The first Booke of Varieties. CONTAINING, A DISCOVRSE AND DISCOVERIE OF some of the Rarest and most Profitable secrets of naturall things, whether in Heaven, Aire, Sea, or Earth.
As of
- The Heavens, Sunne, Moone, and Starres, their Matter, Nature, and Effects, &c.
- The Ayres Regions, and their effects, &c.
- The Seas saltnesse, deepenesse, and motion.
- The Earths circumference, and distance from the Heavens: by way of Question and Answer.
The Preface to the following questions; wherein is set downe the Praise, Effects, Vses, Ends and Parts of Philosophy.
SEEING Philosophy (which is the love of Wisdome, and of the knowledge of divine and humane things) by auncient Philosophers and Wise men in their severall ages, was accounted not an invention of mortall men,The praise of Philosophy▪ but a precious Iewell, and an inestimable propine, sent downe from the Gods above; [Page 2] Thereby, in a manner, to make men partakers of their divine knowledge: which made the Poets feigne Minerva (the patronesse and president of wisdome) to have issued from Iupiter's braine, and the Muses (nurses of learning) to be his daughters) it is no wonder that Plato in his Timaeo, and M. T. Cicero, do so highly extoll the knowledge of it, giving to it the Attributes of the Searcher of vertue, the Expeller, and chaser away of vice, the Directer and guider of our lives, the Builder of Cities, Assembler of men, (for before that knowledge, they strayed through Wildernesses like bruit Beasts) the Inventer of Lawes,Effects of Philosophy. Orderer of manners, Promover of discipline, Instructer of morall good living, and the meane to attaine a peaceable and quiet death. Finally, seeing by it we arrive at the perfect understanding (at least, so farre as humane wit can reach) of all the secrets that Mother Nature containeth within her imbraces, whether in the Heavens, Aire, Seas, Earth, and of all things comprehended within or upon them.
What time can we better spend here on Earth, than that which we imploy in the search of her most delightfull instructions? for thereby every sort of men, whether Moralist or Christian, may have his knowledge bettered;Vses and ends of Philosophy. which made Saint Paul, and before him Aristotle confesse, that by the knowledge of these visible things we might be brought to the knowledg, admiration, and adoration of our great and powerfull GOD, the Maker of Nature; for the knowledge of naturall things, and of their causes, leadeth us (as it were) by the hand to the search of their Author and Maker. This the Poet points at, when he sang, ‘[Page 3] Praesentem (que) refert quaelibet herba Deum.’
There is nothing so meane in Nature, which doth not represent unto us the Image and Power of the Maker; and argue, that none but He could have been their Former. And it is this sort of Knowledge, which properly we call Philosophy, or Physick, which in this Treatise I intend most to handle; and by which, as by one of the principall parts of Philosophy, the reader may have an insight in the Cabals and secrets of Nature.
The Philosophers and Learned sort reserved, in a manner, to themselves the other parts of Philosophy, as not being so absolutely necessary for all to understand, except a very few, and these pregnant wits only: For Logicke,Of Logick▪ the first and lowest of all, is but as an Instrument necessary for the other parts, wherewith to serve themselves, by subministring grounds and wayes of reasoning, thereby to inforce conclusions of the precedents, which they propounded.
Metaphysicks againe,Of Metaphysicks. contrary to the Physicks, medleth with things transcendent and supernaturall, wherto every reader is not called, and wherof al alike are not capable;Of Mathematicks▪ neither are the Mathematicks befitting every spirit, giving hard essayes even to the most pregnant wits, all not being alike capable of the dimensions and mensurations of bodily substances; no more than all are for the Military precepts and Architecture, Printing, Navigation, Structure of Machins, and the like; which are things consisting in Mechanick and Reall doings: neither are all alike able for Musick, Arithmetick, Astronomy, Geometry, &c. [Page 4] whereas all men as fellow-inhabitants of one World, and the workmanship of one Hand, by an inbred propensenes, wth a willing desire are carried to the search of things meerely Naturall: though, as in a Citie, Common-wealth, or Principality all in-dwellers are not alike, neither in honour, dignity, nor charge.
If in the discovery of these Mysteries and secrets of Nature,The Authors Apologie. I answer not the vast expectation of the overcurious; the more modest and discreet Reader will rest satisfied▪ that I inferre the most approved Reasons of the more Ancient and Moderne Philosophers, and such men as have most Copiously treated of them, thereby to ease thee and all men of the like paines and turmoile, that I have had in the search of these secrets; which if they bring thee that content & satisfaction that I desire and intended for thee; I am assured of a favourable applause, and have the reward I expected.
Section 1.
Of the matter whereof the Heavens are composed with the confutation of various opinions of Philosophers concerning it.
ALthough the world, and all comprehended within its imbraces, is the proper subject of Physicke, and that Physiologie is nothing else but a Discourse of Nature, as the Greek Etymologie sheweth, and so were a fitting discourse for this place; yet because the questions which concern a Christian to know,Questions concerning the World. against the Philosophicall conceits; (Of the Worlds eternity, [Page 5] his pre-existent matter, that it had a beginning, but shall never have an end: if there be more worlds than one? If the world be a living Creature, in respect of the Heavens perennall and incessant rotation, and the Ayres continuall revolution; the Seas perpetuall ebbing and flowing; the Earths bringing forth, o [...] conceiving fruit alternatively, &c. Because, I say, these questions of the World, together with these, if there was a World before this which is now? or, if there shall be one after this is consummated? if there bee any apart by this?) are handled in the Chapter of the World in this same Booke; I passe them for the present, and betake me to the more particular questions more necessary to be knowne, and lesse irreligious to be propounded.
And because the Heavens, of all the parts of the World are most conspicuous, as that wheretoever we bend our eyes, being the most glorious Creature of all the Creators workes; at it I will begin: but as I said, I would alwayes have the Reader to understand that I propound these questions not so absolutely of mine owne braine to solve them,The way how these questions are propounded. as to give him a view of the variety of opinions; yea, of the most learned in these high and sublime questions, whereat we may all conjecturally give our opinions, but not definitively, while it please the great Maker to bring us thither, where we may see Him and them more cleerely.
Quest. First then, I aske of what matter are the heavens composed?
Answ. Diverse have beene the opinions of Philosophers upon this subject: For Averroes in his first booke of the heavens, and there in Text 7. and [Page 6] tenth, holds it to bee so simple a body that it is free from all materiall substance; which opinion of his, by this may be refelled, that with Aristotle in the eight booke of his Metaph. chap. 2. and in his first booke De coelo, and Text 92. What ever things falles under the compasse of our senses, these same must bee materially substantiall: But the heavens are such, and therefore they must be materiall. Besides that all movable Essences consist of matter and forme, as Aristotle in his second booke of Physicke chap. 1. holdeth.Diverse opinions of the heavens substance. But so it is that the heavens are movable, therfore they cannot be free of matter.
Quest. Seeing then it is evinced by argument, and concluding reasons, that the heavens doe consist of matter; I aske now, what kinde of matter are they compounded of?
Answ. The Philosophick Schooles in this point are different: Some of them maintaining, a like matter to be common with them, and the sublunarie bodies, that is, that they were composed of the foure elements, of which all things here below doe exist. Neither lacked there some Sects that gave forth for truth, that the heavens were of a fierie and burning nature,What is the true matter & substance of the firmament. which opinion Aristotle confuteth by many reasons in his first Book, De coelo chap. 3. establishing his owne, which have beene held for truth not only by his Sectaries the Peripateticks, then; but ever since have beene approved; which is, that the matter of the heavens being distinct in nature, from that of the foure elements of which all other sublunarie things are framed, must bee composed of a quintessence; which opinion of his he thus maintaineth against the [Page 7] Platonists and all others who maintained that it was framed of the most pure and mundified part of the foure elements: for (saith hee) All simple motion which we finde in nature, must belong unto some simple body; But so it is that we finde a circular motion in nature which no wayes appertaineth unto any of the elements, in regard that in direct line, they either fall downeward, as the waters and earth; or else they ascend upward, as the ayre, and fire: And it is certaine that one simple body, cannot have more proper and naturall motions than one. Wherefore it followeth of necessitie, that seeing none of the elements have this circular motion as is before verified, therefore there must be a distinct simple body from them, to which this motion must appertaine, and that must be the heaven.
