The first [second] book of the works of Mr. Francis Rabelais, Doctor in Physick, containing five books of the lives, heroick deeds, and sayings of Gargantua, and his sonne Pantagruel. Together with the Pantagrueline prognostication, the oracle of the divine Bachus, and response of the bottle. Hereunto are annexed the navigations unto the sounding isle, and the isle of the Apedests: as likewise the philosophical cream with a Limosm epistle. / All done by Mr. Francis Rabelais, in the French tongue, and now faithfully translated into English.

CHAP. X. Of that which is signified by the Colours, white and blew.

THe white therefore signifieth joy, so∣lace and gladnesse, and that not at ran∣dom, but upon just and very good grounds: which you may perceive to be true, if laying aside all prejudicate affections, you will but give eare to what presently I shall expound unto you.

Aristotle saith, that supposing two things contrary in their kinde, as good and evill, vertue and vice, heat and cold, white and black, pleasure and pain, joy and grief: And so of others, if you couple them in such man∣ner, that the contrary of one kinde may a∣gree in reason with the contrary of the other, it must follow by consequence, that the o∣ther contrary must answer to the remanent opposite to that wherewith it is conferred; as for example, vertue and vice are contrary in one kinde, so are good and evil: if one of the contraries of the first kinde, be consonant to one of those of the second, as vertue and good nesse, for it is clear that vertue is good, so shall the other two contraries, (which are

evil and vice) have the same connexion, for vice is evil.

This Logical rule being understood, take these two contraries, joy and sadnesse: then these other two, white and black, for they are Physically contrary; if so be then that black do signifie grief, by good reason then should white import joy. Nor is this signifi∣cation instituted by humane imposition, but by the universal consent of the world recei∣ved, which Philosophers call Jus Gentium, the Law of Nations, or an uncontrolable right of force in all countreyes whatsoever: for you know well enough, that all people, and all languages and nations, (except the an∣cient Syracusans, and certain Argives, who had crosse and thwarting soules) when they mean outwardly to give evidence of their sorrow, go in black; and all mourning is done with black, which general consent is not without some argument, and reason in nature, the which every man may by himself very suddenly comprehend, without the in∣struction of any; and this we call the Law of nature: By vertue of the same natural in∣stinct, we know that by white all the world hath understood joy, gladnesse, mirth, plea∣sure and delight. In former times, the Thra∣cians and Crecians did mark their good, pro∣pitious, and fortunate dayes with white stones: and their sad, dismal and unfortunate

ones with black, is not the night mournful, sad and melancholick? it is black and dark by the privation of light; doth not the light comfort all the world? and it is more whitet hen any thing else, which to prove, I could direct you to the book of Laurentius Valla against Bartolus, but an Evangelical testimony I hope will content you, Matth. 7. it is said, that at the transfiguration of our Lord, Vestimenta ejus facta sunt alba sicut lux, his apparel was made white like the light, by which lightsome whitenesse he gave his three Apostles to understand the Idea and figure of the eternal joyes; for by the light are all men comforted, according to the word of the old woman, who although she had never a tooth in her head, was wont to say, Bona lux: and Tobit, chap. 5. after he had lost his sight, when Raphael saluted him, answered, What joy can I have, that do not see the light of Heaven? In that colour did the Angels testifie the joy of the whole world, at the Resurrection of our Saviour, John 20. and at his Ascension, Acts 1. with the like colour of vesture did St. John the Evangelist, Apoc. 4. 7. see the faithful clo∣thed in the heavenly and blissed Jeru∣salem.

Reade the ancient both Greek and Latine histories, and you shall finde that the town of Alba, (the first patern of Rome,) was

founded, and so named by reason of a white sow that was seen there: You shall likewise finde in those stories, that when any man, af∣ter he had vanquished his enemies, was by decree of the Senate to enter into Rome tri∣umphantly, he usually rode in a chariot drawn by white horses: which in the Ova∣tion triumph was also the custome; for by no signe or colour would they so significant∣ly expresse the joy of their coming, as by the white: You shall there also finde, how Pericles, the General of the Athenians, would needs have that part of his Army, unto whose lot befel the white beanes, to spend the whole day in mirth, pleasure and ease, whilest the rest were a fighting. A thousand other examples and places could I alledge to this purpose, but that it is not here where I should do it.

By understanding hereof, you may re∣solve one Problem, which Alexander Aphro∣diseus hath accounted unanswerable, why the Lion, who with his only cry and roaring affrights all beasts, dreads and feareth only a white cock? for (as Proclus saith, libro de Sacrificio & Magia) it is because the presence of the vertue of the Sunne, which is the Or∣gan and Promptuarie of all terrestrial and syderial light, doth more symbolize and agree with a white cock, as well in regard of that colour, as of his property and specifical qua∣lity,

then with a Lion. He saith further∣more, that Devils have been often seen in the shape of Lions, which at the sight of a white cock have presently vanished. This is the cause, why Galli or Gallices, (so are the Frenchmen called, because they are natu∣rally white as milk, which the Greeks call Gala,) do willingly weare in their Caps white feathers, for by nature they are of a candid disposition, merrie, kinde, gtacious and well-beloved, and for their cognizance and armes have the whitest flower of any, the Flower de luce or Lilie. If you demand, how by white, nature would have us under∣stand joy and gladnesse? I answer, that the analogy and uniformity is thus, for as the white doth outwardly disperse and scatter the rayes of the sight, whereby the optick spirits are manifestly dissolved, according to the opinion of Aristotle in his Problemes and perspective Treatises; as you may like∣wise perceive by experience, when you passe over mountains covered with snow, how you will complain that you cannot see well: as Xenophon writes to have hapned to his men, and as Galen very largely declareth, lib. 10. de usu partium: Just so the heart with excessive joy is inwardly dilated, and suffereth a manifest resolution of the vital spirits, which may go so farre on, that it may thereby be deprived of its nou∣rishment,

and by consequence of life it self. By this Pericharie or extremity of gladnesse, as Galen saith, lib. 12. method. lib. 5. de lo∣cis affectis, & lib. 2. de symptomatum causis. And as it hath come to passe in former times, witnesse Marcus▪ Tullius lib. 1. quaest. Tus∣cut. Verrius, Aristotle, Titus Livius in his relation of the battel of Cannas, Plinius lib. 7. cap. 32. & 34. A. Gellius lib. 3. c. 15. and many other Writers of Diagoras the Rhodian, Chilon Sophocles, Dionysius the tyrant of Sicilie, Philippides, Philemon, Polycrates, Phi∣lipion, M. Juventi; and others who died with joy, and as Avicen speaketh, in ••. ca∣non. & lib. de virib. cordis, of the Saffron, that it doth so rejoyce the heart, that if you take of it excessively, it will by a superfluous resolution and dilatation deprive it altoge∣ther of life. Here peruse Alex. aphrodiseus lib. 1. Probl. cap. 19. and that for a cause: But what? it seems I am entred further into this point then I intended at the first; Here therefore will I strike saile, referring the rest to that book of mine, which handleth this matter to the full. Mean while, in a word I will tell you, that blew doth certainly sig∣nifie Heaven and heavenly things, by the same very tokens and symbols, that white signifieth joy and pleasure.