The Cure of Old Age and Preservation of Youth

A

ABishag

110

Accidents of Old Age.

22

Adam

8, 9, 11, 21

AEson.

68

AEthiopian Dragon

113, 119

Agallochum

87, 92

Age,

the Causes

1

the Remedies

11

Air

3, 9, 21, 39, 58

Ale

112

Almonds

140

Aloe Hepatica

83

Amber

155

Animal Faculty

123

Aristotle

66

Aromatick Medicines

74

Arsenick

79

Artefius

65

Aurum fulminans

91

Bathes

85, 141

Beef

139, 151

Beer

112

Bezoardicum Solare

156

Birds

139

Bleareyedness

32

Blood,

how moved

128

Bloodletting

78, 142

Bole Armenick

28

Borage

97

Boyling

127, 131

of Pheasants

151

Brandy

112

Bread

54, 127, 139, 149

Breathing

shortness of it

33

Choler

133

Christmas Rose

92

Circle,

••

its Quadrature

66

Citrul seed

84

Cleanness of Skin

126

Clearness

ibid.

Clyster

84

Cogitation

47

Concoction

4

Cosumptive Person

80

Conversation

128

Coral

21, 70, 76

Cordials

75, 77

Countenance

133

Cucumbers

153

Dwelling

ibid.

Greyness

23

its abbreviation

63

its Term

65, 66

Lignum Aloes

••1

their imposture

93

Moonwort

97, 98

Mountebanks

21, 122

Mulberries

140, 152

Mushromes

ibid.

Musick

128

Mustard

140

Myrobalans

79, 84

Oyntments

ibid.

Q

QVacks

22, 91

Quicksilver

79

Quintessence of Man's Blood

108

Senses,

their hurt

35

internal

44

how refreshed

143

Serpent

113, 119

Sicilian Husbandman

75

Signature

22

Silk

92

Six causes

12, 20

difficult to find out their proportion

13

medicines supply that defect

ibid.

Skin,

how preserved

130

Sleep,

want of it

33

Snake

117, 121

Soil

57

Sparrows

139, 151

Spike Celtick

97

Spikenard

146

Spitting

32

Stagg's heart,

its bone

21, 70, 76

Strength,

its infirmity

34

Succinum

155

Sulphur

79

Sun

59

Sweat

61, 116, 145

T

TAst

••7

Tavern-haunters

113

Terra Sigillata

28

Toil of Body and Mind

3

Touching of cold things

79

Treacle

122

Tree of knowledge

111

Trifera

79, 85

W

WAshing

79

Water

78

Water-Melons

91

Wax

125

Wheat

78

Wine

54,57,103,104,105,106,107,112

Wiping

79

World,

its age

1, 6

Worts

140

CHAP. I. Of the Causes of Old Age.

AS the ^a World waxeth old, ^b Men grow old with it: not by reason of the Age of the World, but be∣cause of the great Increase of li∣ving Creatures, which infect the very Air, that every way encompasseth us, and

Through our ^c Negligence in ordering our Lives, and

That great ^d Ignorance of the Properties which are in things conducing to Health, which might help a disordered way of Li∣ving, and might supply the defect of due Government.

From these three things, namely, Infection Negligence and Ignorance, the Natural Heat, after the time of Manhood is past, begins to diminish, and its Diminution and Intempe∣rature doth more and more hasten on. Whence, the Heat by little and little decrea∣sing, the Accidents of Old Age come on, which Accidents in the very Flower of Age may be taken away; and after that time may be retarded; as also may that ••wift Course, which hurries a Man from Man∣hood to Age, from Age to Old Age, from Old Age to the broken strength of decrepit Age, be restrained.

For the Circle of a Man's Age grows more in one day after Age to Old Age, than in three days after Youth to Age; and is sooner turned from Old Age to de∣crepit Age, than from Age to Old Age.

Which Weakness and Intemperature of Heat, is caused two ways: by the Decay of Natural Moisture, and

By the Increase of Extraneous Moisture.

For the Heat exists in the Native Moi∣sture, and is extinguished by external and strange moistness, which flows from weak∣ness of Digestion, as Avicenna in his first Book, in his Chapter Of Complexions, af∣firms.

Now the Causes of the dissolution of the Internal Moisture, and of the External's abounding, whence the Innate Heat grows cool, are many, as I shall here show.

First of all, the Dissolution of the Natu∣ral happens from two Causes:

• One whereof is the circumambient Air, which dries up the Matter: And the In∣nate Heat, which is inward, very much helps towards the same: For it is the Cause of extinguishing it self, by reason it con∣sumes the matter, wherein it subsists; as the Flame of a Lamp is extinguished, when the Oyl, exhausted by the Heat, is spent.
• The second Cause is the toil proceeding from the Motions of Body and Mind, which otherwise are necessary in Life. To these accrue Weakness and Defect of Nature, which easily sinks under so great Evils, (as Avicenna witnesseth in his first Book Of Complexions of Ages) not resisting those im∣perfections that invade it. Now

The Motions of the Mind are called A∣nimal, when the Soul especially is exer∣cised:

The Motions of the Body are, when our Bodies are tossed and stirred of neces∣sary Causes ill proportioned.

External Moisture increaseth two ways; either from

• ...

• The use of Meat and other things that breed an unnatural and strange Moisture, especially Phlegmatick, whereof I shall dis∣course hereafter; or from
• Bad Concoction, whence a feculent and putrid Humour, differing from the nature of the Body, is propagated.

For Digestion is the Root of the Gene∣ration of unnatural and natural Moisture, which when it is good breeds good Moi∣sture, when bad a bad one, as Avicenna saith in his fourth Canon of his Chapter Of things which hinder grey Hairs. For from whole∣some Food, ill digested, an evil Humour doth flow; and of poysonous Meats, and such as naturally breed a bad Humour, i•• well digested, sometime comes a good one.

But it is to be observed, that not only Phlegm is called an extraneous Humour, but whatever other Humour is putrid. Yet Phlegm is worse than the other external Humours; in that it helps to extinguish the Innate Heat two ways, either

• By choaking it; or
• By Cold resisting its Power and Quality; so Rasy in his Chapter Of the benefits of Purging.

Which Phlegm proceeds from faults in Meats, negligence of Diet, and intempe∣rature

of Body; so that this sort of ex∣ternal Moisture increasing, and the Native Moisture being either changed in Qualities, or decayed in Quantity, Man grows old, ei∣ther

• In the accustomed course of Nature by little and little and successively; when after the time of Manhood, that is, after forty or at most fifty Years the Natural Heat be∣gins to diminish: Or
• Through evil Thoughts and anxious Care of Mind, wherewith sometimes Men are hurt. For Sickness and such like evil Accidents dissolve and dry up the Natural Moisture, which is the Fewel of Heat: and that being hurt, the force and edge of the Heat is made dull. The Heat being cooled, the Digestive Vertue is weakned; and this not performing its Office, the crude and inconcocted Meat putrefies on the Stomach. Whereupon the external and remote parts of the Body being depri∣ved of their Nourishment, do languish, wither and dye, because they are not nou∣rished. So Isaac in his Book Of Fevers in the Chapter Of the Consumption doth teach.

But it may be queried, What this Moi∣sture is, and in what place it is seated, whereby the Natural Heat is nourished, and

which is its Fewel? Some say, that it is in the Hollow of the ^e Heart, and in the Veins and Arteries thereof, as Isaac in his Book Of Fevers, in the Chapter Of the Hectick. But there are Moistures of divers kinds in the Members which are prepared for Nourish∣ing, and to moisten the Joints. Of which Humours may be that is one which is in the Veins, and that another which like Dew is reposed on the Members, as Avicenna saith in his fourth Book in the Chapter Of the Hectick. Whence perhaps the Wise do understand, that all these Moistures are Fewel to the Native Heat; But especially that which is in the Heart and its Veins and Arteries, which is restored, when from Meats and Drinks good Juices are supplyled; and is made more excellent by outward Medi∣cines, such as Anointings and Bathings.

the Native Moisture be diligently preser∣ved from Dissolution and Change, name∣ly, that as great a share of Moisture may be added by Nutrition, as is spent by the flame of Heat and other Ways. Now this care ought to be used in the time of Manhood, that is, about the fortieth Year of a man's Age, when the beauty of a man is at the height.

These Ways of repelling the Causes of Old Age do something differ one from ano∣ther.

For one is the Beginning, the other the End: One begins, the other makes up the Defect thereof; but each brings great assi∣stance to the turning away of these Evils. By one Way alone the Doctrine of the An∣tients will not be completed: By the Know∣ledge of each both our Endeavours and theirs may be perfected.

The Doctrine of soberly ordering ones Life teacheth how to oppose, drive away and restrain the Causes of Old Age.

And this it doth by proportioning the ^a Six Causes, distinct in kind, which are reckoned necessary to fence, preserve and keep the Body; which things, when they are observed and taken in Quantity and Quality, as they ought, and as the Rules

of Physicians perswade, do become the true Causes of Health and Strength: But when they are made use of by any man without Regard had to Quality and Quantity, they cause Sickness, as may be gathered from Galen's Regiment with Haly's Exposition, where he treats Of the Regiment of Health.

But exactly to find out the true Propor∣tion of these Causes, and the true Degree of that Proportion, is very hardly, or not at all to be done, but that there will be some Defect or Excess therein. Thus the Sages have prescribed more to be done, than can be well put in practice. For the Un∣derstanding is more subtle in Operation, so that the true proportioning of these Cau∣ses seems impossible, unless in Bodies of a better Nature, such as now are rarely found.

But Medicines obscurely laid down by the Antients, and as it were concealed, whereof Dioscorides speaks, do make up these Defects and Proportions. For who can avoid the Air infected with putrid Va∣pours carried about with the force of the Winds? Who will measure out Meat and Drink? Who can weigh in a sure Scale or Degree Sleep and Watching, Motion

and Rest, and things that vanish in a mo∣ment, and the Accidents of the Mind, so that they shall neither exceed nor fall short? Therefore it was necessary that the Antients should make use of Medicines, which might in some measure preserve the Body from Alteration, and defend the Health of Man oft-times hurt and afflicted with these things and Causes, lest the Body utterly eaten up of Diseases should fall to ruine.

Now for the benefit of your ^b Excellen∣cy I have gathered some things out of the Books of the Antients, whose Vertue and Use may avert those Inconveniences, this Defect and Weakness; may defend the Temper of the Innate Moisture; may hin∣der the Increase and Flux of Extraneous Moisture; and may bring to pass (which usually otherwise happeneth) that the Heat of Man be not so soon debilitated.

But the Use of these things and Medi∣cines is of no use, nor any thing avails them that neglect the Doctrine of the Regiment of Life. For how can it be, that he who either is ignorant or negligent of Diet, should ever be cured by any pains of the Physician, or by any Virtue in Physick? Wherefore the Physicians and Wise men of

old time were of opinion, That Diet with∣out Physick sometimes did good, but that Physick without due order of Diet never made a man one jot the better.

Thence it is reckoned more necessary that those rather should be treated of which cannot be known unless of the Wise, and those too of a quick Understanding, and such as study hard, and take a great deal of pains; than those things which are easily known, even as a man reads them.

As for my own part, being hindred part∣ly by the Charge, partly by Impatience, and partly by the Rumours of the Vulgar, I was not willing to make Experiment of all things, which may easily be tryed by others; but have resolved to express those things in obscure and difficult terms, which I judge requisite to the Conservation of Health, lest they should fall into the hands of the unfaithful.

One of which things lies hid in the ^c Bow∣els of the Earth:

Another in the ^d Sea:

The Third ^e creeps upon the Earth:

The Fourth lives in the ^f Air:

The Fifth is ^g likened to the Medicine which comes out of the Mine of the No∣ble Animal.

The Sixth comes out of the ^h long-liv'd Animal.

The Seventh is that whose Mine is the ⁱ Plant of India.

I have resolved to mention these things obscurely, imitating the Precept of the Prince of Philosophers to Alexander, who said that He is a Transgressor of the Divine Law, who discovers the hidden Secrets of Nature and the Properties of things: Be∣cause some men desire as much as in them lies to overthrow the Divine Law by those Properties that God has placed in Animals, Plants and Stones.

But some of these things stand in need of Preparation: Others of a careful Choice.

Of Preparation, lest with the healthful part Poyson be swallowed down:

Of Choice, lest among the best those things that are worse be given, and those that are more hurtful be taken.

For in whatsoever thing the most High GOD hath put an admirable Vertue and Property, therein he hath also placed an Hurt, to be as it were the Guard of the thing it self. For as he would not have his Secrets known of all, lest Men should con∣temn them; so he would not have all Men be Adepti, lest they should abuse their

Power. As is manifest in the Serpent, Hel∣lebore and Gold. From which no man can fetch any noble or sublime Operation, un∣less he be wise, skilful, and have of a long time experienced them.

Besides, wheresoever GOD hath placed such as unspeakable Vertue, he hath added a certain Similitude, that every Man, who is of a clear and vivacious Wit and Under∣standing, may conceive its Operation.

For most things act what they are said to act, either by their Form, or their Matter, or their Essence, or their Heat, by their Durability and long Keeping, or by Cor∣••uption.

For that preserves another thing which is long preserved it self, and that corrupts a∣nother thing which is quickly corrupted it self, and it acts that thing, according to whose Similitude it is denominated, or like as it is formed: And this is a Secret which our ^l First Parents wholly kept secret, and to these our very times still remains se∣cret.

But we must ^m observe, that in some of the aforesaid things and Medicines the Virtue may be separated from its Body; as in all Medicines made of Plants and Ani∣mals.

From some it cannot be separated, as from all those things that are of a thick Substance, as Metals; and what things so∣ever are of the kind of Stones, as Coral, Jacinths, and the like. And these are to be subtilly powdered in the last degree; and this properly agrees with our Intent, that i•• may come to its proper end of Elongation•• as Avicenna saith in his second Canon O•• the judgment of Medicines that are out••wardly applyed.

But this Powdering cannot be made in Metals, except by Burning. Which Avi∣cenna affirms in his Chapter Of the Lepros•• concerning the Preparation of Gold an•• Silver; and in his fifth Canon, where Con∣sectio Hyacinthi is shewn.

But certain other Men have given Rule•• how to dissolve Medicines of thick Sub∣stance, as Aristotle saith, according to Isa•••• in his Degrees, in his Canon Of Perl, speak∣ing thus:

I have seen certain Men dissolv•• Perl, with the Juice and Liquor where•••• Morphews being washed, were fully o••∣red and made whole.

But in Medicines which are mixt to the•• Plants and Animals, a Separation of th•• Virtue from the Body it self may be made•• And their Virtue and Matter will opera••••

stronger and better alone, than joyned with their Body.

Because the Natural Heat is tired, whilst it separates and severs the Virtue of the thing from the Body which is hard and earthy: And it being tired, the Virtue will with greater Difficulty be carried to the In∣struments of the Senses, so as it may be able to refresh them, and destroy the superflu∣ous Moisture, and penetrate to the Mem∣bers of the fourth Concoction, that it may strengthen the digestive Power of the Flesh and Skin.

From the Weakness whereof certain Ac∣••idents of Old Age do proceed; as is ma∣nifest in the Morphew: because that the Natural Heat of our Body is not always so sufficiently powerful in all Medicines, as to separate the Virtue from its Terrestrial Body.

But when the Vertue alone is given without the Body, the Natural Heat is not tired, nor is the Virtue of the Medicine by frequent Digestion destroyed in its journey, as it were, while it is carried to the Similar Parts and the Instruments of the Senses: and so the Virtue of the thing will compleat its Operation, while it does not tire the Na∣tural Heat.

And Galen agrees with this, as Isaac te∣stifies in his Canon Of the Leprosie, saying,

I never saw a man so infected cured, but one that drank of Wine, wherein a Viper had fallen.

And Iohannes Damascenus in his Apho∣risms:

Therefore it was necessary for the purging of the Humours driven down, that the Medicine according to the skill and pleasure of the Physician should be turned into the Likeness of Meat.

Another hath said,

That that Physick which should pass to the third Digestion, should be greedily received, according to some, with a thing of easie Assimila∣tion, such as Milk and the Broth of a Pullet.

natural Strength, Diminution of Blood and Spi∣rits, Bleareyedness, abundance of rotten Phlegm, filthy Spitting, Shortness of Breath, Anger, Want of Sleep, an unquiet Mind, Hurt of the Instruments, that is, of those, wherein the Animal Vertue does operate. Now of all these let us see from what causes each Acci∣dent derives its Original.

And in the first place discoursing of Grey Hairs we shall take notice of this, namely, that some of these Accidents happen even to Young Men before the time of Manhood, and then they are not called the Accidents of Age, but Infirmities.

The Accidents of Age begin in some at the time of Manhood:

In others at the time of Age, according to the Power of the Native Moisture, and the Government of every Wise Man:

And in some they use not to come till ve∣ry Old Age.

The Principal Cause of all these is Weak∣ness of the Innate Heat, which is caused two ways, as was said before.

Greyness ariseth from putrid Phlegm co∣ming out of the Regions of the Brain and Stomach, as Isaac saith; and not from Phlegm alone, but it proceeds from any o∣ther putrid Humour whatever, as Avicen∣na

saith in his Chapter Of the Complexions of Ages.

Now this putrid Humour is generated many ways:

Sometimes by eating of certain things that breed a putrefying Humour, which is the Cause of Old Age, as hereafter will ap∣pear.

Sometimes from the Weakness of Natu∣ral Heat, which rules in the Body, and from Abundance of Cold, as Aristotle saith. For the Implanted Heat being dulled di∣gests not Food, as it used; Whereupon a Watry Humor a little warmed with strange Heat abounds, and causes this Greyness, as Haly saith in Galen's Regiment, where he treats of the Regiment of Old Age.

Sometimes from too great Access of ex∣ternal Heat. For in his eleventh Chapter of his History of Animals the Philosopher there saith, that Hairs that are covered are sooner grey than those that are seldome co∣vered. For the Covering keeps off the Wind, and the Wind hinders Putrefaction.

Sometimes Greyness, and Putrefaction of the Humours arises from the Infirmity of the Skin: As in the Morphew, when through the Weakness of that Member, the Nou∣rishment is not concocted.

For there is in every Member a Digestive Power and Heat, which the Soul useth as an Instrument in performing its Operations.

Hence it is that an evil Constitution hap∣pens in some of the external Parts, when the inward Parts are not hurt, and do per∣form aright the Offices of Nature.

But it is to be observed, that the Hairs of the Temples wax grey sooner, and those of the hind parts later: Because in the fore part there is much Moisture, therefore it sooner putrefies. And when this happens in the Hairs, after it is once come, it will hard∣ly be removed; but it is a thing less difficult to put a stop to it before it come.

But it often falls out, that many men la∣bouring under some Infirmity, have their Hairs wax grey; in whom, after they have recovered their Health, the Hairs return to their former Disposition.

Here the cause is, the Weakness of Na∣tural Heat in concocting the Nourishment in the external parts; and when Strength and Health return, the Hair grows black.

But Avicenna saith in his fourth Canon Of the Disposition of those that are recover∣ing their Health, that therefore the Hairs wax white, because they are deprived of their Nourishment, by reason the Innate

Moisture goes out and is dispers'd, which whilst it abides within causeth the blackness of the Hair; as is manifest in Corn, which is dryed, and grows white by ripening: af∣terwards when it is wet with Dew, its Greenness returns.

Besides, there is in every Member a na∣tural Power residing, which according to its Complexion turns the Nutriment into the Likeness of that Member, and differs from that Power, which turns the Nutri∣ment into the Likeness of another Member, and from this Diversity a Weakness in the Skin proceeds, as Avicenna saith in his first Canon Of Natural Powers. But when the Vertue of the Member is weak, it infects and corrupts the nature and wholesome Juice of the Aliment that flows thither. Which being corrupted, all things that pe∣netrate into that Member, are depraved•• Like as a good Constitution doth alter e∣ven bad and unwholesome Food, so that it becomes good, apt and convenient for nou∣rishing Nature.

Galen reports, according to Avicenna in his first Canon Of the Morphew, that there is a certain ^a Tree, which at its first growth is deadly and poysonous: yet it may be changed so as without any danger it may be∣come

wholesome Food. And this is done by the planting of it. As there is a Tree in Persia poysonous, and whose Fruit is hurtful; but being removed into Egypt, and planted there, its Fruit is safely eaten; and being brought back again into Persia, it obtains its former poysonous Quality.

For this Cause Medicines were invented that might be applyed to the outward Parts, as Bathings and Anointings. For such Me∣dicaments are more useful to remove Disea∣ses which arise from the Hurt of the fourth Digestion, than inward ones: Because the Vertue of Medicines taken inwardly is rendred so dull and weak of the first and second Digestion, that when it arrives at the fourth degree of Digestion, it is so bro∣ken, that it cannot at all profit, as Avicenna saith in his Canon Of Weariness and Old Age. And so Anointings do strengthen the Ver∣tue of the fourth Digestion.

Which I think to be most true, by rea∣son outward Medicaments are nearer the Places affected; especially if the Humour be purged, or do not offend in the inner Parts.

But if the Humour aforesaid offend, first of all the Body must be absolutely purged of it.

Then the Skin must be made cleaner by a long Effusion and Provocation of plenti∣ful Sweat. And

Thirdly, The Virtue in that Member, which is ill affected, must be refreshed: Be∣cause if the Medicine avail not something toward the strengthning the Vertue of the Part, the Humour will abound again and prevail the more: And that especially, when Melancholy Humours bring the Hurt.

But some have said, that fully to drive a∣way these Humours, the Vertue of Laxa∣tives, without their Body, is sufficient. For the Power of Laxatives operates more when freed from the Lump of Body than joyned with it; and this is that which A∣vicenna saith in his first Canon in the Chap∣ter Of the Disposition of Purging Medicines.

Then we must apply such Medicines out∣wardly, whose property it is, to temper the Essence of the Member and its Consti∣tution; and to hinder that the scattered Reliques of the superfluous Humour be not received of that Member, as Terra Sigilla∣ta, Bole Armenick, and such things use to do, either through some Operation that is in them, or for the Similitude and Equali∣ty of Complexion, for that it cools what is too Hot, and heats what is too Cold.

Which Galen thinks very likely in the Oyl of Roses, as Avicenna saith in his first Ca∣non Of the Operation of particular Medi∣cines.

This Accident, I say, of Greyness ren∣ders a Man more deformed, and is more ap∣parent than any other in the Body.

I have studiously searched its Cause and Original. And wise Physicians have laid down the Cause and Remedy of these Ac∣cidents in their Treatise of Preserving Beau∣ty: For at the Approach of these ^b Defor∣mity is caused, and through their Delay in the time of Manhood is a Man's Come∣liness. For this Age by Avicenna is called the Age of Beauty.

Wrinkles of the Skin are contracted either from the Flesh extenuated, whence there remains a loosning of the Skin; Or

From the Want of Flesh, and hence comes the shriveling of it. And Aristotle saith in the end of his fifth Book Of Ani∣mals, that this comes through the Putrefa∣ction of the Humour. For he saith, that Wrinkling which befalls Bodies is unlike to Slickness: because if the Vapour be con∣crete, thence is caused Slickness, and it pu∣trefies not, nor do Wrinkles arise.

This Accident often happens to them that are as it were burnt up in the Fire, and do handle things belonging to the Forge, as is evident in the Smiths Trade: For the Use of these things dries exceedingly, and makes the Face pale, and full of Wrinkles. There∣fore those Dames that are over-careful of their Beauty, use to turn away their Face from the Fire. But those things which re∣move the Wrinkling of the Skin you shall find hereafter in that Chapter, wherein the things are declared, which use to render the Skin delicate for Youthful Beauty, Cleanness, and Redness.

Paleness also according to some is a Com∣panion of Old Age, which falls out in Young Men from superfluous and redounding

Phlegm; in old Men from want and dimi∣nution of Blood and Spirits, or from Infecti∣on of the Blood.

Diminution of the Blood and Spirits is from the Diminution of the Natural Moi∣sture; because the Root, and as it were the Fountain of it, is in the Blood, principally in that of the Heart, and secondarily in that which passeth through the Veins and Mem∣bers: The Blood being diminished, the Spi∣rits are diminished also, which abide in the Blood as in their Subject. And Blood is re∣stored by those things, which refresh the in∣nate Moisture; and the Blood being aug∣mented, the Spirits are made more lively.