As for those who enforce identitie of matter in kind, betwixt the heavens and these elementarie things below, and consequently would involve them under corruption, which is peculiar to all other things; their warrant is of no validitie: for although they take upon them, to demonstrate, by their late Astronomicall observations in the Aetherian region, new prodigies not observed nor remarkable heretofore, which both Ruvius and the Conimbricenses give forth to proceed from a corruption, and defect of the first cause from whence they flow; They mistake: in so farre as they are rather extraordinary workes of the great maker, threatning mortalls by their frownings, then other wayes Symptomes of the Celestiall P [...]r [...]xysmes and corruption. Neither must you understand that I doe so adhere unto the heavens incorruptibility, [Page 8] that I thinke it free from all change, but contrarily rest assured that at the last conflagration, it shall suffer a change and novation, but no dissolution, as the low elementarie world.
Quest. You conclude then that the heavens are of a fift substance, not alembecked out of the foure elements, but an element by it selfe, having it's owne motion severall from the others which is a circular one?
Answ. Yea, truly I doe.
Quest. But now seeing all circular motion is such,The earth rolled about with the heavens. that it hath some immoveable thing in the middle of it, whereabout it whirleth ever, as we see in a Coach Wheele and the axeltree: What is this immovable thing, whereabout the heavens circular rotation, and perpetuall motion is?
Answ. The Globe of the earth, which (whatsoever fond conceit Copernicus had concerning the motion of it) yet remaineth firme and immovable.
And the heaven doth rolle still about this earth, and hath still as much below it as we see round about and above it.
Sect. 2.
Of the Starres, their substance and splendor, where also of the Sunnes place in the firmament.
Quest. But I passe from the motion of the heavens, and their matter, which you hold to be a quintessence, and so a thing distinct from the foure elements. [Page 9] Now I crave to understand, what is the matter of these twinckling Starres which we see glancing in the face and front of this heaven?
Answ. Of that same matter whereof the heavens are,What is the substance of the stars. because in simple and not composed bodyes their parts doe communicate with that same nature, and matter whereof the whole is; so that the heaven being a most simple body, and the Starres, her parts or a part of it, no wonder that they communicate both of one essence; and of this opinion is the Philosopher himselfe in his second booke De coelo. chap. 7.
Quest. But if so be (as you say) the starres are of a like matter with the body of the heavens; how then is it that they are a great deale more cleare and glauncing where they appeare, then the rest of the heaven is?
Answ. Because they are the thicker part, and better remassed together,What maketh them so cleare. and of a round Spherick forme, and so more susceptible of light. Now round they must be, for besides, that we discerne them so with our eyes; the Moone, and Sunne, are found to bee round. But so it is, that all Starres are of a like forme and matter, but the lesser and the bigger differ only by the lesser or greater quantity of their matter condensed, or conglobed together.
Quest. But whether doe they shine with their own innate or inbred light, or is their splendor borrowed from any other beside?
Answ. Some such light they have of their owne, howbeit but little, whatsoever Scaliger saith to the contrary in his sixtie two exercitation.
But indeed, the brightnesse of the Starres light [Page 10] floweth from the Sun, the fountaine of all light, and that this is either lesser or more, according to their diversitie of matter, and their equality and inequality, there is no question: For which cause the Sunne is placed in the midst of all the moveable Starres,The Sun placed amiddest the Planets & why. as in the midway betwixt the starrie firmament, and the first region of the aire, from thence to communicate his light unto all; so that those which are nearer unto him above, and to us below, doe seeme brighter than these higher above; as may be seene in Venus, Mercurie, and Luna.
Sect. 3.
Of the Moone, her light, substance, and Power over all sublunarie bodyes.
Quest. NOw resolve mee, if the Moone hath not more light of her selfe then the rest?
Answ. Yea she hath a glimps of light indeed of her selfe, but that is dimme and obscure; as may be seene in the sharp-new (as we say:) but as for the fulnesse of that light wherewith shee shineth unto us at the quarters or full,What light the Moone thineth with. she borroweth that from the Sun. But we may better conceive the weaknesse of her light in her eclipses; when the earths shadow, interposed betwixt the Sun and her directly, vaileth and masketh her face; which then appeareth blackishly browne, yet not altogether destitute of light. Now as the light of the Sunne is the fountaine of warmenesse by day; even so, no question, but the winter and [Page 11] Summer nights, are at a full Moone warmed more, then during the first or last quarters.
Quest. But is it true which is usually reported, that in the body of the Moone there be mountaines, and valleys, and some kinde of spirituall creatures inhabiting; which Palingenius an Italian Poet describeth at length?
Answ. It is certaine, and our Mathematicians have found out, that in the Moone there are some parts thicker, some thinner, which make her face not to looke all cleare alike;what signifieth the black spots in the face of the Moone. for that dimmer blackenesse in the middle of it (vulgarly called the Man in the Moone) is nothing else but a great quantitie of the Moones substance not so transparent as the rest, and consequently lesse susceptible of light: which black part of it, with other spots, here and there Plinius lib. 2. cap. 9. of his Naturall historie taketh to be some earthly humors attracted thither by her force, and attractive power; which I hardly give way to, in respect of the weaknesse of her force to draw to her any heavy dull and earthly humor, which never transcend the regions of the aire, above all which the Moone is.
Quest. Now finally, hath the Moone no power over particular sublunary bodies? for I heare much of the influence and power of the Planets over the bodies of Men, Beasts and Plants.
Answ. As for the power and efficacy of the other Planets over us, I have something in the title of Necromancie. As for the Moones power experience sheweth, that the ebbes and flowes of the Sea, (how different so ever the Coasts be) depend totally and [Page 12] constantly on the full and change of the Moone;The Moones power over sublunarie bodies. for accordingly her waters swell, or decrease. Moreover the braines and marrow in the bones of Man and beast doe augment or diminish as the Moone increaseth, or waneth, as doe likewise the flesh of all shell fishes. Dayly experience too hath taught your Pruners of trees, gelders of cattell, gardners and the like, to observe the Moones increase, and decrease: all which is strongly confirmed by Plinie in his second booke De Historia animalium, and Aristotle lib. 4. cap. 41. De generatione animalium.
Sect. 4.
Of the Element of Fire, whether it be an Element or not, and of its place.
Quest. LEaving the heavens, their number, matter, Sun, Moone and Starres, I come lower unto the foure Elements whereof the Philosophers will all things below the Moone to be framed and made. First,Reasons that there is not an lement of fire. then I adhere to Cardan and Volaterans opinion, that betwixt the sphere of the Moone, and the first region of the aire, where the Philosophers place this fire to be, which they make the first element, it cannot be, and so that it cannot be at all; because, that if it were there, we should see it with our eyes; for the Comets, and these lancing Dragons, and falling Stars, &c. whereof many are neighbours with this Ignean-sphere, we visibly see, and the fires which burne on earth also.
[Page 13] Answ. There is not a point of Philosophy, which if you reade judiciously, and peruse the Authors treating thereupon, but you shall finde such controversie, concerning the establishing of it amongst themselves, that one to an hundred if you find two or three jumpe together.
