THE Cure of Old Age, AND Preservation of Youth.  
By ROGER BACON, A Franciscan Friar.  
Translated out of Latin; with Annotations, and an Account of his Life and Writings.  
By Richard Browne, M. L. Coll. Med. Lond.  
ALSO A Physical Account OF THE Tree of Life, BY EDW. MADEIRA ARRAIS.  
Translated likewise out of Latin by the same Hand.  
LONDON, Printed for Tho. Flesher at the Angel and Crown, and Edward Evets at the Green Dragon, in St Paul's Churchyard. 1683.   

THE CURE OF OLD AGE, AND Preservation of Youth.  
SHOWING How to cure and keep off the Accidents of Old Age; and how to preserve the Youth, Strength and Beauty of Body, and the Senses and all the Faculties of both Body and Mind.  
By that great Mathematician and Physician ROGER BACON, A Franciscan Friar.  
Translated out of Latin; with Annotations, and an Account of his Life and Writings.  
By Richard Browne, M. L. Coll. Med. Lond.  
LONDON, Printed for Tho. Flesher at the Angel and Crown, and Edward Evets at the Green Dragon, in St Paul's Churchyard. 1683.   

TO THE READER.  
Reader,  
I Here impart to you the Improvement (or rather the Recovery) of a most useful piece of Knowledge, an Addition to your Days and the Comfort thereof: Wherein, beside the Exact Course of living prescribed by Physicians for above two Thousand Years, you will find both Medicines and a Method whereby to cure all Ails coming through any little deviation from that exact Course, which is so difficult, if not impossible, to be observed. But indeed the most use so small Endeavours towards the Observation of any wholesome Rules, that we may with reason conclude the World is in prosecution of a Course rather how to die than live. Men will close their own Eyes, when, would they but open them to a right Information, they might live more, and more happy days. And you perhaps will maintain, that The whole have no need of a Physician, but they that are sick: But I may rejoin to the Saying, That your Health, I doubt, is in a Pharisaical condition; and when you have read this Book, I doubt not, but you will abate your Opinion. For, beside that Aptitude and Inclination to some Disease, which (though latent to you, yet manifest to a Physician) may be in you, from the very moment of your Nativity, you make every day a considerable step toward Old Age, which is itself a Disease. And now, Sir, how do You? You find no Pain, and think all is well. A Physician seems as useless as a Captain in time of Peace. Indeed when a Disease invades you, the Physicians are commissioned to give Battle to it; but when the Brunt is over, they must quit your Service, whilst You, like supine Men and secure, consider not, that Fortification, a main point in the Art of War, is most properly exercised in Peace, and that it is too late to build the Walls, when the Gate should be shut against the Enemy. Whereas, I am persuaded, were men as careful in preserving their Health, as they are solicitous for the recovery of it, they might often multiply the Sum of their Years, and live the Product without a Disease. And I count it a Piece of Skill in a Physician far surpassing the most admirable Cures, to preserve a Man from all Diseases. Which Hypocrates and Galen, both Men of a weak Constitution by Nature, preserved themselves from by their Art till above an hundred Years of Age. And had not both these great Physicians been more engaged on the Offensive than on the Defensive part; for so many Cures which took up their Endeavours, they might have added as many Years to their own Lives, had they been bend that way. But alas! Health with Virtue, and Diseases with Vices, run parallel. For as Lawgivers have better provided for the Punishment of ●he bad, than for the Encouragement of the good; so Physicians take abundant Care of the Sick, but seldom visit those in Health, whom so to preserve would be the most glorious Act of the Profession. And this is the Task of the first of these Treatises.  
The second considers Man in his Immortal Capacity, and gives a most rational Description of the Tree of Life. I must acknowledge, the vast and general Prospect and Care all of Humane Race have to Futurity beyond confinement, argue to me an innate Option in them of Immortality, which God, when he had commanded Nature to implant, would never in his Goodness have denied, had not Man frustrated himself by his own Folly. Now though I could be willing enough to find out a way to immortalize Flesh and Blood; yet I will neither be so vain, as with Erasistratus to promise such Immortality to myself or others; nor shall I be so bold as to encounter for it with the Flaming Sword: The term of my Hopes is, by a lawful course of Nature to obtain a Reprieve of the deserved Sentence passed by our offended God, at least by Temperance and Medicines to avoid many Troubles, till it shall please him to sign the Execution. This Treatise may serve as a Theory to the preceding Practice, and to illustrate on what Principles the former proceeds. For as a Corollary it assigns very probable Reasons for the great Age of the Antediluvians. And since the Tree of Life is not itself attainable, a Quid pro Quo to prolong our Lives, which we cannot perpetuate, may be of good Use.  
The Author of the first Treatise was our own Countryman, of whose Life I next give you some Account.  
The second was writ by a Foreigner, of whom also in its place I give you what I know. But their Books bespeak best the Author's Worth; I therefore recommend the Perusal of them to your Consideration.  
As for the Commentator, he hopes, his publishing so useful (but intricate) an Author, may atone for what is said besides.  
Richard Browne.   

THE LIFE OF Roger Bacon.  
ROger Bacon was born near Ilchester of a Gentleman's Family. He studied in his younger Years Grammar and Logic at Oxford, and gave good Hopes what he would prove, by the incredible Progress he made therein in a short Time. He, thus improved, applied himself to Philosophy and the Search of Nature's Secrets, and made good Progress under his Tutors, whereof Edmund Archbishop of Canterbury was one. Having got a good stock here, he and several other Learned Men in his Company traveled to Paris, which was then a la mode at Oxford. Some say, that at his Return, through the Persuasion of Robert Grosthead he became a Franciscan Friar in a Convent at Oxford; others say, that he was a Friar before he went to France.  
He laid aside all Ambition and Covetousness, and applied himself to the diligent Search of Nature, and the Knowledge of Tongues and Arts. He was intimate with a great many Learned Men, and some Rich: For when he had cast with himself, what Instruments he wanted for making of Experiments, he found, without a better Purse he could do nothing. But his Credit and some men's Generosity was so good, that he in twenty Years time expended in Books of Curiosities and in making natural Experiments above two Thousand Pounds, a vast Sum of Money in those days. He was of that Noble and Public Spirit, that he not only freely imparted all his Secrets, but was overjoyed, when he light on a Man that was but of any Capacity to understand him. He either followed or rather invented such a Method in his Studies, as by it he discovered unknown things in Nature, and did such Wonders, that not only the Vulgar, but even some Learned Men thought him a Conjurer. Some report he made a Brazen Head that spoke, and think he did it by the help of the Devil. But Albertus Magnus did the same, and Boëthius the like, without any other Magic than Natural. For Cassiodorus writes thus to Boëthius: Tuae artis Ingenio metalla mugiunt, Diomedes in aere gravius buccinatur, aeneus Anguis insibilat, Aves simulatae sunt: Et quae vocem propriam nesciunt habere, dulcedinem Cantilenae probantur emittere. i e. By the Ingenuity of your Art, Metals roar, Diomedes in Brass sounds a hollow Charge, the Brazen Serpent hisseth, Birds are counterfeited: And things that have no Voice of their own, are made to sing melodiously. And well might so learned a Man as Bacon be then taken for a Magician; when in the Dawning of our more learned Day Reuchlin for his skill in the Hebrew, and Budaeus in the Greek Tongue, were looked upon by the unlearned silly Monks to be Conjurers.  
But such was the stupid Ingratitude of Bacon's Age, that it almost repent this Learned Man of his Knowledge: For his own Order would scarce admit his Books into their Libraries. And great was this poor Man's unhappiness: For being accused of Magic and Heresy, and appealing to Pope Nicolas the fourth, the Pope liked not his Learning, and by his Authority kept him close Prisoner a great many Years. Some say at last through the Mediation of some great Men he obtained his Liberty. Others say he died in Prison, either through Grief, or his hard Usage. However it was, he died in the Seventy eighth Year of his Age, Ann. Dom. 1292. and was buried in the Franciscan's Church in Oxford. Thus did the gross Ignorance and Malice of those Times prevent this knowing Man in making the greatest of his Experiments, i. e. in extending the Period of his Days as far beyond the common Age of Man, as in Knowledge he surpassed the common Standard; an eternal Monument whereof this present Treatise will be.  
He wrote a great many Books on divers Subjects in Divinity, Physic, Optics and Philosophy, wherein he discovered many Secrets. He published a Latin, Greek and Hebrew Grammar, and wrote much in Chemistry, Cosmography, Music, Astronomy, Astrology, Metaphysics, Logic, and Moral Philosophy. He proposed the Emendation of the julian Calendar to Pope Clement the fourth; Middleburgensis used Bacon's Arguments to Pope Leo the tenth: And Copernicus by the help of Middleburgensis rectified it for the Council of Trent, the ninth Year of Gregory the thirteenth, Ann. Dom. 1581.  
He was the greatest Critic of his Age, and complained lamentably of the Ignorance of his Cotemporaries: For he saith, that there were some saucy Youngsters, who were then created sine Arte ulla Artium Magistri, and sine Doctrina Doctores; amongst whom Ego currit was Grammatical Latin current, and Contradictoria possunt esse simul vera true Logic. And he spared neither the Ignorance nor the ill Lives of the Clergy, no wonder than he was so ill treated by them. He highly condemned the Divinity Lectures of his Time, as spoiled by the bad words and worse Sense of the Civil Lawyers, and complains that not a Man in England besides Grosthead, and two or three more of his acquaintance understood the Hebrew or Greek Tongues; and that he could not meet with one good Translation of the Scriptures.  
But since he had discovered them to be no Witches, they would prove him to be one. And it seems on some malicious Pretence they took from him his Books and Writings long before Pope Nicolas cast him in Prison; whereupon he complained in these words to the preceding Pope Clement the fourth, who was his friend. Praelati enim & Fratres, me jejuniis macerantes tutò custodiebant, nec aliquem ad me venire voluerunt, veriti ne scripta mea aliis, quàm Summo Pontifici & sibi ipsis pervenirent. For the Prelates and Friars have kept me starving in close Prison, nor would they suffer any one to come at me, fearing lest my Writings should come to any other than the Pope and themselves.  
Now the true Reason of his great Misfortune was this. He had been intimate with that Learned Prelate and true English man Robert Grosthead, Bishop of Lincoln. This Bishop observing the Pope's Tyranny in England (for he lived in King John's time who acknowledged this Crown feudatory to the Pope) forbore not to admonish that Romish Tyrant by Letters openly, and to declare to his Friends, that the Pope was Antichrist. The Pope excommunicates the Bishop, he appeals from the Pope's to Christ's Tribunal, and dies about two Years after. Now Bacon knowing all this as well as the Bishop, was, very like, much of Grostheads Opinion: This than was the Heresy, this the casting of that Figure which made him guilty of Witchcraft.  
Many of Bacon's Works, and of Grosthead's also, curiously written and well bound, were by some ignorant Men, that would be accounted Scholars when they could not understand them, condemned for Books of the Black Art; and so fastened with long Nails to the Board's, they either became Food for Worms and Moths, or rotten with Mould and Dust. Leland saith he wrote many Books, but that it is more easy to make a Collection of Sibylla's Leaves, than to get but the Titles of all his Books.  
He complained much of the Neglect of Chemistry and Philosophy in his days. In his Book De utilitate Scientiarum he writes thus. But by this means Philosophy not only became suspected, as if it hindered the Faith of Christ; but was condemned by the justice of those Laws, that were for the Defence of the Commonwealth from the contrary Opinion. It seemed, by foretelling things to come, by discovering Secrets for the time being, and by wonderful Work's above the power of Nature and Art as they work commonly, to contend with the Preachers of the Faith, whose Property it was, not by Nature and Art, but by the Power of God to give out their Philosophy of future things, to produce Secrets and raise Miracles: For, that the Power of Philosophy can do wonderful things, such as the common sort not only of Laics, but of the Clergy, will reckon for Miracles, the things following will declare, etc.  
But that we may give to God the things that are Gods, as well as to his Handmaid hers; the Words of Steuchus are considerable. How the Visions of the Prophets are made, He knows, who is Lord of the Prophets● I think some Angel used to appear to them and inform them of things to come, not that they foresaw things future by any Conception, ●ut when the Angel spoke, they beheld the Secrets of Futurity. Also the Foreknowledge of future things was another way, when the Representation of the things were seen present, as the burning or Destruction of some City. For the thing exhibited itself to their Minds after some Divine way, as Moses' Rod was turned to a Serpent, and the ultimate Cause of these things is God, who can do these and greater things. There are five sorts of Prophecy. 1. By Vi●ion, when we see a thing by Visions. 2. In a Dream, which may also be by Vision. 3. In a Riddle, as when Ezechiel and John eat the Book. 4. By Figures, i. e. When we see Armies, Dances, Shows, or any other very remarkable thing. All these Ways are made by the Resolution of the Body, whether Sleeping or Waking, when the Sense of all terrene things is taken away; so that we neither see with our Eyes, nor hear, nor touch, and the whole mind is rapt to tho●e Visions. Therefore the last is the best kind, which is not made by Resolution, but is a Speaking with God, the state of the Body being not at all changed; which I think happens but to few. And this is that kind of Prophecy, wherein God bespeaks the Holy Angels and Archangels. For all Correspondence with God, all Familiarity, all Speaking with him is called Prophecy. Therefore the Holy Angels do draw all knowledge of future things from that Eternal Wisdom, because of their continual Presence, Divine Familiarity, and most Sacred Friendship with God. Of which thing he made Moses partaker, of a thing truly admirable, and desirable far above all Riches, in w●ich (I think) Divine and unheard of Pleasures must consist. Now if we desire to mount thither, to make ourselves like the Angels, no Stain in our Souls, no Deceit, no Cheats, no Wickedness must appear. In which things the purer any Man is, the nearer will he be admitted to those eternal Pleasures.  
And yet we find this Man, who spoke thus with God mouth to mouth, apparently, and not in dark speeches, he that beheld the Similitude of the Lord, was learned in all the Wisdom of the Egyptians, which was Astrology, Physic, and Natural Magic. So that in the Law of Moses we may observe much of Astronomy and Physic. And it is no Diminution but rather an Advancement of God's Glory to be versed in the Works of his Hands, since the greatest Prophet, a familiar Friend of God, was so great a Naturalist. So great that he was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural Force abated. And let no Man object, It was Miraculous. His Death indeed was such: For the Lord said unto Moses, Behold, thy days approach, that thou must die; even when these vivacious Symptoms argued the contrary. But the Length of his Life and Vigour of his Old Age, was (I judge) an effect of his Skill in Nature, and no more miraculous; than the many Centuries, which the Antediluvians lived.  
Now all the Books Bacon writ, I believe are not in Being; and what do Survive the injury of Time, are difficult to be procured. For they lie hid in Manuscript, and either through the Envy or Ignorance of the Owners are suppressed. Whoever therefore would merit from the Learned Republic, let him rescue the Offspring of so great a Citizen as Roger Bacon from hostile Oblivion, where he finds one yielding to it, and he can not want a literary Mark of Honour. Nor let any Profession hold himself excused: For this Learned Man being Master of the whole Encyclopaedia, he was able by one Faculty to correct another, and so to write excellently in all. That therefore you may the better be enabled to know his Works, I shall give you the Titles of many of his Books, as Johannes Balaeus, de Scriptoribus Angliae, hath transmitted them to us. This choicest and most useful of all his Pieces de retardandis Senectutis malis, Quem nec poterit ferrum, nec edax abolere vetustas, I have made English, that o'er legate populus, pérque omnia secula vivat. This Book Bale mentions amongst these following.  

De Visu & Speculis, lib. 1. (sic incip.)  
De Speculorum miraculis volente Deo.  
De utilitate Astronomiae, li●. 1.  
Post locorum Descriptionem debent.  
Introductionem in Astrologiam, lib. 1.  
Fusius quidem dictum de Astron.  
Descriptiones locorum Mundi, lib. 1.  
Ad haec autem quod certius & pla.  
De Philosophorum Lapide, lib. 1.  
De multiplicatione Specierum, lib. 1.  
Primum capitulum circa influentiam.  
Perspectivam quandam singularum, lib. 1.  
Hic aliqua dicenda sunt de perspe.  
Perspectivam distinctam, lib. 3.  
Propositis radicibus Sapientiae tam.  
Artem experimentalem, lib. 1.  
Positis fundamentis primis &.  
De Prolongatione Vitae, lib. 1.  
Communia naturalis Philosophiae, lib. 4.  
Postquam tradidi Grammaticam secund.  
Computum Naturalium, lib. 1.  
Omnia tempus habent suum, juxta.  
De morali Philosophia, lib. 1.  
Manifestavi in praecedentibus loc.  
Logicam quandam, lib. 1.  
Introductio est brevis & aperta.  
Antidotarium vitae humanae, lib. 1.  
In posteriora Aristotelis, lib. 2.  
Dictum est de Syllogismo in univer.  
De operibus naturae occultis, lib. 1.  
Superius quidem dictum est, quid.  
De Coelo & Mundo, lib. 2.  
Prima igitur veritas circa cor.  
Leges Multiplicationum, lib. 1.  
Expletis quatuor partibus terti.  
Cosmographiam, lib. 1.  
De forma resultante in Speculo, lib. 1.  
Quaeritur de forma resultante in.  
De perspectiva continua, lib. 1.  
Cupiens te & alios sapientiores.  
De fluxu, & refluxu Maris, lib. 1.  
Descriptis his figuris circa modum.  
De fluxu Maris Britannici, lib. 1.  
Visis effectibus illis, qui ex.  
De Regionibus Mundi, lib. 1.  
Summam Grammaticalem, lib. 1.  
Oratio Grammatica aut fit medium.  
De constructione Partium, lib. 1.  
Ad completam cognitionem construc.  
De valour Musices, lib. 1.  
Secundum Boetium & caeteros Authores.  
De gradibus Medicinalibus, lib. 1.  
Omnis forma inhaerens recipit intens.  
De ponderibus, lib. 1.  
De universali regimine Senum, lib. 1.  
Summa regiminis universalis est haec.  
De erroribus Medicorum, lib. 1.  
Vulgus Medicorum non cognoscit.  
De vigore Artis & Naturae, lib. 1.  
Vestrae petitioni respondeo, quemadmodum.  
De Regibus Mundi, lib. 1.  
Compendium Studii Theologici, lib. 5.  
Quoniam autem in omnibus causis.  
Ad Clementem FOUR Rom. Pontificem, lib. 1.  
Sanctissimo patri Domino Clementi.  
Laudes Mathematicae Artis, lib. 1.  
Post hanc Scientiam experimentalem.  
Speculum Alchimiae, lib. 1.  
Multifariam multisque modis loquens.  
De radiis Solaribus, lib. 1.  
De utilitate linguarum, lib. 1.  
Multae praeclarae radices ex manif.  
Pro conservatione Sensuum, lib. 1.  
Cogito & cogitavi ab initiis primorum.  
De locis Stellarum, lib. 1.  
Quoniam infinitum est discernere.  
De Secretis, lib. 1.  
Interrogatione tuae respondere consti.  
De aspectibus Lunae, lib. 1.  
Rogerinam majorem, lib. 1.  
Sicut ab antiquis & caet.  
Rogerinam minorem, lib. 1.  
Humana Natura, & caet.  
De Geometria, lib. 1.  
Grammaticam Hebraicam, lib. 1.  
Grammaticam Graecam, lib. 1.  
De causis ignorantiae humanae, lib. 1.  
De Materia prima, lib. 1.  
De septem experimentis, lib. 1.  
De Passionibus animae, lib. 1.  
De Speculis ustoriis, lib. 1.  
De Intellectu & Intelligibili, lib. 2.  
De Somno & Vigilia, lib. 2.  
De Metaphysica, lib. 1.  
De utilitate Scientiarum, lib. 11.  
Contra Necromanticos, lib. 1.  
In opera Virgilii, lib. plu.  
De Speciebus, lib. 1.  
De copiae vel inopiae Causis, lib. 1.  
Documenta Alchimiae, lib. 1.  
De coloribus per artem fiendis, lib. 1.  
De Sculpturis lapidum, lib. 1.  
De universalibus, lib. 1  
De Centris gravium, lib. 1.  
Parabolas de Quadratura, lib. 1.  
In Avicennam de Anima, lib. 1.  
Venti novem districtiones, lib. 1.  
De rebus metallicis, lib. 1.  
De impedimentis Sapientiae, lib. 1.  
Commentarios Sententiarum, lib. 4.  
De arte memorativa, lib. 1.  
Prognostica ex Syderum cursu, lib. 1.  
De planis, lib. 1.  
De situ Palaestinae, lib. 1.  
De locis Sacris, lib. 1.  
De Miraculis rerum, lib. 1.  
Ad Epistolam Bonaventurae, lib. 1.   
Et alia adhuc plura.  
The Greek and Latin Physicians, which Bacon makes use of, are so well known, nothing need be said of them; But because the Arabian Physicians, whom he often quotes, are more strangers to us, I shall give you a very brief account of them, to let you see our Author was not conversant with mean ones.  

Isaac Beimiram, the Son of Solomon the Physician. He flourished about the Year of Christ 1070. After Johannes Serapio's time. He writ much in Physic, as of Fevers, of Urine, of Diet, of the Stomach, beside several Tracts in Philosophy.  
Hali Abbas, Scholar of Abimeher Moses the Son of Sejar. He writ a Treatise de Regali Dispositione in Twenty Books, translated by Stephen his Scholar in Antioch● out of Arabic into Latin. An. Dom. 1127.  
Avicenna, sometime called Abohali, was of Sevil in Spain, a very Learned Man, and a great Physician. He writ much in Physic and Chemistry.  
Averro was a Physician of Corduba, surnamed the Commentator, an excellent Philosopher, but a Mahometan. He flourished Anno Dom. 1149.  
Rasy, Rasis, or Razes, an Arabian Physician, sometimes called Almansor. He is sometime called Albubetri Arazi filius Zachariae Rhazae experimentatoris.  
Johannes Damascenus the Son of Mesues writ much de re Medica. He flourished Anno Dom. 1158.    

THE TABLE.  

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  Aromatic Medicines 
74  Arsenic 
79  Artefius 
65  Aurum fulminans 
91    

B  
BAlm 
125  Baths 
85, 141  Beef 
139, 151  Beer 
112  Bezoardicum Solare 
156  Birds 
139  Bleareyedness 
32  Blood, 
 how moved 
128  Blood-letting 
78, 142  Bole Armenick 
28  Borage 
97  Boiling 
127, 131  of Pheasants 
151  Brandy 
112  Bread 
54, 127, 139, 149  Breathing 
 shortness of it 
33    

C  
CAEsar 
71  Calves 
139  Camphire 
79, 81  Catiline 
133  Causes 
 six not natural 
12  their proportion hard to be found 
13  Chaldaean Wise Men 
61  Cheerfulness 
129  Cheese 
140  Chickens 
149  Choler 
133  Christmas Rose 
92  Circle, 
●  its Quadrature 
66  Citrul seed 
84  Cleannesses 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    

D  
DAniel 
132  David 
109  Diacyminum 
139  Diet, 
 negligence therein 
7, 14  Digestive Power in every Member 
25, 26  Dill 
79  Dinner 
140  Discourse 
128  Dragon 
113  Dropsies 
139  Drunkenness 
79  Dwelling 
ibid.    

