae semper velantur
sed semper retinentur," saith old Livius. — IIV.
' Why man alone hath grey hairs, <£■(;•.] The author's previous refer-
ence to the problems of Aristotle, of which this is one, is so ambiguous,
that it might induce a reader, unacquainted with the works of the Sta-
girite, to suppose that the problems formed part of the "Book of
Animals," which is not the case. From a passage in the latter work,
however, apparently unknown to our author, it is to be inferred that Aris-
totle w^as aware of the fact, that other animals become grey by age,
and that he is speaking not in an absolute but in a comparative sense,
when he asks the above question in the problems. For in the History
of Aniii/als, lib. iii. cap. xi., speaking of animals in general, he observes
that " the colour of the hair clianges in old age, in men becoming white,
undergoing the same change in other animals, but not very manifestly,
except in the horse," which latter is one of the instances cited in the
paragraph before us, in contradiction of Aristotle. The other subjects,
coughing and eructation, are not noticed in the History of AnimaU.
— iSr.
12 OBSTINATE ADilERENCE [bOOK I,
ate the rigour of tliese concessions^ yet will scarce any
palliate tliat in tlie fourth of his meteors, that salt is easiest
dissolvable in cold water ;^ nor that of Dioscorides, that
quicksilver is best preserved in vessels of tin and lead.
Other authors write often dubiously, even in matters
wherein is expected a strict and definitive truth, extenuating
their affirmations with ahmt, feriint,fortasse ;^ as Dioscori-
des, Galen, Aristotle, and many more. Others by hearsay,
taking upon trust most tliey have delivered ; whose volumes
are mere collections, draTiai from the mouths or leaves of
other authors, as may be observed in Pliny, ^lian, Athe-
naeus, and many more. Not a few transcriptively, sub-
scribing their names unto other men's endeavours, and
merely transcribing almost all they have written. The
Arabs transcribing the Greeks, the Greeks and Latins
each other.
And though favourable constructions, tfcc] Added in second
edition.
" That salt is easiest dissolvable in cold waterj] Upon examining the
entire chapter (vi.) of the Meteors here cited, I fo'ind that our author
had altogether mistaken the meaning of the passage relating to the so-
lubility of salts. Aristotle does not use the terra "cold moisture"
(for this is the sense of the original, not cold ivater, as Browne has ren-
dered it) in contradiction to hot moisture, he does not intend to say, as
our author infers, that nitre and salts are more readily soluble in cold
water than in hot ; but he uses the phrase "cold 7iioisture" as the op-
posite to "dry heat." Not far from the beginning of the chapter,
he had previously defined water to be "a cold moisture ;" and in the
passage in question he says that salts and nitre (the yirpov of the
Greeks, which was not our nitre, or saltpetre, but the natron of North
Africa, one of the carbonates of soda of modern chemistry) are soluble
in moisture, using that term to denote humid substances in general,
yet not in all moisture, " but in that which is cold." He adds, imme-
diately, wliich proves this view of the subject to be the true one,
"hence they are liquefied by water, and by aqueous fluids in general ;
(vCoToQ tin] :) but tliey are not liquefied by oil ; " evidently regarding
the latter fluid as not being "a cold moisture." It may be remarked
also, as an indication of the degree of acquaintance with such subjects
possessed by our author, and by the generality of physical inquirers in
bis time, that he would, to a considerable extent, be himself in error,
even had the assertion of Aristotle really been as he represents it : for
common salt and several others are actually "easiest dissolvable in cold
water." — Br.
' aiunt, ferunf, forfassc] These three terms, and such like, argue sc
much modesty in those magazines of all human [learning ?] as might
well free them from a censure. — \Vr.
CHAP. VI.] UNTO ANTIQUITY. 43
Thus hath Justine^ borrowed all from Trogus Pompeius,
and Julius Solinus in a manner transcribed Pliny. Thus
have Lucian and Apuleius served Lucius Pratensis ; men
both living in the same time, and both transcribing the same
author, in those famous books, entituled Lucius by the one,
and Aureus Asinus by the other. In the same measure hath
Simocrates, in his tract De Nilo, dealt with Diodorus Siculus,
as may be observed in that work annexed unto Herodotus,
and translated by Jungermannus. Thus Eratosthenes wholly
translated Timotheus de lusulis, not reserving the very pre-
face. The same doth Strabo report of Eudorus, and Arstion,
in a treatise entituled De Milo. Clemens Alexaudrinus hath
observed many examples hereof among the Greeks ; and
Pliny speaketh veiy plainly in his preface, that conferring his
authors, and compariug their works together, he generally
found those that went before verbatim transcribed by those
that followed after, and their originals never so much as men-
tioned. To omit how much the wittiest* piece of Ovid is
beholden unto Parthenius Chins ; even the magnified Virgil
hath borrowed almost all his works ; his Eclogues from Tlie-
ocritus, his Georgicks from Hesiod and Aratus, his ^neids
from Homer, the second book whereof containing the exploit
of Sinon and the Trojan Horse (as Macrobius observeth) he
hath verhatim derived from Pisander. Our own profession
is not excusable herein. Thus Oribasius, ^Etiuus, and ^gi-
neta, have in a manner transcribed Galen. But Marcellus
Empericus, who liath left a famous work De Medicamentis,
hath word for word transcribed all Scribonius Largus De
Compositione Medicamentorum, and not left out his very
peroration. Thus may we perceive the ancients were but
men, even like ourselves. The practice of transcription in
our days was no monster in theirs. Plagiary had not its
nativity with printing, but began in times when thefts Avere
difficult, and the paucity of books scarce wanted that invention.
Nor did they only make large use of other authors, but
often without mention of their names. Aristotle, who seems
to have borrowed many things from Hippocrates, in the most
favourable construction, makes mention but once of him,t
and that by the bye, and without reference nnto his present
* His Metamorphoses. f In his Politicks.
* Justine.] He cannot be properly said to borrow who professes only
at epitome. — Wr.
44 OBSTINATE ADHEKE>'CE [bOOX I.
doctriue. Virgil, so much beholding unto Horner,^ hath
not his name in all his works ; and Pliny, who seems to
borrow many authors out of Dioscorides, hath taken no
notice of him. I wish men were not still content to plume
themselves with others' feathers. Fear of discovery, not
single ingenuity,'' aftbrds quotations rather than transcrip-
tions ; wherein, notwithstanding, the plagiarism of many
makes little consideration,^ whereof though great authors
may complain, small ones cannot but take notice.^
Fourthly, while we so eagerly adhere unto antiquity, and
the accounts of elder times, we are to consider the fabulous
condition thereof. And that we shall not deny, if we call to
mind the mendacity of Greece, from whom wee have received
most relations ; and that a considerable part of ancient
times was by the Greeks themselves termed fxudiKur, that is,
made up, or stufted out with fables.'' And surely the
^ leliolding unto Homer.'] " Very corruptly written," says Johnson,
" iov beholden, held in obligation, from the Dutch </f^0MfZe?i." But Sir
Thomas probably uses the word in the sense of " looking unto Homer,"
as to an authority or a source of information.
■• single ingenuity.] " Simple ingenuousness."
^ the plagiarism, tfcc] That is, "plagiarism against many authors,
who are little known, often escapes detection."
^ Nor did thfij, tfcc] Added in sixth edition.
'' By the Greeks tJiemselvcs termed /.ivOiicov, that is, made up, or stuffed out
with fables.] Our author seems here to misinterpret to a certain extent
the termjivOiKov, as applied to the earlier ages of Grecian history ; and
as his view of this point enters into the consideration of many other sub-
jects discussed in the Pseudodoxia, it may be useful to the reader to
offer in this place a few remarks upon what appears to be the true
meaning of that terra, as employed by the ancients themselves. The
remains of Grecian, Egyptian, and Indian anticjuity which have come
down to us, and the modern investigation of the mythi of the ancients
in general, abundantly evince that it was the custom with mankind, at
periods of very remote antiquity, to couch whatever instructions or in-
tellectual contemplations they wished to be conveyed to posterity,
under the fomi of a historical relation, but intermingled with circum-
stances so extraordinary, as showed it was not designed to be literally
apprehended. In process of time, however, the meaning of the symbols
thus used was forgotten ; and then the narratives composed by their
aid, being accompanied in their descent to posterity by a feeling of
respect which prevented their total rejection, began to be understood
according to their literal meaning only, and mankind were lost ia
amazement at the marvellous things, which they supposed their ances-
tors to have witnessed. Thus the vulgar, in the latter ages of Greeca
CHAP. TI.] TTNTO ANTIQUITY. 45
fabulous inclination of those days was greater than any
since ; which swarmed so with fables, and from such slender
grounds took hints for fictions, poisoning the world ever
after : wherein how far they succeeded may be exemplified
Rnd Rome, looked back with admiration at the times when their heroes
went to school to the Centaurs, and when sacred statues or holy
shields fell from heaven for the protection of favoured cities. And
further : the people of the earliest ages of the world appear to have
been of a turn of mind so devoted to exalted sentiments .and sublime
contemplations, that they seem never to have thought of committing
to writing accounts of common or historical occurrences : for which
reason, aa the researches of our own and the preceding age have amply
proved, no authentic history of political or civil events, of any very
great antiquity, exists, with the exception of the inspired books given
through Moses. — Hen«e, and now we arrive at the true meaning of
the term /.ivGlkov — th« well known remark of Varro : that the space
of time before the flood was a^rjXov — the period of utter obscurity ;
that the age from the flood to the fii'st Olympiad was fivOiKor — the
period oimythi or oi mt/ster)/, — not the part of history made up of fables,
in the common sense of the term, as our author supposes : and that it
was only with the first Olympiad that commenced the period lOTopiKov
— that of literal or true history. — With this general view of the sub-
ject, (for which I must acknowledge myself indebted, substantially, to
Lect. vi. of Noble's Plenary Inspiration of the Scriptures,) the results of
the profound researches of M. Julius Klaproth into the history and
philological antiquities of Asia, especially with respect to the compara-
tive state and nature of history among the Hindils and the Chinese,
entirely concur. The sense here attributed to ^ivQikov may also in
particular be confirmed from the results at which M. Klaproth has
arrived ; as used by Yarro, it must of course have been suggested by
the consideration, principally, of Greek and early Roman history ; but
M. Klaproth, from the consideration, principally, of the ancient history
of Asia, divides the history of ancient nations into mythology, doubtful
history, and authentic history ; the first of which he states to be
" truth in part, enveloped in an impenetrable darkness of fable and
aHegory," and generally consisting (as M. Klaproth, perhaps some-
what too comprehensively, infers), "of subsequently calculated astro-
nomical periods, metamorphosed into dynasties and heroes."
If the views submitted in this note be borne in mind, and much
might be added in further confirmation of their truth, from the most
recent and satisfactory investigations of the viythi, by the most sober-
minded inquirers and critics, of all countries, and all schools of ancient
literature, the reader will often be enabled to arrive at a more satis-
factory solution of the marvellous relations of classical antiquity, than
those adopted by our author. To what extent we may receive the ex-
planations of them he has given from Palcephatus and others, may in
some degree be inferred from the circumstances mentioned in our note
upon the "fable of Cluiron," p. 47. — Br.
4C OBSTIKATE ADHEnENOE [BOOK l'.
from Palsepliatus,* in his book of Fabulous Narrations.
That fable of Orpheus, who by the melody of his musick made
woods and trees to follow him, was raised upon a slender
foundation ; for there were a crew of mad women retired
unto a mountain, from whence, being pacified by his musick,
they descended with boughs in their hands ; which, unto the
fabulosity of those times, proved a sufficient ground to cele-
brate unto all posterity the magick of Orpheus's harp, and
its power to attract the senseless trees about it.^ That
Medea, the famous sorceress, could renew youth, and make
Old men young again, was nothing else, but that from the
knowledge of simples, she had a receipt to make white hair
black, and reduce old heads into the tincture of youth
again. The fable of Geryon and Cerberus witli three heads
was this : Greryon was of the city Tricarinia,^ that is, of
three heads, and Cerberus of the same place, was one of his
dogs, which, running into acaveuponpursuit of his master's
* An ancient author who writ Ylfpl diri<rru)i>, sive de incredibilibus,
whereof some part is yet extant.
^ Orpheus' Harp, <f;c.] Dr. Delany, in his hfe of David, produces
some ingenious arguments to prove that Orpheus was in reality the
sanie person with David. — J.
We are tempted to insert (rather for ornament than illustration) a,J€u
d'esprit of the late Lisle : See Aiken's Vocal Poetry, 8vo. 1810,
p. 228 :—
Wlien Orpheus went down to the regions helow,
Which men are forbidden to see,
He tuned up his lyre, as old histories show,
To set his Eurydice free.
All hell was astonish'd, a person so wise
Should rashly endanger his life.
And venture so far — but how vast their surprise,
When they found that he came for his wife !
To find out a punishment due for his fault,
Old Pluto long puzzled his brain ;
But hell had not torments sufficient he thought,
— So he gave him his wife back again.
But pity succeeding soon vanquiah'd his heart.
And, pleas'd with his playing so well,
He took her again, in reward of his art ; —
Such power had music in hell !
• Tricarinia. — Read Trhiacria. — Wr.
CHAP. VI.] UNTO ANTIQUITY. 47
oxen, Hercules perforce drew liim out of that place ; from
whence the conceits of those days affirmed no less than that
Hercules descended into hell, and brought up Cerberus into
the habitation of the living. Upon the like grounds was
raised the figment of Briareus, who, dwelling in a city called
Hecatouchiria, the fancies of those times assigned him an
hundred hands. 'Twas ground enough to fancy wings unto
Daedalus, in that he stole out of a window from Minos, and
sailed away with his son Icarus ; who, steering his course
wisely, escaped, but his son carrying too high a sail was
drowned. That Niobe, weeping over her children, was
turned into a stone, was nothing else but that during her
life she erected over their sepidclires a marble tomb of her
own. When Acteon had undone himself with dogs, and the
prodigal attendants of hunting, they made a solemn story
how he was devoured by his hounds. And upon the like
grounds was raised the anthropophagie* of Diomedes his
horses. Upon a slender foundation was buUt the fable of
the Minotaure ; for one Taurus, a servant of Minos, gat his
mistress, Pasiphae, with child, from whence the infant was
named Minotaui'us. Now this unto the fabulosity of those
times, was thought sufficient to accuse Pasiphae of beastiality,
or admitting conjunction with a bull ; and in succeeding ages
gave a hint of depravity unto Domitian to act the fable into a
reality. In like manner, as Diodorus plainly delivereth, the
famous fable of Charon had its nativity ; who, being no other
but the common ferry-man of Egypt that wafted over the
dead bodies from Memphis, was made by the Greeks to be
the ferry-man of hell, and solemn stories raised after of him.*
* Eating of man's flesh.
' In like manner, as Diodorus plainly delivereth, the famous fable of
Charon had its nativity, <fcc.] Two circumstances, for the knowledge of
which we are indebted to the modem researches into the literature and
antiquities of Egypt (for which the late Dr. Thomas Young opened the
way, by his discovery of the method of deciphering the Hieroglyphics),
concur to prove, not only that Diodoras has faithfully reported the in-
formation he received from the Egyptian priests, but also that he was
truly informed by them respecting their rites and ceremonies. Both of
these occur in the very passages [Diod. Sic. Bib. Hist. Wess. § 92, 96)
in which is delivered the statement alluded to in the text, relative to
the fable of Charon. One of them is a remarkable numerical coinci-
dence, pointed out and commented upon by Dr. Young, {Art. Egypt,
48 OBSTINATE ADHERENCE [uOOK I.
Lastly, we sliall uot need to enlarge, if that l)e true which
grounded the generation of Castor and Helena out of an
Supp. Ency. {Brit. p. 52) between the statement of Diodorus, and the
delineations as well as enumerations, of the Egyptian papyri. The
other, the importance of which Dr. Young appears not to have observed,
although it has become apparent through his researches alone, relates
to the name Charon. Dr. Young, in his translation of one of the pas-
sages in (\\xesi\o\i( Account of Recent Discoveries in Egypt. Antiq. p. 104),
has, from his knowledge of the Egyptian language, interpolated " the
Silent," as the literal meaning of this appellation. Now, that Charon
should be an Egyptian word, and that such should be its signification,
are circumstances in themselves further strongly corroborative of the
truth of the relation of Diodorus ; for, with respect to the latter, it
was the office of the " ferry-man of E'jypt, that wafted over the dead
bodifs from Memphis," to wait with his boat, in the presence of the
judges, until judgment had been passed upon the deceased, which, as
Charon had no part to take in the ceremony, until judgment had been
pronounced, he would of course do in solemn silence.
But that the Greeks actually derived their mythus, of Charon and
his office, from the mere funeral ceremonies of the Egyptians, as repre-
sented to Diodorus by the priests, is a notion which rests, it will be
perceived, upon their testimony alone ; and that it is untrue various
considerations concur to evince. From our present knowledge of the
Egyptian mj'tliology, it appears that the ceremonies through which
every mummy had to pass, before it was allowed sepulture, formed a
kind of mythic drama, intended to repiesent the successive stages of
the judgment, through which the soul of the deceased had to pass,
prior to its final allotment to happiness or misery. But the object of
all the allegations of the Egyptian priests to Diodorus, being, as is
manifest, the aggrandizement of their own country, while they truly
related their ceremonies to him, they appear sedulously to have con-
cealed the dogmas, or viythi, of which those ceremonies were repre-
sentative. Hence their statement, that the Greek mythus of Charon
had been derived from their mere funeral ceremony ; while the fact
doubtless was, as the entire tenour of mythological literature shows,
either that the Greek tnythi in general (and that of Charon as one of
them) were derived originally, not from the mere ceremonies, as the
priests would iiave had us believe, but from the mythi themselves, of
the Egyptians ; or that both nations had derived their mythi from an
anterior common source. Charon was in all probability originally the
name of the mythic boatman, and subse(iuently applied also to his
mortal representative, so that tlie proof of tlie veracity of Diodorus,
derived from it, will remain equally valid under tlie view of the subject
now taken. The recent investigations of the mythi of the Greeks by
Heyne, and other scholars equally competent to the inquiry, have
shown tliat the origins assigned to them by Palajphatus and others, which
Browne usually adopts, are for the most part untenable ; and even some
of those related, from the Egyptian priests, by Diodorus, not with
etandhig the authenticity we have found to belong to his relationa,
CHAP. TI.] UNTO ANTIQUITY. 49
egg, because they -svere born aud brought up in an upper
room, according unto the word (Lor, which with the Lacedse-
monians had also that signification.
Fifthly, We applaud many things delivered by the
ancients, which are in themselves ordinary, and come short
of our conceptions. Thus we usually extol, and our oration^
cannot escape the sayings of the wise men of Greece.
Nosce teipsum, of Thales ; Nosce tempus, ofPittacus; Nihil
nimis, of Cleobulus ; which, notwithstanding, to speak in-
diiFerently, are but vulgar precepts in morality, carrying
with them nothing above the line, or beyond the extemporary
sententiosity of common conceits with us. Thus we maguifie
the apothegms or reputed replies of wisdom, whereof many
are to be seen in Laertius, more in Lycosthenes, not a few
in the second book of Macrobius, in the Salts of Cicero,
Augustus, and the comical wits of those times : in most
whereof there is not much to admire, and are, methinks, ex-
ceeded, not only in the replies of wise men, but the passages
of society, and urbanities of our times. And thus we extol
their adages or proverbs ; and Erasmus hath taken great
pains to make collections of them, whereof, notwithstanding,
the greater part wUl, I believe, unto indiftereut judges, be
esteemed no extraordinaries ; and may be paralleled, if not
exceeded, by those of more unlearned nations, and many of
our own.
Sixthly, "We urge authorities in points that need not, and
introduce the testimony of ancient writers, to confirm things
evidently believed, and whereto no reasonable hearer but
would assent without them ; such as are nemo mortalium
omnibus lioris sapit. Virtute nil prcdstantius, nil pulchrius.
Omnia vincit amor. JPrceclarum quiddam Veritas. All
which, although known and vulgar, are frequently urged by
many men ; and though trivial verities in our mouths, yet
noted from Plato, Ovid, and Cicero, they become reputed
appear, as Dr. Young has observed, {Account, <Lx. p. Ill) to rest upon
" analogies all too slight to be admitted as anything like evidence."
The application to these doubtful points, however, so far as the rela-
tions of Diodorus are concerned, of the fact already noticed, that the
Egyptian ceremonies alluded to were mythic dramas, would certainly
contribute greatly to their elucidation. — Br.
The passage which forms the subject of Mr. Brayley's preceding
note was first added in the second edition.
VOL. I. 26
50 ADUEKENCE UNTO ANTIQUITY. [bOOK I.
elegancies. For many hundred to instance in one we meet
with while we are writing. Antonius Guevara, that elegant
Spaniard, in his book entituled, The Dial of Princes, be-
ginneth his epistle thus : " Apollonius Thyanseus, disputing
with the scholars of Hiarchas, said, that among all the
aftections of nature, nothing was more natural than the
desire all have to preserve life." Which, being a confessed
truth, and a verity acknowledged by all, it was a superfluous
affectation to derive its authority from Apollonius, or seek a
confirmation thereof as far as India, and the learned scholars
of Hiarchas.^ AVhich, whether it be not all one as to
strengthen common dignities and principles, known by
themselves, with the authority of mathematicians ; or [to]
think a man should believe, ' the whole is greater than its
parts,' rather upon the authority of Euclide, than if it were
propounded alone, I leave unto the second and wiser cogita-
tions of all men. 'Tis siu-e a practice that savours much of
pedantry ; a reserve of puerility we have not shaken off from
school ; where, being seasoned with minor sentences, by a
neglect of higher enquiries, they prescribe upon our riper
ears, and are never worn out, but with our memories.
Lastly, While we so devoutly adhere unto antiquity in
some things, we do not consider we have deserted them in
several others. For they, indeed, have not only been im-
])erfect in the conceit of some things, but either ignorant or
erroneous in many more. They understood not the motion
of the eighth sphere from west to east, and so conceived the
longitude of the stars invariable. They conceived the Torrid
Zone unhabitable, and so made frustrate the goodliest part
of the earth. But we now know 'tis very well empeopled,^
and the habitation thereof esteemed so happy, that some
laave made it the proper seat of Paradise ; and been so far
from judging it unhabitable, that they have made it the first
^Antonius Guevara, rfrc] This practice is well ridiculed by Steme ; —
"Tis either Plato, or Plutarch, or Seneca, or Xenophon, or Epictetus,
or Theophrastus, or Lucian, or some one perhaps of later date, — either
Cardan, or Budda;us, or Petrarch, or Stella, or possibly it may be some
divine or father of the Church, St. Austin, or St. Cyprian, or Bernard,
who affinns that it is an irresistible and natural passion to weep for
the loss of our friends or children, &c., &c." — /. Cr.
'But we now know 'tis very well einpeophd.^ See Sir T. P. Blormt'i
Essays, p. 137.—/. Cr.
CHAP. Til.] ADHEEENCE UKTO AUTHORITY. 51
habitation of all. Many of the ancients denied the Anti-
podes, and some unto the penalty of contrary affirmations ;"*
but the experience of our enlarged navigations can now
assert them beyond all dubitation. Having thus totally re-
linquished them in some things, it may not be presumptuous
to examine them in others ; but surely most unreasonable to
adhere to them in all, as though they were infallible, or could
not err in any.
CHAPTEE VII.
Of another of the more immediate Cav^es of Error ; — viz. Adherence
unto Authority.
KoE is only a resolved prostration unto antiquity a power-
ful enemy unto knowledge, but any confident adherence unto
authority, or resignation of our judgments upon the testi-
mony of any age or author whatsoever.
For, first, to speak generally, an argument from authority,
to wiser examinations, is but a weaker kind of proof ; it being
but a topical probation, and as we term it, an inartificial
argument, depending upon a naked asseveration, wherein
neither declaring the causes, affections, or adjimcts, of what
we believe, it carrieth not with it the reasonable induce-
ments of knowledge. And therefore contra negantem prin-
cipia, ipse dixit, or oportet discentem credere,^ although pos-
* and some, ttc] Alluding to Virgilius ; See Rel. Med. p. 39, note 2.
* cmitra negantem, cfcc] These three rules althoughe they bee founded
on the grounds of universall reason, yet they have theire limits and
boundaryes, by which they must be circumscribed. Tlie first reachinge
only such perverse spirits, as denye those universall principles of reason
and nature, wherein the wisest and soberest judgments of aU times have
held an unanimous and full consent, and whereon the perpetuall and
uncontrouled experience of all mankinde hath agreed. As that the
enow is white ; and that fire does burne. The foiTner whereof, althoughe
»ome have made not only dispute, but deniall, yet they purchaat nothing
but scorne and the censure as of brainsick men.
The second is noe where of universall authoritye, save in the booke
of God : all other dictates of men, how specious soever, being noe
farther authenticall to enforce beleefe, then as the reasons are, whereon
they are built : but the only reason in God's booke is, because wee
know, Hee, whose worditt is, is truth ittselfe, and can neither lye, nor
deceave, nor bee deceaved : and therefore hath the whole and soi«
E 2
52 ADHERENCE UNTO AUTHOEITT. [bOOK T.
tiilates very accommodable uuto junior indoctrinations, yet
are their authorities but temporary, and not to be embra-ced
beyond the minority of our intellectuals. For our advanced
beliefs are not to be built upon dictates, but having received
the probable inducements of truth, we become emancipated
from testimonial engagements, and are to erect upon the
surer base of reason.
Secondly, unto reasonable perpensions'* it hath no place in
some sciences, small in others, and sufFereth many restric-
tions even where it is most admitted. It is of no validity in
the mathematics, especially the mother part thereof, arith-
metic and geometi-y. For these sciences, concluding from
dignities and principles known by themselves, receive not
satisfaction from probable reasons, much less from bare and
peremptory asseverations. And, therefore, if all Athens
should decree, that in every triangle, two sides, whichsoever
be taken, are greater than the side remaining, or that, in
rectangle triangles, the square which is made of the side
that subtendeth the right angle, is equal to the squares which
are made of the sides containing the right angle ; although
there be a certain truth therein, geometricians, notwith-
standing, woidd not receive satisfaction without demonstra-
tion thereof. 'Tis true, by the vulgarity of philosophers
there are many points believed without probation ; nor if a
man affirm from Ptolemy, that the sun is bigger than the
earth, shall he probably meet with any contradiction ; where-
unto notwithstanding astronomers will not assent without
some convincing argument or demonstrative proof thereof.
And therefore certainly of all men a philosopher should be
no swearer : for an oath which is the end of controversies in
law, cannot determine any here ; nor are the deepest sacra-
ments or desperate imprecations of any force to persuade,
where reason only, and necessai-y mediums must induce.
In natural philosophy, and which is more generally pur-
empire of authoritye, to which all humane reason must submitte with-
out dispute or haesitancye.
The last rule concerns none but those who yeeld up themselves to tha
instructions and information of others, from whom they must perforce
talce up upon truste tlie principles of that arte, which they desii'e to
gaine, till they come to attain unto itt. — Wr.
^ pa-peiuiio'iis.'] Considerations.
CHAP. VII.] ADHEKEKCE UNTO AUTHOEITT. 53
sued amongst us, it carrieth but slender consideration ; for
that also proceeding from settled principles, therein is ex-
pected a satisfaction from scientifical progressions, and such
as beget a sure rational belief. For if authority might have
made out the assertions of philosophy, we might have held,
that snow was black, that the sea was but the sweat of the
earth, and many of the like absurdities.^ Then was Aris-
totle injurious to fall upon Melissus, to reject the assertions
of Anaxagoras, Anaximander, and Empedocles f then were
we also ungrateful unto himself: from whom our junior en-
deavours embracing many things on his authority, our mature
and secondary enquiries are forced to quit those receptions,
and to adhere unto the nearer accounts of reason. And
although it be not unusual, even in philosophical tractates,
to make enumeration of authors, yet are there reasons usually
introduced, and to ingenious readers do carry the stroke in
the persuasion. And surely if we account it reasonable
among ourselves, and not injurious unto rational authors, no
farther to abett their opinions, than as they are supported by
solid reasons, certainly with more excusable reservation may
we shrink at their bare testimonies, whose argument is but
precarious, and subsists upon the charity of our assentments.
In morality, rhetorick, law, and history, there is I confess a
frequent and allowable use of testimony ; and yet herein I
perceive it is not unlimitable,but admitteth many restrictions.
Thus, in law both civil and divine, that is only esteemed a
legal testimony, which receives com probation from the mouths
of at least two witnesses ; and that not only for prevention
of calumny, but assurance against mistake. Whereas not-
withstanding, the solid reason of one man is as sufficient as
the clamour of a whole nation, and with imprejudicate appre-
hensions, begets as firm a belief as the authority or aggre-
gated testimony of many hundreds. For reason being the
very root of our natures, and the principles thereof common
unto all, what is against the laws of true reason, or the
unerring understanding of any one, if rightly apprehended,
^ that snow was black, d-c.'j Attributed to Anaxagoras, a Clazome
nian philosopher, who flourished above 400 years B. C.
* Then was Aristotle, etc.] See Aristotle's discussion of the opinion!
of these philosophers, in his Phy sicks, lib, i. c. 2, 3, 4.
54 ADHERENCE UNTO AUTHOEITT. [BOOK I.
must be disclaimed by all nations, and rejected even by
mankind.
Again, a testimony is of small validity, if deduced from
men out of their own professions. So, if Lactantius aiErm
the figure of the earth is plain,^ or Austin deny there are
Antipodes,^ though venerable fathers of tlie church, and ever
to be honoured, yet will not their authorities prove sufficient
to ground a belief thereon. Whereas, notwithstanding the
solid reason,^ or confirmed experience of any man, is very
approvable, in what profession soever. So Eaymund Sebimd,
a physician of Tholouze, besides his learned dialogues De
natura humana, hath written a natural theology; demon-
strating therein the attributes of God, and attempting the
like in most points of religion. So Hugo Grrotius, a civUian,
did write an excellent tract in Dutch, of the Verity of the
Christian Religion.^ Wherein most rationally delivering
themselves, their works will be embraced by most that
understand them, and their reasons enforce belief, even from
prejudicate readers. Neither, indeed, have the authorities
of men been ever so awful, but that by some they have
been rejected, even in their own professions. Thus Aris-
totle, affirming the birth of the infant, or time of its gesta-
tion, extendeth some times imto the eleventh month, but
* if Lactantius affirm, <fcc.] See Lactantius De Falsa Sapientia, 1. iii.
c. 23.
' or Austin deny, <tc.] " Quod vero et Antipodas esse fabulantur,
nulla ratione credendum est." — S. Aug. 2>e Civitate Dei, 1.
xvi. c. 9.
^ the solid reason.'] This is a golden rule, worthye to be written in
marble and golde. For as among those that have the persons of men
in adoration, and (for something they admire in them) swallow all that
they say as gospel, truth is manye times silentlye smothered, and
sometimes violently and furiously not only opposed but oppressed ; soe
among sober men, and such as entertaine and embrace truth, wherever
they find her, shee sodenly advances them to such a hight of honor
and reputation, that they become the leaders of learninge and know-
ledge to after ages, and that deservedly. — II r.
^ did write an excellent tract, Sc] In the first edition, "did write
an excellent tract, in Dutch, of the Verity of Christian Religion, am",
hath since contracted the same into six books in Latin." " Grotius,
while a prisoner in the castle of Lou vain, wrote, hi the Dutch language,
' A Treatise on the Truth of the Christian Religion.' He afterwards
enlarged it, and translated it, so enlarged, into Latin." — Butler's lAfi
of Givtius, p. 148.
CHAP. VII.] ADUERENCE V VTC AUTHORITY. 55
Hippocrates averring that it exceedeth not the tenth;"*
Adrian, the emperor, in a solemn process, determined for
Aristotle, but Justinian many years after took in with
Hippocrates, and reversed the decree of the other. Thus
have councils not only condemned private men, but the
decrees and acts of one another. So Galen, after all
his veneration of Hippocrates, in some things hath fallen
from him ; Avicen in many from Galen ; and others suc-
ceeding from him. And although the singularity of Para-
celsus be intolerable, who sparing only Hippocrates, hath
reviled not only the authors, but almost all the learning
that went before him f yet it is not much less injurious
unto knowledge, obstinately and inconvincibly to side with
* Thus Aristotle, dkc] Although Aristotle (in his Jlist, Animal, vii.
cap. 4,) gives instances in which the period of human gestation extends
to the eleventh month, he evidently considers them as extreme cases, and
agrees with Hippocrates in regarding the tenth as very generally the
extreme limit. See his De Gcnerat. Animal. 1. iv. c. 4. In this
opinion they are borne out by the general consent of modem authority
both physical and judicial. The doubt indeed is whether even that
limit is not too wide. From the Medical Jurisprudence of Dr. Paris
and Fonblanque, where the subject will be found most elaborately
treated —it appears that although there exists a very general opinion
among lawyers and medical men, that the period may be protracted to
ten calendar months, it is a point scarcely admitting of proof : and
many high authorities reject the opinion as untenable. " Each side ia
supported by a considerable list of partisans, and we perceive that upon
this occasion the two celebrated medico-jurisconsults of France are op-
posed to each other ; Mahon having associated his name with those of
Bohn, Hebensteit, Astruc, Mauriceau, De La Motte, Rwderer, and
Baudelocque, who reject the belief inretarded deliver^/ as impossible, and
contrary to the immutable law of nature ; while the name of Foderi
ranges with those who support the contrary opinion, as Teichmeyer,
Heister, Albert, Vallentini, Bartholin, Haller, Antoine Petit, Lictaud,
Vicq d'Azyr, and Capuran, also Dr. Hamilton, who may boast of the
6U^\>oTt oi Hippocrates, Aristotle, and Pliny." {Medical Jurispji'udence,
vol. i. p. 247.) — By the law of Scotland, as stated by Paris and Fon-
blanque, a child born ten months after the death of the father is con-
sidered as legitimate ; and the civil code of France decrees three
hundred days, or fen months, to be the most distant period at which the
legitimacy of a birth shall be allowed. — Br.
* although the singularity of Paracelsus be intolerable, <L~c.'] "Para-
celsus began his professional career by burning jublicly, in his class-
room, and in the presence of his pupils, the works of Galen and Avi-
cenna, assuring his hearers that the strings of his shoes possessed more
knowledge than those two celebrated physicians. All the universities
56 ADHERENCE UNTO AUTHORITY. [bOOK 1.
any one. Which humour^ unhappily possessing many, they
have by prejudice withdrawn themselves into parties, and
contemning the sovereignty of truth, seditiously abetted the
private divisions of error.
Moreover, a testimony in points historical, and where it is
of unavoidable use, is of no illation'' in the negative ; nor is
it of consequence,*^ that Herodotus writing notliing of Eome,
there was therefore no such city in his time, or because
Dioscorides hath made no mention of unicorn's horn, there
is therefore no such thing in nature. Indeed, intending an
accurate enumeration of medical materials, the omission
united had not, he assured them, as much knowledge as was contained
in his own beard, and the hairs upon his head were better informed
tlian all the writers that ever existed put together." This statement ia
derived from Dr. Thomson's Historn of Chemistry (forming part of the
National Library,) vol. i. p. 145, where also, in the following page, ia
given an extract from the preface to a tract by Paracelsus, entitled
Paraijranuin , the arrogance of which amply vindicates the justice of the
preceding representation. It may be doubted, however, whether this
extreme arrogance and contempt was really felt by Paracelsus, or
whether it was merely assumed for the sake of singularity and effect.
In a letter written by him to Christopher Clauser, a physician of Zurich,
he admits the claims, not only of Hippocrates, but also of Avicenna, Galen,
and Marsilius, to be considered the greatest physicians of their respective
countries, assuming, however, that he was himself, beyond dispute, the
greatest physician among the Germans. The contempt and arrogance
with which, however, Paracelsus, in public, certainly treated almost every
preceding practitioner and teacher of medical science, were probably
required in order to overcome the slavish and superstitious deference to
ancient authority which had so long prevailed. As Dr. Thomson has
observed {Hist, of Vhem. vol. i. p. 140,) he "shook the medical throne
of Galen and Avicenna to its very foundation ; he roused the latent
energies of the human mind, which had for so long a period lain torpid ;
he freed medical men from those trammels, and put an end to that
despotism which had existed for five centuries." — Br.
* Which humour, ttc] This humour is itt which hath engaged the
whole world into factions, not only amongst Christians, but even Jews,
Turks, and Infidels. And being once planted is hardly ever rooted out.
For that they who have once swallowed an error (act of ignorance, in-
advertence, or the tye of observance and relation to some on whom
they depend) are ever loath to acknowledge, but more to renounce itt,
though in pointe of conscience they be often convinced of itt ; least, being
thought to have faultered in one thing, they may come to question, and
bring into suspicion, whatever they ahall allow for the future. — Wr.
'' in of no illation.] " A fiords no inference."
'norii it of coiiae^tience.Ji "Nor does it follow as a consequence."
CHAP. VII ] ADHEREXCK UNTO AUXnOEITr. 57
hereof affords some probability it was not used by the ancients,
but will not conclude the non-existence thereof. For so may
we annihilate many simples unknown to his enquiries, as
senna, rliubarb, bezoa, ambergi-is, and divers others. Whereas
indeed the reason of man hath not such restraint ; conclud-
ing not only affirmatively, but negatively; not only affirming
there is no magnitude beyond the last heavens, but also
denying there is any vacuity within them. Although it be
confessed, the affirmative hath the prerogative illation, and
barbara^ engrosseth the powerful demonstration.
Lastly, the strange relations made by authors may suffi-
ciently discourage our adherence unto authority, and w hich,
if we believe, we must be apt to swallow any thing. Thus
BasiP will tell us, the serpent went erect like man, and that
that beast could speak before the fall. Tostatus would make
us believe that Nilus encreaseth every new moon. Leonardo
Eioravanti, an Italian physician, beside many other secrets,
assumeth unto himself the discovery of one concerning pelli-
tory of the wall ; that is, tiiat it never groweth in the sight
of the North star, — Q'' dove si possa vedere la steJla Tra-
montana ;") wherein how wide he is from trutli is easily dis-
coverable unto every one, who hath but astronomy enough to
know that star. Franciscus Sanctius, in a laudable comment
upon Alciat's emblems, affirmeth, and that from experience,
a nightingale hath no tongue ; (" avem PhiJomelam lingua
carere pro certo qfftrmare jjossum, nisi me oculi fallunt ;)
whicli if any man lor a while s^hall believe upon his experi-
ence, he may at his leisure refute it by his own. AVhat fool
almost would believe, at least, what wise man would rely
upon, that antidote delivered by Pierius in his hierogly plucks
against the sting of a scorpion, — that is to sit upon an ass
^ larhara.'] The affirmative proposition: see note®, p. 18.
' Thus Bagil.'j See Book v. chap. iv. And this is the only reason
that holds the church of Rome in an obstinate maintenance of some
ridiculous, some scandalous, some pernicious, some blasphemous doc-
trines : For feare that by the acknowledgement of them they shall
loose their credit and authoritye. And that the acknowledgement en-
forcing their renunciation and desertion of them, they shall withall
loose the merit, profit, and gaine, which they reape from the numerous
proselytes : whose consciences they have fettered and chained unto
them, by these powerfull overawinge chaineB, and (as they call them)
pioui fraudes, — Wi;
58 ADHERENCE UNTO AIJTUORITY. [bOOK L
with one's face towards his tail, for so the pain leaveth the
man, and passeih into the beast. It were, methinks, but an
uncomfortable receipt for a quartane ague (and yet as good
perhaps as many others used) to have recourse unto the
receipt of Sammouicus ; that is, to lay the fourth book of
Homer's Iliad under one's head, according to the precept of
that physician and poet, MoeonicB Iliados quartum suppone
trementi. There are surely few that have belief to swallow,
or hope enough to experiment the collyrium* of Albertus,
which promiseth a strange effect, and such as thieves would
count inestimable, that is, to make one see in the dark ;
yet thus much, according unto his receipt, will the right eye
of an liedgehog boiled in oil, and preserved in a brazen
vessel, etfect. As strange it is, and unto vicious inclinations
were worth a night's lodging with Lais,t what is delivered
in Kiranides ; that the left stone of a weasel, wrapt up in
the skin of a she-mule, is able to secure incontinency from
conception.
These, with swarms of others, have men delivered in their
writings, whose verities are only supported by their authori-
ties ; but being neither consonant unto reason, nor corre-
spondent unto experiment, their affirmations are unto us no
axioms. AVe esteem thereof as things unsaid, and account
them but in the list of nothing. I wish herein the chymista
had been more sparing ; who, over-magnifying their prepara-
tions, inveigle the curiosity of many, and delude the security
of most. Por if experiments would answer their encomiums,
the stone and quartane agues were not opprobrious unto
physicians -^ we might contemn that first and most uncom-
fortable apliorism of Hippocrates,^ for surely that art were
soon attained, that hath so general remedies, and life could
not be short, were there such to prolong it.
* An eye medicine. + Ten thousand drachms.
X Ars longa, vita brevia.
^opprobriims vnto phynciansJ] By being very difficult to cure.
CHAP. VIII.] HEE0D0TU8. 59
CHAPTEE VIII.
Of Authors who have most promoted Popular Conceit.
Now, forasmuch as we have discoursed of authority, and
there is scarce any tradition or popular error but stands also
delivered by some good author, we shall endeavour a short
discovery of such as for the major part have given authority
hereto ; who, though excellent and useful authors, yet either
being transcriptive, or following common relations, their ac-
counts are not to be swallowed at large, or entertained with-
out all circumspection. In whom ipse dixit, although it be
no powerful argument in any, is yet less authentic than in
many other, because they deliver not their own experiences,
but others' affirmations, and write from others, as we our-
selves from them.
1. The first in order, as also in time, shall be Herodotus,
of Halicarnassus,^ an excellent and very elegant historian ;
' Herodotus of HalicarnassusJ] It will be useful to place in appo-
sition with our author's statement, respecting the writings of this his-
torian, the opinion of their authenticity and character, so far as they
relate to the history of Egypt, farmed by one of the most sagacious in-
vestigators of ancient history of the present age. Since the early
history of Egypt claims a much higher antiquity than that of almost
any other nation, and is consequently involved in obscurity more im-
penetrable, if the relations of any ancient writer respecting it are found
to be substantially correct, we may conclude, a fortiori, that his account
of other nations also deserves our confidence.
"The only original authorities," observes Dr. Young, "on which we
can depend for the early history of Egypt, are those of Herodotus, Ma-
netho, Eratosthenes, Diodorus Siculus, and Strabo ; all of whom had
been more or less in the country. Herodotus lived soon after the con-
quest of Egypt by Cambyses, when the names of the later monarchfe
could not easily have been forgotten. The earlier part of his history i&
of a much more apocryphal nature : he does not, however, continue the
series of the kings further back than Sesostris and Moeris : so that
almost all his names are sufficiently recent to be considered as com-
pletely within the province of legitimate history." * * * * "The
stories of Herodotus, though told with an elegant simplicity, and with
every appearance of good faith, are by no means free from a frequent
mixture of fable ; and, with respect to his Egyptian etymologies, he ia
almost universally mistaken ; but his account of the ceremonies observed
in the preparation of the mummies has many marks of autlienticity,
and he is perfectly correct in asserting, that the most splendid of the
60 HEEODOTTJS. [BOOK I,
whose books of history were so well received in his own days,
that, at their rehearsal in the Olympick games, they ob-
tained the names of the nine muses : and continued in such
coffins are formed in imitation of the figures of Osiris ; a circumstance
which he could not easily have conjectured without direct and accurate
information." Supp. Enq). Brit. art. Egypt, p. 47, 52.
Of the above testimony to the fidelity of Herodotus, the writer of the
present note is enabled to give a strong confirmation in one particular.
Dr. Young, arguing from general grounds, observes, as above, that the
account of the preparation of the mummies given by that historian " has
many marks of authenticity." But the minute examination to which a
very perfect mummy was subjected by Dr. Granville, a few years since,
appeared to justify strong doubts of the correctness of the statements of
Herodotus respecting the Egyptian processes of embalming ; the mummy
in question having been prepared by a very different method. How-
ever, another mummy, in as perfect a condition as the former, has re-
cently been described by Mr. Osburn, Secretary to the Philosophical
and Literary Society of Leeds, which, as he has shown, must have
been prepared, in every particular, by the process described by Hero-
dotus and Diodorus Siculus as the most perfect mode of embalming
practised by the Egyptians. The opinion antecedently expressed by
Dr. Young, before any perfect mummies had been examined, is there-
fore fully confirmed, and the authority of Herodotus supported, on a
subject of Egyptian history, on which, of almost all others, it must
have been most difficult to acquire precise and correct knowledge.
The weight which this train of circumstances imparts to the character
of Herodotus, as a faithful historian, will readily be appreciated by the
student of ancient history. Phil. Trans. 1825; Phil. Mag. and An-
nals, N. S. vol. V. p. 57, 1829. Some very remarkable and important
points, in which even the minute accuracy of Herodotus has been es-
tablished, are conected with his account (lib. i. s. 74) of the eclipse
stated to have been predicted by Thales, and which, owing to a very
singular coincidence, put an end to a furious war that raged between
Cyaxases King of Media, and Alyattes King of Lydia. The investi-
gations by which his accuracy on these points has been determined
cannot be detailed in this place, but a full account of them will be
found in " Brayleifs Utility of the Knowledge of NatvA-e considered ; with
reference to the Introduction of Instruction in the Physical Sciences into
the General Education of Youth." London, 1831, 8vo.
As the extreme accuracy which we have thus seen the statements of
Herodotus to possess, with relation to subjects on which it must have
been difficult to obtain correct information, and with respect also to othera
requiring very nice observation, unquestionably guarantee his general
fidelity, we have entered into these remarks, for the purpose of showing
that he is much more worthy of the title of Historiarum parens, than of
that of Mendaciorum pater. With the exceptions arising from the facts
we have detailed, and viewed agreeably to the general bearing of those
facts, the character of Herodotus given by our author may be regarded
as substantially corect. — Br,
CHAP. Till.] CTESIAS THE CNIDTAN. 61
esteem unto descending ages that Cicero termed him Msto'
riarum parens ; and Dionysius, his countrj'mau, in an epistle
to Pompey, after an express comparison, affords him
the better of Thucydides. All which notwithstanding, he
hath received from some the style of mendaciorum pater.
His authority was much infringed by Plutarch, who, being
offended with him, as Polybius had been with Philarchus,
for speaking too coldly of his countrymen, hath left a par-
ticular tract, De malignitate Herodoti. But in this latter
century Camerarius and Stephanus have stepped in, and, by
their witty apologies, effectually endeavoured to frustrate
the arguments of Plutarch or any other. Now, in this
author, as may be observed in our ensuing discourse, and is
better discernable in the perusal of himself, there are many
things fabulously delivered, and not to be accepted as truths;
whereby, nevertheless, if any man be deceived, the author
is not so culpable as the believer. For he, indeed, imitating
the father poet, whose life he hath also written, and as Thu-
cydides observeth, as well intending the delight as benefit of
his reader, hath besprinkled his work with many fabidosities ;
whereby if any man be led into error he mistaketh the inten-
tion of the author (who plainly confesseth he writeth many
things by hearsay) andforgetteth a very considerable caution
of his; that is, Ego qucefando cognovi, exponere narratione
mea deheo omnia : credere autem esse vera omnia, non deheo.
2. In the second place is Ctesias the Cnidian,'* physician
^ Ctesias the Cnidian.'] The sum of our author's remarks on the autho-
rity of Ctesias is probably very near the ti uth ; but in this instance
again the researches of modem science have in a great degree rescued
from obloquy the statements of ancient history. The descriptions given
by Ctesias of many animals, which, as he alleges, are found in Persia
and India, and his relations concerning the uses to which many objects
of nature are applied by the inhabitants of those countries, arenowkuown
either to be actually true, or at least to be founded in trath. In other
cases it has been shown that he has correctly described certain objects
as represented in paintings or sculptures, but has erroneously attributed
an actual existence to what were merely the offspring of the imagina-
tion of the artists or of the priests who instructed them. The
historical relations of Ctesias, like those of Manetho and others,
which have until recently been deemed altogether apocryphal, have
received confirmation in many points, from the researches into the
early history of Asia and Egypt, which our own age has witnessed ;
and it is impossible to say how many which yet appear untrue, may
62 CTESIAS THE CNIDIAIS'. [bOOK I.
unto Artaxerxes, king of Persia. His books are often re-
cited by ancient writers, and, by the industry of Stephanus
and Ehodomanus, there are extant some fragments thereof
in our days. He "vrrote the history of Persia, and many
narrations of India. In the first, as having a fair oppor-
tunity to know the truth, and as Diodorus affirmeth, the
perusal of Persian records, his testimony is acceptable.^ In
his Indian relations, wherein are contained strange and in-
credible accounts, he is surely to be read with suspension.
These were they which weakened his authority with former
ages ; for, as we may observe, he is seldom mentioned with-
out a derogatory parenthesis in any author. Aristotle,
besides the frequent undervaluing of his authority in his
books of animals, gives him the lie no less than twice con-
be attributable to tbe errors of transcribers. As an instance of his
marvellous and incredible relations which have proved to be positively
true, we will cite an anticipation of modern discovery contained in his
fragments relating to India, which was pointed out a few years since,
by the late Rev. J. J. Conybeare, successively professor of Anglo-
Saxon and of poetry in the University of Oxford. Ctesias relates (Ex
Ctes. Inil. Hist. Excerpt, inapp. Herodot. Wcsseling. sub initio, p. 1827,)
that a certain variety of iron is found in India, which, when fixed into
the ground, has the power of averting storms and lightnings. See
Annals of Philosophy, Sec. Ser. vol. iv. p. 439. This evidently describes
an anticipation of the use of conductors for lightning. Prior, however,
to the discovery of the nature of lightning, and to the invention, founded
upon that discoveiy, of metallic conductors for conveying the electric
fluid, of which lightningis a manifestation, silently and innocuously to the
earth, about the middle of the last century, every reader would sup-
pose that Ctesias, in the passage before us, was relating, not a philo-
sophical truth, but an unfounded absurdity ; and would regard it as
one of the "strange and incredible accounts," which, according to our
author, are contained " in his Indian relations."
Bearing all these circumstances in mind, the reader, by comparing
our author's remarks on Ctesias with the following notes, (marked Br.,)
will have the means of forming a correct opinion respecting the merits
of that writer. — Br.
' permal of Persian records, Ac] In his account of the origin of the
Assyrian empire, however, which he professes to have derived from
the regal archives of the Medes, he differs considerably from Hero-
dotus, who must be regarded, in this case, as by far the most authentic
historian ; and he also attributes to the conquests of Ninus and Semi-
ramis an extent towards the west, which is absolutely incompatible
with the Jewish and Egyptian history of the same periods. (See
Cuvier, Discows sur les Evvoluiiom dc la Surface du, Globe, 4to. Paris,
1826, p. 101.)— .Br.
CHAP. VIII.] CTESIAS THE CNIDIAK. 63
cemiiig the seed of elephants. Strabo, in his eleventh book,
hath left a harder censure of him :*' Equidem facilius He-
siodo et Ilomero aliquis jidem adliihuerit, itemque tragicis
poetis, quam Clesice, Herodoto, Hellanico et eorum similibus.
But Lucian hath spoken more plainly than any : Scripsit
Ctesias de Indorum regione, deque Us quce apud illos sunt,
ea qu(S nee ipse vidit, neque ex ullius sermone audivit. Tet
were his relations taken up by some succeeding writers, and
many thereof revived by our countryman, Sir John Man-
devil, knight and doctor in physick ; who, after thirty years'
peregrination, died at Liege, and was there honourably in-
terred.^ He left a book of his travels, which hath been
honoured with the translation of many languages, and now
continued above three hundred years ; herein he often at-
testeth the fabulous relations of Ctesias, and seems to con-
* Strabo, in his eleventh booh, tfcc] Cuvier has remarked {Discours,
ubi sup. p. 102) that Strabo was apparently led to this censure from the
want of accordance between the various accounts of the antiquity of
the Assyrian empire given by Ctesias and other ancient writers. But
his ranking Ctesias with Herodotus, whose veracity has been established
in modern times, in a manner so irrefragable, is in fact a testimony of
considerable weight to the fidelity of the former. In reference to this
particular subject Cuvier also alludes to the manifest errors of tran-
scribers, in the fragments of Ctesias which are extant. Upon the
whole, therefore, this writer ought not in any degree to suffer m our
estimation on account of Strabo's censure. — Br.
' Sir John Mandeville, dx.] Though spoken of by Sale (in his Pre-
liminary Discourse, p. 177, note), by Parkhurst (Heb. Lex. p. 259,
third edition), and by Chalmers, as entitled to more credit than has
been usually assigned him, Mandeville's work is pronounced by Dr.
Hugh Murray, to be " a pure and entire fabrication." Chalmers re-
marks, " that Sir John honestly acknowledges that his book was made
partly of hearsay, and partly of his own knowledge ; and that he pre-
feces his most improbable relations with some such words as these, thei
eeyne, or men seyn, but I have not sene it:" — and concludes that "there
does not appear to be any very good reason why Sir John should not be
heliered in anything that he relates on his own observation." He further
observes that some of his improbabilities have been since verified ; e. g.
his hens that bore wool, &c. &c. Murray, on the other hand, asserts
that Mandeville, not content with transplanting the fictions of Oderic,
and other writers into his narrative, declares himself to have actually
geen what they had only heard of. He is quite of opinion that Sir
John compiled the gieater and the most valuable part of his travels
from Oderic, Carpini, Kubruquis, &c. and that what he has added of his
mm, consists, quite exclusively, of monstrous lies.
CI ARISTOTLE. DIOSCORIDES ANAZAEBEUS. [BOOK I.
firm the refuted accounts of antiquity. All wliicli may still
be received in some acceptions of morality, and to a preg-
nant invention may aflbrd commendable mythology ; but in
a natural and proper exposition, it containeth impossibilities,
and things inconsistent with truth.^
3. There is a book, De mirandis auditionibus, ascribed
unto Aristotle ; another, De 7niral)ilihus narrationibus,
WTitten long after by Antigonus ; another also of the same
title by Plegon Trallianus, translated by Xilander, and with
the annotations of Meursius, all whereof make good the
promise of their titles, and may be read with caution.
Which if any man shall likewise observe in the lecture of
Philostratus concerning the life of Apollonius, and even in
some passages of the sober and learned Plutarchus, or not
only in ancient writers, but shall carry a wary eye on Paulus
Venetus, Jovius, Olaus Magnus, Nierembergius, and many
others, I think his circumspection is laudable, and he may
thereby decline occasion of error.
4. Dioscorides Anazarbeus, he wrote many books in phy-
sick, but six thereof, De Materia Medica, have found the
greatest esteem. He is an author of good antiquity and
better use, preferred by Gralen before Cratevas, Pamphilus,
and all that attempted the like description before him ; yet
all he delivereth therein is not to be conceived oraculous.
For beside that (following the wars under Anthony,) the
course of his life would not permit a punctual examen in all,
there are many things concerning the nature of simples tra-
ditionally delivered, and to which I believe he gave no assent
himself. It had been an excellent receipt, and in his time
wlieu saddles were scarce in fashion,^ of very great use, if
^ All which may still be received, cf-c] The trutli <and sagacity of this re-
mark, taken in application to Ctesias himself, is beautifully illustrated
by the following circumstances noticed by Cuvier, (uhi sup. p. 40) : —
When treating of the mythological (or rather mythical) animals of the
Persians, he observes, " Ctesias, who has described these animals as
actually existing, has been regarded by many authors as an inventor of
fables, while, in fact, he has merely attributed reality to emblematical
figures ;" and he shows, in the sequel, that the imaginary beings in
question (such as the griffin, &c.) are represented in the sculptures of
Persepolis, from wliich, or from similar works of art, it is manifest that
Ctesias described them. — Br.
* when saddles were scarce in fashion.] They were not invented till
CHAP. VIII.] PLINirS SECUNDUS. 63
that were true wtiicli he delivers, tliat vitex^ or agnus castas
held only ia the hand, preserveth the rider from galling. It
were a strange eftect, and whores would forsake the experi-
ment of savine, if that were a truth Avhich he delivereth of
brake or female fearn, that only treading over it, it causes
a sudden abortion.* It were to be wished true, and wo-
men would idolize him, could that be made ovit which he
recordeth of phyllon, mercury, and other vegetables, that
the juice of the male plant drunk, or the leaves but applied
iinto the genitals, determines their conceptions unto males.
In these relations although he be more sparing, his prede-
cessors were very numerous, and Galen hereof most sharply
accuseth Pamphilus. Many of the like nature we meet
sometimes in Oribasius, JEtius, Trallianus, Serapion, Evas,
and Marcellus, whereof some containing no colour of verity,
we may at first sight reject them ; others which seem to
carry some f^ce of truth, we may reduce unto experiment.
And herein we shall rather perform good offices unto truth,
than any disservice unto their relators, who have well de-
served of succeeding ages ; from whom having received the
conceptions of former times, we have the readier hint of
their conformity with ours, and may accordingly explore and
sift their verities.
5. Plinius Secundus,- of Verona; a man of great elo-
* A like opinion there is now of elder. — Note first added in Second
Edition.
long after, probably about the fourth century : though some kinds of
horse cloths composed of various materials more or less costly were
used at a much earlier period. See Bechman's History of Invention's
and Discoveries, vol. ii. 247.
' that vitex.] Yet that is true which hee sayes, that |)ersican'a bruised,
andlayd under ye saddle, cures a galled horse in the jornye. — Wr.
^ Plinius Secundus.] It will be interesting to compare, with our author's
estimate of the authority of Pliny, the following view of the merits of a
considerable portion of the contents of his Natural History, taken by a
modern man of science, profoundly versed in the history of the science
whose progress he details, and to which the portion of Pliny in question
principally relates. " The only exception to this general neglect and
contempt for all the arts and trades, is Pliny the Elder, whose object,
in his Natural History, was to collect into one focus every thing that
was known at the period when he lived. His work displays prodi-
gious reading, and a vast fund of erudition. It is to him that we are
chiefly indebted for the knowledge of the chemical arts that wer eprac-
YOL. 1. I
6G CLAUDIUS ^LIANUS. JULIUS SOLINUS. [bOOK I.
quence, and industiy indefatigable, as may appear by liis
writings, especially those now extant, and which are never
like to perish, but even with learning itself; that is his
Natural History. He was the greatest collector or rhapso-
dist^ of all the Latins, and as Suetonius de Viris lUustribus
observeth, he collected this piece out of two thousand Latin
and Greek authors. Now what is very strange, there is
scarce a popular error passant in our days, which is not
either directly expressed, or deductively contained in this
work ; which being in the hands of most men, hath proved a
powerful occasion of their propagation. AVherein, notwith-
standing, the credulity of the reader is more condemnable
than the curiosity of the author ; for commonly he nameth
the authors from whom he received those accounts, and
writes but as he reads, as in his preface to Vespasian he
acknowledgeth.
6. Claudius ^lianus, who flourished not long after, in the
reign of Trajan, unto whom he dedicated his Tacticks ; an
elegant and miscellaneous author. He hath left two books
which are in the hands of every one, bis History of Animals,
and his Varia Historia. Wherein are contained many
tilings suspicious, not a few false, some impossible ; he is
much beholding'* unto Ctesias, and in many uncertainties
Avrites more confidently than Pliny.
7. Julius Solinus, who lived also about bis time. He left a
work entitled Polyhistor, containing great variety of mattex',
and is with most in good request at tbis day. But to speak
freely what cannot be concealed, it is but Pliny varied, or a
transcription of his Natural History ; nor is it without all
wonder it hath continued so long, but is now likely, and
tised by the ancients. But the low estimation in which these arts were
held appears evident, from the wonderful want of information which
Pliuy so frequently displays, and the erroneous statements which he has
recorded respecting these processes. Still a great deal may be drawn
from the information which has been collected and transmitted to us by
this indefatigable natural historian." (Thomson's Histoi-y of Chemistry,
vol. i. p. 50.) — Br.
3 rhapsodist.'] One who writes without any regular dependance of
one part upon another. — Johnson. I am, however, much more inclined
to think that Sir Thomas meant hy rhapsodist, one who packs together
^froni paiTTw, consarcbw,) materials collected from various sources.
■* bdiolding.'] See note, chap. vi. p. 44.
CHAP. Till.] ATIIE>M:US. >'ICANDEn. 67
deserves indeed to live for ever, not only for the elegancy of
the text, but the excellency of the comment, lately per-
formed by Salmasius, under the name of Plinian Exer-
citations.
8. Athena^us,^ a delectable author, and very various, and
justly styled by Casaubon, Grrsecorum Plinius. There is
extant of his, a famous piece, under the name of Deipnoso-
phista, or Coena Sapientium, containing the discourse of
many learned men, at a feast provided by Laurentius. It is
a laborious collection out of many authors, and some
whereof are mentioned no where else. It containeth strange
and singular relations, not without some spice or sprinkling
of all learning. The author was probably a better gram-
marian than philosopher, dealing but hardly with Aristotle
and Plato, and betrayeth himself much in his chapter De
Curiositate AristoteUs. In brief, he is an author of excellent
use, and may with discretion be read rmto great advantage;
and hath therefore well deserved the comments of Casaubon
and Dalecampius. But being miscellaneous in many things,
he is to be received with suspicion ;^ for such as amass all
relations must erre in some, and may without offence be un-
beKeved in many.
9. We will not omit the works of Xicander, a poet of
good antiquity ; that is, his Theriaca, and Alexipharmaca,
translated and commented by Gorrseus : for therein are
contained several traditions, and popular conceits of venom-
ous beasts ; which only deducted, the work is to be em-
braced, as containing the first description of poisons and
their antidotes, whereof Dioscorides, Pliny, and Galen, have
made especial use in elder times ; and Ardoynus Grevinus,
and others, in times more near our own. We might per-
haps let pass Oppianus, that famous CUician poet. There
are extant of his in Greek, four books of Cynegeticks or
Venation, five of Halieuticks or Piscation, commented and
published by Eitterhusius ; wherein, describing beasts of
* AthencBus.'] A very favourite author with Sir Thomas. See his
Remarlcs on Athenceus.
* he is to be received with suspicio7i.] We need have noe great sus-
pition of him, going under the garde of tliese learned men ; who will
not suffer you to bee led by him, into any knowne or suspected
error. — Wr.
f2
G8 PHILES. nOLY WKITEE8. [bOOK I.
venery, and fishes, he hath indeed but sparingly inserted the
vulgar conceptions thereof. So that abating the annual
mutation of sexes in the hyaena, the single sex in the rhino-
ceros, the antipathy between two drums, of a lamb and a
wolf's skin, the informity of cubs, the venation of Centaures,
the copidation of the murena and the viper, with some few
others, he may be read with great delight and profit. It is
not without some wonder his elegant lines are so neglected.
Surely, hereby we reject one of the best epic poets,* and
much condemn the judgment of Antoninus, whose appre-
hensions so honoured his poems that, as some report, for
every verse he assigned him a stater of gold.
10. More warily are we to receive the relations of Philes,
who, in Grreek iambicks, delivered the proprieties of animals ;
for herein he hath amassed the vulgar accounts recorded by
the ancients, and hath therein especially followed ^lian.
And likewise Johannes Tzetzes,'' a grammarian, who, besides
a comment upon Hesiod and Homer, hath left us Chiliads de
Varia Historia ; wherein delivering the accounts of Ctesias,
Herodotus, and most of the ancients, he is to be embraced
with caution, and as a transcriptive relator.*^
11. We cannot, without partiality, omit all caution even
of holy writers, and such whose names are venerable unto all
posterity. Not to meddle at all with miraculous authors, or
any legendary relators, we are not without circumspection to
receive some books even of authentic and renowned fathers.
So are we to read the leaves of Basil and Ambrose, in their
books entituled Hexameron,^ or The Description of the
Creation ; wherein, delivering particular accounts of all the
creatures, they have left us relations suitable to those of
^lian, Pliny, and other natural writers, whose authorities
* That write hexameters, or long verses.
^ Johannes Tzetzes.] Tzetzes ventisossimus. — Wr.
* a transcriptive relator. '\ N.B. justissimam censuram. — Wr.
* Hcxamerun.] St. Basil and St. Ambrose in their hexameron : in-
stead whereof wee have Du Bartas, an elegant and modest writer :
justly honoured by (two) excellent poets, his translatores : Hieronymus
Vida of Cremona, a second Virgil, who turned him into Latin verse,
most smoothlye ; and our Sylvester, a second Spencer, who hath soe
linely fitted him with an English garbe, that itt seemes to become him
as h.indsomelie, as hisowne native French. — Wr.
CHAP. Till.] ALBEETIJS. 69
herein they followed, and from whom, most probably, they
desumed their narrations. And the like hath been com-
mitted by Epiphanius in his Physiology ; that is, a book he
hath left concerning the nature of animals. With no less
caution must we look on Isidore, bishop of Seville ; who,
having left in twenty books an accurate work De Originihus,
hath to the etymology of words superadded their received
natures ; wherein, most generally, he consents with common
opinions and authors which have delivered them.
12. Albertus, bishop of Ratisbone, for his great learning
and latitude of knowledge, surnamed Magnus. Besides
divinity, he hath written many tracts in philosophy ; what we
are chiefly to receive with caution, are his Natural Tractates,
more especially those of minerals, vegetables, and animals,
which are indeed chiefly collections out of Aristotle, ^lian,
and Pliny, and respectively contain many of our popular
errors. A man who hath much advanced these opinions by
the authority of his name, and delivered most conceits, with
strict enquiry into few. In the same classes may well be
placed Viucentius Belluacensis,' or rather he from whom he
collected his Speculum Naturale, that is, Gulielraus de
Conchis, and also Hortus Sanitatis, and Bartholomeus
Glanvil, sirnamed Anglicus, who writ De proprietatibus
Rerum. Hither also may be referred Kiranides, which is a
collection out of Harpocration, the Grreek, and sundry
Arabic writers ; delivering not only the natural but magical
propriety of things ; a work as full of vanity as variety, cou-
' Vincentius Belluacensis.] The following statement of the merits of
Vincent of Beauvais is given by the late Rev. J. J. Conybeare, in his
accountof the <S2/fft6o^a Aureee Mensce Duodecim Nationum of Michael
Maier, published in the Annals of Philosophy, Sec. Ser. vol. vi. p. 428 :
— " Vincent of Beauvais, . . . certainly one of the most laborious and
generally informed writers of the middle ages. His Speculum Natu-
rale is the largest and most interesting Encyclopaedia which I know of
the philosophy and natural history of that period. It seems to have
been laid under contribution pretty largely, if not altogether copied,
in a work better known to our own black letter students, ' Bartholo-
mcEtis de proprietatihm rerum^ (alluded to by our author in the same
paragraph.) I have now before me what a bibliographer would
term a venerable and perfect copy of Vincent's S. N. (Cologne, 1494.)
The sixth and seventh books contain much alchemical matter, chiefly
extracted from Avicenna and a work termed Alchemiste." — Br,
70 JERONTMIJS CAEDANUS. BAPTISTA POETA. [BOOK T.
taiuiug many relations, whose invention is as difScult as their
beliefs, and their experiments sometime as hard as either.
13. We had almost forgot Jerouymus Cardanus,^ that
famous physician of Milan, a great enquirer of truth, but too
greedy a receiver of it. He hath left many excellent dis-
courses, medical, natural, and astrological ; the most sus-
picious are those two he wrote by admonition in a dream,
that is, De Subtilitate and Varietate lirrum. Assuredly
this learned man hath taken manv things upon trust, and
although he examined some, hath let slip many others. He
is of singular use unto a prudent reader ; but unto him that
only desireth Jiotiesj^ or to replenish his head with varieties,
like many otliers before related, either in the original or
conhrmation, he may become no small occasion of error.
14. Lastly, authors are also svispicious, not greedily to be
swallowed, who ]H'etend to write of secrets, to deliver anti-
pathies, sympathies, and the occult abstrusities of things ; in
the list whereof may be accounted, Alex. Pedimontanus,
Antonius Mizaldus, Trinum Magicum, and many others.
Not omitting that fiimous philosopher of Naples, Baptista
Porta ; in whose works, although there be contained many
excellent things, and verified upon his own experience, yet
are there many also rece])tar3',"* and sucli as will not endure
the test. "Who, although he hath delivered many strange
relations in his Phytognomonica,^ and his Villa, yet hath he
more remarkably expressed liimself in his Natural Magick,^
'^ Cardanus.] There is a most copious and interesting account of
Cardan, and review of his works (ascribed to James Crossley, Esq., of
Manchester), in tlie Bctrospcctive licricw, vol. i. p. 94 — 112.
'■' holies.] i. e. the quiddities of things, for to on, in Greek, signifies
the quiddity, that is, the essential or formal cause of every thing in
nature. — Wr.
* receptary.'] "Generally or popularly admitted." Dr. Johnson
quotes the present passage, but spells the word rcceptory.
* Phijtor/nomonica.] "I would recommend the treatise of Baptista
Porta, on Physiognomy, as an excellent commentary on that of Aris-
totle." Thos, Taylor's Introduction to his translation of Aristotle's
History of Animals and Treatise on Physiognomy, p. xx. — Br.
^ Natural Mayich.] "That strange mixture of learning and absurdity:"
J. J. Conybeare, Ann. Phil. Sec. Scr. vol. iv. p. 436. A judgment
quite in accordance with our author's on the merits of the works of
Baptista Porta in general — £r.
CHAP. Till.] BAPTISTA PORTA. 71
and the miraculous effects of nature. "Which containing
various and delectable subjects, with all promising wondrous
and easy effects, they are entertained by readers at all hands ;
whereof the major part sit down in his authority, and thereby
omit not only the certainty of truth, but the pleasure of its
experiment.
Thus have we made a brief enumeration of these learned
men ; not willing any to decline their works (without which
it is not easy to attain any measure of general knowledge),
but to apply themselves with caution thereunto. And seeing
the lapses of these worthy pens, to cast a wary eye on those
diminutive and pamphlet treatises^ daily published amongst
us. Pieces maintaining rather typography than verity,
authors presumably writing by common places, wherein for
many years promiscuously amassing all that makes for their
subject, they break forth at last in trite and fruitless rhap-
sodies,^ doing thereby not only open injury unto learning,
but committing a secret treachery upon truth. For their re-
lations falling upon credulous readers, they meet with pre-
pared beliefs ; whose supinities^ had rather assent unto all,
than adventure the trial of any.
Thus, I say, must these authors be read, and thus musri
we be read^ ourselves ; for discoursing of matters dubious,
and many controvertible truths, we cannot without arro-
gancy entreat a credulity, or implore any further assent, than
the probability of our reasons and verity of experiments in-
duce.
''And seeing the lapses of these worthy pens, to cast a wary eye on those
diminutive and pamphlet treatises.l A most useful and prudent caution.
— Wr.
^ rhapsodies.] Things thrown together without mutual relation :
mere collections.
^ whose su2nnities.'\ Whose indolence.
' and thus must we he read.] This is such a modest profession, as
makes me wonder that any man should undertake to quarrel with him,
as one of late hath professedly done. — Wr.
The Dean refers of course to Alexander Eoss's Arcajia Microcosmif
and Robinson's Endoxa.
72 AUTHORS. [book I.
CHAPTER IX.
Of others indirectly effecting the same.
There are, besides these authors and such as have posi-
tively promoted errors, divers other which are in some way
accessory ; whose verities, although they do not directly
assert, yet do they obliquely concur unto their beliefs.^ In
which account are many holy writers, preachers, moralists,
rhetoricians, orators, and poets ; for they depending upon
invention, deduce their mediums from all things whatso-
ever ; and playing much upon the simile, or illustrative
argumentation, to induce their enthymemes unto the people,"*
they take up popular conceits, and from traditions ixnjusti-
tiable, or really false, illustrate matters of undeniable truth.
AV herein, although their intention be sincere, and that
course not much condemnable, yet doth it notoi'iously
strengthen common errors, and authorise opinions injurious
unto truth.
Thus have some divines drawn into argument the fable of
the phoenix, made use of that of the salamander, pelican,
basilisk, and divers relations of Pliny, deducing from thence
most worthy morals, and even upon our Saviour. Now,
although this be not prejudicial unto wiser judgments, who
are but weakly moved with such arguments, yet is it oft-
times occasion of error unto vulgar heads, who expect in the
fable as equal a truth as in the moral, and conceive that in-
fallible philosophy, which is in any sense delivered by divinity.
But wiser discerners do well understand that every art hatli
its own circle ; that the effects of things are best examined
by sciences wherein are delivered their causes : that strict
and definitive expressions are always required in philosophy,
but a loose and popular delivery will serve oftentimes in
"^ unto their beliefs.] Unto the belief of errors.
•' to induce their enthymemes, <tc.] An enthymem is an imperfect syl-
logism, where either the major or the minor is omitted, as being easily
supplied by the understanding. The term, however, seems used here
in no such precise signification. The author merely means to say, that,
to obtain readier Jissent to the maxims or propositions delivered,
preachers, moralists, &c., have garnished thei.: with popular though
erroneous conceits.
CHAP. IX.] POPULAR CONCEIT. 73
divinity.'* As may be observed even in Holy Scripture,
■n hich often omitteth the exact account of things, describing
them rather to our apprehensions, than leaving doubts
in vulgar minds upon their unkno^wTi and philosophical
descriptions. Thus it termeth the sun and the moon, the
two great lights of heaven. Now if any shall from hence
conclude the moon is second in magnitude unto the sun,
he must excuse my belief: and it cannot be strange if ^
herein I rather adhere unto tlie demonstration of Ptolemy,
than the popular description of Moses. Thus it said
(2 Chron. iv. 2,) " That Solomon made a molten sea of ten
cubits from brim to bi'im round in compass, and five cubits
the height thereof, and a line of thirty cubits did compass it
round about." Now in this description the circumference
is made just treble unto the diameter: that is, as 10 to
30, or 7 to 21. But Archimedes demonstrates [in his
Cyclometria] that the proportion of the diameter unto the
circumference is as 7 unto almost 22, which will occasion a
sensible difference, that is almost a cubit. Now, if herein I
adhere unto Archimedes, who speaketh exactly, rather than
the sacred text, which speaketh largely, I hope I shall not
otfend divinity; I am sure I shall have reason and experience
of every circle to support me.
Thus moral writers, rhetoricians, and orators, make use of
several relations, which will not consist with verity. Aristotle
in his ethics takes up the conceit of the beaver, and the
divulsion of his testicles. The tradition of the bear, the
viper, and divers others are frequent amongst orators.
All which, although unto the illiterate and undiscerning
hearers [it] may seem a confirmation of their realities, yet
this is no reasonable establishment unto others, who will not
depend hereon, otherwise than on common apologues ; which
' a loose and popular delivery, (f-c] The author's illustration and
application of this position in the remainder of the paragraph, might
liave well served as a reply to the tirade of Dean Wren against the
Copernican system of astronomy, in his note at page 35, and has been
used by some of the most eminent of our modern geologists, in at-
tempting to show that certain opinions, which they have deduced from
geological phenomena, are only apparently and not really at variance
with the Mosaic account of creation.
^ and it cannot be strange if.'\ Ed. 1646 reads, "an** I think it can-
not be taken for heresy, iJF."
74 AUTHOES. [book I.
being of impossible falsities, do notwithstanding include
wholesome moralities, and such as expiate the trespass of
their absurdities.
The hieroglyphical doctrine of the Egyptians (which in
their four hundred years' cohabitation some conjecture they
learned from the Hebrews) hath much advanced many
popular conceits. For, using an alphabet of things, and
not of words, through the image and pictiu"es thereof they
endeavoured to speak their hidden conceits in the letters
and language of nature. In pursuit whereof, although in
many things they exceeded not their true and real appre-
hensions, yet in some other they, either framing t^ie story
or taking up the tradition conducible unto their intentions,
obliquely confinned many falsities ; which, us authentic and
conceded truths, did after pass unto the Greeks, from
them unto other nations, and are still retained by symbolical
writers, emblematists, heralds, and others. AVhereof some
are strictly maintained for truths, as naturally making good
their artificial representations ; others, symbolically in-
tended, are literally received, and swallowed in the first
sense, without all gust of the second. AVhereby we pervert
the profound and mysterious knowledge of Egypt ; contain-
ing the arcana of Greek antiquities, the key of many obscuri-
ties and ancient learning extant. Eamous herein in former
ages were Heraiscus, Cheremon, and Epius : especially Orus
Apollo Niliacus, who lived in the reign of Theodosius, and
in Egyptian language left two books of hieroglyphics, trans-
lated into Greek by Philippus, and a large collection of all
made after by Pierius. But no man is likely to profound
the ocean of that doctrine, beyond that eminent example of
industrious learning, Kircherus.
Painters, who are the visible representors of things, and
Buch as by the learned sense of the eye endeavour to inform
the understanding, are not inculpable herein, who, either
describing naturals as they are or actions as they have been,
have oftentimes erred in their delineations. AV^hich, being
the books that all can read, are fruitful advancers of these
conceptions, especially in common and popular apprehen-
sions, who being unable for further enquiry, must rest in the
draught and letter of their descriptions.
Lastly, poets and poetical writers have in this point
CHAP. X.] POPULAR CONCEIT. 75
exceeded others, trimly advancing the Egyptian notions^ of
harpies, phcenix, griffins, and many more. A^ow, however to
make use of fictions, apologues, and fables be not unwarrant-
able, and the intent of these inventions might point at
laudable ends, yet do they afford oiu" junior capacities a
frequent occasion of error, settling impressions in our tender
memories which our advanced judgments generally neglect to
expunge. This way the vain and idle fictions of the Gen-
tiles did first insinuate into the heads of Christians, and
thus are they continued even unto our days. Our first and
literary apprehensions being commonly instructed in authors
which handle nothing else, wherewith our memories being
stufied, our inventions become pedantic, and cannot avoid
tlieir allusions ; driving at these as at the highest elegancies,
which are but the frigidities of wit, and become not the
genius of manly ingenuities. It were, therefore, no loss like
that of Gralen's library,^ if these had found the same fate ;
and would in some way requite the neglect of solid authors, if
they were less pursued. For, were a pregnant wit educated
in ignorance hereof, receiving only impressions from reali-
ties, upon such solid foundations, it must surely raise more
substantial superstructions, and fall upon very many excel-
lent strains, which have been justled off by their intrusions.
CHAPTER X.
Of the last and great promoter of false opinions, the endeavours of Satan,
But, beside the infirmities of human nature, the seed of
error within ourselves, and the several ways of delusion from
each other, there is an invisible agent, the secret promoter
without us, whose activity is luidiscerned, and plays in the
dark upon us : and that is the first contriver of error, and
professed opposer of truth, the devil. Eor though, permitted
^ trimly advancing the Egyptian notions.'] " Leaving unto ua the
notions :"—Ed. 1646.
' It were therefore no loss, etc.] i.e. "had all such fabulous worka
been burnt, the loss would not have been comparable to that of Galen'.?
library." He wrote 300 works, the greater part of which were burnt
in the Temple of Peace, at Rome.
76 SATAN [book I.
unto his proper principles, Adam, perhaps, would have sinned
without the suggestion of Satan, and from the transgressive
infirmities of himself might have erred alone, as well as the
angels before him ; and although were there no devil at all,
yet there is now in our natures a confessed sufficiency unto
corruption, and the frailty of our own economy were able to
betray us out of truth ; yet wants there not another agent,
who taking advantage hereof proceedeth to obscnre the
diviner part, and eftace all tract*^ of its traduction. To
attempt a particular of all his wiles, is too bold an arithmetic
for man : what most considerably concerneth his popular and
practised ways of delusion, he first deceiveth mankind in
five main points concerning Grod and himself.
And first, his endeavours have ever been, and they cease
not yet, to instil a belief in the mind of man, there is no God
at all. And this he principally endeavours to establish in a
direct and literal apprehension ; that is, that there is no such
reality existent, that the necessity of his entity dependeth
upon ours, and is but a political chimera ; that the natural
truth of God is an artificial erection of man, and the Ci'eator
himself but a subtile invention of the creature. Wliere he
succeeds not thus high, he labours to introduce a secondary
and deductive atheism ; that although men concede there
is a God, yet should they deny his providence. And there-
fore assertions have flown about, that he intendeth only the
care of the species or common natures, but letteth loose the
guard of individuals, and single existencies therein ; tliat he
looks not below the moon, but hath designed the regiment
of sublunary aftairs unto inferior deputations. To promote
which apprehensions, or empuzzle their due conceptions, he
casteth in the notions of fate, destiny, fortune, chance, and
necessity; terms commonly misconceived by vulgar heads, and
their propriety sometime perverted by the wisest. Whereby
extinguishing in minds the compensation of virtue and vice,
the hope and fear of heaven and hell, they comply in their
actions unto the drift of his delusions, and live like ci'eatures
below the capacity of either.
Now hereby he not only undermineth the base of religion,
and destroyeth the principle preambulous unto all belief, but
* tract.'] In the sense of tract:. So u.sed also by Shakspeare.
CHAP. X.] THE GREAT PROMOTER OP FALSE OPINIONS. 77
puts upon us the remotest error from truth. For atheism is
the greatest falsity, and to affirm there is no God, the liighest
lie in nature. And therefore strictly taken, some men will
say his labour is in vain ; for many there are, wlio cannot
conceive there was ever any absolute atheist, or such as could
determine there was no God, without all check from himself,
or contradiction from his other opinions. And therefore
those few so called by elder times, might be the best of Pa-
gans ; suffering that name rather in relation to the gods of
the Gentiles, than the true Creator of all. A conceit that
cannot befall his greatest enemy, or him that would iuduce
the same in us ; who hath a sensible apprehension hereof, for
he believeth with trembling. To speak yet more strictly and
comformably unto some opinions, no creature can w'ish thus
much ; nor can the will which hath a power to run into vel-
leities,^ and wishes of impossibilities, have any utinam of this.
For to desire there were no God, were plainly to unwish their
own being, which must needs be annihilated in the subtrac-
tion of that essence which substantially supporteth them, and
restrains them from regression into nothing. And if, as
some contend, no creature can desire his own annihilation,
that nothing is not appetible, and not to be at all, is worse
than to be in the miserablest conditiou of something ; the
devil himself could not embrace that motion, nor would the
enemy of God be freed by such a redemption.
But coldly thriving in this design, as being repulsed by the
principles of humanity, and the dictates of tliat production
which cannot deny its original, he fetcheth a wider circle : and
when he cannot make men conceive there is no God at all, he
endeavours to make them believe there is not one, but many :
wherein he hath been so successful with common heads, that
he hath led their belief through all the works of nature.
Now in this latter attempt,the subtilty of his circumvention
hath indirectly obtained the former. For although to opinion
there be many gods may seem an excess in religion, and such
as cannot at all consist with atheism, yet doth it deductively
and upon inference include the same ; for unity is the insepa-
rable and essential attribute of deity, and if there be more
than one God, it is no atheism to say there is no God at all,
^ velleities.] Velleity is the school term used to signify the lowest
degree of desire.
78 SATAN [book I.
And herein tliougli Socrates only suffered, yet were Plato
and Aristotle guilty of the same truth ; who demonstratively
understanding the simplicity of perfection, and the indivisible
condition of the first causator, it was not in the power of
earth, or areopagy* of hell to work them from it. For,
holding an apodieticalf knowledge and assured science of its
verity, to persuade their apprehensions unto a plurality of
gods in the world, were to make Euclid believe there were
more than one centre in a circle, or one right angle in a tri-
angle : which were indeed a i'ruitless attempt, and inferreth
absurdities beyond the evasion of hell. For though me-
chanic and vulgar heads ascend not unto such comprehen-
sions, who live not commonly unto half the advantage of
their principles, yet did they not escape the eye of wiser
Minervas, and such as made good the genealogy of Jupiter's
brains ; who, although they had divers styles for Grod, yet
under many appellations acknowledged one divinity ; rather
conceiving thereby, the evidence or acts of his power in
several ways and places, than a multiplication of essence, or
real distraction of unity in any one.
Again, to render our errors more monstrous, (and what
unto miracle sets forth the patience of God,) he hath en-
deavoured to make the Avorld believe, that he was God
himself; and failing of his first attempt to be but like the
highest in heaven, he hath obtained with men to be the same
on earth. And hath accordingly assumed the annexes of
divinity, and the prerogatives of the Creator, drawing into
practice the operation of miracles, and the prescience of
things to come. Thus hath he in a specious way wrought
cures upon the sick, played over the wondrous acts of
prophets, and counterfeited many miracles of Christ and his
apostles. Thus hath he openly contended witli God, and to
this effect his insolency was not ashamed to play a solemn
prize with ]Moses ; wherein, although his performance were
very specious, and beyond the common apprehension of any
power below a deity, yet was it not such as could make good
his omnipotency. For he was wholly conlbunded in the
conversion of dust into lice. An act philosophy can scarce
deny to be above tlie power of nature, nor upon a requisite
predisposition beyond the efficacy of the sun. Wherein
• Areopagus, the severe court cf Athens. f Demonstrative.
CHAP. X.] THE GREAT PEOMOTEK OF FALSE OPIIflONS. 79
notwithstanding, the head of the old serpent was confessedly
too weak for Moses's hand, and the arm of his magicians too
short for the finger of God.^
' to play a solemn prize with Moses, etc.] The following curious parallel
to this passage, is contained in a fragment of a discourse on Acts vii. 22,
which forms part of the "Remains " of the unfortunate H. Kirke White.
The writer is inquiring into the nature of the " wisdom of the Egyp-
tians," mentioned in his text ; and after some remarks on the scientific
knowledge of that people, he proceeds thus : " The great objects of
attention were the occult sciences. It was the magicians who swayed
the people with a power almo^^t imperial. It was the magicians who
spread their fame over all the civilized world, and attached a reve-
rential awe to the name of an Egyptian. The mysteries of these arts
the magi preserved with the most scrupulous care, they were imparted
to none but their immediate descendants, they were not entrusted to
writing, but were locked up in the breasts of their jealous possessors.
There is reason to believe, that a portion of judicial astrology was
mixed with their magic, but they seem to have relied more on the in-
cantation of spirits for the accomplishment of their purposes. Who
does not read the accounts contained in the book of Exodus, of the
wonders they performed in emulation of Moses, with surprise and
astonishment? This prompt re-duplication of the miracles wrought by
the power of God, is such, as we cannot readily conceive to have been
effected by art, or simulated by deception, and there remains no other
possible mode of accounting for their power, than by presuming that
they did really maintain that intercourse with fallen spirits to which
they pretend. I am aware that sneers of vain philosophy will be
directed against such a supposition, but the course of all history, sacred
and profane, countenances the idea ; and after the body of evidence
afforded by the ancient writers on this point, to express unqualified
and unhesitating disbelief, can only argue an utter ignorance of the
grounds on which we can alone judge in this mysterious subject. Let
any one, however, read with attention the history of the ancient world,
and he will see strong reason for believing that a very great part of
mankind was given up to the government of unclean spirits. He will
find that their gods were rather devils, worse than the very worst of
their followers ; that their religious institutions were a compound of
imposture, avarice, and the most alximinable wickedness ; yet he will
find their oracles often true in their predictions, and maintaining for a
long series of years the reputation of being inspired. It was thus in
Egypt at the time of the Exodus ; the spirits of darkness held uncon-
trolled dominion over the people through the medium of the magicians,
and had arrived at such a pitch of audacity, as almost to fly in the
face of Almigh'y God himself, and measure their powers with his.
But we see in the Scripture how they were defeated. They could not
follow the arm of the Lord in his wonders. They could not even save
their unhappy votaries from his plagues, for "the magicians could not
stand before Moses, because of the boils, for the boil teas with the magi-
cians." That they knew the evil character of the spirits they served,
80 BATATT [book I.
Thus hath he also made men believe that he can raise the
dead, that he liath the key of life and death, and a prerogative
above that principle which makes no regression from priva-
tions.^ The stoics, that opmioned the souls of wise men
dwelt about the moon, and tliose of fools wandered about tlie
earth, advantaged the conceit of this eftect ;'^ wherein the
Epicureans, who held that death was nothing, nor nothing
after death, must contradict their principles to be deceived.
Nor could the Pythagorean or such as maintained the trans-
migration of souls give easy admittance hereto ; for, holding
that separated souls successively supplied other bodies, they
could hardly allow the raising of souls from other worlds,
which at the same time, tliey conceived conjoined unto bodies
in this. More inconsistent with these opinions is the erl-or
of Christians, who holding the dead do rest in the Lord, do
) et believe they are the lure of the devil ; that he who is in
bonds himself commandeth the fetters of the dead, and
dwelling in the bottomless lake, the blessed from Abraham's
bosom ; that can believe the real resurrection of Samuel ; or
that there is any thing but delusion in the practice of*
necromancy and popular raising of ghosts.
He hath moreover endeavoured tlie opinion of deity, by
the delusion of dreams, and the discovery of things to come
in sleep, above the prescience of our waked senses. In this
expectation he persuaded the credulity of elder times to take
up their lodging before his temple, in skins of their own
sacrifices, till his reservedness had contrived answers, whose
■^ Divination by the dead.
and were aware of their subordination to the true Jehovah, is raanifest
from the confession extorted by the wonders wrought by Moses, when,
unable to equal liim in his miracles, they exclaimed to Pharoah, " This
is the finger of God." Remains of Hewy Kirke White, vol. iii. p. 183 — •
185. Edit. 1822.— 5r.
' that j)i'inciple ivhich makes no regression from privations.] That law
or principle, by which life once lost is irrecoverable. " The artist, who
shall first recall to life a human being in a case of natural death, by
the same resuscitative process which is applied to cases of violent death,
becomes the founder of a new era, and of a new name in the annals of
liumanity, of medicine, and of science." Whiter on the Disorder of
Death, pref. p. ix.
'■* advantaged the conceit of this effect.] Meaning that this opinion of
the stoics somewhat facilitated the opinion that Satan can raise the
dead, &c.
CHAP. X.] THE GREAT PROMOTEK OF FALSE OPINIOKS. 81
accomplishments were in his power, or not beyond his pre-
sagement. Which way although it had pleased Almighty
God sometimes to reveal liimself, yet was the proceeding very
different. For the revelations of heaven are conveyed by
new impressions, and the immediate illumination of the
soul ; whereas the deceiving spirit, by concitation of humours,
produceth his conceited phantasm, or by compounding the
species ab-eady residing, doth make up words which mentally
speak his intentions.
But above all other he most advanced his deity in the
solemn practice of oracles, wherein in several parts of the
world he publicly professed his divinity ; but how short tliey
flew of that spirit whose omniscience they would resemble,
their weakness sufficiently declared. What juggling there
was therein, the orator* plainly confessed, wlio being good at
the same game himself, could say that Pythia Phdippised.
Who can but laugh at the carriage of Ammon unto Alexan-
der, who addressing unto him as a God, was made to believe
he was a God himself ? How openly did he betray his indi-
vinity unto Croesus, who being ruined by his amphibology,
and expostulating with him for so ungrateful a deceit, re-
ceived no higher answer than the excuse of his impotency
upon the contradiction of fate, and the settled law of powers
beyond his power to control ! AVhat more than sublunary
directions, or such as might proceed from the oracle of human
reason, was in his advice unto the Spartans in the time of a
great plague ; when for the cessation thereof, he wished them
to have recourse unto a fawn, that is, in open terms, unto
one Nebrus,t a good physician of those days ? From no
diviner a spirit came his reply unto Caracalla, who requiring a
remedy for his gout, received no other counsel than to refrain
cold drink ; which was but a dietetical caution, and such as
withovit a journey unto ^sculapius, culinary prescription and
kitchen aphorisms might have afforded at home. Nor surely
if any truth there were therein, of more than natural activity
was his counsel unto Democritus, when for the falling sick-
ness he commended the maggot in a goat's head. For many
things secret are true; sympathies and antipathies are safely-
authentic unto us, who ignorant of their causes may yet
* Demosthenes. t Nebros, in Greek, a fawn.
VOL. I. a
82 SATAJT [book T.
acknowledge tlieir effects. Beside, being a natural magician
he may pei'form many acts in ways above our knowledge,
though not transcending our natural power, when our know-
ledge shall direct it. Part hereof hath been discovered by
himself, and some by human indagation, which though mag-
nified as fresh inventions unto us, are stale unto his cognition.
I hardly believe he hath from elder times unknown the ver-
ticity of the loadstone ; surely his perspicacity discerned it
to respect the north, when ours beheld it indeterminately.
jNIany secrets there are in nature of difficult discovery unto
man, of easy knowledge unto Satan. Whereof some his
vain glory cannot conceal, others his envy will not discover.
Again, such is the mystery of his delusion, that although
he labour to make us believe that he is God, and supremest
nature whatsoever, yet would he also persuade our beliefs
that he is less than angels or men, and his condition not only
subjected unto rational powers, but the action of things
which have no eihcacy on ourselves. Thus hath he inveigled
no small part of the woi-ld into a credulity of artificial magic ;
that there is an art, which without compact commandeth the
powers of hell ; whence some have delivered the polity of
spirits, and left an account even to their provincial dominions,
that they stand in awe of charms, spells, and conjurations,
that he is afraid of letters and characters, of notes and
dashes, which, set together, do signifie nothing, not only in
the dictionary of man, but the subtiler vocabulary of Satan.
That there is any power in bitumen, pitch or brimstone, to
purifie the air from his uncleanness, that any virtue there
is in hypericou'* to make good the name of Fuga Dcemonis*
any such magic as is ascribed unto the root haaras by Jose-
* St. John's wort, so called by magicians.
■• Jii/pericnn.'] This subject is thus alluded to by Stukely, in his Pa-
Irvographia Sacra, p. 16 : ^' Hjipericon, called ' futja denionuni,' reckoned
among sacred magical plants, on account of the Druids using them."
The plant is the Ili/pericuiii peiforafum of botanists, and will be found
ikscribed and depicted in Sowerhy's Ei>(/lisk Botanij, tab. 295. It was
probably employed in the Druidical rites, on account of its aromatic
qualities, and of the flowers yielding a red essential oil ; all plants
having powerful effects upon the senses or upon the animal economy^
being supposed, in former times, to possess mystical ^artues, either in
the way of propitiating good spirits or deities, or in that of charming
away evil ones. — Br,
CHAP. X.] THE GKEAT PKOilOTER OF FALSE OPINIONS. 8'i
phus, or cynospastus by iElianus, it is not easy to believe,
nor is it naturally made out what is delivered of Tobias, that
by the fume of a fish's liver he put to tliglit Asmodeus.
That they are afraid of the pentangle of Solomon,* ^ though
so set forth with the body of man, as to touch and point out
the five places wherein our Saviour was wounded, I know
not how to assent. If, perhaps, he hath fled from holy water,
if he cares not to hear the sound of Tetragrammaton, t if
his eye delight not in the sign of the cross, and that some-
times he will seem to be charmed with words of holy
scripture, and to fly from the letter and dead verbality, wlio
must only start at the life and animated intei-iors tliereof ; —
it may be feared they are but Parthian flights, ambuscado
retreats, and elusory tergiversations ; whereby to confirm
our credulities, he will comply with the opinion of sucli
powers, which in themselves have no activities. Whereof,
having once begot in our minds an assured dependence, lie
makes us rely on powers which he but precariously obeys,
and to desert those true and only charms which hell cannot
withstand.
Lastly, to lead us farther into darkness, and quite to lose
us in this maze of error, he would make men believe there is
no such creature as himself, and that he is not only subject
unto inferior creatures, but in the rank of nothing, — insinu-
ating into men's minds there is no devil at all ; and con-
triveth, accordingly, many ways to conceal or indubitate^ his
existency. Wherein, beside that he annihilates the blessed
angels and spirits in the rank of his creation, he begets a
security of himself, and a careless eye unto the last remune-
rations. And, therefore, hereto he inveigleth, not only Sad-
* Three triangles intersected and made of five lines.
+ Implying Jehovah, which in Hebrew consisteth of four letters.
* pentangle of Solomon.] After the unexpected discovery of the
treasury in Misticot's grave, by Sir Arthur Wardour and his friends, in
"The Antiquary," the writer introduces into Oldbuck's attack upon
the German adept, Dousterswivel, on the latter pretending that the
discovery had been effected by means of his magical arts, the following
allusion to the pentangle : — " You have used neither charm, lamen,
sigil, talisman, spell, crystal, j^ifflfacfe, magic mirror, nor geomantic
figure." The Antiquary, edit, with author's notes, vol. ii. p. 32. — Br.
* induhitate.] To bring into doubt ; for in English the adjective sig-
nifies doubtless. — Wr.
q2
84 SATAN [book t.
(lucees and such as retain unto the church of God, but is
also content that Epicurus, Democritus, or any heathen
should hold the same. And to this effect he maketh men
believe that apparitions, and such as confirm his existence,
are either deceptions of sight, or melancholy depravements
of fancy. Thus when he had not only appeared but spake
unto Brutus ; Cassias, the Epicurean, was ready at hand to
persuade him it was but a mistake in his weary imagination,
and that indeed there were no such realities in nature.
Thus he endeavours to propagate the unbelief of witches,
whose concessions infers his coexistency ; by this means also
he advanceth the opinion of total death, and staggereth the
immortality of the soul; for, such as deny there are spirits
subsistent without bodies, will with more difficulty affirm
the separated existence of their own.^
Now, to induce and bring about these falsities, he hath
laboured to destroy the evidence of truth, that is, the
revealed verity and written word of God. To which intent
he hath obtained with some to repudiate the books of Moses,
' Lastly, ttc] Most certainly the Devil would have work enough on
his hands, if he were concerned in all the mischief, real and imaginary,
which has been attributed to him by many great men, and, among
others, by our author. As an admirer of Browne, I cannot but regret most
deeply the share which his views of Satanic influence led him to take in
the trial of Amy Duny and Rose Cullendon, who were condemned and
executed as witches, in 1664, at Bury, before one of the greatest and
best men of hi.i time, Sir Matthew Hale. — But, on the other hand, al-
though we attribute to popular superstition the belief in modern witch-
craft, and although it be conceded to the research and ingenuity of recent
very eminent physiologists, that many of the best attested cases of
apparitions were spectral illusions, attributable to physical causes, — we
must not hence be supposed to doubt the existence and active agency
of the Devil; — nor to question the scriptural Tti\?tX\on of witches, and
spiritual appearances. I am by no means inclined to admit that appa-
ritions " confirm the existence of the Devil;" but I feel no greater
difficulty in believing that such spiritual manifestations may still be
occasionally pemiitted to take place, than in admitting that spiritual
existence is not subject to the .same laws as those which govern material
existence. The spirit, at death, leaves the body 2^ernianently no more
to resume its tenement on earth ; why then should not a traiisient sepa-
ration during life take place, and the spirit — bound by no laws of time
and space — pay its monitory visit to some distant friend ? See Jlib-
hcrt's Philosophy of Appantions ; Alderson'a Essay on Ajmaiitions ; Rosa,
p. 72, § 6.
CHAP. X.] THE GUEAT PEOMOTEE OP FALSE OPINIOKS. 85
others those of the prophets, and some both ; to deny the
gospel and authentic histories of Christ ; to reject that of
John, and to receive that of Judas ; to disallow all, and
erect another of Thomas.^ And when neither their corrup-
tion by Valentinus and Arrius, their mutilation by Marcion,
Manes, and Ebion, could satisfy his design, he attempted the
ruin and total destruction thereof; as he sedulously endea-
voured, by the power and subtilty of Julian, Maximinus, and
Dioelesian.
But the longevity of that piece, which hath so long
escaped the common fate, and the providence of that spirit
which ever waketh over it, may at last discourage such
attempts, and if not make doubtful its mortality, at least,
indubitably declare this is a stone too big for Satan's mouth,
and a bit indeed oblivion cannot swallow.
And thus how strangely he possesseth us with errors may
clearly be observed, deluding us into contradictory and incon-
sistent falsities; whilst he would make us believe, — That
there is no God — that there are many — that he himself is
God — that he is less than angels or men — that he is nothing
at all.
Nor hath he only by these wiles depraved the conception
of the Creator, but with such riddles hath also entangled the
nature of our Redeemer.^ Some denying his humanity, and
that he was one of the angels, as Ebion ; that the Father
and Son were but one person, as Sabellius. That his body
was phantastical, as Manes, Basilides, Priscillian, Jovinianus ;
that he only passed through Mary, as Eutyches and Valen-
tinus. Some denying his divinity ; that he was begotten
of human principles, and the seminal son of Joseph, as Car-
pocras, Symmachus, Photinus : that he was Seth, the son of
* to receive that of Judas, <bc.] In Fabricii Codex Apocryphus and in
Jones s Metltod of settling tke Canonical authority of the New Testament,
accounts are to be found of these Apocryphal gospels. There were
two under the name of Judas ; one of Judas lacariot, and the other
of Judas Thaddeus, but they are not now extant. Of the gospel of
Thomas, some fragments yet remain, under the name of " the gospel
of our Saviour's infancy."
^ tiature of our Jiedeemer.'] The doctrines of the Heresiarchs enu
merated in this paragraph, are, upon the whole, accurately stated by
our author : detailed views of most of them will be found in Mosheim'a
Ecclesiastical History. — Br.
86 SATAK" [book i.
Adam, as the Setliians ; that he was less than angels, as
Cerinthus ; that he was inferior unto Melchisedec, as Theo-
dotus ; that he was not God, but God dwelt in him, as
Nieolaus ; and some embroiling them both. So did they
which converted the trinity into a quaternity, and affirmed
two persons in Christ, as Paulus Samosatenus ; that held he
was a man without a soul, and that the word performed that
office in him, as Apollinaris ; that he was both Son and
I'ather, as Montanus ; tliat Jesus suffered, but Christ re-
mained impatible, as Cherinthus. Thus he endeavours to
entangle truth ; and, when he cannot possibly destroy its
substance, he cunningly confounds its apprehensions — that
from the inconsistent and contrary determinations thereof,
cousectary impieties ^ and hopeful conclusions may arise,
there's no such thing: at all.
CHAPTER XI.
A further Illustration of the same.
Now, although tliese ways of delusion most Christians
have escaped, yet are there many other whereunto we are
daily betrayed ; and these we meet with in obvious occur-
rents of tlie world,- wherein he induceth us to ascribe effects
inito causes of no cognation \^ and, distorting the order and
theory of causes perpendicular to their effects, lie draws them
aside unto things whereto they run ])arallel, and in their pro-
per motions would never meet together.
Thus dotli he sometime delude us in the conceits of stars
and meteors, beside their allowable actions ascribing effects
thereunto of independent causations. Thus hatli he also
made the ignorant sort believe that natural effects imme-
diately and commonly proceed from supernatural powers : and
these he usually derives Irom Heaven, und his own princi-
pality the air, and meteors therein ; which, being of them-
selves the effects of natural and created causes, and such as,
upon a due conjunction of actives and passives, without a
' consectary impieties.^ " Consequent impieties."
' occuirents of the world.] " Occucrences of the world.**
* of TM coy nation.' " Of no relation."
CHAP. XI.] THE GEEAT PROMOTER OF FALSE OPI^'IOXS. 87
rmraele, must arise uuto what they appear, are always
looked on by ignorant spectators as supernatural spectacles,
and made tlie causes or signs of most succeeding contin-
gencies. To behold a rainbow in the night,..is no prodigy
unto a philosopher. Than eclipses of sun or moon, notliing
is more natural : yet with what superstition they have been
beheld since the tragedy of Kicias and his army,'^ many ex-
amples declare.
True it is, and we will not deny it, that altliough, these
being natural productions from second and settled causes,
we need not alway look upon them as the immediate hand of
God, or of his ministering spirits : yet do tliey sometimes
admit a respect therein ; and even in their natm'als, the in-
differency of their existences, contemporised unto ovu' actions,
admits a farther consideration.
That two or three suns or moons appear in any man's life
or reign, it is not worth the wonder. But that the same
should fall out at a remarkable time, or point of some decisive
action ; that the contingency of its appearance should be
confirmed unto that time ; that those two should make but
one line in the book of fate, and stand together in the great
ephemerides of God ; beside the philosophical assignment of
the cause, it may admit a Christian apprehension in the
signality.
But, above all he deceiveth us, when we ascribe the effects
of things unto evident and seeming casualties, which arise
from the secret and undiscerned action of himself. Thus
hath he deluded many nations in his augurial and extispi-
cious^ inventions, from casual and uncontrived contin-
gencies divining events succeeding. Which Tuscan super-
stition seizing upon Rome, hath since possessed all Europe.
"When Augustus found two galls in his sacrifice, the credulity
of the city concluded a hope of peace with Anthonj', and the
conjunction of persons in choler with each other. Because
Brutus and Cassius met a blackmoor, and Pompey had on a
dark or sad-coloured garment at Pharsalia ; these were pre-
* Xicia3 and Jtis armi/.] He lost his anny before Syracuse, by de-
laying to embark it, at the favourable moment, on account of an ecli2:)se
of the moon which suddenly came on. Plutarch in Vit.
^ extispicious.^ " Relating to the inspection of entrails in order to
prognostication."
88 SATAN [book I.
sages of their overthrow.^ Which notwithstanding are
scarce rhetorical sequels; concluding metaphors from realities,
and fi'om conceptions metaphorical inferring realities again.
Now these divinations concerning events, being in his
power to force, contrive, prevent, or furtlier, they must gene-
rally faU out conformably unto his predictions. When
Gracchus was slain, the same day tlie chickens refused to
come out of the coop ; and Claudius Pulcher underwent the
like success, when he condemned the tripudiary augurations ;
they died, not because the pullets would not feed, but, be-
cause the devil foresaw'' their death, he contrived that absti-
nence in them. So was there no natural dependence of the
event upon the sign, but an artificial contrivance of the sign
unto the event. An unexpected way of delusion, and
whereby he more easily led away the incircumspection of
tlieir belief. Which fallacy he might excellently have acted
before tlie death of Saul ; for that being within his power to
foretell, was not beyond his ability to foreshow, and might
have contrived signs thereof through all the creatures, which,
visibly confirmed by the event, had proved authentic unto
those times, and advanced the art ever after.
He deludeth us also by philters, ligatures, charms, un-
grounded auudets, characters, and many superstitious ways
in the cure of common diseases ; seconding herein tlie ex-
pectation of men with events of his own contriving, which
while some, unwilling to fall directly upon magick, impute
unto the power of imagination, or the efficacy of hidden
causes, he obtains a bloody advantage ; for thereby he
begets not only a false opinion, but such as leadeth the open
way to destruction. In maladies admitting natural reliefs,
making men rely on remedies, neither of real operation in
themselves, nor more than seeming efficacy in his concur-
rence. AVhich whensoever he pleaseth to withdraw, they
stand naked luito the mischief of their diseases, and revenge
the contempt of the medicines of the earth which God hath
created for them. And therefore, when neither miracle ia
* Because Brutus and Cassius met a blachnoor.^ The Etliiopian, who
met the standard-bearer opening the gate of the camp, and was cut in
pieces by the sokliers, as affording an ill omen.
'' the Bi'vil fonsaiv, d-c] ''Because he foresaw the death of Grac-
chus and Claudius Pulcher, he contrived that abstmence in the birda."
CHAP. XT.] THE GREAT PBOMOTEE OF FALSE OPINIONS. 89
expected, nor eormection of cause unto eftect from natural
grounds concluded, however it be sometime successful, it
cannot be safe to rely on such practices, and desert the
known and authentic provisions of God. In which rank of
remedies, if notliing in our knowledge or their proper power
be able to relieve us, we must with patience submit unto
that restraint, and expect the will of the restrainer.
Now in these effects although he seem ofttimes to imitate,
yet doth he concur unto their productions in a different way
from that spirit which sometimes, in natural means, pro-
duceth effects above nature. Por whether he worketh by
causes which have relation or none unto the effect, he maketh
it out by secret and undiscerned ways of nature. So, when
Caius the blind, in the reign of Antoninus, was commanded
to pass from the right side of the altar unto the left, to lay
five lingers of one hand thereon, and five of the other upon
his eyes ; although the cure succeeded, and all the people
wondered, there was not any thing in the action which did
produce it, nor any thing in his power that could enable it
thereunto. So for the same infirmity, when Aper was
counselled by him to make a collyrium or ocular medicine
with the blood of a white cock and honey, and apply it to
his eyes for three days ; when Julian for his spitting of
blood, was cured by honey and pine nuts taken from his
altar ; when Lucius for the pain in his side, applied thereto
the ashes from his altar with wine ; although the remedies
were somewhat rational, and not without a natural virtue
unto such intentions, yet need we not believe that by their
proper faculties they produced these effects.
But the effects of powers divine flow from another opera-
tion ; who, either proceeding by visible means or not unto
visible effects, is able to conjoin them by his co-operation.
And therefore those sensible ways which seem of indifferent
natures, are not idle ceremonies, but may be causes by his
command, and arise vmto productions beyond their regular
activities. If Naaman the Syrian had washed in Jordan
without the command of the prophet, I believe he had been
cleansed by them no more than by the waters of Damascus.
I doubt, if any beside Elisha had cast in salt, the waters of
Jericho had not been made wholesome. I know that a
decoction of •wild gourd or colocynthis (though somewhat
So SATAN [book I.
qualified) will not from every hand be dulcified unto aliment
by an addition of flour or meal. There was some natural
>irtue in the plaster of figs applied unto Hezechiah ; we find
that gall is very mundificative, and was a proper medicine
to clear the eyes of Tobit ; which carrying in themselves
some action of their own, they were additionally promoted
by that power, which can extend their natures unto the
production of cfiects beyond their created efficiencies. And
thus may he operate also from causes of no power unto their
visible effects ; for he that hath determined their actions
unto certain effects, hath not so emptied his own, but that
he can make them effectual unto any other.
Again, although his delusions run highest in points of
practice, whose errors draw on offensive or penal enormities,
yet doth he also deal in points of speculation, and things
whose knowledge terminates in themselves. Whose cog-
nition although it seems indifferent, and therefoi'e its
aberration directly to condemn no man, yet doth he hereby
preparatively dispose us unto errors, and deductively deject
us into destructive conclusions.
That the sun, moon, and stars, are living creatures,
endued with soul and life, seems an innocent error, and an
harmless digression from truth ; yet hereby he confirmed
their idolatry, and made it more plausibly embraced. For,
wisely mistrusting that reasonable spirits would never firmly
be lost in the adorement of things inanimate, and in the
lowest form of nature, he begat an opinion that they were
living creatures, and could not decay for ever.
That spirits are corporeal, seems at first view a conceit
derogative unto himself, and sucli as he should rather labour
to overthrow ; yet hereby he establisheth the doctrine of
lustrations, amulets, and charms, as we have declared before.
That there are two principles of all things, one good and
another evil ; from the one proceeding virtue, love, light, and
unity : from the other, division, discord, darkness, and
deformity, was the speculation of Pythagoras, Empedocles,
and many ancient philosophers, and was no more than
Oromasdes and Arimanius of Zoroaster.^ Yet hereby he
obtained the advantage of adoration, and as the terrible
^ Oromasdes and Aritnaiiiits of Zoroaster.] These were the two dei-
ties of Zoroaster, the founder of the Magi in Persia. — Wr.
CHAP. XI.] THE OEEAT PEOMOTEE OF FALSE OPINIOXS. 91
principle became more dreadful tlian his Maker, and there-
fore not willing to let it lall, he furthered the conceit
in succeeding ages, and raised the faction of Manes ta
maintain it.
That the feminine sex have no genei-ative emission, afford-
ing no seminal principles of conception, was Aristotle's
opinion of old, maintained still by some, and will be counte-
nanced by him^ for ever. For hereby he disparageth tlie fnat
of the Virgin, frustrateth tlie fundamental prophecy, nor cau
the seed of the woman then break the head of the serpent,
Nor doth he only sport in specidative errors, which are
of consequent impieties, but the unquietness of his malice
haunts after simple lapses, and such whose falsities do only
condemn our understandings. Thus if Xenophanes will
say there is another world in the moon ;^ if Heraclitus, with
his adherents, will hold the sun is no bigger than it ap-
peareth ; if Anaxagoi-as affirm that snow is black ; if any
other opinion there are no Antipodes, or that stars do fall, he
shall not want herein the applause or advocacy of Satan. For
maligning the tranquillity of truth, he delighteth to trouble
its streams ; and, being a professed enemy unto God (who is
truth itself) he promoteth any error as derogatory to liis
nature, and revengetli himself in every deformity from truth.
If, thex'efore, at any time he speak or practise truth, it is
upon design, and a subtle inversion of the precept of God,
to do good that evil may come of it. And therefore, some-
time we meet with wholesome doctrines from hell ; JS^osce
teipsum, the motto of Delpbos, was a good precept in
morality ; that a just man is beloved of the gods, an uncon-
trollable verity. 'Twas a good deed, though not well done,
® hy hhn.'\ That is, by the devil.
' «y Xeuophanes will say there is anothei' world in the moon.'\ Xeno-
phanes was a pantheistical philosopher, born at Colophon, b. c. 556,
who founded the Eleatic sect in Sicily, and died in Magna Grsecia at
the age of a century, having occupied the Pythagorean chair of philo-
sophy for nearly seventy years. His doctrines, both philosophical and
astronomical, if they have been rightly represented, were wild and in-
congTuous ; but perhaps it may be infen-ed, from the reasonableness of
Iiis tenet that the moon teas an inhabited world, that, as suspected by
Brucker and others, they have been misrepresented. This is of coiirse
the notion alluded to by our author. See Bruckeri Hint C'rit. Pliilo-
sophice, tom. i. p. 1143, 1148, 1155. — Br
92 SATABT [book I.
which he wrought by Vespasian, when by the touch of his
foot he restored a lame man, and by the stroke of his hand
another that was bUnd, but the intention liereof drived at
his own advantage ; for hereby he not only confirmed the
opinion of his power with the people, but his integrity w^tli
princes, in whose power he knew it lay to overthrow his
oracles, and sdence the practice of his delusions.
But of such a diffused nature, and so large is the empire of
truth, that it hath place withm the walls of hell, and the
devi]s themselves are daily forced to practise it; not only as
being true themselves, in a metaphysical verity, that is, as
having their essence comformable unto the intellect of their
maker, but making use of moral and logical verities, that is,
whether in the conformity of words imto things, or things
unto their own conceptions, they practise truth in common
among themselves. For, although without speech they
intuitively conceive each other, yet do their apprehensions
proceed through realities ; and tliey conceive each other by
species, which carry the true and proper notions of things
conceived. And so also in moral verities, although they
deceive us, they lie not unto each other, as well imderstand-
ing that all community is continued by truth, and that of
hell cannot consist without it.
To come yet nearer the point, and draw into a sharper
angle : they do not only speak and practise truth, but may
be said well-wishers hereunto, and, m some sense, do really
desire its enlargement. For many things which in them-
selves are false, they do desire were true. He cannot but
wish he were as he professeth, that lie had the knowledge
of future events ; were it in his power, the Jews should be in
the right, and the Messias yet to come. Could his desires
effect it, the opinion of Aristotle should be true, the world
sliould have no end,^ but be as immortal as himself. For
thereby he might evade the accomplislnnent of those afflic-
tions he now but gradually endureth ; for comparatively unto
those flames, he is but in haliieo, tlien begins liis igiiis rotee'^
* the world should have no end.'] Aristotle unquestionably held this
doctrine, as appears from the entire argument of his treatise On the
Heavens. — Br.
^ he is but yet in balneo, then beffins his ignis Totte.] These terms are
derived from the technical language of the old chemists. In balneo refers
CHAP. XI.] THE GEEAT PROMOTER OF FALSE OPINIONS. 93
and terrible fire, "which will determine its disputed subtilty,
and even hazard his immortality.
But to speak strictly he is in these wishes uo promoter of
verity-, but, if considered, some ways injurious unto truth ;
for (besides that if things were true, which now are false, it
were but an exchange of their natures, and things must then
be false, which now are true) tlie settled and determined
order of the world would be perverted, and that course of
things disturbed which seemed best unto the immutable con-
triver. For whilst they murmur against the present dis-
posure of things, regulating determined realities unto their
private optations, they rest not in their established natures,
but unwishing their unalterable verities, do tacitly desire in
them a ditformity from the primitive rule, and the idea of
that mind that formed all things best. And thus he otfend-
eth truth even in his first attempt ; for, not content with
liis created nature, and thinking it too low to be the highest
creature of God, he offended the ordainer, not only in the
attempt, but in the wish and simple volition thereof.
to the gentle or comparatively low heat obtained by immersing the
vessel containing the substance to be heated in a bath of heated water,
oil, sand, or other convenient medium ; whence the water hath and
sand bath, or sand heat of modern chemistry. The ignis rota was a
naked fire disposed in a circle round a cnicible, in which ignition or
calcination, operations requiring an intense heat were to be performed.