Quest. But yet as a Mirrour or Glasse giveth way unto diverse faces,Comparison of a Mirrour to variety. and representeth unto every one their owne visage, although never so farre different from other, while it of it selfe remaineth unchanged or unaltered: So it is with truth, how different soever the opinions bee of the searchers out of it in any Science; yet this verity it selfe abideth in them all, and is alwayes one and alike in it selfe: and so in this point, what ever be Volateran or Cardans opinion, yet sure it is, that the Element of fire is there; and the cause why it is not seene as are our materiall, and grosly composed fires, of all the Elements mixt together; is the purenesse, subtilenesse, and simplicity (if I may say so) of that Element. Which reason may serve too against them when they say, that if it were there, it should burne all about. And which, likewise, may serve for answer to the objection of the Comets, which are seene:Why Commets are seene and not the Element of fire. seeing they are of a terrestriall maligne exhalation, and so having in them that earthly mixture, and being inflamed by the neighbour-heate of that fiery Element; no wonder though they bee seene, and not it; her subtile purenesse being free of all combustible matter, and so the lesse conspicuous to our eyes. [...] sive perspicuum, nisi condensetur, est [...], quia visum non terminat, Iul. Scal. Exer. 9.
There is no such question about the second Element [Page 14] which is the Aire: for of it all agree, that it hath three regions wherein all these you call Meteors are fashioned, as clouds, haile, snow, thunder, wind, and dew; yea, and higher than all these, in the first and supreme Region these blazing Comets, although other men place them above the Moone, which are so formidable to ignorants who know not the causes of their matter.
Quest. Is this so as you give it forth?
Answ. It is of verity, that the first Element which we call the Element of fire, is disputable, and hath beene denied by many: but as for the Ayre, none (to my knowledge) ever called it in question; neither is there in all our Philosophy a subject more fitting a man of spirit to know,Knowledge of Meteors fit for men of spirit. than the discourse of the Meteors therein framed; of all which, although you have a tractate hereafter, by it selfe, yet one word here more to make you understand their nature, and matter, the better.
Section 5.
A briefe Discourse of Meteors, of their causes, matter, and differences.
THE great Creator hath so disposed the frame of this Vniverse, in a constant harmony, and sympathy amongst the parts of it; that these Heavenly Lights, which wee see, above our heads, have their owne force, power, and influence, upon this Earth, and Waters, whereon, and wherein we live; marying [Page 15] (as it were) these two so farre distant Creatures, both in place and nature, by the mediation of this Ayre above spoken of; which participateth of both their qualities; warmenesse from the Heavens, and moistnesse from the Earth and Waters. Nature then, but Melior naturâ Deus, or GOD, better than Nature, hath ordained the Sunne, Fountaine of light and warmth, to be the physicall or naturall cause, yea, and the remotest cause, (as wee say in the Schooles) of these Meteors;The remotest cause of Meteors. as Aristotle himselfe in his first Book of his Meteors, cap. 2. observeth.
When I speak of the Sun as most principall, I seclude not the Stars, and these celestiall bodies, which rolling about in a per-ennall whirling and rotation, doe lance forth their power upon the Earth also.The neerest cause. The neerest Physicall or naturall cause againe, must be understood to be cold and heate; heate from these heavenly bodies, to rarifie or attenuate the vapors of the Earth, whereby they may bee the easier evaporated by the Sunne; or heate, to draw fumes and vapours from the Earth upward; cold againe, to condensate and thicken those elevated vapours in the Ayre; to thicken them, I say, either in clouds, raine, or snow, or the rest.
Thus,Their remotest matter. as the Meteors have a twofold cause as you have heard, so have they a two fold matter. The first and remotest, are the two Elements, but of them chiefly Earth, and Water: the neerer cause or matter are exhalations extracted from these former two. Which exhalations I divide in fumes and vapours: fumes being a thin exhalation hot and dry, elevated from the Earth; and that of their most dried parts, by [Page 16] the vertue of the heavenly Starres, and the Sunnes warmenesse elevated, I say, by the vertue and warmnesse of the Sunne and Stars, from the driest parts of the Earth, even the Element of fire, from whence, and of which, our Comets, fiery-Darts, Dragons, and other ignean Meteors doe proceed; although later Astronomers have found and give forth, some of the Comets formation to be above the Moone.
Whereas vapours are exhalations,Matter and cause of the moist Meteors. thicker, and hotter, swifter drawne up from the Seas and Waters by the power of the Sun and Stars; of which vapors, thither elevated, are framed, our raines, snow, haile, dewe, wherewith (they falling back againe) the Earth is bedewed and watered: When, I say, that these vapours are hot and moist; thinke it not impossible, although the waters, their mother, be cold and moist; for that their warmnesse is not of their owne innate nature, but rather accidentall to them by vertue of the Sunne and Starres warmnesse; by whose attractive power, as the efficient cause, they were elevated. Now then as of fumes, elevated to the highest Region of the Ayre, the fiery Meteors are composed: so of their watery vapours which are drawne no higher than the middle Region, proceeds raine, clouds, snow, haile, and the rest; or if they passe not beyond this low Region wherein we breath, they fall downe into dew, or in thick mysts.
Thus you see,Difference betwixt fumes and vapours. that these vapours are of a middle or meane nature, betwixt the Ayre and the Waters; because they resolve in some one of the two easily; even as fumes are medians betwixt fire and earth, in respect that they are easily transmuted or changed in the one or the other.
[Page 17] And thus as you have heard the efficient and materiall causes of Meteors:Great differences of the Meteors. So now understand that their forme dependeth upon the disposition of their matter, for the materiall dissimilitude, either in quantity, or quality, in thicknesse, thinnesse, hotnesse, drinesse, aboundance, or scarcity, and so forth, begetteth the Meteor it selfe, different in species and forme, as if you would say, by the aboundance of hot and dry exhaled fumes, from the Earth, and the most burnt parts thereof are begot the greater quantity of Comets, winds, thunders; and contrary-wayes by the aboundance of moist vapours, elevated by the force of the Sunne from the Seas and waters, we judge of aboundance of raine, haile, or snow, or dew, to ensue, according to the diverse degrees of light in the Ayrie Region whither they are mounted.
Now, when I said before, that hot exhaled fumes are ever carried aloft, to the highest Region of the Ayre; take it not to be so universally true, but that at times, they may be inflamed even in this low Region of ours here; and that through the Sunnes deficiency of heate, for the time: for as the uppermost Region is alwayes hot, the middle alwayes cold, so is the lower, now hot, now cold, now dry, and againe moist, according to the Sunnes accesse, or recesse from it,What are our S. Anthonies fires. as Aristotle, lib. 1. Meteo. cap. 3. noteth. And of this sort are these even visible inflamations, which in the Seas are seene before any storme, flaming and glancing now and then, as I my selfe have seene; yea, and sometimes upon the tops of Ships masts, Sterne, and Poope, or such as in darke nights now and then are perceived to flutter about Horse-meines and feet, [Page 18] or amongst people gone astray in darke nights. And these our Meteorologians call Ignes fatui & ignes lambentes, wilde-fires.
Sect. 6.
That the earth and waters make but one globe, which must be the Center of the world. Of the Seas saltnesse, deepnesse, flux, and reflux; why the mediterranean & Indian Seas have none; Of Magellanes strait, what maketh so violent tyde there, seeing there is none in the Indian Sea from whence it floweth. Of the Southerne Sea or Mare del Zur.
THus then leaving the Aire, I betake me unto the third and fourth elements, which are the earth and waters; for these two I conjoyne in the Chapter of the world, and that after the opinion of the most renowned Cosmographers, howbeit Plinius Lib. 2. Naturalis Histor, cap. 66. and with him Strabo lib. 1. distinguish them so, as they would have the waters to compasse the earth about the middle,The earth and waters not se [...]cred like the other elements but linked together. as though the one halfe of it were under the waters, and the other above, like a bowle or Apple swimming in a vessell: for indeede Ptolomee his opinion is more true, that the earth and waters, mutually and linkingly embrace one another and make up one Globe, whose center should be the' center of the world.
But here now I aske,Quest. seeing the frame of the universe is such that the heaven circularly encompasseth the low spheares, each one of them another, these the [Page 19] fire, it the Aire, the aire againe, encompasseth the waters; what way shall the water be reputed an element if it observe not the same elementarie course, which the rest doe, which is, to compasse the earth also, which should be its elementarie place?