E  
EGgs 
54  Elder Water 
79  Excoriation 
116, 145  Exercise 
141, 142  Experiment 
9    

F  
FAculties, 
 weakness thereof 
35  their seat 
50, 51, 52  Ferrum fulminans 
91  Figs 
140  Fish 
54, 78, 141  Flesh 
54  Forced Ground 
67  French Physician 
153  Fruit 
78    

G  
GAmes 
128  Garlic 
128, 140  Geese 
150  Germane Lady 
118  Goats 
151  Gold 
21, 70, 76, 87, 156  Grapes 
140  Greeks, 
 their knowledge 
62  Grewel 
78  Greyness 
23    

H  
HEat, 
 natural how diminished. 
2  causes of its diminution 
3  its seat 
6, 10  Hellebore 
85  Honey 
79    

I  
JAundice 
129  Ignorance 
1  Imagination 
48  Incontinence 
103, 111  Indicantia 
95  Indigestion, 
 how cured 
143  Infection 
1  of the Skin 
129  Iron 
87, 91    

K  
Kid's 
139, 149, 150    

L  
LAmb 
139, 150  Laughter 
80, 81  Lessius 
67  Lice 
116, 145  Life 
 long its causes 
62  its abbreviation 
63  its Term 
65, 66  Lignum Aloes 
●1    

M  
MArle 
58  Meat and Drink 
53  from Animals and Vegetables 
ibid.  causing Old Age 
78  Medea 
68  Medicines, 
 why used by the Ancients 
●4  not to be used without diet 
ibid.  when of no use 
ibid.  outward why invented 
27  when to be used 
28  secret their use 
143, 144  chargeable 
ibid.  Melons 
140, 152  Memory 
47  Milk 
78, 80  Miracles 
94  Moisture, 
 external 
3  internal 
5, 6  natural 
2  extraneous 
ibid.  natural what and where it is 
6, 10  things that defend it 
69, 70  Moist herbs 
78  Monks 
 their imposture 
93  Moonwort 
97, 98  Mountebanks 
21, 122  Mulberries 
140, 152  Mushrooms 
ibid.  Music 
128  Mustard 
140  Myrobalans 
79, 84    

N  
NAstiness 
39  Negligence 
1  Nutritives 
55  Nuts 
140    

O  
OBscurity, 
 why used by the Author 
16  Old Age 
 its causes 
1, 2, 3, 4, etc.  what things refresh and recreate it, and hinder its Accidents 
82  Old men, 
 how purged 
83  how revived 
111, 112  their meat 
139  Onions 
140  Ordering one's way of living 
11  Orvietan 
122  Oil of Elder 
79  Oils 
95, 96, 124, 125, 126  Ointments 
ibid.    

P  
PAleness 
31  Partridge 
139  Passions 
128  Patriarches, 
 their Lives 
7  Peach Tree 
26, 29  Pepper 
128  Perl 
ibid.  Pheasants 
139, 151  Phlegm 
4, 32, 82  its causes 
4  Pilulae de Mastiche 
82  Pitch 
125  Plague 
41  Plants, 
 their kind 
60  Plucking off the hair 
79  Pope 
20  Preservatives of Youth 
95  Properties of things 
11  Pullet's 
139  Pulse 
127, 132, 133  Purging, 
61  when necessary 
27  when hurtful 
84  Putrefaction, 
 how hindered 
146    

Q  
QVacks 
22, 91  Quicksilver 
79  Quintessence of Man's Blood 
108    

R  
RAisins 
140  Refreshment speedy 
78  Regiment 
64  of the Author how different from that of the Ancients 
136  Renovation of Man 
61  Restoratives 
99  Roses 
89  Rosemary 
92  Rose of Jericho or S. Mary a cheat 
92, 93, 94  Rose-water 
79  Ruddiness of Skin 
126  Rue 
83, 90    

S  
SAffron 
75, 128  Sage 
146  Sapphire 
108  Sapph 
151  Scabs 
145  Scarification 
61  Secret, 
 concealed by our first Parents 
17  Secrecy 
153, 154  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 Celtic 
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  
Taste 
●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    

V  
Vapours 
38  Veal 
150  Vegetables 
56  Venus 
78, 102  Viper 
21  its preparation 
114, 1●5  its property 
115, 116  when and how to be taken 
117, 118  its number of teeth, description, conception and birth 
120, 121  Virgin 
99, 100, 101, 109, 110, 111  Virtue 
 may be separated from its body 
17, 18  Unction 
61  Understanding, 
 when rational 
40  usefulness of the Treatise 
134    

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  Words 
140    

X  
XYloaloe 
145    

Y  
YOuth, 
 how preserved 
95  how recovered 
ibid.     

THE CURE OF Old Age, etc.  

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 because of the great Increase of living 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 Living, 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, gins to diminish, and its Diminution and Intemperature doth more and more hasten on. Whence, the Heat by little and little decreasing, 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 swift Course, which hurries a Man from Manhood 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 decrepit 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 Moisture, and is extinguished by external and strange moistness, which flows from weakness of Digestion, as Avicenna in his first Book, in his Chapter Of Complexions, affirms.  
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 Natural happens from two Causes: 

One whereof is the circumambient Air, which dries up the Matter: And the Innate Heat, which is inward, very much helps towards the same: For it is the Cause of extinguishing itself, by reason it consumes the matter, wherein it subsists; as the Flame of a Lamp is extinguished, when the Oil, 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 imperfections that invade it. Now    
The Motions of the Mind are called Animal, when the Soul especially is exercised:  
The Motions of the Body are, when our Bodies are tossed and stirred of necessary 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 Phlegmatic, whereof I shall discourse 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 Generation of unnatural and natural Moisture, which when it is good breeds good Moisture, when bad a bad one, as Avicenna saith in his fourth Canon of his Chapter Of things which hinder grey Hairs. For from wholesome Food, ill digested, an evil Humour doth flow; and of poisonous 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 choking 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 intemperature of Body; so that this sort of external Moisture increasing, and the Native Moisture being either changed in Qualities, or decayed in Quantity, Man grows old, either 

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 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 Fuel of Heat: and that being hurt, the force and edge of the Heat is made dull. The Heat being cooled, the Digestive Virtue is weakened; 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 deprived of their Nourishment, do languish, whither and die, because they are not nourished. So Isaac in his Book Of Fevers in the Chapter Of the Consumption doth teach.    
But it may be queried, What this Moisture is, and in what place it is seated, whereby the Natural Heat is nourished, and which is its Fuel? 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 Hectic. But there are Moistures of divers kinds in the Members which are prepared for Nourishing, 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 Hectic. Whence perhaps the Wise do understand, that all these Moistures are Fuel 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 Medicines, such as Anointings and Bathe.  

NOTES on CHAP. I.  
ᵃ This Year 1682. with the Astrologers is celebrated the Climacterick grand Conjunction of the highest Planets. And Divines after St. Peter's Chronology do reckon that the Sabbatical Millenary is not far off; nor without great reason. For if Moral Symptoms, such as Nation's rising against Nation, Divisions in Families and between Friends, do portend the last days, we must conclude the World in its testy old Age, and that that day, the Angels in Heaven, no nor the Son of Man himself, knew not of, is coming on.  
ᵇ The Lives of the Patriarches before the Flood were almost a thousand Years. Near the Flood men lived but about Ten pro Cent. to what they did before. And David in his time allowed, a strong Man might make a shift to creep to fourscore. Yet I concur with the Author, that in those Scripture-Instances, as also in our own Case not so much the decay of Universal Nature, as the good Pleasure of her God is seen in permitting Men, for the Reasons assigned by the Author, to be cut short in their lives.  
ᶜ This Negligence is most perceived in our Diet: for it is impossible good Blood or Humours should be bred, when we heap Dish upon Dish, Sauce upon Sauce, Fruit upon Fruit, Raw upon Roast, Roast upon Raw, Baked upon Boiled, Boiled upon Baked, Sour upon Sweet, and Soft upon Hard. Horace l. 2. Satyr. 2. in the Roman Luxury lasheth this fault in all others.  

— nam variae res  
Ut noceant homini, credas, memor illius escae,  
Quae simplex olim tibi sederit, at simul assis  
Miscueris elixa, simul conchylia turdis,  
Dulcia se in bilem vertent, stomachóque tumul●tum  
Lenta feret pituita. Vides ut pallidus omnis  
Coenâ desurgit dubiâ? quin corpus onustum  
Hesternis vitiis animum quoque praegravat unà,  
Atque affigit humo divinae particulam aurae.   

— For you know,  
Much harm to us from various Meats doth flow.  
Think on that only Dish, which was your Fare,  
How blithe and healthy after it you were:  
But when men fell to mingling Roast and Boiled,  
And Fish and Fowl together, Health was spoiled.  
The Sweet Meats turned to Choler & tough Phlegm  
Bred a disturbance in the Maws of them:  
Observe, how pale and sick a Man doth rise  
From Board, confounded with varieties?  
Nay, when the Body's overcharged, the Mind  
Is also in the Discomposure joined,  
And on the ground inhumanely does roll  
That part of Heavenly Breath, the precious Soul.   
ᵈ We that believe the Holy Scriptures know, that God first planted all Plants, and made all Living Creatures: For before Man was made, all Plants, Shrubs and Trees sprung out of the Earth, endowed with their genuine Virtues and Faculties, every way complete by the sole power of God's Word. Which things when God had brought to the first Man Adam, to see what he would call them; Adam out of that unspeakable Wisdom and Knowledge in the Nature of things, which God had given him, gave them Names, and whatsoever Adam called every thing, that was the Name thereof. Now God that made the Properties of things, invented them, and communicated of his own knowledge to his Image, Man. And notwithstanding that by Man's transgressing God's Command, he lost his Original Righteousness, and impaired his Wisdom; yet it is evident he retained the knowledge of the Virtues of things. For otherwise how could he in the sweat of his face eat his Bread, if he knew not what to make it of? And whereas God allotted him the Herb of the Field for his Food, he must of necessity know the Virtues of Herbs, else he might for his repast eat his mortal bane. So with the Knowledge of his Evil he had this Good left him.  
But with his Posterity it fared worse. Their Infant-Knowledge only aped their Fathers, and had no connate Ideas of the Virtues of things: But took all upon the Word of Tradition or some Empirical Experiment. And since we cannot derive the Pedigree of our Knowledge so high as Solomon (whose Inspired Herbal, could it be found, might be a good Succedaneum to Adam's Onomasticon) we find ourselves very far from reading it on Seth's Pillars: Only with astonished Ignorance we may see its Epitaph in Confusion on the Plains of Shinar. For we are more wise in Tongues than Things, and are a sort of Philologick Philosophers, whose Knowledge is Various Readins. And so no wonder if our skill fail us.  
ᵉ Roger Bacon in his Perspectives, Dist. 1. Cap. 5. speaks thus. But that all doubting may be removed, it ought to be considered that the Sensitive Soul hath a double Instrument, or Subject: One is Radical and Fontal, and this is the Heart, according to Aristotle and Avicenna in his Book Of the Soul. Another is that which is first changed by the Species of Sensibles, and wherein the Operations of the Senses are more manifested and distinguished; and this is the Brain. For when the Head is hurt, there happens a manifest Hurt of the Sensitive Powers; and the Hurt of the Head is more manifest to us than that of the Heart, and therefore according to the more manifest Consideration we shall place the Sensitive Powers in the Head: And this is the Opinion of Physicians, not considering that the Fontal Original of the Powers is from the Heart. But Avicenna in his first Book Of the Art of Physic saith, that although to Sense the Opinion of Physicians be more manifest: Yet the Opinion of the Philosopher is truer; for all the Nerves, and Veins, and Powers of the Soul arise first and principally from the Heart, as Aristotle in his Twelf●h Book Of Animals demonstrates, and Avicenna in his Third Of Animals doth show.    

CHAP. II. Of Remedies against the Causes of Old Age.  
HItherto we have discoursed of the Causes of Old Age: Now we must speak of the Remedies which hinder them, and after what manner they may be hindered.  
Wise Physicians have laid down two ways of opposing these Causes:  
One is the Ordering of a man's way of living:  
The other is the Knowledge of those Properties, that are in certain things, which the Ancients have kept secret.  
Avicenna teacheth the Ordering of Life, who laying down, as it were, the Art of Guarding Old Age, ordereth that all Putrefaction be carefully kept off, and that the Native Moisture be diligently preserved from Dissolution and Change, namely, 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 another.  
For one is the Beginning, the other the End: One gins, the other makes up the Defect thereof; but each brings great assistance to the turning away of these Evils. By one Way alone the Doctrine of the Ancients will not be completed: By the Knowledge of each both our Endeavours and theirs may be perfected.  
The Doctrine of soberly ordering one's 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 persuade, 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 Proportion 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 Understanding is more subtle in Operation, so that the true proportioning of these Causes seems impossible, unless in Bodies of a better Nature, such as now are rarely found.  
But Medicines obscurely laid down by the Ancients, and as it were concealed, whereof Dioscorides speaks, do make up these Defects and Proportions. For who can avoid the Air infected with putrid Vapours 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 moment, and the Accidents of the Mind, so that they shall neither exceed nor fall short? Therefore it was necessary that the Ancients should make use of Medicines, which might in some measure preserve the Body from Alteration, and defend the Health of Man ofttimes hurt and afflicted with these things and Causes, lest the Body utterly eaten up of Diseases should fall to ruin.  
Now for the benefit of your ᵇ Excellency I have gathered some things out of the Books of the Ancients, whose Virtue and Use may avert those Inconveniences, this Defect and Weakness; may defend the Temper of the Innate Moisture; may hinder 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 Medicines 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 Physic? Wherefore the Physicians and Wise men of old time were of opinion, That Diet without Physic sometimes did good, but that Physic 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 hindered partly 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 tried 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 Bowels 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 Noble Animal.  
The Sixth comes out of the ʰ long-lived 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: Because 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 Poison 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 Virtue and Property, therein he hath also placed an Hurt, to be as it were the Guard of the thing itself. For as he would not have his Secrets known of all, lest Men should contemn them; so he would not have all Men be Adepti, lest they should abuse their Power. As is manifest in the Serpent, Hellebore and Gold. From which no man can fetch any noble or sublime Operation, unless he be wise, skilful, and have of a long time experienced them.  
Besides, wheresoever GOD hath placed such as unspeakable Virtue, he hath added a certain Similitude, that every Man, who is of a clear and vivacious Wit and Understanding, 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 Corruption.  
For that preserves another thing which is long preserved itself, and that corrupts another thing which is quickly corrupted itself, and it acts that thing, according to whose Similitude it is denominated, or like as it is form: And this is a Secret which our ˡ First Parents wholly kept secret, and to these our very times still remains secret.  
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 Animals.  
From some it cannot be separated, as from all those things that are of a thick Substance, as Metals; and what things soever are of the kind of Stones, as Coral, Jacinths, and the like. And these are to be subtly 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 judgement of Medicines that are out●wardly applied.  
But this Powdering cannot be made in Metals, except by Burning. Which Avicenna affirms in his Chapter Of the Lepros● concerning the Preparation of Gold an● Silver; and in his fifth Canon, where Consectio Hyacinthi is shown.  
But certain other Men have given Rule● how to dissolve Medicines of thick Substance, as Aristotle saith, according to Isa●● in his Degrees, in his Canon Of Perl, speaking thus: I have seen certain Men dissolv● Perl, with the Juice and Liquor where●● Morphews being washed, were fully oared and made whole.  
But in Medicines which are mixed to the● Plants and Animals, a Separation of th● Virtue from the Body itself may be made● And their Virtue and Matter will opera●● stronger and better alone, than joined 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 Instruments of the Senses, so as it may be able to refresh them, and destroy the superfluous Moisture, and penetrate to the Members of the fourth Concoction, that it may strengthen the digestive Power of the Flesh and Skin.  
From the Weakness whereof certain Accidents of Old Age do proceed; as is manifest 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 Virtue 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 complete its Operation, while it does not tyre the Natural Heat.  
And Galen agrees with this, as Isaac testifies in his Canon Of the Leprosy, saying, I never saw a man so infected cured, but one that drank of Wine, wherein a Viper had fallen.  
And johannes Damascenus in his Aphorisms: 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 Physic which should pass to the third Digestion, should be greedily received, according to some, with a thing of easy Assimilation, such as Milk and the Broth of a Pullet.  

NOTES on CHAP. II.  
ᵃ These six Causes are called by Physicians Sex Non-naturalia. They are, 1. The Air, 2. Meat and Drink. 3. Motion and Rest. 4. Sleep and Watching. 5. Excretion and Retention. 6. The Passions of the Mind.  
ᵇ The Learned are of opinion, that this Book was written by our ingenious Author to Pope Nicolas the Fourth, to atone his enraged and angry Mind. For this Pope kept him in Prison some Years.  
ᶜ Gold.  
ᵈ Coral.  
ᵉ The Viper.  
ᶠ Rosemary.  
ᵍ See the twelfth Chapter.  
ʰ The Bone of a Stag's Heart.  
ⁱ Lignum Aloes.  
ᵏ Here our incomparably learned Author, whether he gives greater encouragement to true Physicians and Chemists, or Discouragement to Mountebanks and ignorant knavish Chymicasters', is hard to conclude. For who greater Violators of the Divine Law, and more Enemies to Mankind, than cheating Cutthroats, that by their pretended Secrets and their Universal Remedies bring an Epidemic Calamity on the deluded Multitude? Or whose Wit and Parts more useful than his, that can with the Great Mithridates make the strongest Antidote out of the rankest Poison; or with our Author get that Wisdom, in whose lest hand are Riches, and in her right hand length of Days?  
ˡ Our First Father Adam in the state of Innocence had the absolute knowledge of things natural, and gave to every thing its proper Name expressing its inward Nature: But this natural Magic of knowing the Virtue by the Signature, is by our Author lamented as from the beginning to his Time behind the Curtain. Yet it hath been cultivated by some since, so that by comparing the Uses of most Simples with their Physiognomick Lineaments, you would conclude God and Nature had designed these for Tokens of their Specific Virtues, and admirable Uses. And the Earth is such a Storehouse, that were but the Virtues of all its Stores known, nothing would be impossible to the Intelligent.  
ᵐ Here is a Pharmaceutice Rationalis so well grounded both as to the Preparatory and Administrative part, that it may deserve the Consideration of all Sons of Art, and defy the Apprehension of all Blockheaded Quacks.    

CHAP. III. Of the Accidents of Old Age and the Causes of them, and the Signs of Hurt in the Senses, Imagination, Reason and Memory.  
THE Accidents of Age and Old Age are, Grey Hairs, Paleness, Wrinkles of the Skin, Weakness of Faculties and of natural Strength, Diminution of Blood and Spirits, 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 Virtue does operate. Now of all these let us see from what causes each Accident 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 very Old Age.  
The Principal Cause of all these is Weakness of the Innate Heat, which is caused two ways, as was said before.  
Greyness ariseth from putrid Phlegm coming out of the Regions of the Brain and Stomach, as Isaac saith; and not from Phlegm alone, but it proceeds from any other putrid Humour whatever, as Avicenna 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 appear.  
Sometimes from the Weakness of Natural Heat, which rules in the Body, and from Abundance of Cold, as Aristotle saith. For the Implanted Heat being dulled digests not Food, as it used; Whereupon a Watery Humour 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 external 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 seldom covered. 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 Nourishment 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 happens in some of the external Parts, when the inward Parts are not hurt, and do perform 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 hardly 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 labouring 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 Natural 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 recovering their Health, that therefore the Hairs wax white, because they are deprived of their Nourishment, by reason the Innate Moisture goes out and is dispersed, which whilst it abides within causeth the blackness of the Hair; as is manifest in Corn, which is dried, and grows white by ripening: afterwards when it is wet with Dew, its Greenness returns.  
Besides, there is in every Member a natural Power residing, which according to its Complexion turns the Nutriment into the Likeness of that Member, and differs from that Power, which turns the Nutriment 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 Virtue 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 penetrate into that Member, are depraved● Like as a good Constitution doth alter even bad and unwholesome Food, so that it becomes good, apt and convenient for nourishing 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 poisonous: yet it may be changed so as without any danger it may become wholesome Food. And this is done by the planting of it. As there is a Tree in Persia poisonous, 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 poisonous Quality.  
For this Cause Medicines were invented that might be applied to the outward Parts, as Bathe and Anointing. For such Medicaments are more useful to remove Diseases which arise from the Hurt of the fourth Digestion, than inward ones: Because the Virtue of Medicines taken inwardly is rendered so dull and weak of the first and second Digestion, that when it arrives at the fourth degree of Digestion, it is so broken, that it cannot at all profit, as Avicenna saith in his Canon Of Weariness and Old Age. And so Anointings do strengthen the Virtue of the fourth Digestion.  
Which I think to be most true, by reason 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 plentiful Sweat. And  
Thirdly, The Virtue in that Member, which is ill affected, must be refreshed: Because if the Medicine avail not something toward the strengthening the Virtue 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 away these Humours, the Virtue of Laxatives, without their Body, is sufficient. For the Power of Laxatives operates more when freed from the Lump of Body than joined with it; and this is that which Avicenna saith in his first Canon in the Chapter Of the Disposition of Purging Medicines.  
Then we must apply such Medicines outwardly, whose property it is, to temper the Essence of the Member and its Constitution; and to hinder that the scattered Relics of the superfluous Humour be not received of that Member, as Terra Sigillata, Bole Armenick, and such things use to do, either through some Operation that is in them, or for the Similitude and Equality of Complexion, for that it cools what is too Hot, and heats what is too Cold. Which Galen thinks very likely in the Oil of Roses, as Avicenna saith in his first Canon Of the Operation of particular Medicines.  
This Accident, I say, of Greyness renders a Man more deformed, and is more apparent 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 Accidents in their Treatise of Preserving Beauty: For at the Approach of these ᵇ Deformity is caused, and through their Delay in the time of Manhood is a Man's Comeliness. For this Age by Avicenna is called the Age of Beauty.  

NOTES on CHAP. III.  
ᵃ Of this Tree Dioscorides speaks in his first Book, Chap. 147. in these words. The Peach Tree is a Tree in Egypt, bearing Fruit fit for Food, good for the Stomach: Wherein Spiders called Cranocolapta are found, especially in Thebais. The dry Leaves reduced to Powder, and applied, stop Eruptions of Blood. Some have declared that this Tree is destructive in Persia, and being translated into Egypt, it changes its Nature; and is made use of for Food.  
ᵇ Theophrastus in his Character of Flattery hath these Words, What a Reverend Grey Beard you have got? And yet You, if any Man, considering your Years, have your Hair black. And to be long in growing grey was ever accounted an Argument of a lusty and vivid Old Age. Therefore effeminate Men were as careful to hid their Grey Hairs, as Women their Wrinkles; as Plautus and Martial do testify.    

CHAP. IU. Of the Wrinkles of the Skin, Paleness, rotten Phlegm, Bleareyedness, Shortness of Breath, and other things, which especially have relation to the Body.  
WE have already spoken of the Causes of one Accident, namely, Greyness, now we must treat of the Wrinkles of the Skin, Paleness and other things, which especially have relation to the Body.  
These Evils betid Men sometimes before the stated Time, sometimes at their due season.  
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 Animals, that this comes through the Putrefaction of the Humour. For he saith, that Wrinkling which befalls Bodies is unlike to Slickness: because if the Vapour be concrete, thence is caused Slickness, and it putrefies 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 Smith's Trade: For the Use of these things dries exceedingly, and makes the Face pale, and full of Wrinkles. Therefore those Dames that are over-careful of their Beauty, use to turn away their Face from the Fire. But those things which remove 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 Companion of Old Age, which falls out in Young Men from superfluous and redounding Phlegm; in old Men from want and diminution of Blood and Spirits, or from Infection of the Blood.  
Diminution of the Blood and Spirits is from the Diminution of the Natural Moisture; 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 Members: The Blood being diminished, the Spirits are diminished also, which abide in the Blood as in their Subject. And Blood is restored by those things, which refresh the innate Moisture; and the Blood being augmented, 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 Phlegmatic: And that Moisture flows sometimes from the Superfluity 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 Diaïrews 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 superfluity of the Blood.  
Insomneity, if I may so speak, Shortness of Breath, Anger, Disquiet of Mind, are Accidents of Age: among which 


Weakness of Breathing happens through the Straitness and Coarctation of the Passages of the Lungs, which is caused either by too much Dryness, or excessive Moisture.  
But we must remedy this Evil or Accident by the help of those Medicines, that the Wise have ordered to be taken, in their Treatise of Diseases which befall the Instruments of Breathing. For Avicenna in the same Treatise affirms, that Saffron hath a Property to open and refresh the Instruments of Breathing.   
Want of Sleep, Disquiet of Mind and Anger befall Old Men and the Decrepit; and sometimes Young Men, from Melancholic Fumes ascending to the Brain, as also hindering the Organs of the Senses. And therefore in their Books of Regiment it is ordered by Physicians, that Old Men avoid Phlegmatic, and likewise Sour Meats. Horehound very well prepared helpeth this Disposition, and to eat Salad of Lettuce strewed with Spice, as Galen saith, according 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 delectable things be made use of.     