Thus understood, the meaning of our author's application of these terma
is obvious. — Br,
THE SECOND BOOK,
BEGINNING THE PARTICULAE PAET.
OF POPULAR AND EECEIVED TENETS CONCERNING MINERAL
AND VEGETABLE BODIES.
CHAPTEE I.
That Crystal is nothing else but Ice strongly congealed.
Hereof the common opinion hath been, and still re-
maineth amongst us, that crystal is nothing else but ice or
snow concreted, and, by dui-ation of time, congealed beyond
liquation. Of which assei'tion, if prescription of time, and
numerosity of assertors were a sufficient demonstration, we
might sit down herein, as an unquestionable truth, nor
should there need ulterior disquisition ; for few opinions
there are which have found so many friends, or been so
popidarly received, through all professions and ages. Pliny
is positive in this opinion ; Cri/staUus Jit gelii vehementius
concreto : ' the same is followed by tSeneca, elegantly de-
scribed by Claudian, not denied by iScaliger, some way
affirmed by Albertus, Brassavolus, and directly by many
others.^ The venerable fathers of the church have also
assented hereto ; as Basil, in his Ilejcameron, Isidore, in his
Etymologies, and not only Austin, a Latine father, but Grre-
goiy the Great, and Jerom upon occasion of that term ex-
pressed in the first of Ezekiel.
' Cri/staUus ft gelu, <£t.] This opinion is given by Pliuy, Hist. Nat.
lib. xxxvii. cap. 2. — Br.
^ h}i many others.'] Thucydides clearly usee the word KpvaraWoi in
the sense of ice; See Hist. iii. 23. — 4to. vol. 1, p. 438.
CHAP. I.] CRYSTAL, yOTIIINO BUT ICE CONGEALED. 95
All which notwithstanding, upon a strict enquiry, we find
the matter controvertible, and with much more reason
denied, than is as yet affirmed. For though many have
passed it over with easy affirmatives, yet there are also many
authors that deny it, and tlie exactest mineralogists have re-
jected it. Diodorus, in his eleventh book, denieth it (if
crystal be there taken in its proper acception, as Ehodiginua
liath used it, and not for a diamond, as Salmasius hath ex-
pounded it), for in that place he affirmeth, cri/stalJiim esse
Japideni ex aqua piira concretum, non tanien fricfore sed
divini caloris vi. Solinus, who transcribed Pliny, and, there-
fore, in ahnost all subscribed unto him, hath in this point
dissented from him. Putant quidam gJaciem coire, ei in
crifstaUum corporari, sed friistra. Matthiolus, in his com-
ment upon Dioscorides, hath with confidence rejected it.^
The same hath been performed by Agricola, i)e natitra
fossilium, by Cardan, Boetius de Boot, Caesius Bernardus^
Sennertus, and many more.
Now, besides authority against it, there may be many rea-
sons, deduced from their several difierences, which seem to
overthrow it. And first a difference is probable in their
concretion. For, if crystal be a stone (as in the number
thereof it is confessedly received), •• it is not immediately
concreted by the efficacy of cold, but rather by a mineral
spirit and lapidifical principles of its own ; and, therefore,
while it lay in soJutis principiis, and remained in a fluid
body, it was a subject very unapt for proper conglaciation ;
for mineral spirits do generally resist, and scarce submit
thereto. So we observe that many waters and springs will
never freeze,^ and many parts in rivers and lakes, where
^ ickh coiifdence rejecied it.] "With confidence, and not without
reason, rejected it." — Ed. 1646.
* as ill the number thereof it is, d-c] i. e. in the number whereof it
is, &c.
Ross, with liis usual wrong-headedness, argues stoutly for the ancient
opinion. "The cold of some waters," be observes, "metamorphose
sticks, leaves, and trees, pieces of leather, nutshells, and such like stuff
into stones : why then may not cold convert ice into a higher degree of
hardness, and prepare it for reception of a new fonn, which gives it the
essence and name of crystal s" — Arcana, p. 189.
^ many waters and springs will never freeze.] Our author is mistaken
in ascribing this phenomenon to the mineral contents of the water ex*
96 CETSTAL IS NOTHINa ELSE BUT [bOOK II;
there are mineral eruptions, will still persist wibhout con-
gelation : as we also observe in aqua fortis, or any mineral
solution, eitlier of vitriol, alum, saltpetre, ammoniac, or tar-
tar, which, although to some degree exhaled, and placed in
cold conservatories, will crystallize and shoot into white and
glacious bodies : yet is not this a congelation primarily
effected by cold, but an intrinsical induration from them-
selves ; and a retreat into their proper solidities, which were
absorbed by the liquor, and lost in a full imbibition thereof
before. And so, also, when wood and many other bodies do
petrify, either by the sea, other waters, or earths abounding
in such spirits, we do not usually ascribe their induration
to cold, but I'ather luito salinous spirits, concretive juices,
and causes circumjacent, which do assimilate all bodies not
indisposed for their impressions.
But ice is only water congealed by the frigidity of the air,
whereby it acquireth no new form, but rather a consistence
or determination of its diffluency, and amitteth not its
essence, but condition of fluidity. Neither doth there any
thing properly conglaciate but water, or watery humidity ;
for tlie determination of quicksilver is properly fixation, that
hibiting it : no springs are so strongly impregnated with mineral
substances as to have their freezing points affected by it in any con-
siderable degree. The true cause of the phenomenon is, in the case of
springs and lakes, their depth, and in that of rivers, their depth in
conjunction with the rapidity with which thej' flow. For, owing to the
mobility of the particles of water, and to the circumstance that, like all
other bodies, it becomes heavier, in consequence of its contraction in
bulk, in proportion as its temperature is reduced (with a particular
exception, which it is unnecessary now to mention), when the surface
or upper portion of the water gives out its heat to the atmosphere, on
account of the temperature of that medium becoming inferior to its
own, the portion of water so cooled down, becoming heavier than the
subjacent portion, sinks towards the bottom, and an uncooled portion
takes its place, which, in its turn, is cooled, and rendered heavier by
the same process. Until, therefore, the whole of the water has been
reduced to the freezing point by the continuance of this operation, no
ice can form upon it ; for, until then, the temperature of that portion
which is in contact with the atmosphere will be above the freezing
point. In the case of deep wells and lakes, this occupies so long a
time, that, in temperate climates, the cold season has passed .'iway, and
the temperature of the atmosphere has ceased to be inferior to that of
the upper portion of the water, before the whole has been i educed to
the freezing point. — Br.
CHAP. I.J BUT ICE STEOKGLT CONGEALED. 97
of milk coagulation, and that of oil and unctions bodies only
incrassation. And, therefore, Aristotle makes a trial of the
fertility of human seed, from the experiment of congelation ;
for that, saith he, which is not watery and improlifical will
not conglaciate : which, perhaps, must not be taken strictly,
but in the germ and spu'ited particles ; for eggs, I observe,
will freeze in the albugineous part^ thereof. And upon this
ground Paracelsus, in his Archidoxis, extracteth the magis-
tery of wine ; after foiir months' digestion in horse-dung,
exposing it unto the extremity of cold, whereby the aqueous
parts will freeze, but the spirit retire, and be found uncon-
gealed in the centre.
But whether this congelation be simply made by cold, or
also by co-operation of any nitrous coagulum,^ or spirit of
salt, the principle of concretion, whereby we observe that ice
may be made with salt and snow by the fire-side, as is also
observable Irom ice made by saltpetre and water, duly mixed
and strongly agitated, at any time of the year, were a very
consideiable enquiry. For thereby we might clear the
generation of snow, hail, and hoary frosts, the piercing quali-
* egr/s, I olsen'e, (£t.] That point in the Chcdaza, the spark of vivi-
fication, I wish it might freeze : it would rid my trees from caterpillars,
which can continue their noxious species, by their hybernating eggs. —
Robinson's Endoxa.
'' or also hi co-operation of any nitrous coaguluni.'\ The doubt here
expressed, whether the congelation of water is simply owing to cold, or
whether the operation of cold may not be aided by saltpetre, or some
analogous principle, is a remnant of the notions entertained of that
salt by the alchemists, and the older operators in true chemistry who
immediately succeeded them, of both whose ideas on such subjects our
author retained a few, though (considering the state of science in his
time) but very few indeed, and those of minor importance only. The
arguments which he adduces in favour of this doubt are as fallacious as
the supposition itself, which it involves, "That ice may be made with
salt and snow by the fire-side," arises, not from any peculiar congealing
virtue in the salt, but merely from the circumstance that the affinity it
has for water produces a rapid liquefaction of the snow, which, robbing
the surrounding bodies of their heat, in order itself to assume the liquid
form (their sensible heat thus becoming latent in the resulting water)
produces the cold. The case is similar with respect to the " ice made
by saltpetre and water ;" for here, the water subjected to experiment
is reduced to the solid form by the abstraction of its sensible heat, con-
sequent upon the liquefaction of the salt, in the solution of whicli it
becomes latent. — Br.
VOL. I. H
98 CllTSTxVL IS NOTHING ELSE [bOOK II.
ties of some winds, the colduess of caverns, and some cells.
AVe might more sensihly conceive how saltpetre fixeth the
flying spirits of minerals in chemical preparations, and how
by this congealing quality it becomes an useful medicine iu
fevers.^
Again, the difference of their concretion is collectible
from their dissolution, which being many ways performable
in ice, is few ways efl:ected^ in crystal. Now the causes of
liquation are contrary to those of concretion ; and, as the
atoms and indivisible parcels are united, so are they in an
opposite way disjoined. That which is concreted by exsicca-
tion or expression of humidity,^ will be resolved by humec-
tation, as earth, dirt, and clay ; that which is coagulated by a
fiery siccity, will suffer colliquation from an aqueous humidity,
as salt and sugar, which are easily dissoluble in water, but
not without difficulty in oil and well rectified spirits of wine.
That wliich is concreted by cold, will dissolve by a moist
heat, if it consist of watery parts, as gums arable, tragacanth,
ammoniac, and others, in an airy heat or oil, as all resinous
bodies, turpentine, pitch, and frankincense ; in both, as
gummy resinous bodies, mastic, camphor, and stoi^ax ; in
neither, as neutrals, and bodies anomalous hereto, as bdel-
lium, myrrh, and others. Some by a violent dry heat, as
metals ; which altliough corrodible by waters, yet will they
not suffer a liquation ^ from the powerfullest heat communi-
cable unto that element. Some will dissolve by this heat,
* But whether, ffcc] This paragraph was added in Second Edition.
® is few ways effected.^ " Is not in the same manner efifected." — Ed.
1646.
' that ivhirh is concreted hy exsiccation, etc.] Tlie statements here made
by our author respecting the causes of liquation and concretion, &c.,
are evidently derived from Aristotle, Met. lib. iv. cap. 6. See also the
notes to Pseudodo.Tia, book i. chap. vi. p. 42. — Br
^ yet will they not suffer a liquation.'] Modern chemistry shows our
author to be in error in his opinion, that heat of a peculiar nature is
required for the fusion of metals. The only reason why the generality
of metals connot be melted by hot water is, that they require a higher
temperature for their liquefaction than can be given to that fluid under
ordinary circumstances. But there is an alloy of bismuth, lead, and
tin, which melts at a temperature inferior to that of boiling water,
(commonly called on that account fusible metal), and which accordingly
liielts when immersed in that fluid. Under i)ressure, as when heated
in Papin's digester for instance, water can be raised to a much higher
CHAP. I.] BUT ICE STEONGLT COKGEALED. 99
althougli their ingredients be earthy, as glass,^ whose
materials are fine sand, and the ashes of kali or fern ; and so
will salt riui with fire, although it be concreted by heat.
And this way may be effected a liquation in crystal, but not
without some difiieulty, that is, calcination or reducing it by
art into a subtle powder, by which way and a vitreous com-
mixture, glasses are sometime made hereof, and it becomes
the chiefest ground for artificial and factitious gems. But
the same way of solution is common also unto many stones ;
and not only beryls and cornelians, but flints and pebbles
are subject unto fusion, and will run like glass in fire.
But ice will dissolve in any way of heat, for it will dissolve
with fire, it will coUiquate in water, or warm oil, nor doth it
only submit unto an actual heat, but not endure the potential
calidity of many waters. For it will presently dissolve in
cold aqua fortis, spii-it of vitriol, salt or tartar, nor will it
long continue its fixation in spirits of wine, as may be ob-
served in ice injected therein.
Again, the concretion of ice will not endure a dry attri-
tion'* without liquation; for if it be rubbed long with a
cloth, it melteth. But crystal will calefy unto electricity,^
temperature than that at which it boils under the common pressure of
the atmosphere ; and thus can be made to melt lead, which is quite
infusible in common boiling water. — Br.
^ glass.] In the Manchester Memoirs, vol. 2. p. 95, there are some
interesting " Remarks on the Knowledge of the Ancients respecting
Glass," by Dr. Falconer.
■* the concretion of ice will not endure a dry attrition, <£r.] A similar
exertion of ingenuity to that which has discovered a knowledge of the
true chemical mixture of the atmosphere in certain mythological tales
of the Egyptian priests, and of that of the constituents of water in some
of the speculations of Lucretius, might, with far less aberration from
the truth, affirm that in this sentence of our author is virtually an
anticipation of Sir H. Davy's experiment, in which ice was melted by
the mere fi-iction of two pieces of it together. For as a cloth would be
a very bad conductor of heat, the experiment of our author might, with
care, be so made as to cause the fusion of the ice by the heat generated
by the friction alone, independent of that which might (without care)
be conducted from the hand of the experimenter through the cloth, and
of that also which would be derived from the cloth itself, if not pre-
viously reduced to the freezing temperature. It is plain, also, from
the author's use of the word " calefy " in the next period, that he be-
lieved the ice to be melted by the heat generated by the friction, and
not by the friction alone, mechanically considered. — Br.
* But crystal will calefy unto electricity.'] It is an accurate obseiva-
n2
100 CRYSTAL IS NOTHING ELSE [bOOK II.
that is, a power to attract straws or light bodies., and convert
the needle freely placed : — which is a declarement of very
diiferent parts, Avherein we shall not enlarge, as having dis-
coursed concerning such bodies in the chapter of electrics.
They are difterenced by supernatation or floating upon
water ;" for crystal will sink in water, as carrying in its
own bulk a greater ponderosity than the space in any water
it doth occupy, and will therefore only swim ia molten metal
and quicksilver. But ice will swim in water'' of what thin-
ness soever ; and, though it sink in oil, wdl float in spirits of
wine or aqua vita3. And therefore it may swim in water,
not only as being water itself, and in its proper place, but
perhaps as weighing somewhat less** than the water it pos-
sesseth. And therefore, as it will not sink unto the bot-
tom, so neither wUl it float above, like lighter bodies, but,
being near in weight, lie superficially or almost horizontally
tion that i-ock-crystal becomes electric by friction ; but our author is
mistaken in attributing the excitation of electricity to the heat pro-
duced by the friction. In this case, and in all others of electricity so
excited, the agency of the friction appears to be merely mechanical.
—Br.
^ They are differenced, <f;c.] They ; i. e. ice and crystal. Here again
we have Ross's ingenious reply ; it's no wonder to see a stone sink and
ice swim ; for crystal when it was ice, swimmed, being now a stone
sinks ; as being a body more compact, hard, solid, and ponderous ; so
a stick will swim, but when it is converted to a stone, it sinks. The
argument thercfrre is good thus ; crystal sinks, ice swims ; therefore
crystal is not ice ; but it will not follow, therefore, crystal was not ice."
— A7-cana, p. 189.
' But ice will swim in icaterJ] The whole of this paragraph is ex-
cellent, in assertion as well as in argument, giving a very accurate
view of the facts described. It is quite true that the ice weighs " some-
what less than the water it possesseth," specifically; th.at is, a bulk
of ice equal to that of the water in its liquid form would weigh less than
the water ; and tliat this is the reason why it swims upon water. It is
also true that ordinary ice is less compact, less continuous in its solidity
than other crystalline bodies, and that it is full of spumes and bubbles,
and "which abate its gravity." The last statement, that the freezing of
water is at the same time condensation and rarefaction, is also correct :
that its solid state must imply a kind of condensation, some sort of
molecular approximation, is clear ; and yet it expands in freezing, and
thus unquestionably undergoes rarefaction. — Br.
^ somewhat less.l " No more." — Ed. 1646. The specific gravity of
ice is to that of water, as 8 to 9. Its greater lightness was discovered
\)y Galileo.
CHAP. I.] EUT ICE STRONGLY CONGEALED. 101
unto it. And therefore also, an ice or congelation of salt or
sugar, although it descend not unto tlie bottom, yet will it
abate, and decline below the surface in thin water, but very
sensibly in spirits of wine. For ice, although it seemeth aa
transparent and compact as crystal, yet is it short in either ;**
for its atoms are not concreted into continuity, which doth
dimiuish its translucency ; it is also full of spumes and
bubbles, which may abate its gravity. And therefore,
waters frozen in pans and open glasses, after their dissolu-
tion, do commonly leave a froth and spume upon them,
which are caused by the airy parts diffused in the congelable
miiture, which, imiting themselves, and finding no passage
at the surface, do elevate the mass, and make the liquor take
up a greater place than before : as may be observed in
glasses filled with water, which, being frozen will seem to
swell above the brim. So that if, in this condensation, any
one affirmeth there is also some rarefaction, experience may
assert it.^
They are distinguished, in substance of parts, and the
accidents thereof: ^ that is, in colour and figure : for ice is a
similary body, and homogeneous concretion, whose material
is properly water, and but accidentally exceeding the sim-
plicity of that element. But the body of crystal is mixed,
its ingredients many, and sensibly containeth those principles
into which mixed bodies are reduced. For beside the spirit
and mercurial principle,'' it containeth a sulphur or inflam-
' yet is it shoi-t in either.'] " Yet is it inferior to crystal, both iu
transparency and compactness."
• which are, ttr.] From 1. 11 to the end of the paragraph was added
in 2nd Edit.
^ They are distinguished, (fcc] Eoss again meets the author on the
hypothesis, that no present difference between ii-e and crystal can prove
that the one may never have been the other. " Crystal is not so much
distinguished either in substance or accidents from ice, as a chick is
from an egg, and yet the chick was an egg." — Arcana, 190.
' For besides the spirit and meixurial principle, &€.'] Our author's
notions of the chemical nature of rock-crystal are those of the alche-
mists, and are wholly unfounded. There is neither spirit, mercury,
nor sulphur, in rock-crystal ; at least, nothing to which those appella-
tions can properly be applied : it is silica, or the earth of flints, in a
pure crystallized form, itself composed of equal weights of silicon (a
single combustible substance), and oxygen. It may be suspected, wifi
Bome plausibihty, however, that the notion of .he alchemists, that
EIBRAKT
•^^vn^n^v OF cAL^^0R^u
102 CRYSTAL IS NOTHING ELSE [bOOK II.
niable part, and that in no small quantity ; for, besides its
electric attraction, which is made by a sulphureous effluvium,
it will strike fire upon percussion, like many other stones,
and; upon collision with steel, actively send forth its sparks,
uot much inferiorly vmto a flint. Now such bodies as
strike fire,"* as have sulphureous or ignitable parts within
such bodies as rock-crystal and the precious stones contained sulphur,
might have arisen from their having, in some of their multifarious ope-
rations, actually separated its combustible base ; they always attributing
combustibility to the presence of sulphur. Although they were alto-
gether ignorant of the true nature of the processes which they em-
ployed, and of the effects which they witnessed, it cannot be doubted,
that in their operations many of the simple as well as compound bodies,
which modern chemists have described, would occasionally be evolved,
though, in most instances, they would be caused again to enter into
combination immediately, or be confounded with other well-known
bodies, and, in either case, they would of course escape detection and
record. — Br.
'' Now such bodies strike fire, as have, cfcc] The scientific reader might
at first infer, from the perusal of this passage, that, as the Pseudodoxia
was first published in 1646, our author had anticipated the celebrated
Hooke in his experimental investigation of the nature of the sparks
produced by the collision of flint and steel. A comparison, however, of
the passage as it stands in the edition of 1672 (the last revised by the
author), with the corresponding one in all the previous editions, and a
reference to a further allusion to the subject in book iii. will show that
Browne's statements on the subject were corrected and matured subse-
quently to the promulgation of Hooke's results, and that all his defi-
nite knowledge respecting it was borrowed from the latter, as, indeed,
he has fairly, though indirectly, acknowledged. As the present anno-
tator at first made the above infei-ence himself, and (the subject being
of some importance in the history of science) was induced to examine
the seeming anticipation somewhat minutely, it may be as well to in-
troduce here the entire examination ; this, while it proves that
Browne's knowledge on the point was derived from Hooke, as just
stated, will evince also the diligence with which he investigated, and
the candour with which he adopted the discoveries of his contem-
poraries.
It will first be proper to cite the statement of Dr. Hooke. — He in-
forms us in his Micrographia (published in 1665), p. 44 — 46, that,
about eight years before, he came, from experiment, to the following
conclusions : that a spark struck from a flint and steel was nothing else
liut a small piece of the steel or flint, but most commonly of the steel,
which, by the violence of the stroke, is at the same time severed and
heated red-hot, and that sometimes to such a degree, as to make it
melt into a small globule of steel, and sometimes further to vitrify it ;
phenomena which he ascribes to the existence in iron or steel of a very
combustible sulphureous body "which the air very readily preys upon,
CHAP. I.] BUT ICE STEONGLT COXGEAIED. 1C3
tliem, and those strike best which abound most in them.
For these scintillations are not the accension of the air,
upon the collision of two hard bodies, but rather the inflam-
mable effluencies or vitrified sparks discharged from the
bodies collided. For diamonds, marbles, heliotropes, and
agaths, though hard bodies, will not readily strike fire with a
as soon as the body is a little violently heated." That such is truly
the nature of such sparks he proves by experiment and by micro-
scopical observation ; and if we regard his supposition of the com-
bustible sulphureous body in steel as merely another mode of describing
the combustible nature of the metal, his explanation is perfectly correct,
and in accordance with the results of modern chemical discovery : the
oxygen in tlie air ''preys upon " the metal, when heated by the per-
cussion which separates it from the mass, converts it into an oxide,
which the heat is also often sufficiently intense to vitrify.
In book iii. cliap. xxi. of the Pseudodixia, editions 1672 and 1686,
we find the following recurrence to the collision of flint and steel, intro-
duced in the discussion of another subject. "As first, how fire is
stricken out of flints ? That is, not by kindhng the air from the col-
lision of two hard bodies ; for then diamonds should do the like better
than flints ; but rather from sulphureous, inflamed, and even vitrified
e^uviuim and pariides, as hath been observed of late." — (1672, p. 176 ;
1686, p. 124). Upon comparing these two passages from the editions
of 1672 and 1686 with the corresponding passages in earlier editions,
we find the following differences with respect to the point now before
us. Book ii. chap. i. : the words, "or vitrified sparks," do not occur
in the earlier editions. Book iii. chap. xxi. : instead of the words,
"but rather from sulphureous, &c.," as above, to the end of the extract,
in the editions of 1672 and 1686, we have in the earlier editions only
these : "but rather from the sulphur and inflammable effluviums con-
tained in them."
It is clear, therefore, that the MicrograpMa of Hooke having ap-
peared in the interval between the publication of the first and that of
the sixth edition of the Pseudodoxia, our author had perused the work
of his great contemporary, and interwoven the results of his experi-
mental investigation of the phenomena of the collision of steel with
hard bodies with his own previous hypothetical explanation of them — -
adding, in the first notice of the subject, to the expression, " inflam-
mable effluencies," that of "or vitrified sparks," and also introducing
the words, "vitrified" and "particles," into the second.
Browne is in error, however, with respect to diamonds, heliotropes,
and agates ; all which, if their shape be adapted to the purpose, will
readily strike fire with steel, and also with each other. If by "marble"
he means, as is most probable, the more beautiful rocks and mineral
substances employed in building and ornamental architecture in general,
he is further in error ; for most of these will also strike fire ; but few
c'f the substances, however, to which the terra marble is now usually
npplied, possess that property. — Br.
104 CKTSTAL IS NOTHING ELSE ^iJOOK U.
bteel, mucli less with oue another. Nor a flint so readily
with a steel if they both be very wet, for then the sparks are
sometimes quenched in the eruption.
It containeth also a Salt,^ and that in some plenty, which
may occasion its fragility, as is also observable in coral. This
is separable by the art of chemistry, unto the operations
whereof, as calcination, reverberation, sublimation, distilla-
tion, it is liable, with other concrations. And in the i)repa-
ration of crystal Paracelsus* hath made a rule for that of
gems. Briefly, it consisteth of parts so far from an icy
dissolution, that powerful menstruums are made for its
emollition, whereby it may receive the tincture of minerals,
and so resemble gems (as Boetius hath declared in the dis-
tillation of urine, spirits of wine, and turpentine) ; and is
not only triturable, and reducible into powder by contrition,
but will subsist in a violent fire, and endure a vitrification.
Whereby are testified its earthy and fixed parts : for vitrifi-
cation is the last work of fire,'' and a fusion of the salt and
earth, which are the fixed elements of the composition,
wherein the fusible salt draws the earth and infusible part into
one contimmm ; and, therefore, ashes will not run from
whence the salt is drawn, as bone ashes prepared for the test
of metals. Common fusion in metals is also made by a violent
heat, acting upon the volatile and fixed, the dry and humid
parts of those bodies ; which, notwithstanding, are so united
that, upon attenuation from heat, the humid parts will not
fly away, but draw the fixed ones into fluor with them. Ordi-
nary liquation, in wax and oily bodies, is made by a gentler
heat, where the oil and salt, the fixed and fluid principles,
will not easily separate. All which, whether by yitrificatian,
* Paracelsus de prceparationibus,
^ It containeth also a saltJ] It is scarcely requisite to observe that
this statement is not correct, and must have originated in some mistake
in conducting chemical experiments on rock-crystal. — Br.
^ fur vitrijication, cC'c] Instead of the remninder of this paragraph
(altered in the 2nd edition) £(l. 1646 reads thus : — ■" For vitrification
is the last work of fire, and when that arriveth, humidity is exhaled,
for powdered glass emits no i'ume or exhalation, although it be laid
upon red-hot iron. And, therefore, when some commend the powder
ot burnt glass against the stone, they fall not under my comprehension,
who cannot conceive how a body should be farther burnt which hath
already passed the extreamest test of fire."
CHAP. I.] BUT ICE STEOXOLT CCJJ^GEALED. 105
fiision, or liquation, being forced into fluent consistencies,
do naturally regress into theii" former solidities. AVhereas,
the melting of ice is a simple resolution, or return from solid
to fluid parts, wherein it naturally resteth.
As for coloui', although crystal, in its pellucid body, seems
to have none at all, yet in its reduction into powder, it hath a
vail and shadow of blue; and in its coarser pieces is of a sadder
hue than the powder of Venice glass ;'' and this complexion
it wiU maintain, although it long endure the fire. Which,
notwithstanding, needs not move us unto wonder ; for
vitrified and pellucid bodies are of a clearer complexion in
their continuities than in their powders and atomical divi-
sions. So stibium, or glass of antimony, appears somewhat
red in glass, but in its powder yellow ; so painted glass of a
sanguine red will not ascend in powder above a murrey .*
As for the figure of crystal (which is very strange, and
forced Pliny to despair of resolution), it is for the most part
hexagonal, or six-cornered ; being built upon a confused
matter, from whence, as it were from a root, angular figures
arise, even as in the amethyst and basaltes. Which regular
figuration hath made some opinion, it hath not 'its determi-
nation from circumscription, or as conformiug unto contigui-
ties, but rather from a seminal root, and formative principle
of its own,^ even as we observe in several other concre-
^ Venice glass J] A glass made at Venice, of a pebble called cuoyolo,
resembling white marble, found in the bed of the Tesino.
* murrey.^ Dark, purplish, red : used in this sense by Bacon and
Boyle.
^ formative jyi'inciple of its own.'\ With respect to rock-crystal, and
also gallstones and other substances, as he observes, this is perfectly
true : their crystalline foniis are not impressed upon them by the sur-
rounding bodies, but are the result of "a formative principle," — the
peculiar molecular attraction which is inherent in each substance. But
all the bodies he subsequently mentions in this paragraph, as far as the
cornu ammonis inclusive, although their forms also have undoubtedly
arisen from formative princijjles of their own, do not owe their forms
to crystalline attraction, but to organization ; for they are all either
parts of animals in a fossil state, or natural casts from them ; which
Browne, with the error common to his age, evidently supposes to be
strictly mineral bodies, and not derived from animals ; although, as ia
very remarkable, he actually, in his note to this passage, compares one
of these fossils with a recent marine body belonging to the same
natural group, the echinidce. — See eh. v. of this be k, sec. 10. In this
100 CRYSTAL IS NOTHIXa ELSE [BOOK IL
tions. So the stones, which are sometimes found in the
gall of a man, are most triangular and pyramidal, although
the figure of that part seems not to co-operate thereto. So
the asferia, or lajyis stellaris hath on it the figure of a star ;
so lapis Judaicus hath circular lines in length all dowTi its
body, and equidistant, as though they had been tui'ned by
art. So that we call a fairy-stone,* and is often found in
gravel pits amongst us, being of an hemispherical figure,
hath five double lines arising from the centre of its basis,
which, if no accretion distract them, do commonly concur,
and meet in the pole thereof. The figures are regular in
many other stones, as in belemnites, lapis anguinus, cornu
ammonis, and many more ; as by those which have not the
experience hereof, may be observed in their figures ex-
pressed by mineralogists. But ice receiveth its figure
according unto the surface wherein it concreteth, or the
circianambiency which conformeth it. So it is plain i;pon
the surface of water, but round in hail, which is also a glaci-
ation, and figured in its guttidous descent from the air, and
so growing greater^ or lesser according unto the accretion
or pluvious aggelation about the mother and fundamental
atoms thereof; which seems to be some feathery particles
of snow, although snow itself be sexangular, or at least of a
starry and many-pointed figure.
They are also diflerenced in the places of their generation ;
for, though crystal be found in cold countries, and where ice
remaineth long, and the air exceedeth in cold, yet is it also
found in regions where ice is seldom seen, or soon dissolved :
* Which seemeth to be ec/n'mte decima Aldrorandi ; Muscei MetalUci,
lib. 4. Eather cchinometrites, as best resembling the echinometra found
commonly on our sea shore.
point, however, our author's distinction of crystal from ice is fallacious ;
for although the latter (as well as the former also occasionally) receives
its figure from that of the bodies upon or among which it is formed ;
it, too, has a formative principle of its own, and occasionally crystal-
lizes ; its structure being always crystalline, even when its external
form, as in general, is amorphous. — £r.
' and so, <fcc.] Thus altered in the 2nd edition. Ed. 1646 reads —
" And, therefore, Aristotle, in his Meteors, concludeth that hail wliich
is not round is congealed nearer the earth, for that which falleth from
on high is, by the length of its journey, corraded, and descendeth,
therefore, in a lesser magnitude, but in a greater rotundity unto us."
CHAP. I.] BUT ICE STEO'GLT CONGEALED, 107
as Pliny and Agricola relate of Cyprus, Caramania, and an
island in the Eed Sea. It hath been also found in the veins
of minerals, sometimes agglutinated unto lead, ^ sometimes
in rocks, opacous stones, and the marble face of Octavius,
duke of Parma.* It hath also constant veins : as, besides
others, that of mount Salvino, about the territory of Ber-
gamo, from whence, if part be taken, in no long tract of time,
out of the same place, as from its mineral matrix, others are
observed to arise. Which made the learned Cerautus to
conclude, videant hi an sit glacies, an verb cotyns fossile. It
is also found sometimes in common earth. But as for ice,
it will not readily concrete but in the approachment of the
air, as we have made trial in glasses of water, covered an inch
with oil, which will not easily freeze in the hardest frosts of
oui' cKmate, For water commordy concreteth first in its
surface, and so conglaciates downward ; and so will it do,
although it be exposed in the coldest metal of lead, which
well accordeth with that expression of Job, " the waters are
hid as with a stone, and the face of the deep is frozen." f But
whether water which hath been boded or heated doth sooner
receive this congelation, as commonly is delivered, we rest in
the experiment of Cabeus,^ who hath rejected the same in
his excellent discourse of meteors.
They have contrary qualities elemental, and uses medicinal ;
for ice is cold and moist, of the quality of water ; but crystal
is cold and dry, according to the condition of earth. The
use of ice is condemned by most physicians, that of crystal
commended by many. For, although Dioscorides and Galen
have left no mention thereof, yet hath Matthiolus, Agricola,
and many, commended it in dysenteries and fluxes ; all, for
the increase of milk, most chemists, for the stone, and some,
as Brassavolus and Boetius, as an antidote against poison.
"WTiich occult and specifical operations are not expectable
from ice ; for, being but water congealed, it can never make
* Wherein the sculptor found a piece of pure crystal, f Chap. 38.
' sometimes agglutinated , d.-c] This, and the two following sentences
were added in the 3rd edition.
* Cabeus.] Nicol. Cabeus, In lihros Meteorolorpcorum Aristotelis Com-
me/itaria et Quczstionex, 4 torn. fol. Romae, 1G46. This passage was
added in Ed. 1650.
108 CRYSTAL IS NOTHING ELSE [bOOK [I.
good sucli qualities, nor will it reasouably admit of secret
proprieties, whieli are the affections of forms and compositions
at distance from their elements.
HaAong thus declared what crystal is not, it may afford
some satisfiction to manifest what it is. To deliver, there-
fore, what, with the judgment of approved authors and best
reason consisteth. — It is a mineral body, in the difference of
stones,'* and reduced by some unto that subdivision which
comprehendeth gems ; transparent, and resembling glass or
ice, made of a lentous percolation^ of earth, drawn from the
most pure and limpid juice thereof, owing unto the coldness
of the earth some concurrence or coadjuvancy, but not im-
mediate determination and efficiency, which are wrought by
the hand of its concretive spirit, the seeds of petrification and
Gorgon of itself As sensible philosophers^ conceive of the
generation of diamonds, ii'is,'' beryls; not making them of
frozen icicles, or from mere aqueous and glaciable substances,
condensing them by frosts into solidities, vainly to be ex-
pected even from polary congelations, but from thin and
finest earths, so well contempered and resolved, that trans-
parency is not hindered, and containing lapidifical spirits,
able to make good their solidities against the opposition and
activity of outward contraries ; and so leave a sensible differ-
ence between the bonds of glaciation, which, in the mountains
of ice about the northern seas, are easily dissolved by ordi-
nary heat of the sim, and between the finer ligatures of petri-
fication whereby not only the harder concretions of diamonds
and saphires, but the softer veins of crystal remain indis-
* In the difference of stones.'] That is, " in the class or division oi
stones."
* a lentous percolation.'] Dr. Johnson explains the word lentous (for
which he cites no other authority than Browne) as meaning viscous and
tenacious ; but it is evidently used here to express " a gradual filtration
or straining."
^ as scmihle philosoj^hers.] Instead of the remainder of this para-
graph (so altered in 3rd edition), Ed. 1646 has the following passage :
— "as we may conceive in stones and gems; as diamonds, beryls, sa-
phires and the like, whose generation we cannot with satisfaction con-
fine unto the remote activity of the sun, or the common operation of
coldness in the earth, but may more safely refer it unto a lapidificall
siccity and congelitive principle, which determ.nes prepared materi.ila
anto special concretions."
'' iris.] Perhaps he refers to opal, or irlsated quartz.
CHAP. I.] BUT ICE STEOXGLY CONGEALED. 109
solvable in scorching territories, and the negro land of
Congo.
And, therefore, I fear^ we commonly consider subterranei-
ties not in contemplations sufficiently respective nnto the
creation. For, though Moses have left no mention of
miaerals, nor made any other description than suits unto
the apparent and visible creation, yet is there, unques-
tionably, a very large class of creatures in the earth, far
above the condition of elementarity. And, although not in
a distinct and indisputable way of vivency, or answering in
all points the properties or affections of plants, yet in
infei'ior and descending constitutions they do, like these,
contain specifical distinctions, and are determined by semi-
nalities, that is, created and defined seeds committed unto
the earth from the beginning. AVherein, although they
attain not the indubitable requisites of animation, yet
have they a near affinity thereto. And, though we want a
proper name and expressive appellation, yet are they not
to be closed up in the general name of concretions, or
lightly passed over, as only elementary and subterraneous
mixtions.
The principal and most gemmary affection is its tralu-
cency :^ as for irradiancy or sparkling, which is found in
many gems, it is not discoverable in this, for it cometh short
of their compactness and durity ; and, therefore, requireth
not the emery, as the saphire, granite, and topaz, but will
receive impression from steel, in a manner like the tur-
quoise. As for its diaphanity or perspicuity, it enjoyeth
that most eminently ; and the reason thereof is its con-
tinuity, as having its earthy and salinous parts so exactly re-
solved, that its body is left imporous, and not discreted by
atomical terminations. For that continuity of parts is the
cause of perspicuity,^ is made perspicuous by two ways of
* And, therefore, I fear.'] This paragraph gives an excellent and
very accurate view of the nature of the beings composing the mineral
kingdom, — if by "seeds" we understaiid formative 2»'inc^ples. — .Br.
^ tralucency.] For "translucency." Johnson gives tralucent, citing
Davies and B. Jonson — but not tralucency.
' continuity of parts is the cause of perspicuity.] Tlie explanation of
the cause of transparency in this paragraph is quite accurate, so far as
it goes ; but to make it satisfactory, it must be added, that continuity
of parts is necesswy to transparency, because, in that case, the refrac-
110 CETSTAL IS KOTHIKa ELSE [bOOK II.
experiment. That is, either in eiTecting transparency in
those bodies which were not so before, or at least far short
of the additional degree : so snow becomes transparent upon
liquation ; so horns and bodies resolvable into continued
parts or jelly ; the like is observable in oiled paper, wherein,
the interstitial divisions being continuated by the accession
of oil, it becometh more transparent, and admits the visible
rays with less umbrosity. Or else the same is efiected by
rendering those bodies opacous which were before pellucid
and pei^spicuous : so glass, which was before diaphanous,
being by powder reduced into multiplicity of superficies, be-
comes an opacous body, and will not transmit the light : so
it is in crystal powdered, and so it is also before, for if it be
made hot in a crucible, and presently projected upon water,
it will grow dim, and abate its diaphanity : for the water,
entering the body, begets a division of parts, and a termina-
tion of atoms united before unto continuity .^
The ground of this opinion** might be, first, the conclu-
sions of some men from experience ; for as much as crystal is
found sometimes in rocks, and in some places not much un-
like the stirious or stillicidious dependencies of ice.'* AVhich,
tive effect upon the rays of light is uniform throughout tlie body,
so that the rays (however those which do not fall upon the surface in
a direction peiijendicular to it may be diverted from their original
course,) come unbroken to the eye ; whereas, when the continuity
is broken, as in the case of powdered glass, the interstices of which
are filled with air, which has a different refractive power from the par-
ticles of glass, the rays are again and again broken, and turned from
their course, so that they cannot reach the eye through the substance,
so as to present images of the bodies on the other side. — Br.
^ /'-"' '/ 'it he made hot, cfcc] This statement also is generally true,
but the cause of the opacity produced is not the entering of the water
into the crystal, but its being filled with cracks arising from the sudden
cooling, and these, whether filled with water or with air, having a dif-
ferent refractive power from the crystal itself, an effect takes place
corresponding to that explained above.
It may be observed, upon the whole, that there is much excellent rea-
soning and much real science in this chapter, but mingled, of course,
with occasional fallacies, and with some now anti([uated prejudices.
—Br.
•* The ground of Oiis opinion.^ Namely, "that crystal is ice congealed
beyond liquation."
* the stirious or stUlicidiom, <fcc.] Stirious, like icicles : stillicidious,
tilling in drops.
CnAP. I.] BUT ICE STRONGLT CONGEALED, 111
notwithstanding, may happen, either in places wliieh have
been forsaken or left bare by the earth, or may be petrifica-
tions, or mineral indurations, like other gems, proceeding from
percolations of the earth disposed unto such concretions.
The second and most common groimd is from the name
crystallus, whereby in Greek both ice and crystal are ex-
pressed ; w'hich many not duly considering, have, from their
community of name, conceived a community of nature, and
what was ascribed unto the one, not unfitly appliable unto
the other. But this is a fallacy of equivocation, from a
society in name inferring an identity in nature. By this
fallacy was he deceived that drank aqua fortis for strong
water -fi by this are they deluded who conceive spermaceti^
which is found about the head, to be the spawn of the whale ;
or take sanguis draconis, which is the gum of a tree, to be
the blood of a dragon. By the same logic we may infer the
crystalline humoiu' of the eye, or rather the crystalline
heaven above, to be of the substance of crystal here below ;
or that God sendeth down crystal, because it is delivered in
the vulgate translation, Ps. 47 : mi/tit erystaUum stmm sicut
huccellas. AVhich translation, although it literally express
the septuagint, yet is there no more meant thex'eby than
what our translation in plain English expresseth, that is, " he
casteth forth his ice like morsels ;" or what Tremellius and
Junius as clearly deliver, dejicit gelu suum sicut frusta, coram
frigore ejus quis consistet ? which proper and Latin expres-
sions, had they been observed in ancient translations, elder
expositors had not been misguided by the synonymy : nor
had they aiforded occasion unto Austin, the Gloss,*^ Lyranus,
and many others, to have taken up the common conceit, and
spoken of this text conformably unto the opinion rejected.
* aqua fortis, tfrc] An Englishman gave occasion to this en-or ; who,
translating that tract (of the French Ld. ****) of Salt and Fire, renders
it so, out of a gross pernicious ignorance, -which I wisht might be
corrected. — Wr.
® the Gloss.] Referring probably to the annotations of Walafridu8
Strabo, who flourished in the ninth century. They were called glossa
wdinaria, and for many years were received as the only authorized
interpretation of the Bible. The best edition of the Gloss of Strabo,
as well of the Postilla, or expositions of Nicolas de Lyra, or Lyranua^
was published in folio, at Antwerp, in 1684,
112 COIs'CERNING THE LOADSTONE. [BOOK II,
CHAPTEE II.
Concerning the Liadstone : of tilings jicirticularly spoken thereof,
evidently or 2^rohahly true.
And first, we conceive the earth to be a magnetical body."
A magnetical body, we term, not only that which hath a
power attra<3tive, but tliat which, seated in a convenient
medium, naturally disposeth itself to one invariable and fixed
' And first, we conceive the earth, (fcc] The chapter which begins
with this opinion, though containing many errors, is yet characterized
by the sagacity and acuteness so often displayed by the autlior in
treating of a complex and difficult subject of science, and also by those
philosophic views in which he occasionally anticipated the most pro-
found results attained in the modern investigations of the powers of
nature. The remark now immediately before us partakes, in all
respects, of the character of the chapter itself That the earth is "a
magnetical body," in the senses in which we apply that term to the
magnet itself, and to the metals, iron, nickel, and some others, is a
notion for which there is no foundation whatever ; nor have we any
reason for supposing that the " polary position " of the earth, or the
direction of its axis in space, is produced by magnetism. And further,
there is a deep error in philosophy in the fundamental notion of the
author, that a magnetical body, as he defines it, naturally "disposeth
itself" to one invariable and fixed situation ; the fiict being, as all the
phenomena of magnetism conspire to evince, that magnetized bodies
which apparently possess that property are in reality disposed to it, by
the influence of a subtle agent permeating them, and the action of
which is in some unknown manner connected with an arrangement in
space, having a particular relation to the figure and position, and pro-
bably to some (if the material constituents also of the earth. Supposing
it to be true (which at present, however, we have no reason to suppose)
that if the whole earth could be violently removed, it would " return
unto its polary position again," that effect would not result from an
inherent -^drtue in the planet itself, but from its being so constituted as
to receive and obey the action of the vortical or other motions of the
subtle ethereal fluid, in which (from the recent investigations of Encke
and others) we now know it to be placed, and by which also we know
it to be pervaded : this would cause it to return to its position, much
in the same way as a ball held by strings in a particular position
returns to that position after displacement, by their action upon it ;
or, which is a closer representation of the circumstances, as a mag-
netic needle, after disturbance, returns to its original direction, to the
magnetic north and soutu, jy the force of terrestrial magnetism acting
upon it. — Br.
CHAP. IT. J COXCERXIKtt THE LOADSTONE. 113
situation. And such a magnetical virtue we conceive to be
in the globe of the earth, whereby, as unto its natural points
and proper terms, it disposeth itself unto the poles ; being
so framed, constituted, and ordered unto these points, that
those parts which are now at the poles, would not naturally
abide unto the equator, nor Greenland remain in the place
of Magellanica. And if the whole earth were violently re-
moved, yet would it not forego its primitive points, nor
pitch in the east or west, but return unto its polary position
again. For, though by compactness or gravity it may
acquire the lowest place, and become the centre of the vmi-
rerse,"^ yet, that it makes good that point, not varying at all
by the accession of bodies upon, or secession thereof from
its surface, perturbing the equilibration of either hemisphere
(whereby the altitude of the stars might vary), or that it
strictly maintains the north and southern points, that
neither upon the motions of the heavens, air, and winds
without, large eruptions and divisions of parts within its
polary parts, should never incline or veer unto the equator
(whereby the latitude of places shoidd also vary), it cannot
80 well be salved from gravity, as a magnetical verticity.
This is, probably, that foundation the wisdom of the Creator
hath laid unto the earth ; in this sense we may more nearly
apprehend, and sensibly make out the expressions of holy
scripture, as, Firmavit orhem terrce qui non commovehitur,
" he hath made the round world so sure, that it cannot be
moved;"* as when it is said by Job, exteiidit aquilonem
super vacuo, ^'a., " he stretcheth forth the north upon the
empty place, and hangeth the earth iipon nothing." t And
this is the most probable answer unto that great question,
" Whereupon are the foundations of the earth fastened, or
who laid the corner-stone thereof?" Had they been ac-
quainted with this principle, Anaxagoras, Socrates, and
Democritus, had better made out the ground of this sta-
bility; Xenophanes had not been fain to say, the earth
* Psalm xciii. + Job xxxviii.
' and become the centre of the universe.} It must be borne in mind
that the author was not a convert to the Copernican system of astro-
nomy. His opposite opinions on this science will be observed to per-
vade all his reasonings, and to tinge all his feelings.
VOL. I. I
114 CONCERNING THE LOADSTONE. [bOOK II.
hath no bottom ; and Tliales Milesius, to make it swim m
water.^
Nor is the vigour of this great body included only in itself,
or circumferenced by its surface, but diifused at indetermi-
nate distances through the air, water, and all bodies circum-
jacent ; exciting and impregnating magnetical bodies within
its surface or without it, and performing, in a secret and in-
visible way, what we evidently behold effected by the load-
stone. For these effluxions penetrate all bodies, and like
the species of visible objects are ever ready in the medium,
and lay hold on all bodies proportionate or capable of their
action ; those bodies likewise, being of a congenerous nature,
do readily receive the impressions of their motor ; and, if not
fettered by their gravity, conform themselves to situations
wherein they best unite unto their animator. And this will
sufficiently appear from the observations that are to follow,
which can no better way be made out, than by this we speak
of, the magnetical vigour of the earth. ^ Now, whether these
effluviums do fly by striated atoms and winding particles, as
Eenatus des Cartes conceiveth, or glide by streams attracted
from either pole and hemisphere of the earth unto the equa-
tor, as Sir Kenelm Digby excellently declareth, it takes not
away 2 this virtue of the earth ; but more distinctly sets
down the gests and progress thereof, and are conceits of emi-
^ wafer.] The first edition continues thus: — "Now whether the
earth stand still, or moveth cii"culaily, we may concede this magnetical
stability : for although it move, in that conversion the poles and centre
may still remain the same, as is conceived in the magnetical bodies of
heaven, especially Jupiter and the sun ; which, according to G.alileus,
Kepler, and Fabriciua, are observed to have dinetical motions and cer-
tain revolutions about their proper centres ; and though the one in
about the space of ten days, the other in less than one, accomplish this
revolution, yet do they observe a constant habitude unto tlieir poles,
and firme themselves thereon in their gyration."
' the ma.f/netical vigour of the earth.] Having stated, in the preceding
note, in wliat sense we are not to regard the earth as a magnet, we
may now admit that in the sense of a body permeated by the magnetic
fluid (whatever that may be) the earth niay be regarded as a great
complex magnet, or rather as a collection of sulistances, many of which,
under certain circumstances, are susceptible of the magnetic influence,
and display accordingly magnetic phenomena. — Br.
'■' it takes not away.] Read, "they take not away, &c." viz, "Neither
of these opinions takes away, &c." — Wi:
CUAP. II.] CO>'CEE]S'ING THE LOADSTONE. llo
nent use to salve magnetical phenomena. An: , as .n astro-
nomy, those hypotheses (though never so strange) are best
esteemed which best do salve appearances, so surely in phi-
losophy those principles (though seeming monstrous) may
with advantage be embraced, which best confirm experiment,
and afford the readiest reason of observation. And truly the
doctrine of effluxions,*^ their penetrating natures, their in-
visible paths, and insuspected effects, are very considerable ;
for, besides this magnetical one of the earth, several effusions
there may be from divers other bodies, which invisibly act
their parts at any time, and, perhaps, through any medium ;
a part of philosophy but yet in discovery, and will, I fear,
prove the last leaf to be tui-ned over in the book of nature.
First, therefore, it is true, and confirmable by every ex-
periment, that steel and good iron never excited by the
loadstone, discover in themselves a verticity ;"* that is, a
directive or polary faculty, whereby, conveniently placed,
they do septentrionate * at one extreme, and australisef at
another. This is manifestable in long and thin plates of
steel perforated in the middle and equilibrated ; or by an
easier way in long wires equiponderate with untwisted silk
* Point to the north. f Point to the south.
^ And truly the doctrine of effluxions.'] The remarks in the passage
commencing with these words may be considered to have been made
good by the discoveries of the present century, if we regard the notion
of " effluxions " to result from an obscyre perception of the existence
and functions of those ethereal fluids, to the motions of which the
united results of modem science lead us to attribute the phenomena
of heat, light, electricity, magnetism, &c. It is requisite, however,
to observe, that what Browne, as well as some of his predecessors and
contemporaries, appears to have supposed to consist of subtle emana-
tions from grosser bodies, must be regarded contrariwise, agreeably to
the most profound researches of our time, as the principles from which
all ordinary ponderable matter derives its activity — from which it takes
all its force and energy. — Br.
* steel and good iron, d-c] Tliis, in the sense in which the author
intends us to understand it, is an error ; unmagnetized iron or steel has
no directive power ; the experiments apparently alluded to must
have been performed with steel plates, wires, and needles, wiich had,
in reality, become magnetic, although they might not have teen actu-
ally " excited by the loadstone." As an observation that the i.-agnetic
virtue is possessed by bodies which have not been so excited, it is quite
worthy of Browne. — Br.
^ i2
IIG CONCERNINa THE LOADSTONE. [bOOK 11.
and soft wax ; for, in this manner pendulous, they will con-
form themselves meridionally, dii'ecting one extreme unto
the north, another to the south. The same is also mani-
fested in steel wires thrust through little spheres or globes
of cork and floated on the water, or in naked needles gently
let fall thereon ; for, so disposed, they will not rest until
they have found out the meridian, and as near as they can,
lie jftirallel unto the axis of the earth ; sometimes the eye,
sometimes the point, northward in divers needles, but the
same point always in most ; conforming themselves unto the
whole earth, in the same manner as they do unto every
loadstone. For, if a needle untouched be hanged above a
loadstone, it will convert into a parallel position thereto ; for
in this situation it can best receive its verticity, and be ex-
cited proportionably at both extremes. Now this direction
proceeds, not primitively from themselves, but is derivative
and contracted from the magnetical effluxions of the earth,
which they have winded in their hammering and formation,
or else, by long continuance in one position, as we shall de-
clare hereafter.
It is likewise true what is delivered of irons heated in the
fire, that they contract a verticity in their refrigeration ;^
* They contract a verticity, Ac.'] Tlie statements here made, to the
end of the period, are probably true, provided the cooling takes place
in a direction corresponding, or nearly corresponding, to that of the
dip ; but the extent to which they are true, so far as modern experi-
ments afford us the means of »verifying them, may be best seen, per-
haps, by comparing them with the following observations made by
Mr. Barlow, and published in the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana, Treatise
on Magnetism, § v. 38, 39 : — For certain purposes of research, which
it is unnecessary here to state, Mr. Barlow heated in a fiirnace a bar of
soft iron and a liar of cast-iron, nearly of equal dimensions, placing
them in an inclined position, in the direction of the dip of the needle,
and ascertaining their attractive effect upon the horizontal or common
inagnetic needle previously to the application of heat. As soon as the
l)ars arrived at a high blood-red heat, they began to exercise an in-
creased power of attraction upon the needle, and in a minute or two
this attained its maxinmm, which was far greater than the attractive
power of the bars when cold ; the deviation produced by one of them
Iteing in the latter case 2-1° '1(\', but in the former, 78® 30'. In the
course of these experiments the following facts were observed, which
bear dir«-:tly upon the passage of our author now before us; — "It
should liL observed here, that the gi-eat attraction produced by the heat
did not subside with it, provided tlie bar remained in its place undis-
CHAP. II.] CONCEE^riNG THE LOADSTONE. 117
for, heated red-hot and cooled in the meridian from north to
south, they presently contract a polary power, and heing
poised in air or water, convert that part unto the north
which respected that point in its refrigeration ; so that if
they had no sensible verticity before, it may be acquired by
this way, or if they had any, it might be exchanged by con-
trary position in the cooling. For by the fire they amit not
only many drossy and scorious parts, but whatsoever they
had received either from the earth or loadstone ; and so
being naked and despoUed of all verticity, the magnetical
atoms invade their bodies with more effect and agility.^
turbed ; for after some days it was found that the power of the bar
continued just the same as at the time of making the experiment when
it had not been displaced ; but then the bar upon trial was always
found to possess a certain degree of fixed magnetism, its other extremity
producing an opposite efiect upon the needle ; but if the bar was in-
verted, while it retained any visible colour from the heat, both enda
produced exactly the same deflection : as to the magnetic effect to
which we have alluded above, it was lost, or at least a great part of it,
after leaving the bar for some time horizontal, or, after its being thrown
about with other pieces of iron." — Br.
° For hy the fire they amit, <i:c lohatsoever tliey had
received either from the earth or loadstone ; and so, <i-c.] This statement
is true in itself, but unless viewed in connexion with other facts it may
produce an erroneous impression upon the mind. Mr. Barlow's experi-
ments have also elucidated this subject ; his results on which will be
appropriately introduced by an historical notice of it, derived from the
Treatise on Magnetism cited in the preceding note, from which the
comparative amount and nature of our author's knowledge respectng it
may be inferred, by contrasting it with his own remarks. "The effect
of temperature, in changing and destroying the magnetic power of iron
bodies had been long imperfectly known, but it had never been satis-
factorily established prior to Mr. Barlow's experiments. It is, for ex-
ample, stated in Newton's Optics, that red-hot iron has no magnetic
property, while Father Kircher asserts, that the magnet will attract
red-hot iron as well as cold ; Mr. Cavallo again found, that although
iron at a red heat had a greater power over the magnet than when cold,
yet at the white heat it had less ; but he was not aware that it was
entirely lost at a white heat." — {Eiicyc. Metrop. Magnetism, g vi. 41.)
The last-mentioned fact, viz. that the magnetic action of iron is
destroyed by a white heat, was ascertained by Mr. Barlow in the
experiments already noticed, and he observed, on the same occasion,
an extraordinary phsenomenon, the consideration of which will explain
some of the apparently contradictory facts which are related by our
author in this chapter. It is, that "after the iron loses its entire power
of attraction at the white heat, it acquires, as that colour subsides into
the bright red and red, an attractive power, the reverse of what it had
118 COXCEENING THE LOADSTOInE. [bOOK IL
Neither is it only true what Gilbertus first observed, that
irons refrigerated north and south acquire a directive faculty,
but, if they be cooled upright and perpendicularly,^ they will
also obtain the same : that part which is cooled towards the
north, on this side of the equator, converting itself unto the
north, and attracting the south point of the needle ; the
other and highest extreme respecting the south, and attract-
ing the northern, according imto the laws magnetical : for
(what must be observed) contrary poles or faces attract each
other, as the- north the south; and the like decline each
other, as the north the north. JN^ow on this side^ of the
equator, that extreme which is next the earth is animated
unto the north, and the contrary unto the south, so that in
coition it applies itself quite oppositely, the coition or
attraction being contrary to the verticity or direction. Con-
trary, if we speak according unto common use, yet alike, if
we conceive the virtue of the north pole to diftiise itself, and
open at the south, and the south at the north again.
This polarity from refrigeration, upon extremity, and in
defect of a loadstone, might serve to invigorate and touch a
needle any where ; and this, allowing variation, is also the
readiest way at any season to discover the north or south ;
and surely far more certain than what is allirmed of the
been when cold ; so that if the bar and needle are so situated that the
north end [of the needle] is attracted when the iron is cold, the south
end will be attracted during the above interval," that is, while it is
passing through the high temperatures indicated by the shades of colour
just mentioned ; after which the usual attractive power again takes
place in the increased degi'ee stated in the preceding note. — Br.
' hut if they he cooled upright, A-c.^ This statement is quite accurate ;
and, in fact, a nearly perpendicular position is more favourable to the
reception of magnetism by the iron than the horizontal. The effect
depends upon the suitable position of the iron for receiving and retaining
a portion of the magnetism of the earth, and the position in which the
greatest effect is exerted by the earth's magnetism is when the iron is
placed in the position of the clippirtff needle ; that is, inclined to the
magnetic north at an angle (in these latitudes, and at the present time)
of about 69| degrees with the horizon. The subject is resumed, and
with equal correctness, towards the end of the next paragraph, which
has evidently been written fi-om experiment. Both are replete with just
rejjresentations of the facts. — Br.
^ Now on this side, rf-f.] Itt is certainly knowne that beyond the line
the needle keeps his posture to the north, as truly as att the tirst sett'Qg
o'lt of England. — Wr.
CHAP. II.] CONCERNING TUE LOADSTONE. 119
grains aud circles in trees, or the figure in the root of fern.
For if we erect a red-hot wire until it cool, then hang it up
with wax and untwisted silk, where the lower end and that
which cooled next the earth dotli rest, that is the northern
point ; and this we affirm will still be true, whether it be
cooled in the air or extinguished in water, oil of vitriol, aqua
fortis, or quicksilver. And this is also e\'idenced in culinary
utensils, and irons that often feel the force of fire, as tongs,
fire-shovels, prongs, and andirons ; all of which acquire a
magnetical and polary condition, and, being suspended, con-
vert their lower extremes unto the north ; with the same
attracting the southern point of the needle. For easier ex-
periment, if we place a needle touched at the foot of tongs or
andirons, it will obvert or turn aside its lily or north point,
and conform its cuspis or south extreme unto the andiron.
The like verticity, though more obscurely, is also contracted
by bricks and tiles,^ as we have made trial in some taken out
of the backs of chimneys. Now, to contract this direction,
there needs not a total ignition, nor is it necessary the irons
should be red-hot all over. For if a wire be heated only at
one end, according as that end is cooled upward or down-
ward, it respectively acquires a verticity, as we have declared
in wires totally candent. .Nor is it absolutely requisite they
should be cooled perpendicularly, or strictly lie in the meri-
dian ; for, whether they be refrigerated inclinatorily or
somewhat equinoxially, that is, towards the eastern or
western points, though in a lesser degree, they discover some
verticity.
Nor is this only true in irons, but in the loadstone itself.
' The like verticity, tt'c] The cause of this is doubtless the magnetism
acquired by the particles of oxide of iron disseminated throughout the
claj' of which bricks and tiles are made, and which, of course, remain
distributed in the same sensibly uniform manner in the bricks and tiles
themselves. Each particle itself acquiring, by being placed in a posi-
tion not greatly deviating from that of the dipping needle, magnetical
polarity of the same kind as the rest, the result is a general polarity of
all, which, freely permeating the earthy matter, appears to be possessed
by the briclc or tile itself. Assuming the author's experiment to be
correct (and this there is no reason to doubt), such must be the expla-
nation of the facts. The subject will be resumed under another form,
when commenting upon the passage "Of rocks marjnetical," in thi
lollowing chapter. — Br.
120 CONCEENING TUE LOADSTONE. [BOOK II.
For if a loadstone be made red-hot, it loseth the magnetical
vigour it had before in itself, and acquires anotlier from the
earth in its refrigeration ; for that part which cooleth toward
the earth will acquire the respect of the north, and attract
the southern point or citspis of the needle. The experiment
hereof we made in a loadstone of a parallelogram or long
square figure ; wherein only inverting the extremes, as it
came out of the fire, we altered the poles or faces thereof at
pleasure.
It is also true what is delivered of the direction and
coition of irons, that tliey contract a verticity by long and
continued position ; that is, not only being placed from north
to south, and lying in the meridian, but respecting the
zenith and perpendicular unto the centre of the earth ; as is
manifest in bars of windows, casements, hinges, and the like.
For if we present the needle vmto their lower extremes, it
wheels about and turns its southern point unto them. The
same condition in long time do bricks contract which are
placed in walls, and, therefore, it may be a fallible way to
find out the meridian by placing the needle on a Avail ; for
some bricks therein, by a long and continued position, are
often magnetically enabled to distract the polarity of the
needle. And, therefore, those irons which are said to have
been converted into loadstones, whether they were real con-
versions or only attractive augmentations, might be much
promoted by this position : as the iron cross of an hundred
weight upon the church of St. John, in Ariminum, or that
loadstoned iron of Caesar Moderatus, set down by Aldro-
vandus.*^
Lastly, irons do manifest a verticity, not only upon refri-
geration and constant situation, but (what is wonderful,
and advanceth the maguetical hypothesis) they evidence the
same by mere position, according as they are inverted, and
their exti*emes disposed respectively unto the earth. For if
an iron or steel, not firmly excited, be held perpendicularly
or inclinatorily unto the needle, the lower end thereof will
jittract the cuspis or southern point ; but if the same ex-
treme be inverted and held under the needle, it will then
* De Mineralibus.
• And, therefore, those irons, <i:c.] Added in the 2nd edition.
CHAP. II.] CONCEKNIIfG THE LOADSTONE. 121
attract tlie lilly or nortbern point ; for by inversion it
cbangetb its direction acquired before, and i-eceivetb a new
and soutbern polarity from tbe eartb, as being tbe upper
extreme.^ Now, if an iron be touched before, it varietb not
in this manner ; for then it admits not this magnetical im-
pression, as being already informed by the loadstone, and
polarily determined by its preactiou.
And from these grounds may we best determine why the
northern pole of the loadstone attracted a greater weight
than the southern on this side the equator ; why the stone
is best preserved in a natural and polary situation ; and why,
as Gilbertus observeth, it respecteth that pole, out of the
earth, which it regarded in its mineral bed and subterra-
neous position.
It is likewise true and wonderful, what is delivered of the
inclination or declination of the loadstone ; ^ that is, the de-
* For if an iron or steel, <£t.] The magnetism of the earth appeari*
to emanate from it in curves, originating far within the earth, or per-
haps at its centre, their planes being magnetic meridians, but whicli,
for small distances, are sensibly straight lines. The angles which thej
form with the horizon, or, what is practically the same, with the earth'a
surface, is the angle of the dip of the needle for each latitude respect-
ively, being, as already stated, about 69 f degrees for the British Islands
at the present time. The dipping needle, therefore, is nothing but a
magnetized body freely obeying the tendency imparted to it by these
curves, and, in fact, exhibiting their direction at each particular spot.
Now, if a bar of soft iron, or other body susceptible of magnetism, but
perfectly free from it, be held in the direction of the dipping needle it
acquires polarity, for the time, the lower end becoming a south pole,
attracting the north end of a compass needle ; and the upper a north
pole, attracting the south end of the needle. If the bar be inverted,
ijut its direction still preserved, the end which was before the north
pole will become the south pole, and vice versd. If, however, it has
already received permanent magnetism, these effects do not take place ;
agreeably to our author's statement. — Br.
^ inclination or declination of the loadstone.^ The phsenomena de-
scribed in this and the succeeding paragraph, are those of the dip of
the magnetic needle, now usually observed by means of a needle placed
in a circle divided into degrees, &c., in order to show the amount of the
dip, or the angle formed with the horizon by the needle when allowed
freely to obey the influence of terrestrial magnetism. The reader will
be enabled to form correct ideas on this subject from the present brief
remarks, if taken in conjunction with the three preceding notes, and
also with the next, by the same annotator, in which the history of the
dipping needle is continued. — £r.
122 COXCEKNINa THE LOADSTONE. [bOOK TI,
scent of the needle below the plane of the horizon. For
Ions needles, which stood before upon their axis parallel
unto the horizon, being vigorously excited, incline and bend
downward, depressing the north extreme below the horizon ;
that is, the north on this, the south on the other side of the
equator ; and at the very line or middle circle stand without
deflexion. And this is evidenced, not only from observations
of the needle in several parts of the earth, but sundry experi-
ments in any pai^t thereof, as in a long steel wire, equili-
brated or evenly balanced in the air ; for excited by a vigor-
ous loadstone it will somewhat depress its animated ex-
treme, and intersect the horizontal circumference. It is also
manifest in a needle pierced through a globe of cork so cut
away and pared by degrees, that it will swim under water,
yet sink not unto the bottom, which may be well effected ;
for if the cork be a thought too light to sink under the sur-
face, the body of the water may be attenuated with spirits of
vrine ; if too heavy, it may be incrassated with salt ; and if
by chance too much be added, it may again be thinned by a
proportionable addition of fresh water. If, then, the needle
be taken out, actively touched, and put in again, it will de-
press and bow down its northern head toward the bottom,
and advance its southern extremity towards the brim. This
■way, invented by Gilbertus, may seem of difficulty ; the
same, with less labour, may be observed in a needled sphere
of cork equally contiguous imto the surface of the water ;
for if the needle be not exactly equiponderant, that end
which is a thought too light, if touched, becometh even ;
that needle, also, which will but just swim laider water, if
forcibly touched, will sink deeper, and sometimes luito the
bottom. If, likewise, that inclinatory virtue be destroyed by
a touch from the contrary pole, that end which before was
elevated will then decline ; and this might perhaps be ob-
served in some scales exactly balanced, and in such needles
which, for their bulk, can hardly be supported by the water.
Yov, if they be powerfully excited, and equally let fall, they
commonly sink down and break the water at that extreme
whereat they were septentrionally excited ; and by this way
it is conceived there may be some fraud in the weighing
of precious commodities, and such as carry a value in
quarter-grains, by placing a powerful loadstone above or
CHAP. II.] COXCERNTNG THE LOADSTONE. 123
below, according as we intend to depress or elevate one
extreme.
Now if these magnetical emissions be only qualities, and
the gravit}' of bodies incline them only unto the earth, surely
that which alone moveth other bodies to descent, carrieth not
the stroke in this, but rather the magnetical alliciency of the
earth ; unto which with alacrity it applieth itself, and in the
very same way unto the whole earth, as it doth unto a single
loadstone. For if an untouched needle be at a distance
suspended over a loadstone, it will not hang parallel, but
decline at the north extreme, and at that part wiU first salute
its director. Again, what is also wonderful, this inclination
is not invariable ; for just under tlie line the needle lieth
parallel with the horizon,'* but sailing north or south it
■• just under the line, Ac."] Tliis statement, in the terms in which it
is made, is incorrect ; fur it is found by experiment, tliat while under
the line or equator of the earth, in some places, the dip is still consider-
able, in some places south of tne equator it continues to be north,
and conversely in some places north of the equator it is south. But if
we substitute mar/nttic equator for " the line " or true equator, and the
mar/netic poles for the poles of the earth, it becomes accurate. Ac-
cording to Mr. Barlow {Phil. Tram. 1831, p. 105), the results obtained
by Sir E. Paixy, and by the late Captain Foster, for the situation of the
magnetic poles, give a magiutic equator, which cuts the true equator in
about 14° east, and 166° west longitude.
Tlie following principles of the geometrical construction of what is
called the magnetic sphere will enable the reader accurately to estimate
the degree of truth which exists in our author's remarks on terrestrial
magnetism: they are derived from Mr. Barlow's "Treatise" already
referred to, § xxii. 193. "The two centres which give direction to
magnetised needles at the earth's surface, are situated in two points in-
definitely near to each other in the centre of the terrestrial sphere. If
we conceive the indefinitely short lines which unite these centres to be
produced both ways to the surface, the diameter thus formed is called
the terrestrial magnetic axis. The circle cutting this at right angles is
the terrestrial magnetic equator ; and the extremities of this axis, or
diameter, are the poles of this equator, or the terrestrial magnetic poles.
" If the magnetic poles coincided with the poles of the earth, the
magnetic equator would, in Uke manner, fall upon the terrestrial
equator ; and the magnetic and geographic meridians would also coin-
cide, and the needle, in all places, would point duly north and south :
moreover, a needle upon the equator would, in that case, be equally
distant, and under equal influence from both poles, or rather from both
centres, and would, therefore, have no dip or inclination.
" We know, however, that the needle does not everywhere point duly
124 CONCEENING THE LOADSTONE. [bOOK H.
beginneth to incline, and increaseth according as it ap-
proacheth unto either pole and would at last endeavour to
erect itself.^ And this is no more than what it doth upon the
north and south, and that the circle on the globe, in which the needle
has no inclination, is not coincident with the terrestrial equator."- — Br,
* would at last endeavour to erect itself. ~\ The phjenomena thus pre-
dicted by the author from his (theoretically) correct reasoning, is actually
found to occur.
Mr. Barlow gives a table containing the computed situation of the
magnetic north pole of the earth, derived from twenty-three sets of ob-
servations on the dip, in different places, the results of those observations
themselves being also given. From this it appears that Captain Parry
found the dip, at Melville Island (N. Lat. 74° 47', W. Long. 110°
48'), to be 88° 43 , deviating only 1° 17' from the vertical position or
90°. Sir John Franklin observed a still closer approximation ; finding
the dip, in North America (N. Lat. 68° 18', W. Long. 109° 25') to be
89° 31', or within less than half a degree of 90°. But the positions ot
the north magnetic pole computed from these observations dilfer ; Capt.
Parry's indicating it to be situated in N. Lat. 73° 12', W. Long. 102°
46', and Capt. Franklin's in N. Lat. 68° 50', and W. Long. 107° 33' ;
while Mr. Barlow has more recently computed {Phil. Trans. 1831,
p. 105) fi-om the mean results of the observations of Capt. Parry and the
late Capt. Foster, that the position of the magnetic axis is in N. and S.
Lat. 72° and corresponding to W. Long. 76°. But further observations
have been made in the last voyage of Capt. Ross, an account of which,
by Commander J. C. Ross, was read before the Royal Society on the
19th December last, of which the following is an abstract, as given in
the Proceedings of the Royal Society. " The author remarks that the
discordances in former observations, made with a view to determine the
position of the magnetic pole, have arisen partly from the irregularity
of distribution in the earth of the substances which exert magnetic
power, and jjartly from the great distances from the magnetic poles, at
which these observations have been made. The latter cause of un-
certainty has been now, in a great measure, removed, by the numerous
and accurate observations made during the late arctic expeditions.
The object of the present paper is to put on record those which were
made in the last voyage of Capt. Ross, in which a spot was reached
con-esponding to the true north magnetic pole on the surface of the
earth. The nature of the instruments, and the difficulties encountered
in their practical employment, under the circumstances of the expe-
dition, are fully stated. Eaving arrived, on the 1st of Jiuie, at N. Lat.
70° 5' 17'', and W. Long. 96° 45' 48", the horizontal magnetic needle
exhibited no determinate directive tendency, and the dipping needle
was within a minute of the vertical position, a quantity which may be
supposed to come within the limits of the errors of observation ; hence
the author concludes that tliis spot may l)e considered as the true mag-
netic pole, or as a very near approximation to it, as far, at least, as could
be ascertained with the iimitod means of determination of which he was
then in jjossessiou," The following extract from Mr. Barlow's treatise,
CHAP. II.] CONCERNING THE LOADSTONE. 125
loadstone, and that more plainly upon the terrella or sphe-
rical magnet cosmographically set out with circles of the
globe. For at the equator thereof, the needle will stand
rectangularly ; but approaching northward toward the tropic
it will regard the stone obliquely, and when it attaineth the
pole, directly ; and if its bulk be no impediment, erect itself
and stand perpendicularly thereon. And therefore, upon
strict observation of this inclination in several latitudes and
due records preserved, instruments are made, whereby,
without the help of sun or star, the latitude of the place
may be discovered. And yet it appears the observations of
men have not as yet been so just and eqvial as is desirable,
for, of those tables of declination which I have perused, there
are not any two that punctually agree ; though some have
been thought exactly calculated, especially that which Eidley
received from Mr. Briggs, in our time geometry professor in
Oxford.
It is also probable, what is delivered concerning tlie varia-
tion ot the compass, that is, the cause and ground thereof;
already referred to, will explain the apparent anomalies just described,
and thus complete that general view of the subject which will enable the
reader fully to appreciate our author's views and statements respecting it.
" On these results it may be observed that, although in determinations
relative to the dip and variation of the needle, we cannot expect the
utmost accuracy, yet it is very obvious from the preceding table, that
the aberrations in the latitude and longitude of the magnetic pole are
much greater than can be attributed to errors of observation. It will
be seen that the place assigned to it differs in longitude as much as 57° be-
tween one set of observations and another, and as much as 14° in latitude.
It will also be observed, that the more we approach the nfjrth and
west, the more westerly we find the place of the pole ; and the more
easterly the place of observation, the greater is its latitude. In
short, it is evident, from the few examples we have taken, that every
place has its particular polarizing axis, which, probably in all cases, falls
within the arctic circle ; but that tliis is tlie narrowest limit we are able
to assign ; that is, the local attraction or particular influence which the
compass in every place is under, besides tliat of the general directive
power of the globe, is such, as to displace the needle so much from its
natural direction, as to give a different pole to almost every different set
of observations ; so that instead of the magnetism of the earth possessing
that degree of uniformity which appertains to a perfectly formed iron
ball, it may rather be said to resemble that species of action which we
might expect to find in an irregularly formed mass of iron, approxi-
mating in its general character to that of a globe, but not perfectly
BUth." — Br.
12G CONCEENING TUE LOADSTOT.. [bOOK II.
for the manner, as being confirmed by observation, we shall
not at all dispute. The variation of the compass is an arch
of the horizon intercepted between the true and magnetical
meridian ; or more plainly, a deflexion and siding east and
west from the true meridian. The true meridian is a major
circle passing through the poles of the world, and the zenith
or vertex of any place, exactly dividing the east from the
west. Now on this line the needle exactly lieth not, but
diverts and varieth its point, that is the north point on this
side the equator, the south on the other ; sometimes unto the
east, sometimes towards the west, and in some few places
varieth not at all. First, therefore, it is observed that,
betwixt the shores of Ireland, France, Spain, Guinea, and the
Azores, the north point varieth towards the east, and that in
some variety ; at London it varieth eleven degrees, at Ant-
werp nine, at Rome but five : at some part of the Azores it
deflecteth not, but lieth in the true meridian : on the other
side of the Azores, and this side of the equator, the north
point of the needle wheeleth to the west ; so that in the
latitude of thii"ty-six, near the shore, the variation is about
eleven degrees ; but on the other side the equator, it is quite
otherwise ; for about Capo Frio in Brazil, the south point
varieth twelve degrees unto the west, and about the
mouth of the Straits of Magellan five or six ; but, elongat-
ing from the coast of Brazil toward the shore of Africa, it
varieth eastward, and arriving at Capo de las Agullas, it
resteth in the meridian, and looketh neither way.
Now the cause of this variation was thought by Gilbertus
to be the inequality of the earth, variously disposed, and
differently intermixed with the sea : withal the difierent dis-
posure of its magnetical vigor in the eminences and stronger
parts thereof. For the needle naturally endeavours to
conform unto the meridian ; but, being distracted, driveth
that way where the greater and powerfuUer part of the
earth is placed. Which may be illustrated from what
hath been delivered before, and may be conceived by any,
that understands the generalities of geography. For
wliereas on this side the meridian, or the isles of Azores,
wliere the first meridian is placed, the needle varieth east-
ward ; it may be occasioned by that vast tract of earth, that
is, of Europe, Asia, and Africa, seated towards the east, and
CHAP. II.] CONCEHNING THE LOADSTONE. 127
disposing the needle that way. Eor arriving at some part
of the Azores, or islands of" Saint Michael, which have a
middle situation between these continents, and that vast
and almost answerable tract of America, it seemeth equally
distracted by both ; and diverting unto neither, doth parallel
and place itself upon the true meridian. But, sailing farther,
it veers its lily to the west, and regardeth that quarter
wherein the land is nearer or greater, and in the same
latitude, as it approacheth the shore, augmenteth its varia-
tion. And therefore as some observe, if Columbus, or
whoever first discovered America, had apprehended the
cause of this variation, having passed more than half the
way, he might have been confirmed in the discovery, and
assuredly foretold there lay a vast and mighty continent
toward the west. The reason I confess and inference is
good, but the instance perhaps not so. For Columbus
knew not the variation of the compass, whereof Sebastian
Cabot first took notice, who after made discovery of the
northern part of that continent. And it happened, indeed,
that part of America was first discovered, which was on this
side farthest distant, that is, Jamaica, Cuba, and the isles
in the bay of Mexico. And from this variation do some new
discoverers deduce a probability in the attempts of the
northern passage toward the Indies.
Xow, because, where the greater continents are joined,
the action and efiluence is also greater, therefore those
needles do suffer the greatest variation which are in coun-
tries which most do feel that action. And therefore, hath
Eome far less variation than London, for on the west side
of Eome are seated the great continents of France, Spain,
Germany, which take off" the exuberance, and in some way
balance the vigor of the eastern parts. But unto England
there is almost no earth west, but the whole extent of Europe
and Asia lieth eastward : and therefore at London it varieth
eleven degrees, that is, almost one rhumb. Thus, also, by
reason of the great continent of Brazil, Peru, and Chili, the
needle deflecteth toward the land twelve degrees ; but at the
Straits of Magellan, where the land is narrowed, and the sea
on the other side, it varieth but five or six. And so likewise,
because the Cape de las AguUas hath sea on both sides near
it, and other land remote, and, as it were, equidistant from
128 CONCERNING THE LOADSTONE. [bOOK H
it, therefore at that point the needle conforms unto the true
meridiaii, and is not distracted by the vicinity of adjacencies.
This is tlie general and great cause of variation. But, if in
certain creeks and vallies the needle prove irregular, and
vary beyond expectation, it may be imputed unto some
vigorous part of the earth, or magnetical eminence not far
distant. And this vras the invention of D. Gilbert,^ not
many years past, a physician in London. And therefore,
although some assume the invention of its direction, and
other have had the glory of the card, yet in the experiments,
grounds, and causes thereof, England produced the fother
philosopher, and discovered more in it, than Columbus or
Americus did ever by it.
Unto this, in great part true, the reason of Kircherus may
be added : that this variation proceedeth, not only from ter-
restrious eminences and magnetical veins of the earth,
laterally respecting the needle, but the diiferent eoagmenta-
tion of the earth disposed unto the poles, lying under the
sea and waters, which affect the needle with great or lesser
variation, according to the vigour or imbecility of these sub-
terraneous lines, or the entire or broken compagination of
the magnetical fabric under it. As is observable from seve-
ral loadstones placed at the bottom of any water; for a load-
stone or needle upon the surface will variously conform itself,
according to the vigour or faintness of the loadstones under it.
Thus alr^o a reason may be alleged for the variation of the
variation, and why, according to observation, the variation of
the needle hath after some years been found to vary in some
places. For this may proceed from mutations of the earth,
by subterraneous Hres, fumes, minei'al spirits, or otherwise ;
which altering the constitution of the magnetical parts, in
process of time, doth vary the variation over the place.^
^ Gilbert, d:c.'] Herschel (in his Preliminary Discourse) says, "Our
countryman, Dr. fxilbert, of Colchester, in 1500, published a treatise
on magnetism, full of valuable facts and experiments, ingeniously
reasoned on ; and he likewise extended his enquiries to a variety of other
sul)jects, in particular to electricity."
The title of this work, which is now very scarce, is Gulielmi Gllberti
Colcc.sti ensis, Medici Londinensis, De Magnete, Magnetichque corporihus,
et de magno magnete tellure ; physiologia nova, plurimis et argumentis et
ea'//en mentis demonstrata : fol. pp. 240, Londini, 1500.
' Unto this, etc.] Tliese two paragraphs were added in the 2nd edition^
CHA.r. II.] CONCEEJfING THE LOADSTOKE. 129
It is also probable, what is conceived of its antiquity, that
the knowledge of its polary power and direction uuto the
north was unknown unto the ancients, and (though Levinus
Lenmius, and Caelius Calcagninus, are of another belief), is
justly placed with new inventions by PanciroUus. For their
Achilles and strongest argument is an expression in Plautus,
a very ancient author and contemporary unto Ennius. Hie
ventus jam secundus est, cape modo versoriam. Now this
versoriam they construe to be the compass, which, notwith-
standing, according unto Pineda, who hath discussed the
point, Turnebus,^ Cabeus, and divers others, is better inter-
preted the rope that helps to turn the ship, or, as we s&y,
doth make it tack about ; the compass declaring rather the
ship is turned, than conferring imto its conversion. As for
the long expeditions and sundry voyages of elder times which
might confirm the antiquity of this invention, it is not im-
probable^ they were performed by the help of stars ; and so
might the Phoenician navigators, and also Ulysses, sail
about the Mediterranean, by the flight of birds, or keeping
near the shore ; and so might Hanno coast about Africa, or,
by the help of oars, as is expressed in the voyage of Jonah.
And, whereas, it is contended that this verticity was not un-
known unto Solomon, in whom is presumed an universality
of knowledge, it will as forcibly follow, he knew the art of
typography, powder, and guns, or had the philosopher's
stone, yet sent unto Ophir for gold. It is not to be denied,
that, besides his political wisdom, his knowledge in philoso-
phy was very large ; and perhaps from his works therein,
the ancient philosophers, especially Aristotle, who had the
assistance of Alexander's acquirements, collected great ob-
servables. Tet, if he knew the use of the compass, his ships
were surely \ery slow, that made a three years' voyage from
Eziongeber in the Eed Sea unto Ophir, which is supposed
to be Taprobana or Malacca in the Indies, not many
months' sail;^ and since, in the same or lesser time, Drake
and Cavendish performed their voyage about the earth.
* Turnelyu.'l Otherwise Twnhull, whose father was a Scotchman.
~Jef.
* imjyrobahle.'] Ross reads prohahle, and so indulges in a long dis-
course to refute the position.
' a th -ce years' voyage, <fcc.] That the voyage from Eziongeber to
TOL I. £
130 CONCEENIKG THE LOAI STONE. [bOOK II.
And, as the knowledge of its verticity is not so old as
some conceive, so is it more ancient than most believe, nor
had its discovery with guns, printing, or as many think,
some years before the discovery of America ; for it was not
unknown unto Petrus Peregrinus, a Prenchman, who, two
hundred years since,- left a tract of the magnet, and a per-
Ophir occupied three years is by no means to be inferred from the ex-
pressions used by the sacred historian : see 1 Kings x. 22 ; 2 Chron.
ix. 21.
If, in his identification of the ancient Taprobane with Malacca, Sii"
Tliomas may be supposed to have included the adjacent inlands of Su-
matra, Borneos, and Java, which is extremely probahle, his opinion is
supported by the high authority of 8ir T. Stamford Raffles ; though
oflier modern geographers have considered it to be Ceylon.
The true situation of Ophir, however, has been the subject of very
many conflicting hypotheses. One of the most recent, and perhaps mo; t
probable, is that of Mr. C. T. Beke, who supposes it to have been situated
at the northern extremity of the Persian gulpli. See his Origincs Bib-
liccE, vol. i. p. 114.
^ tioo hundred years since.] The knowledge of the directive power or
polarity of the magnet, is now known to be of a date considerably earlier
than this. Sir John F. W. Herschel, in his Prelhninary Discourse on
the Study of Natural Phihsopjhy, p. 326, thus concisely states the present
amount of our information on the subject : "It does not appear that the
ancients had any knowledge of this property of the magnet, though its
attraction of iron was well known to them. The first mention of it in
modern times cannot be traced earlier than 1180, though it was pro-
bably known to the Chinese before that time. " The following passage
from the late Professor Sir John Leslie's Dissertation on the Progress
of Mathematical and Physical Science, prefixed to the seventh edition
of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, gives a more circumstantial view of the
history of the compass, which is further interesting, when contrasted
with the previous passage of the text, as showing that the notions re-
specting the antiquity of the knowledge of magnetic polarity, which are
therein contemned by Browne, have been revived and supported by
high modern authority. " The magnetic compass, with the art of dis-
tillation, which was never practised by the ancient Greeks or Eomans,
seems to have been discovered in Upper Asia, and thence communicated
by their Tartarian conquerors, to the Chinese. From them again, the
knowledge of the invention spread gradually over the East. The Cru-
saders, during the occupation of their bloody conquests in those regions,
had leisure to admire the arts acquired by their more civilized rivals.
Having their curiosity thus awakened, they appear, about the latter
part of the twelfth century, to have imported into Europe the conzpjan,
along with the substance which, mistaking it for natron, they called
saltpetre, and of which they had learned the deflagrating property. That
invaluable instrument was at first verj' rudely formed, consisting merely
of a piece of the native mineral fixed to a broad cork, and set to float
CHAJ. II.] CO>"CEKNIKa THE LOADSTONE. 131
petual motion to be made thereby, preserved by Gasserus.
Paulas Veuetus, and, about five hundred years past,
Albertus Magnus, make mention hereof, and quote for it a
book of Aristotle, De Lapide ; which book, although we
find in the catalogue of Laertius, yet, with Cabeus, we may
rather judge it to be the work of some Arabic writer, not
many years before the days of Albertus.
Lastly, it is likewise true, what some have delivered of
crocus Martis, that is, steel corroded with vinegar, sulphur,
or otherwise, and after reverberated by fire. For the load-
stone will not at all attract it, nor will it adhere, but lie
therein like sand."^ This is to be imdertood of crocus Martis
well reverberated, and into a violet colour ; for common
cJialyhs prceparatus, or corroded and powdered steel, the
loadstone attracts, like ordinary filings of iron, and many
times most of that which passeth for crocus Martis. So
that this way may serve as a test of its preparation, after
which, it becometh a very good medicme in fluxes. The
like may be afiirmed of flakes of iron that are rusty and
begin to tend unto earth ; for their cognation then expireth,
and the loadstone will not regard them.
in a dish of water. An artist, of the opulent town of Amalphi, the
great emporium of the East, and seated on the shore of Calabria, in the
direct route of the Crusaders, improved the construction, and marked
the north point by a Jleur-de-lis, the armorial bearing of the kingdom of
Naples. From its directive property, it was now called, in English, the
loadstone, or leading stone. — Br.
^ hut lie therein like sand.'] Some explanatory remarks are requisite in
this place. The crocus martis described by the author, is the peroxide
of iron of modern chemists, that is, iron combined with the greatest
proportion of oxygen with which it is capable of uniting, in which state
of combination the metal ceases to obey the magnetic influence. But
the "common chalyhs prceparatus," which he afterwards mentions, con-
sists merely of steel, in which the metal retains, in great measure, its
metallic form, but is mixed and disguised witli variable proportions of
its oxides, and chiefly of the hlach oxide, and this, containing less oxygen
than the peroxide, is like the unoxidated metal attracted by the magnet ;
which explains why this preparation is attracted by "the loadstone,"
.... "like ordinary filings of iron." While the "flakes of iron
that are rusty," &c. adverted to at the conclusion of the paragraph, are
only in the state of black oxide, they also obey the magnet ; but when
they have acquired their full dose of oxygen, and thus become peroxide,
"their cognation then expireth, and the loadstone will not regard
them." — Br.
k2
132 CONCERNING THE LOADSTONE. [bOOK TL
And therefore, this may serve as a trial of good steel,"* the
loadstone taking up a greater mass of that which is most
pure. It may also decide the conversion of wood into iron,
as is pretended, from some waters ; and the common con-
version of iron into copper, hy the mediation of blue cop-
peras ; for the loadstone will not attract it. Although it
may be questioned, whether, in this operation, the iron or
copperas be transmuted,^ as may be doubted from the cog-
nation of copperas with copper, and the quantity of iron re-
maining after the conversion. And the same may be useful
^ as a trial of good stcel.~\ Tliis statement is no further true than
that the magnet, if caused to act upon filings of iron or steel in which
the metal fully retained its metallic form, free from oxidation, and also
upon similar filings which had become partially oxidated, would attract
a greater quantity of the former than of the latter. As a trial of the
purity or goodness of iron or steel in the mass, the proposed test is
quite nugatory. — Br.
^ whether in this operation the iron or copperas ie transmuted.] This
alleged conversion of iron into copper is an experiment of the alchymists
and of the old chemists their successors ; the true nature of which has
been explained by modern chemists, and appears, from the passage be-
fore us, to have been suspected also by Browne. The metallic salt, here
termed " blue copperas " (or blue vitriol, as it is also called), is properly
a hi/dratcd j)ersidphate of copper, — a combination of the peroxide of that
metal with the sulphuric acid and with water. But iron, having a
stronger chemical attraction for oxygen than copper has, when im-
mersed in a solution of this salt, attracts and unites with the oxygen
of apart of the peroxide of copper, thus separating an equivalent quantity
of the copper itself, which being precipitated, in its pure metallic state,
upon the iron, imparts to it externally the appearance of copper, just
as gilding would impart that of gold. Tt was formerly imagined, how-
ever (and the experiment was cited as demonstrating the transrauta-
bility of metals into one another), that part of the iron was actually
converted into copper. But our author, knowing the " cognation of
[blue] copperas with copper," and considering "the quantity of iron
remaining after the conversion," justly questions whether the iron or
the "copperas" "be transmuted." It is evident from this, that he
entertained as correct a notion upon the subject as it was possible to
arrive at in the existing state of chemical knowledge ; for, although in
reality a particle of iron becomes dissolved in the solution for every
particle of copper which is precipitated from it, yet, in the manner-in
which the experiment is commonly made, and as it was always made
formerly, the iron is not sensibly diminished in substance, and continues
unaltered in form, so that the obvious essential change takes place with
the metallic salt only. The last sentence of the first period alluding to
this subject would be more readily intelligible, were it read "for the
loadstone will not attract the copperas." — Br.
CHIP. III.] CONCEENING THE LOADSTONE. 133
to some discovery concerning vitriol or copperas of Mars,^
by some called salt of steel, made by the spirits of vitriol or
sulphur. For the corroded powder of steel will, after ablu-
tion, be actively attracted by the loadstone, and also re-
maineth in little diminished quantity ; and therefore, whe-
ther those shooting salts partake but little of steel, and be
not rather the vitriolous spirits fixed into salt by the efflu-
vium or odour of steel, is not without good question.^
CHAPTEE III.
Concerning the Loadstone ; a rejection of sundry common opinions and
relations thereof ; natural, medical, historical, magical.
And first, not only a simple heterodox, but a very hard
paradox, it will seem, and of great absurdity unto obstinate
ears, if we say, attraction is unjustly appropriated unto the
loadstone, and that perhaps we speak not properly, when we
say vulgarly and appropriately, the loadstone draweth iron ;
and yet herein we should not want experiment and great
authority. The words of Eenatus des Cartes, in his Prin-
ciples of Philosophy, are very plain. PrcBterea magnes
trahit ferrum, sive potiiis magnes et ferrum ad invicem acce-
* some discovery concerning vitriol or copperas of Mars."] The salt here
alluded to, commonly termed green vitriol, is the hydrated protosulphate
of iron, — a combination of the piotoxide of iron with the sulphuric
acid and with water, bearing nearly the same relation to metallic iron
which blue vit7-iol bears to metallic copper. The manner in which
Browne adverts to these substances, evinces that he entertained ap-
proximately correct ideas respecting the nature of the several salts
tenaed cojrperas. But when he supposes that " those shooting salts"
(meaning thereby the hydrated protosulphate of iron), " partake but
little " of the metal from which they are formed, he is entirely mis-
taken. He appears to have been led into this error by the application
of his own proposed magnetic test : finding that the " corroded powder
of steel," the nature of which is explained in our preceding note, was
readily attracted by the magnet, but that the " copperas of Mars " was
not, he seems to have inferred that that salt could not be materially
related to the metal from which it is formed ; not knowing that those
Bubstances which obey the magnet in their metallic state, and in some
instances in their oxidated form also, cease to be amenable to its influ-
ence when united v\'ith acids into salts. — Br.
' And thirefon:, <lv.] Added in 2nd edition.
134 COXCEENING THE LOADSTONE. [bOOK 71.
dunt, neque enim tiUa ibi tractio est. The same is solemnly
determined by Cabeus. Nee magnes trahit proprie ferrum,
nee ferrum ad se magnetem provocat ; sed ambo pari conatu
ad invicem eonfluunt. Concordant hereto is the assertion ct
Dr. Ridley, physician to the emperor of liussia, in his tract
Of Magnetical Sodies, defining magnetical attraction to be
a natural incitation and disposition conforming unto con-
tiguity, an union of one magnetical body with another, and
no violent haling of the weak luito the stronger. And this
is also the doctrine of Gilbertus, by whom this motion is
termed coition, and that not made by any faculty attractive
of one, but a syndrome and concourse of each,* a coition
always of their vigours, and also of their bodies, if" bulk or
impediment prevent not. And therefore, those contrary
actions, which flow from opposite poles or faces, are not so
properly expulsion and attraction, as sequela and fuga, a
mutual flight and following. Consonant whereto are
also the determinations of Helmontius, Kircberus, and
Licetus.2
The same is also confirmed by experiment ; for if a piece
of iron be fastened in the side of a bowl or basin of water, a
loadstone, swimming freely in a boat of cork, will presently
make unto it. So if a steel or knife untouched be offered
toward the needle that is touched, the needle nimbly moveth
toward it, and conformeth unto a union with the steel that
movetli not. Again, if a loadstone be finely filed, the atoms
or dust thereof will adhere unto iron that was never touched,
even as the powder of iron doth also unto the loadstone.
And, lastly, if in two skiffs of cork, a loadstone and steel be
placed witliin the orb of their activities, the one doth not
move, the otlier standing still, but both hoist sail and steer
unto each other. So that if the loadstone attract, the steel
hath also its attraction ; for in this action the alliciency is
reciprocal, which jointly felt, they mutually approach and
run into each otlier's arms.
' concourse of each.] Ross, on the ground that "no end can be
assigned why the hjadstone shoidd move towards the iron," denies that
tliey move towards each other ; thinking it more reasonable to suppose
that iron and c'.her metals move towards the loadstone as to their matrix.
— Arcana, p. ] -l.
* Consonant, d-c] Added in the 2nd edition.
CUAP. HI.] CONCEENIN^G THE LOADSTONE. 135
Aud therefore, surely, more moderate expressions become
tins action, than what the ancients have used ; which some
have delivered in the most violent terms of their language ;
so Austin calls it, mirabilem ferri raptorem : Hippocrates,
\iQoQ 6 Ti Toy (Tto/;poj' apTTcti^Ei, lapis qiiiferrum rapit. Galen,
disputing against Epicurus, useth the term 'iXKuy, but this
also is too violent ; among the ancients, Aristotle spake most
warily, XidoQ oang tov aici^pov Kivti, lapis q^ui ferrum movet :
and in some tolerable exception do run the expressions of
Aquinas, Scaliger, and Cusanus.
Many relations are made, and great expectations are raised
from the magnes carneus, or a loadstone that hatli a faculty
to attract not only iron, but flesh ; but this, upon enquiry,
aud as Cabeus hath also observed, is nothing else but a weak
and inanimate kind of loadstone, veined here and there with
a few magnetical and ferreous lines, but chiefly consisting of
a bolary and clammy substance, whereby it adheres like h<s-
matites or terra Lemnia, unto the lips. And tliis is that
stone which is to be understood, when physicians join it
with cetites, or the eagle-stone, and promise therein a virtue
against abortion.
There is sometimes a mistake concerning the variation of
the compass, and therein one point is taken for another.
For beyond the equator some men account its variation by
the diversion of the northern point; whereas beyond that
circle, the southern point^ is sovereign, and the north sub-
mits his pre-eminency. For in the southern coast, either of
America or Africa, the southern point deflects and vai-ieth
toward the land, as being disposed and spirited that way by
the meridional and proper hemisphere. And, therefore, on
that side of the earth, the varying point is best accounted by
the south. And therefore, also, the wTitings of some, and
maps of others, are to be enquired, that make the needle
decline unto the east twelve degrees at Capo Frio, and six
at the straits of Magellan ; accounting hereby one point for
* beyond that circle, tbc] The author was here much mistaken : the
southern pointe having noe soveranty at all — noe not in the southern
cljTuats, as our navigators unanimously afiBrme. — Wr.
The dean's contradiction must be flatly thrown back upon him. The
fact is found to bear out our author's assertion, which is correct both
aa to substance and literaUty.
136 co:NCER]!aNO the loadstone. [book ti.
another, and preferring the north ui the liberties and pro-
vince of the south.'*
But certainly false it is, what is commonly affirmed and
believed, that garlick doth hinder the attraction of the load-
stone ;^ which is, notwithstanding, delivered by grave and
worthy writers, by Pliny, Soliuus, Ptolemy, Plutarch, Al-
bertus, Matthiolus, Rueus, Laugius, and many more. An
effect as strange as that of Homer's Moly, and the garlick
that Mercury bestowed upon Ulysses. But that it is
evidently false, many experiments declare. Por an iron
wire heated red hot and quenched in the juice of garlick,
doth, notwithstanding, contract a verticity from the earth,
and attracteth tlie southern point of the needle. If, also,
the tooth of a loadstone be covered or stuck in garlick, it
will, notwithstanding, attract ; and needles, excited and fixed
in garlick, until they begin to rust, do yet retain their at-
tractive and polary respects.
Of the same stamp is that which is obtruded upon us by
authors ancient and modern, that an adamant or diamond
prevents or suspends the attraction of the loadstone ; as is
in open terms delivered by Pliny : Adamas dissidet cum
maqnete lapide, ut juxta positus ferrumnon patiatur ahstrahi,
out si admotus magpies apprehenderit, rapiat atque auferit.
Por if a diamond be placed between a needle and a load-
stone, there will, nevertheless, ensue a coition even over the
body of the diamond. And an easy matter it is to toucli
or excite a needle through a diamond, by placing it at the
tooth of a loadstone : and, therefore, tlie relation is false ;
or our estimation of these gems untrue,^ nor are they dia-
monds which carry that name amongst us.
* and prcfennng, <fcc.] Itt is certaine that the needle holds the same
posture to the northe, and moves to iron on the south side the line, in
the self-same manner as itt did being toucht in England, and that the
south points of the needle does [there] fly from iron as itt does
here, — Wr.
* garlick doth, hinder, ttc] Nothing can afford a more perfect example
of implicit adherence to antiquity, than the following passage from
Ross: — "I cannot think the ancient sages would write so confidently
of that which they had no experience of, being a thing so obvious and
easy to try ; therefore I suppose they had a stronger kind of garlick
than is with us/" — Arcana, p. 192.
® and therefore the relation, <£'c.] The paragraph containing this
result, the preceding, and the two following ones, all furnish examples
CHAP. III.] CONCERNING THE LOADSTONE. 137
It is not suddenly to be received what Paracelsus* afHrm-
eth, that if a loadstone be anointed with mercurial oil, or
only put into quicksilver, it amitteth its attraction for ever.
For we have found that loadstones and touched needles,
which have laid long time in quicksilver, have not amitted
their attraction. And we also find that red hot needles or
wires, extinguished in quicksilver, do yet acquire a verticity
according to the laws of position in extinction. Of greater
repugnancy unto reason is that which he delivers concerning
its graduation, that heated in the fire and often extinguished
in oil of Mars or iron, it acquires an ability to extract or
draw forth a nail fastened in a wall ; for, as we have de-
clared before, the vigour of the loadstone is destroyed by
fire ; nor will it be re-impregnated by any other magnet
than the earth.''
Nor is it to be made out, what seemeth very plausible,
and formerly hath deceived us, that a loadstone will not
attract an iron or steel red hot.^ The falsity hereof, dis-
covered first by Kircherus, we can confirm by iterated ex-
periment ; very sensibly in armed loadstones, and obscurely
in any other.
True it is, that, besides fire, some other ways there are of
its destruction ; as age, rust, and, what is least dreamt on,
an unnatural or contrary situation. For, being impolarily
adjoined unto a more vigorous loadstone, it will in a short
time exchange its poles ; or, being kept in undue position,
that is, not lying on the meridian, or else with its poles in-
verted, it receives in longer time impair in activity, exchange
of faces ; and is more powerfully preserved by position than
* De generatione rerum.
of Browne's rigorous experimental scrutiny of the statements made by
authors ; in the present instance, as in all others adverted to in these
paragraphs, "the relation is false," the discrepancy not arising from
any error relative to the diamond, although several substances are pro-
bably confounded together under that appellation, by Pliiiy. — Br.
'' nor will it be re-imj/regnated, tf-c] This is untrue, if understood of
an artificial magnet, which may readily be re-magnetized b ,- the usual
means, after being deprived of its magnetism by heat ; but the state-
ment is probably true, if understood of the natural loadstone, or mag-
netic iron ore. — Br.
* Nor is it, cfcc] Added in the 2iid edition.
138 CONCEENING IBE LOADSTONE, [bOOK IT.
by the dust of steel. But the sudden and surest way is fire ;
that is, fire not only actual but potential ; the one surely
and suddenly, the other slowly and imperfectly ; the one
changing, the other destroying the figure. For if distilled
vinegar or aqua fortis be poured upon the powder of
loadstone, the subsiding powder dried, retains some mag-
netical virtue, and will be attracted by the loadstone ; but
if the menstruum or dissolvent be evaporated to a consis-
tence, and afterward doth shoot into icicles or crystals, the
loadstone hath no power upon them ; and if in a full disso-
lution of steel, a separation of parts be made by preciptita-
tion or exhalation, the exsiccated powder hath lost its wings,
and ascends not unto the loadstone. And though a load-
stone fired doth presently amit its proper virtue, and ac-
cording to the position in cooling contracts a new verticity
from the earth, yet if the same be laid awhile in aquafortis,
or other corrosive water, and taken out before a considerable
corrosion, it still reserves its attraction, and will convert
the needle according to former polarity. And that, duly
preserved from violent corrosion, or the natural disease of
rust, it may long conserve its virtue, — beside the magnetical
virtue of the earth which hath lasted since the creation, a
great example we have from the observation of our learned
friend, Mr. Graves,* in an Egyptian idol cut out of load-
stone, and found among the mummies, whicli still retains
its attraction, though probably taken oat of the mine about
two thousand years ago.^
It is improbable, what Pliny afiirmeth concerning the ob-
ject of its attraction, that it attracts not only ferreous bodies,
but also liqtiore^n vitri ; for in the body of glass there is no
ferreousor magneticalnature which might occasion attraction.
For, of the glass we use, the purest is made of the finest sand
and the ashes of chaly or glasswort ; aud the coarser or
green sort, of the ashes of brake or other plants. True it is,
that in the making of glass, it hath been au ancient practice
to cast in pieces of magnet, or, perhaps, manganese, conceiv-
ing it carried away all ferreous and eartliy parts from the pure
and running portion of glass, which the loadstone would not
* In his learned PijramidograpJiy,
' And that, <£-c.] Added in the 2nd edition.
CHAP. III.] COJ!fCi:RNI?rG THE LOADSTONE. 139'
respect ; and, therefore, if that attraction were not rather
electrical than magnetical, it was a wouclrous effect what
Helmont delivered concerning a glass wherein the magistery
of loadstone was prepared, which after retained an attractive
quality.^
But, whether the magnet attracteth more than common
iron, may be tried in other bodies. It seems to attract the
smyris or emery in powder.^ It draweth the shining or
glassy powder brought from the Indies,^and usually employed
in writing dust. There is also in smith's cinders, by some
adhesion of iron,'* whereby they appear as it were glazed,
' Ti-ue it is, etc.] Instead of the rest of this paragraph (thus altered
in 2nd edit.) edit. 1646 read thus:—" Beside vitrification is the last or
utmost fusion of a body vitrifiable, and is performed by a strong and
violent heat, which keeps the melted glass red hot. Now certain it is,
and we have showed it before, that the loadstone will not attract even
steel itself that is candent, much less the incongenerous body of glass
being tired. For fire destroys the loadstone ; and therefore it declines
in its own defence, and seeks no union with it."
^ seetns to attract, <£'c.] Emery itself, in its natural state a massive
and granular variety of corundum, the mineral of which the saphire
and the ruby are also varieties, is not attracted by the magnet ; but it
is abnost always mingled with a considerable proportion of particles of
magnetic iron ore (or loadstone) which of course are subject to attrac-
tion. By the use of a magnet, indeed, nearly the whole of this may be
separated, lea\'ing the emery nearly pure, especially if the mass has
previously been reduced into a fine powder. It was by this means that
the late accomplished chemical analyst, Mr. Smithson Tennant, sepa-
rated the magnetic iron ore from the emery, his examination of which
first evinced the true nature of that substance as a variety of corun-
dum. See Phil. Trans. 1802, p. 399.
The foregoing explanation has been given on the supposition that
our author alludes to the mineral properly designated emery ; but that
tei-m has also been applied, in commerce and in the arts, to various
other substances, and among them to some of the ores of iron ; Browne,
therefore, may perhaps allude in reality to some of the latter ; but in
either case the fact is explained in conformity with the obvious and known
properties of the magnet, and vsithout leaving room for any suspicion that
other bodies, not properly magnetic, .are attractable by it imder ordinary
circumstances. — Br.
^ shining or glassy powder, <fcc.] This powder consists almost entirely
of minute crystals or grains of magnetic iron ore, so that, as in the case of
the attractable particles in emery, we have here merely the loadstone or
the magnet attracting particles of loadstone itself — Br.
* There is also in smith's cinders, etc.] Tlie scales which are detached
from the surface of iron while undergoing the operations of the smith,
consist of the black oxide of that metal, which agrees in its chemical
140 CONCEENIN& TKE LOADSTONE. [BOOK II.
sometimes to be found a magiietical operation ; for some
thereof applied have power to move the needle. But,
whether the ashes of vegetables, vfhich grow over iron mines,
contract a magnetical quality, as containing some mineral
particles, which by sublimation ascend unto their roots, and
are attracted together with their nourishment, according, as
some afiirm from the like observations upon the mines of
silver, quicksilver, and gold, we must refer unto further ex-
periment.^
It is also improbable and something singular, what some
conceive, and Eusebius Nierembergius, a learned Jesuit of
Spain, delivers, that the body of man is magnetical, and,
being placed in a boat, the vessel will never rest until the
head respecteth the north.^ If this be true, the bodies of
Christians do lie unnaturally in their graves. King Cheops
in his tomb, and the Jews in their beds, have fallen upon
the natural position ; who reverentially declining the situa-
tion of their temple, nor willing to lie as that stood, do place
their beds from north to south, and delight to sleep meri-
dionally. This opinion confirmed, woiUd much advance the
microcosmical conceit and commend the geography of Para-
celsus, who, according to the cardinal points of the world,
divideth the body of man ; and, therefore, working upon
human ordure, and by long preparation rendering it odorife-
rous, he terms it ziheta occidentalis, western civet; making the
face the east, but the posteriors the America or western
pai"t of his microcosm. The verity hereof ^ might easily be
tried in Wales, where there are portable boats, and made of
leather, which would convert upon tlie impulsion of any ver-
nature with the magnetic iron ore or native loadstone, being composed,
like that mineral, of the protoxide and the peroxide of iron united.
These scales are of course magnetic, and may he, indeed, what the
author alludes to ; but should he in reality refer merely to the cinders
of the small coal used in the forge, their magnetism may readily be
accounted for on the supposition that the scales of black oxide, with
which they are so frequently brought into contact, must often become inti-
mately mingled with them by the partial fusion of both. — Br.
* But whether the ashes, <f,-c.] Added in 2nd edition.
^ the vessel, <fcc.] How easye it is to sifte out this, and save the
dispute. — Wr.
' T)ie verity hereof.'] "The verity, or rather fiilsity hereof." — Edit,
1646.
CHAP. III.] CONCEENII^G THE LOADSTONE. 141
tioity ; and seem to be tlie same whereof, in his description
of Britain, Caesar hath left some mention.^
Another kind of verticity is that which Anfjelus doce mihi
jus* alias, Michael Sundevogis, in a tract De Suljyhure, dis-
covereth in vegetables, from sticks let fall or depressed
under water ; which, equally framed and permitted unto
themselves, will ascend at the upper end, or tliat which was
vertical in their vegetation ; wherein, notwithstanding, as
yet, we have not found satisfaction : although, perhaps,
too greedy of magnalities, we are apt to make but favour-
able experiments concerning welcome truths, and such de-
sired verities.
It is also wondrous strange, what Laelius Bisciola re-
porteth, that if unto ten ounces of loadstone one of iron be
added, it increaseth not unto eleven, but weighs ten ounces
still. A relation inexcusable in a work of leisureable
hours ;t the examination being as ready as the relation, and
the falsity tried as easily as delivered. Nor is it to be
omitted, what is taken up by Csesius Bernardus, a late
mineralogist, and originally confirmed by Porta, that needles
* Anagrammatically, + Horm SubsecivcB.
* in Wales, where, d-c] "Tlie fishermen on the Teivi, and some of
the other rivers of Wales, use a boat of a singular construction, called in
Welsh coi-w(j, and anglicized coracle, which is probably coeval with the
earliest population of the island. (See Ccesar, Bell. Civ. lib. i. c. 54.)
The form of this vessel is nearly oval, flattened at one end like the keel
of a common boat : its length is usually from five to six feet, and its
breadth about four feet. Tlie frame is formed of split rods, which are
plaited like basket-work : these are afterwards covered on the outside
with a raw hide, or more commonly with strong coarse flannel, which is
rendered water tight by a thick coating of pitch and tar. A narrow
board is fastened across the middle : when on the watei:, this forms the
fisherman's seat, whence, with his paddle, he directs his bark at pleaure.
They are not adapted to carry more than one person conveniently.
When proceeding to their work, or returning, the men fasten these
vessels on their backs by means of a leather strap attached to the seat.
which they pass round their bodies. Their appearance, when thus
equipped, has been aptly compared to that of a large tortoise walking
on its hind legs. Their usual weight may be about forty or fifty pounds ;
but according to an old Welsh adage {Llwyth gur ei gorwg), it was
thought necc ;sary that they should form as heavy a load as the indi-
vidual could can-y. before they would beai him on the water." — Bees' a
Beauties of South Wales, p. 39],
142 CONCEENING THE LOADSTONE. [bOOK II.
touched with a diamond contract a verticity, even as they
do with a loadstone, which will not consist with experiment.
And, therefore, as Grilbertus observeth, he might be deceived
in. touching such needles with diamonds, which had a
verticity before, as we have declared most needles to have ;
and so, had he touched them with gold or silver, he might
have concluded a magnetical \"irtue therein.
In the same form may we place Fracastorius his attraction
of silver, Philostratus his Pantarhes, ApoUodorus and Beda
their relation of the loadstone that attracted only in the
night. But most inexcusable is Franciscus Eueus, a man
of our own profession ; who, in his discourse of gems
mentioned in the Apocalypse, undertakes a chapter of the
loadstone. Wlierein substantially and upon experiment he
scarce dehvereth anything ; making long enumeration of its
traditional qualities, whereof he seemeth to believe many,
and some, above convicted by experience, he is fain to salve
as impostures of the devil. But Boetius de Boot, physician
unto Rodolphus the second, hath recompensed this defect ;
and in his tract, De Lapidihus et Gemmis, speaks very
materially hereof, and his discourse is consonant unto ex-
perience and reason.
As for relations historical, though many there be of less
account, yet two alone deserve consideration ; the first eon-
eerneth magnetical rocks and attractive mountains in several
parts of the earth. The other, the tomb of Mahomet, and
bodies suspended in the air. Of rocks magnetical there are
likewise two relations ; for some are delivered to be in the
Indies, and some in the extremity of the north, and about the
very pole. The northern account is commonly ascribed
unto Olaus Magnus, archbishop of Upsale, who, out of his
predecessor, Joannes Saxo, and others, compiled a history
of some northern nations ; but this assertion we have not
discovered in that work of his, which commonly passeth
amongst us ; and should believe his geography herein no
more than that in the first line of his book ; when he
afiirmeth that Biarmia (which is not seventy degrees in lati-
tude) hath the pole for its zenith, and equinoctial for the
horizon.
Now, upon this foundation, how uncertain soever, men
have erected mighty illations, ascribing thereto the cause
CHAP. III.] CONCEEXI^'G THE LOADSTONE. 143
of the need.e's direction, and conceiving the effluxions from
these mountains and rocks invite the lily toward the north.
Which conceit, though countenanced by learned men, is not
made out either by experience or reason ; for no man hath
yet attained or given a sensible account of the pole by some
degrees. It is also observed the needle doth very much vary
as it approacheth the pole ; whereas, were there such
direction from the rocks, upon a nearer approachment it
would more directly respect them. Besides, were there such
magnetical rocks under the pole, yet being so far removed,
they would produce no such effect. For they that sail by
the isle of llua, now called Elba, in the Tuscan sea, which
abounds in the veins of loadstone, observe no variation
or inclination of the needle ; much less may they expect a
direction from rocks at the end of the earth. And, lastly,
men that ascribe thus much unto rocks of the north, must
presume or discover the like magueticals at the south ; for
in the southern seas, and far beyond the equator, varia-
tions are large, and declinations as constant as in the
northern ocean.
The other relation, of loadstone mines and rocks^ in the
' loadstone mines and rocJcs.'] The author's facts and reasoning, in
the preceding paragraphs, relative to the absurd notion that the direc-
tion of the magnetic needle is caused by the attraction of magnetical
rocks, situated at or near the north pole of the earth, are equally cor-
rect ; as also is the evidence of the navigators upon which he decides, in
the paragraph now before us, that no rocks exist having the power of
drawing the iron nails out of the ships which sail past them. But when
he infers, as the marginal note intimates, that therefore " (probably),
there be no magnetical rocks," he is himself in error, for there are many
such, which have a very powerful effect upon the compass needle, in
producing a local deviation fi-om its ordinary north and south direction.
The known existence of these, in connection with other circumstances,
has probably led to the fabrication of some of the stories just alluded
to, respecting rocks and islands of loadstone destroying ships approach-
ing them, by drawing out their bolts and other iron fastenings, or by
their attractive force exerted upon the iron, drawing the ships them-
selves out of their course, and at length detaining them on shore. It
may be remarked, by the way, that supposing magnetic rocks to pos-
sess sufficient power, and to be cajjable of exerting it to such distances
as these stories imply, the latter would be the effect that would really
happen ; the former, under any supposition, would be impossible ; for,
not to mention the manner in which the fastenings of ships must neces-
144! CONCEElSriWG THE LOADSTONE, [bOOK IT.
shore of India, is delivered of old by Pliny ; wherein, saith
he, they are so placed both in abundance and vigour, that
earily be interlaced with each other, an<l with the timbers, the adhesion
of wood to iron nails, screws, and bolts, is so powei-ful, that the vis
inertia and weight of the vessel would yield to it, and the vessel itself,
by the aejgregate magnetic attraction upon all the separate masses
of iron which it contained, would be drawn towards, and finally afl&xed
to the rock.
In some of these stories, however, this, which is the only possible
effect of such a power of attraction as they suppose, is actually related,
as will appear fi'om the subjoined extracts from Hole's "Remarks on
the Arabian Nights' Entertainments," an elegant and ingenious com-
mentary on those marvellous narratives, in which many of the incidents,
which occur in them, are illustrated in a very satisfactory and interest-
ing manner.