Answer. True it is, that the nature of the element is such; but GOD the Creator hath disposed them other wayes, and that for the Well of his Creatures upon earth. Who, as he is above nature and at times, can worke beyond, and above it, for other wayes the earth should have beene made improfitable, either for the production or entertainement of living and vegetable Creatures, if all had beene swallowed up and covered with waters;Why the waters are not about the earth▪ both which now by their mutuall embracing they do: hence necessarily it followeth, that the Sea is not the element of water, seeing all elements are simple and unmixt creatures, whereas the Seas are both salt, and some way terrestriall also.
How deepe hold you the Sea to be?Quest.
Answ. Proportionably shallow or deepe; as the earth is either stretched forth in valleys or swelling in mountaines, and like enough it is, that where the mouth of a large valley endeth at the Sea, that shooting as it were it selfe forth into the said Sea, that there it should bee more shallow then where a tract of mountaines end; or shall I say that probably it is thought that the Sea is as deepe or shallow below, as commonly the earth is high in mountaines, and proportionably either deepe or shallow as the earth is either high in mountaines or low and streacht forth in vallies?
But what reason can you render for the Seas saltnesse?Quest.
[Page 20] Answer. If we trust Aristotle in his 2 booke of Meteors and 3. as he imputeth the ebbing and flowing of the Sea to the Moone, so he ascribeth the cause of its saltnesse to the Sunne, by whose beames the thinnest and sweetest purer parts of it, are extenuated and elevated in vapors, whilest the thicker and more terrestriall parts (which are left behind by that same heate) being adust become bitter and salt; which the same Author confirmeth in that same place before cited, by this, that the Southerne Seas are salter, and that more in Summer, then the others are; and inforceth it by a comparison in our bodies, where our urine by him is alleadged to be salt in respect that the thinner and purer part of that moistnesse, by our inborne warmenesse is conveyed and carryed from our stomack (wherein by our meate and drinke it was engendred) thorough the rest of the parts of our body: Neither leaveth he it so, but in his Problems Sect 23. & 30. for corroboration hereof he maintaineth, that the lower or deeper the Sea-water is, it is so much the fresher, and that because the force of the Suns heat pierces and reaches no further, then the Winter Cold extendeth its force for freezing of waters unto the uppermost superfice only, and no further.
If it bee true then that the Seas are salt, wherefore are not lakes and rivers by that same reason, salt also?
Answer. Because that the perpetuall running and streames of rivers in flouds hindreth that,Why lakes and running flouds are not salt. so that the sun beames can catch no hold to make their operation upon them: and as for lakes, because they are ever infreshed with streames of fresh springs which flow [Page 21] and run into them, they cannot be salt at all: the same reason almost may serve to those who as [...] what makes some springs savour of salt,Why some fountaines savour of brasse, or salt, &c. some vitrio [...]e of brimstone, some of brasse and the like? To which nothing can be more pertinently answered, then that the diversity of mineralls through which they run, giveth them those severall tastes.
What have you to say concerning the cause of the flowing and ebbing of the Sea?Quest.
Answ. To that, all I can say is this, that Aristotle himselfe for all his cunning was so perplexed in following that doubt,Of the Seas ebbing and flowing. that he died for griefe because he could not understand it aright, if it be truth which Coelius Rhodiginus lib. 29. antiquarum lectionum cap. 8. writeth of him; it is true indeede (yea and more probable) that many ascribe the cause of his death to have beene a deepe melancholy contracted for not conceaving the cause aright of the often flowing and ebbing of Euripus a day, rather than to the not knowing the true cause of the Seas ebbing and flowing chiefly, seeing Meteor. 2 & 3. he ascribeth it to the Moone the mother and nurse of all moist things; which is the most receaved opinion, and warranted with the authoritie of Ptolomee and Plinius both, as depending upon her magnetick power, being of all Planets the lowest, and so the neerer to the Sea; which all doe acknowledge to bee the mistris of moisture, and so no question but to it it must be referred, which may bee fortified with this reason. That at all full Moones and changes, the Seas flowing and swelling is higher then at other times, and that all high streams and tydes are observed to bee so, seeing the [Page 22] Moone doth shine alike upon all Seas, what is the cause that the Mediterranean Sea, together with the West Indian-Seas, all along Hispaniola and Cuba and the Coasts, washing along the firme Land of America, to a world of extent, hath no ebbing nor flowing, but a certain swelling, not comparable to our Seas ebbing and flowing?
Answ. Gonsalus Ferdinando Oviedes observation in his History of the West-Indian-Seas,Why the Mediterranean & West-Indian Seas have no flux or reflux. shall solve you of that doubt; and this it is, He compareth the great Ocean to the body of a man, lying upon his back, reaching his trunck from the Pole Artick (from the North and East) to the Antartick, South & West; stretching forth the left Arme to the Mediterranean, the other to the West-Indian-Seas; now the Ocean (as the lungs of this imagined body) worketh, by Systole and Diastole on the neerer parts to it, & maketh a flux and reflux where its force faileth in the extremities, the hands and feet, the Mediterranean and Indian Seas.
Quest. How is that possible;Of Magellanes Strait, what maketh so violent a tyde there. that you admit no flux nor reflux to the West-Indian-Seas; seeing their Histories informe us, that at Magellanes-strait, that same West Sea doth glide through the firme land of America, into the Mare Del Zur, and that with such rapiditie and vertiginousnesse, that no Ship is able with Wind or Art to returne from that South-Sea backward?
Answ. That must not be thought so much a flowing as the course of Nature, whereby the Heavens, Sun, Moone, and Stars, yea, and the Sea, doe course from East to West, as that Strait doth run. I may [Page 23] joyne to this the Easterly-wind which of all others bloweth most commonly (as elsewhere) so there also, which furthereth that violent course: and of this opinion is Peter Martyr in his Decads upon the Historie of that Countrey.
Quest. Admit all be true you say:Why the Mare Del Zur hath flux, and not the neighbouring Sea. but what have you to say to this, that the Mare Del Zur hath flux and reflux, and yet your West-Indian-Seas have little or none, as you confesse? how then can the Moone be the cause of the universall Seas ebbing and flowing, seeing they two under one Moone both, are neverthelesse so different in Nature, and yet so neere in place?
Answ. Seeing Ferdinando Oviedes, who was both Cosmographer & Hydographer leaveth that question undilucidated, as a thing rather to be admired than solved, leaving to the Reader thereby (in a manner) to adore the great Maker, in the variousnes of his works; I thinke much more may I be excused not to pry too deepely in it.
Quest. What is the cause then, seeing the Moone is alike in power over all waters, that Lakes and Rivers flow not and ebbe not as well as the Sea doth?
Answ. Because these waters are neither large nor deepe enough for her to worke upon, and so they receive but a small portion of her influence.
Quest. What is the reason? why, seeing the Sea is salt,Why Lakes & Rivers ebbe not nor flow not. that the Rivers and Fountaines which flow from her (for we all know that the Sea is the Mother of all other waters) as to her they runne all back againe (exinde fluere, saith the Poet, & retro sublapsareferri) are not salt likewise?
Answ. Because the Earth through whose veines [Page 24] and conduits these waters doe passe to burst forth thereafter in springs, cleanseth and mundifieth all saltnesse from them as they passe.
It seemeth that your former discourse maketh way for answer to such as aske,Why the Sea w [...]xes never more nor lesse for all the waters runne to and from it. why the Sea doth never debord nor accreace a whit, notwithstanding that all other waters doe degorge themselves into her bosome, the reason being, because there runneth ever as much out of her to subministrate water to springs and rivers, as she affordeth them.