CHAP. V Of Weakness of Strength, and Faculties of the Soul.  
WEakness of Strength and Faculties is an Accident of Old Age.  
Infirmity of Strength proceeds from a strange and unnatural Moisture softening the Nerves; or  
From over much Dryness, whereby the Nerves are contracted, and therefore weakened; or  
From the Concussion of the Nerves, as it often falls out in Soldiers exercising the sharp and dangerous Feats of War. For I have seen many men vigorously striving in the Combat, who being thereby weakened, lost the Garland of the Contest.  
When the Weakness hath its Original 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 sometime 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 johannes Damascenus affirms. And because this one Faculty is wont to perform different Offices in different Members, it is called by divers Names.  
But by what Ways these Faculties may be recreated, and being weak may be strengthened, I will show 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 Manifest 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 Instruments, it is made in three Parts of the Brain, wherein the Animal Power doth operate, 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 Remembrance 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 formerly well exercised the Instrument of Memory, 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 another 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, wherein 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 Mother's 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 Infirmities of Body and Diseases; and then the Hurt is said to come from the Humours, which are in the Brain itself: 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, Melancholic and Phlegmatic, as also of Indigestion and sour things, and such as are dried in the Smoke, and the like.  
The Operation of the Soul is hindered 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 labouring of Superfluity, and out of dead Carcases themselves, by reason of the Likeness they have with Humane Bodies. As of old it happened after a bloody War in AEthiopia, wherein were many dead Bodies, out of which a Pestilential Vapour came even to the Land of the ᵃ Greeks; Whereupon so great a Mortality raged among the Grecians, that in those who did escape, there remained a Forgetfulness both of their own and their children's Names. Which Galen affirms according to Avicenna in his third Canon in the Chapter Of Signs gathered 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 subtle than other Men, because of the Want of Vapours. For they have a most subtle 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 mixed 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 Exhalations and plentiful Vapours, and but few Winds stirring. So saith Avicenna in his first Book Of the Operation of Aerial Qualities.  
This Impediment likewise happens through Neglect of cleansing the Body inwardly and outwardly. For outward Nastiness 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 Equality of Complexion: There is no Equality of Complexion, but by a right tempered 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 Divine Wisdom, a Way for the Temper and Conservation of the Humours.  

NOTE on CHAP. V.  
ᵃ Our Author here intends the great Plague of Athens, curiously described by Lucretius, Lib. 6.  
A Plague thus raised laid learned Athens waste,  
Through every Street, through all the Town it past;  
Blasting both Man and Beast with poisonous wind,  
Death fled before, and Ruin stalked behind,  
From AEgypt's burning Sands the Fever came,  
More hot than those that raised the deadly Flame,  
The Wind that bore the Fate went slowly on,  
And as it went was heard to sigh and groan:  
At last the raging Plague did Athens seize,  
The Plague, and Death attending the Disease:  
Then Men did die by heaps, by heaps did fall,  
And the whole City made one Funeral.  
First fierce unusual heats did seize the Head,  
The glowing Eyes with bloodshot Beams looked red;  
Like Blazing Stars approaching Fate foreshowed,  
The Mouth and Jaws were filled with clotted Blood;  
The Throat with Ulcers, the Tongue could speak no more,  
But overflowed and drowned in putrid gore,  
Grew useless, rough, & scarce could make a moan,  
And scarce enjoyed the wretched power to groan.  
Next through the Jaws the Plague did reach the Breast,  
And there the Heart, the Seat of Life possessed;  
Then Life began to fail, strange Stinks did come  
From every putrid Breast, as from a Tomb,  
A sad Presage that Death prepared the Room!  
The Body weak, the Mind did sadly wait,  
And feared, but could not fly approaching Fate:  
To these fierce Pains were joined continual Care,  
And sad Complain, Groans, and deep Despair:  
Tormenting, vexing Sobs, and deadly Sighs;  
Which raised Convulsions, broke the Vital Ties  
Of Mind, and Limbs; and so the Patient dies.  
But touch the Limbs, the Warmth appeared not great,  
It seemed but little more than natural heat:  
The Body red with Ulcers, swollen with Pains;  
As when the Sacred Fire spreads o'er the Veins:  
But all within was Fire, fierce Flames did burn;  
No clothes could be endured, no Garments worn;  
But all (as if the Plague that fired their Blood,  
Destroyed all Virtue, Modesty, and Good:)  
Lay naked, wishing still for cooling Air,  
Or ran to Springs, and hoped to find it there:  
And some leaped into Wells, in vain: the Heat●  
Or still increased, or still remained as great:  
In vain they drank, for when the Water came  
To th' burning Breast, it hissed before the Flame●  
And through each mouth did Streams of Vapours rise,  
Like Clouds, and darkened all the ambient Skies●  
The pains continual, and the Body dead,  
And senseless all before the Soul was fled,  
Physicians came, and saw, and shook their Head:  
No sleep; the pained and wearied men's delight:  
The fiery Eyes, like Stars, waked all the Night.  
Besides, a Thousand Symptoms more did wait,  
And told sad News of coming hasty Fate:  
Distracted Mind, and Sad and Furious Eyes,  
Short Breath, or constant, deep and hollow Sighs;  
And buzzing Ears, and much and frothy Sweat  
Spread o'er the Neck, and Spittle thin with heat,  
But salt and yellow, and, the Jaws being rough,  
Can hardly be thrown up by violent Cough:  
The Nerves contracted, Strength in Hands did fail,  
And Cold crept from the Feet, and spread o'er all:  
And when Death came at last, it changed the Nose,  
And made it sharp, and pressed the Nostrils close:  
Hollowed the Temples, forced the Eyeballs in,  
And chilled and hardened all, and stretched the Skin.  
They lay not long, but soon did Life resign,  
The Warning was but short, Eight Days, or Nine:  
If any lived, and 'scap'd the fatal Day,  
And if their Looseness purged the Plague away,  
Or Ulcers drained, yet they would soon decay:  
Their Weakness killed them; or their poisoned Blood,  
And Strength with horrid Pains through Nostrils flowed.  
But those that felt no Flux, the Strong Disease  
Did oft descend, and wretched Members seize;  
And there it raged with cruel Pains and Smart,  
Too weak to kill the Whole, it took a Part;  
Some lost their Eyes, and some prolonged their Breath  
By loss of Hands: So strong the Fear of Death!  
The Minds of some did dark Oblivion blot,  
And they their Actions, and themselves forgot.    

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 Diseases.  
When we say [In the Senses] Understand 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 weakened. For the Intellect being hurt, and as it were roving upon all manner of Thoughts, the Internal Sensations do deviate: 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 befall the Senses, which are not made on the Score of the Rational Soul alone, but on the Score of those Instruments, 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 Epistle, will easily instruct a Man to remove such Hurt, to preserve the Faculty, so as to discern more subtly, 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 sound Wise obtained a clear Sharpness and Force of Intellect, able to pierce into the Secrets of things: because, namely, 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 afterward 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 gratify the Request of Alexander, saith plainly, That nothing is difficult to the power of Understanding, and that all things are ᵇ possible in a way of Reason. And in the Secrets of Hermogenes, according to Aristotle, it is said, That the chief, true and perfect Good is a clear and full Light of Understanding. And therefore Seneca said, That Divine Seeds were disseminated in Humane Bodies, namely, Sense and Understanding. Now if he that hath these Seeds be a good Husbandman, things, like their Original, will grow up; and if a bad one, he produces no other thing than what a barren Field doth yield.  
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 Damages 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 easy, 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 Memory, 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 hurtful, and judge that may be hoped which it is not lawful to hope for, and acts things not to be acted, and inquires into things which ought not to be enquired into, and if he can call to Mind whatsoever he pleases, than 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 Man's 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 sensible; if he collect many things, if while he sees Particulars he see falsely, namely, Water, Fire, and the like; if he imagine weakly concerning the Forms of things in Sleep and Waking, than the Hurt is in the Imagination and Forepart of the Brain.  
If two or three of these things be complicated, than the Hurt is in two or three Parts, that is, in the recesses of the Brain.  
And when any of these things inclines 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 Abohaly published in his Book Of the Support of the Art of Physic. 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 Persuasion 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 manifest, 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 Operative or Practical Knowledge.  

NOTES on CHAP. VI  
ᵃ Here Sense seems comprehensive of Reason. And this old Hypothesis of various Faculties, and their as various Seats, bears a most harmonious Consent to Reason and the newest Anatomic Phaenomena. For neither do I think Faculties unnecessarily multiplied in this place; nor yet their Receptacles unduly assigned them.  
If the Author's Imagination, Cogitation and Memory, that is, the Moderns Common Sense, judgement and Memory, had been the same Faculty, he had such skill in the several Phases of these Luminaries (as Dr. Smith in his Portraiture of Old Age calls the Faculties of Man's Soul) that he would never have parceled an Individuum into many distinct Species by Apparency. For we may remember, that in the foregoing Chapter he likes not Distinguishing between the Appetitive and Digestive Faculty, but thinks them one. And since Reason as well as so great Authority countenanceth this Triplicity of Faculties, I shall take leave to descent from two Learned Men, a Physical Divine and a Theological Physician, i. e. Dr. Reynolds in his Treatise of the Passions, and the forecited Doctor Smith; and embrace the old Opinion.  
Were there not a Defect in one Faculty when another is perfect in its Operations, I should think many the same one Faculty; But Experience showing one Perfect, when at the same moment another is Defective, I take such as Distinct. We may indeed refer in gross all Faculties of Man to the Soul, and so make them one. But if according to common acceptation, Seeing and Hearing be distinct, and those Faculties differ, that operate by differing Organs, we shall be of the Author's judgement, when we consider the Regions assigned each Faculty.  
The Evisceration of the Brain shows us various Ventricles near the Origination of the Nerves. Now the Nerves being the Inlets of all Ideas, it's not unlikely that the Ventricles are the Receivers. But whether in the Ventricles or in the Parenchymous Part of the Brain these sensible Ideas be concocted into other Notions, or where the Soul keeps her Elaboratory of Reason, I am not so absolute in usu Partium as to be able better to determine, than according to the probability of this Hypothesis. For  
Consider the Eye, the principal Negotiator for the Imagination, it hath its Visory Nerves in the foremost Place, assigned to Imagination: But its Motory Nerves are near the Middle or Seat of judgement, nay the Pathetic Nerves dare not cast a Glance without judicious leave. In the very middle or place of judgement are the Nerves, which be the Moderators of the Countenance and the Tongue, the truest Indices of Discretion and Understanding. Then the Auditory Nerves are placed behind, and seem to carry their Ideas to the Cell of Memory, the proper Receptacle of Audibles. Behind these indeed come other Nerves; but they are only Mancipia Rationis, and do obsequiously put in Execution the Dictates of the Higher Powers.  
Now if after this Anatomical Account Imagination, judgement and Memory improve or impair according to the Good or Hur● that the fore, middle or hind part of the Head receive, we may as rationally conclude on the Seat of each Faculty, as Galen did on the Motory of the Hand, when he cured its lost motion by Application to the upper part of the Spine.  
ᵇ Our Author hath made a large Progress towards the making of this good in his Book Of the Wonderful Power of Art and Nature.  
ᶜ Hypocrates in his Book Of Dreams takes very rational Presages as well as Diagnosticks of the state of Man's Health from the dark Visions of the Night; and so a Man may deal in Oneirocriticks without danger o● Superstition or Shadow of Necromancy.    

CHAP. VII. Of Meats and Drink, which do more agreeably restore the Natural Moisture, that daily is consumed.  
ᵃ Meat's and Drink, which more agreeably restore the Natural Moisture, which is daily wasted, are many: And this Restauration is various, according to the variety of Constitutions, and according 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 Vegetables as well as from Animals, but none from Minerals, as the Son of the Prince Abohaly maintains in the Preface of his Regiment.  
But the Natural Moisture which is daily wasted, may by ᵇ Diet and a right Course of Moderating one's Living be restored.  
Which Course ought to consist, as much as may be, of things of a good Juice, and of other Virtues.  
But according to Pliny those good Juices are better, which either Increase, or Repair 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 proceed from Animals bred on a fruitful Soil, do render the Natural Moisture more Sincere, and free from Destruction.  
For Bread, Fish, Flesh and Wine, although they afford a good Juice; yet sometimes they breed bad Humours.  
But Bread yields a Moisture safer from Destruction than Flesh; And Flesh produces a Moisture more remote from Corruption than Fish: Wine of the Vineyard affords 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 other harder things. And they are fit for Old Men, because Old Men want Restauration of Blood and Spirits. And the chief Goodness of Regiment in them, is that which heats and moistens, from Nutritives, Baths, Drink, long Sleep, long Lying in Bed, from Provocation of Urine and Expulsion of Phlegm.  
And Prince Abohaly saith in his first Canon, 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 Pullet's, Partridge, Sucking Kids, Calves and Lambs; hot, temperate, and moist Electuaries, 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 taken in great Quantity with Sugar of Roses. Whereof Avicenna speaking of the Consumption makes mention saying, that a Persian Woman, whose Grave was dug, and her Funeral prepared, by this recovered her Health, and restored her Natural Moisture.  
But remember how I said, that, according 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 Regiment of Meat: And also from Meats, that of their own Nature do breed a bad Moisture.  
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 Waterfowl.  
The like one may see in Fish, as is apparent in Pikes: for they are not fed as other Fish; and therefore these breed better Food, which are themselves better fed.  
And not only their Food is to be considered, 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 Breadcorn 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 hearty of the Wine of a certain Husbandman's Vineyard, and when this Husbandman heard that the King was delighted with the Pleasantness of his Wine, he bethought him of husbanding his Vineyard more wisely, and he dunged it: After some space of Time the Wine began to be worse and to decay, and to have a worse flavour.  
For a good Taste 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 savoury it is, by so much the better it nourisheth.  
And things growing in a Soil not dunged, do not so easily putrefy, 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 better (than when forced with Dung) for bringing forth Fruits.  
I have also seen in some Vineyards, propagated as it were of the same Seed and Original, and planted but a few Paces Distance, this to happen, that one produced Wine twice as strong and heady as the other; which was from the natural Virtue 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 Virtue.  
And this therefore comes to pass, by reason of the Wind, that does there more freely pass and blow upon all things, drying up Putrefaction. Whence it is, that Avicenna in his first Canon affirms, that Plants growing in Windy and Mountainous Places, are of a stronger and more unshaken Virtue.  
I saw a Mountain in the Province of the Romans, wherein the Air was so pure, and the Plants of so great Goodness, that diseased and infected cattle 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 Putrefaction. Therefore they breed a Humour more obnoxious to Corruption. As is manifest 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 sour, is not all turned into Wine. And therefore Isaac lays down this as a Property of Wine, namely, That mere Wine mixed with Spring-Water, which hath no external Vapour any way mixed with it, is more powerful and strong, than Waterish Wine without Mixture. Because in Waterish Wine there is a sour Water; in a Strong and (as they call it) Vino● Wine the Sourness is expelled by the Heat of the Sun. But a high and frequent Boiling of Wine, while it is new, will take away that Defect; as also hot Earth or Gravel will help the Heat of the Sun, deficient through its great Distance.  
Whence it easily appears, that the Presence 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 others; yet Wine made thereof is corrupted in a shorter Time, nor is it of the like Relish, 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 Animals 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 Medicines;  
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 likewise mixed, that are not subject to Putrefaction.  
And the exterior 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 subtracted, which was as it were all consumed, a new Moisture will be bred, the Man renewed, 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 ignorant. 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; although some are of the opinion it is fabulously 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 preserved 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 presently 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.  

NOTES on CHAP. VII.  
ᵃ The Reasonableness of the due Observance of Diet is most argumentatively inculcated by our Author in his Book Of the Wonderful Power of Art and Nature, in words to this purpose: The Possibility of Prolongation of Life is confirmed by this, that Man is naturally immortal, that is, able not to die: And even after he had sinned, he could live near a Thousand Years, afterwards by little and little the Length of his Life was abbreviated. Therefore it must needs be, that this Abbreviation is Accidental; therefore it might be either wholly repaired, or at least in part. But if we would but make Enquiry into the Accidental Cause of this Corruption, we should find, it neither was from Heaven, nor from aught but want of a Regiment of Health. For in as much as the Fathers are corrupt, they beget Children of a corrupt Complexion and Composition, and their Children from the same Cause are corrupt themselves: And so Corruption is derived from Father to Son, till Abbreviation of Life prevails by Succession. Yet for all this it does not follow, that it shall always be cut shorter and shorter; because a Term is set in Humane Kind, that Men should at the most of their Years arrive at Fourscore, but more is their Pain and Sorrow. Now the Remedy against every Man's proper Corruption is, if every Man from his Youth would exercise a complete Regiment, which consists in these things, Meat and Drink, Sleep and Watching, Motion and Rest, Evacuation and Retention, Air, the Passions of the Mind. For if a Man would observe this Regiment from his Nativity, he might live as long as his Nature assumed from his Parents would permit, and might be led to the utmost Term of Nature, lapsed from Original Righteousness; which Term nevertheless he could not pass: Because this Regiment does not avail in the least against the old Corruption of our Parents. But it being in a manner impossible, that a Man should be so governed in the Mediocrity of these things, as the Regiment of Health requires, it must of necessity be, that Abbreviation of Life do come from this Cause, and not only from the Corruption of our Parents. Now the Art of Physic determines this Regiment sufficiently. But neither Rich nor Poor, neither Wise Men nor Fools, nor Physicians themselves, how skilful soever, are able to perfect this Regiment either in themselves or others, as is clear to every Man. But Nature is not deficient in Necessaries, nor is Art complete; yea, it is able to resist and break through all Accidental Passions, so as they may be destroyed either all together, or in part. And in the Beginning when men's Age began to decline, the Remedy had been easy: but now after more than five Thousand Years it is difficult to appoint a Remedy. Nevertheless Wise Men being moved with the aforesaid Considerations, have endeavoured to think of some Ways, not only against the Defect of every Man's proper Regiment; but against the Corruption of our Parents. Not that a Man can be reduced to the Life of Adam or Artefius, because of prevailing Corruption: but that Life might be prolonged a Century of Years or more beyond the common Age of Men now living, in that the Passions of Old Age might be retarded, and if they could not altogether be hindered, they might be mitigated: that Life might usefully be prolonged, yet always on this side the utmost Term of Nature. For the utmost Term of Nature is that which was placed in the first Men after Sin: and there is another Term from the Corruption of every one's own Parents. It is no Man's Hap to pass beyond both these Terms: but one may well the Term of his proper Corruption. Nor yet do I believe that any Man, how Wise soever, can attain the first Term, though there be the same possibility and aptitude of Humane Nature to that Term, which was in the first Men. Nor is it a Wonder, since this Aptitude extends itself to Immortality; as it was before Sin, and will be after the Resurrection. But if you say, that neither Aristotle, nor Plato, nor Hypocrates, nor Galen arrived at such Prolongation; I answer you, nor at many mean Truths, which were after known to other Students: And therefore they might be ignorant of these great things, although they made their Assay. But they busied themselves too much in other things, and they were quickly brought to Old Age, while they spent their Lives in worse and common things, before they perceived the ways to the greatest of secrets. For we know that Aristotle saith in his Predicaments, that the Quadrature of the Circle is possible, but not then known. And he confesses that all Men were ignorant of it even to his Time. But we know that in these our days this Truth is known; and therefore well might Aristotle be ignorant of far deeper Secrets of Nature. Now also Wise Men are ignorant of many things, which in time to come every common Student shall know. Therefore this Objection is every way vain,  
ᵇ Lessius his Quantity of Diet with the Author's Quality might effect, what we scarcely dare expect, towards attaining of this Longaevity.  
ᶜ Hence it is very observable, how in populous Places, besides the Infection of the Air mentioned in the first Chapter of this Book, the Fields are so forced for Herbage for cattle, which feed Men either with their Milk or Flesh; and there are so many hot Beds in Gardens and Orchards, which also supply men's Tables, that our Food being of so corrupt an Original, it can be no Wonder to see the great Disparity between Burials and Christen in the Registers. And though in such Places fewer grey heads be seen than in the Country; yet it is because in populous Places fewer arrive at this infirm Maturity.  
ᵈ Our Author in his Book of the Wonderful Power of Art and Nature, saith thus, It is proved by the Testimony of the Pope's Letters, that a German, who was a Slave among the Saracens, took a Medicine, whereby he prolonged his Life to five Hundred Years. For the King that kept him Prisoner received Ambassadors from a great King with this Medicine; but because he mistrusted them, he made trial of his Present upon this Slave. And Artefius more than doubled the Germans Age.  
ᵉ The Poet having made a Discovery of some odd Ceremonies, how Witches cure Agues, and what Verse can do; sets on the Kettle for Medea, to parboil old tough AEson to more tender years. Ovid Met. Lib. 7.  
Mean while in hollow brass the Medicine boils,  
And swelling high, in foamy bubbles toils.  
There seethes she what th'AEmonian Vales produce,  
Roots, Juices, Flowers, and seeds of Sovereign use:  
Adds Stones from Oriental Rocks bereft,  
And others by the ebbing Ocean left;  
The Dew collected ere the Dawning springs;  
A Screech-owl's flesh with her illboding Wings;  
The entrails of ambiguous Wolves, that can  
Take and forsake the figure of a Man;  
The Liver of a long-lived Hart: then takes,  
The Skaly skins of small Cyniphian Snakes.  
A Crows old head and pointed beak was cast  
Among the Rest, which had nine Ages past.  
These and a thousand more without a name  
Were thus prepared by the barbarous Dame,  
For humane benefit. Th' Ingredients now  
She mingles with a withered Olive Bough.  
Lo, from the Cauldron the dry stick receives  
First Verdure, and a little after Leaves;  
Forthwith with overburdening Olives decked.  
The skipping Froth, with under-flames eject,  
Upon the Ground descended in a Dew;  
Whence vernal Flowers and springing Pasture grew.  
This seen, she cuts the old Man's Throat, out scrused  
His scarce warm Blood, and her receipt infused,  
His Mouth or Wound sucked in. His Beard and Head  
Black Hairs forthwith adorn, the hoary shed.  
Pale Colour, Morphew, meager Looks remove;  
And under rising Flesh his Wrinkles smooth.  
His Limbs wax strong and lusty. AEson much  
Admires his Change; himself remembers such  
Twice twenty Summers past: withal, endued  
A youthful Mind, and both at once renewed.    

CHAP. VIII. Of those things that defend the Natural Moisture, when bred, and restrain it from Dissolution, and that render it more sincere, when restored.  
THings that defend the Natural Moisture from Dissolution, and when restored, that render it more sincere, are three.  
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 Bowels of the Animal, that lives long.  
These three do not only defend the Radical 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 Epistle to Alexander.  
Although these Kind of Things be known, nevertheless they ought to be, most accurately chosen and skilfully prepared: for all the Secret is in their Preparation, which the Wise have concealed, because 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 judgement of certain Medicines, that all Medicines 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 Digestion, 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 Gristle 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 golden 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 itself, if it be mixed with hot Cordials, preserves the Moisture, that it be not dissolved, and the Natural 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, especially that of the Heart itself, 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 mixed 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 corrupted; 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 intemperate in the Body to a Temper. And Isaac saith in his Book Of the support of the Art of Physic, 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 Leprosy.  
And the Prince saith, that this best of Medicines is very profitable for Headaches and the shaking Palsy; and also for those that by night being mischievously fascinated in their Brain, out of Madness talk to themselves.  
Nor is it to be wondered, that this Medicine 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 subject to the Corruption of any of the Elements.  
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 diminished; to renew the Moisture itself; when renewed, 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 continually 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 men's 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 Medicines so fading and so soon perishing, should be able to preserve men's 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 Physicians believe they are able to do this, and that with Aromatic Medicines, which also 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 Operations. And in this is the whole Secret of the Ancients.  
Know you therefore (most Gracious Prince) that the Uses of the things aforesaid 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 Blow did drink. He thought it was like yellowish Water, and after he had greedily swallowed 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 endowed with better Judgement, Memory and Understanding, than he had before. He lived after that at the King's Court fourscore Years.  
Some Wise Men have asserted, that some ᵉ Cordial Medicine ought to be mixed 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 inclines to Redness, having a Spherical shape, as we have said formerly.  
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.  