"The account of vessels being wrecked by the attractive power of a
magnetic rock, appears to have been a long-established opinion in the
eastern world. In the history of the Tliird Calendar (in the Arabian
Nights), we meet with a mountain of adamant, possessing the same
properties : and Aboulfoneris, the Sinbad of the Persian Tales, ia
wrecked by means of a magnetic rock ; for that must be intended by a
mountain which resembled polished steel, and which, by virtue of a
talisman, rendered every vessel that approached it stationary and im-
moveable." After making these observations, Mr. Hole cites our
author's quotation from Serapion, and then proceeds as follows : " It ia
not probable that Mandeville ever saw Serapion, yet he gives the same
account : ' In an isle clept Crues, ben schippes withouten nayles of iren,
or bonds, for the rockes of the adamandes ; for they ben alle fuUe there
aboute in that see, that it is marveyle to spaken of And gif a schipp
passed by the marches, and hadde either iren bandes or iren nayles,
anon he sholde ben perishet. For the adamande of this kinde drawa
the iren to him ; and so wolde it draw to him the schipp, because of the
iren ; that he sholde never departen fro it, ne never go thens.' " It is
proper to state, that these extracts are taken from a review of Mr.
Hole's book, in the European Magazine for December, 1798, vol. xxxiv.
pp. 395, 396.
In order fully to illustrate our author's allusions to magnetic rocks,
we must now proceed to give a concise account of some of the most
remarkable of those rocks which are at present known, and of their
properties, with a reference also to some of his previous observations on
magnetic bodies. It will be appropriate to commence this with a notice
of the rocks of Magnesia, in Asia Minor, a locality of the loadstone
well known to the ancients, and from which that substance is said to
have derived the name oi magnes, or " magnet," now extended to bodies
artificially magnetised, and in fact often applied to them emphatically,
in contradistinction from the natural magnet, loadstone, or magnetic
iron ore. A particular account of these rocks of Magnesia, by Dr. Yates,
was submitted, not long since, to the Philosophical Society of Cambridge:
CHAP. III.] CONCEENING THE LOADSTOlSrE. 145
it proves an adventure of hazard to pass those coasts in a
ship with iron nails. Serapion, the Moor, an author of
the important facts, as given in the substance of Dr. Yates' paper, pub-
lished in the Athenteum, for January 4th, 1834, are as follows :
" The ancient town of Magnesia, in Asia Minor (the supposed origin
of the term "magnet"), stands at the base of mount Sipylus .... The
rocky heights of mount Sipylus are remarkable for their extraordmary
influence over the mariner's compass We ascended the castle
hill, a part of the Sipylus range. Having proceeded about a quarter of
an hour, a little to the westward of the castle, we took the first observa-
tion, in order to determine the bearing of a sugar loaf mountain, which
was beyond the river Hermus (probably a part of the range of mount
Temnus). We found it to be two degrees westward of north. As yet,
the compass indicated no change. Ascending in the same direction, we
took very numerous observations, keeping always as a fixed point, the
sugar-loaf mountain. At length the compass was found to vary 12
degrees easterly, and the variation continued to increase gradually in the
same course, until it amounted t,,o 56 degrees easterly. A short time
before we approached the summit, the needle began to recede, and was
suddenly attracted to the south-west. It was evident there must be
some powerful cause for the change, and, in proportion as we advanced,
the degree of variation diminished, from which we inferred that the
great source of attraction was nmo behind us ; we, therefore, retraced
our steps, and immediately there was a corresponding change in the
compass. We forthwith set ourselves to explore the district : the varia-
tion went on steadily increasing, until we approached a mass of dark
rock, which had a most astonishing influence over the instrument, which
was no sooner placed upon it, than it became considerably agitated, and
trembled as if drawn from its course downwards, by a powerful magnetic
source beneath the surface : on placing the needle on the ground, either
at our feet, or a few yards ofi", the effect produced was the same : it did
not point to the rock, but fairly dipped ; it trembled, and wa3 drawn
down as before, and only returned to its former variation, as we retired
from the spot ; from which we concluded that the phsenomenon did not
depend on the mass in question, but on something bdoiv the surface:
besides, we carried home portions of the rock, but did not find that they
exhibited any magnetic power.
" On quitting this remarkable spot, the needle ceased to tremble, and
gradually returned to its previous degree of variation. Our ascent had
been westerly ; we went nearly to the summit of the mountain, where
nothing particular was noticed, and afterwards we descended by a path
to the eastward of the castle The compasses sustained no injury :
we had taken two with us, in order to compare the results — one of them
was smaller than the other, and, of course, more sensiljly affected. The
rocks of the whole district contained a great deal of iroa in various
states of oxydation."
"The mountainous parts about Magnesia," says ChishuU (Travels in
Turkey, 1747), " were anciently famous for the production of the load-
VOL. I. L
146 CONCERNING THE LOADSTONB. [bOOK II.
good esteem and reasonable antiquity, confirmetli the same,
whose expression in the word magnes is this : — " The
mine of this stone is in the sea-coast of India, whereto
when ships approach, there is no iron in them which flies
not lilie a bird unto those mountains ; and, therefore, their
ships are fastened not with iron but wood, for otlierwise they
woidd be torn to pieces." But this assertion, how positive
sover, is contradicted * by all navigators that pass that way,
which are now many, and of our own nation ; and might
* (Probably) there be no niagnetical rocks.
stone, though, indeed, it is disparaged by Pliny, and accounted less at-
tractive than that of other places. However, this probably was the
city, from whence, as Lucretius says, that stone took the name of magnet :
as from the whole country of Lydia, the touchstone likewise was called
lapis Lydius. This hint gave us the curiosity to carry a sea compass up
the castle hill, where we had the satisfaction to see it point to different
stones, and quickly after entirely to lose its whole virtue ; two effects
which are natural to the magnetic needle when injured by the nearness
of other bodies impregnated with the same quality."
Macfarlane tells us \Constantinople in 1828), that his pocket compass
proved the accuracy of Chishull's statement of the magnetic qualities of
these mountains. " In several places in my ascent," says he, "I found
the needle affected, seeing it tremble and vary from the pole ; but, on
the summit of the castle hill, to the west, on producing it, it pointed
due east, in the direction of a dark mass of rock, which, on examination,
offered nothing to distinguish it from tlie general appearance of the
Sipylus ; and, rather lower down, behind the castle, in the deep hollow
which separates the castle hill from the Sipylus, on placing it on a flat
stone, the needle wavered, and stood in succession at nearly every
point of the compass, and this suddenly, and as if by jerks, being any
thing now rather than an emblem of constancy." The same author
also mentions, that the day before his visit to the castle hill, [in] a
chasm of mount Sipylus, to the east of Magnesia, near the road which
leads to Sardes, he also detected the variations of his pocket compass ;
but the needle was not affected to such a degree, as on the hill of the
Acropolis.
Certain trap rocks in Nova Scotia, recintly described by Messrs.
Jackson and Alger, in a memoir on the mineralogy and geology of that
country, published in the Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts
and Sciences, No. VIII. vol. i. p. 223, are magnetic ; surveyors who have
to run lines in different parts of Digby peninsula, which is occupied by
them, find their compasses very sensibly influenced.
Further particulars relating to the action of magnetic rocks upon the
comi)a.ss, will be found in several papers by Dr. Macculloch, published
in the Transactions of the Geological Society, especially in a paper on
the Geology of Glen Tilt. Tram. Gcol. Soc. vol. iii. p. 321— 332.— .Br,
CHAP. III.] CONCEENINO THE LOADSTONE. 147
surely have been controlled by Nearchus, the admiral of
Alexander, who not knowing the compass, was fain to coast
that shore.
Por the relation concerning Mahomet, it is generally
believed his tomb, at Medina Talnabi, in Arabia, without any
visible supporters, hangeth in the air between two loadstones
artificially contrived both above and below ; which conceit
is fabulous and evidently false, from the testimony of ocular
testators, who affirm his tomb is made of stone, and lieth
upon the ground ; as (besides others) the learned Vossius
observeth, from Gabriel Sionita and Joannes Hefronita, two
Maronites, in theii* relations hereof. Of such intentions and
attempt by Mahometans we read in some relators, and that
might be the occasion of the fable, which by tradition of
time and distance of place [was] enlarged into the story of
being aecomplished. And this hath been promoted by
attempts of the like nature ; for we read in Pliny, that one
Dinocrates began to arch the temple of Arsinoe in Alex-
andria, with loadstone, that so her statue might be
suspended in the air to the amazement of the beholders.
And, to lead on our credulity herein, confirmation may be
drawn from history and writers of good authority. So is it
reported by Ruffinus, that in the temple of Serapis there
was an iron chariot suspended by loadstones in the air,
which stones removed, the chariot fell and dashed into
pieces. The like doth Beda report of Bellerophon's horse,
"nhich, framed of iron, and placed between two loadstones,
with wings expanded, hung pendulous in the air.
The verity of these stories we shall not further dispute ;
their possibility we may in some way determine : if we
conceive (what no man will deny) that bodies suspended
in the air have this suspension from one or many loadstones
placed both above and below it, or else by one or many
placed only above it ; likewise the body to be suspended in
respect of the loadstone above, is either placed first at a
pendulous distance in the medium, or else attracted unto
that site by the vigour of the loadstone. And so we first
aflirm, that possible it is a body may be suspended between
two loadstones ; that is, it being so equally attracted unto
both, that it determineth itself unto neither. But surely
this position will be of no duration ; for if the air be agitated,
l2
148 COJiTCEEIiriNG THE tOADSTO^-E. [ BOv)K II.
or the body waved either way, it am its the equilibration, and
disposeth itself unto the nearest attraetor. Again, it is not
impossible (though hardly feasible) by a single loadstone to
suspend an iron in the air, the iron being artificially placed,
and at a distance guided toward the stone, until it find the
neutral point, wherein its gravity just equals the magnetical
quality, the one exactly extolling as much as the other
depresseth. And lastly, impossible it is, that if an iron
rest upon the ground, and a loadstone be placed over it, it
should ever so arise as to hang in the way or medium ; for
that vigour, which at a distance is able to overcome the
resistance of its gravity, and to lift it up from the earth,
will, as it approacheth nearer, be still more able to attract
it ; never remaining iii the middle that could not abide in
the extreme. Now, the way of Baptista Porta, that by a
thread fasteneth a needle to a table, and then so guides and
orders the same, that by the attraction of the loadstone, it
abideth in the air, infringeth not this reason ; for this is a
violent retention, and, if the thread be loosened, the needle
ascends and adheres unto the attraetor.
The third consideration concerneth medical relations ;
wherein, whatever eftects are delivered, they are either de-
rived from its mineral and ferreous condition, or else mag-
netical operation. Unto the feiTeous and mineral quality
pertaineth, what Dioscorides, an ancient writer and soldier
imder Anthony and Cleopatra, afiirmeth, that half a dram of
loadstone given with honey and water, proves a purgative
medicine and evacuateth gross humours ; but this is a qua-
lity of great incertainty ; for, omitting the vehicle of water
and honey, which is of a laxative power itself, the powder of
)ome loadstones in this dose doth rather constipate and bind,
:han purge and loosen the belly ; and if sometimes it cause
any laxity, it is probably in the same way with iron and steel
unprepared, which will disturb some bodies, and work by
purge and vomit. And therefore, whereas it is delivered in
a book ascribed unto Gralen, that it is a good medicine in
dropsies, and evacuates the waters of persons so affected; —
it may, I confess, by siccity and astriction, aftbrd a con-
firmation unto parts relaxed, and such as be hydropically
'.ii.sposed ; and by these qualities it may be useful in hernia^
or ruptures, and for these it is commended by ^tius,
CHAP. III.] CONCERNING THE LOADSTONE. 149
^gineta, and Oribasius, who only affirm that it contains tlie
\irtue of hcematifes, and being burnt was sometimes vended
for it. WTierein notwithstanding there is an higher virtue ;
and in the same prepared, or in rich veins thereof though
crude, we have observed the effects of chalybeate medicines ;
and the benefits of iron and steel in strong obstructions.
And therefore, that was probably a different vein of load-
stone, or infected with other mineral mixture, which the
ancients commended for a purgative medicine, and ranked
the same with the violentest kinds thereof; with Hippojyhae,
Cneoron, and Thymelcea, as we find it in Hippocrates,* and
might be somewhat doubtful, whether by the magnesian
stone, he understood the loadstone ; did not AchiUes Statius
define the same, the stone that loveth iron.
To this mineral condition belongeth what is delivered by
some, that wounds which are made with weapons excited by
the loadstone, contract a malignity, and become of more
difficult cure ; which, nevertheless, is not to be found in the
incision of chirurgeons with knives, and lancets touched,
which leave no such effect behind them. Hither must we
also refer that affirmative, which says, the loadstone is
poison ; and therefore in the lists of poisons we find it in
many authors. But this our experience cannot confirm,
and the practice of the king of Zeilan^ clearly contradicteth,
who, as Gartias ab Horto, physician unto the Spanish vice-
roy, delivereth, hath all his meat served up in dishes of load-
stone, and conceives thereby he preserveth the vigour of
youth.
But surely from a magnetical activity must be made out
what is let fall by ^tius, that a loadstone held in the hand
of one that is podagrical, doth either cure or give great ease
in the gout ; or, what Marcellus Empericus affirmeth, that
as an amulet it also cureth the headache : whicli are but ad-
ditions unto its proper nature, and hopeful enlargements of
its allowed attraction ; for perceiving its secret power to
draw magnetical bodies, men have invented a new attraction,
to draw out the dolour and pain of any part. And from
such grounds it surely became a philter, and was conceived
a medicine of some venereal attraction ; and therefore upon
• De morbis internis. ' Zeilwn.] Ceylon.
150 CONCEENING THE LOADSTOWE. [bOOK II.
tliis stone they graved the image of Venus, according unto
that of Claudian, Venerem magnetica gemma Jigurat. Hither
must we also refer what is delivered concerning its powder,
to draw out of the body bullets and heads of arrows, and
for the like intention is mixed up in plasters. Which
course, although as vam and ineffectual it be rejected by
many good authors, yet it is not methinks so readily to be
denied, nor the practice of many physicians which have thus
compounded plasters thus suddenly to be condemned, as
may be observed in the Emplastrum divinum Nicolai, the
Emplastrum nigrum of Augspurg, the Opodeldocli^xi^ Attrac-
iivum of Paracelsus, with several more in the dispensatory
of Wecker, and practice of Sennertus. The cure also of
Hernia, or ruptures in Parous, and the method also of
curation lately delivered by Daniel Beckerus,* and approved
by the professors of Leyden, that is, of a young man of
Spruceland, that casually swallowed a knife about ten inches
long, which was cut out of his stomach, and the wound healed
up. In which cure, to attract the knife to a convenient
situation, there was applied a plaster made up with the
powder of loadstone. Now this kind of practice Libavius,
Grilbertus, and lately Swickardus,t condemn as vain, and
altogether imuseful ; because a loadstone in powder hath no
attractive power, for in that form it amits its polary respects,
and loseth those parts which are the rule of attraction.
Wherein, to speak compendiously, if experiment hath not
deceived us, we first affirm that a loadstone in powder amits
not all attraction ; for if the powder of a rich vein be in a
reasonable quantity presented toward the needle freely
placed, it will not appear to be void of all activity, but will
be able to stir it ; nor hath it only a power to move the
needle in powder and by itself, but this will it also do if in-
corporated and mixed with plasters, as we have made trial
in the Emplastrum de Minio, with half an ounce of the mass
mixing a dram of loadstone. For, applying the magdaleon^
or roll unto the needle, it would both stir and attract it, not
* De Cultrivoro Pruasiaco, 1636. + In his Ars Magnetica.
* maffdaleon m' roll.'] An ancient word, of Hebrew origin, trans-
mitted, through barbarous Greek, to barliarous Latin usage, denoting
any kind of empladric or other piiulijiable paste made up into cylin-
drical pills " or rolls."
CHAP. III.] CONCERNING THE LCiJ)ST01fTC. 151
equally in all parts, but more vigorously in some, according
unto the mine of the stone more plentifully dispersed in the
mass. And lastly, in the loadstone powdered, the polary
respects are not wholly destroyed ; for those diminutive par-
ticles are not atomical or merely indivisible, but consist of
dimensions sufficient for their operations, though in obscurer
eifects. Thus, if unto the powder of loadstone or iron we
admove the north pole of the loadstone, the powders or
small divisions will erect and conform themselves thereto ;
but if the south pole approach they will subside, and invert-
ing their bodies, respect the loadstone with the other ex-
treme. And this will happen, not only in a body of powder
together, but in any particle of dust divided from it.
Kow, though we disavow not these plasters, yet shall we
not omit two cautions in their use, that therein the stone be
not too subtilely powdered, for it will better manifest its
attraction in a more sensible dimension. That, where is de-
sired a speedy effect, it may be considered whether it were
not better to relinquish the powdered plasters, and to apply
an entire loadstone unto the part ; and though the other be
not wholly ineffectual, whether this way be not more power-
ful, and so might have been in the cure of the young man
delivered by Beckerus.
The last consideration concemeth magical relations ; in
which account we comprehend effects derived and fathered
upon hidden qualities, specifical forms, antipathies and sym-
pathies, whereof, from received grounds of art, no reasons
are derived. Herein relations are strange and numerous,
men being apt, in all ages, to multiply wonders, and philo-
sophers dealing with admirable bodies, as historians have
done with excellent men, upon the strength of their great
achievements, ascribing acts unto them not only false, but
impossible, and exceeding truth as much in their relations,
as they have others in their actions. Hereof we shall briefly
mention some delivered by authors of good esteem : whereby
we may discover the fabidous inventions of some, the cre-
dulous supinity of others, and the great disservice unto truth
by both ; multiplpng obscurities in nature, and authorising
hidden qualities that are false ; whereas wise men are ashamed
there are so many true.*^
* true.] Tnily so c-Jled. — Wr.
152 CONCERNING THE LOADSTONE. [bOOK II.
And ilrst, Dioscorides puts a shrewd quality upon it (and
such as men are apt enough to experiment), who therewith
discovers the incoutinency of a wife, by placing the loadstone
under her pillow, whereupon she will not be able to remain
in bed with her husband. The same he also makes a help
unto thievery. For thieves, saith he, having a design upon
a house, do make a fire at the four corners thereof, and cast
therein the fragments of loadstone, whence ariseth a fume
that so disturbeth the inhabitants, that they forsake the
house, and leave it to the spoil of the robbers. This relation,
how ridiculous soever, hath Albertus taken up above a
thousand years after, and Marbodeus, the Ereuchman, hath
continued the same in Latin verse, which, with the notes of
Pictorius, is current unto our days. As strange must be
the lithomancy or divination from this stone, whereby, as
Tzetzes delivers, Helenus the prophet foretold the destruc-
tion of Troy. And the magic tliereof not safely to be be-
lieved, which was delivered by Orpheus, that sprinkled with
water, it will, upon a question, emit a voice not much imlike
an infant. But, surely, the loadstone of Laureutius Guaseus,
the physician, is never to be matched, wherewith, as Cardan
delivereth, whatsoever needles or bodies were touched, the
wounds and punctures, made thereby, were never felt at all.
And yet as strange is that which is delivered by some, that
a loadstone, preserved in the salt of a reviora, acquires a
power to attract gold out of the deepest wells — certainly a
studied absurdity, not casually cast out, but plotted for per-
petuity — for the strangeness of the efiectever to be admired,
and the difficulty of the trial, never to be convicted.
These conceits are of that monstrosity that they refute
themselves in their recitements. There is another of better
notice, and whispered tlirough tlie world with some atten-
tion ; credulous and vulgar auditors readily believing it, and
more judicious and distinctive heads not altogetlier rejecting
it. The conceit is excellent, and, if the eft'ect would follow,
somewliat divine, whereby we might communicate like spirits,
and confer on earth, with Menippus in the moon. And this
is pretended from the sympathy of two needles, touched '
with the same loadstone, and placed in the centre of two
abecedary circles or rings, with letters describetl round
about them, one friend keeping one, and another the other,
CHAP. III.] COIfCEENI^'G THE LOADSTOKxl. 153
and agreeii g upon an hour wherein they will communicate.
For then, .saith tradition, at what distance of place soever,
when one needle shall be removed unto any letter, the
other, by a wonderful sympathy, will move uut'.. khe same.
But herein I confess my experience can find no truth ; for,
having expressly framed two circles of wood, and, according
to the number of the Latin letters, divided each into twenty-
three parts, placing therein two stiles or needles composed
of the same steel, touched with the same loadstone, and at
tlie same point ; of these two, whensoever I removed the
one, although but at the distance of half a span, the otlier
would stand like Hercules' pillars, and (if the earth stand
still) have surely no motion at all. Now, as it is not pos-
sible that any body shoidd have no boundaries, or sphere of
its activity, so it is improbable it should eflect that at dis-
tance, which nearer hand it cannot at all perform.'*
* Now ag it is not possible, <frc.] But then itt is most wonderful that
some things worke the same effect at distance that they doe conjoynd,
as the powder of calcined Roman vitrioll strawd on a rag bloaded from
a wounde heals the wounde as well and stanches the blood, as if itt were
applyed to the wound. I have seen strange effects by itt. — Wr.
Sir Kenelm Digby, in A late Discourse d'c. touching the Cure of
Wounds by the Powder of Sympathy, p. 6, &c. relates the following in-
cident, which happened to himself in France. Mr. James Howel
(author of Dendrologia and other works), had received a very severe
wound in his hand in attempting to part two friends who were fighting
a duel. Having been requested to endeavour to heal the wound. Sir
Kenelm consented, aud thus narrates his proceeding: — "I asked him
then for any thing that had the blood upon it, so he presently sent for
his garter wherewith his hand was first bound, and having called for a
bason of water as if I would wash my hands, I took a handful of pow-
der of vitriol, which I had in my study, and presently dissolved it. As
Boon as the bloody garter was brought me I put it within the bason,
observing in the interim what Mr. Howel did, who stood talking with a
gentleman in a corner of my cliamber, not regarding at all vv^hat I was
doing ; but he started suddenly, as if he had found some strange altera-
tion in himself. I asked him what he ailed ? ' I know not what ails
me, but I find that I feel no more pain ; methinks that a pleasing kind
of freshness, as it were a wet cold napkin did spread over my hand,
which hatli taken away the inflammH.tion tliat tormented me before :'
I replied, ' Since that you feel already so good an effect of my medica-
ment, I advise you to cast away all your plasters, only keep the wound
clean, and in a moderate temper twixt heat and cold.' This was
presently reported to the Duke of Buckingham, and a little after to tha
King, who were both very curious to know the circumstance of the
154 CONCERNING THE LOADSTONE. [BOOK II.
Agam, the conceit is ill contrived, and one effect inferred,
whereas the contrary will ensue ; for, if the removing of one
of the needles from A to B should have any action or influ-
ence on the other, it would not entice it from A to B, but
repel it from A to Z ; for needles excited by the same point
of the stone do not attract, but avoid each other, even as
these also do, when their invigorated extremes approach
unto one another.
Lastly, were this conceit assuredly true, yet were it not
business, which was, that after dinner I took tlie garter out of the water,
and put it to dry, but Mr. Howel's servant came running, that his mas-
ter felt as much burning as ever he had done, if not more, for the heat was
such as if his hands were twixt coals of fire : I answered, that although
that happened at present, yet he sliould find ease in a short time ; for
I knew the reason of this new accident, and I would provide accord-
ingly, for his master should be free from that inflammation, it may be,
before he could possibly return unto him: but in case he foimd no ease,
I wished him to come presently back again, if not, he might forbear
coming. Thereupon he went, and at the instant I did put again the
garter into the water, thereupon he found his master without any pain
at all. To be brief, there was no sense of pain afterward ; but within
five or six days the wounds were cicatrized and entirely healed."
Dr. Bostock, in his remarks on the sympathetic powder, seems to have
somewhat misstated the modus operandi laid down in the aforesaid trea-
tise, which he justly characterises as " exemplifying admirably the mode
of philosophising that was fashionable in the earlierp.art of the seventeenth
century." He says, "Every one who is acquainted with the history of sur-
gery is acquainted with the sympathetic powder, which, about the middle
of the seventeenth century, engaged the notice and received the sanction
of the most learned men of the age. This celebrated remedy derived its
virtues not from its composition, but fi'om the mode of its application, for it
was not to be applied to the wound, but to tlie weapon by which the wound
was inflicted ; the wound was ordered to be merely closed up, and was
taken no further care of. Most men of sense, indeed, rithculed the
proposal, but after being fully tried, it was found that the sympathetic
mode of treating wounds was more successful than those plans which
proceeded upon what were considered scientific principles ; and it con-
tinued to gain ground in the public estimation, until at length some in-
novator ventured to try the experiment of closing up the wound without
applying the sympathetic powder to the sword. Wiseman, who wrote
about fifty or sixty years after the introduction of this mysterious opera-
tion by Sir Kenelm Digby, in describing the importance of keeping
the divided parts in union, says, "for here nature will act her part, by
the application of blood and nourishment to botli sides indifferently, and
finish the coalities without your further assistance. And this is that
wliich gives such credit to the sympathetic powder." — Elements of Phj'
eiology, vol. i, p. 448.
CHAP. III.] CONCEBNING THE L0±DST02fE, 155
a conclusion at every distance to be tried by every head ; it
being no ordinary or almanack business, but a problem
mathematical, to lind out the difference of hours in different
places ; nor do the wisest exactly satisfy themselves in all.
For the hours of several places anticipate each other, ac-
cording unto their longitudes, which are not exactly dis-
covered of every place ; and therefore the trial hereof, at a
considerable interval, is best performed at the distance of
the antoeci — that is, such habitations as have the same
meridian and equal parallel on different sides of the equator ;
or, more plainly, the same longitude, and the same latitude
unto the south, which we have in the north. For, unto
such situations, it is noon and midnight at the very same
time.
And therefore, the sympathy of these needles is much of
the same mould Avith that intelligence which is pretended
from the flesh of one body transmuted by incision into
another. For, if by the art of Taliacotius,* a permutation
of flesh, or transmutation be made from one man's body
into another, as, if a piece of flesh be exchanged from the
bicipital muscle of either party's arm, and about them both
an alphabet circumscribed, upon a time appointed, as some
conceptions affirm, they may communicate at what distance
soever. For, if the one shall prick himself in A, the other
at the same time will have a sense thereof in the same part,
and, upon inspection of his arm, perceive what letters the
other points out in his. "Which is a way of intelligence
very strange, and would requite the lost art of Pythagoras,
who could read a reverse in the moon.
Now this magnetical conceit, how strange soever, miglit
have some original in reason ; for men, observing no sohd
body whatsoever did interrupt its action, might be induced
to beheve no distance would terminate the same ; and most,
conceiving it pointed unto the pole of heaven, might also
opinion that nothing between could restrain it. Whosoever
was the author, the Mollis that blew it about was Famianus
Strada, that elegant Jesuit, in his rhetorical prolusions, who
chose out this subject to express the stile of Lucretius. But
neither Baptista Porta, Be Furtivis Literarum notis, Tri-
themius, in his Steganography, Selenus, in his Cryptography,
* De Curto'U/.n Cldrurgia,
156 CONCEENING THE LOADSTONE. [bOOK II
nor Nuncius inanimatus* make any consideration hereof,
altliougli they deliver many ways to communicate thoughts
at distance. And this we will not deny may in some manner
be aifected by the loadstone, that is, from one room into
another, by placing a table in the wall common unto both,
and writing thereon the same letters one against another ;
for, upon the approach of a vigorous loadstone unto a letter
on this side, the needle will move unto the same on the other.
But this is a very diiferent way from ours at present ; and
hereof there are many ways delivered, and more may be
discovered, which contradict not the rule of its operations.
As for TJnguentum Armarium, called also Ilagneticum, it
belongs not to this discourse, it neither having the loadstone
for its ingredient, nor any one of its actions ; but supposed
other principles, as common and universal spirits, which con-
vey the action of the remedy unto the part, and conjoins
the virtue of bodies far disjoined. But perhaps the cures it
doth are not worth so mighty principles ; it commonly
healing but simple wounds, and such as, mundified and kept
clean, do need no other hand than that of nature, and the
balsam of the proper part. Unto which effect, there being
fields of medicines, it may be a hazardous curiosity to rely
on this ; and, because men say the effect doth generally
follow, it might be worth the experiment to try, whether the
same will not ensue, upon the same method of cure, by or-
dinary balsams, or common vulnerary plasters.
Many other magnetisms may be pretended, and the like
attractions through all the creatures of nature. Whether
the same be verified in the action of the sun upon in-
ferior bodies, whether there be Jjlolian magnets, whether the
flux and reflux of the sea be caused by any magnetism from
the moon, M'hether the like be really made out, or rather
metaphorically verified in the sympathies of plants and
animals, might afford a large dispute ; and Kii'cherus, in his
Catena Magnetica, hath excellently discussed the same ;
which work came late unto our hand, but might have much
advantaged this discourse.^
Other discourses there might be made of the loadstone,
as moral, mystical, theological ; and some have handsomely
* By D. (Goodwin, Bishop of Hereford.
* Many other, tfcc] Added in the 2nd edition.
CnAP. rV.] OF BODIES ELECTEICAL. 157
done them, as Ambrose, Austiiie, Gulielmus Parisiensis, and
mauj more ; but these fall under no ride, and are as bound-
less as men's inventions. And, tliough honest minds do
glorify Grod hereby, yet do they most powerfully magnify
him, and are to be looked on with another eye, who demon-
stratively set forth its magnalities ; who not from postulated
or precarious inferences entreat a courteous assent, but
from experiments and undeniable effects enforce the wonder
of its maker.
CHAPTEE IV.
Of Bodies Electncal.
Having thus spoken of tlie loadstone and bodies mag-
netical, I shall, in the next place, deliver somewhat of elec-
trical, and such as may seem to have attraction like the
other. Hereof we shall also deliver what particvdarly
spoken or not generally laiown is manifestly or probably
true, what generally believed is also false or dubious. Now,
by electrical bodies I understand, not such as are metalUcal,
mentioned by Pliny and the ancients, for their electrum was
a mixture made of gold, with the addition of a fifth part of
silver — a substance now as unknown as true aiiriclialcum, or
Corinthian brass, and set down among things lost by Pan-
cirollus ; nor by electric bodies do I conceive such only as
take up shavings, straws, and light bodies (in whioh number
the ancients oidy placed jet and amber) ; but such as, con-
veniently placed unto their objects, attract all bodies pal-
pable whatsoever. I say conveniently placed, that is, in
regard of the object, that it be not too ponderous, or any
way aflixed : in regard of the agent, that it be not foul or
sullied, but wiped, rubbed, and excitated ; in regard of both,
that they be conveniently distant, and no impediment inter-
posed. I say, all bodies palpable, thereby excluding fire,
which indeed it will not attract, nor yet draw through it ;
for fire consumes its effluxions by which it should attract.
Now, although in this rank but two were comiiionly men-
tioned by the ancients, Gilbertus discovereth many more ; as
diamonds, sapphires, carbuncles, iris, opals, amethysts, beryl,
crystal, Bristol stones, sulphur, n::.stic, hard wax, hard resin,
158 or BODIES ELECTEICAIi. [bOOK II
arsenic, sal-gemma, roche alum, common glass, stibium, or
glass of antimony. Unto these, Cabeus addeth white wax,
gum elemi, gum giiaiaci, pix hispanica, and gypsum. And
unto these we add gum animi, benjamin talcum, china-dishes,
sandaraca, turpentine, styrax liquida, and caranna dried into
a hard consistence.® And the same attraction we find not
only in simple bodies, but such as are much compounded :
as in the oxycroceum plaster, and obscurely that ad herniam
and gratia Dei ; all which, smooth and rightly prepared, will
discover a sufficient power to stir the needle, settled freely
upon a well pointed pin ; and so as the electric may be ap-
plied unto it without all disadvantage.
But the attraction of these electrics we observe to be very
different. Resinous or unctuous bodies, and such as will
flame, attract most vigorously, and most thereof without fri-
cation ; as animi, beiijamin, and most powerfully good hard
wax, which will convert the needle almost as actively as the
loadstone. And we believe that all, or most of this sub-
stance, if reduced to hardness, tralucency, or clearness,
would have some attractive quality. But juices concrete,
or gums easily dissolving in water, draw not at all ; as aloe,
opiiDi), sanguis draconis, lacca, galbanum, sagapenum. Many
stones also, both precious and vulgar, although terse and
smooth, have not this power attractive : as emeralds, pearl,
jaspis, cornelians, agate, helioti-opes, marble, alabaster,
touchstone, flint, and bezoar. Glass attracts but weaklv,
though clear ; some slick' stones, and thick glasses indif-
ferently ; arsenic but weakly ; so likewise glass of antimony ;
but crocus metallorum^ not at all. Salts generally, but
weakly ; as sal gemma, alum, and also talc ; not very dis-
coverably by any frieation ; but, if gently warmed at the fire,
and wiped with a dry cloth, they will bettor discover their
electricities.
^ And unto these we add gum animi, <fcc.] The author is perfectly
correct in adding (evidently from his own experiments) these substances
to the list of electrics. Tlie " compounded bodies," which he next men-
tions, derive their electrical properties chiefly from the resin or wax
which they contain. — Bi:
'' sliclc.'\ Smooth.
* crocus metaUorum.'] And yet (which is the more to be enquired)
crocus martis, which hath much affinitye to, and his first original from
iron, tthould in common reason attnict more than any of the other. — Wr.
CnAP. IT.] OF BODIES ELECTEICAL. 159
No metal attracts, nor animal concretion we know,^ al-
though polite and smooth ; as we have made trial in elk's
hoofs, hawks' talons, the sword of a sword-fish, tortoise-
shells, sea-horse, and elephants' teeth, in bones, in hart's
horn, and what is usually conceived unicorn's horn. No
wood, though never so hard and polished, although out of
some thereof electric bodies proceed ; as ebony, box, ligmim
vitce, cedar, &c. And, although jet and amber be reckoned
among bitumens, yet neither do we find asjjJialtum, that is,
bitumen of Judea, nor sea-coal, nor camphor, nor mummia,
to attract, although we have tried in large and polished
pieces. Now this attraction have we tried in straws and
paleous bodies, in needles of iron equilibrated, powders of
wood and iron, in gold and silver foliate ; and not only in
solid, but fluent and liquid bodies, as oils made both by ex-
pression and distillation, in water, in spirits of wine, vitriol,
and aqua fortis.
But how this attraction is made, is not so easily deter-
mined : that it is performed by efiluviums is plain, and
granted by most ; for electrics will not commonly attract,
except they grow hot, or become perspirable. For if they
be foul and obnubilated, it hinders their effluxion ; nor if
they be covered, though but with linen or sarsenet, or if
a body be interposed, for that intercepts the effluvium. If
also a powerful and broad electric of wax or animi be held
over fine powder, the atoms or small particles will ascend
most numerously unto it ; and if the electric be held unto
the light, it may be observed that many thereof will fly, and
be as it were discharged from the electric,^ to the distance
^ No metal attracts, nor animal concretion we Icnowl] Browne is in
eiTor respecting all the substances which he mentions in this paragraph,
as well as in preceding and following ones, as not susceptible of electri-
cal excitation ; for all of them are in fact electrics. But as many among
the number, especially the metals, require very perfect insulation, before
they can be made to manifest electricity by friction, as many others,
especially the true gums, the animal concretions, and the woods, require
also to be made very dry ; and as some further precautions are neces-
sary in certain cases, in order to insure the success of the experiment,
our author's failure, and consequent errors on this subject, are readily
explained. — Br.
^ be as it were discharged from the electric.l The true cause of this
projection of the atoms," is to be found in the law of electrical attraction
and repulsion : bodies similarly electrified, repel, and dissimilarly dectn-
160 OF BODIES ELECTRICAL, [eOOE H
sometimes of two or three inches. "Which motion is per-
formed by the breath of the effluvium issuing with agility ;
for as the electric cooleth, the projection of the atoms
ceaseth.
The manner hereof Cabeus wittily attempteth, afBrming
that this eifluvium attenuateth and impelleth the neighbour
air, which returning home in a gyration, carrieth with it the
obvious bodies unto the electric. And this he labours to
confirm by experiments ; for if tlie straws be raised by a
vigorous electric, they do appear to wave and turn in their
ascents. If, likewise, the electric be broad, and the strawa
light and chafty, and held at a reasonable distance, tliey will
not arise unto the middle, but rather adhere toward the
verge or borders thereof. And, lastly, if many straws be
laid together, and a nimble electric approach, they will not
all arise unto it, but some will commonly start aside, and be
whirled a reasonable distance from it. Now, that the air
impelled returns unto its place in a gyration or whirling, is
evident from the atoms or moats in the sun. For when the
sun so enters a hole or window, that by its illumination
the atoms or motes become perceptible, if then by our
breath the air be gently impelled, it may be perceived that
they will circularly return, and in a gyration,^ unto their
places again.
Another way of their attraction is also delivered ; that is,
by a tenuious emanation or continued effluvium, which after
some distance retracteth into itself; as is observable in drops
of syrups, oil, and seminal viscosities, Avhich spun at length,
retire into their former dimensions. Now these effluviums
advancing from the body of the electric, in their return do
carry back the bodies, whereon they have laid hold, within
the sphere or circle of their continuities; and these they do
not only attract, but with their viscous arms hold fast a good
while after. And if any shall wonder why these effluviums
issuing forth impel and protrude not the straw before they
Jiect, attract each other. The particles are first attracted by the excited
electric, because they are in a dissimilar state of electricity to it ; by con-
tact with it, however, they acquire a similar state of electricity, and are,
in consequence repelled from it. — Br.
' f/)/rati(m.'\ Tlie same gyration appeares in thistledowne, and small
feathers, and the smoke of a snuff, &c. — Wr.
CHAP, rv.] OF BODIES ELECTRICAL. 161
can bring it back ; it is because the effluvium, passing out in
a smaller thread and more enlengthened filament, stirreth
not the bodies interposed, but, returning unto its original,
falls into a closer substance and carrieth them back unto
itself. And this way of attraction is best received, embraced
by Sir Kenelm Digby in his excellent treatise of bodies,
allowed by Des Cartes in his Principles of Philosophy, as
far as concerneth fat and resinous bodies, and with the
exception of glass, whose attraction he also deriveth from
the recess of its effluxion. And this in some manner the
words of Gilbertus will bear. Effluvia ilia tenuiora conci-
piunt et amplectuntur corpora, quibus uniuntur, et electris
tanquam extensis brachiis, et ad fontem propinquitate invales-
centibus effluviis, deducuntur. And if the ground were true,
that the earth were an electric body, and the air but tlie
effluvium thereof, we might have more reason to believe
that from this attraction, and by this effluxion, bodies tended
to the earth, and could not remain above it."*
Our other discourse of electricks concerneth a general
opinion toucliing jet and amber, that they attract all light
bodies, except ocymum or basil, and such as be dipped in oil
or oiled ; and this is urged as high as Theophrastus. But
Scaliger acquitteth him ; and had this been his assertion,
Pliny would probably have taken it up, who herein stands
out, and delivereth no more but what is vulgarly known. But
Plutarch speaks positively in his Symposiacks, that amber
attracteth all bodies, excepting basil and oiled substances.
With Plutarch consent many authors, both ancient and
modern ; but tlie most inexcusable are Lemnius and Rueus :
whereof the one, delivering the nature of minerals mentioned
in Scripture, the infallible fountain of truth, confirmeth their
virtues with erroneous traditions ; the other, undertaking
the occult and hidden miracles of nature, accepteth this for
' And if the ground, (tc.] That there is a constant breathing of the
earth every twelve houres, where itt may easily break forthe, as in the
botome of the ocean, is more than probable by the rising of the seas
every twelve houres, which wee call the flow, which when it is lifted up
by the volubility of its nature, is apt to follow the leading of the moone,
but is not raised by itt, because itt keeps a constant course, if there be
no strong impediment, as well when she is under, as when above the
earthe. — Wr.
VOL. I. M
162 OF BODIES ELECTRICAL. [bOOK II.
one, and endeavoureth to allege a reason of that which is
more than occult, that is, not existent.
Xow herein, omitting the authority of others, as the doc-
trine of experiment hath informed us, we first aihrm, that
amber attracts not basil is wholly repugnant unto truth. For
if the leaves thereof or dried stalks be stripped into small
straws, they arise unto amber, wax, and other electricks, no
otherwise than those of wheat and rye ; nor is there any
peculiar fatness or singular viscosity in that plant that might
cause adhesion, and so prevent its ascension. But that jet
and amber attract not straws oiled, is in part true and false ;
for, if the straws be much wet or drenched in oil, true it is
that amber draweth them not, for then the oil makes the
straw to adhere unto the part whereon they are placed, so
that they cannot rise unto the attractor ; and this is true,
not only if they be soaked in oil, but spirits of wine or water.
But if we speak of straws or festucous divisions lightly drawn
over with oil, and so that it causeth no adhesion, or if we
conceive an antipathy between oil and amber, the doctrine
is not true ; for amber will attract straws thus oiled, it will
convert the needles of dials made either of brass or iron,
although they be much oiled ; for in these needles consist-
ing free upon their centre, there can be no adhesion. It will
likewise attract oil itself, and if it approacheth unto a drop
thereof, it becometh'* conical, and ariseth up unto it, for oil
taketh not away his attraction, although it be rubbed over
it. For if you touch a piece of wax, already excitated, with
common oil, it will, notwithstanding, attract, though, not
so vigorously as before ; but if you moisten the same
with any chemical oil, water, or spirits of wine, or only
breathe upon it, it quite amits its attraction, for either its
effluences cannot get through, or will not mingle with those
substances.
It is likewise probable the ancients were mistaken con-
cerning its substance and generation : they conceiving it a
vegetable concretion made of the gums of trees, especially
pine and poplar, falUng into the water, and after, indurated
or hardened, whereunto accordeth the fable of Phaeton's
sisters. But surely the concretion is mineral, according as
is delivered by Boetius. For either it is found in mountains
* it beeomcth.] i. e. the oyle beoometh. — Wr,
CHAP. IV.] OF BODIES ELECTEICAL. 163
and medi terraneous parts, and so it is a fat and unctuous
sublimation in the earth, concreted and fixed by salt and
nitrous spirits wherewith it meeteth. Or else, which is
most usual, it is collected upon the sea shore, and so it is a fat
and bituminous juice coagulated by the saltness of the sea.'*
* It is likewise ])rohahle, tfcc] The whole progress of subsequent, and
especially of recent observations and experiments on amber, has tended
to show that the older was the more correct opinion ; and that Sir
Thomas concluded too hastily from its being found on the sea-shore,
and even in deep mines, that its origin could not be vegetable. Brong-
niart and Leman (distinguished French mineralogists), both consider it
a vegetable juice concreted — partly by the lapse of time — and modified
■by its subterraneous locality. It is found in the greatest abundance in
beds of fossilized timber, at considerable depth, and beneath several
other strata, near the coast of Prussia : it occurs there in the very
midst of the timber — which appears to have produced it. Leman
remarks, that a crust of dirt and other foreign substances, is often found
on the surface of amber, like that which is contracted by vegetable gum
in flowing over the bark of the tree, or falling on the ground. Speci-
mens found on the sea-shore, or (occasionally) in alluvial deposits, are
usually free from tlie crust. It is to be supj^osed that amber may have
been the gum of a now extinct tree. This implied antiquity has been
argued from the class of formations in which it is most copiously met
with, and from the fact that the insects, &c. inclosed ia it, are not the
recent species, nor even analogous to those now existing in the same
spot, tropical genera being found in the amber of northern latitudes.
It may be admitted ae probaljle, that we possess the ambers of several
different trees ; for very distinct varieties of it are known ; one of
which is noticed by Brongniart as destitute of the succinic acid, which
he considers the chief criterion by which amber is distinguishable from
mdlite, and the fossilized resins, and from gum copal. Its original
fluidity is unquestionable, from the delicacy of many species found in it.
The author of the article amber, in the Encyc. Brit, considers it
rather likely to have been softened by the action of the sun than to
have been ever liquid. One of the reasons adduced, seems to oppose
rather than to support this opinion. '■ Drops of clear water are some-
times preserved in amber. These have doubtless been received into it
while soft, &c." More probably when fluid. The same writer men-
tions an assertion of Girtanner, that amber is an " animal product — a
sort of honey or wax fonned by the red ant, formica' ruf a." But after
detailing some of Girtanner's observations, he represents his opinion as
being that "amber is nothing but a vegetable oil, rendered concrete by
the acid of ants." The article contains other incorrect statements ; —
that amber is the basis of all varnishes ; and that " it seems generally
agieed upon, that amber is a true bitumen of a fossil origin." This
might be more generally the opinion when the article was first written
■ — but is not so now ; and therefore it ought not to have lemained
unaltered in the edition now publishing of the £nc. Brit., in which the
m2
104 OF BODIES ELECTEICAL, [BOOK II
Now, tliat salt spirits have a power to congeal and coagulate
unctuous bodies, is evident in chymical operations ; in the dis-
tillations of arsenick, sublimate, and antimony; in the mixture
of oil of juniper with the salt and acid spirit of sulphur ; for
thereupon ensueth a concretion unto the consistence of bird-
lime ; as also in spirits of salt, or aqua fortis poured upon
oil of olive, or more plainly in the manufacture of soap.
And many bodies will coagulate upon commixture, whose
separated natures promise no concretion. Thus, upon a
solution of tin hy aqua fortis, there will ensue a coagulation,
like that of whites of eggs. Thus, the volatile salt of urine
will coagulate aqua vitce,^ or spirits of wine ; and thus, per-
haps, as Helmout excellently declaretli, the stones or calcu-
lous concretions in kidney or bladder may be produced,
the spirits or volatile salt of urine conjoining with the aqua
article appears nearly in its former state ; — some paragraphs omitted,
but no addition — no correction — no remodelling.
Patrin supposes it to be honey, gi'adually bitumenized by the action
of certain minend acids.
One of the most celebrated modern experimental philosophers. Sir
David Brewster, from a series of experiments on the optical properties
of amber, has ai-rived at a conclusion precisely in accordance with the
opinion of the ancients, viz. that it is "beyond a doubt an indurated
vegetable juice ;" and he obser^-es, "that the traces of a regular struc-
ture, indicated by its action upon polarised light, are not the effect of
the ordinary laws of crystallisation by which mcllite has been formed,
but are produced by the same causes which influence the mechanical
condition of gum arable, and other gums which are known to be formed
by the successive deposition and induration of vegetable fluids."
An interesting addition to the above authorities, in support of the
vegetable origin of amber, occurs in a paper of Dr. Mac ('uUoch's, in
the Quavterhj Jounial of Science, &c. vol. xvi. p. 41. His leading
object is to point out the readiest mode of distinguishing those speci-
mens of gum copal, animi, and perhaps other resins enclosing insects,
which are sometimes offered for sale as amber. On the fact of insects
being often found in amber, Dr. M. mainly insists, as the proof of its
vegetable origin, especially when viewed in connection with similar
enclosures in unfossilized resins. He proceeds to a chemical examina-
tion and comparison of amber with similar bodies, and ends by saying,
"from these analogies we may, perhaps, safely conclude, that amber
has been a vegetable resin converted to its present state during the
same time and by the same causes which have converted common
vegetable matter into jet, and, perhaps, ultimately into coal."
•> aqua rii(e.] Some March beere or very stale wil tume aqua vita
into the shape of whey. — Wr.
CHAP. IT.] OF BODIES ELECTEIOAL. 1G5
vifce potentially Ipng therein ; as he iUustrateth from the
distillation of fermented urine ; from whence ariseth an
aqua vitce or spirit, which the volatile salt of the same
urine wiU congeal, and finding an earthy concurrence, strike
into a lapideous substance.
Lastly, we will not omit what Bellabonus, upon his own
experiment, writ from Dantzick, unto Mellichius, as he hath
left recorded in his chapter De Succino, tliat the bodies of
flies, pismires, and the like, which are said ofttimes to be
included in amber, are not real, but representative, as he
discovered in several pieces broke for that purpose. If so,
the two famous epigrams hereof in Ilartial are but poetical,
the pismire of Brassavolus, imaginary, and Cardan's mauso-
leum for a fly, a mere fancy. But hereunto we know not
how to assent, as having met with some wliose reals make
good their representments.^
^ representments.'] Avicen affirms that ambar appeares plentifully in
hot countries (as the south parts of Arabia Felix, neare the sea), espe-
cially after great earthquakes, which makes good the assertion [that itt
is most usually collected on the sea shore]. Whence itt is most pro-
bable that at the eruption thereof, itt might involve and consequently
intumulate Martial's viper and Cardan's flye. — Wr.
The dean's fancy seems to have been running upon a mineral rendered
fluid hy heat ; it might have occuiTed to him, that " Messrs. the viper
and flye," would, in such a bath, have been more than intumulated ; —
they would have suffered incineration! There is, however, no account-
ing for the fables of antiquity, or the fancy of poets. The fabulous
origin of amber, from the tears of the sister of Phaeton, lamenting his
fate on the banks of Eridanus, is celebrated in Martial's Epigram on
the bee in amber. But unfortunately for the poet, no authentic instance
is said to have occurred of that insect having been found in amber.
Sir Thomas, however, is quite correct in asserting the reality of man
Bpecimens of insects, &c. which have been found in it
166 OF THE DIAMOND. [iJOOK IT.
• CHAPTEE V.
Compendiously of sundry other common tenets concerning minerals and
terreous bodies, which, examined, p)we either false or dubious. — That a
diamond is softened or brolcen by the blood of a goat ; that glass is
poison, and that it is malleable ; cf the cordial quality of gold ; that a
pjot full of ashes will contain as much water as it would tvithout them ;
of white poivdtr that kills without repwt ; that coral is soft under
water, but hardeneth in the air ; thai porcelain lien under the earth an
hundred years in preparation; thai a carbuncle gires a light in the
dark ; of the eagle stone ; of fairy stones ; with some others.
1, And, first, we hear it in every mouth, and in many good
authoi's read it, that a diamond, which is the hardest of
stones, not yielding unto steel, emery, or any thing but its
own powder, is yet made soft, or broke by the blood of a
goat. Thus much is afSrmed by Pliny, Solinus, Albertus,
Cyprian, Austin, Isidore, and many christian writers : allud-
ing herein unto the heart of man, and the precious blood of
our Saviour, who was typified by the goat that was slain,
and the scapegoat in the wilderness : and at the effusion of
whose blood, not onl}' the hard hearts of his enemies relented,
but the stony rocks and vail of the temple were shattered.
But this, I perceive, is easier affirmed than proved. For
lapidaries, and such as profess the art of cutting this stone,
do generally deny it ; and they that seem to countenance
it have in their deliveries so qualified it, that little from
thence of moment can be inferred for it. For first, the
holy fjithers, without a further enquiry, did take it for
granted, and rested upon the authority of the first deli-
verers. As for Albertus, he promiseth this effect, but con-
ditionally, not except the goat drink wine, and be fed with
siler Qiiontanum, petroseUnum, and such herbs as are con-
ceived of power to break the stone in the bladder. But the
words of* Pliny, from whom most likely the rest at first
derived it, if strictly considered, do rutlier ovcrtlirow, than
any way advantage this effect. His words are these :
Jlircino rwnpitur sanguine, nee aliter qiiaiu recenti, ccilidoque
onacerata, et sic quoque multis ictihm, tunc etiam prceterquam
eximias incudes malleosque fcrreos frangens. That is, it ia
broken with goat's blood, but not except it be fresh and
CHAP. T.] THAT GLASS IS POISON. 167
warm, and that not without many blows, and then also it
will break the best anvils and hammers of iron. And
answerable hereto is the assertion of Isidore and Solinus,
By which account, a diamond steeped in goat's blood
rather increaseth in hardness, than acquireth any softness
by the infusion, for the best we have are comminuible with-
out it, and are so far from breaking hammers, that they
submit unto pistillation, and resist not an ordinary pestle.^
Upon this conceit arose, perhaps, the discovery of another
— that the blood of a goat was sovereign for the stone ; as it
stands commended by many good writers, and brings up the
composition in the powder of Nicolaus,* and the electuary of
the queen of Colein. Or rather, because it was foimd an
excellent medicine for the stone, and its ability commended
by some to dissolve the hardest thereof, it might be con-
ceived by ampliiying apprehensions to be able to break a
diamond ; and so it came to be ordered tliat the goat shoidd
be fed with saxifragous herbs, and such as are conceived of
power to break the stone. However it were, as the effect is
false in the one, so is it, siu-ely, very doubtful in the other.
For, although inwardly received, it may be very diuretic,
and expulse the stone in the kidneys, yet how it should dis-
solve or break that in the bladder, will require a further dis-
pute ; and, perhaps, would be more reasonably tried by a
warm injection thereof, than as it is commonly used.
"Wherein, notwithstanding, we should rather rely upon the
urine in a castling's bladder, a resolution of crabs' eyes, or
the second distillation of urine, as Helmont hath com-
mended ; or rather (if any such might be found) a chylifac-
tory menstruum or digestive preparation, drawn from species
or individuals whose stomachs peculiarly dissolve lapideous
bodies.
2. That glass is poison, according unto common conceit,
I know not how to grant. Not only from the innocency of
* Pulvis Lithontripticus.
^ 1. Aiul first, <£t.] Nothing can put Ross out of conceit with " the
ancients." Though he admits the fact that diamonds are mastered by
hammers, and not, as asserted by the ancients, softened by goat's blood ;
yet doth he not a whit the less believe this assertion as applied to ada-
mant, of which, he says, there were divers kinds. — Arcana, p. 196.
168 THAT QK,VSS IS POISON. [bOOK II.
its ingredients, that is, fine sand, and tlie ashes of glass-wort
or fern, which in themselves are harmless and useful, or be-
cause I find it by many commended for the stone, but also
from experience, as having given unto dogs above a dram
thereof, subtilely powdered in butter and paste, without any
visible disturbance.^
The conceit is surely grounded upon the visible mischief
of glass grossly or coarsely powdered, for that indeed is
mortally noxious, and effectually used by some to destroy
mice and rats ; for, by reason of its acuteness and angu-
larity, it commonly excoriates the parts through which it
passeth, and solicits them unto a continual expulsion.
Whereupon there ensue fearful symptoms, not much imlike
those which attend the action of poison. From whence,
notwithstanding, we cannot with propriety impose upon it
that name, either by occult or elementary quality, which he
that concedeth will much enlarge the catalogues or lists of
poisons. Por many things neither deleterious by substance
or quality, are yet destructive by figure, or some occasional
activity. So are leeches destructive, and by some accounted
poison ; not properly, that is, by temperamental contrariety,
occult form, or so much as elemental repugnancy ; but be-
cause, being inwardly taken, they fasten upon the veins and
occasion an effusion of blood, which cannot be easily
staunched. So a sponge is mischievous, not in itself, for in
its powder it is harmless ; but because, being received into
the stomach it swelleth, and occasioning a continual disten-
tion, induceth a strangulation.' So pins, needles, ears of
rye or barley may be poison.^ So Daniel destroyed the
' without any visible distwhanceJ] Edit. 1646 adds, "And the trial
thereof we the rather did make in that animal, because Grevinus, in his
Treatise of Poisons, affirmeth that dogs are inevitably destroyed
thereby."- — p. 84.
' So a sponge is mischievous, <fcc.] As to a dog, soakt in butter or
grease. — TT".
* ears of rye or barley, <fcc.] A very remarkalde and affecting proof
of the truth of this observation occurred a few years ago in the family
of the present Earl of Morley. His lordship's eldest son. Lord Boring-
don, then in the twelfth year of his age, in the course of an evening
walk with his father and brother, on the 17th cif July, 1817, put an
ear of rye into his mouth ; and it appears tha* within a few seconds
afterwards, it had become out of the power of man to save hia life.
CHAP. T.'J THAT aLASS IS POISON". 169
dragon by a composition of three things, whereof none waa
poison alone, nor properly altogether ; that is, pitch, fat, and
hair, according as is expressed in the history. " Then
Daniel took pitch, and fat, and hair, and did seethe them
together, and made lumps thereof; these he put in the dra-
gon's mouth, and so he burst asunder."^ That is, the fat
and pitch being cleaving bodies, and the hair continually ex-
The lower part of the ear first entered the windpipe, and after the first
fit of coughing, which lasted about five or six minutes, no more incon-
venience was felt. He was about half a mile from home when the acci-
dent happened ; — he walked gently home. Dr. Heath, who immediately
saw him, gave him some bread, which he swallowed without difficulty.
It was hoped that he had, in the field, unknowingly coughed up tha
com, or that it had passed into the stomach. Jt appears that the ear
of rye passed gently through the whole of the lungs without producing
any great effect. It was at the very bottom of the lungs, where it ul-
timately lodged, that on the fourth day from the accident, it injured a
vessel, and occasioned a hfemorrhage. In this situation it caused an
abscess in the lower part of the lungs and liver, which terminated
fatally on the 1st of November.
It will readily be supposed that nothing which medical skill could
devise was omitted. Dr. Spurzheim and Dr. Roberton of Paris, Dr.
Young and other distinguished medical men, assisted Dr. Heath. Not
only the extreme rarity of the case, but the amiable character and high
rank of the patient secured to him all that human ingenuity could effect.
.And it was a consolation to the family to ascertain, by subsequent in-
vestigation, that had the exact nature of the injuiy been known at the
very first, no materially different treatment could have been adopted.
This account has been sketched from a highly interesting and very
detailed narrative in MS. in the possession of the family, with which I
have been favoured through the kind intervention of a friend.
•' Then Daniel took, ct'c] Ctesias makes mention of a horse-pismire
(i. e. the bigger kind of them in hollow trees) which was fed by the
magi till hee grew to such a vast bulke as to devour two pound of
flesh a daye. This story might possibly relate to Daniel's dragon,
which was before his time at least one hundred and ninety years. For
hee wrote in the 94th Olympiade, whereas the captivitye was in the
43rd.— IT>.
The gravity of Sir Thomas's burlesque explanation of this apochiy-
phal story (for he cannot for a moment be considered as speaking seri-
ously) is happily imitated in the preceding note by the dean, whose
delectable quotation from Ctesias (supported by a grave chronological
computation) supplies the only point omitted by our author ; viz., a
conjecture as to the species of the creature who is said to have received,
with so good a grace, the boluses of the prophet. Who will hesitate to
admit the probability of the dean's suggestion, that the dr gon ol
Daniel waa no other than the horse pismij'e of Ctesias J
170 THAT GLASS IS MALLEABLE. [bOOK 11'
timulating the parts, by the action of the one nature
was provoked to expel, but by the tenacity of the other
forced to retain ; so that, there being left no passage in or
out, the dragon brake in pieces. It must, therefore, be
taken of grossly-powdered glass, what is delivered by Grre-
vinus : and from the same must that mortal dysentery pro-
ceed which is related by 8anctorius. And in the same sense
only shall we allow a diamond to be poison ; and whereby,
as some relate, Paracelsus himself was poisoned. So, even
the precious fragments and cordial gems, which are of fre-
quent use in physic, and in themselves confessed of useful
faculties, received in gross and angular powders, may so
oifeud the bowels, as to procure desperate languors, or cause
most dangerous fluxes.
That glass may be rendered malleable and pliable unto th«
hammer many conceive, and some make little doubt, when
they read in Dio, Pliny, and Petronius, that one unhappily
effected it for Tiberius ;^ which, notwithstanding, must needs
seem strange unto such as consider that bodies are ductile
from a tenacious humidity, which so holdeth the parts
together, that, though they dilate or extend, they part not
from each other ; — that bodies run into glass when the vola-
tile parts are exhaled, and tlie continuating humour sepa-
rated, the salt and earth (that is, the fixed parts) remaining ; —
and therefore vitrification maketh bodies brittle, as destroy-
ing thie viscous humours which hinder the disruption
of parts. Whicli may be verified even in the bodies
of metals ; for glass of lead or tin is fragile, when that
glutinous sulphur hath been fired out which made their
bodies ductile.
He that would most probably attempt it, must experiment
upon gold, wliose fixed and flying parts are so conjoined,
whose sulphur and continuating principle is so united unto
the salt, that some may be hoped to remain to hinder fragi-
lity after vitrification. But how to proceed, though after
frequent corrosion, as that upon the agency of fire it should
' one unhappily effected it, etc.] Unhappily, because Tiberius put
the artist to death for his performance. No explanation, however, is
given by Dion Cassius of the mode in which he was said to have ren-
dered whole a glass which he had broken.
CHAP, v.] THAT GOLD IS A COKDIAL. 171
not revive into its proper body before it comes to vitrify,
■will prove no easy discovery.'*
3. That gold inwardly taken, either in substance, infusion,
decoction, or extinction,^ is a cordial of great efficacy, in
sundry medical uses, although a practice much used, is also
much questioned, and by no man determined beyond dis-
pute.^ There are, hereof, I perceive, two extreme opinions ;
some excessively magnifying it, and probably beyond its de-
serts ; others extremely vilifying it, and perhaps below its
demerits. Some affirming it a powerful medicine in many
diseases ; others averring that so used, it is effectual in none :
and in this nimiber are very eminent physicians, Erastus,
Duretus, Eondeletius, Brassavolus, and many other ; who,
beside the strigments'' and sudorous adhesions from men's
hands, acknowledge that nothing proceedeth from gold in
the usual decoction thereof. Now the capital reason that
led men unto this opinion, was their observation of the inse-
* no easy disccwenj.^ The two preceding paragraphs were added in
the 2nd edition.
* extinction.] He refers probably to taking a liquid in which gold
heated red hot has been extinguished.
® That gold, cC'c] The whole of this examination of the question,
how far gold is available as a medicine, is conducted with our author's
usual acuteness and caution ; and is remarkable as much for the can-
dour with which he confesses his want of data whereby to determine
the question, as for the extensive acquaintance he displays with what
had been said by others. With aU the advantages of subsequent expe-
riment during nearly two centuries, it does not appear that this most
precious metal has taken a prominent place among the medicine.s of the
present day. Dr. Block, of Berlin, informs us, in his Mcdicinische Be-
merJcungen, that he has given, in obstinate constipations of the bowels,
when unattended with pains or inflammation, not only pills of lead, but
also of gold, with the best success, after every usual method has been
resorted to in vain ; whence it appeared to him that .such remedies acted
merely by their specific gravity. An eminent medical friend, of whom
I have recently enquired, whether the chloride of gold is used in France,
has favoured me with the following reply : " The chloride of gold has
for several years past been used as a medicine in Paris, and its virtues
much vaunted of by individuals for the cure of venereal and many
other diseases ; but it has not received corresponding support from
French practitioners generally, and in this country I do not remember
that it has been extensively tried in practice." The chloride of gold is
the red tincture of gold, which was originally prepared by Glauber.
st rig mints.] Scrapings. Here again is a coi'iage of the author's,
for which he is his own sole authority.
172 THAT GOLD IS A CORDIAL. [bOOK II.
parable nature of gold, it being excluded in the same quan-
tity as it was received, without alteration of parts, or dimi-
nution of its gravity.
Now, herein to deliver somewhat, which in a middle way
may be entertained : we first affirm, that the substance of
gold is invincible by the powerfullest action of natural heat ;
and that not only alimentally in a substantial mutation, but
also medicamentally in any corporeal conversion ; as is very
evident, not only in the swallowing of golden bullets, but in
the lesser and foliate divisions thereof; passing the stomach
and guts even as it doth the throat, that is, without abate-
ment of weight or consistence ; so that it entereth not the
veins with those electuaries wherein it is mixed ; but taketh
leave of the permeant parts, at the mouths of the mesaraicks,
or lacteal vessels, and accompanieth the inconvertible portion
unto the siege. Nor is its substantial conversion expectable
in any composition or aliment wherein it is taken. And
therefore that was truly a starving absurdity which befel the
wishes of Midas. And little credit there is to be given to
the golden hen, related by Wendlerus. And so in the ex-
tinction of gold, we must not conceive it parteth with any of
its salt or dissoluble principle thereby, as we may affirm of
iron ; for the parts thereof are fixed beyond division ; nor
will they separate upon the strongest test of fire. This we
affirm of pure gold ; for that which is current and passeth in
stamp amongst us, by reason of its alloy, wliich is a propor-
tion of silver or copper mixed therewith, is actually dequan-
titated by fire, and possibly by frequent extinction.
Secondly, although the substance of gold be not immuted,
or its gravity seusibly decreased, yet that from thence some
virtue may proceed either in substantial reception or in-
fusion, we cannot safely deny. For possible it is that bodies
may emit virtue and operation without abatement of weight ;
as is most evident in the loadstone, whose effluencies are
continual and communicable without a minoration of gravity ;
and the like is observable in bodies electrical, whose emis-
sions are less subtile. So will a diamond or sapphire emit
an effluvium sufficient to move the needle or a straw, with-
out diminution of weight. Nor will polished amber,
although it send fortli a gross and corporeal eshalement, be
found a long time defective upon the exactest scales ; whic)
CHAP, v.] THAT GOLD IS A COEDIAL, 173
is more eaaily conceivable in a continued and tenacious efflu-
vium, whereof a great part retreats into its body.
Thirdly, if amulets do work by emanations from their
bodies, upon those parts whereunto they are appended, and
are not yet observed to abate their weight ; if they produce
visible and real effects by imponderous and invisible emis-
sions, it may be unjust to deny the possible efficacy of gold,
in the non-omission of weight, or deperdition of any pon-
derous particles.*^
Lastly, since stihium, or glass of antimony, since also its
regulus will manifestly communicate unto water or wine a
purging and vomitory operation, and yet the body itself,
though after iterated infusions, cannot be found to abate
either virtue or weight : we shall not deny but gold may
do the like, that is, impart some effluences unto the in-
fusion, which carry with them the separable subtilitiea
thereof.^
* Thirdly, if amulets, dr.] This paragraph is so cautiously worded,
by virtue of the little if, as to convey a proposition at once safe and
undeniable. But, like many other cautious propositions, it says nothing.
The questions remain, what amulets do "produce visible and real
effects?" — whether these "work by emanations?" — and whether they
do so without " abating their weight ?" Though the Hon. Robt. Boyle
was pleased to attribute the cure of an haemorrhage to wearing " some
moss from a dead man's skull," our readers will probably be inclined to
indulge a good deal of scepticism as to the efficacy of such charms.
Camphor, volatile alkali, pungent acids, &c. which are often used, and
perhaps efficaciously, as repellents of contagion, can scarcely be termed
amulets ; and if they are so, they most certainly do not come within
Sir Thomas's definition, as " not abating their weight by emanations."
The Abb^ Pluche speaks of the origin of amulets, properly so called,
in his Histoire du Ciel, l'2mo. torn. i. p. 360. See also a very curious
little work on amulets, by Petr. Frid. Arpe, entitled De pi'odif/iosis Na-
turce et Artis Operihus Talismanes et Amuleta dictis, 12mo. Hamhurgi,
^ Lastly, since stibium, <fcc.] The anfimoniall cupp was anciently in
domestic medicine, on the double principle here stated, by which the
metal, without losing its bulk, imparted to the wine poured into it the
desired property. There occurs in the Gentleman's Magazine (vol. cii.
pt. i. p. 581), a curious account of one of these "cupps." It is made
of the regidus of antimony, cast in a mould; is about two inches high
by about as many in diameter, and holds about four ounces ; is contained
in a leathern box ; within are written directions for its use, prefaced by
a full announcement of the "vertues of the cupp," together with soma
Latin and English verses. Tho process of preparing the cup for use
174 OF ASHES AND WATEE. [bOOK II.
That therefore this metal thus received hath any unde-
niable effect, we shall not imperiously determine, although,
beside the former experiments, many more may induce us
to believe it. But, since the point is dubious and not yet
authentically decided, it will be no discretion to depend on
disputable remedies ; but rather, in cases of known danger,
to have recourse unto medicines of known and approved
activity. For, beside the benefit accruing unto the sick,
hereby may be avoided a gross and frequent error, com-
monly committed in the use of doubtful remedies conjointly
with those which are of approved virtues, that is, to impute
the cure unto the conceited remedy, or place it on that
whereon they place their opinion ; whose operation, although it
be nothing, or its concurrence not considerable, yet doth it
obtain the name of the whole cure, and carrieth often the
honour of the capital energy, which had no finger in it.
Herein exact and critical trial should be made by public
enjoinment, whereby determination might be settled beyond
debate ; for, since thereby not only the bodies of men, but
great treasures might be preserved, it is not only an error of
physics, but folly of state, to doubt tliereof any longer. ^
4. That a pot full of ashes will still contain as much water
as it would without them, although by Aristotle in his
problems taken for granted, and so received by most, is not
eftectable upon the strictest experiment I could ever make.
For when the airy interstices are filled, and as mucli of the
salt of the ashes as the water will imbibe is dissolved, there
remains a gross and terreous portion at the bottom, which
will possess a space by itself, according whereto, there will
remain a quantity of water not receivable : so will it come to
pass in a pot of salt, although decrepitated •? and so also in
a pot of snow ; for so much it will want in reception, as its
solution taketh up, according unto the bulk whereof, there
will remain a portion of water not to be admitted : so a
was either by letting wine stand for a certain time in it, or (if it was
required to antimonize more wine tlian the cup would contain), by
plunging the cup into the requisite quantity of wine. liegulus of anti-
mony was also anciently used in the fonii of pills, which, it is asserted,
were, by some frugal persons, re-emj)loiied as often as they could bfl
recovered !
' Jlcrchi, <i-c.] Added in the 2nd edition.
' dccrejntated.] Calcined till it has ceased to crackle.
CHAP, v.] OF FULMINATING POWDEE. 175
glass stuffed with pieces of sponge will want about a sixth
part of what it would receive without it : so sugar will not
dissolve beyond the capacity of the water, nor a metal in
aquafortis be corroded beyond its reception ; and so a pint
of salt of tartar, exposed unto a moist air until it dissolve,
will make far more Uquor, or, as some term it, oil, than the
former measure will contain.
JVor is it only the exclusion of air by water, or repletion
of cavities possessed thereby, which causeth a pot of ashes
to admit so great a quantity of water, but also the solution
of the salt of the ashes into the body of the dissolvent : so a
pot of ashes will receive somewhat more of hot water than
of cold, for the warm water imbibeth more of the salt ; and
a vessel of ashes more than one of pin-dust or filings of iron;
and a glass full of water will yet drink in a proportion of
salt or sugar without overflowing.
Nevertheless, to make the experiment with most advan-
tage, and in which sense it approacheth nearest the truth, it
must be made in ashes thoroughly burnt and well reverbe-
rated by fire, after the salt thereof hath been drawn out by
iterated decoctions. For then the body, being reduced
nearer unto earth, and emptied of all other principles, which
had former ingression unto it, becometh more porous, and
greedily drinketh in water. He that hatli beheld what
quantity of lead the test of saltless ashes will imbibe, upon
the refining of silver, hath encouragement to think it will
do very much more in water .^
5. Of white powder, and such as is discharged without
report,^ there is no small noise in the world ; but how far
agreeable unto truth, few, I perceive, are able to determine.
Herein therefore, to satisfy the doubts of some and amuse
^ Nevertheless, <£;c.] Added in 2nd edition.
* 5 Of white powder, <i-c.'\ The nearest approach to white poivdcr ia
the fulminating powder, in which carbonate of potash is substituted for
charcoal : the composition being three parts of nitre, two of carbonate
of potash, and one of sulphur. — Ure's Dictionary of Chemistry.
But this detonates more loudly than gunpowder. The error which it
was our author's object to correct here, was that of expecting an effective
gunpowder (of whatever colour) which should be "without report." He
justly observes, that, even admitting the probability of making a "white
powder," — "and such an one as may give no report," — it would "ba
of little force, and the effects thereof no way to be feared."
17G OF FULMINATITTG POWDER. [bOOK IT.
the credulity of others, we first declare, that gunpowder con-
sisteth of three ingredients, saltpetre, small-coal, and brim-
stone.^ Saltpetre, although it be also natural and found iu
several places, yet is that of common use an artificial salt,
drawn from the infusion of salt earth, as that of stales, stables,
dove-houses, cellars, and other covered places,'' where the
rain can neither dissolve, nor the sun approach to resolve
it : brimstone is a mineral body of tat and inflammable parts,
and this is either used crude, and called sulphur vive, and is
* we first declare, d-c] The account here given of gunpowder is upon
the whole accurate ; especially if we allow for the unsettled state of
philosophical language at that time, which makes it sometimes difficult
to feel assured of Sir Thomas's precise meaning. He was evidently
aware of the necessity of employing pure ingredients in the composition
of gunpowder ; observing that " powder which is made of impure and
greasy petre hath but a weak emission, and giveth a faint report ;" and
again, "that the best way to alter the noise and strength of the dis-
charge, consists in the quality of the nitre." He assigns, with suffi-
cient correctness, to its constituents their respective share in the
general results, when he ascribes to the charcoal the " quick accen-
sion [ignition]" to the sulphur the "piercing and powerful firing," and
to the nitre the "force and the report." — Modem experiment has shown
that the detonation or explosion of gunpowder is attributable to the
nitre, when combined with inflammable substances, viz. the sulphur and
charcoal ; and arises from the sudden extrication, by combustion, of
nitrogen and carbonic acid gases, which expand to a volume about two
thousand times greater than that originally occupied by the powder. —
The opinions of Garden and Snellius, quoted by our author, as to the
degree of expansion, are erroneous. In describing the mixture of the
three ingredients of gunpowder, Sir Thomas has named proportions very
different from those now adopted. Barrow informs us, that the Chinese
soldiery make their gunpowder (for it is there the duty of every soldier
to prepare his own) in the proportion of 501bs. of nitre to 25]bs. each
of sulphur and charcoal : but the modern jiractice is to employ about
75 of nitre and 15 (or 16) of charcoal to 10 (or 9) of sulphur ; varying
the relations between the two last, according as the object is to produce
a powder of greater durability or of greater strength ; more usually the
sulphur has been increased, and the carbon lessened — in order to obtain
a more lasting article, by a sliglit sacrifice of strength — which may
readily be compensated l>y increasing the charge.
"^ Saltpetre, although it be also natural, dr.] Native saltpetre, or
nitre (nitrate of potash) occurs in crusts and capillary crystals, in Spain,
France, Italy, and Hungary ; in Arabia, Persia, and India ; at the Cape
of Good Hope, in the mountains of Kentucky, and near Lima in South
America. But not being naturally j^roduced in sufficient quantity, it
is obtained artificially, in what are termed nitre-heds, as is described by
Tiienard {Traite de Vhimie, ii. 57' .)
CHAP. T.] OF FULMINATIKG POWDEB. 177
of a sadder colour, or, after depuration, such as we have in
magdaleons^ or rolls, of a lighter yellow : small-coal' is known
unto all, and for this use is made of sallow, willow, alder,
hazel, and the like : — which three, proportionably mixed,
tempered, and formed into granulary bodies, do make up that
powder which is in use for guns.
Now all these, although they bear a share in the dis-
charge, yet have they distinct intentions, and different offices
in the composition. From brimstone proceedeth the piercing
and powerful firing ; for small-coal and petre together will
only spit, nor vigorously continue the ignition. From small-
coal ensueth the black colour and quick accension ; for
neither brimstone nor petre, although in powder, will take
fire like small-coal, nor will they easily kindle upon the
sparks of a flint ; as neither will camphor, a body very in-
flammable; but small-coal is equivalent to tinder, and serveth
to light the sulphur ; it may also serve to diffuse the ignition
through every part of the mixture ; and being of more gross
and fixed parts, may seem to moderate the activity of salt-
petre, and prevent too hasty rarefaction.^ From saltpetre
proceedeth the force and the report ; for sulphur and small-
coal m.ixed will not take fire with noise or exilition,^ and
powder which is made of impure and greasy petre hath but
a weak emission, and giveth a faint report. And therefore,
in the three sorts of powder, the strongest containeth salt-
petre, and the proportion thereof is about ten parts of petre
unto one of coal and sulphiu-.
But the immediate cause of the report is the vehement
commotion of the air, upon the sudden and violent eruption
of the powder ; for that being suddenly fired, and almost al-
together, upon this high rarefaction requireth by many de-
grees a greater space than before its body occupied ; but
finding resistance, it actively forceth his way, and by con-
cussion of the air occasioneth the report. Now with what
■^ small-coal.'] The old term for charcoal. For magdaleon, see note
atp 150.
" it may also, d'c] Added in •2nd edition. That charcoal serves
as a diffusing medium to facilicate ignition is tnie ; but it is not easy to
see how it can operate to " moderate the activity of saltpetre."
^ exilition.'] " The act of springing out suddenly." The present paa
gage i i Johnson's sole authority.
TOL. I. X
178 01" FULMINATING POWDEB. [bOOK II.
violence it forceth upon the air, may easily be conceived, if
•vve admit, what Cardan affinneth, that the powder fired doth
occupy an hundred times a greater space than its own bulk ;
or rather what Snellius more exactly accounteth, that it ex-
ceedeth its former space no less than 12,500 times. And
this is the reason not only of this fulminating report of guns,
but may resolve the cause of those terrible cracks, and
affrighting noises of heaven ;i that is, tlie nitrous and sul-
phureous exhalations, set on fire in the clouds ; whereupon
requiring a larger place, they force out tlieir way, not only
with the breaking of the cloud, but the lacei-ation of the air
about it. When, if the matter be spirituous, and the cloud
compact, the noise is great and terrible : if tlie cloud be thin,
and the materials weak, the eruption is languid, ending in
corruscations and flashes without noise, although but at the
distance of two miles ; wliich is esteemed the remotest dis-
tance of clouds.2 And, therefore, such lightnings do seldom
' Aiid thk is the reason, <tc.l In his comparison of gimpowder with
lightning, our author proposes an opinion which was maintained by hia
great contemporary, Dr. Wallis ; who considered their effects so similar,
tliat they might, without hesitation, be ascribed to the same cause. The
discovery of electricity, and the identity of lightning with the electric
fluid, was reserved for a century later : — but the philosophy oi sound is
substantially the same in both cases; for, althougli the immediate resulta
of the ignition of gunpowder and of the discharge of electric fluid, are
directly opposite, — being rarefaction in the one case, by the evolution
of gases, and in the other condensation by the combination of other
gases ; and although the first results on the surrounding atmosphere are
also opposite, — the air in the latter case adraneing in order to occupy
the vacuum created by condensation, and in the former rctveutlng in
order to aflford the space required by rarefaction ; — yet, the subsequent
results in both cases are, alternate reactions of the particles of air, till
its average density is regained. Hence it follows, that in both cases
sound arises from the concussion, and consequent undulation (to use
Professor Erandes term) occasioned by the respective explosion of gun-
powder and of lightning.
If it be admitted, however, that the ideas of Sir Thomas on the point
were not far from the truth ; it must, on the otlier hand, be confessed
that he has clothed them in language not only unphilosophieal, but most
ambiguous, when he speaks of " the breakimj of the clouds, and lacera-
tion oi the sxr," — and of "the matter hem<^ sptrituoiut, and the clouds
compact ; or "the clouds thin, and the materials weak."
' the remotest distance of clouds.] The average height of clouds
scarcely exceeds a mile, or a mile and half. And many (especially
CHi-P. v.] OF FULMINATING POWDER. 179
any harm ; and, therefore also, it is prodigious to have
thunder in a clear sky, as is observably recorded in some
histories.^
From the like cause may also proceed subterraneous thun-
ders and earthquakes, when sulphureous and nitrous veins
being fired, upon rarefaction do force their way through
bodies that resist them."* AVhere, if the kindled matter be
plentiful, and the mine close and firm about it, subversion of
hills and towns doth sometimes follow : if scanty, weak, and
tlie earth hollow, or porous, there only eusueth some faint
concussion or tremulous and quaking motion. Surely, a
main reason why the ancients were so imperfect in the doc-
trine of meteors, was their ignorance of gunpowder and fire-
works, which best discover the causes of many thereof.^
ISow, therefore, he that would destroy the report of pow-
der, must work upon the petre ; he that would exchange
the colour, must think how to alter the small-coal ; for the
one, that is, to make white powder, it is surely many ways
feasible : the best I know, is by the powder of rotten willows;
spunk, or touch-wood prepared, might, perhaps, make it
russet ; and some, as Beringuccio affirmeth,* have promised
to make it red : all which, notwithstanding, doth little con-
* In his Pyrotechnia.
thunder clouds), are suspended much lower ; occasionally so low as
apparently to touch the ground.
^ and therefore, also, it is 2»'od{r/ious, tL-c] In the fall of meteoric
stones, flashes of fire are seen proceeding from a cloud, and a ioud rat-
tling noise like thunder is heard. These circumstances, and the sudden
stroke and detonation ensuing, long caused them to be confounded with
an effect of lightning, and called thunderbolts. But one circumstance
is enough to mark the difference : the flash and sound have been per-
ceived occasionally to emanate from a rerij small cloud insulated in a
clear ski/ ; which never happens in a thunder storm, but which is un-
doubtedly intimately connected with their real origin. — Uerschel, Intro-
ductory Lecture, p. 120.
' From the like cause, <£'c.] Lemery, in the beginning of the eigh-
teenth century, tried the following experiment. He mixed a consider-
able quantity of sulphur, and iron filings, with water, into a paste ;
enveloped it in a cloth, and buried it in the earth, which he rammed
firmly about it. In a few hours the ground swelled and cracked, and
sulphureous exhalations, accompanied with flame, made their appear-
ance. In short he succeeded in producing, in miniature, an artificial
volcano.
"• <A««()/',] This paragraph was added in the 2nd edition.
N 2
180 OF FULMIKATING POWDEK. [bOOK II.
cern tlie report ; for that, as we have showed, depends on
another ingredient ; and, therefore, also, under the colour of
black, this principle is very variable ; for it is made not only
by willow, alder, hazel, &c., but some above all conunend the
coals of flax and rushes, and some also contend the same
may be effected with tinder.
As for tlie other, tliat is, to destroy the report, it is rea-
sonably attempted but two ways ; eitlier by quite leaving
out, or else by silencing tlie saltpetre. How to abate the
vigour thereof, or silence its bombulation, a way is promised
by Porta, not only in general terms by some fat bodies, but
in particular by borax and butter mixed in a due propor-
tion ; which, saith he, will so go off as scarce to be heard by
the dischai'ger ; and indeed plentifully mixed, it will almost
take off the report, and also the force of the charge. That
it may be thus made without saltpetre, I have met with
but one example, that is, of Alphonsus, Duke of Ferrara,
who, in the relation of Brassavolus and Cardan,* invented
such a powder as would discharge a bullet without report.
That therefore white powder there may be, there is no
absurdity : that also such a one as may give no report we
will not deny a possibility. But this, however contrived,
either with or without saltpetre, will surely be of little
force, and the effects thereof no way to be feai-ed ; for as it
amits of report, so will it of effectual exclusion, and so
the charge be of little force which is excluded. For this
much is reported of that famous powder of Alphonsus,
which was not of force enough to kill a chicken, according
to the delivery of Brassavolus : jamque puJvis inventus est
qui (jlandem sine homho projicit, nee tamen vehementer ut
vel pullum interficere possit.
It is not to be denied there are ways to discharge a bullet,
not only with powder that makes no noise, but without any
powder at all ; as is done by water and wind-guns, but these
afford no fulminating report, and depend on single principles.
And even in ordinary powder there are pi'eten(led other ways
to alter the noise and strength of the discharge ; and the
best, if not only way, consists in the quality of the nitre :
for as for other ways which make either additions or altera-
* De Examine Salium,
CHAP, v.] OF FULMINATING POWDEB. 181
tions in the powder or charge, I find therein no eflect.*'
That unto every pound of sulphur an adjection of one
ounce of quicksilvei', or unto every pound of petre, one
ounce of sal armoniac, will much intend'^ the force and con-
sequently the report, as Beringuccio hath delivered, I find
no success therein. That a piece of opium will dead the
force and blow, as some have promised, I find lierein no
such peculiarity, no more than in any gum or viscose body ;
and as much effect there is to be fouud from scammony.
That a bullet dipped in oil, by preventing the transpiration
of air,^ will carry farther and pierce deeper, as Porta
affirmeth, my experience cannot discern.^ That quicksilver
is more destructive than shot, is surely not to be made out ; ^
for it will scarce make any penetration, and discharged
from a pistol will hardly pierce through a parchment. That
vinegar, spirits of wine, or the distilled water of orange-
peels, wherewith the powder is tempered, are more eflec-
tual unto the report than common water, as some do
promise, I shall not afiirm ; but may assuredly more con-
duce unto the preservation and durance of the powder, as
Cateneo* hath well observed.
That the heads of arrows and bullets have been discharged
with that force, as to melt or grow I'ed hot in their flight,-
though commonly received, and taken up by Aristotle in his
* Avertimenti intorno a un Bombardiero.
® for other ways, <t'c.] Quicklime, well dried and pulverized, is said,
by the French translator of Henry's Epitome of Chemistry, to increase
the explosive effect of gunpowder.
' intend.^ Make more intense.
^ preventing the transpiration of air.] Its escajie between the bullet
and the side of the barrel. The definiaon of the term by Johnson
seems quite inapplicable to the present passage, though he cites it as
his authority.
" That a bullet, d-c] If the bullet, especially a tampin [tampion]
thus dipt, doe fitt the peece, soe as to be ramd in ; this a most certaine
experiment, mihi crede experto. — Wr.
' not to be made out.] I believe that of Porta concerning quicksilver,
yf hee bee rightly understood: but hee did wel to put itt in such
obscure terms, least itt should prove too pernicious. — Wr.
2 That the heads of arrows and ballets, d'c] If a ball stri^ce a plate of
iron, it will be broken in pieces, and the pieces often found in a nearly
fused state. But this heat is generated by the percussion, net by the
motion.
182 OF FULMINATING POWDER. [bOOK II.
Meteors, is not so easily allowable by any who shall consider,
that a bullet of wax will mischief without melting; that an
arrow or bullet discharged against linen or paper does not
set them on fire ; and hardly apprehend how^ an iron should
grow red hot, since the swiftest motion at hand will not keep
one red that hath been red by fire : as may be observed in
swinging a red hot iron about, or fastening it into a wheel,
Avhich, under that motion, will sooner grow cold than without
it. That a bullet also mounts upward upon the horizontal
or point-blank discharge, many artists do not allow ; who
contend that it describeth a parabolical and bow'ing line by
reason of its natural gravity inclining it always downward.''
But, beside the prevalence from saltpetre,^ as master ingre-
dient in the mixture, sulphur may hold a greater use in the
composition, and further activity in the exclusion, than is by
most conceived. For sulphur vive makes better powder than
common sulphur, which nevertheless is of a quick accension.
For small-coal, saltpetre, and camphor, made into powder will
be of little force, ■wherein notwitlistanding there wants not
the accending ingredient. And camphor, though it flame
well, yet will not flush so lively, or defecate saltpetre if you
inject it thereon, like sulphur, as in the preparation of sal
prunellcB. And, lastly, though many ways may be found to
light this powder, yet is there none I know to make a strong
and vigorous powder of saltpetre, without the admixtion of
sulphur. Arsenic, red and yellow, that is orpiment and san-
darach,^ may, perhaps, do something, as being inflammable
and containing sulphur in them ; but containing also a salt,
3 and hardly apjwehend hoiv.^ " Neither will any readily apprehend
how, &c."
"* That the heads, tfrc] Added in the 2nd edition.
* pi-evalence, dr.] Edit. 1646 reads, " prevalence to report from salt-
petre by some antipathy or incummiscibility therewith upon the ap-
proach of fire."
^ sandarach.] Nota differentiam inter 'S.avCapciKiiv et 'S.ni'Ciaf}a\r)v
quam facili errore sed maximo vitae periculo oniittunt quidam medi-
castri : vide notas mea.s in voce apud eruditissini m Gorrhajum. Cum
ic scrijituia, significat, f/ummi Juiiiperi ; cum A uurij>if/mentuvi ; — pri-
mum salutare : secundum deleterium. "^Lavcupai etiam est vernigo
pictoris quam e gummi Juniperi conficiunt ; "i-uvlapaKX] autem est,
aliis Corinthus, aliis Erithace, aliis Propolis, apuin cilius, sed amari
Baporis, in favis rejjeritur aeoraim a melle positus : Grajci uuomaatici
hie muti sunt. — Wr.
CUAP. v.] OF COBAL, 183
and mercurial mixtion, they will be of little effect ; and -wliite
or crystalline arsenic of less, for that being artificial and
sublimed with salt, will not endure flammation.
This antipathy or contention between saltpetre and sulphur
upon an actual fire, in their complete and distinct bodies,
is also manifested in their preparations, and bodies which
invisibly contain them. Thus in the preparation of crocMs
metallorum, the matter kindleth and flusheth like gunpowder ;
wherein,not withstanding, there is nothing but antimony'' and
saltpetre. But this may proceed from the sulphur of anti-
mony not enduring the society of saltpetre ; for after three or
four accensions, through a fresh addition of petre, the powder
will flush no more, for the sulphur of the antimony is quite
exhaled. Thus iron in aquafortis will fall into ebullition,
with noise and emication, as also a crass and fumid exhalation,
which are caused from this combat of the sulphur of iron,
which the acid and nitrous spirits of aquafortis. So is it also
in aurumfulminans, or powder of gold dissolved in aqua regis,
and precipitated with oil of tartar, which will kindle without
an actual fire, and afford a report like gunpowder ; that is,
not as CroUius* afiirmeth, from any antipathy between sal
armoniac and tartar, but rather between the nitrous spirits
of aqua regis, commixed per minima with the sulphur of
gold, as Sennertus hath observed.
6. That coral (which is a litho2)hyton or stone-plant, and
groweth at the bottom of the sea) is soft under water, but
waxeth hard in the air, although the assertion of Dioscorides,
Pliny, and consequently Solinus, Isidore, Eueus, and many
others,^ and stands believed by most, we have some reason to
doubt, especially if we conceive with common believers, a
total softness at the bottom, and this induration to be singly
made by the air, not only from so sudden a petrifaction and
strange induration, not easily made out from the qualities of
air, but because we find it rejected by experimental enquiries.
Johannes Beguinus, in his chapter of the Tincture of Coral|
* De Consensu Chymicorum.
' antimony.'] Sulphuret of antimony.
' many others.'] Ovid. Met. xv. 46.
" Sic et coralium quo primum contigit auras,
Tempore durescit ; mollis fuit herba sub undis." — Jef.
184 OF CORAL. [book II.
undertakes to clear the world of tliis error, from the express
experiment of John Baptista de Nicole, who was overseer of
the gathering of coral upon the kingdom of Tunis. " This
gentleman," saithhe, "desirous to find the nature of coral,
and to be resolved how it groweth at the bottom of the sea,
caused a man to go down no less than a hundred fathom, with
express [direction] to take notice whether it were hard or soft
in the place where it groweth. Who returning, brought in
each hand a branch of coral, affirming it was as hard at the
bottom as in the air where he delivered it. The same was
also confirmed by a trial of his own, handling it a fathom
under water before it felt the air." Boetius, in his accurate
tract De Gemmis, is of the same opinion, not ascribing its
concretion unto the air, but the coagulating spirits of salt,
and lapidifical juice of the sea, which entering the parts of
that plant, overcomes its vegetability, and converts it into a
lapideous substance. And this, saith he, doth happen when
the plant is ready to decay ; for all coral is not hard, and in
many concreted plants some parts remain unpetrified, that
is, the quick and livelier parts remain as wood, and were never
yet converted. Now, that plants and ligneous bodies may
indurate under water without approachment of air, we have
experiment in coralline, with many coralloidal concretions ;
and that little stony plant, which Mr. Johnson nameth
Mppuris coralloides, and (jresneY,foliis mansu arenosis, we
have found in fresh water, which is the less concretive
portion of that element. We have also with us the visible
petrification of wood in many waters, whereof so much as is
covered with water converteth into stone ; as much as is
above it and in the air, retaineth the form of wood, and
continueth as before.^
Now, though' in a middle way we may concede, that some
are soft, and others hard, yet, whether all coral were first a
woody substance, and afterwards converted, or rather some
thereof were never such, but from the sprouting spirit of salt
were able even in their stony natures to ramify and send
® and continueth, <fr.] Neere the banke of Harwel, two miles from
Oxon, under a stile and bridge, is a draine or drill in a ditch, out of
which T took diverse small stickes, some nearly incrustated, and soma
petrefieck — Wr.
' Now, though, <fcc.] Added in 3rd edit.
CHi-P. v.] OF CORAL, 185
forth branches, as is observable in some stones, in silver and
metallic bodies, is not without some question. And such at
least might some of those be, vihich Fiaravauti observed to
grow upon bricks at the bottom of the sea, upon the coast of
Barbary.^
* 6. That coral, <£-c.] It must, in the very nature of things, be occa-
sionally the fate of him who challenges the soundness of any received
opinion — especially on subjects but little understood — to take his stand
on ground not less hoUow, and even to make his attack from a position
equally untenable. Thus has it happened to our author in the present
case. He justly denounces as erroneous the popular opinion, "that
coral is soft under water, but waxeth hard in the air ; but seems not in the
slightest degree aware of that much graver eiTor, then prevalent, that it
belongs to the mineral or vegetable, instead of the animal kingdom. But
in this he en-ed not only with the highest authorities, but with all, both
prior to, and contemporary with him. Nor was the true nature of coral
ascertained till long after him. Many of the older naturalists regarded it
as a mere stone, a mineral taking somewhat the form a tree : others, and
especially the early botanists, regarding its fonn rather than its material,
pronounced it, without hesitation, a tree, duly provided with root, trunl-,
branches, and ticigs ; and having observed the exterior (and most
recently deposited) layer to be softer than those beneath it, they called
it the hai-k. In 1 703, the Count Marsigli, having had the opportunity
of remarking the coral at the surface of the sea, throwing out fi'om
various poi»ts its radiated and flower-like inhabitants, the jMhjpi, he
congratulated himself as having completed the plant by the discovery of
its Jloivers. No on^ doubted this opinion, till Peyssonel distinguished
himself by the discoveiy, but these Jlowers were in fact animals. But
the truth was received reluctantly by the French naturalists, till Guet-
tard and Jussieu, sent by the Academie des Sciences, confirmed and fully
established the fact. We owe, however, to the naturalists of Italy,
principally, our knowledge of the structure and physiology of coral, as
well as of its mode of growth. A hasty sketch may not be unaccept-
able to the reader.
Each coral (that is, the entire habitation of each separate colony of
2wlllpi), is a kind of shrub, or tree in miniature, about eighteen inches
igh, and one in diameter at the lower part of the trunk. Its base, by
means of which, as by the root, the whole coral becomes firmly attached
to the rock on which it grows, is spread out and flattened, like that of
the larger fiLci. At the height of a few inches from the base, the trunk
throws out its branches, which again ramify into lesser ones, each termi-
nated by a blunt, softer extremity.
I n structure, as well as foi-m, the coral bears a resemblance to wood :
especially in its successive layers, which, viewed in section, exhibit con-
centric rings, less and less close to each other, as they are more distant
from the centre, like those of the trunk of a tree. The outer layer, which
like the hark is always softer than those beneath it, is in fact the livinj
part of the coral. On its surface are dispersed, here and there, irregu-
larly, tubercles, having their orifice divided into eight radiij eacb
186 OF POECELA.IN. [bOOK II.
7. "We are not thoroughly resolved concerning porcelain^
or china dishes, that, according to common belief they are
made of earth, which lieth in preparation about an hun-
dred years under ground ; for the relations thereof are not
only diverse but contrary, and authors agree not herein.
Guido Pancirollus will have them made of egg-shells, lobster-
shells, and gypsum laid up in the earth the space of eighty
tubercle being the mouth or entrance to the cell of a polype. This ex-
terior surface or bark is longitudinally furrowed with strice, occa-
sioned by tubes or canals running along the branches, and filled with a
milky fluid.
The reproduction or growth of coral is thus effected : — the egg is
thrown out of the tubercle before described ; it falls, an embryo drop
of coral-jelly, and becomes agglutinated to the rock or other substance
which receives it. It spreads out upon the surface thereof; and from
its centre soon arises a tubercle, which at length, opens in the middle,
and throws out its tentacida in search of nutriment, or for the purpose
of respiration. Its growth becomes more and more rapid In its
interior is secreted tlie calcareous material which becomes coral. Thus
it shoots up and branches out, throwing out fresh polypi at various
places. The extremities of its branches, being the points of recent for-
mation, are always softer than the other parts ; which may have led
the erroneous supposition that it is soft under water, and hardens by
expo.sure to the air.
The coral is supposed to attain its full growth in about ten years :
and to lose gradually the brilliancy of its red colour by age.
It is found principally in the Mediterranean and Red Seas, at various
depths from six to seven hundred feet below the surface of the sea.
The plant mentioned is probably a chara {vulgaris or hhpida) ; but
the crust is only a calcareous deposit.
That which our author calls petrifaction of wood, is in fact merely
incrustation.
^ We are not, cC-c] This account of the Chinese method of making
porcelain is accurate. As to the materials of which it was composed,
Reaumur made some researches in the early part of the eighteenth cen-
tury ; the result of which was an opinion that true porcelain is made
of two ingredients— rthe one capable of resisting the most violent heat
that can be raised ; while the other (which gives to porcelain its trans-
parency) melts into glass. His conclusions were confirmed by a
Father d'Entrecolles, a French missionary, in China, who sent, some
time after, a memoir to the academy, describing *he mode followed by
the Chinese in the manufactory of their porcelain Two substances are
employed by them, the one called kaolin, and the other petunse. It is
now known that kaolin is what we call porcelain-clay, and that petunst
is a fine white felspar. Felspar is fusible in a violent heat, but porce-
lain-clay is refractory in the highest trnnperatures that we have it ia
our power to produce in furnaces.
CHAP, v.] OF POKCELAIK, 187
years : of the same affirmation is Scaliger, and the common
opinion of most. Eamuzius, in his Navigations, is of a con-
trary assertion ; that they are made out of earth, not laid
under ground, but hardened in tlie sun and wind, the space
of forty years. But Gonzales de Mendoza, a man employed
into Cliina from Philip the second, king of Spain, upon en-
quiry and ocular experience, delivered a way diiferent from
all these. For enquiring into the artifice thereof, he found
they were made of a chalky earth ; which, beaten and steeped
in water, atfordeth a cream or fatness on the top, and a
gross subsidence at the bottom ; out of the cream or super-
nuitance, the finest dishes, saith he, are made ; out of the
residence thereof, the coarser ; which being formed, they gild
or paint, and, not after an hundred years, but presently,
commit unto the furnace. This, saith he, is known by experi-
ence, and more probable than what Odoardus Barbosa bath
delivered, that they are made of shells, and buried under earth
an hundred years. And answerable in all points hereto, is
the relation of Linschotten, a diligent enquirer, in his Orien-
tal Navigations. Later confirmation may be had from Alva-
rez the Jesuit, who lived long in those parts, in his relations
of China : that porcelain vessels were made but in one town
of the province of Chiamsi ; that the earth was brought out
of other provinces, but, for the advantage of water, which
makes them more polite and perspicuous, they were only
made in this ; that they were wrought and fashioned like
those of other countries, whereof some were tinted blue,
some red, others yellow, of which colour only they presented
unto the king.**
Tlie latest account hereof may be found in the voyage of
the Dutch ambassador, sent from Batavia unto the emperor
of China, printed in French, 1665 ; which plainly informeth,
that the earth, whereof porcelain dishes are made, is
brought from the mountains of Hoaug, and being formed
into square loaves, is brought by water, and marked with
the emperor's seal; that the earth itself is very lean, fine,
and shining like sand ; and that it is prepared and fashioned
after the same manner w^hich the Italians observe in the fine
earthern vessels of Faventia or Fuenca ; that they are so
* LtUer conji^tnation, dx.j Added in 2nd edition.
188 or THE CAEBUNCLE. [bc OK II.
reserved concerning that artifice, that it is only revealed
from fixtlier unto son ; that they are painted with indigo,^
baked in a fire for fifteen days together, and with very dry
and not smoking wood : which when the author had seen, he
could hardly contain from laughter at the common opinion
above rejected by us.^
Now if any enquire, why, being so commonly made, and
in so short a time, they are become so scarce, or not at all to
be had ; the answer is given by these last relators, that
under great penalties it is forbidden to carry the first sort
out of the country. And of those surely the properties
must be verified, which by Scaliger and others are ascribed
unto china dishes : — that they admit no poison, that they
strike fire, that they will grow hot no higher than the liquor
in them ariseth. For such as pass amongst us, and under
the name of the finest, will only strike fire, but not discover
aconite, mercury, or arsenic ; but may be useful in dysen-
teries and fluxes beyond the other.
8.'' Whether a carbuncle (which is esteemed the best and
biggest of rubies) doth flame in the dark,^ or shiue like a
coal in the night, though generally agreed on by common
believers, is very much questioned by many. By Mdius,
who accounts it a vulgar error : by the learned Boetius, who
could not find it verified in that famous one of Eodolphus,
which was as big as an egg, and esteemed the best in
Europe. AVherefore, although we dispute not the possi-
bility (and the like is said to have been observed in some
* indigo.'] Cobalt ?
^ The latest account, <f,-c.] Added in the 6th edition.
'' § 8.] This, and the next paragraph, were added in the 2nd edition.
8 Whether a carbunch, tC-c] That which Sir Thomas much doubted,
has since been subjected to the test of repeated observation, and
many very curious experiments, by which the phosphorescence of the
diamond, sapphire, ruby, and topaz, as well as of many minerals and
metals, and various other bodies, is fully established. Mr. Wedgewood
has treated the subject at large in a paper in tlie 82nd volume of the
Philosophical I'vaiisactions. This luminous pro[)erty, which seems to
be strictly phosphoric, is made apparent liy subjecting the body in
question to heat, in various ways. Several fluids (oils, spemiaoeti,
butter, &c.) are luminous at or below the l)oiling point : minerals and
other bodies become so by being sprinkled on a thick plate of iron,
heated just below visible redness. The gems, and several of the hardei
minerals, emit their light upon attrition.
CHA-P. T.] OF THE EAGLE STOXE. 189
diamond.-s), yet, whether herein there be not too high an ap-
prehension, and above its natural radiancy, is not without
just doubt; however it be granted a very splendid gem, and
whose sparks may somewhat resemble the glances of fire,
and metaphorically deserve that name. And, therefore,
when it is conceived by some, tliat this stone in the breast-
plate of Aaron respected the tribe of Dan, who burnt the
city of Laish, and Sampson of the same tribe, who fired the
corn of the Philistines, in some sense it may be admitted, and
is no intolerable conception.
As for that Indian stone that shined so brightly in the
night, and pretended to have been shown to many in the
court of France, as Audreus Cliioccus hath declared out of
Thuanus, it proved but an imposture, as that eminent pliilo-
sopher, Licetus,* hath discovered ; and, therefore, in the
revised editions of Thuanus it is not to be found. As for the
phosphorus or Bononian stone,t which exposed unto the
sun, and then closely shut up, will afterwards afford a
light in the dark ; it is of unlike consideration, for that re-
quireth calcination or reduction into a dry powder by fire,
whereby it imbibeth the liglit in the vaporous humidity of
the air about it, and therefore maintaineth its light not long,
but goes out wlien the vaporous vehicle is consumed.
9.^ AVhether the cetites or eagle-stone^ hath that eminent
property to promote delivery or restrain abortion, respec-
tively applied to lower or upward parts of the body, we shall
not discourage common practice by our question ; but whe-
ther they answer the account thereof, as to be taken out of
eagles' nests, co-operating in women into such eftects, as
they are conceived toward the young eagles ; or whether the
single signature of one stone included in the matrix and
* De Qmesit. per Epidolas. + De Lapide Bononiense.
^ § 9.] This and the following paragraphs were first added in 3rd
edition.
' the (Etites, or eagle-stone.'] A kind of hollow geodes of oxide of iron,
often mixed with a larger or smaller quantity oi silex and alumina, con-
taining in their cavity some concretions, which rattle on shaking the
stone. It is of a dull pale colour, composed of concentric layers of
various magnitudes, of an oval or polygonal form, and often polished.
Eagles were said to carry them to their nests, whence the name ; and
superstition formerly ascribed wonderful virtues to them.
190 OF FAIET STONES. [bOOK II.
belly of another, were not sufficient at first, to derive this
virtue of the pregnant stone upon others in impregnation,
may yet be farther considered. Many sorts there are of
this rattling stone, beside the geodes, containing a softer
substance in it. Divers are found in England, and one we
met with on the sea shore, but because many of eminent use
are pretended to be brought from Iceland, wherein are divers
eyries of eagles ; we cannot omit to deliver what we received
from a learned person in that country.* jEtites an in nidis
aquilarum aliqiiando f tier it repertus, nescio. Nostra certe
memoria, etiam inquirentibus non contigit invenisse, quare
infahulis liabendum.
10. Terrible apprehensions, and answerable unto their
names, are raised of fairy stones and elves' spurs,^ found
commonly with us in stone, chalk, and marl-pits, which, not-
withstanding, are no more than echinometrites and helemnites,
the sea hedge-hog, and the dart-stone, arising from some
siliceous roots, and softer than that of flint, the master-stone
lying more regularly in courses, and arising from the pri-
mary and strongest spirit of the mine. Of the echinites,
such as are found in chalk-pits are white, glassy, and built
upon a chalky inside ; some, of an hard and flinty substance,
are found in stone-pits and elsewhere. Common opinion
commendeth them for the stone, but are most practically
used against films in horses' eyes.
11. Lastly, he must have more heads than Rome had hills,
that makes out half of those virtues asci'ibed unto stones,
and their not only medical, but magical properties, which are
to be found in authors of great iiame. In Psellus, Scrapion,
Evax, Albertus, Aleazar, Marbodeus ; in Maiolus, Eueus,
Mylius, and many more."*
That la^jis lazuli hath in it a purgative faculty we know ;
that bezoar is antidotal, lapis judaicus diuretical, coral ante-
* Theodore Jonas, Hitterdalae pastor.
- Terrible apprehensions, ttc] Though he denounces the popular su-
perstitions attached to these fairy-stones, li-c. otii- tiuthor, in this para-
graph, gives additional evidence that he had fallen into another error
of his day, in confounding fossils with minerals. — See Mr. Brayley's
note, p. 105.
^ many more."] And above all Cardan in De xariet. ubique supersti-
tiogissime. — Wr.
CHAP, v.] OF TABIOUS STONES. 191
pileptical, we will not deny. That cornelians, jaspis, lielio-
tropes, and blood-stones may be of virtue to those inten-
tions they are employed, experience and visible effects will
make us grant. But that an amethyst prevents inebriation ;
that an emerald will break if worn in copulation ; that a
diamond laid under the pillow, will betray the incontinency
of a wife ; that a sapphire is preservative against enchant-
ments ; that the fume of an agate will avert a tempest, or
the wearing of a chrysophrase make one out of love with
gold, as some have delivered, we are yet, I confess, to be-
lieve, and in that infidelity are likely to end our days. And
therefore, they which, in the explication of the two beryls
upon the ephods, or the twelve stones in the rational or
breastplate * of Aaron, or those twelve which garnished the
wall of the Holy City in the Apocalypse, have drawn their
significations from such as these, or declared their symboli-
cal verities from such traditional falsities, have surely cor-
rupted the sincerity of their analogies, or misunderstood the
mystery of their intentions.
Most men conceive that the twelve stones in Aaron's
breastplate made a jewel surpassing any, and not to be
paralleled ; which, notwithstandnig, will hardly be made out
from the description of the text ; for the names of the tribes
were engraven thereon ; which must notably abate their
lustre. Besides, it is not clear made out that the best of
gems, a diamond, was amongst them ;* nor is it to be found
iu the list tliereof, set down by the Jerusalem targum,
wherein we find the darker stones of sardius, sardonynx, and
jasper ; and if we receive them under those names wherein
they are usually described, it is not hard to contrive a more
illustrious and splendent jewel. But being not ordained for
mere lustre by diaphanous and pure tralucencies, their mys-
■• rational or hreastplate.^ " Rationale quoque judicii fades," d-c.
Exod. xxviii. 15.
^ not clear made out, d-c] Tlie doubt here intimated, whether the
true diamond was among the stones of the breastplate, has been ex-
pressed by commentators, on the ground that it is too hard to be
engraved. Calmet, in his figure of the Pectoral, omits it. Eosenmiiller
however asserts, on the testimony of Biisching, the existence of engraved
diamonds of great antiquity. A diamond of sufficient size to admit
the engraving, must have equaled the largest modern specimens. Like
many other such questions, it admits of discussion, but not of sulutiou.
192 OF MANDKAKES. {UOOE II.
torious significations became more considerable than their
gemmary substances; and those, no doubt, did noblj answer
the intention of the institutor. Beside, some may doubt
whether there be twelve distinct species of noble tralucent
gems in nature,^ at least yet known unto us, and such as
may not be referred unto some of those in high esteem
among us, which come short of the number of twelve ;
which to make up, we must find out some others to match
and join with the diamond, beryl, sapphire, emerald, ame-
thyst, topaz, chrysolite, jacinth, ruby, and, if we may admit
it in this number, tlie oriental granat/
CHAPTEE VI.
Of sundry tenets concerning vegetables or plants, wJiich, examined, prove
either false or dubious : — of mandralces ; that cinnamon, ginger, cloves,
mace, are but the parts or fruits of the same tree ; that miseltoe is bred
upon trees, from seeds which birds let fall thereon ; of the rose of
Jericho, that flowereth every year tipon Christmas Eve ; of Glastonbury
thorn; that Sferra Cavallo hath a potver to break or loosen iron; that
bays preserve from the mischief of lightning and thunder ; that
bitter almonds are preservatives against ebriety.
1. Many molas and false conceptions there are of man-
drakes.^ The first, from great antiquity, conceiveth the root
® whether there be twelve, <t-c.] If we are to understand, by the
terms "noble tralucent gems," those only which were formerly called
precious stones, we shall scarcely enumer.ate more than two distinct
species, viz., the diamond and sapphire ; for the oriental ruby, amethyst,
and topaz, ai'e not distinct in species from the sapphire ; and the cryso-
beryl and spinelle ruby, though distinct species, are inferior in hardness
and brilliancy to stones of the first class. But if we extend our range,
as Sir Thomas has done, to gems of lesser value, though we confine
ourselves to such as are, scientifically speaking, distinct species, and so
omit several of the most splendid and valuable, as being only varieties,
we may still enlarge his list — for example : supposing his " chrysolite "
to refer to the common chrysolite or peridot, and his " oriental granat "
to be the garnet; we may add the chrysobcryl, or oriental chrysolite ; the
almandine garnet, or carbuncle of the ancients (which he seems tO' con-
sider as only a ruby of greater size <and beauty) ; the j)recious towma-
line {lyncurium of the ancients), and perhaps the chrysopra e ; noi w)
mention opal and torquoise.
' Most men, <Ct.] This whole paragraph was atlded in the 6th edition.
* Many molas, <t-t'.] An excellent digest of the Viuious and absiurd
CHAP, n.] OF MANDRAKES. 193
thereof resembletli the shape of man ; which is a conceit not
to be made out by ordinary inspection, or any other eyes,
than such as, regarding the clouds, behokl them in shapes
conformable to pre-apprehensions.
Now, whatever encourageth the first invention, there have
not been wanting many ways of its promotion. The first a
catechrestical and far-derived similitude it holds with man ;
that is, in a bifurcation or division of the root into two
parts, which some are content to call thighs ; whereas, not-
withstanding, they are ofttimes three, and when but two,
commonly so complicated and crossed, that men, for this de-
ceit, are fain to elfect their design in other plants. And as
fair a resemblance is often found in carrots, parsnips, briony,
and many others. There are, I confess, divers plants which
carry about them not only the shape of parts, but also of
whole animals ; but surely not all thereof, unto whom this
conformity is imputed. Whoever shall peruse the signa-
tures of Crollius, or rather the Phytognomy of Porta, and
strictly observe how vegetable realities are commonly forced
into animal representations, may easily perceive in very
many, the semblance is but postulatory, and must have a
more assimilating fancy than mine to make good many
thereof.
Illiterate heads have been led on by the name, which, in
the first syllable,* expresseth its representation ; but other
have better observed the laws of etymology, and deduced it
from a word of the same language, because it delighteth to
* 'SlavSpa, spelunca.
speculations and conjectures respecting the mandrake and its properties
will be found in Dr. Harris's Dictionary of the Natural History of the
Bible.
The Abbe Mariti, in his Travels, vol. ii. p. 195, thus describes the
mandrake. " At the village of St. John, in the mountains, about six
miles south-west from Jerusalem, this plant is found at present, as well
as in Tuscany. It grows low like lettuce, to which its leaves have a
great resemblance, except that they have a dark green colour. The
flowers are purple, and the root is for the most part forked. The fruit,
when ripe in the beginning of May, is of the size and colour of a small
apple, exceedingly ruddj-, and of a most ar/reeable odour. Our guide
thought us fools for suspecting it to be unwholesome. He ate it fi-eely
himself ■, and it is generally valued by tlie inhabitants as exhilarating
their spirits, and a provocative to venery."
TOL. 1. O
194 OF MA-XDEAKES. [eOOK II.
grow in obscure and shady places ; whicli derivation,
althougli we shall not stand to maintain, yet the other
seemeth answerable unto the etymologies of many authors,
who often confound such nominal notations. IN^ot to en-
quire beyond our owa profession, the Latin physicians,
which most adhered unto the Arabic way, have often failed
herein ; particularly Valescus de Taranta, a received phy-
sician, in whose Philonium, or Medical Practice, these mav
be observed : Diarrhea, saith he, q^iia pluries venit in die.^
Herisepela, quasi Jicerens pilis ; emmorrohis, ah emach,
sanguis, et morroliis, quod est cadere. Lithargia, a litus,
• quod est oblivio, et targus, morbus. Scotomia, a scotus, quod
est videre, et mias, musca. Opthalmia, ab opus Greece, quod
est succus, et talmon quod est oculus. Paralisis, quasi Icesio
partis. Fistula, afos sonus, et stolon quod est emissio, quasi
emissio soni vel vocis. AVhich are derivations as strange, in-
deed, as the other, and hardly to be paralleled elsewhere :
confirming not only the words of one language with another,
but creating such as were never yet in any.
The received distinction and common notation b> sexes,^
hath also promoted the conceit ; for true it is, that her-
balists, from ancient times, have thus distinguished them ;
^ venit in die.] Not unlike to tliat of tlaaywyi), which a wise man
derived fi-om (elaog and yaiyovg) or, as Calepin derives aqua from a qua,
or as Minshew, prospcro from jtorro and spero, where the long quantityes
in the originals discover the follye of the derivations. — Wr.
' The received distinction, tfcc] Nearly a century elapsed after this
paragraph was written, before the distinction adverted to was well un-
derstood and explained. The real use of the stamina of plants, to fer-
tilize the seed, though suspected by Ray and others, was not fully esta-
blished till LinnKus, in 1732, published, in his Fundamcnta et Philo-
sophia Botanica, the results of his long and laborious consideration of
the opinions which had preceded him, combined with his own patient
and acute investigation of vegetable phenomena, jnit to the test of va-
rious ingenious experiments. He proved that " flowers are always
furnished, either in the same individual, or two of the same species,"
with stamens and pistils, — the latter containing the seeds, — the former
the pollen or dust which fertilizes and perfects it. These were there-
fore called the male and female parts of fructification ; and in those
orders in which one plant contains stamens oidy, and another only the
pistil — the one was called the male, the other the female plant. Thia
discovery he made the foundation of the artificial system, which, under
the title of the Linncean system of botany, became so universally
popukr.
CHAP. VT.] OF MANDEAKES. 195
naming that the male, whose leaves are lighter, and fruit
and apples rounder ; but this is properly no generative divi-
sion, but rather some note of distinction in colour, figure, or
operation. For though Empedocles* affirm, there is a
mixed and undivided sex in vegetables, and Scaliger, upon
Aristotle, doth favourably explain that opinion, yet will it not
consist with the common and ordinary acceptation, nor yet
with Aristotle's definition. For, if that be male which
generates in another, that female which procreates iu itself;
if it be understood of sexes conjoined, all plants are female ;
and if of disjoined and congressive generation, there is no
male or female in them at all.^
But the Atlas or main axis which supported this opinion,
was daily experience, and the visible testimony of sense.
