Varieties: or, A surveigh of rare and excellent matters necessary and delectable for all sorts of persons. Wherein the principall heads of diverse sciences are illustrated, rare secrets of naturall things unfoulded, &c. Digested into five bookes, whose severall chapters with their contents are to be seene in the table after the epistle dedicatory. By David Person, of Loghlands in Scotland, Gentleman.

The first Booke of Varieties. CONTAINING, A DISCOVRSE AND DISCOVERIE OF some of the Rarest and most Profi∣table 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 se∣verall ages, was accounted not an inven∣tion of mortall men,* 1.1 but a precious Iewell, and an in∣estimable propine, sent downe from the Gods above;

Thereby, in a manner, to make men partakers of their divine knowledge: which made the Poets feigne Mi∣nerva (the patronesse and president of wisdome) to have issued from Iupiter's braine, and the Muses (nur∣ses of learning) to be his daughters) it is no wonder that Plato in his Timaeo, and M. T. Cicero, do so high∣ly extoll the knowledge of it, giving to it the Attri∣butes of the Searcher of vertue, the Expeller, and cha∣ser 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,* 1.2 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 per∣fect understanding (at least, so farre as humane wit can reach) of all the secrets that Mother Nature con∣taineth 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 de∣lightfull instructions? for thereby every sort of men, whether Moralist or Christian, may have his know∣ledge bettered;* 1.3 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,

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 under∣stand, except a very few, and these pregnant wits only: For Logicke,* 1.4 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 propoun∣ded.

Metaphysicks againe,* 1.5 contrary to the Physicks, medleth with things transcendent and supernaturall, wherto every reader is not called, and wherof al alike are not capable;* 1.6 neither are the Mathematicks befit∣ting every spirit, giving hard essayes even to the most pregnant wits, all not being alike capable of the di∣mensions and mensurations of bodily substances; no more than all are for the Military precepts and Ar∣chitecture, Printing, Navigation, Structure of Ma∣chins, and the like; which are things consisting in Me∣chanick and Reall doings: neither are all alike able for Musick, Arithmetick, Astronomy, Geometry, &c.

whereas all men as fellow-inhabitants of one World, and the workmanship of one Hand, by an inbred pro∣pensenes, w^th 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,* 1.7 I answer not the vast expectation of the overcu∣rious; the more modest and discreet Reader will rest satis∣fied▪ 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 re∣ward I expected.

Section 1.

Of the matter whereof the Heavens are composed with the confutation of various opinions of Philosophers con∣cerning it.

ALthough the world, and all comprehended with∣in 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,* 1.8 against the Philosophicall conceits; (Of the Worlds eternity,

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 pre∣sent, 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,* 1.9 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 definitive∣ly, 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 Philo∣sophers upon this subject: For Averroes in his first booke of the heavens, and there in Text 7. and

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 un∣der 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 mo∣vable Essences consist of matter and forme, as Ari∣stotle in his second booke of Physicke chap. 1. hol∣deth.* 1.10 But so it is that the heavens are movable, ther∣fore 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 mat∣ter to be common with them, and the sublunarie bo∣dies, 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,* 1.11 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

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 sim∣ple body; But so it is that we finde a circular moti∣on 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 pro∣per and naturall motions than one. Wherefore it fol∣loweth of necessitie, that seeing none of the elements have this circular motion as is before verified, there∣fore 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 be∣low, and consequently would involve them under corruption, which is peculiar to all other things; their warrant is of no validitie: for although they take up∣on them, to demonstrate, by their late Astronomi∣call observations in the Aetherian region, new prodi∣gies 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 under∣stand that I doe so adhere unto the heavens incorrup∣tibility,

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 dissoluti∣on, as the low elementarie world.

Quest. You conclude then that the heavens are of a fift substance, not alembecked out of the foure ele∣ments, but an element by it selfe, having it's owne motion severall from the others which is a circu∣lar one?

Answ. Yea, truly I doe.

