of beasts when they are in strength do add some virtue unto inanimate things; as that the skin of a sheep devoured by a wolf, moveth itching; that a stone bitten by a dog in anger, being thrown at him, drunk in powder, provoketh choler.

977. It hath been observed, that the diet of women with child doth work much upon the infant; as if the mother eat quinces much, and coriander-seed, the nature of both which is to repress and stay vapours that ascend to the brain, it will make the child ingenious; and on the contrary side, if the mother eat much onions or beans, or such vaporous food; or drink wine or strong drink immoderately; or fast much; or be given to much musing; all which send or draw vapours to the head it endangereth the child to become lunatic, or of imperfect memory and I make the same judgment of tobacco often taken by the mother.

978. The writers of natural magic report, that the heart of an ape, worn near the heart, comforteth the heart, and increaseth audacity. It is true that the ape is a merry and bold beast. And that the same heart likewise of an ape, applied to the neck or head, helpeth the wit; and is good for the falling sickness: the ape also is a witty beast, and hath a dry brain: which may be some cause of attenuation of vapours in the head. Yet it is said to move dreams also. It may be the heart of man would do more, but that it is more against men's minds to use it; except it be in such as wear the relics of saints.

979. The flesh of a hedge-hog, dressed and eaten, is said to be a great drier: it is true that the juice of a hedge-hog must needs be harsh and dry, because it putteth forth so many prickles: for plants also that are full of prickles are generally dry; as briers, thorns, berberries: and therefore the ashes of a hedge-hog are said to be a great desiccative of fistulas.

980. Mummy hath great force in stanching of blood; which, as it may be ascribed to the mixture of balms that are glutinous; so it may also partake of a secret propriety, in that the blood draweth man's flesh. And it is approved that the moss which groweth upon the skull of a dead man unburied, will stanch blood potently: and so do the dregs, or powder of blood, severed from the water, and dried.

981. It hath been practised, to make white swallows, by anointing of the eggs with oil. Which effect may be produced, by the stopping of the pores of the shell, and making the juice that putteth forth the feathers afterwards more penurious. And it may be, the anointing of the eggs will be as effectual as the anointing of the body; of which vide the experiment 93.

982. It is reported, that the white of an egg, or blood, mingled with salt-water, doth gather the saltness, and maketh the water sweeter. This may be by adhesion; as in the sixth experiment of clarification: it may be also, that blood, and

the white of an egg, which is the matter of a living creature, have some sympathy with salt: for all life hath a sympathy with salt. We see that salt laid to a cut finger healeth it; so as it seemeth salt draweth blood, as well as blood draweth salt.

983. It hath been anciently received, that the sea air hath an antipathy with the lungs, if it cometh near the body, and erodeth them. Whereof the cause is conceived to be, a quality it hath of heating the breath and spirits, as cantharides have upon the watery parts of the body, as urine and hydropical water. And it is a good rule, that whatsoever hath an operation upon certain kinds of matters, that, in man's body, worketh most upon those parts wherein that kind of matter aboundeth.

984. Generally, that which is dead, or corrupted, or excerned, hath antipathy with the same thing when it is alive, and when it is sound; and with those parts which do excern: as a carcase of man is most infectious and odious to man; a carrion of a horse to a horse, &c.; purulent matter of wounds, and ulcers, carbuncles, pocks, scabs, leprosy, to sound flesh, and the excrement of every species to that creature that excerneth them: but the excrements are less pernicious than the corruptions.

985. It is a common experience, that dogs know the dog-killer; when, as in times of infection, some petty fellow is sent out to kill the dogs; and that though they have never seen him before, yet they will all come forth, and bark, and fly at him.

986. The relations touching the force of imagination, and the secret instincts of nature, are so uncertain, as they require a great deal of examination ere we conclude upon them. I would have it first thoroughly inquired, whether there be any secret passages of sympathy between persons of near blood, as parents, children, brothers, sisters, nurse-children, husbands, wives, &c. There be many reports in history, that upon the death of persons of such nearness, men have had an inward feeling of it. I myself remember, that being in Paris, and my father dying in London, two or three days before my father's death, I had a dream, which I told to divers English gentle men, that my father's house in the country was plastered all over with black mortar. There is an opinion abroad, whether idle or no I cannot say, that loving and kind husbands have a sense of their wives breeding children, by some accident in their own body.