For many there are, in several parts of Europe, who carry
about roots and sell them unto ignorant people, wliich
handsomely make out the shape of man or woman. But
these are not productions of nature, but contrivances of art,
as divers have noted, and Matthiolus plainly detected ; who
learned this way of trumpery from a vagabond cheater lying
under his cure for the French disease. His words are these,
and may determine the point: Sed frofecto vanum etfabulo-
8uin, Sfc. ; but this is vaiu and fabulous, which ignorant
people and simple women believe ; for the roots which are
carried about by imposters to deceive unfruitful women, are
made of the roots of canes, briony, and other plants ; for in
these, yet fresh and virent, they carve out the figiu-es of men
and women, first sticking therein the grains of barley or
millet where they intend the liair shoidd grow ; then bury
them in sand until the grains shoot forth their roots, which,
at the longest, will happen in twenty days ; they afterwards
clip and trim those tender strings in the fashion of beards
and other hairy teguments. All which, like other impos-
tures, once discovered, is easily effected, and ia the root of
white briony may be practised every spring.
* De Plantis.
^ no male, etc.] The name of male and female in plants is onlye tra-
latitious and similitudinarye, that which beares fruite beeing for dis-
tinction sake called female, and that which beares none the male. — Wr.
See preceding note.
o2
196 OF MAIfDEAKES. [bOOK II.
What is therefore delivered in favour thereof, by authors,
ancient or modern,'' must have its root in tradition, impos-
ture, far derived similitude, or casual and rare contiugency.
So may we admit of the epithet of Pythagoras, who calls it
nntliropomor2)hus* audi that of Columella, who terms it semi-
homo; more applicable unto the man-orcliis, whose flower
represents a man. Thus is Albertus to be received, when
he aflnrmeth that mandrakes represent mankind, with the
distinction of either sex.f Under these resti'ictious may
those authors be admitted, which for this opinion are intro-
duced by Drusius,'* nor shall we need to question the mons-
trous root of briony, described in Aldrovandus. J
The second assertion ooncerneth its production.^ That it
naturally groweth under gallowses and places of execution,
arising from fat or urine that drops from the body of the
* Orchis anthropomorplias, ciyiis icon in Kircheri 3fafila parastatica.
t De Mandragora. + -^e Monstris.
^ What is therefcn-e delivered, d-c]
Mark, how that rooted mandrake wears
His human feet, his human hands !
Oft, as his ghastly form he rears,
Aghast the frighted plowman stands !
Langhornes Beeflower.
* Drusius.'] Instead of the remaining part of the sentence, Ed. 1646
reads, "As David Camius, Moses lilius Namanis, and Abenezi-a
Hispanus."
^ The second assertion, <fcc.] Here again is our author the victim of
the false philosophy of his age. The immortal Harvey, in his De Gene-
ratione, struck the first blow at the root of the irrational system called
equivocal generation, when he laid down his brief but most pregnant law,
omnia ex ovo. But the belief transmitted from antiquity, that living
beings generated spontaneously from putrescent matter, long main-
tained its ground ; and a certain modification of it is even still advo-
cated by some naturalists of the greatest acuteness. The first few
pages of the volume entitled Tnacct Tran.fformat ions (in the Libraiij of
Entertaining Knowledge), are occupied by a very interesting investiga-
ion of this subject.
In the midst of his errors, however, Sir Thomas makes a remark,
which has been verified and confirmed by much more widely extended
observation since, viz. : "that hogs, sheep, goats, hawks, hens, and
others, have one peculiar and proper kind of vermin." A vast number
of species of pulcx and pedicuUis are now known ; and I am not aware
that any instance has occurred of the same species being parasitic on
different animals.
CHAP, yi.] or MAKDEAKES. 197
dead ; a story somewhat agreeable unto tlie fable of the ser-
pent's teeth sowed in the earth by Cadmus ; or rather, the
birth of Orion, from the urine of Jupiter, Mercury, and
Neptune. jS'ow this opinion seems grounded on the former,
that is, a conceived similitude it hath with man ; and there-
fore from him, in some way, they would make out its pro-
duction. Which conceit is not only erroneous in the foun-
dation, but injurious unto phdosopliy in the superstruction ;
making putrefactive generations correspondent unto seminal
productions, and conceiving in equivocal effects an uni vocal
conformity unto the efficient. Which is so far fi"om being
verified of animals in their corruptive mutations into plants,
that they maintain not this similitude in their nearer trans-
lation into animals. Bo when the ox corrupteth into bees,
or the horse into liornets, they come not forth in the image
of their originals. So the corrupt and excrementitious
humours in man are animated into lice ; and we may ob-
serve that hogs, sheep, goats, hawks, hens, and others, have
one peculiar and proper liind of vermin ; not resembling
themselves according to seminal conditions, yet carrying a
settled and confined habitude unto their corruptive origi-
nals. And tlierefore come not forth in generations erratical,
or different from each other ; but seem specifically and in
regular shapes to attend the corruption of their bodies, as do
more perfect conceptions the rule of seminal productions.
The third affirmeth the roots of mandrakes do make a
noise, or give a shriek, upon eradication ■,^ which is indeed
ridiculous, and false below confute ; arising, perhaps, from a
small and stridulous noise, which being firmly rooted, it
maketh upon divulsion of parts. A slender foundation for
Buch a vast conception ; for such a noise we sometimes ob-
serve in other plants, in parsnips, liquorice, eryngium, flags,
and others.
The last concerneth the danger ensuing ; that there fol-
lows an hazard of life to them that pull it up ; that some
* The third affirmeth, d-c] To this Shakspeare alludes : —
Wherefore should I curse them ?
Would curses kill, as doth the mandrake's groan,
I would invent as bitter-searching terms.
As curs'd, as harsh, as horrible to bear.
198 OF MANDEAKEft [bOOK TI,
evil fate pursues them, and they live not very long after.
Tlierefore the attempt hei-eof, among the ancients, was not
in ordinary way ; but, as Pliny informeth, when they in-
tended to take up the root of this plant, they took the wind
thereof, and with a sword describing three circles about it,
they digged it up, looking toward the west. A conceit, not
only injurious unto truth, and confutable by daily expe-
rience, but somewhat derogatory imto the providence of
God ; that is, not only to impose so destructive a quality on
any plant, but to conceive a vegetable, whose parts are use-
ful unto many, should, in the only taking up, prove mortal
luato any. To think he suffereth the poison of Nulla* to be
gathered, napellus, aconite, and tliora, to be eradicated, yet
this not to be moved. That he permitteth arsenic and
mineral poisons to be forced from the bowels of the earth,
yet not this from the surface thereof. This were to intro-
duce a second forbidden fruit, and enhance the first male-
diction, making it not only mortal for Adam to taste the
one, but capital unto his posterity to eradicate or dig up the
other.
JS'ow what begot, at least promoted, so strange concep-
tions, might be the magical opinion hereof; this being con-
ceived the plant so much in use with Circe, and therefore
named GirccectJ (as Dioscorides and Theophrastus have deli-
vered), which being the eminent sorceress of elder story, and
by the magic of simples believed to have wrought many
wonders, some men were apt to invent, others to believe any
traditioTi or magical promise thereof.
Analogous relations concerning other plants, and such as
are of near affinity unto this, have made its current smooth,
and pass more easily among us. For the same effect is also
delivered by Josephus concerning the root baaras ; by ^lian,
oi cynospastas : and we read in Homer the very same opinion
concerning moly :
MwXv H filv KoK'tovcfi 6(01, xoKsirov St t opvaativ
'AvSparri yi <fi't]To7(Tt, Otoi Se Tt trdvTc. ^ifavrai.
The gods it mohj call, whose root to dig away
Is dangerous unto man ; but gods they all things may.
* Granum NubUc.
' CirccBa.l Enchanter's nightshade.
CUAP. TI.] OF CINKAMON, GINGEE, ETC. 199
Now parallels or like relations alternately relieve eacli
other ; when neither will pass asunder, yet are they plausible
togetlier ; their mutual concurrences supporting their soli-
tary instabilities.
Signaturists^ have somewhat advanced it; who seldom
omitting what ancients delivered, drawing into inference
received distinctions of sex, not wiUiug to examine its
humane resemblance, and placing it in the form of strange
and magical simples, have made men suspect there was
more therein than ordinary practice allowed ; and so became
apt to embrace whatever they heard or read comformable
unto such conceptions.
Lastly, the conceit promoteth itself: for concerning an
effect whose trial must cost so dear, it fortifies itself in that
invention ; and few there are whose experiment it need to
fear. For, what is most contemptible, although not only the
reason of any head, but experience of every hand may well
convict it, yet will it not by divers be rejected ; for prepos-
sessed heads will ever doubt it, and timorous beliefs will
never dare to try it. So these traditions, how low and ridi-
culous soever, will find suspicion iu some, doubt in others,
and serve as tests or trials of melancholy and superstitious
tempers for ever.
2. That cinnamon, ginger,^ clove, mace, and nutmeg, are
but the several parts and fruits of the same tree, is the com-
mon belief of those which daily use them ; whereof to speak
distinctly, ginger is the root of neither tree nor shrub, but of
an herbaceous plant, resembling the water fleur-de-lis, as
Garcias first described, or rather the common reed, as Lo-
belius siace affirmed. Very common in many parts of India,'
growing either from root or seed, which in December and
^ Signaturists.'] Those who hold the doctrine, that plants bear certain
marks and signatures, indicative of their qualities or properties.
^ ginger.] Amormim Zingiber, L. or Zingiber officinalis.
' of India.] And in Europe, too, for itt hath been of old, and is
lately found in Austria, at the foote of the mount Cognamus : vide
Helynis Austria, p. 74. G-ermanice. There are two kindes of itt, white
and brown, which I suppose differ only in age. Itt is commonly brought
to us from China : to them from some upper parts in Tartary : and
therefore some call itt Radix Scythica : but this is an equivocall name,
proper to glycyrisa, but applicable to ginger and rhubarbe, which both
come also from thence. Offended with the earthynes of gn en ginger,
200 OF CIXJfAJION, GIXQEE, ETC. [BOOK II.
January tliey take up, aud, gently dried, roll it up in earth,
Avhereby occluding^ the pores, they conserve the natural
humidity, and so prevent corruption.
Cinnamon is tlie inward bark of a cinnamon troe,^ whereof
the best is brouglit from Zeilan ; this freed from the out-
ward bark, and exposed unto the sun, contracts into those
folds wherein we commonly receive it. If it have not a
sufficient insolation'* it looketh pale, and attains not its
laudable colour ; if it be sunned too long, it suffereth a tor-
refaction, and descendeth somewhat below it.
Clove seems to be either the rudiment of a fruit,* or the
fruit itself, growing upon the clove tree, to be found but in
few countries. The most commendable is that of the isles of
Molucca ; it is first white, afterward green, which beaten
down and dried in the sun, becometh black, and in the com-
plexion we receive it.
Nutmeg is the fruit of a tree^ differing from all these, and
as Grarcias describeth it, somewhat like a peach ; growing in
divers places, but fructifying in the isle of Banda. The fruit
hereof consisteth of four parts ; the first, or outward part, is
a thick and carnous covering like that of a walnut ; the
I causdchoyce to bee made of the whitest ; paring of the barke totally :
then bruisd itt in a stone mortar into strings ; then stewd itt on a
gentle fire till the water was consumed from three pintes to a quarte
(the pared ginger being but a quarter of a pound). When wee thought
the vertue wholy extracted (which would have tincted a pottel of water
sufficiently), streyning away the ginger with some pressure, gentlye,
they boyled the water into a syrup, whose vertues are such, after a
meale (the quantity of a spoonfull), as noe dredg, powders, or lozenges,
can equall in four times soe much : for by a gentle mixture and fermen-
tation, itt corrects all cnide humors and flatulencyes, abates not the sali-
vation, as all hot spices doe, and never heates further then stomache only.
^ occludlnr/.] Shutting up.
3 Cinnamon, <f(.'.] The bark of Latirus Cinnamomum. The perfection
of thi.s spice depends on the tree being at a fit age, and on the relative
proportion of the inner part of the bark, which is the sweetest and
most fragrant.
■• insolation. "l "Exposure to the sun.
* eitlier the rudiment, <ir.] Cloves are the calyces, with the embryo
seed, of carynpJiyllus aromaticus, beaten from the tree, just after the
delicate peacli-blossom-coloured flowers have faded. The pungent qua-
lity is lessened if the seed is suffered to become more mature.
^ Nutmeg, <{-c.] This is an accurate description of the fi'uit cf myi'iS'
taca moschata, the nutmeg.
CHAP. VI.] or THE MISELTOE. 201
second, a dry and AoscmIous coat, commonly called mace ;
the third a harder tegument or shell, which lieth under the
mace ; the fourth, a kernel included in the shell, which is
the same we call nutmeg. All which, both in their parts
and order of disposure, are easily discerned in those fruits
which are brought in preserves unto us.''
Now if, because mace and nutmegs proceed from one tree,
the rest must bear them company, or because they are all
from the East Indies, they are all from one plant, the infer-
ence is precipitous, nor will there such a plant be found in
the herbal of nature.
3. That viscus arboreus, or, miseltoe, is bred upon trees
from seeds, which birds, especially thrushes and ringdoves,
let fall thereon, was the creed of the ancients, and is still
believed among us, is the account of its prodviction, set down
by Pliny, delivered by Virgil, and subscribed by many more.
If so, some reason must be assigned, why it groweth only
upon certain trees, and not upon many whereon these birds
do light. For as exotic observers deliver, it groweth upon
almond trees, chesnut, apples, oaks, and pine trees. As
we observe in England, very commonly upon apj)le, crabs,
and whitethorn ; sometimes upon sallow, hazel, and oak :
rarely upon ash, limetree, and maple ; never, that I could
observe, upon holly, elm, and many more.^ Why groweth
it not in all countries and places where these birds are found ?
for so Brassavolus affirmeth, it is not to be found in the terri-
tory of Ferrara, and he was fain to supply himself from other
parts of Italy. Why, if it ariseth from a seed, if sown will it
not grow again, as Pliny affirmeth, and as by setting the ber-
ries thereof, we have in vain attempted its production ? Why,
if it Cometh from seed that falleth upon the tree, groweth
it often downwards, and puts forth under the bough, where
seed can neither fall nor yet remain ?^ Hereof, beside some
'' t'?!. preserves, <f-c.] Whereof my auncient friend, Mr. Paul Clapham,
sent me a pot of two pounds. — Wr.
Little did " my auncient friend " suppose that his munificence would
thus be immortalized !
^ rarehj, etc.] Ed. 1646 rekids, "never upon bays, holly, ashes, elms,
and many others."
^ under the bough, <£r.] This one objection is soe vigorous and clever,
as cuts off the foolish assertion for ever. — Wr.
Yet is this apparently triumphant objection demolished, by tlie result
202 OF THE MISELTOE. [bOOK II.
others, the Lord Verulam hath taken notice. And they
surely speak probably who make it an arboreous excres-
of experiment, as will appear on reading the following very interesting
passage, from the work of my old friend and fellow-citizen. Professor
Lindley ; — The seed of the miseltoe will genninate in any direction,
either upwards, downwards, or laterally. The first movement made
by this plant consists in an extension of its cauliculus, which derives
its support from the cotyledons, and which terminates, at the radicular
end, in a small green tubercle of a paler colour than the radicle itself
When the seed is fixed upon a branch by its natural glue, this incipient
movement is effected at right angles with the branch ; the young shoot
is then curved backwards, and the radicular extremity descends to the
surface of the branch, to which it adheres by expanding into a kind of
disk. From this expansion the roots are emitted, and penetrate the
interior of the branch whereon the seed of the miseltoe is fixed ; its
stem takes the direction above mentioned with reference to the centre
of the branch on which it is fixed, and not with reference to the earth ;
so that with regard to the latter, it is sometimes ascending, sometimes
descending, sometimes horizontal. The same phenomena occur if the
germination takes place upon dead wood or inorganic substances : a
number of seeds were glued to the surface of a cannon ball ; all the
radicles were directed towards the centre of the ball. Hence it is ob-
vious that the tendency of the miseltoe is not towards the surface of
its nutrition, but it obeys the attraction of the body upon which it
grows. The miseltoe, which does not grow on the earth, obeys the
attraction of any other body ; while those plants which naturally grow
in the earth obey no other attraction than that of the earth. Para-
sitical fungi, those which constitute mouldiness ; aquatics, which ori-
ginate on stones, all grow perpendicular to the body that produces
them, and will therefore be placed in all kinds of positions with respect
to the earth."
On the probable effect pjroduced on the seeds by their passing through
the stomachs of birds, Mr. Jesse has some observations in the second
series of his Gleanings, p. 133. He had seen the young miseltoe crack-
ing the bark of the hawthorn and sprouting out on the under side of the
branch : as Sir Thomas observes. He asserts the miseltoe to abound
in Herefordshire and Monmouthshire, where the miselthrush also
abounds : while in Wiltshire and Devonshire both are less common.
"Various attempts," he adds, "have been made by persons, with
whom I am accjaainted, to propagate the miseltoe, by depositing the
seed between the forks of trees, and by inserting it in the bark, but the
attempt has hitherto failed, as far as I can speak from my own observa-
tion. The seeds also of the ivy seldom grow, though planted with the
greatest care, even under walls ; yet if dropped by birds either upon
or even in the crevices of walls, they will grow spontaneously and thrive
luxuriantly. It is this circumstance which has led a friend of mine to
suppose, and with some reason, that the seeds of the miseltoe and ivy
must undergo .some process, favourable to their germination, in passing
through the stomach of birds."
CHAP. VI.] OF THE MISELTOE. 203
cence,^ or rather super-plant, bred of a viscous and super-
fluous sap, which the tree itself" cannot assimilate ; and
therefore sprouteth not forth in boughs and surcles of the
same shape, and similary unto the tree that beareth it, but in
a different form, and secondary unto its specifical intention,
wherein once failing, another form succeedeth, and in the
first place that of miseltoe, in plants and trees disposed to its
production. And therefore also, wherever it groweth, it is of
constant shape, and maintains a regular figure ; like other
supercrescences, and such as living upon the stock of others
are termed parasitical plants, as polypody, moss, the smaller
capillaries, and many more. So that several regions produce
several miaeltoes : India one, America another, according to
the law and rule of their degenerations.
Now what begot this conceit, might be the enlargement of
some part of truth contained in its story. Por certain it is,
that some birds do feed upon the berries of this vegetable,
and we meet in Aristotle with one kind of thrush called the
miselthrush,* or feeder upon miseltoe.^ But that which hath
most promoted it is a received proverb, tiirdus sibi malum
meat, appliable unto such men as are authors of their own
misfortime. Por according imto ancient tradition and Pliny' s
relation, the bird, not able to digest the fruit whereon she
' am, arboreous excrescence.'} Arboreous excrescences of the oake are
see many as may raise the greatest wonder. Besides the gall, which
is his proper fruite, hee shootes out oakems, i. e. ut nunc vocamus
(acomes) and oakes apples, and polypodye, and moss ; five several
sorts of excrescences. — Wr.
Is it not a greater wonder that the dean should have mistaken the
gall for the fruit of the oak, and called the acorn an excrescence ?
^ feeder upon miseltoe.'] Sir James Smith points out the distinctness
of the miseltoe of the ancients, from ours, in the following passage : — -
" Jjoranihus europceus seems to be the original, or most common miseltoe,
iKoQ, of the Greeks, which grows usually on some kind of fir-tree. But
our risc2i7n album is likewise found in Greece, though rarely, growing
on the oak ; and this has been preferred from the most remote antiquity.
Hence, when the superstitions of the east travelled westward, our
Druids adopted a notion of the miseltoe of the oak being more holy or
efficacious, in conjurations or medicine, than what any other tree
afforded, the loranthus, or ordinary miseltoe, not being known here.
This superstition actually remains, and a plant of viscum gathered from
an oak is preferred by those who rely on virtues which, perhaps, never
existed in any miseltoe whatever."
204 THE EOSE OF JERICnO. [bOOK II.
feedetb, from her inconverted muting ariseth this plant, of
the berries whereof bird-lime is made, wherewith she is after
entangled. But although proverbs be popular principles, yet
is not all true that is proverbial ; and in many thereof, there
being one thing delivered and another intended, though the
verbal expression be false, the proverb is true enough in the
verity of its intention.
As for the magical virtues in this plant, and conceived
efficacy unto veneticial intentions, it seemeth a pagan relick,
derived from the ancient Druids, the great admirers of the
oak, especially the miseltoe that gi'ew thereon ; which, accord-
ing vmto the particular of Pliny, they gathered with great
solemnity. For after sacrifice, the priest, in a white garment,
ascended tlie tree, cut down the miseltoe with a golden hook,
and received it in a white coat ; the virtue whereof was to
resist all poisons, and make fruitful any that used it. Virtues
not expected from classical practice ; and did they fully
answer their promise which are so commended, in epileptical
intentions, we would abate these qualities. Country practice
hath added anotlier, to provoke the after-bu^th, and in that
case the decoction is given unto cows. That the berries are
poison, as some conceive, we are so far from avenging, that we
have safely given them inwardly, and can confirm the experi-
ment of Brassavolus, that they have some purgative qualit3^
4. The rose of Jericho, that floui'ishes every year just
about Christmas-eve, is famous in Christian reports ; which,
notwithstanding, we have some reason to doubt, and are
plainly informed by Bellonius, it is but a mouastical impos-
ture, as he hath delivered, in his observations concerning the
plants in Jericho. Tliat which promoted the conceit, or per-
haps begot its continuance, was a propriety in this plant; for,
tliough it be dry, yet will it, upon imbibition of moisture,"
dilate its leaves and explicate its flowers contracted and
' imhihition of moisture.'] From this tliat is sayd touching imbibition
of moysture, puts me in remembrance of a dry withy stake : which
being robd of the barke a foote aboue ground, stood dead three years.
In the third yeare, being come to rottenes, and the wood growing
spungie, suckt up the moysture from the earthe, reviving the barke
above, and then the tree, which grew greene againe with a large head,
bigger then the plant to which itt was set. Soe there was a perfect greene
w ithy, and yet noe roote, nor string of a roote, in the earthe below. — Wr.
CHAP. TI.] GrASTO:!fBTJnT THORN. 205
seemingly dried up. And this is to be effected not only in
the plant yet growing, but in some manner also in that which
is brought exsuccous and dry unto us. Whicli quality being
observed, the subtilty of contrivers did commonly play this
show upon the eve of oiu- Saviour's nativity ; when by drying
the plant again, it closed the next day, and so presented a
double mystery, referring unto the opening and closing of
the womb of Mary."*
There wanted not a specious confirmation from a text in
Ecclesiasticus, quasi pal ma exaltuta sum in Cades, et quasi
'plantatio rosce in Jericho : " I was exalted like a palm-tree in
Eugaddi, and as a rose in Jericho." The sound whereof, in
common ears, begat an extraordinary opinion of the rose of
that denomination. But herein there seemeth a mistake :
for, by the rose in the text, is implied the true and proper
rose, as first the Greek, and ours accordingly, rendereth it.
But that which passeth under this name, and by us is com-
monly called the rose of Jericho, is properly no rose, but a
small thorny shrub or kind of heath, bearing little white
flowers, far differing from the rose ; whereof Bellonius, a very
inquisiti\'e herbalist, could not find any in his travels through
Jericho. A plant so unlike a rose, it hath been mistaken by
some good simplist for amomum; wliich truly understood, is so
unlike a rose that, as Dioscorides delivers, the flowers thereof
are like the white violet, and its leaves resemble briony.
Suitable unto this relation almost in all points is that of
the thorn at Glastonbury,*'' and perhaps the daughter thereof ;
* refemng unto, etc.] Note this gross imposture. — Wr.
^ thorn at Gkistonhury.~\ A variety of the cratcer/us oxyacanthce,
whose usual period of flowering is May, whence its common name, May-
blossom. " Gilpin mentions that ' one of its progeny, which grew ia
the gardens at Bulstrode, had its flower-buds perfectly formed so early
as the 21st December.' In the arboretum at the royal gardens, Kew, a
similar thorn flowers at the same season. The belief, that certain trees
put forth their flowers onChri.stmas-day, was not confined to the Glaston-
bury thorn. In the new forest at Cadenham, near Lyndhurst, an oak
used to bud about that period ; but the people, for two centuries,
believed that it never budded all the year, except on Old Christmas-
day. The superstition was destroyed by careful investigation ; and the
circumstance is thus recorded in the Salisbury newspaper of January
10th, 17S6 : — ' In consequence of a report that has prevailed in this
county for upwards of two centuries, and which, by many, has been
considered as a matter of faith, that the oak at Cadenham, in the new
^0 GLASTONBURY THOBW. [BOOK II.
herein our endeavours as yet have not attained satisfaction,
and cannot therefore enlarge. Thus much in general we
may observe, that strange effects are naturally taken for
miracles by weaker heads, and artificially improved to that
appreliension by wiser. Certainly many precocious trees,
and such as spring in the winter, may be found in most parts
of Europe, and divers also in England.* For most trees do
* Such a thorn there is in Parham-park, in Suffolk, and elsewhere.
forest, shoots forth leaves on every Old Christmas-day, and that no leaf
is ever to be seen on it either before or after that day, during the win-
ter, a lady, who is now on a visit in this city, and who is attentively
curious in every thing relative to art or nature, made a journey to Ca-
denham, on Monday the 3rd instant, purposely to enquire on the spot,
about the production of this famous tree. On her arrival near it, the
usual guide was ready to attend her ; but on his being desired to climb the
oak, and to search whether there were anj' leaves then on it, he said it
would be to no purpose ; but that if she would come on the Wednesday
following, (Christmas-day,) she might certainly see thousands. How-
ever, he was prevailed upon to ascend, and on the first branch which he
gathered appeared several fair new leaves, fresh sprouted from the buds,
and nearly an inch and a half in length. It may be imagined that the
guide was more amazed at this premature production than the lady,
for, so strong was his belief in the truth of tlie whole tradition, that he
would have pledged his life that not a leaf was to have been discovered
on any part of the tree before the usual hour.' "
The preceding passage affords a good contrast to the following note,
by Dean Wren, on the "Glastonbury thorn."
" — And the oake in the new forest. King James could not bee
induced to beleeve the rb on of this, till Bishop Andrewes, in whose
diocese the tree grew, caused one of his own chaplaines, a man of
known integritye, to give a true information of itt, which he did : for
upon the eve of the nativitye, he gathered about a [100] slips, with the
leaves newly opened, which he stuck in claye in the bottom of long
white boxes, and soe sent them post to the courte, where they
deservedly raised not only admiration, but stopt the mouth of iniidelitye
and contradiction for ever. Of this I was both an eye-witness, and did
distribute many of them to the great persons of bothe sexes in court
and others, ecclesiastical persons. But in these last troublesome times,
adivelish fellow (of Herostratus humour) having hewen itt round at the
roote, made his last stroke on his own legg, whereof he died, together
with the old wondrous tree : which now sprowtes up againe, and
may renew his oakye age .againe, yf some sucli envious chance doe not
hinder or prevent itt : from which the example of the former villane
may perchance deterr the attempte. This I thought to testifie to all
future times, and therefore subscribe with the same hand through
which those httle oakye slips past," Ita testor Chr. Wren, Dno Lane-
CUAP. A'l.] FERKUM EQTJINUM. THE BAT TEEE. 207
begin to sprout in the fall of the leaf or autumn, and if not
kept back by cold and outward causes, would leaf about the
solstice. Now if it happen that any be so strongly consti-
tuted, as to make this good against the power of winter,
they may produce their leaves or blossoms in that season ;
and perform that in some singles, which is observable in
whole kinds ; as in ivy, which blossoms and bears at least
twice a year, and once in the winter ; as also in furze, which
flowereth in that season.
5. That ferrum equinum, or sferra cavallo, hath a virtue
attractive of iron,^ a power to break locks and draw off the
shoes of a horse that passeth over it ; whether you take it
for one kind of securidaca, or will also take in lunaria, we
know it to be false, and cannot but wonder at Matthiolus,
who upon a parallel in Pliny was staggered into suspension.
Who notwithstanding in the imputed virtue to open things
close and shut up, could laugh himself at that promise from
the herb ^thiopis or Ethiopian mullein, and condemn the
judgment of Scipio, who having such a pick-lock, would
spend so many years in battering the gates of Carthage ;
which strange and magical conceit seems to have no deeper
root in reason than the figure of its seed ; for therein indeed
it somewhat resembles a horse-shoe : which, notwithstand-
ing, Baptista Porta hath thought too low a signification, and
raised the same unto a lunary representation.
6. That bays will protect from the mischief of lightning
and thunder, is a quality ascribed thereto, common with the
fig-tree, eagle, and skin of a seal. Against so famous a qua-
lity, Vicomercatus produceth experiment of a bay-tree blasted
in Italy. And therefore, although Tiberius for this intent
did wear a laurel upon his temples, yet did Augustus take a
more probable course, who fled under arches and hollow
vaults for protection. And though Porta conceive, because
in a streperous eruption it riseth against fire, it doth there-
fore resist lightning, yet is that no emboldenuig illation.
And if we consider the threefold eftect of Jupiter's trisulk,
to burn, discuss,'' and terebrate ; and if that be true which
celoto a sacris do7nesticis avToTrrijg tunc : et Carolo Regi patrono opt. max"-
Ijaostca] ex avToiraia fidus assertor.
6 Tkat femim equinum, etc.] Some species of Hippocrepia?
^ disctiag-l Dissipate. — Wr,
208 THE BAT TEBB. [BOOK IL
is commonly delivered, that it will melt the blade, yet pass
the scabbard, — kill the child, yet spare the mother, — dry up
the wine, yet leave the hogshead entire,** — though it favour
^ that it will melt, <i:c.'\ This passage is strikingly illustrated by a
very extraordinary case of lightning, i-elated in the London and
Edinburgh PhilosojMcal Magazine, for Sept. 1832. Mr. and Mrs.
Boddington, while seated in the barouche seat of their carriage, were
struck senseless by a flash of lightning, which at the same time killed
one of the horses, threw the post-boy to a considerable distance, and
then entered the earth, making four lai'ge holes. The passage of the
electric fluid is thus described : — "It struck Mrs. B'.s cotton umbrella,
which was literally shivered to pieces, both the springs in the handle
forced out, the wires that extended the whalebone broken, and the
cotton covering rent into a thousand shreds. From the wires of the
umbrella the fluid passed to the wire that was attached to the edge of
her bonnet, \,\\e cotton-thread that was twisted round that wire, mark-
ing the place of entrance over the left eye, by its being burnt off from
that spot all round the right side, crossing the back of the head and
down into the neck above the left shoulder: the hair that came in con-
tact with it was singed : it here made a hole through the handker-
chief that was round her throat, and zigzagged along the skin of her neck
to the steel busk of her stays, leaving a painful, but not deep, wound,
and also affecting the hearing of the left ear. It entered the external
surface of tlie busk : — this is clearly proved by the brown paper case
n which it was inclosed, being perforated on the outside, and the busk
tself fused for about a quarter of an inch on the upper surface, present-
nga blistered appearance. Its passage down the busk could not be traced
in any way ; there was no mark whatever on the steel, nor was the
aaper that covered it discoloured or altered in the slightest degree : its
exit at the bottom, however, was as clearly indicated as its entrance
at the top : the steel was fused in the same manner, and the paper was
perforated in the same way, but on the opposite side.
"There were marks of burning on the gown and petticoat above
the steel ; and the inside of the stays, and the garments under
the stays, were pierced by the passage of the fluid to her thighs,
where it made wounds on both ; but that on the left so deep, and
80 near the femoral artery, that the astonishment is, that she escaped
with life ; — even as it was, the haemorrhage was very great. Every
article on which she sat was perforated to the cushion of the seat,
the cloth of which was torn in a much more extensive way than the
clothes ; and the leather that covered the iron forced off in the same
spot, clearly marking its egress at this place. In the case of Mr. B.
the umbrella also was the conductor ; it was made of silk, and was but
little damaged ; a small portion of the upper part only being torn
where it joins the stick, and none of the springs or wires being dis-
placed. The main force of the shock, however, appears to have passed
down the handle to the left arm, though a portion of it made a hole
through the brim of his hat, and burnt oS" all the hair that was below
It together with the eye-brows and eye-lashes. The electric stream
CHAP. yi.J OF BITTEH. ALMONDS. 209
tlie amvilet, it may not spare us ; it will be unsure to rely on
any preservative, it is no security to be dipped in Styx, or
clad in the armour of Ceueus. Now that beer, wine, and
other liquors, are spoiled with lightning and thunder, we
conceive it proceeds not only from noise and concussion of
the air, but also noxious spirits which mingle therewith, and
draw them to corruption ; whereby they become not only
dead themselves, but sometimes deadly unto others, as that
which Seneca mentioneth ; whereof whosoever drank, either
lost his life or else his wits upon it.
7. It hath much deceived the hopes of good fellows, Avhat
IS commonly expected of bitter almonds ; and though in
Plutarch confirmed from the practice of Claudius his phy-
sician, that antidote against ebriety hath commonly tailed.
Surely men much versed in the practice do err in the theory
of inebriation ; conceiving in that disturbance the brain doth
only suffer from exhalations and vaporous ascensions from
the stomach, which fat and oily substances may suppress ;
whereas the prevalent intoxication is from the spirits of
drink dispersed into the veins and arteries ; from whence by
common conveyances they creep into the brain, insinuate
into its ventricles, and beget those vertigoes accompanying
shattered the left hand, fused the gold shirt buttons, and tore the
clothes in a most extraordinary manner, forcing parts of them, together
with the buttons, to a considerable distance, and a deep wound was
inflicted under its position on the wrist. The arm was laid bare to the
elbow, which is presumed to have been at the moment very near his le ft
waistcoat-pocket, in which there was a knife ; this also was forced from its
situation, and forced on the ground ; a severe wound was made on his
body, and every article of dress torn away as if it had been done Vjy gun-
powder. From the knife it passed to the iron of the seat, wounding his
back, and setting fire to his clothes iti its passage. Another portion de-
scended to the right arm, which had hold of the lower part of the stick
of the umbrella ; was attracted by the sleeve-button, where it made
a wound, but slight, compared to that on the left, passed down the arm
(which it merely discoloured, and broke the skin of in two small places)
to a gold pencil-case in the right waistcoat-pocket. The great coat he
had on was torn to pieces, and the coat immediately above the waist-
coat-pocket much rent ; but the waistcoat itself was merely perforated ;
on the external part, where the discharge entered by a hole about the
size of a pea, and on the inside by a similar hole at the other extremity
of the pencil-case, where it passed out, setting fire to his trousers and
drawers, and inflicting a deep wound round his back, the whole oj
which was literally flayed."
VOL. I. P
210 THE DEATH-WATCH. [BOOK II.
that perversion. And therefore the same eft'ect may be pro-
duced by a glister ; the head may be intoxicated by a medi-
cine at the heel. So the poisonoue bites of serpents, although
on parts at distance from the head, yet having entered the
veins, disturb the animal faculties, and produce the effects of
drink, or poison swallowed. And so, as the head may be
disturbed by tlie skin,'^ it may the same way be relieved ; as
is observable in balneations, washings, and tbmentations,
either of the whole body, or of that pare alone. ^
CHAPTER VII.2
Of some insects, and the 2>i'operties of several plants : — of the death-watch;
the pi-esages drawn from oak-apple insects; whether all plants have
seeds ; whether the sap of trees runs to the ground in winter ; of the
effects of camphor ; with many others.
\? Few ears have escaped the noise of the death-watch,
thit is, the little clickling sound heard often in many rooms,
somewhat resembling that of a watch ; and this is conceived
to be of an evil omen or prediction of some person's death :
wherein notwithstanding there is nothing of rational presage
or just cause of terror unto melancholy and meticulous
heads. For this noise is made by a little sheathwinged
grey insect,'^ found oftpn in wainscot benches and wood-work
in the summer. We have taken many thereof, and kept
them in thin boxes, wherein I have heard and seen them
' by the skin.] Affections of the skin. — Wr.
' that part alone.] The most present way of bringing the drunken
to the use of his senses, is to apply large sponges dipt in strong white
wine vinegar, which a Doctor of Physic, of prime note and name, does
assure niee is, upon manifold experience, found most true ; yf they be
for awhile applied not to thehe.ad, but to the testicles. — Wr.
^ Chap. \u.] A considerable portion of the contents of this chapter
was added in the 2nd, 3rd, and 6th editions : the rest formed the con-
clusion of chap. VI. in the 1st edition, and was first made a separate
chapter in the 2nd edition.
^ § 1. Added in the 6th edition, as .also the 7th paragraph : the
intervening five, and the four succeeding ones, appeared first in the
2nd edition.
■• shtatliwinged, (Lc] Anobium tessellatum.
CHA.P. VII.] THE DEATH-WATCH. 211
work and knock with a little proboscis or trunk against the
side of the box, like a picus Martins, or woodpecker against a
tree. It worketh best in warm weather, and for the most part
giveth not over under nine or eleven strokes at a time. He
that could extinguish the terrifying apprehensions hereof,
might prevent the passions of the heart, and many cold
sweats in grandmothers and nurses, who, in the sickness of
childi'en, are so startled with these noises.
2. The presage of the year succeeding, which is commonly
made from insects or little animals in oak-apples, according
to the kinds thereof, either maggot, fly or spider ; that is, of
famine, war, or pestilence ; whether we mean that woody ex-
crescence, which shooteth from the branch about May, or
that round and apple-like accretion which groweth under the
leaf about the latter end of summer, is, I doubt, too distinct,
nor verifiable from event.
For flies and maggots are found every year, very seldom
spiders : and Helmont afiirmeth, he could never find the
spider and the fly upon the same trees, that is the signs of
war and pestilence, which often go together : beside, that
the flies found were at first maggots, experience hath in-
formed us ; for keeping these excrescences, we have observed
their conversions, beholding in magnif_) iug glasses the daily
progression thereof. As may be also observed in other
vegetable excretions, whose maggots do terminate in flies of
constant shapes ; as in the nut-galls of the outlandish oak,
and the mossy tuft of the wild briar ; which having gathered
in November, we have found the little maggots, which lodged
in wooden cells all winter, to turn into flies in June.^
We confess the opinion may hold some verity in the ana-
logy, or emblematical fancy. For pestilence is properly sig-
nified by the spider, whereof some kinds are of a very
venomous nature ; famine by maggots, which destroy the
fruits of the earth ; and war not improperly by the fly, if we
rest in the fancy of Homer, who compares the valiant
Grecian inito a fly.
Some verity it may also have in itself, as truly declaring
the corruptive constitution in the present sap and nutri-
mental juice of the tree ; and may consequently discover the
^ files in June] Of the genus Cynips.
p2
212 WHETHER PLANTS HAVE SEEDS. [bOOK IT.
disposition of that year, according to the plenty or kinds of
these productions. For if the putrefying juices of bodies
bring forth plenty of flies and maggots, they give forth tes-
timony of common corruption, and declare that the elements
are full of the seeds of putrefaction, as the great number of
caterpillars, gnats, and ordinary insects do also declare. If
they run into spiders, they give signs of higher putre-
faction, as plenty of \'ipers and scorpions are confessed to
do ; the putrefying materials producing animals of higher
' mischiefs, according to the advance and higher strain of cor-
ruption.'^
3. Whether all plants have seed, were more easily deter-
minable, if we could conclude concerning hartstongue,'' fern,
the capillaries, lunaria/ and some others. But whether
those little dusty particles, upon the lower side of the leaves,
be seeds and seminal parts ; or rather, as it is commonly
conceived, excremental separations ; we have not as yet been
able to determine by any germination or univocal production
from them when they have been sowed on purpose ; but
having set the roots of hartstongue in a garden, a year or
two after, there came up three or four of the same plants,
about two yards distance from the first. Thus much we ob-
serve, that they seem to renew yearly, and come not fully
out till the plant be in its vigour ; and, by the help of mag-
nifying glasses, we find these dusty atoms to be round at
first, and fully representing seeds, out of which at last pro-
ceed little mites almost invisible ; so that such as are old
stand open, as being emptied of some bodies formerly in-
cluded ; which, though discernable in hartstongue, is more
notoriously discoverable in some diilerences of brake or fern.
But exquisite microscopes and magnifying glasses have at
last cleared this doubt, whereby also long ago the noble
Fredericus Ca?sius beheld the dusts of polyjjody as big as
peppercorns; and as Johannes Faber testifieth, made draughts
on paper of such kind of seeds, as big as his glasses repre-
sented them : and set down such plants under the classes of
herhcB tergifoetce, as may be observed in his notable botanical
tables.^
• For if thr. pufrefyinr/, <tc.] See note at page 196.
' harfsfowtuc, lunaria.] ScolojKndrium and moiinwort.
• S. Whether all plants have seeds, <i-c.] This doubt has been cleared
CHAP. VII.] EFFECTS OF CAMPHOE, ETC. 213
4. A¥hether the sap of trees runs down to the roots in
T^inter, whereby they become naked and grow not ; or whe-
ther they do not cease to draw any more, and reserve so
much as sufficeth for conservation, is not a point indubit-
able.^ For we observe, tliat most trees, as though they
would be perpetually green, do bud at the fall of the leaf,
although they sprout not much forward until the spring
and warmer weather approacheth ; and many trees maintain
their leaves all winter, although they seem to receive very
small advantage in their growth. But [that] the sap dotli
powerfully rise in the spring, to repair that moisture
whereby they barely subsisted in the winter, and also to put
the plant in a capacity of fructification, — he that hath be-
held how many gallons of water may in a small time be
drawn from a birch tree in the sprmg, hath slender reason to
doubt.
5. That camphor eunuchates, or begets in men an impo-
tency unto venery, observation will hardly confirm ; and we
have found it to fail in cocks and hens, though given for
many days : which was a more favourable trial than that of
Scaliger, when he gave it unto a bitch that was proud. For
the instant turgescence is not to be taken off, but by medi-
cines of higher natures ; and with any certainty but one way
that we know, which notwithstanding, by suppressing that
natural evacuation, may incline unto madness, if taken in the
summer.
6. In the history of prodigies we meet with many showers
of wheat ; how true or probable, we have not room to de-
bate : only thus much we shall not omit to inform ; that
up by the laborious investigations of subsequent botanists. Sir James
Smith, in speaking of the dorsal ferns, remarks — "The production of
perfect germinating seeds, contained in capsules, and consequently pro-
duced by \raY>regnaX&(i fertile floivers, is as clear in ferns as in mosses."
* 4. Whether the sap, ttc] Du Petit Thouars supposes that the sap
begins to move at the extremities of the branches before it stirs at the
roots, — and this has been confirmed by experience. He theorises that
the first budding in spring absorbs the sap from adjacent parts — which
draw on those parts still fiirther removed, and so on, till the whole mass
of fluid is set in motion down to the roots. Dutrochet has formed a
theory to account for the motion of vegetable fluids, by supposing gal-
vanic action. See a curious account of his experin;^.:ts and deductions,
in Lindky's Introd. to Botany, p. 237, 238.
214 NAMES or PLANTS. [bOOK Tli
what -vras this year found in many places, and almost
preached for wheat rained from the clouds, was but the seed
of ivy-berries, which somewhat represent it ; and though it
were found in steeples and higli places, might be conveyed
thither, or muted out by birds ; for many feed thereon, and
in the crops of some we have found no less than three
ounces.
7. That every plant might receive a name according unto
the disease it cureth, was the wish of Paracelsus, a way more
likely to multiply empiricks than herbalists : yet what is
practised by many is advantageous unto neither ; that is,
relinquishing their proper appellations to re-baptize them by
the name of saints, apostles, patriarchs, and martyrs, to call
this the herb of John, that of Peter, this of James or Joseph,
that of Mary or Barbara. For hereby apprehensions are
made additional unto their proper natures ; whereon super-
stitious practices ensue, and stories are framed accordingly,
to make good their foundations.
8. We cannot omit to declare the gross mistake of many in
the nominal apprehension of plants. To instance but in few.
An herb, there is, commonly called hetonica} Pauli, or PauVs
hetony ; hereof the people have some conceit in reference to
St. Paul ; whereas, indeed, that name is derived from Paulus
.^gineta, an ancient physician of -iEgiua, and is no more than
speedwell, or fluellin. The like expectations are raised from
herha trinitatis ; which, notwithstanding, obtainetli that
name from the figure of its leaves, and is one kind of liver-
wort, or liepatica. In milium solis, the epithet of the sun
hath enlarged its opinion ; which hath, indeed, no reference
thereunto, it being no more than Uthospermon, or grummel,
or rather milium soler ; which as Serapion from Aben Juliel
hatli tauglit us, because it grew plentifully in the mountains
of Soler, received that appellation. In Jews' ears something
is conceived extraordinary from the name, which is in pro-
priety \)\xt fungus samhucinus, or an excrescence about the
roots of elder, and concerneth not the nation of the Jews,
but Judas Iscariot, upon a conceit he hanged on this tree ;
and is become a famous medicine in quinsies,^ sore throats,*
' hetonica.'] Pcmli J^jginetcehetonica ; mo&i5 cs< Flewellin. — Wr.
* quinsies.'\ Ltf/e quinancyes. — Wr.
* sore throats.] A correspondent of the Gentleman's Magazine,
CUAP. VII.] PEOPEETIES OF PLANTS. 215
and strangulations,'* ever since. And so are they deceived
in the name of horse-radish, horse-mint, bull-rush, and
many more : conceiving therein some prenominal considera-
tion, whereas, indeed, that expression is but a Glrecism, by
the prefix of hippos and loiis ; that is, horse and bull, in-
tending no more than great.^ According whereto the great
dock is called hippolapathiim ; and he that calls the horse of
Alexander Great-head,^ expresseth the same which the
Greeks do in Bucephalus.
9. Lastly, many things are delivered and believed of other
plants, wherein at least we cannot but suspend. That there
is a property in basil to propagate scorpions, and that by the
smeil thereof they are bred in the brains of men, is much
advanced by Hollerius, wlio found this insect in the brains
of a man that dehghted much in that smell. Wherein be-
side that we find no way to conjoin the eftect unto the cause
assigned ; herein the moderns speak but timorously, and
some of the ancients quite contrarUy. For according unto
Oribasius, physician unto Jidian, the Africans, men best
experienced in poisons, aflBrm, whosoever hath eaten basil,
although he be stung with a scorpion, shall feel no pain
thereby : which is a very different effect, and rather anti-
dotally destroying, than seminally promoting its production.
That the leaves of caiaputia or spurge, being plucked up-
ward or downward, respectively perform their operations by
vol. Ixxix. p. 38, relates a cure of sore throat by the use of sliced horse-
radish — chewed, and then passed to the root of the tongue.
■• strangulatimis.'\ Su,pple [inward]. — Wr. i. e. lege 'inward stran-
gulations.'
'" great.^ As is manifest in Hipposelinum, but especially in hip-
poiietos, the great eagle. Hippjelax>hua, hippomcerathon, 'linroyvnoi,
iTTTTOflOfUjKlC, &C. W)'.
To this list may be added horse-ant, bullhead, bullfinch, &c. But
the prefix does not always mean " gi-eat." Evelyn says, that the horse-
chestnut is so called because it cures horses and other cattle of coughs.
And certainly both horse-chestnut and horse-radish are among the
medicines used in farriery. Horse-beans, which are smaller than some
other species, are so called because horses are fed with them : — horse-
leeches, probably because they fasten on the legs of horses while drink-
ing. Horse-hoe, through drawn by horses because it is la?-ge, owes its
prefix to the former, not to the latter circumstance. Why is the epithet,
dog, prefixed to the scentless violet and the wild rose ?
^ Great-head] Or, as I knew a gallant horse, whom his lord called
Clnh.— Wr.
216 PROPERTIES OF PLANTS. [bOOK II.
purge or vomit, as some have written, and old wives still do
preach, is a strange conceit, ascribing unto plants positional
operations, and after the manner of the loadstone ; upon the
pole'' whereof, if a knife be drawn from the handle vmto the
point, it will take up a needle ; but if drawn again from the
point to the handle, it will attract it no more.
That cucumbers are no commendable fruits ; that being
very waterish, they fill the veins with crude and windy sero-
sities ; that containing little salt or spirit, they may also
debilitate the vital acidity, and fermental faculty of the
stomach, we readily concede ; but that they should be so
cold, as be almost poison by that quality, it wdl be hard to
allow, without the contradiction of Galen ;* who accounteth
them cold but in the second degree, and in that classis have
most physicians placed them.^
That elder-berries are poison, as we are taught by tra-
dition, experience will unteach us. And besides the pro-
mises of Blochwitius, the healthful effects thereof will
convict us.
That an ivy cup will separate wine from water, if filled
with both, the wine soaking through, but the water still re-
maining, as after Pliny many have averred, we know not how
to aflirm ; who making trial thereof, found both the liquors
to soak indistinctly through the bowl.^
That sheep do often get the rot, by feeding in boggy
grounds where ros solis^ groweth, seems beyond dispute.
* In his Anatomia Samhuci.
' pole.'\ Upon an armed stone there are two poles, one northe and
the other southe. Now as the back of the knife hxyd on both these,
being drawn from the southe to the northe, imprints the magneticall
vertue, soe drawne back againe takes itt off. — Wr.
* That cucumbers, ttc.] Added in the 2nd edition.
^ to soak indistinctly, dx.^ The fay ling might bee by the weakenes
of our racked wines. — Wr.
" Fixed or essential oils, or naphtha, and similar bodies, in mixture
with water or aqueous solutions, in which they are not soluble, may bo
separated from the latter by a paper filter, previously moistened with
pure water." Faraday's Chemical Manipulation, p. 241, No. 514.
' ros solis.^ This plant {drosera rotundifoUa and longlfolia, the
round and long leaved sundew, and the butterwort, and white rot, piiv-
guicula vulgaris, and hydrocotyle), have been accused as the cause of dry
rot ; but they do not occur in every rotting soil. Various other causes
have been assigned. But nothing seems so uniformly to occasion the
CHAP. Til.] PROPERTIES OF PLANTS. 217
That this herb is the cause thereof, shepherds affirm and
deny; whether it hath a cordial virtue by sudden refection,
sensible experiment doth hardly confirm, but that it may
have a balsamical and resumptive virtue, whereby it becomes
a good medicine in catarrhs and consumptive dispositions,
practice and reason conclude. That the lentous drops upon
it are not extraneous, and rather an exudation from itself,
than a rorid concretion from without ; beside other grounds,
we have reason to conceive : for having kept the roots moist
and earthed in close chambers, they have, though in lesser
plenty, sent out these di'ops as before.^
That Jlos Africanus is poison, and destroyeth dogs, in two
experiments we have not found.^
That yew, and the berries^ thereof, are harmless, we
know.
That a snake will not endure the shade of an ash, we can
deny.^ Nor is it inconsiderable what is affirmed by Bello-
nius :* for if his assertion be true, our apprehension is often-
* Lib. 1. Ohservat.
disease as certain paludal effluvia, from whatever circumstances of lo-
cality of soil, or vegetation, such effluvia may be occasioned.
2 That sheep, <fcc.] Added in the 3rd edition.
* not found.] There are diverse sorts of them. Some, by longe
translations into our colder clymes, now grown harmlesse : as it hap-
pened in pe;iches, which in their original soyle were counted pernicious
in an extreme degree of cold and moyst ; but by transplantation and
long maugonization among us, prove to bee beneficial to h^^t com-
plexions : and with Spanish wine not much hurtful to any in a small
quantitye. — Wr.
* That yew, <£'c.] I have often seen children eate them without
hurt ; but in hot countries the ixia grows to such a hight of clammines,
as cannot bee dissolved in the stomack. — Wr.
"Nihil agque facere adviperse morsum, quam taxi arboris succum. —
Sueion. Claud. § 16.
" Cativuicus — taxo — se exanimavit."^(7(Fsar. de Bell. Gall. 1. v. 31.
See an' instance of two cows being killed by eating the leaves of yew,
at High Lorton, Cumberland, in 1817. Hampshire Chronicle, Jan. 26,
1807. — "Three cows died a few days ago, at Drayton, in consequence
of eating yew leaves." — Evening Mail, May 3rd, 1811. — "Two horses
killed by eating yew in a close near Chelmsford ; a great quantity being
found m the stomachs of the dead animals. A filly was saved by
powerful antidotes being quickly administered." — Phil. Gazette, Feb. 12,
1823.— /(/.
* deny.] Edit. 1646 and 1650 add here the following ser tence : —
"That cats have such delight in the herb nepeta, called therefcro
218 PEOPEETIES OF PLANTS. [bOOK H.
times wide in ordinary simples, and in common use we
mistake one for another. We know not the true thyme ; the
savory in our gardens is not that commended of old ; and
that kind of hyssop the ancients used, is unknown unto us,
who make great use of another.
"We omit to recite the many virtues and endless faculties
ascribed unto plants, which sometimes occur in grave and
serious authors ; and we shall make a bad transaction for
truth to concede a verity in lialf To reckon up all, it were
employment for Archimedes, who undertook to write the
number of the sands. Swarms of others there are, some
whereof our future endeavours may discover : common rea-
son, I hope, will save us a labour in many, whose absurdities
stand naked unto every eye ; errors, not able to deceive the
emblem of justice, and needing no Argus to descry them.
Herein there surely wants expurgatory animadversions,
whereby we miglit strike out great numbers of hidden
qualities ; and having once a serious and conceded list, we
might, with more encouragement and safety, attempt their
reasons.
cattaria, our experience cannot discover." — I have met with the
probable reason for the suppression of this passage (Srd edit.
1658, and subsequent editions) in a letter from Dr. How to the
author, dated 1655. "I have numbered, about two rootes of nep. in
my garden, 16 cats, who never destroyed those plants, but have totally
despoyled the neighbouring births in that bed to a yard's distance, ren-
dring the place hard and smooth, like a walke with their frequent
treddiags."
THE THIRD BOOK:
THE PAETICULAR PART CONTINUED.
OF P0PT7LAE AND EECEIVED TENETS CONCEENING ANIMALS.
CHAPTEE I.
That an Elephant hath no joints, dtc.
The first shall be of the elephant, whereof there generally
paaseth an opinion it hath no joints -^ and this absvn'dity is
seconded with another, that, being unable to lie down, it
sleepeth against a tree ; which the hunters observing do saw
^ Hie first shall he of the elephant, etc.] The "popular and received
tenet" concerning this animal, which it is the main object of the chapter
before us to refute, appears either to have been first delivered, or
first recorded from tradition, by Ctesias the Cnidian, who is the earliest
writer to whom I have been able to trace it ; and who, according to
Professor Schlegel, was the first among the Greeks who gave, from his
own personal observation, a description of the elephant in any way
copious, which was written about 380 A.c. The probability that
Ctesias was the oi-iginator, or the first recorder, of this vulgar error, is
confirmed by the circumstance that many idle tales, regarding other
animals, appear to have been also first promulgated by him ; and also
by the fact, that Aristotle, in his details on the elephant, twice refutes
the assertions of Ctesias, naming him ; and when refuting this parti-
cular error, does so in such a manner, that although no name is given,
his allusions, as Professor Schlegel has shown, can refer only to that
writer. The absurdity respecting the elephant's posture in sleep and
the consequent mode of capturing him, is also derived from Ctesias.
It is very true, therefore, that, the "conceit" in question " is not the
daughter of later times, but an old and grey-headed error ;" and it ia
also true that it is delivered as such by Aristotle. I have found it neces-
sary, for reasons that will be evident in the course of these annotations,
220 THAT AN ELEPHANT HATH NO JOINTS. [bOOK III.
it almost asunder ; whereon the beast relying, by the fall of
the tree faUa also down itself, and is able to rise no more.
always to compare what our author has attributed to that philoso-
pher, with the original statements made in his works ; and as there
are several curious points in the history of our knowledge respecting
the elephant connected with the subject, and which contribute to
elucidate Browne's remarks, I shall here introduce Aristotle's observa-
sions.
It will be proper to premise, however, that it has been shown by
Professor Schlegel, in his learned and interesting History of the
Elephant and Sphinx, {Class. Journ. vol. xxxi.), that the first battle
between any of the nations of the western world and those of the
eastern, in which elephants were used, was that of Arbela, and that
some of these, taken by Alexander, and sent by him into Greece, were
the first elepliants seen in that country, and very probably the actual
subjects of the admirable natural history of this animal contained in the
works of Aristotle, which is manifestly, and indeed professedly,
the result of frequent and minute actual examination of elephants of
both sexes. And, "what he himself could not ascertain," as Professor
Schlegel remarks, " viz. the beast's mode of life in his wild state, he
doubtless ascertained from the Indian conductors who led the ele-
phants." (lb. p. 53.)
Aristotle, in tlie ninth chapter of his book, On the Progressive Motion
of Animals, when showing that without inflexion there could be no
progression, to which demonstration Browne's argument on the subject
is greatly indebted (as he indeed indirectly acknowledges), has occasion
to notice some partial exceptions to this rule, which he introduces thus :
" It is possible, however, for the leg to be moved when not inflected,
in the same manner as infants creep. And there is an ancient report
of this kind about elephants, which is not true ; for such animals as
these are moved in consequence of an inflexion taking place either in
their shoulders or hips. No animal, however, is capable of moving
with a continued progressive motion, and with security, with its mem-
bers straight ; but it may be moved as they are in the pjaUestrcB, who
proceed on their knees through the dust." — T. Taylor's Treatises of
Aristotle on tlie Parts and Prof/re«sire Motion of Animals, p. 181.
In the second book of his History of Animals, chap. i. when treating
of the accordance of viviparous animals in general with each other,
and with man, in configuration and in motions, the Stagyrite observes;
" The legs, however, of other animals, as well the fore as the hind legs,
hav^e flexions contrary to each other, and to the flexions of the legs
and arms of man, the elephant being excepted What is asserted
of the elephant, however, by some, is not true (i. e. that he cannot
bend his legs, nor sit) ; for he can do both, except tliat he cannot, on
account of his weight, at one and the same time, bend each fore leg,
and recline on each side, but he can alone bend one leg, either the right
or the left, and alone recline on one side, and in this manner he sleepa
(leaning against some wall or tree). But he bends his hind legs in tha
CHiP. ] THAT AK ELEPnANT HATH >'0 JOINTS. 221
Which conceit is not the daughter of later times, but an old
and grey-headed error, even in the days of Aristotle, as he
delivereth in his book, De Incessu Anmalium, and stands
successively related by several other authors ; by Diodorus
Siculus, Strabo, Ambrose, Cassiodore, Solinus, and many
more. Now, herein, methinks, men much forget themselves,
not well considering tlie absurdity of such assertions.
For first, they aftirm it hath no joints, and yet concede it
walks and moves about -J whereby they conceive there may
same manner as men." — Taylor s Translation of Aristotle's History of
Animals, p. 36.
In the. latter passage, Lowever, Aristotle, though he corrects the
error of Ctesias in a satisfactory manner, appears, on another point, to
be mistaken himself. For it would seem to imply that the elephant,
having bent one fore-leg, cannot then bend the other so as to kneel
with both — -which is contrary to the fact. And, what is perhaps still
more curious in the history of the subject, Mr. Taylor, in his conclud-
ing interpolation, has actually adopted a portion of the original error
of Ctesias, to complete the sense of his author. Something, certainly,
appears to be wanting, in order to complete the sense. But, that a
statement by a writer who is never mentioned by Aristotle except for
the purpose of refuting him, and which is in itself so well known to be
untrue, should have been employed for the purpose, is very extraor-
dinary. As the amplifications of Mr. Taylor's version of this passage
also tend in some degree to obscure the sense, I will add the closer and
more concise version of Du Val. " Flectunt autem crura, priora
contrk, atque posteriora : et e contrario, quh,m homo, membra inflec-
tunt, excepto elephanto Elephas non, ut aliqui retulerunt, agit :
sod considendo crura inflectit, nequit tamen prse nim'o pondere utrum-
que in latus equilibrio quodam vergere : sed aut Iebvo incubat, aut dex-
tro, atque eo ipso habitu requiescit."' — Arist. Opera Omnia, curd Du Val,
torn. i. p. 771, B. — Br.
"^ For first, they affirm it hath no joints, Ac."] This argument of
our author, showing, from reason, anatomy, and geneval analogy with
other animals, the absurdity of the error he is refuting, is exceedingly
logical and pertinent.
Eoss, with his u.sual dogmatism, represents that "the dictor, prying
too narrowly into the sayings of the ancients, reckoneth them amongst
his Vulf/ar Errors, which being rightly understood, are no errors at all ;
a»s when they say the elephant hath no joynts, they meant their joynts
were stifFe, and not so easily flexible as those of other animals." {Ar-
can. Microc. p. 152). But unfortunately for this explanation, Ctesias
explicitly atfirms, " that the elephant hath no joints in the bone of his
leg," which fully justifies the importance given by Browne to the
poDular misrepresentation founded on the statement of tliat writer.
Rohiuson, by implication, condemns Browne for censuring the views
of the ancients on this subject; observing, "that elephants have no
222 THAT AN ELEPHANT HATH NO JOINTS. [bOOK IIL
be a progression or advancement made in motion, ■without
inflexion of parts. Now all progression or animal locomotion
being (as Aristotle teaches) performed tractu et pulsu, that
is by drawing on or impelling forward some part which was
before in station, or at quiet, — where there are no joiiit or
flexures, neitlier can there be the actions. And this is true,
not only in quadrupeds, volatiles, and fishes, which have dis-
tinct and prominent organs of motion, — legs, wings, and fins,
but in such also as perform their progression by the trunk, —
as serpents, worms and leeches ; whereof, though some want
bones, and all, extended articulations, yet have they arthriti-
cal analogies,* and, by the motion of fibrous and musculous
parts, are able to make progression. AVhich to conceive in
bodies flexible, and without all protrusion of parts, were to
expect a race from Hercules' pillars or hope to behold the
effects of Orpheus' harp, when trees foimd joints, and danced
after his music.
Again, while men conceive they never lie down,^ and enjoy
not the position of rest ordained unto all pedestrious animals,
* Joint-like-parts,
joynts, though by some it be delivered in generall termes ; yet was not
their Minerra so dull, to except all ; but did intend the suffrayineous or
knee joynts onely : without which there niay be a progression in man ;
as upon stilts ; by the sole motion of the hijjpe : in quadrupcdes, as in
full gallop." But though he proceeds to quote Csesar as affirming such
to be the case with the elk {aloes), he adduces no facts whatever in
contravention of Browne's representations and arguments ; although,
on the other hand, he has some good instances of animals to which
station is rest, as many bii-ds, and ordinarily horses also. Thus this
commentator, in his defence of the ancients against our author, actually
admits that they made the very statement which we have just seen to
be that of Ctesias, the original promulgator of the stoiy. — Br.
" Again, u-Jtile men conceive they never lie down.^ The argument
contained in this and the following paragraph, is deserving of the same
praise as has been awarded to the preceding dirett argument on the
necessity of the elephant having joints ; that necessity being now
shown, in an indirect manner, from the general necessity of change and
alternation of posture in animals. But our author, from the deficiency
of his knowledge both of the natural history and the anatomy of the
elephant, happens not to have been aware that station, to it, is rest
(except when greatly fatigued, or in great weakness from disease), as
we have seen, when citing Robinson's animadversions, to be the case
also with some other animals. From the construction of all the joints
In the legs of this animal, and esjiecially from that of the knee-joint,
CUAP. I.] THAT AN ELEPHANT HATH NO JOINTS. 223
hereb} they imagine (what reason cannot conceive), that an
animal of the vastest dimension and longest duration, should
live in a continual motion, without that alternity and vicissi-
tude of rest whereby all others continue ; and yet must thus
much come to pass, if we opinion they lie not down and enjoy
no decumbence at all. For station is properly no rest, but
one kind of motion, relating unto that which physicians (from
Galen) do name extensive or tonical ; that is, an extension
of the muscles and organs of motion, maintaining the body
at length, or in its proper figure.
"Wherein although it seem to be unmoved, it is not without
all motion ; for in this position the muscles are sensibly
extended, and labour to support the body ; which, permitted
unto its proper gvavitj, would suddenly subside and fall unto
the earth ; as it happeneth in sleep, diseases, and death.
From which occult action and in\'isible motion of the muscles,
in station (as Galen declareth), proceed more offensive lassi-
the elephant, when standing still, rests, as it were, upon four pillars,
with scarcely any need of muscular exertion, and of none but what
slight mental excitement can supply. Thus the elephant, which died
some years since in the menagerie of the Jardin des Plantes, at Paris,
was observed never to lie down, even in his last illness, until imme-
diately before his death ; and that which was so long exhibited at
Exeter 'Change, London, and killed there in 1826, received 152 balLs
in almost every anterior part of his body, before he fell.
The following relation, however, is still more illustrative of the fact,
that the elephant 7-ests while standing ; expecially when under any ex-
citement. Mr. Corse (now Mr. Corse Scott), under whose direction
the elephant hunters of Tiperah, in Bengal, where placed for several
years, states, that it is always a good sign when an elephant lies down
to sleep within a few months after he is' taken ; as it shows him to be
of a good temper, not suspicious, but reconciled to his fate. " Ele-
phants," he observes, "particularly goondahs (which are large male
animals that have strayed from the woods and from the herds), have
been known to stand twelve months at their pickets without lying down
to sleep ; though they sometimes take a short nap standing." Obs. on
the Manners, Habits, and Nat. Hist, of the Elephant — Phil. Trans. 1799,
p. 44.
From the observation of some remarkable case of this description, in
a country where the rarity of the animal precluded the correction of
the inference deduced from it, in addition perhaps to the " cylindrical
composure of the legs," to which it is attributed by our autlior, tho
story of the want of knee-joints in the elephant, in all probabilit'j ,
must have originated. — Br.
224 THAT AN ELEPnANT HATII NO JOINTS. [BOOK HT.
tudes than from ambulation.^ And therefore the tyranny of
some have tormented men with long and enforced station ;
and though Ixion and Sisyphus, which always moved, do
seem to have the hardest measure, yet was not Tityus
favoured, that lay extended upon Caucasus, and Tantalus
suffered somewhat more tlian thirst, that stood perpetually
in hell. Thus Mercurialis, in his Gi/mnastics, justly makes
standing one kind of exercise : and Galen, wlien Ave lie down,
commends unto us middle figures, that is, not to lie directly,
or at length, but somewhat inflected, that the muscles may
be at rest ; for such as he termeth luipobolemaioi, or figvuTS
of excess, either shrinking up or stretching out, are weari-
some positions, and such as perturb the quiet of those parts.
Now various parts do variously discover these indolent and
quiet positions, some in right lines, as the wrists ; some
at right angles, as the cubit ;^ others at oblique angles,
as the fingers and knees : all resting satisfied in postures
of moderation, and none endiu-Lng the extremity of flexure
or extension. -
]\Iorcover, men herein do strangely forget the obvious
relations of history, affirming they have no joints, whereas
thev daily read of several actions which are not performable
without them. They forget what is delivered by Xiphilinus,
and also by Suetonius, in the lives of Xero and Galba, that
elephants have been instructed to walk on ropes, in public
shows, before the people : which is not easily performed by
man, and requireth not only a broad foot, but a pliable flexure
of joints, and commaudable disposure of all parts of progres-
sion. They pass by that memorable place in Curtius, con-
cerning the elephant of King Porus ; Indus qui eJephantem
regehat, desce?idere eum rains, more solito procumbere jussit
' From wJiicJi, d-c] N.B. et care! The mischeef which cometh by
standing long (as at studyes) appears in old age, by the swelling of the
legs, and (ofttimea) the gout. — Wr.
Would not Darwin have said that this swelling was no other than
the appetency of the leg towards an attainment of the columnar fonna-
tion of the elephantine leg — an appetency excited by the stationary dis-
cipline of its .studious owner, the dean?
' cufrit] The fore-arm.
* Now farious parts, <i:c.] This sentence was first added in the 2ni
ndit.
CnAP. 1.] THAT AN ELEPIIAXT HATH >"0 JOINTS. 225
in genua, ceeteri quoque (ita enim instituti erant) demisere
corpora in terram. They remember not the expression of
Osorius,* when he speaks of the elephant presented to LeoX.;
Tontificem ter genihusflexis, et demisso corporis habit ii vene-
rahundus sahdavit. But above all, they call not to mind that
memorable show of G-ermauicus, wherein twelve elephants
danced unto the sound of music, and after laid them down in
tlie tricliniums, or places of festival recumbency.
They forget the etymology of the knee, approved by some
grammarians. t They disturb the position of the young ones
in the womb ; which upon extension of legs is not easily
conceivable, and contrary unto the general contrivance of
nature. Nor do they consider the impossible exclusion
thereof, upon extension and rigour of the legs.^
Lastly, they forget or consult not experience,'* whereof not
* De rebus gestis Enianuelis. + Tow from yojvia.
^ Tliey forget, etc.] This paragraph was first added in the 2nd edit.
* they forget or consult not experience, <Lx.~\ This will be the proper
place to make a remark or two on the modem history and prevalence of
this tale, that the legs of the elephant are devoid of joints. In the
volume on the elephant, published in the Menageries of the Library of
Entertaining Knowledge, are some quotations on the subject from early
English works, for which the compiler of that volume is indebted to
Steevens's notes on Shakspeare, though he does not acknowledge it. In
a curious specimen of our early natural history, The Dialogues of Crea-
tures Moral y zed, is mention, Steevens informs us, of "the olefawnte that
bowyth not the hneys." In the play oi All Fools, 1605, occurs this pas-
sage : " I hope you are no elephant — you \i&ve joints." Shakspeare, in
his Troilus and Cresside, 1609, makes Ulysses say (act ii. sc. 3), " The
elephant hath joints, but none for courtesy : his legs are legs for neces-
sity, not for flexure." In All's Lost by Lust, 1633, a woman is said to be
" stubborn as an elephant's leg— ^no bending in her." It will not follow
fi-om these expressions, that the authors of all the works in which they
appear were actually believers in this story ; nor could it be proved
from them that it was generally believed at the times when they wrote ;
for, with respect to the three plays, the allusion may be regarded as
founded only on the known prevalence, at some period, of the belief in
question. Still, even these evince, at least, the former existence of the
notion, as well as its extensive prevalence and popular currency. But
the mention of it in The Dialogues of Creatures Moralyzed, shows it to
have been a generally received opinion in this country at the date of
their publication, early in the sixteenth century. Browne mentions
it as a general opinion (the first edition of the Vulgar Errors being
published in 1646, and the last in 1686), though he states it to be " at
present well suppressed" in England by an elephant shown, " not many
VOL. I. Q
226 THAT iJf ELEPHANT UATH NO JOINTS. [BOOK Til.
many years past we have had the advantage in England, by an
elephant shown in many pai'ts thereof, not only in the posture
of standing, but kneeling and lying down. Whereby, although
the opinion at present be well suppressed, yet, from some
strings of tradition, and fruitful recurrence of error, it is not
improbable it may revive in the next generation again ; this
being not the first that hath been seen in England: for,
besides some others, as Polydore Virgil relateth, Lewis the
Ereneh king sent one to Henry III., and Emanuel of Portu-
gal another to Leo X. into Italy, where, notwithstanding, the
error is still alive and epidemical, as with us.
The hint and ground of this opinion might be, the gross
and somewhat cylindrical composure of the legs, the equality
and less perceptible disposure of the joints ; especially in the
former legs^ of this animal ; they appearing, when he stand-
eth, like pillars of flesh, without any evidence of articulation.
The diflerent flexure and order of the joints might also coun-
tenance the same, being not disposed in the elephant as they
years past," "in many parts thereof, not only in the posture of
standing, but kneeling and lying down." He expresses an apprehen-
sion, however, that it will revive again, citing the case of Italy, where,
notwithstanding the opportunity of witnessing the habits of the animal,
afforded by the elephant sent to Leo X., by Emanuel, King of Portu-
gal, "the error," he observes, " is still alive and epidemical, as with
us." And it remains, even to the present day, a " vulgar error"
among the uneducated classes. It has long been the custom for the
exhibitors of itinerant collections of wild animals, when showing the ele-
phant, to mention the stoiy of its having no joints, and its consequent
inability to kneel ; and they never fail to think it necessary to demon-
strate its untruth by causing the animal to bend one of its fore-legs and
to kneel also ; but I never saw this done (and I have been present
many times on such occasions), without observing that it was witnessed
with astonishment and almost with incredulity, by several persons pre-
sent, whether the exhibition has been in London or in a provincial town.
We have thus an instance of an error of the grossest and most palpable
description, and one which has often from time to time been refuted,
respecting an animal which is not found in the countries in which that
error has been entertained, prevailing for a peiiod of at least 2,200
years, though for the last two centuries, to a greatly diminished extent.
This is a fact which it will be well to bear in mind, in any enquiries re-
specting the probable truth of certain relations in natural history, which
have at various periods, and among various nations, been generally re-
ceived, but respecting the truth or falsity of which, we may not be in
possession of decisive evidence. — Br.
* former legs.] Fore-legs : used ia this case by Spenser,
CHAP. I.] THAT AN ELEPHANT HATH NO JOINTS. 227
are in other quadrupeds, but carrying a nearer conformity
unto those of man ; that is, the bought^ of the fore-legs, not
directly backward, but laterally, and somewhat inward ; but
the hough or suftVaginous flexure behind, rather outward :
somewhat difterent unto many other quadrupeds,'' as horses,
camels,*^ deer, sheep, and dogs ; for their fore-legs bend like
our legs, and their hinder legs like our arms, when we move
them to our shoulders. But quadrupeds oviparous, as frogs,
lizards, crocodiles, have their joints and motive flexiu'es more
analogously framed unto ours : and some among viviparous,
that is, such thereof as can bring their fore-feet and meat
therein unto their moutlis, as most can do, that have the
clavicles or collar-bones, whereby their breasts are broader,
and their shoulders more asunder ; as the ape, the monkey,
the squirrel, and some others.'^ If, therefore, any shall affirm
the joints of elephants are differently framed from most of
other quadrupeds, and more obscurely and grossly almost
tlian any, he doth herein no injury unto truth. ^ But if, a
lUcto secundiim quid ad dictum simpliciter, he affirmeth also
they have no articulations at all, he incurs the controlment
of reason, and cannot avoid the contradiction also of sense.
As for the manner of their venation, if we consult histo-
rical experience, we shall find it to be otherwise than, as is
commonly presumed, by sawing away of trees. The ac-
counts whereof are to be seen at large at Johannes, Hugo,
* tJiehouf/7it.] The bend or flexure.
■^ other quadrupeds.] First edition aided, " and such as can scratch
the ear with the hinder foot."
* canieh-l In the beginning of March, 1652-3, I saw a dromedary,
which at the command of his master, by the word (busy) began to lye
downe, first, by bending his fore-knees, and then the upper knee of the
hinder legg, which is next the groine. — Wr.
^ some others.] As mice sometimes, and dormice always, and among
birds, theparat. — Wr.
' If, therefore, any shall affirm, <£•£.] There is some inaccuracy in this
sentence : the joints of the elephant are framed upon the same general
plan as those of other quadrupeds belonging to the same group of mam-
malia, and they certainly are not more obscurely and grossly formed
than those of any others ; having merely the variation of stracture ren-
dered necessary by the magnitude and the consequent weight of the
animal, as we shall presently show ; but being, at the same time, as
admirably formed, and as exquisitely adapted to its particular exigencies,
as those of any other creature whatever. — Br.
Q2
228 THAT AN ELEPHANT HATH NO JOINTS. [bOOK III.
Edwardus Lopez, Garclas ab Horto, Cadamustus, and many
more.
Other concernments there are of the elephant, wliich
might admit of discourse. And if we should question the
teeth of elephants,^ that is, whether they be properly so
termed, or might not rather be called horns,^ it were no new
enquiry of mine, but a paradox as old as Oppianus.* Whether,
as Pliny and divers since affirm it, that elephants are terri-
fied and make away upon tlie grunting of swine,^ Garcias
ab Horto may decide, who affirmeth upon experience, they
enter their stalls, and live promiscuously in the woods of
* Cygenet, lib. 2.
' elephants. '\ There is another error concerning the teeth, which grow
not, as most suppose, but as the tuskes of a boare proceed (like horns)
from out the upper chawe, and soe bend up againe. — Wr.
^ mifjht not rather he called horns.^ It is scarcely necessary to observe,
that the tusks, as they are commonly called, of this animal, are truly
teeth, being implanted in bones corresponding to those which carry the
incisors of other animals : see Cuviei; Reyne Animal, edit. nouv. torn. i.
p. 237.—^)-.
* making away upon the grunting of swineJ] This aversion is alluded
to in the following interesting passage from the Menageries : " But the
elephant may be endued witli this acute hearing, in addition to his ex-
quisite touch, for the protection of the lesser animals from the accidents
to which they would be subject from lying in his path. He has an
extraordinary dislike to all small quadrupeds. Dogs running near him
produce a great annoyance ; if a hare start from her cover, he is imme-
diately alarmed ; and that pigs are his aversion, has been recorded by
every naturalist, from Pliny to Buffon. It is even mentioned by Proco-
pius, the historian of the Persian and Gothic wars, that, at the siege o{
Edessa, by Chosroes, King of Persia, in the time of Justinian, the be-
sieged Greeks employed the cry of a pig to frighten from the walls the
elephants of their enemy. The old naturalists explained this peculiarity
by the doctrine of antipathies : in the same way that they affirmed that
the elephant was fond of an ox, upon the principle of sympathies. It
may appear something equally fanciful, to suggest the posnibility tiiat
the elephant may dislike the smaller animals to come in his way from his
instinctive disinclination to destroy them by an accidental tread. He
always avoids a contest with inferio. quadrupeds whenever he can ; and
if a helples.s living creature, such as an infant or a wounded man, lie in
his way, he will move the object. The elephant is naturally gentle —
anxious alone to procure his own tood without molesting others. That
he is so, is a merciful, as well as a wise (lis])ensation. If he had pos-
Bessed a ferocity equal to his power, he must have exterminated a very
large part of the animal creation." — Menageries, vol. ii. p G9, 70. — £r.
CHAP. I,] THAT AN ELEPHANT HATH NO JOINTS. 229
Malavar. That the situation of the genitals is averse,^ and
their copuhition like that which some believe of camels,
as Pliny hath also delivered, is not to be received ; for we
have belield that part in a different position; and their
coition is made by supersaliency, like that of horses, as we
are informed by some who have beheld them in that act.
That some elephants have not only written whole sentences,
as ^Elian ocularly testifieth, but have also spoken, as Op-
pianus delivereth, and Christophorus a Costa particularly
relateth,^ — although it sound like that of Achilles' horse in
Homer, we do not conceive impossible : nor, beside the
affinity of reason in this animal, any such intolerable inca-
pacity in the organs of divers quadrupeds, whereby they
might not be taught to speak, or become imitators of speech,
like birds.'' Strange it is, how the curiosity of men, that
* That the situation of the genitals, <f-c.] Browne is quite correct in
his statement of the manner in which coition is effected in the elephant ;
and from his mode of authenticating tliat statement, it might liave
been inferred, even in his time, that the notion of the modesty of the
animal, or of its unwillingness or inability to continue its race in
captivity, was merely a vulgar error ; this, however, is not mentioned
by our author.— £r.
^ have also spoken, as Oppianus delivereth, and Chri tophorus a Costa
particularly relateth.] In the volume on the elephant, in the Library of
Entertaining Kiwwledge, before cited, occurs the following satisfactory
explanation of this relation of Acosta : — " At Cochin, according to this
writer, there was an elephant that worked at the port with all the skill
of a human labourer. One day, when he was much fatigued, the go-
vernor of the port desired hira to assist in launching a boat. The
elephant refused ; and the man of authority, having in vain employed all
his caresses, commanded him to do it in the name of the King of Portu-
gal. The loyal beast, it is added, instantly replied, ' I will, I will,' and
performed his task. Tliis story may explain some of the old fables of
the eleiihant speaking ; for, in the Malabar language, ' I will,' is ex-
pressed by ' hoo,' — a very natural sound for an elephant to make, not
upon the invocation of the King of Portugal, but upon the more effectual
stimulus of the blow which probably accompanied the utterance of the
magical name." — Menageries, vol. ii. p. 154. — Br.
' might not he taught to speak, <f'c.] To expatiate on the futility of our
author's reasoning, as to the probability of animals being taught to
sjjeak (to speak rationally, as he would seem to insinuate), is needless ;
but it will be proper to make a few remarks on the imperfect knowledge
of his subject, which renders his reasoning futile. Like almost eveiy
other author who has written upon subjects connected with the instinct
of brutes, he regards their jjerccptlvc faculties as lower degrees of reasvn ;
230 THAT AN ELEPHANT HATH NO JOINTS. [bOOK III.
liave been active in the instruction of beasts, has never fallen
upon this artifice ; and among those many paradoxical and un-
heard of imitations, should not attempt to make one speak.
The serpent that spake unto Eve,^ the dogs and cats that
usually speak unto witches, might aftbrd some encouragement.
And since broad and thick chaps are required in birds that
Bpeak,^ since lips and teeth are also organs of speech ; from
mistaking the analogical relation to reason which they exhibit (using
the term analogical in the same sense, mutatis mutandis, as that in which
it has lately been employed in natural history, by Mr. W. S. Macleay),
and by which they rejwesent its attributes, for an actual community of
nature with reason. The truth seems to be, v/ith respect to the particu-
lar subject now before us, that brute animals, not having reason, and
being consequently devoid of analytical thought, which is the activity of
reason, are equally devoid of the means of uttering articulate speech,
which is merely the exponent and vehicle of such thought in man. That
this is the true nature of articulate speech, is proved by the fact, that
those unfortunate individuals of the human race (of whom we may cite
Peter, the wild boy, as an example), who have never been taught to
th ink, and are devoid of reason, are equally devoid of the power of arti-
culation, though their vocal organs are as perfect as those of educated
men possessed of the full powers of speech. Some animals can be taught
to produce sounds by their organs of voice, which closely resemble those
of human speech ; but sounds of this description can also be produced by
inanimate machinery, as in the speaking automata, &c. of Kempelen and
Kratzenstein ; and such sounds, when uttered by animals, are indicative
only of their own instinctive perceptions, like their ordinary inarticulate
cries, and they are not indicative of these even in any greater degree
than those cries are.
The only accurate view of the nature of the analogue of reason in
brutes, with which I am acquainted, is contained in an enquiry into
the nature of instinct, by Mr. John 0. French, published in the first
and second volumes of the Zoological Journal.
But, to proceed with our author, quadrupeds liare been taught to
" become imitators of speech like birds." Leibnitz has recorded the
history of a dog, who had been taught, by the son of his master, a
peasant in Saxony, to pronounce thirty different words. This fact may
be regarded as throwing some degree of light upon, and rendering cre-
dible, many old relations of a similar kind, some long anterior to the
time of our author. The substance of Leibnitz's account will be found
in Hces's Cyclopcedia, under the article dog. — Br.
^ serpent, <tc.] See my notes at the very end, and on book v. c. 4. —
Wr.
" AvA since broad and thick chaps are required in hirds that speaJc.']
An error is involved in this expression parallel to that popular one,
which ascribes the ability of parrots to imitate the hum.an voice, essen-
tially to their broad and himian-like tongue. Mr. Yarrell has remarked,
.u his Memoir on the Organs of Voice in Birds, that the raven, magpie.
CHAP. I.] THAT AN ELEPHANT HATH NO JOINTS. 231
these there is also an advantage in quadrupeds, and a proxi-
mity of reason in elephants and apes^ above them all.
Since also an echo will speak without any mouth at all ,2
jay, and starling, produce a close imitation of the human voice with
tongues long, slender, and horny. But the proper source of correction
of both errors is tlie knowledge we now possess, that the organ of
voice, in all birds, is the inferior larynx, situated at the bifurcation of
the trachea, where the bronchice go off from it to the lungs, or in othe ;
words, at the bottom, of the windpijx ; the superior larynx or glottis^
opening into the cavity of the mouth, being little more than a simple
slit, giving utterance to the sounds produced below, or being at most
one of the accessary organs for their regulation. The true cause of
the accuracy with which the birds having "broad and thick chaps,"
especially the paiTots, imitate speech, seems to be their accurate
ear for sounds of eveiy description, together with the arrangement
and functions of the muscles of their organ of voice, giving them
a greater compass of voice than other birds ; by which means they are
enabled to imitate any kind of sound they hear : for parrots, &c. it
will be remembered, imitate the ticking of a clock, or the shai-pening
of a saw, or a whistled tune, as accurately as they do the voice itself.
This error, however, like the greater number of those entertained by
our author himself, was an almost universal one, and continued to be
so until the true nature and situation of the organs of voice in birds
were first accurately shown hy Cuvier, about the commencement of the
present centuiy. A summary view of the results of his investigation
will be found near the end of tlie article, BIRDS, Anatomy of, in Reess
Cydopadia, from the pen, we believe, of Professor Macartney, of Tri-
nity College, Dublin, an accomplished comparative anatomist : and an
excellent general account of the organs of voice in birds, illustrated by
details and figures of them in many individual species, is given by Mr.
Yarrell, in the paper before referred to, published in the Transactions
of the Linna'an Society, vol. xvi. p. 305. — £r.
' apes.] In February, 1652-3 ittwas constantly reported from some
of the Portugal emba.ssador's followers, that the present King of Spain
had a baboone that went upright and spake many things : whether itt
bee e Suiyrorum or Cynocepihalorum genere is not sayde. The way were
to gain a pregnant female, and to train e the younge by language : they
about Conge beleeve they can speake, but will not, fearing least soe they
might be forced to labor. Sed de hujusmodi monstris, consule Ouseen-
dum in Vitd Pereshii, p. 397, mira edisserentem. — Wr.
The author here falls into the still prevalent error, of attributing
an extraordinary degree of sagacity to the apes, which, as has been
obsen'ed by Cuvier (Eegne Anim. torn. i. p. 88), do not in reality greatly
surpass the dog in this respect, being chiefly indebted to their bodily
confoi-mation for the close resemblance of their gestures and actions
to those of man.
It is almost needless to add, that Dean Wren's stories about apea
speaking, or being taught to speak, are all futile and unfounded. — Br.
" Since also an echo, ttr.] The "query of no g- eat doubt," with
232 THAT THE HOESE HATH NO GALL. [bOOK III.
articulately returuing the voice of man, by only ordering the
vocal spirit in concave and hollow places ; wlietlier the mus-
culous and motive parts about the hollow mouths of beasts
may not dispose the passing spirit into some articulate
notes, seems a query of no great doubt."^
CHAPTEE II.
That the Horse hath no gall.
The second assertion, that an horse hath no gall, is
very general, nor only swallowed by the people and common
farriers, but also received by good veterinarians, and some
who have laudably discoursed upon horses. It seemeth
also very ancient ; for it is plainly set down by Aristotle ;
" an horse, and all solidungulous, or whole-hoofed ani-
mals, have no gall ;"■* and the same is also delivered by
which the chapter concludes, is certainly void of doubt ; void, that is,
of doubt that our author is wrong. It will be sufficient to observe,
that an echo of human speech is merely a reflection of certain undula-
tory motions, previously impressed upon the air by the organs of speech,
and that the reflected are identical with the original sounds, being in
fact those very sounds merely caused to proceed in a new direction.
The place of echo, therefore, has no share in the articulation of the
sounds which are heard from it. Articulation, as before observed, is
the result of analytical thought, which is peculiar to man ; the brute
animals which are taught to imitate it, merely frame sounds closely re-
sembling those which they have heard from man ; they never utter an
original articulation of their own, whatever may be the mechanism of
their organs of voice. — Br.
^ Since also, «Dt'.] First added in the 1st edit.
'' it is plainly set down hy Aristotle, d'c] It is evident, from an exami-
nation of the passage in Aristotle's History of Animals (lib. ii. cap. xv.)
here referred to, that the word x"^'/ •** sometimes used by that author
to denote the gall-bladder, and sometimes to denote the gall or bile
itself, considered as one of the animal fluids. In the passage under
consideration, it is used in the former sense, and thus understood, the
assertion is strictly accurate. The gall-bladder is wanting in the horse
and other solipedes. But while it is thus cle.ar that the absence of bile
in the horse is not affirmed by Aristotle, neither the jiassage itself, nor
its context, prove liiin to have been aware of its presence ; and there
is some ground, thertifore, for our author's animadversion. For while
the bile itself in the st;ig and elephant is expressly alluded to, after the
absence of the gall bladder in those animals has been mentioned, that
CHAP. II.] TUAT THE HOESE HATH WO GALL. 233
Plinv,^ which, uotwithstandiug, we find repugnant unto
experience and reason. For first, it calls in question tlie
providence or wise provision of nature, who, not abounding
in superfluities, neither is deficient in necessities. Wherein
nevertheless there would be a main defect, and her impro-
vision justly accusable, if such a feeding animal, and so
subject unto diseases from bilious causes, should want a
proper conveyance for choler, or have no other receptacle for
that humour than the veins and general mass of blood.
It is again controllable by experience,^ for we have made
some search and enquiry herein ; encouraged by Absyrtus, a
Grreek author, in the time of Constantine, who, in his Hip-
piatricks, obscurely assigneth the gall a place in the liver ;
but more especially by Carlo Ruini, the Bononian, who, in
his Anatomia del Cavallo, hath more plainly described it, and
of the horse, an animal, as we have seen, in the same predicament, i.s not
mentioned or alluded to. At the same time, from an examination of
the entire chapter, it would appear, I think, that the main subject
being the gall-bladder as annexed or not to the liver, in various tribes
of animals, the absence of the bile, in those described as devoid of that
organ, is by no means intended to be expressly stated by the writer,
—Br.
* the same is also delivered hy Pliny ^ This is true ; Pliny evidently
borrowed his statement from the passage of Aristotle, considered above,
and translating x"^'l ^J t'^^ Latin Vfovd, fel, applies that, as Aristotle
does the former, sometimes to the gall-bladder, and sometimes to the
fluid it contains. — Hist. A"at. lib. xi. cap. Ixxiv.
A curious fact in the history of the subject appears from the notes of
Hardouin, on this chapter of Pliny. — Hist. A'at. tom. i. p. 628. The
absence of the gall-bladder in the solipedes was affirmed prior to Aris-
totle, by Ctesias, a circumstance which may assist, with some other
correct statements now known to have been made by that writer (see
notes on book ii. c. 8), to caution us from absolutely rejecting all his
extraordinary relations ; notwithstanding that (as we have seen in the
notes on the preceding chapter) some of them are erroneous. — Br.
" It is again controllable hy experience.'] Tlie contents of this para-
graph evince our author's care to deteimine disputed points, and refute
prevalent errors, by actual enquiry and observation. By a miscon-
struction of ancient authorities, he finds it believed that the bile is
altogether absent in the horse ; but, reason showing the improbability
of this, and finding its presence affirmed by some authors, he dissects
the liver and adjacent organs of that animal, in order to ascertain the
fact. The vessel containing bile, which he discovered, is the hepatic
duct, the dilatation of which, at its origin, in the horse and some other
animals devoid of the gall-bladder, is so large as to form a sort of reser-
voir for the Lile. — Br,
234 THAT THE HORSE HATH NO OALL. [bOOK III.
in a manner as I found it. Eor in the particular enquir}^
into tliat part, in the concave or sinuous part of the liver,
whereabout the gall is usually seated in quadrupeds, I dis-
cover an hollow, long, and membraneous substance, of a pale
colour without, and lined with choler and gall within, which
part is by brandies diffused into the lobes and several par-
cels of tlie liver ; from whence receiving the fiery superfluity,
or clioleric remainder, by a manifest and open passage, it
conveyeth it into the duodenum or upper gut, thence into the
lower bowels ; which is the manner of its derivation in man
and other animals. And, therefore, although there be no
eminent and circular follicle, no round bag or vesicle which
long containetb this humour, yet is there a manifest recep-
tacle and passage of choler from the liver into the guts ;
which, being not so shut up, or at least not so long detained,
as it is in other animals, procures that frequent excretion,
and occasions the horse to dung more often than many
other, which, considering the plentiful feeding, the largeness
of the guts and their various circumvolution, was prudently
contrived by Providence in this animal. Por choler is the
natural glister, or one excretion whereby nature excludeth
another, which descending daily iuto the bowels, extimulates
those parts, and excites them unto expulsion. And, there-
fore, when this humour aboundeth or corrupteth, there
succeeds, oft-times, a clwlerica passio, that is a sudden and
vehement purgation upward and downward : and when the
passage of gall becomes obstructed, the body grows costive,
and the excrements of the belly white ; as it happenetli in
the jaundice.
If any, therefore, affirm an horse hath no gall,'' that is, no
receptacle or part ordained for the separation of choler, or
not that humour at all, he hath both sense and reason to
oppose him. But if he saith it hath no bladder of gall, and
'' If any therefore affirm, <tc.] The concluding remarks on the sub-
ject appear to give a very just view of it, and partake of our author's
logical acuteness. In the passage of Pliny, hero alluded to (Nat. Hist.
lib. xxxviii. cap. xl.), as is manifest from the entire contents of the
chapter in which it occurs, the word fd means the bile itself; whereas,
in the former citation from that writer, it means the receptacle for the
Vjile, or gall-bladder. The two statements, therefore, are, in reality, in
perfect harmony with eanh other. — Br.
CHAP. III.] THAT A PIGEOX HATH NO GALL. 235
such as is observed in many other animals, we sYxA oppose
our sense if we gainsay him. Thus must Aristotle be made
out when he denieth this part ; by this distinction we may
relieve Pliny of a contradiction, who, in one place affirming
an horse hath no gall, delivereth yet in another, that the gall
of an horse w^as accounted poison ; and, therefore, at the
sacrifices of horses in Eome, it was unlawful for the Jf amen
to touch it. But with more difficulty, or hardly at all, is that
reconcileable which is delivered by our countryman, and re-
ceived veterinarian ; whose words in his master-piece, and
chapter of diseases from the gall, are somewhat too strict,
and scarce admit a reconciliation. The fallacy, therefore, of
this conceit, is not luilike the former, a dicto secundum quid
ad dictum simpliciter : — because they have not a bladder of
gall, like those we usually observe in others, they have no gall
at all ; which is a paralogism not admittable — a fallacy that
dwells not ui a cloud, and needs not the sun to scatter it.
CHAPTEE III.
That a Pigeon Jiath no gall.
The third assertion is somewhat like the second, that a
dove or pigeon hath no gall, which is affirmed from very
great antiquity ; for, as Pierius observeth,^ from this con-
sideration the Egyptians did make it the hieroglyphic of
meekness.^ It hath been averred by many holy writers,
* as Pierius ohserveth.] In his HieroghjpMca, p. 221, B. 27 ; but he
cites no authority for his assertion. See a remark on Pierius in note
at p. 251-36.
^ of meehness.'] And not without excellent reason : for, whereas, all
angry eruptions proceed from the more or less mixture of gall, not only
in man, but other creatures ; and that, when itt is seated in the liver,
itt is the easier spread into all parts of the bodye, together with the
blood, except he doe the more vigorously doe his office in the defaeca-
tion of the blood : it must of necessity thence follow, that where the
gall is drainde from the blood by some other vessel than the liver, as
by the gutts, from which itt is impossible to regurgitate into the blood,
such creatures, and among them the dove especially, may be well sayd
to have none in such a sense as is intended, i. e., whereby the vital parts
should bee enflamed with such hot and fierye motions, as other crea-
tures are, which have the cista, or vesicle of gall in the liver, the cf/idus
236 THA.T A PIGEON HATH XO GALL. [bOOK III.
commonly delivered by postillers and commentators ; who,
from the frequent mention of the dove in the Canticles, the
precept of our Saviour, " to be wise as serpents and inno-
cent as doves," and especially the appearance of the Holy
Ghost in the similitude of this animal, liave taken occasion
to set down many aftections of the dove, and, what doth
most commend it is, that it hath no gall. And hereof have
made use, not only minor divines, but Cyprian, Austin, Isi-
dore, Beda, Kupertus, Jansenius, and many more.
AV'liereto, notwitlistanding, we know not how to assent, it
being repugnant unto the authority and positive determina-
tion of ancient philosophy. The affirmative of Aristotle, in
his History of Animals, is very plain — -fel aUis ventri, aliis
intestino jungitur, — some have the gall adjoined to the guts ;
as the crow, the swallow, sparrow, and the dove ; the same
is also attested by Pliny, and not without some passion by
Galen, who, in his book, De Atra Bile, accounts him ridicu-
lous that denies it.
It is not agreeable to the constitution of this animal, nor
can we so reasonably conceive there wants a gall ; that is,
the hot and fiery humour in a body so hot of temper, which
phlegm or melancholy could not eftect. Now, of what com-
plexion it is, Julius Alexandrinus* declareth, when he
affirmeth, that some, upon the use thereof, have fallen into
fevers and quinsies. The temper of tlaeir dung and intes-
tinal excretions do also confirm the same ; which topically
applied, become Si phoeaigmus or rubifying medicine, and are
* Saluhrium, 31.
and promus of the blood ; and by the accident of all those noxious humours
which the second concoctions cannot mend : the sense, therefore, stands
uncontrold, that the dove is, therefore, the embleme of meeknes, in that
the gall (which begets those fiery motions in other creatures, by the
neernes itt hathe to the principal enterails) is either none at all, or at
least removed soe farr into the gutts, that it cannot produce such effects
in her as in most other creatures itt dothe. So true is that maxime,
in things of nature, Idem est non esse et mm apparerc : and non operari
(heere) is as much as wow apparere, and (by consequent) the same with
non esse. — Wr.
The dean"s ignorance of the true nature of bile is not to be wondered
at ; but it is very reiniirkablo that ho should have believed the Creator
to have placed it, in any of his creatures, in such a situation as would
prevent its exerting that influence which he had intended it to pos.sesa
in the animal eccnomy.
CUAP. III.] THAT A PIGEOIf HATH NO GALL. 237
of such fiery parts, that, as we read in Galen, they have of
tliemselves conceived fire, and burnt a house about them.
And therefore, when, in the famine of Samaria (wherein the
fourth part of a cab of pigeon's dung was sold for five pieces
of silver), it is delivered by Josephus, that men made use
hereof instead of common salt : although the exposition seem
strauge, it is more probable than many other. For, that it
containeth very much salt, as besides the effects before ex-
pressed, is discernible by taste, and the earth of columbaries
or dove-houses, so much desired in the artifice of saltpetre.
And to speak generally, the excrement of birds hath more
of salt and acrimony, than that of any other pissing animals.
Now if, because the dove is of a mild and gentle nature, we
cannot conceive it should be of an hot temper, our appre-
hensions are not distinct in the measure of constitutions,
and the several parts which evidence such conditions. For
the irascible passions do follow the temper of the heart,
but the concupiscible distractions the crasis of the liver.
Now, many have hot livers, which have but cool and tempe-
rate hearts ; and this was probably the temper of Paris, a
contrary constitution to that of Ajax, and both but short of
Medea, who seemed to exceed in either.
Lastly, it is repugnant to experience ; for anatomical en-
quiry discovereth in them a gall : ^ and that, according to the
determination of Aristotle, not annexed unto the liver, but
adhering unto the guts. Nor is the humour contained in
smaller veins or obscurer capillations, but in a vesicle or
little bladder, though some affirm it hath no bag at all.
And therefore the hieroglyphic of the Eg}'ptians, though
allowable in the sense, is weak in the foundation : who, ex-
pressing meekness and lenity by the portrait of a dove with
a tail erected, affirmed it had no gall in the inward parts, but
only in the rump, and as it were out of the body.^ And
' anatomical enquiry discovereth, <f'C.] It is now known that the gall-
bladder does not exist in the dove : the vessel mentioned by our author
is merely a dilation of the hepatic or of the hepatocystic duct, serving
to contain the bile. This fact is in agreement with the statements of
Aristotle and Pliny, which are cited in this and in the preceding page.
—Br.
* And therefore, fCr.] This statement is from Pierius, on the autho-
rity of Horapollo or Orus / 'ollo, in his Hieroglyiihica, curd Pauw,
p. 106, Sfie note 9, p. 251-3
238 THAT A PIGEON IIATH NO GALL. [bOOK 111.
therefore also, if they conceived their gods were pleased
with the sacrifice of this animal, as being withont gall, the
ancient heathens were surely mistaken in the reason, and
in the very oblation. "Whereas, in the holocaust or burnt-
offering of Moses, the gall was cast away : for, as Ben Mai-
raon instructeth, the inwards, whereto the gall adhereth,
were taken out with the crop (according unto the law),
which the priest did not burn, but cast unto the east ; that
is, behind his back, and readiest place to be carried out of
the sanctuary. And if they also conceived that for this rea-
son they were the birds of Venus, and, wanting the furious
and discording part, Mere more acceptable unto the deity of
love, they surely added unto the conceit ; which was, at first,
venereal, and in this animal may be sufficiently made out
from that conception.
The ground of this conceit is partly like the former, the
obscure situation of the gall, and out of the liver, wherein it
is commonly enquired. But this is a very unjust illation, not
well considering with what variety this part is seated in
birds. In some, both at the stomach and the liver, as in the
capriceps ; in some at the liver oidy, as in cocks, turkeys, and
pheasants ; in others at the guts and liver, as in hawks and
kites ; in some at the guts alone, as crows, doves,^ and many
more. And these, perhaps, may take up all the ways of
situation, not only in birds, but also other animals ; for what
is said of tlie anchovy — that (answerable unto its name*) it
carricth the gall in the head, is farther to be enquired. And
though the discoloured particles in the skin of an heron be
commonly termed gall, yet is not this animal deficient in
that part, but containeth it in the liver. And tluis, when it
is conceived that the eyes of Tobias were cured by the gall
of the fish calJionymus or scorpius marinus, commended to
that effect by Dioscorides, although that part were not in the
liver, yet there were no reason to doubt that probabdity.
And whatsoever animal it was, it may be received without
exception, when it is delivered, the married couple, as a tes-
timony of future concord, did cast the gall of the sacrifice
behind the altar.
* 'E-yxrpacn'xoXoc.
• dov€S.'\ Sparows, swalows (as befure). — Wr,
CHAP. III.] THAT A PIGEOK HATH IfO OALL, 239
A strict and literal acception of a loose and tropical ex-
pression was a second ground hereof."* For while some
affirmed it had no gall, intending only thereby no evidence
of anger or fury ; others have construed it anatomically, and
denied that part at all. By which illation we may infer (and
that from sacred text), a pigeon hath no heart; according
to that expression, Factus est J^pliraim sicut coluniha seducta
non hahens cor* And so, from the letter of Scripture, we
may conclude it is no mild, but a fiery and furious animal,
according to that of Jeremy,t Facta est terra in desolationem,
a facie irce columhce : and again,J revertamur ad terrain na-
tivitatis nostrce, a facie gladii columhce. Where, notwith-
standing, the dove is not literally intended ; but thereby
may be implied the Babylonians, whose queen, Semiramis,
was called by that name, and whose successors did bear the
dove in their standard. So is it proverbially said, Formica
sua hilis inest, liahet et musca splenem ; whereas we know
philosophy doubteth these parts, nor hath anatomy so clearly
discovered theni in those insects.^
* Hosea vii. + Cap. xxv. 38. X Cap. xlvi. 16.
* A strict and literal acception, <f,-c.] This, and the concluding para-
graph, furnish a very satisfactory explanation of the error discussed in
the chapter ; but it is probable that the absence of the gall-bladder in
the dove, by being supposed to imply that of the bile itself, has also
contributed to it. — £r.
See the English version of the passages referred to in Jeremiah.
* doubteth these parts, etc.] I doe believe that, as the gall has several!
receptacles in severall creatures (as above is mentioned) soe there's
scarce any creature but hath that emunctorye somewhere. What is the
poyson in the tayle of the scorpion, and the sting raye or male thornback
but his gall ? And soe in hornets, bees, wasps, the same. What is the
poyson in the tooth of serpents, and of the lamprey, and the mus ara-
neus, and the tarantula, but the gall? which according to the condition
and qualitye of the creature, as the spirits that accompany those ejacu-
lations are more subtile, aerial, or fierye, soe they appeare more or lesse
furious in their effects ; whereas, those parts (by which they ejaculate
this gall) being taken away, the other parts become not only edible and
of high nourishment, as in the thornback and lamprey, and in the
honey of the bee ; but in some they become the most soveraigne anti-
dotes, as in the flesh of vipers: nay, the very spirits of some of these
being received into apte bodyes, in their fuU strength, imprint such an
alexipharmacal or alexitarial virtue into those b( dyes, against aU
poyson, as seemes almost miraculous, as in viper wine and oyie ol
scorpions. — Wr.
240 COXCERKING THE BEATER. [BOOK lU
If, therefore, any affirm a pigeon liath no gall, implying
liO more thereby than tlie lenity of this animal, we shall not
controvert his affirmation. Thus may we make out the
assertions of ancient writers, and safely receive the expres-
sions of divines and worthy fathers. But if, by a transition
from rhetoric to logic, he sliall contend it hath no such part
or humour, he committeth an open fallacy, and such as was
probably first committed concerning Spanish mares, whose
swiftness tropically expressed from their generation by the
wind, might after be grossly taken, and a real truth conceived
in that conception.
CHAPTEE IV.
That a Beaver, to escape the hunter, bites off his testicles or stones.
That a beaver, to escape the hunter, bites off his testicles
or stones,^ is a tenet very ancient ; and hath had, thereby,
advantage of propagation. For the same we find in the
hieroglyphics of the Egyptians ; in the Apologue of vEsop,
an author of great antiquity, who lived in the beginning of
the Persian monarchy, and in the time of Cyrus ; the same
is touched by Aristotle in his Ethics ; but seriously deli-
vered by JElian, Pliny, and Solinus ; the same we meet with
in Juvenal, who by an handsome and metrical expression,
more welcomely engrafts it into our junior memories ;
imitatus castora, qui se
Eunuchum ipse facit, cupiens evadere damno
Testiculorum, ade6 medicatum iritelligit inguen ;
it hath been propagated by emblems ; and some have been
^ That a heaver, rf-'c] The arrangement, conduct, and logic, of the
entire train of arguments in this chapter, are equally admirable. It
displays, also, extensive and accurate knowledge of natural history and
comparative anatomy.
Ross, after himself delivering a tissue of gross errors relating to
eunuchs, first repeats that of the beaver, as just refuted by our author ;
of course, quoad true testicles; and then, by a singular ir.fonsistency
contends, that Browne checks the ancients for this opinion without
cause ; and, after admitting the extirpated organs not to be true testi-
cles, that, "if then, this be an error, it is nominal, not real." — Arcan,
in.— Br.
CHAP. IV.J CONCEENINO TUB BEATEE. 241
80 bad grammarians as to bq deceived by the name, deriving
castor a castrando ; whereas the proper Latin word is Jjber/
and castor but borrowed from the Greek, so called quasi
yutrrwp, that is, animal ventricosum, from his swaggy aud
prominent belly.
Herein, therefore, to speak compendiously, we first pre-
sume to affirm that, from a strict enquiry, we cannot main-
tain the evidsion or biting oft' any parts ; and this is
declarable from the best and most professed writers : for
though some have made use hereof in a moral or tropical
way, yet have the professed discoursers by silence deserted,
or by experience rejected, this assertion. Thus was it in
ancient times discovered, and experimentally refuted, by one
Sestius, a physician, as it stands related by Pliny — by Dios-
corides, who plainly affirms that this tradition is false — by
the discoveries of modern authors, who have expressly dis-
coursed hereon, as Aldrovandus, Matthiolus, Gesnerus,
Bellonius^ — by Olaus Magnus, Peter Martyr, and others,
who have described the manner of their venations in Ame-
rica ; they generally omitting this way of their escape, and
have delivered several other, by wliich they are dady taken.
The original of the conceit was probably hieroglj^hical,
which after became mythological unto the Greeks, and so
set down by ^sop ; and by process of tradition, stole into a
total verity, which was but partially true, that is, in its
covert sense and morality. Now, why they placed this in-
vention upon the beaver (beside the medicable and mer-
chantable commodity of castoreum, or parts conceived to be
bitten away), might be the sagacity and wisdom of that ani-
mal, which from the works it performs, and especially its
artifice in building, is very strange, and surely not to be
matched by any other. Omitted by Plutarch, De Solertia
Animalium, but might have much advantaged the drift of
that discourse.
If, therefore, any affirm a wise man should demean him-
self like the beaver, who, to escape with his life, contemneth
^ fiherJ] Which the Polonians by a more elegant name call hi-fer,
quasi animal biferum quod tarn in tei-ra quam in mari prwdetur : and
from (hiftr) wee callitt (corruptlye) bever. — Wr.
* Bellonius.] And particularly Baricellus, in his Ifortiis Genealisy
p. 288.— HV.
TOL. I. E
242 CONCEENING THE BEAVEH. [bOOK III.
the loss of his genitals, that is, in case of extremity, not
strictly to endeavour the preservation of all, but to sit down
in the enjoyment of the greater good, though with the detri^
meut and hazard of the lesser, we may hereby apprehend a
real and useful truth. In this latitude of belief, we are con-
tent to receive the fable of Hippomanes, who redeemed his
life with the loss of a golden ball ; and, whether true or false,
we reject not the tragedy of Absyrtus, and the dispersion of
his members by Medea, to perplex the pui'suit of her father.
But if any shall positively affirm this act, and cannot believe
the moral, unless he also credit the fable, he is surely greedy
of delusion, and will hardly avoid deception in theories of
this nature. The error, therefore, and alogy,^ in this
opinion, is worse than the last ; that is, not to receive figures
for realities, but expect a verity in apologues, and believe,
as serious affirmations, confessed and studied fables.
Again, if this were true, and tliat the beaver, in chace,
makes some divulsion of parts, as tliat which we call casto-
reum, yet are not the same to be termed testicles or stones ;
for these cods or follicles are found in both sexes, though
somewhat more protuberant in the male. There is, hereto,
no derivation of the seminal parts, nor any passage from
hence, unto the vessels of ejaculation : some perforations
only in the part itself, through which the humour included
doth exudate, as may be observed in such as are fresh, and
not much dried with age. And lastly, the testicles, properly
so called, are of a lesser magnitude, and seated inwardly
upon the loins •} and, therefore, it were not only a fruitless
attempt, but impossible act, to eunuchate or castrate them-
selves ; and miglit be an hazardous practice of art, if at all
attempted by others.
Now, all this is confirmed from the experimental testimony
of five very memorable authors ; — Bellonius, Gesnerus, Ama-
tus, llondeletius, and Matthiolus, — who, receiving the hint
hereof from llondeletius, in the anatomy of two beavers,
did find all true that had been delivered by him ; whose
words are these, in his learned book, De Piscibus : — Fihri
in inguinihiis geminos tumores Jiabent, utrinque unicum, ovi
• alogy.'] Unreasonableness, absurdity ; fi-om an old French word,
alogie.
' loim.'] Idem Bariuellus (ut supra).- -l^^r.
CHAP, n.] CONCEKNING THE BEAVEE. 243
anscrini magnitudine ; inter lios est me ntula in m aril us, in
foeminis pudendum : hi tumores testes non sunt, sed folliculi
memlrand contecti, in quorum inedio singuli sunt meatus, e
quibus exudat liquor pinguis et cerosus, qnem ipse castor
saspe admoto ore Jamhit et eccugit, postea veluti oleo, corporis
paries ohlinit. Sos tumores testes non esse Jtinc maxime
colligitur, quod ah illis nulla est ad mentulam via neque,
ductus quh humor in mentuJce meatum derivetur, et foras
emittatur ; prceterea quod testes intus reperiuntur, eosdem
tumores moscho animaW^ inesse puto, e quihus odo7'atum illud
pus emanat. Than which words there can be no plainer,
nor more evidently discovering the impropriety of this ap-
pellation. That which is included in the cod or visible bag
about the groin, being not the testicle or any spermatical
part, but rather a collection of some superfluous matter de-
flowing from the body, especially the parts of nutrition, as
unto their proper emimctories, and as it doth in musk and
civet cats ; though in a difierent and offensive odour ; pro-
ceeding partly from its food — that being especially fish —
whereof this humour may be a garous" excretion and olidous'*
separation.
Most, therefore, of the moderns, before Eondeletius, and
all the ancients, excepting Sestius, have misunderstood this
part, conceiving castoreum the testicles of the beaver ; as
Dioscorides, Galen, ^gineta, ^tius, and others have pleased
to name it. The Egyptians also failed in the ground of their
hieroglyphic, when they expressed the punishment of adul-
tery by the beaver depriving himself of his testicles, which
was amongst them the penalty of such incontinency.^ Nor is
^tius, perhaps, too strictly to be observed, when he pre-
scribeth the stones of the otter, or river-dog, as succedaneous
unto castoreum. But most inexcusable of all, is Pliny ; who
having before him, in one place, the experiment of Sestius
2 moscJio, etc.] Hee means the civit cat. — Wr.
' garoas.] Resembling gar urn, a pickle in which fish had been pre-
served.
■* olidous.'] Stinking.
* ground of their hieroglyphic, <tc.] — Pierius (131, c.) is the authority
for this explanation ; — but he differs therein from Horapollo, who says,
" quomodo hominem, qui sibi ipsi damni et perniciei autor sit." — i/wf,
Bier. p. 117. See note (9) at page 251-23.
e2
244 CpNCEBNINS THE BEAYEU. [bOOK III.
against it, sets down in another, that the beavers of Pontus
bite off" their testicles ; and in the same place affirmeth the
like of the hyaena : which was indeed well joined with the
beaver, as having also a bag in those parts ; if, thereby, we
understand the hyaena odorata, or civet cat, as is delivered
and graphically described by Castellus.^ *
Now, the ground of this mistake might be the resemblance
and situation of these tumours about those parts, wherein
we observe the testicles in other animals ; which, notwith-
standing, is no well-founded illation ; for the testicles are
defined by their office, and not determined by place or situa-
tion : they having one ofiice in all, but different seats in
many. Tor, — beside that no serpent or fishes oviparous,
that neither biped nor quadruped oviparous,^ have any ex-
teriorly or prominent in the groin, — some also that are
viviparous contain these parts within, as beside this animal,
the elephant and the hedgehog.^
If any, therefore, shall term these testicles, intending me-
taphorically, and in no strict acception, his language is tole-
rable, and oftends our ears no more than the tropical names
of plants, when we read in herbals, of dogs, fox, and goat-
stones. But if he insisteth thereon, and maintaineth a pro-
priety in this language, our discourse hath overthrown his
assertion, nor will logic permit his illation ; that is, from
things alike, to conclude a thing the same, and from an
accidental convenience, that is, a similitude in place or
figure, to infer a specifical congruity or substantial concur-
rence in nature.
* Castdlus de Hyana Odonfera.
* Which was indeed, <tc.] First added in the 2nd edition.
"> qaadruj)ed oviparous.] As the crocodile, which is both quadruped
and oviparous, and next the tortoise. — Wr,
* hedgehog.] And the porcupine. — Wr.
CHAP. T.] COITCEBXING THE BADGES. 245
CHAPTER V.
TJiat a Badger hath the legs of one side shorter them of the other.
That a brock, or badger, hath the legs on one side shorter
than of the other, though an opinion, perliaps, not very
ancient, is yet very general ; received not only by theorists
and unexperienced believers, but assented unto by most who
have the opportunity to behold and hunt them daily .^ AVhich,
notwithstanding, upon enquiry, I find repugnant imto the
three determinators of truth — authority, sense, and reason.
For first, Albertus Magnus speaks dubiously, confessing he
could not confirm the verity hereof ; but Aldrovandus plainly
afiirmeth there can be no such inequality observed : and for
my own part, upon indifferent enquiry, I cannot discover
this difference, although the regardable side be defined, and
the brevity by most imputed unto the left.
Again, it seems no easy affront unto reason, and generally
repugnant unto the coui'se of nature ; for if we survey the
total set of animals, we may, in their legs, or organs of pro-
gression, observe an equality of length, and parity of numera-
tion ; that is, not any to have an odd leg, or the supporters
and movers of one side not exactly answered by the other.
Although the hinder may be unequal unto the fore and
middle legs, as in frogs, locusts, and grasshoppers ; or both
unto the middle, as in some beetles and spiders, as is de-
termined by Aristotle.* Perfect and viviparous quadrupeds,
so standing in their position of proneness, that the opposite
joints of neighbour legs consist in the same plane ; and a
line descending from their navel intersects at right angles
the axis of the earth. It happeneth often, I confess, that a
lobster hath the chely or great claw of one side longer than
the other •} but this is not properly their leg, but a part of
* De Incessu AmmaUum.
' assenied unto, <tc.] Tlie popular belief among the peasantry is,
♦•hat, in running through a ploughed field, the animal always runs with
his longer legs in the furrow.
' a lobster, <fcc.] This never happens, but when one is by chance
wrung otF, when they are young, by a bigger lobster, which growing out
againe, can uewtr reach the greatnes of the other: the fishermen finde
246 CONCEENIKG THE BADGEE. [bOOK III.
apprelienslon, and whereby they hold or seize upon their
prey ; for the legs and proper parts of progression are in-
verted backward, and stand in a position opposite unto
these.