Plenty of rotten Phlegm, filthy Spitting, and Bleareyedness are Accidents of Age, which happen from an unnatural Moisture; and especially Phlegmatick: And that Moi∣sture flowes sometimes from the Super∣fluity of the fourth Digestion, and is cured by things purging, consuming and drying up Phlegm, as we shall hereafter teach.

Those things especially help Bleareyedness, which swim in the Sea, and which live in the Air.

Those things are a Cure for filthy Spitting, which purge and open the Breast, as Diaï∣rews and Diaprassium. Purging of Phlegm

from the Head and Stomach conduces very much towards the cleansing of ropy Phlegm; although in Young and growing persons these things happen sometimes from the su∣perfluity of the Blood.

Insomneity, if I may so speak, Short∣ness of Breath, Anger, Disquiet of Mind, are Accidents of Age: among which

• ...

  Weakness of Breathing happens through the Straitness and Coarctation of the Passa∣ges of the Lungs, which is caused either by too much Dryness, or excessive Moisture.

  But we must remedy this Evil or Acci∣dent by the help of those Medicines, that the Wise have ordered to be taken, in their Treatise of Diseases which befal the In∣struments of Breathing. For Avicenna in the same Treatise affirms, that Saffron hath a Property to open and refresh the Instru∣ments of Breathing.

• Want of Sleep, Disquiet of Mind and An∣ger befal Old Men and the Decrepit; and sometimes Young Men, from Melancholick Fumes ascending to the Brain, as also hin∣dring the Organs of the Senses. And therefore in their Books of Regiment it is ordered by Physicians, that Old Men avoid Phlegmatick, and likewise Sowre Meats. Horehound very well prepared helpeth this

• Di••po••ition, and to eat Sallet of Lettuce strowed with Spice, as Galen saith, accord∣ing to Avicenna in his Chapter Of Sleep.
• But against Anger, Want of Sleep and Talkativeness, let the Operation and Action of the Soul, Joy and Mirth, and other de∣lectable things be made use of.

from Dryness, that Medicine is useful, whose Root is of the Indian Plant.

When from Moisture, Meat made of the Vegetable Medicine may be profitable for the hurt strength.

But the Weakness of the Faculties some∣time arises from the Moisture superfluous,

Sometime from it deficient.

These Faculties although they may seem to be many; as the Appetitive, Digestive and Sensitive, because they have got many Names; yet the Faculty is truly one, as Io∣hannes Damascenus affirms. And because this one Faculty is wont to perform different Of∣fices in different Members, it is called by di∣vers Names.

But by what Wayes these Faculties may be recreated, and being weak may be strengthned, I will shew hereafter in the Chapter Of Repairing the Faculties.

The Hurt of the Senses is an Accident of Sense, which often falls out even in young men.

This sometime happens in the Occult,

Sometime in the Manifest Organs of the Senses.

When these Hurts are made in the Mani∣fest Organs, they may be cured in the same manner, as the Wise have prescribed in the

proper Chapters of those Hurts.

When this Hurt happens in the Occult In∣struments, it is made in three Parts of the Brain, wherein the Animal Power doth ope∣rate, namely in the fore, middle and hind part, which parts by Avicenna are called the Ventricles of the Brain.

In the hind part Oblivion and Remem∣brance is made by the Soul. Of which things Royal Haly speaks in his first Discourse of his Theory, saying,

That Old Age is as it were the House of Forgetfulness.

But Seneca affirms the contrary, namely, that when a man grows old, if he have for∣merly well exercised the Instrument of Me∣mory, he will not be of a less Memory, than when he was a Young Man. Whence it happens that by long Exercise of one Instrument, the Force and Property of a∣nother is abated; as is daily experienced in Men of good Inventions, and Men of good Memories.

But the Hurt which happens in the first and second Ventricles of the Brain, where∣in Imagination and the Distinction of things is made, is a Harm which falls not out on the Score of the Rational Soul, but on the Score of the Instruments wherein the Soul operates.

Now the Hurt of Imagination is said to be made two ways;

• In the Instrument of the Brain, wherein false things are feigned,
• And in the Visory Nerve, which brings Light from the Eye. And therefore the Son of the Prince hath laid down two Chapters Of the Hurt of Imagination.
  • One among the Diseases of the Head.
  • Another in his Treatise Of the Eyes.

For this Hurt arises in these parts of the Brain, and not in the Organs,

Sometimes from an Internal,

Sometimes from an External Cause.

From an Internal Cause two Ways,

• Either by Nature, when a Man is so hurt from his Mothers Womb, as soon as he is born into the World, and then the Hurt is incurable;
• Or by Accident, and so it is made two Ways,
  • By things coming from within, and that sometime
  • From evil Humours, which do cause In∣firmities of Body and Diseases; and then the Hurt is said to come from the Humours, which are in the Brain it self: Sometime

From some other Member ill affected by a blow or some other Cause.

But whatever Humour it be, so it be a bad one, it hurts and stops up the aforesaid parts

of the Brain. Which same Humour is bred of ill Food, that is, Melancholick and Phlegmatick, as also of Indigestion and sowre things, and such as are dryed in the Smoak, and the like.

The Operation of the Soul is hindred also from an outward Cause, and that many Ways,

Sometimes from stinking Vapours, which infect the Body, and stop up the Organs of the Senses.

Among which Vapours those are worse, which come out of things diseased and la∣bouring of Superfluity, and out of dead Carkases themselves, by reason of the Like∣ness they have with Humane Bodies. As of old it happened after a bloody War in AE∣thiopia, wherein were many dead Bodies, out of which a Pestilential Vapour came e∣ven to the Land of the ^a Greeks; Where∣upon so great a Mortality raged among the Grecians, that in those who did escape, there remained a Forgetfulness both of their own and their Childrens Names. Which Galen affirms according to Avicenna in his third Canon in the Chapter Of Signs ga∣thered from the Operations of Animals.

An hurt of the operation of the Soul sometimes happens also

From a thick and troubled Air: And this

is the Cause that the Eastern People are more acute and subtil than other Men, be∣cause of the Want of Vapours. For they have a most subtil and pure Air. As is also manifest in our own People: For at a time when it is clear, they have their Acuteness of Mind more prompt, and their Wit more quick in searching out of Matters, than when it is cloudy. For a troubled Air dejects the Soul, makes it sad, and blends the Humours.

But there is a difference between a Gross and a Troubled Air.

A Gross Air is that which is something thick in Substance:

A Troubled Air is that which is mixt with the Parts of another thick Substance.

Which thing is apparent from the small Stars, which do appear and shine a little; but withal they twinkle and tremble. The Reason is, because there are many Exhala∣tions and plentiful Vapours, and but few Winds stirring. So saith Avicenna in his first Book Of the Operation of Aerial Quali∣ties.

This Impediment likewise happens through Neglect of cleansing the Body in∣wardly and outwardly. For outward Na∣stiness will obstruct and stop up the Pores,

and will hinder Nature from casting out new Excrements.

Sometimes also this Hurt ariseth from Diseases: Because it is impossible that a Sickly Man should have his Sense sound: For in our first Discourse of its Disposition it is said, That Sense is not perfect, nor the Understanding rational, except in time of Health; nor will there be any Soundness of the Rational Soul, but by the Soundness of the Vital and Animal Power, as Aristotle saith in his Book Of the Secrets of Secrets.

So that there is no Way to know and understand any thing aright, but by the Force of a clear Intellect: There is no Force and Power of a sharp Intellect, but by Health: There is no Health, but by an AE∣quality of Complexion: There is no AEqua∣lity of Complexion, but by a right temper∣ed Harmony of Humours.

And therefore GOD most High hath delivered and revealed to the Prophets his Servants, and to some other Men, whom he hath illuminated with the Spirit of Di∣vine Wisdom, a Way for the Temper and Conservation of the Humours.

CHAP. VI. Of the hurt of the inner Senses and the Brain.

SINCE I have already explained almost all the Causes of Age, and Old Age, as also the Hurts of the exterior Senses; now we must treat of those kind of Hurts, wherewith the ^a Senses residing in the Brain are affected.

Which come to pass for two Causes, and are known three Ways, as Avicenna saith in his third Canon, in his Chapter Of the Hurt of the Senses.

They are known by three Ways, that is, by three kinds of Signs, which are not Signs of Diseases, that hinder Sense, to wit, of the Permutation of sense, of the Alienation of it, of Folly, of Madness, of a broken Memory, and of a depraved Imagination:

But I mean those for Signs, which are not truly Diseases, but happen as Hurts in the Senses, yet are reckoned among Disea∣ses.

When we say [In the Senses] Under∣stand by Senses, the Instruments wherein the Soul operates Sense.

Whereas before we said, that this Hurt was produced by two Causes,

One of them is that which happens on the Score of the Rational Soul when it is weakned. For the Intellect being hurt, and as it were roving upon all manner of Thoughts, the Internal Sensations do devi∣ate: But while Health is preserved in Man, no Hurt falls on the Intellect, nor therefore on the Sense.

Another Cause is, when in a sound Man some Hurts befal the Senses, which are not made on the Score of the Rational Soul a∣lone, but on the Score of those Instru∣ments, which by Avicenna are called the Ventricles of the Brain, without which the Soul is neither able to imagine, nor discern, nor remember.

And the Regiment contrived in this Epi∣stle, will easily instruct a Man to remove such Hurt, to preserve the Faculty, so as to discern more subtilly, and to remember aright, also how to defend that no hurtful thing do fall into these Cells or Ventricles of the Brain.

From these things it may appear to your Clemency, by what means our Forefathers being soundly Wise obtained a clear Sharp∣ness and Force of Intellect, able to pierce

into the Secrets of things: because, name∣ly, they observed the Health not only of their Body, but the Regiment of the three Instruments of the Head; and made use of the Properties of certain things, which af∣terward they altogether kept secret, lest they should come to the Hands of the Unfaithful.

And that this is possible, easily appears. The Prince of Philosophers in that Book which he published to gratifie the Request of Alexander, saith plainly,

That nothing is difficult to the power of Understand∣ing, and that all things are ^b possible in a way of Reason.

That the chief, true and perfect Good is a clear and full Light of Understanding.

That Divine Seeds were disseminated in Humane Bo∣dies, namely, Sense and Understanding.

I have also found this, That there is an admirable Virtue placed in Plants, Animals and Stones: Which is partly hidden from

the Men of this Age; from the Property of which things Philosophers have obtained a Clearness of Understanding.

As for what concerns the Memory, the Signs which show the Dammages of a hurt Memory, as the Son of Abohaly writes, are

When the Sense of Man is safe, and the Imagination of Things and Forms in ^c Sleep and Waking is sound; if Remembrance be not easie, the Memory is hurt. And then

If what a man hath invented formerly, he be not able when he hath Occasion for it, to call it to Mind, and the Imagination be safe, it is very likely the Memory is hurt, and that the fault lies in the hind part of the Head.

But the Signs of the Cogitation, that is, of the middle Part's being hurt, are these;

If there be no Impediment in the Memo∣ry, and if a Man speak those things that ought not to be spoken, and fear those things which he ought not to fear, and think that to be good which is very hurt∣ful, and judge that may be hoped which it is not lawful to hope for, and acts things not to be acted, and enquires into things which ought not to be enquired into, and if he can call to Mind whatsoever he plea∣ses, then the Hurt is in the Cogitation,

that is, the middle part of the Brain.

Finally, Signs of a hurt Imagination are these; namely,

If a Mans Memory and Talk be as they ought to be: if he contradict not the things which he did himself; if he speak not those things which seem contrary to Reason; if he imagine not things not sen∣sible; if he collect many things, if while he sees Particulars he see falsly, namely, Water, Fire, and the like; if he imagine weakly concerning the Forms of things in Sleep and Waking, then the Hurt is in the Imagination and Forepart of the Brain.

If two or three of these things be com∣plicated, then the Hurt is in two or three Parts, that is, in the recesses of the Brain.

And when any of these things enclines to Diminution, the Disease is from Cold; if to Permutation, it is from Heat.

But some have thought that the Defect and Diminution of these Operations arises from the Diminution of the Substance of the Brain.

I have diligently collected the Cure of these Hurts from the Tables of the Parts of the Head, which the Son of the Prince A∣bohaly published in his Book Of the Support of the Art of Physick. And besides, I have

laid down this way of Cure how it must be used, in the End of this Epistle; and there you shall find most fit Medicines for to cure this foresaid Accident.

For especially for this Accident, and in the second place for others, I composed this Epistle at the Perswasion of two Wise men in Paris.

For not only the Aged, but even Young Men for want of Regiment, and through Ignorance of certain things, as is daily ma∣nifest, being made in a manner blind, are miserably hurt.

And now we have finished the first part of this Epistle, concerning Speculative Knowledge: We must next speak of Ope∣rative or Practical Knowledge.

CHAP. VII. Of Meats and Drink, which do more agree∣ably restore the Natural Moisture, that daily is consumed.

^a MEats and Drink, which more a∣greeably restore the Natural Moisture, which is daily wasted, are many: And this Restauration is various, according to the variety of Constitutions, and ac∣cording to the goodness of Juices in Meats and Drinks, as Pliny saith, and especially after the time of full Growth.

Now some good Juices proceed from Ve∣getables as well as from Animals, but none from Minerals, as the Son of the Prince A∣bohaly maintains in the Preface of his Regi∣ment.

But the Natural Moisture which is daily wasted, may by ^b Diet and a right Course of Moderating ones Living be restored.

Which Course ought to consist, as much as may be, of things of a good Juice, and of other Vertues.

But according to Pliny those good Juices are better, which either Increase, or Re∣pair the Natural Moisture.

And of those, some do render it purer: Some do make it stronger and more remote from Corruption.

And therefore things of good Juice do differ among themselves. For what do pro∣ceed from Animals bred on a fruitful Soil, do render the Natural Moisture more Sin∣cere, and free from Destruction.

For Bread, Fish, Flesh and Wine, al∣though they afford a good Juice; yet some∣times they breed bad Humours.

But Bread yields a Moisture safer from Destruction than Flesh; And Flesh produ∣ces a Moisture more remote from Corrupti∣on than Fish: Wine of the Vineyard af∣fords one more remote than Drink made of Oats, or Apples, or Barley, or of other things.

For although in all the things aforesaid there may be found Food of a good Juice; yet Wine breeds a more durable Moisture than any other Drink.

But Flesh and Wine and Yolks of Eggs are more apt to breed good Blood, than o∣ther harder things. And they are fit for Old Men, because Old Men want Restau∣ration of Blood and Spirits. And the chief Goodness of Regiment in them, is that which heats and moistens, from Nutritives,

Bathes, Drink, long Sleep, long Lying in Bed, from Provocation of Urine and Ex∣pulsion of Phlegm.

And Prince Abohaly saith in his first Ca∣non, in the Chapter Of the Regiment of Old Men, that Nutritives ought to be such as neither breed Melancholy, nor Phlegm, nor any sharp Humour; as is the Flesh of Pullets, Partridge, Sucking Kids, Calves and Lambs; hot, temperate, and moist E∣lectuaries, and some Simples, amongst which are the better sort of Pine and Fistick Nuts (for they restore the natural and innate Moisture) and a certain Electuary made up of them and artificially prepared, and ta∣ken in great Quantity with Sugar of Roses. Whereof Avicenna speaking of the Con∣sumption makes mention saying, that a Persian Woman, whose Grave was dug, and her Funeral prepared, by this recover∣ed her Health, and restored her Natural Moisture.

But remember how I said, that, accord∣ing to Pliny, things of a good Juice restore the Natural Moisture, and yet such as is often presently wasted, for this Reason; Because bad Chyle is bred sometime from things of a good Juice in a hot Stomach, for that sometime the Meat is adust, as

Royal Haly saith in his Canon Of the Regi∣ment of Meat: And also from Meats, that of their own Nature do breed a bad Moi∣sture.

Sometimes this happens in things of good Juice, which are of the rank of Animals.

It is of great moment that the Feeding of these living Creatures be good; as in Fish and the rest of Animals.

For I have seen Chickens fed with Grapes, harder of Flesh, and more difficult of Concoction, than were most Water-Fowl.

The like one may see in Fish, as is appa∣rent in Pikes: for they are not fed as othe•• Fish; and therefore these breed better Food, which are themselves better fed.

And not only their Food is to be consi∣dered, but the Place wherein they are brought up. So we have seen Fish living in a muddy and foul Water, which of their own Nature use to breed good Food, have notwithstanding produced very bad; And on the contrary.

But in Vegetables four things are to be considered.

• The Soil,
• The Air,
• The Distance of the Sun, and
• ...

• The Kind of the Plant.

The Soil is considerable: Because Plants that grow in a ^c dunged Soil, have Fruit which sooner putrefies, than such as grow other where.

The same may be said of Bread-Corn and other Grain. As is also evident in the Wine of that Vineyard which is nourished by the Juice of a dunged Earth: For that sort of Wine sooner decays than any other, and becomes dreggy.

Whence it fell out that a certain King drunk heartily of the Wine of a certain Husbandman's Vineyard, and when this Husbandman heard that the King was de∣lighted with the Pleasantness of his Wine, he bethought him of husbanding his Vine∣yard more wisely, and he dunged it: Af∣ter some space of Time the Wine began to be worse and to decay, and to have a worse flavor.

For a good Tast is the truest Mark of good Meat and Drink, that breed a natural Moisture, as Isaac speaks in his Book Of Diet, in the Fifth Tract Of Fish, saying,

That all Meat by how much the more sa∣voury it is, by so much the better it nou∣risheth.

And things growing in a Soil not dung∣ed,

do not so easily putrefie, as those do which grow in a dunged Soil.

For (which makes for this Purpose) I saw a certain Mountain in some part of France, where Corn was kept without Damage in Granaries for six or eight Years: For that the Nature of the Earth alone is much bet∣ter (than when forced with Dung) for bringing forth Fruits.

I have also seen in some Vineyards, pro∣pagated as it were of the same Seed and O∣riginal, and planted but a few Paces Di∣stance, this to happen, that one produced Wine twice as strong and heady as the o∣ther; which was from the natural Vertue of the Ground from whence the Vineyard had its nourishment. For there was white Marle, which is said to be better than any other for to yield good Nourishment, by reason it is always fruitful.

A good Air is also to be observed: For Herbs and Trees, which grow in a good Air, are more remote from Corruption, and always are of a more vehement, and stronger Vertue.

And this therefore comes to pass, by rea∣son of the Wind, that does there more free∣ly pass and blow upon all things, drying up Putrefaction. Whence it is, that Avicenna

in his first Canon affirms, that Plants grow∣ing in Windy and Mountainous Places, are of a stronger and more unshaken Vertue.

I saw a Mountain in the Province of the Romans, wherein the Air was so pure, and the Plants of so great Goodness, that dis∣eased and infected Cattel were in a small space of Time cured by them. And the same may be said likewise of Animals living in Mountainous Places.

Thirdly, The Distance of the Sun doth concur in the Generation of Plants. For Plants that grow in Places remote from the Sun, have their Fruit more crude, neither continuing so long without rotting, nor growing so hard as to be defended from Pu∣trefaction. Therefore they breed a Humour more obnoxious to Corruption. As is mani∣fest in Vineyards that are found in some part of the Kingdom of France, and in some parts of Germany, whose Grapes being laid on the Ground, especially in Summer Time, are corrupted. The Reason is, because the Water being made sowre, is not all turned into Wine. And therefore Isaac lays down this as a Property of Wine, namely, That mere Wine mixt with Spring-Water, which hath no external Vapour any way mixt with it, is more powerful and strong, than

Watrish Wine without Mixture. Because in Watrish Wine there is a sowre Water; in a Strong and (as they call it) Vino•• Wine the Sowreness is expell'd by the Heat of the Sun. But a high and frequen•• Boyling of Wine, while it is new, will take away that Defect; as also hot Earth or Gravel will help the Heat of the Sun, de∣ficient through its great Distance.

Whence it easily appears, that the Pre∣sence of the Sun operates much, and that its Distance effects much in many things.

For those Countries that are farther from the Heat and Circumgiration of the Sun, want many sorts of Plants, as Olives, Figs, Pomegranates; and their Wines also are not so permanent as in hot Countries, where sometimes they are kept for ten Years.

Fourthly, We must consider what Kind the Plant is of; Because, although the three foresaid things concur, if the Plant be of a bad Kind, they effect or avail nothing.

Which is made manifest in some Kind of Grapes, that seem fairer to the Eye than o∣thers; yet Wine made thereof is corrupted in a shorter Time, nor is it of the like Re∣lish, nor of so much Goodness in Breeding good Humours.

And thus we see the Native Moisture

may be restored, and when almost lost may be renewed by good Juices produced of A∣nimals and Plants.

But some among the Chaldean Wise Men have believed, that all the Moisture of the whole Body, the Old being purged out, might easily be changed, and a new one be made. When to wit,

The inner Moisture is purged by Medi∣cines;

The outer in the Skin and Flesh by Sweat, Unction and Scarification.

This Moisture also is restored by things of a good Juice artificially prepared for eating, wherewithal Medicines may be like∣wise mixt, that are not subject to Putrefa∣ction.

And the exteriour Moisture being thus evacuated by Sweat, and the interior by Medicines, it is requisite that this other Moisture, sprung of the aforesaid Meats, be long preserved from Corruption.

And so the Old Moisture being subtract∣ed, which was as it were all consumed, a new Moisture will be bred, the Man re∣newed, and his Life be made the longer: Which thing the Ancients did; and which even at this Time some Wise Men among the Chaldees know how to do. Of whose

Way and Wisdom I am not altogether i∣gnorant. And this was said to be done to a eertain ^d German Captive by some Wise Men in Arabia.

But ^e Ovid saith, that he did this by one Medicine made up of many Medicines; al∣though some are of the opinion it is fabu∣lously reported.

From these and from other things (most Excellent Prince) it may easily appear to Your Clemency, by what means Men of former Time were long-lived, namely,

Because their Way of Living was more temperate.

Because their Food and Nourishment augmented the Natural Moisture, and pre∣served it long from Corruption.

And then, because there was a greater Purity of Air.

Moreover, because they better knew the Properties of Things, which guarded the State of the Body, that it was not present∣ly dissolved.

The Knowledge of which things came imperfect to the Greeks, and so to us.

After we have seen what Meats and Drink restore the Native Moisture, we ought to consider what things they are that defend that Moisture, and protect it from Dissolution.

One whereof ^a swims in the Sea.

Another is ^b hid in the inmost Recesses of the Earth.

The third is usually ^c found in the Bow∣els of the Animal, that lives long.

These three do not only defend the Ra∣dical Moisture from Dissolution, but they preserve it and its Natural Heat in good Temper: So that they depart not from their Temper and Harmony, and while these two are not changed, there need be no fear of Sickness in Man.

For in these two Health and length of Days do consist, as Aristotle saith in his E∣pistle to Alexander.

Although these Kind of Things be known, nevertheless they ought to be, most accurately chosen and skilfully pre∣pared: for all the Secret is in their Prepa∣ration, which the Wise have concealed, be∣cause they are of a thick Substance, and must be very finely ground.

For the Son of the Prince Abohaly saith in his second Canon in the Chapter Of the judgment of certain Medicines, that all Me∣dicines of a thick Substance must be ground as fine as can be; and good reason, since our Intention is, that they should come to the utmost End of their Journey,

and that they should pass to the fourth Di∣gestion, and to the Heart and Members of Similar Parts.

But these forementioned things stand in need (as I said before) of Choice and of divers Preparations, one of which may be better than another, and the last or third the best.

But the Medicine which is found in the Bowels of the long-lived Animal, is a Gri∣stle which will weigh above one Scruple, which in almost all other Creatures is Blood.

One of these Animals was found in our Time, about whose neck there was a gold∣en Collar put, wherein was written, Hoc Animal fuit positum in hoc Nemore tempore Julii Caesaris, i. e. This Animal was put in this Wood in the time of Julius Caesar.

This Medicine, cold of it self, if it be mixt with hot Cordials, preserves the Moi∣sture, that it be not dissolved, and the Na∣tural Heat, that it be not extinguished.