Quest. But now seeing all circular motion is such,* 1.12 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 (whatsoe∣ver fond conceit Copernicus had concerning the mo∣tion 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 hea∣vens, and their matter, which you hold to be a quin∣tessence, and so a thing distinct from the foure ele∣ments.

Now I crave to understand, what is the mat∣ter 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,* 1.13 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 be∣ing 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 hea∣ven is?

Answ. Because they are the thicker part, and bet∣ter remassed together,* 1.14 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 conden∣sed, 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

floweth from the Sun, the fountaine of all light, and that this is either lesser or more, according to their di∣versitie of matter, and their equality and inequali∣ty, there is no question: For which cause the Sunne is placed in the midst of all the moveable Starres,* 1.15 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, Mercu∣rie, 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,* 1.16 she borroweth that from the Sun. But we may better conceive the weaknesse of her light in her eclipses; when the earths shadow, interposed be∣twixt 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

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 inhabi∣ting; 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;* 1.17 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 re∣spect of the weaknesse of her force to draw to her any heavy dull and earthly humor, which never trans∣cend 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 Ne∣cromancie. 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

constantly on the full and change of the Moone;* 1.18 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 increa∣seth, or waneth, as doe likewise the flesh of all shell fishes. Dayly experience too hath taught your Pru∣ners 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 un∣to the foure Elements whereof the Philosophers will all things below the Moone to be framed and made. First,* 1.19 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 can∣not 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.

Answ. There is not a point of Philosophy, which if you reade judiciously, and peruse the Authors trea∣ting 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,* 1.20 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 gros∣ly 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:* 1.21 seeing they are of a terrestriall ma∣ligne 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. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 sive perspicuum, nisi condensetur, est 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, quia visum non terminat, Iul. Scal. Exer. 9.

There is no such question about the second Ele∣ment

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,* 1.22 than the discourse of the Mete∣ors 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 sym∣pathy 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

(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 moist∣nesse 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;* 1.23 as Aristotle himselfe in his first Book of his Meteors, cap. 2. observeth.

When I speak of the Sun as most principall, I se∣clude 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.* 1.24 The neerest Physicall or naturall cause againe, must be un∣derstood to be cold and heate; heate from these hea∣venly 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,* 1.25 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

the vertue of the heavenly Starres, and the Sunnes warmenesse elevated, I say, by the vertue and warm∣nesse 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,* 1.26 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 va∣pours are hot and moist; thinke it not impossible, al∣though 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 Re∣gion wherein we breath, they fall downe into dew, or in thick mysts.

Thus you see,* 1.27 that these vapours are of a middle or meane nature, betwixt the Ayre and the Waters; be∣cause 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.

And thus as you have heard the efficient and mate∣riall causes of Meteors:* 1.28 So now understand that their forme dependeth upon the disposition of their mat∣ter, 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 ex∣haled fumes, from the Earth, and the most burnt parts thereof are begot the greater quantity of Co∣mets, 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 Regi∣on of ours here; and that through the Sunnes defici∣ency of heate, for the time: for as the uppermost Re∣gion 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,* 1.29 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,

or amongst people gone astray in darke nights. And these our Meteorologians call Ignes fatui & ignes lam∣bentes, 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, deep∣nesse, flux, and reflux; why the mediterranean & Indi∣an 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 renow∣ned Cosmographers, howbeit Plinius Lib. 2. Natura∣lis Histor, cap. 66. and with him Strabo lib. 1. distin∣guish them so, as they would have the waters to com∣passe the earth about the middle,* 1.30 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 in∣deede Ptolomee his opinion is more true, that the earth and waters, mutually and linkingly embrace one ano∣ther and make up one Globe, whose center should be the' center of the world.

But here now I aske,* 1.31 seeing the frame of the uni∣verse is such that the heaven circularly encompasseth the low spheares, each one of them another, these the

fire, it the Aire, the aire againe, encompasseth the wa∣ters; 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 ve∣getable Creatures, if all had beene swallowed up and covered with waters;* 1.32 both which now by their mutu∣all 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?* 1.33

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 shoo∣ting 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 pro∣portionably either deepe or shallow as the earth is ei∣ther high in mountaines or low and streacht forth in vallies?