Lastly, the monstrosity is ill contrived, and with some dis-
advantage ; the shortness being affixed unto the legs of one
side, which might have been more tolerably placed upon the
thwart or diagonal movers. For the progression of quadru-
peds being performed |je>' dlametrum, that is, the cross legs
moving or resting together, so that two are always in motion,
and two in station at the same time,^ the brevity had been
more tolerable in the cross legs. For then the motion and
station had been performed by equal legs ; whereas, herein,
they are both performed by unequal organs, and the imper-
fection becomes discoverable at every hand.
this continually to be true, and saye they seldome have a drafte of them,
wherein some of them come not up thus grappled by the claw. I have
often seene them brought up with half the claw newly nipt off, or else
closed up againe with a cartilage, and sometimes with one only chlea,
for soe itt should be written, cominge manifestly from x'A'/> which
signifies properly the tongs or pincher, the chlea of a lobster or of a
crab. — Wr.
Upon this theory, the vulgar pronunciation, da, is more correct than
claw.
The dean assigns the true cause of that inequality often observed in
the legs of crabs. But he is wrong in supposing the lost claw to have
been bitten off by other crabs. There exists in this tribe (as well as
in spiders and some other insects) a very curious provision, enabling the
animal to throw off instantly a limb (or antenna) which has been so
injured as to be useless ; thus making way for the reproduction of the
part. In the great majority of cases, the mutilation observed has
resulted from the exercise of this power. See some curious instances
detailed by Dr. Heiueken, in the Zoological Journal (vol. iv. p. 285) ;
and Dr. Mac Culloch's anatomical description of the process, in the
20th vol. of the Journal of the Roijal Institution.
^ For the progression, tt-c] From this rule must be excepted the
camel. "The mode of the camel's walk, as described by Aristotle
{Hist. Anim. lib. ii. cap. i. p. 480, Casaubon. Lugdun. 1590), is, by
raising the two legs of the same side, the one immediately after the
other ; not moving the legs diagonally, in the manner of most oliier
quadrupeds."— -iJees's Cyclopcedia, article, CAMELDS. — Br.
CHA.P. VI.] CONCEENING THE BEAB. 247
CHAPTER VI.
That a Sear brings forth lier Cubs informous or utisXaped.
That a bear brings forth her young informous and un-
shapen, which she fashioneth after by licking them over, is
an opinion not only vulgar, and common with us at present,
but hath been of old delivered by ancient writers. Upon
this foundation it was an hieroglyphic with the Egyptians ;^
Aristotle seems to countenance it ; Solinus, Pliny, and
^Kan, directly aflB.rm it, and Ovid smoothly delivereth it ;
Nee catulus partu quem reddidit ursa recenti,
Sed malfe viva caro est, lambendo mater in artus
Ducit, et in formam qualem cupit ijjsa reducit.
Which, notwithstanding, is not only repugnant unto the
sense of every one that shall enquire into it, but the exact
and deliberate experiment of three authentic philosopliers.
The first, of Matthiolus in his Comment on Dioscorides, whose
words are to this eftect :— " In the valley of Anania, about
Trent, in a bear which the hunters eventerated"* or opened,
I beheld the young ones with all their parts distinct, and
not without shape, as many conceive — giving more credit
unto Aristotle and Pliny, than experience and their proper
senses." Of the same assurance was Julius Scaliger, in his
Exercitations ; TJrsam foetus informes jiotms ejicere, quam
parere, si vera dicunt, quos fostea linctu effinr/at. Quid liu-
jusce fabuloe autliorlhus jidei hahendum, ex hac historia cog-
nosces ; in nostris alpihus venatores foetam ursam cepere,
dissectd ed foetus plane formatus intus inventus est. And
lastly, Aldrovaudus, who from the testimony of his own eyes
affirmeth, that in the cabinet of the senate of Bononia, there
was preserved in a glass, a cub, taken out of a bear, perfectly
formed, and complete in every part.
It is, moreover, injurious unto reason, and much impugneth
^ it was an hieroglyphic.'] Pierius, 131, c. and HorapoUo, 117. Sea
note 9, at page 251-53.
* eventei-ated.] Ript up, by opening the belly. Broivne is the only
authority given in Johnson,
■248 CONCEENING THE BEAB. [bOOK III.
the course and pro\ddence of nature, to conceive a birth
should be ordained before there is a formation. For the
conformation of parts is necessarily required, not only unto
the pre-requisites and previous conditions of birth, as motion
and animation, but also unto the parturition or very birth
itself : wherein not only the dam, but the younglings play
their parts, and the cause and act of exclusion proceedeth
from them both. For the exclusion of animals is not merely
passive like that of eggs, nor the total action of delivery to
be imputed unto the mother,^ but the first attempt begin-
neth from the infant, which, at the accomplislied period,
attempteth to change his mansion, and struggling to come
fortli, dilacerates and breaks those parts which restrained
him before.
Besides (what few take notice of), men hereby do, in an
high measure, vilify the works of God, imputing that unto
the tongue of a beast, which is the strangest artifice in all
the acts of nature ; that is, the formation of the infant in the
womb, not only in mankind, but all viviparous animals.
AYherein the plastic or formative faculty, from matter appear-
ing homogeneous, and of a similary substance, erecteth bones,
membranes, veins, and arteries ; and out of these contriveth
every part in number, place, and figure, according to the
law of its species : which is so far from being fashioned by
any outward agent, that one omitted or perverted by a
slip of the inward Phidias, it is not reducible by any other
whatsoever : and therefore Mire me plasmaverunt manus
tucB, though it originally respected the generation of man, yet
is it appliable unto that of other animals ; who, entering the
womb in bare and simple materials, return with distinction of
parts, and the perfect breath of life. He that shall consider
these alterations without, must needs conceive there have
heen strange operations within : which to behold, it were
d spectacle almost worth one's being — a sight beyond all ;
except that man had been created first, and might have
seen the show of five days after.
Now, as the opinion is repugnant both unto sense and
* For the emiimon, (£•<'.] The fa'tus is passive, and is expelled
wholly by the efforts of the mother : a dead fa;tus is as readily born aa
a living one ; although a vulgar error prevails to th*j contrary.
CHAP. TI.] CONCEENING THE BEAE. 249
reason, so hath it probably been occasioned from some slight
ground in either. Thus in regard the cub comes forth in-
volved in the chorion, a thick and tough membrane obscuring
the formation, and which the dam doth after bite and tear
asunder ; the beholder at first sight conceives it a rude and
informous lump of flesh, and imputes the ensuing shape unto
the mouthing of the dam ; which addeth nothing thereunto,
but only draws the curtain, and takes away the vail which
concealed the piece before. And thus have some endeavoured
to enforce the same from reason ; that is, the small and
slender time of the bear's gestation, or going with her young ;
which lasting but a few days (a month some say), the exclu-
sion becomes precipitous, and the young ones, consequently,
informous,^ according to that of Solinus, Trigesimus dies
* informous.l The hearling, though blind like most other beastlings, is
not informous. It owes the discipline in question to that instinct which
secures to the young of all animals, on their first appearance, the s,imc
species of maternal attention. Cuvier describes the cub of the black
bear as measuring six or eight inches, devoid of teeth, covered with
hairs, and having the eyes closed.
There is, however, another popular saying about the young of the
bear which does not seerii so easily disposed of ;— its deriving nutriment
from sucking its paws. The following graphic passage explains the fact.
Speaking of a cub of the Norway beai, in the French Menagerie,
Cuvier says, it " was particularly fond of sucking its paws, during which
operation it always seat forth a uniform and constant murmur, some-
thing like the sound of a spinning-wheel. This appeared to be an im-
perious want with it, and it was surprising to observe the ardour with
which it commenced the operation, and the enjoyment which it seemed
to derive from it. The belief, which once so generally obtained, that
these animals, during the season which they pass without eating, and
surrounded by snows, support themselves by sucking their paws, seems
not utterly without foundation. In truth, every natural action must
have a tendency to some useful end, though it has not been observed
that the bear extracts any thing from its paws by the act of suction.
After all, it is more probable that bears lick their paws, as cats do,
from a love of cleanliness, or merely in consequence of some pleasing
sensation which nature has attached to the act, for inexplicable reasons,
rather than for sustenance." — Cuvier s Animal Kingdom, by GriMths,
vol. ii. 2-10.~Ed.
The fd lowing note occurs in Dr. Richardson's account of the quadru-
peds and birds collected in Captain Parry's second voyage to the Arctic
Regions, published in the Zoological Apj)endix to the journal of that
voyage, p. 290. " The female black or brown bears conceal their re-
treats w'th such care that they are extremely rarely killed when with
young. Hence the ancients had an opinion that the bear brought forth
250 OF THE BASILISK. [bOOK III.
uterum liherat ursce : unde evenit td prcecipitata foecundltas
informes creet partus. But this will overthrow the general
method or nature in the works of generation. For therein
the conforination is not only antecedent, but proportional
unto the exclusion ; and if the period of the birth be short,
the term of conformation will be as sudden also. There
may, I confess, from this narrow time of gestation, ensue a
miuority or smallness in the exclusion ; but this, however,
inferreth no iiiformity, and it still receiveth the name of a
natural and legitimate birth : whereas, if we affirm a total in-
formity, it cannot admit so forward a term as an abortraent,*
for that supposeth confoi'mation ; so we must call this con-
stant and intended act of nature, a slip or effluxion, that is,
an exclusion before conformation, — before the birth can bear
the name of the parent, or be so much as properly called
an embryon.
CHAPTEE VII.
Of the BasilwTc.
Many opinions are passant concerning the basilisk, or
little king of serpents, commonly called tlie cockatrice; some
affii-ming, others denying, most doubting the relation made
hereof. What, therefore, in these uncertainties we may
more safely determine ; that such an animal there is, if we
evade not the testimony of Scripture and human writers we
cannot safely deny. So it is said. Psalm xci. Super aspidem
et hasilisaum amhulahis, wherein the vulgar translation re-
taineth the word of the Septuagint, using in other places the
unformed masses, and afterwards licked them into shape and life. Sir
Thomas Browne cites many facts in opposition to this notion, some of
which are quoted in Shaw's Zoology and similar and more recent {acts
are noticed in Warden's Account of the United States, vol. i. p. lOii.
After numerous en()uiries amongst the Indians of Hudson's Bay, only
one was found who had killed a pregnant bear. He stated that the den
Bhe had constructed was smaller than that usually made by the luiim-
pregnated female." — Br.
CHAP, VII.] OF THE BASILISK. 251
Latin expression, regulus ; as Proverbs xxiii. Mordehit ut
coluber, et sicut regulus venena diffundet P and Jeremy viii.
Ecce ego mittam vohis serpentes regulos, Sfc. — that is, as ours
translate it, " Behold I will send serpents, cockatrices among
you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you."
And as for human authors, or such as have discoursed of
animals, or poisons, it is to be found almost in all : in Dios-
corides, Gralen, PUny, Solinus, J^^lian, iEtius, Avicen, Ardoy-
nus, Grevinus, and many more. In Aristotle, I confess, we
find no mention thereof, but Scaliger in his Comment and
Enumeration of Servients hath made supply ; and in his
Exercitations delivereth, that a basilisk was found in Pome,
in the days of Leo the Fourth. The like is reported by
Sigonius ; and some are so far from denying one, that they
have made several kinds hereof ; for such is the Catohlepas "
of Pliny conceived to be by some, and the Dryinus of ^tius
by others.
But although we deny not the existence of the basilisk,
yet, whether we do not commonly mistake in the conception
hereof, and call that a basilisk which is none at all, is surely
to be questioned. For certainly that, which, from the conceit
of its generation, we vulgarly call a cockatrice, and wherein
(but under a difterent name) we intend a formal identity and
adequate conception with the basilisk, is not the basihsk of
the ancients, whereof such wonders are delivered. For this
of ours is generally described with legs, wings, a serpentine
and winding tail, and a crest or comb somewhat like a cock.
But the basilisk of elder times was a proper kind of serpent,
not above three palms long,^ as some account, and differenced
^ diffundet.l Note the worde diffmidet, which intimates a strange
kind of poysoning [undequuque), most probably infecting the heart of
him that approaches, by the breath drawne into the very heart imme-
diately, then by the eye, which requires a longer way then the maner
of infection is wont to take, killing in an instant, irrecoverablye, and
diverse have perished by his spreading poyson in the dark holes, where
they could never see the serpent. To which the story in Sennertus
seems to add strong proofe. — Wr.
* Catrjblepas.] This name is now appropriated to a genus containing
the gnoo, and several species. The animal so called by ^lian is sup-
posed by Cuvier to have been of this genus.
^ was a proper kind of serpent, tf-c] A distinction must be taken be-
tween the basilisk (or cockatrice) of Scripture, and that ^hich is so called
252 OF THE BASILISK. [bOOK III.
from other serpents by advancing his head, and some wliite
marks or coronary spots upon the crown, as all authentic
writers have delivered.
Nor is this cockatrice only unlike the basilisk, but of no
real shape in nature, and rather an hieroglyphical fancy, to
express different intentions, set forth in different fashions.'
by modern naturalists ; it seems most probable that the former was
intended to denote the 7iaja or cobj'a capello of the Portuguese.
Under the name of basilisk is at present designated a genus of rep-
tiles, of thii saurian order, which exhibit many affinities with the
iguanes and monitors. No animal, perhaps, has been the subject of so
great a number of prejudices as the one now under consideration. The
most ancient authors have spoken of the basilisk as of a serpent which
had the power of striking its victim dead by a single glance. Others
have pretended that it could not exercise this faculty, unless it first per-
ceived the object of its vengeance before it was itself perceived by it. It
was also most absurdly imagined to proceed from the eggs of old cocks.
Aldrovandus, and several other writers, have given figures of it. They
have represented it with eight feet, a crown on the head, and a hooked
and recurved beak. Pliny assures us that the serpent, named basilisk,
has a voice so terrible, that it strikes terror into all other species — that
it thus chases them from the spot which it inhabits, and of which it re-
tains the sole and undisputed dominion. The name indeed, basilisk, in
Greek, signifies royal. The fantastic forms and fabulous properties thus
attributed to an animal which, most probably, never had an existence,
rendered thisi name too celebrated for naturalists not to endeavour to
apply it to another species, which accordingly they did. Seba figured a
species of lizard, whose head is surmounted with projecting lines, and the
back furnished with a broad vertical crest, which extends .as far as over
the tail, and winch that author believed to be intended for the purposes
of flight. He has designated it under the name of basilisk, or dragon of
America, a flying amphibious animal. This is the animal which has sub-
sequently been described in all works of natural history, under the name
of basilisk. — Cuvier's Animal Kingdom, vol. ix. p. 226.
' an hieroglyphical fancy, etc.] Tliis is also from Pierius (175, A.)
Tlie Bembine, oi Isiac table, Dr. Young h.as shown to be the work of a
Roman sculptor, imitating only the general style of the separate deline-
ations of the Egyptian tablets. The inscrij)tion3 neither have any rela-
tion to the figures over which they are placed, nor form any connected
sense of their own. It may be concluded, therefore, that although (pre-
suming the imitiition to be accurate) the Isiac table may be regarded as
second-rate authority for the delineation of the separate figures and hiero-
glyphics it contains, it is devoid of all authority as showing their collo-
catioH. — Egypt, in Sup. to Ency. Brit. 74. Isis is sometimes personi-
fied as a basiJisk.-— 76. 58. Mneui.s, as a basilisk and a tear. — lb. 59, D.
The asp and basilisk are both employed as the symbol of divinity.—
lb. 55.
CHAP. VII.J OF THE BASILISK. 253
Sometimes ■witt the head of a man, sometimes w ith the head
of an hawk, as Pierius hath delivered, and as with addition
of legs, the heralds and painters still describe it. Nor was it
only of old a symbolical and allowable invention, but is now
become a manual contrivance of art and artificial imposture ;
The ibis, mentioned in this chapter, is the hierogl3rphic of the Egyptian
god, Thoth, or Hermes, the secretary of Osiris. — lb. 11.
With the exception of the basilisk, and perhaps the deer, not one of
the animals named by Sir Thomas, as used hieroglyphically, is men-
tioned as an Egyptian hieroglyphic in Dr. Young's article, Egypt. In-
deed, in my opinion, the others have the character of a spurious origin,
having probably arisen towards the dark ages, when significations were
invented for the ancient fables.
Nor are they, if we add to the exceptions " le lezard " (as the sala-
mander), les quadrupedes d fete d'oiseau (as the griffin), and " le vipere,"
either mentioned or figured by Champoliion ; but as the hieroglyphic
texts present images of all kinds of natural objects, including mam-
malia, birds, reptiles, amphibia, fishes, and insects ; and of the second
class " U7ieJ-oule" (Champoliion enumerating, among the eight hundred
and sixty-four characters contained in those texts, thirty-four quadru-
peds and fifty birds and their parts), it is probable that the real animals
may have been used among the objects hieroglyphically employed ; but
the alleged grounds of their respective use are most likely erroneous. I
should rather doubt, however, the use of the beaver, an animal scarcely
likely to have been known to the Egyptians.
The hear may possibly be in the same predicament, especially as there
appears to be no name for that animal in Egyptian for Champoliion in-
forms us, that the name for lion in that language (labo, laboi, or lifoi), is
a compound word, meaning valde hirsutus, " et que c'est dans ce sens
qu'on aurait aussi quelquefois applique ce nom k I'ours, dans la version
Egyptienne des livres saints ; Apocalypse, xiii. 2." This indicates that
there was no name for the bear in Egyptian, as above noted, and if that
■were the case, it is clear there could be no hieroglyphic of it.
Browne's authority for the alleged Egyptian hieroglyphics he men-
tions in this book, are — Horapollo and Pierius — but principally the lat-
ter. From looking over Pierius, his explanations appear to be, perhaps
always, fallacious ; being founded on the misconception, before noted, as
arising in the dark ages.
With respect to Horapollo, the following extract, from Dr. Young's
Discoveries in Hieroglyphical Literature, will show the degree of reliance
to be placed in him. After speaking of the traditional record of the
true sense of the handled cross, he proceeds : — " We also find some
imperfect hints of a partial knowledge of the sense of the hierogly-
phics in the puerile woik of Horapollo, which is much more like a col-
lection of conceits and enigmas, than an explanation of a real system
of serious literature; and while such scattered truths were confounded
with a multitude of false assertions, it was impossible to profit by any
of them, without some clue to assist us in the selection."
254 OF THE BASILISK. [BOOK III,
whereof, besides others, Scahger hath taken notice : JBasilisci
formam mentiti sunt vulgo qallinaceo similem, et pedihus
binis;'" neque enim ahsimiles simt cceteris set'pentibus, nisi
macula quasi in vertice Candida, wide illi nomen rec/ium;
that is, " men commonly counterfeit the form of a basilisk
with another like a cock and with two feet ; whereas, they
difter not from other serpents, but in a white speck upon
their crown." JS'ow, although in some manner it might be
counterfeited in Indian cocks and flying serpents, yet is it
commonly contrived out of the skins of thornbacks, skaits, or
maids, as Aldrovand hath observed, and also graphically
described in his excellent book of fishes, and for satisfaction
of my own curiosity, I have caused some to be thus contrived
out of the same fishes.
Nor is only the existency of this animal considerable, but
many things delivered thereof, particularly its poison and its
generation. Concerning the first, according to the doctrine
of the ancients, men still afiirm, that it killeth at a distance,
that it poisonetli by the eye, and by priority of vision. Now,
that deleterious it may be at some distance, and destructive
without corporal contactiou, wliat uncertainty soever tliere be
in the eflFect, there is no high improbability in the relation.
For if plagues or pestilential atoms have been conveyed in
the air from difterent regions — if men at a distance have
infected each other — if the sliadows of some trees be noxious ^
— if torpedos deliver their opium at a distance, and stupify
beyond themselves,'' we cannot reasonably deny, that (beside
' pedib%is hinis.'] As was that kept in the physick schooles in Oxon,
of a most elegant fomie, and as it seemes of a dusky, but transparent,
substance, like glew, and as if shaped in a molde. — Wr.
' if the shadows nf some trees, d:c.'\ Later investigation has proved
that the awful stories put forth in the latter end of the eighteenth cen-
tury, of the poisonous character of the upas-tree, were impudent for-
geries. For the assertion to which this passage alludes, viz., that its
shadow is poisonous, there is certainly no foundation. In the island of
Java, there are two trees which produce a very deadly poison ; but the
birds, nevertheless, perch on their branches in safety, and the natives
collect their poisonous juices with impunity, and even wear a coarse stuff
prepared from their bark.
■• at a clktaure, <i-c.'\ The electrical shock of the torpedo, although it
may be received without actual contact, cannot be communicated from
a distance but by means of some conducting medium. Inded, it is
found tliat butli the gyinnote and torpedo are limited to precif*jly the
CHAP. Til.] or THE basilisk:. 255
our gi'oss aud restrained poisons requiring contiguity unto
their actions), there may proceed, from subtiler seeds, more
agile emanations, which contemn those laws, aud invade at
distance unexpected.
That this venenation shooteth from the eye,^ and that this
same conducting and non-conducting mediums as are met with in com-
mon electricity.
•^ That this venenation, (fcc] Cuvier, on tliis point, makes the following
observation in reference to the rattlesnake : — " It was for a long time
believed it had the power of torpifying by its breath, and even of fasci-
nating, that is, of forcing its prey, by its glance alone, to precipitate
themselves into its mouth. It appears, however, that it is enabled to
seize them only during those irregular movements which the fear of its
aspect causes them to make." — See Burton's Memoir on the Faculty of
Fascination attributed to the Rattle-snake: Philadel. 1796. But the
subject is more fully adverted to in the following passage, in the supple-
mentary observations on the Ophidians.
"It has been almost universally believed, that by certain special
emanations, by the fear which they inspire, or even by a sort of mag-
netic or magic power, the serpents can stupify and fascinate the prey
which they are desirous to obtain. Pliny attributes this kind of as-
pliyxia to a nauseous vapour proceeding from these animals ; an opinion
which seems to receive confirmation from the facility with which, by
the assistance of smell alone, the negroes and native Indians can dis«
cover serpents in the savannahs of America. Count de Lacepfede seems
inclined to adopt this notion in his History of Serpents.
" P. Kalm assures us, that being fixedly regarded by a serpent hiss-
ing, aud darting its forked tongue out of its mouth, the squirrels are,
as it were, constrained to fall from the summit of the trees into the
mouth of the reptile, which swallows them up. According to the re-
port of many travellers, one would think that by the effect of some
charm, the durissus and ho'iquira, those redoubtable rulers of the
steppes of America, possess the power of forcing their prey into their
mouths. At their aspect, it is said, that hares, rats, frogs, and other
reptiles, seem petrified with terror, and far from attempting to fly,
will precipitate themselves upon the fate which awaits them. Even at
a sufficient distance for escape, they are paralyzed by the sight of their
tremendous foe, and deprived of aU their faculties in a manner that
appears wholly supernatural.
" But this fact, which is so interesting in animal physiology, is not
only far from being clearly explained, but even far enough from being
sufficiently demonstrated. Notwithstanding the ingenious conjectures
of Sir Hans Sloane on this subject, the obsei-vations of Kalm, whose
assertions were implicitly received by Linnjeus ; those of Lawson,
Catesby, Brickel, Beverley, Bancroft, and Bartram ; notwithstanding
a work published ex professo on the matter, by Dr. Burton, of Phila-
delphia, and notwithstanding some recent accounts by Major Gordon,
of this stupifying power iu thi serpents, which he attributes bjth to
256 or THE BASILISK. [BOOK HI.
way a basilisk may empoison — altliougli thus much be not
agreed upon by autliors, some imputing it unto the breath,
others unto the bite — it is not a thing impossible. For eyes
receive offensive impressions from their objects, and may
have influences destructive to each other. For the visible
species of things strike not our senses immaterially, but
streaming in corporal rays, do carry with them the qualities
of the object from whence they flow, and the medium
through which they pass. Thus, through a green or red
glass, all things we behold appear of the same colours ; thus
sore eyes affect those which are sound, and themselves also
by reflection, as will happen to an inflamed eye that beholds
itself long in a glass ; thus is fascination made out, and thus
also it is not impossible, what is affirmed of this animal, the
visible rays of their eyes carrying forth the subtilest portion
of their poison, wliich received by the eye of man or beast, in-
fecteth first the brain,^ and is from thence communicated
unto the heart.^
But lastly, that this destruction should be the effect of the
first beholder, or depend upon priority of aspection, is a
point not easUy to be granted,*^ and very hardly to be made
the terror which they inspire, and to certain narcotic emanations from
their bodies at particular times, it must be confessed that this subject
is still liable to controversy, and still involved in a considerable degree
of obscurity." — Griffitlis Cuvier, ix. 311, 312. There is a very inter-
esting lecture on this subject, in Dr. Good's Book of Nature, vol. ii. lee. 6.
^ brain.] And why not by the smel rather, and from thence to the
braine, as for the most part happens by contagion in time of the
plague. Soe the poysonous breath of the basiliske, spreading far
through the aire in those hot countryes of Africa, may easily surprise
those that unawares come neer his denn. — Wr.
^ heart.] But yf by the serpent's priority of vision, how comes itt to
effect the eye first, but that coming unawares within the contagion of
his deadly breath, a man is infected before he sees his mischeef. And
which is most likely ? by the poyson some smel immediately drawne to
the harte with the pestilent air in those burning countryes ; or by the
eye into the braine, and thence to the harte, whereof noe man can
justify the trueth, and may more justly bee denyed then granted, being
farther fetcht, only infered by way of consequence to make good their
assertion. Yf, then, the infection bee not receaved l)y the eye, as heere
the learned Ur. [seems ?] to opine, by what othei way can it bee pos-
sibly received, but by the infected ayre immediately drawne into the
heart? which I suppose the following discourse will cleere. — Wr.
* not easily, etc.] This velitation will [be] needles, yf as before, and
CHAP. Til,] or THE BASILISK. 257
out upon the principles of Aristotle, Alhazen, Vitello, and
others, who hold, that sight is made by recept.on, and not
by extramission ; by receiving the rays of the object into the
eye, and not by sending any out. For hereby, although he
behold a man first, the basilisk shoidd rather be destroyed,
in regard he first receiveth the rays of his antipathy and
venomous emissions, which objectively move his sense ;
but how powerful soever his own poison be, it invadeth not
the sense** of man, in regard he beholdeth him not. And
therefore this conceit was probably begot by such as held the
opinion of sight by extramission ; as did Pythagoras, Plato,
Empedocles, Hipparchus, Galen, Macrobius, Proclus, Sim-
plicius, with most of the ancients, and is the postulate of
Euclid in his Opficks, but now sufficiently convicted from
observations of the dark chamber.^
As for the generation of the basilisk, that it proceedeth
from a cock's egg, hatched under a toad or serpent, it is a
conceit as monstrous^ as the brood itself. Por if we should
is most probable, wee conceive the infection of the basiliske to fasten
upon the smel rather then the eye : both these senses, and indeed the
five senses, being made by reception only, and not by extramission.
Soe that his powerful poyson, which proceeds from his breath, rather
then his eye, may invade the sense of smelling, and consequently destroy
a man hereby ; or may sudenly destroy the harte by drawing in that
poysonous aire. — Wr.
* sense.] Eye. — Wr.
' but now, ft-c] Instead of this concluding line (first added in the
2nd edit.), the following curious passage terminated the paragraph in
the 1st edit. p. 120 ; '• and of this opinion might they be, who from
this antipathy of the basilisk and man, expressed first the enmity of
Christ and Satan, and their mutual destruction thereby ; when Satan,
being elder than his humanity, beheld Christ first in the flesh, and so
he was destroyed by the serpent ; but elder than Satan in his divinity,
and so beholding him first, he destroyed the old basilisk, and overcame
the eSect of his poison, sin, death, and hell."
On this passage, Dean Wren (who used the Ist edition) drily
remarks : — "This argument is but symbolical, and concludes nothing."
^ a conceit as monMrom.] At the end of the volume for 1710, of the
History of the French Royal Academy, is a curious account, transmitted
by M. Lapeyronie from Montpellier, of some "cock's eggs," which a
farmer had brought to him, with the assurance that they were laid by a
cock, and would be found to contain, instead of yolk, the embryo of a
serpent. One of these eggs, opened in the presence of several scavans,
was found devoid of yolk, but exhibiting a coloured particle in the
VOL. I. a
258 OF THE BASILISK. [bOOK III.
grant, that cocks growing old, and unable for emission, amass
within themselves some seminal matter, which may after
conglobate into the form of an egg, yet will this substance
be unfruitful. As wanting one principle of generation, and
a commixture of the seed of both sexes, which is required
unto production, as may be obsei-ved in the eggs of hens
not trodden, and as we have made trial in some which are
termed cock's eggs. It is not indeed impossible, that from
the sperm of a cock, hen, or other animal, being once in pu-
trescence, either from incubation or otherwise, some gene-
ration may ensue ; not univocal and of the same species,
but some imperfect or monstrous production, even as in the
body of man, from putrid humours and peculiar ways of cor-
ruption, there have succeeded strange and unseconded
shapes of worms,^ whereof we have beheld some ourselves,
and read of others in medical observations. And so may
strange and venomous serpents be several ways engendered ;
but that this generation should be regidar, and always pro-
duce a basihsk, is beyond our affirmation, and we have good
reason to doubt.
Again, it is unreasonable to ascribe the equivocancy of
this form unto the hatching of a toad, or imagine that
diversifies the production. For incubation alters not the
species, nor if we observe it, so much as concurs either to
the sex or colour : as appears in the eggs of ducks or par-
tridges hatched under a hen, there being required unto their
exclusion only a gentle and continued heat, and that not
particidar or confined imto the species or parent. So have
I known the seed of silkworms hatched on the bodies of
centre, which was considered as the young serpent. The cock having
been given up to M. Lapeyronie for dissection, tlie fanner very soon
brought some more of these little eggs, — having discovered that they
were laid by a hen ! Anatomical figures accomjiany the paper.
The conceit, however, is not too monstrous for the belief of Al. Ross — •
who asks, "Why may not tliis serpent be ingendred of a cock's putri-
fied seminal materials, being animated by his lieat and incubation as
well as other kinds of serpents are bred of putrified matter ? " — Arcana,
p. 146.
^ worms.'] Of which you may see the many strange and horrible
shapes in Parccus his Chirurgerye, lib. xx. cap. iii. et iv. pp. 762-4.
— Wr.
CHAP. VII.] OF THE BASILISK. 259
women :^ and Pliny reports, that Livia, the "vrife of Au-
gustus, hatched an egg in her bosom. Nor is only an ani-
mal heat required hereto, but an elemental and artificial
warmth will suffice : for, as Diodorus delivereth, the Egj-p-
tians were wont to hatch their eggs in ovens, and many eye-
witnesses confirm that practice unto this day. And, there-
fore, this generation of the basilisk seems like that of Castor
and Helena ; he that can credit the one, may easily believe
the other ; that is, that these two were hatched out of the
egg which Jupiter, in the form of a swan, begat on his mis-
tress Leda.
The occasion of this conceit might be an Egyptian tradi-
tion concerning the bird ibis, which after became transferred
imto cocks. For an opinion it was of that nation, that the
ibis,^ feeding upon serpents,^ that venomous food so inqui-
nated their oval conceptions or eggs within their bodies, that
they sometimes came forth in serpentine shapes, and there-
fore they always brake their eggs, nor would they endure
the bird to sit upon them. But how causeless their fear was
herein, the daily incubation of ducks, peahens, and many
other testify ; and the stork might have informed them ;
which bird they honoured and cherished, to destroy their
serpents.
* on the bodies of women.] Betweene the breasts of a woman, rolled
in fine lawne, and they are stronger then those hatcht in the cases, how
warme soever kept. But itt must bee by election in virgin's breasts,
antequarn sormiant, aut menstrua patiantur, nee prorsus intereant, alioqioi
pi'oditurce feliciter. — Wr.
* ibis.] Black ibis. — Wr.
® serpents.] Heer the learned author mistakes the story : for Tully,
in the 2nd De Natura Deorum says, the Egyptians justly honored the
ibis ; quia pestem ab ^gypto avertunt quum serpentes voiucros, Africa e
Libyd adverios, interficiant. Soe farr were they from breaking their
eggs, which had been to destroy the breed of those whom they honored.
And what madnes had it been to honor the stork that destroyed the
serpents and to destroy the ibides' eggs, by which creature (and not by
the storke) those fiery flying serpents were destroyed. But mistake
grew for want of right advertisement herein. For St. Hierom, that
wel knew Egypt, tels us there were 2 kinds of the ibides : one coale
black (and itt seemes pernicious some waye, and therefore hated by
. them), the other not much unlike the stork, though not the same. Soe
that in honoring the second kinde, they might seem to honor the
stork, which was (indeed) the right ibis, their preserver. — Wr.
s2
260 OF THE BASILISK. [bOOK III
That whicli mucli promoted it, was a misappreliension in
Holy Scripture upon the Latin translation in Isa. li. Ova
aspidum ruperunt, et telas aranearum texuerunt, qui comedet
de ovis eorum morietur, et quod confotum est, crumpet in
regulum. Prom whence, notwithstanding, beside the gene-
ration of serpents from eggs, there can be nothing con-
cluded ; and what kind of serpents are meant, not easy to be
determined : for translations are very different : Tremellius
rendering the asp hcemorrhous, and the regulus or basilisk, a
viper ; and our translation for the asp sets down a cockatrice
in the text, and an adder in the margin.
Another place of Isaiah doth also seem to countenance it,
chap. xiv. : Ne Iceteris PhilistcBa, quoniam diminuta est virga
percussoris tui ; de radice enim coluhri egredietur requlus,
et semen ejus absorbens volucrem ; which ours somewhat
favourably rendereth : " Out of the serpent's root shall
come forth a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying
serpent." But Tremellius, e radice serpentis prodit licemor-
rJious, etfructus illius prestcr volans ; wherein the words are
dififerent, but the sense is still the same ; for therein are
figuratively intended Uzziah and Ezechias ; for though the
Philistines had escaped the minor serpent, Uzziah, yet from
his stock a fiercer snake should arise, that would more ter-
ribly sting them, and that was Ezechias.
But the greatest promotion it hath received from a mis-
understanding of the hieroglyphical intention. Por being
conceived to be the lord and king of serpents, to awe all
others, nor to be destroyed by any, the Egyptians hereby
implied eternity, and the awful power of the supreme deity ;
and therefore described a crowTied asp or basilisk upon the
heads of their gods : as may be observed in the Bembine
table,^ and other Egyptian monuments.^
'' as maybe observed, <£;c.] This is from Pierius (141, B.) by whom a
basilisk is figured from the Bembine, or Isiac table, as a serpent, wilh
a crest, or crown, upon an obelisk, and having rudiments of wings and
a long head and snout.
• But, dkc] This paragraph was first added in the Src" edit.
CHAP. Till.] CONCEENiyG THE WOLr. 261
CHAPTEE VIII.
That a Wolf first seeing a man, begets a dumbness in him,
SxJCH a story as the basilisk, is that of the wolf, concern-
ing priority of vision, that a man becomes hoarse,^ or
dumb, if a wolf have the advantage first to eye him. And
this is in plain language affirmed by Pliny : In Italia, ut
creditur, luporum visits est noxius, vocemque Iwviini, quern
pritis contemplatur, adimere ; so is it made out what is de-
livered by Theocritus, and after him by Virgil :
Vox quoque Mcerim
Jam fugit ipsa, lupi Moerim videre priores.
And thus is the proverb to be understood, when, during
the discourse, if the party or subject interveneth, and there
ensueth a sudden silence, it is usually said, lupus est in
fahula. Which conceit being already convicted, not only by
Scaliger,^ Eiolanus, and others, but daily confutable almost
everywhere out of England, we shall not further refute.
The ground, or occasional original hereof, was probably
the amazement and sudden silence the unexpected appear-
ance of wolves doth often put upon travellers ; not b}^ a
supposed vapour, or venomous emanation, but a vehement
fear, which naturally produceth obmutescence, and some-
times irrecoverable silence. Thus birds are silent in the
presence of an hawk, and Pliny saith that dogs are mute in
the shadow of an hyaena. But thus could not the mouths of
worthy martyrs be silenced, who being exposed not only
unto the eyes, but the merciless teeth of wolves, gave loud
expressions of their faith, and their holy clamours ^ were
heard as high as heaven.
' that a man becomes hoarse.^ When any one becomes hoarse, the
French say, il a vu le loup. See JloweU's Familial- Letters, vol. iv.
p. 52. See Erasmi Colloquia, De Amicitid. — Jeff.
Ross uses the argumentum ad hominem in this case : he says, " Dr.
Browne did unadvisedly reckon this among his vulgar errors, for I
believe he would find this no error, if he were suddenly surprised by a
wolf, having no means to escape or save himself ! "
' Scaliger.] Exercitatione 344. — Wr.
* clamov.rs,\ Shouts. Clamours is improper here, for 'twas not
262 OF THE LONG LIFE OF THE DEEB. [bOOK lil.
That wliich much promoted it, beside the common pro-
verb, was an expression in Theocritus, a very ancient poet,
oh fdiy'tr], AvKoy elceg, Edere non poteris vocem, Lycus est tibi
visus; which Lycus was rival unto another, and suddenly
appearing, stopped the mouth of his corrival. Now Lycus
signifying also a wolf occasioned this apprehension ; men
taking that appellatively which was to be understood pro-
perly, and translating the genuine acception : which is a
fallacy of equivocation, and in some opinions begat the like
conceit concerning Romulus and Remus, that they were
fostered by a wolf — the name of the nurse being Lupa — ^and
founded the fable of Europa, and her carriage over the sea
by a bull, because the ship or pilot's name was Taurus. And
thus have some been startled at the proverb, los in lingua,
confusedly apprehending how a man should be said to have
an ox in his tougvie, that would not speak his mind ; which
was no more than that a piece of money had silenced him ;
for by the ox was only implied a piece of coin stamped with
that figure, first current with the Athenians, and after among
the Romans.^
CHAPTER IX.
Of the long life of the Deer.
The common opinion concerning the long life of animals is
very ancient, especially of crows, choughs, and deer, in
moderate accounts exceeding the age of man, in some the
days of Nestor, and in others surmounting the years of Ar-
tephius or Methuselah. From whence antiquity bath raised
feare of death that made them cry out at all ; but an assured certainty
of their neer approaching glorification made them kiss their perse-
quutors, as promoters to eternity, and to sing in the midst of their tor-
ments aioud ! Soe that, instead of "clamours," I put "shouts," where-
with they daunted those wolves, and made them stand amazed at their
courage ; which they concluded must needs proceed from the hope of
something after death, to bee farr better then the present life, and by
this meanes were many of them converted. — Wr.
^ first current ivith the A tlienians, <Cr.] Wherewith the embassadors
stopt Demosthenes his mouth, that hee should not inveigh against theil
countrye. — Wr.
CHAP. IX.] OV THE LONG LIFE OF THE DFEB. 263
proverbial expressions, and the real conception of tlieir dura-
tion hath been the hyperbolical expression of many others.
Prom all the rest we shall single out the deer, upon conces-
sion a long-lived animal, and in longevity by many conceived
to attain unto hundreds ; wherein, permitting every man his
own belief, we shall ourselves crave liberty to doubt, and our
reasons are these ensuing.
The first is that of Aristotle, drawn from the increment
and gestation of this animal, tliat is, its sudden arrivance
unto growth and maturity, and the small time of its re-
maindier in the womb. His words in the translation of
Scaliger are these — De ejus vltce longitucUne fabulantur ; ne-
que enim aut gestatio aiit incrementum hinnulorum ejusmodi
sunt, ut proBstent argumentum longcevi animalis ; that is,
" fables are raised concerning the vivacity^ of deer, for
neither are their gestation or increment such as may afford
an argument of long life." And these, saith Scaliger, are
good mediums conjunctively taken, that is, not one without
the other. For of animals viviparous, such as live long go
long with young, and attain but slowly to their matuiity
and stature. So the horse, that liveth about thirty, arriveth
imto his stature about six years, and remameth about ten
months in the womb, — so the camel, that liveth unto fifty,
goeth with young no less than ten months, and ceaseth not
to grow before seven, — and so the elephant, that liveth an
hundred, beareth its young above a year,^ and arriveth imto
perfection at twenty. On the contrary, the sheep and goat,
which live but eight or ten years, go but five months,^ and
attain to their perfection at two years : and the like pro-
portion is observable in cats, hares, and conies. And so the
deer, that endureth the womb but eight months, and is com-
plete at six years, from the course of nature we cannot expect
to live an hundred, nor in any proportional allowance much
■• vivacity.'] i. e. long life. The passage is from the Hist. Animal.
lib. vi. c. xxix.
* above a year.] The periods here assigned to the horse, camel, and
elephant, are all shorter than the fact. Tliat of the horse is twelve
months, the camel eleven and a half, and the elephant twenty.
* five months.] The 1st of August was (of old) cal'd Lammas day,
bycause the rams, going then to the flocks, made the fall of the lamba
alwayes about the Nativitye ; the 19th of December terminating the
full time of gestation, i. e. five months, or twenty weeks. — Wr.
264 OV THE LONG LIFE OF THE DEER. [bOOK III.
more than thirty. As having already passed two general
motions observable in all animations, that is, its beginning
and increase, and having but two more to run through, that
is, its state and declination, which are proportionally set
out by nature in every kind, and naturally proceeding admit
of ini'erence from each other.
The other ground that brings its long life into question,
is the immoderate felicity, and almost unparalleled excess of
venery, which every September may be observed in this
animal, and is supposed to shorten the lives of cocks, par-
tridges, and sparrows. Certainly a confessed and undeniable
enemy unto longevity, and that not only as a sign in the
complexional desire and impetuosity, but also as a cause in
the frequent act, or iterated performance thereof. For though
we consent not with that pliilosopher, who thinks a sperma-
tical emission, unto the weight of one drachm, is equivalent
unto the effusion of sixty ounces of blood, yet considering
the exolution and languor ensuing that act in some — the
extenuation and marcour in others, and the visible accelera-
tion it maketh of age in most, we cannot but think it much
abridgeth oiu- days. Altliough we also concede that this
exclusion is natural, that nature itself will find a way hereto
without either act or object ; and altliough it be placed
among the six non-naturals, that is, such as, neither natu-
rally constitutive, nor merely destructive, do preserve or
destroy according unto circumstance ; yet do we sensibly
obsei-ve an impotency, or total privation thereof, prolongeth
life ; and they live longest in every kind that exercise it not
at all. And this is true, not only in eunuchs by nature, but
spadoes by art ; for castrated animals, in every species, are
longer lived tlian they which retain their virilities ; for the
generation of bodies is not merely effected, as some con-
ceive of souls, that is, by irradiation, or answerably unto the
propagation of light, without its proper diminution ; but
therein a transmission is made materially from some parts,
with the idea of every one ; and the propagation of one is, in
a strict acception, some minoration of another. And, there-
fore, also, that axiom in philosophy, that the generation of
one thing is the corruption of another, although it be sub-
stantially true concerning the form and matter, is also dis*
positively verified iu the efficient or producer.
CHAP. rS.] OF THE LONG LIFE OF THE DEEB. 265
As for more sensible arguments, and such as relate unto
experiment, from these we have also reason to doubt its age,
and presumed vivacity ; for where long life is natural, the
marks of age are late ; and when they appear, the journey
unto death cannot be long. Now the age of the deer (as
Aristotle long ago observed) is best conjectured by view of
the horns and teeth. From the horns there is a particular
and annual account unto six years, they arising first plain,
and so successively branching ; after which the judgment of
their years, by particular marks, becomes uncertain. But
when they grow old, they grow less branched, and first do
lose their afxvi'Tijpec, or propugnacula, that is, their brow-
antlers, or lowest furcations next the head ; which, Aristotle
saith, the young ones use in fight, and the old, as needless,
have them not at all. The same may be also collected from
the loss of their teeth, whereof in old age they have few or
none before in either jaw. Now these are infallible marks
of age, and when they appear, we must confess a declination;
which notwithstanding (as men inform us in England, where
observations may well be made), will happen between twenty
and thirty. As for the bone, or rather induration of the
roots of the arterial vein and great artery, which is thought
to be found only in the heart of an old deer, and therefore
becomes more precious in its rarity, it is often found in deer
much under thirty, and we have known some afiirm they
have found it in one of half that age. And therefore, in that
account of Pliny, of a deer with a collar about his neck, put
on by Alexander the Great, and taken alive an hundred
years after, with other relations of this nature, we much
suspect imposture or mistake. And if we grant their verity,
they are but single relations, and very rare contingencies
in individuals, not affording a regular deduction upon the
species. For though Ulysses' dog lived unto twenty, and the
Athenian mule unto fourscore, yet do we not measure their
days by those years, or usually say they live thus long. Nor
can the three hundred years of John of times, or Nestor,
overthrow the assertion of Moses,* or afford a reasonable
encoui'agement beyond his septuagenary determination.
The ground and authority of this ccnceit was first hiero-
* Psalm xc
266 OF THE LOXG LIFE OF THE DEER. [bOOK III.
glyphical, the Egyptians expressing longevity by this ani«
mal ;'' but upon what uncertainties, and also convincible
falsities they often erected such emblems, we have elsewhere
delivered. And if that were true which Aristotle * delivers
of his time, and Pliny was not afraid to take up long after,
the Egyptians could make but weak observations herein :
for though it be said that ^neas feasted his followers with
venison, yet Aristotle affirms that neither deer nor boar
were to be found in Africa. And how far they miscounted
the lives and duration of animals, is e\ddent from their con-
ceit of the crow, which they presume to live five hundred
years ; and from the lives of hawks, which (as vElian de-
livereth) the Egyptians do reckon no less than at seven
hundred.
The second, which led the conceit unto the Grecians,
and probably descended from the Egyptians, was poetical ;
and that was a passage of Hesiod, thus rendered by Au-
sonius.
Ter binos deciesque novem super exit in annos,
Justa senescentHm quos implet vita virorum,
Hos novies superat vivendo garrula cornix,
Et quater egreditur cornicis sascula cervus,
Alipedem cervum ter vincit corvus.
To ninety-six the life of man ascendeth,
Nine times as long tliat of the chough extendeth,
Four times beyond the life of deer doth go,
And thrice is that surpassed by the crow.
So that, according to this account, allowing ninety-six for
the age of man, the life of a deer amounts unto three thou-
sand four hundred and fifty-six ; a conceit so hard to be
made out, that many have deserted the common and literal
construction. So Theon, in Aratus, would have the number
of nine not taken strictly, but for many years. In other
opinions, the compute so far exceedeth the truth, that they
have thought it more probable to take the word genea, that
* Hiator. Animal, lib. viii.
'' tvasjinthierogh/phical, ttx.] Obtained from Horapollo. The ante'
lope is mentioned by Dr. Young, with the bullork, the ram, and the
tortoise, as being sometimes representations of the things which they
resemble, and sometimes having probably a metaphorical sense {S. E,
B, Egypt, 75-78). ChampoUion mentions the gazelle, but not the deer.
CHAP. IX.] OF THE LO]N"G LIFE OF THE DEEE. 267
is, a generation consif'ting of many years, but for one year,
or a single revolution of the sun ; whicti is the remarkable
measure of time, and within the compass whereof, we re-
ceive our perfection in the womb. So that by this con-
struction, the years of a deer should be but thirty-six, as is
discoursed at large in that tract of Plutarch, concerning the
cessation of oracles, and whereto in his discourse of the
crow, Aldrovandus also inclineth. Others, not able to make
it out, have rejected the whole account, as may be observed
from the words of Pliny ; Hesiodus qui primus aliquid de
longeevitate vitce prodidii, fahiilose (j'eor) multa de hominum
cevo referens, cornici novem nostras attrihuit estates, quadru-
plum ejus cervis, id triplicatum corvis, et reliqiia fabulosius
de 2^Tioenice et nymphis. And this, how slender soever, was
probably the strongest ground antiquity had for this lon-
gevity of animals ; that made Theophrastus expostulate with
nature concerning the long life of crows ; that begat that
epithet of deer * in Oppianus, and that expression of Ju-
venal,
Longa et cervina senectus.
The third ground was philosophical, and founded upon a
probable reason in nature, that is, the defect of a gall :
which part (in the opinion of Aristotle and Pliny), this ani-
mal wanted, and was conceived a cause and reason of their
long life : according (say they) as it happeneth imto some
few men, who have not this part at all. But this assertion
is first defective in the verity concerning the animal alleged :
for though it be true, a deer hath no gall in the liver like
many other animals, yet hath it that part in the guts, as is
discoverable by taste and colour : and therefore Pliny doth
well correct himself, when, having affirmed before, it had no
gall, he after saith, some hold it to be in the guts ; and that
for their bitterness, dogs will refuse to eat them. The
assertion is also deficient in the verity of the induction or
connumeration of other animals conjoined herewith, as having
also no gall; that is, as Pliny aceounteth, equi, mull, &c.
Horses, mules, asses, deer, goats, boars, camels, dolphins,
have no gall. In dolphins and porpoises I confess I could
find no gall. But concerning horses, what truth there ia
* Tfrpaic:'p(oi'og.
268 or THE LOIfG LIFE OF THE DEEE. [bOOK III.
herein we have declared before ; as for goats, we find not
them without it ; what gall the camel hath, Aristotle de-
clareth : that hogs also have it we can afiirm ; and that not
in any obscure place, but in the liver, even as it is seated
in man.^
That, therefore, the deer is no short-lived animal, we will
acknowledge ; that comparatively, and in some sense long-
lived, we will concede ; and thus much we shall grant, if we
commonly account its days^ by thirty-six or forty ;^ for
thereby it will exceed all other cornigerous animals. But
that it attaineth unto hundreds, or the years delivered by
authors, since we have no authentic experience for it — since
we have reason and common experience against it — since the
grounds are false and fabulous which do establish it, we know
no ground to assent.
Concerning deer, there also passeth another opinion, that
the males thereof do yearly lose their pizzle : for men,
observing the decidence of their horns, do fall upon the like
conceit of this part, that it annually rotteth away, and suc-
cessively reneweth again.^ Now the ground hereof, was
surely the observation of this part in deer after immo-
derate venery, and about the end of their rut, which some-
times becomes so relaxed and pendulous, it cannot be quite
retracted : and being often beset with flies, it is conceived
to rot, and at last to fall from tlie body. But herein expe-
rience will contradict us ; for deer, which either die or are
* Horses, (t'c.J This statement is correct. It is asserted that the gall-
bladder is common to all carnivorous animals possessing a liver, and that
it seems to be wanting only in those which feed on vegetables alone.
The gall-bladder is contained between the peritonceimv and the liver.
^ days.] Yeares. — Wr.
' thirty-six or forty.] A correct conclusion. Ross, however, is not
inclined to give up the opinion of the "ancient sages," on " so weak
grounds " as those advanced by Sir Thomas. His faith, however, might
well admit such assertions as are here discussed ; since he avowed his
belief that old men may grow young again ; — " that the decayed nature
may be so renewed and repaired, as an old man may perform the func-
tion of a young man ! "
^ this part, <£t.] Itt may sometimes rott, aa the deers often doe ; yfa
sharpe and stervinge winter take them before they can repaire the
strength lost by inmioderate rutt : whence it seemes the terme (rott)
first came : but that j)art wherein the rott always beginnes to appeare,
is never renewed. — Wr.
CHAP. IX.] OF THE LONG LIFE OF THE DEEE. 269
killed at that time, or any other, are always found to have
that part entire. And reason wiU also correct us ; for sper-
matical parts, or such as are framed from the seminal prin-
ciples of parents,"^ although homogeneous or similary, will
not admit a regeneration ; much less will they receive an in-
tegral restoration, which being organical and instrumental
members, consist of many of those. Now this part, or ani-
mal of Plato, containeth not only sanguineous and reparable
particles, but is made up of veins, nerves, arteries, and in
some animals of bones ;'* whose reparation is beyond its own
fertility, and a fruit not to be expected from the fructifying
part itself Which faculty, were it communicated unto ani-
ihals whose originals are double, as weU as unto plants
whose seed is within themselves, we might abate the art of
Taliacotius, and the new inarching of noses.^ And there-
fore the fancies of poets have been so modest, as not to set
down such renovations, even from the powers of their
deities; for the mutilated shoulder of Pelops^ was pieced
out with ivory, and that the limbs of Hippolytus were set
together, not regenerated by ^sculapius, is the utmost
assertion of poetry.
* such as are framed, (fee] There seems some difficulty in determin-
ing the precise meaning of this phrase : — but Sir Thomas was not aware
of what has been ascertained by the experiments of Bonnet and Spal-
lanzani on snails and worms ; and by those of Drs. Heineken and Mac
Culloch on spiders and crabs ; viz. that these comparatively imperfect
animals have the wonderful power (not bestowed on those of far more
complete organization) of reproducing parts of which they have been
deprived — limbs, antennse, and even the head.
* ho7ies.'\ As in poll-cats and ferrets, which I caused to bee dissected,
and found in one a bone as big as a walnut shaled. — Wr.
^ new inarching of noses.'] In the Gents. Mag. vol. 54, p. 891, is ax
account of this operation as performed in India, in 1792. An old work,
entitled Chirurgorum Comes, 1687, concludes with an account of a simi-
lar operation, performed two hundred before, at Lausanne, by a sur-
geon named GrefFonius, on a young woman. The physiological prin-
ciples, on which this celebrated process has been successful, are dis-
cussed by Dr. Bostock, in his Elementary System of Physiology, vol. i.
p. 450. Sir Kenelm Digby adds this marvellous assertion, that when a
man, whose nose had been lost by extreme cold, was supjjlied with an
artificial nose made of the flesh of some other person, " his new nose
would putrify as soon as the person, out of whose substarce it was taken.
came to die ! "
® Pelops] So Virgil ; — Georgic. iii. 7 :
Humeroque Pelops iusignis ebvmo.
270 CONCEENING THE KINGEISHEE. [BOOK III.
CHAPTER X.
That a Kingfisher, hanged by the bill, showeth where the wind lay.
■That a kingfisher, hanged by the hill, showeth in what
quarter the wind is, b\^ an occult and secret propriety, con-
verting the breast to that point of the horizon from whence
the wind doth blow, is a received opinion, and very strange —
introducing natural weathercocks, and extending magnetical
positions as far as animal natures. A conceit supported
chiefly by present practice, yet not made out by reason or
experience.
Unto reason it seemeth very repugnant, that a carcass or
body disanimated, should be so affected with every wind, as
to carry a conformable respect and constant habitude thereto.
For although in sundry animals we deny not a kind of na-
tural meteorology or innate presention both of wind and
weather, yet, that proceeding from sense receiving impres-
sion from the first mutation of the air, they cannot in reason
retain that apprehension after death, as being affections
which depend on life, and depart upon disanimation. And
therefore with more favourable reason may we draw the
same eflect or sympathy upon the hedgehog, whose pre-
sention of winds is so exact, that it stoppeth the north or
southern hole of its nest, according to the prenotion of these
winds ensuing ;^ which some men observing, have been
able to make predictions which way the wind would turn,
and been esteemed hereby wise men in point of weather.
Now this proceeding from sense in the creature alive, it
were not reasonable to hang up an hedgehog dead, and to
expect a conformable motion unto its living conversion.
And though in sundry plants their virtues do live after
death — and we know that scammony, rhubarb, and senna will
purge without any vital assistance — yet in animals and
sensible creatures, many actions are mixed, and depend
upon their living form, as well as that of mistion ; and
though they wholly seem to retain unto the body, depart
"^ whose presention of winds, <{;c.] The popular belief of this " pre-
eention" (faculty of perceiving beforehand), in the hedgehog, seems to
be without foi odation.
CfHAP. X.] CONCEENITfG THE KINGFISHEE. 27]
upon disunion. Thus glow-worms alive project a lustre in
the dark ; which fulgour, notwithstanding, ceaseth after
death ; and thus the torpedo, Avhicli being alive stupifies at
a distance, applied after death, produceth no such effect ;
which had they retained, in places where they abound they
might have supplied opium, '^ and served as frontals in
pl-rensies.
As for the experiment, we cannot make it out by any we
have attempted ; for if a single kingfisher be hanged up with
untwisted silk in an open room, and where the air is free, it
observes not a constant respect unto the mouth of the wind,
but, variously converting, doth seldom breast it aright. If
two be suspended in the same room, they will not regularly
conform their breasts,but ofttimes respect the opposite points
of heaven. And if we conceive that, for exact exploration,
they should be suspended where the air is quiet and
unmoved, — that, clear of impediments, they may more freely
convert upon their natural verticity — we have also made
this way of inquisition, suspending them in large and capa-
cious glasses closely stopped ; wherein nevertheless we ob-
served a casual station, and that they rested irregularly
upon conversion: wheresoever they rested, remaining in-
converted ; and possessuig one point of the compass, whilst
the wind, perhaps, had passed the two and thirty.
The ground of this popular practice might be the com-
mon opinion concerning the virtue prognostick of these
birds ; as also the natural regard they have unto the winds,
and they unto them again ; more especially remarkable in
the time of their nidulation and bringing forth their young.
Eor at that time, which happeneth about the brumal solstice,
it hath been observed, even unto a proverb,^ that the sea is
calm, and the winds do cease, till the young ones are ex-
cluded, and forsake their nest ; which floateth upon the sea,
and by the roughness of winds, might otherwise be over-
whelmed. But how far hereby to magnify their prediction
we have no certain rule ; for whether out of any particular
prenotion they choose to sit at this time, or whether it be
* opium.] This term, used before (page 254) to express the stupify-
ing effect of the gymnotic electricity, is, of course, employed figura-
tively.
* pToverb.'\ Halcionian dayes, i. e. dayes of peace, — Wr.
272 coNCEHNiNa the kingfisher. [book III.
thus contrived by concurrence of causes and providence of
nature, securing every species in their production, is not yet
determined.' Surely many things fall out by the design of
the general motor and undream fc-of contrivance of nature
which are not imputable vmto the intention or knowledge
of the particular actor. So, though the seminality of ivy-
be almost in every earth, yet that it ariseth and groweth
not, but where it may be supported \^ we cannot ascribe the
same unto the distinction of the seed, or conceive any
science therein which suspends and conditionates its erup-
tion. So if, as Pliny and Plutarch report, the crocodiles of
Egypt so aptly lay their eggs, that the natives thereby are
able to know how high the flood will attain, it will be hard
to make out how they should divine the extent of the inun-
dation, depending on causes so many miles remote ; that is,
the measure of showers in Ethiopia ; and whereof, as Atha-
iiasius in the Life of Anthony delivers, the devil himself
upon demand could make no clear prediction. So are there
likewise many things in nature which are the forerunners or
signs of future effects,^ whereto they neither concur in
causality or prenotion, but are secretly ordered by the pro-
vidence of causes and concui'rence of actions collateral to
their signations.
It was also a custom of old to keep these birds in chests,
upon opinion that they prevented moths. Whether it were
not first hanged up in rooms, to such effects, is not beyond
all doubt ; or whether we mistake not the posture of sus-
pension, hanging it by the bill, whereas we should do it by
the back, that by the bill it might point out the quarters of
the wind ; for so hath Kircherus described the orbis and the
' not yet determined.'] All creatures know not only the meanes but
the times of their preservation : and therefore that the halcyon know-
ing that at the winter solstice there is such a calm, chooseth that time
to hatch his young, as the crowes did in 1652, when the mildnes of
January was such, that they, supposing the spring was come on, did
build their nests, and as I was credibly informed, some did hatche their
broode. — Wr.
* fp-oweth not, hut, <fcc.] The ground affords a sufficient support for the
purpose ; for ivy will certainly grow where it has no other, and will
cover the surface of the ground, growing among the herbage, and in
some cases supplanting it.
'■' So are there, tfcc] See an interesting chapter on proguustiea in
Forsta's Researches into Atmospheric Phanomena, p. 128.
CHAP. XI.] OF GEIFFINS. 273
sea-swallow. But the eldest custom of hanging up these
birds was founded upon a tradition, that they would renew
their feathers every year as though they were alive : in ex-
pectation whereof, four hundred years ago, Albertus Magnus
was deceived.'*
CHAPTEE XI.
Of Griffins.
That there are griffins in nature, that is, a mixed and
dubious animal, in the forepart resembling an eagle, and
behind the shape of a lion, with erected ears, four feet, and a
long tail, many affirm, and most, I perceive, deny not.^ The
same is averred by ^lian, Solinus, Mela, and Herodotus —
countenanced by the name sometimes found in Scripture,
and was an hieroglyphic of the Egyptians.^
Notwithstanding we find most diligent enquirers to be of a
contrary assertion. Eor beside that Albertus and Pliny have
disallowed it, the learned Aldrovandus hath, in a large dis-
course rejected it ; Matthias Michovius, who writ of those
northern parts wherein men place these griffins, hath posi-
tively concluded against it ; and, if examined by the doctrine
of animals, the invention is monstrous, nor much inferior
unto the figment of sphynx, chimaera, aiid harpies ; for though
there be some flying animals of mixed and participating
natures,^ that is, between bird and quadruped, yet are their
'' It was a custom, <£t.] First added in the 2nd edition.
■' That there are griffins, dr.] Hoss, as usual, defends the ancient opi-
nion, at considerable length ; and accounts for their not being now
known to exist, by supposing them to have removed to places inacces-
sible to men, whereof he observes there are many such in the great and
vast countries of Scythia, &c. &c. ! — Arcana, p. 199.
® and tvas an hieroglyphic, tt'c] Pierius (p. 233, E.), on the authority
of the Isiac table ; of wliich see note 1, at page 252.
^ of mixed and paHicipating natures.'\ Modern discovery has greatly
added to our knowledge of those animals which form connecting links
in the great chain. " There is nothing more wonderful and admirable
in nature than this sort of connection between the classes, orders,
groups, and genera of the animal kingdom. It is not a regular grada-
tion of being, like the steps of a ladder, according to the Platonic
system, nor do we think that it can be very easily reducied to any defi-
VOL. I. T
274 OF GEIFFINS. [book III.
-wings and legs so set together, that they seem to make
each other, their being a commixion of both, rather than an
adaptation or cement of prominent parts unto each other ;
as is observable in the bat, whose -nings and fore-legs are
contrived in each other. Por though some species there be
of middle and participating natures, that is, of bird and
beast, as bats and some few others ; yet are their parts so
conformed and set together, that we cannot define the be-
ginning or end of either ; there being a commixion of both
in the whole, rather than an adaptation or cement of the one
unto the other.
Now for the word ypv-ih or gryps, sometimes mentioned in
Scripture, and frequently in human authors, properly under-
stood it signifies some kind of eagle or vulture, from whence
the epithet gnjpus, for an hooked or aquiline nose. Thus
when the Septuagiut makes use of this word,* Tremellius,
and our translation, hath rendered it the ossifrage, which is
one kind of eagle. And although the vulgar translation, and
that annexed unto the Septuagint, retain the word gryps,
which in ordinary and school construction is commonly ren-
dered a grifiin, yet cannot the Latin assume any other sense
than the Greek, from whence it is borrowed. And though
the Jjatm gri/pJ/es be altered somewhat by the addition of an
Ji, or aspiration of the letter tt, yet is not this unusual ; so
what the Greeks call rpoTratoi', the Latin will call trophceum ;
and that person, which in the gospel is named RXfoirac, the
Latins will render Cleophas. And therefore the quarrel of
Origen was unjust, and his conception erroneous, when he
conceived the food of griffins foi'bidden by the law of Moses ; ^
that is, poetical animals, and things of no existence. And
* Lev. ii.
nite plan, notwithstanding the very ingenious and laudable attempta,
in this way, of some recent naturalists. But we find in every class, and
every order of animals, connecting links with all the other classes, and
all the other orders. Somewhere or other, we are sure to find the ex-
isting bond of affinity. Thus we have flying mammalia, and walking
birds — swimming birds, and flying fishes — in short, some out of each
borrow the characters of others, and lose some of those peculiar to their
awn division." — Cur-ier, by Grifiith, vol. ix. p. 284.
* Moses.] The most learned among the Jews can give us noe certaine
information concerning the names of animals, plants, mettals, vestments,
or instruments, saith Gesner, in hia learned book, De Quadrupedibu*.
— Wr.
OIIAP. XI.] GBIFFINS. 275
therefore, when in the hecatombs and mighty oblations of
the Gentiles, it is delivered they sacrificed gryphes or grif-
fins, hereby we may understand some stronger sort of eagles.
And therefore also, when it is said in Virgil, of an improper
match, or Mopsus marrying Nysa, Jungentur jam gryphee
equis, we need not hunt after other sense, than that strange
luiions shall be made, and different natures be conjoined
together.
As for tlie testimonies of ancient writers, they are but
derivative, and terminate all in one Aristeus, a poet of Proco-
nesus, who affirmed that near the Arimaspi, or one-eyed
nation, griffins defended the mines of gold. But this, as
Herodotus- delivereth, he wrote by hearsay ; and Michovius,
who had expressly written of those parts, plainly affirmeth,
there is neither gold nor griffins iu that country, nor any such
animal extant ; for so doth he conclude, Ego vero contra
veteres autliores, gryphes nee in ilia septentrionis, nee in aliis
orbis partihus inveniri affirmdrim.
Lastly, concerning the hieroglyphical authority, although
it nearest approach the truth, it doth not infer its existency.
The conceit of the griffin, properly taken, being but a sym-
bolical fancy, in so intolerable a shape including allowable
morality. So doth it well make out the properties of a guar-
dian, or any person entrusted ; the ears implying attention —
the wings, celerity of execution — the lion-like shape, courage
and audacity — the hooked bill, reservance and tenacity. It
is also an emblem of valour and magnanimity, as being com-
pounded of the eagle and Hon, the noblest animals in their
kinds ; and so is it appliable mito princes, presidents, gene-
rals, and all heroic commanders ; and so is it also borne in
the coat-arms of many noble families of Europe.
But the original invention seems to be hieroglyphical,
derived from the Egyptians, and of an higher signification ;
by the mystical conjunction of hawk and lion, implying either
the genial or the syderous sun, the great celerity thereof,
and the strength and vigour in its operations : and therefore,
under such hieroglyphics Osyris was described ;" and in
^ hy the mystical conjwnction, &c.] Most of the above statements are
from Pierius ; but he does not mention Osiris. Horapollo has no
griflBns. Plutarch says, that Osiris is typified by a ha.wk. — Young, vt
x2
276 OF THE pn(ENix. [book hi.
ancient coins we meet with griffins conjointly with Apollo's
tripodes and chariot-wheels ; and the marble griffins at St.
Peter's in Rome, as learned men conjecture, were first trans-
lated from the temple of Apollo. Whether hereby were not
also mystically implied the activity of the sun in Leo, the
power of Grod in the sun, or the influence of the celestial
Osyris, by Moptha, the genius of Nilus, might also be con-
sidered. And than the learned Kircherus, no man were
likely to be a better Oedipus.^
CHAPTER XII.
Of the Phcenix,
That there is but one phcenix in the world, which after
many hundred years burueth itself, and from the ashes thereof
ariseth up another,^ is a conceit not new or altogether po-
pular, but of great antiquity ; not only delivered by human
authors, but frequently expressed also by holy writers : by
Cyril, Epiphanius, and others ; by Ambrose in his Hexame-
ron, and Tertulliau in his poem, De Judicio Domini ; but
more agreeably unto the present sense, in his excellent tract,
De Hesurrectione Garnis ; Ilium dico alitem orientis pecu-
lim^em, de sinrpilaritate famosum, de posteritate monstruo-
sum; qui semetipsum libenter funerans renovat, natalijine
decedens, atque succedens iterum phoenix. Ubijam nemo,
iferum ipse; quia non jam, alius idem. The Scripture aiso
seems to favour it, particularly that of Job xxi. In the in-
sup. 45. " The pictorial delineation of Osiris has indifferently a human
head or that of a hawk ; but never that of any other animals." — lb. 57.
Champollion raeotious these^ as " quzdrupedes & t4te d'oiseau." — Pricis
dti Sjisteme Hievo'jhiphlque, &c, 1828, p, 305.
' But the anginal, dfec] First added \n the 3rd edition.
^ That there is but one phoenix, <i:c.} It is really amusing to observe
the humorous obstinacy of honest master Ross in defending every
thing, however absurd, which is derived from " the ancient sages."
That the phoenix is but rarely seen he thinks no marvel ; its instinct
teaching it to keep out of the way of man, the great tyrant of the
creatures; — "for had Heliogabalus, that Roman glutton, met with
him, he had devoured him, though there were no more in the world !"
— Arcana, p. 202.
CHAP. XII.] OF THE PHCENIX. 277
terpretation of Beda, Diceham, in nidulo meo moriar, et
sicut phoenix muUiplicaho dies : and Psalm xxxi. ckawc uxnrtp
(poli'it, (u'OiitTEi, vir Justus ut phoenix Jlorebif, as Tertulliau ren-
ders it, and so also expounds it in his book, before alleged.
All which notwithstanding, we cannot presume the exist-
ence of this animal, nor dare we affirm there is any phoenix
in nature. For first, there wants herein the definitive con-
firmator and test of things uncertain, that is, the sense of
man. For though many writers have much enlarged hereon,
yet is there not any ocular describer, or such as presumeth to
confirm it upon aspection. And therefore Herodotus, that
led the story unto the Greeks, plainly saith, he never attained
the sight of any, but only in the picture.
Again, primitive authors, and from whom the stream of rela-
tions is derivative, deliver themselves very dubiously ; and,
either by a doubtful parenthesis or a timorous conclusion,
overthrow the whole relation. Thus Herodotus, in his
Euterpe, delivering the story hereof, presently interposeth
ipol fxtv ov Tfiara XtyovTec ; that is, " which account seems to
me improbable." Tacitus, in his Annals, aftbrdeth a larger
story, how the phoenix was first seen at Heliopolis, in the
reign of Sesostris, then in the reign of Amasis, after in the
days of Ptolemy, the third of the Macedonian race ; but at
last thus determinetb, sed antiquitas ohscura, et nonnuUl
falsum esse hunc phoenicem neque Arahum e terris credidere.
Pliny makes yet a fairer story, that the phoenix flew into
Egypt in the consulship of Quintus Plancius, that it was
brought to Eome in the censorship of Claudius, in the eight
hundredth year of the city, and testified also in their records ;
but after all concludeth, Sed quce falsa nemo dulitahit, as
we read it in the fair and ancient impression of Brixa, as
Aldrovandus hath quoted it, and it is found in the manu-
script copy, as Dalechampius hath also noted.^
Moreover, such as have naturally discoursed hereon, have
so diversely, contrarily, or contradictorily, delivered them-
selves, that no affirmative from thence can reasonably be
deduced ; for most have positively denied it, and they which
affirm and believe it, assign this name unto many, and mis-
take two or three in one. So hath that bird been taken for
^ as we read, tfcc] First added in 3rd edition.
278 OF THE pn(EKrx. [book in.
the phoenix, which liveth in Arabia, and buildeth its nest
with cinnamon ; by Herodotus called cinnmmilgns, and by
Aristotle cinnamomus ; and as a fabulous conceit is censured
by Scaliger. Some liave conceived that bird to be the
phoenix, which by a Persian name with the Greeks is called
rhyntace ; but how they make this good, we find occasion of
doubt, whilst we read in the life of Artaxerxes, that this is
a little bird brought often to their tables, and wherewith
Parysatis cunningly poisoned the queen. The manucodiata,
or bird of paradise, hath had the honour of this name, and
their feathers, brought from the Moluccas, do pass for those
of the phoenix. AVliich, though promoted by rarity with us,
the eastern travellers will hardly admit ; who know they are
common in those parts, and the ordinary plume of Janizaries
among the Turks. And lastly, the bird semenda hath found
the same appellation, for so hath Scaliger observed and
refuted : nor will the solitude of the phoenix allow this de-
nomination, for many there are of that species, and whose
trifistulary bill and crany we have beheld ourselves. Nor are
men only at variance in regard of the phoenix itself, but very
disagreeing in the accidents ascribed thereto ; for some affirm
it liveth three hundred, some five, others six, some a thou-
sand, others, no less than fifteen hundred years ; some say it
liveth in ^Ethiopia, others, in Arabia, some in Egypt, others,
in India, and some in Utopia, — for such a one must that be
which is described by Lactantius ; that is, which neither was
singed in the combustion of Phaeton, nor overwhelmed by
the inundation of Deucalion.'*
Lastly, many authors, who have discoursed hereof, have so
delivered themselves, and with such intentions, that we can-
not from thence deduce a confirmation. Por some have
written poetically, as Ovid, Mantuan, Lactantius, Claudian,
and others. Some have written mystically, as Paracelsus in
his book, De AzofJi, or De Ligno et Linea Vitce ; and as
several hermetical philosophers, involving therein the secret
of their elixir, and enigmatically expressing the nature of
their great work. Some have written rhetorically and con-
* the combustion of Phaeton, d-c] The combustion of Phaeton was but
in Italy only, and Deucalion's flood only in Attick : both ferr inoughe
fmm Arabia or ^gypt ; soe that the phtsnix, yf any were, might live
secure inoughe from those 2 mischeefs. — Wr.
CHAP. Xn.] OF THE PHtENIX. 279
ceasively, not controverting, but assuming the question, wliich
taken as granted advantaged the illation. So have holy men
made use hereof as far as thereby to confirm the resurrec-
tion ; for discoursing with heathens, who granted the story of
the phoenix, they induced the resurrection from principles of
their own, and positions received among themselves. Others
have spoken emblematically and hieroglyphically ; and so did
the Egyptians, unto whom the phoenix was the hierogh^hic
of the sun.^ And this was probably the ground of the whole
relation ; succeeding ages adding fabulous accounts, which
laid together built up this singularity, which every pen pro-
claimeth.
As for the texts of Scripture which seem to confirm the
conceit, duly perpended they add not thereunto. For where-
as, in that of Job, according to the Septuagint or Glreek
translation, we find the word phoenix, yet can it have no
animal signification ; for therein it is not expressed (po'ii'ti,
but oTf'Aexoe (poiriicoc, the trunk of the palm-tree, which is
also called phoenix, and therefore the construction will be
very hard, if not applied unto some vegetable nature. Nor
can we safely insist upon the Glreek expression at all ; for
though the vulgar translates it palma, and some retain the
word phoenix, others do render it by a word of a different
sense : for so hath Tremellius delivered it ; Diceham quod
apud nidum meum expirabo, et sicut arena midtiplicaho dies ;
so hath the Geneva and ours translated it, "I said I shall
die in my nest, and shall multiply my days as the sand."
As for that in the book of Psalms, Vir Justus ut plicenix^
Jlorehit, as Epiphanius and TertuUian render it, it was only
a mistake upon the homonymy* of the Greek word phoenix,
which signifies also a palm-tree. Which is a fallacy of
equivocation, from a community in name inferring a common
nature, and whereby we may as firmly conclude, that dia-
phosnicon, a purging electuary, hath some part of the phoe-
nix for its ingredient ; which receiveth that name from dates,
* Consent of names.
* have spohen, <fcc.] From Pierius, whose authority is Pliny (lib. x.
c. ii.) ; but Pliny does not allude to the hieroglyphic. It is also adduced
from Horapollo, 49, 111.
® ut]ph(Enix.'\ i. e. ut palma. — Wr.
280 OF THE PH(E>'IX, [BOOK lIC
or tlie fruit of the palm-tree, from whence, as Pliny delivers^
the phoenix had its name/
Nor do we only arraign the existence of this animal, but
many things are questionable which are ascribed thereto,
especially its unity, long life, and generation. As for ita
unity or conceit, there should be but one in natm'e, it
seemeth not only repugnant unto philosophy, but also
Holy Scripture ; which plainly affirms, there went of every
sort, two at least into the ark of Noah, according to the
text, " Every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort,
they went into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein
there is the breath of life ; and they that went in, went in
both male and female of all flesh." * It infringeth the
benediction of God concerning multiplication. God blessed
them, saying, " Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters
in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth :" t and
again, " Bring forth with thee every living thing, that they
may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful and muU
tiply upon the earth ;" J which terms are not ap pliable unto
the phoenix, whereof there is but one in the world, and no
more now living than at the fii'st benediction. Foi', the
production of one being the destruction of another, although
they produce and generate, they increase not, and must not
be said to multiply, who do not transcend an unity.
As for longevity, that it livetli a thousand years or more ;
beside that from imperfect observations and rarity of ap-
pearance, no confirmation can be made, there may be pro-
bably a mistake in the compute. For the tradition being
very ancient and probably Egyptian, the Greeks, who dis-
persed the fable, might sum up the account bj^ their own
numeration of years ; whereas the conceit might have its
original in times of shorter compute. For if we suppose
our present calculation, the phoenix now in nature will be
the sixth from the creation, but in the middle of its years ;
and, if the rabbins' prophecy§ succeed, shall conclude ita
days, not in its own, but the last and general flames, without
all hope of reviviction.
* Gen. vii. + Gen. i. J Gen. viii.
§ That the world should la.st but six thousand years.
' its name.] Phoenix dactylifera, the date-palm.
CilAP. XII.1 OF THE PH(ENIX. 281
Concerning its generation, that without all conjunction it
begets and reseminates itself, hereby we introduce a vege'*
table production in animals, and unto sensible natunes trans-
fer the propriety of plants ; that is, to multiply witliin them-
selves, according to the law of the creation, " Let the earth
bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the tree yield-
ing fruit, whose seed is in itself." * Which is indeed the
natural way of plants, who, having no distinction of sex, and
the power of the species contained in every individuum, beget
and propagate themselves without commixtion f and there-
fore the fruits, proceeding from simpler roots, are not so
unlike or distinguishable from each other as are the oft-
springs of sensible creatures and prolitlcations descending
from double originals. But animal generation is accom-
plished by more, and the concurrence of two sexes is required
to the constitution of one.** And therefore such as have no
distinction of sex, engender not at all, as Aristotle conceives
of eels^ and testaceous animals.^ And though plant-animals
* Gen. i.
' having no distinction of sex, <L-c.'\ In correction of this assertion see
note ], p. 194.
" But animal generation, d:c.'\ Sir Everard Home first suspected, and
then proved, that in a particular tribe of fishes, comprising the lamprey,
the organs of both sexes are present in the same individual. — See Phil.
Trans. 1815, part ii. p. 266.
' eels.] Aristotel's conceyte of eeles was not unlike that other of his,
of the galaxia and of comets, whereof the knowlege then was small.
But in the end of April, 1654, and after some firce storms, which they
say make eeles wander, a large one was brought, out of which wee
tooke neer (50) young eeles alive, each above 1 inche and a halfe long,
of the bignes of a bristle, which moved as quick as the old one. From
whence it appeares manifestly that they doe engender and become
viviparous, contrary to the opinion of the world hitherto. Soe that
now wee may conclude that the eele, as well as the viper, is vermipa-
rou3 and viviparous, and not only (as the natrix) oviparous. And in
the Severne they finde clots of young lampreys, which they call elvers,
a finger's length, white, as big as a wheete straw, 40 or more in a
cluster, which I have found of a very pleasant taste, and are accompted
daintyes. That which deceaved the world hitherto was, that the brood
of the eele comes to life sooner then the spawiie of any fish, bycause,
being never severed from the matrix, till itt have life, itt is of soden
growth, in which time the damm never ranges, and as soon as they are
formed, are layd in bankes, or beds of mud, undiscernable. — Wr.
' testaceous animals.] They present examples of all the modes ot
generation. Several of them possess the faculty of self-impregnation ,
282 OF THE PL(ENix. [book IH.
do multiply, tliey do it not by copulation, but in a way
analogous unto plants. So hermaphrodites, although they
include the parts of both sexes, and may be sufficiently
potent in either, yet unto a conception require a separated
sex, and cannot impregnate themselves. And so also, though
Adam included all human nature, or was (as some opinion)
an hermaphrodite, yet had he no power to propagate him-
self; and therefore God said, " It is not good that man
should be alone, let us make him an help meet for him ;" that
is, an help unto generation ; for, as for any other help, it
had been fitter to have made another man.
Now, whereas some affirm that from one phoenix there
doth not immediately proceed another, but the first cor-
rupteth into a worm, which after becometh a phoenix, it will
not make probable this production. For hereby they con-
found the generation of perfect animals with imperfect —
sanguineous with exsanguineous — vermiparous with ovipa-
rous ; and erect anomalies, disturbing the laws of nature.
Nor will this corruptive production be easily made out in
most imperfect generations : for although we deny not that
many animals are vermiparous, begetting themselves at a
distance, and as it were at the second hand (as generally
insects, and more remarkably butterflies and silkworms), yet
proceeds not this generation from a corruption of themselves,
but rather a speciiical and seminal diftusion, retaining still
the idea of themselves, though it act that part awhile, in
other shapes. And this will also hold in generations equi-
vocal, and such as are not begotten from parents like them-
selves ; so from frogs corrupting, proceed not frogs again ;
so if there be anatiferous trees,-^ whose corruption breaks
forth into bernacles, yet if they corrupt, they degenerate
into maggots, which produce not them again. For this were
a confusion of corruptive and seminal production, and a frus-
tration of that seminal power committed to animals at the
creation. The problem might have been spared, "Why we
love not our lice as well as our children ?" Noah's ark had
been needless, the graves of animals would be the fruitfullest
others, altliough hermaphrodites, have need of a reciprocal intercourse.
Many have the sexes separated. Some are oviparous, others vivip^
rous.^ — Griffith's Cuvier, vol. xii. p. 4.
^ if there be, dx:] See note at end of book iii.
CHAP. XII.] OF THE PHffiNIX. 28S
womb ; for death would not destroy, but empeople the world
again.
Since, therefore, we have so slender grounds to confirm
the existence of the phoenix, — since there is no ocular witness
of it — since, as we have declared, by authors from whom the
story is derived, it stands rather rejected — since they who
have seriously discoursed hereof have delivered themselves
negatively, diversely, or contrarily — since many others can-
not be drawn into the argument as writing poetically, rheto-
rically, enigmatically, hieroglyphically — since Holy Scripture
alleged for it, duly perpended, doth not advantage it ; — and
lastly, since so strange a generation, unity and long life, hath
neither experience nor reason to confirm, — how far to rely
on this tradition we refer unto consideration.
But surely they were not well-wishers unto parable**
physic, or remedies easily acquired, wlao derived medicines
from the phoenix, as some have done, and are justly con-
demned by Pliny ; Irridere est, vitce remedia post millesi-
mum annum reditura monstrare ; " It is a folly to find out
remedies that are not recoverable under a thousand years,"
or propose the prolonging of life by that which the twentieth
generation may never behold. More veniable is a depend-
ence upon the philosopher's stone, potable gold, or any of
those wreawas whereby Paracelsus, that died himself at forty-
seven, gloried that he could make other men immortal.^
AVhich, although extremely difticult, and tantum non infe-
sible, yet are they not impossible, nor do they (rightly under-
stood) impose any violence on nature. And therefore, if
strictly taken for the phoenix, very strange^ is that which is
■• parahle.'\ Easily obtained ; — jparah'des.
* Paracelsus, tfrc] This is noe wonder in them that convert soules ;
but to make bodyes immortall argues him either of folly or falsehood,
that yf he could, would not make demonstration upon bimselfe of such
an admirable skill, as would have advanced him to sitt next the
greatest monarchs of the world. But itt seemes that bragg descended
from him to all his disciples (the chymicks) among whom, scarce one of
a 1000, but dyes a beggar. — Wr.
^ And therefore, ttc] Itt seemes the learned man was staggerd at
Plutarch's assertion, by mistaking the worde (polvtK, which there sig-
nifies the palm-tree (not the bird soe much talkt oflF, Vmt never aeene as
yet^. Now itt is this (pohnS,, or palm-tree, whereof Plutarch speakes,
whose fruite (sayth hee) is sweet, but breeds headach, which is most
true of the dates, which they call dactylos : the Greekes cald it
281 OF FROaS, TOADS, ASD TO.VD-STOXE. [nOOK IIT»
delivered by Plutarch,* that the brain thereof is a pleasant
bit, but that it causeth the headache. AVhicli, notwith-
standing, the luxurious emperor t could never taste, though
he had at his table many a plioenicopterus, yet had he not
one phoenix"; for though he expected and attempted it, we
read not in Lampridius that he performed it ; and, con-
sidering the unity thereof, it was a vain design, that is, to
destroy any species, or mutilate the great accomplishment
of six days. And although some conceive — and it may seem
true, that there is in man a natural possibility to destroy the
Avorld in one generation ; that is, by a general conspire to
know no woman themselves, and disable all others also, —
yet will this never be effected. And therefore Cain, after
he had killed Abel, were there no other woman living, could
not have also destroyed Eve ; which, although he had a
natural power to effect, yet the execution thereof the provi-
dence of God would have resisted ; for that would have im-
posed another creation upon him, and to have animated a
second rib of Adam.
CHAPTER XIII.
Of Frogs, Toads, and Toad-stone.
Concerning the venomous urine of toads, of the stone
in the toad's head,'' and of the generation of frogs, concep-
* De Sanitate Tuenda. + HeUogahalus.
iyK'e(l)a\ov, and the Latines cerebrum, and wee the brain. But of this
ridiculous mistake, and the occasion of itt, see that merie passage of
Muret (lib. xii. cap. xii. Variorum), worth the view, which itt seemes
this doctor had not read. — Wr.
A similar criticism occurs in the Gentleman s Magazine for 1820,
p. 420. It is very singular that these critics, especially the dean,
Bliould not have remarked that Sir Thomas was perfectly aware of this
homonymy, as he called it (page 279), and by the expression here used,
" (f strictly taken for the phcenix," he evidently means that it is not so
to be taken, but to be understood as referring to the fruit of the palm-
tree.
' Concerning, d^c.^ The story of the jewel in the toad's head, cele-
brated in Shakspeare, must be classed among fables. Toads have uni-
formly been considered objects of aversion, and very generally are be-
lieved to be venomous. On this point contrary opinions have been held
«ven by naturalists of the present day. Cuvier expressly denies it ; thi
CHAP. XIII.] OF FE0G8, TOADS, AND T0AD-3T0XE. 28-">
tions are entertained which require consideration. And
first, that a toad pisseth, and this Avay diffusetli its venom,
English editors of Cuvier's Animal Kingdom discountenance, though
they do not absolutely deny, the accusation (vol. ix. 451) ; observing
that toads are comparatitely harmless : that when surijrised, they distil
from the tubercles on the skin a white and fetid humour ; — shoot a
peculiar fluid from the anus ; and attempt to bite. But their bite occa-
sions no great inconvenience, merely producing at times a slight inflam-
mation. They assert that neither the liquid ejaculated from the anus,
nor that which oozes from the skin, is venomous ; yet they admit that,
when swallowed, these fluids have produced violent nausea, &c. M. Bosc
asserts that the same symptoms will be occasioned by putting the hand
to the nose after handling the toad. Schelhammer mentions a child
which had a severe pustulory eruption from having had a toad held
some minutes before its moutli. They describe the liquid as very
bitter, acrid, and caustic. In the 64th vol. of Tillock's Philosophical
Magazine, there is a paper, by Mr. Fothergill, on the manners and habits
of the toad, in which he professes to prove " not only its innocency,
but its usefulness." He relates many observations, proving its utility
as a destroyer of caterpillars, &c. ; — but va. proof of their harmlessness
he only offers the following expression of his own opinion. " The writer
hopes he has established the character of toads as to their usefulness ;
and that they are devoid of all poisonous or venomous qualities what-
ever, he is perfectly satisfied, fi'om many years' observation and expe-
rience, having handled them in all directions, opened their mouths, and
given them every opportunity and every provocation to exert their
venomous powers, if possessed of any." In short, he believes them to
be the most patient and harmless of all reptiles !
Dr. John Davy, in a paper read before the Royal Society, Dec. 22,
1825, asserts the accuracy of the ancient opinion, that the toad is
poisonous, but he does not appear to have made any new discovery of
importance, unless it be that the fluid, secreted on the back, and existing
in the bile, the blood, and the urine of the animal, is not injurious, much
less fatal, when absorbed and carried into circulation. Other natu-
ralists have admitted the acrid nature of the fluid, and even, in certain
cases, its deleterious effects when taken into the stomach, who maintain
that it is not venomous. On the whole. Dr. Davy does not appear to
have proved that the toad is to be classed among venomous reptiles, pro-
perly so called.
White says, " he well remembers the time, when a quack, at this vil-
lage, ate a toad to make the country people stare." He mentioned,
from undoubted authority, that "some ladies took a fancy to a toad,
which they nourished summer after summer for many years, till he grew
to a monstrous size, with the maggots which turn to flesh flies. The
reptile used to come forth every evening from a hole under the gai'den
steps, and was taken up, after supper, on the table to be fed. He fell a
sacrifice at length to a tame raven."
The fluid, ejected from the anus of toads and frogs (especially R. tein-
poraria), is not urine.
286 OF FROGS, TOADS, AND TOAD-STOXE. [cOOK Ili.
is generally received, not only witli us, but also in otlit;r
parts; for so hath Sealiger observed in his comment, Aver-
sum urinam reddere oh ociilos jjersecufoi'is per7iiciosa7?i ruri-
colis 2)e>'siiasum est ; and Matthiolus hath also a passage, that
a toad communicates its venom not only by urine, but by
the humidity and slaver of its mouth •,^ which, notwithstand-
ing, strictly understood, may admit of examination : for
some doubt may be made whether a toad properly pisseth,
that is, distinctly and separately voideth the serous excre-
tion ; for though not only birds, but oviparous quadrupeds
and serpents have kidneys and ureters, and some fishes also
bladders ; yet for the moist and dry excretion they seem at
last to have but one vent and common place of exclusion;
and with the same propriety of language we may ascribe
that action unto crows and kites. And this not only in
frogs and toads, but may be enquired in tortoises : that is,
whether that be strictly true, or to be taken for a distinct
and separate miction,^ when Aristotle affirmeth, that no ovi-
parous animal, that is, which either spawneth or layeth eggs,
doth urine, except the tortoise.
The ground or occasion of this expression might from
hence arise, that toads are sometimes observed to exclude or
spirt out a dark and liquid matter behind : ^ which we have
observed to be true, and a venomous condition there may be
perhaps therein ; but some doubt there may be, whether this
is to be called their urine, not because it is emitted aversely
* not only by urine, t£r.] A strange and horrible example of this
(toade killing by the mouth) there fel out in Dorset, not far from my
habitation. A countrywoman, having the young sonne of a great per-
son to nurse, willing to visit her reapers in the next field, but not
willing to leave the childe alone in the house asleep, took itt with her ;
and while shee distributed some drinke to the workers, layd the childe at
the foote of a barley-cock : whome, when shee came to take up ag.aine,
shoe found dade and swolen, and turning up the cloaths of the childe,
found a huge toade hanging fast on the bellicock of the child, which the
venomous beast had wholy swalowed, and by that quil diffused his
deadly poison into all the vital parts of the infant ; at which sight the
poore woman fell distracted. — Wr.
* miction.] Not in Johnson : evidently a coinage from the Latin word,
m.ingo.
' bthi^id.] And I have often seen this spirting, which the vulgar
ra,;ionally call pisying, though itt be not urine, but certainlye something
aailotricaU.- - Wr.
CHAP. XIII.] OF FROGS, TOADS, AND TOAD-STOI^E. 287
or backward by both sexes, but because it is confouiided
•with tlie intestinal excretions and egestious of the belly ;
and this way is ordinarily observed, although possible it ia
that the liquid excretion may sometimes be excluded without
the other.2
As for the stone commonly called the toad-stone, which is
presumed to be found in the head of that animal, -we first
conceive it not a thing impossible ; nor is there any sub-
stantial reason why, in a toad, there may not be found such
hard and lapideous concretions : for the like we daily ob-
serve in the heads of fishes, as cods, carps, and perches ; the
like also in snails, a soft and exosseous animal, whereof in
the naked and greater sort, as though she would requite the
defect of a shell on their back, nature, near the head,-* hath
placed a flat white stone, or rather testaceous concretion :
which, though Aldrovaudus afilrms, that after dissection of
many he found but in some few, yet of the great grey snails'*
I have not met with any that wanted it ; and the same
indeed so palpable, that without dissection it is discoverable
by the hand.
Again, though it be not impossible, yet it is surely very
rare ; as we are induced to believe from some enquiry of our
own, from the trial of many who have been deceived, and the
frustrated search of Porta, who, upon the explorement of
many, could scarce find one. Nor is it only of rarity, but
may be doubted whether it be of existency, or really any
such stone in the head of a toad at all. For although lapi-
daries and questuary enquirers affirm it, yet the writers of
minerals and natural speculators are of another belief : con-
ceiving the stones, which bear this name,^ to be a mineral
* and this way is, dx.'] This sentence was first added in the 6th edit.
3 near the head.] In the very same place on the top of the back,
where the shell of the other snayle is fastened. —Wr.
* grey snails.] I have heard itt avowched by persons of great quality,
contemporarye to the old Lord Burleigh, Lord Trea.«urer of Englande,
that hee alwayes wore a blue ribbon (next his leg, garter-wise) studded
(thick) with these shels of the grey snayles, to allaye the he.ate of the
goute, and that hee profest that hee found manifest releef in itt ; and
that yf by chance hee lefte itt oif, the paine would ever retume most
vehementlye. — Wr.
* this name.] Toadstone, or lufonite, a species of traprock, called
amygdaloid. It occurs in the traprock of Derbyshire, near Matlock.
288 OF FROOS, TOADS, ATfD TOAD-STONE. [BOOK III.
concretion, not to be found in animals, but in fields. And
therefore Boetius refers it to asteria or some kind of lapis
stellaris, and plainly concludeth, reperiuntur in agris, quos
tamen alii in annosis, ac qui din in ariindinetis, inter rubos
sentesqne delituerunt, bitfonis capitibus generari pertinaciter
affirmant.
Lastly, if any such thing there be, yet must it not, for
aught I'see, be taken as we receive it, for a loose and move-
able stone, but rather a concretion or induration of the
crany itself; for being of an earthy temper, living in the
earth, and as some say feeding thereon, such indurations
may sometimes happen. Thus when Brassavolus after a
Ion'"- search had discovered one, he affirms it was rather the
forehead bone petrified, than a stone within the crany ; and
of this belief was Glesner. Which is also much confirmed
from wdiat is delivered in Aldrovandus, upon experiment of
very many toads, whose cranies or sculls in time grew hard
and almost of a stony substance.^ All which considered, we
must with circumspection receive those stones which com-
monly bear this name, much less believe the traditions, that
in envy to mankind they are cast out, or swallowed down by
the toad ;^ which cannot consist with anatomy, and with the
rest enforced this censure from Boetius, ab eo tempore pro
niigis habui quod de bufonio lapide, ejusque origine traditur.
What therefore best reconcileth these divided determina-
tions, may be a middle opinion ; that of these stones some
may be mineral, and to be found in the eai'th, some animal,
to be met with in toads, at least by the induration of their
cranies. The first are many and manifold, to be found in
Germany and other parts ; the last are fewer in number, and
in substance not unlike the stones in crabs' heads. This is
agreeable unto the determination of Aldrovandus,* and is
also the judgment of the learned Spigeliusf in his epistle
unto Pignorius.^
But these toadstones, at least very many thereof, which
are esteemed among us, are at last found to be taken not
* De Mineral, lib. iv. t Musei Calceolariani, sect. iii.
* Which is also, tfcc] First in 2nd edition.
' toad.] See an account of a toad being found in a duck's ejfjj„
Literarj/ Panorama, Aug. 1807, p. 1083.— Jfff.
* What, thcrcfoi-e, d'c] First in 2nd editl ;i. _ .;.}
CHAP. XIII.] OF FEOQS, TOADS, AND TOAD-STOlSrE. 289
out of toads' heads, but out of a fish's mouth, bemg hand-
somely contrived out of the teeth of the lupus marinus, a
fish often taken in our northern seas, as was pubhckly de-
clared by an eminent and learned physician.* But, because
men are unwilling to conceive so low of their toad-stones
which they so highly value, they may make some trial
thereof by a candent or red-hot iron applied unto the hol-
low and unpolished part thereof, whereupon, if they be true
stones, they will not be apt to burn or afford a burnt odour,
which they may be apt to do, if contrived out of animal parts
or the teeth of fishes.^
Concerning the generation of frogs, we shall briefly
deliver that account which observation hath taught us. By
frogs I understand, not such as, arising from putrefaction,
are bred without copulation, and because they subsist not
long, are called temporaricB ; ^ nor do I mean the little frog
of an excellent parrot-gi'een, that usually sits on trees and
bushes, and is therefore called ranunciilus viridis, or arlo-
reus ; but hereby I understand the aquatUe or water-frog,
whereof, in ditches and standing plashes, we may behold
many millions every spring in England. Now these do not,
as Pliny conceiveth, exclude black pieces of flesh, which
after become frogs ; but they let fall their spawn in the
water, of excellent use in physic,^ and scarce imknown unto
any. In this spawn, of a lentous and transparent body, are
to be discerned many specks, or little conglobations, which
in a small time become of a deep black, a substance more
* Sir George Ent.
But these toad-stones, d-c] First in 6th edition.
' temporaria.] It is truly wonderful that Sir Tliomas, who was not
unacquainted with the generation of the frog, and who in this paragraph
has correctly distinguished three species, the temporaria, or common
garden-frog, the tree-frog, and the water-frog (the esculenta), should
propose a position so gratuitous and absurd as that one of these species
owes its origin to putrefaction.
* spawn in the water, <fcc.] The happiest experiment of this water,
that I ever yet saw, was at Sir Thomas Coghil's, of Bletchington ;
where hio eldest sonne, the squire (a widower) after a full liberal use of
new claret in the must, for (5) continuate days fell into such an hfemor-
raghia at the nose, as by all applications inward and outward could not
in 30 hours bee stopt ; at last, sending for the surgeon, diverted itt by
phlebotomy : the surgeon advisedly refusing to do itt, till he had given
a scruple of diascordium in that water which saved it. — Wr,
VOL. I, U
290 OF FEOGS, TOADS, AND TOAD-STOHE. [bOOK III.
compacted and terrestrious tliau the other ; for it riseth not
in distilLatiou, and aftbrds a powder when the white and
aqueous part is exhaled. Now of this black or dusky sub-
stance is the frog at last formed ; as we have beheld, includ-
ing the spawn with water in a glass, and exposing it unto
the sun. For that black and round substance, in a few days,
began to dilate and grow longer, after awhile, the head, the
eyes, the tad, to be discernible, and at last to become that
which the ancients oii^edi gyrinus,^ we a porwigle, or tadpole.'*
This in some weeks after becomes a perfect frog, the legs
growing out before, and the tail wearing away, to supply the
other behind ; as may be observed in some which have newly
forsaken the water ; for in such, some part of the tail will be
seen, but curtailed and short, not long and finny as before.
A part provided them awhile to swim and \\\o\e in the water,
that is, until such time as nature excluded legs, whereby
they might be provided not only to swim in the water, but
3 gyrimis.l This is the name of a genus of beetles.
* tadpole.] Upon tryall I found that the tayle, after the space of a
moone from the spawning, by degrees parted itt self into 2 legs, drawing
dayly more and more till itt came to the vent of the belly. This expe-
riment I made at Bishop's Fountill, Wiltes, where having digd a new
pond, in a fatty soil of white malme, upon the head of a strong spring
(the midst of October, 1625), I let it rest till February following, at
what time observing the banks full of spawne, I causd a bottomless
tubb, perforated with small holes, to bee sett in the pond, into which
I putt a great quantity of spawne, at the full of the moone watching
itt every day till the next full moone in March : by which times the
tayles being growne 2 inches (like the tayle of a bleake or small
gogeon) began visibly to grow h'lfide, and after one weeke was perfectly
shaped into 2 legs, by help whereof, they gott over the tub into the
neighbor pond, where they became an excellent food for some store of
trouts, which used to feed from my hand, and grew so large thereby,
that one of them was full 22 inches fish between the head and the tayle ;
as some worthy friends yet living can well remember, being present
both at the taking and the eating.
Since this observation of the fishye tayle of a frog cleaving into 2 legs,
T conceave that the Spaniards make a wholesome viand, and count itt a
dish fitt for a princes table : which putts mee in niinde of a storye
which I received from my brother, the new Lord Bp. of Elve, and
Count Palatine : what time following (the then) Prince Charles into
Spain by appointment, and were come into the porte at Laredo, they
•were invited by the governor to dinner, and at the second course had a
dish of the hinder legs of tluite frogs fryed, as a dainty of more esteem
with them then the patrich. — Wr.
CHAP. XIV.] OF THE SALAMATs^DER. 291
move upon the land, according to the amphibious and mixt
intention of nature, that is to live in both. So that whoever
observeth the first progression of the seed before motion, or
shall take notice of the strange indistinction of parts in the
tadpole, even when it moveth about, and how successively
the inward parts do seem to discover themselves, until their
last perfection, may easily discern the high curiosity cf
nature in these inferior animals, and what a long line is run
to make a frog.
And because many affirm and some deliver, that in regard
it hath lungs and breatheth, a frog may be easily drowned,
though the reason be probable, I find not the experiment
answerable ; for fastening one about a span under water, it
lived almost six days. Nor is it only hard to destroy one in
water, but difficult also at land : for it will live long after the
lungs and heart be out ; how long it will live in the seed, or
whether the spawn of this year being preserved, vrill not
arise into frogs in the next, might also be enquired : and we
are prepared to try.^
CHAPTEE XIV.
That a Salamander lives in the fire.
That a salamander is able to live in flames, to endure and
put out fire, is an assertion, not only of great antiquity, but
confirmed by frequent and not contemptible testimony. The
Egyptians have drawn it into their hieroglyphicks,^ Aristotle
seemeth to embrace it; more plainly Nicander, Sarenus
Sammonicus, ^Han, and Pliny, who assigns the cause of this
effect : an animal (saith he) so cold, that it extinguisheth
the fire like ice. All which notwithstanding, there is on the
negative, authority and experience ; Sextius a physician, as
Pliny delivereth, denied this effect ; Dioscorides affirmed it
a point of foUy to believe it ; Galen, that it endureth the fire
awhile, but in continuance is consumed therein. Eor expe-
* Nor is it only, <fcc.] First added in 5th edition.
* The Egyptians, <tc.] So says Pierius (p. 162, h), but without
authority. " Le lezard " is mentioned by Champollion as an Egyptian
hieroglyphick. — Precis, p. 303.
u2
292 or THE SALAMANDER. [bOOK III.
rimental convictiou, Mattbiolus affirmeth, he saw a salaman-
der burnt in a very short time ; and of the hke assertion is
Amatus Lusitanus ; and most plainly Pierius, whose words
in his hieroglyphicks are these : " Whereas it is commonly
said, that a salamander extinguisheth fire, we have found by
experience, that it is so far from quenching hot coals, that it
dyeth inmiediately therein." As for the contrary assertion
of Aristotle, it is but by hearsay, ' as common opinion be-
lieveth,' — Hcee enim {ut aiunt) ignem ingrediens eum eic-
tinguit ; and therefore, there was no absurdity in Galen,
when as a septical medicine* he commended the ashes of a
salamander ; and magicians in vain, from the power of this
tradition, at the burning of towns and houses expect a relief
from salamanders.
The ground of this opinion might be some sensible resist-
ance of fire observed in the salamander : which being, as
Galen determineth, cold in the fourth, and moist in the
third degree, and having also a mucous humidity above and
imder the skin, by virtue thereof it may awhile endure the
flame ; which being consumed it can resist no more. Such
an humidity there is observed in newts or water-lizards,
especially if their skins be perforated or pricked ; thus will
frogs and snails endure the flame ; thus will whites of eggs,
vitreous or glassy phlegm, extinguish a coal ; thus are un-
guents made which protect awhile from the fire ; and thus,
beside the Hirpini, there are later stories of men that have
passed untouched through the fire. And therefore some
truth we allow in the tradition : truth according unto Galen,
that it may for a time resist a flame, or, as iScaliger avers,
extinguish or put out a coal ; for thus much will many
humid bodies perform : but that it perseveres and Lives in
that destructive element, is a fallacious enlargement. Nor
do we reasonably conclude, because for a time it endureth
fire, it subdueth and extinguisheth the same, — because by a
cold and aluminous moisture it is able awhile to resist it,
from a peculiarity of nature it subsisteth and liveth in it.
It hath been much promoted by stories of incombustible
napkins and textures which endure the fire, whose materials
are called by the name of salamander's wool. Which many
* A cori-uptive medicine, destrcving the parts like arsenic.
CHAP. XIV.] OF THE SAIAUANDEK. 293
too literally apprehending, conceive some investing part, or
tegument of the salamander : wherein, beside that they mis-
take the condition of this animal (which is a kind of lizard, a
quadruped corticated and depilous, that is, without wool,
fur, or hair)/ they observe not the method and general rule
of nature ; whereby all quadrupeds o\dparous, as lizards,
frogs, tortoises, chameleons, crocodiles, are without hair, and
have no covering part or hairy investment at all. And if they
conceive that, from the skiu of the salamander, these in-
cremable^ pieces are composed, beside the experiments made
upon the living, that of Brassavolus will step in, who, in the
search of this truth, did biu-n the skin of one dead.
Nor is this salamander's wool desumed^ from any animal,
but a mineral substance, metaphorically so called from this
received opinion. For (besides Germanicus's heart, and
Pyrrhus's great toe, which woidd not burn with the rest of
their bodies), there are, in the number of minerals, some
bodies incombustible ; more remarkably that which the
ancients named asheston} and PanciroUus treats of in the
chapter of linum vivum. Whereof by art were weaved nap-
kins,2 shirts, and coats, inconsumable by fire ; and wherein
^ which is a Icind of lizard, <£-c.] Lacerta Salamandra, Lin. Tha
galamanders constitute a separate group among the order Batrachia,
of the class Heptilia : — divided into land and water salamanders ; to the
former of which belongs the Linnean salamander, and to the latter, the
water-lizard, or newt. It is scarcely necessary to say that the fire
story is a mere fable.
* incremable.^ Incombustible.
® desumed.] Obtained, taken from.
' asbeston.] Asheston is a mineral, of which there are five varieties ; —
1. Amianthus, or fibrous. The ancients manufactured cloth of this ; and
several moderns have succeeded in doing the same. 2. Common asbesti'.s.
3. Mountain leather, or when very thin, mountain pajxr : consists of
fibrous parts so interwoven as to become tough. 4. Momitain corJc,
or elastic asbestus : resembles the preceding, but elastic. It swims ou
water ; receives an impress-ion from the nail ; and is very tough. 5.
Mountain wood, or ligniforni asbestus, has the aspect of wood ; internal
lustre glimmering ; soft, sectile, and tough. (Ure.)
Fibres of asbestus have been employed to make lamps.
It is not, however, absolutely indestructible by fire, though it long
resists its action.
^ najjkins.] Sir Henrye Wooton (embassador att Venice almost
twenty yeares) among many other chovce rarittyes had one of these
29i OF THE AMPHISB^NA. lBOOK III.
in ancient times, to preserve their ashes pure and without
commixture, they burnt the bodies of kings. A napkin
hereof Pliny reports that Nero had ; and the like, saith
Paulus Venetus, the emperor of Tartary sent unto Pope
Alexander ; and also affirms that in some part of Tartary
there were mines of iron whose filaments were woven into
incombustible cloth. AVhich rare manufacture, although
delivered for lost by PanciroUus, yet Salmuth, his commen-
tator, affirmeth, that one Podocaterus, a Cyprian, had showed
the same at Venice ; and his materials were from Cyprus,
where indeed, Dioscorides placeth them ; the same is also
ocularly confirmed by Vives upon Austin, and Maiolus
in his Colloquies. And thus in our days do men practise to
make long-lastiag snasts^ for lamps out ofalumen jjiumosum ;
and by the same we read in Pausanias, that there always
burnt a lamp before the image of Minerva.
CHAPTER XY.
Of the Amphishcena.
That the amphisbsena, that is, a smaller kind of serpent,
which moveth forward and backward, hath two heads, or one
at either extreme, was affirmed first by Nicander, and after
by many others — by the author of the book, De Theriaca
ad Pisonem, ascribed unto Galen ; more plainly Pliny,
Geminum hahet caput, tanquam parum esset uno ore effundi
venenum ; but ^lian most confidently, who referring the
conceit of chimcera and hydra unto fables, hath set down this
as an imdeniable truth.
Whereunto whde men assent, and can believe a bicipitous
conformation in any continued species, they admit a gemi-
nation of principal parts, not naturally discovered in any
animal. True it is, that other parts in animals are not
equal ; for some make their progression with many legs,
even to the number of an hundred, as jiili, scolopendrce, or
napkins, which hee told mee hee could never gaine for moneye, till the
Duke sent him that one for a new year's gifte. — Wr.
^ i^nan/s.] Tlie burnt wicks of candles. A Norfolk provincialism.
See Fvrbys Vocab.
CHAP. XV.] OF THE AMPHISB^NA. 295
such as art termed centipedes ; some fly witli two wings, as
birds and many insects ; some with four, as all farinaceous
or mealy-winged animals, as butterflies and moths ; all vagi-
nipennous or sheath-winged insects, as beetles and dorrs ;
some have three testicles, as Aristotle speaks of the buz-
zard ; and some have four stomachs, as horned and rumi-
nating animals ; but, for the principal parts, the liver, heart,
and especially the brain, regularly they are but one in any
kind of species whatsoever.
And were there any such species or natural kind of ani-
mal, it would be hard to make good those six positions of
body, which according to the three dimensions are ascribed
unto every animal ; that is, infra, supra, ante, retro, dextror-
sum, sinistrorsum : for if (as it is determined) that be the
anterior and upper part wherein the senses are placed, and
that the posterior and lower part which is opposite there-
unto, there is no inferior or former part in this animal : for
the senses being placed at both extremes, doth make both
ends anterior, which is impossible, the terms being relative,
which mutually subsist, and are not without each other.
And therefore this duplicity was ill contrived, to place one
head at both extremes, and had been more tolerable to have
settled three or four at one. And, therefore, also, poets
have been more reasonable than philosophers, and Geryon
or Cerberus less monstrous than amphisbsena.
Again, if any such thing there were, it were not to be ob-
truded by the name of amphisbsena, or as an animal of one
denomination ; for properly that animal is not one, but mul-
tiplicious or many, which hath a duplicity or gemination of
principal parts. And this doth Aristotle define, when he
afiarmeth a monster is to be esteemed one or many, accord-
ing to its principle, which he conceived the heart ; whence
he derived the original of nerves, and thereto ascribed many
acts which physicians assign unto the brain. And therefore,
if it cannot be called one, which hath a duplicity of hearts
in his sense, it cannot receive that appellation with a plu-
rality of heads in ours. And this the practice of Christians
hath acknowledged, who have baptized these geminous births
and double connascencies, with several names, as conceiving
in them a distinction of souls, upon the divided execution of
their functions ; that is, while one wept, the other laughing ;
296 or THE AMPIITSBJENA. [bOOK III,
wliile one was silent, the other speaking ; wt'Je one awaked,
the other sleeping ; as is declared by three remarkable ex-
amples in Petrarch, Vincentius, and the Scottish history of
Buchanan.
It is not denied there have been bicipitous serpents with
the head at each extreme, for an example hereof we find in
Aristotle, and of the like form in Aldrovandus we meet with
the icon of a lizard ; and of this kind, perhaps, might that
amphisbsena be, the picture whereof Cassianus Puteus
showed unto the learned Faber."* Which double formations
do often happen unto multiparous generations, more espe-
cially that of serpents ; whose productions being numerous,
and " their eggs in chains or links together (which sometime
conjoin and inosculate mto each other), they may unite into
various shapes, and come out in mixed formations. But
these are monstrous productions, beside the intention of
natui'e, and the statvites of generation, neither begotten of
like parents, nor begetting the like again ; but, irregularly
produced, do stand as anomalies in the general book of
nature. AVhich being shifts and forced pieces, rather than
genuine and proper eliects, they afford us no illation ; nor is
it reasonable to conclude from a monstrosity unto a species,
or from accidental eftects unto the regular works of nature.
Lastly, the ground of tlie conceit was the figure of this
animal, "and motion ofttimes both ways ; for described it is
to be like a worm, and so equally framed at both extremes,
that at an ordinary distance it is no easy matter to determine
which is the head ; and therefore, some observing tliem to
move both ways, have given the appellation of lieads unto
both extremes, which is no proper and warrantable denomi-
nation ;^ for many animals, with one head, do ordinarily per-
form both different and contrary motions ; crabs move side-
ling, lobsters will swim swiftly backward, worms and leeches
•• and of thi.-i hind, <fcc.] First in 3rd edition.
* so eqiialhj framed, rf-c] This explanation is quite correct. The
aniphishcena'vi characterized by the rings of square scales which surround
its body, and i>y its tail, being nearly similar in form and size to the
head, so that it is not easy at a glance to distinguish the one from the
other, the eyes being remarkably small. They are not venomous ; and
have the power of moving both backwards and forwards — whence their
name. It is very unaccountably spelt aiiiphishoena, in (ri'ijlith's Cuvier,
and in Gray's Syuojjtsis, at the end of the 9th vol. of that work
CHAP. XVI.] COTJ^CERNTNG TIPEE3. 297
will move both ways, and so will most of those animals
whose bodies consist of round and annulary fibres, and move
by undulation ; that is, like the waves of the sea, the one
protruding the other, by inversion whereof they make a
backward motion.
Upon the same ground hath arisen the same mistake con-
cerning the scolopendra or hundred-footed insect, as is
delivered by Ehodiginus from the scholiast of Nicander:
Dicitur a Nicandro, anfiKupijQ, id est, dicephalus aut biceps
actum vero, quofiiam retrorsum {td scrihit Aristotles) arrepif,
observed by Aldrovandus, but most plainly by Muftetus,
who thus concludeth upon the text of Nicander : Tamen
pace tanti authoris dixerim, unicum illi duntaxat caput, licet
pari facilitate, p^^'^rsum capite, retrorsum ducente caudd,
incedat, quod Nicandro aliisque imposuisse dubito : that is,
under favour of so great an author, the scolopendra hath but
one head, although with equal facility it moveth forward and
backward, which I suspect deceived Nicander and others.
And therefore we must crave leave to doubt of this
double-headed serpent until we have the advantage to behold,
or have an iterated ocular testimony concerning such as are
sometimes mentioned by American relators, and also such as
Cassianus Puteus showed in a picture to Joannes Faber,
and that which is set down under the name of ampliisbcena
europcea, in his learned discourse upon Hernandez' s History
of America.^
CHAPTER XYI.
That young Vipers force their way through the boivels of their Dam,
That the young vipers force their way through the bowels
of their dam, or that the female viper, in the act of genera-
tion, bites off the head of the male, in revenge whereof the
young ones eat through the womb and belly of the female,
is a very ancient tradition ; in this sense entertained in the
hieroglyphicks of the Egyptians ;'' affirmed by Herodotus,
Nicander, Pliny, Plutarch, Julian, Jerome, Basil, Isidore ;
® And therefore, <t-c.] First added in 6th edition.
^ m this sense, <Lx.~\ Also from Pierius, 143, c. and HorapoUo, 115.
298 CONCEENINO VIPERS. [BOOK III.
seems countenanced by Aristotle and his scholar Theo-
phrastus : from hence is commonly assigned the reason why
tlie Eomaus punished parricides by drowning them in a sack
with a viper. And so perhaps, upon the same opinion, the
men of Melita, when they saw a viper upon the hand of
Paul, said presently, without conceit of any other sin, " JN^o
doubt this man is a murderer, who, though he have escaped
the sea, yet vengeance suftereth him not to live :" that is,
he is now paid in his own way, the parricidous animal and
punishment of murderers is upon him. And though the
tradition were cuiTent among the Greeks, to confirm the
same, the Latin name is introduced, Vipera quasi vi pariat.
That passage also in the gospel, " ye generation of vipers !"
hath found expositions which countenance this conceit.
Notwithstanding which authorities, transcribed relations
and conjectures, upon enquiry we find the same repugnant
unto experience and reason.^
And first, it seems not only injurious unto the providence
of nature, to ordain a way of production which should de-
stroy the producer, or contrive the continuation of the spe-
cies by the destruction of the continuator, but it overthrows
and frustrates the great benediction of God, " God blessed
them, saying, be fruitful and nudtiply." Now, if it be so
ordained that some must regularly perish by multiplication,
and these be the fruits of fructifying in the viper, it cannot
be said that God did bless, but curse, this animal ; " Upon
thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all thy life,"
was not so great a punishment unto the serpent after the
fall, as " increase, be fruitful, and multiply," was, before.