As to that which swims in the Sea, some say it is cold, some will have it temperate in Complexion. And Isaac discoursing of it, affirms, that it clarifies the Blood, espe∣cially that of the Heart it self, and discusses and attenuates its gross Nature, it dries up

Defluxions and hurtful Humours in the Eyes; it is very good for those that are troubled with the Palpitation of the Heart, and for the fearful and suspicious, who are troubled with Melancholy. And others have thought that it is very good for those that are troubled with the falling Sickness, and that it causes a Man to vomit congealed and clotted Blood, whether from a Wound or from any other Cause, if the Powder of it be taken in Drink; and if it be mixt with any other Liquor, it will cure the Ails that come of the fourth Digestion, if the Skin be washed therewith, such as are the white Morphew.

But that Medicine which by Nature is wisely enough laid up in the Bowels of the Earth, hath this Property, that it keeps the Natural Moisture from being so soon cor∣rupted; and it also retains it in its natural Temper, and most commodiously fenceth the Native Heat, that it contract no strange Quality, and it recalls all things intempe∣rate in the Body to a Temper. And Isaac saith in his Book Of the support of the Art of Physick, that it hath Power to help a weak Stomach, the fearful, and such as are troubled with the Passion of the Heart; and is an excellent Cure for them that are

polluted and infected with Baldness and the Leprosie.

And the Prince saith, that this best of Medicines is very profitable for Headaches and the shaking Palsie; and also for those that by night being mischievously fascina∣ted in their Brain, out of Madness talk to themselves.

Nor is it to be wondred, that this Me∣dicine can do such great things, because the Son of Zacharias saith it is temperate in the tenth Degree, and surpasses and exceeds all others in Temper. For there is in it an equal and right Nature, and it is not sub∣ject to the Corruption of any of the Ele∣ments.

Whoever therefore doth earnestly desire to preserve any Humane Body perfect in Health and unhurt, and to hinder, that the Internal Moisture be not easily dimi∣nished; to renew the Moisture it self; when renew'd, to defend it from too quick and hasty Destruction, and so to cherish the Powers of the Body, as that they may not be hurt of these Six Causes that conti∣nually change the State of the Body, let him most studiously seek out this thing. For it will easily perform all these things, as Aristotle saith in his Book Of the Secrets of

Secrets; nor will it suffer Mens Health to be endangered or overthrown by these Causes ill proportioned.

For these Causes do very much Harm to the Complexion and Composition of the Body, as was said before in the Chapter Of the Causes of Old Age.

Aristotle thinks it impossible, that Medi∣cines so fading and so soon perishing, should be able to preserve Mens Bodies in Health, that they be not dissolved before the Time, or that they should repel and restrain all the Accidents of Old Age. But Physici∣ans believe they are able to do this, and that with Aromatick Medicines, which al∣so are subject to Corruption. Therefore this to me seems possible.

For this Medicine doth admirable things when it is well prepared, and very well drawn out: And when it is made after the best preparation, it produces sublime Ope∣rations. And in this is the whole Secret of the Ancients.

Know you therefore (most Gracious Prince) that the Uses of the things afore∣said are great; and understand, that they can easily retain the Natural Moisture and Heat in Temper.

And may be that Water was of this

kind, which an aged ^d Husbandman in the Kingdom of Sicily being weary at Plow did drink. He thought it was like yellowish Water, and after he had greedily swallow∣ed it up, being warm with the Heat of his Labour, he was so changed in Complexion and Strength, that he became as it were of about thirty Years of Age, and was endow∣ed with better Judgment, Memory and Understanding, than he had before. He lived after that at the Kings Court four∣score Years.

Some Wise Men have asserted, that some ^e Cordial Medicine ought to be mixt with these Medicines, such as Saffron and Musk.

For Saffron carries Medicines to the Heart, cures its Trembling, takes away Melancholy and Care, refreshes the Brain, cheers the Soul, begets Boldness; and then especially, when it enclines to Redness, ha∣ving a Sphaerical shape, as we have said for∣merly.

After we have seen what things they are, which defend the Native Moisture, that it do not quickly suffer dissolution, and what things generate it anew, or when renewed, do make it more sincere, and preserve its due Temper of Heat; now we ought to consider, what things they are that hasten

untimely Grey Hairs, and other Accidents of Age and Old Age.

off the Hair, Touching of cold things, and Washing with them, such as is Oyl of Elder, Rose-water, Elder-water, ^b Cam∣phire. Frequent Washing hurts, now and then it does no harm, if the Face be wiped with a Cloth. For Wiping is of much Force. To these we may reckon the Smell of cold Dill, and its Powder, the Smell of Sulphur and its Smoak, the Steam of Quick-silver and Arsenick, dwelling in cold and very moist Places.

And he that desires to avoid Grey-head∣edness, let him shun moist Meats, let him often provoke Vomit, when he is full, let him take Trifera, which is made up of Black, Emblick and Bellirick Myrobalans, and of other things that hinder Greyness. Also let him not gorge himself with Wine, let him mix Water with his Honey, let him abstain from Meats that breed Phlegm, let him live content with fry'd and roast Meats, and let him use the Water of Vetch.

All these things, as Rasy saith in the Cha∣pter Of Adorning the Hair, are a Cause that the Blood enclines to Cholerick Dryness, and that it becomes thick; and they utterly overcome Phlegm.

For Avicenna saith in the Chapter Of

Things that hinder and keep back Grey Hairs, that while the Blood remains fat, thick, hot and clammy, the Hairs are Black; and when it is Watry, they wax Grey.

Aristotle also in that Book which he wrote almost in his Old Age, incited there∣to at the Request of Alexander, affirms, that ^c Laughter also is a Cause of Old Age and hastens on its Accidents.

We have spoken of the Causes, now let us discourse of the Remedies that purge those humours, which are so troublesome to Men, and which bring on the most mi∣serable Accidents of Old Age.

CHAP. X. Of things which refresh and recreate Old Age, and hinder its Accidents.

ALL Wise Men who have discoursed of this Matter, do unanimously a∣gree in this; That those things which purge Phlegm, do cast out the humour, which is the cause of Greyness and the Original of the Accidents of Old Age.

But Avicenna in his first Chapter Of the Complexions of Ages and Kinds affirms, that not only Phlegm, but that all strange and extraneous Humours are the Causes of these Accidents. I judge this to be true; but it is Phlegm especially that doth the thing.

Therefore ^a Vomit is useful, especially afternoon, as Avicenna saith in his fourth Tract Of Adorning: Neither ought a Man to take a Vomit every day, but once or twice a Month, as Rasy teacheth in his Regiment, in his Book to Almansor, in the Canon Of Vomit. And so all the Latin Physicians do agree in this.

Galen's Purge is Pilulae de Mastiche and Aloes: For they purge Phlegm, as Isaac saith in his Book Of Greyheadedness.

Also the Purge that Haly appoints, and Avicenna likewise, hath this Property, namely, to purge gently the hurtful Hu∣mours, without any harm to the Native Moisture. And therefore Purging is pro∣per, which we ought to use in extruding these kind of Humours; and it must be understood of that Purgation, wherein there is no Laxative but Aloes. And such Aloes ought to be Hepatica, as saith Royal Haly.

Its Attraction is not from far and remote Parts, but from those it meets in its way, that is, from the Stomach and Guts, and the remoter Place of its Attraction is the Liver without the Veins, as is manifest in the second Canon, in the Tract of Hierae.

It seems also very likely that every ^b kind of Rue hath the Power of Purging these things. For Aristotle in his Epistle to Ale∣xander appoints, that he should take Rue e∣very Morning. He saith that Rue drives away the Phlegm of the Stomach, that it is the Life of the Liver, that it stirs up the Natural Heat, and dispels Windiness. Haly also saith this in his Regiment.

Old Men ought to be purged, not with sharp and violent Purgatives, but with milder, as with Broth of Pullets, &c. and

other gentle things as with Myrobalans, Chepuli, and many of the same kind.

Besides, ^c Citrull-Seed is useful in pur∣ging the Reins and cleansing of Humours. Rue also purgeth the Head and Reins, Sto∣mach and Liver, as we have said before.

A Clyster also that purgeth Phlegm well, restrains the Accidents and Weaknesses of Old Age, as Avicenna saith in his Canon Of things that keep back Grey Hairs: In which Clyster these things ought properly to be, Mercury, Dwarf Elder, and Elder, so they be well mixt and strained in the Clyster. Such a gentle Clyster is very profitable for Old Men, whose Nature is weaker.

But it should seem, that every Purgative rather brings on than restrains Grey Hairs, and provokes the Accidents of Old Age, so that they approach the sooner, rather than it puts any stop to their coming, be∣cause Hippocrates affirms, as Avicenna testi∣fies in the Chapter Of Exercise, that Pur∣ging Physick draws from the Body the great∣er share of the Natural Moisture, which is as it were the Substance of Life.

This is true, if such Physick be admi∣nistred, as doth indifferently purge ^d eve∣ry Humour; or if it be given to such as are ^e well enough in Health, and do not

lack the vertue of a Medicament.

Black Hellebore also well prepared doth separate the Humour, that is the Cause of these Accidents; and Avicenna saith, that its Nature is to change the evil Complexion of the Body, and to bring on a better.

The Use also of Bathes is profitable for a fasting Stomach: for it consumes the Phlegmatick Moisture, especially in those that are of a cold Constitution.

In like manner Gargarisms, as Aristotle saith in his Book Of the Secrets of Secrets.

Old Men also are to be bathed fasting, especially they that are Phlegmatick. For it is better that a Man should receive from the Moisture of the Bath, than the Bath from the Moisture of a Mans Body.

But the Bath draws the Humours to the Superficies and Skin of the Body; and therefore seems rather a Cause than Impe∣diment of Greyness, and rather to make Men grey than to preserve them from Grey Hairs.

Therefore we have added, that Fasting must precede, and Evacuation of Superflui∣ties be before Bathing, as Hippocrates saith.

Trifera of Black, Emblick and Bellirick Myrobalans is one of those things which a∣verts the Infirmities and Accidents of Old

Age, as Rasy affirms in his Tract Of Adorn∣ing the Hair; also an Electuary of Indian Myrobalans with Sugar keeps back Grey Hairs, as Rasy saith in his Book to Almansor. Chewing of preserved Myrobalans is a Cause, that the Hairs do not so early put on Greyness. Avicenna also testifies this in his Canon Of Things hindring Grey Hairs. And if chewing of Myrobalans and Chepuli preserved be daily used, Youth is more ea∣sily preserved.

For this Trifera operates by drying up the Phlegm; and that the more, if the Pine-Nut be added, which is hot and moist in the third, according to some in the second Degree: but a small Quantity is to be ad∣ded.

For it hath the Property of drying up the corrupt Moisture, of breeding a good one, of making that fat, and of strength∣ning a sick and debilitated Body: It is good for the Cough, and putrefyed Humors in the Lungs, it cleanseth the Humors in the Reins and Bladder, it prevents Ulcers of the Bladder, and removes the Stone. It is a Medicine most fit for Old Men, and for them that have a cold Com∣plexion: It must be taken after Meat: It hath more Vertue when fresh than old;

and (which is a Wonder among the Secrets of Nature) it may be both Meat and Medi∣cine:

Meat, in that it restores the Natural Moisture;

Medicine, in that it dries up and cleanseth all strange and foreign Moisture.

Evacuation of the Preternatural Humi∣dity is performed by any Medicine whate∣ver, wherein are put the ^f Skales of Iron; but with more ease and better, where there is Gold well prepared, as Avicenna saith in his Tract Of Things which keep back Grey Hairs.

For Gold hath the Vertue to divide and separate the Phlegmatick Matter from the true and useful Humour of the Body.

That Medicine also whose ^g Mine is the Indian Plant, casts out the redounding Plenty of Phlegm. Of which the Prince speaks, saying, That it is of a hot and dry Complexion in the Second Degree, of sub∣til Operation and Complexion; it opens Obstructions, drives away Wind and Va∣pors, strengthens the Bowels, bridles and restrains Anger, removes strange and hurt∣ful defluxions of the Humors, refreshes the Nerves, and bedews them with a thin and subtil Moisture; it is very good for the

Brain, it sharpens the Senses, chears the Heart it self, and hath also a Vertue to stop immoderate Urine and the Melancholick Dysentery.

Isaac speaks thus of it,

It strengthens all the inner Parts, expells the Superflui∣ties of the Body, opens the Obstruction of the Liver, and helps the Superfluity and Defect of the Bladder.

That is to be made choice of, which is of a blackish Inside and Outside, which con∣tains as it were a Horny Hardness. The best is easily known: for being cast into Water it easily sinks to the Bottom.

The Medicine which lives ^h in the Air hath a Property of Strengthning, Dissol∣ving, Attenuating, Cleansing and Consu∣ming; It strengthens the Heart and all the principal Parts, it dissolves, attenuates, cleanses and consumes superfluous Phlegm, and Melancholy, wheresoever it abounds in Mans Body, but especially if it be in the Stomach and Brain. Whence it is said to have an unspeakable Vertue against the Passions and Troubles of Old Age, whe∣ther it be taken in Meat, or in Drink, or in an Electuary.

It is read in some Book of the Latins, that a certain Queen wrote to another, that

this was good against Old Age, that it did help the Melancholick, and Persons trou∣bled with the Passions of the Heart.

Also an Indian King wrote to another Prince, that he had no Treasure within the Confines of his Kingdom preferable to this Plant.

Of it is made an Oyl most profitable for the Sight, and most adverse to the Acci∣dents of Old Age.

It is said to live in the Air, because with∣out the Air it receives not Nourishment.

This is manifest in ⁱ Roses, which in the Spring are bent back under Ground, and may be kept to Mid-Winter.

The Property of its Flower doth not a∣bide above a Year: As the Moon encrea∣seth, its Flowers encrease, and indeed as the Moon decreaseth, its Flowers decrease. In Spring Time at the encrease of the Moon its Flowers are to be gathered; and in this Plant there are Ten Properties or Vertues.

The Medicine which lyes hid in the Sea agrees with and may be mixt these a∣foresaid: for it is of admirable Vertue and Efficacy against those Passions of Age and Old Age, as Experience shews.

It is hot and dry in the Second Degree,

as Isaac affirms; it strengthens the Stomach, the Senses, and all the inner Parts. It ve∣ry much helps against Fainting and the Fal∣ling-Sickness, if it be given to the Patients in the Winter or Spring-Time, so long as it doth keep.

The Use of the aforesaid Medicines will not do so much good in a hot Season ^k and Complexion, unless as much of a cold and moist thing be mixt with them, to temper their Heat and Dryness; also a little Saffron must be added.

We have done with the things which purge and waste those Humours, whence do flow all the Accidents of Old Age.

Oyl of unripe wild Olives preserves the Hair, if it be used daily, as is said in his second Canon, in the Chapter Of Olives.

Likewise washing with Water and Oyl hinders hoariness, as Aristotle saith in the End of his Book Of Animals.

And if all hot Oyls do this, we may reck∣on into the number Oyl of Balm, Oleum Benedictum, and that which by Art is made of Bricks.

These things preserve the Hair.

But something must be said of those things that ^a root out the Grey Heirs, and bring new and youthful ones. For Aboha∣ly speaks of these things in his fourth Book in the Chapter Of things that hinder Grey Hairs.

Now amongst the things that Men have experienced before our Time, and do experience in these very Times of ours, these are some;

Red Dragantum and Albalcae of each one drachm: for they strip off the Grey Hairs, and in their stead do plant Black and Youth∣ful ones.

Nevertheless no Man is able to bear or endure this, but he that hath a strong and moist Body.

And moreover we must see to admini∣ster

it after the giving of some other Me∣dicine that cleanses and moistens the Lungs.

Now Isaac saith, that if men drink Bo∣rage boiled with Water and Sugar or Ho∣ney, it doth excellently cleanse the Pipes of the Lung••.

Also Celtick Spike drunk with Wine fre∣quently, doth render the Breast and Lungs clean; and many other things, that are de∣livered in the Books of Physicians, effect this; As

A ^b certain Herb like unto Marjoram, whose Leaves are of a Blue or Sky Colour, and round as a Penny: Which increaseth as the Moon increaseth, and decreaseth as she decreaseth. It grows on Mountains and Rocks of Rivers; it hath one Leaf succes∣sively after another; sometime it remains bare, its Flowers are of an Orange Colour, as is there said. If any one shall take of this Plant to the weight of a Pease, and as much of the Cuttle-fish, and stop it up close in a Vessel three Days, and drink it for some days with Cows Milk instead of Food, the Grey Hairs will shed, and Black ones come in their room, and the Man will become more juvenile.

I have not tryed these things; But this Accident may be removed for a time, and

how it may be done is found in Physick Books.

CHAP. XII. Of things which restore and strengthen the Natural Heat, weakned by the Course of Nature, that is, by Dissolution of the Native Moisture, and Augmentation of an Extraneous one.

I Have read many Volumes of the Wise, I find few things in Physick, which re∣store the Natural Heat, weakned by Dis∣solution of the Innate Moisture, or Increase of a foreign one.

But certain Wise Men have tacitly made Mention of some Medicine, which is ^a like∣ned to that which goes out of the Mine of the Noble Animal. They affirm that in it there is a Force and Vertue, which re∣stores and encreases the Natural Heat.

As to its Disposition they say it is like ^b Youth it self, and contains an equal and temperate Complexion.

And the Signs of a temperate Complexi∣on in Men are, when their Colour is made up of ^e White and Red, when the Hair is Yellow, inclining to ^d Redness and Cur∣ling.

According to Pliny, when the ^e Flesh is

moderate both in Quality and Quantity, when a Mans ^f Dreams are delightful, his Countenance ^g chearful and pleasant, and when his ^h Appetite of eating and drinking is moderate.

This Medicine indeed is like to such a Complexion: For it is of a temperate Heat, its ⁱ Fume is temperate and sweet, and grateful to the ^k Smell. When it departs from this Temperature, it departs so far from its Vertue and Goodness.

This Medicine doth therefore temperate∣ly heat, because it is temperately hot: It therefore ^l heals, because it is whole: When it is sick, it makes a Man sick: When it is distempered, it ^m breeds Distempers, and changeth the Body to its own Disposition, because of the Similitude it hath with the Body.

For the Infirmity of a Brute Animal rare∣ly passeth into Man, but into another Ani∣mal of the same kind: But the Infirmity of a Man passeth into Man; and so doth ⁿ Health because of Likeness.

Know (most Gracious Prince!) that in this there is a great Secret. For Galen saith, that whatever is dissolved from any thing, it must of necessity be assimilated to that thing: As is manifest in Diseases

passing from one to another; such is Weak∣ness of the Eyes, and Pestilential Diseases.

This thing hath an admirable Property, for it doth not only render Humane Bodies harmless from Corruption, but it defends also the Bodies of Plants from Putrefaction.

This thing is seldome found, and although sometime it be found, yet it cannnot com∣modiously be had of all Men. And instead of it the Wise do use that Medicine, which is in the Bowels of the Earth complete and prepared, and that which swims in the Sea, and that which is in the Square Stone of the Noble Animal: so that every part may be free from the infection of another.

But if that Stone cannot be acquired, let other Elements separated, divided and purified be made use of.

Now when this thing is like to Youth, that is, of temperate Complexion, it hath good Operations: If its Temperature be better, it produceth better Effects: Some∣times it is even in the highest Degree of its perfection, and then it operates best; and then there is that Property, whereof we have spoken before.

This differs from other Medicines and Nutriments, which heat and moisten after a certain temperate manner, and are good for

Old Men. For other Medicines principally heat and moisten the Body, and secondarily they strengthen the Native Heat: But this doth principally strengthen the Native Heat, and after that ^o refreshes the Body by moi∣stening and heating it. For it reduces this Heat in Old Men, who have it but weakly and deficient, to a certain stronger and more vehement Power.

If a ^p Plaster be made hereof and appli∣ed to the Stomach, it will help very much: for it will refresh the Stomach it self, and excite an Appetite; it will very much re∣create an Old Man, and change him to a kind of Youth; and will make Complexi∣ons by what means soever depraved or cor∣rupted, better.

Many Wise Men have spoken but little of this thing, they have indeed laid down another thing like it, as Galen in his fifth Book Of Simple Medicines, and Iohannes Damascenus in his Aphorisms.

But it is to be observed, that ^q Venus doth weaken and diminish the Power and Virtue of this thing.

And it is very likely that the Son of the Prince, in his second Canon Of the Opera∣tions of Simple Medicines, spoke of this thing, where he saith, that there is a cer∣tain

Medicine concealed by Wise Men, lest the ^r Incontinent should offend their Creator.

There is such a Heat in this thing, as is in Young Men of a Sound Complexion, and if I durst declare the Properties of this Heat, this most hidden Secret should presently be revealed.

For this Heat doth help the Palsical, it re∣stores and preserves the wasted Strength of the Native Heat, causeth it to flourish in all the Members, and gently revives the A∣ged.

In like manner, because of Similitude, let the Square Stone of the Noble Animal, the Mineral Sun, and the Matter which swims in the Sea be made use of. These three things well prepared are assimilated to the Native Heat of a healthy Man.

The Antient Sages have also reported, that there is another kind of Medicine, which is able to perform this, namely,- ^s Wine artificially mixt and prepared, whereof there are five Properties, as Galen saith.

Wine mixt with Water, 1. Heats the whole Body.

2. As it were pierceth the Members.

3. Tempers the Humors.

4. Excites Natural Heat.

5. Chears the Heart; which I think is to be imputed to the Wine not the Water: And it must be understood of that Wine which is ^t strong, and is found in Syria.

Also Royal Haly in his Chapter Of Old Age, where he discourses of Drink, speaks thus,

If any one use it, according to the Measure, and at the Time he ought, it will strengthen the Native Heat, and diffuse it through the whole Body; it will disperse Cholerick Humors, and tem∣per them by purging by Sweat and Urine; it will make a hard Nature soft∣er; and will moisten, when through too violent Labour Dryness doth happen. It begets Chearfulness and Joy, and miti∣gates Melancholy.

It is said also, that the white and subtil should be drunk with a great deal of Wa∣ter, especially when the ripe Age of Man, and the time of full growth is come.

But Sowre and Old Wines are to be avoid∣ed: If Men be of necessity forced to drink such Wines, let them be dashed with sweet Water and Warm; and before they be drunk, let them stand mixt for six Hours.

For Isaac doth thus speak of strong Wine mixt:

Wine mixt doth cool hot Bodies, moisten the dry, make dry the

moist, and produce contrary Operations.

We would have all understood of strong Wine mixt, wherein are five Properties, ^u Colour, Smell, Tast, Substance, Age.

A Man ought to drink that Wine, which is yellowish.

Haly affirms, that Wine should be drunk, whose Colour enclines to Redness.

Avicenna saith, Red is most eligible, which is clear of Substance, in Tast neither bitter nor sweet, but Pontick. But if it seem too Vinous, it ought to be mixt with Spring-Water, where there is no extraneous Vapor.

Royal Haly saith, that Old and Sowre Wine should be avoided.

Isaac thinks, that after a Year is over, the Goodness and Strength of the Wine doth begin.

None almost do speak of the space of Time, wherein this Mixture should be made, except Royal Haly, who seems to have spoken well in his foresaid Canon Of Old Wine: For unless Wine remain for some Time mixt, the Wine by Digestion in the Stomach will be separated from the Wa∣ter.

For the hot and fiery part ascends, and the Earthy will remain in the Bottom of the Stomach, as appears by a Glass-Vessel full of Red Wine; so that if Water be poured upon it, and the Vessel closed, that no Air can get in, you shall see the Water sink to the Bottom.

But this Clashing of the Wise about the Colour and Season of Wine is not worthy so great Admiration, seeing that diversity of Soils doth often cause it.

For the Vertue of Plants is various ac∣cording to the Variety of Places and Pro∣vinces, as Haly saith upon Galen's Regi∣ment, where he speaks of the Correction of Medicine.

Aristotle Of the Secrets of Secrets affirms, That Wine should be drunk by Old Men, and them that plentifully flow with Phlegm; he thinks it hurtful for the Young and Hot.

Red Wine encreases Blood more than White, and is in some measure better than all Wine, and more agreeable to Mens Complexions, such namely as grows on a Soil enclosed between Hills and Dales, whose Clusters are of a good Sweetness and Maturity, in a subtil and pure Air, and which are not gathered before the Force of

their Substance be rebated, their Colour be∣come Golden, namely, a Mean between Red and Yellow, their Tast sharp, pun∣gent and delectable, and before their Sub∣stance be clear.