But is it possible which is reported that our late Navigators have found by experience,Quest. that the Seas water so many fathomes below the superficies is fresh so that now they may draw up waters to their shippes by certaine woodden or rather yron vessells,If the Seas be fresh some fathomes below he superfice. which ovally closed, doe slyde thorough the first two or three fathomes of the salted superfice downe to the fresh waters, where artificially it opens, and being filled, straight shutteth againe, and so is drawne up, which they report to have but small difference in tast from the waters of fresh Rivers, which (if it bee true) is a strange, but a most happily discovered secret.
Answ. Yea it is possible, for probably it may be thought, that the Sunnes raies which before are granted to bee the cause of the Seas saltnesse, penetrate no further than the first superfice; like as on the contrary the coldnesse of the Northerne windes freezeth, but the uppermost water congealing them into Ice; or the reason may better be the perpetuall and constant running and disgolfing of Rivers, brookes and springs from the earth into it: And verily I could be [Page 25] induced to thinke the Mediterranean sea, the Sound of Norwey, and such like which lye low, and are every where encompassed with the higher land except where they breake in from the greater Ocean,The probability, that certaine Seas may be fresh low. that such Seas should be fresh low, in regard of the incessant currents of large Rivers into them, and in respect they doe not furnish water back again to the springs, rivers, and fountaines, seeing they are low beneath the earth; yea it hath troubled many braines to understand what becommeth of these waters which these Seas dayly receave: but it cannot bee receaved for possible, that the waters of the great Ocean are fresh, at least drinkably fresh under the first two or three fathomes, it being by God in natures decree made salt for portablenesse.
Sect. 7.
That the Mountaines and valleys dispersed over the earth, hindreth not the Compleatnesse of its roundnesse: Of burning mountaines, and Caves within the earth.
BVt leaving the Sea,Quest. thus much may be demaunded concerning the earth, why it is said to be round? since there are so inaccessible high mountaines and such long tracts of plaine valleys scattered over it all?
Answ. These mountaines and valleys are no more in respect of the earth to hinder its roundnesse, then a little flie is upon a round bowll, or a naile upon a [Page 24] [...] [Page 25] [...] [Page 26] wheele to evince the rotunditie of it, for the protuberances of such knobs deface not the exact roundnesse of the whole Globe, as not having a comparable proportion with it.
But what signifie these burning mountaines so frightfull to men, which may be seene in severall places of the earth; as that of Island called Hecla, in Sicilie called Aetna, besides the burning hills of Naples which I have seene, one in Mexico in our new found lands of America so formidable as is wonderfull: If the earth be cold as you give it forth to be; then how can these mountaines burne so excessively; or if they bee chimneys of hell venting the fire which burneth there in the center of the earth, or not?
Answ. No question, but as there are waters of divers sorts,Reason for the burning hi [...]ls which are in divers Countries. some sweet, others salt, and others sulphureous, according to the minerall veynes they run thorough; right so there be some partes of the earth more combustible then others, which once being enflamed and kindled either by the heate of the Sunnes beames, or by some other accident, and then fomented by a little water (which rather redoubleth the heate then extinguisheth it; as we see by experience in our farriers or smiths forges, where to make their coales or charco ales burne the bolder, they bedew or besprinkle them with water) they hold stil burning, the sulphureous ground ever subministrating fewell to the inflammation. But they and the like do not hinder the earths being cold, no more, than one or two Swallowes make not the spring of the yeare.
But yet, if so be the earth be so solid and massie as you say it is, and that it admitteth no vacuitie; How [Page 27] and whence proceede these terrible earth-quakes, tremblings, palpitations, to the overwhelming of Cities, shaking of Towers and steeples, &c.
Answ. No question but as these are commonly prodigies and fore-runners of Gods wrath to bee inflicted upon the Land where they happen,The true cause of earth-quakes. as may be seene in the second booke of the Kings chap. 22. Commota est, & contremuit terra, & quoniamiratus est Dominus; So some way lacke not their owne naturall causes: and they be chiefly comprehended in one for all,The comparison of the earth and mans a body. and this is it, that the earth is not unfitly compared unto a living mans body, the rocks and stones whereof are his bones, the brookes and rivers serpenting thorough it, the veynes and sinewes conveying moistnesse from their fountaines unto all the members; the hollow of our bowells and of the trunke of our bodies, to the vast and spacious cavernes and caves within the body of this earth (and yet these not hindering the massinesse of the earth, for where earth is, it is massie indeed) within the which hollow of our bodyes our vitious windes are enclosed, which if they have no vent, presently they beget in us Iliak passions, collicks, &c. whereby our whole body is cast into a distemper and disturbed; even as the windes enclosed in these cavernes, and hollow subterranean places, preassing to have vent, and not finding any, making way to themselves, do then beget these earth-quakes. And of this opinion is Aristotle lib. 2. Meteor. cap. 7.
Sect. 8.
Of time, whether it bee the Producer or Consumer of things: of the wisedome, and Sagacity of some Horses, and Dogges: How the Adamant is Mollified of the needle in the Sea compas: and the reason of its turning alwayes to the North.
SEeing there is nothing more properly ours, than time, and seeing it is the eldest daughter of nature; How is this, that you Philosophers bereave us of our best inheritance saying that there no time at all: in respect (say you) the time past, is gone, the future and time to come is not yet,Reasons why there is no time▪ and the time present is ever glyding and running away, yea and your Aristotle calleth it but a number of motions: seeing then it consisteth but of parts not having a permanent being, it cannot be said to be at all, say you.
Answ. Our true Philosophers reason not so, it is but our Sophists who by their insnaring captions doe cavil thus, therfore take heed of the subdolousnesse of their proposition,The Reasons confuted. which is not universally true: for admit that maxime might hold, concerning the standing and not standing of a thing in its parts, in subjects materiall essentiall and permanent, yet it must not evert things of a fluid and successanean nature, such as time is: and whereas they say that the parts of time are not, they mistake; in so farre as time is to be measured by now, which the Greekes doe terme [...], which ever existeth, and by which indeed time is said properly to have existence.
[Page 29] Quest. What things hold you to be in Time? or whether is Time the consumer, or the producer of things?
Answ. To the first,What things are said to be in Time. with Aristotle, I understand onely such things to be in Time as are subiect to mutations, changes, risings, and fallings, such as are all naturall things below the Sphere of the Moone; by which meanes, things sempiternall wanting both beginning and ending, whose diuturnity cannot be measured by time, cannot fall under it.
2. Ans. To the second, whether Time be the producer or consumer of things; I answer, that as in the contravertible points of Philosophy our learned disagree amongst themselves; so herein they agree not aright; indeed Aristotle (whom customably we all follow) in his 8. Cap. lib. 4. Physic [...]n, will have Time rather to be the cause of the ruine and decay of all things, and that by vertue of its motion, by which sublunary bodies are altered and corrupted, rather than of their rising, increase, or growing. And with him many of our Poets,
To which opinion of Aristotle Cardan adhereth, calling Time the Author of life and death: but as Iulius Scaliger hath refuted divers of his opinions in his exercitation, 352. not without reason hath he confuted this also, making Time to bee an accidentall cause of the decay of things; for beside Time there [Page 30] must be causa agens which is the Law of Nature ingrafted in all things living, moving, creeping, vegetating, by which they tend to ruine: as sinne in Man (besides his naturall corruption) is, and must bee thought the Author of his death.
Now seeing your Philosophy admitteth no other difference betwixt Men and Beasts,Quest. but the use of reason, wherewith we are endued above them; how wil you tearme those many reasonable things performed by Beasts, wherof our Histories are full: as that of Bucephalus of Alexander the Great,Of the wittinesse of Dogs [...]nd Horses. who would suffer none to back him but his Master, though never so artificially disguised in his apparell; Iulius Caesar his Horse likewise, who at his death was observed to fast so long, is remarkeable: and that of Nicomedes, who because his Lord was killed in the field, choosed rather to dye starving for hunger, than to survive him: Stories of the sagacity of Dogs, bookes are fully replenished wth; the example of one only shall suffice; ‘This Dog being with his Master,Of the love of a Dog to his Master. when a Robber killed him for his purse, and had flung him into a River that he might not be found againe, did first leape into the River after his dead Master, and then upon his shoulders bore up his head so long, as any breath was remaining within him, thereafter discerning him to be dead, straight followes the rogue by his sent to the Citie, finds him, and incessantly barketh at him whithersoever he went; while at length, his Master being missed, and the Rogue under suspicion of robbery, and the Dogs violent pursuing the fellow drew the people into a jealousie of the murther: whereupon the robber being called before [Page 31] a Iudge,Discourse of a Dogs memory. after due examination confessed the murther, was condemned, & died for the fact.’ Now I demand, if these and the like doings of Beasts be not founded upon reason whereof we men brag as of a greater prerogative above them?