This were to confound tlie maledictions of God, and trans-
late the curse of the woman upou the serpent ; that is, in
dolore paries, " in sorrow shalt thou bring forth ;" which,
being proper unto the woman, is verified best in the Adper,
whose delivery is not only accompanied with pain, but also
* and reason.^ Honest master Ross is very pertinacious in his oppo-
Bition to the arguments of our author, as to tlie improbability and
unreasonableness of the vulgar tenet respecting the viper — that it loses
its own life in giving life to its progeny ; and in some lespects he
opposes them with some plausibility. (See Arcana, page 149.) For
there are not wanting parallels and well-authenticated cases in which
the act of propagation is fatal : though in the present ca.se it is not so.
CHAP. XVI.] CONCEEKING TIPERS. 299
with death itself. And lastly, it overthrows the careful
course and parental provision of nature, whereby the young
ones newly excluded are sustained by the dam, and pro-
tected until they grow up to a sufficiency for themselves.
All which is perverted in this eruptive generation ; for the
dam being destroyed, the younglings are left to their own
protection; which is not conceivable they can at all perform,
and whereof they afford us a remarkable confirmance many
days after birth : for the young ones, supposed to break
through the belly of the dam, ■will, upon any fright, for pro-
tection run into it ; for then the old one receives them in at
her mouth, which way, the friglit being past, they will return
again ;^ which is a peculiar way of refuge, and although it
® will upon any fright, cf-c] This is admitted to be true of the rattle-
snake, but denied of the viper. I subjoin two passages from Cuvier, by
Griffith, vol. ix. pp. 344, 356.
" The crotali are viviparous ; at Martinique it is the general per-
suasion that the offspring are eaten by the vipers when they are very
young, and a little after their birth. According to M. Palisot de
Beauvois, this prejudice derives its origin from a fact wrongly inter-
preted. In the first journey made by this naturalist, in the country of
the native Te/iarlohe, he saw a crotalns horridus in a path, and ap-
proached it as softly as possible. At the moment when it was about to
be struck, the animal agitated its rattles, opened a wide throat, and
received into it five little ones, about as thick each as a goose-quill. But
at the end of ten minutes, believing itself out of danger, it opened its
mouth again and let the young ones out, which, however, entered there
again, on the appearance of a new danger. M. Guillemart, a counti-y-
man of our own, has verified the same fact."
" In the fine days of early spring, the vipers may be seen basking in
the morning sun, on little hills exposed to an eastern aspect, and they
speedily occupy themselves in the great work of propagating their
species. The act of generation takes a very long time in its accomplish-
ment, and its result is the vivification of from twelve to twenty-five eggs,
almost as large as these of wrens or titmice. These exclude the young,
in the womb of the mother, and there they remain coiled up, and come
to the length of three or four inches before they issue forth, which they
generally do in the course of the fourth month after fecundation.
Having thus, by a sort of parturition, quitted their mother, the young
vipers, for some time after, carry with them the remains of the egg
which enclosed them, and which then have the appearance of irregularly
toi-n membranes. But from that time they are entirely strangers ;0 the
being which gave them birth, and do not seek refuge in her mouth, oi
the approach of danger, as the ancients erroneously imagined."
This resemblance of the remains of the egg which the young vipers
BOO coiTCERXi!ra ttpees. [book hi.
seem strange, is avowed by fre-quent experience and unde-
niable testimony.'
As for the experiment, although we have thrice attempted
it, it hath not well succeeded ; for though we fed them with
milk, bran, cheese, &c. the females always died before the
young ones were mature for this eruption ; but rest suiii-
ciently confirmed in the experiments of worthy enquirers.
AVherein to omit the ancient conviction of ApoUouius, we
shall set dowTi some few of modern writers. The first, of
Amatus Lusitanus, in his comment upon Dioscorides, Vidi-
vucs nos viperas pt'cpf/nanfes inclusas pixidibiis parere, quce
carry about with them, to " irregularly torn membranes," may possibly
have promoted the popular error under discussion. White has the fol-
lowing remarks.
" Though they are oviparous, yet they are viviparous also, hatching
their young within their bellies, and then bringing them forth.
Whereas snakes lay chains of eggs every summer in my melon-beds, in
spite of all that my people can do to prevent them ; which eggs do not
hatch till the spring following, as I have often exjjerienced. Several
intelligent folks assure me that they have seen the viper open her mouth
and admit her helpless young down her throat on sudden surprises, just
as the female opossum does her brood into the pouch under her belly,
upon the like emergencies ; and yet the London viper-catchers insist on
it, to Mr. Barrington, that no such thing ever happens."
" On August the 4th, 1775, we surprised a large viper, which
seemed very heavy and bloated, as it lay in the gi-ass basking in the sun.
When we came to cut it up, we found that the abdomen was crowded
with young, fifteen in number ; the shortest of which measured full seven
inches, and were about the size of full-grown earth-worms. This little
fi-y issued into the world with the true viper-spirit about them, showing
great alertness as soon as disengaged from the belly of the dam : they
twisted and wriggled about, and set themselves up, and gaped very wide
when touched with a stick, showing manifest tokens of menace and
defiance, though as yet they had no manner of fangs that we could find,
even with the help of our glasses."
"There was little room to suppose that this brood had ever been in
the open air before ; and that they were taken in for refuge, at the
mouth of the dam, when she perceived that danger was approaching ;
because then probably we should have found them somewhere in the
neck, and not in the alxlomen."
' undeniable teafiinon,!/.] Particularly by Scaliger, Exercit. 101,
i% avTotpicf. The like is sayde of the weasel, that shee brings forth at
the inouth, bycause they saw her remove her young ones with her
mouth. And that Juno turned Galanthis, Alcmena's mayd, into a
weasel, elg rr)v ■)a\i)i', bycause shee had cousened her with a lye, that
her mistress was brought a bed. — Wr,
CHAP. XTI.] CONCERNING TIPEBS. 801
inde ex partu nee '^nortuce, nee visceribus perforated manse-
runt. The second is that of Scaliger, Viperas ab impatien-
tihus morcB foetihus numerosissimis rumpi atque interire,fal-
sum esse scimus, qui in Vinceniii Camerini circulatoris lignea
theca vidimus enatas viperellas, parente salvd. The last,
and most plain of Franciscus Bustamantinus, a Spanish
physician of Alcala de Henares, whose words, in his third
De Animantibus Scripturce, are these : Ctim verb per me etper
alios liCBC ipsa disquisissem servatd viperina progenie, Sfc.
that is, when by myself and others, I had enquired the trutli
hereof, including vipers in a glass, and feeding them with
cheese and bran, I undoubtedly found, that the viper was not
delivered by the tearing of her bowels ; but 1 beheld the
young ones excluded by the passage of generation, near the
orifice of the siege.^ "Whereto we might also add the ocular
confirmation of Lacuna upon Dioscorides, I'erdinandus
Imperatus, and that learned physician of Naples, Aurelius
Severinus.^
Now, although the tradition be untrue, there wanted not
many grounds which made it plausibly received. The first
was, a I'avourable indulgence and special contrivance of na-
ture, which was the conceit of Herodotus, who thus delivereth
himself : — " Fearful animals, and such as serve for food,
nature hath made more fruitful ; but upon the offensive and
noxious kind she hath not conferred fertility. So the hare,
that becometh a prey unto man, unto beasts, and fowls of the
air, is fruitful even to superfoetation ; but the lion, a fi.erce
and ferocious animal, hath young ones but seldom, and also
but one at a time. Vipers indeed, although destructive, are
fruitful ; but, lest their numbers should increase, ProAadence
hath contrived another way to abate it ; for in copulation the
female bites off the head of the male, and the yoimg ones
destroy the mother." But this will not consist with reason,
as we have declared before. And if we more nearly consider
the condition of vipers and noxious animals, we shall discover
another higher provision of nature : how, although in then-
paucity she hath not abridged their malignity, yet hath she
notoriously effected it by their secession or latitancy. For not
'^ I undoubtedly fownd, etc.] This is perfectly correct. See note 9,
p. 299.
' Whejeto, <fcc.] First added in 3rd edition.
302 CONCERNING VIPEES. [bOOK III.
only offensive insects, as liornets, wasps, and the like, but
sanguineous corticated animals, as serpents, toads, and lizards,
do lie hid and betake themselves to coverts in the winter.
Whereby most countries enjoying the immunity of Ireland
and Candy, there ariseth a temporal security from their
venoms, and an intermission of their mischiefs, mercifully
requiting the time of their activities.
A second ground of this effect was conceived, the justice
of nature, whereby she compensates the death of the father
by the matricide or murder of the mother ; and this was
the expression of Nicander. But the cause hereof is as
improbable as the effect ; and were indeed an improvident
revenge in the young ones, whereby in consequence, and upon
defect of provision, they must destroy themselves. And
whereas he expresseth this decollation of the male by so full
a term as cnroKoTrTeir, that is, to cut or lop off, the act is
hardly conceivable ; for the female viper hath but two con-
siderable teeth, and those so disposed, so slender and needle-
pointed, that they are apter for puncture than any act of
incision. And if any like action there be, it may be only
Bome fast retention or sudden compression in the orgasmus
or fury of their lust, according as that expression of Horace
is construed concerning Lydia and Telephus ;
Sive puer furens,
Impressit memorem dente labris notam.
Others ascribe this effect unto the numerous conception
of the viper ; and this was the opinion of Theophrastus ; who,
though he denieth the exesion or forcing through the belly,
conceiveth nevertheless that, upon a full and plentiful imple-
tion there may, perhaps, succeed a disruption of the matrix,
as it happeneth sometimes in the long and slender fish acus.*
Now, although in hot countries, and very numerous concep-
tions, in the viper or other animals, there may sometimes
ensue a dilaceration of the genital parts, yet is this a rare
and contingent etfect, and not a natural and constant way of
exclusion. For tlie wise Creator hath formed the organs of
auimals unto their operations, and in whom he ordaineth a
* Needle-fish ; found sometimes upon the sea-sliore, consisting of
four lines unto the vent, and six from thence unto the head.
CHAP. XVI.] CuIfCERNIXa TJPERS. 303
numerous conception, in them he hath prepared convenient
receptacles, and a suitable way of exclusion.
Others do ground this disruption upon their continued or
protracted time of delivery, presumed to last twenty days ;
whereat, excluding but one a day, the latter brood, impatient,
by a forcible proruption anticipate their period of exclusion;
and this was the assertion of Pliny, Cceteri tarditatis inipati-
entes prorumpunt latera, occisd parente ; v;\\Kh. was occa-
sioned upon a mistake of the Grreek text in Aristotle, tIktei ce
ii' jiia. iji^iepa KaO f c, tiktei ce ttAe/w ») EiKoair, which are literally
thus translated, Parit autem una die secundum unum, parit
aiitem plures qioam viginti, and may be thus Englished:
" She bi-ingeth forth in one day, one by one, and sometimes
more than twenty :" and so hath Scaliger rendered it,
Sigillatim parit, absolvit una die, interdum plures quam
viqinti ; but Pliny, whom Gaza followeth, hath differently
translated it, Singulos diehus singulis parit, numero fere vi-
ginti ; whereby he extends the exclusion unto twenty days,
which in the textuary sense is fully accomplished in one.
But what hath most advanced it, is a mistake in another
text of Aristotle, which seemeth directly to determine this
disruption, tiktei juiKpa i^icEia ei> vniaiv, a1 irEpippljyvojrrui
TpiToioi, krioTt iiE /cat ECTioBey ciafayoi'TCi aura it,ip\ETai, which
Gaza hath thus translated: Parit catulos ohvolutos memhranis,
quce tertio die rumpuntur, evenit interdum ut qui in utero ad-
huo sunt abrosis membranis prorumpant. Now herein pro-
bably Pliny, and many since have been mistaken ; for the
disruption of the membranes or skins, which include the
young ones, conceiving a dilaceration of the matrix and beUy
of the viper ; and concluding, from a casual dilaceration, a
regular and constant disruption.
As for the Latin word, vipera, which in the etymology of
Isidore promoteth this conceit, more properly it may imply
vivipera.^ For whereas other serpents lay eggs,^ the viper
excludeth living animals ; and though the cerastes be also
viviparous, and we have found formed snakes in the beUy of
the coecilia or slow-worm, yet may the viper emphatically
* As for the Latin word, <fcc.] The correct derivation of the word is
here assigned.
* ^gs.'\ That the eele is vivipara, see my demonstrative note 1,
Bupra, p. 281.
304 CONCERNING VIPEES, [bOOK III,
bear the uame For the notation or etymology is not of
necessity adequate unto the name ; and therefore, though
animal be deduced from aiiima, yet are there many anima-
tions beside, and plants will challenge a right therein as
well as sensible creatures.
As touching the texts of Scripture, and compellation of
the Pharisees by " generation of vipers," although construc-
tions be made hereof conformable to this tradition, and it
may be plausibly expounded, that out of a viperous condition
they conspired against their prophets and destroyed their
spiritual parents ; yet (as Jansenius observeth) Gregory and
Jerome do make another construction; appi-ehending thereby
what is usually implied by that proverb, Mali corvi, malum
ovum; that is, "of evil parents, an evil generation," a pos-
terity not unlike their majority, of mischievous progenitors
a venomous and destructive progeny.
And lastly, concerning the hieroglyphical account, accord-
ing to the vulgar conception set down by Orus Apollo, the
authority thereof is only emblematical ; for were the concep-
tion true or false, to their apprehensions it expressed filial
impiety -.^ which strictly taken, and totally received for truth,
might perhaps begin, but surely promote this conception.
More doubtful assertions have been raised of no animal
than the viper, as we have dispersedly noted ; and Francisco
Eedi hath amply discovered in his noble observations of
vipers :'' from good reasons and iterated experiments affirm-
ing, that a viper containeth no humour, excrement, or part
which, either drank or eat, is able to kill any ; that the re-
morsores or dog-teeth, are not more than two in either sex ;
that these teeth are hollow, and tliough they bite and prick
therewith, yet are they not venomous, bvit only open a way
and entrance unto the poison, which not\\-ith standing is not
poisonous except it touch or attain luito the blood ; and that
there is no otlier poison in this animal, but only that almost
insipid liquor like oil of almonds, which stagnates in the
sheaths and cases that cover the teeth ; and that this pro-
* it CTpre.ssed flkd impiety.'] Correct, so far as the vulgar conception
set down by Orus Apollo, 115. See Champollion, Precis, p. 303.
'' Francisco Redi, <f'c.] Redi's experiments, as detailed in this para-
gr.iph, have been confirmed by later observations.
CHAP. XTII.] HAEES BOTH MALE AND FEMALE. 305
ceeds not from the bladder of gall, but is rather generated in
the head, and perhaps demitted and sent from thence into
these cases by salival conduits and passages, which the head
communicateth unto them.^
CHAPTEE XVII.
That Hares are loth male and female.
The double sex of single hares, or that every hare is both
male and female, beside the vulgar opruion, was the affirma-
tive of .Aj-chelaus, of Plutarch, Philostratus, and many more.
Of the same belief have been the Jewish rabbins. The
same is likewise confirmed from the Hebrew word, * which,
as though there were no single males of that kind, hath only
obtained a name of the feminine gender. As also from the
symbolical foundation of its prohibition in the law,t and
what vices therein it figured ; that is, not only pusillanimity
and timidity from its temper, feneration^ or usury from its
foecundity and superfetation, but from this mixture of sexes,
unnatural venery and degenerous eifemination.' Nor are
there hardly any who either treat of mutation or mixtion of
sexes, who have not left some mention of this point ; some
speaking positively, others dubiously, and most resigning
it unto the enquiry of the reader. Now hereof to speak
distinctly, they must be male and female by mutation and
succession of sexes, or else by composition, mixture, or union
thereof.
As for the mutation of sexes, or transition into one another,
we cannot deny it in hares, it being obsers^able in man. For
hereof, beside Empedocles or Tiresias, there are not a few
examples : and though very few, or rather none which have
emasculated or turned women, yet very many, who from an
esteem or reality of being women, have iniallibly proved men.
* Arnabeth. + Levit. ii,
* More doubtful, tfcc] This paragi-aph was first added in 6th edition.
' feneration.^ Usury.
' Of the same belief, <£*c.] This passage was first added in the 3rd
edition.
VOL. I. X
306 HAEES BOTff Mj^LE AND FEMALE. [bOOK ITI.
Some at the first point of their menstruous eruptions ; some
in the day of their marriagr? ; others many years after, which
occasioned disputes at law, and contestations concerning a
restore of the dowry. And that not only mankind, but many
other animals, may suffer this transexion, we will not deny,
or hold it at all impossible ; although I confess, by reason of
the postick and backward position of the feminine parts in
quadrupeds, they can hardly admit the substitution of a
protrusion effectual unto masculine generation, except it be
in retromingents, and such as couple backward.
Nor shall we only concede the succession of sexes in some,
but shall not dispute the transition of reputed species in
others ; that is, a transmutation, or (as Paracelsians term it)
transplantation of one into another. Hereof in perfect
animals of a congenerous seed, or near affinity of natures,
examples are not unfrequent, as in horses, asses, dogs, foxes,
pheasants, cocks, &c., but in imperfect kinds, and such, where
the discrimination of sex is obscure, these transformations
are more common, and in some within themselves without
commixion, as particularly in caterpillars or silkworms,
wherein there is a visible and triple transfiguration. But in
plants, whei'ein there is no distinction of sex, these trans-
plantations are conceived more obvious than any ; as that of
barley into oats, of wheat into darnel ; and those grains
which generally arise among corn, as cockle, aracus, cegilops,
and other degenerations, which come up in unexpected
shapes, when they want the support and maintenance of the
primary and master-forms. And the same do some affirm
concerning other plants in less analogy of figures ; as the
mutation of mint into cresses, basil into serpoil, and turnips
into radishes. In all which, as Severinus* conceivetli, there
may be equivocal seeds and hermaphroditical principles,
which contain the radicality and power of different forms ;
tlnis in tlie seed of wheat their lieth obscurely tlie seminality
of darnel, although in a secondary or inferior way, and at
some distance of production ; which, nevertheless, if it meet
with convenient promotion, or a conflux and conspiration of
causes more powerful than the other, it then beginneth to
edify in chief, and contemning tlie superintendent form,
produceth the signatures of itself.
* In Idea Medicince Philoaophica.
CHAP. XVII.] HAEES BOTH MALE AND FEMALE. 307
Now therefore, althougli we deny not these several muta-
tions, and do allow that hares may exchange their sex,^ yet
this we conceive doth come to pass but sometimes, and not
in that vicissitude or annual alternation as is presumed : that
is, from imperfection to perfection, from perfection to im-
perfection; from female unto male, from male to female
again, and so in a circle to both, without a permansion in
either. For beside the inconceivable mutation of temper,
which should yearly alternate the sex, this is injiu-ious unto
the order of nature, whose operations do rest in the perfec-
tion of their intents, which, having once attained, they
maintain their accomplished ends, and relapse not again
into their progressional imperfections. So if, in the minority
of natural vigour, the parts of seminality take place, when
upon the increase or growth thereof the masculine appear,
the first design of nature is achieved, and those parts are
after maintained.
But surely it much impeacheth tliis iterated transexion of
hares, if that be true which Cardan and other physicians
affirm, that transmutation of sex is only so in opinion ; and
that these transfeminated persons were really men at first,
although succeeding years produced the manifesto or evi-
dence of their virilities: which, although intended and formed,
was not at first excluded ; and that the examples hereof have
undergone no real or new transexion, but were androgynally
born, and under some kind of hermaphrodites. For though
Galen do favour the opinion, that the distinctive parts of
sexes are only difierent in position, that is inversion or pro-
trusion, yet will this hardly be made out from the anatomy
of those parts ; the testicles being so seated in the female,
that they admit not of protrusion, and the neck of the
matrix wanting those parts which are discoverable in the
organ of virility.
The second, and most received acception is, that hares
are male and female by conjunction of both sexes, and such
as are found in mankind, poetically called hermaphrodites ;
supposed to be formed from the equality, or non victorie of
' aex.] Why may not the sex seem to change in hares rather than in
men? Frequent storyes wee have of some taken for maydes till rice
age or marriage have discovered the instruments of the male to have
been but hidden. — Wr.
x2
308 HAKES BOTH MALE AND TEMALE. [bOOK III.
either seed ; carrying about them the parts of man and
woman although with great variety in perfection, site, and
ability, not only as Aristotle conceived, with a constant im-
potency in one, but as later observers afiirm, sometimes with
ability of either venery. And therefore the providence of
some laws have thought good, that at the years of maturity
they should elect one sex, and the errors in the other should
suffer a severer punishment. Whereby, endeavouring to
prevent incontinency, they unawares enjoined perpetual
chastity ; for being executive in both parts, and confined
unto one, they restrained a natural power, and ordained a
partial virginity. Plato, and some of the rabbins, proceeded
higher, who conceived the first man an hermaphrodite ; and
Marcus Leo, the learned Jew, in some sense hath allowed
it ; aflirming that Adam in one suppositum, without division,
contained both male and female. And therefore, whereas it
is said in the text, that '' God created man in his own image,
in the image of Grod created he him, male and female created
he them :" applying the singular and plural unto Adam, it
might denote, that in one substance, and in himself he in-
cluded both sexes, which was after divided, and the female
called woman. The opinion of Aristotle extendeth farther,
from whose assertion all men should be hermaphrodites ; for
afiirming that women do not spermatize, and confer a place
or receptacle rather than essential principles of generation,
he deductively includes both sexes in mankind ; for from
the father proceed not only males and females, but from him
also must hermaphroditical and masculo-feminine generations
be derived, and a commixion of both sexes arise from the
seed of one. But the schoolmen have dealt with that sex
more hardly than any other ; who, though they have not
ranch disputed their generation, yet have they controverted
their resurrection, and raised a query, whether any at the last
day should arise in the sex of women ; as may be observed
in the supplement of Aquinas.
Now, as we must acknowledge this androgynal* condition
in man, so can we not deny the like doth happen in beasts.
Thus do we read in Pliny, that Ntro's chariot was drawn by
four hermaphroditical mares ; and Cardan affirms, he also
beheld one at Antwerp. And thus may we also concede, that
* Consisting of man iiiid woman.
C'.TAP. XVI r.] HABES BOTH MALE AKD FEMALE, 309
hares have been of both sexes, and some have ocularly con-
firmed it ; but that the whole species or kind should be
bisexous or double-sexed, we cannot affirm, who have found
the parts of male and female respectively distinct and single
in any wherein we have enquired ; and the like success had
Bacchiaus in such as he dissected.* And whereas it is con-
ceived, that being an harmless animal, and delectable food
unto man, nature hath made them with double sexes, that
actively and passively performiug, they might more nume-
rously increase, we forget an higher providence of nature
whereby she especially promotes the multiplication of hares,
which is by superfetation ; that is, a conception upon a con-
ception, or an improvement of a second fruit before the first
be excluded ; preventing hereby the usual intermission and
vacant time of generation, which is very common and fre-
quently observable in hares, mentioned long ago by Aris-
totle, Herodotus, and Pliny ; and we have often observed,
that after the first cast, there remain successive conceptions,
and other younglings very immature, and far from their
term of exclusion.
Nor need any man to question this in hares, for the same
we observe doth sometime happen in women : for although
it be true, that upon conception the inward orifice of the
matrix exactly closeth, so that it commonly admitteth nothing
after, yet falleth it out sometime, that in the act of coition,
the avidity of that part dilateth itself, and receiveth a second
burden ; which if it happen to be near in time unto the first,
they do commonly both proceed unto perfection, and have
legitimate exclusions, periodically succeeding each other:
but if the superfetation be made with considerable inter-
mission, the latter most commonly proves abortive ; for the
first beiug confirmed, engrosseth the aliment from the other.
However, therefore, the project of Julia seems very plausible,
and that way infallible, when she received not her passengers
before she had taken in her lading, yet was there a fallibility
therein ; nor indeed any absolute security in the policy of
adultery after conception : for the matrix (which some have
called another animal within us, and which is not subjected
unto the law of our will), after reception of its proper tenant,
may yet receive a strange and spurious inmate : as is cou-
* Bacch. de Hermaphroditia.
310 HABES BOTH MALE A5fD TElfALE. [bOOK III.
firmable by many examples in Pliny ; by Larisssea in Hip-
pocrates, and that merry one in Plantus urged also by
Aristotle ; that is, of Iphicles and Hercules, the one begat
by Jupiter, the othfer by Amphitryon upon Alcmsena ; as
also in those superconceptions, where one child was like the
father, the other like the adulterer ; the one favoured the
servant, the other resembled the master.
Now the grounds that begat, or much promoted the opi-
nion of a double sex in hares, might be some little bags or
tumours, at first glance representing stones or testicles, to
be found in both sexes about the parts of generation ; which
men observing in either sex, were induced to believe a mas-
culine sex in both. But to speak properly, these are no tes-
ticles or parts official unto generation, but glandulous sub-
stances that seem to hold the nature of emunctories. For
herein may be perceived slender perforations, at which may
be expressed a black and fseculent matter. If therefore
from these, we shall conceive a mixtion of sexes in hares,
with fairer reason we may conclude it in beavers ; whereof
both sexes contain a double bag or tvmiour in the groin,
commonly called the cod of castor, as we have delivered
before.
Another ground were certain holes or cavities observable
about the siege ; which being perceived in males, made some
conceive there might be also a feminine nature in them.
And upon this very ground, the same opinion hath passed
upon the hyaena, and is declared by Ai'istotle, and thus
translated by Scaliger : Qmd autem aiunt utriusque sexus
habere genitalia, falsum est ; quod videtur esse fcemineum sub
Cauda, est simile figurd fceminino, verum pervium non est ;
and thus is it also in hares, in whom these holes, although
they seem to make a deep cavity, yet do they not perforate
the skin, nor hold a community with any part of generation ;
but were (as Pliny delivereth) esteemed the marks of their
age, the number of those deciding their number of years. In
which opinion what truth there is we shall not contend ; for
if in other animals there be authentic notations, if the cha-
racters of years be found in the horns of cows, or in the
antlers of deer; if we conjecture the age of horses from
joints in their docks, and undeniably presume it from their
teeth, we cannot affirm, there is in this conceit any affront
CHAP. XVn.] HAEES BOTH MALE AND FEMALE. 311
unto nature; although, whoever enquirefch shall find no
assurance therein.
The last foundation was retromingency or pissing back-
ward ; for men observing both sexes to urine backward, or
aversely between their legs, they might conceive there was
a feminine part in both ; wherein they are deceived by the
ignorance of the just and proper site of the pizzle, or part
designed unto the excretion of urine : which in the hare
holds not the common position, but is aversely seated, and in
its distention inclines unto the coccyx or scut. ISTow from
the nature of this position, there ensueth a necessity of re-
trocopulation,^ which also promoteth the conceit : for some
observing them to couple without ascension, have not been
able to judge of male or female, or to determine the proper
sex in either. And to speak generally, this way of copula-
tion is not appropriate unto hares, nor is there one, but
many ways of coition, according to divers shapes and dif-
ferent conformations. For some couple laterally or side-
wise, as worms : some circularly or by complication, as ser-
pents : some pronely, that is, by contaction of the ventral
parts in both, as apes, porcupines, hedgehogs, and such as
are termed mollia, as the cuttle-fish and the purple ; some
mixtly, that is, the male ascending the female, or by appli-
cation of the ventral parts of the one, unto the postick parts
of the other, as most quadrupeds : some aversely, as all crus-
tacious animals, lobsters, shrimps, and crevises, and also re-
tromingents, as panthers, tigers, and hares."* This is the
constant law of their coition, this they observe and trans-
gress not : only the vitiosity of man hath acted the varieties
hereof; nor content with a digression from sex or species,
hath in his own kind run through the anomalies of venery ;
and been so bold, not only to act, but represent to view, the
irregular ways of lust.
' retrocopulation.] Which is true in lions alsoe, and partlye in does.
— Wr.
* hares.] Hares and lions : which I sawe at the tower, and re-
member itt is specified expresly by Aristotle of them. — Wr.
312 THAT MOLES AEE BLIND. [bOOK III-i
CHAPTER XYIII.
That Moles are blind.
That moles are blind and have no eyes,^ though a common
opinion, is received with miicli variety ; some affirming only
they have no sight, as Oppianus, the proverb talpa ccecior,
and the word mzaXayJ-a, or talpitas, which in Hesychius is
made the same with ccecitas ; some that they have eyes, but
no sight, as the text of Aristotle seems to apply ; some
neither eyes nor sight, as Albertus, Pliny, and the vulgar
opinion ; some both eyes and sight, as Scaliger, Aldrovandus,
and some others. Of which opinions, the last, with some
restriction, is most consonant mito truth ; for that they have
eyes in their head, is manifested luito any that wants them
not in his own ; and are discoverable, not only in old ones,
but as we have observed in young and naked conceptions,
taken out of the belly of the dam. And he that exactly en-
quires into the cavity of their cranies, may perhaps discover
^ That moles are blind, <fr.] The eyes of the mole are so extremely
minute, and so perfectly hid in its hair, that it is not wonderful if
careless and casual observers have pronounced it blind. — Still less is it
wonderful, that so absurd a personage as Alexander Ross, should have
declared them to be but "forms of eyes," given by nature "rather for
ornament than use ; as wings are given to the ostrich, which never
flies, and a long tail to the rat, which serves for no other use but to be
catched sometimes by it!" — Arc. 151.
"It appears," however, observe the editors of Cuvier's Animal
Kingdom, "that this animal was not known to the ancients, who have
been veiy wrongfully accused of having fallen into the gross error of
supposing that the mole had no eyes. Aristotle, it is true, in two
places of his Histoi-y of Animals, repeats this assertion. But the re-
searches of modern times have ascertained that this illustrious naturalist
was perfectly right in refusing the organs of vision to tlie mole of his
native country, to the oKuXat or aah-aXat, of ancient Greece. There
does, in fact, exist, in that country, a little subterraneous animal totally
deprived of sight : naturalists have only recently become acquainted
with it, and have designated it under the appellation of the rat-mole.
They have been obliged to confess, after many ages of injustice towards
the ancients, that these last had truth altogether on tlieir side, with
regard to the mole known in Greece, and had correctly observed, that
this animal was not only completely blind, but did not possess even
the smallest rudiment of an external eye."- -Vol. ii. p. 197.
CHAP. XVIII.] THAT MOLES ARE BLIND; 313
some propagation of nerves communicated unto these parts.
But that the humours, together with their coats, are also
distinct (though Gralen seem to affirm it), transcendeth our
discovery ; for separating these little orbs, and including
them in magnifying glasses, we discerned* no more than
Aristotle mentions, rw»' 6(p6a\jj.Cjv niXaiya, that is, a black
humour, nor any more if they be broken. That therefore
they have eyes, we must of necessity affirm ; but that they
be comparatively incomplete, we need not to deny : so Galen
affirms the parts of generation in women are imperfect, in
respect of those of men, as the eyes of moles in regard of
other animals : so Aristotle terms them Trrjpovfxei'ovc, which
Gaza translates ohlcesos, and Scaliger by a word of imper-
fection, inchoatos.
Now as that they have eyes is manifest unto sense ; so
that they have sight, not incongruous unto reason ; if we call
not in question the providence of this provision, that is, to
assign the organs, and yet deny the office ; to grant them
eyes, and withhold all manner of vision. For as the infer-
ence is fair, affirmatively deduced from the action to the
organ, that they have eyes because they see ; so is it also
from the organ to the action, that they have eyes, therefore
some sight designed, if we take the intention of natiu-e in
every species, and except the casual impediment, or morbo-
sities in individuals. But as their eyes are more imperfect
than others, so do we conceive of their sight or act of vision,
for they will run against things, and huddling forwards fall
from high places. So that they are not blind, nor yet dis-
tinctly see ; there is in them no cecity, yet more than a
cecutiency ; they have sight enough to discern the light,
though not perhaps to distinguish of objects or colours ; so
are they not exactly blind, for light is one object of vision.
And this (as Scaliger observeth) might be as full a sight as
nature first intended, for living in darkness under the earth,
they had no further need of eyes than to avoid the light ;
and to be sensible whenever they lost that darkness of earth,
which was their natural confinement. And therefore, how-
ever translators do render the word of Aristotle or Galen,
that is imperfectos, ohlcesos, or inchoatos, it is not much con-
siderable ; for their eyes are sufficiently begun to finish this
action, and competently periect for this imperfect vision.
314 THAT MOLES AKTl BLIND. [bOOK lit.
And lastly, although they had neither eyes nor sight, yet
could they not be termed blind. For blindness being a pri-
vate term unto sight,^ this appellation is not admittible in
propriety of speech, and will overthrow the doctrine of pri-
vations ; which presuppose positive forms or habits, and are
not indefinite negations, denying in all subjects, but such
alone wherein the positive habits are in their proper nature,
and placed without repugnancy. So do we improperly say a
mole is blind, if we deny it the organs or a capacity of vision
from its created nature ; so when the text of John had
said, that person was blind from his nativity, whose cecity
our Saviour cured, it was not warrantable in Nonnus to say
he had no eyes at all, as in the judgment of Heinsius, he de-
scribeth in his paraphrase ; and as some ancient fathers
affirm, that by this miracle they were created in him. And
so though the sense may be accepted, that proverb must be
candidly interpreted, which maketh fishes mute ; and calls
them silent which have no voice in nature.
Now this conceit is erected upon a misapprehension or
mistake in the symptoms of vision ; men confounding abo-
lishment, diminution, anc" depravement, and naming that an
abolition of sight, which indeed is but an abatement. For
if vision be abolished, it is called ccecitas, or blindness ; if
depraved, and receive its objects erroneously, hallucination ;
if diminished, hehetudo visus, caligatio, or dimness. Now
instead of a diminution or imperfect vision in the mole, we
affirm an abolition or total privation ; instead of a cali-
gation or dimness, we conclude a cecity or blindness.
Which hath been frequently inferred concerning other ani-
mals. So some affirm the water-rat is blind, so Sammonicus
and Nicander do call the mus araneus, the shrew or ranney,^
blind. And because darkness was before light, the Egyp-
tians worshipped the same. So are caecilice or slow-worms
accounted blind :^ and the like we affirm proverbially of the
* a private term unto sight.] "A term expressing privation of sight."
'' ranney.] This is the very word, ara/neiis ; castinge away the first
a, and turning the Latine termination of eits into our English form,
— Wr.
* So some affirm, <fcc.] Erroneously. — Neither the water-rat, the
shrew, nor the slow-worm is blind. The eyes of the former are veiy
amall, and (especially in the shrew) much concealed by fur. Bewick
CHAP. XYIII.] THAT MOLES ARE BLIND. 315
beetle ; although their eyes be evident, and they will fly
against lights, like many other insects ; and though also
Aristotle determines, that the eyes are apparent in all flying
insects, though other senses be obscure, and not perceptible
at all. And if from a diminution we may infer a total pri-
vation, or afiii'm that other animals are bliud which do not
acutely see, or comparatively unto others, we shall condemn
unto blindness many not so esteemed ; for such as have cor-
neous or horny eyes, as lobsters and crustaceous animals, are
generally dim-sighted ; all insects that have antenncB, or long
horns to feel out their way, as butterflies and locusts ; or
their fore-legs so disposed, that they much advance before
their heads, as may be observed in spiders ; and if the eagle
were judge, we might be blind ourselves. The expression
therefore of Scripture in the story of Jacob, is surely with-
out circumspection : " And it came to pass, when Jacob was
old and his eyes were dim," quando caligarunt oculi, saith
Jerome and Tremellius, which are expressions of diminution,
and not of absolute privation.
Other concerns there are of moles, which, though not
commonly opinioned, are not commonly enough considered :
as the peculiar formation of their feet, the slender ossa
jugalia, and dog-teeth, and how hard it is to keep them alive
out of the earth. As also the ferity and voracity of
these animals ; for though they be contented with roots, and
stringy parts of plants, or worms under ground, yet when
they are above it, they will sometimes tear and eat one
another, and in a large glass wherein a mole, a toad, and a
viper were inclosed, we have known the mole to dispatch
them, and to devour a good part of them both.^
says, that the water-shrew {Sorex fodiens) is called in Lincolnshire the
blind mouse. The slow-worm ia more commonly called the Mind-worm,
A nguisfragilis.
* Other concerm, d-c] This paragraph first added in 6th editicu.
316 THAT lAMPEETS HATE MAUT EYES. [BOOK III.
CHAPTEE XIX.
That Lampreys have many eyes.
Whether lampreys have nine eyes, as is received, we
durst refer it unto Polyphemus, who had but one to judge
it. An error concerning eyes, occasioned by the error of
eyes ; deduced from the appearance of divers cavities or
holes on either side,^ which some caU eyes that carelessly
behold them ; and is not only refutable by experience, but also
repugnant unto reason. Por, beside the monstrosity they
fasten unto nature, in contriving many eyes, who hath made
but two imto any animal, that is, one of each side, according
to the division of the brain ; it were a superfluous inartificial
act to place and settle so many in one plane ; for the two
extremes would sufficiently perform the office of sight with-
out the help of the intermediate eyes, and behold as much as
all seven joined together. For the visible base of the object
would be defined by these two ; and the middle eyes, although
they behold the same thing, yet could they not behold so
much thereof as these ; so were it no advantage unto man to
have a third eye between those two he hatli already ; and
the fiction of Argus seems more reasonable than this ; for
though he had many eyes, yet were they placed in circum-
ference and positions of advantage, and so are they placed in
several lines in spiders.
Again, these cavities which men call eyes are seated out of
the head, and where the gills of other fish are placed ;
containing no organs of sight, nor having any communication
witli tlie brain. Now all sense proceeding from the brain,
and that being placed (as Galen observeth) in the upper part
of the body, for the fitter situation of tlie eyes, and con-
veniency required unto sight ; it is not reasonable to imagine
that they are anywhere else, or deserve that name which are
seated in other parts. And therefore, we relinquish as
fabulous what is delivered of sternophthalmi, or men with
' holes on either side.'\ These are the bronchial apertures, of which
the lamjirey has seven on each side. — It has two eyes ; but it is remark-
able that there are no holes in the skin, but only transparent round
8j)ots, over the eyes.
CHA-T. XIX.] THAT lAMPBETS HATE MANY EYES. 317
eyes in their breast ; and when it is said by Solomon, " A
wise man's eyes are in his head," it is to be taken in a
second sense, and afFordeth no objection. True it is, that
the eyes of animals are seated with some difference, but in
sanguineous animals in the head, and that more forward than
the ear or hole of hearing. In quadrupeds, in regard of the
figiu-e of their heads, they are placed at some distance ; in
latirostrous and flat-billed birds they are more laterally
seated ; and therefore, when tliey look intently they turn
one eye upon the object ; and can convert their heads to see
before and behind, and to behold two opposite points at once.
But at a more easy distance are they situated in man, and in
the same circumference with the ear ; for if one foot of the
compass be placed upon the crown, a circle described thereby
will intersect, or pass over both the ears.
The error in this conceit consists in the ignorance of these
cavities, and their proper use in nature ; for this is a parti-
cular disposure of parts, and a peculiar conformation whereby
these holes and sluices supply the defect of gills, and are
assisted by the conduit in the head ; for, like cetaceous ani-
mals and whales, the lamprey hath a, fistula, spout or pipe at
the back part of the head, whereat it spurts out water. Nor
is it only singular in this formation, but also in many other ;
as in defect of bones, whereof it hath not one, and for the
spine or backbone, a cartilaginous substance without any
spondyles, processes, or protuberance whatsoever. As also
in the provision which nature hath made for the heart ;
which in this animal is very strangely secured, and lies im-
mured in a cartilage or gristly substance. And lastly, in
the colour of the liver ; which is in the male of an excellent
grass-green, but of a deeper colour in the female, and will
communicate a fresh and durable verdure.
318 THAT SNAILS HAVE TWO EYES. [bOOZ III.
CHAPTEE XX.
That Snails haw two eyes,
Whethee snails have eyes some learned men have
doubted.2 For Scaliger terms them but imitations of eyes,
and Aristotle upon consequence denieth them, when he
affirms that testaceous animals have no eyes.^ But this
now seems sufficiently asserted by the help of exquisite
glasses, which discover those black and atramentous spots or
globules to be their eyes.'*
* Whether snails, <£r.] The snayle hath but 3 senses, that is, the
touch, the smell, and the tast ; he sees not, he hears not. The touch
is principally in his homes ; the gmel and taste in his mouth, in which I
found he hath a little black toung not bigger then a hair, with which
he frets herbes, bread, and all things that he fastens upon for foode, a8
I once made a visible and certaine experiment. — Br.
' Aristotle, ft-c] Mr. E. W. Brayley, jun., in a very elaborate and
highly interesting paper, in the second volume of the Zoological Journal,
has very successfully advocated this opinioii of the great father of
zoology ; and after detailing the various opinions (or rather enqui-
ries) of the most able modern naturalists, he concludes by stating
his opinion that Aristotle was right in believing that all the testa-
ceous molusca are without the organ and sense of sight, and that the
feelers of snails are only organs endued wdth the most delicate sense
of touch and feeling. In a note, however, Mr. Brayley suggests that
as they are certainly capable of conveying to the sensorium a perception
of those vibrations of air, which impart to more perfect animals the sense
of sound, so they may also " convey a perception of those undulations
of the luminiferous ether, which (adopting tlie Huygenian undulatory
theory of light, as revived and explained by Dr. T. Young), enable
those animals which possess true eyes to enjoy the sense of vision/"
^ But this now seems, etc.] This sentence was substituted, in the 6th
edition, for the following passage. "And for my own part, after much
enquiry, I am not satisfied that these .are eyes, or that those black and
atramentous spots which seem to represent them are any ocular
realities : for if any object be presented unto them, they will sometimes
seem to decline it, and sometimes run against it ; if also these black
extremities, or presumed eyes be clipped off, they will notwithstanding
make use of their protixisions or horns, and poke out their way as
before : again, if they were eyes or instruments of vision, they would
have their originals in the head, and from thence derive the:r motive
and optic organs, but their roots and first extremities are seated low
upon the sides of the back, as may be perceived in the whiter sort of
snails when thev retract them."
CHAP. XX.] THAT SWAILS HAVE TWO EYES. 319
That they have two eyes is the common opinion ; but if
they have two eyes, we may grant them to have no less than
'bur, that is, two in the larger extensions above, and two in
t/he shorter and lesser horns below ; and this number may be
allowed in these inferior and exsanguineous animals,* since
we may observe the articulate and latticed eyes in flies, and
nine in some spiders : and in the great phalangium spider of
America, we plainly number eight.
But in sanguineous animals, quadrupeds, bipeds, or man,
no such number can be regularly verified, or multiplicity of
eyes confirmed ; and therefore what hath been under this
* and this number may he allowed, dx.] This remark, in the 6th
edition, supplies the place of the following : — the succeeding paragraph
which also occurs in all the earlier editions, was omitted in the 6th —
" which will be monstrous and beyond the affirmation of any.
"Now the reason why we name these black strings eyes, is because
we know not what to call them else, and understand not the proper use
of that part, which indeed is very obscure, and not delivered by any,
but may probably be said to assist the protrusion and retraction o^
their horns, which being a weak and hollow body, require some inward
establishment to confirm the length of their advancement, which we
observe they cannot extend without the concurrence hereof ; for if with
your finger you apprehend the top of the horn, and draw out this black
and membranous emission, the horn will be excluded no more ; but if
you clip off the extremity, or only smge the top thereof with o5«a/o?'^/s,
or other corrosive water, leaving a considerable part behind, they will
nevertheless exclude the horns, and therefore explorate their way as
before ; and indeed the exact sense of these extremities is very remark-
able, for if you dip a pen in aqua fortis, oil of vitriol, or turpentine, and
present it towards these points, they will at a reasonable distance
decline the acrimony thereof, retiring or distorting them to avoid it ;
and this they will nimbly perform, if objected to the extremes, but
slowly or not at all if approached unto their roots."
The various readings given in this and the preceding note, prove that
the earlier opinions of Sir Thomas were more in conformity with the
sagacious assertion of the great naturalist of antiquity, — and, I may
add, with the conclusions which the investigation of Sir Everard Home,
and other distinguished naturalists, have recently led them to form.
The paper by Mr. Brayley, referred to in note 3, p. 318, will be found
to contain a detailed and very interesting account of those investigations.
Sir E. Home has pointed out the mistake of Swammerdam, whose
microscopic examinations led him to consider the black rcte mucosum,
at the point of the horn, as nigrum jAgmentum, and a pellucid part
■which he found there, as the corjica. Sir Thomas was probably misled
by similar investigations, or he might have seen Swammerdam's work,
which appeared in Dutch some years before the sixth edition of the
Vulgar Errors.
320 THAT SNAILS HATE TWO EYES. [bOOK IIT.
kind delivered, concerning the pluralit}^, paucity, or anoma-
lous situation of eyes, is either monstrous, fabulous, or under
things never seen, includes good sense or meaning. And so
may we receive the figment of Argus, who was an hierogly-
phick of heaven, in those centuries of eyes expressing the
stars, and their alternate wakings, the vicissitude of day and
night. "Which strictly taken cannot be admitted, for the
subject of sleep is not the eye, but the common sense, which
once asleep, all eyes must be at rest. And therefore what is
delivered as an emblem of vigilancy, that the hare and lion
do sleep with one eye open, doth not evince they are any
more awake than if they were both closed. For the open
eye beholds in sleep no more than that which is closed, and
no more one eye in them than two in other animals that sleep
with both open, as some by disease, and others naturally,
which have no eyelids at all.
As for Polyphemus, although the story be fabulous, the
monstrosity is not impossible. For the act of vision may be
performed with one eye, and in the deception and fallacy of
sight, hath this advantage of two, that it beholds not objects
double,^ or sees two things for one. For this doth happen
when the axis of the visive cones, diffused from the object,
fall not upon the same plane, but that which is conveyed
into one eye, is more depressed or elevated than that which
enters the other. So if, beholding a candle, we protrude
either upward or downward the pupil of one eye, the object
will appear double ; but if we shut the other ^ye, and behold
it with one, it will then appear but single, and if we adduce
the eye unto either corner, the object will not duplicate, for
in that position the axis of the cones remains in the same
plane, as is demonstrated in the optics a«d delivered by
Galen, in his tenth, De usu partium.
Relations also there are of men that could make them-
selves invisible, which belongs not to this discourse, but may
* it beholds not objects double."] Tn connection with this very curious
question of single vision with two eyes, Dr. Wollaston read a short paper
to the R. S. in February, 1824, on semi-decusatiun of the optic nerves.
A subject to wliich he had been led by a sins:fular species of blindness
which had affected him — in which he had suffered a temporary loss of
sight on the left side only of both eyes. See Quarterly Journal, vol. xvii.
p. 227.
CHAP. XXI. j THE CHAMELEON LIVES ONLY TPON AIE. 32]
serve as notable expressions of wise and prudent men, who
so contrive their aftairs, that although their actions be mani-
fest, their designs ai'e not discoverable. In this acception
there is nothing left of doubt, and Griges i-ing remaineth
still amongst us, for vulgar eyes behold no more of wise men
than doth the sun ; they may discover their exterior and
outward ways, but their interior and inward pieces he only
sees, that sees into their beings.
CHAPTEE XXI.
That the Chameleon lives only upon air.
Concerning the Chameleon,'' there generally passeth an
opinion that it liveth only upon air, and is sustained by no
other aliment. Thus much is in plain terms affirmed by
Solinus, Pliny, and others, and by this periphrasis is the
same described by Ovid.^ All which notwithstanding, upon
enquiry I find the assertion mainly controvertible, and very
much to fail in the three inducements of belief.
And first for its verity, although asserted by some, and
traditionally delivered by others, yet is it very questionable.
' Coneerninff the Chameleon, <£*c.] It is singula!" that Sir Thomas has
not mentioned the vulgar opinion that this reptile undergoes fi-equent
changes of colour according to that of the bodies near it. He has
assigned soine probable grounds for its being supposed to feed on air,
viz. its powers of abstinence and its faculty of self-inflation. It lives on
insects, which it catches by means of its long gluey tongue, and crushes
between its jaws. It has been ascertained by careful experiment that
the chameleon can live without eating for four months. It can inflate,
not only its lungs but its whole body, including even the feet and tail.
The frequent variations of colour observed in the chameleon are by no
means determined by those of suiTounding objects. They depend on the
volition of the animal, or the state of its feelings, on its good or bad
health, and are, besides, subordinate to clhnate, age, and sex. A. Ross
so resolutely withstands the Doctor's arguments against the common
opinion, as even to assert that flies are eaten by the chameleon, "rather
out of wantonness or for physic." He adverts indeed to the fact, only
as giving a reason for the animal being provided with digestive organs ;
but says that the slime on the tongue is not intended for catching the
flies, but for destroying serpents, on whose approach the chameleon
arops some of the slime on the head of the serpent, which presently dies.
" Ovid.] See 3Ietam. 1. xv. fab. 4. 1. 411.
VOL. I. T
322 THE CHAMELEON LITES ONLY UPON AIB. [bOOK III.
For beside ^^lian, who is seldom defective in these accounts,
Aristotle, distinctly treating hereof, hath made no mention
of this remarkably propriety, which either suspecting its
verity, or presuming its falsity, he surely omitted ; for that
he remained ignorant of this account, it is not easily con-
ceivable, it being the common opinion, and generally
received by all men. Some have positively denied it, as
Augustinus, Niphus, Stobjeus, Dalechampius, Fortimius
Lieetus, with many more ; others have experimentally re-
futed it, as namely Johannes Landius, who in the relation of
Scaliger, observed a chameleon to lick up a fly from his
bi-east. But Bellonius* hath been more satisfactorily expe-
rimental, not only affirming they feed on flies, caterpillars,
beetles, and other insects, but upon exenteration he found
these animals in their bellies ; whereby we might also add
tlie experimental decisions of the worthy Peireschius and
learned Emanuel Tizzanius, in that chameleon which had
been often observed to drink water, and delight to feed on
meal-worms. And although we have not had the advantage
of our own obsei'vation, yet we have received the like con-
firmation from many ocidar spectators.
2. As touching the verisimility or probable truth of this
relation, several reasons there are which seem to overthrow
it. For first, there are found in this anim:il, the guts, the
stomach, and other parts official unto nutrition ; which, were
its aliment the empty reception of air, their provisions had
been superfluous. Now the wisdom of nature abhorring
superfluities, and effecting nothing in vain, unto the intention
of these operations, respectively contriveth the organs, and
tiierefore where we find such instruments, we niay with
strictness expect their actions, and where we discover them
not, we may with safety conclude the non-intention of their
operations. So wlien we perceive that bats have teats, it
is not unreasonable to infer they suckle their younglings
with milk ; but whereas no other flying animal hath these
parts, we cannot from them expect a viviparous exclusion,
but either a generation of eggs, or some vermiparous sepa-
ration, whose navel is within itself at first, and its nutrition
aftei :iot connexedly depending of its original.
Comment in Ocell. Lucan.
CUAP. XXI. ] THE CHAMELEOiN" LITES 0?fLT UPON AIE. 323
Again, nature is so far from leaving any one part without
ita proper action, that she ofttimes imposeth two or three
labours upon one, so the pizzle in animals is both official
unto urine and to generation ; but the first and primary use
is generation, for some creatures enjoy that part which urine
not. So the nostrils are useful both for respiration and
smelling ; but the principal use is smelling, for many have
nostrils which have no lungs, as fishes, but none have lungs
or respiration, which have not some show or some analogy
of nostrils. Thus we perceive the proAddence of nature, that
is, the wisdom of God, which disposeth of no part in vain,
and some parts unto two or three uses, will not provide any
without the execution of its proper office, nor where there is
no digestion to be made, make any parts inservient to that
intention.
Beside the remarkable teeth, the tongue of this animal is
a second argument to overthrow this a ' nutrication ; and
that not only in its proper nature, but also its peculiar
figure. For of this part, properly taken, there are two
ends ; that is, the formation of the voice and the execution
of taste ; for the voice, it can have no office iu chameleons,
for they are mute animals ; as, beside fishes, are most other
sorts of lizards.
As for their taste, if their nutriment be air, neither can it
be an instrument thereof; for the body of that element is
ingustible, void of aU sapidity, and, without any action of
the tongue, is by the rough artery or weazand conducted
into the lungs. And therefore Pliny much forgets the strict-
ness of his assertion, when he alloweth excrements unto that
animal, that feedeth only upon air ; which notwithstanding,
with the iirine of an ass, he commends as a magical medicine
upon our enemies.
The figure of the tongue seems also to overthrow the pre-
sumption of this aliment, which, according to exact delinea-
tion, is in this animal peculiar, and seemeth contrived for
prey. For in so little a creature it is at the least a palm
long, and being itself very slow in motion, hath in this part
a very great agility ; withal its food being flies, and such as
suddenly escape, it hath in the tongue a mucous and slimy
extremity, whereby upon a sudden emission it inviscates and
tangletli those insects. And therefore some have thought'
y2
324 TnE CHAMELEON LIVES ONLY UPON AIE. [bOOK III.
its name not unsuitable unto its nature ; tlie nomination in
Greek* is a little lion ; not so much for the resemblance of
tihape, as affinity of condition ; that is, for vigilancy in its
])rej, and sudden rapacity thereof, which it performeth not
like the lion with its teeth, but a sudden and unexpected
ejaculation of the tongue. Tliis exposition is favoured by
some, especially the old gloss upon Leviticus, whereby in the
translation of Jerome and the Septuagint this animal is
forbidden ; whatever it be, it seems as reasonable as that of
Isidore, who derives this name, a camelo et hone, as pre-
suming herein resemblance with a camel.^
'•i. As for the possibility hereof, it also is not unquestion-
able, and wise men are of opinion the bodies of animals
cannot receive a proper aliment from air : for, beside that,
taste being (as Aristotle terms it) a kind of touch, it is re-
quired the aliment should be tangible and fall under the
palpable affections of touch ; beside also that there is some
sapor in all aliments, as being to be distinguished and
judged by the gust, which cannot be admitted in air; be-
side these, I say, if we consider the nature of aliment, and
the proper use of air in respiration, it will very hardly fall
under the name hereof, or properly attain the act of uutri-
oation.
And first, concerning its natui'e, to make a perfect nutri-
tion into the body nourished, there is required a transmuta-
tion of the nutriment. Now where this conversion or
aggeuerationi is made, there is also required in the aliment
^ camel.'\ In the first edition lie goes on thus : — " For this derivation
ofFendeth the rules of etymology, wherein indeed the notation of names
should be orthographical, not exchanging diphthongs for vowels, or con-
verting consonant into each other." But notwithstanding this observa-
tion, he has spelled the word camcleon in every edition. Dean Wren
criticised the spelling, and noticed its inconsistency with the above
remark of that author, who was probably induced, in every edition
subsequent to the first, to suppress the observation, lest he might seem
to coiuleinn himself.
' ar/goieration.] Generic assimilation. Johnson defines this, '' the
state of growing or uniting to another body." \\'ebster defines it, " the
state of growing to anotlier." Both definitions are erroneous, or liable
at least to be misunderstood. They would ajijily to the attachment of
parasitic plants. Certainly they do net express the signification in
CHAP. IXI.] THE CHAMELEOIN LIVES O^TLT TPON AIR. 32-'^
a familiarity of matter, and such a community or vicinity
unto a living nature, as by one act of the soul may be con-
verted into the body of the living, and enjoy one common
soul : which cannot be effected by air, it concurring only
with our flesh in common principles, which are at the largest
distance from life, and common also unto iBanimated con-
stitutions. And therefore, when it is said by Fernelius, and
asserted by divers others, that we are only nourished by
living bodies, and such as are some way proceeding from
them, that is, the fruits, effects, parts, or seeds thereof, they
have laid out an object very agreeable unto assimilation ; for
these indeed are fit to receive a quick and immediate con-
version, as holding some community with ourselves, and
containing approximate dispositions unto animation.
Secondly (as is argued by Aristotle against the Pythago-
reans), whatsoever properly nourisheth before its assimila-
tion, by the action of natural heat it receiveth a corpulency
or incrassation progressional unto its conversion ; which
notwithstanding, cannot be eftected upon air, for the action
of heat doth not condense but rarity that body, and by
attenuation disposeth it for expulsion rather than for nu-
trition.
Thirdly (which is the argument of Hippocrates), all
aliment received into the body, must be therein a consider-
able space retained, and not immediately expelled. Now
air, but momentally remaining in our bodies, it hath no
proportionable space for its conversion, not only of length
enough to refrigerate the heart, which having once per-
formed, lest being itself heated again it should suffocate
that part, it maketh no stay, but hasteth back the same way
it passed in.
Fourthly, the use of air attracted by the lungs, and with-
out which there is no durable continuation in life, is not
the nutrition of parts, but the contemperation and venti-
lation of that fire always maintained in the forge of life ;
whereby, although in some manner it concurreth vaito nu-
which the word is used in the present passage. It is here meant to ex-
press the transmutation of that which is eaten, from its own nature, into
that of the animal receiving it. It becomes assimilated, geoierically, to
the nature of that animal.
320 THE CHAMELEON LIVES ONLY UPOK AIU. [BOOS III.
trition, yet can it not receive the proper name of nutri-
ment. And therefore by Hippocrates* it is tei'med alimen-
tum non alimentum, a nourishment and no nourishment.
That is, in a lai"ge acccption, but not in propriety of
language ; conserving the body, not nourishing the same,
nor repairing it by assimilation, but preserving it by venti-
lation ; for thereby the natural flame is preserved from ex-
tinction, and so the indivuluum supported in some way like
nutrition.
And though the air so entereth the lungs, that by its
nitrous spirit it doth affect the heart and several ways
qualify the blood ; and though it be also admitted into
other parts, even by the meat we chew, yet that it affbrdeth
a proper nutriment alone, is not easily made out.^
Again, some are so far from affirming the air to afford
any nutriment, that they plainly deny it to be any element,
or that it entereth into mixed bodies as any principle in
their compositions, but performcth other offices in the uni-
verse ; as to fill all vacuities about the earth or beneath it,
to convey the heat of the sun, to maintain fires and flames,
to serve for the flight of volatiles, respiration of breathing
animals, and refrigeration of others. And although we re-
ceive it as an element, yet, since the transmutation of
elements and simple bodies is not beyond great question ;
since also it is no easy matter to demonstrate that air is so
much as convertible into water ; how transmutable it is into
flesh, may be of deeper doubt.^
And although the air attracted may be conceived to
nourish the invisible flame of life, inasmuch as common and
culinary flames are nourished by the air about them, we
make some doubt whether air is the pabulous supply of
fire, much less that flame is properly air kindled. And the
same before us hath been denied by the Lord of Verulam,
in his tract of Life and Death : and also by Dr. Jordan, in
his book of mineral waters. For that wliich substantially
maintaineth the fire is the combustible matter in the kindled
body, and not the ambient air, which affbrdeth exhalation to
* J)e Alimento.
" And thour/h, dr.] This paragraph was altered in 6th editioD<
' Again, tfcc] This jiaragraph fir.st added in 2iid ed'iion.
CHAP. XXI.] THE CHAMELEON LIVES OKLT UPOK AlE. 327
its fuliginous atoms, nor that wliicli causeth the flame pro-
perly to be termed air, but rather, as he expresseth it, the
accension of fuliginous exhalations, which contain an unc-
tuositv in them, and arise from the matter of fuel ; which
opinion will salve many doubts, whereof the common con-
ceit aftbrdeth no solution.
As first, how fire is stricken out of flints ? that is, not by
kindling the air from the collision of two hard bodies ; for
then diamonds should do the like better than flints ; but
rather from sulphureous,^ inflamed, and even vitrified efilu-
viums and particles, as hath been observed of late. The like,
saith Jordan, we observe in canes, and woods^ that are
unctuous and full of oil, which will yield fire^ by frication or
collision, not by kindling the air about them, but the in-
flammable oil within them. AVhy the flre goes out without
air ? that is, because the fuliginous exhalations, wanting
evaporation, recoil upon the flame and choke it, as is evident
in cupping-glasses, and the artifice of charcoals, where, if the
air be altogether excluded, the fire goes out. Why some
lamps included in close bodies have burned many hundred
years, as that discovered in the sepulchre of Tullia, the sister
of Cicero, and that of Olibius many years after, near Padua?
because, what ever was their matter, either a preparation of
gold or naptha, the duration proceeded from the purity of
their oil, which yielded no fuliginous exhalations to suflbcate
the fire ; for if air had nourished the flame, it had not con-
tinued many minutes, for it would have been spent and
* sulphureous. '\ Itt is manifest to sense, that in the collision of the
Bteele and the flint there is a sulphureous odour, which thoughe but
fainte (in regard of the small splinters from whence it comes) yet to an
acute and unobstructed braine is plainly perceptible. — Wr. See note at
page 102.
* saith Jordan, etc.] Dr. Jordan's observation appears to have been
an anticipation of Sir H. Davy's, who having been informed that two
pieces of bonnet cane rubbed together produced a faint light, e.xamined
the phaenomenon, and found that all canes of this kind " when briskly
rubbed together, produced sparks of white light. The luminous ap-
pearance was much more vivid on collision. When the canes were
violently struck together, sparks nearly as vivid as those from the gun-
lock were produced." The cause he ascertained to be that the epidermis
of the cane was composed chiefly of silica. — Br.
* Jire.] And with the fire a smel as of oylye substance fired. — Wr.
328 THE CHAMELEON LIYES OJILT UPON AIR. [bOOK III,
wasted by the fire/ Wliy apiece of flax will kindle, although
it touch not the flame ? because the fire extendeth further
than indeed it is visible, being at some distance from the
wick, a pellucid and transparent body, and thinner than the
air itself. Why metals, in their liquation, although they
intensely heat the air above tlieir surface, arise not yet into
a flame, nor kindle the air about them ? because their sul-
phur is more fixed, and they emit not inflammable exhala-
tions. And lastly, why a lamp or candle burneth only in
the air about it, and inflameth not the air at a distance from
it ? because the flame extendeth not beyond the inflam-
mable efilueuce, but closely adheres unto the original of its
inflammation ; and therefore it only warmeth, not kindleth
the air about it. Which notwitlistanding it will do, if the
ambient air be impregnate with subtle inflammabilities, and
such as are of quick accension, as experiment is made in a
close room, upon an evaporation of spirits of wine and cam-
phor ; as subterraneous fires do sometimes happen,^ and as
Creusaand Alexander's boy in the bath were set on fire by
naptJia.
'' Why some lamjts, <frc.] For a curious discussion on these marvellous
lamps, see Ozanam's PldLosojMcal Recreations, by Hutton, vol. i. p. 496.
^ as subterraneous fires do sometimes happen.^ This remark, and indeed
the vvrhole of Browne's enquiries and observations in the two preceding
paragraphs, respecting the nature of flame, very naturally remind us of
one of the most splendid (because most useful) achievements of modern
science — Sir Humphrey Davy's inventioa of the safety-lamp, for the
purpose of obviating those " subterraneous " explosions which had pre-
viously occurred with destructive fi-equency, in the working of our col-
lieries.
The causes and character of these terrific explosions, the means used
in the early part of the present century to induce the efforts of scientific
nicn to discover a remedy, and the perfect success which attended those
of yir Hunii)hrey for that purpose, form the subject of a detailed and
most interesting narrative in the 11th chapter oi I)r. Paris's Life of Sir
H. Davii.
The carburetted hydrogen given out by coal, and found frequently in
vast ma.sses in the crevices, or fissures, which .are opened in working the
mines, forms by combination with atmospheric air that inflammable gas,
technically called _^;'c-f/««ip. The manner in which this gas explodes, is
thus graphically described by Dr. Paris : — " On the approach of a
candle, it is in an instant kindled: the expanding fluid drives before it
a roaring whirlwind of flaming air, which tears up every thing in its pro-
gress, scorching s(ime of the minors to a cinder, and burying others
Unde: earnuous ruins shaken froni the roof ; when tliuuderiug to tho
CHAP XXI.] THE CHAMELEON LITES ONLY UPON AIE. 329
Lastly; the element of air is so far from nourisliing the
body, that some have questioned the power of water ; many
shafts^ it converts the mine, as it were, into an enormous piece of artil-
lery, and wastes its fui-y in a discharge of thick clouds of coal-dust,
stones, and timber, together with the limbs and mangled bodies of men
and horses."— Vol. ii. p. 63.
A society was established on the 1st of October, 1S13, at Bishop-
Wearmouth, by Sir Ralph Milbanke, Dr. Gray (afterwards Bishop of
Bristol), and other gentlemen, "for preventing accidents in coal-
mines," which obtained the patronage of the Bishop of Durham, the
Duke of Northumberland, and other noblemen and gentlemen. This
society established a correspondence with others, and at length, through
the chairman. Dr. Gray, engaged Sir Humphrey Davy in the investiga-
tion. He soon ascertained, by experiment on fire-damp, that it is a
combination of hydrogen and carbon : that it will not explode if mixed
with less than six times, nor more than fourteen times its volume of
atmospheric air ; — that an explosive mixture of gas, admitted into a
vessel having apertures only above and below, merelij enlarges the light,
and then gradually extinguishes it icithout explosion — that the explosive
gas will not explode in a tube less than one-eighth of an inch in diameter :
— and that red hot charcoal does not expdode, but gives light in the
explosive gas. On these principles various lamps were constructed by
Sir Humphrey, which were perfectly safe ; but their light was extin-
guished when the air became so polluted with fire-damp as to be explo-
sive. It remained then for him (as Dr. Paris observes), after having
disarmed the fire-damp of its terror, to eiili-st it into his service. — "The
simple means by which this was effected are as interesting as their
results are important. He had previously arrived at the fact, that
wire-gauze might be substituted as air-feeders to the lamp, in the place
of his tubes or safety canals : but not until the lapse of several weeks,
did the happy idea of consti'ucting the lamp entirely of wire gauze
occur to him : — the history of this elaljorato enquiry affords a striking
proof of the inability of the human mind to apprehend simplicities,
without a process of complication, which works as the grappliii"'
machinery of truth. His original lamp, with tubes or canals, as already
described, was perfectly safe in the most explosive atmosphere, but its
light was necessarily extinguished by it ; whereas in the wire-gauze
cage, the fire-damp itself continues to burn, and thus to afford to the
miner a useful light, while he is equally secured from the fatal effects
of explosion.
" Nothing now remained but to ascertain the degi'ee of fineness which
the wire-gauze otight to possess in order to form a secure barrier against
the passage of flame. For this purpose, Davy placed his lighted lamps
in a glass receiver, through which there was a current of air whicli passed
into the lamp more or less explosive, and caused it to change rapidly or
slowly at pleasure, so as to produce all possible varieties of inflammable
and explosive mixtures : and he found that iron wire-gauze, composed
of wires from one fortieth to one sixtieth of an inch in diameter, and
330 THE CHAMELEON LITES ONLY UPON Allt. [bOOK III.
conceiving it enters not the body in the power of aliment, or
that from thence there proceeds a substantial supply. For
beside that some creatures drink not at all ; even unto our-
selves, and more perfect animals, though many ways assistant
tliereto, it performs no subtantial nutrition, serving for re-
frigeration, dilution of solid aliment, and its elixatiou^ in the
stomach ; which from thence, as a vehicle, it conveys through
less accessible cavities, and so in a rorid substance through
the capillary cavities, into every part ; which having per-
formed, it is afterward excluded by urine, sweat, and serous
separations. And this opinion surely possessed the ancients
for when tliey so highly commended that water which is sud-
denly hot and cold, which is without all savour, the lightest,
the thinnest, and which will soonest boil beans or peas, they
had no consideration of nutrition ;^ whereunto had they had
respect, they would have surely commended gross and turbid
streams, in whose confusion at least, there might be contained
some nutriment ; and not jejune or limpid water, nearer the
simplicity of its element. Although, I confess, our clearest
waters, and such as seem simple unto sense, are much com-
pounded unto reason, as may be observed in the evaporation
of large quantities of water, wherein beside a terreous resi-
dence, some salt is also found, as is also observable in rain
water ; which appearing pure and empty, is full of seminal
principles, and carrieth vital atonis of plants and animals in
containing twenty-eight wires, or seven hundred and eighty-four aper-
tures to the inch, was safe under all circumstances, in atmospheres of
this kind : and he consequently employed that material in guarding
lamps for the coal-mines, where, in January, 1816, they were immediately
adopted, and have long been in general use." — Vol. ii. pp. 97-9.
Such is a rapid and very slight sketch of the history of a discovery
which (to use Dr. P.'s words), "whether considered in relation to its
scientific importance, or to its great practical value, must be regarded as
one of the most splendid triumphs of human genius. It was the fruit of
elaborate experiment and close induction : chance, or accident, which
comes in for so large a share of the credit of human invention, has no
claim to prefer upon this occusion : step by step may he be followed
throughout the whole progress of his research, and so obviously does the
discovery of each new fact spring from those that preceded it, that we
never for a moment lose sight of our philosoplier, but keep pace with
him during the whole of his enquiry."
* elixation.] Boiling or stewing.
' nutrition.^ But only of puritye for refreshing the liarte. — Wr.
CHAP. XXI. J TIIK CHAMELEON LITES ONLY UPON AIK. 331
it, which have not perished in the great circulation of nature;
as may be discovered from several insects generated in rain
water from the prevalent fructification of plants thereby ;
and (beside the real plant of Cornerius*) from vegetable
figurations, upon the sides of glasses, so rarely delineated in
frosts. 2
All which considered, severer heads will be apt enough to
conceive the opinion of this animal, not much unlike that of
the astomi, or men without mouths, in Pliny ; suitable unto
the relation of the mares in Spain, and their subventaneous
conceptions from the western wind ; and in some way more
unreasonable than the figment of Rabican, the famous horse
in Ariosto, which being conceived by flame and wind, never
tasted grass, or fed on any grosser provender than air ; for
this way of nutrition was answerable unto the principles of
his generation. Which being not airy, but gross and semi-
nal in the chameleon, unto its conservation tliere is required
a solid pasture, and a food congenerous unto the principles
of its nature.
The grounds of this opinion are many : the first observed
bv Theophrastus, was the inflation or swelling of tlie body
made in this animal upon inspiration or drawing in its
breath: which people observing, have thought it to feed upon
air. But this eflect is rather occasioned upon the greatness
of its lungs, which in this animal are very large, and by their
backward situation aftbrd a more observable dilatation ; and
though their lungs be less, the like inflation is observable in
toads, but especially in sentortoises.^
A second is the continual hiation or holding open its
mouth, which men observing, conceive the intention thereof
to receive the aliment of air ; but this is also occasioned by
the greatness of its lungs ; for repletion whereof, not having
a sufilcient or ready supply by its nostrils, it is enforced to
dilate and hold open the jaws.
The third is the paucity of blood observed in this animal,
scarce at all to be found but in the eye, and about the heart ;
* Zibavius, torn. iv. Chym.
^ Although, I confess, tfcc] This sentence was first added in 2nd
edition.
^ but especially in sentortoises.^ These gentry were firal mentioned in
the 6th edition.
382 THE CHAMELEON LIVES ONLY UPON AIE. [bOOK III.
■wh/ob defect being observed, inclined some into thonglits,
that tbeairwas a sufficient maintenance for these exsanguin-
ous parts. But tliis defect, or rather paucity of blood, is also
agreeable vmto many other animals, -whose solid nutriment
we do not controvert ; as may be observed in otiier sorts of
lizards, in frogs, and divers fishes ; and therefore an horse-
leech will not readily fasten upon every fish ; and we do not
read of much blood that was drawn from frogs by mice, in
that famous battle of Homer.-*
The last and most common ground which begat or
promoted this opinion is, the long continuation hereof with-
out any visible food, which some observing, precipitiously
conclude they eat not any at all. It cannot be denied it is
(if not the most of any) a very abstemious animal, and such as
by reason of its frigidity, paucity of blood, and latitancy in the
winter (about which time the observations are often made),
will long subsist without a visible sustentation. But a like
condition may be also observed in many other animals ; for
lizards and leeches,^ as we have made trial, will live some
months witliout sustenance ; and we have included snails in
glasses all winter, which have returned to feed again in the
spring. jN^ow these, notwithstanding, are not conceived to
pass all their lives without food : for so to argue is fallacious,
and is moreover sufficiently convicted by experience. And
therefore probably other relations are of the same verity,
which are of the like affinity ; as is the conceit of the rJiin-
tace in Persia, the canis levis of America, and the manucodi-
ata or bird of paradise in India.
^ that famous hatlle of Homer. '\ This passage was but a friske of his
stile. — Wr.
* leechesj] Leeches are kept by all apothecaryes in glasses of water,
without any other nourishment ; which can bee little, or none at all.
The often change of the water serving for two intentions, and both
'jontrary to the worke of nourishment ; viz., first to preserve itt from
putrefaction, which is the principal aliment which they sucke from
thick and nmddye standing waters ; and secondl}', to cleanse them from
that venome, wliich they had formerlye contracted, which nothing
could soe properly or speedily effect as the dailye supply of fresh cleere
water ; by which C(>nsequentially they become the more hungry, and
apte to eatche holde, and to holde the faster when they are on : evident
arguments that from the pure water alone they drew no aliment, but fedd
on that store which they had formerlye contracted in putrified standing
waters. — Tl';'.
CHAP. XXI. 1 THE CHAMELEON LIA'ES ONLY UPON AIR. 333
To assign a reason of this abstinence in animals, or declare
how, without a supply, there ensueth no destructive exhaus-
tion, exceedeth the limits and intention of my discoiu-se.
Fortunius Licetus, in his excellent tract, De his qui cliu
vivunt sine aUme?ifo, hath very ingeniously attempted it ;
deducing the cause hereof from an equal conformity of natural
heat and moisture, at least no considerable exuperancy in
either; which concurring in an unactive proportion, the
natural heat consumeth not the moisture (whereby ensueth
no exhaustion) and the condition of natural moisture is able
to resist the slender action of heat, (whereby it needeth no
reparation), and this is evident in snakes, lizards, snails, and
divers insects, latitaut many months in the year ; which being
cold creatures, containing a weak heat in a crass or copious
humidity, do long subsist without nutrition : for, the activity
of the agent being not able to over-master the resistance of
the patient, tliere will ensue no deperdition. And upon the
like grounds it is, that cold and phlegmatic bodies, and (as
Hippocrates determineth) that old men will best endure fast-
ing. Now the same harmony and stationary constitution, as
it happeneth in many species, so doth it fall out sometimes in
individuals. For we read of many who have lived long time
without aliment ; and beside deceits and impostures, there
may be veritable relations of some, who without a miracle,
and by peculiarity of temper, have far out-fasted Elias.
"Which notwithstanding, doth not take oiF the miracle-; for
that may be miraculously effected in one, which is naturally
causable in another. Some naturally living unto an hun-
dred; unto which age others, notwithstanding, could not
attain without a miracle.*'
^ Which notwithstanding, cDc] This sentence first added in 2nd
edition.
'' miracles.'] The reader will have remarked in the course of tills
chapter, some false positions and unphilosophical observations, into
which the author was led by the ignorance which at that time existed
of some of those laws which modern discoverif s have established in
chemistry and physics ; more especially with re'erence to the compo-
nents of air, and the nature of combustion.
334 THAT THE OSTlllCH DIGESTETH IRON. [uOOK in,
CHAPTER XXII.
That the Ostrich difjesteth iron.
TliE common opinion of the Ostrich, Struthiocamelus or
Sparrow Camel, conceives that it digesteth iron, and this is
confirmed by the affirmations of man_y : besides swarms of
others, Khodiginus in liis prelections taketh it for granted,
Johannes Langius in his epistles pleadeth experiment for it ;
the common picture also coniirmeth it, which usually descri-
beth this animal with an horseshoe in its mouth. JSTotwith-
standing upon inquiry we find it very questionable, and the
negative seems most reasonably entertained, whose verity
indeed we do the rather desire, because hereby we shall
relieve our ignorance of one occult quality, for in the list
thereof it is accounted, and in that notion imperiously ob-
truded upon us. For my part, although I have had the sight
of this animal, I have not had the opportunity of its experi-
ment, but have received great occasion of doubt from learned
discourses thereon.
For Aristotle and Oppianus, who have particularly treated
hereof, are silent in this singularity, either omitting it as
dubious, or as the comment saith, rejecting it as fabulous.
Pliny, speaking generally, affirming only the digestion is
wonderful in this animal ; ^lian delivereth that it digested
stones without any mention of iron ; Leo Africanus, who
lived in tliose countries wherein they most abound, speaketh
diminutively, and but half way into this assertion, Surdicm
ac simplex animal est, quicquid inoenit, absque delectu, usque
adferrum devorat ; Fernelius in his second De Ahditis rerum
causis, extenuates it, and Eiolanus in his comment thereof
positively denies it. Some have experimentally refuted it,
as Albertus Magnus, and most plainly Ulysses Aldrovandus,
whose words are these, ^ffo ferri frusta devorare, dum
Tridenti essem, ohservavi, sed qucB incocta rursus excerneret,
that is, " at my being at Trent, I observed the ostrich to
swaUow iron, but yet to exclude it undigested again." ^
^ and most plainly, ttr.] But tliough Aldrovandus saw this once,
"one swallow makes not a summer," says Master Ross, "who fully
believes the iron to be digested ; iie is satisfied that even in that ont
CHAP. XXII.] THAT THE OSTRICH DIGESTETH lEOlV. 335
Now beside experiment, it is in A-ain to attempt against it
by philosophical argument, it being an occult quality, which
contemns the law of reason, and defends itself by admitting
no reason at all. As for its possibility we shall not at present
dispute ; nor will we affirm that iron ingested, receiveth in
the stomach of the ostrich no alteration at all ; but if any
such there be, we suspect this eflect rather from some way
of corrosion than any of digestion ; not any liquid reduction
or tendence to chylification by the power of natural heat,
but rather some attrition from an acid and vitriolous humidity
in the stomach, which may absterse and shave the scorious
parts thereof. So rusty iron crammed down the throat of a
cock, will become terse and clear again in its gizzard. So
the counter, which, according to the relation of Amatus,
remained a whole year in the body of a youth, and came out
much consumed at last, might suffer this diminution rather
from sharp and acid humours, than the strength of natural
heat, as he supposeth. So silver swallowed and retained
for some time in the body will turn black, as if it had been
dipped in aqua fortis, or some corrosive water, but lead will
remain unaltered, for that metal containeth in it a sweet
salt or sugar, whereby it resisteth ordinary corrosion, and
will not easily dissolve even in aqua fortis. So when for
medical uses we take down the filings of iron or steel, we
must not conceive it passeth unaltered from us, for though
the grosser parts be excluded again, yet are the dissoluble
parts extracted, whereby it becomes eftectual in deoppila-
instance the stomach suckt something out of it ! " The ostrich is
naturally herbivorous ; but though vegetable matter constitutes the
basis of its food, and though it is often seen pasturing in the south of
Africa, it is yet so voracious, and its senses of taste and smell are so
obtuse, that it devours animal and mineral substances indiscriminately,
until its enormous stomach is completely full. It swallows without any
choice, and merely as it were for ballast, wood, stones, grass, iron,
copper, gold, lime, or, in fact, any other substance equally hard, indi-
gestible, and deleterious. The powers of digestion in this bird are certainly
very great, but their operation is confined to matters of an alimentary
character. But copper, far from being converted into nutriment, acts
upon its stomach like poison, and nails very frequently pierce its coats
and membranes. Vaillant mentions that one of these birds died in conse-
quence of having devoured an immense quantity of quicklime. — Cuvier.
In Loudon's Magazine of Natural History, No. 6, p. 62, is a relation of
an ostrich having been kiUed by svn,Uowing glass.
336 THAT TUE OSTRICH DIGESTETH IRON. [BOOK III.
tions,^ and therefore for speedier operation we make extinc-
tious, infusious, and tlie like, whereby we extract the salt
aud active parts of the medicine, which being in solntion,
more easily enter the veins. And this is that the chemists
mainly drive at in the attempt of their Aurum Potahile, that
is, to reduce tliat indigestible substance into such a form as
may not be ejected by siege, but enter the cavities, aud less
accessible parts of the body, without corrosion.
The ground of this conceit is its swallowing down frag-
ments of iron, which men observing, by a froward illation,
have therefore conceived it digesteth them, which is an infer-
ence not to be admitted, as being a fallacy of the consequent,
that is, concluding a position of the consequent, from the
position of the antecedent. For many things are swallowed
by animals z-ather for condiment, guat or medicament, than
any substantial nutriment. 80 poultry, and especially the
turkey, do of themselves take down stones, and we have
found at one time in the gizzard of a turkey no less than
seven hundred. Now these rather concur unto digestion,
than are themselves digested, for we have found them also
in the guts and excrements ; but their descent is very slow,
for we have given them stones and small pieces of iron,
which eighteen days after we have found remaining in thp
gizzard ; and therefore the experiments of Langius and
others miglit be fallible, whilst after the taking they expected
it should come down within a day or two after. Thus also
.we swallow chexTy stones, but void them uiiconcocted, and
we usually say they preserve us from surfeit, for being hard
bodies they conceive a strong and durable heat in the
stomach, and so prevent the crudities of their fruit : and
upon the like reasoii do culinary operators observe, that flesh
boils best when the bones are boiled with it. Thus dogs
will eat grass, which they digest not ; thus camels to make
the water sapid, do raise the nuid with their feet ; thus horses
will knable-* at walls, pigeons delight in salt stones ; rats
will gnaw iron, and Aristotle saith the elephant swalloweth
stones ; and thus may also the ostrich s\\ allow iron, not as
* deoppilatUmn.'] Clearing .iway obstructions.
'' knabli-.] " I'rolialily to be ftjuiid no where else," sajs Johnson,
"than ill this ])as.sagc." Very probably ; the fact is, that it is a frequent
Norfolk vulfrarizatiun of the word nibble.
CHAP, xxni.] OF THE unicoen's HOBN". 337
his proper aliment, but for the ends above expressed, and
even as we observe the like in other animals.
And whether these fragments of iron and hard substances
swallowed by the ostrich have not also that use in their
stomachs which they have in other birds, that is, in some
way to supply the use of teeth, by commolition, grinding
and compressing of their proper aliment, upon the action of
the strongly conformed muscles of the stomach, as the
honoured Dr. Harvey discourseth, may also be considered.^
What effect therefore may be expected from the stomach
of an ostrich by application alone to further digestion in ours
beside the experimental refute of Galen, we refer it unto
considerations above alleged. Or whether there be any
more credit to be given unto the medicine of -^lian, who
affirms, the stones they swallow have a peculiar virtue for
the eyes, than that of Hermolaus and Pliny drawn from the
urine of this anmial, — let them determine who can swallow
so strange a transmission of qualities, or believe that any bird
or flying animal doth separately and distinctly urine beside
the bat.
That therefore an ostrich wiU swallow and take down iron
is easily to be granted ; that oftentimes it passes entire away,
if we admit of ocular testimony, is not to be denied. And
though some experiment may also plead that sometimes they
are so altered as not to be found or excluded in any dis-
cernible parcels, yet whether this be not effected by some
way of corrosion, from sharp and dissolving humidities,
rather than any proper digestion, chylifactive mutation, or
alimental conversion, is with good reason doubted.^
CHAPTEE XXIII.
Of the Unicorns horn.
Geeat account and much profit is made of unicorn's
horn, at least of that which beareth the name thereof;
wherein notwithstanding, many, I perceive, suspect an im-
' And whether, tfcc] This paragraph first added in third edition.
* That therefore, <ifcc.] This paragraph was first added in second
edition.
TOL. I. Z
338 OF THE UKICOEN's HOltK. [BOOK III.
posture, and some conceive tliere is no such animal extant.^
Herein, therefore, to draw up our determinations : bei".de
the seA'ei-al places of Scripture mentioning this animal (which
some may well contend to be only meant of the rhinoceros)
we are so far from denying there is any unicorn at all, that
we affirm there are many kinds thereof. In the number of
quadi'upeds, we will concede no less than five ; that is, the
Indian ox, the Indian ass, the rhinoceros, the oryx, and that
which is more eminently termed monoceros or unicornis.
Some in the list of fishes ; as that described by Olaus,
Albertus, and others ; and some unicorns we will allow even
among insects, as those four kinds of nasicornous beetles,
described by Muifetus.
Secondly, although we concede there be many unicorns,
yet are we still to seek ; for whereunto to affix this horn in
question, or to determine from which thereof we receive this
magnified medicine, we have no assurance, or any satisfac-
tory decision. Tor although we single out one, and emi-
nently thereto assign the name of the unicorn, yet can we
^ some conceive, <£r.] Some information, on this much debated
subject, was obtained by M. Riippell, in Kordofan, where the unicorn
was said to be known, and to bear the name of millekma. Persons of
various conditions in life agreed to the statement, that the miJlekma
was of a reddish colour, of the size of a small horse, of the slender make
of a gazelle, and furnished with a long, straight, slender horn in the
male, which was wanting in the female. Some added that it had divided
hoofs, while others declared it to be single-hoofed. According to these
statements it inhabits the deserts of the south of Kordofan, is uncom-
monly fleet, and comes only occasionally to the Koldagi slave mountain
on the borders of Kordofan. Three several Arabs asserted to M. Riip-
pell that they had themselves seen the animal in question ; and one of
his slaves from Koldagi, on seeing the antelopes brought from the desert
of Korti, gave, of his own free motion, a description of the millekma,
exactly coinciding with the notices afterwards obtained by the traveller.
The unicorn of Scripture, however, which is there spoken of as an
animal of great size and strength, is probably one of the species of two-
horned rhinoceros. Mr. Burchell has described one in the Bulletin des
Sciences, Jain, 1817. In the 15th number of the Missionary Sketches,
published by the London Missionary Society, is a description, accom-
panied by a wood-cut, of a species shot in South Africa — the head of
which is preserved in the museum of the society, Old Jewry, London :
which seems, on account of its great size, strength, and ferocity, and of
the extraordinary length of its anterior horn, not uulikely to hiave been
the unicorn of Scripture.
ckA.p. xxiii.] or THE u>;icoiin's horn. 339
not be secure w hat creatui'e is meant tliereby, what constant
shape it holdeth, or in what number to be received. For as
tar as our endeavours discover, this animal is not uniformly
described, but differently set forth by those that imdertake
it. Pliny affirmeth it is a fierce and terrible creature ; Var-
tomannus, a tame and mansuete animal ; those which Garcias
ab Horto described about the Cape of Good Hope, were
beheld with heads like ■ horses ; those which Vartomannus
beheld, he described with the head of a deer ; Pliny, JElian,
Solinus, and after these from ocular assurance, Paulus Vene-
tus affirmeth the feet of the unicorn are undivided, and like
the elephants ; but those two which Vartomannus beheld at
Mecca were, as he describeth, footed like a goat. As ^lian
describeth, it is in the bigness of an horse : as Vartomannus,
of a colt ; that which Thevet speaketh of was not so big as
an heifer ; but Paidus Venetus affirmeth they are but little
less than elephants. Which are discriminations very mate-
rial, and plainly declare, that imder the same name authors
describe not the same animal : so that the unicorn's horn of
one, is not that of another, although we proclaim an equal
virtue in all.
Thirdly, although we were agreed what animal this was,
or differed not in its description yet would this 'also afford
but little satisfaction ; for the horn we commonly extol is
not the same with that of the ancients. For that, in the
description of ^lian and Pliny, was black ; this which is
showed amongst us is commonly white, none black ; and of
those five which Scaliger beheld, though one spadiceous, or
of a light red, and two inclining to red, yet was there not
any of this complexion among them.
Fourthly, what horns soever they be which pass amongst
us, they are not surely the horns of any one kind of animal,
but must proceed from several sorts of unicorns. For some
are wreathed, some not : that famous one which is preserved
at St. Denis, near Paris, hath wreatliy spires, and cochleary
turnings about it, which agreeth witl\ the description of the
unicorn's horn in ^lian. Those two in the treasure of
St. Mark are plain and best accord with those of the Indian
ass, or the descriptions of other unicorns : that in the repo-
sitory of the Elector of Saxony is plain and not hollow, and
is believed to be a true land unicorn's horn. Albertua
z2
34C OF THE UTTICOKN'S HORW. [bOGK HI.
Magnus describeth one ten feet long, and at the base about
thirteen inches compass : and that of Antwerp, which Goro-
pius Becanus describeth, is not much inferior unto it ; which
best agree unto the descriptions of the sea-unicorns ; for
these, as Olaus aifirmeth, are of that strength and bigness,
as to be able to penetrate the ribs of ships. The same i»
more probable, because it was brought from Iceland, from
whence, as Becanus affirmeth, three other were brought ia
his days : and we have heard of some which have been found
by the sea-side, and brought unto us from America. So
that, whUe we commend the unicorn's horn, and conceive it
peculiar but unto one animal, under apprehension of the
some virtue we use very many, and commend that eftect from
all, which every one confineth unto some one he hath either
seen or described.
rifthly, although there be many unicorns, and conse-
quently many horns, yet many there are which bear that
name, and currently pass among us, which are no horns at
all. Such are those fragments and pieces of lapis ceratites,
commonly termed cornu fossile, whereof Boetius had no less
than twenty several sorts presented him for unicorn's horns.
Hereof, m subterraneous cavities, and under the earth, there
are many to be found in several parts of Germany, which
are but the lapidesceucies and petrifactive mutations of hard
bodies : sometimes of horn, of teeth, of bones, and branches
of trees, whereof there are some so imperfectly converted, as
to retain tlie odour and qualities of their orighials, as he
relateth of pieces of ash and walnut. Again, in most, if not
all, which pass amongst us, and are extolled for precious
horns, we discover not an aftection common unto other
horns ; that is, they mollify not with fire, they soften not
upon decoction or infusion, nor will they aftbrd a jelly or
mucilaginous concretion in either ; which notwithstanding
we may effect in goat's horns, sheep's, cow's, and hart's horn ;
in the horn of tlie rhinoceros, the horn of the pristis, or
(jword-fish."* Nor do they become friable or easUy powder-
'' an affection common unto other horns, <tc.] It would appear that
Browne had confounded true horn (which is composed of coagulated
albumen, with a little gelatin, and about a half per cent, of phosphate
of lime), with hart's horn, and others of a similar nature, intermediate
between bone and horn.
CHAP. XXIII.l OF THE XJKICOEN's HOEW. 341
able by philosophical calcination, that is, from the vapour or
steam of water, but split and rift conti-ary to other horns.
Briefly, many of those commonly received, and whereof there
be so many fragments preserved in England, are not only
no horn, but a substance harder than a bone, that is, parts
of the tooth of a morse or sea-horse : in the midst of the
3olider part containing a curdled grain, which is not to be
found in ivory. This, in northern regions, is of frequent use
for hafts of knives or hilts of swords, and being burnt,
becomes a good remedy for fluxes ; but antidotally used, and
exposed for unicorn's horn, it is an insufferable delusion, and
with more veniable deceit it might have been practised in
hart's horn.
The like deceit may be practised in the teeth of other
aea animals ; in the teeth also of the hippopotamus, or
great animal which frequenteth the river Nilus : for we read
that the same was anciently used instead of ivory, or ele-
phant's tooth. Nor is it to be omitted, what hath been
formerly suspected, but now confirmed by Olaus Wormius',
and Thomas Bartholinus, and others, that those long horns,
preserved as precious rarities in many places, are but the
teeth of narwhals, to be found about Iceland, Greenland,
and other northern regions, of many feet long, commonly
wreathed, very deeply fastened in the upper jaw, and stand-
ing directly forward, graphically described in Bartholinus,*
according unto one sent from a bishop of Iceland, not sepa-
rated from the crany. Hereof Mereator hath taken notice
in. his description of Iceland: some relations hereof there
seem to be in Purchas, who also delivereth, that the horn at
Windsor was in his second voyage brought hither by For-
bisher. These, before the northern discoveries, as unknown
rarities, were carried by uiercliants into all parts of
Europe; and though found on the sea-shore, were sold at
very high rates ; but are now become more common, and
probably in time will prove of little esteem ; and the bar-
gain of Julius the Third be accounted a very hard one, who
stuck not to give many thousand crowns for one.
Nor is it great wonder we may be so deceived in this,
being daily gulled in the brother antidote, bezoar j whereof
* Jh tfucomu.
342 OF THE UNICOE^'S nOBN, [BOOK IIT^
tlioiigh many be false, yet one there passeth amongst us of
more intolerable delusion, somewhat paler than the true
stone, and given by women in the extremity of great dis-
eases, which, notwithstanding is no stone, but seems to be
the stony seed of some lithospermtan or greater grumwell ;
or the lobifs echinatus of Clusius, called also the bezoarnut;
for being broken, it discovereth a kernel of a leguminous
smell and taste, bitter like a lupine, and will swell and
sprout if set in the ground, and therefore more serviceable
for issues, than dangerous and virulent diseases.^
Sixthly, although we were satisfied we had the unicorn's
liorn, yet were it no injury unto reason to question the
efficacy thereof, or whether those virtues pretended do
properly belong unto it. For what we observed (and it
escaped not the observation of Paulus Jovius many years
past), none of the ancients ascribed any medicinal or anti-
dotal virtue unto the unicorn's horn ; and that which JElian
extolleth, who was the first and only man of the ancients
who spake of the medical virtue of any unicorn, Avas the
horn of the Indian ass ; whereof, saith he, the princes of
those parts make bowls and drink therein, as preserva-
tives against poison, convulsions, and the falling sickness.
Now the description of that horn is not agreeable unto
that we commend ; for that (saith lie) is red above, white
below, and black in the middle ; which is very different
from ours, or any to be seen amongst us. And thus, though
the description of the unicorn be very ancient, yet was
there of old no virtue ascribed unto it ; and although this
amongst us receive the opinion of the same virtue, yet is it
not the same horn whereunto the ancients ascribed it.
Lastly, although we allow it an antidotal efficacy, and
such as the ancients commended, yet are there some virtues
ascribed thereto by moderns not easily to be received ; and
it hath surely fallen out in this, as other magnified medi-
cines, whoso operations, effectual in some diseases, are
presently extended unto all. That some antidotal quality it.
may have, we have no reason to deny ; for since elk's hoofu
and horns are magnified for epilepsies, since not only the
* The like deceit, <fcc.] These two paragr.;i>lis were first adiloi! m the
2ad eilitLon.
CHAP. XXIIT.] OF THE U>'ICOE>''s HORN. i}43
bone iu the hart, but the horn of the deer is alexiphar-
mical,* and ingredient into the confection of hyacintli, and
the electuary of Maximdian, we cannot without prejudice
except against the efficacy of this. But when we affirm it is
not only antidotal to proper venoms, and substances destruc-
tive by qualities we cannot express ; but that it resisteth
also sublimate, arsenick, and poisons which kill by second
qualities, that is, by corrosion of parts ; I doubt we exceed
the properties of its nature, and the promises of experi-
ment will not secure the adventure. And therefore in such
extremities, whether there be not more probable relief from
fat and oily substances, which are the open tyrants over salt
and corrosive bodies, than precious and cordial medicines
which operate by secret and disputable properties ; or whe-
ther he that swallowed lime, and drank down mercury
water, did not more reasonably place his cure in mdk,
butter, or od, than if he had recurred unto pearl and
bezoar, common reason at all times, and necessity in tho
like case, would easily determine.
Since therefore, there be many unicorns ; since that
whereto we appropriate a horn is so variously described, that
it seemeth either never to have been seen by two persons,
or not to have been one animal ; since though they agreed
in the description of tlie animal, yet is not the horn we
extol the same with that of the ancients ; since what horns
soever they be that pass among us, they are not the horns
of one, but several animals : since many in common use
and high esteem are no horns at all ; since if they were true
horns, yet might their virtues be questioned ; since though
we allowed some virtues, yet were not others to be re-
ceived ; with what security a man may rely on this remedy,
the mistress of fools hath already instructed some, and to
wisdom (which is never too wise to learn), it is not too late
to consider.
* Expulsive of poisons.
344 COGNATE ANIMALS OF LAND AND WATEB. [bOOK III.
CHAPTEE XXIV.
That all Animals of the La/nd are in their land in the Sea.
That all animals of the land are, in their kind, in the
sea, although received as a principle, is a tenet very ques-
tionable, and will admit of restraint. For some in the sea
are not to be matched by any enquiry at land, and hold
those shapes which terrestrious forms approach not ; as may
be observed in the moon-fish, or orthragorisctts, the several
sorts of rays, torpedos, oysters, and many more ; and some
there are in the land which were never maintained to be in
the sea, as pantliers, hysenas, camels, sheep, moles, and
others, which carry no name in icthyology, nor are to be
found in the exact descriptions of Eondeletius, Gesner, or
Aldrovaudus.
Again, though many there be which make out their nomi-
nations, as the hedgehog, sea serpents, and others ; yet are
there also very many that bear the name of animals at land,
which hold no resemblance in corporal configuration ; in
which account, we compute vulpecula, cams, rana, passer,
cuculus, asellus, turdus, lepus, ^c. Wherein while some
are called the fox, the dog, the sparrow or frog fish, and are
known by common names with those at land ; yet as their
describers attest, they receive not these appellations from
a total similitude in figure, but any concurrence in com-
mon accidents, in colour, condition or single conformation.
As for sea-horses, which much confirm this assertion, in their
common descriptions,^ they are but grotesco delineations,
which fill up empty spaces in maps, and mere pictorial in-
ventions, not any physical shapes : suitable unto those
which (as Pliny delivereth) Praxiteles long ago set out in
the temple of Domitius. For that which is commonly called
a sea-horse, is properly called a morse, and makes not out
® descriptions.'] But Scaliger, in his 187th exercitation, relates a par-
ticular description of them, and that 2 of them having got from the
Portugala (watching at Capo Viride in the mouth of Gambra) as soone as
they sawe the men returne to the long boote, set upon them moHt
fiercely, and were not driven away with blowes ; but as despairioge of
doing any hurt to the men. — Wr,
CHAP. XXIV.] COGNATE ANIMALS OF LAND AND WATEE. 345
that shape. That which the ancients named hippocampus,
is a little animal about six inches long, and not preferred
beyond the class of insects.^ That which they termed
hippopotamus, an amphibious animal, about the river Nile,
so little resembleth an horse, that, as Matthiolus observeth,
in all except the feet it better makes out a swine. That
which they termed a lion, was but a kind of lobster ; that
which they called the bear, was but one kind of crab ; and
that which they named has marinus, was not as we conceive
a fish resembling an ox, but a skait or thornbaek, so named
from its bigness, expressed by the Greek word hous, which
is a prefix of augmentation to many words in that language.
Aid therefore, although it be not denied that some in the
water do carry a justifiable resemblance to some at land,
yet are the major part which bear their names, unlike ; nor
do they otherwise resemble the creatures on earth, than
they on earth the constellations which pass imder animal
names in heaven ; nor the dog-fish at sea much more make
out the dog of the land, than that his cognominal or name-
sake in the heavens. Now if from a similitude in some, it
be reasonable to infer a correspondence in all, we may draw
this analogy of animals upon plants ; for vegetables there
are which carry a near and allowable similitude unto ani-
mals.* We might also conclude that animal shapes were
generally made out in minerals : for several stones there
are that bear their names in relation to animals or their
parts, as lapis anguinus, conchites, ecMnites, encephalites,
(Bgophthalmus, and many more ; as will appear in the writers
of minerals, and especially in Boetius and Aldrovandus.
Moreover, if we concede that the animals of one element
might bear the names of those in the other, yet in strict
reason the watery productions should have the prenomina-
tion, and they of the land rather derive their names than
nominate those of the sea ; for the watery plantations were
first existent, and as they enjoyed a priority in form, had
* Fab. Column, de stirp. rarioribus, Orchis, Cercopithecophora, Anihro-
pophora.
' not preferred, <frc.] A mistake. The hippocampus is one of the
osseous fishes, belonging to the tribe called, by Cuvier, lophob ranches : —
syngnathus hippocampus, Lin. ; but nov/ constituted a distinct genus,
hippocampus vulgaris.
34C CONCEUNING THE COURSE OF OUR DIET. [bOOK IH.
also in nature precedent denominations; but falling nut under
that nomenclature of Adam, which unto terrestrious animals
assigned a name appropriate unto their natures, from suc-
ceeding spectators they received arbitrary appellations, ar^d
were respectively denominated imto creatures known at
land, who in themselves had independent names, and not
to be called after them which were created before them.
Lastly, by this assertion we restrain the hand of God,^
and abridge the variety of the creation, making the crea-
tures of one element, but an acting over those of another,
and conjoining as it were the species of things which stood
at distance in the intellect of God, and though united in
the chaos, had several seeds of their creation. For although
in that indistinguished mass all things seemed one, yet
separated by the voice of God, according to their species,
they came out in incommunicated varieties, and irrelative
seminalities, as well as divided places, and so although we
say the world was made in six days, yet was there as it
were a world in every one, tliat is, a distinct creation of
distinguished creatures ; a distinction in time of creatures
divided in nature, and a several approbation and survey in
every one.
CHAPTEE XXV.9
Concerning the common course of our Diet, in making choice of some
animals, and abstaining from eating others.
Why we confine our food unto certain animals, and totally
reject some others, how these distinctions crept into several
nations, and whether this practice be built upon solid reason,
or chiefly supported by custom or opinion, may admit con-
sideration.
For first, there is no absolute necessity to feed on any, and
if we resist not the stream of authority, and several deduc-
tions from Holy Scripture, there was no sarcophagy* before
* Eating of flesh.
* we restrain the hand of God.] This is a greate inconsequent, for
liiith baboons and tritons imitate the shape of man, without disparage-
nifiit t(. him, or (the Creator) Him that made man. — Wr.
' Thii: chapter was new in 2ud edition.
CnAP. IXV.] CONCEENINO THE COURSE OF OITE DIET. 347
the flood, and without the eating of flesh, our fathers, from
vegetable aliments, preserved themselves unto longer lives
than their posterity by any other. For whereas it is plainly
said, " I have given you every herb which is upon the face ol
all the earth, and every tree ; to you it shall be for meat :" — ■
presently after the deluge, when the same had destroyed or
infirmed^ the nature of vegetables, by an expression of en-
largement it is again delivered, " Every moving thing that
liveth shall be meat for you ; even as the green herb have I
given you all things."
And therefore, although it be said that Abel was a shep-
herd, and it be not readily conceived the first man would
keep sheep, except they made food thereof; great expositors
will tell us, that it was partly for their skins wherewith they
were clothed, partly for their milk whereby they were sus-
tained, and partly for sacrifices, which they also offered.
And though it may seem improbable that they offered
flesh yet ate none thereof, and Abel can hardly be said to
oiferthe firstlings of his stock, and the fat or acceptable part,
if men used not to taste the same, whereby to raise such
distinctions ; some will confine the eating of flesh unto the
line of Cain, who extended their luxury, and confined not
unto the rule of God. That if at any time the line of Seth
ate fiesh, it was extraordinary, and not only at their sacri-
fices ; or else, as Grotius hinteth, if any such practice there
were, it was not from the beginning, but from that time when
the ways of men were corrupted, and whereof it is said, that
the wickedness of man's heart was great ; the more righteous
part of mankind probably conforming unto the diet pre-
scribed in Paradise, and the state of innocency ; and yet
however the practice of man conformed, this was the injunc-
tion of God, and might be therefore sufficient, without the
food of flesh.
That they fed not on flesh, at least the faithful party,
before the flood, may become more probable, because they
refrained the same for some time after. For so it was gene-
rally delivered of the golden age and reign of Saturn, which
is conceived the time of Noah, before the building of BabeL
' infirmed.'] What scriptural evidence have we that the flood had
" impaired the properties " of the vegetables which had been and still
remained as food for mari
348 CONCERNING THE COUESE OF OUE DIET. [bOOK lit-
And he that considereth how agreeable this is unto the
traditions of the Gentiles ; that that age was of one tongue ;
that Saturn devoured all his sons but three ; that he was the
son of Oceanus and Thetis ; that a ship was his symbol ; that
he taught the cu.ture of vineyards, and the art of husbandry,
and was tlierefore described with a sickle, may well conceive
these traditions had their original in Noah. Nor did this prac-
tice terminate in him, but was continued at least in many
after ; as (beside the Pythagoreans of old, and Banyans now
in India, who, upon single opinions refrain the food of flesh)
ancient records do hint or plainly deliver ; although we
descend not so low as that of Asclepiades delivered by Por-
phyrius,* that men began to feed on flesh in the reign of
Pygmaleon, brother of Dido, who invented several torments
to punish the eaters of flesh.
Nor did men only refrain from the flesh of beasts at first,
but, as some will have it, beasts from one another. And if
we should believe very grave conjectures, carnivorous animals
now were not flesh devourers then, according to the expres-
sion of the divine provision for them ; " To every beast of
the earth, and to every fowl of the air, I have given every
green herb for meat, and it was so." And is also collected
from the store laid up in the ark, wherein there seems to have
been no fleshy provision for carnivorous animals. Por of
every kind of unclean beast there went but two into the ark,
and therefore no stock of flesh to sustain them many days,
much less almost a year.
But whenever it be acknowledged that men began to feed
on flesh, yet how they betook tliemselves after to particular
kinds thereof, with rejection of many others, is a point not
clearly determined. As for the distinction of clean and un-
clean beasts, the original is obscure, and salveth not our
practice. For no animal is naturally unclean, or hath this
character in nature, and therefore whether in this distinction
there were not some mystical intention ; whether Moses,
after the distinction made of unclean beasts, did not name
these so before the flood by anticipation ; whether this dis-
tinction before the flood were not only in regard of sacrifices,
as that delivered after was in regard of food (for many were
• TTtpl arrox^C.
CHAP. XXV.] CONCEENING THE COURSE OF OUE DIET. 349
clean for food, which were unclean for sacrifice), or whether
the denomination were but comparative, and of beasts less
commodious for food, although not simply bad, is not yet
resolved.
And as for the same distinction in the time of Moses, long
after the flood, from thence we hold no restriction, as being
no rule unto nations beside the Jews, in dietetical consider-
ation or natural choice of diet, they being enjoined or pro-
hibited certain foods upon remote and secret intentions.
Especially thereby to avoid community with the Gentiles
upon promiscuous commensality, or to divert them from the
idolatry of Egypt, whence they came, they were enjoined to
eat the gods of Egypt in the food of sheep and oxen.
Withal in this distinction of animals the consideration was
hieroglyphical, in the bosom and inward sense implying an
abstinence from certain vices symbolically intimated from
the nature of those animals, as may be well made out in the
prohibited meat of swine, cony, owl, and many more.
At least the intention was not medical, or such as might
oblige unto conformity, or imitation : for some we refrain
which that law alloweth, as locusts and many others ; and
some it prohibiteth, which are accounted good meat in strict
and medical censure, as (beside many fishes which have not
fins and scales) the swine, cony, and hare, a dainty dish
with the ancients ; as is delivered by Galen, testified by
Martial, as the popular opinion implied that men grew fair
by the flesh thereof, by the diet of Cato, that is, hare
and cabbage, and the jus nigrum* or black broth of the
Spartans, which was made with the blood and bowels of an
hare.
And if we take a view of other nations we shall discover
tliat they refrained many meats upon like considerations.
For in some the abstinence was symbolical : so Pythagoras
enjoined abstinence from fish, that is, luxurious and dainty
dishes ; so, according to Herodotus, some Egyptians refrained
swine's flesh, as an impure and sordid animal, which who-
ever but touched was fain to wash himself.
Some abstained superstitiously or upon religious con-
siderations : so the Syrians refrained fish and pigeons; the
* Inter quadrupedes mattya prima lepus.
350 CONCEENINQ THE COURSE OF OUE DIET. [bOOK III.
Egyptians of old, dogs, eels, and crocodiles, though Leo
Africanus delivers that many of late do eat them with good
gust ; and Herodotus also affirmetli that the Egyptians of
Elephantina (unto whom they were not sacred) did eat
thereof in elder times ; and writers testify that they are
eaten at this day in India and America. And so, as Caesar
reports,* unto the ancient Britains it was piaculous^ to taste
a goose, which dish at present no table is without.
Unto some nations the abstinence was political, and for
some civil advantage : so the Thessalians refrained storks,
because they destroyed their serpents ; and the like in
sundry animals is observable in other nations.
And under all these considerations were some animals
refrained : so the Jews abstained from swine at first sym-
bolically, as an emblem of impurity, and not fear of the
leprosy, as Tacitus would put upon them. The Ci*etians
superstitiously, upon tradition that Jupiter was suckled into
that country by a sow. Some Egyptians politically, because
they supplied the labour of plowing by rooting up the
ground. And upon like considerations, perhaps, the Phce-^
nicians and Syrians fed not on this animal ; and, as Solinus
reports, the Arabians also and Indians. A great part of
mankind refraining one of the best foods, and such as Pytha-
goras himself would eat ; wlio, as Aristoxenus records,t
refused not to feed on pigs.
Moreover, while we single out several dishes, and reject
others, the selection seems but arbitrary, or upon opinion ;
for many are commended and cried up in one age, which are
decried and nauseated in another. Thus, in the days of
Maecenas, no flesh was preferred before young asses ; wliich
notwithstanding became abominable unto succeeding appe-
tites. At the table of Heliogabalus the combs of cocks
were an esteemed service ; which country stomachs wiU not
admit at ours. Tiie stimen, or belly and dugs of swine with
pig, and sometimes beaten and bruised unto death ; the
womb of the same animal, especially that was barren, of
else had cast her young ones, though a tough and mem-
branous part, was magnified by Roman palates ; whereunto
♦ Lib. V. Be Bella Gall. f Aul. Gell. lib. iv.
' piaculous.'\ Eequiring expiation.
CHAP. XXV.] C0NCEE5ING THE COTJESE OF OIJE DIET. 351
nevertheless, we cannot persuade our stomachs. How alec,
muria, and garum, would humour our gust I know not ; but
surely few there are that could delight in their cyceon, that
is, the common draught of honey, cheese, parched barley-
flower, oil, and wine ; which notwithstandiiig was a com-
mended mixture, and in high esteem among them. "We
mortify ourselves with the diet of fish, and think we fare
coarsely if we refrain from the flesh of other animals. But
antiquity held another opinion hereof ; when Pythagoras, in
prevention of luxury, advised not so much as to taste of
fish. Since the Ehodians were wont to call them clowns
that eat flesh ; and since Plato, to evidence the temperance
of the noble Greeks before Troy, observed, that it was not
found they fed on fish, though they lay so long near the
Hellespont, and it was only observed in the companions of
Menelaus,* that, being almost starved, they betook them-
selves to fishing about Pharos.
Xor will (I fear) the attest or prescript of philosophers
and physicians be a sufiicient ground to confirm or warrant
common practice, as is deducible from ancient writers, from
Hippocrates, Galen, Simeon, Sethi, and the latter tracts of
Nonnust and Castellanus.J So Aristotle and Albertus
commend the flesh of young hawks ; Galen § the flesh of
foxes about autumn, when they feed on grapes ; but con-
demneth quails ; and ranketh geese but with ostriches :
which, notwithstanding, present practice and every table
extolleth. Men think they have fared hardly, if in times of
extremity they have descended so low as dogs : but Galen
delivereth, II that young, fat, and gelded, they were the food
of many nations : and Hippocrates^ ranketh the flesh of
whelps with that of birds, who also commends them against
the spleen, and to promote conception. The opinion in
Galen's time, which Pliny also folio weth, deeply condemneth
horse-flesh, and conceived the very blood thereof destructive ;
but no diet is more common among the Tartars, who also
dxink their blood. And though this may only seem an
adventure of northern stomachs, yet as Herodotus tells us,
in the hotter clime of Persia the same was a convivial dish,
r. t Non. De Re Cibaria. t Cast. De Em Carnium.
§ Gal. Alim. sac. lib. iii.
II Z-raX. Simpl. fac. lib. iii. U Hip. De Morhh de swpersit.
352 CONCEUNING THE COUESE OF OUE DIET. [bOOK III.
and solemnly eaten at the feasts of their nativities ; whereat
they dressed whole horses, camels, and asses, contemning
the poverty of Grecian feasts, as unfurnished of dishes
sufficient to fill the bellies of their guests.
Again, whde we confine our diet in several places, all
things almost are eaten, if we take in the whole earth ;^ for
that which is refused in one country is accepted in another,
and in the collective judgment of the world, particular dis-
tinctions are overthrown. Thus were it not hard to show,
that tigers, elephants, camels, mice, bats, and others, are the
food of several covmtries ; and Lerius, with others, delivers,
that some Americans eat of all kinds, not refraining toads
and serpents ; and some have run so high, as not to spare
the flesh of man ; a practice inexcusable, nor to be drawn
into example, a diet beyond the rule and largest indulgence
of God.
As for the objection against beasts and birds of prey it
acquitteth not our practice, who observe not this distinction
in fishes, nor regard the same in our diet of pikes, perches,
and eels ; nor are we excused herein, if we examine the
stomachs of mackerels, cods, and whitings. Nor is the foul-
ness of food sufficient to justify our choice : for (beside that
their natural heat is able to convert the same into laudable
aliment) we refuse not many whose diet is more impiu'e
than some which we reject ; as may be considered in hogs,
ducks, puets, and many more.
• all things almost are eaten, ttc] This chapter, which exhibits all the
characteristic acuteness of our author, and has afForded opportunity for
the display of his extensive and very curious reading, reminds me of a
passage in Burchell's Southern Africa, vol. ii. p. 33, to which I refer the
reader.
I remember an amusing illustration of the adage, that one man's food
is another's poison, in an incident of which I was a witness. Some
years ago, visiting France in company with a Scotch gentleman, we sat
dowti to dinner, just after our landing, at a table d'hCte, at Dieppe.
Among the dishes which had been provided to suit the nationality of
British visitors, was some " ros bif;" a lean square lump of beef roasted
to the consistence of mahogany, served up with thin sour gravy. My
Scotch friend, after vainly endeavouring to feed on the French dishes,
was introduced to the beef. Its toughness he might have endured ; but
the thin sour gravy was too much ! He turned to me with a face of
absolute despair, exclaiming, "I'll certainly be starved in this cov/ntiy."
Milk and eggs were the only food I could prevail on him to taste.
CHAP. XXVI.] OF THE SPEEMACETI WHALE. 353
Thus we perceive tlie practice of diet doth hold no certain
course nor soUd rule of selection or confinement ; some in an
indistinct voracity eating almost any; others out of a timorous
pre-opinioa refraining very many. Wherein, indeed, neces-
sity, reason, and physic, are the best determinators. Surely
many animals may be fed on, like many plants ; though not
in alimental, yet medical considerations : whereas, having
raised antipathies by pre-judgment or education, we often
nauseate proper meats, and abhor that diet which disease or
temper requireth.
Now, whether it were not best to conform unto the simple
diet of our forefathers ; whether pure and simple waters were
not more healthful than fermented liquors ; whether there be
not an ample sufficiency without all flesh, in the food of honey,
oil, and the several parts of milk ; in the variety of grains,
pulses, and all sorts of fruits, since either bread or beverage
may be made almost of all ; whether nations have rightly
confined unto several meats ; or whether the common food of
one country be not more agreeable unto another ; how indis-
tinctly all tempers apply unto the same, and how the diet of
youth and old age is confounded ; were considerations much
concerning health, and might prolong our days, but not this
discourse.
CHAPTEE XXVI.4
Of the Spermaceti Whale.
"What spermaceti is, men might justly doubt, since the
learned Hofmannus, in his work of thirty years,* saith
plainly, Nescio quid sit. And therefore need not wonder at
the variety of opinions ; while some conceived it to be Jlos
maris ; and many, a bitamiaous substance floating upon the
sea.
That it was not the spawn of the whale, according to
vulgar conceit or nominal appellation, philosophers have
always doubted, not easdy conceiving the seminal humour
of animals should be inflammable or of a floating nature.
* De Medicaments Officin.
* Chap, xxvi.] This chapter was first added in 3rd edition.