When the Wine shall be such, let a Man drink as his Age and the nature of the Sea∣son will permit.

For then it will preserve the Stomach, strengthen the Natural Heat, help Digesti∣on, defend the Body from Corruption, carry the Food to all the Parts, and con∣coct the Food till it be turned into very Blood: It also cheers the Heart, tinges the Countenance with Red, makes the Tongue voluble, begets Assurance, and promises much Good and Profit.

If it be over-much guzzled, it will on the contrary do a great deal of Harm:

For it will darken the Understanding, ill affect the Brain, render the Natural Vi∣gor languid, bring Forgetfulness, weaken the Joynts, beget shaking of the Limbs and Bleareyedness, it will darken and make black the Blood of the Heart: Whence Fear, Trembling, Weakness of the Geni∣tals, and the Destruction and Ruine of the Seed do arise.

And, which is worse, it breeds the ^w Le∣prosie,

and so imitates the Nature of the Serpent, which taken immoderately, and not as Physicians advise, is mortal: of which well prepared, Antidotes are made that cure Diseases.

But the Knowledge of the Properties of the others hath arrived even at us.

Such is the Serpent, which of Avicenna in his fourth and fifth Canon is called a ^c Viper, and the other is the ^d Snake.

Haly and Avicenna write of Vipers, say∣ing, that Vipers are Serpents having flat Heads and not broad, their Necks are little and slender, their Tail short, in their going they make a Hissing and a Noise.

A Man must hunt them between the ^e lat∣ter end of Spring and beginning of Sum∣mer. They which are of the better Sort are Yellow, and among the Yellow the Females. They are distinguished, in that the Males have only one Tooth, the Females several.

But care must be had lest Asps be chosen, such as are White, living in Fish-ponds, on banks of Rivers, and watry Places; for such use to do harm, and cause Thirst.

But let those be taken, which are slow of Motion, living in Places far remote from Moisture, and if possible to be effected, they should dye as they are taken, and let four inches be cut off the Head and Tail, let the Guts be taken out, let them be washt very clean with Water and Salt, and let them be boiled again and again in Water and Salt, till the Flesh may easily be pulled and sepa∣rated

from the Bones, then let them be beaten in a Mortar, let the Flesh be anointed with the Oyl of Balm, and dryed in the Shade.

And a Man must take heed, that the Sun∣beams do not fall upon the Flesh before it be dried, nor afterwards; For the Sun by his Power doth spoyl the Flesh of its Ver∣tue, so that it ^f expells no Poyson received either by Bite, or in any Drink.

Avicenna hath reported such things in his fifth Canon. Also in his Chapter Of the Le∣prosy he commends Mountain Vipers and white, and ordereth that the Head and Tail be cut off both at once.

In like manner Royal Haly in his last Dis∣course of his Practice advises that those be had which live in Houses and Salt Waters, and Young ones, in which is a red Colour inclining to Brownness, whose Heads are flat.

Also in his Chapter Of the Leprosy he saith, that a certain Quantity of their Tro∣chisces may be taken with Arrian Wine; And Avicenna saith with Red Wine: But Arrian Wine is Red. As for the Preparati∣on, enough is said already.

The ^g Property of the Viper, as Haly saith in his second discourse of his Practice, is to purge the inner Parts from superfluities, and

to bring out the venomous Humour to the Skin, and to get it out by Sweat, or Lice, or Excoriation, to heal the Venomous Bites of Animals: and Galen saith in that Expositi∣on, that there is not a Medicine better than this for strengthening the inner Parts, and clearing the Body of bad Humours.

But it is also necessary, that some other Medicine be artificially mixt with it, which may in like manner overcome the Poyson, such as Cassia lignea, Zedoaria, Citron Rind.

After the same manner Avicenna speaks of the Serpent in his second Canon; but he does not express whether he would be under∣stood of the Viper, Snake, or Dragon; his Words are to this purpose;

The Flesh of the Serpent, when prepared, forceth all the Humours to depart to and penetrate the Skin, and properly when a Man is purged;

of the Visive Faculty; also the Use of it preserves Health.

But the Latins, as it appears to me, speak of the Snake. For they say, it is good for the Dropsical and them that are troubled with the Spleen, and them that have any Defect in their Sight, also that it is useful to recruit all the Faculties, and that it brings aid and assistance towards the curing and removing Acute Distempers.

The Son of the Prince Abohaly, in his Canon Of the Leprosie, saith, that a Man ought to cease from the Use of this Flesh, when he is troubled with a Mist before his Eyes, or an Inflammation of his Belly.

Haly affirms that this Flesh is not to be given, but when Diseases come from the ill nature of the Humors; and that it is not to be used, except it be mixt with Styptick Spices, that have a Property against those Diseases, and the Mixture must be of so long continuance, as till it be fermented, other∣wise ^k it will be nothing worth.

The Quantity of the Aromatick Spices in my Judgment ought to be such, namely, One part of the Flesh, and Seven of the Aromatick Spices. This holds true if the Place be not hot, nor the Complexion high.

But if the Place be cold and the Com∣plexion chill, there ought to be one part Flesh; and Ten of the Aromatick Spices.

And, as some think, these are the things which ought to be mixt with it, Cloves, Nutmeg, Mace, Citron Rind, Zedoary and a little Musk.

Some have judged this Flesh should not be taken, but when the Sun ascends. Per∣chance the thing was made of this Serpent, which was given to a certain Lady in Ger∣many in our days. For it happened that there were two Sisters, both fair, one of which moved with Envy gave the other Poyson to drink, so that her Hair and Nails came off, and She endured wonderful Mise∣ry: After She had taken this Medicine, She looked like a Girl of Twenty, although She were much older; her Hair that be∣fore was Black turn'd Flaxen, and an equal Complexion of White and Red did suc∣ceed.

Faculty, and with it all the Rest; for all other Faculties depend of and proceed from that, as Avicenna saith in his first Ca∣non Of the Faculties.

But with what things this Anointing should be made, Physicians do very much vary.

For the Son of the Prince Abohaly in his Chapter Of Oyls affirms, that all kinds of Oyl refresh the Body, and help its Motion: But if all do this, it cannot otherwise chuse, but that one sort must be better than ano∣ther.

Haly in his Treatise Of the Regiment of Old Men, thinks that Old Men should be anointed with the Oyl of Squill, and with the Oyl of Violets mixt with the Oyl of Chamomel, and with the Oyl of Dill.

But Aristotle affirms in his Books Of the Secrets of Secrets, that Anointing ought to be made with sweet Smelling Oyntments in the Morning at convenient Seasons, that is, in Autumn, and Winter with Oynt∣ments made of Myrrhe, and with the Juice of an Herb which is called a Blite; in Sum∣mer and Spring Time cum Vnguento Caerasino (made with Sanders) Enilegis, and the Juice of Enablaetti: And he affirms this in his Ca∣non Of Baths.

I shall say nothing of the making of Oyntments, but that Sheeps Suet may be mixt with every Oyntment.

Campanus Germanicus, who lived a long time ago, saith, the Wise Men of India af∣ter Scarification did lay on this very thing with Oyl of Balm.

The Son of the Prince, in his Canon Of Weariness, where he speaks of Balm, saith, it ought to be fortified with Wax or Pitch, that it may long retain its Vertue and Ope∣ration.

And thus we see one Oyl operates more strongly in Old Men than another.

Cold, too much Heat, and the Wind.

Now Blood is moved to the Skin three ways, namely, by breeding of good and subtil Blood, by its Purity, and by Expan∣sion.

Things that breed good Blood are those of good Juice; amongst which, according to Pliny, is subtil and sweet smelling Wine; as Isaac speaks of Bread well baked and lea∣vened, and also all manner of Meats so they be but of good Digestion. For Di∣gestion is the true Fountain of good Blood and Humour. So doth Avicenna affirm of these things. Those things also breed good Humour, that are boyled ^b covered with∣out Water, and dry rosted.

In like manner that Drink is necessary, which moves the Blood from the inner Parts to the outer, such as ^c Broth of Pulse, Wine, Milk, Mede, and the like drunk on a fasting Stomach. And several have had Experience of these things, as Avicenna saith in his fourth Canon.

Haly in the end of his first Discourse of his Practice saith, that drinking of Wine and daily eating of wholesome Flesh makes a good and fair Colour.

And things that dry the Blood are these, Trifera Sara••enica made up with Myroba∣lans;

and the Antients affirmed that Cassia fistula could do the same

Perl prepared doth make the Blood of the Heart clear and fine, as Isaac saith in his Degrees.

Things that disperse and spread abroad the Blood are many; and this is done two ways;

The first is, either by taking things in at the Mouth, such as are Pepper, Ginger, Cloves, Saffron properly boyled in Wine, otherwise it tingeth the Blood; as also if two Drachms of Hyssop and one Drachm of Saffron be drunk with Sugar. And a Man may eat Herbs, such as Radish, Leeks, O∣nyons, if he eat not often of them, as also ^d Garlick well prepared.

Or, if the Soul be ^e stirred by certain O∣perations, Actions, and Motions; of which sort are Wrath, Joy, Mirth, ^f Anger, and what ever provokes Laughter, as also In∣strumental Musick, and Songs, to con∣verse with Company which discourse face∣tiously, to look on precious Vessels, the Heavens and Stars, to be clothed with Va∣riety of Garments, to be delighted with Games, to obtain Victory over ones Ene∣mies, to argue with ones most dear and be∣loved Friends, as Aristotle saith in his E∣pistle to Alexander.

For a chearful Mind brings Power and Vigor, makes a Man rejoyce, stirs up Nature and helps her in her Actions, as Ra∣sy saith to Almansor in his Canon Of the Co∣gitations of the Mind.

But secondly, The things which being applyed outwardly effect this with Abstersion and Action, are Lotions and Unctions. And in these things the Way of their Ab∣stersiveness is unlike; for some things effect this more roughly, others more finely. There are Oyntments which take away and uncover the old Skin, and cause the Spirits to penetrate as far as the Skin.

Causes that infect the Skin are many.

Either inward, such as are the Humors infecting the Blood, as is manifest in the Jaundice. For they exert very dangerous operations in the inner Parts. This Infecti∣on may be taken away by those Remedies, which are found among the Wise in their proper Chapters.

Or outward, as Wind, Heat, Cold. For these things sometime make the Skin black, foul and wrinkled; but how the Cuticle is defended from these Inconveniences, and after they are come how they may be re∣moved, the Wise do teach.

Avicenna of things making the Colour

beautiful saith, The Skin may be well kept from the Sun, Cold and Wind, if it be smeared with the White of an Egg and Water of Gum; or if some such thick thing be steeped in Water, and mixt with an equal quantity of the White of an Egg, and if the Skin be smeared with it, these Harms are removed, which were impres∣sed from these Causes. So Haly speaks in his Canon Of Beauty.

Take of the Flower of Beans, Pease, Vetches, Lupines, sweet Almonds blanched, Dragant, Mastich, grind all these together, sierce them finely, blend them with Milk, make a sweet Cataplasm of them, let it be on a Day and a Night, wash then with the Wa∣ter of boiled Bran, and so use it till the Skin be reduced to its natural Quality and Disposi∣tion.

But if Corrugation happen in the Skin from these Causes, let this Oyntment be made, which Avicenna in his Canon Of O••l appoints, which is very available in driving away and curing the aforesaid Ails.

Take a little Lily Root prepared, Oyl of bitter Almonds, Honey and a little Propolis, let them be melted together.

And some have said that Oyl of Balm with Oyl of Bays doth most easily take a∣way

and wipe off this Wrinkling of the Skin.

^a Meats the Natural Moisture may be resto∣red.

Then, how it may be made more ^b sin∣cere when it is restored.

Thirdly by what Means the ^c Accidents of Old Age, which come on apace, may commodiously be hindered.

It also shows how a ^d foreign Humour and unnatural, that is the Fountain and Cause of these Evils, may be purged and wasted.

It likewise opens a Way whereby the ^e Sen∣ses of Man by being recreated with the Vir∣tues of things may be repaired, how the ^f Natural Heat being spent and shaken by some outward Causes may be restored, and how ^g White Hairs shed, and new ones come in their Room.

Sixthly, it shows Medicines, whereby the ^h Animal Vertue, as it were dying and weary, may be excited, Motion deficient may be renewed, the ⁱ Skin deformed with Wrinkles and other ways, may be made fair.

Seventhly, It shows how the three ^k In∣struments of the Senses do operate, and are governed in every man, lest by reason of them any fault should fall upon the Soul, and if it should fall, how it may be re∣moved.

And it teacheth many other things, which have been treated of in their proper Cha∣pters.

But the things which are laid down by us in this Epistle, differ very much from the things laid down by the Antients.

First, because the Antients Regiment of living, defends Mens Bodies from hasten∣ing to their End besides the Course of Na∣ture: But our Regiment lays open by what Way Old Men and the well stricken in Years may easily be freed and defended from the Accidents of Old Age, which are wont to happen not only to Old Men, but even to those that are Young.

Again, their Regiment shows how heal∣thy Bodies may be kept so that they may not be disaffected: But ours teacheth to take away those Accidents, which do come before their Time, and to retard these, which use to come at their proper Sea∣son.

Thirdly, their Regiment is as it were the Beginning: Ours as the End. For the things which they have taught, are as it were the Means to know and use those things, which are here expressed.

Therefore let us now discourse of the Regiment of the Old and Aged, that we

may see what is added by us to the Labors and Studies of the Antients.

The summ of the Universal Regiment is this, as Avicenna saith, namely, that such Men use that which heats and moistens, as also nourishing things, and quick of Dige∣stion, and Bathes, and much Sleep, and long lying in bed, and Provocation of U∣rine, and Expulsion of Phlegm from the Stomach and Guts. To the end that Kind∣liness of Nature may endure, chafing with Oyl in a moderate Quantity and Quality is very good for Men of decrepit Age, and for those that are growing Old. But let them ride and walk moderately, as their Strength will endure. They ought daily to smell to sweet smelling Spices, especially to the moderately hot. After Sleep let them anoint themselves with Oyl, as is said in the Chapter Of things that strengthen the Body.

But they must use the six kinds of (non∣natural) things according to the equable and temperate way of Physicians, as Ari∣stotle saith, that a Physician ought in the Regiment of Old Men to consider the Six kinds of Causes, which are wont necessari∣ly to alter the Body. But above all he must take into his consideration Meat and Drink

and the Evacuation of what is superfluous, and of all the four Humours: and seconda∣rily the other kinds of Causes. And this is what Aristotle saith in that Book published at the request of King Alexander the Great.

And the difference which Rasy puts be∣tween the Regiment of the Elderly and the Aged, is this, namely, that the Bodies of the Elderly are to be considered more with evacuating Medicines, and to be pre∣served, that they come not to Evil; and they must abate of their Labour and Thoughtfulness, that the Strength of their Body may last a long time. And that they who are arrived at Old Age, avoid Labour and Thoughtfulness, and Change, unless on great and urgent Necessity: They must be nourished with Food having a pleasant Tast, and easie to be digested: They should also often use Bathes, and sleep much: They should affect the Head and Face with odo∣riferous things, and use Suffumigations: Let them also exercise things, which are full of Diversion and Delight. Let them drink temperate and subtil Wine, and clear, and which hath a moderate mixture of Water. How every one of these things may be done and brought into act, will hereafter ap∣pear.

Royal Haly saith, that Old Men ought to use an Air like the Humour of the Spring, because their Nature is cold and dry: Whence it is necessary that they use a Cu∣stome of heating and moistening, and that they live in warm Places, but avoid such as are cold and moist, for that they hasten Old Age, as I have said before, where I treated of Meats, which bring the Acci∣dents of Old Age.

Old Mens Meats ought to be of good Juice, hot and moist, that they may quick∣ly and easily be digested, and descend from the Stomach; their Bread should be well ^l made, and well leavened; their Flesh should be that of ^m Pullets. ⁿ Kids, ^o suck∣ing Calves, ^p young Geese, ^q Lambs, ^r Par∣tridge, ^s Pheasants, small Birds, except ^t Spar∣rows. Let them avoid all gross Meats, dif∣ficulty yielding to Digestion; as is ^u Beef, ^w Goat, and such like. For if they accustome themselves to these Meats, Dropsies will breed in them, Stoppages in the Liver, and in like manner Obstructions in the Spleen, and Stones in the Kidneys and Bladder. And if they should happen at any time to eat of these things, let some Medicine be taken af∣terwards, as Diacyminum well made up, and things of like nature which help Digestion.

Also they must beware of those Birds, which afford unwholesome Food and bad Juices. Things that are sharp and breeding Choler are also to be avoided, as Mustard, Garlick and Onyons; and all things that breed Phlegm, as ^x Mushromes; and all things that breed Melancholy, as Pulse and Cheese, and Worts; and what are easily corrupted on the Stomach, as ^y Mulberries, ^z Melons, ^{a a} Cucumbers. But of Fruits let them take Figs, Grapes and Raisins, with Nuts and Almonds. Physicians have not named all Meats and Drinks, which bring these Acci∣dents of Old Age. But Old Men must be fed twice a Day, and the weaker by little and little: For the Natural Heat being weak already cannot bear a great Heap of Meats and too greedy gormandizing. Let their Dinner be at the third hour of the Day, and let their Meat be of good Juice and producing good Humors, as all Physicians agree.

Avicenna affirms, that Old Men must eat dry Figs boiled with Honey and Water.

And Galen saith, that Figs, if they be dry, are as it were the Fountains of ill Hu∣mours: Which is true of Figs simply; but if they be medically prepared, it is false.

As to what concerns ^{b b} Baths, Old Men

are to be bathed in Sweet Water, of a tem∣perate Heat, as Royal Haly saith in his fourth Canon. He likewise saith that Old Men and the Decrepit are often to be washed in Baths: that is, once in a Week, or in the space of Ten Days. For their Strength will not bear more; wherefore in some it is sufficient, if this be done once in a Month. When they go out of the Bath, let them rest quiet for one whole Hour. Then let them take some Meat hot and moist, easy to be digested, and which quick∣ly passeth out of the Stomach, as is Bread well leavened and made, ^{c c} Fish that live in stony Rivers, Kids Flesh, young Geese, Lamb.

Aristotle in his Book Of the Secrets of Se∣crets affirms, that they must not tarry long in the Water, for that they are much over∣come by the Cold and Moisture, lest the Body receive from the Moisture of the Bath.

The Anointing of Old Men ought to be sometime in the Morning when they rise: And the Oyl ought to be Caerasinum mixt with the Oils of Chamaemel, Violet and Dill.

Then they ought to use moderate Ex∣ercise, lest there be any Straitness or Ob∣struction

of the Pores: Let them avoid too violent Labour and Exercise.

They ought not to admit of Diminution of Blood, unless they be in great and im∣minent Danger of Life. Avicenna in his Phlebotomy shews in what Cases and for what Causes Old Men are to be let Blood, saying: In Old Age let every one as much as can be abstain from Blood-letting, unless he be compact in Figure and Solidity of Mus∣cles, and have large Veins, and be indispo∣sed with Redness of Eyes: This is to be considered in Old Men.

But Iohannes Damascenns ^{d d} thinks o∣therwise in his Aphorisms, speaking thus: Let every Man in his Youth breathe a Vein four times a Year. Thrice when his Age is forty. When the fiftieth or sixtieth Year of his Age is come, it ought to be done once. And further it is altogether to be o∣mitted. He also saith, that after the forty fifth Year the Cephalick Vein, after sixty the Median, after seventy five the Basilick is not to be cut.

Avicenna also saith, That they who while they are in their youthful Days, do often suffer Bloodletting, after seventy Years their Heat is turned into Cold and Dryness, and that especially, if they were of a Cold Nature.

But now in the Name of the most High and Great GOD let us begin to treat a∣bout, and more diligently and acutely to discourse of those Medicines, which the ^{e e} Wise have kept secret, and which are most profitable for the Old and Men of ripe Age. For whoever use these things, they a long time restrain the Infirmities and Ac∣cidents of Old Age. The Use of these Me∣dicines is convenient especially for ^{f f} the Rich. For the Charge hinders, that the Poor cannot easily obtain them.

Now the Use of the first Medicine con∣sumes all Moisture that is foreign, not na∣tural, bred of ill Concoction, and Indige∣stion, and bad Meats, wheresoever in the Body it be, and especially in the Recesses of the Head and Stomach: It consumes, I say, the Phlegmatick and Melancholick Moisture, sharpens the Senses, bridles An∣ger, cherishes and strengthens the principal Members, recovers the Infirmities and bro∣ken Strength of Old Men.

Take ^{g g} of the Medicine which grows in the Air four Drachms, of the Medicine whose Mine is the Plant of India two Drachms, a little Musk and Saffron. In a Cold Season and Complexion hot Spices may be added, as Cloves and ^{h h} Amber. But in a hot Season

and Complexion you may add two Drachms of Violets. Then make it into an Electuary pre∣pared with Syrup of Violets; or reduce it in∣to Powder, and the Weight of Sugar equal to all the things aforesaid is to be added.

This Medicine may he used in Meat or after Meat, as the Old Man pleaseth. Any one may use this Powder in Summer and Winter; both in a hot and a cold Comple∣xion as well as Country, with the Medi∣cine which is ^{i i} cast out of the Sea; with∣out Violets, if it be put in strong Wine, so that its Vertue may be dissolved, and that being dissolved, it be drunk with a mixture of most pure Spring Water. For the Wa∣ter takes away the dryness of the aforesaid things, and recalls the Vertue of the said Medicine to Heat and Moisture, and makes it temperate.

But several among the Antients do not a∣gree in the Composition of this Medicine: For some put in the Medicine whose Mine is the Plant of India, and that which is cast out of the Sea, leaving out the Violets and Seeds of Lettuce and Porcellane.

But others say, You must take of that Me∣dicine which lives in the Air four Drachms, and of that whose Mine is the Plant of In∣dia, two Drachms, and of Violets one

Drachm, and a little Saffron and Musk, to these reduced to Powder they add the weight of Sugar equal to all the rest. And thus ordered this is to be taken in Wine in a hot Season by Old Men troubled with superfluous Heat. But they taught that it was to be taken without the Violets in a cold Season and by a Phlegmatick Old Man.

The second ^{k k} Medicine is that which disperseth and purgeth all the Humors by an insensible and occult way, namely, Cho∣ler by Sweat, Phlegm by Lice, Melancholy by Excoriation and Scabs, when it is prepa∣red and taken, as we said before, accord∣ing to the Directions of Physicians.

Take some Cloves, Nutmeg, Zedoary, Ga∣langale, Citron-Rind, Vipers Flesh, and a little Musk, mix them with Wine, and make them up into Rolls and Trochises.

If you would strengthen the Senses and all the Parts, add the weight of Xyloaloes of India equal to all the rest. If you would drive out Phlegm and Melancholy, add of that Medicine which lives in the Air an e∣qual quantity to all the rest. If you desire to remove any Disease, add Spices, which are Enemies to that Disease, and let the Bulk of them be as great as of all the

rest: And you may add other things, which may easily drive away such Diseases; as Sage is against Softness of the Nerves, Spikenard to provoke Womens Terms, to help the Obstruction of the Gall and Li∣ver Cinnamon, for the Tympany Carda∣mome: for Men troubled with the Epile∣psie, Scia••ica, Phrensie, and long Cough∣ing, Pepper is good: for it drys the Breast and Lungs flowing with gross Humors: Or

Take of Vipers Flesh, Zedoary, Citron-Rind, Galangale, Cloves and a little Musk, and mix them with Wine, then make Tro∣chises.

And when there shall be occasion, you that are Old, take hereof one part and twenty parts of some Spice hot in the first Degree, such as is Spikenard, of some hot in the second Degree fifteen parts, and one pa••t of Trochises of Nutmegs. This dis∣solves the Swelling of the Liver and Spleen, and refreshes them.