987. Next to those that are near in blood, there may be the like passage, and instincts of nature between great friends and enemies: and sometimes the revealing is unto another person, and not to the party himself. I remember Philippus Commineus, a grave writer, reporteth, that the Archbishop of Vienna, a reverend prelate, said

one day after mass to King Lewis the Eleventh of France: "Sir, your mortal enemy is dead;" what time Duke Charles of Burgundy was slain at the battle of Granson against the Switzers. Some trial also would be made, whether pact or agreement do any thing; as if two friends should agree, that such a day in every week, they, being in far distant places, should pray one for another, or should put on a ring or tablet one for another's sake; whether if one of them should break their vow and promise, the other should have any feeling of it in absence.

988. If there be any force in imaginations and affections of singular persons, it is probable the force is much more in the joint imaginations and affections of multitudes: as if a victory should be won or lost in remote parts, whether is there not some sense thereof in the people whom it concerneth, because of the great joy or grief that many men are possessed with at once? Pius Quintus, at the very time when that memorable victory was won by the Christians against the Turks, at the naval battle of Lepanto, being then hearing of causes in consistory, brake off suddenly, and said to those about him, "It is now more time we should give thanks to God, for the great victory he hath granted us against the Turks :" it is true, that victory had a sympathy with his spirit; for it was merely his work to conclude that league. It may be that revelation was divine: but what shall we say then to a number of examples amongst the Grecians and Romans? where the people being in theatres at plays, have had news of victories and overthrows, some few days before any messenger could come.

It is true, that that may hold in these things, which is the general root of superstition: namely, that men observe when things hit, and not when they miss; and commit to memory the one, and forget and pass over the other. But touching divination, and the misgiving of minds, we shall speak more when we handle in general the nature of minds, and souls, and spirits.

989. We have given formerly some rules of imagination; and touching the fortifying of the same. We have set down also some few instances and directions, of the force of imagination upon beasts, birds, &c., upon plants, and upon inanimate bodies: wherein you must still observe, that your trials be upon subtle and light motions, and not the contrary; for you will sooner by imagination bind a bird from singing than from eating or flying: and I leave it to every man to choose experiments which himself thinketh most commodious, giving now but a few examples of every of the three kinds.

990. Use some imaginant, observing the rules formerly prescribed, for binding of a bird from singing, and the like of a dog from barking. Try also the imagination of some, whom you shall accommodate with things to fortify it, in cocks

fights, to make one cock more hardy, and the other more cowardly. It would be tried also in flying of hawks, or in coursing of a deer, or hare. with greyhounds: or in horse-races, and the like comparative motions; for you may sooner by imagination quicken or slack a motion, than raise or cease it; as it is easier to make a dog go slower, than to make him stand still, that he may not run.

991. In plants also you may try the force of imagination upon the lighter sort of motions: as upon the sudden fading, or lively coming up of herbs, or upon their bending one way or other; or upon their closing and opening, &c.

992. For inanimate things, you may try the force of imagination, upon staying the working of beer when the barm is put in, or upon the coming of butter or cheese, after the churning, or the rennet be put in.

993. It is an ancient tradition everywhere alleged, for example of secret proprieties and influxes, that the torpedo marina, if it be touched with a long stick, doth stupefy the hand of him that toucheth it. It is one degree of working at distance, to work by the continuance of a fit medium, as sound will be conveyed to the ear by striking upon a bow-string, if the horn of the bow be held to the ear.

994. The writers of natural magic do attribute much to the virtues that come from the parts of living creatures, so as they be taken from them, the creatures remaining still alive: as if the creatures still living did infuse some immateriate virtue and vigour into the part severed. So much may be true; that any part taken from a living creature newly slain, may be of greater force than if it were taken from the like creature dying of itself, because it is fuller of spirit.

995. Trial would be made of the like parts of individuals in plants and living creatures; as to cut off a stock of a tree, and to lay that which you cut off to putrefy, to see whether it will decay the rest of the stock: or if you should cut off part of the tail or leg of a dog or a cat, and lay it to putrefy, and so see whether it will fester, or keep from healing, the part which remaineth.