VOL. I. 2 A
354 OF THE SPERMACETI WHALE. [BOOK III.
That it proceedeth from the whale, beside the rehxtion of
Chisius and other learned observers, was indubitably deter-
mined, not many years since, by a spermaceti whale, cast on
our coast of Norfolk ;* which, to lead on further enquiry,
we cannot omit to inform. It contained no less than sixty
feet in length, the head somewhat peculiar, with a large
prominency over the mouth ; teeth only in the lower jaw,
received into fleshy sockets in the upper. The weight ol the
largest about two pounds; no gristly substances in the mouth,
commonly called whale-bones ; only two short fins seated
forwardly on the back ; the eyes but smaU ; the pizzle large
and promiuent. A lesser whale of this kind, above twenty
years ago, was cast upon the same shore.f
The description of this whale seems omitted by Gesner,
Rondeletius, and the first editions of Aldrovandus ; but
described in the Latin impression of Pareus, in the Exoticlcs
of Clusius, and the Natural History of Nirembergius ; but
more amply in the icons and figures of Johnstonus.
Mariners (who are not the best nomenclators) called it a
juhartas, or rather gihlartas. Of the same appellation we
meet with one in Eondeletius, called by the French, gibhar,
from its round and gibbous back. The name, gihbarta, we
find also given unto one kind of Grreenland whales ; but this
of ours seemed not to answer the whale of that denomiaa-
tion, but was more agreeable unto the trumpo or spermaceti
whale,* according to the account of our Greenland describers
in Purchas ; and maketh the third among the eight remark-
able whales of that coast.
Out of the head of this whale, having been dead divers
days and under putrefaction, flowed streams of oil and sper-
maceti, which was carefully taken up and preserved by the
coasters. But upon breaking up, the magazine of spermaceti
was found in the head, lyiug in folds and courses, in the big-
ness of goose-eggs, encompassed with large flaky substances,
* Near Wells. + Near Hunstanton.
trurapo or spermaceti ^ohale.'] Tlie cachalot macrocephalus. The
upper part of its enormous head, as here described, is filled with an oil,
called (very absurdly) si>ermaccti, which fixes when it cools, assuming a
consistence like that of the pulp of a water-melon, and when completely
concrete, it is crystallized and brilliant.
CU.VP. XXVI.] OF THE SrERMACETI WHALE. 355
as large as a mau's head, in form of lioneycombs, very white
and full of oil.
Some resemblance or trace hereof there seems to be in the
physiter or capidolio of Koudeletius ; while he delivers, that
a fatness, more liquid than oil, ruius from the brain of that
animal; which being out, the relicks are like the scales of
Sardinos pressed into a mass ; whicli inelting with heat, are
again concreted by cold. And this many conceive to have
been the fish which swallowed Jonas ; although, for the
largeness of the mouth, and frequency in those seas, it may
possibly be the lamia.
Some part of the spermaceti found on the shore was pure,
and needed little depuration ; a great part mixed with fcetid
oil, needing good preparation, and frequent expression, to
bring it to a flaky consistency. And not only the head, but
other parts contained it. For the carnous parts being
roasted the oil dropped out, an axungious^ and thicker part
subsiding; the oil itself contained also much in it, and still
after many years some is obtained from it.
Greenland enquirers seldom meet with a whale of this
kind ; and therefore it is but a contingent commodity, not
reparable from any other. It flameth white and candent like
camphor, but dissolveth not in aqua fortis like it. Some
lumps containing about two ounces, kept ever since in water,
afford a fresh and flosculous smell. Well prepared and
separated from the oil, it is of a substance unlikely to decay,
and may outlast the oil required in the composition of
Matthio'lus.
Of the large quantity of oil, what first came forth by
expression from the spermaceti grew very white and clear,
like that of almonds or hen. AVhat came by decoction was
red. It was found to spend much in the vessels which con-
tained it ; it freezeth or coagulateth quickly with cold, and the
newer soonest. It seems dift'erent from the oil of any other
animal, and very much frustrated the expectation of our
soap-boilers, as not incorporating or mingling with their lyes.
But it mixeth well with painting colours, though hardly drieth
at all. Combers of wool made use hereof, and country people
for cuts, aches, and hard tumours. It may prove of good
* cucungious.] Fatty. From axungia,
2 a2
356 or THE SPERMACETI WHALE. [bOOK III.
medical use, and serve for a ground in compounded oils and
balsams. Distilled, it aftbrds a strong oil, with a quick and
piercing water. Upon evaporation it gives a balsam, which
is better performed with turpentine distilled with spermaceti.
Had the abominable scent permitted, enquiry had been
made into that strange composure of the head, and hillock
of flesh about it. Since the workmen afiirmed they met with
spermaceti before tliey came to the bone, and the head yet
preserved seems to confirm the same. The sphincters inserv-
ing unto the Jistula or spout, might have been examined,
since they are so notably contrived in other cetaceous ani-
mals ; as also the larynx or throttle, whether answerable unto
that of dolphins and porpoises in the strange composure and
figure which it maketh. What figure the stomach maintained
in this animal of one jaw of teeth, since in porpoises, which
abound in both, the ventricle is trebly divided, and since in
that formerly taken nothing was found but weeds and a loligo.
The heart, lungs, and kidneys, had not escaped ; wherein
are remarkable difierences from animals of the land : likewise
what humour the bladder contained, but especially the semi-
nal parts, which might have determined the difference of that
humour from this which beareth its name.
In vain it was to rake for ambergriese '' in tlie paunch of
this leviathan, as Greenland discoverers, and attests of expe-
rience dictate that they sometimes swallow great lumps
thereof in the sea ; insufferable foetor denying that enquiry :
and yet if, as Paracelsus encourageth, ordure makes the best
musk, and from the most fa?tid substances may be drawn
the most odoriferous essences ; all that had not Vespasian's
nose * might boldly swear here was a subject fit for such
extractions^
* * Oui odor lucri ex re qualihet.
'' ambergriese.'l This substance is excrement hardened by disease,
and mixed with undigested aliment : found in lumps in the intestines.
CKA.P. XXVII.] OF THE SWAN. 357
CHAPTER XXVII.
Compaidioi(sltf of the musical note of Swans before their death ; that the
fiesh of Peacocks corrupteth not ; that they are ashamed of t/ieir legs ;
that Storks will only live in republicks and free states ; of the noise of a
Bittern by putting the bill in a reed ; that Whcl^)s are blind nine days ;
of the antipathy bettveen a Toad and a Spider, a Lion and a Cock ;
tkal an Ear-wig hath no witigs ; of Worius ; that Flies make that kuni-
ming noise by their moutJis or wings ; of the Tainct or small Red
Spider ; of the Glow-worm ; of tlie providence of Pismires in biting off
tite ends of com.
1. And first, from great antiquity, and before the melody
of Syrens, the musical note of swans hath been commended,
and that they sing most sweetly before their death : for thus
we read in Plato, that from the opinion of Metempsyclwsis, or
transmigration of the souls of men into the bodies of beasts
most suitable unto their human condition, after his death
Orpheus the musician became a swan ; thus was it the bird
of Apollo, the god of music, by the Greeks ; and an hiero-
glj'phick of music among the Egyptians,*^ from whom the
Greeks derived the conception ; — hath been the affirmation
of many Latins, and hath not wanted assertors abnost from
every nation.
All which notwithstanding, we find this relation doubtfully
received by ^lian, as an hearsay account by Bellonius, as
a false one by Pliny, expressly refuted by Myndius in Athc'
fusus^ and severely rejected by Scaliger ; whose words unto
Cardan are these : De cygno verb cantu suavissimo quern cunt
parente mendaciorum GrtJBcm jactare ausus es, ad Luciani
tribunal apud quern novi aliquid dicas, statuo. Authors
also that countenance it, speak not satisfactorily of it : some
affirming they sing not till they die ; some that they sing, yet
die not. Some speak generally, as though this note were in
all ; some but particularly, as though it were only in some ;
some in places remote, and where we can have no trial of it ;
others in places where every experience can refute it ; as
• an hieroglyphich, <tc.] In HorapoUo. Neither Dr. Young nor
Champollion speaks of it, though the latter mentions, as represented in
hieroglyphicks, " many web-footed birds." — Br,
358 OF THE SWA]<r. [book III.
Aldrovandus upon relation delivered concerning the music of
the swans on tlie river of Thames, near Loudon.
Now that which couutenanceth and probably confirmeth
this opinion, is the strange and unusual conformation of the
windpipe, or vocal organ '■♦ in tliis animal ; observed first by
Aldrovandus, and conceived by some contrived for this inten-
tion. For in its length it far exceedeth the gullet, and hath
in the chest a sinuous revolution, that is, when it ariseth from
the lungs it ascendeth not directly unto the throat, but de-
9 conformation of the windpipe, /r.] The vast variety which exists,
ill quality and extent of tone, as well as in diversity of modulation in
the cry and song of birds, arises from a corresponding variety in the
structure of their organs of voice. This curious subject has been
investigated with much diligence and ingenuity by various ornitholo-
gists ; especially by Dr. Latham some years ago, and more recently by
Mr. Yarrell. Their papers, in the Linmean Transactions, vols. iv. xv.
and xvi., will aiford much gratification to those readers who feel an
interest in the subject. From the examination of these naturalists, it
appears, that much of the strength, as well as perfection, of the song of
birds, is attributable to the number and size of the muscles of the
larynx. Those of the singing birds are the most numerous of any ; and
ill the nightingale are stronger than in any other bird of tlie same size.
The power and depth of tone in some birds will be found to increase
with the elongation of the tube. On which principle it is, that the
difference of the vocal powers of the mute swan and hooper, or wild
.swan, must be explained. The moi-e complicated the structure of the
tube, the more disagreeable the sound of the voice ; the simple forms
belonging to the most delightful of our singing birds. Again, shrill notes
are produced by short tubes (as in the case of the simjinrf birds), and
deep tones by long tubes (as in the waders and swimmers). The substance
of the tube itself is also to be ctmsidered : birds possessing strong and
broad cartilages, or bony rings, have monotonous and loud voices, while
the more slender rings allow a corresponding variety in the scale of tone.
Mr. Yarrell concludes his second paper with the following obsei^vation :
— " It will perhaps be objected, that the ittmost extent of motion which
])irds appear to possess the power of exercising, over the various part.s
of their organ of voice, seems insufficient to account for the effects pro-
tluced ; but it may in answer be urged, that the closest examination or
most scientific demonstration of the chord<e rocales and muscles in man,
with all the .auxiliary appendages, afford but an imperfect illustration
of the varied and extraordinary powers of the human voice." It need
scarcely be observed, that the peculiarity noticed by our author in the
tracheae of the wild swan, has nothing to do with any extraordinary
powers of submersion : but is the occasion of the shrill, jiiercing, and
fiarsh note which has ol>tained from him the name of the whistler or
nooper ; an .appellation far more applicable than that of the "musical''
«wan, for which he is indebted to fabulou.s antiquity.
CUAP. XXVII.] OF TUE PEACOCK. 359
Bcendiiig first into a capsulary reception of the breast-bone,
by a serpentine and trumpet recurvation it ascendeth again
into the neck, and so by the length thereof a great quantity
of air is received, and by the figure thereof a musical modu-
lation effected. But to speak indifferently, this formation of
the weazand^ is not peculiar unto the swan, but common also
unto the platea or shovelard, a bird of no musical throat ;
and, as Aldrovandus confesseth, may thus be contrived in
the swan to contain a larger stock of air, whereby being to
feed on weeds at the bottom, they might the longer space
detain their heads under water. But were this formation
peculiar, or had they unto this effect an advantage from this
part, yet have they a known and open disadvantage from
another, that is, a flat bill. For no latirostrous ^ animal
(whereof nevertheless there are no slender numbers), were
ever commended for their note, or accounted among those
animals which have been instructed to speak.
When therefore, we consider the dissension of authors,
the falsity of relations, the indisposition of the organs, and
the immusical note of all we ev^er beheld or heard of, if gene-
rally taken, and comprehending all swans, or of all places,
we cannot assent thereto. Surely he that is bit with a taran-
tula, shall never be cured by this music ; and with the same
hopes we expect to hear the harmony of the spheres.
2. That there is a special propriety in the flesh of pea-
cocks roasted or boiled, to preserve a long time incorrupted,
hath been the assertion of many ; stands yet confirmed by
Austin, De civitate Dei; by Grygas Sempronius in Aldro-
vandus ; and the same experiment we can confirm ourselves,
in the brawn or fleshy parts of peacocks so hanged up with
thread, that they touch no place whereby to contract a
moisture ; and hereof we have made trial both in summer
and winter. The reason, some, I perceive, attempt to make
out from the siccity and dryness of its flesh, and some are
content to rest in a secret propriety hereof. As for the sic-
city^ of the flesh, it is more remarkable in other animals ; as
• weazaiid.'\ Winde-pipe. — Wr.
' latirostrous.'l Broad or shovel-beaked. — Wr.
^ siccity.] There is a siccity which is joynd more with rarltye :
and another which approaches nearer to solidity ; and of this kind ara
these 5 mentioned, especially 1, 3, 5. But the siccity of the peacock
360 or STOEKS. [book hi.
eagles, hawks, and birds of prey. That it is a propriety or
agreeable unto none other, we cannot, with reason, admit ;
for the same preservation, or rather incorrnption, we have
observed in the flesh of turkeys, capons, hares, partridges,
venison, suspended freely in the air, and after a year and a
half, dogs have not refused to eat them.'*
As for the other conceit, that a peacock is ashamed when
he looks on his legs, as is commonly held, and also delivered
by Cardan ; beside what hath been said against it by Scali-
ger ; let them believe tliat hold specifical deformities, or that
any part can seem unhandsome to their eyes, which hath
appeared good and beautiful unto their Maker's. The
occasion of this conceit might first arise from a common
observation, that when they are in their pride, that is ad-
vance their train, if they decline their neck to the ground,
they presently demit, and let fall the same : which indeed
they cannot otherwise do ; for contracting their body, and
being forced to draw in their fore-parts, to establish their
hinder in the elevation of their train, if the fore-parts depart
and incline to the ground, the hinder grow too weak, and
suffer the train to fall. And the same in some degree is also
observable in turkeys.
3. That storks are to be found, and will only live in
republicks or free states, is a petty conceit to advance the
opinion of popular policies, and from antipathies in nature to
disparage monarchical government. But how far agreeable
unto truth, let them consider who read in Pliny, that among
the Thessalians, who were governed by kings, and much
abounded with serpents, it was no less than capital to kill a
is accompanyed with an unwonted rarity, as appeares by liis fethers, the
largest and lightest of any other bird under heaven, which argues the
drines of his natural temper, in extremo siccitatls; to which you may
joyne the beauty of his colors, the whitenes, softnes, and tendernes of
the pith in his wing and tayle fethers, proceeding (at a yard length) out
of a quil, not an inche long, and soe thin and tender, that for want of
substance and strengtli, are not so useful as a crowe's quil. — Wr.
* the same preservation, <tc.] " My pendent pantry, made of deal and
fine fly wire, and suspended in the great walnut tree, proves an incom
parable preservative for meat against flesh-flies. The flesh, by hangin
in a brisk current of air, becomes dry on the surface, and keeps till it i
tender without tainting." — Rev. Q. White's MSS. Jesse's 2nd Gleamng
p. 171.
CHAP. XXYII.] OF THE BITTERN. 361
Stork ; that the ancient Egyptians honoured them, whose
government was from all times monarchical ; that Bellonius
affirmeth men make them nests in France ;'' that relations
make them common in Persia, and the dominions of the
great Turk ; and lastly, how Jeremy the prophet delivered
himself* unto his countrymen, whose government was at
that time monarchical ; — " the stork in the heaven knoweth
her appointed times ; the turtle, crane, and swallow, observe
the time of their coming ; but my people know not the judg-
ments of the Lord ;" — wherein, to exprobrate their stupidity,
he induceth the providence of storks. Now if the bird had
been unknown, the illustration had been obscure, and the
exprobration not so proper.
4. That a bittern maketh that mugient^ noise, or as we
term it, bumping, by putting its bill into a reed, as most
believe, or as Bellonius and Aldrovandus conceive, by putting
the same in mud or water, and after awhile retaining the air
by suddenly excluding it again, is not so easily made out.
For my own part, though after diligent enquiry, I could
never behold them in this motion. Notwithstanding, by
others whose observations we have expressly requested, we
are informed that some have beheld them making this noise
on the shore, their bills being far enough removed from reed
or water ; that is, first strongly attracting the air, and unto
a manifest distention of the neck, and presently after with
great contention and violence excluding the same again. As
for what others affirm, of putting their bill in water or mud,
it is also hard to make out. For what may be observed from
any that walketh the fens, there is little intermission, nor
any observable pause, between the drawing in and sending
forth of their breath. And the expiration or breathing forth
doth not only produce a noise, but the inspiration or haling
*■ Jer. viii. 7.
* men make them nests, etc.] " Thei'e is a rich hospital at Fez, in
Morocco, for the pui'pose of assisting and nursing sick cranes and storks,
and of buryiiig them when dead. They hold that storks are human beings
in that form, from some distant islands." — Queen Bee, iii. 18.- — Jeff.
* mugient.^ Bellowing, or rather braying, hke an asse : for soe his
compound name (in the Greeke) signifies ovoKporaXoQ, i. e. the harrishe
Doyse of an asse. — Wr.
362 OF THE BITTERN. [bOOIC III.
in of the air, aftbrdeth a sound that may be heard almost a
flight-shot.7
JSTow the reason of this strange and peculiar noise, is
deduced from the conformation of the windpipe, which in
this bird is different from other volatiles.^ For at the upper
extreme it hath no fit larynx or throttle to qualify the sound,
and at the other end, by two branches deriveth itself into the
lungs. Which division consisteth only of semicircidar fibres,
and such as attain but half way round the part : by which
formation they are dilatable into larger capacities, and are
able to contain a fidler proportion of air ; which being with
violence sent up the weazand, and finding no resistance by
the larynx, it issueth forth in a sound like that from caverns,
and such as sometimes subterraneous eruptions from hollow
rocks afibrd.^ As Aristotle observeth in a problem : * and
* Sect. XV.
' tut the inspiration, (fee] The screaming of parrots is said to be
effected by inspiration as well as expiration.
" Noiv the reason, cC'c] See note on the organs of voice in birds,
p. 358. The same contradiction of the common notion is given (from
personal experience) by Rev. S. Fovargue, in his New Catalogxi/e of
Vulgar Errors, pp. 19, 20, '21. He gives, at the same time, a pleasant
account of the cunning with which the bittern attempts to deceive his
pursuer, when escape is impossible — after relating that he had heard a
bittern utter this peculiar cry, and on repairing to the spot whence the
sound proceeded, found that it was covered with coarse grass, where
there were no reeds — he proceeds thus : — ■
"When the aforesaid bittern rose up, I shot, and wounded him
slightly, and marked him down again in the same kind of grass or short
mowed flags. As the grass was not higher than one's shoes, and it was
wounded, 1 was in hopes of having tlie pleasure of seeing him lie on
the ground very plain. However, I let my pointer go first, knowing
that he would stand at the place. Accordingly he made a dead point
at it. I came up as silent as po.ssible, to take a view of it, but to my
great surprise, nothing was to be seen.
"There was indeed something which appeared long, like two green
weeds lying among the grass, and there was something like a large spot
of dried grass or flags a little before them.
"While I was looking at the place, the dog, being out of patience,
seized hold of this phaonomenon, which proved to be no other than the
bittern itself Those things which seemed to be green weeds, were its legs
extended at the full length, behind the bird, as it lay quite flat upon its
belly ; and that broad spot of brown or dried grass, was the bod}-, with
the wings extended to their full stretch, quite flat upon the ground, which,
I believe, formed as complete a dcceptio visus as any thing in nature."
*• bcina with violence, i-c] Yf you observe the geese in their lowi
CHAP. IIVII.] OF WHELPS. 363
is observable in pitchers, bottles, and that instrument which
Aponensis upon that problem describeth, wherewith in Aris-
totle's time gardeners aitrighted birds.
Whether the large perforations of the extremities of the
weazand, in the abdomen, admitting large quantity of air
within the cavity of its membranes, as it doth in frogs, may
not much assist this mugiency or boation, may also be con-
sidered. For such as have beheld them making this noise
out of the water, observe a large distention in their bodies ;
and their ordinary note is but like that of a raven.
5. That whelps are blind nine days, and then begin to
see,^ is the common opinion of all, and some will be apt
enough to descend upon oaths upon it. But this I find not
answerable unto experience, for upon a strict observation of
many, I have scarce found any that see the ninth day, few
before the twelfth, and the eyes of some not open before the
foiu-teenth day. And this is agreeable imto the determina-
tion of Aristotle, who computeth the time of their anopsy or
non-vision by that of their gestation. For some, saith he,
do go with their young the sixth part of a year, two days
over or under, that is, about sixty days or nine weeks ; and
the whelps of these see not till twelve days. Some go the
fifth part of a year, that is seventy-one days ; and these, saith
he, see not before the fourteenth day. Others do go the
fourth part of the year, that is, three whole months ;- and
these, saith he, are without sight no less than seventeen
days.^ Wherein although the accounts be difterent, yet doth
the least thereof exceed the term of nine days, which is so
generally received. And this compute of Aristotle doth
generally overthrow the common cause alleged for this effect,
call (which is hearde very far) you shall observe a stronge commotion of
their lungs, rising to the bottom of the neck. — Wr.
' hegin to see.] Itt is probable, in hot, they saw after 9 dayes ; in
our clymate perhaps not till 12. — Wr.
* three whole months.'] i. e. 91 dayes. — Wr.
^ serentecii days.] "Tis observable that the soonest bred see soonest :
and the reason is naturaU. The acceleration of the birthe and sighte from
one and the same cause ; viz. the activity of the spirits in the braine,
•which in some kinde of dogs is seen much more than in others : and
in all the lesser kinds more then the greater : in these, the spirits (of
the whelps) being drowned in a loade of fatandfleshe, which afterwards
growing dryer, gives them leave to put forthe the spirits to an highth a-
Btrength, though not of such nimbletiess as in the lesser kindes. — Wr,
364 OF THE TOAD A?!D SPIDEK. [BOOK III.
that is, a precipitation or over-hasty exclusion before the
birth be perfect, according unto the vulgar adage, Festinans
canis ccecos parit catidos : for herein the whelps of longest
gestation are also the latest in vision. The manner hereof
is this : at the first littering their eyes are fastly closed, that
is, by coalition or joining together of the eyelids, and so
continue until about the twelfth day ; at which time they
begin to separate, and may be easily divelled"* or parted
asunder; they open at the inward canthus or greater angle
of the eye, and so by degrees dilate themselves quite open :
an effect very strange, and the cause of much obscurity,
wherein as yet men's enquiries are blind, and satisfaction
not easily acquirable. AVhatever it be, thus much we may
observe, those animals are only excluded without sight which
are multiparous and multifidous, that is, which have many at
a litter, and have also theii' feet divided into many portions.
For the swine, although multiparous, yet being bisulcous,
and only cloven-hoofed, is not excluded in this manner, but
farrowed with open eyes as other bisulcous animals.
6. The antipathy between a toad and a spider, and that
they poisonously destroy each other, is very famous, and
solemn stories have been written of their combats, wherein
most commonly the victory is given unto the spider. Of
what toads and spiders it is to be understood would be con-
sidered. For the plialangium and deadly spiders are differ-
ent from those we generally behold in England. However,
the verity hereof, as also of many others, we cannot but
desire ; for hereby we might be surely provided of proper
antidotes in cases which require them. But what we have
observed herein, we cannot in reason conceal ; who having
in a glass included a toad with several spiders, we beheld the
spiders, without resistance to sit upon his head and pass over
all his body ; which at last upon advantage he swallowed
down, and that in few hours, unto the number of seven.^
* divelled.] Pulled asunder.
* seven.] This is a remarkable experiment, whereon wee raaye con-
clude against the old deception. — IF;-.
Erasmus tells a ridiculous story of a monk found asleep on his back,
with a toad squatted upon his mouth. The brethren carefully convey-
ing the body, placed it immediately under the web of a spider, who
instantly descended upon, and at length nhw the toad, and delivered the
monk from an ugly death.
CHA.P. XXVII.] LIOK AND COCK. OP THE EAEWIG. 365
And ill the like manner will toads also serve bees, and are
accounted enemies unto their hives.^
7. Whether a lion be also afraid of a cock, as is related by
many, and believed by most, were very easy in some places
to make trial. Although how far they stand in fear of that
animal we may sufficiently understand from what is delivered
by Camerarius, whose words in his Symhola are these; Nostris
temporibiis in aula serenissimi Principis BavaricB, unus ex
leonibus miris saltihus in viclnam cujusdam domus aream sese
dimisit, ubi gallinaceorum cantum aut clamor es nihil refor-
onidans, ipsos, una cum plurihus gallinis devoravit. That is,
" in our time in the court of the Prince of Bavaria, one of the
lions leaped down into a neighbour's yard, where, nothing
regarding the crowing or noise of the cocks, he eat them
up with many other hens." ^ And therefore a very unsafe
defensative it is against the fury of this animal (and surely no
better than virginity or blood royal), which Pliny* doth place
in cock broth : for herein, saith he, whoever is anointed
(especially if garlick be boiled therein), no lion or panther
will touch him. But of an higher nature it were, and more
exalted antipathy, if that were certain which Proclus delivers,
that solary demons, and such as appear in the shape of
lions, will disappear and vanish if a cock be presented upon
them.^
8. It is generally conceived an earwig hath no wings, and
is reckoned amongst impennous^ insects by many : but he that
* De sacrijiciis et magia.
® hives.'] Which the bees (who of all creatures have the most accu-
rate smell) soone perceive, and are poisoiied with itt. That they never
gather of more then one and the same flower in kinde, is manifest ad
oculuni : that by only flying swift by over many they discerne that one
kind, are arguments of their exquisite smeU. — Wr.
' nothing regarding, <fr.] The learned and reverend Bishop Andrewes
was desirous to try this upon a young lyon, to whome hee cast in a
younge cock, whom (as he was crowing) the lyon seized on (as a cat on
a mouse) and tare him and eate him up. Hee related this to mee for
information against the fabulous conceyte, anno 1620, at his own
table.— m-.
Ross, rather than give up the old belief, accounts for the story told of
the Prince of Bavaria's lion, by supposing it must have been mad ! The
bishop did not probably dream of such a solution.
* But of an higher nature, tfcc] This sentence first added in 2nd edit,
* impennous.] Wingless.
3G6 OF WORMS. OF FLIES, BEES, ETC. [bOOK III.
shall narrowly observe them, or sliall with a needle put aside
the short and sheathy cases ou their back, may extend and
draw forth two wings of a proportionable length for flight,
and larger than in many flies. The experiment of Pennius
is yet more perfect, who witli a brush or bristle so pricked
them as to make them fly.
9. That worms are exsanguinous animals,^ and such as
have no blood at all, is the determination of philosophy, the
general opinion of scholars, and I know not well how to dis-
sent from thence myself. If so, surely we want a proper term
whereby to express that humour in them which so strictly
resembleth blood ; and we refer it unto the discernment of
others what to determine of that red and sanguinous humour,
found more plentifully about the torquis or carneous circle
of great worms in the spring, aftbrding in linen or paper an
indiscernible tincture from blood. Or wherem that differ-
eth from a vein, which in an apparent blue runneth along
the body, and if dextrously pricked with a lance emittetli a
red drop, which pricked on either side, it will not readily
afford.
In the upper parts of worms, there are likewise found
certain white and oval glandulosities, which authors term
eggs, and in magnifying glasses they also represent them ;
how properly, may also be enquired ; since, if in them there
be distinctions of sexes, these eggs are to be found in both.
For in tliat which is presumed to be their coition, that is,
their usual complication, or lateral adhesion above the ground,
dividing suddenly ^ with two knives the adhering parts of
both, I have found these eggs in either.
10. That flies, bees, &c. do make that noise or humming
sound by their mouth, or as many believe, with their wings
only, would be more wardy asserted, if we consulted the
' That loorms are, <£r.] They are not so. Sir Everard Home, in h\s
13th lecture on Comjmratire Anatomy, illustrated by the exquisite pencil
of Bauer, shows that the earth-worm is provided with a central artery,
with six bags or cells on each side, filled with red blood ; thereby
proving the accuracy of Sir Thomas's own examination.
* diridhif/.] Itt seemcs to have been in the very instant of coition,
when the male emptyes himself of tlieni, and was imparted before the
full impletion of the female. — Wr.
The dean's remark proves him unacquainted with the mode of propa-
^tion in tlie worm. See Sir E. Home's 13th lecture.
CHAP. XXTII.] OF THE KED SPIDER, 367
determination of Aristotle, who as in sundry other places, so
more expressly in his book of respiration, aiiirmeth this sound
to be made by the dlision of an inward spirit upon a pellicle
or little membrane about the precinct or pectoral division of
their body. If we also consider that a bee or fly, so it be able
to move the body, will buzz, though its head be off; that
it wUl do the like if deprived of wiugs,"^ reserving the head,
whereby the body may be the better moved ; and that some
also which are big and lively will hum without either head
or wing.
Nor is it only the beating upon this little membrane by the
inward and connatural spirit, as Aristotle determines, or
the outward air, as Scaliger conceiveth, which aftbrdeth this
humming noise, but most of the other parts may also concur
hereto : as wUi be manifest, if whde they hum we lay our
finger on the back or other parts, for thereupon wad be felt
a serrous or jarring motion, like that which happeneth whde
we blow on the teeth of a comb through paper ; and so, if
the head or other parts of the trunk be touched with oil, the
sound will be much impaired, if not destroyed ; for those
being also dry and membranous parts, by attrition of the
spirit do help to advance the noise. And therefore also the
sound is strongest in dry weather, and very weak in rainy
seasons, and towards winter ; for then the air is moist, and
the inward spirit growing weak, makes a languid and dumb
allision upon the parts.
11. There is foimd in the summer a kind of spider called
a tainct, of a red coloiu", and so little of body that ten of the
largest wdl hardly outweigh a grain ; this by coimtry people
is accounted a deadly poison unto cows and horses ; who,
if they suddenly die, and swell thereon, ascribe their death
hereto, and wdl commonly say, they have licked a tainct.
Now to satisfy the doubts of men, we have called this tra-
dition unto experiment ; we have given hereof unto dogs,
chickens, calves, and horses, and not in the singular number ;
yet never could find the least disturbance ensue. There
must be therefore other causes enquired of the sudden death
* that it will do the like, <fcc.] This is not accurate. Dr. Geer tried it
and found the sound continued, when the stumps of the wings remained,
whose vibration occasioned the sound : but it ceased when he perfected
the experiment by entirely removing the wings.
368 OF THE GLOW-WORM. [bOOK IIT.
and swelling of cattle ; and perhaps this insect is mistaken,
and unjustly accused for some other. For some there are
which from elder times have been observed pernicious unto
cattle, as the huprestis, or burstcow, the pityocampe or eruca
pinuum, by Dioscorides, Galen, and ^tius, the staphilinus
described by Aristotle and others, or those red phalangious
spiders like cantharides, mentioned by Muffetus. Now,
although the animal may be mistaken, and the opinion also
false, yet in the ground and reason which makes men most to
doubt the verity hereof, there may be truth enough, that is,
the inconsiderable quantity of this insect. For that a poison
cannot destroy in so small a bulk, we have no reason to
afl&rm. For if, as Leo Africanus reporteth, the tenth part of
a grain of the poison of nubia* will dispatch a man in two
hours ; if the bite of a viper and sting of a scorpion is not
conceived to impart so much ; if the bite of an asp will kill
within an hour, yet the impression scarce visible, and the
poison communicated not ponderable ; we cannot as impos-
sible reject this way of destruction, or deny the power of death
in so narrow a circumscription.
12. Wondrous things are promised from the glow-worm;"*
from thence perpetual lights are pretended, and waters said
to be distilled which afford a lustre in the night ; and this
is asserted by Cardan, Albertus, Gaudentinus, Mizaldus, and
many more. But hereto we cannot with reason assent ; for
the light made by this animal depends much upon its life.
For when they are dead they shine not, nor always whUe they
live ; but are obscure or light, according to the protrusion of
their luminous parts, as observation will instruct us. For
this flammeous light is not over all the body, but only visible
on the inward side, in a small white part near the tail. AYhen
this is full and seemeth protruded, there ariseth a flame of a
circular figure and emerald green colour ; which is discern-
ible in any dark place in the day ; but when it falleth and
seemeth contracted, the light disappeareth, and the colour of
* Granum Nuhiae.
* glow-worm. '\ There is a glow-fly as well as a glow-worm. One of
them flew about my face as I sate in my chamber at Blftchington, Oxon.
Junio ineunte, 1650. See the particular narration in my notes on the
Lorde Verulam's Naturall Historye, p. ISO. — Wr.
The male glow-worm is winged.
CHAP. XXVII.] OF THE GLOW-WOEM. 369
the part only remaineth. Now this light, as it appeareth and
disappeareth in their life, so doth it go quite out at their
death ; as we have observed in some, which preserved in
fresh grass have lived and shined eighteen days : but as they
declined, and the luminous humour dried, their light grew
languid, and at last went out with their Lives. Thus also the
torpedo, which, alive, hath a power to stupify at a distance,
hath none upon contraction being dead, as Gralen and Eon-
deletius particularly experimented. And this hath also dis-
appointed the mischief of those intentions, which study the
advancement of poisons ; and fancy destructive compositions
from asp's or viper's teeth, from scorpion's or hornet's stings.*
Tor these amit their efficacy in the death of the individual,
* And ihis hath also disappointed, <fcc.] The sting being secured from
the bodye of a waspe as itt hung on the finger, turnd itt selfe and rann
(up to the roots) into the finger, and caused a very dolorous and greate
impostume. And one was bit by the head of a snake, after 6 hours'
amputation whereof hee was never totally cured to his death : me teste
oculato. WTiether there may be destructive compositions made of those
parts is uncertain : thus far itt is improbable ; bycause the teeth of
vipers and stings of scorpions are but the outward instrumentall partes
through which the poysonous spirit of those venemous creatures is
ejaculated by them while they live : but being dead, there is no such
active quality in those parts more then anye other, and that the poyson
consistes in the vital spirits is manifest, for that wee see the vipers
drownd in a sack butt, infuse their spirit into the wine, making itt
become an excellent antedote : the great quantitye of wine overcoming
the small quantitye of the poyson which comes from them. The like
may bee sayde of the vertue which together with the spirits of the
scorpion, drownd in oyle, is imprinted on the oyle, makinge itt the
only cure of the scorpion's stinge : whereof the reason is manifest. Ovle
by nature, abates, and duls, and retundes the fiercenes and spreadinge
of poyson injected into us by venemous creatures, where we may come
to apply itt : but being dull of itt selfe, and not able to follow the swift
spreading of the scorpions poyson, thro soe small a puncture, as sooneas
itt is felt, followes the poyson injected by the same waye ; and soe
making way for the oyle, wherein itt is caryed, caryes the balme that
kils and deades the killing poyson before itt can seise on our vitall
spirits to destroy them. And noe doubt but the oyle, wherein hornets
are drowned, would cure their punctures alsoe ; a thing, worthe the
tryall.— Wr.
It is not the case that the poison of serpents is only fatal when
infused by the living reptile. — As is proved by the well-known fact that
eeveral individuals successively met their death by wearing a boot into
the inside ^f which it was afterwards found the fang of a rattlesnake had
Btuck fast, JO as to wound the leg when drawn on.
VOL. I 2 B
370 OF THE GLOW-WOKM, [bOOK III.
aud act but dependently on their forms. And thus far also
those philosophers concur with us, which held the sun and
stars were living creatures, for they conceived their lustre
depended on their lives, but if tliey ever died, their light
must also perish.
It were a notable piece of art to translate the light from
the Bononian stone into another body; he that woidd attempt
to make a shining water from glow-worms, must make trial
when the splendent part is fresh and turgid. For even from
the great American glow-worms, and flaming flies, the light
declineth as the luminous humour drieth.^
Now whether the light of animals, which do not occasion-
ally shine from contingent causes, be not of kin unto the light
of heaven ; whether the invisible flame of life received in a
convenient matter, may not become visible, and the diffnsed
(ethereal light make little stars by conglobation in idoneous
parts of the compositum ; whether also it may not have some
original in the seed and spirit analogous unto the element of
stars, whereof some glimpse is observable on the little reful-
gent humour, at the first attempts of formation ; philosophy
may yet enquire.^
True it is, that a glow-worm will aiford a feint light,
almost a day's space, when many will conceive it dead ; but
this is a mistake in the compute of death, and term of disani-
mation ; for indeed, it is not then dead, but if it be distended
will slowly contract itself again, which when it cannot do, it
ceaseth to shine any more. And to speak strictly, it is no
easy matter to determine the point of death in insects and
creatures who have not their vitalities radically confined unto
one part ; for they are not dead when they cease to move or
afford the visible evidences of life ; as may be observed in
flies, who when they appear even desperate and quite for-
saken of their forms, by virtue of the sun or warm ashes will
be revoked unto life, and perform its functions again.
Now whether this lustre, awhile remaining after death,
dependeth not still upon the first impression, and light com-
municated or raised from an inward spirit, subsisting awhile
in a moist and apt recipient, nor long continuing in this, or
* It were a notable piece, tfcc] This paragraph was fii-st added in 6th
edition.
' Now whether, <l*c.] This paragraph was first added in 3rd edition.
CHAP. xxTii.] OF THE pis:NrTBi:. 371
the moi-e remarkable Indian glow-worm ; or whether it be of
another nature, and proceedeth from different causes of illu-
mination ; yet since it confessedly subsisteth so little a while
after their lives, how to make perpetual lights, and sublunary
moons thereof as is pretended, we rationally doubt, though
not so sharply deny, with Scaliger and Muffetus.^
13. The wisdom of the pismire is magnified by all, and
in the panegyrieks of their providence we always meet with
this. That to prevent the growth of corn wliich they store
up, they bite off the end thereof;^ and some have conceived
that from hence they have their name in Hebrew;* from
* Namalh a Namal circumcidit.
* Now whether this lustre, tfcc] This paragraph wa.s first added in
3rd edition.
* they bite off the end, <fcc.] A more satisfactory and interesting solu-
tion of this question cannot be given, than is contained in the following
quotation from one of the most interesting works on natural history in
our language. " When we find the writers of all nations and ages unite
in affirming, that, having deprived it of the power of vegetating, ants
store up grain in their nests, we feel disposed to give larger credit to an
assertion, which at first sight seems to savour more of fact than of fable,
and does not attribute more sagacity and foresight to these insects than
in other instances they are found to possess. Writers in general, there-
fore, who have considered this subject, and some even of very late date,
have taken it for granted that the ancients were correct in this notion.
But when observers of nature began to examine the manners and eco-
nomy of these creatures more narrowly, it was found, at least with
renpect to the European species of ants, that no such hoards of grain
were made by them, and, in fact, that they had no magazines in their
nests in which provisions of any kind were stored up. It was therefore
surmised that the ancients, observing them carry about their pupce,
which in shape, size, and colour, not a little resemble a grain of com,
and the ends of which they sometimes pull open to let out the inclosed
insect, mistook the one for the other, and this action for depriving the
grain of the corculum. Solomon's lesson to the sluggard has been
generally adduced as a strong confirmation of the ancient opinion : it
can, however, only relate to the species of a warm climate, the habits of
which are probably different from those of a cold one ; — so that his
words, as commonly interpreted, may be perfectly correct and consistent
with nature, and yet be not at all applicable to the species that are
indigenous to Europe. But I think, if Solomon's words are properly
considered, it will be found that this interpretation has been fathered
upon them, rather than fairly deduced from them. He does not affirm
that the ant which he proposes to his sluggard as an example, laid up
in her magazines stores of grain : ' Go to the ant, thou sluggard, con-
sider her ways and be wise ; which having neither captain, overseer, or
ruler, prepares her bread in the summer, and gathers her food in the
2b2
372 OF THE PISMIUE. [bOOE IJI.
whence ariseth a conceit that corn will not grow if the ex-
tremes be cut or broken. But herein we find no securitj
to prevent its germination ; as haying made trials in grains,
whose ends cut off have notwithstanding suddenly sprouted,
and according to the law of their kinds ; that is, the roota
of barley and oats at contrary ends, of wheat and rye at
the same. And therefore some have delivered that after
rainy weather they diy these grains in the sun : which if
effectual, we must conceive to be made in a high degree and
above the progression of malt ; for that malt will grow, this
year hath informed us, and that unto a perfect ear.
And if that be true which is delivered by many, and we
shall further experiment, that a decoction of toad-stools if
poured u])on earth, will produce the same again ; if sow-
thistles will abound in places manured with dung of hogs,
which feed much upon that plant; if horse-dung repro-
duceth oats ; if winds and rains will transport the seminals
of plants ; it will not be easy to determine where the power
of generation ceaseth. The forms of things may lie deeper
than we conceive them ; seminal principles may not be dead
in the divided atoms of plants ; but wandering in the ocean
of nature, when they hit upon proportionable materials,
may unite and return to their visible selves again.
But the prudence of this animal is by gnawing, piercing,
or otherwise, to destroy the little nib or principle of ger-
mination. "Which, notwithstanding is not easily discover-
able ; it being no ready business to meet with such grains
m ant-hills ; and he must dig deep, that will seek them in
the winter. 1
harvest.' These words may very well be interpreted simply to
mean, that the ant, with commendable pnidence and foresight, makes
use of the proper seasons to collect a supply of provisions sufficient for
her purposes. There is not a word in tliem implying that she stores up
grain or other provision. She prepares her bread and gathers her food,
— namely, such food as is suited to her — in summer and harvest, — that
is, when it is most plentiful, — and thus shows her wisdom and prudence
by using the advantages offered to her. The words thus interpreted,
which they may be without any violence, will apply to our European
species as well as to those that are not indigenous." — Kirby and Spence,
Introd. to Entomology, vol. ii. p. 45 — i7.
' And if that be true, <ix.] These two concluding paragraphs were first
«,dded in 3rd edition.
C1LA.P. XXVIII.] FOEMATION OF CHICKENS. 373
CHAPTER XXVIII.2
That the Chicken m made out of the yolk of tJie Egg ; that Snakes sting ;
of t}ie Taranttda; the Lamb of Tartary ; Hie. swiftness of Timers i
tdtk sundry qtta'ies.
That a chicken is formed out of tlie yolk of tlie egg,
was the opinion of some ancient philosophers. Whether it
be not the nutriment of the pullet may also be considered ;
since umbilical vessels are carried unto it ; since much of
the yolk remaineth after the chicken is formed ; since in
a chicken newly hatched the stomach is tinged yellow, and
the belly full of yolk, which is drawn in at the navel or
vessels towards the vent, as may be discerned in chickens
within a day or two before exclusion.
Whether the chicken be made out of the white, or that
be not also its aliment, is likewise very questionable ; since
an umbihcal vessel is derived unto it ; since after the format
tiou and perfect shape of the chicken, much of the white
remaineth.
Whether it be not made out of the grando, galiature,
germ or tred of the egg, as Aquapendente informeth us,
seemeth to many of doubt : for at the blunter end it is not
discovered after the chicken is formed; by this also the
yolk and white are continued, whereby it may continually
receive its nutriment from them both.
Now, that from such slender materials nature should
effect this production, it is no more than is observed in
other animals ; and, even in grains, and kernels, the greatest
part is but the nutriment of that generative particle, so
disproportionable unto it.
A greater difficulty, in the doctrine of eggs, is, how the
spezin of the cock prolificates and makes the oval concep-
tion fruitful, or how it attaineth unto every egg, since the
vitellary or place of the yolk is very high ; since the ovary
or part where the white involveth it, is in the second region
of the matrix, which is somewhat long and inverted ; since
also a cock will in one day fertilate the whole racematioa
* Chap, xxviii.] This chapter was added in 2nd edition, except two
paragraphs, one a.lded in 3id and the other in the 6th edition.
374 FOEMATIOIs' or CHICKEITS. [bOOK ITT.
or cluster of eggs, which are not excluded In many weeks
after.
But these at last, and how in the dcatricula or little pale
circle, formation first begiuneth, how the grando or tredle
are but the poles and establishing particles of the tender
membranes, firmly conserving the floating parts in their
proper places, with many other observables, that ocular
philosopher and singitlar discloser of truth. Dr. Harvey,
hath discovered in that excellent discourse of generation,
so strongly erected upon the two great pillars of truth,
experience and solid reason.^
That the sex is discernible from the figure of eggs, or
that cocks or hens proceed from long or round ones, as
many contend, experiment will easily frustrate.
The Egyptians observed a better way, to hatch their eggs
in ovens, than the Babylonians, to roast them at the bot-
tom of a sling, by swinging them round about till heat
from motion had concocted them ; for that confuseth all
parts without any such eifect.
Tliough slight distinction be made between boiled and
roasted eggs, yet is there no slender difference, for the one
is much drier than the other ; the egg expiring less in the
elixation or boiling ; whereas in the assation or roasting it
will sometimes abate a drachm, that is, threescore grains
in weight. So a new-laid egg will not so easily be boiled
' But these at last, Ac. 1 The great principle of Hanrey, '■' omnia ex
ovo," has received splendid confirmation from the labours of Hunter,
Malpighi, and Dutrochet, but stiD more from the recent investigations
and discoverie-s of Sir E. Home, who has given, in his 14th lecture, a
detailed account of the progressive changes of the egg during incubation ;
illustrated by exijuisite microscopical figures. He has ascertained that
the moleculi or dcatricula, exists both in mammalia and birds, and that
in the latter it becomes, after impi-egnation, the embryo : which is
nourished botli l)y the yolk and the white. Sir Thom:»s seems, in one
of his observations, to confound the (/ruuiUucs, or c?ialazce (which are
two knotty bodies, proceeding from the two ends of the yolk) with the
molecule., a round milk-white spot on the surface of the yolk-bag, sur-
rounded with white concentric circles. The fact which he notices of
the whole cluster of eggs being fertilized at once, is a case somewhat
analogous to that of quadrupeds whicli pixKluce sevei"al young at a birth
with one impregnation : the case oi ihcaiihhlcs is still more remarkable,
in which this is the fact not only with the eggs of the individual, Wt
with those of its offsprin<5 to the ninth geuuratiou.
CHAP. XXnil.] THAT SNAKES STING. 375
hard, because it contains a greater stock of humid parts,
which must be evaporated before the heat can bring the
inexhahible parts into consistence.'*
Why the hen hatcheth not the egg in her belly, or
maketh not at least some rudiment thereof within herself
by the natural heat of inward parts, since the same is per-
formed by incubation from an outward warmth after ?"
Why the egg is thinner at one extreme ? Why there is
some cavity or emptiness at the blunter end ?^ Why we
open them at that part ? Why the greater end is first
excluded ? Why some eggs are all red, as the kestrils ;
some only red at one end, as those of kites and buzzards ?
Why some eggs are not oval but round, as those of
fishes, &c. — are problems whose decisions would too much
enlarge this discourse.
That snakes and vipers do sting or transmit their mis-
cliief by the tail, is a common expression not easily to be
justified, and a determination of their venoms unto a part,
wherein we could never find it ; the poison lying about the
teeth, and communicated by bite, in such as are destructive.
And therefore, when bitmg serpents are mentioned in the
Scripture, they are not differentially set down from such as
mischief by stings ; nor can conclusions be made conform-
able to this opinion, because, when the rod of Moses was
turned into a serpent, God determinatively commanded him
to take up the same by the tad.
Nor are all snakes of such empoisoning qualities as
common opinion presumeth ; as is confirmable from the
* So a new-laid egg, d-c] This is not the received theoiy of the
coagulation of albumen. " Cohesive attraction is the real cause of the
phajnemenon. In proportion as the temperature rises, the particles of
water and albumen recede from each other, their affinity diminishes,
and then the albumen precipitates. However, by uniting albumen with
a large quantity of water, we diminish its coagulating property to sucli
a degree, that heat renders the solution merely opalescent. A new-laid
egg yields a soft coagulum by boiling ; but when, by keeping, a portiou
of the water has transuded so as to leave a void space within the shell,
the concentrated albiimen atForde a firm coagulum." — Ure.
' Why the hen, <tc.] She does " make some rudiment," viz. the mole-
cule, which, however, without impregnation, would not become a chick
by the process of incubation.
^ Why there is some cavity, ct-c] It contains air, by which, in the
earlier stages, the blood of the chick is aerated.
376 THE VEGETABLE LAMB. [bOOK IIT.
ordinary green snake -with us, from several histories of
domestic snakes, from ophiophagous nations, and such aa
feed vipon serpents/
Surely the destructive delusion, of Satan in this shape,
hath much enlarged the opinion of their mischief.
Which, notwithstanding, was not so high with the hea-
thens, in whom the devil had wrought a better opinion of
this animal, it being sacred luito the Egyptians, Greeks,
and Eomans, and the common symbol of sanity. In the
shape whereof, JEsculapius, the god of health, appeared
unto the Homans, accompanied their embassadors to Rome
from Epidaurus, and the same did stand in the Tiberine isle
upon the temple of ^sculapius.
Some doubt many have of the tarantula, or poisonous
spider of Calabria, and that magical cure of the bite thereof
by music. But since we observe that many attest it from
experience ; since the learned Kircherus hath positively
averred it, and set down the songs and tunes solemnly used
for it ; since some also affirm the tarantula itself will dance
upon certain strokes, whereby they set their instruments
against its poison, we shall not at all question it.^
Much wonder is made of the horametz,^ that strange
' from ophiophagous, tt-c] But the venomous serpents are eaten as
well as the harailess — indeed the poison itself may be swallowed with
impunity. Its fatality is evolved only on its entering into the circula-
tion through a wound.
* Some doubt many have, <kcJ] The effects ascribed to its wounds, and
their wonderful cures have long been celebrated : but after all there
seems to have been more of fraud than of truth in the business ; and the
whole evil appears to consist in swelling and inflammation. Dr. Clavitio
submitted to be bitten by this animal, and no bad effects ensued ; and
the Count de Borch, a Polish nobleman, bribed a man to undergo the
same experiment, in whom the only result was a swelling in the hand,
attended by intolerable itching. The fellow's sole remedy was a bottle
of wine, which charmed away all his pain, without the aid of "pipe and
tabor." — K. and Sp. i. 128.
^ the borametz.] Polypodium horametz, L. Mirbel (in the 8vo. edition
of Buffon, hy Sonnini) calls it polyp, chinois. Jussieu gives the follow-
ing account of it under the article, barometz.
" Cette espfece de polypode de Tartaric, polypodium borametz, L., pr^-
sente dans la disposition de ses parties une fonne singulifere. Sa tige,
longue d'environ un pied et dans une direction horizontale, est port^e
sur rjuatre ou cinq racines qui la tiennent ^levde hors de terre. Sa
surface est couverte d'un duvet assez long, soyeux et d'une couleur
CHAP. XXTTTI.l SWIFTNESS Or TIGEES. 377
plant-animal or vegetable lamb of Tartary, wliicb wolves
delight to feed on, which hath the shape of a lamb, aifordeth
a bloody juice upon breaking, and liveth while the plants
be consumed about it. And yet if all this be no more,
than the shape of a lamb in the flower or seed, upon the
top of the stalk, as we meet with the forms of bees, flies,
and dogs in some others ; he hath seen nothing that shall
much wonder at it.
It may seem too hard to question the swiftness of tigers,
which hath therefore given names unto horses, ships, and
rivers, nor can we deny what all have thus afiirmed ; yet
cannot but observe, that Jacobus Bontius, late physician at
Java in the East Indies, as an ocular and frequent witness,
is not afraid to deny it ; to condemn Pliny who aflB.rmeth it ;
and that indeed it is but a slow and tardigradous animal,
preying upon advantage, and otherwise may be escaped.
Many more there are whose serious enquiries we must
request of others, and shall only awake considerations,
whether that common opinion that snakes do breed out of
the back or spinal marrow of man, doth build upon any con-
stant root or seed in nature ; or did not arise from contingent
generation, in some single bodies remembered by Pliny or
others, and might be paralleled since in living corruptions of
the guts and other parts ; which regularly proceed not to
putrefactions of that nature.
Whether the story of the remora be not unreasonably
amplified ; ^ whether that of bernacles and goose-trees be not
too much enlarged -^ whether the common history of bees
jaune dor^e. Ainsi conformde, elle ressemble a la toison d'un agneau de
Scythie, et on la trouve, ainsi cit^e dans les contes fabuleux imagines
6ur quelques singularit^s du rfegne vegetal." — Dictionnaire des Sciences
Naturelles, vol. iv. p. 85.
Ross contends stoutly for the literal verity of this pleasant story ; and
utterly rejects the sceptical explanations proposed by Sir Thomas.
' amplified.^ Alluding probably to the absurd story of a vessel in full
sail being stopt by one of these singular little fishes adhering to it.
■■^ too much enlarged.~\ The natural history of the lepas anatifera, or
bemacle, is too well understood, to render it necessary to say a syllable
in refutation of the old story of its producing geese. It may be allowed,
however, to notice the fact (discovered by Sir E. Home, and illustrated
by highly magnified figures in his Comparative Anatomy) that this is oau
of the self-impregnating animals.
378 SUNDBT QTJEEIDS. [BOOK III.
will hold, as large accounts have delivered ; whether the
brains of cats be attended with such destructive mahgnities,
as Dioscorides and others put upon them ?
As also whether there be not some additional help of art,
unto the numismatical and musical shells, which we some-
times meet with in conchylious collections among us ?
Whether the fasting spittle of man be poison unto snakes
and vipers, as experience hath made us doubt ? Whether the
nightingale's sitting with her breast against a thorn, be any
more than that she placeth some prickles on the outside of
her nest, or roosteth in thorny prickly places, where serpents
may least approach her ; whether mice^ may be bred by
putrefaction as well as univocal production, as may be easily
believed, if that receipt to make mice out of wheat will hold,
which Helmont* hath delivered. AVTiether quails from any
idios}T3cracy or peculiarity of constitution, do innocuously
feed upon hellebore, or rather sometime but medically use
th« same ; because we perceive that stares, which are com-
monly said harmlessly to feed on hemlock, do not make good
the tradition ; and he that observes what vertigoes, cramps
and convulsions follow thereon in these animals, will be of
our belief.
* Helm. Imago Fermenti, (Lc.
^ Whether mice, tt-c] Ross's note on this doubt cannot be omitted.
" So he may doubt whether in cheese and timber, worms are generated ;
or if beetles and wasps in cow's dung ; or if butter-flies, locusts, grass-
hoppers, shell-fish, snails, eels, and such like, be procreated of putrified
matters, which is apt to receive the form of that creature to which it is
by formative power disposed. To question this, is to question reason,
sense, and experience. If he doubts of this, let him go to Egypt, and
there he will find the fields swarming with mice begot of the mud of
Nylus, to the great calamity of the inhabitants. What will he say to
those rats and mice, or little beasts resembling mice found generated in
the belly of a woman dissected after her death, of which Lemnius is a
witness ? I have seen one whose belly, by drinking of puddle water,
was swelled to a vast capacity, being full of small toads, frogs, evets
[water-lizards] and suchvermin usually bred in putrified water." — P. 155.
THE FOURTH BOOK:
THE PABTICULAE PART CONTINUED.
OF MANY POPDLAE AND EECEIVED TENETS CONCEKNING HAK.
CHAPTEE I.
That only Man hath an erect figure.
That only man hath an erect figure, and for to behold and
look up toward heaven, according to that of the poet:^
Pronaque cum spectant animalia cfetera terrain,
Os homini suWime dedit, coelumque tueri
Jussit, et erectos ad sydera tollere vxiltus,
is a double assertion, whose first part may be true if we take
erectness strictly, and so as Gralen hath defined it, for they
only, saith he, have an erect figure, whose spine and thigh-
bone are carried in right lines, and so indeed, of any we yet
know, man only is erect.^ For the thighs of other animals
do stand at angles with their spine, and have rectangular
positions in birds, and perfect quadrupeds. Nor doth the
' thepoet.'] Ovid. Met. i. 84. See also Cicero, De Nat. Deor. ii. 56.
- man only is erect.'] But itt is most evident that baboones and apes
doe not only .... as a man, but goe as erect also. — Wr.
Thia is incorrect. Man alone, unquestionably, is constructed for an
erect position. The apes, which resemble him in their conformation
more closely than any other animals, are incapable of attaining a per-
fectly erect attitude, and though they occasionally assume a position
nearly so, yet even this they cannot long retain. Their narrowness of
pelvis, the configuration of their thighs and lovrer extremities, the
situation of their flex or muscles, and the want of muscular calves and
buttocks, constitute together an incapacity for perfect or continued
verticity of attitude in the quadrimanu.
380 OXLT MAN IIATII AK ERECT FIGCEE. [BOOK TT.
frog, though stretched out, or swimming, attain the rectitude
of man, or carry its thigh without all angularity. Aaid thus
is it also true, that man only sitteth, if we define sitting to
be a firmation of the body upon the ischias ; wherein, if the
position be just and natural, the thigh-bone lieth at right
angles to the spine, and the leg-bone or tibia to the thigh.
For others, when they seem to sit, as dogs, cats, or lions, do
make unto their spine acute angles with their thigh, and
acute to the thigh with their shank. Thus is it likewise
true, what Aristotle allegeth in tliat problem, why man alone
suifereth pollutions in the night, because man only lieth
upon his back, — if we define not the same by every supine
position, but when the spine is in rectitude with the thigh,
and both with the arms lie parallel to the horizon, so that a
line through their navel will jjass through the zenith and
centre of the earth. And so cannot other animals lie upon
their backs, for though tlie spine lie parallel with the horizon,
yet wiU their legs incline, and lie at angles unto it. And
upon these three divers positions in man, wherein the spine
can only be at right lines with the thigh, arise those
remarkable postures, prone, supine, and erect, which are but
differenced in situation, or angular postures upon the back,
the belly, and the feet.
But if erectness be popularly taken, and as it is largely
opposed unto proneness, or the posture of animals looking
downwards, carrying their venters or opposite part of the
spine directly towards the earth, it may admit of question.
For though in serpents and lizards we may truly allow a
proneness, yet Galen acknowledgeth that perfect quadrupeds,
as horses, oxen, and camels, are but partly prone, and have
some part of erectness ; and birds, or flying animals, are so
far from this kind of proneness, that they are almost erect ;
advancing the head and breast in their progression, and only
prone in the act of volitation or flying ; and if that be true
M'hich is delivered of the penguin or anser Ilarfellanicus, often
described in maps about those straits, that they go erect like
men, and with their breast and belly do make one line per-
pendicular unto the axis of the earth, it will almost make up
the exact erectness of man.* Nor will that insect come very
* Observe also the Urias Bellonii and Mcrgus major.
CHAP. I.] ONLY MAN HATH AN EEECT FIQTTEl!. 381
short, which we have often beheld, that is, one kind of locust
which stands not prone, or a little inclining upward, but in
a large erectness, elevating always the two fore legs, and sus-
taining itself in the middle of the other four ; by zoographers
called mantis, and by the common people of Provence, Prega
Dio, the prophet and praying locust, as being generally found
in the posture of supplication, or such as resembleth ours,
when we lift up our hands to heaven.
As for the end of this erection, to look up toward heaven,
though confirmed by several testimonies, and the Greek
etymology of man, it is not so readily to be admitted ; and,
as a popular and vain conceit, was anciently rejected by
Galen, who in his third De iisu partium, determines that
man is erect, because he was made with hands, and was
therewith to exercise all arts, which in any other figure he
could not have performed, as he excellently declareth in that
place, where he also proves that man could have been made
neither quadruped nor centaur.^
And for the accomplishment of that intention, that is, to
look up and behold the heavens, man hath a notable disad-
vantage in the eyelid, whereof the upper is far greater than the
lower, which abridgeth the sight upwards contrary to those
of birds, who herein have the advantage of man ; insomuch
that the learned Plempius* is bold to affirm, that if he had
had the formation of the eyelids, he would have contrived
them quite otherwise.'*
The ground and occasion of that conceit was a literal
apprehension of a figurative expression in Plato, as Galen
thus delivers : to opinion that man is erect to look up and
behold heaven, is a conceit only fit for those that never saw
the fish uranoscojnis,^ that is, the beholder of heaven, which
* Ophthabnogra2)Ma.
^ man could have been, <tc.] Why not as well as an ape, if that reason
be good ; for an ape uses his hand as well as man, and yett hee is qua-
drupes too. — Wr. Incorrect again. Apes cannot use their hands as
well as man, because destitute of the facility which man possesses for
the free use of his hands and arms, in the erect position, and because of
the superior mechanical adaptation of the human hand to the exercise
of the arts and occupations of life. The opinion quoted by our author
that man could not become quadruped, is incontrovertible.
* And for the accomplishment, d-c] This paragraph first added in 2nd
edition.
' to opinion, dec] This is a poore cavil, or the end of mans lookinge
882 ONLY MAK HATH AN ERECT FIGUBE. [BOOii IV.
hath its eyes so placed, that it looks up directly to heaven,
which man doth not, except he recline, or bend his head
backward ; and thus to look up to heaven agreeth not only
unto man but asses ; to omit birds with long necks, which
look not only upward, but round about at pleasure ; and
thereibre men of this opinion understood not Plato when he
saith, that man doth sursmn aspicere ; for thereby was not
meant to gape, or look upward with the eye, but to have his
thoughts sublime, and not only to behold, but speculate
their nature with the eye of the understanding.^
Now although Galen in this place makes instance but in
one, yet are there other fishes whose eyes regard the heavens,
as plane and cartilaginous fishes, as pectinals, or such as
have their bones made literally like a comb, for wlien they
apply themselves to sleep or rest upon the white side, their
eyes on the other side look upward toward heaven. For
birds, they generally carry their heads erected like a man,
and have advantage in their upper eyelid, and many that
have long necks, and bear their heads somewhat backward,
behold far more of the heavens, and seem to look above the
equinoctial cii-cle ; and so also in many quadrupeds, although
their progression be partly prone, yet is the sight of their
eye direct, not respecting the earth but heaven, and makes
an higher arch of latitude than our own. The position of a
frog with his head above water exceedeth these ; for therein
he seems to behold a large part of the heavens, and the acies
of his eye to ascend as high as the tropic ; but he that hath
beheld the posture of a bittern will not deny that it
beholds almost the very zenith.^
upward is not the same with tiranoscopus, to which the same is equi-
vocal, bycause this posture, being always at the botom, liee lookes
alwayes upwards, not to heaven, but as watching for his foode flooting
over his head ; the question then is, not whether any other creatures
have the head erect as man, but whether to the same ende. — Wr.
^ understood not Plato, <£'c.] This is too pedanticall and captious :
for Plato sayd plainlye, AstroHomiw causa datos esse homini oculos, but
not to other creatures, though they have their heads more erect than
hee, and far better sight. — Wr.
^ the posture of a bittern, rfr.] Which proceeds from his timorous and
jealous nature, holding his head at hight, for discovery, not enduring
any man to come neere : his neck is stretch out, but his bill standa like
the cranes, herushawes, &c. — Wr.
CHAP. II.] THAT THE HEAET IS ON THE LEFT SIDE. 383
CHAPTEE 11.
ITtat the Heart is on the left side.
That the heart of man is seated in the left side is an
asseveration, which, strictly taken, is refutable by inspection,
■whereby it appears the base and centre thereof is in the midst
of the chest ; true it is, that the mucro or point thereof
inclineth unto the left, for by this position it giveth way unto
the ascension of the midriff, and by reason of the hollow vein
covdd not commodiously deflect unto the right. From which
diversion, nevertheless, we cannot so properly say 'tis placed
in the left, as that it consisteth in the middle, that is, where
its centre riseth ; for so do we usually say a gnomon^ or
needle is in the middle of a dial, although the extremes may
respect the north or south, and approach the circumference
thereof.
The ground of this mistake is a general observation from
the pulse or motion of the heart, which is more sensible on
this side ; but the reason hereof is not to be draviTi from
the situation of the heart, but the site of the left ventricle
wherein the vital spirits are laboured, and also the great
artery that conveyeth them out, both which are situated on
the left. Upon this reason epithems or cordial applications
are justly applied unto the left breast, and the wounds under
the fifth rib may be more suddenly destructive, if made on
the sinister side, and the spear of the soldier that pierced
our Saviour is not improperly described, when painters
direct it a little towards the left.
The other ground is more particular and upon inspection ;
for in dead bodies, especially Ipng upon the spine, the heart
doth seem to incHne upon the left ; which happeneth not
from its proper site, but besides its sinistrous gravity, is
drawn that way by the great artery, which then subsideth
and haleth the heart unto it ; and thereof strictly taken, the
heart is seated in the middle of the chest, but after a care-
8 gnomon.'] There is not the same reason of a gnomon and a nee-
dle. This is ever in the midst, but a gnomon stands on the substilar
line, which declines east or west, as the place does, wherein 'tia
drawne. — Wr.
384 THAT THE HEART IS OH" THE LEFT SIDE. [bOOK IT.
less aud inconsiderate nispection, or according to the readiest
sense of pulsation, we shall not quarrel if any affirm it is
seated towards the left. And in these considerations must
Aristotle be salved, when he affirmeth the heart of man is
placed in the left side, and thus in a popidar acception may
we receive the periphrasis of Persius, when he taketh the
part under the left pap for the heart,* and if rightly appre-
hended, it coucerneth not this controversy, when it is said
in Ecclesiastes, the heart of a wise man is in the right side,
but that of a fool in the left ; for thereby may be implied,
that the heart of a wise man dehghteth in the right way, or
in the path of virtue ; that of a fool in the left, or road of
vice, according to the mystery of the letter of Pythagoras,
or that expression in Jonah, concerning sixscore thousand,
that could not discern between their right hand and their
left, or knew not good from evil.^
That assertion also that man proportionally hath the
largest brain,' I did I confess somewhat doubt, and conceived
it might have failed in birds, especially such as having little
bodies, have yet lai'ge cranies, and seem to contain much
brain, as snipes, woodcocks, &c. But upon trial I find it
very true. The brains of a man, Archangelus and Bauhinus
observe to weigh four pounds, and sometimes five and a half.
If therefore a man weigh one hundred and forty pounds, and
his brain but five, his weight is twenty seven times as much
as his brain, deducting the weight of that five pounds which
is allowed for it. Now in a snipe, which weighed four
ounces two drachms, I find the brains to weigh but lialf a
drachm, so that the weight of the body, allowing for the
brain, exceeded the weight of the brain sixty-seven times
and a half.
More controvertible it seemeth in the brains of sparrows,
whose cranies are rounder, and so of larger capacity ; and
most of all in the heads of birds, upon the first formation in
the egg, wherein the head seems larger than all the body,
* Lara in parte mamillce.
^ for thereby, (t-c] This concluding part of the sentence was first
added in 2nd edition.
' man hath, &c.'\ Tliis is most especially triie when spoken of " the
hemispheres of the brain," that is, of that part of this organ which serves
as the principal instrument of the intellectual operations. — See Cuvier,
by Qrijjlth, i. 8ti.
CHAP. III.] PLEUEISTES ONLY ON THE LEFT SIDE. 385
and the very eyes almost as big as either. A sparrow in the
total we found to weigh seven drachms and four and twenty
grains, whereof the head a drachm, but the brain not fifteen
grains, which answereth not fully the proportion of the brain
of man ; and therefore it is to be taken of the whole head
with the brains, when Scaliger* objected that the head of a
man is the fifteenth part of his body, that of a sparrow scarce
the fifth.2
CHAPTER III.
That Plev/rides are only on the left side.
That pleurisies are only on the left side, is a popular tenet
not only absurd but dangerous : from the misapprehension
hereof men omitting the opportunity of remedies, which
otherwise they would not neglect. Chiefly occasioned by
the ignorance of anatomy, and the extent of the part afiected,
which in an exquisite pleurisy is determined to be the skin
or membrane which investeth the ribs, for so it is defined,
injlammatio memhrance castas succingentis ; an inflammati<jn,
either simple, consisting only of an hot and sanguineous
affluxion, or else denominable from other humours, accord-
ing to the predominancy of melancholy, phlegm, or choler.
The membrane thus inflamed, is properly called pleura, from
whence the disease hath its name ; and this investeth not
only one side, but over-spreadeth the cavity of the chest, and
afibrdetb a common coat unto the parts contained therein.
Now therefore the pleura being common unto both sides,
it is not reasonable to confine the inflammation unto one,
nor strictly to determine it is always in the side ; but some-
times before and behind, that is, inclining to the spine or
breast-bone, for thither this coat extendeth, and therefore
wth equal propriety we may aflirm that ulcers of the lungs,
\r apostems of the brain, do happen only in the left side, or
cnat ruptures are con fin able unto one side ; whereas the
peritonaeum or rim of the belly may be broke, or its perfo-
rations relaxed in either.
* Histor. Animal, lib. i.
• More controvertible, <fcc.] This paragraph first added in 2nd edition.
TOL. I. 2 C
386 OF THE EING-FINGER. [bOOK IT,
CHAPTEE IV.
Of the Ring-finger.
Ay opinion tbere is, which magnifies the fourth finger of
the tefb hand ; presuming therein a cordial relation, that a
particular vessel, nerve, vein, or artery, is conferred thereto
frorr the heart, and therefore that especially hath the honour
to bear our rings. Which was not only the Christian prac-
tice in nuptial contracts, but observed by heathens, as Alex-
ander ab Alexandre, Gellius, Macrobius and Pierius have
delivered, as Levinus Lemnius hath confirmed, who affirms
this peculiar vessel to be an artery, and not a nerve, as anti-
quity hath conceived it ; adding moreover that rings hereon
peculiarly aftect the heart ; that in lipothymies or swoonings
he used the frication of this finger with safiron and gold ;
that the ancient physicians mixed up their medicines here-
with ; that this is seldom or last of all affected with the gout,
and when that becometh nodous, men continue not long after.
Notwithstanding all which, we remain unsatisfied, nor can
we think the reasons alleged sufficiently establish the pre-
eminency of this finger.
For first, concerning the practice of antiquity, the custom
was not general to wear their rings either on this hand or
finger ; for it is said, and that emphatically in Jeremiah, si
fuerit Jeconias JiUus Joacliim regis Judce annulus in manu
dextrd med, inde evellam eum : " thougli Coniah the son of
Joachim king of Judah, were the signet on my right hand,
yet would I pluck thee thence." So is it observed by Pliny,
that in the portraits of their gods, the rings were worn on the
finger next the thumb s** that the Romans wore them also
upon their little finger, as Nero is described in Petronius :
some wore them on the middle finger, as the ancient Gauls
ana Britons ; and some upon the forefinger, as is deducible
from Julius Pollux, who names that ring, corianos.
- linger next the thunib.'\ Rings were formerly worn upon the thumb ;
as appears from the portraits of some of our English monarchs. Nieu-
hoff mentions that the old viceroy of Canton wore an ivory ring on hia
thuTtb, "as an emblem signifying the undaunted courage of the Tartar
people. ' — Embassy to China, p. 45.
CHAP. IV.] or THE RI?rG-FI>"GEK. 3S7
Again, that the practice of the ancients had any such
respect of cordiality or reference unto the heart, will much
be doubted, if we consider their rings were made of iron ;''
such was that of Prometheus, who is conceived the first that
brought them in use. So, as Pliny affirmeth, for many years
the senators of Rome did not wear any rings of gold,^ but
the slaves wore generally iron rings until their manumission
or preferment to some dignity. That the Ijacedemonians
continued their iron rings unto his days, Pliny also deli-
vereth, and surely they used few of gold ; for beside that
Lycurgus prohibited that metal, we read in Athenseus, that,
* will much be dotibted, <fr.] Yet Pliny says, etiam nwnc sponsce
annulus ferreus mittititr, itsque mie gemmd. — Nat. Hist. 1. xxxiii. cap. 1.
At Silchester in Hampshire (the Vindonuvi> of the Romans), was
found an iron ring, with a singular-shaped key attached to it ; now in
the possession of Mrs. Keep, at the farm-house, where I saw it,
June 26, 1811.— /#.
' the seiiators, <fcc.] Juvenal, comparing the extravagance of his own
times with those of the old Romans, has awrwttes indigito non ferreus. —
Sat. xi. 129. Kennet observes that the Roman knights were allowed a
gold ring, and a horse at the public charge, hence eques auratus. —
Roman Antiquities. Tacitus says, DeMor. German, s. 31 : — Fortissimua
quisque (Oattorum) ferreum insuper annulum (ignominiosum id genti)
velut vinculum gestat, donee se caede hostis absolvet." Among the
Eastern nations also was the ring worn as a badge of slavery. — See
Lowth, note on Isa. xlix. 23. — Jeff.
We may add that rings were frequently used by medical practitioners,
as charms and talismans, against all sorts of calamities inflicted by all
kinds of beings : — Hippocrates and Galen both enjoin on physicians the
use of rings. See a curious paper on this subject in the Archceologui',
vol. xxi. p. 119.
Patriotism has, in our own days, induced the exchange of gold for
iron rings. The women of Prussia, in 1813, oifered up their wedding-
rings upon the altars of their country, and the government, in exchange,
distributed iron rings with this iu'scription, " I exchange gold for
iron."
Rings however have not only been deemed badges of slavery, but
very anciently and far more generally they denoted authority and
government. Pharaoh in committing that of Egypt to Joseph gave
him his ring — so Ahasuerus to Mordecai. With great probability has
it been conjectured, that, in conformity with the Scriptural examples
of this ancient usage, the Christian church afterwards adopted the ring
in marriage, as a symbol of the authority which the husband gave the
wife over his household, and over the " worldly goods" with which he
endowed her ; accompanying it, in many of the early Catholic rituals,
with the betrothing or earnest penny, which was deposited either in
the bride's right hand, or in a purse brought by her for the purpose.
2 c2
388 OF THE EIT^G-FTNGEB. [bOOK TV.
having a desire to gild the face of Apollo, they enquired of
the oracle where they might purchase so much gold ; and
were directed unto Croesus King of Lydia.
Moreover, m hether tlie ancients had any such intention,
the grounds which they conceived in vein, nerve or artery,
are not to be justified, nor will inspection confirm a peculiar
vessel in this finger. For as anatomy inlbrmeth, the basilica
vein dividing into two branches below the cubit, the outward
seudeth two surcles unto the thumb, two unto the fore-
finger, and one unto the middle finger in the inward side ;
the other branch of the basilica sendeth one surcle unto the
outside of the middle finger, tr\vo unto the ring, and as many
unto the little fingers ; so that they all proceed from the
basilica, and are in equal numbers derived unto every one.
In the same manner are the branches of the axillary artery
distributed into the hand: for below the cubit it divideth
into two parts, the one running along the radius, and, passing
by the wrist or pulse, is at the fingers subdivided into three
branches ; whereof the first conveyeth two surcles unto the
thumb, the second as many to the forefinger, and the third
one unto the middle finger, and the other or lower division
of the artery descendeth by the nhia, and furnisheth the
other fingers ; that is the middle with one surcle, and the
ring and little fingers with two. As for the nerves, they are
disposed much after the same manner, and have their original
from the brain, and not the heart, as many of the ancients
conceived,^ which is so far from affording nerves unto other
parts, that it receiveth very few itself from the sixth conju-
gation, or pair of nerves in the brain.
Lastly, these propagations being communicated unto both
hands, we have no greater reason to wear our rings on the
left, than on the right ; nor are there cordial considerations
in the one, more than the other. And therefore when Fores-
tus for the stanching of blood makes use of medical appli-
cations unto the fourth finger, he confines not that practice
unto the left, but varieth the side according to the nostril
bleeding. So in fevers, where the heart primarily suffereth,
we apply medicines unto the wrists of either arms ; so we
touch the pulse of both, and judge of the afiections of the
• as many of the ancients conceived.] With -whom Ross, as usual,
'« disposed to agree. — See Arcana Microcosmi, p. 35.
CnA-P. IT.] OF THE RING-FIKGER. 389
heart bv the one as well as the other. And although in
dispositions of liver or spleen, considerations are made in
phlebotomy respectively to their situation ; yet when the
heart is aftected, men have thought it as effectual to bleed
on the right as the left ; and although also it may be thought
a nearer respect is to be had of the left, because the great
artery proceeds from the left ventricle, and so is nearer that
arm, it admits not that consideration. For under the chan-
nel-bones the artery divideth into two great branches, from
which trunk or point of division, the distance unto either
hand is equal, and the consideration also answerable.
All which with many respective niceties, in order unto
parts, sides, and veins, are now become of less consideration,
by the new and noble doctrine of the circulation of the blood.^
And therefore Macrobius, discussing the point, hath
alleged another reason ; affirming that the gestation of
rings upon this hand and finger, might rather be used for
their conveniency and preservation, than any cordial rela^
tion. For at first (saith he) it was both free and usual to
wear rings on either hand ; but after that luxury increased,
when precious gems and rich insculptures were added, the
custom of wearing them on tlie right hand was translated
unto the left ; for, that hand being less employed, thereby
they were best preserved. And for the same reason, they
placed them on this finger : for the thumb was too active
a finger, and is commonly employed with either of the
rest ; the index or forefinger was too naked whereto to
commit their precosities, and hath the tuition of the thumb
scarce uuto the second joint : the middle and little finger
they rejected as extremes, and too big or too little for their
rings, and of all choose out the fourth, as being least used
of any, as being guarded on either side, and having in most
this peculiar condition, that it cannot be extended alone and
by itself, but will be accompanied by some finger on either
side.* And to this opinion assenteth Alexander ab Alex-
andro, anmtlum nuptial em prior <Btas in sinistra ferehat,
crediderim ne attereretur.
''All tehic/i, &c.] First added in 6th edition.
* and having, <frc.] This is not true. — Wr.
But indeed, Mr. Dean, it is true. 'Hie annularis is the onh/ finger in
tiie human hand, not possessed of the power of separate movement.
390 OF THE KIXG-nifGEB. [bOOK IT.
Now that which begat or promoted the common opinion,
was the common conceit that the heart was seated on the
left side; but how lar this is verified, we have before
declared. The Egyptian practice hath much advanced the
same, wlio unto this finger derived a nerve from the heart ;
and therefore the priest anointed tlie same with precious
oils before the altar. But how wnak anatomists they were,
wliicli were so good embalmers, we have already showed.
And though this reason took most place, yet had they
another which more commended that practice : and that
was tlie number whereof this finger was an hieroglyphick.
For by holding down the foiu-th finger of the left hand,
while the rest were extended, they signified the perfect
and magnified number of six. For as Pierius hath graphi-
cally declared, antiquity expresed numbers by the fingers of
either hand : on the left they accounted their digits and
articulate numbers unto an hundred ; on the right hand
hundreds and thousands ; the depressing this finger, which
in the left hand implied but six, in the right indigitated six
hundred. In this way of numeration, may we construe that
of Juvenal concerning Nestor.
— — — Qui fiertot ssecuia mortem
Distulit, atque suos jam dextr^ computat annos.
And however it were intended, in this sense it will be very-
elegant what is delivered of wisdom, Prov. iii. " Length of
days in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and
honour."
As for the observation of Lemnius, an eminent phy-
sician, concerning the gout, however it happened in liis
country, we may observe it otherwise in ours ; that is,
chiragrical persons do suffer in this finger as well as in the
rest, and sometimes first of all, and sometimes nowhere
else. And for the mixing up medicines herewith, it is
rather an argument of opinion than any considerable effect ;
and we as highly conceive of the practice in diapalma ;
that is, in the making of that plaster to stir it with the
stick of a palm.
CHAP. T.] OF THE EIGHT AND LEFT HAND. 391
CHAPTER V.
Of the Right and Left Hand.
It is also suspicious, and not with that certainty to be
received, what is generally believed concerning the right
and left hand ; that men naturally make use of the right,'
and that the use of the other is a digression or aberration
from that way which nature generally intendeth. We do
not deny that almost all nations have used this hand, and
ascribed a pre-eminence thereto : hereof a remarkable pas-
sage there is in Genesis : " And Joseph took them both,
Ephraim in his right hand towards Israel's left hand, and
Manasses in his left hand towards Israel's right hand.
And Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it upon
Ephraim' s head, who was the younger, and his left hand
upon Manasses' head, guiding his hand wittingly, for
Manasses was the first-born. And when Joseph saw that
his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it
displeased him, and he held up his father's hand to remove
it from Ephraim's head unto Manasses' head; and Joseph
said, Not so my father, for this is the first-born : put thy
right hand upon his head." The like appeareth from the
ordinance of Moses in the consecration of their priests :
" Then shalt thou kill the ram, and take of his blood, and put
it upon the tip of the right ear of Aaron, and upon the tip of
the right ear of his sons, and upon the thumb of the right
hand, and upon the great toe of the right foot, and sprinkle
the blood on the altar round about." That the Persians
were wont herewith to plight their faith, is testified by
Diodorus ; that the Greeks and Romans made use hereof,
beside the testimony of divers authors, is evident from
their custom of discumbency at their meals, which was
upon their left side, for so their right was free, and ready
for all service. As also from the conjunction of the right
hands and not the left, observable in the Roman medals of
® men natwrally, <jfec.] Cann this be denyed ? or yf there be some
exceptions, i. e. aberrations from the generall rule, doe they not the
more confirme itt ? Omnis exceptio stabilit regulam in non exceptis, is an
ftxiome invincible. — Wr.
392 OF TUE EIGHT AND LEFT HAND. [bOOK IV.
concord. Nor was this only in use with divers nations of
men, but was the custom of whole nations of women ; as
is deducible from the Amazons in the amputation of their
right breast, whereby they had the freer use of their bow.
AU which do seem to declare a natural preferment^ of the
one unto motion before the other ; wherein notwithstand-
ing, in submission to future information, we are unsatisfied
unto great dubitation.
For first, if there were a determinate prepotency in the
right, and such as ariseth from a constant root in nature,
we might expect the same in other animals, whose parts
are also difierenced by dextrality : wherein notwith-
standing we cannot discover a distinct and complying ac-
count ; for we find not tliat horses, bulls, or mules, are
generally stronger on this side. As for animals w hose fore-
legs more sensibly supply the use of arms, they hold, if not
an equality in both, a prevalency ofttimes in the other, as
squirrels, apes, and monkeys ; the same is also discernible
in parrots, who feed themselves more commonly by the left
leg ; and men observe that the eye of a tumbler is biggest,
not constantly in one, but in the bearing side.
That there is also in men a natural prepotency in the
right, we cannot with constancy afiirm,^ if we make observa-
tion in children ; who, permitted the freedom of both, do
otltimes confine unto the left,"* and are not without great
difiiculty restrained from it. And therefore this prevalency
' natural preferment.] Ed. 1616 has " naturall preheminency and
preferment." — On which Dean Wren says, " Granting this natural
preeminencye, confirmed by Scripture soe evidentlye, all the rest is but
velitation : for that wliich God and nature call right, must in reason
bee soe oald ; and whatsoever varys from thence is an aberration from
them bothe."
^ That there in, etc.] Alex. Ross asserts roundly, that Scripture,
general con.sent, experience, and reason, unite in ascribing superior
dignity, agihty, and strength, to the right side ; " because " (says be),
" on the right side is tlie liver, the cistern of blood," &c. &c. — Arcana,
p. 153.
^ do ofttimes, <£'c.] This vitiosity proceeds from the maner of gesta-
tion : servants and nurses usually carry them on their left arme, soe
that the child cannot use its right, and being accustomed to the left,
becomes left handed, lint among the Irishe, who cary their children
astride their neckes, you shall rarely see one left-handed of eithel
Bex. — Wr,
CUAP. T.] OF TUE EIGHT AND LEFT HAND. 393
is either uncertainly placed in the laterality, or custom
determines its indiflerency. Which is the resolution of
Aristotle, in that problem which enquires why the right
side, being better than the left, is equal in the senses ;
because, saith he, the right and left do diifer by use and
custom, which have no place in the senses. For right and
left, as parts inservient unto the motive faculty, are differ-
enced by degrees from use and assuefaction, according
whereto the one grows stronger and ofttimes bigger than
the other. But in the senses it is otherwise ; for they
acquire not their perfection by use or custom, but at the
first we equally hear, and see with one eye, as well as with
another. And therefore, were this indiftereney permitted,
or did not constitution, but nature, determine dextrality,
there would be many more Scevolas than are delivered in
story ; nor needed we to draw examples of the left from the
sons of the right hand, as we read of seven thousand in
the army of the Benjamites.* True it is, that although
there be an indifferency in either, or a prevalency indifferent
in one, yet is it most reasonable for uniformity and sundry
respective uses, that men should apply themselves to the
constant use of one ;"* for there will otherwise arise ano-
malous disturbances in manual actions, not only in civil and
artificial, but also in military afl'airs, and the several actions
of war.
Secondly, the grounds and reason alleged for the right
are not satisfactory, and afford no rest in their decision.
Scaliger, finding a defect in the reason of Aristotle, intro-
duceth one of no less deficiency himself; ratio materlalis
(saith he) sanguinis crassitudo simul et multitudo, that is,
the reason of the vigour of this side is the crassitude and
plenty of blood ; but this is not sufiicient ; for the crassi-
* Benjamin Filius Dextrce.
* the constant, <fcc.] Wise men count them unlucky that use the 3eft
hand, as going contrary to the generall course of nature in all places of the
world and all times since the creation. And although the heathen drew
a superstitious conceyte from don f first on the left side rather then the
right, yet that sprang from an apprehension of disorder in soe doing,
and consequentlye (as they thought) unlucky, as in that of Augustus,
Lavum sibi prodidit cultrum prcBpostere indutum quo die militari tumultu
afflictViS. — Wr.
t Some omission or error here.
394 OF THE BIGHT AND LEFT HAND. [bOOK IT.
tude or thickness of blood afiordetli no reason why one arm
should be enabled before the other, and the plenty thereof,
why both not enabled equally. Fallopius is of another
conceit, deducing the reason from the azygos, or vena sine
pari, a large and considerable vein arising out of the cava
or hollow vein, before it enters the right ventricle of the
heart, and placed only in the right side. But neither is
this persuasory ; for the azygos communicates no branches
unto the arms or legs on either side, bvit disperseth into
the ribs on both, and in its descent doth furnish the left
emulgent with one vein, and the first vein of the loins on
the right side with another ; which manner of derivation
doth not confer a peculiar addition unto either. Cjelius
Ehodiginus, undertaking to give a reason of ambidexters
and left-handed men, delivereth a third opinion : men,
saith he, are ambidexters, and use both hands alike, when
the heat of the heart doth plentifiUly disperse into the left
side, and that of the liver into the right, and the spleen be
also much dilated ; but men are left-handed whenever it
happeneth that the heart and liver are seated on the left
side, or when the liver is on the right side, yet so obducted
and covered with thick skins that it cannot diffuse its virtue
into the right. "Which reasons are no way satisfactory,
for herein the spleen is unjustly introduced to invigorate
the sinister side, which being dilated it would rather infirm
and debilitate. As for any tunicles or skins which should
hinder the liver from enabling the dextral parts, we must
not conceive it diffuseth its virtue by mere irradiation, but
by its veins and proper vessels, which common skins and
teguments cannot impede. And for the seat of the heart
and liver in one side, whereby men become left-handed, it
happeneth too rarely to countenance an eftect so common ;
for the seat of the liver on the left side is monstrous, and
rarely to be met with in the observations of physicians.
Others, not considering ambidexters and left-handed men,
do totally submit imto the efficacy of the liver ; which,
though seated on the right side, yet by the subclavian division
doth equidistantly communicate its activity unto either arm ;
nor will it salve tlie doubts of observation ; for many are
right-handed whose livers are weakly constituted, and many
use the left in whom that part is strongest ; and we observe
CHAP. T.] DF THE EIGHT AND LEFT HAND. 395
in apes and other animals, whose liver is ia the right, no
regular prevalence therein.
And therefore the brain, especially the spinal marrow,
which is but the brain prolonged, hath a fairer plea hereto ;
for these are the principles of motion, wherein dextrality
consists, and are divided within and without the crany. By
which division transmitting nerves respectively unto either
side, according to the indifferency or original and native
prepotency, there ariseth an equality in both, or prevalency
in either side. And so may it be made out, what many may
wonder at, why some most actively use the contrary arm and
leg ; for the vigour of the one dependeth upon the upper
part of the spine, but the other upon the lower.
And therefore many things are philosophically delivered
concerning right and left, which admit of some suspension.
That a woman upon a masculine conception advanceth her
right leg,^ will not be found to answer strict observation.
That males are conceived in the right side of the womb,
females in the left, though generally delivered, and sup-
ported by ancient testimony, will make no infallible accoimt ;
it happening ofttimes that males and females do lie upon
both sides, and hermaphrodites, for aught we know, on either.
It is also suspicious what is delivered concerning the right
and left testicle, that males are begotten from the one and
females from the other.^ For though the left seminal vein
proceedeth from the emulgent, and is therefore conceived to
carry down a serous and feminine matter ; yet the seminal
arteries which send forth the active materials, are both
derived from the great artery. Beside, this original of the
left vein was thus contrived to avoid the pulsation of the
great artery, over which it must have passed to attain unto
the testicle. Nor can we easily infer such different effects
from the diverse situation of parts which have one end and
ofHce ; for in the kidneys, which have one office, the right is
SP^ted lower than the left, whereby it lieth free, and giveth
way unto the liver. And therefore also that way which is
That a woman, <fce.] This instance is most true, as I have often
tryed upon wager, whereas they sodenlye rise from their seate, yf both
feete be free. — Wr.
® That males, A'c.'\ All this while hee does not clisprove this : and the
reason is as good is 'tis manifest. — U'/-.
39G OF THE RIGET A>'D LEFT IIAXD. [BOOK IV,
delivered for masculine generation, to make a strait ligature
about the left testicle, thereby to intercept the evacuation
ol" that part, deserveth consideration. For one sufficeth unto
generation, as hath been observed in semicastration, and
ot'ttimes in carnous ruptures. Beside, the seminal ejacula-
tion proceeds not immediately from the testicle, but from
the sperraatick glandules ; and therefore Aristotle affirms
(and reason cannot deny) that although there be nothing
ditfused from the testicles, an horse or bull may generate
after castration ; that is, from the stock and remainder of
seminal matter, already prepared and stored up in the
prostates or glandules of generation.
Thirdly, although we should concede a right and left in
nature, yet in tliis common and received account we may err
from the proper acception : mistaking one side for another ;''
calling that in man and other animals the right which is the
left, and that the left which is the right, and that in some
things right and left, which is not properly either.
For first, the right and left are not defined by philosophers
according to common acception, that is, respectively from
one man unto another, or any constant site in each : as though
that should be the right in one, which upon confront or
facing, stands athwart or diagonally unto the other, but were
distinguished according to the activity and predominant
locomotion upon either side. Thus Aristotle, in his excel-
lent tract, De Incessu Animaliiim, ascribetb six positions
unto animals, answering tlie three dimensions, which he
determineth not by site or position unto the heavens, but by
the faculties and functions ; and these are imum summum,
ante retro, dextra et sinistra ; that is the superior part,
where the aliment is received, that the lower extreme, where
it is last expelled ; so he terraeth a man a plant inverted ;
for he supposeth the root of a tree the head or upper part
thereof, whereby it receivetli its aliment, although therewith
it respects the centre of the earth, but with the other the
^ mutakinfj one side, tfcc] Wee take that to be right and lefte which
God and nature call soe : and all other reasons are frivolous. Vide
Luke i. 11 ; Gal. ii. 9. Let itt be noted that God cals the left hand
the side hand, i. e. beside the right hand, to which he gives in that very
place, the name of c'l^ia, ut Ps. xc. v. 7, tic tov kXitovq nov ^t^'aCt Kcii
fit'pidQ t(c ct^iiov (Toji. K^iroQ autem, ut norunt e^uditi, proprie siguificat
declinatioiieni a recto, et hie, a recta. — Wr,
CHAP. T.] or THE RIGHT A:^fLl LEFT HAND. 397
zenith ; and this position is answerable unto longitude.
Those parts are anterior and measure profundity, where the
senses, especially the eyes, are placed, and those posterior
■which are opposite heremito. The dextrous and sinistrous
parts of the body make up the latitude, and are not certain
and inalterable like the other ; for that, saith he, is the right
side, from whence the motion of the body beginneth, that is
the active or moving side ; but that the sinister which is the
weaker or more quiescent part. Of the same determination
were the Platonicks and Pythagoreans before him ; who,
conceiving the heavens an animated body, named the east
the right or dextrous part, from whence began their motion ;
and thus the Greeks, from whence the Latins have borrowed
their appellations, have named this hand cit,ia, denominating
it not from the site, but office, from ci^ofiai capio, that is,
the hand which receiveth, or is usually employed in that
action.
Now upon these grounds we are most commonly mistaken,
defining that by situation which they determined by motion ;
and giving the term of right hand to that which doth not
properly admit it. For first, many in their infancy are
sinistrously disposed, and divers continue all their life
' ApirTTf.^o\, that is, left-handed, and have but weak and im-
perfect use of the right : now unto these, that hand is
properly the right, and not the other esteemed so by situa-
tion.^ Thus may Aristotle be made out, when he affirmeth
the right claw of crabs and lobsters is biggest, if we take the
right for the most vigorous side, and not regard the relative
situation : for the one is generally bigger than the other, yet
not always upon the same side. So may it be verified, what
is delivered by Scaliger m his Comment, that palsies do
oftenest happen upon the left side, if understood in this
sense ; the most vigorous part protecting itself, and protrud-
ing the matter upon the weaker and less resistive side. And
* that hand is properly, etc.] This exception is soe far from destroying
the general! rule, that itt rather confirms itt. For the most parte of all
men in all nations of the world are right-handed, and in those that use the
lefte hand, the righte hand keepes the name ; how should hee else bee
distinguished from all men that are right-handed. And thoughe the
left hand bee as useful to some as the right to all others, yet itt is still
their left hand ; and by that name they are distinguisht, and cald left-
handed men. — Wr.
398 OF THE HIOHT AKD LEFT HAND, [bOOK IX.
thus the law of commonwealths, that cut off tlie right hand
of malefactors, if philosophically executed, is impartial ;
otlierwise the amputation not equally punisheth all.
Some are 'A^^tc ti'un, that is, ambidextrous or right-handed
on both sides ; which happeneth only unto strong and ath-
letical bodies, whose heat and spirits are able to aftbrd an
ability unto both. And therefore Hippocrates saith, that
women are not ambidextrous, that is, n-&t so often as men ;
for some are found which indifferently make use of both.
And so may Aristotle say, that only men are ambidextrous ;
of this constitution was Asteropaeus in Homer, and Parthe-
nopeus, the Theban captain, in Stafitis : and of the same do
some conceive our father Adam to have been, as being per-
fectly framed, and in a constitution admitting least defect.
Now in these men the right hand is on both sides, and that
is not the left which is opposite unto the right, according to
common acception.
Again,^ some are 'Aidfapirrrepol, as Galen hath expressed it ;
that is, ambilevous or left-handed on both sides ; such as
with agility and vigour have not the use of either ; who are
not gymnastically composed, nor actively use those parts.
Now in these there is no right hand : of this constitution
are many women, and some men, who, though they accustom
themselves unto either hand, do dextrously make use ot
neither. And therefore, although the political advice of
Aristotle be very good, that men should accustom them-
selves to the command of either hand ; yet cannot the
execution or pei'formance thereof be general : for though
there be many found that can use both, yet will there divers
remain that can strenuously make use of neither.
Lastly, these lateralities in man are not only fallible, it
relatively determined unto each other, but made in reference
unto the heavens and quarters of the globe : for those parts
' Arjain, d-c.^ In the use of string instruments both hands are dex-
trously used, yet the easiest and slowest parte is alwayes put on the
lefte side ; bycause all men use it soe : and excepting the haiTie, there
is scarce any strin" instrument to fit both hands, or the virginals, harp-
sicords, organs, which have all their ground from the harpe, layd along
as it were in those instruments and supplied with keys (as that by the
fingers) by which they are mediately made to speake as the harpe by
the fingers immediately. — W7\
CHAP. V :] or THE EIGHT AND LEFT HAND. 399
are not capable of these conditions in themselves, nor "with
any certainty respectively derived from us, nor from them to
us again. And first, in regard of their proper nature, the
heavens admit not these sinister and dexter respects, there
being in them no diversity or difference, but a simplicity of
parts and equiformity in motion continually succeeding each
other ; so that from what point soever we compute, the
account will be common unto the whole circularity. And
therefore though it be plausible, it is not of consequence
hereto what is delivered by Solinus ; that man was therefore
a microcosm or Uttle world, because the dimensions of his
positions were answerable unto the greater. For as in the
heavens the distance of the north and southern pole, which
are esteemed the superior and inferior points, is equal unto
the space between the east and west, accounted the dextrous
and sinistrous parts thereof, so is it also in man ; for the
extent of his fathom or distance betwixt the extremity of the
fingers of either hand upon expansion, is equal unto the
space between the sole of the foot and the crown. But this
doth but petitionarily infer a dextrality in the heavens, and
we may as reasonably conclude a right and left laterality in
the ark or naval edifice of Noah. For the length thereof
was thirty cubits, the breadth fifty, and the height or pro-
fundity thirty : which well agreeth unto the proportion of
man ; whose length, that is, a perpendicular from the vertex
unto the sole of the foot, is sextuple unto his breadth, or a
right line drawn from the ribs of one side to auother, and
decuple unto his profundity, that is, a direct line between
the breast-bone and the spine.
Again, they receive not these conditions with any assur-
ance or stability from ourselves. For the relative foundations,
and points of denomination, are not fixed and certain, but
variously designed according to imagination. The phi-
losopher accounts that east from whence the heavens begin
their motion. The astronomer, regarding the south and
meridian sun, calls that the dextrous part of heaven which
respecteth his right hand ; and that is the west. Poets,
respecting the west, assign the name of right unto the north
which regardeth their right hand ; and so must that of Ovid
be explained, utque, diue dextrd zonae, totidemg^ue sinistra.
400 OF THE RTOHT AND LEFT HAND. [bOOK IV.
But augurs, or soothsayers, turning their face to the east,
did make the right in the south;' which was also observed
by the Hebrews and Chaldeans.* Now if we name the
quarters of heaven respectively unto our sides, it will be no
certain or invariable denomination. For, if we call that the
right side of heaven which is seated easterly unto us when
we regard the meridian sun, the inhabitants beyond the
equator and southern tropick, when they face us, regarding
the meridian, will contrarily define it ; for unto them, the
opposite part of heaven wiU respect the left, and the sun
arise to their right.
And thus have we at large declared, that although the
right be most commonly used, yet hath it no regular or
certain root in nature. Since it is not confirmable from
other animals : since in children it seems either indifferent
or more favourable in the other ; but more reasonable for
uniformity in action, that men accustom unto one : since the
grounds and reasons urged for it do not sufficiently support
it ; since, if there be a right and stronger side in nature, yet
may we mistake in its denomination ; calling that the right
which is the left, and the left which is the right. Since
some have one right, some both, some neither. And lastly,
since these affections in man are not only fallible in relation
unto one another, but made also in reference unto the
heavens, they being not capable of these conditions in them-
* Psalm Ixxxix. 13.
' But augwrs, «fcc.] But Pomponius Lsetus (in De Auguribm) sayes,
if the augur versus orienfem sedebat, tenens dextrd lituum, i. e., curvun
baculuM, quoin coslo regiones dividit et quce angaria conveniunt pncdicit :
si Iceva fuerint, fcelicia jwonunciat ; not bycause what comes to our left
hand comes from the right hand of the gods, as some would say, but,
sayes he, quia a lava parte septentrio est ; pars n. ilia orbis, quia altior
est pruspera putatur; et a dextrd parte meridies, quia depressior infelix.
And this reason is not particular, but generall, and such as prevailes
all the other of philosophers, astronomers, or poets which respect their
owne artes more then the nobler scite of the world. Whose longitude,
that is the greatest distance, is accounted from east to west, which are
every where round the world. But the latitude, which is the least
distance, is counted from the sequator to each pole. And bycause the
northerne in all respects of habitation, religion, learning, artes, govern-
ment, wealth, honor, and all relations to heaven is infinitely more noble,
and withall the higher parte of the world : therefore, 'tis justly cald
the right side of the world. — Wr.
CHAP, v.] OF THE BIGHT AND LEFT HAND, 401
selves, nor witli any certainty from us, nor we from then*
again.
And therefore what admission we owe unto many concep-
tions concerniag right and left, requireth circumspection.
That is, how far we ought to rely upon the remedy in Kiran-
ides, that is, the left eye of an hedgehog fried in oU to pro-
cure sleep, and the right foot of a frog in a deer's skin for
the gout ; or, that to dream of the loss of right or left tooth
presageth the death of male or female kindred, according to
the doctrine of Artemidorus. "What verity there is in that
numeral conceit in the lateral division of man by even and
odd, ascribing the odd imto the right side, and even unto the
left ; and so, by parity or imparity of letters in men's names
to determine misfortunes on either side of their bodies ; by
which account in Greek numeration, Hephaestus or Vulcan
was lame in the right foot, and Annibal lost his right eye.
And lastly, what substance there is in that auspicial principle,
and fundamental doctrine of ariolation, that the left hand is
ominous, and that good things do pass sinistrously upon us,
because the left hand of man respected the right hand of the
gods, wliich handed their favours unto us.^
^ unto MS.] This chapter ie very characteristic of our author. It
displays remarkably the great pains he frequently bestows on the eluci-
dation of lesser points, and the quaint and varied illustration which his
extensive and curious reading enabled him to supply. The closing
paragraph may serve to exemplify this latter remark ; while the former
is justified, not only by individual passages in the chapter, but by its
great length, and by the care and argumentative precision with which
he successively examines the various opinions, more or less absurd,
which have been expressed on this most momentous topic, • — summing
up at the close, by a detail of the several reasons for his conclusion
thereon.
Brande'g Journal notices (vol. ii. page 423) a discourse by Signor
Zecchinelli, on the reason of the prevalent custom of using the right in
preference to the left hand. His theory is, first, that it was obviously
necessary, — in order to avoid (what our author more felicitously terms)
" anomalous discordances in manual actions," — that one hand should
obtain a general preference to the other. The next question was, — •
which to prefer ? The Signor decides that mankind must have dis-
covered that the left hand, from its anatomical connection with the
most vital and important parts of the animal economy, could not be the
one preferred. " For it must have been observed, that when the left
arm is long used, or violently exercised, the left side also of the chest is
put more or less in motion, and a consequent and corresponding obstacle
produced not only to the free emission of the blood from the heart, but
TOL. I. 2d
402 ON SWIMMING AND FLOATING. [BOOK IT
CHAPTEE VI.
On Swimming and Floating.
That men swim naturally, if not disturbed by fear; that
men being drowned and sunk do float the ninth day, when
their gall breaketh; that women drowned swim prone, but men
supine, or upon their backs, are popular affirmations whereto
we cannot assent. And first that man should swim naturally,
because we observe it is no lesson unto other animals, we
are not forward to conclude ; for other animals swim in the
same manner as they go, and need no other way of motion
for natation in the water, than for progression upon the land.
And this is true, whether they move per latera, that is, two
legs of one side together, which is tolutation or ambling, or
per diametrum, lifting one foot before, and the cross foot
behind, which is succussation or trotting ; or whether, per
frontem,ov quadratum, asScaliger terms it, upon a square base,
the legs of both sides moving together, as frogs and salient
animals, which is properly called leaping. For by these
motions they are able to support and impel themselves in
the water, without alteration in the stroke of their legs, or
position of their bodies.
But with man it is performed otherwise : for in regard of
site he alters his natural posture and swimmeth prone, whereas
he walketh erect.^ Again, in progression, the arms move
parallel to the legs, and the arms and legs unto each other ;
but in natation they intersect and make all sorts of angles.
also to its progress through the aorta and its ramifications." The editor
goes on to observe, that the prevalence of the arterial system in the left
side of the body renders this opinion quite plausible : and the painful
sensations we experience, when we agitate greatly the left arm, or
attempt to run while carrying a weight in the left hand, proves in a
certain manner the truth of Signer Z.'s assertion.
Dr. A. Clarke, on Gen. xlviii. 18, remarks, that "the right hand of
God," in the heavens, expresses the place of the most exalted dignity.
But among the Turks, and in the north of China, the left hand is most
honourable.
' he alters, <fcc.] " This is no reason," says Ross ; " for man alters his
natural posture when he crawls ; will it follow, therefore, that thi*
motion is not natural to man ?" — See Arcana, p. 155.
CHAP. VI.] ON SWIMMING AND TLOATING. 403
And lastly, in progressive motion, the arms and legs do move
successively, but ia natation both together ; all which aptly
to perform, and so as to support and advance the body, is a
point of art, and such as some in their young and docile years
coidd never attain. But although swimming be acquired by
art, yet is there somewhat more of nature in it than we
observe in other habits, nor will it strictly fall imder that
definition ; for once obtained, it is not to be removed ; nor is
there any who from disuse did ever yet forget it.
Secondly, that persons drowned arise and float the ninth
day, when their gall breaketh, is a questionable determination
both in the time and cause. For the time of floating, it is
uncertain, according to the time of putrefaction, which shall
retard or accelerate according to the subject and season of
the year ; for as we observed, cats and mice will arise un-
equally, and at difl^erent times, though drowned at the same.
Such as are fat do commonly float soonest, for their bodies
soonest ferment, and that substance approacheth nearest unto
air : and this is one of Aristotle's reasons why dead eels "n-ill
not float, because saith he, they have but slender bellies and
little fat.
As for the cause, it is not so reasonably imputed unto the
breaking of the gall as the putrefaction or corruptive fer-
mentation of the body, whereby the unnatural heat prevailing,
the putrefying parts do suff'er a turgescence and inflation
and becoming aery and spumous affect to approach the air,
and ascend imto the surface of the water ; and this is also
evidenced in eggs, whereof the sound ones sink, and such as
are addled swim, as do also those which are termed hypenemia
or wind eggs, and this is also a way to separate seeds, whereof
such as are corrupted and sterile swim, and this agreeth not
only unto the seeds of plants locked up and capsulated in
their husks, but also unto the sperm and seminal humour of
man, for such a passage hath Aristotle upon the inquisition
and test of its fertility.
That the breaking of the gall is not the cause hereof,
experience hath informed us. For opening the abdomen,
and taking out the gall in cats and mice, they did notwith-
standing arise. And because we had read in Ehodiginus of
a tjTant, who to prevent the emergency of murdered bodies,
didusetocut offtheirlungs,and found men's minds possessed
2d2
404 OS SWIMMING AND FLOATING. [bOOK IV,
witb this reason, we committed some unto the water without
lungs, which notwithstanding floated with the others ; and to
complete the experiment, although we took out the guts and
bladder, and also perforated the cranium, yet would they
arise, though in a longer time. From these observations in
otiier animals, it may not be unreasonable to conclude the
same in man, who is too noble a subject on whom to make
them expressly, and the casual opportunity too rare almost
to make any. Now if any sliall ground this effect from gall
or choler, because it is the highest humour, and will be above
the rest, or being tlie fiery humour, -will readiest surmount
tlie water, we must confess in the common putrescence it
may promote elevation, which the breaking of the bladder of
gall, so small a part in man, cannot considerably advantage.
Lastly, that women drowned float prone, that is, with their
bellies downward, but men supine or upward, is an assertion
wherein the on or point itself is dubious, and, were it true,
the reason alleged for it is of no validity. The reason yet
current was first expressed hj Pliny, velitti pudori defuncto-
rum parcente natiira, nature modestly ordaining this position
to conceal the shame of the dead, which hath been taken up
by Solinus, Rhodiginus, and many more. This indeed (as
Scaliger termeth it) is ratio civilis non philosopliica, strong
enough for morality or rhetoricks, not for philosophy or
physicks. For first, in natiu-e the concealment of secret parts
is the same in both sexes, and the shame of their reveal
equal : so Adam upon the taste of the fruit was ashamed of
his nakedness as well as Eve. And so likewise in America
and countries unacquainted with habits, where modesty con-
ceals these parts in one sex, it doth it also in the other, and
therefore had this been the intention of nature, not only
women but men also had swimmed downwards ; the posture
in reason being common unto both, where the intent is also
common.
Again, while herein we commend the modesty, we condemn
the wisdom of nature : for that prone position we make her
contrive unto the women, were best agreeable unto the man,
in whom the secret parts are very anterior and more dis-
coverable in a supine and upward posture ; and therefore
iScaliger declining this reason, hath reciu'red unto another
from the difference of parts in both sexes ; Quod ventre vasto
CHAP. VII.] MEN WEIGH HEAVIER DEAD THAN ALIVE. 405
sunt miilieres plenoque intestinis, itaqiie minus impletur et
subsidet, inanior marihus quibus nates frceponderant ; if so,
then men with great bellies wUl float do\\Tiward, and only
CallipygcB, and women largely composed behind, upward,
But anatomists observe, that to make the larger cavity I'or
the infant, the haunch-bones in women, and consequently the
parts appendent, are more protuberant than they are in men.
They who ascribe the cause unto the breasts of women, take
not away the doubt, for they resolve not why children float
downward, who are included in that sex, though not in the
reason alleged. But hereof we cease to discourse, lest we
undertake to afford a reason of the golden tooth,* tliat is, to
invent or assign a cause, when we remain unsatisfied or
unassiu-ed of the effect.
That a mare will sooner drown than a horse, though com-
monly opinioned, is not I fear experienced ; nor is the same
observed in the drowning of whelps and kitlings. But that a
man cannot shut or open his eyes under water, easy experi-
ment may con\-ict. Whether cripples and mutilated persons,
who have lost the greatest part of their thighs, will not sink
but float, their lungs being abler to waft up their bodies,
which are in others overpoised by the hinder legs ; we have
not made experiment. Thus much we observe, that animals
drown downwards, and the same is observable in frogs, when
the huider legs are cut off"; but in the air most seem to
perish headlong from high places : however Vulcan thrown
from heaven be made to iall on his feet.^
CHAPTER VII.
That Men weigh Jieavkr dead than alive, and before meat than after.
That men weigh heavier dead than alive, if experiment
hath not failed us, we cannot reasonably grant.^ For though
* Of the cause whereof much dispute was made, and at last proved
an imposture.
* That a mare, efcc] This paragraph added in 2nd edition.
" That men weigh heavier, ttc] ^Vhat shall be said of the man who
can use such an argument as the following : — " Why doth a man fall
down in his sleep, who stood upright when he was awake, if he be
406 MEN ATEIGH HEATIER DEAD THAN ALIVE. [bOOK IV.
the trial hereof cannot so well be made on the body of man,
nor will the difference be sensible in the debate of scruples
or drachms, yet can we not confirm the same in lesser animals,
from whence the inference is good, and the affirmative of
Pliny saith, that it is true in all. For exactly weighing and
strangling a chicken in the scales, upon an immediate pon-
deratiou, we could discover no sensible difl'erence iu weight,
but suftering it to lie eight or ten hours, until it grew per-
fectly cold, it weighed most sensibly lighter ; the like we
attempted and verified in mice, and performed their trials in
scales that would turn upon the eighth or tenth part of a
grain.
ISTow whereas some allege that spirits are lighter sub-
stances, and naturally ascending, do elevate and waft the
body upward, whereof dead bodies being destitute contract
a greater gravity; althougli we concede that spirits are light,
comparatively unto the body, yet that they are absolutely so,
or liave no weight at all, we cannot readily allow. For since
philosophy affirmeth that spirits are middle substances be-
tween the soul and body, they must admit of some corpo-
reity, which supposeth weight or gravity. Beside in carcasses
warm, and bodies newly disanimated, while transpiration
remaineth, there do exhale and breathe out vaporous and
fluid parts, which carry away some power of gravitation.
Which though we allow we do not make answerable unto
living expiration, and therefore the chicken or mice were not
not heavier than he was ?" — Ross, Arcana, p. 100. Truly we may say,
" Every man is not a proper champion for truth, nor fit to take up the
gaimtlet in the cause of verity ! " — Rel. Med. p. 9.
The result of modern investigation seems to confirm the opinion so
preposterously .advocated by Ross ; at least it shows that the specific
gravity of the human body is in reality greater after death than it was
while living. Dalton, in an interesting paper on the Effects of Atmo-
spheric Pressure on the Animal Frame, published in the 10th vol. of the
Manchester Memoirs, thus sums up : " Upon the whole I am inclined to
believe the true explanation of the difficulty will be found in this, that
the whole substance of the body is pervious to air, and that a consider-
alileportion of it constantly exists in the body during life subject to
increase and diminution according to the pressure of the atmosphere, in
the same manner as it exists in water, and further, that •when life is
extinct, this air in some degree escapes, and renders the parts speci-
fically heavier than when the vital functions were in a state of
activity. "
CHAP. VII.] MEN HEAVIER BEFOEE MEAT THAN AFTEK. 407
SO light being dead, as they would have been after ten hours
kept alive, for in that space a man abateth many ounces ;
nor if it had slept, for in that space of sleep, a man will
sometimes abate forty ounces : nor if it had been in tlie
middle of summer, for then a man weigheth some pounds
less than in the heiglit of winter, according to experience,
and the statick aphorisms of Sanctorius.
Again, whereas men affirm they perceive an addition of
ponderosity in dead bodies, comparing them usually unto
blocks and stones, whensoever they lift or carry them ; this
accessional preponderancy is rather in appearance than
reality. For being destitute of any motion, they confer no
relief unto the agents or elevators, which make us meet with
the same complaints of gravity in animated and living bodies,
where the nerves subside, and the faculty locomotive seems
abolished, as may be observed in the lifting or supporting
of persons inebriated, apopleetical, or in lipothymies and
swoonings.
Many are also of opinion, and some learned men maintain,
that men are lighter after meals than before, and that by a
supply and addition of spirits obscuring the gross ponderosity
of the aliment ingested ; but the contrary hereof we have
found in the trial of sundry persons in different sex and
ages. And we conceive men may mistake, if they distinguish
not the sense of le\dty unto themselves, and in regard of
the scale, or decision of trutination.^ For after a di'aught
of wine, a man may seem lighter in himself from sudden
reflection, although he be heavier in the balance, from a cor-
poral and ponderous addition ; but a man in the morning is
lighter in the scale, because in sleep some pounds have
perspired ; and is also lighter unto himself, because he is
refected.
And to speak strictly, a man that holds his breath is
weightier while his lungs are full, than upon expiration. For
a bladder blown is weightier than one empty ; and if it con-
tain a quart, expressed and emptied it will abate about a
quarter of a grain. And therefore we somewhat mistrust
the experiment of a pumice-stone taken up by Montanus, in
his comment upon Avicenna, where declarmg how the rarity
of parts, and numerosity of pores, occasioneth a lightness in
* trutination.] The act of weighing in scales ; from trutina.
408 SIIVEBAT. PASSAGES FOE MEAT ANE DEINK. [boOK IT-
bodies, lie affirms that a pumice-stone powdered is lighter
than one entire ; which is an experiment beyond our satis-
faction ; for, beside that abatement can hardly be avoided
in the trituration, if a bladder of good capacity wiU scarce
include a grain of air, a pumice of three or four drachms,
cannot be presumed to contain the hundredth part thereof ;
which will not be sensible upon the exactest beams we use.
j^or is it to be taken strictly, what is delivered by the learned
Lord Verulam, and referred unto further experiment ; that
a dissolution of iron in aqua fortis, will bear as good weight
as their bodies did before, notwithstanding a great deal of
waste by a thick vapour that issueth during the working ;
for we cannot find it to hold either in iron or copper, which
is dissolved with less ebullition ; and hereof we made trial
in scales of good exactness ; wherein if there be a defect, or
such as will not turn upon quarter grains, there may be
frequent mistakes in experiments of this nature. That also
may be considered which is delivered by Hamerus Poppius,
that antimony calcined or reduced to aslies by a burning
glass, although it emit a gross and ponderous exhalation,
doth rather exceed than abate its former gravity.^ Never-
theless, strange it is, how very little and almost insensible
abatement there will be sometimes in such operations, or
rather some increase, as in the refining of metals, in the test
of bone-ashes, according to experience : and in a burnt
brick, as Monsieur de Calve,* affirmeth. Mistake may be
made in this way of trial ; when the antimony is not weighed "
immediately upon the calcination, but permitted the air, it
imbibeth the humidity thereof, and so repaireth its gravity.
CHAPTER VIII.
That there are several passages for Meat and Drink.
That there are difierent passages for meat and drink, the
meat or dry aliment descending by the one, the drink or
* Dcs Pierres.
'' that antimony, <frc.] This is like that other refuted before, that a
pumice powdered weighs heavier then before. — Wr.