There is another Medicine for Old Men, which hinders Putrefaction, helps the Na∣tural Moisture, that it does not so easily waste and dissolve, makes the Blood of the Heart more pure and thin, repells the Le∣prosie and Trembling of the Heart, makes men of good Courage, bold and free, pur∣geth

and casts out that abundance of Phlegm that oppresseth the Native Heat; and it ought to be such:

Take ^{l l} of the Medicine which is hid in the Bowels of the Earth artificially ^{m m} prepa∣red, so that it may easily be powdered, four Drachms, of that which lies hid in the Sea two Drachms, of the Medicine whose Mine is the Heart of the long-living Animal, one Drachm; grind all these very finely together, so that they may easily be blown away and dis∣persed with the force of the Wind; then a lit∣tle Saffron and Musk must be added. More∣over, those Spices are to be added, which are Odoriferous and Cordial, that the Medi∣cine may be reduced to a Temper, respect being had to the Season, Age and Complexion.

Let Old Men take this Medicine greedi∣ly; in some such Liquor, as being digest∣ed may easily pass to the very Heart and inner parts, and go through the Capilla∣ry Veins. Several take this Medicine with some savoury Meat, when Hunger is come upon them: Others drink it in the Morn∣ing mixt with Pomegranate-Wine: Others in an Electuary Fasting: Others take it in a ••ear Egg, when they rise in the Morning. For you must know, that those Liquors are the best Vehicles for any Medicine, that

are most agreeable to a Man's Nature.

But the Simple ^{n n} Medicine, which re∣stores and strengthens the Native Heat, when wasted and weakned, is that which is likened to the Complexion of a healthy Young Man.

Whence in Conclusion it is made mani∣fest, that Mirth, Singing, Looking on Hu∣mane Beauty and Comeliness, Spices, Ele∣ctuaries, warm Water, Bathings, some things lying in the Bowels of the Earth, others ly∣ing hid among the Waves of the Sea, some living in the Air, others taken from the Noble Animal, well tempered and pre∣pared, and many more such things are Re∣medies, whereby the Accidents of Age i•• Young Men, the Infirmities of Old Age in Old Men, the Weaknesses and Diseases of Decrepit Age in very Old Age, may be re∣strained, retarded and driven away.

DOUBT I. Whether the Wood of Life were a proper and true Tree, or only Metaphorical?

COncerning this first Doubt it is the com∣mon Opinion, nay, even Matter of Faith, as Suarez ^a asserts, that the Wood of Life was a corporeal and true Tree, which in Paradise yielded Fruit fit for Food, as other Trees that were made to grow there. This is manifestly proved from Scripture ^b: And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every Tree that is pleasant to the Sight, and good for food: the Tree of Life also in the midst of the Garden, and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Where the Word [made to grow] refers to this Wood, as well as other Trees, which were truly such. And the contrary Opinion is ascribed to Origen's Error, who makes the

History of Paradise Metaphorical. And because this Point is sufficiently cleared by Sacred Writers, I need not stay longer upon it.

live that were obedient, there had been no need to have turned Adam out of Paradise; but as soon as he had sinned, God was not bound to keep his Covenant, or to make good that Law of conferring Life and Im∣mortality by eating of this Tree.

§. 3. Nevertheless a Man can scarce con∣clude on this Ground, because two ways the Fruit of that Tree might have a super∣natural Vertue to prolong Life to Eternity, and yet sin might be no impediment of it. First, If in the aforesaid Tree there were some Supernatural Quality inherent, made good by God himself, whereby it should prolong Life to Eternity: In which Case Sin could not hinder the Activity and Ef∣ficacy of that Quality. Secondly, If God had made a Covenant to give Life Eternal to them that should eat of this Fruit, al∣though they should sin.

§. 4. But upon another Ground it may sufficiently be proved, that the Virtue of this Tree to give Eternal Life, is Natural: Namely, Because it is not repugnant, that in Nature such a Virtue should be found; Because the Effect of this Tree of it self is of a natural Order and finite Perfection: For it should have preserved Life to Eter∣nity, because it would have strengthened

all the Faculties of Man's Body, restored and preserved its natural Temperament, and have kept off all Morbifick Causes, as we shall hereafter shew. But what may be done by a Power Natural, that ought not to be referred to one Supernatural: Therefore not this of the Tree of Life.

because after one or more Eatings, before the Virtue of the Tree were spent, he should have been translated from the State of Grace to Glory and Immortality, as Scotus ^a thinks.

§. 2. They prove this Opinion. First, The Virtue of that Tree would have been finite, in that it was created: Therefore it could not produce an infinite Effect. Se∣condly, If that Tree had had a Virtue to preserve Men to Eternity, that Virtue would have been useless, because no Man in the State of Innocence should have lived for ever in this World, but after an appoint∣ed Time all Men should have been translated, when, to wit, the Number of the Predesti∣nate was full (as these Men hold.) For at that Time the just should be translated to Glory, and the unjust to eternal Punish∣ment. Wherefore when this Time were finished, the Virtue of the Tree, that pre∣serves Men to Eternity, would have been superfluous.

§. 3. Thirdly, Because the Apple of that Tree taken for Nourishment would have rëacted upon the Body: Therefore it could never restore the Radical Moisture and the wasted Substance entire, and by con∣sequence could not preserve Life to Eter∣nity.

§. 4. Fourthly, Though the Tree of Life might for the most part take away inward Morbifick Causes, by restoring intire the natural Heat and Moisture, and the decay∣ed Substance, so that it should not wax old: Yet it could not take away external Causes, nor by consequence prevent a Man's being hurt by Wounds, or perishing by Hun∣ger, or being choak'd for want of Breath. Therefore from thence eternal Life could not of necessity follow.

§. 5. Fifthly, Because in the State of la∣psed Nature at least, Man would have been much more obnoxious to morbid Cau∣ses; whereas in the State of Innocence he lived more temperately without any Trou∣ble and in all Tranquillity, all which things after Sin, proved deficient. But the Tree of Life could not avoid so many Causes of Diseases in the state of lapsed Nature. Therefore it could not make Man immor∣tal.

§. 6. Augustine ^b seems of this Opinion, Thomas ^c holds it, Cajetan ^d, Gabriel ^e, Du∣randus ^f and others.

§. 7. The other Opinion is, That the said Tree had such a Virtue, that being tasted by Man, it would carry him to perfect Immortality. Of this Opinion is Au∣gustine

^g, the Interlineary Gloss ^h, Ruper∣tus ⁱ, Tostatus ^k, the Author ^l of the Que∣stions of the Old and New Testament, which Author is thought to be Augustine, and is quoted under his Name by Thomas ^m, Bonaventure ⁿ: And the Antient Fathers held it before, who affirm that God there∣fore drove Adam out of Paradise, lest he should eat of that Tree, and for ever live miserable, rather pitying than punishing him: For it had been too great a punish∣ment to endure an interminable Evil.

§. 8. So Irenaeus ^o, Hilarius ^p, Gregory Nazianzen ^q, Hierome ^r, Cyril ^s, Chryso∣stom ^t, Theodoret ^u, Eucherius ^w, Bede ^x, Stra∣bus ^y, Damascene ^z, Dionysius Carthusianus ^a•.

§. 9. And all these Authors agree in this, That the Tree of Life was able of it self to give eternal Life, both in the State of In∣nocence and in the State of lapsed Nature, if Men had eaten thereof: The difference among them only is, That some affirm it was necessary to eat often of it; others, that once to have eaten was sufficient. And then some thought it an adaequate Cause of Immortality; others thought, it only kept out the internal Causes of Death. Which Questions we shall discuss hereafter.

§ 10. This said Opinion is sufficiently

proved from these Words of Holy Writ; Lest he put forth his Hand, and take also of the Tree of Life and live for ever. There∣fore for that reason was Adam driven out of Paradise, lest he should live for ever, as he should have lived in the state of In∣nocence, had he eaten of the Tree of Life: Therefore the eating of that Tree must have preserved a Man for ever, by rea∣son of the Virtue it had to this end, and not only for a long Time.

§. 11. Some make answer to this Argument, that God spake Ironically. But they give not Satisfaction. First, because this Solu∣tion contradicts the Testimony of the a∣foresaid Fathers. Secondly, because Adam's ejection out of Paradise, and the Angel with the flaming Sword placed to keep the way of the Tree of Life, sufficiently de∣clare that God spake not by way of Irony, but properly and in good earnest.

§. 12. Secondly, others answer the fore∣said Argument thus, That the Words [for ever] ought not to be taken for true Eter∣nity, but for a very long Time. Which Answer yet doth not please. First, because that Word in its proper Signification de∣notes Eternity; but the Words of Holy Writ, unless some great Inconvenience hin∣der,

should ever be taken in their proper and genuine Signification, otherwise we should have nothing certain. Secondly, because the Life which was owing to Man in the state of Innocence, was Life Eternal, not only a very long Life: But the Tree of Life was made by God to make good that Life, which was owing to Man in the State of Innocence; Therefore not only ve∣ry long Life, but simply eternal Life was to be made good by eating of that Tree.

§. 13. And this is confirmed, First, be∣cause God for that Reason cast Man out of Paradise, lest he should enjoy that good which was due to him, had he been obe∣dient, and persisted in the State of Inno∣cence: But that Good due to the State of Innocence, whereof he was to be deprived, if he were not obedient, (as God had de∣clared in those words, in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely dye) was Life absolutely Eternal, not only a very long one: Therefore the same Life eternal must be made good by that Tree. Second∣ly, it is confirmed, because the Punishment threatned Man was the loss of Life absolutely eternal. But God executed this Punishment by the Loss of the Tree of Life. Therefore this Tree must give Life absolutely eternal,

otherwise it had not been necessary to de∣prive Man of the eating of this Tree.

§. 14. Secondly, The said Opinion is demon∣strated, because if that Tree had not continu∣ally kept off Old Age, at least in its Season repeated, it would follow, that in the state of Innocence something would have been lost of Nature's Vigour, and Men would have fal∣len from the Flower of their Age to a worse condition, which is contrary to the Sacred Text, which saith, in the day that thou eat∣est thereof, thou shalt surely dye, that is, thou shalt begin to decline to Death, or to de∣cay from the Integrity of Nature (as all Authors expound it) until thou decayest altogether, and dost dye. Therefore the Tree of Life did so make good eternal Life, that it would not suffer Nature to fall a whit from her Integrity. Therefore it would not only have given a long Life, but that Apple would not suffer the least Defect in Nature.

§. 15. Bellarmine ^{b b} judges either of these Opinions probable, and affirms they may be defended without Heresy. Yet he is for the latter, as I am, to be the more eligible.

§. 16. Therefore a Man may answer the first Argument for the opposite Opinion thus, That its Cogency is as great in the Beatifick Vision; for that it indures Time

infinite, when nevertheless the immediate Causes of this Duration are the Intellect and Light of Glory, which are finite Be∣ings. Therefore as it is no Obstacle in the Production of an Effect which will endure Time infinite, that these Causes are finite: So also there can be no Repugnance, that the Qualities of the Tree of Life might pro∣duce an Effect durable Time infinite.

§. 17. But you will urge. This takes not away the force of the Argument, Because an infinite Duration is an infinite Effect, therefore it cannot be effected by a finite Cause. Yet I deny the Consequence, Be∣cause it may immediately be effected by a finite Cause, when in the mean time it de∣pends on a Cause infinite. For the Quali∣ties of the Tree of Life were to be conser∣ved by God immediately to all eternity, therefore these very Qualities also would immediately conserve Life to Eternity: In∣stances hereof are spiritual Substances, which are conserved to Eternity by the First Cause immediately, and they themselves conserve their Effects to Eternity.

§. 18. To the Second I answer. From this it would follow, that all other Trees were superfluous, seeing they would remain af∣ter Translation. And yet the Fruits of

other Trees were not supervacaneous in Pa∣radise, although no Man eat of them.

§. 19. To the third it may be answered. That this Apple was not only Meat but Me∣dicine also, by reason of the Qualities, which shall hereafter be explained, where∣by it either hindred its own Rëaction, or made up the Dammage of the Rëaction, if there were any, whereby all things re∣specting the Integrity of Nature, might be restored, and reduced to the most perfect State. Whence it might correct by Me∣dicinal Qualities that Dammage which it brought by Rëaction.

§. 20. To the fourth I say. That the Qua∣lities of that Wood, which shall hereafter be enumerated, would have preserved from all Causes, which might bring a Preterna∣tural Disposition to the Body, so that it could neither be offended by Wounds, nor could be sick, or dye of Hunger, or want of Air; which hereafter we shall shew was possible.

§. 21. Others, who are unwilling to at∣tribute the perfect Cause of avoiding Death to the Tree of Life, reply. That those outward Causes must have been avoided by the extraordinary Providence of God: But we shall dispute this hereafter. Yet

grant it were so, this doth not hinder, but that the Tree of Life might remove the in∣ward Causes of Death for ever.

§. 22. To the fifth the same Answer will serve, to wit, That Reparation would have been made for all offending Causes, though never so violent and numerous, by the said Qualities of the Tree, as we shall here∣after shew.

whether it did this materially, being con∣verted into the Substance of the thing nou∣rished, and as it was Aliment; as also by Qualities manifest or occult, as a Medicine; or by all these ways. But all these good Properties in Tract of Time would grow remiss and be extinguished, both by the Rëaction of other Meats; and also by reason of the injuries of external Causes, which in the State of lapsed Nature would frequently have occurred, as likewise by the Rëaction of the Tree it self, which would necessarily have been, even in the State of Innocence. Therefore it would have been necessary that at several Inter∣vals the Tree should have been taken a∣gain, that it might repair again the lapsed Constitution of the Body; and that by this means Old Age and Death might be kept off, and Life might remain to Eternity.

§. 3. Secondly, Because that Tree was corruptible, when it was turned into the Substance of the thing nourished: There∣fore the Substance also that was generated of it would have been corruptible. There∣fore it was necessary that again and again it should be repaired by taking of that Wood. And it is confirmed,

§. 4. First, Because whatever is genera∣ted

is corrupted: But a Body is generated of that Wood; for Nutrition is also a cer∣tain Generation in respect of the Parts lost. Therefore a Body nourished by that Wood would have been corrupted.

§. 5. It is confirmed secondly, Because A∣ristotle ^f from thence proves against Hesiod and other Poets and Gentile Divines of his Time, that the Gods cannot be rendred im∣mortal by taking of Nectar and Ambrosia; Because whatever is nourished, must of ne∣cessity be corruptible and mortal: But the Body would have been nourished by the Tree of Life: Therefore according to A∣ristotle's Doctrine it would have necessa∣rily been and remained corruptible and mortal. Therefore the Repetition of the eating of the Tree was necessary to pre∣vent Mortality. Nor does it avail, if you say, the Body was made incorruptible by the Qualities received from the Tree. I say, it doth not avail. Because if these Qualities could not make the Wood it self incorruptible, how could they make ano∣ther Body incorruptible?

§. 6. Thirdly, If the Wood once taken had rendred the Body impatible, it would have followed, that if a Child had taken it, he could not grow further, nor could Old

Men grow young again, nor sick Men grow well, but would have remained in the same State for ever: But this is false: There∣fore the other also. The Major is proved, because a Body rendred impatible cannot be nourished, nor any way altered. There∣fore the Body would always abide in that state, in which the Wood once taken ren∣dred it impatible.

§. 7. Nevertheless there are firmer grounds for the Affirmative Part, and the Fathers a∣bove-cited in the third Doubt for the Opi∣nion which asserts, That this Tree could give Life eternal, do hold this, such as I∣renaeus, Hilary, Nazianzen, Hierome, and others there cited, of which Opinion the Interlineary Gloss seems to be, when it af∣firms that this Wood was not to be taken, but at that Time when the Just were to pass to the State of the Blessed, which seems for no other Cause, but that they might be made eternal by the Tree: Whence that one eating had been suffici∣cient. Rupertus ^g expresseth this Opinion when he saith, In no wise, as some do suppose, was the Tree necessarily to be frequented as a Pass-port of perpetuating Life: But it being once taken, the Body would have lived for e∣ver. Theodoret ^h is of the same Opinion.

§. 8. This is effectually proved from the ve∣ry Text of Holy Writ, Lest perhaps he put forth his hand, and take also of the Tree of Life, and eat, and live for ever. But if a Man ha∣ving once taken of the Tree did not re∣main eternal, it would have little matter∣ed, that he had taken it once or oftener; and had lived for many Years; when yet at what time soever he should be cast out and deprived of the eating of that Tree, he would have been subject to Death, and have suffered the Punishment of Disobedi∣ence. Therefore it is manifest, that once taken, it would have sufficed for Eterni∣ty.

§. 9. And it is confirmed by observing with Rupert the [also] and the [perhaps]. For these Words suppose, that as Adam took of the Tree of Knowledge, and as he took of the Fruits of other Trees; so he might also take of the Tree of Life, not indeed knowingly, but fortuitously; lest therefore he once taking by chance of this Tree should be made eternal, he was to be cast out before he touched it. Therefore once tasted it was sufficient for Eternal Life, and not only for living some long Time. The Argument is corroborated, For why with so great diligence and speed did God

drive Man out of Paradise, and why did the Angel keep the Way with a Flaming Sword? There seems no other Reason, unless because perhaps before his Going out, or perhaps Returning after his Exit, if he had tasted of the Tree, he might have been made eternal; otherwise there had been no need to use such Care, for though he had eaten sometimes before his going out, or had after returned to eat, being driven out again he had been subject to Death.

§. 10. It is proved secondly, Because in the state of Innocence, as Thomas ⁱ affirms, there might have been actual Sins: There∣fore there would have been some bad Men, who might have killed others, even the Just, by Wounds, Poyson, or by Hunger and Privation of Air: Therefore unless the Just were altogether fenced by once eating of the Tree, they might be subject to Death, and there might be danger lest the Inno∣cent should be deprived of their due Pri∣vilege, which ought by no means to be. For what easier way could there be to kill a just Man, than to hinder him that he could not come to the eating of the Tree of Life, or to keep him so long from eat∣ing thereof, that he should be consumed of Old Age?

§. 11. It is proved thirdly, Because that Tree, as the Assertors of the contrary O∣pinion do confess, was corruptible: There∣fore it would sometime fail, especially when (as seems to be inferred from Holy Writ) there was only one Tree, nor doth it appear whether others could be propaga∣ted or planted of its Seed. Therefore al∣though Men should eat thereof, yet if the Repetition of it were necessary, they could not live for ever.

§. 12. Fourthly, Because, as S^t Chryso∣stome ^k saith, It pleased the Lord (these are his very Words) that Man made by Him and living in Paradise, should have a certain Meditation of Obedience and Inobedience, and these two were shown by these two Trees, the one of Life, the other (as I may so say) of Death. Whence Bellarmine gathers, this was for the Punishment of Inobedience, the other for the Reward of Obedience: For although Life Eternal (as I apprehend) was owing to the State of Innocence; yet for a Reward of Obedience Man was not to be deprived of that Life Eternal. Where∣fore as the forbidden Tree once tasted brought a necessity of Death; so by pari∣ty of Justice the Tree of Life once tasted ought to give Eternity of Life. For which

Reasons this Opinion is more probable to me, as it is more consonant to Sacred Writ and the Holy Fathers. Wherefore

§. 13. It is answered to the Arguments of the contrary Opinion. To the first, granting the Major the Minor is denied, Because the Qualities of the Tree, seeing they did not depend of the Tree in their Conservation, and were incorruptible and altogether e∣ternal, would have defended the Body it self that it should not fall again from that best Constitution; Wherefore Man would never have further stood in need of a new Exhibition of the Tree. And although Rëa∣ction were granted, whilst the Apple of this Tree, or any other Food was concocted in the Stomach, and the other Work-houses, and in the whole Habit of the Bo∣dy; yet it would impart such Virtue to the Faculties or Powers of the Stomach, and of the other Work-houses, and of the whole Body, that it would correct the Damages of Repassion. As it happens to Fire, which by its Efficacy fully compen∣sates all Repassion brought from the Wood, so that if Fewel never fail, it is not dimi∣nished or extinguished; nay rather as plen∣ty of proportionate Fewel encreaseth, it is augmented.

§. 14. To the Second, granting the Ante∣cedent, the Consequence is denied, Because the Substance bred of the Tree would have been defended from Corruption by Quali∣ties received from the Tree, whereby be∣sides, the Temperament of the Body would have been rendred so firm, that it could neither further be intended or remit∣ted from within or from without; but the Faculties of the Bodies would have per∣formed Actions so perfect, that they would overcome all morbisick Causes, which here∣after we shall more explain.

§. 15. To the first Confirmation, I say, All that is generated is corrupted, except it be defended by the Qualities of the Tree, or by something else. But since in this State we want the Tree of Life, that Proposition is true: Yet it would not have been true in the Time of the State of Innocence, nor also in the State of lapsed Nature, had it been granted only once to have eaten of the Tree. But when it is said, If the said Qua∣lities could not defend the Tree from Cor∣ruption, how should they defend Mans Bo∣dy? I answer, Easily. Because the Tree had not these Qualities formally or actually, but potentially or virtually; and it would have produced them in the Body by a Tran∣sient

Action, as other Medicaments do, as I think more probably with the most learned Philosophers, such as are Patres Conimbri∣censes ^l, after the manner of Pepper, as Pe∣trus Garcia ^m. But after these Qualities ex∣isted formally or in act in the Body, they could make good to it the Effect of pre∣serving it from Corruption: Wherefore it is no Wonder if these Qualities were able to preserve our Body from Corruption, yet not the Fruit.

§. 16. To the second Confirmation, it is clear already what should be answered, and shall further appear hereafter. For in this State it is so, but in the State of Innocence it would not have so been, because by the Qualities of the Tree of Life a nutrible Bo∣dy would have been rendred incorruptible.

§. 17. But you will urge, The Tree would have produced such Qualities in the Body either before it was turned into the thing nourished, or after. Not before, because the Body rendred by them impassible could not turn Food into the Substance of the thing nourished: Not after, because the Form of the Wood would be then de∣stroyed, whereby they should be produ∣ced, and in the same Matter of the Wood the Form of Man would be introduced, of

which they could not be produced. There∣fore they could no way be produced in a Humane Body.

§. 18. Yet I answer, The Wood would have produced such Qualities both before, and after conversion into another Sub∣stance. Before, because to produce them it would have sufficed, that it should be a∣ctuated in the Stomach as other Medica∣ments, and the Wood being actuated, pre∣sently the Qualities would have been diffu∣sed through the whole Body; nor would the Impassibility of the Body have hindred the acquiring of Perfection, whilst the Bo∣dy wanted it, yet it would have been suffi∣cient that it did not fall from that Perfecti∣on, which it had, as hereafter we shall more explain. After, because the Virtue of the Wood would have remained in the Hu∣mors and the rest of the Juices of the Bo∣dy, which Virtue indeed being actuated, al∣though the Substantial Form were not then in the Wood, might produce actual or for∣mal Qualities, as we have said of the su∣pra-elementary Qualities of other Medica∣ments, as of Purgers and Poysons, which we have proved to remain in the Matter af∣ter the Substantial Forms are corrupted.

§. 19. I said [while the Body wanted it,

that is, Per••ection] Because if any one should have taken the Wood in that State, wherein he had his Substance perfectly re∣paired, he would not turn it into the Sub∣stance of the nourished, seeing then such Matter would be Superfluous; but the Me∣dicamentous Qualities only being received from the Wood, he would have expelled from his Body the Matter of it as Superflu∣ous, as now the Matter of other Medicines, which are not also Aliments, is expelled.

§. 20. To the third I answer, The Body would not have been rendred altogether impatible, except after it had arrived to all the Perfection was due unto it: For if it were below that, by the accession of the Qualities of the Tree, it could not fall from that it had, although most violent Causes happened to destroy it, and in this Sense at that very Time it had been impatible: Yet this did not hinder, that by Means of those Qualities impressed from the Wood, it should not acquire farther Perfection due unto it. And thence it is manifest that a Child should come to the Perfection of a Man, an Old Man should be reduced to Youth, even as a Sick Man to Health. But when a Man were constituted in all perfe∣ction of Health, he would remain for ever

impatible in all Senses; because he could neither decay, nor could he proceed fur∣ther.

§. 21. Which that it may the better be understood, it is to be observed from Tho∣mas ⁿ, that Passion is twofold. First, pro∣perly, so called, in which Sense one is said to suffer, who is removed from his natural Disposition. Secondly, commonly, accord∣ing to any Mutation, though it pertain to the perfection of Nature. And in the first Sense by eating of the Fruit of the Tree the Body would have been rendred impas∣sible, because it could never be removed from that Perfection it had. But in the se∣cond sense it had not been impassible, as long as it was not arrived at the top of Per∣fection, for it would have been receptive of such a Change.