NOTES on CHAP. VIII.  
ᵃ This is Coral, which is most certainly bred of a petrifying juice: But whether this juice sprout of itself into a Stony Shrub; or whether it first take a Wooden Form and after turn into Stone; or whether it penetrate and transmute some dead Plant found in the Sea-Water, and so retain its Shape, is altogether doubtful. The Reason is, because there are Branches of Coral found, whose Substance partly resembles Wood, partly Coral. Some report as if there were Coral-Berries. There is Coral of divers Colours; but red is the best.  
ᵇ Here Gold is meant, which is the most noble and solid of Metals, yellow of Colour. bred of the best digested and fixed Principles.  
ᶜ Here is meant the Bone of a Stag's Heart, which is either made of the Root of the Aorta, or of the Tendon at the Base of the Heart, that in Time becomes hard and turns into Bone. All these three are reckoned among the highest Cordials and Alexipharmaca, that are yet known to any Physicians, who concur with our Author in the Virtues of them.  
ᵈ The Author in his Book Of the wonderful Power of Art and Nature speaks thus, A Countryman as he was at Plough, found in the Field a Vessel of Gold with Liquor in it, and thinking it had been the Dew of Heaven, he washed his Face and drunk. And being renewed in Spirit, and Body, and Goodness of Wisdom, of a Cow-herd he was made Groom Porter to the King of Sicily, which happened in the Time of King William.  
ᵉ All Cordials are in some men's Opinions Spices. For Spices are grateful to Nature, and by reason of their Fragrancy do penetrate quickly, even if but outwardly applied. They quickly refresh the Spirits. Now  
Whatever Medicines are amicable to Nature, are fragrant, and with Ease and Speed refresh the Spirits, are true Cordials.  
But, Spices are such;  
Therefore true Cordials.  
The Major is from Hypocrates. And Spice may be defined a Vegetable, Animal, or Mineral (if Chemistry can afford such) that is sweet in Smell and Tast. The Minor may be proved by Induction. And all fragrant things may be reckoned Spices. Helmont is of Opinion in his Tract of Butler's Stone, that the Virtue of Cordial Medicines consists in Smell. The Aromatic Compositions of the Ancients for Cordials prove this. Sennertus will allow neither Food nor Physic to be restorative, but what is Aromatic. And Hypocrates in his Book of Food bids them that want present Refreshment, use a liquid Medicine; but if one would restore with more Speed, do it by Smell.    

CHAP. IX. Of Meats and other things which do especially introduce and hasten the Accidents of Age and Old Age.  
THings which cause Greyness and other Accidents of Age are these, Fruit, Fish, moist Herbs; ᵃ all kinds of Milk, Wheat boiled with Water, Grewel, frequent and daily drinking of Water, overmuch Use of sweet Water, frequent Sports of Venus, immoderate Blood-letting. For these things dissolve the Native Moisture.  
And also superfluous Drunkenness, plucking off the Hair, Touching of cold things, and Washing with them, such as is Oil of Elder, Rose-water, Elder-water, ᵇ Camphire. 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 Smoke, the Steam of Quicksilver and Arsenic, dwelling in cold and very moist Places.  
And he that desires to avoid Greyheadedness, 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 fried and roast Meats, and let him use the Water of Vetch.  
All these things, as Rasy saith in the Chapter Of Adorning the Hair, are a Cause that the Blood inclines to Choleric 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 Watery, they wax Grey.  
Aristotle also in that Book which he wrote almost in his Old Age, incited thereto 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 miserable Accidents of Old Age.  

NOTES on CHAP. IX.  
ᵃ Formerly our Author attributed Greyness to Phlegm, here he reckons up the Causes of Phlegm. For all these either cool or moisten, or do both. And Milk, though a Cure for an Hectic or Consumptive Person in both these respects (he being hot and dry) yet it is not proper for all Men, especially when the Inwards are distempered or in a Fever: for it is very apt to corrupt. Besides it is above all other phlegmatics an Enemy to the Head, the Seat of Phlegm according to Hypocrates, and therefore to all the nervous kind. Thus does an Infant anticipate Old Age in the Causes, and whiten its Locks in the Nurse's Milk, before they be grown.  
ᵇ It would make a Man laugh to see some Ladies laterem lavare, while by their Camphorate, and (as they think) youthful Wash●es, they hasten that Deformity they would thereby prevent. And illiterate Chemists would make as good sport, did not their Tragical Miscarriages beg your Pity. For what more miserable than to seek their Panaceas, their Tree of Life; in the mortal Fumes of Mer●ury, Arsenic, Antimony, and such things?  
ᶜ Laughter may very reasonably be thought ● Cause of Old Age: because it is so prodigal of the Vital Flame, that as burning Spi●its blaze out their efficacious parts, and leave ●nly a vapid Phlegm behind; so in the midst ●f Laughter the heart may be sad, and these Sanguine Flashes go out in gloomy Melancholy, the Aged Humour.    

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 agree 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 Kind's 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 aught 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 Humours, without any harm to the Native Moisture. And therefore Purging is proper, 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.  
It's 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 Alexander appoints, that he should take Rue every 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 Pullet's, &c. and other gentle things as with Myrobalans, Chepuli, and many of the same kind.  
Besides, ᶜ Citrull-Seed is useful in purging the Reins and cleansing of Humours. Rue also purgeth the Head and Reins, Stomach 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 mixed 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, because Hypocrates affirms, as Avicenna testifies in the Chapter Of Exercise, that Purging Physic draws from the Body the greater share of the Natural Moisture, which is as it were the Substance of Life.  
This is true, if such Physic be administered, as doth indifferently purge ᵈ every Humour; or if it be given to such as are ᵉ well enough in Health, and do not lack the virtue 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 Baths is profitable for a fasting Stomach: for it consumes the Phlegmatic 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 Phlegmatic. For it is better that a Man should receive from the Moisture of the Bath, than the Bath from the Moisture of a Man's Body.  
But the Bath draws the Humours to the Superficies and Skin of the Body; and therefore seems rather a Cause than Impediment 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 Superfluities be before Bathing, as Hypocrates saith.  
Trifera of Black, Emblick and Bellirick Myrobalans is one of those things which averts the Infirmities and Accidents of Old Age, as Rasy affirms in his Tract Of Adorning 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 hindering Grey Hairs. And if chewing of Myrobalans and Chepuli preserved be daily used, Youth is more easily 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 added.  
For it hath the Property of drying up the corrupt Moisture, of breeding a good one, of making that fat, and of strengthening a sick and debilitated Body: It is good for the Cough, and putrefyed Humours in the Lungs, it cleanseth the Humours 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 Complexion: It must be taken after Meat: It hath more Virtue when fresh than old; and (which is a Wonder among the Secrets of Nature) it may be both Meat and Medicine:  
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 Humidity is performed by any Medicine whatever, 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 Virtue to divide and separate the Phlegmatic 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 subtle Operation and Complexion; it opens Obstructions, drives away Wind and Vapours, strengthens the Bowels, bridles and restrains Anger, removes strange and hurtful defluxions of the Humours, refreshes the Nerves, and bedews them with a thin and subtle Moisture; it is very good for the Brain, it sharpens the Senses, cheers the Heart itself, and hath also a Virtue to stop immoderate Urine and the Melancholic Dysentery.  
Isaac speaks thus of it, It strengthens all the inner Parts, expels the Superfluities 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 contains 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 Strengthening, Dissolving, Attenuating, Cleansing and Consuming; It strengthens the Heart and all the principal Parts, it dissolves, attenuates, cleanses and consumes superfluous Phlegm, and Melancholy, wheresoever it abounds in Man's Body, but especially if it be in the Stomach and Brain. Whence it is said to have an unspeakable Virtue against the Passions and Troubles of Old Age, whether 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 Melancholic, and Persons troubled 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 Oil most profitable for the Sight, and most adverse to the Accidents of Old Age.  
It is said to live in the Air, because without the Air it receives not Nourishment.  
This is manifest in ⁱ Roses, which in the Spring are bend back under Ground, and may be kept to Midwinter.  
The Property of its Flower doth not abide above a Year: As the Moon increaseth, its Flowers increase, and indeed as the Moon decreaseth, its Flowers decrease. In Spring Time at the increase of the Moon its Flowers are to be gathered; and in this Plant there are Ten Properties or Virtues.  
The Medicine which lies hid in the Sea agrees with and may be mixed these aforesaid: for it is of admirable Virtue and Efficacy against those Passions of Age and Old Age, as Experience shows.  
It is hot and dry in the Second Degree, as Isaac affirms; it strengthens the Stomach, the Senses, and all the inner Parts. It very much helps against Fainting and the Falling-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 mixed 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.  

NOTES on CHAP. X.  
ᵃ Here this great Chemist shows himself as great a Rationalist as Galen himself; and he proceeds in the readiest Method and with the choicest Medicines, that the most famous Physicians, whether Greeks, Latins, or Arabians, could furnish him withal.  
ᵇ There be three kinds of Rue, i. e. Garden-Rue, Wall-Rue, and Goats Rue, all of them Herbs of great Efficacy and Use in Physic. But perhaps our Author means principally Garden-Rue, which is of two kinds, narrow, and broadleaved.  
ᶜ The Seeds of citruls or Water-Melons are Diuretic, Opening, and take away the Sharpness of Humours, they cleanse the Reins and Bladder, and lay the Effervescency of Blood and Choler.  
ᵈ Here the Panchymagoga, Pills and Elixirs of our Quacks, and  
ᵉ Here their general Directions for such their Trash are sufficiently exploded. For it requires the deliberate and particular Consideration of the best Physician, whether to purge his Patient at all, and (if requisite) with what sort of Physic, and where to terminate the Doses. Of how many Murders than must they be guilty that let fly their poisonous, ill-prepared and worse proportioned Doses at a venture among the Multitude, upon their own and their poor deluded Patients small Discretion when and how to take them?  
ᶠ Iron consists of a more crude Mercury and Sulphur than Gold doth; but comes very near Gold, if well prepared: For as when the Body of Gold is opened, it becomes Aurum fulminans, so Filings of Iron or Steel dissolved in Aqua Fortis, and precipitated with Oil of Tartar, become Ferrum fulminans, and opening as the other is. And without doubt well prepared Chalybeates cautiously administered are very advantageous to many Patients.  
ᵍ This is the Ancients Agallochum, the Moderns Lignum Aloes. It is a Wood that is brought from India and Arabia, speckled, of a sweet Smell, in Taste astringent, with some Bitterness; it is clothed with a Skin, more truly than with a Bark, a little particoloured. But Garzias will have it a Tree like an Olive-Tree, sometimes less, which grows no where but in India. There are several sorts; but our Author gives you the Marks of the best.  
ʰ Some think here is meant Rosemary, others a kind of Silk: Both which (especially the former) all Physicians account great Revivers of the Spirits.  
ⁱ Our Author seems here to intimate something of a Christmas Rose; which to him was a Work of Nature; to the Monks a Miracle. Like the Rose of Jericho or S. Mary, which the Monks will have to be a Rose: But is indeed a sort of Treacle-Mustard. Their Argument taken from Ecclesiastic. 24. 14. As a Rose-Plant in Jericho, is false: For this Plant grows not about Jericho, but in Arabiâ Desertâ on the Shore of the Red Sea. And that Place in Apocrypha must be understood of Red or Crimson Roses. And then its Effect is a Cheat. For Women use it out of an Opinion, that at the Time of Travel it will show the hour of Birth. Seeing (as they are verily persuaded) if it be put in Water it opens not, before the Child gins to be born, and doth open the inner Orifice of the Womb. But this supposititious Rose put in Water at any Time openeth itself, and not only on Christmas-Eve and at the Time of Birth. Nay, it hath opened itself, when the Child has been dead in the Womb. O wonderful! that such● Superstitions should prevail amongst People called Christians; and yet it hath crept into the hearts of silly Women, That a Rose of Jericho (especially if consecrated by the Pope) can do more than the Divine Power. Bellonius Obs. l. 2. c. 86. p. 338. elegantly describes it. The Plants which grow on this Plain call to mind a certain little Plant, which some Impostor Monks have named the Rose of Jericho; whose Root being put in Water, because the Plant doth open, they have taken some tolerable pretext for their Imposture: And to cause Admiration in the Spectators, they affirm that it only opens on Christmas-Eve, and when a Woman is in Labour. And they that know not the Nature of it, think it can open at no time else; but they are deceived. And Cornutus c. 45. De Pl. Canad. p. 114. gives the Reason why it opens itself: Nor doth Water this in green Plants only; but in the dry also, which we may see in the Rose of Jericho, thirty years after it is pulled up, whose Root, if you wet with Water, the Plant which had its Branches wound on a heap, shrivelled, dry and dead; presently its Arms do revive, and the contracted Flowers expand themselves by a certain stupendous Miracle of Nature; whereby Midwives impose on poor teeming Women, when they affirm that this therefore happens, because the time of Birth is at hand: But it is a Story: for the same happens at any time, if it have Moisture. Now by what reason Water applied fresh to the dry Rose of Jericho causeth it to bud and blossom; by as great reason may the new-admitted Air revive the Rose-bud, buried in the Earth some Months before: For Nature, the main Impediment removed, will proceed on her Work, and may begin to perfect that in December, where She left off (being stopped by Art) in March or April before. And by such artificial Methods, I believe, were those sudden (but reputed Magic, or Miraculous) Productions of Plants and Animals procured, which have characterized so many Devils or Saints to the less-considering part of Mankind, but in reality were only the Casts of the subtle Artists Skill in Nature.  
ᵏ This great Physician here intimates to us, that one Salve will not serve every Sore; but that all Indicantia are to be considered, before the most curious Analeptick be given. And then according to the Temper of the Season and the Patient, he order other Simples to be mixed with it to qualify any Excess: Which is one great Reason why Physicians compound their Medicines.    

CHAP. XI. Of those things which preserve Youth, and cause Grey Hairs to fall, and Black or Youthful ones to come in their room.  
ALL hot Oils preserve Youth, so far as they hinder the Falling and Greyness of the Hair.  
Oil of Gith especially doth this, and Oil of Costus, as Avicenna saith in his Treatise Of Oils, and of things that keep back Grey Hairs. Oil of Costus taken in Drink hinders Old Age, as Rasy saith in his Book to Almansor.  
Oil 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 Oil hinders hoariness, as Aristotle saith in the End of his Book Of Animals.  
And if all hot Oils do this, we may reckon into the number Oil 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 Abohaly 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 Youthful 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 administer it after the giving of some other Medicine that cleanses and moistens the Lungs.  
Now Isaac saith, that if men drink Borage boiled with Water and Sugar or Honey, it doth excellently cleanse the Pipes of the Lung●.  
Also Celtic Spike drunk with Wine frequently, doth render the Breast and Lungs clean; and many other things, that are delivered 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 successively 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 Cuttlefish, and stop it up close in a Vessel three Days, and drink it for some days with Cow's 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 tried these things; But this Accident may be removed for a time, and how it may be done is found in Physic Books.  

NOTES on CHAP. XI.  
ᵃ How to do this is now well known lippis & tonsoribus and to all Peruke-makers and Instruments of Luxury in Europe.  
ᵇ Some think this to be the Wonderworking Moon-wort of the Chemists, or the Moon-rue of the Germans. It grows in high Woods, it hath a round Stalk and only one Leaf, dissected with five or seven Gashes on each side, almost like Rue, with a great deal of small Seed on the top of the Stalk. The Root hath a great many Fibres like Broadleaved Plantain. It is to be found in July and not after. It is called Moon-wort because (as some say) it increases and decreases with the Moon; and how many days the Moon is above the Earth, into so many Gashes is its Leaf indented. Others would have it to be Bolbonac: But this it cannot be; for the Fruit, not the Leaf, of Bolbonac is round, nor doth this increase and decrease with the Moon as Moon-wort is said to do.    

CHAP. XII. Of things which restore and strengthen the Natural Heat, weakened 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 Physic, which restore the Natural Heat, weakened by Dissolution of the Innate Moisture, or Increase of a foreign one.  
But certain Wise Men have tacitly made Mention of some Medicine, which is ᵃ likened to that which goes out of the Mine of the Noble Animal. They affirm that in it there is a Force and Virtue, which restores and increases the Natural Heat.  
As to its Disposition they say it is like ᵇ Youth itself, and contains an equal and temperate Complexion.  
And the Signs of a temperate Complexion in Men are, when their Colour is made up of ᵉ White and Red, when the Hair is Yellow, inclining to ᵈ Redness and Curling.  
According to Pliny, when the ᵉ Flesh is moderate both in Quality and Quantity, when a Man's ᶠ Dreams are delightful, his Countenance ᵍ cheerful 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, it's ⁱ Fume is temperate and sweet, and grateful to the ᵏ Smell. When it departs from this Temperature, it departs so far from its Virtue and Goodness.  
This Medicine doth therefore temperately 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 rarely passeth into Man, but into another Animal 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 Weakness 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 seldom found, and although sometime it be found, yet it cannot commodiously 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: Sometimes 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 moistening 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 applied to the Stomach, it will help very much: for it will refresh the Stomach itself, and excite an Appetite; it will very much recreate an Old Man, and change him to a kind of Youth; and will make Complexions by what means soever depraved or corrupted, 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 johannes 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 Operations of Simple Medicines, spoke of this thing, where he saith, that there is a certain 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 restores and preserves the wasted Strength of the Native Heat, causeth it to flourish in all the Members, and gently revives the Aged.  
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 Ancient Sages have also reported, that there is another kind of Medicine, which is able to perform this, namely,- ˢ Wine artificially mixed and prepared, whereof there are five Properties, as Galen saith.  
Wine mixed with Water, 1. Heats the whole Body.  
2. As it were pierceth the Members.  
3. Tempers the Humours.  
4. Excites Natural Heat.  
5. Cheers 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 Choleric Humours, and temper them by purging by Sweat and Urine; it will make a hard Nature softer; and will moisten, when through too violent Labour Dryness doth happen. It begets Cheerfulness and Joy, and mitigates Melancholy.  
It is said also, that the white and subtle should be drunk with a great deal of Water, especially when the ripe Age of Man, and the time of full growth is come.  
But Sour and Old Wines are to be avoided: 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 mixed for six Hours.  
For Isaac doth thus speak of strong Wine mixed: Wine mixed doth cool hot Bodies, moisten the dry, make dry the moist, and produce contrary Operations. Whence the Ancients likened it to the great Treacle, because one may see two contrary Virtues latent in it.  
We would have all understood of strong Wine mixed, wherein are five Properties, ᵘ Colour, Smell, Taste, Substance, Age.  
A Man ought to drink that Wine, which is yellowish.  
Haly affirms, that Wine should be drunk, whose Colour inclines to Redness.  
Avicenna saith, Red is most eligible, which is clear of Substance, in Taste neither bitter nor sweet, but Pontic. But if it seem too Vinous, it ought to be mixed with Spring-Water, where there is no extraneous Vapour.  
Royal Haly saith, that Old and Sour 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 mixed, the Wine by Digestion in the Stomach will be separated from the Water.  
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 Virtue of Plants is various according to the Variety of Places and Provinces, as Haly saith upon Galen's Regiment, 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 increases Blood more than White, and is in some measure better than all Wine, and more agreeable to men's Complexions, such namely as grows on a Soil enclosed between Hills and Dales, whose Clusters are of a good Sweetness and Maturity, in a subtle and pure Air, and which are not gathered before the Force of their Substance be rebated, their Colour become Golden, namely, a Mean between Red and Yellow, their Taste sharp, pungent and delectable, and before their Substance be clear.  
When the Wine shall be such, let a Man drink as his Age and the nature of the Season will permit.  
For than it will preserve the Stomach, strengthen the Natural Heat, help Digestion, defend the Body from Corruption, carry the Food to all the Parts, and concoct 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 overmuch 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 Vigour languid, bring Forgetfulness, weaken the Joints, beget shaking of the Limbs and Bleareyedness, it will darken and make black the Blood of the Heart: Whence Fear, Trembling, Weakness of the Genitals, and the Destruction and Ruin of the Seed do arise.  
And, which is worse, it breeds the ʷ Leprosy, 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.  

NOTES on CHAP. XII.  
ᵃ Some would have this to be Quintessence of Man's Blood: But what the Author speaks of, cannot be predicable of any Quintessence: For his Arcanum is applied Plasterwise, Quintessences are taken inwardly. Neither does he mention any Preparation of it at all, but gives only the Virtues of it in puris naturalibus.  
Some might imagine it a Precious Stone, that turns its Orient Splendour into a sordid pale Blush at the Venereal Pollutions of its Possessor. But no one can imagine that the Sapphire in a Ring can contribute to the Gild of the Incontinent otherwise, than as sometimes it is the Price of their Iniquity, which its fading doth betray.  
Now our Author declaring he could meet but with little of it in Physic, I guess we must have recourse to Divinity, in which he was also conversant. Where in 1 King. 1. 1, 2, 3, 4. we meet with that Medicine more plainly, which is here more obscurely described.  

1. Now King David was old, and stricken in years, and they covered him with clothes, but he got no Heat.  
2. Wherefore his Servants said unto him, Let there be sought for my Lord the King a young Virgin, and let her stand before the King, and let her cherish him, and let her lie in thy Bosom, that my Lord the King may get Heat.  
3. So they sought for a fair Damsel throughout all the Coasts of Israel, and found Abishag a Shunamite, and brought her to the King.  
4. And the Damsel was very fair, and cherished the King, and ministered to him: but the King knew her not.   
The jews say, that when Saul was easing himself, David cut off the Skirt of his Robe; for which David's Heart smote him, and the Qualm came so cold over his Heart, that he could never after recover it. Others say, He quaked so terribly at the sight of the Angels drawn Sword, which destroyed his People, that the Cold Fit held him to his dying-day. But King David was old and stricken in Years, and they covered him with clothes, but he got no Heat. Wherefore his Servants advise him to this Remedy.  
ᵇ Our Author has given Abishag the very fair Damsel's Adumbration most curiously.  
ᶜ Hear are this fair Shunamite's Rose of Sharon and Lily of Damascus, ᵈ her Hair like Purple in curling Locks, ᵉ her two young Roes that are Twins feeding among the Lilies, ᶠ her Head filled with the Dew, and her Locks with the Drops of the Night, ᵍ her Countenance fair as the Moon, clear as the Sun, ʰ her Fruit sweet to her Taste, as She sits under the Shadow with great delight, ⁱ her Spikenard and chief Spices, ᵏ while the Southwind blows upon her Garden, that the Spices thereof may flow, ˡ her Well of Living Waters and Streams of Lebanon, ᵐ And here the fairest among Women is wounded by the Watchmen, and then her Beloved departs.  
ⁿ Here our Author allows a wholesome Contagion as well as a morbid, and a Sympathy in Health as well as in Sickness between Creatures of the same Kind, which argues that this Help meet for an Old Man must be somewhat Humane.  
ᵒ And let her cherish him.  
ᵖ And let her lie in thy Bosom, that my Lord the King may get Heat.  
q But the King knew her not.  
ʳ This danger of Incontinence is another convincing Argument, that our Author's Cataplasm is a Virgin, the greatest Temptation to that Fault.  
Now if the Sin of eating the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil, were the Scriptural Knowledge of a Woman (as is some Learned men's Opinion) a spotless Virginity may very likely do some Good in protracting that evil Day of Man, which Woman's corruption first brought upon him.  
Or admit, if our first Parents had not eat the Apple, (as most Divines allow they really did) Man might have been conceived without Sin or brought forth without Sorrow, this and all other Acts being naturally performed according to the Will of his Creator, as the Sun goes round without Sin; but that by the Fall, Will and Pleasure is become Sinful, and Lust exorbitant, which before was as pure innocent natural Propensity, as for the Stars to keep their Courses: Even in Nature this way corrupted, the Remedy is highly Rational. For in this Case the Virgin Heat irritated and exalted by the Contact of Man thus Old, exerts itself by its Incubation on her Bedfellow, when she fails of Conception by him; and so acts that Vigour outwardly in preserving her decaying Species, which she would otherwise inwardly in Procreation of it anew. And on the other side this Old Dust and Ashes may by his warm Concubine have some Sparks kindled in him, so as to keep the Embers alive, that for want of fuel are not able to break out into a Flame of Lust, however willing, though insufficient to take green Wood But if the Old Man's Vital Flame thus trembling and lambent on himself, should proceed to animate Posterity, he must only expect his own speedy Extinction.  
ˢ This is Old men's Milk, for there is no fit Vehicle to accelerate the heavy Circulation of their Blood, than Generous Wines.  
t But what shall we say of Rhenish, White and Claret, which have an innate waterish Crudity, besides a worse mixture oftentimes at the Vintners?  
ᵘ These Properties should be well considered in our Beer and Ale, whose Cold Clime refuseth the Grape. And since Fire is to them, what the Sun is to the Grape, we should take great care they be well boiled, and allow them time enough to ferment and ripen. But here I must take notice of a modern ill Custom of drinking Brandy, which may very well serve Medicinally upon extraordinary Occasion; but the constant Use of it must needs dry exceedingly, the Blood and Inwards especially, and so turn men's Bodies to dry old Skeletons, or by creating Obstructions in the Alimental Passages, cause Dropsies, and either hasten Old Age, or by Death prevent it.  
ʷ How often do Tavern-haunters purchase their Liquor with Rubies in their Faces, which here and there drop off in a leprous Scurf? A fit Intimation they should be secluded Man's Society, which they have abused; when their very Looks do cry them unclean.    