But what reason can you render for the Seas saltnesse?* 1.34

Answer. If we trust Aristotle in his 2 booke of Me∣teors 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 ele∣vated in vapors, whilest the thicker and more terre∣striall 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 warme∣nesse 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, where∣fore 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,* 1.35 so that the sun beames can catch no hold to make their operati∣on upon them: and as for lakes, because they are ever infreshed with streames of fresh springs which flow

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,* 1.36 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?* 1.37

Answ. To that, all I can say is this, that Ari∣stotle himselfe for all his cunning was so perplexed in following that doubt,* 1.38 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 pro∣bable) 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 flow∣ing 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

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,* 1.39 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 Sy∣stole and Diastole on the neerer parts to it, & maketh a flux and reflux where its force faileth in the extremi∣ties, the hands and feet, the Mediterranean and Indian Seas.

Quest. How is that possible;* 1.40 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 ra∣piditie and vertiginousnesse, that no Ship is able with Wind or Art to returne from that South-Sea back∣ward?

Answ. That must not be thought so much a flow∣ing 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

joyne to this the Easterly-wind which of all others bloweth most commonly (as elsewhere) so there al∣so, which furthereth that violent course: and of this opinion is Peter Martyr in his Decads upon the Histo∣rie of that Countrey.

Quest. Admit all be true you say:* 1.41 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 neverthe∣lesse so different in Nature, and yet so neere in place?

Answ. Seeing Ferdinando Oviedes, who was both Cosmographer & Hydographer leaveth that questi∣on 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 Ri∣vers 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 re∣ceive but a small portion of her influence.

Quest. What is the reason? why, seeing the Sea is salt,* 1.42 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 (ex∣inde fluere, saith the Poet, & retro sublapsareferri) are not salt likewise?

Answ. Because the Earth through whose veines

and conduits these waters doe passe to burst forth thereafter in springs, cleanseth and mundifieth all salt∣nesse from them as they passe.

It seemeth that your former discourse maketh way for answer to such as aske,* 1.43 why the Sea doth never de∣bord nor accreace a whit, notwithstanding that all o∣ther 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 ri∣vers, as she affordeth them.

But is it possible which is reported that our late Navigators have found by experience,* 1.44 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,* 1.45 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 fil∣led, 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 gran∣ted to bee the cause of the Seas saltnesse, penetrate no further than the first superfice; like as on the con∣trary the coldnesse of the Northerne windes freezeth, but the uppermost water congealing them into Ice; or the reason may better be the perpetuall and con∣stant running and disgolfing of Rivers, brookes and springs from the earth into it: And verily I could be

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,* 1.46 that such Seas should be fresh low, in regard of the inces∣sant 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 un∣derstand 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 round∣nesse: Of burning mountaines, and Caves within the earth.

BVt leaving the Sea,* 1.47 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

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wheele to evince the rotunditie of it, for the protube∣rances 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 pla∣ces of the earth; as that of Island called Hecla, in Si∣cilie 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 di∣vers sorts,* 1.48 some sweet, others salt, and others sul∣phureous, according to the minerall veynes they run thorough; right so there be some partes of the earth more combustible then others, which once being en∣flamed and kindled either by the heate of the Sunnes beames, or by some other accident, and then fomen∣ted 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 Swal∣lowes 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

and whence proceede these terrible earth-quakes, tremblings, palpitations, to the overwhelming of Ci∣ties, shaking of Towers and steeples, &c.

Answ. No question but as these are commonly prodigies and fore-runners of Gods wrath to bee in∣flicted upon the Land where they happen,* 1.49 as may be seene in the second booke of the Kings chap. 22. Com∣mota est, & contremuit terra, & quoniamiratus est Do∣minus; So some way lacke not their owne naturall causes: and they be chiefly comprehended in one for all,* 1.50 and this is it, that the earth is not unfitly compa∣red unto a living mans body, the rocks and stones whereof are his bones, the brookes and rivers serpen∣ting thorough it, the veynes and sinewes conveying moistnesse from their fountaines unto all the mem∣bers; 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 Hor∣ses, and Dogges: How the Adamant is Mollified of the needle in the Sea compas: and the reason of its tur∣ning alwayes to the North.