§. 22. But you will question, Whether then Generation and Propagation of Chil∣dren could have been? I answer in the Af∣firmative. And prove it, Because if such Qualities ought to be no hindrance to a Child that his Body should come to its Perfection, nor to an Old Man that he should be restored to his, why should it hinder Generation of Seed in the Vessels, and Propagation of Children? You will

object. Therefore to this end, and to the growth of a Child's Body, and reduction of an Old Man's, it was necessary to take a∣gain of the Fruit of the Tree, or at least of other Food. I answer, to this Work perhaps so it was necessary, or may be the Faculties would have been so strong after the first taking of that Fruit, that from the ambient Air, Water, or from any other Mat∣ter one might have repaired the Substance wanting to the growing of a Child, or re∣storing an Old Man, or to breeding Seed for Children. For this would not then have been impossible to very strong Facul∣ties: Because perhaps the Fruit it self would have introduced alimentous Quali∣ties into any Matter, although of its own Nature such Matter had them not.

§. 23. But whether Man stated in this Im∣mortality acquired by the Fruit of the Tree, should have had those Actions and the same Qualities in kind, which we shall have after the Resurrection? I dispute not this, nor doth it belong to me, but let Divines de∣termine it. Amongst whom the interlinea∣ry Gloss ^o and Bellarmine ^p seem to think so.

§. 24. But Whether could Children newly born, before they eat the Wood, or also before

their Birth, in the Mothers Womb, be subject to Death? It seems to be denied, Because the Qualities of the Fruit of the Tree of Life, which was eaten by the Parents, would have been in their Seed also, and would have defended their Children from Death both before their Birth and after.

§. 25. You will infer, It had sufficed there∣fore that the Tree of Life had been once ta∣ken by Adam and Eve, for all that should be born of them to have been made immortal. And this Opinion seems to be confirmed, first, by an Argument taken from the ne∣cessary Efficient Cause; for these Qualities would have been incorrup••ible, and ever have remained so in the Matter, and with the Seed and its Virtue would have been propagated into all the Individuals of Hu∣mane Kind, and would have produced o∣ther like Qualities in a kind of Cause Uni∣vocal: Therefore there was no necessity for Adam's Successors to taste the Tree of Life, that they might live for ever.

§. 26. Secondly, By an Argument taken from the Final Cause: For if by taking of the Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, which was but once eaten of our First Parents, the Pu∣nishment of Death inevitable was inflicted upon them and their Descendents; also, that

equality of Justice might be observed, by once taking of the Fruit of the Tree of Life, Life eternal for a Reward of Obedi∣ence ought not only to be given to our Pa∣rents themselves, but to Universal Mankind. But if this doth not please any Man, one may say, that some Qualities of the Tree derived to the Child, would have preser∣ved it from perishing, till the Birth, and after the Birth also for some Time would have been communicated in the Mothers Milk; and afterwards, had it been necessa∣ry, he might also have eaten of the Fruit of Life it self.

§. 27. But whether should they, that had committed actual Sin (according to the O∣pinion which admits that) have been subject to Death afterwards, although before they had eaten of the Tree? It seems to be denied. First, Because even Adam after Sin should have been made free from Death, had he eaten the Fruit of Life. And seeing the Qualities of the Fruit would have been de∣rived to his Children, both Just and Un∣just would by them have been defended from Death. Secondly, Because the Pu∣nishment of Death was only imposed, if our first Parents violated that only Pre∣cept.

DOUBT V. Whether the Tree of Life were a Cause ad∣equate to the escaping all Occasions of Death?

§. 1. NOW of those Authors who de∣ny to the Tree of Life the Vir∣tue of extending Life absolutely to Eterni∣ty, though it should be eaten at repeated Turns, when yet they are compelled to af∣firm, that in the State of Innocence Men would have been free from Death; Some do assert, following Scotus ^a, that this Tree by restoring the Native Heat and Radical Moisture (he spake according to the Old and Nugatory Opinion, that admits of a Ra∣dical Moisture diverse from the Living Parts) either as Nourishment or Medicine, or both ways, would have preserved Life for a very long Time; and they add, that before the Virtue of the Tree were spent, Men without the intervention of Death should have been translated to a State of Immortality. Wherefore according to this Opinion the Tree of Life would not have been an adequate Cause of Immortality. Which Opinion of Scotus notwithstanding

stands refuted from what hath been already said.

§. 2. But others with Cajetane ^b admit of a certain Supernatural and Spiritual Quali∣ty in the Soul, whereby the Body could re∣sist the Rëaction of the Tree of Life and of other Meats; and that for this Cause Men in the State of Innocence would have been eternal; which Quality since in the State of Lapsed Nature it was wanting, although Man had eaten of the Tree of Life, he would not have been altogether eternal, but would only have lived for a longer Time. But this Opinion is confu∣ted first from the Words of Holy Writ ^c, lest ••e put forth his hand, and take also of the Tree of Life, and eat, and live for ever. Now therefore of it self it had a Power to render Man eternal, without any other Supernatural Virtue. Neither can that In∣terpretation of a very long time be allow∣ed, as we have shown.

§. 3. Secondly, Because it cannot be, that a Spiritual Quality of the Soul can natural∣ly defend the Body from contrary Rëacti∣ons. For it should either do this by a for∣mal Resistance as a kind of Cause formal, or by an active Resistance as a kind of Cause efficient. The first it could not be, both be∣cause

a Spiritual Quality could not inhere••in a Corporeal Subject, especially since these Authors say, it was inherent in the Soul, nor by consequence could it inform the Body, and resist formally: And because the eating of the Tree of Life would have been superfluous for Reparation of what was lost; for the natural Qualities of the Body would then have been sufficiently de∣fended by the said Quality of the Soul, that they could not be lost. Not the second, Be∣cause if that Supernatural Spiritual Quality performed such an Effect as a Cause Efficient, it were able to produce other Qualities in the Body, which might formally resist; concerning which the same Doubt would return: Or certainly they would be super∣vacaneous, seeing they were sufficiently pro∣duced by the Tree of Life, as we shall here∣after shew.

§. 4. Others distinguish three Causes of our Destruction. The first is the different, nay and sometimes contrary Temperament of different Parts, whereby they mutually act and suffer among themselves, as the Brain moist and cold, the Heart hot and dry, the Flesh hot and moist, the Veins, Arteries and Bones cold and dry, and so of the rest. The second is the continual Acti∣on

of the Native Heat upon the Moisture, from which two Damages are considera∣ble: One is the Repassion from Food, from which Food the Radical Moisture and Members of the Body to be restored do suffer, by means whereof a Substance is not repaired, which is equal in Perfection to what was wasted: The other is the Remis∣sion of the Native Heat it self, whereby at length it is extinguished. The third Cause is from things extrinsick, as well al∣tering the Natural Temper, as dividing Continuity, and finally impeding the Mat∣ter whereby the Body should be refreshed, as Meat, Drink and Air.

§. 5. And they add, that the first Cause must have been avoided in the State of In∣nocence by a Supernatural Quality of the Soul, which we last confuted. The second by the Qualities of the Tree of Life, when eaten. The third three ways. First, By Humane Providence, which in that State would have been most perfect. Secondly, By Divine Providence, which for that State would have been greater and extraordina∣ry: Whence it would by extraordinary Concurrence hinder natural Causes offend∣ing; or would deny its general Concur∣rence, lest they should offend. Thirdly,

By the Protection of Angels.

§. 6. Yet this Opinion also is false: And I affirm, that for the first Cause the Quali∣ties of the Tree of Life had been suffici∣ent, as they were sufficient for the second. Wherefore that Supernatural Quality was not only unnecessary, but would have been hurtful also. First, Because as it resisted the Acti∣ons of different Parts, so it would resist those very Qualities, whereof the natural Temperament of the Body is constituted, seeing they are of the same kind. Second∣ly, Because even from that mutual Action and Passion, which is granted among the Parts of the Body; the total Temperament doth result, which is natural, and necessary for the living Creature to perform its Acti∣ons; wherefore it would be ill impeded by that Supernatural Quality, and consequent∣ly would be hurtful.

§. 7. And the Remedy which they bring for the third Cause is contradicted. First, Because the Fruit of Life was able to make good Qualities very sufficient to keep off all the Harms of external Causes, therefore the extraordinary Providence of God, and every other extrinsick Defence had been superfluous; We shall effectually prove the Antecedent hereafter. Secondly, Because if

the Supernatural Providence of God were necessary, to what purpose must Man be cast out of Paradise, or be deprived of eat∣ing the Tree of Life? For as that Su∣pernatural Providence had ceased, although Man had abode in Paradise, and eaten the Fruit of Life, yet he had been forthwith subject to Death: Which indeed is false: For the Sacred Word affirms, if he had eat∣en of the Tree, that he should have lived for ever. Therefore that Tree was an ad∣equate Cause to secure a Man from Death.

§. 8. Some may reply, It is true from the Words of Holy Writ it doth follow, that Man should have lived for ever: But this eternal Life after Sin would have been con∣tingent from eating the Tree of Life, not necessary: Wherefore lest Man eating of the Tree of Life should contingently live for ever, he was for that Reason driven out by the Lord. But that it was possible that Man might thus contingently live, they prove: For the Wood would prevent the internal Principles of Death; and Humane Providence, and the ordinary Protection of God and Angels without the Intervention of another Tutelage, might have sufficed to avoid the external Causes of Death as Hun∣ger, Suffocation, Poyson, Falling, Beating,

Hitting against any thing, and the Treache∣ry and Mischief of unjust Men. By which means former Men lived near a Thousand Years, and by the same means by eating of the Tree, might have lived innumera∣ble Thousands, being preserved by Reason and Humane Providence from the external Causes of Death.

§. 9. But this Solution is refuted: Because if in the State of Innocence, wherein Mens Prudence was most perfect, their Dwelling in a most pleasant Place, the number of wicked Men much less; and all the said external offending Causes and Occasions much fewer, the extraordinary Providence of God, and a greater Guard of Angels, was (as these Men think) necessary, that Life might be extended to Eternity, or at least to the Time of Translation: How, in the State of lapsed Nature, with much less Humane Providence, in so many and so great Concourses of offending Causes, amongst so many worst Dispositions of Men, could the Life of Man be extended, even contingently, to infinite Ages of Ages, without the parti∣cular and Supernatural Providence of God, unless by some means else, to wit, by the Qualities of the Wood, Man were secured from Death?

§. 10. Father Molina ^d supposeth, that Mans Body would have been defended from the external Causes of Death by an habitual Supernatural Gift, or an ha∣bitual Quality extended through the Body, which would have defended it from all Corruption: For he judgeth Natural Pow∣ers can no way be thought of, which were able to do this. But this Opinion is refuted almost by the same Reasons, whereby the for∣mer was contradicted. First, Because in the said Fruit there would have been natural Powers sufficient to defend the Body from external offending Causes, as we shall hereafter shew; wherefore it is not neces∣sary to have recourse to Supernatural Cau∣ses. Secondly, Because that Supernatural Quality would either have resisted all exter∣nal offending Causes by a Formal Resi∣stance, or by an Active. Not by a For∣mal: Both because one and the same Quali∣ty in kind could not formally be opposed to almost infinite, especially contrary Causes, as to Heat and to Cold: And because it would also resist the Elemental Qualities of the Body, necessary to its natural Constitu∣tion, seeing they are of the same kind with the Qualities produced of external Cau∣ses.

§. 11. Not by an Active: Because first, even the Qualities of the Tree could have done this. Secondly, Because either this Activity would have produced other Supernatural Qualities, and the same Doubt would have been concerning them; or Natural, to which either even Natural Causes would have sufficed; or also they would have been overcome of external Causes, as the Natural Qualities of the Bo∣dy. Therefore this Supernatural Quality of Father Molina is not to be admitted. Thirdly, Because Molina admits, Men may be altered by Rain, Wind, Heat, and other things, but with Delight. Therefore this Supernatural Quality would not have ren∣dred Men incapable of receiving Elemental Qualities. Therefore they might be burnt by the Fire, and consequently dye.

§. 12. Perhaps some Man may answer in Defence of Molina, that by this Quality the Activity of Agents upon the Body would not have been hindred; but only the Union of Soul and Body would have been maintained. But on the contrary, how can Heat in the highest Degree with Dry∣ness in the Height be granted, but the Form of Fire must be introduced in Man's Body, and the Rational be separated

without the greatest Miracle? Which must not be admitted.

§. 13. Let therefore the Conclusion be, That the Fruit of the Tree of Life by its Quali∣ties was an adaequate Cause of Immortality, so that Man by taking of it would necessari∣ly have lived for ever, both in the State of Innocence and in the State of lapsed Nature, the Case being granted, that in this State he did eat of the Tree. S^t Augustine seems of this Opinion ^e, where he saith, But Men therefore tasted of the Tree of Life, lest from any hand Death should creep upon them, or being spent with Old Age, when certain spa∣ces of Time were run over, they should dye; as if other things were for Aliment, this for a Sacrament. So that the Tree of Life in the Corporal Paradise may be construed to be like the Wisdom of God in the Spiritual, that is, in the Intelligible, whereof it is written in the third of Proverbs, She is a Tree of Life to them that lay hold upon her.

§. 14. Where we must accurately ob∣serve that [from any hand] and that [or] for Death might creep on from any hand, unless the Fruit of Life had preserved the Body from it: And the Particle [or] denotes a Disjunction, lest, to wit, Man should pe∣rish by Old Age, or by any other Occasion

whatever. Wherefore according to S^t Au∣gustine's Mind it would have been an adae∣quate Cause of Immortality. Which he manifestly confirms by the Example of the Wisdom of God in the Spiritual Paradise. And is gathered more manifestly from these Words, ^f There was Meat that he should not hunger, Drink that he should not thirst, the Tree of Life lest Old Age should destroy him, no Disease within, no Blow without was fear∣ed. Behold, how according to S^t Augustine this Tree would have defended a Man from all internal and external Causes of Death. Therefore according to his Opinion it was an adaequate Cause of Immortality.

§. 15. The Interlineal Gloss on these Words, Lest he take also of the Tree of Life, &c. insinuates the same Opinion, while it affirms, that when the Number of the Elect was compleat, they should have tasted of the Tree of Life, and so have passed to the Bles∣sed State. That, namely, by it the Body should have been rendred immortal, which Immortality would have been attained by rendring the Body free from all Harms, which could be brought from any Cau∣ses internal or external. And it is plainly gathered from Rupertus ^g, inasmuch as he affirms, that it had been sufficient once to

have taken of the Tree for Man to have li∣ved for ever; and from Chrysostome ^h and Theodoret ⁱ, whereas they affirm, this Tree was created for a Reward of Obedience: But this Reward was, that a Man should be free from Death, so that he could be killed by no Cause internal or external: There∣fore this Tree ought to defend a Man from all Cause of Death, otherwise it did not make good the Reward of Obedience, pro∣mised by God. It is gathered also from o∣ther Fathers above-quoted, Irenaeus, Grego∣ry Nazianzen, Eucherius, Cyrill, Hierome, and others, in that they affirm, this Tree could make Life to be Eternal; for if Man remained subject to Hunger, Sword, Precipice, Fire, Water and other things, he were not eternal. And so thinks Bellar∣mine ^k.

§. 16. Now the same Conclusion is already sufficiently proved by Reason; especially by this Argument, Because such Natural Qua∣lities are possible, as might defend a Man from all Causes of Death both internal and external: And we shall enumerate those Qualities in the following Section, and declare the manner how they perform it.

§. 17. It is further confirmed, that the said

Qualities are possible, by divers Examples of admirable Virtues, that are in things natural. For if there be indeed any such Fish as that called Echenëis or Remora, which is able to retard and hinder the most vio∣lent Motion of a Ship by a Natural Quali∣ty, which it impresseth on the Ship: Why might not the Fruit of Life have another Natural Quality, whereby Mans Body might be defended from the like Impulse and Mo∣on, and might be rendred free from all Strokes? If a Salamander cast into the Fire do by Natural Qualities resist the burning Fire for a great space of Time: Why should another Natural Quality be impossi∣ble, which might much more resist the Acti∣on of the Fire? And so resist, that its Re∣sistance might overcome the Activity of the Fire; for the Activity of the Fire is not intended to Infinity.

§. 18. If Fire naturally have a most a∣ctive Quality, why shall not another Na∣tural Quality equally or more resistent be possible? Are there not other Natural Vir∣tues equally admirable? Doth not the O∣striche's Stomach digest Iron? Aqua fortis dissolve Gold, Iron, and other Metals? Vi∣neger dissolve Stones and Steel? Doth not the Fish called Torpedo render the Fishes

that swim over it immoveable, and stupefy the Fishers Arm with its Virtue diffused along his Spear? Why therefore in like manner might there not be found other Natural Virtues in the Fruit of Life, resist∣ing the external causes of Death? I pass by other admirable things which manifestly appear from our Tract and other Mens Ob∣servations.

§. 19. Nor can it be said, it is false, and the Echenëis hath no such Virtue; for Ex∣perience confirms it, and very grave Au∣thors attest it, as S. Ambrose ^l, S. Basil ^m, AElian ⁿ, Plutarch ^o, Pliny ^p, Adam Leoni∣cenus ^q, Vincentius ^r, Rondeletius ^s, Carda∣nus ^t, and several others. Nor does it hin∣der, that Authors vary in describing the Echenëis, since some affirm that it is a great Fish, others that it is a little one; some a∣scribe one Figure to it, others another. It doth not hinder, I say, because there may be divers kinds of Fishes, which have this very same Virtue, as also there are divers sorts of Fishes that bring Numness, as our Torpedo doth, and every Man describes that which he hath experienced to detain the Ship. But after what manner it doth it, we will touch hereafter.

such a Nature, that it might also be eaten) hath a double Consideration, as Aliment, and as Medicament. As Aliment, inasmuch as it might be turned into the Substance of the thing nourished: As Medicament, inasmuch as it could produce in the Body several Qualities profitable for it. Where∣fore it might deservedly be called a Med∣cinal Aliment, or an Alimental Medicine.

§. 3. It is to be observed secondly, That the aforesaid Fruit is much more excellent in the way of Physick than of Food: For though as Food it might make something towards prolonging of Life, seeing it would nourish better than other things, and would less al∣ter the Body into a contrary Nature; Yet it would not on this account avail to extend it much, and less to prolong it to Eternity: But as Physick it would especially and chiefly conduce to this end. Now by what Qualities? And by what way? This is the most difficult to resolve.

§. 4. It is to be observed thirdly, That those Accidents which preserve our Body in perfect Health, some of them are mani∣fest, some occult. The manifest are three, Temperament, Composition, and Vnity of Parts: Which because they are perceived by the Senses, are called manifest. The oc∣cult,

according to the common Opinion that admits Powers, are the Faculties of the Body which by Philosophers are called Powers, that is, the Faculty Vi∣tal, Animal, and Natural. There are also occult Qualities belonging to the Alimentous, which are introduced into the Aliment by the common Work-houses, and by the Parts to be nourished (although no Man hath yet found them out) and there∣fore they may on that account also be cal∣led Alimentous: There are besides, Alexi∣pharmack Qualities also, newly found by us, which in another Treatise we have pro∣ved to be connaturally in the Body of every living Creature, that it may defend it self from Poyson.

§. 5. Which things observed, I say first. Divers Qualities are communicated by the Tree of Life, whereby all things which concern the Natural Constitution of the Body, if they be destroyed, may be re∣stored; if perfect, may be preserved, either to a certain and determinate Time, or to Eternity, according to the diversity of Opinions about this Mat∣ter. This Conclusion is m••nifest, because unless the Natural Constitution of the Body be preserved, Health and Life cannot na∣turally

continue: Therefore it is necessary that so many and so great Vertues must be given from the Wood, as were sufficient to repair and preserve all things concerning the Natural Constitution.

§. 6. I say Secondly, Supra-elementary Qualities must be contributed to the Body by the Tree of Life, which might produce Elemental ones in that degree only, which was agreeable to the Natural Temperament; to wit, that these Qualities of the Tree might concur as a kind of Cause effici∣ent with the Form (or with the Vertues of the Form, according to the Opinion which grants Virtual Qualities productive of the Elemental) towards the Production of E∣lemental Qualities, just to such a conve∣nient Degree. This Conclusion is proved, because it is necessary, the Natural Tem∣per should be preserved, that the Body may continue in Health. But such a Temper will be well preserved, if there be a fixt and efficacious Cause, which may help the intrinsick Agent in the Production of those degrees of each Quality, which makes up the Temperament. Therefore it is necessary that those Vertues be produced in the Body by the said Tree, which may suf∣fice to concur with the intrinsick Agent

productive of such Qualities. But these Vertues must needs be Qualities of a Supe∣rior Order. Therefore such must be produ∣ced in the Body by the Tree of Life.

§. 7. I say thirdly, These Qualities must also be of such Efficacy, that they may preserve that Degree fixt against all the Activity of an external Contrary, even the most violent, such as are Fire or Snow, according to the Opinion which affirms the Wood to be an adaequate Cause of Immor∣tality; so that these Qualities of the Wood of Life being present, Fire cannot act upon the Body, nor produce further Degrees of Heat beyond those, which are convenient for the Body: For the contrary Degrees of Cold would be so preserved by the Quality of the Wood, as a kind of Cause Efficient, that they could not be diminish∣ed by the Fire. And so it may be said of other Elemental Qualities. It is ma∣nifestly proved; Because unless the Quali∣ties of the Wood had so great Efficacy, they were not able to resist very violent external Agents: But they might resist, if they produced those fixt Degrees upon the Body, connatural to it, so that it might persist in Health.

§. 8. But to what kind of Quality would

these belong? I answer, They would be a kind of Habit: For according to the Opi∣nion, which affirms that Elemental Quali∣ties do not flow from the Soul, but are produced of other occult Qualities superad∣ed of a higher order, which are called Vir∣tual Qualities, they would belong to Ha∣bit: The Reason is, because these Virtual Qualities are Powers, seeing they are or∣dain'd only for Operation: But the Qua∣lities of the Wood do essentially suppose these Powers, and do help them efficiently in the production of the Elemental ones. Wherefore they are necessarily Habits, as are the Habits of Sciences, and some Super∣natural Qualities, as the Habit of Faith and Light of Glory, which Divines commonly affirm do belong to Habit, because they es∣sentially suppose Power, as Suarez ^a, Vas∣quez ^b, and others commonly hold. But according to the Opinion that denies Pow∣ers to the Soul, they are also to be accounted Habits, and to concur with the Soul, as Ha∣bits of Sciences and others. And these Qualities will prove a kind of those which cure manifest Diseases, of which we have spoken in another Book.

§. 9. Both Conclusions are confirmed, Because a living Body could no other way

be made durable to Eternity nor for any Time, but its Temperament would decline something from its Integrity, unless it were preserved the foresaid way. Therefore, &c. Nor doth it appear that the Qualities of the Wood would dispose the Body as a kind of Cause Formal, whereby it would have been made free from all natural Causes of Death internal and external; because a help by this kind of Cause would not have been sufficient, that by its means an intrin∣sick Agent could resist the most violent Causes.

§. 10. I say fourthly. It is also conveni∣ent, according to the same Opinion, that the Tree of Life should make good other Qualities, even Active ones which might concurr with the Faculties Animal, Vital and Natural, as a kind of Cause Efficient, that they might perform very strong Acti∣ons, when there should be a necessity. It is proved as to the Animal Faculty, because to avoid some Diseases of Composition, and Solution of Unity, as Dislocations and Wounds, and to resist some external Causes, which bring those Diseases, an ordinary strength of Actions of the Animal Faculty is not sufficient, even where there is the best Temperament. Therefore it is necessary

that this Faculty be helped by other Quali∣ties, which may concurr with it to render the Actions so strong, that they may be sufficient to avoid all Natural Causes what∣ever, especially those which might hurt by Local Motion.

§. 11. And as to the Pulsatil Faculty there is the same Reason; for it must per∣form a Motion against the Resistance of e∣very external Cause whatever. As to what concerns the Natural, it is proved: For it is necessary that the Attractive and Expul∣sive Faculty perform most perfect Actions, although there be an impeding Cause. The Digestive also, if it have a help, will ope∣rate more perfectly. And it is confirmed, because these Qualities are not only possible, but some such like there are indeed, effici∣ently concurring with the Powers to the Curing and Preventing manifest Diseases. Therefore it is necessary, that the Wood of Life should have them most efficacious.