CHAP. XIII. Of things which repair the Faculties and Senses, and restore the Strength of the Body.  
I Have found some Medicines in the Books of the Wise very profitable for restoring the Senses and Faculties of Humane Nature, and one especially, which is of the ᵃ Serpentine Kind.  
But although there be many kinds of Serpents, yet three in especial manner are agreeable to this Microcosm.  
The full Knowledge of one of which hath neither come to the Greeks nor to us; it is perfectly known only to the AEthiopians: And this Serpent is the ᵇ Dragon.  
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, saying, 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 latter end of Spring and beginning of Summer. 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 Fishponds, on banks of Rivers, and watery 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 die as they are taken, and let four inches be cut off the Head and Tail, let the Guts be taken out, let them be washed 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 separated from the Bones, then let them be beaten in a Mortar, let the Flesh be anointed with the Oil of Balm, and dried in the Shade.  
And a Man must take heed, that the Sunbeams do not fall upon the Flesh before it be dried, nor afterwards; For the Sun by his Power doth spoil the Flesh of its Virtue, so that it ᶠ expels no Poison received either by By't, or in any Drink.  
Avicenna hath reported such things in his fifth Canon. Also in his Chapter Of the Leprosy 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 Discourse 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 Trochisces may be taken with Arrian Wine; And Avicenna saith with Red Wine: But Arrian Wine is Red. As for the Preparation, 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 Exposition, 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 mixed with it, which may in like manner overcome the Poison, 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 understood of the Viper, Snake, or Dragon; his Words are to this purpose; The Flesh of the Serpent, when prepared, forceth all the Humours to departed to and penetrate the Skin, and properly when a Man is purged; it also ʰ prolongs Life, maintains the Faculties of the Body and preserves the Sense and Youth; it hath a great Power of drying, yet but gently of heating: But it hath an admirable Virtue against the ⁱ Leprosy: It hinders the Approach and Increase of the King's Evil, it cures the Griefs of the Nerves, it sharpens the sight: for Avicenna testifies this in his fourth Canon Of the disposition 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 Leprosy, 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 Humours; and that it is not to be used, except it be mixed with Styptic Spices, that have a Property against those Diseases, and the Mixture must be of so long continuance, as till it be fermented, otherwise ᵏ it will be nothing worth.  
The Quantity of the Aromatic Spices in my Judgement ought to be such, namely, One part of the Flesh, and Seven of the Aromatic Spices. This holds true if the Place be not hot, nor the Complexion high.  
But if the Place be cold and the Complexion i'll, there ought to be one part Flesh; and Ten of the Aromatic Spices.  
And, as some think, these are the things which ought to be mixed 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. Perchance the thing was made of this Serpent, which was given to a certain Lady in Germany in our days. For it happened that there were two Sisters, both fair, one of which moved with Envy gave the other Poison to drink, so that her Hair and Nails came off, and She endured wonderful Misery: After She had taken this Medicine, She looked like a Girl of Twenty, although She were much older; her Hair that before was Black turned Flaxen, and an equal Complexion of White and Red did succeed.  

NOTES on CHAP. XIII.  
ᵃ As in the former Chapter Woman, who was the Mediatrix of Sin and Death between the Serpent and Man, was made use of to prevent Death; so here the Serpent himself, the Arch-plotter of that Death, is taken in his own Snare, the Decree of the Almighty is executed upon him in the very literal sense, and though he can hurt Man's Heel, yet he must lose his own Head, and make one of the greatest Antidotes against his own envenomed Spite and Man's Death, which he so much designed. Thus to his own cost hath the Serpent persuaded us to taste of that Tree of Knowledge, by whose Experience we have found how to resist the Evil by the Good that is in himself. And herein our Author makes good, what in his second Chapter he told us, That in whatsoever thing the Most High GOD hath put an admirable Virtue and Property, there He hath also placed Hurt, as it were the Guard of that very thing.  
ᵇ The AEthiopian Dragon according to Bellonius is thick about the Belly, hath two Feet, and as many Wings whole like Bats, and the Tail of a Serpent. They are so big, that without making Use of their Poison, they kill Elephants, and all other Beasts by mere Force. Whence Lucan lib. 9 sings thus: 
Rumpitis ingentes amplexi verbere Tauros,  
Nec tutus Spatio est Elephas, datis omnia Letho,  
Nec vobis opus est ad noxia fata Veneno.  
With mortal Gripe you squeeze out huge Bulls Guts,  
To th' Elephant's Bulk no Fence is, Death you bring  
To all; for Death you have no need of Sting.   
ᶜ The Viper is a Serpent about an Inch thick, and two Cubits, but generally less in Length, particoloured and Yellowish, he bears his Neck upright, and crawls with the rest of his Body: He leaps when he bites. The Male according to the Ancients hath only two Teeth, and the Female four; therefore Nicander saith in Theriacis, 

〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉   

With Dog-teeths two Man's skin Male Viper's gore  
Diffusing Poison, Females by't with more.    
But Baldus Angelus saith, the Male-Viper hath four Teeth, only at certain Times he casts two of them, which made the Ancients think he had but two. But if a Man will be at the trouble to anatomize Vipers, he shall find they have twelve Teeth, six on either side in the upper jaw, and twenty two, eleven on either side, in the nether jaw, in all thirty four, which they use in eating; besides the Dog-teeths before mentioned, with Bladders wherein they contain their Poison, which once voided gathers again after the manner of Excrementitious Humours: And with these Teeth only they fight and poison. The Male hath a narrower and sharper Head, thicker Neck and smaller Body than the Female. His Tail grows smaller by Degrees as in other Serpents: hers is small at once. He hath also rougher Scales at his Tail, which in his Anger he ruffles as a Cock doth his Feathers. It is observable, that the Female-Vipers first conceive Eggs all of one Colour like Fish-Rows, and then bring them forth young Vipers, whereas other Serpents first lay Eggs, and afterwards hatch them. But the Female's biting off the Male-Viper's Head in Coition, and the Young ones eating themselves out of the old Viper's Belly, are both mere Fables.  
ᵈ The Land-Snake is a harmless Creature: For if he by't he inflicts no Venom, but the bare Wound. But the By't of a Watersnake is exceeding dangerous.  
ᵉ They should not be taken presently, as they come out of their Winter-Quarters; but when they are well fed; yet before they are with Young.  
ᶠ Hence it is evident of what Moment the true Preparation of Medicine is.  
ᵍ Treacle, the most serviceable Medicine in common Use, sufficiently shows the Virtue of the Viper, which is the Basis of that famous Composition. Nay, Treacle alone or some Mixture with it is the Mountebanks Sheet-Anchor to save their Wrack in the Stygian Lake: For these Fellows must, to please the People, either poison their Guts upon the Stage as often as they break their Fasts, or they must keep two Lents in one Year. I find Treacle in the Description of Orvietan's Secret, a noted illiterate Mountebank in Rome, who promised others immunity from Poison by his Electuary, but at last died himself of Poison.  
These Cheats are well set out by the Father of the Poets. 
Non enim sunt two Scientia aut Arte Divini,  
Sed superstitiosi Vates, Impudentésque Harioli,  
Aut inertes, aut insani, aut quibus egestas imperat:  
Qui sibi semitam nonsapiunt, alteri monstrant viam.  For the sake of English Empirics, thus: 
In Science or in Art Divines they're none,  
But Superstitious Bards, who Charms do boast,  
Lazy, or Mad, or under Want they groan:  
They'd be your Guides that never that way crossed.   
ʰ The Reason of this may be drawn from that Similitude, our Author mentioned in his second Chapter, which by Physicians since his Time is called Signature. For as the Serpent renews his Youth by casting his Skin yearly; so in Medicine he produceth the like Renovation.  
ⁱ And so from his Spots we may guests him good against the Leprosy.  
ᵏ Here he illustrates what he said before in Chap. II. That out of the Serpent, Hellebore and Gold no Man can fetch any noble or sublime Operation, unless he be Wise, Skilful, and have of a long time experienced them.    

CHAP. XIV. Of Things that excite the Animal Faculty, refresh men's Bodies, and quicken Motion.  
ALL ᵃ Wise Men, that have yet treated of the Regiment of Health, constantly affirm, that the Aged and Men well grown in years, presently after they are risen from Sleep, should be anointed with Oil; So Royal Haly in his fifth Treatise Of the Regiment of Old Men.  
For such Anointing excites the Animal Faculty, and with it all the Rest; for all other Faculties depend of and proceed from that, as Avicenna saith in his first Canon 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 Oils affirms, that all kinds of Oil refresh the Body, and help its Motion: But if all do this, it cannot otherwise choose, but that one sort must be better than another.  
Haly in his Treatise Of the Regiment of Old Men, thinks that Old Men should be anointed with the Oil of Squill, and with the Oil of Violets mixed with the Oil of Chamomel, and with the Oil of Dill.  
But Aristotle affirms in his Books Of the Secrets of Secrets, that Anointing aught to be made with sweet Smelling Ointments in the Morning at convenient Seasons, that is, in Autumn, and Winter with Ointments made of Myrrh, and with the Juice of an Herb which is called a Blite; in Summer and Spring Time cum Vnguento Caerasino (made with Sanders) Enilegis, and the Juice of Enablaetti: And he affirms this in his Canon Of Baths.  
I shall say nothing of the making of Ointments, but that Sheep's Suet may be mixed with every Ointment.  
Campanus Germanicus, who lived a long time ago, saith, the Wise Men of India after Scarification did lay on this very thing with Oil 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 Virtue and Operation.  
And thus we see one Oil operates more strongly in Old Men than another.  

NOTE on CHAP. XIV.  
ᵃ We find in Holy Writ, before Hypocrates lived, Wine was Man's inward, and Oil his outward Analeptick: And Unction was used by him, and by the Sons of Art for many Ages after him: Only the Wisdom of our Age knows scarce any Use of it, except contra Pruritum, and Pruritum Venereum. An erroneous Neglect undoubtedly. Nothing can be more apt for our Author's Purpose; Since Old men's Natural Heat, as a weakened Garrison, slights the Outworks, and fairly retires to the Fort of the Heart, till Supplies come from without. Now Unction is an Evacuation to the outer Parts of the Body, because it heats, attenuates and melts those useless H●mours, that are discharged to and lodged in the Habit of the Body; and then of themselves they dissipate and evaporate; And so there is Way made for the vital Flame to play from the Heart. But if the Unction be hot, it not only softens the out Parts, but its Virtue reacheth the very inward Humours, and so heats, attenuates, and disperses them.    

CHAP. XV. Of things that cause Clearness, Cleanness and Ruddiness of Skin, and that take away Wrinkles.  
ALL things that ᵃ move the Blood and Spirits to the Skin adorn and clothe the Skin with Beauty, Cleanness and Ruddiness; and this thing is promoted by whatsoever doth gently cleanse the Skin, rendering in thinner, and making it clean from those things that stick dead on its Surface.  
And in performing this, Care must be had of three things, namely, of Cold, too much Heat, and the Wind.  
Now Blood is moved to the Skin three ways, namely, by breeding of good and subtle Blood, by its Purity, and by Expansion.  
Things that breed good Blood are those of good Juice; amongst which, according to Pliny, is subtle and sweet smelling Wine; as Isaac speaks of Bread well baked and leavened, and also all manner of Meats so they be but of good Digestion. For Digestion is the true Fountain of good Blood and Humour. So doth Avicenna affirm of these things. Those things also breed good Humour, that are boiled ᵇ covered without Water, and dry roasted.  
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 Myrobalans; and the Ancients 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 boiled 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, Onions, if he eat not often of them, as also ᵈ Garlic well prepared.  
Or, if the Soul be ᵉ stirred by certain Operations, Actions, and Motions; of which sort are Wrath, Joy, Mirth, ᶠ Anger, and what ever provokes Laughter, as also Instrumental Music, and Songs, to converse with Company which discourse facetiously, to look on precious Vessels, the Heavens and Stars, to be clothed with Variety of Garments, to be delighted with Games, to obtain Victory over ones Enemies, to argue with ones most dear and beloved Friends, as Aristotle saith in his Epistle to Alexander.  
For a cheerful Mind brings Power and Vigour, makes a Man rejoice, stirs up Nature and helps her in her Actions, as Rasy saith to Almansor in his Canon Of the Cogitations of the Mind.  
But secondly, The things which being applied outwardly effect this with Abstersion and Action, are Lotions and Unctions. And in these things the Way of their Abstersiveness is unlike; for some things effect this more roughly, others more finely. There are Ointments 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 Humours infecting the Blood, as is manifest in the Jaundice. For they exert very dangerous operations in the inner Parts. This Infection 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 removed, 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 mixed with an equal quantity of the White of an Egg, and if the Skin be smeared with it, these Harms are removed, which were impressed from these Causes. So Haly speaks in his Canon Of Beauty.  
Take of the Flower of Beans, Pease, Vetches, Lupins, sweet Almonds blanched, Dragant, Mastic, 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 Water of boiled Bran, and so use it till the Skin be reduced to its natural Quality and Disposition.  
But if Corrugation happen in the Skin from these Causes, let this Ointment 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, Oil of bitter Almonds, Honey and a little Propolis, let them be melted together.  
And some have said that Oil of Balm with Oil of Bays doth most easily take away and wipe off this Wrinkling of the Skin.  

NOTES on CHAP. XV.  
ᵃ In this Chapter here is a Cosmetica Rationalis, backed with true Philosophic Reason, not projected upon the Fucus of a barren Notion; where, as in a curious Picture, we may with Admiration view the Dashes of a Master's Hand, and then sit down and consider, That only a good Philosopher can make a skilful Physician.  
ᵇ This may be done two Ways according to Riverius. The first is this, Take your Meat, seasoned according to your Mind, and cut into long Slips, put it into a well glazed Earthen Pot, close covered and luted with Lutum Sapientiae; set it in an Oven, hot as it is when you draw your Bread, let it stand, and it will with the Heat dissolve into Liquor. But this some may esteem Baking.  
The second Way is this, and it is properly Boiling: Take your Meat prepared as before, put it in a glazed Pot, in the middle whereof let there stand a wooden Grate, or one of any other matter; lay your Meat upon it, so that the Bottom of the Pot may be empty; close the Pot with its Cover, well luted with Paste of Meal and Water well kneaded. Set it in Balneo Mariae boiling for five Hours. You will have a limpid Liquor at the Bottom. Two or three Spoonfuls of such a Preparation taken twice or thrice a Day is reckoned a great Restorative.  
ᶜ We read in Daniel, how Pulse and Water made the four Children fairer in Countenance and fatter in Flesh than they that fared on the Royal Provision. Now Daniel having so good skill in the Learning of the Chaldaeans, as to be set over all the Wise Men of Babylon, who were a sort of Men that by their Skill in natural things could do Wonders; I no more question that by the same Skill he knew, Pulse would nourish well, and give a good Colour, than that he understood by Books the number of the Years of the Captivity of his People. My Reason is, He that would not eat the King's Meat, nor drink of his Wine, lest he should be defiled by offering part thereof on an Altar, if by; or by casting a little into the Fire, where there was no Altar, which was a Propitiatory Grace to some Heathen Deity; this Man sure would never have allowed himself the Enquiry into the Wisdom and Learning of the Chaldees, had such Learning been either sinful or useless: And it could never be more serviceable than in this Case. Neither do I think Pease-Pottage a contemptible Dish among the jews, since it made their Father Jacob an Elder Brother. Besides, had not Pulse been a Driver out, that great Physician Avicenna would not have made so much Use thereof in the Small Pox and Measles.  
ᵈ By Galen Garlic is called Plowman's Treacle.  
ᵉ A merry Heart makes a cheerful Countenance, and the Circulation of the Blood is so Symmetrous to the Revolution of Man's Thoughts, that Men skilled in Prudentials have reckoned Vultum esse animi Indicem, and ever took more notice of an accidental Glance in a Passion, than of the most persuasive composed Eloquence. Anger glows as a red and lowering Aurora, joy bespreads the Scene with a serene Hesperial Crimson. So Catiline for all his fair shows in Words to the Senate, yet discovered that Treason in his very Face (as Historians describe him) which his Heart was then contriving.  
ᶠ Choler is by some reckoned the Salt of the Microcosm, which helps to keep the Flood of Humours from Putrefaction: And this as well as the Macrocosmick Ocean, unless sometimes it have its aestus, will be liable to Putrefaction. But this and all other Passions must be confined within their Banks, lest Men be transported to their Ruin: For though Grief once turned a Queen to Marble; yet sudden and excessive joy hath often inscribed an Epitaph upon it; Thus to some Men hath excess of Happiness proved as much of Misery.    

CHAP. XVI. Of the usefulness of this Epistle, Of the Regiment of Old Men, and of things that help the outward Senses, as also the Imagination, Reason and Memory, and of the Composition of certain Medicines.  
LET us see what the Regiment of this Epistle doth add to the Regiment of Old Men laid down by the Wise, in escaping the Accidents of Old Age, and how much it helps Men, while it recounts the Meats and Things of good Juice, which are of Use to Old Men and those that are stricken in Years: Which thing indeed the Regiments of other Men do not fully perform.  
This Epistle therefore shows, by what ᵃ Meats the Natural Moisture may be restored.  
Then, how it may be made more ᵇ sincere 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 Senses of Man by being recreated with the Virtues 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 Virtue, 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 Instruments 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 removed.  
And it teacheth many other things, which have been treated of in their proper Chapters.  
But the things which are laid down by us in this Epistle, differ very much from the things laid down by the Ancients.  
First, because the Ancients Regiment of living, defends men's Bodies from hastening to their End besides the Course of Nature: 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 healthy 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 Season.  
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 Labours and Studies of the Ancients.  
The sum 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 Digestion, and Baths, and much Sleep, and long lying in bed, and Provocation of Urine, and Expulsion of Phlegm from the Stomach and Guts. To the end that Kindliness of Nature may endure, chafing with Oil 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 Oil, 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 Aristotle saith, that a Physician ought in the Regiment of Old Men to consider the Six kinds of Causes, which are wont necessarily 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 secondarily 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 between 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 preserved, 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 Taste, and easy to be digested: They should also often use Baths, and sleep much: They should affect the Head and Face with odoriferous things, and use Suffumigations: Let them also exercise things, which are full of Diversion and Delight. Let them drink temperate and subtle 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 appear.  
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 Custom 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 Accidents of Old Age.  
Old men's Meats ought to be of good Juice, hot and moist, that they may quickly 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 Pullet's. ⁿ Kids, ᵒ sucking Calves, ᵖ young Geese, q Lambs, ʳ Partridge, ˢ Pheasants, small Birds, except ᵗ Sparrows. Let them avoid all gross Meats, difficulty yielding to Digestion; as is ᵘ Beef, ʷ Goat, and such like. For if they accustom 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 afterwards, 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 Onions; and all things that breed Phlegm, as ˣ Mushrooms; and all things that breed Melancholy, as Pulse and Cheese, and Words; 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 Accidents 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 Humours, 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 Humours: 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 temperate 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 quickly passeth out of the Stomach, as is Bread well leavened and made, ᶜ ᶜ Fish that live in stony Rivers, Kid's Flesh, young Geese, Lamb.  
Aristotle in his Book Of the Secrets of Secrets affirms, that they must not tarry long in the Water, for that they are much overcome 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 Oil ought to be Caerasinum mixed with the Oils of Chamaemel, Violet and Dill.  
Then they ought to use moderate Exercise, lest there be any Straitness or Obstruction 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 imminent Danger of Life. Avicenna in his Phlebotomy shows 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 Muscles, and have large Veins, and be indisposed with Redness of Eyes: This is to be considered in Old Men.  
But johannes Damascenns ᵈ ᵈ thinks otherwise 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 omitted. 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 Blood-letting, 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 about, 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 Accidents of Old Age. The Use of these Medicines 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 consumes all Moisture that is foreign, not natural, bred of ill Concoction, and Indigestion, and bad Meats, wheresoever in the Body it be, and especially in the Recesses of the Head and Stomach: It consumes, I say, the Phlegmatic and Melancholic Moisture, sharpens the Senses, bridles Anger, cherishes and strengthens the principal Members, recovers the Infirmities and broken 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 prepared with Syrup of Violets; or reduce it into 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 Complexion as well as Country, with the Medicine which is ⁱ ⁱ cast out of the Sea; without Violets, if it be put in strong Wine, so that its Virtue may be dissolved, and that being dissolved, it be drunk with a mixture of most pure Spring Water. For the Water takes away the dryness of the aforesaid things, and recalls the Virtue of the said Medicine to Heat and Moisture, and makes it temperate.  
But several among the Ancients do not agree 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 Porcelain.  
But others say, You must take of that Medicine which lives in the Air four Drachms, and of that whose Mine is the Plant of India, 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 Phlegmatic Old Man.  
The second ᵏ ᵏ Medicine is that which disperseth and purgeth all the Humours by an insensible and occult way, namely, Choler by Sweat, Phlegm by Lice, Melancholy by Excoriation and Scabs, when it is prepared and taken, as we said before, according to the Directions of Physicians.  
Take some Cloves, Nutmeg, Zedoary, Galangale, Citron-Rind, Viper's 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 equal 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 women's Terms, to help the Obstruction of the Gall and Liver Cinnamon, for the Tympany Cardamome: for Men troubled with the Epilepsy, Scia●ica, Frenzy, and long Coughing, Pepper is good: for it dries the Breast and Lungs flowing with gross Humours: Or  
Take of Viper's Flesh, Zedoary, Citron-Rind, Galangale, Cloves and a little Musk, and mix them with Wine, then make Trochises.  
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 dissolves the Swelling of the Liver and Spleen, and refreshes them.  
There is another Medicine for Old Men, which hinders Putrefaction, helps the Natural Moisture, that it does not so easily waste and dissolve, makes the Blood of the Heart more pure and thin, repels the Leprosy and Trembling of the Heart, makes men of good Courage, bold and free, purgeth 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 prepared, 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 dispersed with the force of the Wind; then a little Saffron and Musk must be added. Moreover, those Spices are to be added, which are Odoriferous and Cordial, that the Medicine may be reduced to a Temper, respect being had to the Season, Age and Complexion.  
Let Old Men take this Medicine greedily; in some such Liquor, as being digested may easily pass to the very Heart and inner parts, and go through the Capillary Veins. Several take this Medicine with some savoury Meat, when Hunger is come upon them: Others drink it in the Morning mixed 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 restores and strengthens the Native Heat, when wasted and weakened, is that which is likened to the Complexion of a healthy Young Man.  
Whence in Conclusion it is made manifest, that Mirth, Singing, Looking on Humane Beauty and Comeliness, Spices, Electuaries, warm Water, Bathe, some things lying in the Bowels of the Earth, others lying hid among the Waves of the Sea, some living in the Air, others taken from the Noble Animal, well tempered and prepared, and many more such things are Remedies, 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 restrained, retarded and driven away.  