SEeing there is nothing more properly ours, than time, and seeing it is the eldest daughter of na∣ture; 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 fu∣ture and time to come is not yet,* 1.51 and the time present is ever glyding and running away, yea and your Ari∣stotle calleth it but a number of motions: seeing then it consisteth but of parts not having a permanent be∣ing, 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,* 1.52 which is not universally true: for admit that maxime might hold, concerning the stan∣ding and not standing of a thing in its parts, in sub∣jects 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 mea∣sured by now, which the Greekes doe terme 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, which ever existeth, and by which indeed time is said properly to have existence.

Quest. What things hold you to be in Time? or whether is Time the consumer, or the producer of things?

Answ. To the first,* 1.53 with Aristotle, I understand onely such things to be in Time as are subiect to mu∣tations, changes, risings, and fallings, such as are all naturall things below the Sphere of the Moone; by which meanes, things sempiternall wanting both be∣ginning and ending, whose diuturnity cannot be mea∣sured by time, cannot fall under it.

2. Ans. To the second, whether Time be the pro∣ducer or consumer of things; I answer, that as in the contravertible points of Philosophy our learned disa∣gree 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,

Tempus edax rerum,* 1.54 tuque invidiosa vetust as Omnia conteritis,—and againe, Omnia fert aetas, animum quo{que}, &c. Tempora labuntur, tacitis{que} senescimus annis, Et fugiunt (fraeno non remorante) dies.

To which opinion of Aristotle Cardan adhereth, calling Time the Author of life and death: but as Iu∣lius Scaliger hath refuted divers of his opinions in his exercitation, 352. not without reason hath he con∣futed this also, making Time to bee an accidentall cause of the decay of things; for beside Time there

must be causa agens which is the Law of Nature in∣grafted in all things living, moving, creeping, vege∣tating, 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,* 1.55 but the use of rea∣son, wherewith we are endued above them; how wil you tearme those many reasonable things perfor∣med by Beasts, wherof our Histories are full: as that of Bucephalus of Alexander the Great,* 1.56 who would suffer none to back him but his Master, though never so ar∣tificially 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 re∣plenished w^th; the example of one only shall suffice;

This Dog being with his Master,* 1.57 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 discer∣ning him to be dead, straight followes the rogue by his sent to the Citie, finds him, and incessantly bark∣eth at him whithersoever he went; while at length, his Master being missed, and the Rogue under sus∣picion of robbery, and the Dogs violent pursuing the fellow drew the people into a jealousie of the murther: whereupon the robber being called be∣fore

a Iudge,* 1.58 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 be∣twixt actions of true reason, such as ours are; and these which are done by a naturall instinct or sensitive fa∣culty of sagacity, use and custome, but most es∣pecially, 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,* 1.59 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 pain∣full 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

from the body, to dye presently; and yet branches of trees cut off will retaine their lively sap so long with∣in them?* 1.60 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, accor∣ding to that of the Poet,

Vivunt in Venerem frondes, omnis{que} vicissim Felix arbor amat, nutant ad mutua palmae Foedera, populeo suspirat populus ictu, &c.

To which questions, & some others hereafter to be handled, for me to give answer, were no lesse presump∣tion 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 opi∣nion 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 neigh∣bour 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

the Adamant together,* 1.61 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 Load∣stone Iron unto it?

Answ. Aristotle in the 7^th. Booke of his Physicks which almost al other Philosophers do affirme,* 1.62 That the Loadstone attracteth Iron unto it by their simili∣tude 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 un∣supported 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, Exercita∣tione, 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 no∣thing more properly can bee said to feed, than that which hath life. Therefore, &c.

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;* 1.63 and this is the most received; That there is under our North-Pole a huge black Rock under which our Ocean surgeth and issu∣eth 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 Load∣stone; 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 to∣wards 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 touch∣ed 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.