Answ. No wayes; for we must distinguish betwixt actions of true reason, such as ours are; and these which are done by a naturall instinct or sensitive faculty of sagacity, use and custome, but most especially, from that which is a neere tying bond even amongst the cruellest of Beasts, a perpetuall resenting of a good turne received; as is manifest in the example of the Lion,Distinction between things done by reason and a naturall inclination. who not onely saved the life of that poore condemned caitive, who fled into his denne and cave, because he pulled out of his pawe the thorne which molested him, but likewise fed him, by killing beasts of all sorts and bringing them unto him; whereof Gellius at length; and out of him Du Bartas.
If I should follow forth here all other questions of Natures secrets, the taske were long and tedious, and peradventure, lesse pleasant to the Reader, than painfull to me: as why, the Adamant-stone which (of its owne nature) is so hard, that neither fire nor Iron can bruise or break it, is neverthelesse broke in peeces in a dishfull of hot Goates-bloud, soft bloud being more powerfull than hard Iron? Whether fishes doe breath or not, seeing they have no lungs the bellowes of breath? What can be the cause of the Loadstones attractive power to draw Iron unto it? Why, some Plants and Herbes ripen sooner than others? Or what makes a member of a Man or Beast being cut [Page 32] from the body, to dye presently; and yet branches of trees cut off will retaine their lively sap so long within them?That certaine plants & herbs vvill grow hi [...]dlier together than others. Whether or not there be such affinity, and to say love amongst plants and herbes, that some will more fruitfully increase, being set, planted, or sowen, together, then when mixed amongst others, according to that of the Poet,
To which questions, & some others hereafter to be handled, for me to give answer, were no lesse presumption and foole-hardinesse, than a demonstration of my grosser ignorance; since, Cardan and Scaliger are so farre from agreement in these matters, as may be seen in Scaligers Exercitations; yet having propounded these questions, and to say nothing of my owne opinion touching the solution of such Riddles (as wee call them) were someway an imputation; and I might be equally blamed with those who leade their neighbour upon the Ice, and leave him there; wherefore thus I adventure.
And first, why the Adamant which for hardnesse is able to abide both the force of the fire, and dint of any hammer, yet being put in Goates-bloud, parteth asunder.
Answ. Howbeit Scaliger in his 345. Exercitation Sect. 8. giveth no other reason than that absolutely, it is one of the greatest miracles and secrets of Nature; and therein refuteth their opinions, who alleage the Analogie and agreement of the common principles of Nature; which are common to the bloud and to [Page 33] the Adamant together,The true cause how the hard Adamant is dissolved in a dish of Goats bloud. to be the cause; yet I thinke for my owne part, that if any naturall reason may be given in so hidden a mystery, it may be this; That Goates (as we all know) live and feed usually on cliffie Rocks wheron herbs of rare pearcing and penetrative vertues and qualities grow; (neither is the derivation of that herbes name Saxifrage other, than from the power it hath to breake stones asunder) Goates then, feeding on such rockie-herbes as these, no wonder that their bloud having Analogie and proportion to their food, be penetrative, and more proper to bee powerfull in vertue, than otherwayes convertible in fatnesse, for wee see them of all grazing Beasts the leanest.
Quest. Now by what power draweth the Loadstone Iron unto it?
Answ. Aristotle in the 7th. Booke of his Physicks which almost al other Philosophers do affirme,What maketh the Loadstone draw Iron. That the Loadstone attracteth Iron unto it by their similitude and likenesse of substances; for so you see they are both of a like colour: and that must be the cause how the false-Prophet Mahomet, his Chest of Iron, wherein his bones are, doth hang miraculously unsupported of any thing, because either the pend or some verticall stone of the Vault where it is kept, is of Loadstone: and thus with Iulius Scaliger, Exercitatione, 151. I disallow Caspar Bartholinus his opinion, who alleageth that the Loadstone doth not meerely and solely by its attractive faculty draw Iron unto it, but for that it is nourished and fed by Iron; for nothing more properly can bee said to feed, than that which hath life. Therefore, &c.
[Page 34] Here also it will not be amisse to adde the reason why the Needles of Sea-compasses (as these of other Sun-Dyals) being touched by the Loadstone, doe alwayes turne to the North;What maketh the Needle in a Sea compasse turne ever to the North. and this is the most received; That there is under our North-Pole a huge black Rock under which our Ocean surgeth and issueth forth in foure Currants, answerable to the foure corners of the Earth, or the foure winds, which place (if the Seas have a source) must bee thought to be its spring; and this Rock is thought to be all of Loadstone; so that by a kinde of affinity (it would seeme) by a particular instinct of nature, it draweth all other such like stones or other metals touched by them towards it. So that the reason of the Needles turning to the North in Compasses is that Nigra rupes of Loadstone lying under our North Pole: which by the attractive power it hath, draweth all things touched by it, or its alike thither.
Section 9.
Of Fishes, if they may be said to breath, seeing they lack pulmons: Of flying fishes, if such things may be, &c. which are the reasons of their possibility, are deduced, exemplified.
Quest. BVT whether and after what manner can Fishes be said to breath, seeing they have no lungs, the bellowes of breath?
Answ. This question hath beene agitated many Ages agoe, both pro & contra, as we say; Arist. cap. 1. [Page 35] De respiratione, denying that they can breath: Plato and divers others of his Sect affirming the contrary: they who maintaine the negative part do reason thus; Creatures that want the Organs and Instruments of breathing,Reasons pr [...] and contra that fishes breath. cannot be said to breath or respire; but such are all fishes, therefore, &c.
The opposites on the other side doe thus maintaine their breathing; all living creatures not onely breath, but so necessarily must breath that for lack of it they dye, as experience sheweth: nay, that the very insects, or (as you would say) demi-creatures, they must breathe: but fishes are living Creatures, therefore they must breathe. The Aristotelians answering this, distinguish the major proposition, restraining the universality of it but to such Creatures as live in the Aire, whereas there is no Ayre in the water, the nature of it not admitting place for Ayre as the Earth doth, which being opened with any Instrument, as with a Plough or Spade, may admit Ayre; whereas the waters will fill all the void presently againe, as we may see by buckets, boxes, or any other materiall thing, being put into the water, and taken out againe, doe leave no vacuum behinde them; for the waters doe straight wayes reincorporate: seeing then there is no Ayre in the Fishes Element, they cannot nor need not be said to breath; for contrariwise wee see that being drawne from the waters to the Ayre they doe incontinently dye.
For answer to both extreames,What way fishes may be said to breath. I could allow for fishes a kind of respiration called refrigeration, which improperly may be said to be respiration; but since nothing properly can be said to breath but that which [Page 36] hath lungs, (the instruments of breathing) which indeed fishes have not: The conclusion is cleare; That they have rather a sort of refrigeration, then respiration.
Quest. If herring can [...]ie. But is it of truth which wee heare of our Navigators, that in the Southerne seas they have seene flying fishes, and herring like a foggie or moist cloud fleeing above their heads, and falling againe in the Seas with a rushing and flushing?