NOTES on CHAP. XVI.  
ᵃ Chap. VII. ᵇ Chap. VIII. ᶜ Chap. X. ᵈ Chap. IX. ᵉ Chap. XIII. ᶠ Chap. XII. ᵍ Chap. XI. ʰ Chap. XIV. ⁱ Chap. XV. ᵏ Chap. III, V, VI and the latter Part of this Chapter.  
ˡ Besides the well Leavening of Bread or Raising it with Yeast, it must be made of the best Grain, which is Wheat. The Flower should have a little Bran: for if it be very fine, it breeds a viscid Humour; but the Bran hinders it from being Obstructive (as in Destilling of Gummous and Resinous Bodies we add Sand or Pieces of Brick to keep them from clotting.) The Bread must be baked in an Oven, with a moderate Heat: for what is baked on a Gridiron, or before the Fire, because of the inequality of Heat, is one part Doughty, another part burnt, and never well soaked. It must be knodden with Water, not Milk, as some Bakers do, to make their Course Bread look White: for Milk makes it exceeding Obstructive. It must not be stolen; the newer the better, so it be cold from the Oven.  
ᵐ It is the Opinion of Physicians, that Chickens are a proper Food both for sick and well People, nor can a more harmless Meat be eaten. They breed Blood neither too thick nor too thin. They are very good for the Valetudinary, the Idle, and Persons who use little Exercise.  
ⁿ Kids should not be very young, for then their Flesh is over moist; nor too old, for than they savour of the Goat: but about two Months old. Juvenal describes them well in Satyr. 11.  

De Tiburtino veniet pinguissimus agro  
Hoedulus, & toto grege mollior, inscius herbae,  
Necdum ausus virgas humilis mordere salicti;  
Qui plus habet Lactis quàm Sanguinis.   

A fat little Kid,  
The softest of the Herd; near Tibured was  
Bred in rich Grounds, yet neither eat the Grass,  
Nor browsed upon the Willow's humble Wood,  
But more participates of Milk than Blood.   
ᵒ Veal (if it be very young) is clammy and mucous. Therefore the elder the Cast is (so it suck) the firmer and sweeter the Veal will be.  
ᵖ Young Geese, when they have only a downy Coat in Spring Time, are a wholesome Dish: for then their Flesh is not hard, but something fat and tender, and seems to melt in ones Mouth.  
q Lamb must be elder than Kid, and not killed before they be weaned: for Milk makes their Flesh more moist and mucous. They must graze on dry Pasture, where hot Herbs grow, and then they are a wholesome Food.  
ʳ Partridge, if it be kept a day or two, is very tender and brittle, affords good Blood, and is easy of Concoction: The younger the better.  
ˢ Pheasant is much of the Hen's Nature, but is more grateful to the Palate, easy of Concoction, and affords good Blood. Great Cooks of old used, for the greater Delicacy, to boil them in the Steam of hot Water. So saith S. Hierome in Epist. 83. to Oceanus, Non ut Phasidis aves, lentis vaporibus coquat, qui ad offa perveniant, & superficiem carnis non dissolvant, artifici Temperamento; Not to boil Pheasants in gentle Steams, which by an artificial Temperament may reach the Bones, and not break the Surface of the Flesh.  
t The Sparrow is a very Salacious Bird; for which reason Sapph the Poetess feigned Venus (the light Goddess) her Chariot to be drawn by Sparrows. And they are reckoned by all Physicians, to excite Lust extremely: Wherefore the Mauritanian Physicians, whom our Author much follows, forbade Sparrows all Men's Tables, especially then should Old Men abstain from such Incentives.  
ᵘ Beef powdered, and a Year Old, is good to cleanse the Stomach of Phlegm, eaten in a small Quantity; it makes a good Salt Bitten for great Drinkers, especially if hanged and dried in the Smoke. But frequent eating of it any way produceth Melancholy.  
ʷ The Ancients thought that Goats were always sick of a Fever, because of the hot and rank smell, which continually exhales from them: Therefore their Flesh could not be wholesome. But it is very certain, they grow fat upon Hellebore, Hemlock and such noxious Herbs; so no wonder, if they afford but bad Nutriment.  
ˣ Several upon eating of Mushrooms have fallen into Colic Pains, Epilepsy and Apoplexy: For they yield a cold, thick and (as some think) a Poisonous juice. They have been very infamous for the Death of Claudius the Emperor: but most men think the fault lay there in Agrippina's dressing; for Nero in his merry Humour used to call them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Meat for the Gods; amongst whom his Predecessor was canonised for one. Pliny thinks them dangerous: For if a Nail or any rusty Iron, or a rotten Rag be near where they grow, the Mushrooms turn all their juice to Poison; as also they do, if a Serpent have his Hole near them, or if any venomous Creature breath upon them or touch them. And many have been strangled by them.  
ʸ Mulberries are reckoned among the Fructus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or fugaces, which, if they be eaten on a full or foul Stomach, corrupt presently, and sometimes prove of a deleterious Quality.  
ᶻ Melons also are very corruptible, if taken unseasonably, and cause Vomiting and Looseness. Johannes Cuspinianus in the Life of Frederick the Third writes, how four Emperors died of eating Melons.  
ᵃ ᵃ And Cucumbers are as bad: For it seems the immoderate Use of Cucumbers and Melons brought so many Patients to a French Physician of Lions, that he built him a stately House with this Inscription in Letters of Gold.  

Les Concombres, & les Melons  
M'ont fait bastir cette Maison.   

Cucumbers cold did build this Hall,  
Musk-Melons crude did furnish all.   
ᵇ ᵇ Here are good Directions for the Use of the Bath and the London Balneo.  
ᶜ ᶜ Fish that lie and feed on a stony Bottom, are of soft and brittle Substance, and digest well; Whereas they that live in Mud, are fat and slimy, and hard of Digestion.  
ᵈ ᵈ This man, I think, was too profuse of the Vital Liquor, for the Reason following assigned by Avicenna; and as superstitious in his choice of the Veins, since Learned Harvey hath found, the Blood circulates.  
ᵉ ᵉ The Learned Bishop Wilkins in his Secret and Swift Messenger tells us, The Ancients did veil the Secrets of their Religion and Philosophy, counting it a profane thing to prostitute the hidden Matters of either, unto vulgar Apprehension. For the Gods and Nature would not themselves have hidden so many things from us, if they had intended them for common Understandings, or that others should treat of them, after. an easy and perspicuous Way: Hence was it, that the Learned Men of former times were so generally inclined, to involve all their Learning in obscure mysterious Expressions. Thus did the Egyptian Priests, the Pythagoreans, Platonics, and almost all other Sects and Professions. In which Treatise that excellent Person shows the various Means the Ancients used in their secret expressions. But above all Men, the Chemists have affected this mystic, Cabalistical Way of unfolding their Arcana, which puzzles most of their Readers: So that had not Gunpowder shown the effect of Chemistry more frequently, than matter of fact hath confirmed the Chrysopoietick Art; it would have sounded more incredible, that a Pound or two of that Chemical Composition should equal, if not surpass, Thunder and Lightning in Expedition, Noise and Mischief, than that a Grain or two of the Philosophic Tincture could transmute an Ounce of Lead into an Ounce of purest Gold. Though it must be acknowledged, these Hermetick Sphynges have baffled a multitude of Vulgar Capacities to one Oedipus that hath as yet unriddled them. Now our Author being a great Master in Chemistry, uses here a Chemical abstruse Style; not out of any Envy to Good and Learned Men, but out of Fear lest the Ignorant and Unworthy should make bad Use of a more free Communication.  
ᶠ ᶠ As they are chargeable Medicines, and therefore only fit for the Rich to take, so moreover they are very operative, and therefore not to be administered but with good Advice, lest misapplyed they produce Effects contrary to their excellent Natures. With this Precaution therefore we withdraw the Veil, and expose to open View the most curious Workmanship of the greatest Artist, which perhaps hath been before or since Himself.  
ᵍ ᵍ Take of Rosemary four Drachms, of Xyloaloes' two Drachms, a little Musk and Saffron.  
ʰ ʰ By Amber here our Author intends Amber Gryse: For he calls it Ambra and not Succinum (which is solid Amber) Besides, Succinum was never reckoned a Spice, as Amber is here. And though both Ambra and Succinum be great Restorers of the Animal Spirits, yet the former is more efficacious.  
ⁱ ⁱ Amber Gryse, a Bituminous Body found floating on the Sea.  
ᵏ ᵏ See Chap. XIII.  
ˡ ˡ Take of Gold artificially prepared, so that it may easily be powdered, four Drachms, of Coral two Drachms, of the Bone of Stag's Heart one Drachm.  
ᵐ ᵐ Here is meant Gold calcined or Bezoardicum Solare, many Processes whereof are in Chemical Authors.  
ⁿ ⁿ See Chap. XII.    
FINIS.   

ARBOR VITAE; OR, A Physical Account OF THE TREE of LIFE In the Garden of Eden.  
BY EDWARD MADEIRA ARRAIS M. D. Physician to JOHN the iv King of Portugal.  
Translated out of the Latin.  
A Piece useful for Divines as well as Physicians.  
LONDON, Printed for Tho. Flesher at the Angel and Crown in St Paul's Churchyard. M DC LXXXIII.   

TO THE READER.  
READER,  
THE Author of this following Treatise is Edward Madeira Arrais of Lisbon Doctor in Physic, and Physician to John iv King of Portugal, that King who recovered his Crown out of the Hands of Spain, and was Father to her present Majesty of Great Britain. This his Physician wrote a Book of Occult Qualities, wherein he has explained their Nature so fully, that he hath almost altered it (for they very far cease to be such) and hath taken away from Philosophers the Reproach of Occult Qualities being their Subterfuge. He writes in a Philosophical and Scholastic Style. You will find in him more Sense than Words, more Argument than Rhetoric. Before this his Work he hath these Words: Disputationem construo de Qualitatibus illius Ligni, sive Arboris Vitae Paradisi Terreni, ad Vitam aeternam aut saltem diuturnissimè prorogandam, quarum Qualitatum nullus Authorum in particulari meminit, aut verbum ullum protulit: de quibus novam ac nunquam antea auditam Philosophiam proferimus. I compose a Discourse concerning the Qualities of that Wood or Tree of Life in the Earthly Paradise, which either prolonged Life to Eternity, or at least a very long Time; of which Qualities not Author hath made mention in particular, or spoke one Word: About which we produce a Philosophy new and never heard of before. And he hath made good his Promise: For in declaring the Nature of the Tree of Life, beside many excellent things in Physic, he also shows the Nature of that Spiritual Body, wherewithal we shall be raised at the last Day; and makes it appear what we shall be, when we shall eat of the Tree of Life in the Midst of the Paradise of GOD, by Reason as well as Scripture, in the Course of Nature without a Miracle. And it is such a Piece of Natural Theology, or Scriptural Philosophy, that you will be forced to acknowledge, there is a Religio Medici without either Atheism or Heresy. But to expatiate with me no further, enter this Learned Paradise, and taste the Tree of Life.  
Richard Browne.   

The Preface.  
§. 1. EXpositors of Holy Writ have made the Tree of Life very famous, by which our first Parents and all their Posterity had been privileged against Death, and might have spun their Thread of Life to Eternity, had they obeyed the Divine Precept. Moses mentions this Gen. 2. and 3. And though Divines dispute many things about it; yet since it is necessary in many things to have Recourse to the Principles of Physic, and also to our Doctrine of Occult Qualities, seeing such a Propagation of Life could never be obtained, but by some Occult Virtues (as shall be made evident in the process of this Treatise) I cannot be thought to put my Sickle into another Man's Harvest, if concerning the Qualities of this Wood or Tree I shall at this time discourse what is worthy a Philosophical Man and his Knowledge: especially since never any Philosopher yet disputed of it in Particular, nay nor spoke one Word about it.  
§. 2. Eight Doubts therefore may be moved about this Tree or Wood  

First, Whether it was proper and true Wood, or Metaphorical?  
Secondly, Whether the Virtue it had to perpetuate Life, was Natural or Supernatural?  
Thirdly, Whether its Virtue were such, as to preserve Life, Time without end?  
Fourthly, Whether it sufficed to give Life eternal, if it were but once taken?  
Fifthly, Whether this Wood of Life were a Cause adequate to the escaping all Occasions of Death?  
Sixthly, By what Qualities in particular it performed this?  
Seventhly, After what manner the Resistance of those Qualities might defend that Man's Body, who eat of the Tree of Life, from all external Causes that could hurt it?  
Eighthly, Whether the Cause of the very long Life of the first Men were some other Trees of Paradise, or the Tree of Life?   
§. 3. And although only the Sixth and Seventh (which were never disputed upon, or so much as hinted at by any one yet) do truly fall under our Cognisance: Nevertheless that they may the more clearly be decided, it is necessary to resolve the other according to the probable Opinions of Divines; most of which notwithstanding the Reader may find adorned and amplified from the Philosophy of Physicians, especially from this of ours of Occult Qualities.  

DOUBT I. Whether the Wood of Life were a proper and true Tree, or only Metaphorical?  
COncerning this first Doubt it is the common 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 too 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.  

ᵃ Suar. l. 3. De Opere sex Dierum. c. 15. ᵇ Gen. 2. 9    

DOUBT II. Whether the Virtue of the Tree of Life to perpetuate Life, were Natural or Supernatural?  
§. 1. AS to this second Doubt it is the more common Opinion that the Virtue of this Wood to perpetuate Life, was not Supernatural, but Natural. So think Thomas ᵃ, Cajetan ᵇ, Gabriel ᶜ, Rupertus ᵈ, Hugo de Sancto Victore ᵉ, Strabus ᶠ, Durandus and Scotus ᵍ, and many others.  
§. 2. Some would prove this Opinion from Holy Writ, ʰ Lest he put forth his hand and take also of the Tree of Life, and eat, and live for ever: therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the Garden. Because, if that Virtue (as they say) were only supernatural, that, namely, they should 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 Immortality by eating of this Tree.  
§. 3. Nevertheless a Man can scarce conclude on this Ground, because two ways the Fruit of that Tree might have a supernatural Virtue 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 Efficacy of that Quality. Secondly, If God had made a Covenant to give Life Eternal to them that should eat of this Fruit, although 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 itself is of a natural Order and finite Perfection: For it should have preserved Life to Eternity, because it would have strengthened all the Faculties of Man's Body, restored and preserved its natural Temperament, and have kept off all Morbific Causes, as we shall hereafter show. 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.  

ᵃ D. Thom. 1 part. qu. 97. art. 4. ᵇ ibique Cajetanus. ᶜ Gab. in 2 Dist. ᵈ Rup. l. 3. in Gen. c. 3. ᵉ Hug. de Sanct. Vict. in Annot. Gen. cap. 7. Gen. c. 2. ᶠ Strab. in Gen. ᵍ Durand. & Scot in 2 Dist. 19 ʰ Gen. 3. 22, 23.    

DOUBT III. Whether the Virtue of this Tree were such, as to keep a Man alive, Time without end?  
§. 1. THere are two extreme Opinions about this Question. The first is theirs, who say, That by eating of such a Tree a Man would not have been eternal, but would only have endured a very long time; and he should therefore have been eternal in the State of Innocence, because after one or more Eating, 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. Secondly, 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 appointed Time all Men should have been translated, when, to wit, the Number of the Predestinate was full (as these Men hold.) For at that Time the just should be translated to Glory, and the unjust to eternal Punishment. Wherefore when this Time were finished, the Virtue of the Tree, that preserves 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 consequence could not preserve Life to Eternity.  
§. 4. Fourthly, Though the Tree of Life might for the most part take away inward Morbific Causes, by restoring entire the natural Heat and Moisture, and the decayed 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 Hunger, or being choked for want of Breath. Therefore from thence eternal Life could not of necessity follow.  
§. 5. Fifthly, Because in the State of lapsed Nature at least, Man would have been much more obnoxious to morbid Causes; whereas in the State of Innocence he lived more temperately without any Trouble 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 immortal.  
§. 6. Augustine ᵇ seems of this Opinion, Thomas ᶜ holds it, Cajetan ᵈ, Gabriel ᵉ, Durandus 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 Augustine ᵍ, the Interlineary Gloss ʰ, Rupertus ⁱ, Tostatus ᵏ, the Author ˡ of the Questions 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 Ancient Fathers held it before, who affirm that God therefore 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 punishment to endure an interminable Evil.  
§. 8. So Irenaeus ᵒ, Hilarius ᵖ, Gregory Nazianzen q, Hierome ʳ, Cyril ˢ, Chrysostom ᵗ, Theodoret ᵘ, Eucherius ʷ, Bede ˣ, Strabus ʸ, Damascene ᶻ, Dionysius Carthusianus a●.  
§. 9 And all these Authors agree in this, That the Tree of Life was able of itself to give eternal Life, both in the State of Innocence 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 adequate 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. Therefore for that reason was Adam driven out of Paradise, lest he should live for ever, as he should have lived in the state of Innocence, had he eaten of the Tree of Life: Therefore the eating of that Tree must have preserved a Man for ever, by reason of the Virtue it had to this end, and not only for a long Time.  
§. 11. Some make answer to this Argument, that God spoke Ironically. But they give not Satisfaction. First, because this Solution contradicts the Testimony of the aforesaid 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 declare that God spoke not by way of Irony, but properly and in good earnest.  
§. 12. Secondly, others answer the foresaid Argument thus, That the Words [for ever] aught not to be taken for true Eternity, but for a very long Time. Which Answer yet doth not please. First, because that Word in its proper Signification denotes Eternity; but the Words of Holy Writ, unless some great Inconvenience hinder, 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 very long Life, but simply eternal Life was to be made good by eating of that Tree.  
§. 13. And this is confirmed, First, because God for that Reason cast Man out of Paradise, lest he should enjoy that good which was due to him, had he been obedient, and persisted in the State of Innocence: But that Good due to the State of Innocence, whereof he was to be deprived, if he were not obedient, (as God had declared in those words, in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die) was Life absolutely Eternal, not only a very long one: Therefore the same Life eternal must be made good by that Tree. Secondly, it is confirmed, because the Punishment threatened 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 deprive Man of the eating of this Tree.  
§. 14. Secondly, The said Opinion is demonstrated, because if that Tree had not continually 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 fallen from the Flower of their Age to a worse condition, which is contrary to the Sacred Text, which saith, in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die, that is, thou shalt begin to decline to Death, or to decay from the Integrity of Nature (as all Authors expound it) until thou decayest altogether, and dost die. 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 Beatific Vision; for that it endures Time infinite, when nevertheless the immediate Causes of this Duration are the Intellect and Light of Glory, which are finite Being's. 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 produce 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, Because it may immediately be effected by a finite Cause, when in the mean time it depends on a Cause infinite. For the Qualities of the Tree of Life were to be conserved by God immediately to all eternity, therefore these very Qualities also would immediately conserve Life to Eternity: Instances 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 after Translation. And yet the Fruits of other Trees were not supervacaneous in Paradise, although no Man eat of them.  
§. 19 To the third it may be answered. That this Apple was not only Meat but Medicine also, by reason of the Qualities, which shall hereafter be explained, whereby it either hindered its own Rëaction, or made up the Damage of the Rëaction, if there were any, whereby all things respecting the Integrity of Nature, might be restored, and reduced to the most perfect State. Whence it might correct by Medicinal Qualities that Damage which it brought by Rëaction.  
§. 20. To the fourth I say. That the Qualities of that Wood, which shall hereafter be enumerated, would have preserved from all Causes, which might bring a Preternatural Disposition to the Body, so that it could neither be offended by Wounds, nor could be sick, or die of Hunger, or want of Air; which hereafter we shall show was possible.  
§. 21. Others, who are unwilling to attribute 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 inward 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 hereafter show.  

ᵃ Scotus in 2 dist. 19 q. unica. ᵇ D. Aug. l. 6. in Genes. c. 25. ᶜ D. Thom. 1. p. q. 97. a. 4. & 2. 2. q. 164. a. 2. ad 6. ᵈ Cajet. 1. p. q. 97. cit. loc. ᵉ Gabriel in 2 dist. 19 ᶠ Durandus ibid. ᵍ Aug. l. 13. de Civit. Dei c. 20. & l. 14. c. 26. & l. 1. de Peccat. mer. c. 3. & l. 8. in Genes. c. 5. ʰ Glos. interl. in illa verba, Ne forte sumat de Ligno Vitae, etc. i. Rup. l. 3. in Genes. c. 30. ᵏ Tostat. super 13. c. Genes. q. 175. ˡ Author quaest, Vet. & Nou. Testam. quaest. 19 ᵐ D. Th. 1. p. q. 97. a. 1. ⁿ Bonav. 2 sent. dist. 17. De Ligno Vitae. ᵒ Iraen. l. 3. advers. Haeres. c. 37. ᵖ S. Hil. in comment. Psalmi 68 in illa verba, Quem tu percussisti, etc. q S. Greg. Naz. Orat. de Pascha. ʳ S. Hieron. c. 65. Isaiae. ˢ S. Cyrill. l. 3. advers. Julian. circa med. ᵗ S. Joan. Chrysost. Hom. 18. in Gen. ⁿ quem imitatur Theodoretus q. 26. in Genes. ʷ Eucherius l. 1. in Genes. ˣ Beda supra eadem verba. ʸ Strabus ibid. ᶻ S. Johan. Damascen. l. 2. Orthodoxae Fidei c. 11. aa Dionys. Carthus. in Gen● c. 2. bb Bellarm. in Disp, Controvers. contra Haeret. l. 1. tom. 4. cap. 8.    