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,* 1.64 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 in∣sects, 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 uni∣versality of it but to such Creatures as live in the Aire, whereas there is no Ayre in the water, the na∣ture 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,* 1.65 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

hath lungs, (the instruments of breathing) which in∣deed fishes have not: The conclusion is cleare; That they have rather a sort of refrigeration, then respi∣ration.

Quest.* 1.66 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,* 1.67 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,

(by them called flying fishes) doe descend from the aire,* 1.68 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 be∣ing 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,* 1.69 because fowles are defined to be living creatures feathered and two footed; and since these are not such, fowles they can∣not 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,* 1.70 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 crea∣ture 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

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 lit∣tle 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 ge∣neratione animalium, before he had dissenssed the mate∣riall causes of all kind of perfect creatures, In the end falleth upon the materiall cause of insects, and so of the lesse perfect;* 1.71 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 effici∣ent 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:* 1.72 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 Exercita∣tione 191 sect. 2. Notwithstanding the venerable testi∣mony and authority of such famous Authors; yet our

beleevers of miracles doe reason thus both against the generation of the Claik Geese; and of the In∣sects also.

Every thing begotten must be engendred of a like unto it selfe,* 1.73 as men, horse, Sheepe, Neat, &c. engen∣der 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 sly∣mie and putrified matters above rehearsed.

And therefore that cannot be the way of their ge∣neration. Thus they.

Answ. To this answer must be made Philosophi∣cally, 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 in∣deed 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 ma∣rina,

Pulmo marinus, &c. Even so betwixt fowles and fishes, nature produced middle or meane creatures, by the Greekes called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, or beasts of two lives;* 1.74 part∣ly 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 gene∣rated in the waters. If gold can be made potable; and of the matter of precious stones.

Question. BVt you have not as yet sufficiently en∣ough 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 al∣most unto that the Lyrick Poet Horace applaudeth while he saith, although not to this purpose wholly, fortes creantur fortibus, and againe, Nec imbellem fe∣roces progenerant aquilae columbam;* 1.75 then how can fi∣shes 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 sub∣stance than water is, cannot be said to live by the Sea; much lesse Fowles, seeing their flesh is more terrestri∣all, and for that cause they build and bring forth their young ones upon the Land; whereas otherwayes it

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 pro∣duce 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 Crea∣ture is framed: For so in the 4^th. Booke of his Mete∣ors he holdeth: from them two indeed he admitteth vertue and power to bee derived to those which are created upon the Earth,* 1.76 and in the Waters; true it is, that Fowles being volatile Creatures, their generati∣on should have fallen by lot in the Ayre; but in re∣spect that none can be well procreated there, the next Element became their bringer forth; as neerest in na∣ture to the Ayre, and as being little lesse than a con∣densed 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 mat∣ter, which are the Earth and Waters; no marvell, that properly of them all things are procreated: how∣beit 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,* 1.77 so they impart partly to it their moistnesse a∣gaine; of which mixture both Fowles and Fishes doe live.

Quest. What is your opinion concerning the po∣tablenesse of Gold, after which, our Chymists, and Extractors of quintessences, Calcinators, and Pulve∣rizers of Metals make such search and labour; where∣by 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,* 1.78 as the Sun amongst the Planets, and that it is the sof∣test of all, and most volatile, so the easiest to bee ex∣tended 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 tri∣all 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 no∣table 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 nouri∣sheth; 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;* 1.79 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,

whereas they for hardnesse are almost indissoluble: yet Cleopatra is said to have liquefide a Pearle to An∣thonie.

Answ. They are of most purified earth, not with∣out some mixture of moistnesse, but such as are both mavellously by the force of the Sun subtilized, tem∣pered, and concocted.

Section 11.

Of the Earth, its circumference, thicknesse, and distance from the Sunne.

OVR Cosmographers generally,* 1.80 but more parti∣cularly 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 com∣passe, leaving to trouble their wits with the other: yet hereupon I desire to be resolved.