CHAP. Tin.] SETEBAL PASSAGES FOB MEAT AND DBIXK. 409
moistening vehicle by the other, is a populai tenet in our
days, but was the assertion of learned men of old. For the
same was affirmed by Plato, maintained by Eustathius in
Macrobius, and is deducible from Eratosthenes, Eupolis and
Euripides. Now herein men contradict experience, not well
understandmg anatomy, and the use of parts. Eor at the
throat there are two ca\dties or conducting parts ; the one
the oesopliagits or gullet, seated next the spine, a part official
unto nutrition, and whereby the aliment both wet and dry is
conveyed unto the stomach ; the other (by which 'tis con-
ceived the drink doth pass) is the weazand, rough artery, or
wind-pipe, a part inservient to voice and respiration ; for
thereby the air descendeth into the lungs, and is communi-
cated unto the heart. And therefore, all animals that breathe
or have lungs, have also the weazand ; but many have the
gullet or feeding channel, which have no lungs or wind-
pipe ; as fishes which have gills, whereby the heart is re-
frigerated ; for such thereof as have lungs and respira-
tion, are not without the weazand, as whales and cetaceous
animals.
Again, beside these parts destined to divers offices, there
is a peculiar provision for the wind-pipe, that is, a cartilagi-
neous flap upon the opening of the larynx or throttle, which
hath an open cavity for the admission of the air ; but lest
thereby either meat or drink should descend, Providence
hath placed the einglottis, ligula, or flap like an ivy leaf,
which always closeth when we swallow, or when the meat and
drink passeth over it into the gullet. Which part although all
have not that breathe, as all cetaceous and oviparous animals,
yet is the weazand secured some other way ; and therefore in
whales that breathe, lest the water should get into the liuigs,
an ejection thereof is contrived by o. fistula or spout at the
head. And therefore also, though birds have no epiglottis,
yet can they so contract the rim or chink of their larynx, as
to prevent the admission of wet or dry ingested ; either
whereof getting in, occasioneth a cough, until it be ejected.
And this is the reason why a man caiuiot drink and breathe
at the same time ; why, if we laugh while we drink, the
drink flies out at the nostrils ; why, when the water enters
the weazand, men are suddenly drowned ; and thus must it
410 SALTJTINa UPON SNEEZING. [BOOK IT.
be understood, when we read of one that died by the seed ot
a grape,* and another by an hair in milk.^
Now if any shall affirm, that some truth there is in the
assertion, upon the experiment of Hippocrates, who, killing
an hog after a red potion, found the tincture thereof in the
larynx ; if any will urge the same from medical practice,
because in aftections both of lungs and weazand, physicians
make use of syrups, and lambitive medicines ;^ we are not
averse to acknowledge, that some may distil and insinuate
into the wind-pipe, and medicines may creep down, as well
as the rheum before them : yet to conclude from hence,
that air and water have both one common passage, were
to state the question upon the weaker side of the distinction,
and from a partial or guttulous ii'rigation to conclude a total
descension.
CHAPTEE IX.
Of Saluting upon Sneezing.
Concerning Sternutation or Sneezing, and the custom
of saluting or blessing upon that motion, it is pretended,
and generally believed, to derive its original from a disease,
wherein sternutation proved mortal, and such as sneezed, died.
And this may seem to be proved from Carolus Sigonius, who
m his History of Italy, makes mention of a pestilence in the
time of Grregory the Grreat, that proved pernicious and deadly
to those that sneezed. Which notwithstanding will not
sufficiently determine the grounds hereof, that custom having
an elder era than this chronology aftbrdeth.
* Anacreon tlie Poet, if the story be taken literally.
' by an hair in milk.] And a woman in Knowle, Wiltes, by a piece
of the great tendon in a neck of veale (which is commonly cald the
Halifax) which getting sodenly within the larinx chokt her. — Wr. See
my note relating the death of Lord Boringdon, at p. 168.
" s)/i-ups.] In a daTigerous catharr, the end of giving syi-upes is, that
sliding downe with the rheumes, they may botli abate and correct the
cold crude salt corroding qualityes of rheumes : and witliall by the heat
of the ingredients, and the balmy benigne quality of sugar, att once
arnie .%nd warme tlie lungs, and withall thicken the rheum that fals.
that itt may bee more easily expectorated. — Wr.
CHAP. IX.] SALUTIJTG UPON" SKEEZIKG. 411.
For although tlie age of Gregory extend above a thousand,
yet is this custom mentioned by Apuleius, in the fable of
the fuller's wife, who lived three hundred years before ; by
Pliny in that problem of his, cur sternutantes salutantur ;
and there are also reports that Tiberius the emperor, other-
wise a very sour man, would perform this rite most punctually
unto others, and expect tlie same from others unto himself'.
Petronius Arbiter, who lived before them both, and was
proconsul of Bithynia in the reign of Nero, hath mentioned
it in these words, Gyton collectione spiritus plenus, ter con-
tinub ita sternutavit, ut grabatum concuteret, ad quern motum
Eumolpus conversus, Salvere Gytona juhet. Coelius Rho-
diginus hath an example hereof among the Greeks far an-
cienter than these, that is, in the time of Cyrus the younger,
when consulting about their retreat, it chanced that one
among them sneezed, at the noise whereof the rest of the
soldiers called upon Jupiter Soter. There is also in the
Greek Antliology a remarkable mention hereof in an epigram,
upon one Proclus ; the Latin whereof we shall deliver, as we
find it often translated.
Non potis est Proclus digitis emungere nasum,
Namq ; est pro nasi mole pusilla raanus :
Non vocat ille Jovem sternutans, quippe nee audit
Stemutamentum, tarn procul aure sonat.
Proclus with his hand his nose can never wipe,
His hand too little is his nose to gripe ;
He sneezing calls not Jove, for why \ he hears
Himself not sneeze, the sound's so far from 'a ears.
Nor was this only an ancient custom among the Greeks
and Romans, and is still in force with us, but is received at
this day in remotest parts of Afi'ica.^ For so we read in
Codignus,* that upon a sneeze of the Emperor of Mono-
motapa, there passed acclamations successive through the
city ; and as remarkable an example there is of the same
custom, in . the remotest parts of the East, recorded in the
travels of Pinto.
But the history will run much higher, if we should take
in the rabbinical account hereof, that sneezing was a mortal
* De rehus A hassinorum.
' Africa.] And in Otaheite. — Jeff.
412 SALUTING UPON SNEEZING. [bOOK IV.
sign even from tlie first man, until it was take noff by the
special supplication of Jacob. From whence, as a thankful
acknowledgment, this salutation first began, and was after
continued by the expression of Tobim CJiaiim, or vita bona,
by stauders by, upon all occasion of sneezing.^
Now the ground of this ancient custom was probably the
opinion the ancients held of sternutation,^ which they gene-
rally conceived to be a good sign or a bad, and so upon this
motion accordingly used a salve or Zev rrCJaor, as a gratulation
for the one, and a deprecation for the other. Now of the
ways whereby they enquired and determined its signality ;
the first was natural, arising from physical causes, and con-
sequences oftentimes naturally succeeding this motion, and
so it might be justly esteemed a good sign; for sneezing being
properly a motion of the brain, suddenly expelling through
the nostrils what is offensive unto it, it cannot but afford some
evidence of its vigour, and therefore, saith Aristotle,* they
that hear it, TvporrKwovaLv wc 'Upor^ " honour it as somewhat
sacred," and a sign of sanity in the diviner part, and this he
illustrates from the practice of physicians, who in persons near
death, do use sternutatories, or such medicines as provoke
unto sneezing, when if the faculty awaketh, and sternutation
ensueth, they conceive hopes of life, and with gratulation
receive the signs of safety. f And so is it also of good signality,
according to that of Hippocrates, that sneezing cureth the
hiccough, and is profitable unto women in hard labour, and
so is it good in lethargies, apoplexies, catalepsies, and comas.
And in this natiu'al way is it sometime likewise of bad effects
or signs, and may give hints of deprecation ; as in diseases
of the chest, for therein Hippocrates condemneth it as too
much exagitating ; in the beginning of catarrhs, according
unto Avicenna, as hindering concoction ; in new and ten-
der conceptions, as Pliny observeth, for then it endangers
abortion.
The second way was superstitious and augixrial, as Coelius
* Problems, sect. 33. t 2 Kings iv. 35.
2 And as remarkable, <fcc.] Tliis sentence and the following paragraph
were added in 3rd edition.
' sternutation.'] Physitians generallye define itt to be the trumpet of
natiire ujion the ejection of a noxious vapour from the braine, and there-
fore saye rightly itt is bonum signum malce causce, sc. depuUoo. — Wr.
CHAP. X.] THAT JEWS STINK. 413
Ehodiginus hafh illustrated in testimonies as ancient as
Theocritus and Homer ; as appears from the Athenian mas-
ter, who would have retired because a boatman sneezed;
and the testimony of Austin, that the ancients were wont
to go to bed again if they sneezed while they put on their
shoe. And in this way it was also of good and bad signifi-
cation ; so Aristotle hath a problem, why sneezing from noon
imto midnight was good, but from night to noon unlucky.
So Eustathius upon Homer observes, that sneezing to the
left hand was unlucky, but prosperous unto the right ; so,
as Plutarch relateth, when Themistocles sacrificed in his
galley before the battle of Xerxes, and one of the assistants
upon the right hand sneezed, Euphrantides, the soothsayer,
presaged the victory of the Glreeks, and the overthrow of
the Persians.
Thus we may perceive the custom is more ancient than
commonly conceived, and these opinions hereof in all ages,
not any one disease, to have been the occasion of this salute
and deprecation. Arising at first from this vehement and
affrighting motion of the brain, inevitably observable unto
the standers by ; from whence some finding dependent effects
to ensue, others ascribing hereto as a cause what perhaps
but casually or inconnexedly succeeded, they might proceed
unto forms of speeches, felicitating the good, or deprecating
the evd to follow.
CHAPTEE X.
That Jews Stirik.
That Jews stink^ naturally, that is, that in their race and
nation there is an evil savour, is a received opinion we know
* That Jews stinlc.'] The Jews anxiously observing the prohibited
eating of blood keepe their flesh covered with onyons and garleek till itt
putrifie, and contracte as bad a smell as that of rottenes fi-om those
strong sawces ; and soe by continual use thereof emit a loathsom savour,
as Mr. Fulham experimented in Italye at a Jewish meeting, with the
hazard of life, till he removed into the fresh air. Teste ipso fide dignis-
simo. — Wr.
Howell, in a letter written to Lord Clifford, in reply to his enquiries
respecting the Jews, does not hesitate to adopt the common opinion as
one so well known as to need no proof. "As they are," says he, " the
414 THAI JEWS STINK, [bOOK IV.
not how to admit, although we concede many questionable
points, and dispute not the verity of sundry opinions which
are of affinity hereto. We will acknowledge that certain
odours attend on animals, no less than certain colours ; that
pleasant smells are not confined unto vegetables, but found
in divers animals, and some more richly than in plants ; and
though the problem of Aristotle enquires why no animal
smells sweet beside the pard, yet later discoveries add divers
sorts of monkeys, the civet cat and gazela, from which our
musk proceedeth. We confess that beside the smell of the
species there may be individual odours, and every man may
have a proper and peculiar savour, which although not per-
ceptible unto man, who hath this sense but weak, is yet
sensible unto dogs, who hereby can single out their masters
in the dark. We will not deny that particular men have
sent forth a pleasant savour, as Theophrastus and Plutarch
report of Alexander the Great, and Tzetzes and Cardan do
testify of themselves. That some may also emit an unsavoury
odour, we have no reason to deny ; for this may happen from
the quality of what they have taken, the foetor whereof may
discover itself by sweat and urine, as being unmasterable by
the natural heat of man, not to be dulcified by concoction
beyond an unsavoury condition ; the like may come to pass
from putrid humours, as is often discoverable in putrid and
malignant fevers ; and sometime also in gross and humid
bodies even in the latitude of sanity, the natural heat of the
parts being insufficient for a perfect and thorough digestion,
and the errors of one concoction not rectifiable by another.
But that an unsavoury odour is gentilitious or national unto
the Jews, if rightly understood, we cannot well concede, nor
will the information of reason or sense induce it.
For first, upon consult of reason, there will be found no
easy assurance to fasten a material or temperamental pro-
priety upon any nation ; there being scarce any condition
(but what depends upon clime) which is not exhausted or
obscured from the commixture of introvenient nations either
by commerce or conquest ; much more will it be difficult to
most contemptible people, and have a kind of fulsome scent, no better
than a stmk, that distingiiishetli them from others, so they are the most
timorous people on earth, &c." — Familiar Lctteis, book i. § 6, letter xv.
p. 252.
CHi-P. X.] THAT JEWS STINK. 415
make out this afFection in the Jews ; whose race howevei
pretended to be pure, must needs have suffered inseparable
commixtures with nations of all sorts ; not only in regard of
their proselytes, but their universal dispersion ; some being
posted from several parts of the earth, others quite lost, and
swallowed up in those nations where they planted. For the
tribes of Reuben, Gad, part of Manasses and JS^aphthali,
which were taken by Assur, and the rest at the sacking of
Samaria, which were led away by Salmanasser into Assyria,
and after a year and a half arrived at Arsereth, as is delivered
in Esdras ; these I say never retiu-ned,* and are by the Jews
as vainly expected as their Messias. Of those of the tribe
of Judah and Benjamin, which were led captive into Baby-
lon by Nebuchadnezzar, many returned under Zorobabel ;
the rest remained, and from thence long after, upon invasion
of the Saracens, fled as far as India ; where yet they are
said to remain but with Uttle difference from the Gentiles.
* For the tribes, <f.-c.] The subsequent history of the ten tribes, who
were carried into captivity at the fall of Samaria, has ever remained and
must remain a matter of conjecture. — It is, however^ most probable
that our author's supposition is correct. Dr. Claudius Buchanan is
satisfied " that the greater part of the ten tribes, \\hich now exist, are
to be found in the countries of their first captivity." In support of
which opinion he cites the following passage from a speech of King
Agrippa to the Jews, in the reign of Vespasian ; — "What, do you
stretch your hopes beyond the river Euphrates ? — Do any of you think
that your fellow-tribes will come to your aid out ofAdiabene? Besides,
if they would come, the Parthian will not permit it." — Joseph, de Bell.
lib. ii. c. 28, — a proof, as the Dr. remarks, that the ten tribes were still
in captivity, in Media, under the Persian princes, during the 1st century
of the Christian era, 700 years after their transplantation. Again he
adduces a passage from Jerome, written in the 5th century, in his notes
on Hosea ; — "unto this day the ten tribes are subject to the kings of
the Persians, Mor has theiv captivity ever been loosed." He says also,
" the ten tribes inhabit at this day the cities and mountains of the
Medes," torn. vi. p. 80. To this day, continues Dr. B., no family, Jew
or Christian, is permitted to leave the Persian territories without the
king's permission. — See Dr. Claudius Buchanan's Chriatian Researches
in Asia, p. 239.
The Samaritan traditions, however, might lead to the opinion that a
considerable remnant of the Israelites avoided captivity, and were left
on the soil of Palestine. The singular fact that they have preserved
the Mosaic law in the ruder and more ancient character, strongly con-
firms this hypothesis, which derives additional support also from various
other considerations. — See History of the Jews {Fam. Lib.), ii. 10.
416 THAT JEWS STINK. [bOOK IT.
The tribes that returned to Judea, were afterward widely
dispersed ; for beside sixteen thousand which Titus sent to
Rome under the triumph of his fatlier Vespasian, he sold no
less than an hundred thousand for slaves. Not many years
after, Adrian the emperor, who ruined the whole country,
transplanted many thousands into Spain, from whence they
dispersed into divers countries, as into France and England,
but were banished after from both. From Spain they dis-
persed into Africa, Italy, Constantinople, and the dominions
of the Turk, where they remain as yet in very great num-
bers. And if (according to good relations), where they may
freely speak it, they forbear not to boast that there are at
present many thousand Jews in Spain, France, and England,
and some dispensed withal even to the degree of priesthood ;
it is a matter very considerable, and could they be smelled
out, would much advantage, not only the church of Christ,
but also the coflers of princes.^
Now having thus lived in several countries, and always in
subjection, they must needs have suffered many commixtures ;
and we are sure they are not exempted from the common
contagion of venery contracted first from Christians. Nor
are fornications unfrequent between them both ; there com-
monly passing opinions of invitement, that their women
desire copulation with them rather than their own nation,
and affect Christian carnality above circumcised venery. It
being therefore acknowledged that some are lost, evident
that others are mixed, and not assured that any are distinct,
it will be liard to establish this qualitj' upon the Jews, unless
we also transfer the same unto those whose generations are
mixed, whose genealogies are Jewish, and naturally derived
from them.
Again, if we concede a national unsavouriness in any
people, yet shall we find the Jews less subject hereto than
any, and that in those regards which most powerfully concur
to such eflects, that is, their diet and generation. As for
their diet, whether in obedience unto the precepts of reason,
or the injunctions of parsimony, therein they are very tem-
® The tribes, <tc.] The subject of this paragraph is fully treated in
the course of the Jlistor;/ of the Jews, referred to in the preceding note :
the last chapter of which gives a very elaborate and careful estimate of
the present number of Jews in various countries.
CHAP. X.] THAT JEWS STINK. 417
perate, seldom offending in ebriety or excess of drink, nor
erring in golosity or superfluity of meats ; whereby they
prevent indigestion and crudities/ and consequently putre-
scence of humours. They have in abomination all flesli
maimed, or the inwards any way vitiated, and therefore eat
no meat but cf their own killing. They observe not only
fasts at certain times, but are restrained unto very few dishes
at all times ; so few, that whereas S. Peter's sheet will hardly
cover our tables, their law doth scarce permit them to set
forth a lordly feast ; nor any way to answer the luxury of our
times, or those of our forefathers. For of flesh their law
restrains them many sorts, and such as complete our feasts ;
that anmial, propter coiivivia natum,* they touch not, nor any
of its preparations or parts, so much in respect at E-oman
tables, nor admit they unto their board, liares, conies, herons,
plovers, or swans. Of fishes they only taste of such as have
both fins and scales, which are comparatively but few in
number ; such only, saith Aristotle, whose egg or spawn is
arenaceous : whereby are excluded all cetaceous and carti-
lagineous fishes ; many pectmal, whose ribs are rectilineal ;
many costal, which have their ribs embowed ; aU spinal, or
such as have no ribs, but only a backbone, or somewhat
analogous thereto, as eels, congers, lampreys ; all that are
testaceous, as oysters, cockles, wilks, scollops, muscles ; and
likewise aU crustaceous, as crabs, shrimps, and lobsters. So
that, obserATug a spare and simple diet, whereby they pre-
vent the generation of cnidities ; and fasting often, whereby
they might also digest them ; they must be less inclinable
unto this infirmity than any other nation, whose proceedings
are not so reasonable to avoid it.
As for their generations and conceptions (which are the
purer from good diet), they become more pm-e and perfect
by the strict observation of their law ; upon the injunctions
whereof, they severely observe the times of purification, and
avoid all copulation, either in the uncleanness of themselves,
* Quanti est gula, quce sibi totos ponit apros I Animal propter convivia
natum.
'' indigestion and crudities.] This cruditye of indigestion is soe cleerly
discemable in the breath of children ; that hee who conies fasting into
a great schoole shall soonepsrceave itt, to his smell, most odious. — Wr.
VOL. I. 2 E
418 THAT JEWS STINK. [bOOK IT.
or impurity of their women. A rule, I fear, not so well
observed by Christians ; whereby not only conceptions are
prevented, but if they proceed, so vitiated and defiled, that
durable inquinations remain upon the birth. Which, when
the conception meets with these impiu-ities, must needs be
very potent ; since in the purest and most fair conceptions,
learned men derive the cause of pox and meazles, from prin-
ciples of that nature ; that is, the menstruous impurities in
the mother's blood, and virulent tinctures contracted by the
infant, in the nutriment of the womb.
Lastly, experience wiU convict it ; for this offensive odour
is no way discoverable in their synagogues where many are,^
and by reason of their number could not be concealed : nor
is the same discernible in commerce or conversation with
such as are cleanly in apparel, and decent in their houses.
Surely the Viziers and Turkish bashas are not of this opi-
nion ; who, as Sir Henry Blunt informeth, do generally keep
a Jew of their private council. And were this true, the
Jews themselves do not strictly make out the intention of
their law, for in vain do they scruple to approach the dead,
who livingly are cadaverous, or fear any outward pollution,
whose temper pollutes themselves. And lastly, were this
true, yet our opinion is not impartial ; for unto converted
Jews who are of the same seed, no man imputeth this imsa-
voury odour ; as though aromatized by their conversion, they
lost their scent with their religion, and smelt no longer than
they savoured of the Jew.
Now the ground that begat or propagated this assertion,
might be the distasteful averseness of the Christian from
the Jew, upon the villany of that fact, which made them
abominable and stiak in the nostrils of all men. "WTiich
real practice and metaphorical expression did after proceed
into a literal construction ; but was a fraudulent illation ;
for such an evil savour their father Jacob acknowledged in
himself, when he said his sous had made him stink in the
land, that is. to be abominable unto the inhabitants
thereof* Now how dangerous it is in sensible things to
* Gen. xxxiv.
• 7nanv are.] See the evidence hereof, p. 413, undeniably proceedL
—ffV.
CHAP. X.] THAT JEWS STINK. 419
use metaphorical expressions unto the people, and wliat
absurd conceits they will swallow in then- literals, an impa-
tient^ example we have m our own profession ; who having
called an eating ulcer by the name of a wolf, common
apprehension conceives a reality therein, and against our-
selves ocidar affirmations are pretended to confirm it.
The nastiuess of that nation, and sluttish course of life,
hath much promoted the opinion, occasioned by their ser-
vile condition at first, and inferior ways of parsimony ever
since ; as is delivered by Mr. Sandys ; they are generally
fat, saith he, and rank of the savours which attend vipon
sluttish corpulency.^ The epithets assigned them by
ancient times, have also advanced the same ; for Ammianus
Marcellinus describeth them in such language, and Martial
more ancient, in such a relative expression sets forth
unsavoury Bassa.
Quod jejunia sabbatarionim
Mallem, qukm quod oles, olere, Bassa.
From whence, notwithstanding, we cannot infer an in-
ward imperfection in the temper of that nation ; it being
but an eftect in the breath from outward observation, in
their strict and tedious fasting ; and was a common effect
in the breaths of other nations, became a proverb among
the Greeks* and the reason thereof begot a problem in
Aristotle. t
Lastly, if aU were true, and were this savour conceded,
yet are the reasons alleged for it no way satisfactory.
Hucherius,t and after him Alsarius Crucius,;]: imputes this
efiect unto their abstinence from salt or salt meats \^
which how to make good in the present diet of the Jews,
we know not ; nor shall we conceive it was observed of old,
if we consider they seasoned every sacrifice and all obla-
tions whatsoever ; whereof we cannot deny a great part was
eaten by the priests. And if the oftering were of flesh, it
* 'StjartiaQ o^eiv. Jejunia olere. t ^e Sterilitate.
t Cruc. Med. Epist.
' impatient.'] Z(?(/e insufferable. — Wr.
' rank, ttc] Which Mr. Fulham confirmd as above, p. 413. This is
enoughe, leaving the cause to further inquisition. — Wr.
^ salt meats.] ^Vhich they supply with onyona and garlick, ut supra-
~Wr.
2 e2
420 THAT JEWS STIKK. [BOOK IV.
was salted no less than thrice, that is, once in the common
chamber of salt, at the footstep of the altar, and upon
t\\e top thereof, as is at large delivered by Maimonides.
Nor, if they refrained all salt, is the iUation very urgent :
for many there are not noted for ill odours,^ which eat no
salt at all ; as aU carnivorous animals, most children, many
whole nations, and probably our fathers after the creation ;
there being indeed, in every thing we eat, a natural and
concealed salt,"* which is separated by digestions, as doth
appear in our tears, sweat, and urines, although we refrain
all salt, or what doth seem to contain it.
Another cause is urged by Campegius, and much re-
ceived by Christians ; that this ill savoux is a curse derived
upon them by Christ, and stands as a badge or brand of
a generation that crucified their Salvator. But this is a
conceit without aU warrant, and an easy way to take off
dispute in what point of obsciu-ity soever. A method of
many writers, which much depreciates the esteem and
value of miracles ; that is, therewith to salve not only real
verities, but also non-existencies. Thus have elder times
not only ascribed the immunity of Ireland from any veno-
mous beast unto the stall' or rod of Patrick, but the long
tails of Kent unto the malediction of Austin.^
Thus therefore, although we concede that many opinions
are true which hold some conformity unto this, yet in
assenting hereto many difficulties must arise ; it being a
' not noted, tfcc] This is contraryed by experience. Supra, p. 413. —
Wr.
* salt.] The earthy being separated, leaves the other sweet, not
salt. But the many circulations of them acquiring saltnes from the
n.'iturall heate, send out that unnecessary saltnes in sweat, and teares,
and urine, and generally in salivation. — Wr.
* long tails of Kent.] Bailey gives the following notice of these
gentry : — "The Kentish men are said to have had long tails for some
generations ; by way of punishment, as some say, for the Kentish Pagans
abusing Austin the monk and his associates, by beating them, and oppro-
briously tying fish-tails to their backsides ; in revenge of which, such
a.])pendants grew to the hind parts of all that generation. But the scene
of this lying wonder was not in Kent, but in Came, in Dorsetshire, many
miles otf. Others again say it was for cutting off the tail of St. Thoraaa
of Canterbury's horse, who, being out of favour with King Henry II.
riding towards Caaterbuiy upon a poor sorry horse, was so served by the
common people.
CHAP. XI.] OF PIGMIES. 421
dangerous point to annex a constant property unto anj
nation, and much more this unto the Jew ; since their
quality is not verified by observation ;^ since the grounds
are feeble that shoidd establish it ; and lastly, since if all
were true, yet are the reasons alleged for it of no sufficiency
to maintain it.
CHAPTEE XI.
Of Pigmies.
By pigmies we understand a dwarfish race of people, or
lowest diminution of mankind, comprehended in one cubit,
or as some will have it, in two foot or three spans ; not
taking them single, but nationally considering them, and
as they make up an aggregated habitation. Whereof,
although affirmations be many, and testimonies more fre-
quent than in any other point which wise men have cast
into the list of fables, yet that there is, or ever was such
a race or nation, upon exact and confirmed testimonies, our
strictest enquiry receives no satisfaction.^
I say " exact testimony," first, in regard of the authors
from whom we derive the account ; for, though we meet
herewith in Herodotus, Philostratus, Mela, Pliny, Solinus,
and many more, yet were they derivative relators, and the .
primitive author was Homer ; who, using often similes, as
well to delight the ear, as to illustrate his matter, in the
third of his Iliads, compareth the Trojans unto cranes,
when they descend against the pigmies ; which was more
largely set out by Oppian, Juvenal, Mantuan, and many
poets since, and being only a pleasant figment in the foun-
tain, became a solemn story in the stream, and current still
among us.
* not verifiable, etc.] It is, ut supra, p. 413. — Wr.
"> By piyiniei, (fcc] Ross contends, — as he almost invariably does —
for the truth of the old saying. He argues that " it stands with reason
there should be such, that God's wisdom might be seen in all sorts ot
magnitudes ; for if there have been giants, why not also pigmies, nature
being as prepense to the least, as to the greatest magnitude." He
adduces the testimony of Buchanan, who, speaking of the isles of Scot-
land, amongst the rest sets down the Isle of Pigmies.
422 OF PIGMIES. [book IV.
Agaiu,^ many professed enquirers liave rejected it.
Strabo, an exact and judicious geographer, hath largely
condemned it as a fabulous story. Julius Scaliger, a dili-
gent enquirer, accounts thereof but as a poetical fiction.
Ulysses Aldrovandus, a most exact zoographer, in an
express discourse hereon, concludes the story fabulous, and
a poetical account of Homer ; and the same was formerly
conceived by Eustathius, his excellent commentator.
Albertus Magnus, a man ofttimes too credulous, herein
was more than dubious ; for he affirmeth if any such dwarfs
were ever extant, they were suxely some kind of apes ;
which is a conceit allowed by Cardan,^ and not esteemed
improbable by many others.
There are, I confess, two testimonies, which from their
authority, admit of consideration. The first of Aristotle,*
whose words are these, tori oe 6 tottoq, &c. That is. Sic locus
est quern incolunt pi/gmcei, non enim id fahula est, sed
pusillum genus ut aiunt. Wherein indeed Aristotle plays
the Aristotle, that is, the wary and evading assertor ; for
though with non est fahula he seems at first to confirm it,
yet at the last he claps in ^lt aiunt, and shakes the belief he
put before upon it. And therefore, I observe Scaliger hath
not translated the first ; perhaps supposing it siu-reptitious
or unworthy so great an assertor. And truly for those
books of animals, or work of eight hundred talents, as
Athenseus terms it, although ever to be admired, as con-
taining most excellent truths, yet are many things therein
delivered upon relation, and some repugnant unto the his-
tory of our senses ; as we are able to make out in some,
and Scaliger hath observed in many more, as he hath freely
declared in his comment upon that piece.
The second testimony is deduced from Holy Scripture,t
thus rendered in vulgar translation : Sed et Pygmcei qui
erant in turribus tuis, pharetras suas suspenderunt in muris
* Hist. Animal, lib. viii. t Ezek. xxvii. 12.
* Again.'] This paragraph is taken almost verbatim from Cardan in
the place cited below. — Wr.
" Cardan.] Rightly does he quote Cardan, who in the 8th book, De
Varietate, cap. xl. p. 527, approves of Strabo's judgement of Homer's
fiction : and concludes they were mistaken, being noe other then
ape». — Wr.
CHAP. XI.] OF PIGMIES. 423
tuis per gyrum ; from whence notwithstanding we cannot
infer this assertion. For, first, the translators accord not,
and the Hebrew word gammadim is very variously ren-
dered. Though Aquila, Vatablus, and Lyra will have it
■pygmei, yet in the Septuagint it is no more than watchmen,
and so in the Arabic and High Dutch. In the Chaldee,
Cappadocians ; in Symmachus, Medes ; and in the French,
those of Gamad. Theodotion of old, and Treraellius of
late, have retained the textuary word, and so have the
Italian, Low Dutch, and English translators ; that is, the
men of Arvad were upon thy walls round about, and the
Gammadims were in thy towers. Nor do men only dissent
in the translation of the word, but in the exposition of the
sense and meaning hereof ; for some by Gamm-adims
understand a people of Syria, so called from the city
Gamala ;* some hereby understand the Cappadocians,
many the Medes ; and hereof Forerius hath a singular
exposition, conceiving the watchmen of Tyre might well be
called pigmies, the towers of that city being so high, that
unto men below they appeared in a cubital stature.
Others expounded it quite contrary to comrjon acception,
that is, not men of the least, but of the largest size ; so
doth Cornelius construe pygmcei, or viri cubitales, that is,
not men of a cubit high, but of the largest stature, whose
height like that of giants, is rather to be taken by the
cubit than the foot ; in which phrase we read the measure
of Goliah, whose height is said to be six cubits and a span.
Of affinity hereto is also the exposition of Jerom ; not
taking pigmies for dwarfs, but stout and valiant cham-
pions ; not taking the sense of -rrvyix)), which signifies the
cubit measure, but that which expresseth pugils, that is,
men fit for combat and the exercise of the fist. Thus can
there be no satisfying illation from this text, the diversity
or rather contrariety of expositions and interpretations,
distracting more than confirming the truth of the story.'
Again, I say, exact testimonies, in reference unto cir-
* See Mr. Fuller's excellent description of Palestine.
' story.'\ The least I suppose that ever was seen and lived long, was
Lucius Augustus his dwarfe, who was hypcdali minor, lihrarum septen-
decim, sed vocis hnmensce. — Suetonim in Octavio, § 53. Certainly few apes
come under this hight.
424 OF PIGMIES. [book it.
cumstantial relations so diversely or contrarily delivered.
Thus the relation of Aristotle p'laceth them above Egypt
towards the head of the Nile in Africa. Philostratus affirms
they are about Ganges in Asia, and Pliny in a third place,
that is, Grerania in Scythia ; some write they fight with
cranes, but Menecles, in Athenseus, affirms they fight with
partridges ; some say they ride on partridges, and some on
the backs of rams.
Lastly, I say, confirmed testimonies ; for though Paulua
Jovius delivers there are pigmies beyond Japan, Pigafeta,
about the Moluccas, and Olaus Magnus placeth them in
Greenland, yet wanting frequent confirmation in a matter
so confirmable, their affirmation carrieth but slow persua-
sion, and w'ise men may think there is as much reality in
the pigmies of Paracelsus,* that is, his non-adamical men,
or middle natures betwixt men and spirits.
There being thus no sufficient confirmation of their
verity, some doubt may arise concerning their possibility,
wherein, since it is not defined in what dimensions the soul
may exercise her faculties, we shall not conclude impossi-
bility, or that there might not be a race of pigmies, as
there is sometimes of giants. So may wp take in the opi-
nion of Austin, and his comment Ludovicus.^ But to
believe they should be in the stature of a foot or span,
requires the preaspection of such a one as Philetas, the
poet, in Athenaeus, who was fain to fasten lead unto his
feet, lest the wind should blow him away ; or that other in
the same autlior, who was so little iit ad oholmn aecederet ;
a stoiy so strange, that we might herein excuse the printer,
did not the account of vElian accord unto it, as Casaubon
hath observed in his learned animadversions.
Lastly, if any such nation there were, yet it is ridiculous
what men have delivered of them ; that they fight with
cranes upon the backs of rams or partridges ; or what is
delivered by Ctesias, that they are negroes in the midst of
India, whereof the king of that country entertaineth three
* By pigmies intending fairies and other spirits about the earth ; as by
nymphs and salamanders, spirits of fire and water. — Lib. de Pygmm*,
Nymphis, dx.
» I/udovicus.] Lud. Vives,
CHAP. XII.] THE QEEAT CLIMACTEEICAL TEAE. 425
thousand archers for his guard, which is a relation below the
tale of Oberon ; nor coidd they better defend him than the
emblem saith, they offended Hercules whilst he slept, that is,
to wound him no deeper than to awake him.
CHAPTER XII.
Of the Great Climacterical Tear, that is, Sixty-three.
CoNCEENiNG the eyes of the understanding, and those of
the sense, are differently deceived in their greatest objects.
The sense apprehending them in lesser magnitudes than their
dimensions require ; so it beholdeth the sun, the stars, and
the earth itself. But the understanding quite otherwise ;
for that ascribeth unto many things far larger horizons than
their due circumscriptions require, and receiveth them with
amplifications which their reality will not admit. Thus hath
it fared with many heroes and most worthy persons, who,
being suiBciently commendable from true and unquestion-
able merits, have received advancement from falsehood and
the fruitful stock of fables. Thus hath it happened unto the
stars, and luminaries of heaven ; who, being sufiiciently
admirable in themselves, have been set out by effects, no
way dependent on their efficiencies, and advanced by ampli-
fications to the questioning of their true endowments. Thus
is it not improbable it hath also fared with number, which
though wonderful in itself, and sufficiently magnifiable from
its demonstrable affections, hath yet received adjections from
the multiplying conceits of men, and stands laden with
additions wliich its equity will not admit.
And so perhaps hath it happened unto the numbers seven
and nine, which multiplied into themselves do make up
sixty-three, commonly esteemed the great climacterical of
our lives. For the days of men are usually cast up by
septenaries, and every seventh year conceived to carry some
altering character with it, either in the temper of body, mind,
or both. But among all other, three are most remarkable,
that is, seven times seven, or forty-nine ; nine times nine, or
eighty-one ; and seven times nine, or the year of sixty-three,
which is conceived to carry with it the most considerable
426 THE GREAT CLIMACTERICAL TEAE. [bOOK IT.
fatality, and consisting of both the other numbers, was
apprehended to comprise the virtue of either, is therefore
expected and entertained with fear, and esteemed a favour
of fate to pass it over ; which, notwithstanding, many suspect
to be but a panic terror, and men to fear they justly know
not what, and to speak indifferently I find no satisfaction,
nor any sufficiency ui the received grounds to establish a
rational fear.
Now herein to omit astrological considerations (which are
but rarely introduced), the popular foundation whereby it
hath continued, is first, the extraordinary power and secret
virtue conceived to attend these numbers, whereof we must
confess there have not wanted, not only especial comiuen-
dations, but very singular conceptions. Among philosophers,
Pythagoras seems to have played the leading part, which
was long after continued by his disciples, and the Italick
school. The philosophy of Plato, and most of the Platonists,
abounds in numeral considerations. Above all, Philo, the
learned Jew, hath acted this part even to superstition,
bestowing divers pages in summing up every thing, which
might advantage this number. Which, notwithstanding,
when a serious reader shall perpend, he will hardly find any
thing that may convince his judgment, or any further per-
suade than the lenity of his belief, or prejudgment of reason
incline th.^
Por first, not only the numbers seven and nine, from con-
siderations abstruse have been extolled by most, bixt all or
most of the other digits have been as mystically applauded.
Por the numbers one and three have not been only admired
by the heathens, but from adorable grounds, the unity of
God, and mystery of the Trinity admired by many Christians.
The number four stands much admired, not only in the
quatemity of the elements (which are the principles of
bodies), but in the letters of the name of Grod (which in the
Greek, Arabian, Persian, Hebrew, and Egyptian, consisteth
of that number), and was so venerable among the Pytha-
' Which, notwithstanding, <fcc.] The excellent Bishop Hall sums up
in the following brief and pious exclamation : — " Away with all niceties
of Pythagorean calculations ; all numbers are alike to me, save those
which God himself hath challied out to us!" — Bp. Halt's Works,
p. 610.
CHAP. XII.] THE ttjiEAT CLIMACTEMCAL TEAR. 427
goreans, that they swore by the number four.'* That of six
hath found many leaves in its favour ; not only for the days
of the creation, but its "natural consideration, as being a
perfect number, and the first that is completed by its parts,
that is the sixth, the half, and the third, 1, 2, 3, which
drawn into a sum make six. The number of ten hath been
as highly extolled, as containing even, odd, long, plain,
quadrate, and cubical numbers ; and Aristotle observed with
admiration, that Barbarians, as well as Greeks, did use a
numeration unto ten, which being so general was not to be
judged casual, but to have a foimdation in nature. So that
not only seven and nine, but all the rest have had their
eulogies, as may be observed at large in Khodiginus, and in
several writers since ; every one extolling number, according
to his subject, and as it advantaged the present discourse in
hand.
Again, they have been commended, not only from pre-
tended grounds in nature, but from artificial, casual, or
fabulous foundations : so have some endeavoured to advance
their admiration, from the nine muses, from the seven
wonders of the world, from the seven gates of Thebes ; in
that seven cities contended for Homer, in that there are
seven stars in Ursa minor, and seven in Charles's wain, or
Plaustrum of TJrsa major. Wherein indeed, although the
ground be natural, yet, either from constellations or their
remarkable parts, there is the like occasion to commend any
other number ; the number five from the stars in Sagitta,
three from the girdle of Orion, and four from Equiculus,
Crusero, or the feet of the Centaur ; yet are such as these
clapped in by very good authors, and some not omitted by
Philo.
Nor are they only extolled from arbitrary and poetical
grounds, but from foundations and principles, false or dubious.
That women are menstruant and men pubescent at the year
of twice seven is accounted a punctual truth ; which period
nevertheless we dare not precisely determine, as having
observed a variation and latitude in most, agreeable unto the
* four."] 5: forthedimensionsof man, dilated into a pew/a?^5^a. — W}\
It is not a little singular that, in this enumeration, the author of the
Quincunx should have omitted the numbei' five.
428 THE GREAT CLIMACTERICAL TEAR. [bOOK IV.
heat of clime or temper ; men arising variously unto ■virility,
according to the activity of causes that promote it. Sanguis
menstruosus ad diem, ut pliirimum, septimum durat, saith
Philo : which notwithstanthng is repugnant unto experience,
and the doctrine of Hippocrates ; who in his book, de dioeta,
plainly affirmeth, it is thus but with few women, and only
such as abound with pituitous and watery humours.
It is further conceived to receive addition, in tliat there
are seven heads of Nile ; but we have made manifest else-
where,* that by the description of geographers, they have
been sometime more,^ and are at present fewer ; in that
there were seven wise men of Grreece ; which though gene-
rally received, yet having enquired into the verity thereof we
cannot so readily determine it : for in the life of Thales, who
was accounted in that number, Diogenes Laertius plainly
saith, Magna de eorum numero discordia est, some holding
but four, some ten, others twelve, and none agreeing in their
names, though according in their number. In that there are
just seven'' planets or errant stars in the lower orbs of
heaven ; but it is now demonstrable unto sense, that there
are many more, as Gralileo* hath declared ; that is, two more
in the orb of Saturn, and no less than four or more in the
sphere of Jupiter. And the like may be said of the Pleiades
or seven stars, which are also introduced to magnify this
number ; for whereas, scarce discerning six, we account them
seven, by his relation, there are no less than forty .^
That the heavens are encompassed with seven circles,^ is
also the allegation of Pliilo ; which are, in his account, the
* Nuncius Sydei-us.
* elsewhere.] See book vi. c. 8.
° more.] Honterus reckoned of old, noe fewer then 16 ; whereof now
the slime of Nilus (since itt was banked in divers places) hath ob-
structed eleven. — Wr.
'' seven.] Yf the sun be sett in the center of the universe fixte and
immoveable, as the Copernicans contend, then there are but 5 primarye
planets as they call them. For the moon they say is a secondary
planet, and the earthe another. — Wr. We must suspect an error in
this note.
* forty.] Discernable by a good telescope. — Wr.
^ seven circles.] The 2 pole circles are in effect but as one, to this
intention : likewise the 2 tropicks : let the icquator bee a thirde : the
zodiar;k, a fourth : the horison a fifth ; the colure of solstice (i. e. the
meridian) a sixte : and the Eequinoctial colure a seventhe. — Wr.
CHAP. XII.] THE GREAT CLIMACTEKICAL YEAE. 429
arctic-k, antarctick, the summer and winter tropicks, the
equator, zodiack, and the milky circle ; whereas by astro-
nomers they are received in greater number. For though
we leave out the lacteous circle (which Aratus, Geminus
(and Proclus, out of him), hath numbered among the rest),
yet are there more by four than Philo mentions ; that is, the
horizon, meridian, and both the colures ; circles very con-
siderable, and generally delivered, not only by Ptolemy, and
the astronomers since his time, but such as flourished long
before, as Hipparchus and Eudoxus. So that, for ought I
know, if it make for our purpose, or advance the theme in
hand, with equal liberty w'e may afiirm there were seven
sibyls, or but seven signs in the zodiack circle of heaven.
That verse in Virgil, translated out of Homer,* O terque
quaterque heati (that is, as men will have it, seven times
happy), hath much advanced this number in critical appre-
hensions. Yet is not this construction so indubitably to be
received, as not at all to be questioned : for, though E,hodi-
giuus, Beroaldus, and others, from the authority of Macro-
bius, so interpret it, yet Servius, his ancient commentator,
conceives no more thereby than a finite number for indefinite,
and that no more is implied than often happy. Strabo, the
ancientest of them all, conceives no more, by this in Homer,
than a full and excessive expression ; whereas, in common
phrase and received language, he should have termed them
thrice happy, herein, exceeding that number, he called them
four times happy, that is, more than thrice. And this he
illustrates by the like expression of Homer, in the speech of
Circe, who, to express the dread and terror of the ocean,
sticks not unto the common form of speech in the strict
account of its reciprocations, but largely speaking, saith, it
ebbs and flows no less than thrice a day, terque die revomit
Jluctus, iterumque resorhet. And so when 'tis said by
Horace, felices ter et am])lms, the exposition is sufiicient, if
we conceive no more than the letter fairly beareth, that is,
four times, or indefinitely more than thrice.
But the main considerations, which most set ofi" this
number, are observations drawn from the motions of the
moon supposed to be measured by sevens ; and the critical
* Tpif fxuKa^iQ Aavani Kai TtrpaKiQ,
430 THE GREAT CLIMACTEEICAL lEAR. [bOOK IV.
or decretory days^ dependent on that number. As for the
motion of the moon, though we grant it to be measured by
sevens, yet will not this advance the same before its fellow
numbers ; for hereby the motion of other stars are not
measured, the fixed stars by many thousand years ; the sim
by 365 days, the superior planets by more, the inferior by
somewhat less. And if we consider the revolution of the
first moveable, and the daily motion from east to west
common unto all the orbs, we shall find it measured by
another number, for being performed in four and twenty
hovirs, it is made up of four times six : and this is the
measure and standard of other parts of time, of months, of
years, olympiads, lustres, indictions of cycles, jubilees, &c.
Again, months are not only lunary, and measured by the
moon, but also solary, and determined by the motion of the
Sim ; that is the space wherein the sun doth pass thirty
degrees of the ecliptick. By this month Hippocrates* com-
puted the time of the infant's gestation in the womb ; for
nine times thirty, that is, 270 days, or complete nine months,
make up forty weeks, the common compute of women. And
this is to be understood, when he saith, two days make the
fifteenth, and three the tenth part of the month. This was
the month of the ancient Hebrews, before their departiu-e
out of Egypt ;2 and hereby the compute will fall out right,
and the account concur, when in one place it is said, the
* 2>e Octomestri Partu.
' decretory days.'\ Dayes of 24 houres are properly the measure to
which wee reduce months and yeares. The rest are not reduced to
dayes but years : saving, that in the compute of the equinoctial proces-
sion caused by the Julian excess, wee accompt the thirty-third bissextile
daye supernumerary, and to bee rejected. Liliewise in the decenuovall
cycles. The true cycle of the moon is 6939 dayes, 16 houres, -jt^
moments. The Dionysian Paschal cycle of 19 years, cald the golden num-
ber, is 6939 dayes, 18 hours : the difference is 1 hour, and 485 moments,
which in 16 cycles, or every 304 yeares makes almost a day of the
moones anticipation. Of these dayes, since the Nicene council, we
must accompiG noe less then 4 ; and of the 5th a 3rd parte : by which
the vernall faU moone, cald the Terminus Paschalis, does now anticipate
in the Julian kalender. And this is that which the great Scaliger cals,
•Kpoijyr}aiv (Ji]\i)viaKiiv. — Wr.
* Ef/lZ/d.] For they used the Egyptian yeare of months, cald armvu
canicalurlts, from the sun's revolution to the nsing of the dogg-
Btar. — Wr.
CHAP. XII.] THE GREAT CLIMACTEMCAL TEAR. 431
waters of the flood prevailed an hundred and fifty days, and
in another it is delivered, that they prevailed from the seven-
teenth day of the second month, unto the seventeenth day
of the seventh. As for hebdomadal periods or weeks,
although in regard of their sabbaths they were observed by
the Hebrews, yet it is not apparent the ancient Greeks or
Romans used any ; but had another division of their months
into ides, nones, and calends.
Moreover, months, howsoever taken, are not exactly divi-
sible into septenaries or weeks, which fully contaia seven
days ; whereof foiu- times do make completely twenty-eight.
For, beside the usual or caleudary montli, there are but four
considerable :^ the month of peragration, of apparition, of
consecution, and the medical or decretorial month ; whereof
some come short, others exceed this account. A month of
peragration is the time of the moon's revolution from any
part of the zodiack unto the same again, and this containeth
but twenty-seven days, and about eight hours : which cometh
short to complete the septenary account. The month of
consecution, or as some will term it, of progression, is the
space between one conjunction of the moon with the sun unto
another ; and this containeth twenty-niae days and an half;
for the moon returning unto the same point whereui it was
kindled by the sun, and not finding it there again (for in the
meantime, by its proper motion it hath passed through two
signs'*), it followeth after, and attains the sun in the space
of two days and four hours more, which added unto the
account of peragration, make twenty-nine days and an half;
so that this month exceedeth the latitude of septenaries, and
the fourth part comprehendeth more than seven days. A
month of apparition is the space wherein the moon appeareth
(deducting three days wherein it commonly disappeareth,
and, being in combustion with the sun, is presumed of less
activity), and this containeth but twenty-six days and twelve
hours. The medical month not much exceedeth this, con-
sisting of twenty-six days and twenty-two hours, and is made
up out of all the other months. For if, out of twenty-nine
* considerable.] Considerable lunar months. — Wr.
* dgns.] This was a mistake in the learned author ; for the moon
goes but one signe in 2 dayes and a half. And how could the sun get
thrcugh a whole signe in 27 days 8 hours ? — Wr.
432 THE GEEAT CLIMACTEEICAL TEAR. [bOOK IT.
and au half, the month of consecution, we deduct three days
of disappearance, there will remain the month of appari-
tion twenty-six days and twelve hours : whereto if we add
twenty-seven days and eight hours, the month of peragra-
tiou, there will arise fifty-three days and ten hours, which
divided by two, makes twenty-six days and twenty-two
hours ; called by physicians the medical month ; introduced
by Galen against Archigenes for the better compute of
decretory or critical days.
As for the critical days (such I mean wherein upon a
decertation between the disease and nature, there ensueth
a sensible alteration, either to life or death), the reasons
thereof are rather deduced from astrology than arithmetic :
for, accounting from the beginning of the disease, and reckon-
ing on unto the seventh day, the moon will be in a tetragonal
or quadrate aspect,^ that is, four signs removed from that
wherein the disease began ; in the fourteenth day it will be
in an opposite aspect ; and at the end of the third septenary,
tetragonal again ; as will most graphically appear in the
figures of astrologers, especially Lucas Gaurieus, De diehus
decretoriis.
Again (beside that, computing by the medical month, the
first hebdomade or septenary consists of six days, seventeen
hours and an half, the second happeneth in tliirteen days
and eleven hours, and the third but in the twentieth natural
day), — what Galen first, and Abenezra since observed, in his
tract of Critical Days, in regard of eccentricity and the epi-
cycle or lesser orb wherein it moveth, — the motion of the
moon is various and unequal, whereby the critical account
* mpect^ Aspect is a certaine distance of the planets wherein they
are supposed to hinder or promote the effects which they usually pro-
duce in the signes, and in the bodily parts subject to them ; according
to which acception, conjunction cannot bee properly cald an aspect,
though of all other postures in heaven to us it bee the strongest, bycause
the planets, however distant in altitude immensely, yet conveye their
force conjoyntlye with greater power. Of other aspects, some are cald
happye, as the Trigon : first, bycause when planets are 4 signes distant,
they are in signs of like nature, agreeinge in the same active and passive
qualityes. Next, Sextile, which is of signes agreeing in one qualitye,
and disagreeing in another. But quadrate and opposite are in signes
of contrarye (jualityes, and by their jarringe beames infest each
other, and are therefore cald (not without great reason in nature)
malefic. — Wr.
CHAP. XII.] THE GREAT CLIMACTEEICAL TEAE. 433
must also vary. For though its middle motion be equal, and
of thirteen degrees, yet in the otlier it moveth sometimes
fifteen, sometimes less than twelve. For, moving in the upper
part of its orb, it performeth its motion more slowly than in
the lower ; insomuch that, being at the height, it arriveth at
the tetragonal and opposite sign sooner, and the critical day
will be in six and thirteen ; and being at the lowest, the
critical account will be out of the latitude of seven, nor
happen before the eighth or ninth day. Which are consi-
derations not to be neglected in the compute of decretory
days, and manifestly declare that other numbers must have
a respect herein as well as seven and fourteen.
Lastly, some things to this intent are deduced from Holy
Scripture ; thus is the year of jubilee introduced to magnify
this number, as being a year made out of seven times seven ;
wherein notwithstanding there may be a misapprehension ;
for this ariseth not from seven times seven, that is, forty -nine,
but was observed the fiftieth year, as is expressed, " And
you shall hallow the fiftieth year, a jubilee shall that fiftieth
year be unto you." Answerable -whereto is the exposition
of the Jews themselves, as is delivered by Ben-Maimon ;
that is, the year of jubilee cometh not into the account of
the years of seven, but the forty-ninth is the release, and the
fiftieth the year of jubilee. Thus is it also esteemed no small
advancement imto this number, that the genealogy of our
Saviour is summed up by fourteen, that is, this number
doubled, according as is expressed. Matt. i. So all the gene-
rations, from Abraham to David, are fourteen generations ;
and from David imto the carrying away into Babylon, are
fourteen generations ; and from the carrying away into Baby-
lon unto Christ, are fourteen generations. Which never-
theless must not be strictly understood as numeral relations
require : for from David imto Jeconiah are accomited by
Matthew but fourteen generations ; whereas according to
the exact account in the History of Kings, there were at
least seventeen ; and three in this account, that is, Ahazias,
Joas, and Amazias, are left out. For so it is delivered by
the evangelist, — "And Joram begat Ozias:" whereas in the
regal genealogy there are three successions between : for
Ozias or Uzziah was the son of Amazias, Amazias of Joas,
Joas of Azariah, and Azariah of Joram ; so that in strict
VOL. I. 2 r
434 THE qe>:at climacteeical teae. [book iv.
account, Jorani was the abavus or grandfather twice removed,
and not the father of Ozias. And these two omitted descents
made a very considerable measure of time in the royal chro-
nology of J udah ; for though Azariah reigned but one year,
yet Joas reigned forty, and Amazias no less than nine and
twenty. However thei-efore these were delivered by the
evangelist, and carry (no doubt) an incontrollable conformity
unto the intention of his delivery ;^ yet are they not appli-
able unto precise numerality, nor strictly to be drawn unto
the rigid test of numbers.
Lastly, though many things have been delivered by
* However, therefore, <frc.] Whether this omission originated with the
EvangeUst, or existed in the Jewisli registers, from which he copied,
must ever remain the subject of conjecture ; as well as the probable
motive of the omission, in either case. That such publicly recognised
tables of descent existed, even to the time of Jesus Christ, we know
from Josephus, De Vita Sua, p. 998, D. ; and that Matthew would use
them, cannot be deemed unlikely. The most probable ground for sup-
posing the omission of these three kings in the public tables, is the curse
denounced, on account of Ahab's awful idolatry, against his family
(into which Joram married), even to the third or fourth generation.
If however it be thought improbable that such hiatus existed in the
public genealogies, it must then be attributed to the Evangelist him-
self. Nor will this perhaps be deemed an inadmissible hypothesis, if
we fully consider the circumstances. The sole object which he had in
view in giving such a genealogy, was to prove that Jesus Christ, whom
he was about to proclaim to the Jews as their Messiah, was indeed
descended from the stock of David, answering — in this important
respect — the prophetic description of him ; a proof which the omission
of several names would in no degree aifect. Now, as Matthew was
addressing Jews, it is very likely that he would resort to a method
usually adopted among them (probably for the facility of recollection
which it afforded) ; viz. that of dividing the genealogy into classes, if
possible of equal extent. The threefold state of the Jews, frst, under
patriarchs, prophets, and judges, then under kings, and lastly under
])rinces and priests, rendered such a classification additionally proper.
The reign of David, and the Babylonish captivity, presented the most
obvious points of division : but when thus divided, the classes were of
unequal extent; the second containing too many names for the naiTator's
purpose. In order to make it equal to the others, he may therefore be
supposed to have adopted the direct expedient of omitting the three
names in question. Of which practice he had several examples, to
justify him, in the Jewish Scriptures, particularly in Ezra vii. 2 ;
where six generations are omitted at once. Nor does the literal incor-
rectness of the phrase "Joram begat Ozias," afford a valid objection :
tliis term being applied not only to immediate, but to more remote,
descendants. See Jer. xxxix.
CHAP. XII.] THE GEEAT CLIMACTEEICAL YEAB. 435
authors concerning number, and they transferred unto the
advantage of their nature, yet are they ofttimes otherwise
to be understood than as they are vulgarly received in active
and casual considerations ; they being many times delivered
hieroglyphically, metaphorically, illustratively, and not with
reference unto action or causality. True it is, that Grod
made all things in number, weight, and measure, yet nothing
by them or through the efficacy of either. Indeed our days,
actions, and motions being measured by time (which is but
motion measured), whatever is observable in any falls under
the account of some number ; which notwithstanding can-
not be denominated the cause of those events. So do we
unjustly assign the power of action even unto time itself,
nor do they speak properly who say that time consumeth all
things ; for time is not effective, nor are bodies destroyed by
it, but from the action and passion of their elements in it ;
whose account it only affordeth, and measuring out their
motion informs us in the periods and terms of their dura-
tion, rather than effecteth or physically produceth the same.
A second consideration, which promoteth this opinion, are
confirmations drawn from writers who have made observa-
tions, or set down favourable reasons for this climacterical
year ; so have Henricus Eanzovius,* Baptista Codronchus,t
andLevinus LemniusJ much confirmed the same, but above
all, that memorable letter of Augustus sent unto liis nephew
Cains, wherein he encourageth him to celebrate his nativity,
for he had now escaped sixty-three, the great climacterical
and dangerous year unto man. "Which notwithstanding,
rightly perpended, it can be no singularity to question it,
nor any new paradox to deny it.
For first, it is implicitly, and upon consequence denied
by Aristotle in his Politicks, in that discourse against Plato,
who measured the vicissitude and mutation of states, by a
periodical fatality of number. Ptolemy, that famous mathe-
matician, plainly saith, he will not deliver his doctrines by
parts and numbers, which are ineffectual, and have not the
nature of causes. Now by these numbers, saith Ebodiginus
and Mirandula, he implieth climacterical years, that is, sep-
tenaries and novenaries set down by the bare observation of
* De Annis Climactericis. f De Occultis Natures Miraculis.
t Bel. lib. V,
2p2
436 TUE GREAT CLIMACTEEICAL tEA3. [bOOK IT.
numbers. Censorinus, an author of great authority and
suiEcient antiquity, speaks yet more amply in his book, De
Die JV^afaJi, wherein, expressly treating of climacterical days,
he thus delivereth himself: — " Some maintain that seven
times seven, that is forty-nine, is most dangerous of any
other, and this is the most general opinion : others unto
seven times seven add nine times nine, that is, the year of
eighty-one, both Avhieli, consisting of sqviare and quadrate
numbers, were thought by Plato and others to be of great
consideration : as for this year of sixty-three, or seven times
nine, though some esteem it of most danger, yet do I con-
ceive it less dangerous than the other ; for though it con-
taineth botli numbers above named, that is, seven and nine,
yet neither of tliem square or quadrate ; and as it is dif-
ferent from them both, so is it not potent in either." Nor
IS this year remarkable in the death of many famous men. I
find indeed, that Aristotle died this year ; but he, by the
vigour of his mind, a long time sustained a natural infirmity
of stomach ; so that it was a greater wonder he attained unto
aixty-three, than that he lived no longer. The psalm of
Moses hath mentioned a year of danger difiering from all
these ; and that is, ten times seven or seventy ; for so it is
said, the days of man are threescore and ten.^ And the very
same is afiirmed by Solon, as Herodotus relates in a speech
of his unto Croesus, ^(]ro annis septuaginta humance vitce
inodiim definio : and surely that year must be of greatest
danger which is the period of all the rest ; and fewest safely
pass through that which is set as a bound for few or none
to pass. And therefore, the consent of elder times settliug
their conceits upon climacters, not only diftering from this
of ours, but one another, though several nations and ages do
fancy unto themselves diiferent years of danger, yet every
one expects the same event, and constant verity in each.
Again, though Varro divided the days of man into five
portions, Hippocrates into seven,^ and Solon into ten, yet
' The psalm of Moses, d-c.^ Psalm xc.
^ Hippocrates into sercii.'\ Proclus also divided them into seven ages,
each supposed to be under distinct planetary influence. The first four
years he called the age of infancy ; the second cIriUlhood, to 14 ; third,
adolescence or youthhood, to 22 ; fourth, young mavkood, to 42 ; fifth,
mature manhood, to 56 ; sixth, old age, to 68 ; seventh, decrqnt age, to
88. All beyond that age he considers to be a second infancy.
CHAP. XII.] THE GEEAT CLIMACTEKICAL TEAE. 437
probably their dmsious were to be received with latitude, and
their considerations not strictly to be confined unto their
last unities. So when Varro extendeth Piieritia unto fifteen,
Adolescentia unto thirty, Juventus unto thirty-five, tliere is a
latitude between the terms or periods of compute, and tho
verity holds good in the accidents of any years between them.
So when Hippocrates divideth oiu" life into seven degrees or
stages, and maketh the end of the first seven, of the second
fourteen, of the third twenty-eight, of the fourth thirty-five,
of the fifth forty-seven, of the sixth fifty-six, and of the
seventh, the last year, whenever it happeneth ; herein we
may observe, he maketh not his di\"isions precisely by seven
and nine, and omits the great climacterical : beside there is
between every one at least the latitude of seven years, in
which space or interval, that is either in the third or fourth
year, whatever falleth out is equally verified of the whole
degree, as though it had happened in the seventh. Solon
divided it into ten septenaries, because in every one thereof,
a man received some sensible mutation ; in the first is deden-
tition or falling of teeth, in the second pubescence, in the
third the beard groweth, in the fourth strength prevails, in
the fifth maturity for issue, in the sixth moderation of appe-
tite, in the seventh prudence, &c. Now herein there is a
tolerable latitude, and though the division proceed by seven,
yet is not the total verity to be restrained unto the last year,
nor constantly to be expected the beard shoiild be complete
at twenty-one, or wisdom acquired just in forty-nine ; and
thus also, though seven times nine contain one of those
septenaries, and doth also happen in our declining years,
yet might the events thereof be imputed unto the whole
septenary, and be more reasonably entertained with some
latitude, than strictly reduced luito the last number, or all
the accidents from fifty-six imputed unto sixty-three.
Thirdly, although this opinion may seem confirmed by
observation, and men may say it hath been so observed, yet
we speak also upon experience, and do believe that men from
observation will collect no satisfaction. That other years
may be taken against it, especially if they have the advantage
to precede it, as sixty against sixty-three, and sixty-three
against sixty-six. For fewer attain to the latter than the
former, and so surely in the first septenary do most die, and
438 THE GEEAT CLIMACTEEICAL TEAE. [BOOK IV.
probably also in the very first year, for all that ever lived
were in the account of that year, beside the infirmities that
attend it are so many, and the body that receives them so
tender and inconfirmed, we scarce count any alive that is not
past it.
Fabritius Paduanius,* discoursing of the great climacteri-
cal, attempts a numeration of eminent men who died in that
year, but in so smaL a number as not sufficient to make a
"considerable induction. He mentioneth but four, Diogenes
Cynicus, Dionysius Heracleoticus, Xenocrates Platonicus,
aiid Plato. As for Dionysius, as Censorinus -natnesseth, he
famished himself in the eighty-second year of his life ; Xeno-
crates, by the testimony of Laertius, fell into a cauldron, and
died the same year, and Diogenes the cynick, by the same
testimony, lived almost unto ninety. The date of Plato's death
is not exactly agreed on, but all "dissent from this which he
determineth. Neanthes, in Laertius, extendeth his days unto
eighty-four, Suidas unto eighty-two, but Hermippus defineth
his death in eighty-one ; and this account seemeth most
exact, for if, as he delivereth, Plato was born in the eighty-
eighth olympiad, and died in the first year of the 108th, the
account will not surpass the year of eighty-one, and so in
his death he verified the opinion of his life, and of the life of
man, whose period, as Censorinus recordeth, he placeth in
the quadrate of nine, or nine times nine, that is, eighty-one ;
and therefore, as Seneca delivereth, the magicians, at Athens,
did sacrifice unto him, as declaring in his death somewhat
above humanity, because he died in the day of his nativity,
and without deduction justly accomplished the year of eighty-
one. Bodin,t I confess, delivers a larger list of men that
died in this year ; Moriuntur innumerahUes anno sexagesimo
tertio, Aristofles, Chrysippus, JBocatius, Bernardus, Erasmus,
Lutlierus, Melanctlion, Si/lvius, Alexander, Jacobus Stur-
mius, Nicolaus Cusanus, Thomas Linacer, eodem anno Cicero
ccesK-s est. Wherein, beside that it were not difficult to make
a larger catalogue of memorable persons that died in other
years, we cannot but doubt the verity of his induction. As
for Sylvius and Alexander, which of that name he meaneth
I know not, but for Chrysippus, by the testimony of Laertius,
* De catena temporis. f Method. His,
CHAP. XII.'J THE GREAT CLIMACTERICAL YEAR. 439
he died in the 73rd year, Bocatius in the G2nd, Linacer the
Gith, and Erasmus exceeded 70, as Paulus Jovius hath
delivered in his elegy of learned men ; and as for Cicero, as
Plutarch in his life affirmeth, he was slain in the year of 64,
and therefore sure the question is hard set, and we have no
easy ^ reason to doubt, when great and entire authors shall
introduce injustifiable examples, and authorize their asser-
tions by what is not authentical.
Fourthly, they which proceed upon strict numerations, and
will by such regular and determined ways measure out the
lives of men, and periodically define the alterations of their
tempers, conceive a regularity in mutations, with an equality
in constitutions, and forget that variety which physicians
therein discover ; for seeing we affirm that women do natu-
rally grow old before men, that the cholerick fall short in
longevity of the sanguine, that there is senium ante senecUmi,
and many grow old before they arrive at age, we cannot affix
unto them all one common point of danger, but should rather
assign a respective fatality unto each ; which is concordant
unto the doctrine of the numerist, and such as maintain
this opinion, for they affirm that one number respecteth
men, another women ; as Bodin, explaining that of Seneca,
Septimus quisqxie annus cetati sic/num imprimit, subjoins,
hoc de marihus dictum oportuit, hoc primum intueri licet,
perfectum numerum, id est, sextum fceminas, septenarium
mares immutare.
Fifthly, since we esteem this opinion to have some ground
in nature, and that nine times seven revolutions of the sun
imprint a dangerous character on such as arrive unto it, it
will leave some doubt behind, in what subjection hereunto
were the lives of our forefathers presently after the flood,
and more especially before it, who, attaining unto 8 or 900
years, had not their climacters computable by digits, or as
we do account them, for the great climacterical was past
unto them before they begat children, or gave any testimony
of their virility, for we read not that any begat children
before the age of sixty -five.^ And this may also aftbrd a
^ easy.] Small. — Wr.
' not that any, ttc] This is true of all the patriarchs before the
flood, whose long life needed noe hastening of progenye ; the delaj
whereof might be a concurrent cause of their longoevitye. For,
440 THE GEEAT CLIMACTEEICAL TEAE. [bOOK IV.
hint to enquire what are the cliniacters of other animated
creatures, whereof the life of some attains not so far as this
of ours, and that of others extends a considerable space
beyond it.
Lastly, the imperfect accounts that men have kept of time,
and the difference thereof, both in the same and diverse com-
monwealths, will much distract the certainty of this assertion.
For though there were a fatality in this year, yet divers
were, and others might be, out in their account, aberring
several ways from the true and just compute ; and calling
that one year which perhaps might be another.
For first, they might be out in the commencement or be-
ginning of their account ; for every man is many months elder
than he computeth. For although we begin the same from
our nativity, and conceive that no arbitrary, but natural term
of compute, yet for the duration of life or existence, we are
liable in the womb unto the usual distinctions of time, and
are not to be exempted from the account of age and life,
where we are subject to diseases, and often suffer death.
And therefore Pythagoras, Hippocrates, Diodes, Avicenna,
and others, have set upon us numeral relations and temporal
considerations in the womb ; not only affirming the birth of
the seventh mouth to be vital, that of the eighth mortal, but
the progression thereto to be measured by rule, and to hold
a proportion unto motion and formation. As what receiveth
motion in the seventh, to be perfected in triplicities ; that is,
the time of conformation unto motion is double, and that
from motion unto the birth, treble ; so what is formed the
thirty-fifth day, is moved the seventieth, and born the two
doubtless such as was their longasvitye, such in proportion wee
must think their strengthe, and such the degrees by which they
grew unto itt. To tlie forbearance from mariage we may add
their detestation of polygamye, to which doubtless our Saviour gives
that testimony. — Matth. xx. 8. From the beginninge itt was not soe,
that is, no one of the patriarchs used polygamy till Lamech, the 9th
from Adam, almost 900 years after the creation, thereby justly reproach-
ing the incontinency of after ages, not only for their prtecipitation,
but the lustful desire of change without sufficient cause, viz., the
adultery of the wife, whose life being taking off by the law, lefte the
man free to marrye againe. That tlierefore we read not of the antide-
luvian fathers begetting children before 65 is true of all ; for Lamech
begat not Noah till his 182nd yeare. But after the flood, to repeople
the world, all the patriarchs till Terah begat children before 35, whicb
is but halfe of the fonner time of 65 yeares. — Wr.
CHAP. XII.] THE GBEAT CLIMACTEEICAL TEAR. 441
hundred and tenth day. And therefore if any invisible
causality there be, that after so many years doth evidence
itself at sixty-three, it will be questionable whether its activity
only set out at our nativity, and begin not rather in the
womb, wherein we place the like considerations. Which doth
not only entangle this assertion, but hath already embroiled
the endeavours of astrology in the erection of schemes, and
the judgment of death or diseases ; for being not incontrol-
lably determined at what time to begin, whether at concep-
tion, animation, or exclusion (it being indifterent unto the
influence of heaven to begin at either), they have invented
another way, that is, to begin ah hora qucestionis, as Haly,
Messahallach, Ganivetus, and Guido Bonatus, have deli-
vered.
Again, in regard of the measure of time by months and
years, there wUl be no small difficulty ; and if we shall strictly
consider it, many have been and still may be, mistaken. For
neither the motion of the moon, whereby months are com-
puted, nor of the sun, whereby years are accounted, con-
sisteth of whole numbers, but admits effractions and broken
parts, as we have already declared concerning the moon.
That of the sun consisteth of three hundred and sixty-five
days, and almost six hours, that is, wanting eleven minutes ;
which six hours, omitted, or not taken notice of, will, in pro-
cess of time, largely deprave the compute ; and this is the
occasion of the bissextile or leap-year, which was not observed
in all times, nor punctually in all commonwealths ; so that
in sixty-three years there may be lost almost eighteen days,
omitting the intercalation of one day every fourth year,
allowed for this quadrant, or six hours supernumerary. And
though the same were observed, yet to speak strictly, a man
may be somewhat out in the account of his age at sixty-
three ; for although every foxirth year we insert one day, and
so fetch up the quadrant, yet those eleven minutes whereby
the year comes short of perfect six hoiu-s wiU, in the circuit
of those years, arise unto certain hours, and in a larger pro-
gression of time unto certain days. Whereof at present we
find experience in the calendar we observe. For the JiUian
year of three himdred and sixty-five days being eleven
minutes larger than the annual revolution of the sun, there
will arise an anticipation in the equinoxes ; and as Junctinus
442 THE GEEAT CLIMACTEEICAL TEAE. [bOOK IV.
computotli,*2 JQ every 136tli year they will anticipate almost
one day. And therefore those ancient men and Nestors of
old times, wliich yearly observed their nati\dties, might be
mistaken in the day ; nor is that to be construed without a
grain of salt, which is delivered by Moses : ^ "At the end of
four hundred years, even the self-same day, all the host of
Israel went out of the land of Egypt." Tor ia that space of
time the equinoxes had anticipated, and the eleven minutes
had amounted far above a day. And this compute rightly
considered will fall fouler on them who cast up the lives of
* Comment, in Sphcpi^am Job. de Sacra Bosco.
' as Junciinus compuieth.] See a short but an exact discussion of this
ill calce lihri, and Junctinus his error. — Wr.
The following is the " discussion" at the end of the dean's copy, but
it seems more appropriate to place it here. — Ed.
(Maxima.... 365d. 5h. 66' 57" nunquam assurgit ad 57'.
Quantitas ) Minima .... 365 5 44 38 nunquam deficit ad 44'
anni 1 Media, sen ) gg^ ^ ^^ ^ alii addunt 15' 46"
\ communis \
Cum igitur annus Julianus supponatur, superaddere quotannis 10' 48",
necesse est, ut quolibet bissexto, sequinoctia retrocedant in diebus
Julianis 43' et 12" adeo ut in 134 annis, rotrocedant 24h. 6' 52'' et in
1644 (post Christum) annis 12d. 7h. 52' 22". Ita a correcto kalendario
(44 annis ante c. N.), ad annum presentem, 1652, retrocesserunt 12d. 17h.
13' 22". Supine igitur numeravit author fe Junctino : in annis 136,
retrocedere sequinoctia, diem integrum fere, cum praeter integrum diem,
colligantur totidem annis Ih. 26' 24". Alphonsini dicunt in 400 annis
Eequinoctia retrocedere 3 dies fere, quod proximo accedit ad priorem
calculum, si num addas (ad annos Christi elapsos sc. 1652), annos a cor-
recto kalendario ad Christum natum, sc. 44, fiuntanni 1696 : in quibus
labemus quater 3 dies, et quiB excurrunt 96 dierum minuta : sc. 17' et
26". Per utrumque calculum, si 33us quilibet bisse.xtus abjiciatur,
manebunt Ee(iuinoctia in sedibus suis in futurum. Sed 12 dies qui ex
60 excessu creverunt, optime et sine tumultu eximentur e mensibus
dierum (31) duplus annis sequentibus ; sc. ex Martio, Maio, Julio,
Augusto. Octobri et Decembri ; et sic duse anni medictates facient paria
fere. Nam communibus annis currunt ab fequinoctio verno ad autum-
nale 186d. 81i. 8', ab autumnali ad vernum 178d. 21h. 47'. — Wr.
^ which is delivered by Moses.~\ Moses accounted by the old Egyptian
yeare, wherein he was most skilfull : and the ^Egyptian yeare was a
yeare of days without any intercalation. Soe that the head of the
yeare was vagrant, but the accompt of dayes most exact, insomuch that
the best astronomers to this day use that yeare in their accompts : by
which they measure the Julian yeares. Soe then, his mention of the
Julian excesse of 11 minutes yearlye is aTrpoaciurvcrov. For Moses did
not use the Julian yeare, which had its original from the .^Egyptian
yeares 1454 yeares after. — Wr.
CHAP. XII.] THE GEEAT CLIMACTEEICAL TEAR. 443
kingdoms, and sum up their duration by particular numbers;
as Plato first began, and some have endeavoured since by
perfect and spherical numbers, by the square and cube of
seven, and nine, and twelve, the great number of Plato.
Wherein indeed Bodin* hath attempted a particular enu-
meration ; but (beside the mistakes committable in the
solary compute of years), the difierence of chronology dis-
tiu-bs the satisfaction and quiet of his computes ; some
adding, others detracting, and few punctually according in
any one year ; whereby indeed such accounts should be made
up, for the variation in an unit destroys the total illation.
Thirdly, the compute may be unjust, not only in a strict
acception, of few days or hours, but in the latitude also of
some years ; and this may happen from the diflerent com-
pute of years in divers nations, and even such as did main-
tain the most probable way of account : their year being not
only different from one another, but the civil and common
account disagreeing much from the natural year, whereon
the consideration is founded. Thus from the testimony of
Herodotus, Censorinus, and others, the G-reeks observed the
lunary year, that is, twelve revolutions of the moon, 354 days ;
but the Egyptians, and many others, adhered unto the solary
account, that is, 365 days, that is, eleven days longer. Now
hereby the account of the one would very much exceed the
other : a man in the one would account himself sixty-three,
when one in the other would think himself but sixty-one ;
and so, although their nativities were under the same hour,
yet did they at difterent years believe the verity of that
which both esteemed aiBxed and certain unto one. The
like mistake there is in a tradition of our days ; men con-
ceiving a peculiar danger in the beginning days of May, set
out as a fatal period unto consumptions and chronical dis-
eases ; wherein, notwithstanding, we compute by calendars
not only difterent from our ancestors but one anothei", the
compute of the one anticipating that of the other ; so that
whde we are in April, others begin May, and the danger is
past luito one, while it beginneth with another.
Fourthly, men were not only out in the number of some
iays, the latitude of a few^ years, but might be wide by
* Matt. Ilistor.
444 THE GREAT CLIMACTERICAL TEAR. [bOOK IV
whole olympiads and divers decads of years. For as Cen-
sorinus relateth, the ancient Arcadians observed a year ot
three months, the Carians of six, the Iberians of four ; and
as Diodorus and Xenophon de ^quivocis allege, the ancient
Egyptians have used a year of three, two, and one month :
so that the climacterical was not only different unto those
nations, but unreasonably distant from ours ; for sixty-three
will pass in their account, before they arrive so high as ten
in ours.
Nor, if we survey the account of liome itself, may we
doubt they were mistaken, and if they feared climacterical
years, might err in their numeration. Por the civil year,
whereof the people took notice, did sometimes come short,
and sometimes exceed the natural. For according to Varro,
Suetonius, and Censorinus, their year consisted iirst of ten
months ; which comprehend but 304 days, that is, sixty-one
less tlian ours containeth ; after by Numa or Tarquin, from
a superstitious conceit of imparity, were added fifty-one days,
which made 355, one day more than twelve revolutions of
the moon. And thus a long time it continued, the civil
compute exceeding the natural ; the correction whereof, and
the due ordering of the leap-year was referred unto the Pon-
tifices ; who either upon favour or malice, that some might
continue their ofiices a longer or shorter time, or from the
magnitude of the year, that men might be advantaged, or
endamaged in their contracts, by arbitrary intercalations,
depraved the whole accoimt. Of this abuse Cicero accused
Verres, which at last proceeded so far, that when Julius
Caesar came unto that office, before the redress hereof he
was fain to insert two intercalary months unto November and
December, when he had ah'eady inserted twenty-three days
unto February ; so that the year consisted of 445 days ; a
quarter of a year longer than that we observed ; and though
at the last the year was reformed, yet in the mean time
they might be out wherein they sununed up climacterical
observations.
Lastly, one way more there may be of mistake, and that
not unusual among us, gronnded upon a double compute of
the year ; the one begiiming from the 25th of March, the
other from the day of our birth, unto the same again, which
ia the natural account. Now hereupon many men frequently
CHAP. XII.] THE GREAT CLIMACTEEICAL TEAR. 445
miscast their days ; for in their age they deduce the account
not from the day of their birth, but the year of our Lord,
wherein they were born. So a man that was born in Janu-
ary, 1582, if he live to fall sick in the latter end of March,
1645, will sum up his age, and say I am now sixty-three,
and in my climacterical and dangerous year ; for I was born
in the year 1582, and now it is 1645, whereas indeed he
wanteth many months of that year, considering the true and
natural accoimt unto his birth ; and accounteth two months
for a year : and though the length of time and accumidation
of years do render the mistake insensible ; yet is it all one,
as if one born in January, 1644, shoidd be accounted a year
old the 25th of March, i645.-»
All which perpended, it may be easUy perceived with what
insecurity of truth we adhere unto this opinion ; ascribing
not only eftects depending on the natural period of time,
unto arbitrary calculations, and such as vary at pleasure ; but
confirming our tenets by the uncertain account of others and
ourselves, there being no positive or indisputable ground
where to begin our compute. That if there were, men have
been several ways mistaken ; the best in some latitude,
others in greater, according to the dilferent compute of
divers states, the short and irreconcilable years of some,
the exceeding error in the natural frame of others, and the
lapses and false deductions of ordinary accountants in most.
Which duly considered, together with a strict account
and critical examen of reason, will also distract the witty
determinations of astrology. That Saturn, the enemy of
life, comes almost every seventh year, unto the quadrate or
malevolent place ; that as the moon about every seventh day
arriveth unto a contrary sign, so Saturn, which remaineth
about as many years as the moon doth days in one sign, and
holdeth the same consideration in years as the moon in days,
doth cause these periculous periods. Which together with
other planets, and profection of the horoscope, unto the
seventh house, or opposite signs every seventh year,oppresseth
* should be accounted a year old, &c.'] Whereas, if born on the first of
January, 1644, he would be only 85 days old on the 25th of March,
that being the first day of the year 1645: still more strange does it
sound, to assert that on the 24th of March, 1645, he would be a year
older than on the 25 th March of the same year.
446 THE CA>'ICULAE OR DOG- DATS. [bOOK IT.
living natures, and causeth observable mutations in the state
of sublunary things.
Further satisfaction may yet be had from the learned dis-
course of Salmasius* lately published, if any desire to be
informed how different the present observations are from
those of the ancients ; how every one hath different climac-
tericals ; with many other observables, impugning the present
opinion.*
CHAPTEE XIII.
Of the Canicular or Dog-days.
"Wheeeof to speak distinctly. — Among the southern con-
stellations, two there are which bear the name of the dog ;
the one in sixteen degrees of latitude, containing on the left
thigh a star of the first magnitude, usually called Procyon or
Anticanis, because say some it riseth before the other ; which
if truly understood, must be restrained unto those habita-
tions, who have elevation of pole above thirty-two degrees.
Mention thereof there is in IIorace,t who seems to mistake
or confound the one with the other ; and after him in Galen,
who is willing the remarkablest star of the other should be
called by this name ; because it is the first that ariseth in
the constellation ; which notwithstanding, to speak strictly,
it is not ; unless we except one of the third magnitude in
the right paw, in his own and our elevation, and two more
on his head in and beyond the degree of sixty. A second
and more considerable one there is, and neighbour unto the
other, in forty degrees of latitude, containing eighteen stars,
whereof that in his mouth, of the first magnitude, the Greeks
* Be Annis Cllmactericis.
t Jam Procyon fuerit et stella vesani Leonis.
* WJdcTi duly, tfec] The two concluding paragraphs were added in
2nd edition.
I subjoin several references here transcribed from a copy belonging
to my late friend Rev. Jos. Jefferson ; which may be useftil to others,
though I have not had opportunity to avail myself of them. See
Pluche, i. 266. — -Vid. /. F. R'nigclhergii Lucuhrationes dc Aiink ClimaC'
tericis, p. 548. — Concerning an " odd number," see Stopford's Pagano-
Papismv^, p. 262. — Jeff.
CHAP. XIII.] THE CANICULAB OE DOG-DATS. 447
call 2f('pioe, the Latins canis major, and we emphatically the
dog-star.
Now from the rising of this star, not cosmically, that is,
with the sun, but heliacally, that is, its emersion from the
rays of the sun, the ancients computed their canicular days ;
concerniug which, there generally passeth an opinion, that
during those days all medication or use of physick is to be
declined, and the cure committed unto natiu'e. And there-
fore as though there were any feriation^ in nature or justi-
tiums^ imaginable in professions, whose subject is natural,
and imder no intermissive, but constant way of mutation,
this season is commonly termed the physician's vacation, and
stands so received by most men. Which conceit, however
general, is not only erroneous but umiatural, and subsisting
upon foundations either false, uncertain, mistaken, or mis-
applied, deserves not of mankind that indubitable assent it
findeth.^
For first, which seems to be the ground of this assertion,
and not to be drawn into question, that is, the magnified
quality of this star, conceived to cause or intend the heat of
this season, whereby these days become more observable
than the rest, we find that wiser antiquity was not of this
opinion. Por, seventeen hundred years ago it was a vulgar
error rejected by Geminus, a learned mathematician, in his
Elements of Astronomy, wherein he plainly affirmeth, that
common opinion made that a cause, which was at first
observed but as a sign ; the rising and setting both of this
star and others being observed by the ancients, to denote and
testify certain points of mutation, rather than conceived to
induce or effect the same. For our fore-fathers, saith he,
observing the course of the sim, and marking certain muta-
* feriation.] Vacations. ' justitiunis.] Probably, statute laws.
^ there generally passeth, <kc.'\ In the present day, it is difficult to
believe that so absurd a position could have obtained general credence,
even among the ignorant, much more that it could have exercised any
influence on medical science. Yet that Sir Thomas knew it to have
that influence in hia day, is evident not only from the present, but
especially from the concluding paragraph of this chapter. Nor is his
estimate of the evil resulting from such a " vulgar error in practice "
less forcibly proved by the pains, ingenuity, and labour, with which he
attacks it, and from the great length to which his very judicious investi-
gation of the subject is here carried.
448 THE CANICTJLAB OR DOG-DATS. [BOOK IV.
tions to happen in his progress through particular parts of
the zodiack, they registered and set them down in their
parapegmes, or astronomical canons ; and being not able to
design these times by days, months, or years (the compute
thereof, and the beginning of the year being dilFerent, accord-
ing imto different nations), they thought best to settle a
general accoimt unto all, and to determine these alterations
by some known and invariable signs ; and such did they con-
ceive the rising and setting of the fixed stars ; not ascribing
thereto any part of causality, but notice and signification.
And thus much seems implied in that expression of Homer,
when speaking of the dog-star he concludeth, kuko}' ^i re o-jj/ua
TeTVKTcii, Malum autem signum est ; the same, as Petavius
observeth, is implied in the word of Ptolemy, and the
ancients, irepl £7rto-/;/nwmwj', that is, of the signification of
stars. The term of Scripture also favours it ; as that of
Isaiah, Nolite timere a sic/nis coeli, and that in Grenesis, ut
sint in signa et tempora, let there be lights in the firmament,
and let them be for signs and for seasons.
The primitive and leading magnifiers of this star were the
Egyptians, the great admirers of dogs in earth and heaven ;
wherein they worshipped Anubis or Mercurius, the scribe of
Saturn, and counsellor of Osyris, the great inventor of their
religious rites, and promoter of good unto Egypt, who was
therefore translated into this star ; by the Egyptians called
Sothis, and Siris by the Ethiopians, from whence that Sirius
or the dog-star had its name is by some conjectured.^
And this they looked upon, not with reference unto heat,
but celestial influence upon the faculties of man, in order to
religion and all sagacious invention, and from hence derived
tlie abundance and great fertility of Egypt, the overflow of
Nilus happening about the ascent hereof; and therefore, in
hieroglyphical monuments, Anubis is described with a dog's
head, with a crocodile between his legs, with a sphere in his
hand, witli two stars, and a water-pot standing by him, imply-
ing thereby the rising and setting of the dog-star, and the
inundation of the river Nilus.
But if aU were silent, Galen hath explained this point
' The pnmitive, ttr.] This paragraph was added in 2nd edition ; the
next paragraph was added in the 3rd edition.
CHAP. XIII.] THE CANICULAR OK DOG-DATS. 449
unto the life ; who expounding the reason why Hippocrates
dedared the aftections of the year by the rising and setting
of stars ; it was, saith he, because he would proceed on signs
and principles best known unto all nations ; and upon his
words in the first of the epidemicks, In Thaso autumno
circa eqiiinoctium et sub virgilias pluvice erant multcB, he thus
enlargeth. If, saith he, the same compute of times and
months were observed by all nations, Hippocrates had never
made any mention either of arcturus, pleiades, or the dog-
star, but would have plainly said, in Macedonia, in the month
Dion} thus or thus was the air disposed. But for as much
as the month Dion is only known unto the Macedonians, but
obscure unto the Athenians and other nations, he found more
general distinctions of time, and instead of naming months,
would usually say, at the equinox, the rising of the pleiades,
or the dog-star ; and by this way did the ancients divide the
seasons of the year, the autumn, winter, spring, and summer.
By the rising of the pleiades denoting the beginning of
summer, and by that of the dog-star the declination thereof.
By this way Aristotle, through all liis books of animals,
distinguisheth their times of generation, latitancy, migration,
sanity, and venation ; and this were an allowable way of
compute, and still to be retained, were the site of the stars
as inalterable, and their ascents as invariable, as primitive
astronomy conceived them ; and therefore though Aristotle
frequently mentioneth this star, and particularly affirmeth
that fishes in the Bosphorus are best catched from the arise
of the dog-star, we must not conceive the same a mere eftect
thereof ; nor though Scaliger from hence be willing to infer
the efiicacy of this star, are we induced hereto, except
(because the same philosopher affirmeth, that tunny is fat
about the rising of the pleiades, and departs upon arcturus,
or that most insects are latent from the setting of the seven
stars), except, I say, he give us also leave to infer that these
particular effects and alterations proceed from those stars,
which were indeed but designations of such quarters and
portions of the year, wherein the same were observed. Now
what Pliny affirmeth of the orix, that it seemeth to adore
this star, and taketh notice thereof by voice and sternuta-
' Dion."] Itt is Dius, not Dion. — Wr.
TOL. I. 2 G
450 THE CASICULAR OK DOG-DAYS. [bOOK IV.
tion, until we be better assured of its verity, we shall not
salve the sympathy.
Secondly, what slender opinion the ancients held of the
efficacy of this star, is declarable from their compute ; for as
Geminus affirmeth, and Petavius, his learned commentator,
proveth, they began their account from its heliacal emersion,
and not its cosmical ascent. The cosmical ascension of a
star we term that, when it ariseth together with the sun, or
the same degree of the ecliptick wherein the sun abideth ;
and that the heliacal, when a star which before for the vicinity
of the sun was not visible, being further removed, beginneth
to appear. For the annual motion of the sun from west to
east being far swifter than that of the fixed stars, he must of
necessity leave them on the east while he hasteneth forward,
and obscureth otliers to the west, and so the moon which
pei'forms its motion swifter than the sun (as may be observed
in their conjunctions and eclipses), gets eastward out of his
rays, and appears when the sun is set.- If therefore the
dog-star had this effectual heat which is ascribed unto it, it
would afford best evidence thereof, and the season would be
most fervent, when it ariseth in the probablest place of its
activity, that is, the cosmical ascent ; for therein it ariseth
with the sun, and is included in the same irradiation. But
the time observed by the ancients was long after this ascent,
and in the heliacal emersion, when it becomes at greatest
distance from the sun, neither rising with it nor near it ;
and therefore had they conceived any more than a bare sig-
nalityin this star, or ascribed the heat of the season there-
luito, they would not have computed from its heliacal ascent,
wliich was of inferior efficacy ; nor imputed the vehemency of
lieat unto t! ose points wherein it was more remiss, and where
with less probability they might make out its action.
Tliirdly, although we derive the authority of these days
from observations of the ancients, yet are our computes very
different, and such as confirm not each other. For whereas
* the moon, Ac.'] This is obscurely sayde. Nor though the moon
gets eastward of the sonne, i. e., to speak properly, appears on the
east from the new to the full, yet from the full to the new shee appears
west of him, which is nothing else but that going throughe the twelve
times for his once, she must of necessity seome sometimes eaiitwaid ft
him, and sometimes west, according to the diurnal motion. — Wr.
CHAP. XIII.] THE CINICULAE OE DOGhDATS. 451
they observed it heliacally, we seem to observe it cosmicaUy,
for before it ariseth beliacally, unto our latitude, tlie summer
is even at an end. Again, we compute not only from different
ascents, but also from diverse stars ; they from the greater
dog-star, we from the lesser ;2 they from Orion's, we from
Cephalus'3 dog ; they from Sirius, we from Crocyon ; for
the beginning of the dog-days with us is set down the 19th
of July, about which time the lesser dog-star ariseth with the
sun, whereas the star of tl e greater dog ascendeth not until
after that month. And tliis mistake will yet be larger, if
the compute be made stricter, and as Dr. Baiubrigge,* late
professor of astronomy in Oxibrd, hath set it down, who in
the year 1629 computed, that in the horizon of Oxford, the
dog-star arose not before the fifteenth day of August, when
in our almanack accounts those days are almost ended. So
that the common and received time not answering the true
compute, it frustrates the observations of ourselves ; and
being also different from the calculations of the ancients,
their observations confirm not ours, nor ours theirs, but
rather confute each other.
Nor will the computes of the ancients be so authentic unto
those who shall take notice how commonly they appHed the
celestial descriptions of other climes unto their own, wherein
the learned Bainbrigius justly reprehendeth Manilius, who
transferred the Eg^^Dtian descriptions unto the Eoman
account, confounding the observation of the Greek and
Barbarick spheres.'*
Fourthly (which is the argument of G-eminus), were there
any such eflectual heat in this star, yet coidd it but weakly
* Bainh. Canicularis.
^ the lesser, &c.'\ The observation of the dog-star's rising came from
the .^Egyptians at Alexandria, lying under 30 degrees, where when the
Sim comes to the tropicks in the [....] degree of Cancer, both the
dog-stars rise with him together, begin to increase the heate, which
afterwards the sun coming towards Leo doubles, soe that they esteems
not of that heate from the dog-star's rise alone, but from their conjoynt
rising with the sun in Leo. But the principall observation of the dog-
star rising was from the course of their yeare, which they therefore-
cald 'Eri'Q kvvikov, as beginning always from the first cosmical rising
of the dog-star. — Wr.
•• And this mistake, tix.] The conclusion of this paragraph, with the
next, were firs*, added in 3rd edition.
2 g2
452 THE CANICULAR OR DOG-DATS. [bOOK IT.
evidence the same in summer, it being about 40 degrees
distance from the sun, and should rather manifest its warming
power in the winter, when it remains conjoined with the sun
in its hybernal conversion. For about the 29th of October,
and in the 16th of Scorpius, and so again in January, the
sun performs his revolution in the same parallel with the
dog-star. Again, if we should impute the heat of this season
unto the co-operation of any stars with the sun, it seems
more favoui'able for our times to ascribe the same unto the
constellation of Leo. AVhere besides that the sun is in his
proper house, it is conjoined with many stars, whereof two
of the first magnitude, and in the 8th of August is corporally
conjoined withBasiliscus, a star of eminent name in astrology,
aiad seated almost in the ecliptick.
Fifthly, if all were granted, that observation and reason
were also for it, and were it an undeniable truth that an
oftectual fervour proceedeth from this star, yet would not
the same determine the opinion now in question, it necessarily
suliering such restrictions as to take off general illations.
For first, in regard of different latitudes, unto some the
canicular days are in the winter ; as unto such as have no
latitude, but live in a right sphere, that is, under the equi-
noctial line, for unto them it ariseth wli^n the sun is about
the tropick of Cancer, which season unto them is winter,^
and the sun remotest from them. Nor hath the same posi-
tion in the summer, that is, in the equinoctial points, any
advantage from it, for in the one point the sun is at the
meridian before the dog-star ariseth ; in the other the star
is at the meridian before the sun aseendeth.
Some latitudes have no canicular days at all ; as namely
all those which have more than seventy-three degrees of
northern elevation ; as the territory of Nova Zembla, part
of Greenland, and Tartary, for unto that habitation the
dog- star is invisible, and appeareth not above the horizon.
Unto such latitudes wherein it ariseth, it carrieth a various
and very different respect : unto some it aseendeth when
summer is over, whether we compute heliacaUy or cosmi-
^ w?nto'.] They have two winters, viz. when the sonne is in either
tropick, in which respect yf tliere be any ditFereiice in the temper, itt
is when the sonne enters tjiie midst of '^, and by his eccentricity ia
nearer to the earth there then when he is in Cancer. — Wr.
CHAP. XIII.] THE CA^'TCULAR OR DOG-DATS. 453
cally ; for, though unto Alexandria it ariseth in Cancer, yet
it ariseth not unto Biarmia cosmically before it be in Virgo,
and heliacally about the autumnal equinox. Even unto the
latitiule of lifty-two, the efficacy thereof is not much con-
siderable, whether we consider its ascent, meridian, altitude,
or abode above the horizon. For it ariseth very late in tlie
year, about the eighteenth of Leo, that is, the 31st of July.
Of meridian altitude it hath but 23 degrees, so that it plays
but obliquely upon us, and as tlie sun doth about the 23rd
of January. And lastly, his abode above the liorizon is not
great ; for in the eighteenth of Leo, the 31st of July, although
they arise together, yet doth it set above five hours before
the sun, that is, before two o'clock, after which time we are
more sensible of heat than all the day before.
Secondly, in regard of the variation of the longitude of the
stars, we are to consider (what the ancients observed not),
that the site of the fixed stars is alterable, and that since
elder times they have suffered a large and considerable vari-
ation of their longitudes. The longitude of a star, to speak
plainly, is its distance from the first point of numeration
toward the east ; which first point imto the ancients was the
vernal equinox. Now by reason of their motion from west
to east, they have very much varied from this point. The
first star of Aries, in the time of Meton, the Athenian, was
placed in the very intersection, which is now elongated and
removed eastward twenty-eight degrees ; insomuch that now
the sign of Aries possesseth the place of Taurus, and Taurus
that of Gemini. Which variation of longitude must very
much distract the opinion of the dog-star ; •* not only in our
days, but in times before and after ; for since the world
began it hath arisen in Taurus, and if the world last, may
have its ascent in Virgo ; so that we must place the canicular
days, that is, the hottest time of the year, in the spring in the
first age, and in the autumn in ages to come.
Thirdly, the stars have not only varied their longitudes,
* of the dog-star.] Not only of the dogg-star, but of all the ima-
ginary houses of the astrologers, and consequently all that heathenish
structure of the fortitude, detriments, aspects, triciplicityes, and such
ridiculous stuff, utterly dasht, and confounded, and condemned of late
by all the learned astronomers : Tycho, pluries ; Kepler, expresly in
Cometae anni 1618 ; and Longomontany ubique. — Wr.
4o4 THE CANICULAR OR DOG-DATS. [BOOK tV.
Avhereby their ascents have altered, but have also changed
their declinations, whereby their rising at all, tliat is theii
appearing, hath varied. The declination of a star we call its
distance from the equator.^ Now tliough the poles of the
Avorld and the equator be immoveable, yet because the stars
in their proper motions from west to east do move upon the
poles of the ecliptick, distant twenty-three degrees and an
half from the poles of the equator, and describe circles
parallel not unto the equator, but the ecliptick ; they must
be, therefore, sometimes nearer, sometimes removed further
from the equator. All stars that have their distance from the
ecliptick northward not more than twenty-three degrees and
an half (which is the greatest distance of the ecliptick from
tlie equator) may in progression of time have declination
southward, and move beyond the equator ; but if any star
hath just this distance of twenty-three and an half (as hath
Capella on the back of Ericthoniiis) it may hereafter move
under the equinoctial ; and the same will happen respectively
unto stars which have declination southward. And there-
fore many stars may be visible in our hemisphere which are
not so at present ; and many which are at present, shall take
leave of our horizon, and appear unto southern habitations.
And therefore the time may come that the dog-star may not
be visible in our horizon, and the time hath been when it
hath not showed itself unto our neighbour latitudes. So
that canicular days there have been none, nor shall be ; yet
certainly in all times some season of the year more notably
hot than other.
Lastly, we multiply causes in vain ; and for the reason
hereof we need not have recourse unto any star but the sun,
and continuity of its action. For the sun ascending into the
northern signs, begetteth first a temperate heat in the air ;
which by his approach unto the solstice he intendeth, and
by continuation increaseth the same even upon declination.
For running over'' the same degrees again, that is, in Leo,
which he hath done in Taurus, in July which he did in May ;
he augmcnteth tlie heat in the latter which he began in the
first ; and easily intendeth the same by continuation which
'' equator.'] Equinoctial.
" For rwiminff over.] In those four signes, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer,
Leo, they have a continual summer, hottest in extremis. — Wr.
CHAP. XIIT.] THE CANICTJLAE OB DOG-DATS. 455
was well promoted before. So is it observed, tliat tliey
which dwell between the tropicks and the equator have their
second summer hotter and more maturative of fruits than
the former.
So we observe in the day^ (which is a short year^), the
greatest heat about two in the afternoon, when the sun is
past the meridian (which is his diurnal solstice), and the
same is evident from the thermometer or observations of the
weatherglass. So are the colds of the night sharper in the
summer about two or three after midniglit, and the frosts in
winter stronger about those hours. So likewise in the year
we observe the cold to augment, when the days begin to
increase, though the sun be then ascensive and returning
from the winter tropick. And therefore if we rest not in
this reason for the heat in the declining part of summer, we
must discover freezing stars that may resolve the latter colds
of winter ; which whoever desires to invent, let him study
the stars of Andromeda, or the nearer constellation of
Pegasus, wliich are about that time ascendant.
It cannot therefore seem strange, or savour of singularity,
that we have examined this point, since the same hath been
already denied by some ; since the authority and observations
of the ancients, rightly understood, do not confirm it ; since
our present computes are diftercnt from those of the ancients,
whereon notwithstanding they depend ; since there is reason
against it, and if aU were granted, yet must it be maintained
with manifold restraints, far otherwise than is received. And
lastly, since from plain and natural principles the doubt may
^ day.] Every day is an emblem of the yeare ; and therein the sun
hath his declination, or distance fi-om the meridian, as from the aequa-
tor, his solstice in itt, as in the tropicks ; and his different altitudes or
azimuths eveiy moment. — Wr.
' shoi-t year.] 'Tis seemingly strange, but most true, that they who
lye betweene the sequator and the tropic, have a hotter summer than
they that lye under the aequator ; suppose under 12 degrees north or
south : bycause with them sommer is twice doubled in 3 months ;
having the sonn twice over their heads in that space : whereas they
under the aequator have him twice, but in 6 months distance, and 2 win-
ters between. For the distance of the son from the center in his ause
at summer is 1210 semidiameters of the earth : but his nearest distance
is never above 1122, every semidiameter containing 7159^ of oui
miles. — Wr.
456 THE CANICULAR OR DOG-BATS [bOOK IV
be fairly salved, and not clapt up from petitionary founda-
tions and priuciples unestablished.
But that which chiefly promoted the consideration of these
days, and medically advanced the same, was the doctrine of
Hippocrates, a physician of such repute that he received a
testimony from a Christian that might have been given unto
Christ.* The first in his book, De acre, aquis, et locis,
syderum ortu, Sfc. That is, wb are to observe the rising of
stars, especially the dog-star, arcturiis, and the setting of the
pleiades, or seven stars. From whence notwithstanding we
cannot infer the general efficacy of tliese stars, or co-efficacy
particular in medications. Probably expressing no more
hereby than if he should have plainly said, especial notice
we are to take of the hottest time in summer, of the begin-
ning of autumn and winter ; for by the rising and setting of
those stars were these times and seasons defined. And there-
fore subjoins this reason, quoniam his temporihus morhi Jini-
untur, because at these times diseases have their ends, as
physicians well know, and he elsewhere affirmeth, that
seasons determine diseases, beginning in their contraries ;
as the spring the diseases of autumn, and the summer those
of winter. Now (what is very remarkable) whereas in the
same place he adviseth to observe the times of notable muta-
tions, as the equinoxes and the solstices, and to decline
medication ten days before and after ; how precisely soever
canicular cautions be considered, this is not observed by
physicians, nor taken notice of by the people. And indeed
should we blindly obey the restraints both of physicians and
astrologers, we should contract the liberty of our prescrip-
tions, and confine the utility of physic unto a very few days.
Por, observing the dog-days, and as is expressed, some days
before, likewise ten days before, and after the equinoctial
and solstitial points, by this observation alone are exempted
an hundred days. Wheremito if we add the two Egyptian
days in every month,^ the interlunary and plenilunary exemp-
tions, the eclipses of sun and moon, conjunctions and oppo-
sitions planetical, the houses of planets, and the site of the
luminaries under the signs (wherein some would induce a
* Qui nee fallere potest nee fallL
" the two ^Egyptian days, ttc] Futilissimae observationes. — Wt»
CHAP. XIII. _ THE CANICULAR OK BOG-DATS. 457
restraint of purgation or plilebotomy), there would arise
above an hundred more ; so that of the whole year the use
of physic would not be secure much above a quarter. Now
as we do not strictly observe these days, so need we not the
other ;-^ and although consideration be made hereof, yet
must we prefer the nearer indication before those which
are drawn from the time of the year, or other celestial
relations.
The second testimony is taken out of the last piece of his
age, and after the experience'* (as some think) of no less than
an hundred years, that is, his Book of Aphorisms, or short
and definitive determinations in physick. The aphorism
alleged is this, Sub Cane et ante Canem difficiles sunt pur ga-
tiones. Sub Cane et Anticane, say some, including both the
dog-stars, but that cannot consist with the Greek, 'otto kvvu
Koi Trpo KvvoQ, nor had that criticism been ever omitted by
Galen. Now how true this sentence was in the mouth of
Hippocrates, and with what restraint it must be understood
by us, will readdy appear from the difference between us
both in circumstantial relations.
And first, concerning his time and chronology ; he lived
in the reign of Artaxerxes Longimanus, about the 82nd
olympiad, 450 years before Christ, and from our times above
two thousand. Now since that time, as we have already
declared, the stars have varied their longitudes, and having
made large progressions from west to east, the time of the
dog-star's ascent must also very much alter ; for it ariseth
later now in the year than it formerly did in the same lati-
tude, and far later unto us who have a greater elevation, for
in the days of Hippocrates this star ascended in Cancer,
which now ariseth in Leo, and wiQ in progression of time
arise in Virgo ; and therefore, in regard of the time wherein
he lived, the aphorism was more considerable in his days
than in ours, and iu times far past than present, and in his
country than ours.
The place of his nativity was Coos, an island in the Myr-
toan sea, not far from Rhodes, described in maps by tlie
name of Lango, and called by the Turks, who are masters
* other.'] i. e. canicular.
* experience.'] Experience of 100 yeares infers he lived at least 120
in all.— FTr.
458 THE CANICULAR OE DOG-DATS. [bOOK IV.
thereof, Stancora. according unto Ptolemy, of northern lati-
tude, 30 degrees. That he lived and writ in these parts is
not improbably collected from the epistles that passed be-
twixt him and Artaxerxes, as also between the citizens of
Abdera and Coos, in the behalf of Democritus ; which place
being seated, from our latitude of 52, 16 degrees southward,
there will arise a dift'erent consideration, and we may much
deceive ourselves, if we conform the ascent of stars in one
place unto another, or conceive they arise the same day of
the month in Coos and in England ; for, as Petavius com-
putes, in the iirst Julian year, at Alexandria, of latitude 31,
the star arose cosmically in the twelfth degree of Cancer,
heliacally tlie 26th ; by the compute of Greminus, about this
time at Ehodes, of latitude 37, it ascended cosmically the
16th of Cancer, heliacally the first of Leo ; and about that
time at Eome, of latitude 42, cosmically the 22nd of Cancer,
and heliacally the first of Leo ; for unto places of greater
latitude it ariseth ever later, so that in some latitudes the
cosmical ascent happeneth not before the twentieth degree
of Virgo, ten days before the autumnal equinox, and if they
compute heliacally, after it in Libra.
Again, should we allow all, and only compute unto the
latitude of Coos, yet would it not impose a total omission of
physick : for if in the hottest season of that clime, all physick
were to be declined, then surely in many other none were to
be used at any time whatsoever ; for unto many parts, not
only in the spring and autumn, but also in the vrinter, the
sun is nearer than unto the clime of Coos in the summer.
The third consideration concerneth purging medicines,
which are at present far different from those implied in this
aphorism, and such as were commonly used by Hippocrates.
For three degrees we make of purgative medicines ; the first
thereof is very benign, not far removed from the nature of
aliment, into which, upon defect of working, it is ofttimes
converted, and in this form do we account manna, cassia,
tamarinds, and many more, whereof we find no mention in
Hippocrates. The second is also gentle, having a fiimiliarity
with some humour, into which it is but converted if it fail
of its operation ; of this sort are aloe, rhubarb, senna, &c.
whereof also few or none were known unto Hippocrates.
The tliird is of a violent and venomous '^viality, which, frus-
CHAP. XIII.] THE CAIJTICTJLAI!. OE DOG-DATS. 459
trate of its action, assumes as it were the nature of poison,
such as scammonexim, colocyntliis, elaterium, eiipliorbium,
tithymallus, laureola, peplum, &c. Of this sort Hippocrates
made use even in fevers, pleurisies, and quinsies ; and that
composition is very remarkable which is ascribed unto Dio-
genes in ^tius,* that is, of pepper, sal-ammoniac, euphor-
bium, of each an ounce, the doses whereof four scruples and
an half, which whosoever should take, would find in his
bowels more than a canicular''' heat, though in the depth of
winter. Many of the Uke nature may be observed in ^tius,
or in the book De Dinamidiis, ascribed unto Galen, which is
the same verbatim with the other.
Now in regard of the second, and especially the first degree
of purgatives, the aphorism*' is not of force, but we may
safely use them, they being benign and of innoxious quaU-
ties ; and therefore Lucas G-auricus, who hath endeavoured
with many testimonies to advance this consideration, at
length concedeth that lenative physick may be used, espe-
cially when the moon is well affected in Cancer, or in the
watery signs. But in regard of the third degree, the apho-
rism is considerable ; purgations may be dangerous, and a
* Tetrab. lib. i. Serni. 3.
' canicular.'] Such as is the heate of the dog-dayes in the hottest
countreyes, where the dog-star shevveth his force most. — Wr.
® aphorism.] Aphorisme is a general rule grounded upon reason,
ratified by experience ; but in this place he gives this name to that
received opinion, that during the dog-dayes all physicke is to be
declined ; not bycause itt was grounded upon truthe, but bycause itt
was generally supjjosed to bee soe ; the ground whereof relating to those
countreyes onlye which lye under the torrid zone, hee refutes in this
chapter most judiciouslye, and determines the state of the question
most excellentlye in the two following periods m four propositions or
conclusions. First, that in preventinge there is no use of that rule, for
that noe wise man will defer the physick till the dog-dayes, having
fitter times in the spring, and the foil, wherein to take such physick
with greater advantage. Second, that the heate of the dog-dayes in
our clymates is not soe greate as that of the torrid zone in their spring.
Third, that in chronicp.l diseases physick may safely bee deferred till
those dayes bee over. Fourth, that the strength of the aphorisme is
grounded cheefly upon a point of wisdom ; that itt must needs bee
dangerous to adde-fire to fire, i. e. when the bodye is o-erheated in the
dog-dayes to adde the heat and acrimony of purging medicines, but yet
where the case is desperate, as in sharpe fits, wisdom must give way to
necessity ; better purge than dye. — Wr.
460 THE CANICnLAR OR DOO-DATS. [bOOK IV.
memoi'able example there is in the medical epistles of Crucius,
of a Eomau prince that died npon an ounce of diaphcenicon
taken in this season ; from the use whereof we refrain not
only in hot seasons, but warily exhibit it at all times in hot
diseases ; which when necessity requires, we can perform
more safely than the ancients, as having better ways of pre-
paration and correction, that is, not only by addition of other
bodies, but separation of noxious parts from their own.
But besides these diffei"ences between Hippocrates and
us, the physicians of these times and those of antiquity, the
condition of the disease and the intention of the physician
hold a main consideration in what time and place soever.
For physick is either curative or preventive ; preventive we
call that which by purging noxious humours, and the causes
of diseases, preventeth sickness in the healthy, or the
recourse^ thereof in the valitudinary ; this is of common use
at the spring and fall, and we commend not the same at this
season.^ Therapeutick or curative physick we term that
which restore th the patient unto sanity, and taketh away
diseases actually affecting. Now of diseases some are chro-
nical and of long duration, as quartan agues, scurvy, &c.,
wherein, because they admit of delay, we defer the euro to
more advantageous seasons ; others we term acute, that is,
of short duration and danger, as fevers, pleurisies, &c., in
which, because delay is dangerous, and they arise unto their
state before the dog-days determine, we apply present reme-
dies according unto indications, respecting rather the acute-
ness^ of the disease, and precipitancy^ of occasion, than the
rising or setting of the stars, the eifects of the one being
disputable, of the other assured and inevitable.
And although astrology may here put in, and plead the
secret influence of this star ; yet Galen in his comment makes
'' recowrse.^ Recurrence.
^ at this seaso7i.] That is during the dog-dayf3. — Wr.
^ acuteness.] i. e., the sharp and fierce condition of the disease,
admitting noe delay of any requisite helpe in physic. — Wr.
' precipitancy.'] Precipitancy is properly the swift motion of a man
falling headlong, hence itt signifies the soden passings of occasions in
diseases, which once let passe can never be redeemed, and by those
means endanger the life of the patient, by suffering the disease (which
might have been timely prevented) to get such a masterye as noe
physick can quell. — Wr.
CHAP. Xni.] THE CANICULAE OE DOG-DATS. 461
no such consideration, confirming the truth of the aphorism
from the heat of the year, and the operation of medicines
exhibited. In regard that bodies, being heated by the sum-
mer, cannot so well endure the acrimony of purging medi-
cines and because upon purgations contrary motions ensue,
the heat of the air attracting the humours outward, and the
action of the medicine retracting the same inward. But
these are readily salved in the distinctions before alleged,
and particularly in the constitution of our climate, and divers
others, wherein the air makes no such exhaustion of spirits,
and in the benignity of our medicines, whereof some in their
own nature, others well prepared, agitate not the humours,
nor make a sensible perturbation.
Nor do we hereby reject or condemn a sober and regulated
astrology ; we hold there is more truth therein, than in
astrologers ; in some more than many allow, yet in none so
much as some pretend. "VYe deny not the influence of the
stars, but often suspect the due application thereof; for
though we should affirm that all things were in all things,
that heaven were but earth celestified, and earth but heaven
terrestrified, or that each part above had an influence upon
its divided affinity below ; yet how to single out these rela-
tions,* and duly to apply their actions, is a work ofttimes
to be eftected by some revelation, and Cabala from above,
rather than any philosophy or speculation here below.
AVhat power soever they have upon our bodies, it is not
requisite they should desti'oy our reasons, that is, to make
us rely on the strength of nature, when she is least able to
relieve us ; and when we conceive the heaven against us, to
refuse the assistance of the earth created for us. This were
to suffer from the mouth of the dog above, what others do
from the teeth of the dogs below ; that is, to be afraid of their
proper remedy, and refuse to approach any water,^ though
that hath often proved a cure unto their disease.^ There is
* Hie labor, hoc opus est.
* refuse to approach any water. 1 The horror of water in this disease,
though a very general, is not an invariable symptom, even in the human
subject.
^ hath of ten proved a cure, d&c] "Moriu relates the case of a young
woman, twenty years old, who, labouring under symptoms of hydropho-
bia, was plunged into a tub of water, with a bushel of salt dissolv (xl in it,
462 THE CAl'ICULAR OK DOG-DAYS. [BOOK IV.
in wise men a power beyond the stars ; and Ptolemy en-
courageth us, that by foreknowledge we may evade their
actions ; for, being but universal causes, they are determined
by particular agents ; which being inclined, not constrained,
contain within themselves the casting act, and a power to
command the conclusion.
Lastly, if all be conceded, and were there in this aphorism
an unrestrained truth, yet were it not reasonable from a
caution to infer a non-usance or abolition, from a thing to be
used with discretion, not to be used at all. Because the
apostle bids us beware of philosophy, heads of eztremity
will have none at all ; an usual fallacy in vulgar and less
distinctive brains, who having once overshot the mean, run
violently on, and find no rest but in the extremes.'*
and was harassed with repeated dippings till she became insensible, and
was at the point of death, when she was still left in the tub sitting
against its sides. In this state, we are told, she was at length fortu-
nate enough to recover her senses : when, much to her own astonishment,
as well as that of the bystanders, she foimd herself capable of looking
at the water, and even of drinking it without choakiug." — Good's Study
of Medicine, iii. 362.
Dr. Good enumerates a variety of modes of treatment which have
been adopted, and medicines which have been prescribed, with most
uncertain and only occasional success.
An American plant (Scutellaria lateriflora, or Virginian scullcap) has
been used with great success by several American practitioners : and
so powerful has been its influence, that it has been made the subject of
a separate publication by Dr. Spalding, of New York, in 1819. It
appears to have been discovered by a Dr. Lawrence Van Derveer, of
New Jersey, v.'ho used it successfully in hydrophobia, as early as 1773.
From him the remedy was communicated through his son to other prac-
titioners : and was very extensively used at the date of Dr. Spalding's
pamphlet. It is taken in a decoction of the dried plant ; a tea-spoonful
and a half to a quart of boiling water : — the patient taking half a jjint of
this infusion, morning and night.
Dr. S. states that the Scutellaria has been given to more than 850 per-
sons bitten by animals believed to be rabid, and that in only three
instances had hydrophobic symptoms supei-vened, and in each of these
cases the quantity of the plant actually taken had been very inconsider-
able. It had also been given to more than 1,100 animals under similar
circumstances, and with nearly equal success.
* extremes.'] This censure fitlye reaches all clymats of the worlde and
all times for a prudent caution. For as in the state of corrupted nature,
this fallacy is (more than epidemical, that is) universall : soe (to the
comforte of the worlde) being once swalowed, and put in practise, itt
CHAP. XIII.] THE CAKICTJLAK OR DOG-DATS. 46S
Kow laereou we have the longer insisted, because the error
is material, and concerns ofttimes the life of man ; an error,
to be taken notice of by state, and provided against by
princes who are of the opinion of Solomon, that their riches
consist in the multitude of their subjects. An error worse
than some reputed heresies ; and of greater danger to the
body, than they unto the soul ; which whosoever is able to
reclaim, he shall save more in one summer, than Themison*
destroyed in any autumn ; he shall introduce a new way of
cure, preserving by theory, as well as practice, and men not
only from death, but from destroying themselves.
* A physician. Qiwt Themison cegros autumno occiderit una. — Juvenal.
never failes to pay the practisers in fine with their owne coigne, viz.
destruction and ruin. — W::
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