DOUBT IU. Whether it were sufficient for Immortality to eat only once of the Fruit?  
§. 1. ABout this Doubt also there are two contrary Opinions, one whereof is Negative, the other Affirmative. St Augustine ᵃ is for the Negative part, so Thomas ᵇ, Suarez ᶜ, Be●anus ᵈ, Benedictus Pereira ᵉ, and consequently all those who affirm, that this Tree could not give Immortality.  
§. 2. It is proved first, Because that Tree prolonged Life, in as much as it repaired the Radical Moisture, and Substance of the Body that was wasted, as perfect as it was; and reduced the Body to the best Temper and Constitution, if they were lost; and greatly strengthened the Native Heat; whether it did this materially, being converted into the Substance of the thing nourished, 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 itself, which would necessarily have been, even in the State of Innocence. Therefore it would have been necessary that at several Intervals the Tree should have been taken again, 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: Therefore the Substance also that was generated of it would have been corruptible. Therefore 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 generated is corrupted: But a Body is generated of that Wood; for Nutrition is also a certain Generation in respect of the Parts lost. Therefore a Body nourished by that Wood would have been corrupted.  
§. 5. It is confirmed secondly, Because Aristotle ᶠ from thence proves against Hesiod and other Poets and Gentile Divines of his Time, that the Gods cannot be rendered immortal by taking of Nectar and Ambrosia; Because whatever is nourished, must of necessity be corruptible and mortal: But the Body would have been nourished by the Tree of Life: Therefore according to Aristotle's Doctrine it would have necessarily been and remained corruptible and mortal. Therefore the Repetition of the eating of the Tree was necessary to prevent 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 itself incorruptible, how could they make another Body incorruptible?  
§. 6. Thirdly, If the Wood once taken had rendered 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: Therefore the other also. The Major is proved, because a Body rendered impatible cannot be nourished, nor any way altered. Therefore the Body would always abide in that state, in which the Wood once taken rendered it impatible.  
§. 7. Nevertheless there are firmer grounds for the Affirmative Part, and the Father's abovecited in the third Doubt for the Opinion which asserts, That this Tree could give Life eternal, do hold this, such as Irenaeus, Hilary, Nazianzen, Hierome, and others there cited, of which Opinion the Interlineary Gloss seems to be, when it affirms 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 sufficient. Rupertus ᵍ expresseth this Opinion when he saith, In no wise, as some do suppose, was the Tree necessarily to be frequented as a Passport of perpetuating Life: But it being once taken, the Body would have lived for ever. Theodoret ʰ is of the same Opinion.  
§. 8. This is effectually proved from the very 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 having once taken of the Tree did not remain eternal, it would have little mattered, 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 Disobedience. Therefore it is manifest, that once taken, it would have sufficed for Eternity.  
§. 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: Therefore there would have been some bad Men, who might have killed others, even the Just, by Wounds, Poison, 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 Innocent should be deprived of their due Privilege, 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 eating thereof, that he should be consumed of Old Age?  
§. 11. It is proved thirdly, Because that Tree, as the Assertors of the contrary Opinion do confess, was corruptible: Therefore 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 propagated or planted of its Seed. Therefore although Men should eat thereof, yet if the Repetition of it were necessary, they could not live for ever.  
§. 12. Fourthly, Because, as St chrysostom 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. Wherefore as the forbidden Tree once tasted brought a necessity of Death; so by parity of Justice the Tree of Life once tasted aught 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 eternal, would have defended the Body itself 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 Rëaction 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 Body; 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 compensates all Repassion brought from the Wood, so that if Fuel never fail, it is not diminished or extinguished; nay rather as plenty of proportionate Fuel increaseth, it is augmented.  
§. 14. To the Second, granting the Antecedent, the Consequence is denied, Because the Substance bred of the Tree would have been defended from Corruption by Qualities received from the Tree, whereby besides, the Temperament of the Body would have been rendered so firm, that it could neither further be intended or remitted from within or from without; but the Faculties of the Bodies would have performed Actions so perfect, that they would overcome all morbific Causes, which hereafter 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 Qualities could not defend the Tree from Corruption, how should they defend Man's Body? 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 Transient Action, as other Medicaments do, as I think more probably with the most learned Philosophers, such as are Patres Conimbricenses ˡ, after the manner of Pepper, as Petrus Garcia But after these Qualities existed formally or in act in the Body, they could make good to it the Effect of preserving 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 Body would have been rendered 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 rendered by them impassable could not turn Food into the Substance of the thing nourished: Not after, because the Form of the Wood would be then destroyed, whereby they should be produced, and in the same Matter of the Wood the Form of Man would be introduced, of which they could not be produced. Therefore 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 Substance. Before, because to produce them it would have sufficed, that it should be actuated in the Stomach as other Medicaments, and the Wood being actuated, presently the Qualities would have been diffused through the whole Body; nor would the Impassibility of the Body have hindered the acquiring of Perfection, whilst the Body wanted it, yet it would have been sufficient that it did not fall from that Perfection, which it had, as hereafter we shall more explain. After, because the Virtue of the Wood would have remained in the Humours and the rest of the Juices of the Body, which Virtue indeed being actuated, although the Substantial Form were not then in the Wood, might produce actual or formal Qualities, as we have said of the supra-elementary Qualities of other Medicaments, as of Purgers and Poisons, which we have proved to remain in the Matter after the Substantial Forms are corrupted.  
§. 19 I said [while the Body wanted it, that is, Perfection] Because if any one should have taken the Wood in that State, wherein he had his Substance perfectly repaired, he would not turn it into the Substance of the nourished, seeing then such Matter would be Superfluous; but the Medicamentous Qualities only being received from the Wood, he would have expelled from his Body the Matter of it as Superfluous, 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 rendered 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 perfection of Health, he would remain for ever impatible in all Senses; because he could neither decay, nor could he proceed further.  
§. 21. Which that it may the better be understood, it is to be observed from Thomas ⁿ, that Passion is twofold. First, properly, so called, in which Sense one is said to suffer, who is removed from his natural Disposition. Secondly, commonly, according 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 rendered impassable, because it could never be removed from that Perfection it had. But in the second sense it had not been impassable, as long as it was not arrived at the top of Perfection, for it would have been receptive of such a Change.  
§. 22. But you will question, Whether then Generation and Propagation of Children could have been? I answer in the Affirmative. 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 again 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 Matter one might have repaired the Substance wanting to the growing of a Child, or restoring an Old Man, or to breeding Seed for Children. For this would not then have been impossible to very strong Faculties: Because perhaps the Fruit itself would have introduced alimentous Qualities into any Matter, although of its own Nature such Matter had them not.  
§. 23. But whether Man stated in this Immortality 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 determine it. Amongst whom the interlineary 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 Mother's 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 therefore that the Tree of Life had been once taken 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 necessary Efficient Cause; for these Qualities would have been incorruptible, and ever have remained so in the Matter, and with the Seed and its Virtue would have been propagated into all the Individuals of Humane Kind, and would have produced other like Qualities in a kind of Cause Univocal: 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 Punishment of Death inevitable was inflicted upon them and their Descendants; 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 Obedience ought not only to be given to our Parents 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 preserved it from perishing, till the Birth, and after the Birth also for some Time would have been communicated in the Mother's Milk; and afterwards, had it been necessary, he might also have eaten of the Fruit of Life itself.  
§. 27. But whether should they, that had committed actual Sin (according to the Opinion 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 derived to his Children, both Just and Unjust would by them have been defended from Death. Secondly, Because the Punishment of Death was only imposed, if our first Parents violated that only Precept.  

ᵃ D. Augustinus l. 3. de Civitat. Dei c. 20. & l. 11. Genes. ad lit. cap. 4. & l. 1. de peccat. mer. c. 3. ᵇ D. Thom. 1. part. q. 97. art. 4. & colligitur ex 2. 2. quaest. 164. art. 2. ad 6. eámque habent communiter Scholastici, & sequuntur Suarius. ᶜ L. 3. de opere sex dierum. cap. 15. ᵈ Becanus tract. de immortalitate cap. 4. ᵉ Benedictus Pereire lib. 3. in Genes. disp. de arbore Vitae quaest. 3. ᶠ Aristoteles lib. 3. metaph. cap. 4. text. 15. ᵍ Rupertus lib. 3. in Genes. cap. 30. ʰ Theodoretus quaest. 16. in Gen. ⁱ Thomas 1. part. q. 100 art. 2. ᵏ Chrysostomus hom. 18. ˡ Patres Conimbricenses 2. de generat. cap. 3. quaest. 2. articul. 2. assert. 2. & lib. 7. phys. cap. 1. quaest. 1. art. 2. ᵐ Petrus Garcia. Fen. 1. 4. tract. 1. cap. 4. disp. 2. quaest. 5. pagina 269. col. 2. ⁿ Thom. 1. p. quaest. 97. art. 2. §. Respondeo. ᵒ Gloss. interl. in illa verba Ne forte sumat. ᵖ Bellarm. lib. 1. tom. 4. contr. 1. c. 18.    

DOUBT V Whether the Tree of Life were a Cause adequate to the escaping all Occasions of Death?  
§. 1. NOW of those Authors who deny to the Tree of Life the Virtue of extending Life absolutely to Eternity, though it should be eaten at repeated Turns, when yet they are compelled to affirm, 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 spoke according to the Old and Nugatory Opinion, that admits of a Radical Moisture divers 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 Quality in the Soul, whereby the Body could resist 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 confuted 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 itself it had a Power to render Man eternal, without any other Supernatural Virtue. Neither can that Interpretation of a very long time be allowed, as we have shown.  
§. 3. Secondly, Because it cannot be, that a Spiritual Quality of the Soul can naturally defend the Body from contrary Rëactions. For it should either do this by a formal 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 because 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 defended by the said Quality of the Soul, that they could not be lost. Not the second, Because 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 supervacaneous, seeing they were sufficiently produced by the Tree of Life, as we shall hereafter show.  
§. 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 Action of the Native Heat upon the Moisture, from which two Damages are considerable: 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 Remission of the Native Heat itself, whereby at length it is extinguished. The third Cause is from things extrinsic, as well altering the Natural Temper, as dividing Continuity, and finally impeding the Matter 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 Innocence 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 extraordinary: Whence it would by extraordinary Concurrence hinder natural Causes offending; or would deny its general Concurrence, 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 Qualities of the Tree of Life had been sufficient, 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 Actions 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. Secondly, 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 Actions; wherefore it would be ill impeded by that Supernatural Quality, and consequently 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 extrinsic 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 eating the Tree of Life? For as that Supernatural 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 eaten of the Tree, that he should have lived for ever. Therefore that Tree was an adequate 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 contingent 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 Hunger, Suffocation, Poison, Falling, Beating, Hitting against any thing, and the Treachery 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 innumerable 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 men's 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 particular 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 Man's Body would have been defended from the external Causes of Death by an habitual Supernatural Gift, or an habitual Quality extended through the Body, which would have defended it from all Corruption: For he judgeth Natural Powers can no way be thought of, which were able to do this. But this Opinion is refuted almost by the same Reasons, whereby the former 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 show; wherefore it is not necessary to have recourse to Supernatural Causes. Secondly, Because that Supernatural Quality would either have resisted all external offending Causes by a Formal Resistance, or by an Active. Not by a Formal: Both because one and the same Quality 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 Constitution, seeing they are of the same kind with the Qualities produced of external Causes.  
§. 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 Body. 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 rendered Men incapable of receiving Elemental Qualities. Therefore they might be burnt by the Fire, and consequently die.  
§. 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 hindered; but only the Union of Soul and Body would have been maintained. But on the contrary, how can Heat in the highest Degree with Dryness 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 Qualities was an adequate Cause of Immortality, so that Man by taking of it would necessarily 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. St 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 spaces of Time were run over, they should die; 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 observe 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 perish by Old Age, or by any other Occasion whatever. Wherefore according to St Augustine's Mind it would have been an adequate 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 feared. Behold, how according to St Augustine this Tree would have defended a Man from all internal and external Causes of Death. Therefore according to his Opinion it was an adequate Cause of Immortality.  
§. 15. The Interlineal Gloss on these Words, Lest he take also of the Tree of Life, etc. insinuates the same Opinion, while it affirms, that when the Number of the Elect was complete, they should have tasted of the Tree of Life, and so have passed to the Blessed State. That, namely, by it the Body should have been rendered immortal, which Immortality would have been attained by rendering the Body free from all Harms, which could be brought from any Causes 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 lived for ever; and from chrysostom 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: Therefore this Tree ought to defend a Man from all Cause of Death, otherwise it did not make good the Reward of Obedience, promised by God. It is gathered also from other Father's above-quoted, Irenaeus, Gregory 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 Bellarmine k  
§. 16. Now the same Conclusion is already sufficiently proved by Reason; especially by this Argument, Because such Natural Qualities 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 violent Motion of a Ship by a Natural Quality, which it impresseth on the Ship: Why might not the Fruit of Life have another Natural Quality, whereby Man's Body might be defended from the like Impulse and Moon, and might be rendered 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 impossible, which might much more resist the Action of the Fire? And so resist, that its Resistance 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 active Quality, why shall not another Natural Quality equally or more resistent be possible? Are there not other Natural Virtues equally admirable? Doth not the Ostriche's Stomach digest Iron? Aqua fortis dissolve Gold, Iron, and other Metals? Vinegar dissolve Stones and Steel? Doth not the Fish called Torpedo render the Fishes that swim over it immovable, 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, resisting the external causes of Death? I pass by other admirable things which manifestly appear from our Tract and other men's Observations.  
§. 19 Nor can it be said, it is false, and the Echenëis hath no such Virtue; for Experience confirms it, and very grave Authors attest it, as S. Ambrose ˡ, S. Basil ᵐ, AElian ⁿ, Plutarch ᵒ, Pliny ᵖ, Adam Leonicenus q, Vincentius ʳ, Rondeletius ˢ, Cardanus ᵗ, and several others. Nor does it hinder, that Authors vary in describing the Echenëis, since some affirm that it is a great Fish, others that it is a little one; some ascribe 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 Numbness, 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.  

Histories of Wonderful Fishes, for the Confirmation of this Opinion.  
§. 20. But that it may appear more clearly that what is reported of the Echenëis is not fabulous, we must not pass in Silence what our Portugueze have observed, and what the chief Historiographer of his Time our johannes de Barros hath recorded ᵘ, viz. that in the Year of our Lord 1518. when Emanuel the most Potent King of Portugal set out a Fleet for the East Indies on the twenty seventh day of March, whose Admiral then was Didacus Lopez de Sequeira: And when the Ship of Don john de Lima was come up to the Cape of Good Hope, and then near Mozambique, the whole Ship on a sudden shivered, so that it seemed to split, or to have struck on a Rock. But when presently she made her Course again, nor any Leak appeared, as they were afraid, the Portugueze much astonished set sail, and prosecuted their intended Voyage: Neither was it possible for them at that present to find out the Cause of that Event, nor yet to suspect it.  
§. 21. But when, after they were arrived at Cochim, they fell to refit the Ship, they found stuck in her Bow the Horn of a Fish two Hand breadths in Length: It was indeed blackish, and in the shape of a Rhinocerot's Horn; and besides so hard, that with it Iron might easily be cut as with a File. From whence the Cause of that sudden Concussion and Retardation of the Ship was discovered, that namely the violent Blow was struck, not by a Rock, but by the Horn of that Fish, whereby the Ship was a little detained, and much shaken, especially at that instant, when the Fish endeavouring in vain to pull out its Horn, rather broke it than drew it out.  
§. 22. But the Mariners that argued about the Kind of the Fish, an Opinion prevailed amongst them, that it was the Acus, in our Language Peixe Agulha. And that this Opinion was true, Experience afterwards confirmed to johannes de Barros: For some Years after when they made their Course through the Sea of Guiny by the Castle of S. George of Mina, having let down Hooks from the Ship, another Acus was caught, which equalled a Bull in bigness, and being firmly held with strong Hooks, it shook the Ship after the same manner, and at length being killed with much ado, and haled up to the Ship by more than twenty Men, it shown a Horn like the other in shape, having the same Colour, Figure, and Hardness in it; but much less than the other, because the Fish itself was less. Deservedly therefore this may come to be reckoned among the Kind's of the Remora, although this doth stop and shake a Ship a different Way from what we shall hereafter speak of.  
§. 23. And those that travail the Coasts of Brasile make mention of another Fish, which causeth Numbness, as our Torpedo doth: Whence it becomes sufficiently manifest, that there are many kinds of Torpedoes to be found. But this kind lives especially in the River Itapecuro in the Country of Maragnani, and it is called Perachè, or as Gaspar Barlaeus observes, Puraquam, among those Barbarians. In shape and greatness it resembles a kind of Lamprey (or Muraena:) they use to kill it by striking it with Staves: But the Arm of him that strikes, and then his whole Body is stupefied, and shakes presently. Of which thing Friar Christopher Severinus Bishop Elect of Angola is my ocular Witness, a very skilful Person, who besides other Works already published, hath another of the Natural and Moral History of Maragnani ready for the Press. It is evident therefore that there are several kinds of Remoraes' and Torpedoes, diffusing the self same kind of Virtue from them. As it often falls out in many different kinds of Medicines, as in Rheubarb and Roses, whose Virtue to purge Choler is of the same kind. Therefore we must not infer, that the Remora is fabulous, because it is differently described of Authors; seeing there are several kinds of it, and every one describes that which he knows.  
§. 24. What wonder therefore, if such a Fruit were possible in Nature, as, amongst other admirable Qualities, could break the force of things thrown, and could hinder local Motion, though the most violent?  

ᵃ Scotus in 2 dist. 19 quaest. unica. ᵇ Cajet●n. 1. part. q. 97. ᶜ Gen. 3. ᵈ Molina de Opere sex dierum disp. 28. concls. 3. & 4. & disp. 27. concls. 1. 2. & 4. ᵉ D. Augustinus l. 13. de Civit. Dei cap. 20. ᶠ Aug. l. 14. de Civit. Dei cap. 26. ᵍ Rupertus lib. 3. in Gen. c. 30. ʰ Chrysost. in Gen. Hom. 13. ⁱ Theodoret. in Gen. q. 26. ᵏ Bellarm. tom. 4. contr. 1. cap. 18. ˡ D. Ambros. l. 5. ex hom. cap. 10. ᵐ D. Basil. hom. 7. ⁿ AElian. l. 12. cap. 4, 5. ᵒ Plutarch. in probl. symp. decad. 2. probls. 7. ᵖ Plin. lib. 32. histor. nat. cap. 7. q Adam. Leonicen. lib. de aquatilibus. ʳ Vincent. in Speculo natural. lib. 17. cap. 149. ˢ Rondelet. lib. 15. de Piscibus cap. 18. ᵗ Cardan. rerum var. lib. 7. c. 37. ᵘ Johan. de Barros Decad. 3. lib. 3. c. 1. post princip.     

DOUBT VI What, and how many, were the Qualities of the Tree of Life, whereby it caused length of Life and Immortality?  
§. 1. THis Doubt was never put to the Question by any Man, nor perhaps ever thought of. But because it hath much respect to our Treatise of Occult Qualities, since such Qualities are Alexipharmack, or Curers of manifest Diseases: therefore I think it worth my Labour to treat of them in this Place.  
§. 2. That therefore this Doubt may more commodiously be resolved, it is to be observed first, that the Fruit of this Tree (For although we often name the Wood, we rather understand the Fruit, though even the very Wood of the Tree might be of 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. Wherefore it might deservedly be called a Medcinal Aliment, or an Alimental Medicine.  
§. 3. It is to be observed secondly, That the aforesaid Fruit is much more excellent in the way of Physic 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 alter 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 chief 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 manifest, some occult. The manifest are three, Temperament, Composition, and Unity of Parts: Which because they are perceived by the Senses, are called manifest. The occult, according to the common Opinion that admits Powers, are the Faculties of the Body which by Philosophers are called Powers, that is, the Faculty Vital, 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 therefore they may on that account also be called Alimentous: There are besides, Alexipharmack Qualities also, newly found by us, which in another Treatise we have proved to be connaturally in the Body of every living Creature, that it may defend itself from Poison.  
§. 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 restored; if perfect, may be preserved, either to a certain and determinate Time, or to Eternity, according to the diversity of Opinions about this Matter. This Conclusion is manifest, because unless the Natural Constitution of the Body be preserved, Health and Life cannot naturally continue: Therefore it is necessary that so many and so great Virtues 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 efficient with the Form (or with the Virtues of the Form, according to the Opinion which grants Virtual Qualities productive of the Elemental) towards the Production of Elemental Qualities, just to such a convenient Degree. This Conclusion is proved, because it is necessary, the Natural Temper should be preserved, that the Body may continue in Health. But such a Temper will be well preserved, if there be a fixed and efficacious Cause, which may help the intrinsic Agent in the Production of those degrees of each Quality, which makes up the Temperament. Therefore it is necessary that those Virtues be produced in the Body by the said Tree, which may suffice to concur with the intrinsic Agent productive of such Qualities. But these Virtues must needs be Qualities of a Superior Order. Therefore such must be produced 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 fixed 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 adequate Cause of Immortality; 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 diminished by the Fire. And so it may be said of other Elemental Qualities. It is manifestly proved; Because unless the Qualities 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 fixed 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 Opinion, which affirms that Elemental Qualities do not flow from the Soul, but are produced of other occult Qualities superaded of a higher order, which are called Virtual Qualities, they would belong to Habit: The Reason is, because these Virtual Qualities are Powers, seeing they are ordained only for Operation: But the Qualities 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 Supernatural Qualities, as the Habit of Faith and Light of Glory, which Divines commonly affirm do belong to Habit, because they essentially suppose Power, as Suarez ᵃ, Vasquez ᵇ, and others commonly hold. But according to the Opinion that denies Powers to the Soul, they are also to be accounted Habits, and to concur with the Soul, as Habits 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 not 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, etc. 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 intrinsic Agent could resist the most violent Causes.  
§. 10. I say fourthly. It is also convenient, according to the same Opinion, that the Tree of Life should make good other Qualities, even Active ones which might concur with the Faculties Animal, Vital and Natural, as a kind of Cause Efficient, that they might perform very strong Actions, 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 Qualities, which may concur with it to render the Actions so strong, that they may be sufficient to avoid all Natural Causes whatever, especially those which might hurt by Local Motion.  
§. 11. And as to the Pulsatil Faculty there is the same Reason; for it must perform a Motion against the Resistance of every external Cause whatever. As to what concerns the Natural, it is proved: For it is necessary that the Attractive and Expulsive Faculty perform most perfect Actions, although there be an impeding Cause. The Digestive also, if it have a help, will operate more perfectly. And it is confirmed, because these Qualities are not only possible, but some such like there are indeed, efficiently 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 Sequel 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 readily resist together with these Qualities actively helping the Powers.  
§. 13. But whether would one only Quality flowing from the Fruit suffice to concur 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 every Faculty hath its particular and determinate Effect: Therefore it wants a particular 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 Powers, are the same was distinguished. Thirdly, because the Habit of one Power, or an Effect determinate to a certain Species, cannot concur 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 either to long or eternal Life) its own Quality would have been allotted. For the Vital Faculty there would have been given one for the Motion of the Heart and Arteries, another 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 neither any reparation of Spirits, nor of Substance, 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 Faculty, that is, for Attraction, Retention, Coction, and Expulsion, that, to wit, they might operate most perfectly, while their operation was necessary. And after the same manner there would have been another for Generation.  
§. 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, Because the same Rheubarb performs divers Actions by Qualities different in Specie; for it evacuates Choler, strengthens the Liver, opens Obstructions, binds lax Parts, produceth Heat, causeth Dryness: And so we experience divers Virtues in many other Medicines.  
§. 17. I say fifthly. Besides the said Qualities (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 thereof Man would become obnoxious to Diseases and Death, which would follow from Division of Continuity and from vitiated Composition. This Quality indeed would not have been Active, but relating to Patible Quality, as Hardness in a Stone: For informing the Parts of the Body, it would have rendered them incapable of any Division or Compression, which could have been made by an external Cause. Wherefore by reason of this Quality, Man could not die by a Precipice or a Blow. And it is confirmed, for as the Author of the Questions 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 Quality, as a Wall.  
§. 18. You will object. If such a Quality were granted, the Limbs could not be bended. It is denied, Because it was not hardness, 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 Union of Parts by a certain Action intrinsically terminated upon the very Union, that the Union could be dissolved by no finite natural Cause. Yet much more probably, I think, there was no such active Quality, seeing the Resisting informing one was sufficient, 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 Poisonous. 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 Poisons. Nor can it be doubted that this Quality was possible, seeing it is found naturally in almost innumerable Medicines. Therefore no Wonder, if it were granted to this Fruit naturally with so great Efficacy, that it overcame all Poisonous ones.  
§. 20. You will object against what we have said. Heat would necessarily act upon Moisture, seeing it is a Natural Cause acting necessarily: Therefore it would necessarily rarefy it, turn it into Vapours and consume it: Therefore Reparation and Nutrition was necessary: Therefore Man would necessarily be obnoxious to Death by Hunger, and it was needful for Man to eat the Wood again and again. I deny the Antecedent: Because the Moisture would have been preserved two ways. First by the Occult Quality of the Wood (which we spoke of) producing Moisture in a proportionate fixed Degree. Secondly by another Occult Quality of the Wood, producing certain fixed 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 Sequel is denied, Because that Resultance also of Second Qualities would have been hindered by their contrary Qualities, which would have been produced by other First Contraries; for Example, The Resultance of further Rarity would have been hindered by the Degrees of Cold, for by them its contrary Density would have been preserved proportional to the Rarity.  
§. 22. You will object secondly. The Faculty Pulsatil and Generative of Spirits would have been idle; Because we suppose, 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: Therefore those Qualities would not be necessary which might concur with such Faculties, according 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 Constitution, and therefore they were to be added: But after the Perfection of the Body they were not necessary; but would have continued, 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 other things.  
§. 23. You will object thirdly. To Duration of Life there is no need, that the Animal Faculty be any stronger, than what sufficeth 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 before the eating of the Wood, which ought to be expelled by the Motion of the Animal Faculty, as by Coughing, or whereto the Animal Faculty ought to concur with the Natural, as Pissing, Strength must necessarily be added to the Faculty, that by the said Qualities it might perform a stronger Motion: And in like manner as before we have already said in the third Conclusion, 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 operate with the best Temperament, Composition and Unity of Parts; it seems more probable, that other Qualities are not necessary 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 divide Continuity. Therefore the resistive Quality is superfluous. The Consequence is denied, because that Virtue concurring with the Faculties is necessary for their better being, to the end, namely, that Man might more perfectly be defended from the most violent Causes.  
§. 25. In Sum therefore; The Qualities of the Tree of Life might be distributed into four Classes; for some produced Elemental Qualities, others Alexipharmack Qualities, others concurred actively with the Faculties 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 Natural Powers they might produce their Effects, where and when they were not necessary, and not according to the Exigence of the Body. And those which concur with the Faculties in their Actions, belong to Habit, the first Species of Quality: Seeing they necessarily and essentially suppose Powers to their Operation, and are Qualities of difficult Expulsion, which two things are required to Habit according to common Opinion. But of the Alexipharmack those which resist Poisons, as a kind of Cause Formal, belong rather to Patible Quality: What, as a Cause Efficient, if they concur with the Motive Power or with another, rather belong to Habit, for the last said Reason: And they will belong to the same Species, whatever 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 Operation: 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 Nature, as it operates ordinarily: So that the said Actions may especially be attributed to the Tree of Life, as to what concerneth this Manner of Operation. You will object. The Habits also of Powers acquired by Acts do render the Actions more intense, stronger and quicker. And yet they are not more noble than the Powers: Therefore, etc. 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 efficaciously 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 inquire, Whether all Men would have been of the same Temperament? 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 Supra-elementary Qualities made good by the Wood, which would have actively produced Elemental ones in a certain fixed Degree; we must consequently say, That all Men would have been of the same Temperament after Eating of the Wood It is effectually proved; for the Cause of the Elemental 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 fixed Degree. Therefore the same Temperament in Specie would have been in all Men, when they had come to Perfection, and that most perfect. From whence also it follows, that all Men eating the Fruit, would have had equal Strength, equal Actions of the Senses, as well internal as external, an equal Strength of Understanding, with dependency upon Phantasms: For the disposition of the fantasy would also have been equal. When nevertheless it is agreed, that some would have been wiser and juster than others, as Thomas ᵉ observes. Because they would have acted by Free Will; whence some would have more applied their Mind to learn this or that: Whereupon it would have followed, that some would have been better Proficients in Knowledge, others in Justice, etc.  
§ 28. But you may deservedly inquire, Why in Reduction of an Old Man to Youth, or of a Sick Man to Health, or of an intemperate 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 Galen testifieth Wherefore 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 Perfection; or because from the Application of Heat, the Cold in others is suddenly intended by Antiperistasis. I answer secondly, That Pain is a depraved Action of the Touch: And seeing the Sense itself (as other Powers) would have been helped to perform perfect Actions; there could never have been a Depravation of Touch, which Pain is.  
§. 29. But whether according to the Opinion which denies the Fruit to be an adequate Cause of Immortality, it had been necessary that Alexipharmack Qualities should be contributed by the Wood to Man's Body, whereby it might be preserved from Poisons? It seems to be affirmed, because it cannot be believed, these Virtues were wanting to the most perfect Medicament, when many other ordinary Medicaments have efficacious Virtues against Poisons; nay, we must think, all other Supra-elementary Virtues for curing Diseases must have been found in it, which are found in other ordinary Medicines: Those notwithstanding 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 Immortality, but that the Supra-ordinary Providence 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 fixed Degree, at least not so efficacious, 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 Enquiry, 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 prevent and take away the Pains of Birth; nor is there need of any greater Reason, why it should take away these than others.  
§. 32. Secondly, Because there are Medicines found naturally, which by means of Supra-elementary occult Qualities do wonderfully allay the Pains of several Parts, and preserve a Man from them, as a Wolf's Liver against the Pain of the Liver, as Galen ᵍ testifies, and that famous Stone, which may deservedly be called Nephritick, brought from the West Indies, vulgarly called 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 Conservation 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 tie the Child to the Womb; which being a violent and sudden Solution of Continuity, it necessarily causeth Pain. Wherefore that the Tree of Life may prevent these Pains, it is necessary, that it either stupefy the Sense in those Parts, as Narcotick Medicines do; or so mollify and dispose the Ligaments, whereby the Child is knit to the Womb, as Anodyne Medicines do, that without violence 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 escapes Sense, as Galen ⁱ expresseth it. Another 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 depraved 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 Punishment 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 Innocence, because by it Women would have been preserved from Pains, and by means of it would have obtained, what was owing to that State. And in the State of Lapsed Nature, because therefore God cast Woman 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  