Answ. The Philosophicall generall knowledge of things,* 1.81 is twofold, either knowing things which fall under the reach of their Science in their effects, there∣by to come to the knowledg of the cause; or contrari∣wise, by the cause first to know the effects to come. But the Mathematicall demonstrations, whereof Ge∣ometry is a part, consist not in these speculations, but in reall demonstrations; and that in such sort, that

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, be∣commeth 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 com∣passe, 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 thou∣sands and so many odde hundred Miles; a Mile con∣sisteth 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 ig∣norants; yea as much as Pearles, Diamonds, or pre∣cious 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,* 1.82 and the confident assurance which our moderne Naviga∣tors and Mappers have of this Terra australis incogni∣ta, 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

might compasse it about, if by land it were all travel∣lable: or conjecturally to shaddow how great is the distance betwixt the Earth and the Firmament, I re∣ferre you to the Title of Curiosity following; for as I finde a discrepance amongst our most learned Wri∣ters, in divers most important heads of their profes∣ssion; So in this point also I finde them variable and disassenting;* 1.83 for Elias Vineti commenting on Sacrobosk upon that Text, giveth forth the Earths compasse to extend to above two hundred and fifty thousand sta∣dia, 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 circumfe∣rence but to amount to one and twenty thousand miles and six hundred; & that answerably to the three hundred and sixty degrees wherewith they have divi∣ded the great heavenly Circle, and proportionably thereunto the Earth.

Yet pondering aright the discrepance and oddes which doth arise betwixt our learned Authors, con∣cerning 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 li∣veth: 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 de∣gree of the great Circle of heaven (such as is the Me∣ridian)

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there answereth on earth 60. of our myles; Now there being in every such great circle 360. de∣grees or equall parts, multiplying 360. by 60;* 1.84 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 ap∣peare to amount to the same computation.

As for the diametricall thicknesse of the earth;* 1.85 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 Arithmetici∣ans triple Sesquiseptima, triple with a seaventh part more; and seeing the circumference of the great cir∣cle 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 conse∣quently the halfe diameter, viz. from the circumfe∣rence 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:* 1.86 yet in the Schooles thus they shadow it, that the aires diametrical thicknesse is ten times above that of the waters; the waters dia∣meter 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

because the distance betwixt the centre of the earth and the centre of the Sun is more particularly specifi∣ed by our Astronomers; therefore to give you fur∣ther content, thus much of it you shall understand; that if you will remarke diligently, and compare to∣gether the observations of Ptolomeus, Albategnius, and Allacen, you shall finde, that the aforesaid dis∣stance 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.* 1.87 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 Astro∣nomers, there remaineth 3751900. myles, as the di∣stance 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 pla∣nets may conjecturally shaddow forth the distance of the earth from the heavens.

Notes

• * 1.1

  The praise of Philosophy▪
• * 1.2

  Effects of Phi∣losophy.
• * 1.3

  Vses and ends of Philosophy.
• * 1.4

  Of Logick▪
• * 1.5

  Of Metaphy∣sicks.
• * 1.6

  Of Mathema∣ticks▪
• * 1.7

  The Authors Apologie.
• * 1.8

  Questions concerning the World.
• * 1.9

  The way how these questions are propoun∣ded.
• * 1.10

  Diverse opini∣ons of the hea∣vens substance.
• * 1.11

  What is the true matter & substance of the firmament.
• * 1.12

  The earth rol∣led about with the heavens.
• * 1.13

  What is the substance of the stars.
• * 1.14

  What maketh them so cleare.
• * 1.15

  The Sun pla∣ced amiddest the Planets & why.
• * 1.16

  What light the Moone thineth with.
• * 1.17

  what signifieth the black spots in the face of the Moone.
• * 1.18

  The Moones power over sublunarie bo∣dies.
• * 1.19

  Reasons that there is not an lement of fire.
• * 1.20

  Comparison of a Mirrour to variety.
• * 1.21

  Why Com∣mets are seene and not the E∣lement of fire.
• * 1.22

  Knowledge of Meteors fit for men of spirit.
• * 1.23

  The remotest cause of Me∣teors.
• * 1.24

  The neerest cause.
• * 1.25

  Their remo∣test matter.
• * 1.26

  Matter and cause of the moist Me∣teors.
• * 1.27

  Difference be∣twixt fumes and vapours.
• * 1.28

  Great diffe∣rences of the Meteors.
• * 1.29

  What are our S. Anthonies fires.
• * 1.30

  The earth and waters not se∣••cred like the other elements but linked to∣gether.
• * 1.31