996. It is received, that it helpeth to continue love, if one wear a ring, or a bracelet, of the hair of the party beloved. But that may be by the exciting of the imagination: and perhaps a glove, or other like favour, may as well do it. 997. The sympathy of individuals, that have been entire, or have touched, is of all others the most incredible; yet according unto our faithful manner of examination of nature, we will make some little mention of it. The taking away of warts, by rubbing them with somewhat that afterwards is put to waste and consume, is a common experiment; and I do apprehend it the rather because of my own experience. I had from my childhood a wart upon one of my fingers: afterwards, when I was about sixteen years old, being

of men's spirits.

1000. The delight which men have in popularity, fame, honour, submission, and subjection of other men's minds, wills, or affections, although these things may be desired for other ends, seemeth to be a thing in itself without contemplation of consequence, grateful and agreeable to the nature of man. This thing, surely, is not without some signification, as if all spirits and souls of

why should men be so much affected with that which others think or say? The best temper of minds desireth good name and true honour: the lighter, popularity and applause: the more depraved, subjection and tyranny; as is seen in great conquerors and troublers of the world: and yet more in arch-heretics; for the introduction of new doctrines is likewise an affectation of tyranny over the understandings and beliefs of men.

VOL. II.-18

M 2

I Do not find it strange, excellent king, that when Heraclitus, he that was surnamed the obscure, had set forth a certain book, which is not now extant, many men took it for a discourse of nature, and many others took it for a treatise of policy. For there is a great affinity and consent between the rules of nature, and the true rules of policy: the one being nothing else but an order in the government of the world: and the other an order in the government of an estate. And therefore the education and erudition of the kings of Persia was in a science which was termed by a name then of great reverence, but now degenerate and taken in the ill part. For the Persian magic, which was the secret literature of their kings, was an application of the contemplations and observations of nature unto a sense politic; taking the fundamental laws of nature, and the branches and passages of them, as an original or first model, whence to take and describe a copy and imitation for government.

After this manner the foresaid instructors set before their kings the examples of the celestial Dodies, the sun, the moon, and the rest, which nave great glory and veneration, but no rest or intermission: being in a perpetual office of motion, for the cherishing, in turn and in course, of inferior bodies: expressing likewise the true manner of the motions of government, which, though they ought to be swift and rapid in respect of despatch and occasions, yet are they to be constant and regular, without wavering or confu

sion.

So did they represent unto them how the heavens do not enrich themselves by the earth and the seas, nor keep no dead stock, nor untouched treasures of that they draw to them from below; but whatsoever moisture they do levy and take from both elements in vapours, they do spend and

*Printed in 1603 in 12mo.

turn back again in showers, only holding and storing them up for a time, to the end to issue and distribute them in season.

But chiefly, they did express and expound unto them that fundamental law of nature, whereby all things do subsist and are preserved: which is, that every thing in nature, although it hath its private and particular affection and appetite, and doth follow and pursue the same in small moments, and when it is free and delivered from more general and common respects; yet, nevertheless, when there is question or case for sustaining of the more general, they forsake their own particularities, and attend and conspire to uphold the public.

So we see the iron in small quantity will ascend and approach to the loadstone upon a particular sympathy: but if it be any quantity of moment, it leaveth its appetite of amity to the loadstone, and, like a good patriot, falleth to the earth, which is the place and region of massy bodies.

So again, the water and other like bodies do fall towards the centre of the earth, which is, as was said, their region or country; and yet we see nothing more usual in all water-works and engines, than that the water, rather than to suffer any distraction or disunion in nature, will ascend, forsaking the love to its own region or country, and applying itself to the body next adjoining.

But it were too long a digression to proceed to more examples of this kind. Your majesty yourself did fall upon a passage of this nature in your gracious speech of thanks unto your council, when, acknowledging princely their vigilances and well-deservings, it pleased you to note, that it was a success and event above the course of nature to have so great change with so great a quiet: forasmuch as sudden mutations, as well in state as in nature, are rarely without violence and perturba