ᵃ Suar. in Met. disp. 42. sect. 4. n. 8. ᵇ Vasq. tom. 1, 2. ad q. 21. disp. 78. c. 3. n. 21. ᶜ Auth. quaest. vet. &. nov. Testam. q. 19 ᵈ Gal. 7. m. cap. 13. lit. C. ᵉ D. Thom. 1. p. q. 96. art. 3. ᶠ Gal. lib. 1. de causis sympt. cap. 6. ᵍ 8. local. cap. 8. F. ʰ Monardes' 1. p. c. propr. ⁱ Gal. 1. de causis sympt. cap. 6.    

DOUBT VII. After what manner would the Resistance of Qualities defend that Man's Body, who eat of the Tree of Life, from all External Causes that could hurt it.  
§. 1. ALthough the present Doubt be already resolved together with the foregoing: Yet since all these things are new, which we have alleged for the Preservation of Man from Death by the Qualities of the Wood of Life; and that those are more hard to be known, which should naturally defend him from the extrinsic Causes of Death, and seeing they are not sufficiently declared, as the Difficulty of the thing requires, I accounted it very necessary more amply to explain them, to the end, the strength of those things, which may be objected to the Contrary, may more easily be broken, and the Truth may be more open and clear.  
§. 2. External Causes therefore, that bring 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 Accidental 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 especially all Poisons, which introducing Occult Poisonous Qualities into the Body, waste men's Strength, and take away Life.  
§. 4. And the Causes moving locally are also of a twofold Difference: For either they move the Humours of the Body, as Medicines Purging, provoking Urine, Sweat and women's Courses, which by reason of their unseasonable, or superfluous, or other preternatural 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 Magnitude, Figure and Site; and consequently Death itself, which the Fruit of Life was obliged to avoid, averting all these Causes.  
§. 5. But beside these Causes which produce positive Effects, others also may be considered, which produce other (if I may so call them) privative Effects, and consequently bring Death: For seeing the Body of a Living Creature, that it may live, doth stand in need of certain Matters, whereby the lost Substance may be repaired, such as are Meat, Drink and Air; what things soever can deprive it of these Matters, 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 Diseases and Death, now it follows that we explain, according to the Opinion that affirms 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 impossible; this Opinion is exploded by many, who have recourse to the Supra-ordinary Providence of God. But for its Defence.  
§. 7. It is to be observed first. That the Virtues 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 approach Man's Body, nor a Mad Dog to touch it, nor any other Poison 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 aforesaid Causes could not produce their positive Effects upon the Body: to wit, that the Sun or Fire should not heat the Body; or the Sword or a Stone should not dissolve Continuity by their Blow, or otherwise move the Parts of the Body contrary to their Nature; and so of other things: And in like manner the said Virtues 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 afterwards 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 farther, 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 Elemental first or second Qualities, by those occult Qualities, which would produce other Elemental ones proportionate and natural to the Body, in a certain Degree so fixed, 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 preserved 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 external Causes. It is effectually proved, Because these would have sufficed to resist all Alterative Agents both internal and external.  
§. 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 follow the stronger Side. Therefore it is impossible, according to Nature, that the Temper of the Body should endure in these two fixed 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 shows, and it is the common Doctrine of Philosophers: 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 considered in themselves, according to their formal Resistance and Activity, are not able to resist eight Degrees of Heat, so I grant the Antecedent: But considered according to the Activity of their Cause producing 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 Resistance 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 Efficacy 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 himself alone, that is, by his actual Concurrence, 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 desists 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 fixed.  
§. 11. Perhaps some will reply to this Argument, That it implies a Contradiction, if God will conserve these two Degrees of Cold by his alone Concurrence in the presence 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 Latitude 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 increase his Concurrence? I answer negatively: For if he should increase it, its Term also would be increased, 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 second, 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 foresaid Solution of the principal Argument. No Cause hath continual Influence, but upon an Effect depending on it in Conservation: But Cold, and also other Elementary Qualities do not depend in their Conservation 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 preserved by them in a fixed 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.   Which is sufficient for Incorruption of Temperament, and to preserve Health. I answer secondly, That although some Quality of its own nature be not dependent in Conservation; nor standeth in need of the continual Influx of its Cause, for its Conservation; 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 actual Heat, existing in the very Fire, seems to receive it: Which Influx, though it be not necessary to its Being; yet it is necessary 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 Temper of the Body in a fixed Degree, the Harm also, which follows the Want of Meat, Drink and Air, would have been prevented. Wherefore that Man, who had tasted the Fruit of Life, would never have perished by Hunger, Thirst, or prohibited Respiration. It is proved, Because in this Case the Heat would not act upon the Radical Moisture, (whether that Moisture be Something divers 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 suffer among themselves beyond the Degrees convenient for them, since every of the Natural Elemental Qualities would have been conserved in its proportionate fixed Degree. Wherefore there would not be the Dissolution of any Substance necessary for the Body; nor therefore would any Reparation on by Meat, Drink or Air, have been necessary; nor consequently would the Defect of these external Matters do Hurt.  
§. 14. But you will object first. Therefore the Introduction of these Matters at least would do Hurt, seeing the Actions are no less Hurt by Addition than by Defect. The Sequel is denied: For the most efficacious expulsive Virtue helped by other Qualities of the Wood, concurring with itself, acting most vehemently, would either 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 aught 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 Paradise, except the forbidden one. Therefore the Tree of Life did not excuse Men from Meat: therefore they might die 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 Eating of that Wood of Life, I again distinguish, If they were constituted in Perfection 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 die) 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, seeing 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 fixed Tenor, and hindered the contrary Qualities of the Body from acting mutually among themselves beyond measure; the pre-existing Substance could not be further wasted, 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 productive of Elemental Qualities: Therefore they would necessarily introduce those Degrees, which they were able, both in a Child and an Old Man: Therefore they would necessarily produce in them a Temper agreeable 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 Children, 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 Virtues from the Qualities of the Tree were so strong, that they could dispose any Matter, although it were not Alimentous, and breed Blood of it, and Substance for the thing nourished. Wherefore of Earth, Water and the Ambient Air, or of any other circumadjacent thing, whatever it were, they were able to make Nourishment.  
§. 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 above 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 therefore, if the strong Faculties of the Wood helping and elevating the Natural Powers of the Body, were able sufficiently to dispose any indisposed Matter, and to turn it into the Substance of the thing nourished?  
§. 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 Virtues of the Wood, which we suppose most efficacious and most agreeable to Nature, were able to introduce these Qualities into any Matter that occurred: Therefore the Body of Man armed with the Qualities of the Wood might be nourished by any occurring 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 generated by Abscision of Seed: But Matter is necessary for generation of the Seed to be abscinded, and consequently Meat, Drink and Air: Therefore if they had used Venery, and notwithstanding had eaten nothing, without doubt they had died. I grant the Major and the Minor, I deny the Consequence. Because for them who gave themselves to Generation and used Venery, even for those that were of the best Constitution of Body, the use of Food was necessary 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 rendered Barren; but die they could not.  
§. 22. You will object fourthly. Therefore 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 Waking, 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 destroy Health, as they preserve or change Natural things; for it is by Accident that they altar 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 fixed 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 after 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 before: For the Body is hurt by the Poisonous Qualities of these things: Therefore it is well defended by other contrary Alexipharmack Qualities afforded by the Tree of Life.  
§. 24. It is to be observed fifthly. A Natural Quality, which we called Resistive, was possible, which was able to defend the Body, that it could not be broken or divided 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 Movable Body, that it cannot be moved by a Cause able to produce Motion. For it is evident from Experience, that Iron is so indisposed by some Qualities, 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 Aristotle relates In like manner the Fisher's Arm is deprived of Motion, when the Quality of the Torpedo reaches it. The Quality of Opium and other Stupefying Medicines doth so dispose the Humours, that they cannot move further, during the Quality of the Opium; Wherefore Opium given stops violent Fluxes of Blood and other Humours. The Quality of the Bloodstone doth also stop the Motion of the Blood.  
§. 25. And what is more wonderful, a Remora coming near stops the swiftest Motion of a Ship under full Sail, as is the common Tradition of the forequoted 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 before, because it had fixed its Horn most firmly in the Ship: Yet the Remora may do it a more easy 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 otherwise resisting, is not necessary for hindering the Ship to be moved; but this Quality 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 Fisher's Arm, their Motive Power cannot produce Motion. If the Virtue of Opium come to the Humours, they cannot be expelled or any way moved by the Faculties. Therefore so it will happen in like manner in the Virtue 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 Body of Man, who eat the Wood, by virtue whereof Darts cast, or Bullets shot from Guns, coming to the Sphere of that Quality, 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 Body 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: Therefore there is no Inconvenience, that a Resistance may be, which surpasseth their Power. Seeing therefore such a Resistance 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 intervene, 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 Immortality: 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 Motion; 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 indisposing 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 Bodies, because it finds in it Dispositions necessary 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: Agarick purgeth Phlegm, and not other Humours; and so we may say of the rest.  
§. 29. It is to be observed sixthly, to give better Satisfaction to the Point, That Philosophers reckon of a double positive Resistance (beside another Negative) one Active, another Formal. Negative Resistance is the utter Incapacity of the Subject to receive any Form, such as is in the Heavens, supposing them incorruptible, as to receiving Qualities, altering to Corruption. Active Resistance is the very Action of the Agent, as by it a Term is produced, which formally resisteth, or by it the Force of another Agent is broken, which is resisted; and it is called by ᵈ Suarez Radical Resistance, because by it another Agent is prevented, that it doth not act, and that its Virtue is diminished: And seeing it is not immediately diminished, but by the Form produced of such an Action, therefore it is called Radical Resistance; and as it proceeds from an Agent, it is Active; but as it produceth an Effect immediately resisting, it is Active Resistance.  
§. 30. Passive Resistance, or actual, is an Accidental Form, whereby the Subject is rendered incapable of receiving another, which is resisted, or whereby the Subject is indisposed to another; and this Resistance consists (saith the same Author ᵉ) in a certain formal Incompossibility, or Repugnance, from whence it comes, that the Action of a contrary or any way repugnant Agent, is either altogether hindered, or retarded, or remitted. And Active Qualities, as Heat and Cold, may as well have this Resistance; 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 contrary, that another may violently resist formally, not at all actively, as Dryness.  
§. 31. But seeing Formal Resistance consists in a Formal Incompossibility or Repugnance; 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 happen. The first, is a greater and firmer Union to the Subject, as it happens in things artificial, that some are more hardly parted asunder, because other things cleave to them in form of a stronger Glue. The second is a greater Inequality in some Condition 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 conjoined, by reason whereof the Resistance may be greater; and besides the Active and Formal Resistance may be joined, and therefore the Resistance may yet be more vehement.  
§. 32. From whence it is easily gathered, that the Elemental Qualities, produced in Man's Body by the Supra-elemental, would both actively and formally resist other Contraries, which are produced by ordinary intrinsic or extrinsic Agents, Fire, for example, or Snow: And it is evident, that this Formal Resistance would have been much greater than the Formal Resistance of extrinsic active Qualities for the third Cause alleged by Suarez, namely for the exceeding Efficacy, whereby they are produced of the Qualities of the Wood of Life. Which in the same manner may be said of the Alexipharmack Qualities, which resist Poisonous ones.  
§. 33. Therefore the Supra-elemental Qualities, as they most efficaciously produce the Elemental, they resist actively, radically and mediately: But the Elemental now produced resist formally and immediately other their Elemental Contraries, and can by no means be overcome of them: Because 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 dividing 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 proved by Example of other Qualities hindering Production of Local Motion, that should be produced by some Motive Qualities.  
§. 35. Moreover it is proved before, that those who eat of the Wood of Life, were able to resist actively also, beyond this abovesaid Manner, any extrinsic Causes making an Impulse, by Qualities actively concurring with the Animal Motive Power; by reason whereof they were able to produce stronger, nay, the strongest Motions, according to what we have said before.  

ᵃ Suar. 2. Tom. Metaph. disp. 43. sect. 1. num. 14. ᵇ Cardan. de variet. lib. 8. cap. 44. ᶜ Aristot. 6. de hist. animal. cap. 10. & 9 de hist. cap. 37. ᵈ Suar. tom. 2. metaph. disp. 43. sect. 1. nu. 8. ᵉ Suar. num. 10. ᶠ Suar. num. 12. & sequentibus.    

DOUBT VIII. Whether the Cause of the very long Life of the first Men were some other Trees of Paradise 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 enjoyed, should be ascribed to the Qualities 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 Vapours, which exhaled from the said Trees, or by continual 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 Salutiferous, and which by occult Qualities both cure and prevent many as well manifest 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 likewise most wholesome. And we must consequently suppose, that the wholesome Qualities of these Trees excelled all other in the whole World be●ides; even as in Sweetness of Taste, 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 producing those Virtues; it is consequent, that the Virtues themselves must needs be produced in the Bodies of our first Parents, and must from thence be communicated in Seed to their Children and Child's Children. Wherefore of necessity they must strengthen the Faculties of the living Body, and concur with them to perform most perfect Actions, as Alexipharmacks and Annulets. 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 Fathers to Children and Child'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 propagated to Children and Child'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 Habitation 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 Portugueze, who lived above three hundred and thirty five years, as do testify Patres Conimbricenses ᵃ, our johannes de Barros, who may rather be styled the Lusitanian Livy ᵇ, and our Didacus de Couto a famous Portugal Historian sup. Several of our Portugueze at their Return from the East-Indies assured me they saw him alive. Nunius à Cunna, when he governed India, found him there, and afterwards when Don john de Castro presided Viceroy Anno Domini 1547. he was then alive. And all the Kings of those Parts, before they were subject to the Kingdom of Portugal, and our Governors and Viceroys afterwards, appointed an Allowance for the Maintenance of this wonderful Man.  
§. 9 His Teeth fell several times, others e'er long coming in their room; His Beard, when it was grown all white, as his Age reflourished, grew black again. Some ascribe the Cause of this to certain Fruits, which he found in Ganges, and eat: For at certain 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 Paradise, from whence this River (as is believed) 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 Adam, lest he should eat thereof, and commanded the Angel to keep the Way with great Vigilance, how would he suffer them to glide down the Flood, that others might eat them? Again, according to the Opinion 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 wholesome 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 Alexipharmacks and Annulets, and other Medicines cure manifest Diseases by occult Virtues; only these Fruits had much more efficacious Virtues, 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 Salutiferous Virtue's beforementioned were diffused through the Air from the Tree of Life, which did render not only Paradise, but all the Neighbouring Country most wholesome: And there is no need to have Recourse 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 eternity of Life; because such Virtues diffused in the Air would either be of a different kind from those which rendered Life eternal; 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 probable, they were the Fruits of other Trees. First, Because if the Tree of Life had those Virtues that were sufficient for Eternal Life; it were superfluous to have others, that made for the Prolongation of Life. And then if we suppose they were the same, that were able to render Life Eternal, but more remiss; it seems, that in any 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 Agents, 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 Child's Children, and at length to Universal Mankind. But of these Opinions every Man may follow that which pleaseth him best.  

ᵃ Conimb. lib. 2. de Gen. cap. 10. quaest. 1. art. 3. ad fin. ᵇ Johan. de Barros Decad. 4. lib. 8. c. 9 ad initium. ᶜ Didac. de Couto lib. 1. Decade 5. c. 12.    
FINIS.   

THE CONTENTS.  
OF the Qualities of the Tree of Life. 
pag. 1  Eight Doubts concerning the Qualities of this Tree. 
ibid.  That the Wood of Life was a true Tree and not Metaphorical. 
3  Whether the Virtue of the Tree of Life, to perpetuate Life, were Natural? 
4  The Affirmative part is approved. 
5  Whether the Virtue of this Tree were such as to keep a Man alive, Time without end? 
6  The Affirmitive part is approved 
8  Whether it were sufficient for Immortality to eat only once of the Fruit? 
16  The Qualities of the Fruit of Life would compensate all Repassion. 
23  When the Fruit would have produced Qualities to cause Eternity? 
26  The Fruit of Life would not always have been turned into the Substance of the Person nourished. 
27  When it would have rendered the Body altogether impatible? 
27, 28  Whether after eating of the Wood there could have been Generation and Propagation of Children? 
28  Whether by eating of this Fruit a Man would have had the same Qualities in kind, which we shall have af●er the Resurrection? 
29  What way the Qualities of the Fruit did defend the Child from Death before and after its Birth? 
30  It had been sufficient, that Adam and Eve had once eaten, to have made all their Posterity immortal. 30. Even those that had committed actual Sin. 
31  Whether the Tree of Life were a Cause adequate to the escaping all occasions of Death. 
33  The Affirmative Part is approved. 
42  The Remora or Echeneïs' stops a Ship. 
45  Echeneïdes are of divers kinds. 
46, 50  A wonderful History of a Remora's shaking and stopping a Portugueze Ship. 
47  An easy way is shown how a Remora may without any trouble stop a Ship. 
94  What, and how many, were the Qualities of the Tree of Life, whereby it caused length of Life and Immortality? 
51  The Tree of Life was Food and Physic. 
52  It might be called a Medicinal Aliment or an Alimental Medicine. 
ibid.  It would give to the Body so many and so efficacious Qualities, as were sufficient to preserve and repair the Natural Constitution. 
p. 53  This Fruit would give to the Body supra-elementary Qualities, which were able to produce Elemental ones, only in such a Degree, as was agreeable to the Natural Temperament. 
54  These Qualities were of so great Efficacy, that they would preserve that Degree ●ixt against the Activity of any external Agent. 
55  These Qualities productive of the Elemental ones were a kind of Habit. 
56  They are also a kind of those which cure manifest Diseases. 
ibid.  It was not sufficient that these Qualities should dispose as a kind of Cause Formal. 
57  The Tree of Life would also give Qualities, which would concur with the Faculties as a kind of Cause Efficient to perform most perfect Actions. 
ibid.  Whether one only Quality flowing from the Fruit would suffice to concur with all the Faculties? 
59  There would have been a particular Quality for each Faculty. 
ibid.  The Fruit would defend the Body by these Qualities from Hunger, Thirst, and want of Air. 
60  How this might be done? 
p. 61  A Resistive Quality would have been given by this Fruit to prevent all Diseases in Union and Composition. 
ibid.  This Resistive Quality would not have been Active, but relating to Patible Quality. 
ibid.  Whether this Quality belonged to Power or Habit. 
67  This Fruit would have communicated Alexipharmack Qualities. 
62  It is probable, that the Wood of Life communicated no Qualities to help the Discerning Powers. 
66  How the Moisture would have been defended by the Qualities of the Tree of Life, that it could not be wasted by the Heat? 
63  The Qualities of the Tree are distributed into four Ranks. 
66  Whether the Qualities of this Tree concurring with the Powers, were nobler than the Powers themselves? 
68  All Men that eat the Fruit would have had the same Temperament, 69. Yet some would have been Wiser and juster than others. 
70  Why there should have been no Pain, when in the Reduction there would a sudden change have been made by the Qualities of the Tree of Life? 
ibid.  Whether the Wood of Life had Alexipharmack Qualities? 
71  It had all Virtues, which other Medicines have in healing, except those, which used without Art do Harm. 
ibid.  According to the Opinion, which requires the Extraordinary Providence of God to the avoiding external Causes of Death, the Tree had not given a Resistive Quality 
72  Whether the Qualities of this Tree would have preserved Women from Pains in Travel? 
ibid.  What way they would have preserved Women from Pain? 
73  After what manner would the Resistance of Qualities defend that Man's Body, who eat of the Tree of Life, from all external Causes that could hurt it? 
76  External Causes of Death would not have been hindered by the Qualities of the Wood of Life from approaching the Body. 
79  Yet they would have been hindered from acting upon the Body. 
ibid.  How the Qualities of the Wood defended the Body from Agents producing Elemental Qualities? 
80  How these Degrees would be preserved fixed by the Qualities of the Wood? 
81  It is proved that they might be preserved naturally by the Qualities of the Wood 
p. 82  In what Sta●e would Men have stood in need of M●at, Drink snd Respiration, after eating of this Fruit? 
87  The Qualities of the Wood were able to convert any Matter into the Substance of the thing nourished, 88 And this is proved, 
89  Why they that generated, would not have died for want of Food? 
90  How the Harm of the six Non-natural things would have been prevented by the Fruit of Life? 
91  It is proved that such a Resistive Quality was possible to be made good by the Tree, as would have been able to have kept the Body from being broken by the most violent Motion. 
92  How the Elemental Qualities produced by the Wood of Life would have resisted. 
99  The Resistent Quality made good by the Wood sufficiently resisted passively or formally. 
100  How i● did this? 
ibid.  Wh●●h●r the Qualities of the Tree of Life diffused ●●rough the Air, gave length of Life to th● first Men in the Neighbouring Regi●●? 
107  〈…〉 the Earth●● Paradise excelled all others the whole World over, in Wholesomeness, Sweetness of Taste and Smell, and in Pleasantness to the Eye. 
p. 103  The Qualities of these Trees were the Cause of the very long Life of the first Men. 
102   
The End.   

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