  Quest.
• * 1.32

  Why the wa∣ters are not a∣bout the earth▪
• * 1.33

  Quest.
• * 1.34

  Quest.
• * 1.35

  Why lakes and running flouds are not salt.
• * 1.36

  Why some fountaines sa∣vour of brasse, or salt, &c.
• * 1.37

  Quest.
• * 1.38

  Of the Seas ebbing and flowing.
• * 1.39

  Why the Me∣diterranean & West-Indian Seas have no flux or reflux.
• * 1.40

  Of Magellanes Strait, what maketh so violent a tyde there.
• * 1.41

  Why the Mare Del Zur hath flux, and not the neighbou∣ring Sea.
• * 1.42

  Why Lakes & Rivers ebbe not nor flow not.
• * 1.43

  Why the Sea w••xes never more nor lesse for all the wa∣ters runne to and from it.
• * 1.44

  Quest.
• * 1.45

  If the Seas be fresh some fa∣thomes below he superfice.
• * 1.46

  The probabili∣ty, that certaine Seas may be fresh low.
• * 1.47

  Quest.
• * 1.48

  Reason for the burning hi••ls which are in divers Coun∣tries.
• * 1.49

  The true cause of earth-quakes.
• * 1.50

  The compari∣son of the earth and mans a bo∣dy.
• * 1.51

  Reasons why there is no time▪
• * 1.52

  The Reasons confuted.
• * 1.53

  What things are said to be in Time.
• * 1.54

  Aristotles opi∣nion, that Time is the ruine of things how to be ex∣pounded.
• * 1.55

  Quest.
• * 1.56

  Of the witti∣nesse of Dogs ••nd Horses.
• * 1.57

  Of the love of a Dog to his Master.
• * 1.58

  Discourse of a Dogs memory.
• * 1.59

  Distinction between things done by reason and a naturall inclination.
• * 1.60

  That certaine plants & herbs vvill grow hi••dlier toge∣ther than others.
• * 1.61

  The true cause how the hard Adamant is dissolved in a dish of Goats bloud.
• * 1.62

  What maketh the Loadstone draw Iron.
• * 1.63

  What maketh the Needle in a Sea compasse turne ever to the North.
• * 1.64

  Reasons pr•• and contra that fishes breath.
• * 1.65

  What way fish∣es may be said to breath.
• * 1.66

  If herring can ••••ie.
• * 1.67

  How herring may be engen∣dred in the Aire.
• * 1.68

  A sea-sawing r••••••on why herring 〈◊〉〈◊〉 site.
• * 1.69

  Apodes, or fowles without feet or Plumes.
• * 1.70

  Of Claick Geese.
• * 1.71

  Diverse kindes of Insects.
• * 1.72

  Sea Insects.
• * 1.73

  Reasons why Insects are not propagated by a Celestiall heat.
• * 1.74

  What middle Creatures are.
• * 1.75

  How fishes can be said to live by the Sea see∣ing their flesh is more firme then the wa∣ter whereof they are gene∣••••ted.
• * 1.76

  How fowles are brought forth in waters
• * 1.77

  The cause of the firme flesh of fishes.
• * 1.78

  That Gold cannot bee made potable.
• * 1.79

  The matter of precious stones
• * 1.80

  Quest.
• * 1.81

  Two Philoso∣phicall wayes to know things.
• * 1.82

  What leeteth that We can∣not aright give up the supputa∣tion of the Earths cricum∣ference.
• * 1.83

  Diversity of opinions con∣cerning the worlds Com∣passe.
• * 1.84

  The earths cir∣cumference or compasse.
• * 1.85

  The thicknesse of the earth.
• * 1.86

  Distance of the earth from heaven.
• * 1.87

  The most ap∣proved opinion of the earths distance from the Sun.