Answ. Yea I thinke it possible; for the great Creator, as he hath created the foules of the Aire, the beasts of the earth, and the fishes of the Sea, at the first creation, in their owne true kindes; So hath hee made of all these kindes Amphibia. And as there are foure footed beasts and fowles of double kinds, living promiscuously on land and water, why may there not be fishes of that nature also? of which hereafter. So hath hee indued the Aire (as the more noble element of the three) with that prerogative; that in it, either fowles or watery creatures might be engendred; out of vapors either moist or terrestriall, or extracted from standing lakes, stanckes, marishes, myres, or the like oyly and marshie places; which waters, elevated to the Aire, by the violent operation of the Sunnes beames, either from the Seas, or the fore-said places,How herring may be engendred in the Aire. by the benefit of the warme Aire, where they abide, as in the fertile belly of a fruitfull mother, doe there receave the figure either of frogge or fish, according to the predominancy of the matter whereof that vapor is composed; from whence again as all heavie things doe tend downeward, so doe they also. Which hath made some suppose that herrings, [Page 37] (by them called flying fishes) doe descend from the aire,A sea-sawing r [...]on why herring [...] site. their place of generation: where indeed more truly, the error commeth this way; the Herrings, in their season, doe come in great shoales (as Sea men say) upon the superfice of the waters, where scudding along the coasts, some sudden gale of wind (they being elevated upon the top of some vaste wave) may chance to blow them violently so farre, till they encounter, and light on a higher billow, which hath made Marriners thinke they flie.
Quest. What have you to say to this, that as there are fishes extraordinary, so I have heard of fowles without either feete or plumes?
Answ. Fowles they cannot be,Apodes, or fowles without feet or Plumes. because fowles are defined to be living creatures feathered and two footed; and since these are not such, fowles they cannot be: And yet Iulius Scaliger exercitatione 228. sect. 1. & 24. maketh mention of them, calling them Apodes, which Greeke word is as much as without feete.
Quest. But, leaving the various diversities of fowles, as the Geese who hatch their egges under their paw,Of Claick Geese. or foote, and the like, how doe those claick geese in Scotland breed, whereof Du Bartas maketh mention as of a rare work of nature?
Answ. Their generation is beyond the ordinary course of nature, in so much that ordinarily one creature begetteth another; but so it is, that this fowle is engendred of certaine leaves of trees, out of which in a manner it buddeth, and ripeneth; Now, these trees [Page 38] growing upon the bankes of lakes, doe, at their due time, cast these leaves, which falling into the lake, doe there so putrifie, that of them is engendred a Worme, which by some secret fomentation & agitation of the waters, with the Suns helpe, groweth by little and little to be a fowle somewhat bigger than a Mallard, or wild Duck; and in those waters they live and feed, and are eaten by the inhabitants thereabouts.
First then, I resolve their questions who argument against the possibility of this generation, and then I shall cleare you of that doubt you have proposed: thus it standeth then with these Argumentators; when Aristotle in his last chapter of his third booke De generatione animalium, before he had dissenssed the materiall causes of all kind of perfect creatures, In the end falleth upon the materiall cause of insects, and so of the lesse perfect;Diverse kindes of Insects. one kinde of them he maketh to be produced of a Marish clay an earthie and putrified slimie substance, whereof wormes, froggs, snailes and the like are produced; the Sun beames, as the efficient cause, working upon that matter; The other sort is more perfect, and these are our Bees, waspes, flyes, midges and so forth, which are engendred of some putrified substance, as, peradventure, of a dead horse, oxe, or asse; out of which by the operation of the environing aire, and the internal putrefaction together they are brought forth:Sea Insects. The insects of the Sea are said to have the like generations, whereof Aristotle De historia Animalium, lib. 1. cap. 1. Et in libro de respiratione; and lately the learned Scaliger Exercitatione 191 sect. 2. Notwithstanding the venerable testimony and authority of such famous Authors; yet our [Page 39] beleevers of miracles doe reason thus both against the generation of the Claik Geese; and of the Insects also.
Every thing begotten must be engendred of a like unto it selfe,Reasons why Insects are not propagated by a Celestiall heat. as men, horse, Sheepe, Neat, &c. engender their life; and this by the warrant and authoritie of Aristotle else where, but particularly cap. 7. Meteor. Text 2.
Quest. But so it is that the body of the heavens, the Sun and his heate, are no wayes similia or alike unto these Insects produced and procreated from the slymie and putrified matters above rehearsed.
And therefore that cannot be the way of their generation. Thus they.
Answ. To this answer must be made Philosophically, in distinguishing the word alike to it selfe; for things may be said alike unto other, either of right, or univoce as they say in the Schooles: That way indeed our Insects are not a like to the putrified earth or beast they came of, but Analogice they may be said to be alike, that is, in some respect, in so farre as they communicate in this, that they are produced of the earth, and by the warmenesse of the Sun, which are things actually existing.
Quest. Now to cleere the question concerning fowles wanting feete and feathers; whether may such things be, or not?
Ans. Yea, for as the great Creator hath ordained in nature betwixt himselfe and us men here, Angels, yea good and bad spirits; betwixt sensitive and insensitive Creatures, mid creatures which wee call Zoophyta, and Plantanimalia, as the Fishes Holuthuna, stella marina, [Page 40] Pulmo marinus, &c. Even so betwixt fowles and fishes, nature produced middle or meane creatures, by the Greekes called [...], or beasts of two lives;What middle Creatures are. partly living by waters, partly by earth; And of this sort these fowles must be, as betwixt land beasts and fishes, are frogs, and Crocodills; and some others the like.
Sect. 10.
Of fishes, and their generation: How fowles are generated in the waters. If gold can be made potable; and of the matter of precious stones.
Question. BVt you have not as yet sufficiently enough satisfied my minde of that scruple, wherewith it was perplexed: for I was saying that if things on the earth were propagated by their likes, as by the authority of Aristotle I did instance, and almost unto that the Lyrick Poet Horace applaudeth while he saith, although not to this purpose wholly, fortes creantur fortibus, and againe, Nec imbellem feroces progenerant aquilae columbam; How fishes can be said to live by the Sea seeing their flesh is more firme then the water whereof they are gene [...]ted. then how can fishes be said to live, and have their substance of, and by the Sea? For if the Maxime both of Philosophie and medicine hold good, that we exist and have our being of those things wherof we are nourished; surely fishes existing of a more grosse and more materiall substance than water is, cannot be said to live by the Sea; much lesse Fowles, seeing their flesh is more terrestriall, and for that cause they build and bring forth their young ones upon the Land; whereas otherwayes it [Page 41] should seeme that they live and have their essence, and existence from the Sea: for in Genesis we reade, that the Great Creator commanded the waters to produce swimming, creeping, and flying creatures upon the Earth?
Answ. With Aristotle whom you object to mee, you must consider, that in the fire and ayre no Creature is framed: For so in the 4th. Booke of his Meteors he holdeth: from them two indeed he admitteth vertue and power to bee derived to those which are created upon the Earth,How fowles are brought forth in waters and in the Waters; true it is, that Fowles being volatile Creatures, their generation should have fallen by lot in the Ayre; but in respect that none can be well procreated there, the next Element became their bringer forth; as neerest in nature to the Ayre, and as being little lesse than a condensed Ayre, from which these Foules might soone flye up: so that all things here below being made up of a dry, and then of a thickned moist matter, which are the Earth and Waters; no marvell, that properly of them all things are procreated: howbeit they may be said to have their temperament and vertues from the superior two, fire and ayre: and where it may be objected how the matter of Fishes should be so firme and solid, they being nourished by the thin, waterish, and slimy substance of the waters; it must be considered that the Seas and waters are not so exempted of some mixture of earth in them, out that even as the Earth some way participateth of them,The cause of the firme flesh of fishes. so they impart partly to it their moistnesse againe; of which mixture both Fowles and Fishes doe live.
[Page 42] Quest. What is your opinion concerning the potablenesse of Gold, after which, our Chymists, and Extractors of quintessences, Calcinators, and Pulverizers of Metals make such search and labour; whereby Gold made drinkable (as they undertake) our youth neere spent may be renewed againe, all diseases cured, and the drinker thereof to live for many Ages?