§. 12. You will object. Therefore the Qualities productive of Elemental ones would have been superfluous, which we spoke of in the last Conclusion. The Se∣quel is denied; for they also would have been necessary to preserve the Natural and most perfect Temperament of Body. And

although by this means the Body of Man might resist all morbose Causes acting by Alteration; it might better and more rea∣dily resist together with these Qualities a∣ctively helping the Powers.

§. 13. But whether would one only Quali∣ty flowing from the Fruit suffice to concurr with all the Faculties? I answer negatively, but every lowest Species of Faculty ought to have its particular Quality distinct in Specie. It is manifestly proved, Because e∣very Faculty hath its particular and deter∣minate Effect: Therefore it wants a parti∣cular and determinate Concause, which hath Virtue for such an Effect. Secondly, Because Powers are distinguished in Specie by their Acts and Objects: Therefore those Qualities which participate with the Pow∣ers, are the same was distinguished. Third∣ly, because the Habit of one Power, or an Effect determinate to a certain Species, can∣not concurr with another Power, nor to another Species of Act: Nor therefore in like manner can these Qualities, which are as Habits in respect of the Powers.

§. 14. Therefore for the Animal Faculty there would have been given one Quality for Motion, and divers other for the Senses; and for every one as well internal as external (if

discerning Powers may seem necessary ei∣ther to long or eternal Life) its own Qua∣lity would have been allotted. For the Vital Faculty there would have been given one for the Motion of the Heart and Arteries, ano∣ther for Generation of Spirits, whilst there was any necessity for Motion or Generation of Spirits: For according to this Opinion, which affirms that eternal Life was given by the Wood, when the Body was reduced to the best Constitution, all things would have been kept in the same Tenor, so that nei∣ther any reparation of Spirits, nor of Sub∣stance, would have been further necessary.

§. 15. Wherefore by the Qualities of the Tree of Life the Health of the Body would have been defended from Hunger, Thirst, and want of Air, lest namely Man should perish for want of Meat, Drink or Air; which will more appear hereafter. In like manner there would have been given a particular Quality by the Fruit for every Species of Natural Fa∣culty, that is, for Attraction, Retention, Co∣ction, and Expulsion, that, to wit, they might operate most perfectly, while their o∣peration was necessary. And after the same manner there would have been another for Ge∣neration.

§. 16. You will object. The Fruit of this

Tree was of one Species only. Therefore it could not produce so many Species of Qualities. The Consequence is denied, Be∣cause the same Rheubarb performs divers Actions by Qualities different in Specie; for it evacuates Choler, strengthens the Li∣ver, opens Obstructions, binds lax Parts, produceth Heat, causeth Driness: And so we experience divers Virtues in many other Medicines.

§. 17. I say fifthly. Besides the said Qua∣lities (according to the same Opinion) there was another necessary, which should have been made good by the Tree of Life: And that is a Resistive Faculty, which might preserve the Union and due Composition of Parts, namely their Figure, Cavity, Number, and also their Magnitude. It is evidently proved, Because in defect there∣of Man would become obnoxious to Disea∣ses and Death, which would follow from Division of Continuity and from vitiated Composition. This Quality indeed would not have been Active, but relating to Pati∣ble Quality, as Hardness in a Stone: For informing the Parts of the Body, it would have rendred them incapable of any Divi∣sion or Compression, which could have been made by an external Cause. Where∣fore

by reason of this Quality, Man could not dye by a Precipice or a Blow. And it is confirmed, for as the Author of the Que∣stions of the Old and New Testament saith ^c, The Wood of Life was so to Man as an inexpugnable Wall: Therefore it must necessarily make good this Resistive Quali∣ty, as a Wall.

§. 18. You will object. If such a Quality were granted, the Limbs could not be bend∣ed. It is denied, Because it was not hard∣ness, but preserving of Union. Or rather, Whether was there not a Quality actively preserving the Union of Parts? It might probably be affirmed: And it would have been so strong in Preservation of the Uni∣on of Parts by a certain Action intrinsically terminated upon the very Union, that the Union could be dissolved by no finite na∣tural Cause. Yet much more probably, I think, there was no such active Quality, seeing the Resisting informing one was suf∣ficient, as we said in the last Conclusion.

§. 19. I say sixthly, According to this Opinion, the Tree of Life would have made good all Alexipharmack Qualities of every kind, whereby the Body would have been made free from all that are Poysonous. This Conclusion also is manifest. For in

defect of these Qualities Man might have perished, seeing those that are implanted in the Body cannot sufficiently resist strong Poy∣sons. Nor can it be doubted that this Qua∣lity was possible, seeing it is found natural∣ly in almost innumerable Medicines. There∣fore no Wonder, if it were granted to this Fruit naturally with so great Efficacy, that it overcame all Poysonous ones.

§. 20. You will object against what we have said. Heat would necessarily act up∣on Moisture, seeing it is a Natural Cause acting necessarily: Therefore it would ne∣cessarily rarefy it, turn it into Vapors and consume it: Therefore Reparation and Nu∣trition was necessary: Therefore Man would necessarily be obnoxious to Death by Hun∣ger, and it was needful for Man to eat the Wood again and again. I deny the Ante∣cedent: Because the Moisture would have been preserved two ways. First by the Oc∣cult Quality of the Wood (which we spoke of) producing Moisture in a proportionate fixt Degree. Secondly by another Occult Quality of the Wood, producing certain fixt Degrees of Cold, that the Heat could produce none further.

§. 21. You will urge. Therefore the Heat

would produce those Qualities at least, which are produced of it by Resultancy in the Substance wherein it subsists, that is, Rarity, and Levity (if it be a Second Quality) from which follows Resolution or Evaporation, and consequently the Consumption of such Substance. The Se∣quel is denied, Because that Resultance al∣so of Second Qualities would have been hindred by their contrary Qualities, which would have been produced by other First Contraries; for Example, The Resultance of further Rarity would have been hindred by the Degrees of Cold, for by them its contrary Density would have been preser∣ved proportional to the Rarity.

§. 22. You will object secondly. The Fa∣culty Pulsatil and Generative of Spirits would have been idle; Because we sup∣pose, the necessary Spirits once generated would have lasted for ever: And in like manner the Natural Faculties would have been idle, seeing we suppose, Nutrition would be no further necessary, when the Body had arrived at full Perfection: There∣fore those Qualities would not be necessary which might concur with such Faculties, ac∣cording to the Opinion which affirms, it had

been sufficient to have eaten the Fruit only once. I say they were necessary for the Reduction of a Child's Body and an Old Man's, or one any other way decayed or imperfect, to the most perfect Constituti∣on, and therefore they were to be added: But after the Perfection of the Body they were not necessary; but would have con∣tinued, as other things would, which also were not further necessary, as the common Workhouses of Aliment and Excrements, and the Faculty expulsive of them, and o∣ther things.

§. 23. You will object thirdly. To Durati∣on of Life there is no need, that the Ani∣mal Faculty be any stronger, than what suf∣ficeth to perform Respiration, as Galen ^d holdeth. Therefore to this at least there should no helping Quality be added, which might concur with it. It is answered, If there were a preternatural Affection be∣fore the eating of the Wood, which ought to be expelled by the Motion of the Ani∣mal Faculty, as by Coughing, or whereto the Animal Faculty ought to concur with the Natural, as Pissing, Strength must ne∣cessarily be added to the Faculty, that by the said Qualities it might perform a stron∣ger Motion: And in like manner as before

we have already said in the third Con∣clusion, Strength of the Animal Faculty was necessary for the Motive, that it might more readily resist external Causes. But as for the Discerning Powers, which belong to the Animal Faculty, seeing they conduce little to Duration, and would sufficiently o∣perate with the best Temperament, Compo∣sition and Unity of Parts; it seems more probable, that other Qualities are not ne∣cessary which should be produced by the Wood.

§. 24. You will object fourthly. We said in the fourth Conclusion, that by the Tree a Virtue was made good, concurring with the Animal Faculty to the avoiding those Causes, which by local Motion might di∣vide Continuity. Therefore the resistive Quality is superfluous. The Consequence is denied, because that Virtue concurring with the Faculties is necessary for their better be∣ing, to the end, namely, that Man might more perfectly be defended from the most violent Causes.

§. 25. In Summ therefore; The Qualities of the Tree of Life might be distributed in∣to four Classes; for some produced Elemen∣tal Qualities, others Alexipharmack Quali∣ties, others concurred actively with the Facul∣ties

of the Body to Connatural Actions, and others were Resistive. And these last (if a Quality actively resisting be not admitted) would belong to Patible Quality. The first would belong to Habit; for if they were Na∣tural Powers they might produce their Ef∣fects, where and when they were not ne∣cessary, and not according to the Exigence of the Body. And those which concur with the Faculties in their Actions, belong to Ha∣bit, the first Species of Quality: Seeing they necessarily and essentially suppose Powers to their Operation, and are Qua∣lities of difficult Expulsion, which two things are required to Habit according to common Opinion. But of the Alexiphar∣mack those which resist Poysons, as a kind of Cause Formal, belong rather to Patible Quali∣ty: What, as a Cause Efficient, if they con∣cur with the Motive Power or with another, ra∣ther belong to Habit, for the last said Reason: And they will belong to the same Species, what∣ever should concur with another Active Power. But we must take notice of the Resistive Qualities, if any there be actively resisting Division of Parts, that these, if they concur by themselves only, are Powers; if with the Natural Powers producing Union, they are Habits.

§. 26. But Whether were all the foresaid Qualities, actively concurring with the Powers, more noble than the Powers themselves? It seems to be more probably affirmed, that they were more noble, as to the manner of Ope∣ration: Because they elevate the Powers a Supra-ordinary Way (although within the Bounds of Nature) to more noble Actions, and at least more intense, stronger and quicker, than is consistent with their Na∣ture, as it operates ordinarily: So that the said Actions may especially be attributed to the Tree of Life, as to what concern∣eth this Manner of Operation. You will object. The Habits also of Powers acqui∣red by Acts do render the Actions more intense, stronger and quicker. And yet they are not more noble than the Powers: Therefore, &c. The Consequence is denied, and there is a disparity of Reason; for the Actions of Habits are such, that they are attributed especially to the Powers: But the Actions of the Powers, wherewith the Qualities of the Wood of Life concur, are so strong, intense and quick, and are so ef∣ficaciously performed by the Qualities, that they may rather be attributed to them, than to the Powers; and the Powers are more the Instruments of these Qualities in

respect of their Actions, than the principal Causes.

§. 27. But some one may enquire, Whether all Men would have been of the same Tempe∣rament? I say, according to our Opinion, that affirms, the Wood of Life would have been sufficient for eternal Life; and that to this there would have been necessary Su∣pra-elementary Qualities made good by the Wood, which would have actively produced Elemental ones in a certain fixt Degree; we must consequently say, That all Men would have been of the same Tem∣perament after Eating of the Wood. It is effectually proved; for the Cause of the E∣lemental Qualities in all Men would have been of the same Reason and Proportion, to wit, the more noble Qualities productive of the Elemental in the same proportionate and fixt Degree. Therefore the same Temperament in Specie would have been in all Men, when they had come to Perfecti∣on, and that most perfect. From whence also it follows, that all Men eating the Fruit, would have had equal Strength, e∣qual Actions of the Senses, as well inter∣nal as external, an equal Strength of Un∣derstanding, with dependency upon Phan∣tasms: For the disposition of the Phantasy

would also have been equal. When ne∣vertheless it is agreed, that some would have been wiser and iuster than others, as Thomas ^e observes. Because they would have acted by Free Will; whence some would have more applyed their Mind to learn this or that: Whereupon it would have followed, that some would have been better Proficients in Knowledge, others in Justice, &c.

§ 28. But you may deservedly enquire, Why in Reduction of an Old Man to Youth, or of a Sick Man to Health, or of an in∣temperate Body to a temperate, there would not have been Disease or Pain, seeing sudden Mutations, even terminated to a better State, do cause this? I answer first, That a quick Mutation to a natural or better state brings not Pain, nay but Pleasure, as Ga∣len testifieth ^f. Where••ore if sometimes from such Reduction Pain do happen, as when the Hands chilled with Snow are suddenly exposed to the Fire, this is by Accident, because, to wit, some Parts are preternaturally altered, whilst the Heat in others is reduced to its natural Perfe∣ction; or because from the Application of Heat, the Cold in others is suddenly intend∣ed by Antiperistasis. I answer secondly,

That Pain is a depraved Action of the Touch: And seeing the Sense it self (as other Powers) would have been helped to perform perfect Actions; there could ne∣ver have been a Depravation of Touch, which Pain is.

§. 29. But whether according to the Opi∣nion which denies the Fruit to be an ade∣quate Cause of Immortality, it had been ne∣cessary that Alexipharmack Qualities should be contributed by the Wood to Mans Body, whereby it might be preserved from Poysons? It seems to be affirmed, because it cannot be believed, these Vertues were wanting to the most perfect Medicament, when ma∣ny other ordinary Medicaments have effica∣cious Virtues against Poysons; nay, we must think, all other Supra-elementary Vir∣tues for curing Diseases must have been found in it, which are found in other ordinary Medicines: Those notwithstand∣ing excepted, which used without Art do hurt, such as are Purgative Virtues, which given unseasonably, and to a Healthy Man, bring no small Harm.

§. 30. I say seventhly. According to the same Opinion, which affirms, the Tree of Life was not an adequate Cause of Immor∣tality, but that the Supra-ordinary Provi∣dence

of God was necessary to avoid the Harms of External Causes; according to this Opinion, I say, it is not necessary to grant a Resistive Quality in the Tree, nor it may be other Qualities, which might preserve the Elemental ones of the Body in a necessary fixt Degree, at least not so effi∣cacious, as wholly to resist all external altering Causes. It is proved, because the Supra-ordinary Providence of God had been sufficient.

§. 31. But since from the Sacred Text it appears, that Women in the State of Obedience should have been free from the Pains of Birth, it seems worth our En∣quiry, Whether also the Qualities of the Tree of Life would have prevented the Pains of Birth in Women? It seems to be more probably answered in the Affirmative. First, Because seeing the Wood would have averted all internal Causes of Death, or also the external besides, according to different Opinions; and since it would have cured all preternatural Affections, it must of necessity have been able to pre∣vent and take away the Pains of Birth; nor is there need of any greater Reason, why it should take away these than o∣thers.

§. 32. Secondly, Because there are Medi∣cines found naturally, which by means of Supra-elementary occult Qualities do won∣derfully allay the Pains of several Parts, and preserve a Man from them, as a Wolf's Liver against the Pain of the Liver, as Ga∣len ^g testifies, and that famous Stone, which may deservedly be called Nephritick, brought from the West Indies, vulgarly cal∣led de la hijada, as Monardes ^h testifies, which tied to the Arm both takes away Nephritick Pains, and preserves a Man from them, as also doth a certain Wood of the same Name (which I have sometime seen) described by the same Author. Therefore it is credible, that in this Wood, which had admirable Virtues for all Preternatural Affections, these also were not wanting, which might preserve from Pains of Birth; especially seeing it makes for the Conserva∣tion of Life, as a Reward of Obedience, to which purpose in the primary intention it was created.

§. 33. But what way did it perform this Work? It may be doubted: For the Cause of the Pains of Birth is the breaking of those Bonds, that tye the Child to the Womb; which being a violent and sud∣den Solution of Continuity, it necessarily

causeth Pain. Wherefore that the Tree of Life may prevent these Pains, it is necessa∣ry, that it either stupefy the Sense in those Parts, as Narcotick Medicines do; or so mollify and dispose the Ligaments, where∣by the Child is knit to the Womb, as A∣nodyne Medicines do, that without vio∣lence they might be separated from the Parts of the Womb; or that it regulate the Faculties of the Womb after such a manner, that they work that Separation by little and little without Trouble: For only a violent Passion, which is preternatural, when it is done much together and speedily, causeth Pain; but what is done by little and little e∣scapes Sense, as Galen ⁱ expresseth it. Ano∣ther Way may also concur, viz. Because in that State the Wood of Life would join with and assist the Powers, that they might perform most perfect Actions. Therefore it would concur with the Touch, that it might feel most perfectly; wherefore a de∣praved Sensation could not be, in which Pain might formally consist, although the Object or Cause of Pain were present.

§. 34. But you will object. Either this Wood would have taken away the Pains of Birth in the State of Innocence, or in the State of Lapsed Nature. Not in the

first, because it appears from the Sacred Text, that in it Woman would have had no Pains in Birth: Not in the Second, because from the Sacred Text also it appears, that they must necessarily suffer Pains for a Pu∣nishment of Sin. Therefore it would take away Pains in no State. I answer, that both in the State of Innocence and in the State of Lapsed Nature this Wood would have been good against the Pains of Birth, if it had been eaten. In the State of Inno∣cence, because by it Women would have been preserved from Pains, and by means of it would have obtained, what was ow∣ing to that State. And in the State of Lap∣sed Nature, because therefore God cast Wo∣man with Adam out of Paradise, lest she should enjoy the Good due to Innocence, and the Reward promised for Obedience, and by consequence Eternal Life; and lest she should obtain Immunity from the Pains of Birth by Eating of this Wood.

Diseases and Death, which must have been resisted by the Qualities of this Fruit, are of two kinds: For some are altering, others are locally moving, or impressing an Impulse. It is proved, for among Philosophers Acci∣dental Mutation is only twofold, that is, one to Quality, another to Place. I pass by Mutation as to Quantity, because since Quantity is never produced de novo (as the more probable Opinion saith) this is not a true Mutation.

§. 3. And of the Altering Causes, some move to the Manifest Elemental Qualities, and others to the Occult. The first are all those things which can produce Elemental Qualities, first or second, and by this means vitiate and overthrow the Temper of the Body, from whence various Diseases and Death do follow. The second are especi∣ally all Poysons, which introducing Occult Poysonous Qualities into the Body, waste Mens Strength, and take away Life.

§. 4. And the Causes moving locally are also of a twofold Difference: For either they move the Humors of the Body, as Medicines Purging, provoking Urine, Sweat and Wo∣mens Courses, which by reason of their un∣seasonable, or superfluous, or other preter∣natural Motions, can also cause Diseases

and Death: Or they impress such an impulse upon the Members of the Body, that they dissolve natural Continuity, or change the Situation of the Parts; whereon do follow Diseases in Conformation, viz. in Magni∣tude, Figure and Site; and consequently Death it self, which the Fruit of Life was obliged to avoid, averting all these Causes.

§. 5. But beside these Causes which pro∣duce positive Effects, others also may be considered, which produce other (if I may so call them) privative Effects, and conse∣quently bring Death: For seeing the Bo∣dy of a Living Creature, that it may live, doth stand in need of certain Matters, whereby the lost Substance may be repair∣ed, such as are Meat, Drink and Air; what things soever can deprive it of these Mat∣ters, without doubt will cause Death, that is, things causing Hunger, Thirst, Want of Air, or Suffocation.

§. 6. These Causes being declared, which coming from without can bring Dis∣eases and Death, now it follows that we explain, according to the Opinion that af∣firms the Wood of Life was an adequate Cause of Immortality, what way it could hinder them: Which thing indeed since it seems altogether difficult, or rather impos∣sible;

this Opinion is exploded by many, who have recourse to the Supra-ordinary Providence of God. But for its De∣fence.

§. 7. It is to be observed first. That the Vir∣tues of the Tree of Life would not so keep off external offending Causes, that most of them could not approach the Body, nor that the Body should abide beyond the Sphere of their Activity: for Example, They would not hinder the Fire to ap∣proach Mans Body, nor a Mad Dog to touch it, nor any other Poyson to be swallowed down: As neither would they hinder the Defect of Meat, Drink or Air: For it is manifest, it was not in the Power of the Wood to do this. Yet the Virtues of the Wood would hinder, that the afore∣said Causes could not produce their posi∣tive Effects upon the Body: to wit, that the Sun or Fire should not heat the Bo∣dy; or the Sword or a Stone should not dissolve Continuity by their Blow, or o∣therwise move the Parts of the Body con∣trary to their Nature; and so of other things: And in like manner the said Vir∣tues would preserve a Man, that he should not perish by Privation of Meat, Drink or Air. I said [that most of them should

not approach the Body] for we shall after∣wards prove, that it was possible for Virtue to be extended from the said Wood to a certain Space without the Body of Man, in which it might hinder those things which moved to Hurt, from moving far∣ther, or reaching to the Body.

§. 8. It is to be observed secondly. The Wood of Life would defend Man's Body from external Causes, producing Elemen∣tal first or second Qualities, by those occult Qualities, which would produce other Ele∣mental ones proportionate and natural to the Body, in a certain Degree so fixt, that they could be remitted by no other, even the most violent external or internal Cause, as we said before in the last Doubt: And as by these the Body would have been preser∣ved from the mutual immoderate Rëaction of the Parts among themselves, and from the Rëaction of the Aliment; so also the Body ought to be defended from the Action of ex∣ternal Causes. It is effectually proved, Because these would have sufficed to resist all Al∣terative Agents both internal and exter∣nal.

§. 9. But you will object. Two Degrees of Cold, for Example, which are necessary and proportionate to the Health of the

Body of Man, cannot naturally resist eight Degrees of Heat of Fire applied next to it, seeing the Action would necessarily fol∣low the stronger Side. Therefore it is impos∣sible, according to Nature, that the Tem∣per of the Body should endure in these two fixt Degrees after the application of the Fire, but that it should be removed from them, and part be burned. And it is confirmed, Because between equal contrary Agents, nay between unequal ones, there is mutual Repassion, as Experience shews, and it is the common Doctrine of Philoso∣phers: Therefore the inferior Agent ought to re-suffer from the stronger, that which resists with only two Degrees of Cold, from the Action of the Superior, acting at the Rate of eight Degrees of Heat.

§. 10. I answer, By distinguishing the Antecedent. Two Degrees of Cold consi∣dered in themselves, according to their formal Resistence and Activity, are not a∣ble to resist eight Degrees of Heat, so I grant the Antecedent: But considered ac∣cording to the Activity of their Cause pro∣ducing them, I deny it: For their Efficient Cause, that is, the Quality of the Wood produceth them with that Efficacy, and hath such Influence on their Production,

that they cannot be remitted by any other the most violent Agent. Which Answer is according to the Doctrine of Suarez ^a, as afterwards we shall declare. For this Resistence is not considered as Active, on the part of the Activity of the Degrees of Cold themselves, or as Passive, on the part of their Formality, so much, as for the Ef∣ficacy and Activity wherewith they are produced by their Cause. And for this Reason the Rest of the Qualities of the Temperament do resist, being preserved by the Qualities of this Wood, that they can never be remitted by their Contraries. Which I prove effectually. If God by him∣self alone, that is, by his actual Concur∣rence, will produce these two Degrees of Cold, and preserve them; although eight Degrees of Fire were applied, yet they could not be remitted, if God did not desist from his Concurrence; for the reason why they are corrupted when a hot Agent comes, is because God in presence of it de∣sists from his conserving Concurrence: Therefore in like manner they will not be remitted, if they be conserved by the same Efficacy of any other second Cause, not desisting from its Influence. And for this Cause we said these Degrees were fixt.

§. 11. Perhaps some will reply to this Ar∣gument, That it implies a Contradiction, if God will conserve these two Degrees of Cold by his alone Concurrence in the pre∣sence of eight Degrees of Heat, unless He should produce more Degrees of Cold: And therefore it would be necessary to produce some Supernatural Quality, which might resist eight Degrees of Heat. But on the contrary, first, it doth not appear wherein the Contradiction consists: For an Agent with eight Degrees of Heat, could never introduce into the Subject, having these two Degrees of Cold, but six Degrees of Heat, whereby the whole Lati∣tude of eight Degrees would be filled: For those two of Cold would be conserved by God: Which I prove, for the Concurrence of God produceth any thing necessarily: Therefore it would produce necessarily those two Degrees of Cold, while God continued his Concurrence. But Whether were it necessary that God should encrease his Concurrence? I answer negatively: For if he should encrease it, its Term also would be encreased, and more Degrees of Cold produced. Secondly, the foresaid Answer is refuted, Because either that Supernatural Quality would resist, as a kind of Cause

Formal, or Efficient: Not the first, Because Cold would resist more, as being contrary; wherefore a Supernatural Quality would be superfluous, as less resisting: Not the se∣cond, because this would be by producing Cold, which also the Concurrence of God would do. Therefore such a Quality would no way resist, or be necessary.