Answ. Although Gold of all Metals be the King,That Gold cannot bee made potable. as the Sun amongst the Planets, and that it is the softest of all, and most volatile, so the easiest to bee extended and wrought upon; in so much, that one Ounce of it is able to cover many Ounces, and Pounds of Silver: yea, although of all Metals it abideth the triall of the fire best, and loseth nothing by it, as Arist. in the 3. Booke of his Meteors, cap. 6. observeth; yet that it may be made potable I doubt much of it, and am a Galenist in that point, and that for these two notable reasons which Iulius Scaliger setteth downe in his 272. Exercitation.
First, because there must bee some resemblance betwixt the body nourished and the thing that nourisheth; which no more holdeth betwixt our bodies and gold, than betwixt a living and a dead thing.
Secondly, because nothing is able to nourish us, which the heate of our stomack is not able to digest: But such is Gold, and therefore, &c. Alwayes of the worth and vertue of Gold, reade Plinius, lib. 1. &c. 3. cap [...] 1.
Quest. Now what is the matter of precious-Stones;The matter of precious stones earth it cannot be; for it is heavie, dull, and blackish coloured; they are glitteringly transparent like Stars: water it is not, for even Crystalline Ice will dissolve, [Page 43] whereas they for hardnesse are almost indissoluble: yet Cleopatra is said to have liquefide a Pearle to Anthonie.
Answ. They are of most purified earth, not without some mixture of moistnesse, but such as are both mavellously by the force of the Sun subtilized, tempered, and concocted.
Section 11.
Of the Earth, its circumference, thicknesse, and distance from the Sunne.
OVR Cosmographers generally,Quest. but more particularly our Geographers have beene very bold to take upon them the hability (as I am informed) to shew how many graines of Wheate or Barley will encompasse the whole Earth, which I esteeme a thing impossible to any mortall man to doe, and therefore frivolous to be undertaken: and I think it very much, if they can demonsttate how many Miles it is in compasse, leaving to trouble their wits with the other: yet hereupon I desire to be resolved.
Answ. The Philosophicall generall knowledge of things,Two Philosophicall wayes to know things. is twofold, either knowing things which fall under the reach of their Science in their effects, thereby to come to the knowledg of the cause; or contrariwise, by the cause first to know the effects to come. But the Mathematicall demonstrations, whereof Geometry is a part, consist not in these speculations, but in reall demonstrations; and that in such sort, that [Page 44] their positions being once well founded, thereon they may build what they please; whereas on the other side, a little error or mistaking in the beginning, becommeth great and irreparable in the end: and so to make way to your answer; there is no question, but if once a Geometrian give up the infallible number of the Miles which the Earth will reach to in compasse, but soone and on a sudden hee may shew how many graines will encompasse it; for it is universally held that the Earth is in circuit one and twenty thousands and so many odde hundred Miles; a Mile consisteth of a thousand paces, a pace of five feet, a foot of foure palmes, a palme of foure fingers breadth, a fingers beadth of foure Barley cornes; and so from the first to the last, the number of the Miles holding sure, the supputation of the graines number will cleere it selfe by Multiplication.
Quest. By that meanes I see you seeme to make no difficulty of that whereof I so much doubted?
Answ. No indeed; and in this point I perceive how farre learned men are to be respected above ignorants; yea as much as Pearles, Diamonds, or precious Stones are to be preferred to grosse Minerals.
Quest. Seeing all depende upon the knowledge of the Earths compasse, then how many Miles hold you it to be in roundnesse?
Answ. The discovery of our new found-lands,What leeteth that We cannot aright give up the supputation of the Earths cricumference. and the confident assurance which our moderne Navigators and Mappers have of this Terra australis incognita, maketh that punctually not to be pointed out: but what may satisfie in that, or in knowing how thick the masse of the Earth is, in how many dayes a man [Page 45] might compasse it about, if by land it were all travellable: or conjecturally to shaddow how great is the distance betwixt the Earth and the Firmament, I referre you to the Title of Curiosity following; for as I finde a discrepance amongst our most learned Writers, in divers most important heads of their professsion; So in this point also I finde them variable and disassenting;Diversity of opinions concerning the worlds Compasse. for Elias Vineti commenting on Sacrobosk upon that Text, giveth forth the Earths compasse to extend to above two hundred and fifty thousand stadia, whereof every eight maketh up our Mile; which shall farre exceed the most received opinion of our expertest Mathematicians; who by their moderne Computations make the reckoning of its circumference but to amount to one and twenty thousand miles and six hundred; & that answerably to the three hundred and sixty degrees wherewith they have divided the great heavenly Circle, and proportionably thereunto the Earth.
Yet pondering aright the discrepance and oddes which doth arise betwixt our learned Authors, concerning the compasse of the Earths Globe, wee shall perceive it to proceed from the great diversity of Miles in divers Nations, every man understanding them to be the Miles of that Nation wherein hee liveth: but speaking to our Natives of Britanne, it is found by daily experience of Mathematicians, that if a man goe 60. of our British Miles further to the North, then (I say) visibly he shall perceive the Pole to rise a degree higher, and the Equinoctiall to fall a degree lower; whereby it is manifest, that to one degree of the great Circle of heaven (such as is the Meridian) [Page 44] [...] [Page 45] [...] [Page 46] there answereth on earth 60. of our myles; Now there being in every such great circle 360. degrees or equall parts, multiplying 360. by 60;The earths circumference or compasse. wee finde that they produce 21600. myles British: for a line imagined to passe by the South and North Poles, and so encompasse the earth, would easily appeare to amount to the same computation.
As for the diametricall thicknesse of the earth;The thicknesse of the earth. the proportions of a circles circumference to its diameter (or lyne crossing from one side to the other thorough the centre) being somewhat more than the triple, such as is the proportion of 22 to 7. called by Arithmeticians triple Sesquiseptima, triple with a seaventh part more; and seeing the circumference of the great circle of the earth is a little lesse than 22000 myles; it followeth, that the thicknesse or diameter of it from face to face, is a little more than 7000. And consequently the halfe diameter, viz. from the circumference to the centre neer about 3600 miles. Now then suppose a man to travell under the equinoctiall or middle lyne of the earth betwixt the two poles, making every day 15. of our British myles; It is manifest that such a Traveller should compasse the whole circumference of the earth in three yeares 345 dayes, some 20. dayes lesse than 4 yeares: As for the distance of the earth from the firmament, I dare not give you it for current:Distance of the earth from heaven. yet in the Schooles thus they shadow it, that the aires diametrical thicknesse is ten times above that of the waters; the waters diameter ten times above that of the earth: By the Aire I understand here all that vast interstice betwixt us and the Moone; which if it be true, counteth it selfe: but [Page 47] because the distance betwixt the centre of the earth and the centre of the Sun is more particularly specified by our Astronomers; therefore to give you further content, thus much of it you shall understand; that if you will remarke diligently, and compare together the observations of Ptolomeus, Albategnius, and Allacen, you shall finde, that the aforesaid disstance betwixt the centre of the earth and that of the Sun containeth the earths Semidiameter 1110. times: Now as I have said before, the earths Semidiameter being somewhat lesse then 3500. we shall take it in a number, to wit 3400. Which if you multiply by the aforesaid 1110. the product will shew you the whole distance betwixt the centre of the earth and the centre of the Sun to be 3774000.The most approved opinion of the earths distance from the Sun. Three millions, seaven hundred seaventie foure thousand myles: likewise if from this number you substract 3400. myles for the earths Semidiameter from the centre to the superfice, and 18700 myles, which is the Suns halfe diameter according to the doctrine of the afore-named Astronomers, there remaineth 3751900. myles, as the distance betwixt the uppermost superfice of the earth which we tread upon, and the neerest superfice of the Sunne, which being the chiefe and middle of the planets may conjecturally shaddow forth the distance of the earth from the heavens.