§. 12. But you will urge against the fore∣said Solution of the principal Argument. No Cause hath continual Influence, but up∣on an Effect depending on it in Conservati∣on: But Cold, and also other Elementary Qualities do not depend in their Conserva∣tion upon their Efficient Causes: Therefore the Qualities of the Wood of Life could not have continual Influence upon them: Therefore they could not actively be pre∣served by them in a fixt Degree. I answer first, That although the same Degree in Number be not preserved; yet the same in Specie is:

—namque uno amisso, non deficit alter.

For when one's lost, another doth not fail.

secondly, That although some Quality of its own nature be not dependent in Con∣servation; nor standeth in need of the continual Influx of its Cause, for its Con∣servation; yet there is no Inconvenience, that sometime it receive continual Influx from its Agent, as that which is dependent in its Conservation; after which manner a∣ctual Heat, existing in the very Fire, seems to receive it: Which Influx, though it be not necessary to its Being; yet it is neces∣sary to its much better Being.

§. 13. It is to be observed thirdly. That by the same Qualities of the Wood of Life, which would have kept the Natural Tem∣per of the Body in a fixt Degree, the Harm also, which follows the Want of Meat, Drink and Air, would have been prevent∣ed. Wherefore that Man, who had tasted the Fruit of Life, would never have pe∣rished by Hunger, Thirst, or prohibited Respiration. It is proved, Because in this Case the Heat would not act upon the Ra∣dical Moisture, (whether that Moisture be Something diverse from the Living Parts, as the Old Opinion held; or not, as now we more commonly think) nor would the Parts of the Body mutually act and suf∣fer among themselves beyond the Degrees

convenient for them, since every of the Na∣tural Elemental Qualities would have been conserved in its proportionate fixt Degree. Wherefore there would not be the Disso∣lution of any Substance necessary for the Body; nor therefore would any Reparati∣on on by Meat, Drink or Air, have been ne∣cessary; nor consequently would the De∣fect of these external Matters do Hurt.

§. 14. But you will object first. There∣fore the Introduction of these Matters at least would do Hurt, seeing the Actions are no less Hurt by Addition than by De∣fect. The Sequel is denied: For the most efficacious expulsive Virtue helped by other Qualities of the Wood, concurring with it self, acting most vehemently, would ei∣ther not admit what was Superfluous, or would presently expel it. This Harm might also be avoided by the Natural Providence of Man, who would not take Meat, Drink and Air Superfluous.

§. 15. You will object secondly. Men in the State of Innocence did eat, and ought to have eaten, if they had remained in the same State: For the Lord said unto them, that they might eat of every Tree of Para∣dise, except the forbidden one. Therefore the Tree of Life did not excuse Men from

Meat: therefore they might dye for want of it. I answer with a Distinction, That before Eating of the Wood of Life Men stood in need of Meat, I grant: After Eat∣ing of that Wood of Life, I again distin∣guish, If they were constituted in Perfecti∣on of Health, and in the best Constitution of Body due to perfect Age, I deny that they would have wanted Meat, Drink or Air: But if they were not constituted in the highest Perfection, as Children, Old Men and Sick Persons (if they had eaten the Wood in the State of Lapsed Nature; for in this State the Wood being denied, they might grow sick and old, and dye) that they would have stood in need of Meat and Drink, and Breath, I grant.

§. 16. You will infer. Therefore at least Children, Old Men and Sick Persons, see∣ing they suffered a Defect of Substance, might, though they had eaten of the Tree of Life before, notwithstanding perish by Hunger, Thirst, and Want of Air. The Sequel is denied: For they would have only wanted Meat and Drink, that they might come to the best Constitution of Body, but not that they might be preserved in the same imperfect State: Because since we have it proved, that the Qualities of the Tree

of Life kept the Temper in the same fixt Tenor, and hindred the contrary Qualities of the Body from acting mutually among themselves beyond measure; the pre-exist∣ing Substance could not be further wast∣ed, nor consequently Children or Old Men for Want of new Food be consumed.

§. 17. You will urge. The Qualities of the Wood were necessary Causes produ∣ctive of Elemental Qualities: Therefore they would necessarily introduce those De∣grees, which they were able, both in a Child and an Old Man: Therefore they would necessarily produce in them a Temper a∣greeable to perfect and flourishing Age: Therefore they should be Children and Old Men for their Temper, and they should not, because they would want due Magnitude, through Defect of Aliment, if they were deprived of it. I answer, In such a Case some might have been Chil∣dren, other Old Men, as to the Magnitude of Body; yet not as to their Temper: Which implies no Contradiction.

§. 18. And perhaps it might be answered, That the Vertues from the Qualities of the Tree were so strong, that they could dis∣pose any Matter, although it were not Ali∣mentous, and breed Blood of it, and Sub∣stance

for the thing nourished. Wherefore of Earth, Water and the Ambient Air, or of any other circumadjacent thing, what∣ever it were, they were able to make Nou∣rishment.

§. 19. Which may be effectually proved by the Example of that Maid of twelve years old, lying sick of a Diabetes, who turned the Ambient Air drawn in by Respiration and by the Pores, into Water or Serum, as was the certain Opinion of the Physicians then present: For she made thirty six pounds of Water every day, but did not take a∣bove seven pounds in Meat and Drink; and seeing this lasted threescore days, it appears that in that Time she made one thousand seven hundred and forty Pounds of Water above the Weight of her Meat and Drink, which was much more than the Weight of the Maid, if she had even been all dissolved into Urine, as Cardan ^b affirms: For the Maid weighed not above one hundred and fifty Pounds. Wherefore of necessity the inspired or circumfused Air must have been turned into Urine. What wonder there∣fore, if the strong Faculties of the Wood helping and elevating the Natural Powers of the Body, were able sufficiently to dis∣pose any indisposed Matter, and to turn it

into the Substance of the thing nourish∣ed?

§. 20. And it is confirmed, Because for any Matter to be fit to nourish, it sufficeth that Alimental Qualities be found therein, and that it want those which may hurt: But the Vertues of the Wood, which we suppose most efficacious and most agreeable to Nature, were able to introduce these Qualities into any Matter that occurr'd: Therefore the Body of Man arm'd with the Qualities of the Wood might be nourished by any occuring Matter whatever.

§. 21. You will object thirdly. If Men in Innocence or after the Fall had eaten the Fruit of Life, yet they would have genera∣ted by Abscision of Seed: But Matter is ne∣cessary for generation of the Seed to be ab∣scinded, and consequently Meat, Drink and Air: Therefore if they had used Vene∣ry, and notwithstanding had eaten nothing, without doubt they had dyed. I grant the Major and the Minor, I deny the Conse∣quence. Because for them who gave them∣selves to Generation and used Venery, e∣ven for those that were of the best Consti∣tution of Body, the use of Food was ne∣cessary towards the Generation of Seed: But though they used Venery, they would

not be sick for want of Food, because the strong Retentive Faculty of the Body would not suffer the Seed necessary for the Body to be expelled; nor therefore would Nature at that Time send Blood or other necessary Matter to the Seminary Vessels. Wherefore through want of Food, and consequently of Seed, they might be ren∣dred Barren; but dye they could not.

§. 22. You will object fourthly. There∣fore at least through defect or immoderate Use of the other non-natural things which are necessary for the preservation of Life, Diseases would happen, nor could Man be defended by the Qualities of the Wood of Life. And these things are, Sleep and Wa∣king, Motion and Rest, and the Accidents of the Mind, as Anger, Sorrow, Joy, and the like. I deny the Sequel, Because these non-natural things do so far preserve or de∣stroy Health, as they preserve or change Natural things; for it is by Accident that they alter the Temper of the Body, or change its Composition. But since we suppose the Qualities of the Wood of Life do keep the Temper of the Body in a fixt Proportion, it cannot be preternaturally changed by these Causes. Whereas also we suppose, the Faculties of the Body would

be helped by the Qualities of the Wood af∣ter such a manner as we have said, they would most easily prevent the Harms of the Excesses or Defects of the said non-natural things; as will easily appear to him that throughly considers the Use of each non-natural thing.

§. 23. It is to be observed fourthly. The Wood of Life defends the Body from Plague, Malignant Fevers, and contagious occult Diseases by those Alexipharmack Qualities, whereof we have treated be∣fore: For the Body is hurt by the Poyso∣nous Qualities of these things: Therefore it is well defended by other contrary A∣lexipharmack Qualities afforded by the Tree of Life.

§. 24. It is to be observed fifthly. A Natu∣ral Quality, which we called Resistive, was possible, which was able to defend the Body, that it could not be broken or divi∣ded by any Impulse or Blow, even the most violent. It is proved effectually first, Because as the Hardness of a Stone resists Division, so also there might be a Quality imparted by the Wood, which was able to resist Division. It is proved secondly. For in things Natural, there be Qualities, which indispose a Moveable Body, that it cannot

be moved by a Cause able to produce Mo∣tion. For it is evident from Experience, that Iron is so indisposed by some Quali∣ties, that it cannot be moved by Virtue of the Magnet. That Fishes swimming over the Torpedo, enclosed in the Mud or Sand for the purpose, when they come to the place whereto the Virtue of the Torpedo is extended, can stir no farther, by which Art She catches and eats them, as Aristo∣tle relates ^c. In like manner the Fishers Arm is deprived of Motion, when the Qua∣lity of the Torpedo reaches it. The Quali∣ty of Opium and other Stupefying Medi∣cines doth so dispose the Humors, that they cannot move further, during the Quality of the Opium; Wherefore Opium given stops violent Fluxes of Blood and other Humors. The Quality of the Blood-Stone doth also stop the Motion of the Blood.

§. 25. And what is more wonderful, a Remora coming near stops the swiftest Mo∣tion of a Ship under full Sail, as is the com∣mon Tradition of the fore-quoted Authors, and of many others: Which although it may happen, because the Remora draws the Ship a contrary way, as it fell out in that Fish, whereof we made mention be∣fore, because it had fixt its Horn most

firmly in the Ship: Yet the Remora may do it a more easie way, namely, by impressing such a Quality on the Ship, that, it being present, the Force of the Wind bearing upon the Ship, cannot produce Motion, by reason there is an Indisposition, which is as an Agent, that it cannot act. Wherefore a Power drawing the contrary way, or o∣therwise resisting, is not necessary for hin∣dring the Ship to be moved; but this Qua∣lity may most easily hinder its Motion.

§. 26. It is proved from the like. For if Amber be dulled by Moisture, its Virtue cannot produce Motion in Straws. If the Virtue of the Torpedo reach the Fishes swimming over her, or the Fishers Arm, their Motive Power cannot produce Moti∣on. If the Virtue of Opium come to the Humors, they cannot be expelled or any way moved by the Faculties. Therefore so it will happen in like manner in the Vir∣tue of the Remora impressed on the Ship, that, it being present, the force of the Wind cannot produce Motion on the Ship. Therefore after the same manner may a Quality be afforded by the Wood of Life, which being present, no external Motive Cause is able to effect Motion on the said Body. Nay, perhaps that Quality might

be diffused for some Space without the Bo∣dy of Man, who eat the Wood, by virtue whereof Darts cast, or Bullets shot from Guns, coming to the Sphere of that Quali∣ty, would presently lose Motion, and not come at the Body: Because the Motive Force, impressed on the Dart or Bullet, could not effect Motion, because of the indisposing Quality diffused without the Bo∣dy by the Virtue of the Wood.

§. 27. It is proved thirdly. Because (as before we have already said) all Natural Agents, although they have most violent Powers, are yet of a finite Virtue: There∣fore there is no Inconvenience, that a Re∣sistence may be, which surpasseth their Power. Seeing therefore such a Resistence is possible, whereby the Wood of Life might defend Man's Body from Death, and that the Sacred Text doth clearly intimate, that it was an adequate Cause of Immortality, unless some Supernatural Help should inter∣vene, why shall we dare to deny it? Why shall we seek other Interpretations for the Sacred Text? Medium's therefore should rather be enquired, whereby the Wood of Life m••ght be an adequate Cause of Immor∣tality: Which if they be found, as now by us, through God's Blessing, they are found,

it will be superfluous to have recourse to Miracles.

§. 28. You will object. If such a Quality were, which indisposed any thing to Moti∣on; if such a thing could not be moved by one Cause, neither also could it be moved by another Cause of equal Strength, since all Local Motion is of the same kind: Therefore there can be no Quality indispo∣sing to Local Motion. I answer, The said Qualities are not Indispositions on the part of the Patient to receive Motion; for if it were so, that thing which could not be moved by one Agent, could be moved by none, for its Incapacity of Motion: But they are Indispositions only on the part of the Agent, namely, of the Motive Quality, that it cannot produce Motion. And for this Cause the Virtue of the Magnet can produce Motion in Iron, not in other Bo∣dies, because it finds in it Dispositions ne∣cessary on the part of the Agent, which being present, it can operate; not in other things. And for the same Reason Amber moves Straws, not Iron, nor Stones: Aga∣rick purgeth Phlegm, and not other Hu∣mors; and so we may say of the rest.

§. 29. It is to be observed sixthly, to give better Satisfaction to the Point, That Phi∣losophers

reckon of a double positive Re∣sistence (beside another Negative) one A∣ctive, another Formal. Negative Resistence is the utter Incapacity of the Subject to receive any Form, such as is in the Heavens, suppo∣sing them incorruptible, as to receiving Qualities, altering to Corruption. Active Resistence is the very Action of the Agent, as by it a Term is produced, which formally re∣sisteth, or by it the Force of another Agent is broken, which is resisted; and it is called by ^d Suarez Radical Resistence, because by it another Agent is prevented, that it doth not act, and that its Virtue is diminished: And seeing it is not immediately diminish∣ed, but by the Form produced of such an Action, therefore it is called Radical Resi∣stence; and as it proceeds from an Agent, it is Active; but as it produceth an Effect immmediately resisting, it is Active Resi∣stence.

§. 30. Passive Resistence, or actual, is an Accidental Form, whereby the Subject is rendred incapable of receiving another, which is resisted, or whereby the Subject is indispo∣sed to another; and this Resistence consists (saith the same Author ^e) in a certain for∣mal Incompossibility, or Repugnance, from whence it comes, that the Action of a con∣trary

or any way repugnant Agent, is ei∣ther altogether hindred, or retarded, or remitted. And Active Qualities, as Heat and Cold, may as well have this Resist∣ence; as the not Active, as White and Black. From whence it follows, that one Quality can violently resist actively, but not at all formally, as Heat: or on the con∣trary, that another may violently resist for∣mally, not at all actively, as Dryness.

§. 31. But seeing Formal Resistence con∣sists in a Formal Incompossibility or Re∣pugnance; and two contrary Qualities in the same intense Degree, for example, Heat and Cold in the eighth Degree are equally incompossible in the same Subject, it is hard to assign a Cause, whence it comes that one can more resist than another. Yet Suarez ^f brings three Causes, for which it may hap∣pen. The first, is a greater and firmer U∣nion to the Subject, as it happens in things artificial, that some are more hardly part∣ed asunder, because other things cleave to them in form of a stronger Glew. The se∣cond is a greater Inequality in some Condi∣tion requisite to do or suffer, as Density in the Patient, by Reason whereof more Parts are united to resist the Action of the Agent. The third is a greater, or the

greatest Activity, whereby the quality flows from, or is otherwise produced of its Cause; which way, for example, it may be said, that the Moisture of Water resists more than that of Air, because it is produced or flows more efficaciously from the Form of Water than from that of Air. Also two or three of these Causes may be conjoyned, by reason whereof the Resistance may be greater; and besides the Active and For∣mal Resistance may be joyned, and there∣fore the Resistance may yet be more vehe∣ment.

§. 32. From whence it is easily gathered, that the Elemental Qualities, produced in Mans Body by the Supra-elemental, would both actively and formally resist other Con∣traries, which are produced by ordinary intrinsick or extrinsick Agents, Fire, for example, or Snow: And it is evident, that this Formal Resistance would have been much greater than the Formal Resistance of extrinsick active Qualities for the third Cause alleged by Suarez, namely for the exceeding Efficacy, whereby they are pro∣duced of the Qualities of the Wood of Life. Which in the same manner may be said of the Alexipharmack Qualities, which resist Poysonous ones.

§. 33. Therefore the Supra-elemental Qualities, as they most efficaciously produce the Elemental, they resist actively, radical∣ly and mediately: But the Elemental now produced resist formally and immediately other their Elemental Contraries, and can by no means be overcome of them: Be∣cause they are either perpetually produced in Specie by the Qualities of the Wood, which among all Natural Agents are the most efficacious in acting: Or because by their continual and most efficacious Influx they persist in the same, as we said before. But whether their Union or their Inherence to their Subject be greater, it doth not appear: because it appears not whence it should proceed.

§. 34. It is gathered from this Doctrine besides, that the Quality which resists di∣viding things, imparted to the Body by the Wood of Life, doth sufficiently resist them passively or formally only: First, because as Hardness resists Division, or Opacity the Light, so this Quality would resist dividing things. Secondly, because it would resist the dividing Impulse and other Motive Virtues, in the Nature of an indisposition on the part of the Agent, so that they could not produce Motion, as we have pro∣ved

by Example of other Qualities hin∣dring Production of Local Motion, that should be produced by some Motive Qua∣lities.

§. 35. Moreover it is proved before, that those who eat of the Wood of Life, were able to resist actively also, beyond this a∣bovesaid Manner, any extrinsick Causes ma∣king an Impulse, by Qualities actively con∣curring with the Animal Motive Power; by reason whereof they were able to pro∣duce stronger, nay, the strongest Motions, according to what we have said before.

DOUBT VIII. Whether the Cause of the very long Life of the first Men were some other Trees of Pa∣radise or the Tree of Life?

§. 1. PAssing by various Opinions about the long Life of the first Men, I declare I am of Opinion, that the Cause of the very long Life which these first Men injoyed, should be ascribed to the Quali∣ties of other wholesome Trees growing in Paradise, which were either in Fruits to be eaten, or transfused to the ambient Air (whether it were done by Vapors, which exhaled from the said Trees, or by continu∣al Alteration, or both ways) and then they were communicated by Food and Air to the Bodies of our first Parents, and from them again in Seed and Blood to their Children. All which things I endeavour to prove.

§. 2. And in the first place, that there are in Nature Trees and other Plants very Sa∣lutiferous, and which by occult Qualities both cure and prevent many as well mani∣fest as occult Diseases, is a thing most certain.

§. 3. But that such Trees and Plants ought not to be wanting in Paradise, seems

a thing most manifest: For since the Sacred Text declareth, there was every Tree that is pleasant to the Sight and good for Food; the Consequent seems infallible, that the most wholesome was there also; especially seeing those very Trees which are good for Food, and pleasant to the Sight, are like∣wise most wholesome. And we must con∣sequently suppose, that the wholesome Qua∣lities of these Trees excelled all other in the whole World be••ides; even as in Sweetness of Tast, Smell and Sight, and in goodness of Nourishment it was convenient they should surpass all other Trees.

§. 4. It follows therefore, that the Fruits, which our first Parents eat, were endued with such like Qualities: And that the Air, which they inspired, was likewise replenished with wholesome Qualities: And that the very same Qualities remained in the Body of our Parents themselves: for the Medicamentous Qualities of things that are eaten, remain in the Bodies of Animals, as the Virtue of Hellebore in the Body of a Quail.

§. 5. Seeing therefore such Fruits, and the inspired Air were efficacious in produ∣cing those Virtues; it is consequent, that the Virtues themselves must needs be pro∣duced in the Bodies of our first Parents,

and must from thence be communicated in Seed to their Children and Children's Chil∣dren. Wherefore of necessity they must strengthen the Faculties of the living Body, and concur with them to perform most perfect Actions, as Alexipharmacks and A∣mulets. Whence long lasting Health and Life must necessarily follow.

§. 6. All these things are confirmed from the like: For we daily experience, that grievous Diseases are contracted from bad Food, and from bad Air, infected with the rank Vapours of unwholesome Plants, or of neighbouring Lakes, or of nasty Places: We experience Diseases hereditary from Fa∣thers to Children and Children's Children, which is frequently observed in the French Disease, Gout and Falling Sickness, and in many others. What wonder therefore on the contrary, if from wholesome Food, and from very wholesome Air most wholesome Qualities be contracted; which propaga∣ted to Children and Children's Children, may become Causes of most perfect Health and Long Life?

§. 7. Besides, the Vicinity of the Place to Paradise might contribute to Diuturnity of Life: For their Habitation, when driven out, would not be far distant. Wherefore

as the Winds blowing from a wholesome or unwholesome Place render an Habitati∣on wholesome or unwholesome; So those blowing from Paradise, must necessarily with the same Qualities make the neighbouring Country's exceeding wholesome.

§. 8. For Corroboration whereof there comes very opportunely the History of that Indian, most famous among our Por∣tugueze, who lived above three hundred and thirty five years, as do testifie Patres Conimbricenses ^a, our Iohannes de Barros, who may rather be stiled the Lusitanian Livie ^b, and our Didacus de Couto a famous Portugal Historian ^c. Several of our Por∣tugueze at their Return from the East-In∣dies assured me they saw him alive. Nuni∣us à Cunna, when he govern'd India, found him there, and afterwards when Don Iohn de Castro presided Viceroy Anno Domini 1547. he was then alive. And all the Kings of those Parts, before they were sub∣ject to the Kingdom of Portugal, and our Governours and Viceroys afterwards, ap∣pointed an Allowance for the Maintenance of this wonderful Man.

§. 9. His Teeth fell several times, others e're long coming in their room; His Beard, when it was grown all white, as his Age re∣flourished,

grew black again. Some ascribe the Cause of this to certain Fruits, which he found in Ganges, and eat: For at cer∣tain Times after Inundations, rowing up and down Ganges in a Boat, he sought these Fruits, which, as they affirm, are brought with the Waters from Earthly Pa∣radise, from whence this River (as is be∣lieved) derives its Original.

§. 10. But Whether did these Fruits fall from the Tree of Life? It must without doubt be denied. For if God cast out A∣dam, lest he should eat thereof, and com∣manded the Angel to keep the Way with great Vigilance, how would he suffer them to glide down the Floud, that others might eat them? Again, according to the Opini∣on which affirms, that once eating of such Fruit would have been sufficient for eternal Life; it becomes most certain that these Fruits were not of the Tree of Life, since at length he is dead, who eat of them. Wherefore we must rather affirm, they were very wholesom Fruits of some other Trees, whose occult and wonderful Virtues concurring with the Powers of the Animal, kept off mortiferous Causes, and especially Diseases themselves, the same way that A∣lexipharmacks and Amulets, and other Me∣dicines

cure manifest Diseases by occult Vir∣tues; only these Fruits had much more effi∣cacious Vertues, by means whereof the Body of Animals persevered a very long time free from Diseases.

§. 11. But against the abovesaid things some might say, That those most Salutife∣rous Vertues before-mentioned were diffu∣sed through the Air from the Tree of Life, which did render not only Paradise, but all the Neighbouring Country most whole∣some: And there is no need to have Re∣course to the Virtues of other Fruits or Plants. I answer, That probably this might be said; nor would it therefore follow, that the Air was sufficient to impart eterni∣ty of Life; because such Vertues diffused in the Air would either be of a different kind from those which rendred Life eter∣nal; or if they were of the same kind, they had not Intenseness sufficient, as those had which the Fruit eaten afforded.

§. 12. Nevertheless I think it more pro∣bable, they were the Fruits of other Trees. First, Because if the Tree of Life had those Virtues that were sufficient for Eter∣nal Life; it were superfluous to have o∣thers, that made for the Prolongation of Life. And then if we suppose they were

the same, that were able to render Life E∣ternal, but more remiss; it seems, that in a∣ny Degree whatever they would have made it so: For they were of such a Nature and Efficacy, that in any Degree whatever they could easily overcome all other natural A∣gents, even the most violent: And thence it was, we judged before, that one Eating of our first Parents was sufficient, that these Qualities might be diffused with the Seminal Virtue to their Children, their Children's Children, and at length to Uni∣versal Mankind. But of these Opinions e∣very Man may follow that which pleaseth him best.